This past weekend was the NASA National Championships at Mid-Ohio, a four-day racing extravaganza. At the beginning of this season, my goal was to win a National Championship at this race. Well...the best laid plans...

I've spent the season trying to find the perfect setup for my car after adding what amounted to pretty much an entirely new suspension late last year.

I've tweaked ride heights, spring rates, shock absorber bump and rebound settings, sway bar adjustments...you get the idea. There are a lot of possible combinations and, to complicate matters (which were too complicated to start), I've also spent the season trying aerodynamic tweaks, all in the effort to find a winning edge.

My good friend (and on-track nemesis) Jim Child has been the gold standard against which I've been measuring progress. He is absolutely consistently always at the very front of the field and is always the guy to beat. While I have occasionally been ahead of him during races this season, he has always come back past and pulled away in the later stages.

After entirely too much analysis of this particular state of affairs, I'd decided the issue was that while I might be able to push harder in the earliest stages of a given race, as the race wore on his superior setup meant his tires didn't go away like mine did and he could leave me like a bad habit.

Well, FINALLY, Friday morning, the first day of Championship Qualifying Races, I got there. A last set of suspension tweaks had transformed my car and I was consistently putting down laps a second or more faster than I'd ever done at Mid-Ohio. I was peaking at exactly the right time.

And, I was racing in two classes...that meant two potential National Championship trophies. I was already mentally clearing space for them on the bookshelves. But then the wheels started to come off...literally.

As I said, we'd decided to run in two classes. That's "we," meaning my good friend, racing buddy, and fellow Skid Marks Racing Team member, Brad Waite and I. With NASA, we normally race in GTS2, the German Touring Series, but for this race we figured out we could also run in the 944 SuperCup class. Changeover times between classes were tight but do-able, so we signed up for both.

The format for the weekend was Qualifying Races on Friday and Saturday, the results of which were to be combined to determine the starting order for Sunday's National Championship race. So, it was important to do well Friday and Saturday to get near the front of the pack on Sunday when it actually counted.

Unfortunately, during one of Thursday's SuperCup practices I was so focused on getting through a cluster of traffic that I totally missed a yellow flag. My penalty for the pass I made under the yellow resulted in me having to start at the back of the SuperCup field for Friday's Qualifying Race. Eleventh. Could be worse. Qualifying for GTS was better. There, I was 3rd in class, slightly behind Jim Child and another GTS2 guy, plus a GTS3 car (a slower guy from a faster class) which was back in there with us.

The SuperCup Qualifying Race was going good. I'd moved from 11th up to 5th and was chasing down fourth place when the white flag (last lap) came out. The fourth place car was probably too far ahead to catch in one lap, but I gave it a shot. I pushed really hard and was pulling in chunks of track at every turn when I over-cooked turn 9 at the bottom of Madness and spun it. I kept the car running but getting things going again cost me a couple of places. Bummer...should have settled for 5th.

It was Friday's GTS Qualifying Race, though, that was the start of my undoing. We--the lead GTS2 guys--were buried in the middle of the overall field, starting back in the mid-20s positions (this group has 5 different classes, of which we are the next-to-slowest) in a 50-car field. After sorting through the initial couple of laps, which invariably involve a lot of two- and three-wide racing, in our little group Jim Child was in the lead, followed by the other GTS2 car, then the GTS3, then me, third place in our class.

I got around the GTS3 car and was closing on 2nd place who, himself, was staying even with Jim, thinking to myself, "wow, I finally have a car with a legitimate chance of beating Jim Chil...," when at just about that moment I got hit hard on the right side while cresting the hill into Thunder Valley. My car was slammed into the tire wall on the left side, hit, bounced, spun around, and stopped dead just off the edge of the track, with the front suspension broken and the car unable to restart.

Shocked, upset and mad as I sat there, it turns out I may have unknowingly been a contributing factor to the incident.

A faster GTS4 car which had had a terrible start was trying to get though. Apparently he was trying to pass me in the turn prior to the one in which I was hit. I didn't realize he was there and--from what I've learned afterward--crowded him to the point he had to get in the grass. That tore off the front of his air dam, damaging his oil cooler, dribbling oil on the track and removing most of his ability to steer the car. I was actually making room for him when I got hit but he was pretty much along for the ride as, it turns out, was I just a moment or two later.

We took the car back to the garage and I was disappointed, depressed and pissed, pretty much all at once. But then the guys from Steinel's Autowerks, a great Porsche street and race shop in Twinsburg, came along, poked around a while, and said, "we're going to go see if we have the stuff we need to fix this up in the truck."

Sure enough, they did. By 9:30 that night, they had the suspension back together except for the alignment they'd do in the morning and the fact we'd used regular street car parts, which meant the front left corner--the most important on a clockwise track--was using stock, which is to say, soft and imprecise, bushings. Better than nothing, but not as fast as the right racing parts.

While they were doing that, I was working on fixing the air dam and fender. Well, "fixing" might be a little strong as a description of the quality of work I was able to bring to the table. Let's call it "mitigating the damage somewhat." I am, quite, frankly, amazed at what the Steinel's guys were able to do, that they could actually get me back on the track in such short time.

As a result of this incident, because they said I crowded the guy who hit me and was, therefore the contributing factor, I was made to start Saturday's GTS Qualifying Race from the back of the field...this after finishing dead last in Friday's Qualifying Race after the accident. At that point, pretty much any hope I'd been holding out about winning--heck, even placing--in GTS were gone.

To add insult to injury, in Saturday's Qualifying session (to determine the starting order for the Qualifying Race), I went out just to make sure my suspension was working OK when, after a few laps, the same guy who'd hit me Friday lost oil on the track. I was about the third car there--before any warning flags were out--hit the oil, spun like I was on Black Ice, and hit the guard rail with the front left corner...the one I had just finished fixing. UGH!

So, you get the idea. Bottom line, I started the GTS race 44th in the field and ended up 26th (9th in class) which was at least a respectable 18 places in 16 laps. While I didn't score very well, it's always a lot of fun starting from the back and working through heavy traffic, so that was some consolation.

The good news here is Jim Child won the GTS2 National Championship after a race-long battle for the lead which he finally won in one of the very last laps. That's well-deserved. He has consistently been the guy to beat all year long and no one deserves it more. Great job Jim!

In the SuperCup race, I both started and finished 4th, but the actual race was a lot more interesting than it sounds from that statement. Ed Hazelwood, one of the guys starting a few rows back must have got a hell of a jump on the start as he came from nowhere up to 2nd by the first corner. Another lap later, the fastest car in the field, Karl Troy, who had started at the back of the class after a penalty the day before, came through. I'd gotten past the 3rd place starter, so I was running 5th and Brad was 4th, behind Ed, the guy who got the jump.

A couple laps later, Brad found a way past him. About a lap after that, I got a particularly good run out of Turn One and pulled alongside in the run up to the Keyhole. Ed was doing his damnedest to keep me behind him so he waited really late to brake--too late, it turned out, as he slid off the track, through the pea gravel, and into the wall (he was OK, though I suspect he, too, has a lot of work to do on his car over the winter).

Past Ed, I took off after Brad who was now in 3rd. At some point--we think it was with about 10 laps remaining--I caught up to him and, for the rest of the race we ran hard together (see the photo above). He'd get held up by traffic and I'd close in, then I'd get held up and he'd open some ground.

I got several shots at him but couldn't get the job done. On the penultimate lap, he managed to get a pair of battling Dodge Neons between us just as we got to the twisties and had two or three turns of running away while I tried to get through. Finally, I cleared the Neons and went back after him as hard as I could, knowing the race was getting close to the end.

They threw the white flag (one more lap) with Brad having about a hundred-yard lead. Determined to get another shot and with just fifteen turns left, I pushed really hard, hanging it out in One, braking deeply at the end of the back straight, sliding over Madness, skittering into Thunder Valley. Bit by bit, I was closing distance all the way around the track.

Finally, in Turn 13, three turns before the finish line, I got back within a couple of car-lengths and--due to his running a defensive line--got a run on him toward 14, the Carousel, a 180-degree right-hander and the slowest turn on the track. He was protecting the inside line, so I late-braked to his left, pulling up to about his door. As he turned in--running a little wide due to his approach to the turn--I crossed over behind him, moved to the right side and got back on the gas sooner than he could.

In the very short chute between 14 and the left-hander 15 which leads to the finish line, I pulled alongside and we went side-by-side through 15 with him just slightly ahead but me with a teench better run. Fully in protection mode now, Brad crowded me a bit at the exit to the point I had to put my right wheels in the dirt and back off just enough for him to cross the finish line a few feet before me.

I'd lost, but it was a terrifically fun fight with one of my favorite people. There's nobody else I'd rather have lost out to in that situation.

Later, at impound, Brad climbed out of his car, face red, sweating profusely, and said, "man, I am worn out," with a big shit-eating grin on his face. That race pretty much made the weekend, even considering all the other obstacles that had come along.

A big hearty congratulations to Brad who, with just two years of racing experience, has turned into a terrific road racer. For ten laps he pushed his car to, and sometimes over, the limit while under extreme pressure and yet never put a wheel wrong, never left the littlest hole or made the tiniest mistake that would have let me pounce and get by. I can't tell you how hard that is to do, and he did it about as well as it could be done. It was impressive driving and I had the best seat in the house to see it from.

My helmet is off to you, my friend. And, just think: That's a National Championship podium for Skid Marks Racing Team!

1. Keith S09/17/2007 07:19:30 PM

Very nice write up Scott. Did Ed H drive the black 944 #931? We were wonder what happened to him.

Keith

2. Scott Good09/18/2007 08:24:09 AM
Homepage: http://www.scottgood.com

Hi Keith,

Yes...Ed was #931. I didn't actually see him hit the wall (as I was busy trying to make the turn) but one of the guys not far behind said he took a pretty good shot: "...I saw the car go up in the air..."

The next lap, though, the car had been moved to the bottom of the hill so we all assume he was OK.

Scott

3. Brad W.-SMRT Motorsports09/18/2007 02:53:43 PM

A very well written account of the weekend Scott. I had a comment from a non-racing friend who read the blog and said that although he didn't know anything about racing, he felt like he was there. Thanks for the nice comments on my racing also.....but let's be fair here, you're much too humble. Thanks for all the mentoring, advice and driving instruction you've given me over the past 2 years. You're a good friend and a great mentor. bw

4. Etzel09/23/2007 09:00:05 PM
Homepage: http://n.a.

I have no interest in hearing how your race went - personally you have no interest in hearing how my weekend went. But, you bring to the table an interest-ing topic, one many have commented on. Of course, as I read your blogs much of what is written is 'stuff' and of no interest. I don't mean to insult you, but don't need to be insulted either. Suffice to say if there were a 'group' of Maserati owners alive and well and racing in Ohio we could get their opinion as well.
Here is something an interesting character said - someone we have heard of, and someone who made a difference in the larger sense (not by making a difference in how your neighbor gets to school now since you set the leather interior of his van afire): Teddy Roosevelt (realtive of another U.S. President). T.R. was quoted "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and dust and blood; who errs and come short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in worthy causes; who at the best, knows in the end of the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
On another face, there is an emerging movement i have taken notice of; the reappearance of Triumph TR6 autos - seen three in the last week, none the same car. I notice one similarity though, in each case as the auto pulled alongside, went by, or crossed in front each owner took the time to give the old look - you know the one that says, "damn right I am fifty AND I have this old seventies sport car that I've got running." They might be thinking something else - "my god that woman has large breasts", "who is that idiot staring at me", "I definitely am driving the oldest car at this intersection", or maybe "with my money I should buy a Porsche and sell this Triumph". Who knows - when one wastes his time in a conspicuous way, one ultimately bears the full cost. Like working your life and coming up without a retirement plan...!