“Track Side,” A day in the life of a Track Junkie…, This is humorous series of articles written by my good friend Matt Y, who is a devout SCCA track junkie, running his ’87 VW Golf GTI (more affectionately referred to as, “the General Li”). These articles give you a look into what racing is really like. It’s not always fun and games… Sit back, relax and see what it’s like to be “Track Side.” — Eric M, GTA Webmaster – 6/24/2002
The event went well with one excellent qualifying session (following a rather slow one) and a great race with unfortunately disappointing results.
Thursday, 13 June
True to form, I departed for the track in the afternoon and arrived around 5 pm in a gentle spring shower. Since I’d arranged to share paddock space with Glenn Ty, an ITB GTi driver, I wanted to at least secure a decent-sized paddock space on the pavement. Fortunately I was able to secure the last space before the woods which left plenty of room for the Red Barn, my truck and the racecars. After unhooking the trailer the showers turned into more of a gentle downpour. Since everything was nice and secure INSIDE the trailer, I decided to hold off setting up the canopy and so forth until the weather was a bit more cooperative. Therefore I was at the track and gone in record time – the gates opened at 6 pm and I was back on the road by 6:30 pm!!
Friday, 14 June
After registration, I made my way to the trailer to finally setup the canopy and unload some “stuff” from inside. With the assistance of some ITB drivers who were paddocked next to me, the canopy went up in record time and I was grilling dinner before nightfall. After securing the car and the canopy, I discovered that I’d left some tools in the Scirocco and had to make a trip to visit it – aarrggghhh!! I’d planned for an early night but now had to add another hour onto my drive home – sigh.
Saturday, 15 June
Arriving relatively late, I found Glenn had already arrived and was busy changing his tires. I quickly unloaded the remaining items I carried such as my drivers’ suit and did a quick check on the General Li. All systems looked good so I suited up and prepared for the first qualifying session.
First Qualifying – On course, the car felt good although the track was still quite green from the previous night’s rain and the heavy morning dew. I found myself alone which for me is a bad thing since it doesn’t give me a good measure of my performance – in other words I found myself braking too early and too much for turns 1, 3 and 5 which ultimately resulted in a disappointing result of 12th OA, 11th in class.
Second Qualifying – The only upside to my morning qualifying was that it put me between two solid competitors – Peter Doane in an MR2 was behind me and my friend and rival Jerry Condon was in an RX7 in front. As we entered the track I made an effort to push as hard as possible to keep Jerry in my sights. Our history is that Jerry and I raced closely in the past with me using his RX7 as a supplemental brake pad which is why he STILL has a GTi-16v badge on the rear deck of his RX7. I quickly discovered the the General Li carried more speed and had better brakes than the RX7 thru the twisties but that the RX7 had more motor on the straights. After a few laps I deep braked Jerry entering 1 and went by him. This provided me with a couple of “clean” laps where I was busy trying to keep him behind me. After those laps, Jerry got a great run exiting turn 10, drafted me and motored right by me entering turn 1 – ugh. The only real excitement came when Jerry and I “freight trained” a Honda Civic entering 1. The Civic made room for Jerry as he was well alongside entering the turn. I tried to follow but the Civic pinched me off rather abruptly – I locked the wheels briefly and then had to drag-race the Civic into turn 3 where I simply didn’t lift until I came to the turn-in point which put me past the Civic and back up towards Jerry.
The results from the second qualifying session were more promising although still slow – 11th OA, 10th in class with Peter Doane behind me (still) but Jerry behind Peter.
Sunday, 16 June
Arriving at the track, the car was all but ready to go since I didn’t have any adjustments to make, just simple maintenance like checking the oil, tire pressure and washing the windows – the basic service station stuff.
On grid I found myself situated to the left of John Jansen in an RX7 with Peter Doane’s multi-coloured (read: UGLY) MR2 behind me along with Jerry Condon in his RX7. As the green flag dropped, John moved towards the middle of the track forcing me to drivers’ right. Entering turn 1, I moved in front of John – bouncing off my rev-limited, John tapped me from behind exiting turn 2. As we entered turn 3, John powered past me and I dropped in behind him. After braking for turn 5, I got back on the power only to find that John had checked up for a slower car – not being able to react fast enough, I lifted slightly but tapped John from behind. On the next lap I performed the same maneuver to John that he performed on my – entering 2, I carried more speed, he slowed slightly and I ran into the rear of his car (again). A few laps in, we both passed the red 03 MR2, IIRC in 3 – the MR2 tried to pass me back but only succeeded in hitting me in the LR as I tracked out from turn 6a (no damage, only some paint on the tire). We eventually caught Kez’s RX7 which seemed to have mechanical difficulties and we passed him before turn 4. Suddenly Kez’s problems ceased and he caught both of us on the front straight as Guy, driving an SSB Camaro, politely and frantically waved us by in turn 1. Kez’s mechanical difficulties resurfaced and he pulled off soon after he passed us. This left John and I to battle for 7th and 8th position lap after lap, nose-to-tail. That is until the 11th lap (sorta like the 11th hour only different). Exiting turn 4, I straightened out the car and hammered the brakes for turn 5 – the car felt funny – something about the front end that wasn’t exactly right. It didn’t feel like a broken hub since I still had brakes but something wasn’t right nevertheless. Turning into 5 gave me a loud grinding sound and not much feel – hhmm. I drove the car off and to the tub at turn 6 where the corner worker confirmed the bad news – a flat RF tire.
When the tow truck arrived, I was chastised by the driver for making him work (mainly b/c I know him). After dropping off the car, my “crew” – Mike and Rob – changed the tire and we looked for a puncture. None to be found. We added a bit of air and found a monstrous bubble on the sidewall – apparently the bead failed during the race causing the tire to go flat.
Epilogue
The good news is that the car turned a 1:33.5 during the race which is about as fast as I’ve driven the car. My friend’s son, ever the optimist commented “It’s about time you got back into the 33s”. Since I have a few spare Toyos, I may just mount one of them and replace the bad tire although I’m strongly considering taking the jump to Hoosiers. During the race, a friend that’s usually mid-pack finished 8th on his new Hoosiers which is fairly convincing testimony to the tires. Just to be sure that this won’t happen again, I’ve given strict instructions to Radial Tire Co, my local tire purveyor, to NOT sell tires to any ITA competitors that may have a chance at beating me – of course I’m not sure that Paul wrote down ALL the names of my competition.
The next race is on July 7, again at Summit Point. Hopefully with 4 fully inflated tires for the ENTIRE weekend, I’ll be able to complete the weekend without the assistance of a tow truck.
~Matthew
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