Sebring
PCA Club Race
February
10-12, 2006
After a Daytona
event that can only be described as disastrous, we were sure that the
Sebring PCA Club Race had to be more fun and less problematic, but this
race went even better than we hoped. Sebring is traditionally the
first race on the PCA calendar, and the track has significant history,
so the turn-out at Sebring is always very good. Due to the IMSA
GT3 Challenge race at Sebring in just a few weeks, the competition in the
GT3 classes was even tougher than it is typically.
Leh
Keen again drove his GT3 RS in the GTA class, and he never slipped below
second overall on the time sheets. Mac McGehee and Kim Linville
were competing in the GTC3 category, a huge field of 996-based GT3 Cup
cars. The Blue group consisted of most of the stock class cars,
and like Leh, Bill Martin sat comfortably at the top of the timesheets
in practice.
Qualifying was a
challenge in all groups due to the overpopulation. Bill began to
catch cars on his first flying lap, and struggled with traffic all
through qualifying. Still, his time was just good enough to hold
the overall pole position. In the yellow group, Leh's qualifying
was a carbon-copy of Bill's, as he had traffic problems, but managed the
overall pole by a small margin. Mac and Kim would start 22nd and
26th in class, respectively.
On the
start of the blue group race, Bill got overpowered at the start by the
two turbo cars (a 911 and a 944) behind him. After a short battle,
Martin overtook the 911 turbo, and the 944 turbo had to retire due to
what sounded like a driveline problem. With this, Bill reclaimed
the overall lead and never looked back. He ran a great pace and
took the overall win without any other challenges. Doug Roach
enlisted the use of our E class 911 for this race, and he also earned a
podium finish.
The yellow race
again paralleled the Blue, when Leh was also challenged at the start by
two overpowered turbocharged cars. Leh held on through the first
lap, and early in the race, he lost his position a few times temporarily
before outdriving the competition and regaining the top spot. In
the end, Leh took the overall win by a comfortable margin. Mac had
a great race, picking up 15 overall positions, and he finished in the
top half of the GTC3 field. Kim Linville did one better, picking
up 16 positions throughout the race.
Sunday's
racing was devoted to the enduro, and our drivers continued doing very
well. Bill qualified third in the group, ahead of the other D
class cars and all of the C class racers. Mac's qualifying was a
bit ore exciting. He turned his fastest lap of the weekend, but
that was overshadowed when the lower chain tensioner nuts inexplicably
came loose, sprayed oil on the exhaust and caught the rear passenger
corner of the car on fire! Thinking very quickly, Mac hit his fire
system and hurried to get a corner worker fire extinguisher. He
put all the flames out before they could do any real harm. The car
looked very bad, but damage was all cosmetic. Kim was generous and
let us borrow his fire bottle, tail light and wing, and Mac took the
grid for the enduro.
Bill's enduro
progressed well, and he generally retained the lead in his class.
A yellow came out about half-way through the race, and this was
potentially a big problem. No cars are allowed to make their
mandatory stop after a full-course caution, but drivers already in the
pit lane are allowed to serve their time while the field is circulating
at reduced pace. This is a huge advantage to anyone fortunate
enough to catch it, and there was definitely a C class car that took
full advantage, but we hoped that no D class cars slipped in. Once
green again, Bill had some open track and burned off his fastest times
ever at Sebring, and then made his stop. The pit stop was
flawless, and then Bill continued running his strong pace. In the
end, it turned out that none of his competitors took advantage of the
yellow, and Bill won his class and took fourth overall. Doug took
2nd in the E class enduro.
Mac's
enduro went equally well. His car was a bit uglier, but it was
just as fast, as he also turned his best times ever at this track.
A consistent pace and a stop at exactly 5:00 lead Mac to an impressive
6th in class and top 15 overall. GTC3 cars took 25 of the 65 car
field in this race. Leh also co-drove the enduro with Dino Loles,
and he scored another podium, this time in GTC3.
Despite
a little drama before the enduro, we had an excellent weekend. All
of our drivers drove great races and got the results to prove it.
We always have high hopes, but winning 2 out of 3 sprint races overall
at an event this big is more than we could have asked for.
Congratulations to all of our drivers; we hope everyone had a great
time. |
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