Watkins Glen

[MikeP99Z]

WGI Summary:

First - thanks Casey Holdway for making the journey and helping me wrench on the car and crew chief. The Winding Road guys were also awesome to have assist and provided support. Thanks Kevin Pyles for loaning me a clutch disc!

Thursday had 5 practice sessions. Some sessions were no better than a DE due to the huge volume of cars, but it was perspective on the track. I think I managed to get about 12 hot laps in. Some sessions were shortened due to incidents. I was having an extremely difficult time shifting the car which was very unusual. We changed the tranny fluid, and bled the clutch but that didn't seem to help. We put the car on the dyno in the afternoon and it pulled 346/329/328. Something wasn't right. I had just dyno'd at Alamo prior to loading the car and was at my normal 363. Was it the dyno or my car?? I had worked my times down to the 2:08s without very many laps. The car was great except the shifting. I complained to Casey that if I could shift the freakin thing that I'd drop a second off the time.

Friday morning I went out in warmup and the clutch exploded on lap two. I limped it back to the paddock and the search for a clutch began. This wasn't a simple solution, as my flywheel/clutch/pressure plate were all custom from Clutchmasters, so an off the shelf part wouldn't work. Casey called around and found a full assembly at a stealership in Albany. Cheryl jumped in the rental car and made the 7 hour round trip to get the assembly while Casey and I set off on disassembly. After walking the paddock looking for options, Kevin Pyles happened to have a spare used Spec Stage 2 disc in the GTO parts bin. We grabbed it deciding that we could use the stock flywheel and pressure plate with the Spec disc.

Cheryl got back to the track about 6pm and we started installing. After a few snags and finding a clutch alignment tool from a corvette guy (really GM, you said one was in the box...), the car was reassembled by 12:30am (thanks to Greg Smith for helping us stab the tranny, holy shit that sucked). The clutch disc had exploded sending debris into the forks, broke the pressure plate mounts, tore up the flywheel etc.

Saturday morning after 3 hours of sleep, I drove it around the paddock, and it seemed to work. I went out in warmup and ran a 2:06.5 on lap 2, and decided that things were working and the car was shifting fine, so I pulled it in. The stock pressure plate engagement was just like a stepping on a sponge for engagement, but the disc was holding the power.

Saturday afternoon was Qual Race 2. Since I didn't run Race 1, I was starting last on the grid, and would be starting last in the champ race no matter how I finished. The bummer about no Friday race was the loss of education on where/who/how my competitors performed/raced and trying to learn a few things about the track under race conditions. So, we had a standing start which went off very clean. I picked up a few positions on Lap 1 and worked myself to 5th a few laps later. Places 2-6 were stuck in a pack together while the leader walked off a bit. I figured I might have a shot at P3 in the time remaining. I had clicked off a few 2:06s and knew where some improvements were in certain places, especially the last corner - I was over slowing the car and had decided to try 4th gear instead of 3rd the next lap - as the guy in front of me had pulled me hard twice in a row out of that corner.

Going into the bus stop the guy in front of me kicked dirt onto the track. I hit it, my front end slid a bit and then the back slid (at 90-100mph). As i was sliding I had a choice to either gas it and loop the car onto the race line, or counter steer and not take out the guy behind me. I made the decision to not take out the guy behind me, but when I counter steered the car tank slapped. I recover these things 99% of the time. This was the other 1%. I ran out of talent. So, I locked it down with 2 feet in and tried to park it. The surface changed from asphalt to grass and I was along for the ride watching the guardrail inch closer and closer, saying no, no, no...boom - guardrail impact about 10-15 mph at about a 10* angle wiping the nose off the car. It was still running, so pulled it around the backside of the flag station where the rescue guys were parked, considering I was in a bad spot. I think my waving yellow last about 15 seconds. I'm fine and not physically hurt.

It's hard to put into words the emotional dejection after such things. I'm pissed, frustrated, depressed, embarrassed, crushed, etc. I hadn't wrecked the car in about 10 years, which was due to a mechanical failure. That wreck was easier to put into context at the time because I had no control over it. This time I'm left wondering if I could have changed something to prevent it. Like just tooling around at the back knowing I'd still be starting last for Sunday, or not driving as hard, or whatever - pick an option - plenty of what-ifs. I went up there to race, I needed to learn what these guys were doing if I was going to have any chance on Sunday. Just an unfortunate situation which ended the weekend. The car should be repairable. It'll go to the body shop later in October.

I'll upload the video soon (need to pare it down due to size etc), since I know all you sick bastards like to to watch such devastation and destruction. Yeah, I'm right there with ya...

Turns out that Sunday was a complete cluster with 4 green laps in 45 minutes, and the worst thing / flagging decision I've seen in 20 years of racing - that's a story for another time.

Side note - my mother flew in from Denver to watch me race (ugh, I just wasted the car with my Mom there...)

Thanks for the support,
MP