Carolinas Region PCA Club Race

Nov 8. 9 2003

This was my fist "arrive and drive" racing event, with Musante Motorsports bringing my car to the event and providing trackside service. I flew into Charlotte NC and drove down to Kershaw SC in a new Chrysler Pacifica rental car. it worked out well allowing me to unload a ton of supplies and parts that were shipped in my 911, and for use as a "dinner car" to take the gang to dinner (many used their race cars to get to the hotel and back, which was just a few miles from the track).

You can click on most of the pictures below (all except the on-track shots which I stole from the Carolinas Region web site) to see a larger version suitable for framing or dart board construction.

My car was about the same as it had been since the Lime Rock Vintage race a few months earlier, but I had installed a new front Charlie bar (sway bar) and guessed at an initial adjustment which seemed to work out just fine.

I left on the vintage ducktail (the only tail I have at the moment) and the supertrapps as this was not a sound contolled event. I bolted in some more ballast to compensate for the heavy muffler I normally run. I pulled the supertrapp plates out at Chris's request which worked out great for power and also caused my competitor Oliver much discomfort when he got too close ;-)

Here is the 911 in the paddock. I often borrowed Chris' pit bike to hop around. there was an Oak tree on the left that kept pelting us with acorns.

On my left was Peter Boll, one of two Vermont Innkeepers in our group. He runs his 911 Carrera in F class and did well, running about 4th in F all weekend.

Stephen Bauer was our other inkeeper. Unfortunately he had bad luck with this historic '65 (!) 911 all weekend, 1st breaking a ring and pinion, then getting his intake system stuck wide open in the enduro race 1st lap.

Here is Steve's engine waiting for the tranny which Chris lent to one of the G cars in Dan Jacob's group across the road. Poor Dan had to install and remove that tranny twice at the track.

Here is Dan putting the drivetrain back in the car yet again. Notice the speed on the jack handle... comes from years of pro racing!

Here is Dan's group, they had about 4 911 SCs all in G class and did very well. Each car had major problems but they got them all running for the races. Dan's shop is just a few exits down the road from my guitar shop.

This is Oliver Zittzman, a good friend and neighbor who runs in my class in a well prepared 911 Carrera 2. He towed his car down with Stephen and was next to us in the paddock. Oliver is always tough on the track.

Carolina Motorsports Park is a pretty long track, with many low speed turns and a few fast sections. The left end of the track is very slow, 2nd gear, so my autocross experience and light car really helped. The carousel at the top right was also very fun, my car could take it in 3rd gear at nearly full throttle while powersliding. There were 10 shifts per lap and some serious braking, it's a tough track on equipment but not bumpy like Lime Rock. Also there is time to relax unlike Lime Rock, I was not in a constant death-grip on the wheel.

I arrived on Thursday just in time for open practice as I had not driven on this track before. I felt the car was doing OK and I got used to the track by the third session though there were some very tough turns. On Friday we had practice and a fun race. The 1st practice was my 1st timed runs, I was on some old tires and got 1:52s which was good for 2nd in class behind Oliver, not bad for my 1st time at the track. There were a bunch of 944 Turbos and a fast red 911 Carrera2 like Oliver's behind me. Charles Price had won the race last year in this car (it was in F at the time).

Here we are at the start of one of the races.

In the 2nd practice I was not as fast, but Oliver had some serious problems, a broken exhaust valve rocker arm possibly from an over-rev. He and Dan replaced it but there was still a problem, then they found the same cylinder also had a broken rockert on the intake valve... after fixing that one they got the car running well again.

In the 3rd practice which would be used for qualifying gridding, I put on my good tires and got into the low 1:51 range whic hwas fastest in E (or D) with Oliver quite a way back not wanting to push his engine hard yet. We had some practice starts and a short fun race last on Friday. I learned a bit about starts on the track and came in after 4 of the 12 laps to preserve my car and my body!

SATURDAY : Sprint Race

On Saturday morning we had a warmup in the cold, damp morning and I went out to see if I could improve my lap times. I did, getting a high 1:50 which was again fastest in E or D, with Oliver right behind. I though I was ready for qualifying. It was a little drier and less cold for qualifying, and I ran consistent 1:50.5 laps, just could not seem to go any faster. That was good enough for 10th place overall in our group, but Charles Price pulled out a slightly faster run (one hundreth of a second!) for the pole in E, with Oliver just a few tenths behind me. I was in a C2 sandwich and a 944T was just behind Oliver!!!! I knew I needed a good start in the race. There were a bunch of C cars ahead of us, I was hoping to move up into their ranks and pull away from the E cars. They were significantly faster than us, in 993 RS cars and a new 911GT2 (seen above, ahead of me) and twin turbo leading our pack. Those turbos seemed to need a long time to get up to speed, they held me up in the corners in some of the sessions but when they got up to speed they were REALLY fast!
This is one of the starts, probably the sprint race with me passing on the outside and Oliver already by Charles. In this sprint race, I watched the starter closely, and when I saw him just move his arm I took off down the right side of the track, passing a few cars including Charles.
Here is the race start from the other side. But the 1st turn was nasty, one of the Turbos nearly stopped, sending cars all over the track. I got around him and so did Oliver, but Oliver got forced off the track on the inside of turn one while I took a wider line.

I pulled away from Oliver and the Yellow C class 993 RS of Caryl Brensinger for several laps, but soon they were catching up, I guess I was a little conservative when I got a lead. Finally Caryl attempted to pass at the end of the long back straight after the carousel, but Oliver was right behind her so I could not let her pass easily without also letting Oliver pass on the following straight. I took the normal braking point into the turn but left one lane on my right for Caryl, but she locked up her brakes and was not able to pass. I kept enough momentum that Oliver was not able to pass either of us on the next long straight. Finally she got by Oliver and they had a good battle, which let me breath a bit but Oliver repassed her and ran close to me for the rest of the race, finishing just one second behind me after 41 minutes of close racing! That was about the toughest race of my life, and I was very psyched to have won it at a new track so far away. I moved up from 10th to 6th in the group, two of the C cars were disqualified (under weight?).

Enduro Race

I had not planned on really racing in the Enduro due to my bad back and neck but I was feeling pretty good so I decided to give it a shot and see how it went. I did not have gas for a pit stop to finish the race but I didn't think I would run that long.

Before the race I had Chris' mechanic Steve do some welding on my heat exchanger mount which had cracked, we parked it here to work on it. I taped up my front oil cooler inlet as it was VERY cold Sunday morning. I did a few laps in the cold warm up just to feel out the car and it seemed fine. For the Enduro, we were scheduled to race in the SLOWER group, as the fastest class in the group (except GT5S which was always fast).

The enduro had a seperate qualifying session, so I went out and passed a few of the cars that were ahead of my on the warm-up lap so I could get a good shot without getting slowed up. It took a few laps to get the car warm, then on the 5th lap I went for a fast one and was a few tenths faster than I had gone before, a 1:50.4 which was just behind the GT5S car of S. Junken and Scott Holley. I used to autocross with Scott back in the mid to late 80s at Pro Solos and national events, he was one of the fastest ASP 911s and now is one of the fastest GT2R cars in the country. Oliver qualified right behind me with Charles behind him.

For the race, it was decided to have one big Enduro race for all clases, since the GT class group was pretty small. So we would have some fast cars around us... I got another good start in the race, it was another mess in the first few turns. This time Oliver got forced off the outside of turn two and I was forced to take an agricultural line on the inside of turn one. Oliver kept his foot in it, cutting across the grass and joining the track just in front of me between turns 2 and 3. I was able to pass him after turn three when the GT5 car forced him wide back onto the rumble strips and I joined the pack ahead but Oliver was soon closing in. He pulled alongside me on the tight left hander into the "autocross" section, but I held him off into the following right. Finally he had a good run on me and got by on the right between the two fast straights. I could barely keep up with him and he seemed to never make a mistake. My car was running to hot due to the taped-up cooler and warmer temps, and I was getting hot too as I stupidly put my racing suit on over a cotton sweatshirt to "keep warm" which is not hard to do when you are racing hard... So after about 40 minutes I gave up and pulled into the paddock. I later found out Oliver's tranny got bad late in the race, which would have allowed me a chance to pass when he missed shifts. But I had enough and was glad to see Oliver hold off the other E drivers even with a bad tranny.

Click on this picture to see what it really is!!!

Here is another version, click on it to see the whole thing too.

Here are some videos with Audio that I took of Chris Musante in his sprint race. They are AVI and can be viewed with the Apple Quicktime player which you can download for any PC.

Video1, this is a little jerky but cool!

Video2, smoother, not as cool.

Here is another artistic (?) shot of my car as seen through Chris' wing. while waiting to be driven onto the truck for the ride home.

I enjoyed my visit to CMP and hope to attend this race again in the future!!!

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