So You Want to be a CART Racer?

Word around the campfire was that the new Michelins were faster than the Goodyears by about half a second, so we were anxious to test out these results. This first practice day started out a little damp but was drying quickly. The dry line was the norm, and by time we had the 2nd session, the track was normal, but we couldn’t use the painted rumble strips on the exit because they were still a little slick. My times on this first day were good for my first outing on the track – mid to low 1:45s. The second day was dry for the first session, and I bettered my times by doing low 1:45s and mid-high 1:44s. I was pretty satisfied with those results. For the second session, Mr. Raindrop started to come down, and by time my group was up again, the track was saturated with water. Actually, this was pretty cool. It would give me some much needed rain practice. As it turns out, I really like running in the wet! I was having a blast out there, and was getting a good feel of how the car handles in the rain. These new Michelins were AWESOME in the rain. They had a ton of grip, and I was even getting tire noise in turns 3 and 9. Having the Gs tug at my head in the wet was a little unnerving at first, but I quickly got used to it. For comparison, the best times in the rain in December were 2:10s with the Goodyears. The times I was clicking off with the Michelins were 2:05s and one mid 2:04. And, another interesting factiod, my times were more consistent in the wet than in the dry. I had about 5 laps in a row that were all within .05 seconds, and two in a row were identical. Of course, I’m sure there is a little fudge factor with my hand clicking on the stopwatch when I cross the S/F line, but I was still pretty amazed. The Michelins has a very nice, predictable slide to them in the wet, and I found that very confidence inspiring. I look forward to our next rain race; it should definitely be interesting. Thursday’s practice was a torrential downpour for the whole day. We got to practice on not only wet pavement, but pavement with about an eighth of an inch of water across the top of it. Puddles forming along the front straight made it interesting as my car would lose steering input for a second as I darted over them. Kinda cool actually, but that wasn’t very confidence inspiring, especially at 100+ mph. Friday’s practice was a little damp in the first session, then dry in the second. My times were okay in the second session, but not quite as fast as I would have liked. I even did a third practice session (extra) that cost a bit, but I wanted to make sure I was going to be ready for this weekend. In all three sessions, I had the quickest times, and that provided me with a good feeling going into Saturday. Saturday morning was a little damp, but drying fast. There were some clouds looming overhead, but they didn’t look too threatening. I was in the last group, group 3, so I had no worries about a wet track. Group one had to contend with some dampness, and that kept the times a little high. Group two and group three had a pretty much dry track for Saturday practice. Exiting Turn 5 Going into my race, I was ready for a serious battle. Dave Francis was starting on pole, and I was along side him. Him and I were both turning similar lap times, but mine were a bit faster. This doesn’t make a huge difference, because catching a driver is one thing, and passing them is another. I was definitely up for the challenge. At the drop of the green, Francis had a couple car length lead on me going into T2. That disappeared quick as I tucked my nose under his gearbox. I stayed right on his tail for the rest of the lap, poking my nose in his mirrors a few times just to say, “Hi.” I occasionally looked in my mirror as well to see Tom Sisto playing the same game with me. Since I was quicker than Dave was, I wanted to get by ASAP and then try to check out. Of course, I’m sure he was hoping Tom would keep me too busy and he could do the same. Exiting turn 11, I got a pretty good jump on Francis, and was coming ever so close to his tail. With a little help from the draft, I had a little run, but decided not to make a move yet. He took the defensive line, but going into the braking zone, Francis went too deep and ended up spinning his car trying to stay on the pavement. I took the inside line as soon as I saw him going wide, and I assumed the lead. A couple guys behind me had high hopes and went in too hot trying to make a run on me, only to end up spinning as well. The green flag drops for Saturday’s race From here on, I was in check out mode. After a bunch of laps, I had a big lead and I couldn’t see the cars in my mirrors anywhere on the track. I was a pretty happy camper at this point in the race, but the first sign that the weekend wasn’t going to give me any breaks surfaced. With a handful of laps to go, there was an incident that happened in turn 5 that brought out the black flag, stopping the race. I lost my 10-second or so lead and everyone closed up. On the restart, John Vannini made the quick charge to second place and was right on my tail. I was able to squeeze a little more space and gradually increased it to 2 seconds by time the checkers fell. Francis was able to make his way to 3rd past Vannini, and Jimmy Domingos had 2nd place.

Dropping down the Corkscrew I was on the pole this race, with Jimmy D. on the outside of me, Dave Francis right behind me, and John Vannini outside of Dave. I brought the field to a crawl exiting T11, and Jimmy was a little anxious coming out and got ahead of me. Since the polesitter controls the pace (let’s not make any NASCAR Daytona Gordon/Wallace comparisons here, I didn’t see it and I have no opinion ;-) Jimmy had to slow down a bit. When he came close to my car, I hit the gas, and took off. Jimmy went down to 5th from the loss in momentum and Francis assumed the 2nd spot. From then, I stretched my lead a bit to about 2 seconds and kept it there. Looking at the start/finish board with 7 laps to go, I was in cruise mode and thought I home free with another win. There was no way Francis was going to catch me with 7 to go. I guess I should have knocked on wood in the morning, because wouldn’t you know it, that lap I see double yellow flags going up to the corkscrew! Great, there goes my home free, 2-second cushion. Bottoming out at the exit On the restart, I didn’t pay attention to Dave behind me like I should have, and he got a serious jump on me going up the hill. By time we were at the top of turn 1, we were side by side with Francis on the inside and myself pinned on the outside line. I was very surprised when I saw a flash in my mirror and looked to my left to see his car right beside me. Boy was that a dumb mistake I made…and I won’t make that one again! From one mistake to the next, I wasn’t going to go down quietly so I wanted to make Dave work for the position. I went in a little deeper into turn 2 than usual, but not that much deeper. I thought that everything would be normal and at most I would lose 1st place and have to battle for it back, but I was in for a surprise. With the combination of cool tires and brakes and being on the outside line that didn’t have any rubber laid down on it and was a tad dusty, I couldn’t get the car slowed down in time and ended up going off the track into the dirt. I couldn’t believe it; I tossed it away, damn! After my mandatory pit for the 4-off check, I rejoined the field in last place. I managed to get a handful of places back and finish 8th. Chalk this one up as a definite learning experience for me. See the official Skip Barber race write-up for this weekend:http://www.skipbarber.com/wresult4.htm

		This weekend was a good learning experience for me. The mistake on Sunday has actually caused me to analyze much of my racing, which I think will help a great deal in the next race and at Laguna in general. I’m totally looking forward to the next Laguna race at the end of February! The rest of the season is Laguna in Feb, Willow Springs in March, and the Laguna finale in May. I may do a race at Sebring in April (just to learn the track), but I haven’t decided that yet – I’ve been looking at my VISA bills lately and getting depressed, man is racing expensive! I look forward to telling you all about February’s Laguna race. Take Care! Next on "You Want to be a CART Racer?": Reality check? how it feels to go too deep when it matters.
		Special To SpeedCenter © 1997 Darrel Cherry and SpeedCenter

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