Since my last post, a lot has happened. We've started racing again in Spec Racer Ford Gen 3, the latest specification version of the class I started in 10 years ago. On top of that, we purchased another Formula Enterprise open wheel car which I also used to run. This time it is mostly for developmental purposes and in coordination with Jason. The FE car is about to have a major upgrade package offered as a way to rejuvenate the class. Jason and I are going to be a part of the process to convert our car over (only the 2nd one) and help prove its viability and new performance level and rent it out to other FE drivers to allow them to sample the goods, so to speak. And finally, I've also purchased one of my dream race cars--a 1976 Chevron B36 2 liter sports racer. More on this later.
We've still been racing Norma and plan to continue to do so, however, the CRB action to cut our horsepower opened my eyes to just how SCCA works in putting a target on you and dialing your performance back. So going in several different directions now to expand our horizons and marketing reach. Going forward, we plan to run Norma in major SCCA events only, including the Runoffs.
P1 & P2 Champs going at it.
At Portland, I had a great battle all weekend long with Jeff Shafer, the reigning P2 champion, and the driver considered one of the best in all of SCCA...a true benchmark driver. I out qualified him in my Norma and won race 2, but he beat me in race 1 with a daring high speed outside pass coming off a double yellow restart on cold tires. Jeff's a great guy and a kindred spirit with Jason as he runs a prep shop too. He raced in Europe as a young man and had a promising career that was stopped by a lack of funding as is typical in a sport with big financial demands. Check out some great racing action here and a post race joint interview here. In theory, a P2 car should not be able to run with me, but Jeff proved that wrong.
On Father's Day weekend, we raced at the longest running event in SCCA history called the June Sprints. It has been held every year since 1956 and this was the 62nd version with every race having been held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. The very first event was run on opening day at the track and, now, what a facility it has become. The track is 4 miles long and runs through natural terrain with good elevation changes. It has 3 long straightaways that test the acceleration and top speed capabilities of all the cars. This season it also had the biggest, deepest field of the year with 13 P1 cars entered on top of 18 Formula Atlantics in our run group. It would be a great test of our competitiveness with our neutered motor.
I'd run RA on my simulator so at least knew where the track went and got up to decent speed right away. However, it is a track unlike any other I'd ever run with the long straightaways requiring perfect entries to maximize your speed at the other end. It also had several high speed flat out corners that tested your nerve. Finally, with coaching from Eric Purcell, my race engineer, I put it all together in Q1 and had the provisional pole with a 2:05.xx. However, the next day we got bumped to 2nd in Q2 by the home town boy, Jason Miller, running a 6 cylinder two stroke engine. He was consistently the fastest car accelerating down the straights normally reaching about 156 mph. By comparison we normally reached about 149 mph. So we were faster around the corners and under braking but got killed on the straights, not only by this car but a couple of the motorcycle powered lightweight Stohrs.
So at the start of race 1, I got passed immediately by Tim Day Jr. in his Stohr and shortly thereafter by another one. Our horsepower loss was really stinging now. The rest of the race was me catching these guys in the twisty stuff and them running away on the straights. Amazingly, a caught a couple of breaks as Jason Miller broke during the race and I was able to get around one of the Stohrs when it spun in front of me on the last lap. So a 2nd place finish was salvaged. My fellow Bulldog teammate, Tim Day Jr., won the race. The day was made more special as Bobby Rahal greeted us for the podium celebration.
Todd Slusher 3rd. Jim Devenport 2nd, Bobby Rahal, Tim Day Jr. 1st (l to r)
My transmission had been giving us an intermittent problem ever since we arrived at RA and on the last lap it acted up again which culminated in it locking into 5th gear on the cool down lap. Despite a late night effort by Jason and Chris, they didn't have the right parts to fix it and we scratched out of the Sunday race. Still, the event history, the track, and the whole experience made it a bucket list item to repeat next year.