Mustang Challenge Race #5 - Lime Rock Park

Well, my first adventure in professional racing begins with the 6th round of the Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup, taking place at Lime Rock Park, Connecticut. The weeks leading up to the event were filled with preparation and anticipation. Luckily (in some respects) I was very busy with work for the week immediately preceding the race weekend.

The weekend started off with a flight from Seattle, WA to Washington-Dulles Airport in Dulles, VA. We were scheduled to have a flight from D.C. to Hartford, CT that would bring us within an hour and a half of the race track. Unfortunately, the latter flight was not to be as there were Thunderstorms in the Hartford area. We had to be at the track the following morning, and there were few options left open to us as it was already 6:00PM. The TC Motorsports team made the decision to rent a van and drive (!) from Dulles, VA to the hotel near Litchfield, CT. To make this long, long story short, Crew Chief Jon Ament drove the entire way and delivered the whole team safely to the hotel. The downside to that trip is we didn't arrive at the hotel until 3:00AM, and we had to be up at 5:00AM to get to the track. Ugh...

Friday morning the team arrived at the track at 7:00AM to prepare the cars and get ready for practice. We were allotted two 30 minute practice sessions to learn the track and setup the cars, followed by a 25 minute qualifying session to determine the starting order. My coach, John Robison (JR), and I took advantage of the early morning hours to walk the track and try to get our bearings after the previous night's events. I went out in the first practice session with the sole intention of learning the track. I got comfortable fairly quickly and starting trying to find spots where I could begin whittling my lap times down. Eventually I got down to around 1:00.XXX lap, which I thought was pretty good. It was good enough for 11th on the time sheets.

At this point, yet another malady came down on our team, as Team Principal and Lead Driver Carlo Sparacio was unlucky enough to pick up a flu bug over the course of our trip. He was sick all day Friday, but still managed to run in the top 5 in both practices! Talk about sucking it up and driving!

In the second practice, we opted to install new tires, to get a feel for what the track was like with new rubber. I felt better, and went faster (59.9XX lap time), but so did everyone else! I fell to 14th on the grid and wasn't feeling so stoked about it. It turns out, there's some competition in the Mustang Challenge, and Lime Rock Park isn't exactly an easy track to go fast at!

Qualifying went well, as the rain threatened and sprinkled a bit. I went out trying to find a spot to get a clean, dry lap. I got what I felt was a decent lap at 1:01.XX, before going sideways in the Climbing Turn (yikes!!) and bringing it in. It turned out to be good enough for 8th place!

After a busy first day at Lime Rock Park, the team finally had an evening where we could go back to the hotel and relax. JR and I took full advantage and got a great night's sleep. Unfortunately, that night Crew Chief Jon fell victim to the same bug Carlo got and was hurting pretty bad. He sucked up just like Carlo did and got all three cars ready to race the following afternoon.

I started the race in 8th position and had a good start, retaining my position. About ten minutes into the race I had already overheated my tires (still getting used to the car, but avoidable), and I induce (unintentionally) a slow spin coming out of Big Bend. Sigh.....

I lose two positions and re-enter the track in 10th place. I keep driving, and start to overheat my tires again, but this time realize the error of my ways and start to smooth everything out. I see my lap times start dropping on the dash and the 11th place car get smaller in my mirrors. At this point, another driver loses control exiting the Climbing Turn and hits the wall in pretty spectacular fashion, bringing out the full course caution.

The double-yellow allowed me to close the gap to 9th place and cool the car down. The restart brought in another variable: lapped traffic. I managed to get around a few cars in turn one, and totally lost track of where I was in the running order. The following lap, I entered turn one (which is the only passing zone on the track), and was going inside of two slower cars. Unfortunately, I was a little optimistic, went a little too deep and collected one of the other cars in the right rear fender. I managed to keep the car under control and continue without losing my position. From there, I held off a hard-charging Dan Aweida for what turned out to be 7th place!

I was very happy with the result, and felt I had done justice to my first Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup weekend. That was until the Chief Steward came over and informed me that my contact with the other car in T1 was inappropriate and avoidable. They assessed a fair, but gut wrenching, 30 second time penalty, and dropped my finishing position to 13th. Sigh...

Overall, it was a trying weekend, but I learned a lot. Not only about the car, the series and the race track, but a lot about teamwork, perseverance and sportsmanship. I also learned that there is a big difference between professional racing and club racing. Ford, Miller Motorsports Park, and TC Motorsports all put on a great program, and I'm lucky to be in the situation I am.

We'll be back and feeling much better about New Jersey! See you all then!
-Ted

Wow, what an epic test day...

Today I attended a test day at Pacific Raceways. I was there to perform a number of tasks: shake down Stan B's E36 race car, re-acquaint myself with a PRO3 car (courtesy of Bill S.), and get some seat time in my new ride for the rest of the 2008 season, the TC Motorsports Ford Mustang FR500S.

I started the day off in Stan's E36 and right away recognized some changes that needed to be made. We made some suspension adjustments and changed the brake bias and the car was worlds better ( 2 seconds per lap!). After sorting out most of the issues with the E36, I jumped in the FR500S Mustang for a session. I was extremely impressed with the car! It was responsive, had good power and excellent brakes. Everything a guy could want in a race car!!

Immediately following that session, my presence was requested in the Frost NW Racing pits to set some baseline data for Stan's E36. I gladly obliged and ran a handful of laps before turning the reins over to my co-driver for the day and the car's driver for the rest of the weekend, Paul F.

The session following, I hopped into Bill S's PRO3 BMW. It was so nice, it felt like putting on an old pair of shoes. It didn't take long at all to get up to speed, but I was having so much fun, I drove for a few more laps than necessary! It was interesting comparing Bill's car to my old PRO3 car; the two handled very similarly, but Bill's braking system was impressive! The precision you can maintain with the complete non-ABS system was amazing.

For my last session of the day (at 3:30PM!) was in the TC Motorsports FR500S. It was for me to get comfortable in the car and try to get a feel for what the car does in differing conditions on the track. I was pretty amazed that it took only a few laps to feel at home in the car, and in no time at all we were like old friends. I took advantage of the entire session to play with the car and get to experience it in slightly greasy conditions on an ever-changing circuit.

All in all, it was an incredible day; one I will not likely be fortunate enough to repeat in the near future.