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Infineon - Sears Point - 7/1/2006
The gathering of the west coast S2 faithful was held this weeked at Infineon Race (which we still like to call Sears Point). We had 9 S2 competitors including:
Sterling Ellsworth
David Ferguson
John Fujii
Bob Lovenson
Fred Michael
Joe Moran
John Ostlund (points leader)
Doug Ota (yeah!)
Michael Scully
The weather was perfect, highs in the mid-80s with slight breezes. Morning practice sessoins saw fast times with the cooler dense air -- Michael Scully cruising around at a amazing 1:36.9. National Qualifying ended up with Scully at the top, followed by Fujii, Ferguson, Ostlund. Scully set a new Qualifying record at 1:37.1! Fujii and Ferguson were back in the 1:38's.
For the National race, a big wreck in Turn 2, started by one of the lead Formula Atlantics, took out a bunch of formula cars, and forced S2 leader Michael Scully to take avoiding action. Fujii and Ferguson escaped side-by-side, but futher back Fred Michael was caught up, and was forced to retire with broken front suspension in his Mariah bodied Tiga. He was able to fix it for Sunday's regional race.
Several laps behind the pace car while they cleaned up the carnage, but it finally went green with the warning that this was now going to be a timed race (35 minutes). Fujii slowly pulled away, and Ferguson was never able to mount much of a charge, fighting a slightly loose condition in high-speed corners. Back in the pack, Ota and Lovenson had a good dice. After about 12 minutes of racing, another pace car situation once again bunched the field. Because the overall leader had passed many S2 competitors, this put many cars 1 lap down. On the restart, Ferguson was able to stay closer to Fujii as they made their way through traffic, but John Fujii held on to win his second S2 Cup race of the season. John Ostlund finished 3rd and got the last of the new S2 Cup had for making the podium. Scully's car chose this race to have a battery fail, and he was forced to stop on course a few laps from the end.
For Sunday's Regional race, the qualifying session looked like a race, and Scully, Ferguson and Fujii found themselves nose to tail following a black-flag all on the first flying lap. When the session restarted the three stayed close for the remaining 3 timed laps before another black flag-all was issued. Scully led qualiyfing with 1:37.2, but Ferguson was second quickest with 1:37.4, and Fujii in the same second.
The race field was smaller, as Moran, Ota and Lovenson headed for home following the National. Scully was qualified 5th overall. On the first lap, a bobble by the car in front of Scully as they approached turn 10, forced him to check up, allowing Ferguson to get past on the run to T11. Still with tight traffic, Scully tried to regain his position and tagged Ferguson in the right rear, spinning him. Most of the field went by while Ferguson re-fired and joined the chase. Fujii was able to draw up on Scully, but Michael maintained a sufficient lead. Ferguson was able to work his way back to third, closing within about 10 seconds of Fujii near the end. The finishing order was Scully, Fujii, Ferguson, Ostlund.
View from the back of the field... Sterling Ellsworth
Thursday testing:
Test sessions were spent learning the line and watching my mirrors. I had driven my street Porsche at Infineon a few times but that did little to prepare me for racing an S2 there. The blind turns 2 and 3a took me several laps to figure out.
Friday:
As is my usual attitude - qualifying is just more practice. Never saw the sheet, don't know where I placed. Our group was massive and I do know that I was not dead last. By the end of the day today I felt good about the low speed sequence of turns 3-4, and was finally carrying some speed through the carousel. That left only 70% of the track to figure out.
Saturday:
The national race started with some mayhem on turn 2 of lap 1. I did my usual brilliant starting manuever and let every car pass me. It paid off in that I was able to easily drive around the debri, then pick off a few cars after we restarted. Not sure of my lap times or finish position - but by the end of the race I was getting faster through the esses.
Sunday:
Three S2 drivers went home after Saturday's race - obviously concerned that the pressure I would bring in Sunday's race would be unbearable. The race went full length with only a few local yellows! I improved in turn 10, finally driving into it with just a lift, not a brake tap. Again, have no idea of my times or finish position, but I left the track feeling that if I could muster up the courage to drive through turn 1 flat and thereby approach turn 2 with more speed - I could some day put together a complete lap of Infineon.
MVS Report:
Thursday test day - What a freaking fantastic track - It's been several years since I last drove it, and with all of the truly exceptional work being done to modernize the track and its surrounding amenities, a slight bit of adjustment was necessary to my visual reference library... but within a lap or two I was comfortable - or as comfortable as one can be on a serpentine roller coaster whose majority of corners are blind…and in the case of Thursday's testday, filled with historic Formula One and Can Am cars - though I can now say that I've lapped Gilles Villeneuve…well, his 312T4 at least.
Anyhow, Sears is a wonderfully challenging place, and we had four days of the most incredible weather I've seen in a while.
Friday morning I was able to dip into the 1:36s on old/used up Goodyear 250s, and was really happy with the car - - simply perfect through turns 3 and 3A, without a hint of transitional windup/snap which can bite you between those turns. - and truly fantastic mashed throttle drifts through/around the carousel…and yes, absolutely flat through turn 10...the sled was ready. Had qualifying for the National been held in the morning, a 1:35 on 250 stickers would have been in the cards. But alas, the intense afternoon sun for our 1:45 pm session squelched that opportunity and a 1:37.19 was the best I could muster…good enough for pole and a new qualifying record, but there's more out there…really.
For the regional qualifier and race I ran Goodyear 430s, and got pole again with a 1:37.24.
The National - With no split start, I was gridded 8th overall, with Fujii in 13th and Ferg in 14th….indeed a nice "cushion", but said advantage placed me smack in the middle of a classic first lap formula Atlantic/Mazda debacle just at the top of the blind T2…cars, suspension parts, and heavy dust flying absolutely everywhere…got hit in the right rear, forced wide, and straight into the side of a Stohr WF-1 which presented itself perpendicular to my direction. - Thump. - STOP. - The entire field went by and I begrudgingly resumed - lovely, absolutely lovely. - Several laps of caution ensued. When the green returned, I set-out to reclaim as many points as I could, and moved through the field, albeit with a slightly wounded proboscis, up to 4th in S2 behind John Ostlund. - then another full course caution. - When we went green this time, I picked up a significant backfire on deceleration, and within a lap or two, a progressive misfire on acceleration…and then nothing. Got to watch Fujii win over Ferg from the T7 flag station. Post mortem showed a Redtop battery incapable any longer of powering a cell phone. - or taking a charge - Kaput.
The Regional
On Pole again and 4th overall, and with a fresh battery from Steve Romak's Atlantic (thank you Steve and Auto Spa), this time Ferg was in the row immediately behind, with Fujii 5 gird spots further back. The start was clean, and most all of us tucked into formation for the first half a lap. Entering T7, an FSCCA (I think) was feeling racy and I let him past without resistance - huge mistake. We followed him through the esses and I subsequently got the awful feeling that he's not going to have the requisite brass attachments for T10 - which should be flat - and as feared he inexplicably threw out the anchor, and I had to do the same. - Ferg got a hell of a run, and as we exited T10, momentum was on his side…he cleared me by a hair on the outside of the approach to T11, but now it was his turn to deal with the early braking Mr. FSCCA. As we dove into T11, Ferg's braking room was hindered by the traffic, and rubber band like, I gained real estate/momentum back on the inside under braking and was mostly alongside…but apparently not enough, as Ferg took an apexed line through 11 as opposed to a radiused one which would have allowed both of us through. - I did my absolute best to back out of the inside position and got most of the way "out", but I'd already committed the car and we touched - spinning him. In all our years of respectfully racing side by side and/or nose to tail, this is the first contact we've had. - I s'pose the odds finally caught up with us, but It's a shame we weren't able to keep our squeaky clean streak alive. In hindsight, while I think his apexed line was optimistic, since Dave did clear me, if for a mere instant on the approach to T11, that technically made me the overtaking, or re-overtaking in this split second flip-flop case, car, and I accept the onus of responsibility bestowed on that position.
From there I stretched out a sizable margin over Fujii/Fudd who was seemingly mired in Mazda traffic and unable to spy any wabbits while I went 'round and 'round with a Continental and a CSR who were turning similar laps - I eventually got down to a 137.8. Fudd's quickest was a 1:38.1, followed by Ferg at 1:38.6. Once JF cleared the traffic and/or I encountered a bit of my own, he closed the gap a bit, but I was able to bring it home in relative comfort. - Mixed class racing at its most inane.
So, two poles, a new qualifying record, and a race win at one of the world's finest, most challenging tracks: almost enough to make me forget Race 1's T2 debacle and how much I paid for the damned Redtop battery…
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Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Adrenaline Addict, LLC. All rights reserved.
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