Phoenix
250
September
9, 2005
Round 11 on Grand Am's 2005 schedule took
us back out west to Phoenix International Raceway. This race
brought a few challenges in addition to regular competition.
Temperatures during the day were as high as 110 F, so on-track activity
was saved for the evenings. This meant practices were short with
very little time between runs. Further complicating matters was
the "garage" area for the GT cars was actually outside the
track facility. In order to get to pit lane, we had to wait for
the end of a session and move all of our equipment to our pit box which
we shared with a DP team. The good news was that this event had a
split-race format, and each class would run its own race.
We had only two 45 minute practice
sessions prior to qualifying on Thursday, and we had about an hour
between runs. After working around the DP team to take down our
pit equipment and making the long trips to and from the trailer, we had
only about 45 minutes to work on the car between sessions.
We ran moderately well the first
practice, but we certainly needed some changes before the second and
final practice. We made our changes, but did not have the time to
check the rear toe after minor contact in the first practice. This
really hurt us, as the toe was definitely off, and we were not able to
make much progress in the second practice. We got the toe reset
for qualifying, but Cory got hung up in slower traffic early in the
session. He got free and immediately turned a respectable lap, but
his following lap was much faster. Our data showed he was
well over a second quicker when a black flag came out. This left
us in a very disappointing 13th position for the start of the race.
The
GT practices had been surprisingly uneventful, as the only black flag we
saw was the one during qualifying. This plays a part in our race
strategy and gives us an idea of what to expect. The PIR track is
very short and slow, so we were able to get about 1:25 on a tank of
fuel, which is more than half the race. Consequently, there is
little risk in trying to run the race on one stop. As it turned
out, race strategy and trying to catch yellows was a moot point, as
there were no yellows. Not a single full-course caution for the
entirety of the 2:45 race. Compared to the parade laps we usually
run, this was a big change and suggests that the GT cars are not
significantly responsible for race incidents.
Despite
our starting position, we were optimistic for a strong finish.
Friedman did a great job picking up two positions on the first
lap. He soon got caught up in some traffic, and because the car
was not handling as well as we would like, he had difficulty getting
through. The race leaders were putting down excellent laps at the
start of the race, and with the course so short, they were picking up
ground on us quicker than we'd like.
Through
the first hour of the race, the top 3 cars, a GTO.R and two BMWs, had
put a lap on us. The field slowed gradually up to this point, but
as things got slippery, the balance on our car improved. Towards
the end of his stint, Cory was nearly keeping pace with the top
Porsches. A few cars, including a BMW and Corvette made stops
early, presumably expecting a yellow late in the race. This
allowed us to pick up a few positions, and when we made our stop, we
were running in 7th. The 6th place car was about 10 seconds behind
from lapping us and the 8th place car was nearly a lap down, having
already made a pit stop.
We pulled
another good stop and Keen went back to racing 10th in class.
Fortunately, two of the cars ahead were certain to have to stop
again. Leh then passed the #26 Porsche, and the #36 Porsche later
lost a radiator. Keen was running excellent laps, not losing any
ground to any Porsche, but the pace of the Pontiacs and M3s couldn't be
matched. We were in prime position for a strong 6th place finish,
one lap ahead of 7th (the #26 car) and one lap down from 5th (the lead
Porsche #80). Unfortunately, that all fell apart when just before
the 2:00 mark, Leh called in a transmission problem. As it turned
out, the problem was a shifter cable, and it ultimately took 46 minutes
to repair. The repair was certainly delayed due to our trailer
being outside the track. This dropped us to last place, but we
were only a few laps down from the Corvette that retired with a blown
engine. We got the car rolling again with about 12 minutes to go,
and that was enough to pick up one lost position for 15th place.
A
race that runs entirely under a green flag leaves no place to
hide. There are no yellows to squeeze in weak drivers, no
wave-byes and no chance to group the field up. A strong team can
use cautions and pit strategy to keep in the running even if their car
does not have the outright speed to keep pace with the leaders.
The top Porsche teams have relied on this all season in order to compete
with the BMWs and now GTO.Rs. This became painfully apparent at
this race as the only two cars on the lead lap were the fastest BMW and
the fastest GTO. One lap down were the second M3 and GTO, and two
laps down from the race winner was the Championship leading #80 Porsche,
who ran a flawless race. Teams are reacting to this, as evidenced
by the extremely small field of only 16 cars. Porsches have
withdrawn from the series knowing there is no chance for a good finish
with the current rules that clearly favor front engined cars, giving
them more power and more tire.
The
positive side of the miserable weekend was that the field was
small. If a mechanical problem is going to drop you to
2nd-to-last, we would much rather it be in a 16 car field rather than
the 22 car fields that are typical. The last 3 races are going to
be a challenge. We have dropped back to 5th in the team standings,
the worst we've been since the crash at California in April. We're
only 2 points behind the #73 car, and 17 points out of 2nd. The
Championship leader remains the #80 car, at 31 points ahead. The
closest car behind us is 32 points down, so this is certainly a 5-car
race. |
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