Mosport

After coming off a very disappointing finish in front of our home crowd at the Long Beach Grand Prix (the #57 Porsche lost a right rear wheel bearing with just 8 laps to go) John, Andris and I were more determined than ever to redeem ourselves at the double-header in Mosport Canada.

I hadn’t driven at Mosport since 2008 when I rented a seat from Peter Cunningham in a Realtime Racing Acura RSX. Most of my memories from two years ago were pure amazement at how amazing and fluid the Realtime machine operates. Then I vaguely remembered how scary the Mosport track can be with its blind high speed corners and its unforgiving walls just feet off the racing surface. Racers refer to it as “The Rollercoaster” for a reason. Yet I still felt confident going into the weekend with our Horton Autosport Porsche.

In between Long Beach and Mosport we had time to do some testing with our #57 car. We learned a lot during our test and more importantly found some good performance gains with our new Hawk brake pads. Our car is now stopping better than ever, but unfortunately the nature of the Mosport track would not allow us to use our braking advantage to the fullest.

The flight out to Toronto from New York was great. Our American Eagle flight took us over the Finger Lakes and then we turned North over buffalo, flying over Niagara Falls and Lake Ontario to Toronto.

Unlike the previous races this season, Mosport would afford us the luxury of a test day prior to starting the official practice sessions. We unloaded the #57 Porsche and never really touched the setup the entire day. The only real excitement was a broken axle in the second to last session of the day. We left the track Friday ready for Saturday’s crazy schedule. We’d have to practice, qualify and race all in the same day.

The first practice session on Saturday left us 5th quickest, just one tenth of a second out of 3rd. We knew we could have a shot at qualifying near the front. The second practice session showed us 6th quickest, definitely within striking distance. Time to qualify…

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth mentioning again: qualifying a World Challenge car is a very demanding and difficult science. The nature of the Toyo tires are such that you really get just one shot at setting a fast lap, a racing “do-or-die” situation. Fortunately I hit my marks and hauled the mail, putting our #57 Horton Autosport, Sloan Securities Porsche 911 in the 4th spot.

Pre Grid at Mosport was jumping! Canadian fans excited to see our World Challenge cars do battle in what we call “Sports Car Wars” were crowding around the cars, crew and drivers. Fans even got to participate in the march to the grid, mingling with drivers on the front straight as the cars were parked in their starting positions. It was a blast! Then we were suddenly reminded that it was time to get serious as the fans left the front straight and I started to strap in.

Starting near the front is always a good thing; however, at Mosport the front straight picks up a little downhill grade as you get closer to the start/finish line. That meant that I would have to hold the brake at the start so the car wouldn’t roll, something I hadn’t had to deal with yet. As a result, I didn’t get the launch I wanted. It worked out though and after the first lap I held on to our 4th place starting spot behind the Volvos of Pobst and Pilgrim and Kuno Wittmer’s Viper.

As the first few laps of the race ticked away I started getting pressure from Jason Daskalos in the 5th spot. He was coming strong and in turn 5 tried an over/under move on me and I tried to give him room through the apex at 5b, but we came together on the exit. I ended up taking a little drive through the dirt and grass, but Jason had a spin. I felt bad, but tried to soldier on after the lead group. Due to the battle with Jason I had lost touch with the leaders and had a difficult time rejoining their draft. Several laps later Andy Pilgrim’s Volvo would suffer a failure and I inherited the 3rd spot. Things stayed that way until late in the race, as I had to worry about a closing Viper. It was Jason! He was making a charge back and it was obvious his car was hooked up and coming fast. I bared down and focused on hitting my marks, especially onto the back straight as I didn’t want to fall victim to the horsepower of the viper. I was getting onto the back straight with enough momentum that Jason wouldn’t start pulling on the Porsche until ¾ of the way down the straight. Checkered flag and we had done it, our first World Challenge GT podium!

We hardly had time to cherish the feeling of success since we had a lot of work to do for Sunday’s race. We also had to qualify again, crap! It was another long night of wrenching on the car. We left the track Saturday night after enjoying the Victoria Day fireworks and ready to make our own fireworks on track.

Sunday’s qualifying session saw us running our #57 car considerably heavier than the previous day. Not only did we receive some REWARDS weight from our podium finish, but the SCCA powers at be decided we needed an extra 50 pounds. I’m not really sure how, but we ran virtually the same qualifying lap on Sunday as we did on Saturday, despite the extra weight. However, it wasn’t good enough for the second row. This time we would start the race from the 7th position, inside row four.

Again we enjoyed having the fans participate in the march to the grid and again we were bummed to see them leave the front straight as we strapped in. Time to get down to business… This time as the lights went out I got a better launch. Ron Fellows, who didn’t participate in Saturday’s race, but qualified 2nd in Sunday’s race, spun badly on the start and the front three rows scrambled to find space on the narrow front straight. I decided to hang back rather than burry my nose in the mayhem. That decision proved to be a good one as Fellows, determined to make up those lost positions, made what looked to be a low percentage move to the inside in turn two. I held strong in seventh, trying to pick up a spot on Daskalos after he and Crescentini had contact in 8. We went two by two through 9 and 10, but I couldn’t make the move stick as the viper stretched its legs down the front straight. As the laps ticked by, Crescentini was forced to the pits for a stop-and-go penalty and again Andy Pilgrim’s Volvo wasn’t up to the task and he became a spectator parked on the back straight. James Sofronas mounted a good charge late in the race which was pretty remarkable considering his last place starting position. James didn’t qualify because he was still en route from the American Le Mans race he drove in the day before. His Porsche looked strong though and he almost got close enough to make a bid on my 5th place spot, but the checkered flew and we closed out a good weekend.

Our car performed great thanks to the hard work of the crew. John Horton put a great car under me once more and Andris Laivins’ help proved invaluable once again. I also have to thank John Wright for his support and Porsche expertise. Porsche Motorsports North America had a representative there to make sure our car ran like a top. Having confidence behind the wheel is imperative and with the cast of talent I just mentioned, I have total confidence in our car.

The weekend wasn’t over for me yet though. As I was sitting at the gate waiting for my American Eagle flight back to New York, Andy Pilgrim who was leaving out of the neighboring gate congratulated me on a solid weekend. Always a class act, I really appreciated his words. He had just come off two DNF’s and had to be eternally frustrated, but he took the time to congratulate a fellow competitor. Thanks Andy.

It was nice to reflect on the weekend during the flight back. I looked out the window as we streaked over the Finger Lakes and I found Watkins Glen in the dusk. We’ll be there for round 6 of the World Challenge season in a few short weeks. I started running laps in my head and imaged standing on that podium again… just as I nodded off.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 28th, 2010 at 1:39 pm. It is filed under Race Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.