Race Report #1 April 28-29, 2001

Wow, what a blast!!!! O.K. so that's what I felt at the end of my first race weekend of 2001, but it's not quite what I felt before and during most of the weekend. Let me explain by starting at the beginning. Approximately six weeks before the first race, I sent my engine to an engine shop to have it rebuilt. To make a very long story short, there were difficulties. The result was that I decided to buy a new engine. It arrived three days before I was scheduled to leave for Mosport. I managed to get it installed in the car and rebuild the rest of the car around it. My departure from Manitouwadge on Friday was actually a day late as I had originally decided to leave on Thursday. 
Everything wasn’t perfect, however, my new engine was not running well. It would be a fairly simple fix but I didn't have the necessary parts to do it at home. Upon explaining the problem to my engine builder, he agreed to meet me at the track and he would bring the necessary parts to get my engine running properly. However, he could attend on Sunday only. This meant that I would miss practice and qualifying on Saturday. Missing the qualifying session would mean that I would be allowed to race but I would be made to start from the back of the pack. It's not the best place to start a race from, but at least I would be allowed to race. Also, missing Saturday practice meant that I would be breaking-in my new engine Sunday morning during the very short warm-up immediately before our race. This would not allow me the necessary laps to evaluate my setup. So, I spent Saturday doing other things. Other things like trying to buy tires. Goodyear was now our only supplier of tires since Hoosier has decided not to participate this year. So I went to the Goodyear trailer to buy tires. And guess what? I couldn't buy tires. They didn't have any F2000 tires left. Their shipment had not arrived and they had run out. The only set that I had was the set that I had used at the last event last year. This was not an ideal situation. The rubber would be pretty hard by now. So, I would be starting from the back and I would be racing on less than ideal rubber and I had no idea if my setup was any good. What else could go wrong?
Sunday morning, Tom, my engine builder, arrived early, as promised. He made the necessary repair to my engine with time to spare to make morning practice. He instructed me to drive moderately this first time out, to simply put some time on the engine. I did so, and the engine felt terrific. There was no hesitation or miss when accelerating as I had experienced last year. The question was: how would it measure up to my competition? 
A little later, I grided for the first race. I was somewhere near the back but there was a rookie that wanted to start very last. So I wasn’t dead last but very close to it. As I was waiting, and my car was idling, a marshal directed me to move forward a car length or so. I depressed the clutch and moved the gear-shift lever to select first gear. The lever moved but nothing happened. The lever moved much too easily and there was no feedback as when a gear is engaged. It was like the other end of the linkage wasn’t connected to the transmission. I jumped out of the car and removed the engine cowl. I immediately saw that the linkage had separated. We were now minutes away from the race start and I had a car with a great engine but no tranny to make it move. I removed my helmet and ran to my trailer. I grabbed a handful of tools and ran back to my car. What I didn’t know at this time was that there would be a short delay in the start of the race because of an oil spill on the track from the previous race. I started to reassemble the linkage when a mechanic from one of my competitors offered his assistance. I obliged as I was so nervous, panicked and out of breath, my hands were trembling so bad I couldn’t put the pieces together. He managed to get the linkage reconnected just as the cars began to roll from mock grid. We scrambled to replace the side covers and engine cowl back on the car. I jumped in and furiously did up my belts and donned my helmet and gloves. I was off. I would have no trouble catching the tail end of the pack. However, as I rounded the turn that leads from mock grid to the front stretch and the entrance to pit lane, I was directed to pit lane instead of the front stretch. As I traveled slowly onto pit lane, a marshal directed me to a pit stall and instructed me to stop. Another marshal came over and advised me that I would be allowed to start the race once the pack had taken the green flag and that the pack had cleared the front stretch. He also mentioned that I would not lose a lap. 
After a few moments, the green flag flew, the pack went by and I was motioned to go. After the blend-in line, I stepped on it. I had a lot of ground to make up. I moved the gear-shift lever to select second gear. Nothing. It wouldn’t go in. Uh oh. I tried third gear. Success, I fumbled with the gear shift lever to find second gear but it would not engage. I opted again for third. Then, when came time to shift to forth, same thing. No forth gear either. This was terrible. Although I had gained a few positions, I had no hope of catching the top ten with the car in this condition. After a few laps of fumbling with the gears I decided that it would be better to come in and fix the problem and get ready for the second race. I would be scored a DNF. This was very reminiscent of last year all of a sudden. 
The repair was not complicated and took no time at all. I had the car ready for the next race with plenty of time to spare. Although our first race had been fairly early Sunday morning, our second race would be the last of the weekend. This gave me most of the afternoon to relax and chat with my neighbors. 
It was now race time again. Although I had DNF’d the first race, I would not start last as there was a few cars that had DNF’d before me. As I drove to mock grid, I was directed to position 24. There was no delay this time and we were soon given the signal to roll out. As we paced around the track I managed to shift through a few gears. First to third seemed O.K., but we had not been going fast enough to try forth. I was confident that if second was engaging, that forth would also. We were given the start. I immediately passed a few cars. My engine was pulling really hard. As I rounded turn one, I engaged forth gear and the race was on. For the first half of the race I was gaining one to two positions per lap and no one was passing me back. Actually, near the half way point, I think I started to lap the slower back markers. My car was flying. I was sure that I had never been this fast before. 
The only mechanical problem that I had during the race was that the car had some understeer in the faster corners. I had expected this. My tires were far from ideal. 
Somewhere around three quarters of the way into the race, I began to experience something that I had never experienced before. My neck muscles were beginning to hurt and I found that I was having difficulty keeping my head up straight in turns one and three where G-forces are highest, and also in the last half of the back stretch where speeds are the highest. Lap by lap, it was getting progressively worse. Nonetheless, I managed to drive my fastest lap with three laps to go. It must have been when I caught sight of my friend, John D. We had chatted before the race and I promised him that even though I was starting 24th and he eighth, that I would pass him during the race. I was reeling him in. Within a few laps, we were nose to tail. Then, on the front stretch, he seemed to hesitate for a brief moment. Maybe he missed an up-shift? I didn’t. I overtook him easily. Then on the last lap, either I had relaxed my pace some or he increased his, either way, he passed me back in turn eight. But I wasn’t going to give up so easily. I charged to try to overtake him before the finish line. As the checkers flew, we were side by side with he leading me by about a quarter of a car length. 
I had started 24th and finished eighth overall, and sixth in F2000. I had kept my promise to Johnny. But best of all, my lap time of 1:27.700, although was still a few seconds slower than the leaders, (hey, I was running on winter old tires!!) was a personal best. I was definitely satisfied with this result and the performance of my car. I can’t wait ‘till next time. New tires should gain me the few seconds per lap that I need to run with the leaders. 
Wow, what a blast!!!!


Until next time.


Joel