Last Sunday's race at Blackhawk was sponsored by Botham Vinyards in Wisconsin. The trophy (for those of us over 21, of course) included a bottle of Botham wine. My personal trainer Amy Stecker and I tried it last night -- "Go Racing Red" -- and it was delicious. If you want a red wine that doesn't burn your throat or taste like purple grape juice, you should really consider this wine.
I couldn't pick out any flavors of spices or wood or flowers or anything silly like that, and even if I could I probably wouldn't waste my energy on it. Botham uses words like "bold fruit character" and describes the "finish" as "long, smooth, and slightly tart." I think we used words like "sweet but not overpowering" and "mmmm" (as opposed to the typical *kawf kawff*).
Botham proclaims that it works well with sandwiches, grills, and picnic food. Peter, add pizza to the list.
And put in my order for a case.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Driving the Autobahn
Well, it's official. I will be racing on Sunday, July 31 at the new Autobahn Country Club (North track) in Joliet, Illinois. It's an SCCA Regional event, so it doesn't count towards the Midwestern Council championship...
But Speedy Petey mentioned to me on Sunday that he was planning to run it, since he is planning to be in the area for an open house at Arres Racing the day before. I'll be at the same open house on Saturday, and even though the track is actually a bit farther from Arres Racing than from my home, it still makes sense for me to run the event. Pete ran the MC race there the weekend that I was at Grattan, so he already knows the track better than I do. I don't want to be too far behind and unprepared when MC returns in October.
Since I'm going for the track time and learning experience, I will be running my full MC weight (1175 pounds) instead of lightening the car to the SCCA weight (1100 pounds). I need the experience, not an SCCA win!
But Speedy Petey mentioned to me on Sunday that he was planning to run it, since he is planning to be in the area for an open house at Arres Racing the day before. I'll be at the same open house on Saturday, and even though the track is actually a bit farther from Arres Racing than from my home, it still makes sense for me to run the event. Pete ran the MC race there the weekend that I was at Grattan, so he already knows the track better than I do. I don't want to be too far behind and unprepared when MC returns in October.
Since I'm going for the track time and learning experience, I will be running my full MC weight (1175 pounds) instead of lightening the car to the SCCA weight (1100 pounds). I need the experience, not an SCCA win!
Monday, July 25, 2005
Lance and Fernando and Me
Sunday was hot with a breeze so humid it made you think you were sitting in a sauna next to a dryer vent. I was surprised to learn that yesterday's official temperature was only 99 degrees. Hot weather is great for traction, since the tires get hot enough to melt and get really sticky. The drawback is that heat is bad for horsepower, engines, brakes, and drivers.
The morning practice went smoothly, with no big problems. The brakes were locking a bit entering some corners, but a small adjustment to the brake bias* cured it. Good thing, too -- I wanted to play around with the bias a little more, but the adjusting knob must have fallen off right after I adjusted it!
Remembering the minimum weight issue from June, I took the car to Impound after practice and ran it across the scales. My official weight: 1184 pounds, 34 pounds over the minimum. The car probably had a couple more gallons of fuel in it than when it was last weighed. At approximately 6 pounds per gallon, a gallon and a half of fuel would account for the 9 pound difference over last month. I decided to leave the extra weight in the car -- at least until I saw how qualifying would turn out.
Since I had the luxury of an in-car lap timer and a crew (my mother, my father, and my friend and personal trainer Amy Stecker), I instructed them to show me Pete Wood's lap times. My theory was that if I could compare our times, I would know if I needed to drive harder, remove weight from the car, or just relax and enjoy the drive. I went out behind Art Jahn's VW-powered sports racer, a fendered car built on a formula car chassis. My plan was to try to follow him for as long as possible, since the bodywork on his car creates a big draft, and that would give me quite a boost -- like being pulled along by a vacuum cleaner.
I almost stayed behind Art for one lap. At the end of that first lap, my on-board timer showed 1:20, which I later found out would have been almost good enough for the pole position. But since the car really wasn't warmed up yet (neither was the driver), I stayed out and tried to go faster. As I edged the car down through the 1:19s, my father showed me the pit board reading 1:21, 1:22, 1:20. Pete turned a best lap of 1:20.2, while my best was a 1:19.2.
I would start fifth on the grid, in front of all of the more modern Formula Fords, two Formula A cars (one running a 2-liter Alfa Romeo twincam engine, and one running a 1600cc Lotus twincam engine), and of course the other 4 Club Formula Fords. Frank Reimann qualified his yellow Formula Ford between Pete and me, which meant that Pete would line up directly behind me on the pace lap. That was a bit of luck for me, since it is much easier to defend your position against a car starting directly behind you than against a car starting next to you.
The rest of the morning was spent checking over the car and getting it ready for the race. I debated taking some weight out of the car, but with a one second per lap advantage over Pete, I decided to leave it in. We spent the lunch break trying to keep cool, moving as little as possible, and drinking as much water and Gatorade as we could stand.
Pushing the car to the false grid before the race, getting buckled in, and waiting for the start of the pace lap are probably the longest, most exciting, nervous, nerve-wracking, tense, intense fifteen minutes in a race driver's life. I could write 1000 words describing why, but the opening montage in the movie Grand Prix and the race start sequence in the movie Le Mans capture the mood effectively. Waiting on the false grid, with all the revving engines around you, all you can hear is the pounding of your heart, the sound of your own engine, and the sudden shriek of the grid workers' whistles as they count down the last five minutes before the pace lap.
I poured some ice water down the neck of my driver's suit just before we left for the pace lap. The cars line up for the pace lap in two-by-two formation behind the pace car, then spread out single-file again as the pace lap rolls off to weave back and forth to scrub their tires, wiping off any gravel and trying to bring the rubber up to optimum temperature. The corner workers give a thumbs-up as the field passes, and wave to the drivers they know. Coming into the last turn, the pace car slows enough to let the cars get back into a tight two-by-two formation. We crawl side by side through the last turn and watch the pace car dart into the pit lane. Our attention shifts to the starter on the bridge overlooking the start/finish line. He waves the green flag, and as soon as the drivers catch the first glimpse of green, all drivers slam the throttles wide open, jockeying for position and trying to stay in front and maybe move up a spot or two before the first corner.
Pete got a little bit of a jump on me, though I'm not sure how. I heard a loud pop when I hit the gas pedal, which may have been my carburetor clearing itself out (clearing its throat, you might say). That could have delayed my acceleration for just a hundredth of a second, which could have given Pete just a bit more speed. Maybe he saw the flag a hair sooner or reacted to it a hundredth of a second earlier than I did... Whatever the cause, I saw him trying to come up between the two rows of cars. He wasn't gaining ground on me very quickly, but it was enough to worry me. I edged just a bit to the middle to take a slightly defensive line into corner 1. He stuck behind me for the first lap as I tried to keep up with the faster cars in front of us. After about five laps, my father held up the pit board with "+06" on it -- I had already built up a lead of six seconds.
Apparently Pete got into a struggle with a sports racer, which slowed him down considerably. I watched the pit signals climb (+10, +11, +13, +16) and tried to take it easy and save the car. After about twenty minutes, I realized that the car was likely to last longer than I was. The heat was starting to make me feel sick, and my flesh felt like it was cooking -- literally simmering. I had to force myself to concentrate on driving so that I wouldn't be able to think about how I felt.
I made it to the end of the race and took my victory lap. I felt pretty good when I got out of the car, but after sitting down for a few minutes, I realized I was getting dizzy and weak. Amy and my father carried me to the medical building to get checked out and cooled down. After several cold, wet towels and a couple of bottles of PowerAde, I was able to get my legs under me again. Before I left their air-conditioning to go back out into the blast furnace outside, the paramedics scolded me for wearing a black driver's suit on such a hot, sunny day.
The CFF points after this weekend:
The morning practice went smoothly, with no big problems. The brakes were locking a bit entering some corners, but a small adjustment to the brake bias* cured it. Good thing, too -- I wanted to play around with the bias a little more, but the adjusting knob must have fallen off right after I adjusted it!
Remembering the minimum weight issue from June, I took the car to Impound after practice and ran it across the scales. My official weight: 1184 pounds, 34 pounds over the minimum. The car probably had a couple more gallons of fuel in it than when it was last weighed. At approximately 6 pounds per gallon, a gallon and a half of fuel would account for the 9 pound difference over last month. I decided to leave the extra weight in the car -- at least until I saw how qualifying would turn out.
Since I had the luxury of an in-car lap timer and a crew (my mother, my father, and my friend and personal trainer Amy Stecker), I instructed them to show me Pete Wood's lap times. My theory was that if I could compare our times, I would know if I needed to drive harder, remove weight from the car, or just relax and enjoy the drive. I went out behind Art Jahn's VW-powered sports racer, a fendered car built on a formula car chassis. My plan was to try to follow him for as long as possible, since the bodywork on his car creates a big draft, and that would give me quite a boost -- like being pulled along by a vacuum cleaner.
I almost stayed behind Art for one lap. At the end of that first lap, my on-board timer showed 1:20, which I later found out would have been almost good enough for the pole position. But since the car really wasn't warmed up yet (neither was the driver), I stayed out and tried to go faster. As I edged the car down through the 1:19s, my father showed me the pit board reading 1:21, 1:22, 1:20. Pete turned a best lap of 1:20.2, while my best was a 1:19.2.
I would start fifth on the grid, in front of all of the more modern Formula Fords, two Formula A cars (one running a 2-liter Alfa Romeo twincam engine, and one running a 1600cc Lotus twincam engine), and of course the other 4 Club Formula Fords. Frank Reimann qualified his yellow Formula Ford between Pete and me, which meant that Pete would line up directly behind me on the pace lap. That was a bit of luck for me, since it is much easier to defend your position against a car starting directly behind you than against a car starting next to you.
The rest of the morning was spent checking over the car and getting it ready for the race. I debated taking some weight out of the car, but with a one second per lap advantage over Pete, I decided to leave it in. We spent the lunch break trying to keep cool, moving as little as possible, and drinking as much water and Gatorade as we could stand.
Pushing the car to the false grid before the race, getting buckled in, and waiting for the start of the pace lap are probably the longest, most exciting, nervous, nerve-wracking, tense, intense fifteen minutes in a race driver's life. I could write 1000 words describing why, but the opening montage in the movie Grand Prix and the race start sequence in the movie Le Mans capture the mood effectively. Waiting on the false grid, with all the revving engines around you, all you can hear is the pounding of your heart, the sound of your own engine, and the sudden shriek of the grid workers' whistles as they count down the last five minutes before the pace lap.
I poured some ice water down the neck of my driver's suit just before we left for the pace lap. The cars line up for the pace lap in two-by-two formation behind the pace car, then spread out single-file again as the pace lap rolls off to weave back and forth to scrub their tires, wiping off any gravel and trying to bring the rubber up to optimum temperature. The corner workers give a thumbs-up as the field passes, and wave to the drivers they know. Coming into the last turn, the pace car slows enough to let the cars get back into a tight two-by-two formation. We crawl side by side through the last turn and watch the pace car dart into the pit lane. Our attention shifts to the starter on the bridge overlooking the start/finish line. He waves the green flag, and as soon as the drivers catch the first glimpse of green, all drivers slam the throttles wide open, jockeying for position and trying to stay in front and maybe move up a spot or two before the first corner.
Pete got a little bit of a jump on me, though I'm not sure how. I heard a loud pop when I hit the gas pedal, which may have been my carburetor clearing itself out (clearing its throat, you might say). That could have delayed my acceleration for just a hundredth of a second, which could have given Pete just a bit more speed. Maybe he saw the flag a hair sooner or reacted to it a hundredth of a second earlier than I did... Whatever the cause, I saw him trying to come up between the two rows of cars. He wasn't gaining ground on me very quickly, but it was enough to worry me. I edged just a bit to the middle to take a slightly defensive line into corner 1. He stuck behind me for the first lap as I tried to keep up with the faster cars in front of us. After about five laps, my father held up the pit board with "+06" on it -- I had already built up a lead of six seconds.
Apparently Pete got into a struggle with a sports racer, which slowed him down considerably. I watched the pit signals climb (+10, +11, +13, +16) and tried to take it easy and save the car. After about twenty minutes, I realized that the car was likely to last longer than I was. The heat was starting to make me feel sick, and my flesh felt like it was cooking -- literally simmering. I had to force myself to concentrate on driving so that I wouldn't be able to think about how I felt.
I made it to the end of the race and took my victory lap. I felt pretty good when I got out of the car, but after sitting down for a few minutes, I realized I was getting dizzy and weak. Amy and my father carried me to the medical building to get checked out and cooled down. After several cold, wet towels and a couple of bottles of PowerAde, I was able to get my legs under me again. Before I left their air-conditioning to go back out into the blast furnace outside, the paramedics scolded me for wearing a black driver's suit on such a hot, sunny day.
The CFF points after this weekend:
- John Haydon - 125
- Pete Wood - 105
- Michael Schindlbeck - 53
- Denis Downs - 33
- Scott Reif - 33
- Larry Noble - 17
- Jon Borkowski - 16
- Paul Schindlbeck - 16
- Dick Plank - 11
- Bob Fleming - 8
Next up: I don't know yet! There is an SCCA Regional race at the new Autobahn Country Club track in Joliet next weekend. I may try to get some track time there in preparation for the MC race there in October. Otherwise, the SCCA Double Regional (East-West Challenge) race at Road America is next month. I'll post when I decide.
*Most race cars are able to adjust the bias, or ratio of braking force on the front wheels vs. the force on the rear wheels. When the brakes are applied hard -- as in a race car -- the wheels slow down but the rest of the car wants to continue forward. This shifts the weight of the car off of the rear wheels and onto the front wheels. This gives the front wheels more traction than the rears, which means the front brakes can do more braking than the rears. If you adjust the bias too much to the front wheels, the brakes will overpower the tires, and lock the front wheels.Friday, July 22, 2005
Crystal Tack Cloth Challenge
Road America is always a special race. It's four miles long -- more than twice the length of most other tracks on our calendar. The scenery and surrounding area are beautiful, the food is great, and the track requires a lot of guts.
Most importantly, when non-racing people ask where I race, if I mention Road America, suddenly they understand. Blackhawk is our home, Grattan is unparalleled fun, and GingerMan has great facilities, but none of those names mean anything to the uninitiated. Road America has been on television.
Because of the length of the track, we can't easily follow our typical schedule for a one-day race. A fifteen-minute practice session on that 4-mile track would give most drivers about five laps. So we have a 20-minute practice and a 25-minute qualifying session, which makes a two-day schedule much more sensible. The schedule this year called for one practice and one qualifying session on Saturday, and a morning qualifying session and afternoon race on Sunday.
Saturday's morning practice session went well, with no issues or problems. The afternoon qualifying session was a little disappointing. My new In-Car Timer told me I had actually gone almost two seconds slower than I had in the morning. It was still fast enough for pole position, but just barely. Pete Wood (two spots behind me on the grid) suggested that we hook up and draft* during Sunday's morning qualifying session so that we could qualify in front of some faster cars, one of which was currently gridded between us.
Sunday's morning qualifying session went much better, due mostly to Pete's plan. He was in front of me for the first several laps, so I used his draft to pull me along. But I noticed during those laps that it can actually be very relaxing to draft a skilled driver. Maybe it's because your vision is full of his gearbox instead of the scenery rushing past. Maybe it's because you begin to notice that you could have been on the throttle already, but he hesitates just a bit coming through corner 3... and he feathers the throttle a lot more through the carousel than you do... and he enters corner 14 on the other side of the track -- and then you try his way, and find that it's faster!
After about 4 laps, I felt well warmed up and in a solid rhythm, so I took the lead. But a few corners later, I couldn't see Pete in my mirrors at all. The next lap, I had cut two full seconds off my lap time. Our drafting trick worked for Pete, too -- he also cut a full second off his lap time and jumped two grid spots. Fortunately, mine was not one of them. We would be side-by-side on the grid.
The start of the race was a bit of a muddle. The pace car went much too fast for most of the lap, which prevented us from scrubbing our tires or warming our brakes. When we reached the front straight, the back of the pack was still very strung out. The pace car pulled into the pit lane, and the fast cars at the front of the grid slowed. As those of us a few rows back began to slow in response, the lead cars took off up the hill at full throttle. By the time Pete and I crested the hill, they were long gone. We were actually lucky. I was worried that we would crest the hill and then see the starters giving us a "no-start" signal because the pack was so strung out. If that happened, the lead cars would have slowed down, but we were now full throttle trying to catch them. A very similar scenario occurred the very next week at the vintage races, with disastrous results. Their start destroyed some 17 cars.
Fortunately, we got away cleanly. I was able to get just in front of Pete before corner 1, and I managed to pull out a little bit of a lead. My only fear now was that a faster car behind us would eventually pass me, pulling Pete along with him in his draft. Frank Reimann did pass us both in his Swift, but he couldn't stay in front of me for long. He ran wide exiting corner 14 and had to slow down. At that point he realized that he had a big lead on the other cars in his own class, so he took it easy for the rest of the race. It was a big relief to see him getting farther behind me.
But on lap 5, I got a good scare. As I approached corner 1, I started thinking about a fellow driver who claimed he drove corner 1 in third gear, instead of second gear as I did. I was preparing to try third gear, but I chickened out at the last moment and dropped down to second gear. I got halfway through the turn, when the car suddenly stopped turning. It was plowing straight ahead! I thought I had blown the left front tire or lost another suspension piece -- hardly the way I wanted to end the weekend! I got the car slowed down and managed to turn the corner. As I came around, the sun hit the track at just the right angle to reflect off a wide, thick strip of oil that a sports racer had spilled the lap prior. It took a few laps to work up the nerve to got through that corner at anything faster than a crawl.
That delay cut my lead at the end of the race to 4.4 seconds. Apparently "Speedy Petey" lost a lot less time tiptoeing through the oil.
The victory lap was especially enjoyable because I actually had some fans to wave to. My sister Leigh had brought her two daughters Kathryn and Elizabeth.
The CFF points race now stands:
Most importantly, when non-racing people ask where I race, if I mention Road America, suddenly they understand. Blackhawk is our home, Grattan is unparalleled fun, and GingerMan has great facilities, but none of those names mean anything to the uninitiated. Road America has been on television.
Because of the length of the track, we can't easily follow our typical schedule for a one-day race. A fifteen-minute practice session on that 4-mile track would give most drivers about five laps. So we have a 20-minute practice and a 25-minute qualifying session, which makes a two-day schedule much more sensible. The schedule this year called for one practice and one qualifying session on Saturday, and a morning qualifying session and afternoon race on Sunday.
Saturday's morning practice session went well, with no issues or problems. The afternoon qualifying session was a little disappointing. My new In-Car Timer told me I had actually gone almost two seconds slower than I had in the morning. It was still fast enough for pole position, but just barely. Pete Wood (two spots behind me on the grid) suggested that we hook up and draft* during Sunday's morning qualifying session so that we could qualify in front of some faster cars, one of which was currently gridded between us.
Sunday's morning qualifying session went much better, due mostly to Pete's plan. He was in front of me for the first several laps, so I used his draft to pull me along. But I noticed during those laps that it can actually be very relaxing to draft a skilled driver. Maybe it's because your vision is full of his gearbox instead of the scenery rushing past. Maybe it's because you begin to notice that you could have been on the throttle already, but he hesitates just a bit coming through corner 3... and he feathers the throttle a lot more through the carousel than you do... and he enters corner 14 on the other side of the track -- and then you try his way, and find that it's faster!
After about 4 laps, I felt well warmed up and in a solid rhythm, so I took the lead. But a few corners later, I couldn't see Pete in my mirrors at all. The next lap, I had cut two full seconds off my lap time. Our drafting trick worked for Pete, too -- he also cut a full second off his lap time and jumped two grid spots. Fortunately, mine was not one of them. We would be side-by-side on the grid.
The start of the race was a bit of a muddle. The pace car went much too fast for most of the lap, which prevented us from scrubbing our tires or warming our brakes. When we reached the front straight, the back of the pack was still very strung out. The pace car pulled into the pit lane, and the fast cars at the front of the grid slowed. As those of us a few rows back began to slow in response, the lead cars took off up the hill at full throttle. By the time Pete and I crested the hill, they were long gone. We were actually lucky. I was worried that we would crest the hill and then see the starters giving us a "no-start" signal because the pack was so strung out. If that happened, the lead cars would have slowed down, but we were now full throttle trying to catch them. A very similar scenario occurred the very next week at the vintage races, with disastrous results. Their start destroyed some 17 cars.
Fortunately, we got away cleanly. I was able to get just in front of Pete before corner 1, and I managed to pull out a little bit of a lead. My only fear now was that a faster car behind us would eventually pass me, pulling Pete along with him in his draft. Frank Reimann did pass us both in his Swift, but he couldn't stay in front of me for long. He ran wide exiting corner 14 and had to slow down. At that point he realized that he had a big lead on the other cars in his own class, so he took it easy for the rest of the race. It was a big relief to see him getting farther behind me.
But on lap 5, I got a good scare. As I approached corner 1, I started thinking about a fellow driver who claimed he drove corner 1 in third gear, instead of second gear as I did. I was preparing to try third gear, but I chickened out at the last moment and dropped down to second gear. I got halfway through the turn, when the car suddenly stopped turning. It was plowing straight ahead! I thought I had blown the left front tire or lost another suspension piece -- hardly the way I wanted to end the weekend! I got the car slowed down and managed to turn the corner. As I came around, the sun hit the track at just the right angle to reflect off a wide, thick strip of oil that a sports racer had spilled the lap prior. It took a few laps to work up the nerve to got through that corner at anything faster than a crawl.
That delay cut my lead at the end of the race to 4.4 seconds. Apparently "Speedy Petey" lost a lot less time tiptoeing through the oil.
The victory lap was especially enjoyable because I actually had some fans to wave to. My sister Leigh had brought her two daughters Kathryn and Elizabeth.
The CFF points race now stands:
- John Haydon - 100
- Pete Wood - 85
- Michael Schindlbeck - 53
- Denis Downs - 33
- Scott Reif - 33
- Jon Borkowski - 16
- Dick Plank - 10
- Bob Fleming - 8
- Larry Noble - 7
The next race is this Sunday at Blackhawk. Wish me luck!
*Racing along at speeds around 100mph, a car punches a big hole in the air. The air rushes back in to close up the hole behind the car, but if a second car is immediately behind the first car, the second car gets pulled along. The second car does not have to push the air out of the way, so it does not have to work as hard. The lead car also benefits, since the displaced air rushing in behind the car would normally slow it down, too.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Midterms
Once the car was back together, I was ready to go back to Blackhawk for the next MC race: "Midterms". We try to give our races humorous names (partly to remind us not to take ourselves too seriously), and since this race was in conjunction with a driver's school, it made sense to give it a school-themed name. This school was the second of three this season, so "Midterms" makes as much sense as anything.
Race day was similar to the others: short practice in the morning, qualifying before lunch, and the race in the afternoon. The car was running and handling well, and I was confident after qualifying that I had qualified on the pole. Then something very unusual happened. A Steward met me at the end of pit lane at the end of the session and handed me a note that read, "Please report to Impound."
Some backgound: The rulebook lists a minimum weight for each class. In general (all other things being equal), lighter equals faster*. Impound is the area where we weigh cars to ensure they meet or exceed the specified minimum. This occasion was very unusual because for several years, MC did not have a set of scales that worked. We had to trust everyone to keep their cars up to the minimum weight. This was in fact the first instance since I have been racing where cars were spot-checked.
I was not worried, since I had just weighed the car after the SCCA National, and it was 12 pounds under the MC minimum weight (but 38 pounds over the SCCA minimum). I had added two 10-pound barbell weights to ensure that I would be well over the MC minimum of 1150 pounds. The car actually should have weighed 1158 pounds. Imagine my surprise when the scales proclaimed my car to weigh 1138 pounds! Somehow I had installed a pair of 10-pound barbell weights without adding any weight to the car. Either I had found some magical weightless lead, or the car went on a diet without consulting me.
Well, okay, those are not the only explanations. Another explanation is that one of the two sets of scales was inaccurate. Makes no difference which set -- we have a rule which states, "The scales at the event are the official scales for the event." In other words, just because SCCA's scales said the car should weigh 1158, that's not a valid defense against MC's scales weighing in at 1138. And that's a good rule to have. The alternative would be for everyone to claim, "But SCCA's scales last week said..." And where would it end? Why not just claim, "My scales last night said..." Better to put all our trust and faith in the one set we use. Shame on me for not checking in the morning. I knew the rules, I knew how they were checked, and I did not double-check. My bad, my mistake, my problem. Nobody's fault but mine.
The Chief Steward was notified, and we discussed the situation with Jack Bartelt, the Formula Committee Chair. We all agreed that the only fair thing would be for me to add weight to the car before the race, and to get bumped back on the grid. I was assessed a two-second penalty, which put me in second spot, directly behind Pete Wood. Jack offered to let me use a 25-pound ballast weight he had with him, and as soon as we had it in the car, we took the car back to Impound to check it.
Now here's the funny part. The car now weighed 1175 pounds -- twenty-five pounds over the minimum weight! I'll go over the math again. A car weighing 1138 pounds, plus 20 pounds of lead, weighed 1138 pounds. A car weighing 1138 pounds, plus 25 pounds of lead, weighed 1175 pounds. A 12-pound error is not all that much in the grand scheme of things. It's actually 1% of the weight of the car, well within the accuracy of the scales we use. But it was 12 critical pounds, 12 pounds that cost me a pole position and caused me to add a 25 pound weight to the car. By this time it was too late to go back, so I resigned myself to having to start second and run heavy. But I wasn't going to give up.
I managed to squeeze past Pete on the start, and I drove every lap like it was the last. Towards the end of the race, Pete was nowhere in sight. He got slowed down lapping some slower cars, so I had a comfortable lead at the end. The best part? Even with the extra 25 pounds, I got within 0.5 seconds of my (original) qualifying time.
The CFF points after that race looked like this:
Race day was similar to the others: short practice in the morning, qualifying before lunch, and the race in the afternoon. The car was running and handling well, and I was confident after qualifying that I had qualified on the pole. Then something very unusual happened. A Steward met me at the end of pit lane at the end of the session and handed me a note that read, "Please report to Impound."
Some backgound: The rulebook lists a minimum weight for each class. In general (all other things being equal), lighter equals faster*. Impound is the area where we weigh cars to ensure they meet or exceed the specified minimum. This occasion was very unusual because for several years, MC did not have a set of scales that worked. We had to trust everyone to keep their cars up to the minimum weight. This was in fact the first instance since I have been racing where cars were spot-checked.
I was not worried, since I had just weighed the car after the SCCA National, and it was 12 pounds under the MC minimum weight (but 38 pounds over the SCCA minimum). I had added two 10-pound barbell weights to ensure that I would be well over the MC minimum of 1150 pounds. The car actually should have weighed 1158 pounds. Imagine my surprise when the scales proclaimed my car to weigh 1138 pounds! Somehow I had installed a pair of 10-pound barbell weights without adding any weight to the car. Either I had found some magical weightless lead, or the car went on a diet without consulting me.
Well, okay, those are not the only explanations. Another explanation is that one of the two sets of scales was inaccurate. Makes no difference which set -- we have a rule which states, "The scales at the event are the official scales for the event." In other words, just because SCCA's scales said the car should weigh 1158, that's not a valid defense against MC's scales weighing in at 1138. And that's a good rule to have. The alternative would be for everyone to claim, "But SCCA's scales last week said..." And where would it end? Why not just claim, "My scales last night said..." Better to put all our trust and faith in the one set we use. Shame on me for not checking in the morning. I knew the rules, I knew how they were checked, and I did not double-check. My bad, my mistake, my problem. Nobody's fault but mine.
The Chief Steward was notified, and we discussed the situation with Jack Bartelt, the Formula Committee Chair. We all agreed that the only fair thing would be for me to add weight to the car before the race, and to get bumped back on the grid. I was assessed a two-second penalty, which put me in second spot, directly behind Pete Wood. Jack offered to let me use a 25-pound ballast weight he had with him, and as soon as we had it in the car, we took the car back to Impound to check it.
Now here's the funny part. The car now weighed 1175 pounds -- twenty-five pounds over the minimum weight! I'll go over the math again. A car weighing 1138 pounds, plus 20 pounds of lead, weighed 1138 pounds. A car weighing 1138 pounds, plus 25 pounds of lead, weighed 1175 pounds. A 12-pound error is not all that much in the grand scheme of things. It's actually 1% of the weight of the car, well within the accuracy of the scales we use. But it was 12 critical pounds, 12 pounds that cost me a pole position and caused me to add a 25 pound weight to the car. By this time it was too late to go back, so I resigned myself to having to start second and run heavy. But I wasn't going to give up.
I managed to squeeze past Pete on the start, and I drove every lap like it was the last. Towards the end of the race, Pete was nowhere in sight. He got slowed down lapping some slower cars, so I had a comfortable lead at the end. The best part? Even with the extra 25 pounds, I got within 0.5 seconds of my (original) qualifying time.
The CFF points after that race looked like this:
- John Haydon - 75
- Pete Wood - 65
- Michael Schindlbeck - 53
- Denis Downs - 32
- Scott Reif - 17
- Jon Borkowski - 16
- Dick Plank - 10
- Bob Fleming - 8
- Larry Noble - 7
Next time: Draft Dodging
*If you don't believe me, imagine you had to push an SUV around. You had to push it forward, you had to stop it by pulling on the bumper, and you had to push it sideways to change direction. Now imagine doing all that with a go-kart. Much easier, right? The engine, brakes, and tires all think so, too.
The Michigan Curse Continues
During my racing career, I've gone to Michigan tracks about 18 times. I've had good luck in Michigan three times, uneventful trips three other times... and dismal problems every other trip. Guess which one this trip was?
I was looking forward to going back to Grattan Raceway. It's my favorite track, with wild elevation changes, off-camber turns, and at least one spot where the car actually gets airborne. I declined the opportunity to run the first wheel-to-wheel race at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL in order to race at Grattan. It meant passing up valuable points towards the MC championship, but this weekend was also the first in the East-West Challenge series, and I was looking forward to some different competition and seeing the SCCA bunch again.
My crew helper and I left for Michigan Thursday night in the hopes of avoiding most of the Chicago traffic (it worked), and we got to Grand Rapids around 1am. We checked into a much nicer hotel than I expected and tried to rest up for the Friday test day. That didn't work. I was exhausted when the alarm went off at 6am.
We got to the track early enough to claim a good paddock space and unload the car for the first track session. I got in, started it up, and tried to put it in first gear. But there was no first gear. No first gear?? Never mind, don't lose track time, just make do with second, third, and fourth... even though Grattan is a track that REALLY requires first gear for at least two or three very slow corners. I needed to practice the track, since I hadn't driven Grattan in a year.
After a disappointing first session, we immediately set about fixing the gearbox problem. As it turned out, I had made two boneheaded mistakes when I put the gears in the transmission. First, I had installed first gear backwards, so it could not engage. Second, when I put it together, I never checked that each gear could be engaged. Immeasurably stupid -- I wrote the directions on changing gears. The last three steps in the directions are all reminders to check everything, including checking that each gear can be engaged.
We fixed the gearbox, and we only lost one track session and a few ounces of blood. (I never realized the edge of the exhaust bracket was that sharp until I saw the blood dripping off my hand.) When I went out for the next session, my lap times didn't improve at all. That was really disgusting. There should have been some improvement, since I now had 4 gears instead of 3, but I guess I was just so tired I was not driving well at all. Oh well, get through the day, get some rest tonight, and be better prepared for Saturday, right?
It's funny how plans can change in seconds. The very last lap of the very last session, I went through corner 1 without much trouble, although the car didn't feel quite right. When I braked for corner 2, the right rear wheel locked up briefly -- very unusual, since it's not a heavy braking zone and I wasn't driving that hard. Corner 3, normally a tricky corner, was almost impossible -- the car was all over the road. As I went into corner 4, I looked back and saw my right rear wheel leaning over at a crazy angle. I slowed and heard the back end of the car dragging on the track.
As I limped the car into the paddock, I pondered what had happened. I knew without looking which part had broken*, and the reason was obvious. I was being greedy, trying to race every weekend. Car preparation suffered as a result, and the proof was a broken (expensive) part. In a way, I was relieved. After we shoveled the car onto the trailer, we headed back to the hotel, and I went right to bed. I think I slept about 15 hours that night.
When we got back, we unloaded the car and took it apart far enough to replace the broken part and check for any hidden collateral damage. Nothing else was hurt, but we now had easy access to several other highly-stressed parts. I took the opportunity to make amends for my transgression by replacing all of them as a matter of preventative maintenance.
Thanks to fellow Tiga owner Corky Jahn, the car was back on its wheels again with a loaner replacement part just in time for the next MC race at Blackhawk.
Next up: The Tiga goes on Atkins, apparently...
*As Carroll Smith points out, it is not fair to claim that race car parts "fail". We break them.
I was looking forward to going back to Grattan Raceway. It's my favorite track, with wild elevation changes, off-camber turns, and at least one spot where the car actually gets airborne. I declined the opportunity to run the first wheel-to-wheel race at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL in order to race at Grattan. It meant passing up valuable points towards the MC championship, but this weekend was also the first in the East-West Challenge series, and I was looking forward to some different competition and seeing the SCCA bunch again.
My crew helper and I left for Michigan Thursday night in the hopes of avoiding most of the Chicago traffic (it worked), and we got to Grand Rapids around 1am. We checked into a much nicer hotel than I expected and tried to rest up for the Friday test day. That didn't work. I was exhausted when the alarm went off at 6am.
We got to the track early enough to claim a good paddock space and unload the car for the first track session. I got in, started it up, and tried to put it in first gear. But there was no first gear. No first gear?? Never mind, don't lose track time, just make do with second, third, and fourth... even though Grattan is a track that REALLY requires first gear for at least two or three very slow corners. I needed to practice the track, since I hadn't driven Grattan in a year.
After a disappointing first session, we immediately set about fixing the gearbox problem. As it turned out, I had made two boneheaded mistakes when I put the gears in the transmission. First, I had installed first gear backwards, so it could not engage. Second, when I put it together, I never checked that each gear could be engaged. Immeasurably stupid -- I wrote the directions on changing gears. The last three steps in the directions are all reminders to check everything, including checking that each gear can be engaged.
We fixed the gearbox, and we only lost one track session and a few ounces of blood. (I never realized the edge of the exhaust bracket was that sharp until I saw the blood dripping off my hand.) When I went out for the next session, my lap times didn't improve at all. That was really disgusting. There should have been some improvement, since I now had 4 gears instead of 3, but I guess I was just so tired I was not driving well at all. Oh well, get through the day, get some rest tonight, and be better prepared for Saturday, right?
It's funny how plans can change in seconds. The very last lap of the very last session, I went through corner 1 without much trouble, although the car didn't feel quite right. When I braked for corner 2, the right rear wheel locked up briefly -- very unusual, since it's not a heavy braking zone and I wasn't driving that hard. Corner 3, normally a tricky corner, was almost impossible -- the car was all over the road. As I went into corner 4, I looked back and saw my right rear wheel leaning over at a crazy angle. I slowed and heard the back end of the car dragging on the track.
As I limped the car into the paddock, I pondered what had happened. I knew without looking which part had broken*, and the reason was obvious. I was being greedy, trying to race every weekend. Car preparation suffered as a result, and the proof was a broken (expensive) part. In a way, I was relieved. After we shoveled the car onto the trailer, we headed back to the hotel, and I went right to bed. I think I slept about 15 hours that night.
When we got back, we unloaded the car and took it apart far enough to replace the broken part and check for any hidden collateral damage. Nothing else was hurt, but we now had easy access to several other highly-stressed parts. I took the opportunity to make amends for my transgression by replacing all of them as a matter of preventative maintenance.
Thanks to fellow Tiga owner Corky Jahn, the car was back on its wheels again with a loaner replacement part just in time for the next MC race at Blackhawk.
Next up: The Tiga goes on Atkins, apparently...
*As Carroll Smith points out, it is not fair to claim that race car parts "fail". We break them.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Great Lakes Grand Prix
(Note: during the next several days, my posts will recap the season so far.)
The Milwaukee Mile is the oldest continuously-operating racetrack in the world.* In the 1950s, an infield section was added to the one-mile oval to create a 1.9-mile semi-road course (we sometimes call this type of track a "roval"). The infield track was used until the early 1980s, by which time it had been allowed to deteriorate so badly that it was no longer safe. The infield section was repaved in 2004, and the first wheel-to-wheel road race was held on the "new" course on May 15, 2005.
I had seen races on the original road course in the '70s. My father actualy held the Formula Vee lap record there (he may still, I haven't checked). But I had never been around the track before. I studied a track map for weeks and picked my father's brain for anything he could remember. He remembered quite a lot. I got some low-speed laps in a street car and some high-speed laps during a test day. When race day came, I felt very well-prepared.
Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had qualified on the pole. Pete Wood -- the most recent prior owner of my car -- was next on the grid. The infield track is very narrow, without many good passing opportunities. I felt that if I could keep "Speedy Petey" behind me on the start, it could be an easy lead to defend. I was half right. Pete was very well prepared, too.
(Since there is a limited amount of track time, each class shares the track with several other classes. More than 30 classes get combined into 5 groups. Theoretically, all classes in the group will turn roughly similar lap times and/or have similar car construction. Club Formula Fords are grouped with other formula cars and sports racers, mostly with bigger engines, wings, and bigger tires. Theoretically, CFF should be the slowest class in the group.)
I did manage to keep Pete behind me on the start -- barely. He kept the pressure on throughout the entire race. Every time I checked my mirrors, they were full of his purple Crossle. Halfway through the race, we caught up to and passed a faster car driven by Frank Riemann. (Frank scolded me after the race -- "You know, Club Fords aren't supposed to be that fast!" I blamed it on Pete. If he hadn't been pressing me so relentlessly, I wouldn't have had to go so fast...)
To give you an idea how close it was, the official results show that Pete crossed the finish line 0.149 seconds behind me. That was probably the largest gap of the entire race.
The CFF points after this race:
The Milwaukee Mile is the oldest continuously-operating racetrack in the world.* In the 1950s, an infield section was added to the one-mile oval to create a 1.9-mile semi-road course (we sometimes call this type of track a "roval"). The infield track was used until the early 1980s, by which time it had been allowed to deteriorate so badly that it was no longer safe. The infield section was repaved in 2004, and the first wheel-to-wheel road race was held on the "new" course on May 15, 2005.
I had seen races on the original road course in the '70s. My father actualy held the Formula Vee lap record there (he may still, I haven't checked). But I had never been around the track before. I studied a track map for weeks and picked my father's brain for anything he could remember. He remembered quite a lot. I got some low-speed laps in a street car and some high-speed laps during a test day. When race day came, I felt very well-prepared.
Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had qualified on the pole. Pete Wood -- the most recent prior owner of my car -- was next on the grid. The infield track is very narrow, without many good passing opportunities. I felt that if I could keep "Speedy Petey" behind me on the start, it could be an easy lead to defend. I was half right. Pete was very well prepared, too.
(Since there is a limited amount of track time, each class shares the track with several other classes. More than 30 classes get combined into 5 groups. Theoretically, all classes in the group will turn roughly similar lap times and/or have similar car construction. Club Formula Fords are grouped with other formula cars and sports racers, mostly with bigger engines, wings, and bigger tires. Theoretically, CFF should be the slowest class in the group.)
I did manage to keep Pete behind me on the start -- barely. He kept the pressure on throughout the entire race. Every time I checked my mirrors, they were full of his purple Crossle. Halfway through the race, we caught up to and passed a faster car driven by Frank Riemann. (Frank scolded me after the race -- "You know, Club Fords aren't supposed to be that fast!" I blamed it on Pete. If he hadn't been pressing me so relentlessly, I wouldn't have had to go so fast...)
To give you an idea how close it was, the official results show that Pete crossed the finish line 0.149 seconds behind me. That was probably the largest gap of the entire race.
The CFF points after this race:
- John Haydon - 50
- Michael Schindlbeck - 20
- Pete Wood - 20
- Jon Borkowski - 16
- Scott Reif - 1
Next chapter: Michigan hates me sometimes.
*Okay purists, you're right, the track was not paved until 1954, but cars have been racing on the same one-mile oval since 1903. It was actually built as a private horse track in the 1800s, and that extra history has to count for something.
A Successful Test
(Note: during the next several days, my posts will recap the season so far.)
After the 3-cylinder run at Blackhawk on April 10, I had some work to do. Fortunately, I had recently purchased a fresh cylinder head from fellow Tiga racer Rick Roellig. The day after the race, I got to work bolting on the new cylinder head and making the necessary adjustments to make everything match up. But I needed to get some seat time in the car with the fresh cylinder head, preferably at the same track. The next race at Blackhawk was an SCCA National race.
A bit of explanation on the different types of races: Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs is a regional group of clubs that banded together almost 60 years ago. It's a very family-friendly, low-pressure group. Most of us regard each other as family, so we're very nice to each other on and off the track. Many drivers aim to win, but many simply enjoy racing, no matter how they finish.
SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) also has a Regional series, and those races are also pretty low-pressure and friendly, but winning is much more important to most of these drivers. There is still a lot of respect and camaraderie, but the atmosphere is a bit more charged.
SCCA's National series is much more competitive. The focus here is on earning an invitation to the Runoffs, the championship-deciding race at the end of the year. Each race during the season is an opportunity to gather points towards an invitation to the Runoffs. It doesn't matter if you won every National event you entered if you didn't qualify for the Runoffs. The atmosphere at National events is downright tense.
On a technical note, Formula Fords have changed a lot since 1979. Back then, the Tiga had a great balance of simplicity, reliability, and current technology. In the early 1980s, radical new suspension design concepts and more streamlined cars threatened to make existing Formula Ford cars obsolete. Club Formula Ford was created in response to the new technology, to give the older cars a place to compete. Club Formula Fords are required to have the shock absorbers and suspension springs mounted outside the body, which hurts aerodynamics but makes for a more conventional appearance. Club Formula Fords are also required to run a hard-compound racing tire (Hoosier R60), where Formula Fords are allowed to use any brand of racing tires. Only MC races and Regional races recognize CFF as a separate class. If a Club Ford runs a National race, it will be classed with the current Formula Fords.
All that explanation is really just offered as an excuse for the fact that I finished sixth. But I was not there to get points. I was primarily using the track time as a test to make sure the car was prepared and tuned correctly for the upcoming MC race at the Milwaukee Mile.
Okay, that's not entirely true. I was thrilled that I was listed in the top 10 in National Formula Ford points for Central Division. I was bumped the very next race, and five races later, I'm tied for 17th... but it was still a fun bragging point.
Next chapter: Back to the Milwaukee Mile for the first time!
After the 3-cylinder run at Blackhawk on April 10, I had some work to do. Fortunately, I had recently purchased a fresh cylinder head from fellow Tiga racer Rick Roellig. The day after the race, I got to work bolting on the new cylinder head and making the necessary adjustments to make everything match up. But I needed to get some seat time in the car with the fresh cylinder head, preferably at the same track. The next race at Blackhawk was an SCCA National race.
A bit of explanation on the different types of races: Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs is a regional group of clubs that banded together almost 60 years ago. It's a very family-friendly, low-pressure group. Most of us regard each other as family, so we're very nice to each other on and off the track. Many drivers aim to win, but many simply enjoy racing, no matter how they finish.
SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) also has a Regional series, and those races are also pretty low-pressure and friendly, but winning is much more important to most of these drivers. There is still a lot of respect and camaraderie, but the atmosphere is a bit more charged.
SCCA's National series is much more competitive. The focus here is on earning an invitation to the Runoffs, the championship-deciding race at the end of the year. Each race during the season is an opportunity to gather points towards an invitation to the Runoffs. It doesn't matter if you won every National event you entered if you didn't qualify for the Runoffs. The atmosphere at National events is downright tense.
On a technical note, Formula Fords have changed a lot since 1979. Back then, the Tiga had a great balance of simplicity, reliability, and current technology. In the early 1980s, radical new suspension design concepts and more streamlined cars threatened to make existing Formula Ford cars obsolete. Club Formula Ford was created in response to the new technology, to give the older cars a place to compete. Club Formula Fords are required to have the shock absorbers and suspension springs mounted outside the body, which hurts aerodynamics but makes for a more conventional appearance. Club Formula Fords are also required to run a hard-compound racing tire (Hoosier R60), where Formula Fords are allowed to use any brand of racing tires. Only MC races and Regional races recognize CFF as a separate class. If a Club Ford runs a National race, it will be classed with the current Formula Fords.
All that explanation is really just offered as an excuse for the fact that I finished sixth. But I was not there to get points. I was primarily using the track time as a test to make sure the car was prepared and tuned correctly for the upcoming MC race at the Milwaukee Mile.
Okay, that's not entirely true. I was thrilled that I was listed in the top 10 in National Formula Ford points for Central Division. I was bumped the very next race, and five races later, I'm tied for 17th... but it was still a fun bragging point.
Next chapter: Back to the Milwaukee Mile for the first time!
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
2005 MC Race I
(Note: during the next several days, my posts will recap the season so far.)
The first race on the 2005 Haydon Racing schedule was on April 10 at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit, IL. The day followed the typical Midwestern Council schedule for a one-day race, with a 15-minute practice session in the morning, followed by a 20-minute qualifying session before lunch, and a 30-minute sprint race in the afternoon.
A couple of times during the day, helpful people warned me that my engine didn't sound quite right -- maybe the exhaust header was cracked, or a spark plug wire had failed. A visual inspection showed nothing unusual, and the car seemed to have plenty of power...
Finally, Bruce Lindstrand (a former owner of this car and proprietor of Lindstrand Motorsports Inc) suggested to me that the car had a definite, audible problem. I had qualified on the pole, but I respect Bruce's expertise and asked him to help me investigate further. When he started the engine to listen to it, I thought he was going to be sick*. The look on his face when he heard the engine idle... he clearly did not like what he heard.
Bruce immediately recognized that the car was not firing on all 4 cylinders. He checked the easy things first -- spark plug wire, spark plug, distributor cap -- but nothing made a difference. Finally, he decided to check if the offending cylinder had any compression at all. It didn't. We determined that when the motor exploded last year, the exhaust valve in the #1 cylinder must have been bent. I couldn't see it when I inspected the cylinder head over the winter, but it was enough to let all of the compression and combustion pressure (= energy) leak out of that cylinder.
As I mentioned, I regard Bruce Lindstrand very highly. So of course I asked him what he thought I should do. There wasn't time to fix the problem, so my choices were
The first race on the 2005 Haydon Racing schedule was on April 10 at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit, IL. The day followed the typical Midwestern Council schedule for a one-day race, with a 15-minute practice session in the morning, followed by a 20-minute qualifying session before lunch, and a 30-minute sprint race in the afternoon.
A couple of times during the day, helpful people warned me that my engine didn't sound quite right -- maybe the exhaust header was cracked, or a spark plug wire had failed. A visual inspection showed nothing unusual, and the car seemed to have plenty of power...
Finally, Bruce Lindstrand (a former owner of this car and proprietor of Lindstrand Motorsports Inc) suggested to me that the car had a definite, audible problem. I had qualified on the pole, but I respect Bruce's expertise and asked him to help me investigate further. When he started the engine to listen to it, I thought he was going to be sick*. The look on his face when he heard the engine idle... he clearly did not like what he heard.
Bruce immediately recognized that the car was not firing on all 4 cylinders. He checked the easy things first -- spark plug wire, spark plug, distributor cap -- but nothing made a difference. Finally, he decided to check if the offending cylinder had any compression at all. It didn't. We determined that when the motor exploded last year, the exhaust valve in the #1 cylinder must have been bent. I couldn't see it when I inspected the cylinder head over the winter, but it was enough to let all of the compression and combustion pressure (= energy) leak out of that cylinder.
As I mentioned, I regard Bruce Lindstrand very highly. So of course I asked him what he thought I should do. There wasn't time to fix the problem, so my choices were
- Run it on 3 cylinders
- Put it on the trailer (throwing away the pole position) and call it a day.
Bruce admitted that it was a tough choice. "This is one of those situations that can make you a hero or a zero in a heartbeat," he said. "If you run it and win, wow, you're a genius. But if you run it and damage it further... wow, you're an idiot."
I'm not good at taking hints, so I pressed him for a bit more. "I didn't hear you tell me to put it on the trailer," I observed.
"I am not telling you to put it on the trailer," he agreed.
When I heard that Scott Reif (second on the grid) had to pull out due to an oil pressure problem, I decided to race, but to shift about 1000 RPM below my normal shift point (5500 RPM instead of 6500). After a few laps, I got into a rhythm, braking later and carrying more speed through the corners to compensate for the decreased acceleration and top speed. My crew helper for the weekend kept trying to signal me to slow down, to nurse the car more. So I began to shift at 5200 RPM. Well, my helper went nuts. He was frantically waving his arms, trying to slow me down. Apparently, the more relaxed driving style really agreed with the car -- I had beaten my qualifying time by trying to go slower!
I won the race, which gave me the championship points lead for CFF:
- John Haydon - 25
- Michael Schindlbeck - 20
- Denis Downs - 16
- Scott Reif - 1 (DNS)
Next chapter: A Points-Paying Test Day...
*In the racing business, when an unhappy or abused machine causes such a physical reaction in a person, he is said to have "mechanical empathy." This is one quality that can separate the good drivers from the exceptional drivers. It also separates the drivers of reliable cars from the owners of broken cars.
2005 Schedule
Racing schedules are flexible at best. The initial plan for this year was to run the SCCA Central Division East-West Challenge series plus the three Midwestern Council driver's school weekends. After an (unexpected) win at the first MC race and a suspension failure at the first EWC event, the plan did a 180. The 2005 schedule and results so far look like this:
August 13-14 - EWC @ RA (2 races)
August 21 - MC @ BFR (Sunday only)
August 28 - CCCA Masterpiece Show at Milwaukee Art Museum
September 3 - MC @ GM (Saturday only)
September 10-11 - EWC @ M-O (2 races)
September 17-18 - MC @ BFR (instructing Saturday; race Sunday)
October 1-2 - MC @ ACC (Sunday only)
October 15-16 - MC @ BFR (100 mile race)
* This was my first SCCA National event. Being 25 years old and prepared to a slightly different set of rules, the car was hopelessly outclassed. A bit like driving a Model T on the freeway.
MC = Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs
EWC = SCCA Central Division East-West Challenge (Regional series)
CCCA = Classic Car Club of America
BFR = Blackhawk Farms Raceway, South Beloit, IL
RA = Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI
GIN = GingerMan Raceway, South Haven, MI
GRA = Grattan Raceway, Grand Rapids, MI
MM = Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, WI
ACC = Autobahn Country Club, Joliet, IL
April 10 - MC @ BFR: 1st
May 1 - SCCA National @ BFR: 6th*
May 15 - MC @ MM: 1st
May 28-29 - EWC @ GRA: Withdrawn
June 12 - MC @ BFR: 1st
July 10 - MC @ RA: 1st
July 24 - MC @ BFR (Sunday only)August 13-14 - EWC @ RA (2 races)
August 21 - MC @ BFR (Sunday only)
August 28 - CCCA Masterpiece Show at Milwaukee Art Museum
September 3 - MC @ GM (Saturday only)
September 10-11 - EWC @ M-O (2 races)
September 17-18 - MC @ BFR (instructing Saturday; race Sunday)
October 1-2 - MC @ ACC (Sunday only)
October 15-16 - MC @ BFR (100 mile race)
* This was my first SCCA National event. Being 25 years old and prepared to a slightly different set of rules, the car was hopelessly outclassed. A bit like driving a Model T on the freeway.
MC = Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs
EWC = SCCA Central Division East-West Challenge (Regional series)
CCCA = Classic Car Club of America
BFR = Blackhawk Farms Raceway, South Beloit, IL
RA = Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI
GIN = GingerMan Raceway, South Haven, MI
GRA = Grattan Raceway, Grand Rapids, MI
MM = Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, WI
ACC = Autobahn Country Club, Joliet, IL
Welcome
Welcome to Haydon Racing! The posting schedule will be somewhere between "as often as possible" and "as often as necessary" -- tempered with a bit of "whenever something happens." Coming attractions include my racing schedule, race results, points standings, and any interesting developments.
We'll begin with a bit about the car. It's a 1979 Tiga Formula Ford 1600. Tigas were designed and built in England by former F1 racers Tim Schenken (Ti-) and Howden Ganley (-ga). This particular car was campaigned by the factory in England, then converted to FFA-80 (American) specs before being shipped to the US.
Former drivers of my car include Tim Lee-Davey (GB), Bruce Lindstrand, Dean Elston, and Pete Wood. It was featured on the cover of Autosport magazine in 1980. The current paint scheme (a tribute to the Gurney Eagles of the '60s) is thanks to Web Temple of WST Arts.
Stick around!
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We'll begin with a bit about the car. It's a 1979 Tiga Formula Ford 1600. Tigas were designed and built in England by former F1 racers Tim Schenken (Ti-) and Howden Ganley (-ga). This particular car was campaigned by the factory in England, then converted to FFA-80 (American) specs before being shipped to the US.
Former drivers of my car include Tim Lee-Davey (GB), Bruce Lindstrand, Dean Elston, and Pete Wood. It was featured on the cover of Autosport magazine in 1980. The current paint scheme (a tribute to the Gurney Eagles of the '60s) is thanks to Web Temple of WST Arts.
Stick around!
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