Expanding our racing horizons by going back to our roots.

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.

Real Competition...First Loss...Then A Gratifying Win

Well the winning streak finally ended and I'm loving it.  A young gun named Parker Nicklin, who started racing cars at 15 and made it up a couple of steps on the Road to Indy ladder system before the money ran out at 18 years old, came out at the ripe old age of 20 in a Stohr WF1 one liter light-weight motorcycle powered car and gave me a whipping in race 1 at the Buttonwillow Super Tour event last weekend.

The best part is I got to return the favor in race 2 and gave him a spanking right back.  Final tally is I qualified on pole with a blistering lap of 1:36.32 which is the all-time fastest lap ever run in SCCA competition at Buttonwillow for configuration #25CW.  However, Parker had the fastest laps in both races and of course we split the victories.  I talked to Parker and his dad, Steve, quite a bit and hope they continue to come out and race.

In the meantime, enjoy some great racing action:  Race 1 video highlights  /  Race 2 video highlights.  Also check out the post race 2 interview here.

Success on the Track and with CRB

This past weekend we competed at the Thunderhill Majors event and swept the weekend keeping our win streak going at 27.  This will be our last run with the individual throttle body set-up Jason developed.  He did a magnificent job of integrating it into our car and it performed flawlessly for the last two years.  Maybe someday we'll get to run it again.

Why...well just today we got notice that the Club Racing Board (CRB) has approved our proposed rule change to limit our horsepower by means of using the stock throttle body of 64 mm versus the aborted SIR path previously reported.  It will be installed on the car and run from this point forward.

As a tribute to all the success we've had with this ITB pioneering effort, here's one last video of a new SCCA all-time track record run at Thunderhill in Saturday morning's qualifying effort.

It will be interesting to see how this significant power loss affects our future performance.  When Formula 1 and Indy car are both going for record setting performances this year, it really makes SCCA seem way out of touch in their heavy handed approach to slowing us down.  Despite this setback, we are still striving to match last years haul of major hardware.

Willow Springs Super Tour Success

We went to the famous Willow Springs race track last weekend for the first west coast Super Tour event of the season.  There were 8 P1 entries so a decent sized field.  In a pending compromise with the Club Racing Board, we are going to go back to running a stock throttle body of 64 mm.  This will limit our engine power to about 270 hp, down from our best motor of about 285 hp.  The stated goal of the CRB was to cut us back to 275-280 hp but the SIR idea that was implemented to attempt this was a total bust.

In our first tests with SIRs on the dyno, the losses were in the 25-30 hp range...way out of line.  So that we can get on with the season and prepare for a title defense at Indianapolis, we volunteered to give up all our development work on our ITB program and go back to a race proven reliable 270 hp version of our Honda 2 liter motor that we ran 3 years ago.

Clearly the goal of the CRB is to slow me down so breaking track records is looking like a thing of the past.  Until the new rule clarification is issued we volunteered to run at a reduced rpm limit of 8100 and this Willow Springs outing was our first try with it in place.

As expected, our best lap times were about a half second slower than last year so mission accomplished...I guess...for the CRB.  However, I'll share a different point of view that happened in impound right after Sunday's race.  The Cal Club race director told me he had predicted a new track record for me in the pre-race radio show and wondered what happened.  I explained the concerted effort within SCCA to slow me down and his look was incredulous.  Enough said...some folks besides just us think it's really cool to go faster than anyone else before.  Records are meant to be broken.

World Premier of Hooked For Life Documentary

Today, the documentary film, Hooked For Life, was shown for the first time in public in front of a very eager and excited group of 22 kindergartners as part of Read Across America Day.  I arrived in full race gear with my helmet on and promptly launched into reading a book about cars.  Then after a question and answer period, the movie began.  The kids could hardly believe they were in the same room with someone starring in a movie being shown on the big screen before them.  They all cheered loudly at the end.  After the movie was over, they all got a chance to color in the outlines of my car and I autographed each one creating a truly memorable experience for the budding car enthusiasts.

In all seriousness, though, the movie is a real winner and I highly recommend you get a copy of it.  It's 30 minutes long, full of action, and covers the story of two guys (Jason and I) chasing a dream over the past decade.  Send me an email at jdevenport@cranbrookgroup.com with your name and address and we'll send you a complimentary copy.

There are two people who deserve almost all the credit for making this documentary, Trey Broaddus and Robert Carpenter.  Trey conceived and developed the whole idea, narrated it, edited it, and provided the sound mixing as well.  Robert shot a good share of the video and pictures used in making the film and always has something good to add to the whole process.  I will be forever grateful to both of them for the efforts they put forth in this endeavor and want to acknowledge the vision, skill, and patience it took to pull this off.  Bravo! 

2017 - New Year and New Challenges

After last years near perfect season, it will be hard to top that in 2017...and doubly so now that the SCCA's rules making committee, the infamous CRB, has given us an intake restrictor that will cut our power output from the engine.  In the stroke of a pen, the CRB has undone all of our hard work in gaining a few extra horsepower from the motor and as of now we don't even know how bad the hit will be.  The new rule becomes effective March 1.  The new device, called a single inlet restrictor or SIR, essentially chokes the air intake down to a hole the size of 30.5 millimeters or about 1.2 inches.

Jason is having to figure out how to make the SIR and install it in our airbox and then our engine builder, Tony Manzer of Comptech, will have to try and tune the new setup as best he can.  This is a classic move by the SCCA to slow down the leaders under the guise of equalizing the competition when in reality it panders to protecting the interests of the status quo.  It is disheartening to Jason and I, and we are evaluating our alternative places to race the Norma going forward.

Our 2017 race schedule was created before this hit to our program, so it may change as a result of this SIR rule change.  In the meantime, the first event of the year has been concluded and we started right where we left off last year with two wins at Auto Club Speedway.  Our undefeated streak is still intact for now.

National Champs

Have to admit, it's got a nice sound to it.  After all our planning, hard work, and effort that started 3 years ago, we finally won the Gold Medal, The Tire Rack Pole award, and the Super Sweep at this year's Runoffs.  The whole season has just been magical as we've pretty much dominated every event we finished by winning the pole and every race.  The Runoffs were no different but they still had some high drama and a strong challenge from last year's champ.

As soon as we rolled off the trailer and put the new Norma on-track at MidO, we were the fastest P1 from the get-go.  We had always heard that track conditions could vary greatly at MidO and we finally witnessed it first hand.  On the first day of testing, we tried a new set of sticker tires in the second session out and we turned a 1:17.3 which was 3.5 seconds faster than our theoretical "Fastest Lap...Interrupted" from 6 weeks earlier.  This turned heads right-a-way.

Then over most of the next week we could never get anywhere near that time again, until the 4th and final qualifying event.  That day brought an ideal 9:20 am start time and the track was fast.  After we'd been leading every session all week long, last year's national champ, Gianpaolo Ciancimino, bumped us from pole with 5 minutes left by laying down a 1:18 lap time.  Jason came on the radio and said it's now or never, so I put my head down and banged off three clean laps in a row, all in the 17s, and re-took pole.  That was a great moment.  Watch the pole winning lap below.

Q4 5-minutes to go.

So now we knew he had a real race ahead, as Gianpaolo, or JP for short, was quickly getting his new Swift 014 Toyota sorted after a slow start the week before.  Strangely, I went to bed the night before the race and had the best night's sleep since I'd come back to Ohio.

Race day had perfect weather again and our race started on schedule at 9:55 am.  When the green flag fell, this would be our first time in a side-by-side drag race down the back straight.  Lucky for me, I caught JP napping when the flag flew and I had no pressure at the first turn.  But after two laps, we got our first double yellow, and then on the restart, JP made a bold move and got by me.  Now the race was on as we quickly distanced ourselves from the rest of the field.  Watch the opening laps in the video below.

Great early battle between JD & JP.

Unfortunately, JP developed a shifting issue just as the battle was heating up and fell back.  The rest of the race for me was all about staying focused and running clean fast laps and not taking unnecessary risks.  As more attrition happened and three cars were stalled around the track, another double yellow period ensued with only a few laps left and that is how the race ended.  Although I would have preferred to finish under green flag conditions, I was still relieved when I saw the checkered flag as our large lead was now gone and a late restart on cold tires can always be problematic.

Finally, I have to thank the Bulldog Motorsport's crew of Jason Hohmann, Chris Garcia, and Javier Garcia for working hard all season long and setting the standard for professionalism, preparation, and thoroughness.  I get to do the easy and fun part which is driving the car.  These guys do the heavy lifting.  This has truly been a dream season and one to remember.

We Win Appeal & Mid-O Warm-Up

Lots of good news to report.  The SCCA Club Racing Board thoroughly reviewed the history of the CN rules since the inception of the P1 rule change 2 1/2 years ago.  After confirming the original intent was to allow for an unrestricted engine build, they reversed their prior decision and our developed motor is now approved for competition again.  So we will get to show what we got...can't ask for anymore than that.

Our maiden outing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course located in the beautiful farm countryside near Lexington was truly memorable.  This course is steeped in history as the USA's best have raced here over the years--Indy car preceded us just the week before.  It is a highly technical track but flows like a roller coaster and takes some time to get down pat.

I'd run the track hundreds of times on my IRacing simulator so at least knew where I was going, but there are many subtle nuances you can only learn on-track.  With the exception of the very last race at the end of Sunday, we improved each time out.  The weekends activities included 3 test sessions and 4 official timed events (Q1, Race 1, QRace 2, Race 3) and we kept our season long streak alive but just barely...by just 3/1000s of a second over a fast bunch of F1000 drivers.  We've set fastest lap in every quali and race and won overall every time we've finished this year. 

It was great to get to meet other racers, crew chiefs, mechanics, etc. and jaw bone about what it will take to win the Runoffs.  We were able to turn consistent laps in the 1:21 range which historically would measure up quite well.  But a couple of local insiders think it will take 1:19s to get pole and race laps in the 1:20s to win.  So if that's the case we've got some work to do and we'll be going all out from this point on.  Our new race engineer and driver coach, Eric Purcell, was on-hand and he's been a fantastic addition to our program.  He knows the track well and is a wealth of knowledge.  He will put together a full testing program for us to try out during 4 days of practice preceding the Runoffs.

Jason will give the new car a thorough going over in preparation for the Runoffs.  It ran flawlessly this past weekend and we never placed a wheel wrong or went off track.  Jason is a true master mechanic and solved a difficult problem by simply thinking it through during a late Friday night at the track.  I was amazed Saturday morning when his idea worked perfectly.

Debut of the New Girl!

As you know from my past blogs, getting weight off a race car is one of the best things you can do for speed and fast lap times.  So last year after the Runoffs, I challenged Norma Auto Concept to figure out how to get the lead out as we were still crossing the scales almost 100 lbs. over weight.  The factory came up with a new list of light weight parts that we ordered and planned to introduce in 2016.  As the year got underway and the factory came up with more improvements and upgrades, we decided to just wait and get enough parts to build a new car from scratch.

Jason took on the immense task of building the car from the crate of parts that arrived in his shop.  His goal was to look at every part, hose, wire, bolt, fitting, bracket, fastener, etc. and, if possible, make it lighter.  In a perfect world, the new Norma with me in it would cross the scales at the end of a race just over the minimum weight of 1,350 lbs.

So last weekend was the culmination of this herculean effort as chassis #24/2016 made her debut at Laguna Seca in front of a crowd of supporters attending a Team Cranbrook broker event...no pressure here.

After a rocky start with a mysterious electrical gremlin finally dispatched, the car came alive and performed as expected within 5 laps of running the car in anger for the first time.  We put it on pole in Q2 and won the Sunday race easily.  Put it this way, I'm not sharing any more details that may cause our competitors to whine like babies to the SCCA's Club Racing Board.  The answer on our appeal of the new engine rules should come down from the CRB next week.

Also next week, we head to Mid-Ohio for tune-up regional races and my first time on track there.  Then home for final preparations before returning to Mid-Ohio in mid-September for the Big Show.

Cranbrook's Broker Day gave our valued partners a chance to see Team Cranbrook Racing up close and personal.

We're on to Mid-Ohio!

Regional Tune-Ups and Rule Book Blues

Since the last Majors race in the Pacific Northwest, we've run two more weekends in the San Francisco regional series at the iconic tracks of Laguna Seca and Sears Point aka Sonoma Raceway.  It is rumored that Sears Point will be hosting the 2018 Runoffs, so it was a great chance to see where we stand two years in advance.  We've not run here in four years and never with our current car.  Normally we've been in Portland on the 4th of July weekend, but since we'd already wrapped up the Western Conference title it was a great chance to come back to Sonoma.

Our Laguna weekend went smoothly and we cruised to a pair of poles and wins.  Then, shortly thereafter, a bomb shell was dropped on our engine development program as the Club Racing Board of the SCCA ruled that we were going to be held to the engine specifications of FIA Appendix J, Article 259 instead of a specific line reference to the engine specification in their own rule book known as the General Competition Rules or simply the GCR.  We have appealed this change in interpretation and are hopeful for a reversal.  In the meantime, we are scrambling to get one of our engines changed back to stock configuration so we can go either way depending on the final ruling.  This doesn't seem quite fair given the Runoffs are less than 90 days away.  Check out the dyno runs on the motor below.

This change, if not overturned, will definitely hurt our horsepower output as well as narrow our power band going forward.  So the event at Sonoma took on more meaning as it may be the last time we were going to be able to run this engine set-up.  Needless to say, I was really looking forward to getting on track.   We typically test on used tires from the prior event and switch to new sticker tires in the first qualifying effort.  Then we run them for the rest of the weekend--a total of 4 sessions with two qualifying outings and two races (approximately 2 hours of track time).

One of the highlights of the weekend is going out on sticker tires and then finding their limit in short order in the first qualifying session.  Ideally, all of this happens in a controlled manner that minimizes each successive lap time and damage to the tires that would impact the rest of the weekend.  When you do it right it is quite rewarding.  The fastest we went in practice on the used tires was 1:29.5 and the all-time track record was 1:27.106, done coincidently 4 years ago by Lee Alexander in a DSR Stohr WF-1.  I remember him passing me by like I was standing still in my old Norma.  So we needed to pick up 2.4 seconds to challenge for this all-time track record.  Watch to see what happens.

So, in the end, we came up short by 7/10s of a second but still put on an impressive performance making it the 2nd fastest lap ever run and a new P1 record.  We developed a fuel delivery problem in the first race but still finished first on an oiled-down track.  We started from the back in race 2 after missing qualifying due to the time needed to diagnose the problem and get the car fixed.  No problem, though, as we cruised from last to first in the first lap and drove away from the field.