Horton Autosport Keeps Streak Alive in Ohio Thriller!
This past weekend, the picturesque Mid Ohio Sports Car Course hosted the battle ground for rounds 8 and 9 of the World Challenge Sports Car Wars. After an exciting round on the streets of Toronto, the action continued to heat up when the World Challenge hardware hit the very technical Mid Ohio course and as competitors realized the 2010 season is in its waning moments.
It was a very busy weekend at “Mid O” as we call it. The Indy and American Le Mans series both had races the same weekend, meaning the track and facility were very busy. The benefit though was a huge crowd that adores loud, fast race cars like the ones we race in World Challenge.
For myself and the Horton Autosport team, we were looking to capitalize on our familiarity with the course in hopes of finding that top step of the podium. I started racing on the West coast, and Mid Ohio was the first race track I turned a wheel at east of Las Vegas. Since then I’ve spent more time on the Mid Ohio circuit than any other we visit during the season. The problem is, despite my experience there, relative to the veterans of the series I’m still fairly green to the Mid O track.
Arriving in Columbus on Wednesday afternoon was exciting as my Eagle flight weaved through storm cells on our decent. Once on the ground, the air was so thick I could feel my lungs get heavy whenever I took a breath. Not ideal for operating a race car which is already 130 degrees inside. Andris Laivins, engineer for our #57 car and I were very safe on our drive to the track; Hertz gave us a lovely Volvo S40 to drive for the weekend. I wonder if that’s how Randy and Andy feel every time they strap into their K-Pax race cars.
As I took our Horton Autosport Porsche around the Mid O circuit for the first few laps of our Thursday test day, I was right at home on the technical course, loving the ebb and flow of the different sections. There is a portion of the track called “madness” which follows the long, back straight and is the place on the track that breeds the most excitement. Folks might remember the touring car battle that occurred in 2009 which saw PD Cunningham get sideways through madness in every direction only to get straightened out on the bumper of James Clay. Would the 2010 races be as exciting? I secretly hoped so. That wish was almost immediately confirmed as I realized the addition of many new entries to the GTS and Touring fields would mean traffic would be extremely busy during our races. It was great to see so many new machines on the track, and the GTS Mustangs where a treat for me to see as I come from an American Iron background.
Friday practice went well for us, and we made some very good changes to our Porsche with some help from Wright Motorsports, a close partner to our Horton/Truspeed team. I was hopeful for a front row qualifying effort despite the stiff competition. Well, we put in a great effort; good enough for fourth on the grid. I was very proud of crew chief John Horton and engineer Andris Laivins for giving me a great car. The real story of the GT qualifying session was that the top five qualifying spots were covered by less than one and a half tenths of a second. Well done SCCA Pro! James Sofronas won the pole in GT; a relief since Porsche really needed the Manufacturers points to catch Volvo going into rounds 8 and 9.
Saturday’s race was held in the late morning, which made me very happy since we don’t run a cool suit or a helmet blower in our #57 Porsche. I was going to have to focus and drive hard for 50 minutes if I was going to give my team a shot at a podium, much less a win. We had some amazing talent starting around our 4th spot. I was sandwiched in between the Volvo’s of Pilgrim and Pobst. Michael Skeen, a very talented rookie started directly ahead of me on the outside of the first row, and then there was the very fast and determined Sofronas on pole. I had recalled Ron Fellows having difficulty getting the CRP Corvette off the line in previous races and figured I might want to plan a move around Mike if he suffered the same fate at the wheel of the powerful Corvette. I knew I didn’t have to worry about finding Pobst if I made a move to the inside. He’d be well on his way with the Volvo’s AWD launching him from a dead stop similar to a fighter jet hooked to a steam catapult.
As the lights went out for the start of round 8 I got a fair launch, and to my surprise, things played out very similarly to how I predicted. Mike got some wheel spin in the Corvette, and Randy rocketed off, which left me a hole to move inside of Mike into turn 1. Well, the rookie got the #2 CRP Corvette hooked up and, after the first couple turns, was already up to the 3rd spot behind leader James Sofronas and Andy Pilgrim. As I drove behind the two Volvo’s trying to figure out how to pass two of the best in the business, I watched James do everything but unleash the Spy Hunter oil slick on rookie Mike Skeen. The Corvette certainly had the measure of the Porsche, and I fought hard to get up there to help out my Porsche brethren. It took a few laps, but I made two identical moves on the Volvo’s to work my way up to 3rd. They say you’re not supposed to make a pass on the outside of Madness, but Andy and Randy are savvy enough not to give up the inside. You’ll have to watch the Versus coverage August 28th to see the action because I’m not spoiling it! Big thanks to both K-Pax drivers as they are true gentlemen who give their fellow competitors lots of racing room. Well, not lots, but “enough”. In the end, James and I couldn’t catch the rookie in the yellow Corvette, but we took solace in the fact that we scored some valuable points for Porsche. Congrats to Mike Skeen for driving a great race in round 8.
The champagne shower was welcomed, and I was very happy to put our #57 Porsche on the podium for Horton Autosport, Neo Synthetics and Hawk Performance. Now I just needed to rest up and figure out how to do the same thing on Sunday. We took a break from the track Saturday night and headed with the family to Ontario for dinner and a movie. “The Other Guys” with Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg was perfect to give our minds a break from the grueling task of racing against the best in North America. We were ready for round 9.
Sunday brought another huge crowd to the Mid Ohio course. The sun was out and it was a beautiful Ohio day, which meant I huddled in the shade on pre grid with the other drivers before we strapped in. There was a lot of talk about Saturday’s race as we all shared a cool spot. With 40 cars on the track in three different classes, each driver had a wild story of near catastrophe from the previous day’s race. Hopefully Sunday’s race would be less “eventful”.
Well eventful doesn’t really accurately describe Sunday’s race. Wild, intense, multi-class racing turned the 2.25 mile Ohio track into a figurative blender, and spots were gained and lost in frantic fashion as GT drivers stormed through Touring and GTS traffic. I fell victim to some red mist as I met the back end of a Mazda RX8 exiting turn 1. Fortunately we left the corner okay, but I had the Volvo of Rocket Man Randy Pobst storming up my six. Moments like that became a common occurrence while, once again, James Sofronas battled a determined Mike Skeen up front. Later in the race, Skeen’s Corvette would suffer mechanical trouble, but the Volvo of Andy Pilgrim would pick up where Skeen left off, hounding the GMG Porsche of Sofronas for the lead. James held off all challengers, though, as he won his first race of the 2010 season and dedicated the win to his ailing Father. Our thoughts and prayers are with James and his family as they go through a tough time. I give James a lot of credit for dealing with the pressures of the race track so well when he undoubtedly had a lot of emotion to deal with. Well done, James. The round nine action was intense and will be a “must see” on Versus when it airs late this month. Don’t miss it!
I did my best to keep Pobst in my mirrors, but he was too strong after the late race restart, and we ended our day right where we started, in the fourth spot. Not a bad weekend as we extended our top five streak to six straight, but we had higher hopes for the weekend.
We left Ohio proud of our accomplishments and looking forward to rounds 10 and 11 in Virginia. The track at VIR is even more challenging than the one we left behind in Ohio. The circuit is narrower and traffic will play another critical role as championship battles heat up. The Horton/Truspeed team is very confident about our chances at VIR and we have to deliver not only for ourselves, but for our Porsche marque as well. We have a lot of work to do and, while the rest of America is vacationing, we’ll be working hard to find that last little bit before we unload in Virginia.
I’d like to thank crew chief John Horton, Andris Laivins, Wright Motorsports and of course the amazing folks at Truspeed who help make us look big-time at every race. In addition, Neo Synthetic Oil and Hawk Performance are valuable partners whose support has proved invaluable to our success on track this year.
