sunir
04-19-2004, 03:05 PM
Just got back from the club race at VIR...what an absolute blast...like a different world from DE's altogether...we should have pics up on DTM shortly and I also have the entire Enduro on video...
For my first race it was an awesome weekend and I am pretty happy with it. I am looking forward to Mid-Ohio next month.
Despite the shattered windshield incident on Friday (went out on track for my 3rd practice of the day and the hoodpins were not fastened and the hood slammed into the windshield shattereing it) and the diff problems on Sunday (broken wheel speed sensor caused the engine to stop pulling at 6K RPMs) causing DNS's in both Friday and Sunday's sprint races...I feel really good about the weekend because of Saturday's hour long Enduro race....I think it was a fantastic experience and really fun...and I drove really well for a rookie in his first club race. As for the Saturday enduro...it was my 1st start ever since I didn't start on Friday. I qualified the car with like a 2.13 lap time which put us in 11th at the grid (I was a bit disapointed because I know I can do better if I had a clean lap without slower traffic and infact was pulling better times in the 2:11 range earlier in practice, but I spoke with some veteran racers (i.e. Andy Watts, Steve Bassen, Scott Montana and Simon Hunter etc...) and they assured me that it was a long race and 11th was pretty good and if I focused on clean and consistant driving that would be the key. At the start IP front runners Damion and Mike Gilbert got a jump on me coming outta T1 as I hesitated on a hole after Rushin put 2 off in T1...but I would get by them in the first few laps that followed. I managed to go from 11th to 5th in the standing between my start and my pit. Simon took over and did a great job with the car going through the field and putting us into 3rd overall at the drop of the checkered flag!...Steve Bassen and Scott Montana finished ahead of us in overall 1st and 2nd and we got a 3rd overall and 2nd in class....this was an excellent result because like 70+ cars started the race (I think like 50 or so finished...) and we scored a top 3 overall finish from a prepared class car with a rookie driver and a co-driver who was not in his own car!!!
I was really happy with the way things went and feel as though for my first race it was pretty satisfying ....Simon pulled a fast 2.09 in the car and we both consistantly drove in the 2:10 - 2:12 laptime range over the course of the race. We reviewed the film afterwards and I found a couple of places I could make up some time and a few passes I could have made earlier...I was getting much more comfortable with 2 to 3 wide in corners as the race went on and the start was crazy...like nothing else I've ever felt on a track !!
My observations through the weekend were that the BMW CR scene is a pretty good bunch of folks. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help you out with advice (for a rookie like me) or if someone needs a part or tool or something. I also felt intimidated by some Modified class cars but came to find that most of them were not too scary or fast as I initially thought....you just need to know who is who out there it seems. Ironically at a DE it seems like although pople are not competing they can be pricks or more cocky than I saw at the race which was a competition environment. I don't think I'll really get anything really outta a DE anymore (with the exception of enjoying instructing and getting some seat time at a unfamiliar track or something) since racing is so much more fun and exciting in like every way...no point by's, no waiting...just pure balls out driving!! I believe the results will be in the Roundel in a couple of months with an article covering the race and hopefully some good pics...the race weather was like near perfect with some hotter than expected track surface temps ...and it got really hot in the car really quickly!
I'm looking forward to Mid Ohio and doing probably 5 or so races this year with continued instructing at some scattered DE's from time to time....
For my first race it was an awesome weekend and I am pretty happy with it. I am looking forward to Mid-Ohio next month.
Despite the shattered windshield incident on Friday (went out on track for my 3rd practice of the day and the hoodpins were not fastened and the hood slammed into the windshield shattereing it) and the diff problems on Sunday (broken wheel speed sensor caused the engine to stop pulling at 6K RPMs) causing DNS's in both Friday and Sunday's sprint races...I feel really good about the weekend because of Saturday's hour long Enduro race....I think it was a fantastic experience and really fun...and I drove really well for a rookie in his first club race. As for the Saturday enduro...it was my 1st start ever since I didn't start on Friday. I qualified the car with like a 2.13 lap time which put us in 11th at the grid (I was a bit disapointed because I know I can do better if I had a clean lap without slower traffic and infact was pulling better times in the 2:11 range earlier in practice, but I spoke with some veteran racers (i.e. Andy Watts, Steve Bassen, Scott Montana and Simon Hunter etc...) and they assured me that it was a long race and 11th was pretty good and if I focused on clean and consistant driving that would be the key. At the start IP front runners Damion and Mike Gilbert got a jump on me coming outta T1 as I hesitated on a hole after Rushin put 2 off in T1...but I would get by them in the first few laps that followed. I managed to go from 11th to 5th in the standing between my start and my pit. Simon took over and did a great job with the car going through the field and putting us into 3rd overall at the drop of the checkered flag!...Steve Bassen and Scott Montana finished ahead of us in overall 1st and 2nd and we got a 3rd overall and 2nd in class....this was an excellent result because like 70+ cars started the race (I think like 50 or so finished...) and we scored a top 3 overall finish from a prepared class car with a rookie driver and a co-driver who was not in his own car!!!
I was really happy with the way things went and feel as though for my first race it was pretty satisfying ....Simon pulled a fast 2.09 in the car and we both consistantly drove in the 2:10 - 2:12 laptime range over the course of the race. We reviewed the film afterwards and I found a couple of places I could make up some time and a few passes I could have made earlier...I was getting much more comfortable with 2 to 3 wide in corners as the race went on and the start was crazy...like nothing else I've ever felt on a track !!
My observations through the weekend were that the BMW CR scene is a pretty good bunch of folks. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help you out with advice (for a rookie like me) or if someone needs a part or tool or something. I also felt intimidated by some Modified class cars but came to find that most of them were not too scary or fast as I initially thought....you just need to know who is who out there it seems. Ironically at a DE it seems like although pople are not competing they can be pricks or more cocky than I saw at the race which was a competition environment. I don't think I'll really get anything really outta a DE anymore (with the exception of enjoying instructing and getting some seat time at a unfamiliar track or something) since racing is so much more fun and exciting in like every way...no point by's, no waiting...just pure balls out driving!! I believe the results will be in the Roundel in a couple of months with an article covering the race and hopefully some good pics...the race weather was like near perfect with some hotter than expected track surface temps ...and it got really hot in the car really quickly!
I'm looking forward to Mid Ohio and doing probably 5 or so races this year with continued instructing at some scattered DE's from time to time....