This year everything came together just right for us and we were able to race at the Classic Motorsports The Mitty presented by Mazda at the classical Road Atlanta race track. With help from Andretti Indoor Karting, Big Dog Racing, and various donations from very grateful people we made this dream come true and boy was it a dream. Other than the 2011 SCCA National Runoffs I had never run in front of such a big crowd. RV’s and tents lined the back straight and spectators were all over the fences around the track. More than that Andretti’s was able to set up a tent in the vendor village where spectators could roam and get more information on their company.
Thursday
Thursday was a test day and was much needed for our Ford Mustang and myself. We had a brand new engine in the car and even more importantly I hadn’t been in the car since March of 2012 so I was a little rusty. Luckily, the dust was knocked off very quickly and we made a lot of progress from the morning session to our last session in the afternoon. We had some things to work on for the weekend though. The rear brakes were locking up on us and I was having some trouble getting into the gears. The transmission problem was solved by the morning on Friday by just adjusting the clutch linkage. The braking issue though lasted the entire weekend.
Sitting in the Paddock on Thursday
Friday
Friday morning we decided to skip the first practice session since we spent all day Thursday practicing and we were confident in the car. Turns out we didn’t miss much seeing as someone blew their engine and spread oil literally from turn 2 all the way to turn 11 and the session was black flagged. The drivers in our group only got 2 green flag laps due to the spill.
We did run the second practice just before lunch to shake down the car and see where we were at compared to some of our competition. We went out and sized up some competition and were very pleased with our results: second fastest in class and we weren’t even running 10/10ths by any means.
We raced on Friday evening at 4:45 in a 72 car field for the Jack Lewis International/American Challenge. The feature race had 3 groups combined on track and we were up against some tough competition. Lots of extremely fast but very cool cars such as Jaguar XKEs, Shelby Cobras, Ford Gt-40s, Shelby Mustangs, Trans-Am Mustangs, Chevy Corvettes, and the list goes on. We were supposed to start on the 7th row for the race but for some reason we were lined up way back in 44th position. I knew we weren’t going to make it all the way to the front in just 7 laps but I gave it my best shot. We passed 21 cars in our 7 lap feature race to finish 23rd and turned some heads in the process. Not too bad considering the competition and lack of time.
Video from Friday’s Feature Race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGQY3peH8IU
Saturday
Saturday morning brought rain and our qualifying session was going to be a wet one. I was pretty nervous about the rain seeing as this was the first time since 2011 I would be at speed in the wet. We went out for just 4 laps and surprisingly the car was great! We sat on pole for most of the session but pulled it in early. We should have stayed out seeing as everyone else ran 9 laps and we dropped down to 5th on the grid but I was very confident in the car and my ability in the wet.
The rain cleared out and our race on Saturday afternoon was in the dry. We lined up 5th(1st in class) on the grid with two Porsche 914.6s in front followed by a BMW and the Lotus 23 on pole driven by legendary Doc Bundy. I was feeling pretty confident about our starting spot and thought we had a good chance for podium.
The green was thrown and we quickly moved to 4th because our power had the BMW handled on the straights. I was glued to the rear bumper of the yellow Porsche 914.6 and just needed to be patient for the first straight away where our power should easily motor by the small Porsche as well. Out of turn 5 I got along side the Porsche and took the inside for the braking zone for 6. But the Porsche being light and nimble held me off on the outside so I just waited for the long straight after 7. Passing the yellow Porsche I had the next 914.6 in my sights and was ready to pounce. Unfortunately I never got close enough. The little 914.6 had us handled in the turns and had good torque out of the corners but we had him on top end. We acted like an accordion for the next 5 laps and he slowly lengthened his gap on us. I figured we would just lay low and finish in 3rd achieving my personal goal of a podium finish at The Mitty. But then with two laps to go here he came. A green with yellow striped Jaguar XKE and he was gaining quickly. I could tell immediately that we weren’t going to keep him behind us. He was a minimum of 500 pounds lighter, had a ton of horsepower, and was very aerodynamic. Out of turn 7 on lap 5 he blew by us and easily put 15 car lengths on our Mustang leaving me in the dust heart broken. We needed a miracle to save our 3rd place finish but it just wasn’t in the cards for us. We came in 4th overall but we still won our class.
Video from Saturday’s Group 3 Race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWbYmsiUGNU
Sunday
All we had on Sunday was our last race of the weekend at 1:45 in the afternoon. As most of you know Sunday was extremely wet. We would have run faster lap times with a boat. The track was dangerous, rivers ran all over and puddles of water were treacherous for the drivers. Rain is called the great equalizer by drivers because no matter how good the car, no matter how good the equipment, rain amplifies the mistakes of a driver. The driver’s true abilities come out and the rain makes cars unpredictable and makes drivers scared. I personally have always enjoyed the rain. We have always run well in the wet and our car does surprisingly well even with all the horsepower.
Once again we started in 5th position from Saturday’s qualifying session behind the same cars as mentioned earlier. We did 3 pace laps around the track to give us an idea of where the standing water was and where we might actually have some grip. The green flew and we quickly moved into 2nd position by lap 2. Doc Bundy in his Lotus 23 lead wildly in front of us for a few laps before I made a bold move into the dangerous turn 12. I got a run on the legend out of 10B and I knew our tires were better than his and could hold a quicker line than he could. Nobody passes in turn 12 for the most part but I couldn’t give up the run I had, this was my shot. I pushed down the inside coming into 12 making Bundy go wide. He tried to hang in there but his Lotus couldn’t take the rivers of water running across the turn and he lost control. His car spun 3 times down the front straight away without touching anything and he regained control and was underway again!!! We had the car and the time was right for us that day. We won the race by 29.8 seconds and set the fastest lap of a 2:00.162, 6 seconds faster than the Lotus 23 of Doc’s who finished 2nd. An amazing end to an amazing weekend.
Like I said, racing at The Mitty has always been a dream of mine and to actually win at The Mitty is surreal. My dad used to race at this historical event so it’s pretty cool to follow in his footsteps. HSR put on a wonderful weekend and I was amazed at the number of spectators that showed up this year regardless of the potential for rain. Thank you so much to Andretti Karting and Big Dog Racing for supporting us and to all of the people that donated to our racing fund. Last but not least thank you to my parents and uncle Don for all the help and to my friends that came out all weekend to cheer us on.
Outline:
Friday- Started 44th in field of 72 cars, finished 23rd
Saturday- Started 5th in field of 46 cars, finished 1st in class and 4th overall
Sunday- Started 5th in field of 24 cars, finished 1st in class and 1st overall
Photo Credits to: Ross Monckton, Allan Dobbins, and David Ferguson
A Karter's Perspektive 