Two More Wins and A Big Dissapointment at The Glen
I had no time to rest at Watkins Glen this past weekend for the
PCA Zone 1 Club Race. After last years dissapointing second place finish on what we consider our second home track, Ernie and I were both focussed on performing well. Watkins Glen is one of
PCA's largest events, over 280 cars were there, 16 in "D" class including 964 Turbos and Rothmans Cup 944 Turbos, they would be very fast here.
Friday's practise time was shortened as we would have to qualify in the third session of four for the day, this to make room for an additional 15 lap sprint race on Saturday. We qualified OK, seventh overall I think and first in class, but the competition was there as well, right there beside us. Dissapointment #1; we missed the track record by 1 second. Traffic during qualifying was heavy due to the number of cars.
In the first race we managed to get a 16 second lead, Ernie backed it off and we were then challenged by two white 911's, a late full course caution put our competition in sight but they had little to say when the green flag fell. Ernie turned three 2:13 laps to finish 3 seconds ahead for our 10th race win for the MantisSport Cayman S.
In the second race we were not so challenged. Over the 18 laps Ernie kept the pace high turning 2:12's with consistency until we had a 30 second lead, then backed it off to 2:13's to earn victory # 11.
Sunday's 90 minute Enduro would be the feature race of the weekend, we had an even larger field as the pesky and fast GTC1 cars and GT4 cars would join our field. We started from the 17th position and ran as high as 10th after a good start. Then the racing gods gave me a gift from heaven, Rain! Harder than Road
Atlanta and they were all out on dry's.
The Pits would be closed for the first 15 minutes of the race, we could come in but it would not count as our manditory 5 minute stop, forcing us to make two pit stops. Ernie kept the car going fast and with 20 minutes gone in the race it started to pour on pit lane. I radioed him to pit now and a few seconds later the yellow Cayman S dove into pit lane.
We have only two crewmen allowed over the wall plus the driver. Fuel for the finish went into the car while Ernie was standing beside me under the canopy. Then we jacked the car up on one side, removed the wheels and replaced them with the rain tires as Ernie strapped himself into the drivers seat. The passenger side done the crew moved to the drivers side and repeated the operation. The wheel nuts were torqued and with 30 seconds to spare I radioed Ernie in the car we were done, "30 seconds to go, start the engine". We had made our first re-fueling and tire change pit stop in under 4 minutes!
As I watched the clock for the correct time to release the Racing Cayman from the pits I glanced at the flagging station at the start line, full course caution was out for the rain, pits were closed, we won this one I thought. As I began to call Ernie to resume the race I saw the chequered flag fly at the start line, they called the race due to the rain. Our race was over, the great pit work for naught.
Racing is a cruel sport. We think we can win but we never really do, I think we just get moments of hope to keep us going. When I called Ernie into the pits we were the first of the lead cars to do so. Working under the heavy rain and full course caution we may have gone a lap down to the field, we would not have gone two laps down. This would have put us near the back of the field with all of the leaders needing to make a 5 minute pit stop and running on dry tires in the rain. We would have killed them.
All weekend I was working with Ernie to secure our class wins, encouraging him not to race the faster cars if we didn't need to. He did a great job, managed the race well, gave me a "fast one" when needed and maintaining a comfortable enough pace to earn two more wins. When the rain came on Sunday I got greedy, I went for the overall victory. I made the call, prepared the crew for the stop and they did it perfectly. Ernie said nothing to me, he knew what I was doing. I was rolling the dice for glory. No glory this time though. I lost!
Stan
P.S.
I forgot to mention one other important item.
PCA Club Racing has one award each weekend that is highly regarded by all of the competitors, It is the Workers Choice Award. Three of these hang in the front room at Mantis, we are very proud of these. Saturday evening The MantisSport Cayman S received it's second Workers Choice Award (we got our first at Road
Atlanta last year). There are now four in the front office at Mantis.
