Race Report

[Butch Kummer]

Even though my car is not ready yet I still made the trip to Charlotte to visit with friends from the Central Carolinas Region SCCA (thanks for a well-run event, y'all!), promote our program, and check out the new road course configuration that NASCAR will be using in the fall (Sept 29,30) of 2018. Mark Mercurio has a class in the area next week, so he came down early to check things out while we told all sorts of lies ("bench racing" is the correct term). I was also hoping some of the NASCAR regulars would show up to get some experience on the new layout, but I guess all of them were busy at Mid-Ohio and Michigan this weekend. 

I got there just after noon on Friday and checked in at Registration, then started scouting around to see where people were and also introduced myself to the SRI Performance folks who had set up shop across from the Media Center. One of the first guys I saw was Chris Evans' buddy who explained that Chris had gotten into the tires on driver's right entering the infield on his second hot lap that morning but they were pounding out the dents and would still be able to run (unfortunately, however, Chris' weekend didn't get a whole lot better as it progressed). Since it was raining off and on Friday afternoon, none of our guys went out while I was there.

On Saturday morning Mark & I arrived just as the Big Bore cars were going out for their 20-minute qualifying session. Even though it was not actually raining at the time there were still damp spots from a HEAVY overnight rain, then the rain returned with about five minutes left in the session. There was a fair amount of tip-toeing as our intrepid heroes searched for traction, and as the checkers flew the order was:

. 1st ASR (1st OA) - Jacek Mucha, 1.42.479
. 1st GTA (5th OA) - Roger Reuse, 1.50.086
. 2nd GTA (6th OA) - Steve Magowen, 1.52.086
. 3rd GTA (9th OA) - Bobby Reuse, 1.55.286
. 1st GTSC (10th OA) - Larry Hoophaugh, 1.55.418
. 1st SPO (12th OA) - Jim Smith, 1.59.716
. 2nd GTSC (13th OA) - Chris Evans, 2.02.056
. 1st GT2 (14th OA) - Mike Attaway, 2.11.998
. 4th GTA (15th OA) - Al Rowland, no time (he forgot to install his transponder!)

Besides the damp/wet course Bobby Reuse was suffering from a drivetrain issue (ended up being a broken axle) and Jim Smith spun entering the infield and got "nudged" by John Finger as he came barrelling off the oval even though Jim had been sitting there for a while. When asked if he'd seen the waving yellow flags at start/finish or Turn One John said there weren't any, so THEN he was asked if he'd seen the worker in white jumping up and down while waving for him to slow down (he said he had not)!

Everybody made it to grid for the first 15-lap race just after lunch, and at the green Jacek jumped out to a lead while the field adjusted itself behind him. At the end of lap 1 it was Jacek followed by Roger in second overall, Bobby (having moved up from his ninth place grid spot) in fourth, Al in seventh (up from 15th), Larry (8th), Steve (10th), Mike (11th), Chris (12th), and Jim (13th). Over the next eight laps Roger, Bobby, and Finger were having a great battle for second while maintaining the gap behind Jacek, Al settled into fifth overall after making up for his brain fade on the transponder, then the rest of the field pretty much settled down behind them. From our perch in the control tower we could see Jim having a great battle with the ITO Mustang of Matt Goodrich (a recruit for 2018) until his (Jim's) first of three spins split them up.

On lap 10 Jacek appeared to slow on the back straight and Finger got by before Jacek recovered with the Reuse brothers in hot pursuit. They ran in that (close) order and were catching up with Chris Evans as they entered the infield starting lap 13 when Finger and Chris got together and Finger spun into the concrete barrier at Turn Two. Jacek, Roger, Bobby (and Chris) continued, but Finger retired at that point. From our vantage point we couldn't really tell what happened, but looking at Chris' in-car video after the race (and yes, he was fully aware the leaders were coming up to lap him) it certainly appeared he left plenty of room and made no deviations (as we're taught in drivers' school) yet still got hit in the driver's door. The left side of his car now matched the right, but he still made the second race later that afternoon.

Over the last three laps Bobby continued to hound Roger in the infield but Roger would get a better launch onto the oval and maintain that gap until they got back to the infield. Bobby DID manage to turn a faster lap (and a new class record) but he was still 0.171 seconds back at the checkers. The final finishing order was:

. 1st ASR (1st OA) - Jacek Mucha, 1.32.384
. 1st GTA (2nd OA) - Roger Reuse, 1.34.143
. 2nd GTA (3rd OA) - Bobby Reuse, 1.32.686
. 3rd GTA (4th OA) - Al Rowland, 1.35.689
. 1st GTSC (6th OA) - Larry Hoophaugh, 1.37.984
. 2nd GTSC (9th OA) - Chris Evans, 1.41.308
. 4thGTA (10th OA) - Steve Magowen, 1.44.041
. 1st GT2 (11th OA) - Mike Attaway, 1.44.442
. 1st SPO (14th OA) - Jim Smith, 1.46.275

During the break Mark & I went back to the garage area to see how things were going and offer suggestions to those that asked. One big thing was a couple of guys were running pretty high tire pressures, so I/we suggested dropping them "just a bit" (like 15 psi in one case) to see if the car felt better.

The best laps in Race #1 set the grid for Race #2, so Jacek was still on the pole with Bobby gridded ahead of Roger followed by the rest of our bunch in the same order they finished Race #1. As Mark & I were (again) looking down at Grid from the tower, however, we could see the whole side of Bobby's #89 when at least a portion of it should have been obscured by Jacek's car - I know Jacek's car is LOW, but c'mon! As they gave the one-minute warning (and Race Control once again said, "It's time for REAL cars to take to the track!") Jacek had still not appeared so everyone moved up one spot.

At the green Bobby appeared to miss a shift and got swallowed up by the pack (he retired at the end of the lap with more rear end problems) which left Roger in the lead with Al in close pursuit. They were nose-to-tail as they came across the line to finish lap #1 and Roger held position through the infield, but then Roger spun as he made the 180-degree left onto the oval. Everyone missed him as he tried to get restart the car, but Al was long gone by the time he joined again. It was also about that time that we saw Jacek heading down pit road to join the race almost two laps down. With a pretty hefty lead Al again engaged the cruise control, Roger did manage to get back to about fourth overall before coming into the pits on lap 10, and Jacek proceeded to set the fast race lap while unlapping himself. At the end of 15 laps the order was:

. 1st GTA (1st OA) - Al Rowland, 1.33.708
. 1st GTSC (2nd OA) - Larry Hoophaug, 1.36.954
. 1st ASR (4th OA) - Jacek Mucha, 1.31.617
. 1st GT2 (5th OA) - Mike Attaway, 1.41.298
. 2nd GTA (6th OA) - Steve Magowen, 1.43.428
. 2nd GTSC (7th OA) - Chris Evans, 1.42.266
. 1st SPO (10th OA) - Jim Smith, 1.46.418
. 3rd GTA (11th OA) - Roger Reuse, 1.33.589
. 4th GTA (12th OA) - Bobby Reuse, 1.48.009

And besides meeting Matt Goodrich I also finally met (GTA driver) Joe Hartsell and put a face with a name I've known for a long time. Both Joe & Matt are interested in running with us going forward, so look for them at the track in the future.

Next up is the Alabama & Tennessee Valley Region event at Barber Motorsports Park the weekend of Aug 26-27.

See y'all at the track...

[Butch Kummer]

What I forgot to include in the original report was the list of reasons offered for one's less-than-expected outcome in Race #2:

. Bobby broke something else in the rear end, but they'll get it fixed in time for Barber.

. Roger adjusted the brake bias more towards the rear after Race #1, which caused his spin on lap #2 of Race #2 (that's his story and he's sticking to it!). 

. When I asked Jacek if he just wanted to make things more exciting by starting two laps down he said he'd fallen asleep and missed the call to Grid! He was running his FA car in Group 1 and we were Group 5 (of 5), which meant he'd run two races (Race #1 for Group 5 then Race #2 for Group 1) back-to-back earlier in the day.

See ya...