Last weekend was an SCCA National race at Grattan, Michigan. It was another rainy, soggy weekend. On the plus side, the high winds that whipped the area on Thursday had died down by Friday, leaving us with that kind of on again / off again rain that can't quite make up its mind if it wants to soak you with big drops or just annoy you with a fine mist.
The downside to that kind of weather (besides everything getting wet) is that it can be tough to decide which tires to run. Some big-budget teams will have dry tires, rain tires, and "intermediate" tires for just this kind of weather. Rain tires have deep grooves to channel a lot of water out from between the tire and the track, and the softer rubber gets sticky at a lower temperature than dry tires. The grooves on an intermediate tire are not as deep as on a rain tire, and the rubber compound is usually a little harder to deal with partially dry track conditions. If the track is not wet enough, full rain tires can easily overheat and fall apart. (On the other hand, my rain tires are several years old, so the rubber is harder than it used to be. I could probably run them on a completely dry track without overheating them, but I'm not keen to test that theory just yet.)
When we got to the track on Saturday morning, the rain had stopped long enough for us to think that dry tires might be the way to go, at least for the morning practice. (Before anyone calls me a bonehead, I would like to point out that more than half the cars in my group ran that session on dry tires. So at least I wasn't the only bonehead out there.)
For those who have never experienced it, let me explain that Grattan is a challenging track on a good day. If you or your car is not performing just right, it can be a nightmare. If the track is wet and your car has dry tires, it can teach you several new combinations of four-letter words. If it is possible for a car to slide in two different directions at once, it happened to me during that session. It was a struggle to get the lap times under two minutes, which was about 30 seconds slower than a mid-pack time in the dry, and maybe 20 seconds slower than a fast time in the wet.
I managed to keep the car on the track and pointing in approximately the right direction for the entire session. Before we had a chance to debate which tires to run for the afternoon qualifying session, someone reminded me of the old racing adage, "To finish first, you must first finish." More to the point, you don't earn any points by wrapping the car around a tree during qualifying. That translated to, "Put the rain tires on."
My brother Jim switched the tires in plenty of time for us to watch some other race groups trying to figure out the conditions. The on again / off again rain seemed to stop at the end of each session, only to start again halfway through the next, or vice versa. We were not the only ones struggling with the conditions.
The qualifying session was much less scary, but not much more comfortable. I ran about 10 laps, getting down to a 1:53 before calling it quits for the day. I had scared myself several times, and I felt that I wasn't learning anything more, so I pulled in before I had the chance to wreck the car. This season is all about finishes, not results. I qualified 5th of 6 in class, 15th of 16 overall. I only needed to hold that position during the race to score 5 more points and make the trip worthwhile.
Jim and I checked over the car and got everything ready for Sunday's race. One person can go through my "track" checklist in about an hour and a half, but having a helper makes it feel like about fifteen minutes, even if the helper only reads off the items on the list. When the helper is as much fun as Jim is, you're done before you know it. We packed everything up for the night and watched the last few qualifying sessions from the relative comfort of the truck.
Bruce Lindstrand invited us to walk the track with him after the last session of the day, and we jumped at the chance. I knew I would learn a lot from him, and Jim hadn't even seen the track in over 25 years. He was looking forward to testing his memory.
Bruce talked me through the spots where I had the biggest problems and reinforced the areas where I was doing things right. The single biggest gain was in the last corner heading onto the front straight. This is a fast left-hand corner that follows a blind right-hand corner and leads onto a straight that is over half a mile long. Losing speed in this corner means losing speed for the entire length of the front straight. I had been sliding the car along the inside line, tiptoeing along and waiting until the car was stable enough to feed on the throttle. Bruce pointed out that placing the car about two-thirds of the way farther to the outside of the corner would put me on some pavement with much more grip, allowing me to carry more speed through the corner as well as getting on the throttle earlier. That tip alone would cut three full seconds off my lap time during the race.
We got back to the hotel fairly early (single digits), took some hot showers, laid out our soggy clothes to dry, and fell asleep before we could even open a beer. Sunday's activities were scheduled to start later than Saturday did, so we slept in for an extra hour as well. I guess we had worked harder Friday and Saturday than we had thought.
Jim and I shared a laugh or two on the false grid before the race. The false grid is one place where good crew helpers can make a big difference to a driver. Many helpers don't realize that even amateur racers are under a lot of stress just before the race, with too many things to think about. Will the car finish the race? Should I hang back at the start to avoid being caught up in an incident? Was it a mistake not to replace that one bolt? Was I just imagining that noise during practice? Have we forgotten anything? Some of these helpers will talk at the driver about things not connected to the race. Whether they think that distracting the driver is helpful I do not know, but I do know that dealing with chatter about the legality of a car in another class, or complaints about the attitude of someone at a race two years ago, or opinions of someone else's family issues can be mentally exhausting.
A good helper will keep one eye on the grid workers and one eye on the driver. The only conversation will be about the car, the race, or just some random silliness to remind the driver not to take himself too seriously. My brother is definitely a good crew helper. He learned the serious part while crewing for my father in the '70s, but his sense of humor is beyond description. His explanation is that his brain simply makes bizarre connections, and that he is missing the filter that keeps most people from saying inappropriate or silly things out loud. Multiply that by the fact that he has a much quicker wit than almost anyone around him, and you might get some idea why my ribs hurt after spending a day with him.
Only a few cars spun during the race, and lucky me, I wasn't one of them. I tried Bruce's line through the last corner, gradually carrying more speed through the corner and giving it more throttle each lap. When I got down to a 1:50.02, I realized that I was catching the Formula Vee in front of me. But as I chased him during the next lap, I realized that I was overdriving the car and sliding too much. I had nothing to gain by passing him, so I eased off and held my position until the end of the race. Dan Faust, who had qualified third in Formula Ford, dropped out after 9 laps, which gave me 4th place and my first National race trophy.
This weekend's Formula Ford results:
1. Mark Davison, Swift DB-1
2. Russ Ruedisuelli, Van Diemen RF99-K
3. Bruce Lindstrand, Van Diemen RF92
4. John Haydon, Tiga FFA-80
5. Lynn Serra, Crossle 50F
DNF Dan Faust, Van Diemen RF93
I was thrilled to find out that my fastest lap in the race was only just over two seconds slower than Bruce Lindstrand's fast time of 1:47.794. Davison and Ruedisuelli simply ran away from the rest of us. They probably have more experience at this track in the rain than I do in the dry. Not to say that they aren't good drivers -- when Mark lapped me for the second time, I tried to keep him in sight long enough to figure out his line through the back section of the course. I lost sight of him before I could even see the line he took through the corner where he had passed me. Those guys were flying, and I was happy to have finished only three laps behind them.
We got the car loaded in time to have some of Lindstrand's pasta e fagioli soup before hitting the road. Despite an error in the Mapquest directions, we made it to the Muskegon port over an hour before the ferry was due to leave. That gave us time to put on some dry socks (and in my case, a dry shirt, dry jeans, dry sweatshirt, and a dry coat) and review the weekend before boarding the ferry.
What did we learn this weekend?
- The Lake Express Ferry is an excellent alternative to driving through Chicago.
- When in doubt, put on the rain tires.
- I have spent about half of my total driving time at Grattan steering into the slide.
- Be careful what you say to a trapeze artist; she may be a high school principal.
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