Cadillac
Grand Prix at Washington D.C.
Autometrics
Motorsports made its first appearance at an IMSA American Lemans event
along with Front Porch Racing in a 2000 Porsche GT3R. This event
was held in the RFK Stadium temporary circuit in the Nation's
Capital. As with most temporary circuits, the 1.66 mile track
featured many tight, hairpin-like turns, moderate straightaway speeds
and concrete walls. Before the car was allowed to turn a wheel on
the track, it had to pass IMSA's technical inspection. Introduced
only a few races ago, IMSA has developed a laser measuring system to
check vital dimensions on the car. Cars must adhere very strictly
to the tight tolerances in order to pass tech. Like more than half
of the field, we were a few millimeters out of spec and had to make
adjustments to the car in order to be ready for practice the following
morning. After a few minor issues were resolved we were checked
off in the tech line and ready to run.
Unfortunately,
a slightly too short wheelbase turned out to not be the most significant
problem of the weekend. Ambient temperature over the weekend was
often into triple digits, and with the sun beating down on the fresh
asphalt, track temperatures were rather fierce. Couple that with a
track where air flow is blocked by concrete walls and track speeds too
slow to provide ample cooling and the result is dangerously high engine
temperatures. Three 1-hour practice sessions preceded qualifying,
so it was imperative to get each driver in the car while tuning the car
for maximum speed. Toward the middle of the second practice the
driver reported both high water temp and high oil temp warnings, so we
were forced to cut the session short in an attempt to increase engine
cooling. After changing the center radiator and re-ducting as much
air as possible to the heat exchangers we went out for the third
practice hoping that the temps would stay at a reasonable level.
Unfortunately, the new radiator began to leak after only a few laps, so
our final practice before qualifying provided little time to tune the
car.
Our lack of
track time and the improvements Porsche has made on the '01 and '02
GT3RS showed in our qualifying results. Cory bested the car's best
lap by well over a second, but that was still only good enough to put us
31st on the grid of 34 cars. Even more disappointing was the fact
that all of our efforts to cool the car produced a negligible drop in
coolant and oil temperature. We evaluated the engine and the car
thoroughly before race day, and were confident that the engine would go
the distance. Luckily, Sunday proved to be the coolest day of the
weekend, and engine temperatures during the warm-up showed that there
would not be any overheating issues for the race.
The pre-race
procedure and festivities for an IMSA event are very elaborate. In
addition to the typical flag ceremony and national anthem, the national
anthem for the home country of every team and driver was played and
there was even a daredevil jump by Robbie Knievel. More than
70,000 fans came to watch the first Grand Prix of Washington DC.
This event is scheduled to be run the next 9 years as well, so the fans
should be happy about that.
We chose a 1-stop
strategy for the event. Toward the middle of the race, we planned
to re-fuel, change tires and switch drivers. Of course, pit
strategy is usually tossed out the window early on temporary circuits,
where contact between cars and walls and the resulting body damage
changes anyone's strategy. Luckily, our drivers escaped the race
without a single incident, not even a paint chip. At the start of
the race, Cory passed a number of GT cars and was able to pull a
significant lead over them. Friedman ran a remarkable pace that
was good enough to put us into 19th overall and 6th in class, which
is where we remained until we made our stop. During the stop a GT
class BMW and Porsche got by us. Tom Soriano of Front Porch Racing
maintained this position through the last 1:15 of the race. 21st
overall and 8th out of 13 in class does not seem like a great result,
but considering the caliber of opponents we were going against, we feel
that the weekend was a success. Front Porch plans to attend the
Mosport ALMS race in August, so Autometrics Motorsports will be there to
try to repeat the relative success we've had with the black GT3R in the
last 2 races.
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