“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 – 8/22/2002
This edition has been a bit delayed due to the worst summer cold encountered in years!! I hope it was worth the wait…
While the racing results were a bit disappointing, this event had some of the most exciting racing I’ve experienced. This was my first event at Summit Point on Hoosiers so I was curious about the results – not good BUT I’m starting to learn these tires. To add to the enjoyment, this was also my first time camping (tenting) for the entire weekend.
Thursday, 8 Aug
Due to some work-related issues, I didn’t get a chance to leave the office until 4 pm which put me at the track around 7 pm. Fortunately I was able to secure my favorite spot in the woods – shaded during most of the day. After parking the trailer and setting up my canopy, I decided to have a go at setting up my new tent. Fortunately I’ve setup some modern tents (shock-corded poles and such) so that wasn’t foreign to me although my tent is a bit larger than normal – hey, I’m a larger than normal guy!! I got the thing setup and staked down before the area became pitch dark – not bad for a first-time attempt.
Friday, 9 Aug
En route to the track, I stopped by to pickup a friend who’d had some car problems at a BMW event the prior weekend. Mark piled in a jack, jackstands, tools and such to get his car back home in one piece. That all in-hand, we started our trek to the track, arriving around 7:30.
Once there, I dropped Mark at his car and met my rental child and his friend at Registration. Since both of the rental children are minors, I had to sign them in as their guardian – let me relay that there’s nothing worse than having your “little” charges looking down at you (Richard is 5′ 10″, JJ is 6′ 2″ or better).
After going thru Tech, I pulled into our paddock/campsite and the rental kids commenced to setting up their tent. Almost immediately they commented that they’d been ripped off b/c their tent wasn’t much larger than an air mattress while my tent was large enough for an air mattress AND my stuff and a whole lot more . For a brief moment I worried that they’d mutiny on me and take my tent but they’re easily distracted so I mentioned that I’d grill some burgers.
Sleeping in a tent, let alone at the track is still a very foreign thing to me. I’m used to my cushy bed, air conditioning and TV – yes, I’m a child of the 80s, what can I say? Once I finally fell asleep I found that I slept quite well although the appearance of the sun made it a bit tough to sleep til noon.
Saturday, 10 Aug
After a cool night, the temperatures warmed up nicely and I commenced to prepare my car for qualifying. I rotated the tires, carefully checking for flat spots and verified fluid levels. After that, I sat back and commenced the waiting game.
Qualifying #1
On track the car felt just as good as it had during the Watkins Glen event – very crisp turning without much oversteer. I found myself driving the same lines as I would with the Toyos. Since the Hoosiers are different with the way they grip I found myself turning in too late and having to turn the wheel out of turns – both which were a huge change for me. At the same time I found myself being quite shy of the brakes due to Hoosiers’ propensity towards flat spotting.
The results showed that my unfamiliarity with the tires and my trepidation about flatspotting the tires with a dismal 19th place grid position. At least I was getting some track time on the tires AND on a familiar track.
After the session, a buddy showed up, Jimmy Sykes who was shooting photos for his budding digital race photo business. He was kind enough to offer me several shots of the General Li taken over the course of the weekend. Once I get around to looking at the photos, I’ll finally update my website with some action photos of the General Li.
Qualifying #2
The afternoon temperatures rose steadily and by now it was HOT. Back in the car, I gave myself a pep-talk and made all intentions to focus on pushing the car harder and braking later. As a result, I found the tires had significantly more grip in turns 3, 9 and 10 – 3 very fast turns where momentum is your friend. Turn 3 was and is still a problem – I like to brake entering the turn which isn’t necessary although quite comforting.
The final grid was still disappointing but at least not dismal – 13th (I think) with my normal racing herd ahead of me. I chalked it up to a learning experience.
Sunday, 11 Aug
After another night in the tent I was starting to feel like an old-hand at this. Fortuately I was able to sleep past sunrise which meant that I wasn’t quite as exhausted as the day before. After the rental kids procured breakfast, I set about breaking camp. Just like road maps, tents don’t come with “fold-here” instructions. However I amazed myself and managed to get the tent back into it’s storage bag (after a few tries). After a few more tries, the rental kids were able to get their tent back into it’s bag too but I think they cheated and sat on it to compress it all. Racing!!!
As the day progressed, the temperatures climbed from warm to hot to uncomfortably HOT. This compounded by the nice 3-layer Nomex suit that we’re required to wear promised to make the race a truly miserable event. As I moved the car to the grid, something caught my eye in the car. I looked towards the passenger-side of the car and saw a MOUSE!! A little brown mouse with large brown eyes – he wiggled his little nose at me and ran behind the fire bottle.
At grid I tried in vain to dislodge my passenger but to no avail. As I stood around, I thought I saw Stuart Little (my diminutive passenger) run away on the ground. I was relieved since I was concerned that I’d kill the poor little fella during a race with all the heavy braking and hard cornering.
The start itself was a true disaster. The car in front of me was hard into his brakes when the pack started accelerating!! I was caught off the throttle as a result and lost 3-4 positions almost immediately. As we approached turn 1 we were greeted by a huge cloud of dust on drivers’ right. This moved the pack to the left and I followed the herd thru the turn hoping not to find any parked cars in the midst of the cloud. As we headed out of turn 2, a CRX tried to push me off the track – not wanting to loose any more positions, I put 2 wheels off to avoid him and put him behind me as we entered turn 3.
Thus started the best race I’ve had during many years of racing. 4 of us were running together, never much more than 3 car lengths apart during the entire race!! The pack included AJ in an MR2, Wade in an FX16, Andrew in an Integra and yours truly in the General Li. I found myself chasing Andrew (quite literally) for a few laps before I decided to dive-bomb him entering turn 3 – pulling alongside and braking a bit later, I was able to pull in front of him and headed out after AJ who was leading our pack.
At some point, AJ’s front caliper/hub started to fail and he slowed considerably exiting turn 9. I wasn’t ready for this and found myself too low on the powerband to hold position as Guy’s SSB Camaro and Wade’s FX16 passed before turn 10. Fortunately I had enough momentum to close the gap before Andrew passed as well.
Thus commenced the battle – I tucked in behind the FX16 and camped out, looking for an opportunity. I stayed so close that a few laps later, exiting turn 9, I glanced at the temp gauge and found it pegged – doh!! As someone said later, “You can’t draft the entire race”. I dumped the car into fifth gear to try and cool off the motor which gave Andrew the opportunity to pass. Sigh – at least I think I can get him in 3 again. However this put me in a position to watch some good racing as Wade and Andrew (good friends off the track as well) battled thru 2 & 3 – they were so close at one point that a playing card could have stuck between the cars!!
After watching a bit of this, I made my way back around Andrew and set my sights on Wade. I found myself with a good run on him and was planning to pass him in 1 when we were greeted with a waving yellow flag – in other words, no passing. Ugh – maybe next lap. The next lap, I didn’t get such a good run on Wade so I had to wait – AGAIN. When I had my next decent run, lo-and-behold, another yellow flag in 1 – I started to wonder if Wade had paid off the corner workers!!
As the last lap sign displayed, I still found myself stuck behind Wade. As we exited turn 10, I finally had a decent run and drag-raced Wade to the checker. While I was gaining on him, the finish line was a bit too close and he beat me by a good 6″!! Whew – what a race!!
The final results weren’t great – 10th in class but not too bad considering the heat and the tires. The good news, so to speak, is that several of my points competitors finished behind me due to accidents and/or mechanical failures.
The big trick now is to fully exploit the Hoosiers. As the race progressed, I found myself getting more comfortable with them and I’m starting to drive these tires better – turning in earlier and opening up my turns sooner and more. Hopefully by the next race I’ll be back to where I was before I made the switch.
The next event is the annual Double MARRS on Aug 31 – Sep 2.
~Matthew
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