03/08/2009
Grand Bayou Race Series Round #6
Preparation - Before we headed off to Louisiana for Round #6 of the Grand Bayou Race
Series. I had to get some new parts put on the car and get the alignment checked out and
set. We installed the Ingalls adjustable camber kits front and rear and a Hallman Pro MBC.
When I took the car to get the alignment checked and set, I got a huge eye opener. The
camber and toe was so far off, I am surprised the car even stayed on the track. So I got it
set to fronts at -2.0 camber and the rears at -1.0 camber. All 4 corners were set to zero
toe. Now that these issues were taken care of, its time to head out to the track.
Saturday Practice - First session of the day I just wanted to scrub the new Hankook Z214
slicks in as they are still stickers here. I just went out there about 50% for about 4 laps,
then steadily went to 75% for another 2 laps, then balls out for 2 laps. Then cooled them
down for entire lap and came on in. Checked the pressures and temps and it seemed that
the fronts were a little hot. So we went down 2 psi in the fronts (cold) to 28 and got ready
for the next sessions. This session was the first time I had my Longacre lap timing system
on all day. First few laps were just warm up laps so nothing special there. But first full blown
lap, I glance down to check the gauges and see I ran a 1:28.00. Bettering my best time by
3/10ths of second. Nothing huge, but still...A new personal best. Next few laps I got into a
little traffic so nothing good on times. But about 7 laps into the session I get a really clean
and good lap in and look down at the timer. 1:27.3 !!!! New personal best by a full second
from last month. With an ear to ear grin on I take cool down lap and head for the pits. It was
great to see that time on the in car timer and I didnt want to mess anything up for the rest
of the day. After lunch, I ran 1 more sessions and every lap out of the 10 I ran were right
around 1:28 flats and even dipped into the 1:27's a few times. I figured the car and I were
ready to go for tomorrows event so I parked her in the garage and it was time to pop a few
tops heading into the evening.
Sunday Race Day - Today was going to be somewhat different than most events in the
series. There was going to be a special 60 minute enduro race so we all got shorted out
heat race today. That means, where you qualify will determine where you start in the
feature. Today I felt so good about the times I turned yesterday in practice. I didnt even
wait to be one of the last guys on grid for this. I was 3 cars from the front. I wanted to get
out there, do my qualifying procedure and get done fast. We go out and I am behind some
of the "faster" red bracket cars so I know I will pretty much have a clean track to run at. I do
my qualifying procedure which is 2 warm up laps, 2 laps all out and then a 1 lap cool down.
The car felt great this morning. The tire pressure adjustment really is working out in the
front. I also went down 2 clicks in the rear on the KYB AGX struts from setting 8 to 6, just to
soften it up a bit. It really helped in a few of the higher speed sweeping turns on course. As
we were all sitting there having lunch, they began to announce the qualifying times for
everyone. They get to the Sports Touring Car bracket results and I can hardly wait to see
how I turned. Eddie Garrison 1:27.606....GREAT time for me. Not a personal best, but sure
right where I want to be. I qualified 2nd in class right behind Troy Marcella in a 240 sx. He
had a time of 1:27.400...2/10ths faster than me. We are pretty much dead even for the
feature. Actually there are 4 of us within less than second of each other. Cars ranging from
my TSi, Troy's 240 sx, a Toyota MR2 and a Porsche 955T. This is going to be a close race.
Feature Race - Ok, here we go for the feature. I am to the inside of Troy, behind the Mr2
and the 944T is right behind and to the left of me. All of us, 1 second apart from each other
in qualifying. We go around for a 3/4 lap pace lap. Scrubbing the tires in, heating up the
brakes. I punch it and get right up on the Mr2's bumper just to let him know I am coming on
the start. Patrick (Mr2 driver) gives me a wave when he sees me in his mirror after that. We
come around to the flag stand and GREEN FLAG !!! I punch it and it seems Patrick (Mr2)
misses a shift and I have to check up big time to avoid slamming into him at the start. Troy
in the 240 bounces in front of me and the 944 swings around me as well. Now I am locked
behind them, between 2 BMW's and have the Mr2 right in front of me. As we go through
turn 14 we head down the front straight. 120 mph into turn 1....Tap the brakes to settle the
front end and fly through turn 1 at 110 mph. We come up on the turn 2&3 chiccane and I
can see smoke and all of a sudden everyone is on the brakes HARD !!!! 2 Porsches got
together and sent 4 cars spinning all around us. This is a VERY fast part of the track so
cars were going everywhere to avoid a major pile up. 2 Porsches are into each other and
are done and 1 of the BMws behind me goes flying by me into the grass and bajas it back
onto the track. Troy sneaked his way through and has almost checked out on me for now.
Wow, that was a close call. Going from 110 to a near stand still in about 200 feet is not
what you have in mind in a wheel to wheel race here. So now the field is all spread out.
After picking my way through the wreck, I shoot around 1 BMW on a short shoot and set my
eyes on the 2nd BMW that got around me. Takes me about 1.5 laps to get around him and
now I start looking for Troy in the 240. I come onto the frotn straight and he is going into
turn 1 as I head down the straight. Man, we are so evenlly matched its going to take a
miracle and a long time to catch him. Hopefully not too long. I was really on the track by
myself as no one was anywhere near me for more than 12 minutes or so. Everytime I came
onto the front straight and I could see where Troy was compared to where I was on the
track. I was slowly reeling him in. At about the 15 minute mark of the 20 minute race, I was
no more than 5 car lenghts from him. But he drives a really good clean line...It would take a
mistake for me to get by him today. Sure enough. next lap...I come flying down the front
straight and now I am 2 lengths behind him. I see him check his mirror and I flash my lights
at him just to let him know I am here now and its time to do some racing. One more lap
goes by and I am on his bumper....We had through turn 1 and go through the 2, 3
chicane....He goes wide and must have missed a shift and I tuck outside and sling past him
for the lead. Now I jsut try to put some distance between us. But as I said before, he drives
a fast line and stays clean for the most part. he is right there on me now. We go down the
front straight where I do have a little more under the hood than he does and I see the flag
steward say 1 lap to go. No one was near Troy or myself so it was going to be a slugfest for
the last lap and for the win. We go through turns 1, 2 & 3 nose to tail...Go through 4 and I
slid jsut a bit wide...Troy ducks to the inside but I slam the door on him going into 5...And
when I mean slam, I basically shot the car across the track and got right in front of him so
he had to check it up. Going down the short shoot straight heading into 8, I brake check
him a bit early to force him to have to slow up. it worked out ok, except I braked a little too
late and hard and cooked the turn a bit. But since he had to slow up, it was almost a good
thing anyway. We are back now noce to tail going through the "curlies" through turns 11,
12 & 13. I really mess up going into the final sweeper (Turn 14) heading onto the front
straight and there was Tory to the outside ready to pounce......We both thit the frotn
straight and his front tire is on my door...I dont even look at him I just floor it and listen to
the turbo spooling up down the front straight as we have the checkered flag in sight.....I
dont even shift in to 4th I keep her in 3rd for as long as I can to keep the boost as high as I
can....CHECKERED FLAG !!!! I got him by about 3/4ths of a car length for the win....Final
times were me 23:08.547....Troy 23:09.091...About a half a second apart. Man what a race.
It took me 15 minutes to catch him, then 2 laps to hold him off. GREAT TIME !!!! GREAT
RACE !!!!
Wrapping it up - Man that was some hard work catching up to Troy and holding him off in
the last few turns. I was ready to load the car up and get home back to Florida for a good
nights rest. The car handled better than it ever has before. Having a car with a good
alignment is such a HUGE deal for the handling of the car I was amazed. Camber kits
worked out great. Having the ability to adjust them now gave me so much better turn in
response it was great. Man, I cant wait now the season finale on April 17 - 19. Double
points race on that weekend. I may even still ahve a shot of winning the overall this season
with missing 3 events. Well thats about all for this round. Lot of close calls and some good
clean hard racing. What a BLAST !!!!
Series. I had to get some new parts put on the car and get the alignment checked out and
set. We installed the Ingalls adjustable camber kits front and rear and a Hallman Pro MBC.
When I took the car to get the alignment checked and set, I got a huge eye opener. The
camber and toe was so far off, I am surprised the car even stayed on the track. So I got it
set to fronts at -2.0 camber and the rears at -1.0 camber. All 4 corners were set to zero
toe. Now that these issues were taken care of, its time to head out to the track.
Saturday Practice - First session of the day I just wanted to scrub the new Hankook Z214
slicks in as they are still stickers here. I just went out there about 50% for about 4 laps,
then steadily went to 75% for another 2 laps, then balls out for 2 laps. Then cooled them
down for entire lap and came on in. Checked the pressures and temps and it seemed that
the fronts were a little hot. So we went down 2 psi in the fronts (cold) to 28 and got ready
for the next sessions. This session was the first time I had my Longacre lap timing system
on all day. First few laps were just warm up laps so nothing special there. But first full blown
lap, I glance down to check the gauges and see I ran a 1:28.00. Bettering my best time by
3/10ths of second. Nothing huge, but still...A new personal best. Next few laps I got into a
little traffic so nothing good on times. But about 7 laps into the session I get a really clean
and good lap in and look down at the timer. 1:27.3 !!!! New personal best by a full second
from last month. With an ear to ear grin on I take cool down lap and head for the pits. It was
great to see that time on the in car timer and I didnt want to mess anything up for the rest
of the day. After lunch, I ran 1 more sessions and every lap out of the 10 I ran were right
around 1:28 flats and even dipped into the 1:27's a few times. I figured the car and I were
ready to go for tomorrows event so I parked her in the garage and it was time to pop a few
tops heading into the evening.
Sunday Race Day - Today was going to be somewhat different than most events in the
series. There was going to be a special 60 minute enduro race so we all got shorted out
heat race today. That means, where you qualify will determine where you start in the
feature. Today I felt so good about the times I turned yesterday in practice. I didnt even
wait to be one of the last guys on grid for this. I was 3 cars from the front. I wanted to get
out there, do my qualifying procedure and get done fast. We go out and I am behind some
of the "faster" red bracket cars so I know I will pretty much have a clean track to run at. I do
my qualifying procedure which is 2 warm up laps, 2 laps all out and then a 1 lap cool down.
The car felt great this morning. The tire pressure adjustment really is working out in the
front. I also went down 2 clicks in the rear on the KYB AGX struts from setting 8 to 6, just to
soften it up a bit. It really helped in a few of the higher speed sweeping turns on course. As
we were all sitting there having lunch, they began to announce the qualifying times for
everyone. They get to the Sports Touring Car bracket results and I can hardly wait to see
how I turned. Eddie Garrison 1:27.606....GREAT time for me. Not a personal best, but sure
right where I want to be. I qualified 2nd in class right behind Troy Marcella in a 240 sx. He
had a time of 1:27.400...2/10ths faster than me. We are pretty much dead even for the
feature. Actually there are 4 of us within less than second of each other. Cars ranging from
my TSi, Troy's 240 sx, a Toyota MR2 and a Porsche 955T. This is going to be a close race.
Feature Race - Ok, here we go for the feature. I am to the inside of Troy, behind the Mr2
and the 944T is right behind and to the left of me. All of us, 1 second apart from each other
in qualifying. We go around for a 3/4 lap pace lap. Scrubbing the tires in, heating up the
brakes. I punch it and get right up on the Mr2's bumper just to let him know I am coming on
the start. Patrick (Mr2 driver) gives me a wave when he sees me in his mirror after that. We
come around to the flag stand and GREEN FLAG !!! I punch it and it seems Patrick (Mr2)
misses a shift and I have to check up big time to avoid slamming into him at the start. Troy
in the 240 bounces in front of me and the 944 swings around me as well. Now I am locked
behind them, between 2 BMW's and have the Mr2 right in front of me. As we go through
turn 14 we head down the front straight. 120 mph into turn 1....Tap the brakes to settle the
front end and fly through turn 1 at 110 mph. We come up on the turn 2&3 chiccane and I
can see smoke and all of a sudden everyone is on the brakes HARD !!!! 2 Porsches got
together and sent 4 cars spinning all around us. This is a VERY fast part of the track so
cars were going everywhere to avoid a major pile up. 2 Porsches are into each other and
are done and 1 of the BMws behind me goes flying by me into the grass and bajas it back
onto the track. Troy sneaked his way through and has almost checked out on me for now.
Wow, that was a close call. Going from 110 to a near stand still in about 200 feet is not
what you have in mind in a wheel to wheel race here. So now the field is all spread out.
After picking my way through the wreck, I shoot around 1 BMW on a short shoot and set my
eyes on the 2nd BMW that got around me. Takes me about 1.5 laps to get around him and
now I start looking for Troy in the 240. I come onto the frotn straight and he is going into
turn 1 as I head down the straight. Man, we are so evenlly matched its going to take a
miracle and a long time to catch him. Hopefully not too long. I was really on the track by
myself as no one was anywhere near me for more than 12 minutes or so. Everytime I came
onto the front straight and I could see where Troy was compared to where I was on the
track. I was slowly reeling him in. At about the 15 minute mark of the 20 minute race, I was
no more than 5 car lenghts from him. But he drives a really good clean line...It would take a
mistake for me to get by him today. Sure enough. next lap...I come flying down the front
straight and now I am 2 lengths behind him. I see him check his mirror and I flash my lights
at him just to let him know I am here now and its time to do some racing. One more lap
goes by and I am on his bumper....We had through turn 1 and go through the 2, 3
chicane....He goes wide and must have missed a shift and I tuck outside and sling past him
for the lead. Now I jsut try to put some distance between us. But as I said before, he drives
a fast line and stays clean for the most part. he is right there on me now. We go down the
front straight where I do have a little more under the hood than he does and I see the flag
steward say 1 lap to go. No one was near Troy or myself so it was going to be a slugfest for
the last lap and for the win. We go through turns 1, 2 & 3 nose to tail...Go through 4 and I
slid jsut a bit wide...Troy ducks to the inside but I slam the door on him going into 5...And
when I mean slam, I basically shot the car across the track and got right in front of him so
he had to check it up. Going down the short shoot straight heading into 8, I brake check
him a bit early to force him to have to slow up. it worked out ok, except I braked a little too
late and hard and cooked the turn a bit. But since he had to slow up, it was almost a good
thing anyway. We are back now noce to tail going through the "curlies" through turns 11,
12 & 13. I really mess up going into the final sweeper (Turn 14) heading onto the front
straight and there was Tory to the outside ready to pounce......We both thit the frotn
straight and his front tire is on my door...I dont even look at him I just floor it and listen to
the turbo spooling up down the front straight as we have the checkered flag in sight.....I
dont even shift in to 4th I keep her in 3rd for as long as I can to keep the boost as high as I
can....CHECKERED FLAG !!!! I got him by about 3/4ths of a car length for the win....Final
times were me 23:08.547....Troy 23:09.091...About a half a second apart. Man what a race.
It took me 15 minutes to catch him, then 2 laps to hold him off. GREAT TIME !!!! GREAT
RACE !!!!
Wrapping it up - Man that was some hard work catching up to Troy and holding him off in
the last few turns. I was ready to load the car up and get home back to Florida for a good
nights rest. The car handled better than it ever has before. Having a car with a good
alignment is such a HUGE deal for the handling of the car I was amazed. Camber kits
worked out great. Having the ability to adjust them now gave me so much better turn in
response it was great. Man, I cant wait now the season finale on April 17 - 19. Double
points race on that weekend. I may even still ahve a shot of winning the overall this season
with missing 3 events. Well thats about all for this round. Lot of close calls and some good
clean hard racing. What a BLAST !!!!