SCCA Drivers School

Crash Denies First Victory!

Some of the instructors called it the best driver's school race they had ever seen.  For me, it was just a fantastic weekend except for part where I was in the wreck.  Go ahead and click here for the 3 megabyte video (best viewed as double size).

It was the SCCA Fall Drivers School for the Washington, DC region and I was there in the thick of it!  This is the certification process to get a race license for SCCA.  About 70 drivers were there applying for a license which requires several schools.  I had applied for a waiver so that I would only have to do one school, so I wanted to make sure I did things correctly.

The school was fantastic.   My instructor, Chris Boyce, provided great assistance: maybe the best instructor I have ever had.  Not only did she help refine some of my driving techniques specific to Summit Point, but she also provided me with some race strategy techniques that I was able to put to immediate use.  After a weekend of hard driving and the instructors yelling at us, we ended up with two practice starts to be followed by a five lap race (regular races are ten laps).  The practice starts were basically a half lap race and they were important since the positions you lost or gained carried through to the next start.

I was placed somewhere in the back half for the first start.  The flag came and I moved up with a three-wide pass up the middle.  When the next start came I was in sixth place sitting near a pesky Caterham 7 that had been the only car faster than me during the practice sessions.  A white Porsche still held onto the pole position.  The second start was really fast.   I used the power of the Spec Cobra to get a nice run off the second turn and made a nice dive to take the line away from a Camaro that I had seen run fast all weekend.   As we went through the turn just inches from each other, I heard loud noises just behind us:  a BMW had wrecked two cars just behind us.

When the dust cleared, I was sitting in second place.  The real race would start with me in the front sitting beside the white Porsche that still held the pole.  A slow start meant that the Spec Cobra's low RPM torque came into play and I made it to turn 1 in first place.  Turn 1 was packed with spectators and it was fun to see the wall to wall people watching to see if I made a mistake!  Turn 3 and 4 had been good for me all week and I came into an area known as the Carousel with a nice little lead.  Unfortunately, the Spec Cobra doesn't have a great suspension and the long, slow Carousel is a real liability.  I decided to take it all slower than usual and was thinking that I could run a defensive race. (Better to run slow and safe than to push the envelope and potentially screw up, I thought.)    Later I found out that in qualifying I actually had faster lap times than everything but the Caterham and my decision to run that lap in a conservative fashion would come back to haunt me.

I came across the start-finish line in first place for the the first lap, but the Porsche's superior speed caught me just at the end of the long straight and he took the lead going into Turn 1.  Now it meant that I had to chase the Porsche again!  Making it worse was that the BMW and a quick GT Pinto (with maybe the best driver) were close by.  After the Pinto got me, I late braked the Pinto into turn 1 and he slowed the others a bit and gave me some breathing room to chase the Porsche.

One area that had worked well all weekend was turn 8.  It can be complicated because you typically have to get several turns right in order to carry the speed out of it and run up the hill.  Sure enough, the Porsche made a mistake and I slipped by him to take the lead at Turn 10 and come to start-finish as the leader after four laps.  One lap to go and I was winning!

My lead was short lived.  The Caterham had been stuck in traffic and the fast Camaro was somewhere further back, but the Porsche and the BMW had been joined by friend Mike Warner's blazing quick GT-1 Monte Carlo and a GT Pinto.  As we went down the stretch the Porsche and BMW took the inside to turn 1 and left me in third place.  The BMW and Porsche were evenly matched and fighting really hard.  Since they took the inside turn, it forced me out and I used the opportunity to take a late apex.  If they were going to force me to be slow in one place I was going to try to use it to get a mismatch as we came out.  Sure enough, low RPM torque worked to my advantage and I accelerated down to turn 3 closing ground rapidly.

Turn 3 was the same place that I had taken the inside line to beat the Camero in the practice starts.  It's a tough turn to pass in since the inside line leaves you in a bad position (i.e., slow) as you head to turn 4.   But if you get the inside line and make the pass, it is almost impossible for someone to immediately pass you back.  During a race, it isn't used often since to make the pass, you usually fall further behind the leader.  But if you pass to take the lead, it is a great place to defend since you can stay in front all the way until you get back the long straight.

As I dove into turn 3 I got lucky:  the Porsche had taken a later turn and the BMW inexplicably followed rather than drive his race!  With the superior speed I took the inside past the BMW and accelerated beside the Porsche.  I was in the lead by inches with one lap to go!  With the rest of the course easy enough to defend, I was going to win my first race!

Unfortunately the Porsche was focused on the BMW on his tail and didn't see me on his left.  As he turned into me, I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late.  His car spin around ended up in front of me.  The front of end the Spec Cobra lifted a foot or two into the air as we road through the turn.   We sat on the side of the track as the rest of the cars passed us.  The BMW ended up winning and Mike Warner finished second overall.

Lots of instructors and stewards came up to me afterwards congratulating me on the good race.  My instructor Chris was hoarse from her cheering. The car took surpringly little damage.  In fact, if I had been smart enough to try to keep going, there is a shot that I would have still won the race.

The race was fun and I was sorry that car was hurt, but I realized later that the whole thing was probably preventable:  if I had just focused on driving and not being defensive on that first lap, I could probably have held off the Porsche long enough to get a little breathing room and have him slowed down while he fought the BMW and the others.  Only the Caterham had been faster all weekend and he couldn't get free of the traffic to contend for the win.  I could have never held off the BMW or Mike Warner, but maybe I could have opened up enough room that others like the Porsche could have slowed them down enough.

I did earn my waiver for the weekend (ironically the other guy to get a waiver was the driver of the Caterham).  I set a new personal best for the Spec Cobra and learned a whole lot.