2006 Season Wrap

Heading into the August event at Mid Ohio, we found ourselves in a three way tie for first place with a very competitive Porsche 924 and a likewise BMW E-30. The race on Saturday went as planned, we qualified in fourth out of seven, had a go0d start, picked up one place and finished third. Going into the Sunday race, we were in second place in season points. We had 51 cars in our run group and just could not get any clear track to get a good qualifying time. When it was clear that I would be starting in the back of the pack, I just came in early to get prepared for the race.

We had great help in the pits this weekend with Greg Armstrong. Greg’s considerable racing experience with his brother Tony’s program was a great help in sorting out the little bugs in our setup. We qualified 6th in class and 49th in grid. It was a rough start with several cars going off track just after turn one. I picked up a position on the start but coming out of the “key hole” I shifted from 3rd to 4th and the clutch pedal stayed on the floor. Tried to use my toe to pull it back up! No dice, I stayed in 4th at the “kink”, when I should have went to 5th and lost a position. I decided to try to go through the turn 7-8-9 combination in 4th, but as fate would have it, three cars got into each other going into turn 7 and I had to brake hard and 4th gar would not cut it so I pulled out of gear and when it did the clutch was gone, so I coasted to a safe spot just before turn 8 and at the point became a spectator. So we finished in 10th place and the moved us to 3rd in season points.

We did race at Putnam so we finished in 3rd overall in GTS1 for the second season in a row.

Season Stats Ran 10 races

(2) 2nd place finishes

(4) 3rd place finishes

(3) 4th place finish

(1) 10th place finish

Finished 3rd overall in GTS1 with

Logged 769 Race miles

Completed 212 race lapsUsed 5 Sets of tires

Traveled 2,751 miles to and from the tracks

Best times of the season:

1:26.728 Putnam Park

1:49.229 Mid-Ohio

1:16.864 Beaver Run

Plans for 2007. I plan to continue to refine the handling characteristics of the 944 and work to secure sponsorship for the 2007 race season.