What a crazy weekend! Nate Vincent and I entered an 18-hour race at a track we'd never been to, with just the two of us driving, and only FCP's own Gareth Foley on crew duties. Most teams have at least three drivers and a handful of crew, but this weekend we had to deal with the cards we were dealt.
We had pretty good luck with the car at the NJMP race, so we shouldn't have to do much prep, right? Wrong.
Before the race, we changed the big items such as the transmission and diff using the lift at my brother Andrew Hurczyn's shop- FTBR garage, but most of the prep was done in my pea stone driveway. This is truly a grassroots effort!
The prep is the hardest part of endurance racing. If there isn't a part that's broken or worn out, there is always something that could be improved to become more efficient either on the track or off. Being the fastest on track in an endurance race is not as important as being able to stay out of the paddock fixing broken or damaged parts. This being the fourth race of the year, we came with a car that was more ready than ever.
Getting to Summit Point Motorsports Park
Thursday is travel day. Google maps indicated it should be a 6.5-hour drive. That didn't happen. It took us almost nine hours with traffic and stopping for gas. We also need to drive carefully since we are carrying half my garage with us.
I don't mind the driving, though. It's a great time to talk, joke, and strategize for the weekend. Since the drives are long, it's good to have a friend who will go to any length to make you a PB&J, like using an 11mm wrench as a knife!
Friday - Practice and Qualifying
The plan is to have the car ready to go when it rolls off the trailer. That was almost the case this time. We spent some of the morning organizing our paddock spot, setting up our pit stall, and mounting a new front splitter. We didn't have all the hardware we needed so Nate and Gareth took a trip to a hardware store. It was getting late in the morning, so I decided to take the car out for a few laps since I had never been there before. Watching YouTube videos can only get you so far. You need to feel the bumps and experience the sensation and flow of the turns in person. Splitter mounting would need to wait until after lunch.
I did about ten laps and came in to check over the car and let Nate have a turn. As he was about to go out, someone crashed their car, and the track shut down early for lunch to allow for clean-up.
Our new pop-up tent arrived at the track via UPS thanks to some creative customer service from the folks at eCanopy. Thanks to our friends at CRP Automotive Automotive, the race team now has some sweet team t-shirts and the best-looking tent on pit road!
Qualifying went well. I went out and did my obligatory 5 laps, and got to test our new splitter. It made a slight difference in a few of the fast corners, but the car felt way more stable at the end of the straight, and the water and oil temps stayed more consistent benefiting from the better air flow. Nate ran some more laps than I did, and then went back out later in the day to scrub in a new tire. The car felt great! Many teams were doing major surgery on their cars, but we changed brake pads, bled the brake fluid, topped off the oil, and I was putting black and blue vinyl on the spoiler brackets to make it look more professional. It was a good feeling arriving with a well-prepared car!
After AER's famous Friday Night Pot Luck dinner, Nate and I decided to walk the 2.2-mile track. It's good to be able to see some of the intricacies to the track that you miss at 100 mph. It also gives you a good indication of skid marks showing where unfortunate drivers left the racing surface- and serves as a reminder of the consequences of mistakes or bad luck.
AER Race Day - Saturday
I started the race in second in Class 2 which puts us in the middle of the entire field. I try to say hi to the drivers next to me on the grid so they can put a face to the car next to them with the hope it detracts the urge to make any crazy passes in turn one of a 9-hour endurance race. It worked, and we all got through turn one cleanly.
Michal Stach in the Four Banger Z3 passed me into turn one, and we both passed the pole sitting e36 early. We were running 1-2 for a few laps until he dropped out with a technical issue. Unfortunately for him, his luck wouldn't get any better for the rest of the weekend. He fixed the car overnight, got back out there Sunday, only to be needlessly punted off by an incoherent driver in the #82 e36. (link shows the video but NSFW after the hit) It was a shame Four Banger couldn't be part of the fight for the podium, because it's fun wathing that team toss the poor Z3 around!
Shortly after that, a full course yellow came out allowing the #58 RAW racing e30 with Pete Theo behind the wheel to catch up. I stayed in front for a while, then got caught up in traffic and Pete got passed. We stayed nose to tail for the next hour or so, weaving through traffic, and Pete using all of the track and some extra. It was a lot of fun until he made contact with the Class 1 #114 Audi A4. I could see Pete weaving back and forth to check his suspension. He slowed, and I took back the lead of the race.
That was it! We pushed all day and never looked back. Since there was only two of us running, I figured we would try to double stint at the beginning of the day. After 90 minutes I felt fine, so I stayed in the car. That seemed like a great idea at 90 minutes, but after about 2 hours and 20 minutes, I started to wonder if this was such a good idea. I needed to consciously talk to myself and make sure I was staying focused and drinking water to stay hydrated. The HANS was getting uncomfortable, and my butt was falling asleep! I got over it and kept pushing.
Nate also was able to double stint! We kept turning very consistent and competitive laps, and It was surreal to see our name at the top of the leader board. The rest of the day went smoothly, and Nate took the checkered flag in first place in Class 2! I drove five hours and Nate four. It was exhausting but so cool to win! I've been dreaming about racing since I started HPDE's in 1998 and instructing in 2001. I dabbled in BMW CCA club racing with mediocre results in three races 2004-2006, and so this was our first win in my 7th ever race, and only Nate's second race!
After 9 hours, the car was still in one piece, but just little dirtier.
After the race, it was time to collect our trophy. What a great feeling having your team name called in front of your competitors and having them acknowledge the feat!
We spent maybe 10 minutes basking in our glory and then it was time to get back to work. We have another 9 hour race in the morning! All the hard work before the race has paid off in more ways that one. Besides have a stong car for the race, our post-race prep consisited of bleeding the brakes, check and top off fuilds in diff, trans, and engine, clean the glass, and swap tires. We felt like we were forgetting something, but we weren't. It was very satisfying!
AER Race Day - Sunday
Nate had never started a race, and the night before I told him he was going to start. Race starts are awesome! It's the one part of the race were all the similarly paced cars are all bunched together. Having won Saturday's race, we start on pole for Sunday's race. Again, we had a clean start and all the cars got through turn one cleanly.
Coming onto the straight to complete the first lap was a different story. Nate got a love tap in the rear after needing to check up for the slower e36 in front. Here is a screen grab (full video to come!)
from the #58 Raw Racing e30.
The rest of the stint we maintained third place and on the last lap before our scheduled pit stop, Nate made contact with the #114 Audi A4. The Audi probably should have seen us, and Nate could have been more patient since he was about to pit. Either way, we lost 10 minutes in the paddock changing a wheel/tire with a chunk of sideskirt in it, and resetting the toe. To Nate's credit, he claims the steering wheel was pointing towards 2 o'clock when he came in and he eyed the toe, and reset it to pretty much dead on.
I took over the wheel at that point, now six laps down after a 10-minute pit stop. So there is only one thing to do- Push like hell! There is a fair amount of attrition during an endurance race, but we cannot rely on that so we just drove the car as fast as we could.
Slowly but surely we started picking off the cars in front of us. You can check out all the lap times here, but my middle stint is one I'm particularly proud of!
Before I got in the car for the final 90-minute stint, I looked at Race Monitor and we where in 4th place, 3 laps down - #89 Drive Gear e30 in first, #39 Rally Baby e30 in second, and #168 Team Cookiepuss E30 in 3rd. I was really hoping the rain that was promised would come down in buckets. It was my best chance to make up big chunks of time. There were some drops and I used my wipers twice, but the real rain never came.
All I could do was tick off fast lap after fast lap. After 16.5 hours of racing, I was pushing the car harder than I have all weekend. The track had a ton of rubber laid down and I started turning laps in the 1:31 range. I passed the #168 early in my stint, and then pushed like hell. If I could catch and get by it again, I could take third.
With nine laps to go, I was able to pass them again! At this point my fuel gauge was beyond E and the car would sputter in right hand turns. I pulled away slightly and then went into conservation mode. Running out of gas at this point would suck, and pulling into the pits for a splash would surely put us behind again. The gamble paid off! We took home third and finished on the lead lap!
The car was a little worse for wear now, but still pretty good after what we just put it through-
It was overwhelming getting our trophies because it hadn't sunk in what we had accomplished. We had some time to reflect on out 8.5-hour tow home, and now as I write this, it feels pretty good knowing the 400-500 hours we've spent fixing and prepping the car this year (on top of the time dreaming) has paid off.
I need to thank Jared Pepper and also Team Cookiepuss and Legendary Racing for assisting us on pits stops and Rob Gagliardo and Ben Greisler in trying to solve our radio woes (we thought we had it but ended up reverting to vague hand gestures). The racing on track is awesome, but the camaraderie in the paddock is my favorite part!
Here is the Full Photo Gallery!
Stay tuned for some videos on our YouTube Channel, and we look forward to the season finale at Mid Ohio, October 22-24!
