The Season Begins

Our 2016 schedule is now out (get it here) and we start the season early at the end of January at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana...the site of our last race.  Chris Ferrell is coming back to P1 so looking forward to our first dust-up right from the get-go.  This event is shaping up to have several other top competitors in attendance.  We'll have a few new things to try out from what we learned last time.  This will be a year of refinement as our basic package of the Norma chassis and Honda power is excellent.  I'm also adding data collection to the car which is a first for me.

Over the off-season, Jason won a very prestigious award, "Mechanic of the Year", from the Sports Car Club of America.  This prize is nationally recognized, not always given every year, and his equivalent of winning the Runoffs.  Jason is so deserving of this award and the recognition that comes with it.  He puts more effort and heart into what he does than just about anyone.  I feel honored to have Jason as my head mechanic.  Jason's company, Bulldog Motorsports, is thriving in a very small niche business that helps make championships possible.  In addition to our Western Conference and NORPAC Championships, he supported two other teammates in two different classes who also won championships in 2015.  Visiting his shop is always a thrill as the diversity of race cars on display is impressive.

Our schedule for 2016 is the most ambitious yet, 12 events and 23 races.  Jason and I have a solid game plan for a great season.  Let the racing begin.

Norma all stripped down.  Chris doing the work and Jason thinking out loud...

Portent of Races to Come

We changed our schedule and decided to go race at Auto Club Speedway last weekend in the Pacific Coast Road Racing Championships.  This race used to be a big deal out west for many years and then stopped as it fell out of favor.  SCCA Cal Club has been trying to rejuvenate it for a couple of years now and we decided to show our support plus a fellow Runoffs competitor, Tim Day, was entering the event in his Stohr WF-1 with a 1,615 cc Hayabusa motor.

Tim and I met at Daytona and hit it off and are hoping to race a lot more together in 2016.  The first Majors race of the year is at ACS in January and this would be a chance for us to learn the track and use this weekend as a warm-up event.

It's a relatively easy track to figure out and we got up to speed quickly and I put the car on pole with a lap time of 1:34.774.  Tim started next to us and out pulled us at the start showing the potency of his lightweight Stohr with the big Busa engine.  The next few laps were great fun and show what's in-store for next year.  Watch the video here.

Runoffs Highlight Reel

The amount of team effort it takes to compete in the Runoffs is huge, especially when you have to go all the way across the country to do it.  I was fortunate enough to also have several family members and friends in attendance.  I have to give a big THANK YOU for making the trip to my wife, Tracey, my brother, Mike, my sister-in-law, Audrey, and my friend and cohort, Robert Carpenter, who also acted as the official photographer for race day.

In Cranbrook Group's Modesto office, we have a lot of talented folks with diverse skills.  One of them is Trey Broaddus, CPA who is our Assistant Controller and a very accomplished editor.  Trey put his skills to work and created a wonderful highlight video of race day at Daytona.  The beginning segment is a real masterpiece and gets me excited each time I see it.  Thank you Trey and I hope everyone enjoys the video as much as I do.

Daytona Runoffs

We went to Daytona with sky high expectations given our record setting season and came back a little humbled, but none the less, still pleased with the outcome--2nd place.  What makes it extra rewarding is that we were really tested as a team and we came through it stronger and wiser.  We rolled out of the trailer with an immediate electrical gremlin that took 2 1/2 days to eliminate.  We finally got one good session under our belt on the last test day and prepared for the start of qualifying.  Qualifying is when you have to go out and put it all on the line and run as fast as you can to secure a good starting position.  But in order to do this properly you really want the car dialed in so you can give it your best shot.  With our lack of testing, we were behind the curve.

Our problem was a lack of top speed as we found it difficult to go over 160 mph when the top runner was hitting 182.  To go faster we needed to remove drag from our car, but still be able to drive it in the twisty infield section.  Finding a set up that would yield a reasonable compromise became our goal after one "swing for the fences" effort ended with me going off-track and coming up a foot short of contact with the Armco barrier.  The unique high speed nature of this track gave us a one-of-kind challenge that was more than we anticipated.

After four rounds of qualifying, we were locked into starting in 4th place.  We decided to make some final adjustments and race the car in what we felt would be a relatively stable condition while hitting a top speed of about 167 mph.  This turned out to be a wise decision.

The race started and we lost a couple of spots as we were feeling our way into the revised set-up.  After two laps, everything felt pretty good and we set our fastest lap of the race on lap 3 with a 1:51.48.  Then the pace car came out and bunched up the field due to a wreck by Tim Day.  He was uninjured but his car was damaged and had to be towed away.  During the double yellow laps behind the pace car, the lead car dropped a lot of oil on the track so when racing resumed, the surface was very slippery.  I restarted in 3rd and quickly passed the 2nd place car as he struggled mightily in the oil.  From there until the end I drove as hard as I dare feeling my way through each lap.  My average time over the last 5 laps was faster than anyone else, except for the winner.

The irony was the leader was the one dropping the oil creating havoc for those behind, but the rest of us driving through his oil helped clean a path for him the next time around.  It's hard for me to complain too much, though, as it played into our strategy of having a well behaving car that allowed me to adapt easily to the challenging conditions.  In any event, the winner, JP Ciancimino, drove a blistering pace and deserved the win.

Laguna Seca Race Weekend-New Qualifying Record

This past weekend was our final event before the Runoffs.  We tried something new this time.  We experimented with tire warmers before each session so that when we went out the tires would be closer to the ideal temperature right away.  They worked really well the first time out in Q1 on a brand new sticker set and not so much each session after that.  So the verdict is still out on whether we will continue with this program.  Check out our video on this qualifying effort as it has 7 laps in a row run flat out.  Many of them get compromised by having to pass slower cars, but finally we get a clean one and break our own track record again with a 1:21.405.

In the first race we had a throttle cable issue again that forced us to drop out 2/3 of the way through while we had a big lead.  We made up for it in the 25 lap second race by lapping all but one car in the field and putting on a nice show for the friends and family in attendance.

The car comes all apart now as we will be preparing it for Daytona.

The Qualifying Experience

I really enjoy qualifying, especially when it's on brand new tires.  As you slowly bring the tires up to the perfect operating conditions, the car just gets more hooked up until you feel it's on rails.  It takes about 3 laps or so to get the tire pressures and temperatures about right.  This video shows our little rituals from start to finish except for editing out two of the warm up laps.  We wanted to save the tires for the two races that followed so we limited our running to five laps total in this session and we still accomplished our goal of setting a new qualifying record of 1:09.523.  I'd love to get a chance to run PIR in nice cool weather and really see what we can do.  Watch the video here.

Results Match Sizzling Temperatures-Record Assault Continues

Jason and I enjoying the Western Conference Championship award

We finally got the results we've been hoping for at Portland but it wasn't easy.  The weekend started fine but soon we developed an engine miss.  It was quickly diagnosed as an electrical issue so the question was where to get parts.  Jason called his wife, Courtney, who took the kids to the hot shop back in Modesto and got some tools out and removed a key part from another car and had it shipped out for early delivery the next day.  We missed the 1st qualifying run as we discovered the ECU needed to be re-flashed to complete the fix, but after that, the car was golden.  Courtney saved the weekend for us and I owe her big time.  She's quite a Super Mom and fully devoted to Jason's career of running the finest prep shop in the country.

We were the fastest car on track all weekend long and broke the qualifying and race records in P1 even though the temperatures were in the mid-nineties most of the time and almost unbearable.  We won both races and clinched the Western Conference championship too.  We also finally got our new RePlay Prime X camera to work after employing a few tricks to minimize the vibrations that previously caused it to fail. The video and sound quality are quite good, so enjoy the start of race 1 where my old nemesis, Chris Farrell (in a P2 car no less), got a good jump on me and leads for a lap before I got back around him and motor away.  Watch it here or on the Race Video page.

I also have to give a shout out to my 84 year old future mother-in-law, Valerie Rancier, who came down from Canada to see in person what I am so passionate about.  She cheered loudly every time I came around and thoroughly enjoyed the show.  Val you're the best!

Development Efforts Pay Off As Record Setting Pace Continues

This past weekend at Laguna Seca was our first time out with the latest upgrade package and it went exceedingly well.  We broke the P1 track records each time out for the two rounds of qualifying and in both races.  In fact, we ended up turning the fastest qualifying lap ever run at Laguna in San Francisco SCCA competition history with a lap time of 1:21.565.  We easily won both races and lapped all but one car in the 20+ car field in the 2nd race.  We also slightly improved our fastest lap time by posting a 1:21.522.  Next races are in Portland at PIR where we've struggled in the past.  We hope to do substantially better this year.  Wish us luck!

Success With New Parts And Another Track Record

We used last weekend at the Thunderhill regional races as an extended test session for trying out the new front bodywork.  By the end of the weekend, we were fully convinced it was better as proven by our new track record of 1:37.302 set during the first race.  We easily won the first race and led the second race before a throttle cable broke.  The car will have a strange look for a while as we work to convert the rest of the bodywork over to carbon fiber.

New Competitor Livens the Show at Buttonwillow Major's Race Weekend

With BW's new pavement job, I was looking forward to testing the limits of the track at the place formerly known as Bumpywillow.  At the last minute, the reining NASA Super Unlimited champion,  Jon Van Caneghem, entered his modified Elan DP02 sports racer in my class and the weekend was headed for a whole new dimension.  We diced and mixed it up throughout the weekend and repeatedly lowered the track records.  When all was said and done, I started on pole both races with a stunningly low Q2 lap time of 1:37.965 and won Saturday's 14 lap sprint race, although Jon led a good share of it as well as he captured the race track record at 1:39.168.  Jon won Sunday's 20 lap feature race, but I got the track record back on the very last lap with a 1:39.024 which is now the fastest lap ever run at BW in SCCA competition.

Congratulations to Jon and I truly hope he keeps running in P1.  I'm craving a rematch!

Interview after Saturday's Race Win