| So You Want to be a CART Racer? | | ||
| |||||||
I was looking forward to going to Willow Springs and race. I would get to see a few friends living in Southern CA, and was hoping for a couple good race wins. For those of you that aren't familiar with Willow Springs, it is a very fast track (touted as the fastest track in the West) that is in the middle of the desert. Being in the desert, I thought it would be nice and warm. Ha! El stinking Niño strikes again and we saw pouring rain for the first practice day, then dry but bitter cold days for the races.  |
Friday went well. I had the fastest times in the group. But the top 3 - Randy Puro, Mike Morris, and I were all within a few tenths. It was definitely looking like Saturday's race would be close. For the race, I was starting on pole this race with Randy Puro on the outside. On the start, I kept the lead and lead for a couple laps. Puro then closed up enough from the draft to pass me like I was standing still on the front straight. Pretty amazing, that draft thing. To break it down for the casual reader - the basics of the draft is that a car in front, travelling at high speed is punching a hole in the wind. So, a driver about half a second or so back can tuck behind that driver and has less wind resistance on his car. This allows him to go 4-5mph faster at full throttle. Because he's going faster, he can get a run, pop out (being at a top speed of about 5mph faster) and pass the guy he is drafting. The draft at Willow was so strong that guys could suck up and completely pass another before the first turn. Drafting is important to learn and experience, but I must confess, I don't enjoy the fact that someone a half a second slower has the ability to keep up and pass at such a track. After Puro passed me, we did the back and forth thing a little, then I decided I would just tuck behind him and try to break away from Mike Morris who was in 3rd. My thinking was why dice and slow each other down when we could just pass and re-pass each other each lap from the draft. The smart thing was to train together and check out, so I was content to stay behind Puro for the time being. We did check out quite a bit, but with 5 laps to go there was a horrendous wreck exiting Turn 9 (about 115mph) that brought out the black flag. We had quite a long wait as the carnage was cleared and the drivers were taken to the hospital (both guys were okay - just bumps and bruises). On the restart, I totally blew it and Puro got a huge jump on me. Not only did he get a jump on me, but 3rd and 4th place were right on my tail and passed me from the draft. Yikes, from 2nd to 4th before we even completed a lap this was not good. I fought back hard, making some aggressive passes and ended up finishing 3rd, two hundredths (0.02) of a second behind 2nd place, Peter Ponder-Pistor, as the draft was not strong enough for me to make the pass on him before start/finish. Peter (or P cubed) was new to running up front - this was his best finish.
This is where that evil mistress Lady Luck came into the scene. The current lineup was P cubed in the lead, Puro second and me third with Mike Morris a ways back. Going out of T5, Puro took it a little hot and dipped one wheel .two wheels .three wheels .and he got sideways and spun across the track at 70mph right in front of me. I hit my brakes jerked the wheel to the right and BARELY missed him. This put Puro back to last when he pitted and re-entered the track. This got Mike Morris right on my tail and P cubed had a significant lead. I thought I had dodged the bullet Lady Luck had fired at me .little did I know she had more ammo. In a few laps I was able to stretch out from Morris and I caught back up to P cubed's tail. Peter and I had some dicing for the next few laps, but with 6 to go, my nightmare became reality. It was the first time Peter had run up front, and I'm sure he was nervous, not being used to the constant pressure of running with the leaders. Whatever the impetus, P cubed took T5 too hot (similar to what Puro did previously, but Peter was in trouble earlier) and got sideways before the exit. The end result was that I had no where to go and barreled into him sideways, completely crippling both our cars to the tune of $1700 a piece. There I sat, fatally wounded by Lady Luck. Boy was I angry .hmm nah, I guess that's an understatement. The repercussions this had were catastrophic for my overall points standing. So I'm out, this is a throwaway meaning rather than using the 20 points I would get, I have to use a 12 (3rd place) for my points (we get 3 throwaways of 14 races). And, to ice the cake, the race was stopped to crane tow our cars away, allowing Puro (who I'm in a tight points battle with) to catch back up to the front pack and win the race, Ack! So I'm sure some of you are wondering about the payment/responsibility aspect of this. Since this accident was not my fault, Skippy only holds me to $1000 for the crash instead of the normal $3900. Of course on my budget of VISAs, Master Cards, and the like, $1000 really hurts. Although I was upset with Peter for taking me out of contention and hurting my overall points situation, he was a class act and covered the $1000 bill that Skippy gave me. That definitely eased the pain somewhat, and I really appreciate Peter for doing that. Am I glad this is done. I don't think I need to tell you all how bad of a taste Willow Springs left in my mouth yuck. I will admit, all the drafting and tight side by side racing was a blast, but I definitely prefer a more technical course where passing actually takes some skill. With two bad races for me and two wins for Roger Yasukawa, that allowed him to clinch the championship this weekend instead of the Laguna finale. Roger ran a near perfect season and was a superb competitor - congratulations Roger! He is racing the Formula Palmer Audi professional series in England that started in April/May. Special thanks to my bud Lonnie Larkin for putting me up for the weekend at his house - that helped save me a few bucks, thanks bro! Next on "You Want to be a CART Racer?":
| |||||||
| Special To SpeedCenter © 1998 Darrel Cherry and SpeedCenter
|
|
