CSCC 8/19, 8/20 Race at PIR

8/18/07: Lisa, Alex, Skyler and I loaded up the racecar on the trailer and headed south to Portland to race at Portland International Raceway for the weekend. This was the first time we have been back to race at PIR since we moved back to Seattle last year. I miss living so close to a race track. We used to live only about 10 minutes away from this track. This was only my second race this season and I was eager to get back on track. I towed the racecar to work Friday morning and worked until Lisa and the boys picked me up at 3:00 and we headed south for Portland. Traffic was really bad and what is usually a 3 hour drive turned out to be a 5 hour drive. We drove straight to the track, registered and began unloading and setting up our paddock space. After that we went over to the Days Inn located next to the track and checked in into our room for the night. When Morning came I got up pretty early to get ready for the days activities. Lisa wasn’t feeling well so she and the boys slept in while I went to the track and got ready to take the car out on my first track session, a twenty minute practice session. The weather was perfect for racing. It was cool but sunny. My morning practice session went well and the racecar was running and handling pretty good. Afterwards I went back to the motel to pick up Lisa, Alex and Skyler and took them back to the track for the rest of the day. In the afternoon I went back on track for my first qualifying session for the weekend where I was able to set a fast lap time of 1:25.872. The car still felt pretty good so I didn’t change anything on the setup. When our group’s official qualifying results were posted, I found that I had qualified in 5th place. After my qualifying session I check over the car, check the brakes, tires, oil, etc, then we left the track and went out for pizza. After dinner the boys wanted to see a movie so we went and saw the Simpson’s Movie which we all enjoyed. Sunday morning we got up and packed up our bags, checked our of the motel and went back to the track. During my morning qualifying session I wasn’t able t better my lap times from the day before. The official qualifying results had me starting 5th on the grid of 26 competitors and 1st in my ITE class. After this session we just checked things over, bled the bakes and rotated the tires to get ready for the afternoon race. After lunch we were the second race group to race. As I brought the racecar over to pre-grid I began to strategize on how I would start the race. We left pre-grid and began following the pace car around the track for our pace lap, scrubbing tires and brakes to generate heat for the first turn of the race. As we came around for the start we all bunched up real tight for a good start. When the starter dropped the green flag we all jumped on the gas and raced for turn 1 into the “Festival Curves”. On my left was Scot Morton in a fast GT2 Nissan 350Z. I had the inside line and beat him into and through the first turn as I was hot on the tail of Alan Wendler in his fast GT1 Chevy Monte Carlo. As we exited the Festival curves I had about a 1 car length lead on Scott Morton as the leaders began to pull away slightly ahead of me. Scott stayed on my tail for the next 10 laps or so as we raced really hard together. He had better speed in the corners, but I had better straight away speed. He’d pass me in the turns but I’d pass him right back on the straights. After so many laps of that my tires started getting really hot and greasy making it impossible to keep him behind me, so I finally pointed him by. As soon as I did this I see in my rearview mirror the second place ITE car, a fast Mitsubishi Evo XIII driven by Wayne Monahan gaining on me real fast and getting really big in my mirrors. Soon he was all over my rear bumper looking trying to pass me. It was the same thing though, he was catching me in the turns, but I’d pull him on the straights and try to gain a little breathing room before he’d catch me in the turns. My tires and traction were getting really bad in the corners and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep Wayne from passing me passing me for sure on the next lap. As we exited turn 12 onto the front straight I was determined to put as much space between us as possible so it was peddle to the metal all the way down to the brake zone for turn 1. As I exited the chicane and looked in my mirrors, Wayne was nowhere to be seen! I figured he must have overheated since he was driving a highly modified turbo charged car, they tend to be more susceptible to overheating with their high pressure intake charges. All I had to do now was cruise a couple more laps onto victory. I ended up finishing the race 1st in class, 4th place overall! It was a great race and a hard fought victory. During the race I was able to improve my best lap time slightly to 1:25.243. After the race we congratulated my competitors and began to pack up for the trip home. I felt good about the race and especially winning my 5th career 1st place finish! Unfortunately our in car video camera quit working so I don't have any video to upload.