Sorry Pat, I've been slacking on the job. Although I would have lost a couple positions, we missed you and Dennis at Mid-Ohio. Rick, It was a blast, I hope I don't spend the entire season sniffing your fumes!!! Here you go:
Great Lakes SM Race Report Mid-Ohio April 2009 Well boys and girls, the SM season opener at Mid-Ohio and tax day are both in the record books. Tax day was cold and rainy just like Friday’s test and tune. We spent the day slipping and sliding all over the track and for some of us the grass as well. With a few rookies and drivers new to the track the beach was popular and some of the drivers left their marks on the tire walls. I managed to do a four spin pirouette down the back straight without leaving the track, “completely”. Too bad I didn’t have the camera on. As the sun rose Saturday morning, the rain had moved on, but boy was it cold. The overnight lows were in the 20’s and the track was cold as ice. David Spencer said something like it’s not even worth going out for practice the track is too cold. I went out anyway because I certainly need more practice then he does. The track was cold, but the new Toyo R888s warm up a lot faster than the RA1s and I got some grip after a few slippery laps. This was a bonus weekend for some of us with 2 races on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. Thanks NASA, what a great idea. You could have raced on Saturday, got your points and still made it home for church on Sunday. The first race on Saturday reviled a new pole sitter for the new-year, as Jeff Davidson ran a fastest lap of 148.73 in qualifying. John Gutherie and Brian Murdick weren’t far behind with laps of 149.3 and 149.9 respectively. Jeff held his advantage and took the field from pole to podium with the first SM win of his career. Great Job Jeff!!! Murdick was able to take Gutherie posting the fastest lap of the race in lap 9 with a 147.3. They finished that way with Murdick taking 2nd and Gutherie a close 3rd. We also had a few rookies starting with the ink still wet on their comp licenses’. Lara Korth, T.J. Graven, and Jay Newman all finished their first official race. The second race on Saturday started the drivers in the same qualifying positions, but with a very different outcome. This time Brian Murdick took the podium beating Jeff Davidson by more than a second. They were followed by a newcomer to the track Steve Scheifler. Sunday started out much warmer then Saturday and again the track fairy blessed us with a dry day. SM racers picked up their pace with times in the mid to low 1:40s. Qualifying put the newcomer Steve Schiefler on the pole with a 146.4 a full second faster than home town hero Brian Murdick. David Sencer humbly took the third spot for the start. The race showed Schiefler had the line down as he led the field across the finish line for his first win at Mid-Ohio. Way to go Steve!!! He was followed by Brian Murdick. David Spencer was third taking the Podium for the first time this year. If you missed the Race craft session held on Friday night by Bryan Cohn, it was awesome. We learned a lot about passing techniques in a race. Also, the SM group had lunch at the big brown bus and got the pick Shane Benson’s (AIM Tuning) brain about car set up. We also had some fun off the track, but what happens at the track stays at the track. If you didn’t make it you might not understand. This is going to be a reoccurring race weekend report, so I’d love your input. I plan to have this report out by the Friday after the event, so get it in early. Points will be posted soon, so check out our web site next week to see the standings. Don’t forget to sign up early for Putnam Park as we are limiting the car count to make it more fun on the track. We will be holding more tech sessions and I’m buying lunch again on Saturday for the car set up session.
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