A belated thank you for everyone involved in putting on this year’s ARRC. What an event! Thank you Atlanta Region, Road Atlanta, the various event sponsors and my fellow ITS competitors. Also, congratulations to Rob Huffmaster for a great win and Kip Van Steenburg for his second place finish!
We headed down to Road Atlanta from the Chicago area cautiously optimistic about a podium finish. We had won ten of eleven races this year in the CENDIV Area 5 and set track records at every track we visited. However, it had been five years since I last drove Road Atlanta, so I knew it would be a steep learning curve.
We were quite disappointed after the Thursday test sessions. There was no money in the budget for new tires for the test day, so we ran very old ones. The times showed it. I was about two second slower than Rob Huffmaster. However, all day long, I was only passed by three ITS cars. As such, we were getting mixed signals as to where we would stand for the race.
Things went better on Friday morning. We put in new tires and the time started coming down. I had the opportunity to follow some of the faster ITS drivers during the two qualifying sessions which helped immensely. In the end, we qualified sixth. We then moved up one position when John Williams did not start.
I was optimistic that we could make up several positions during the race. There were clearly places I could go faster given more track time. My plan was to stay with those in front of me for a few laps, learn from them and hopefully still conserve the tires and brakes. The start of the race was very uneventfully. I tucked into fifth place. I could see a Bill Suldouff's VW Corrado coming up from behind very quickly. I went wide at Turn 7 and he easily motored past on the back straight. Did he ever have the power! I fell in line in sixth at that point. We had a four car ITS draft with John Spillman's Datsun 240Z leading Suldouff, Kent Thompson's Mazda RX-7 and me. Rob Huffmaster’s Mazda RX-7 and Kip Van Steenburg’s Mazda Miata were already starting to pull away at about a second a lap. About a third of the way through, I decided it was time to make my move. I passed Thompson into Turn 10A. I then passed Suldouff into Turn 1. That didn’t last long, as he repassed me going into Turn 7. About two thirds of the way through the race, Spillman, who was still running third just in front of Suldouff, tangled with a TCC Vette at Turn 10A. Very unfortunate for him. Thompson got past me as I went around Spillman’s crippled car at Turn 12. At that point, it was Huffmaster, Van Steenburg, Suldouff, Thompson and me. Suldouff, Thompson and I ran in a tight draft for several more laps. I noticed that Suldouff was braking earlier at Turn 10A than he had in the beginning of the race. I assumed his brakes were going away and planned on using that to my advantage. However, I still had to get in front of Thompson just to get to Suldouff. With just over two laps to go, the three of us ran down the backstraight nose to tail. I pulled out to pass Thompson into Turn 10A. Suldouff broke early as expected. I quickly decided I would try to get both of them in one move. It worked and I had third place! I then pulled out three or four car lengths on Suldouff over the next half lap. Then came the now infamous yellow flag situation. As I approached Turn 6, I saw an oil/debris flag. I can not say whether or not there was also a yellow flag. If there was, I missed it. I decided to overtake a lapped RX-7 as we approached Turn 6. I then backed off a bit going into Turn 6, not knowing what I would find when I went around the turn. I’m glad I did! When I rounded the corner, I found the track littered with Corvette parts! Two Corvettes had come together hard. There was no clean path through. I momentarily thought about going by it in the grass, but decided against it. As such, I had only one choice - to go though the mine field! I knew I didn't want to hit anything with the tires, so I centered on one piece and hit it straight on. I hoped it would just bounce off, but it didn't. It embedded itself in the splitter. It made a tremendous racket when it hit so I kept a close eye on the gauges for the next lap and a half. Fortunately, I did not puncture the oil cooler or radiator. From there, I just kept on it and finished in third place. I later learned from Suldouff’s video that both he and Thompson passed the lapped RX-7 going into Turn 7 and that Thompson had also passed Suldouff going through Turn 7.
All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. It made the two months of work leading up to the race worthwhile!
I would like to publicly thank those who helped make this possible. That would include Mazda Motorsports, SpeedSource, Hoosier Tire, my wife Karen and daughters Kellie and Jessica who let me do this, and my crew, Dan Glitz, Rich Riedel, Andrew Zizzo, Bob Just, Charlene Just, Robert Walke, Mark Walke, Mike Nuesser and Mike Hart. Without their help, I could not do this. I would also like to thank John Spillman, Kent Thompson and Bill Suldouff for a great race! I look forward to returning in 2007.