SMOKIN' AT SEARS!

Touring Car Racing Association Club Race at Sears Point
Raceway, Dec 3-4 2000.

It takes a strange breed to be a Race Car driver. I mean, how many people spend obscene amounts of money and time, give up their social life to crawl underneath racecars on weekends and risk life and limb for that moment of glory? There's a popular line: You know you're a Racer when after telling your friends how you spent your weekend, they reply with "... and you do this for fun?". RealRide Team race junkie Tim, once said "There's always a sacrifice that you have to make in order to go racing". I know some hardcore racers who will sacrifice lunch for weeks in order to save up for new race tires. Whether it's financial, social or both, the racers I know make these sacrifices one way or another. It's Stubborness and a mix of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that drives a lot of us.William "Billy" Blauvelt and I have been friends for a few years. He lives in New Jersey and has been driving high performance cars with the Porsche Club and the Viper Club for eleven years. His garage contains no less than a dozen exotic and race cars that he actually drives hard on the track on Hot Lapping Days. The natural progression to Club Racing was inevitable but since racing was very limited in the East Coast, he asked if I could help him out here. We're fortunate enough to have a large variety of clubs in Southern California that sanction Club Racing and on any given weekend, one of these clubs is likely holding an event. After checking my schedules, it turned out that the Touring Car Racing Association (www.touringcarclub.com) was hosting two events in Northern California a week apart. So after a brief telephone call to my friends at the TCRA, they granted Billy a probationary permit with threats that I would be held responsible should anything happen. I know Billy well enough, nothing could possibly go wrong.... I think...

Towing a Race Car doubles your travel time, it's not bad when you're doing a
local event like Willow Springs or Buttonwillow, but when it's a 12 hour tow each way, you end up having to take two days off work, not to mention all the additional hassles that come with towing: "Damn we missed the connecting ramp, get off at the next offramp. Okay, now how do we get back on track, these streets don't connect. Lets go to that Turnip Farm and ask directions, those guys in the white sheets and pillow cases oughta know!". Okay, so I really didn't want to tow up to Sears Point. Fortunately, Emil at the TCRA had told me that they had space available on their multi-car transporter for both events. For a very reasonable price, they would deliver the car up to both tracks and back, eliminating my chances of becoming the Pinata at the Turnip Farm.

The next issue was to decide which RealRide Team car to run. Tim was still working on the new Mazda RX7 Turbo and the other RX7 Turbo was still waiting on brake parts, getting new tires in order to run the Porsche 944 Turbo would cost too much for a Club Event, the Mazda RX2 just needed new tires and a
carbuerator rebuild but I really didn't feel like doing all that. This left the Non-Turbo Porsche 944. All that was needed was a 90db exhaust (90db is quieter than the factory car) to meet Laguna Seca's sound limit and an oil change. The only problem was that we had to get the exhaust installed before Sears Point since the car would stay on the transporter in Northern California between events. Mano at AZZAD RACING (818)343-5551 builds our exhausts and some of our rollcages. His baby has been overdue for a month now so he has been going to work intermittantly, at this rate, we told him that this baby will come out and go straight to college. Tim and I managed to corner him into finishing the new RX7, then he quickly fabricated an exhaust for the 944 the day it was going onto the transporter. My In-Laws live in Sacramento, less than an hour from Sears Point Raceway. Since we hadn't seen them since Las Vegas (see the PRO Enduro Story in Las Vegas), Balinda thought that this would be a great time to visit them as well, sort of a combined Thanksgiving/Christmas visit. Our plan was to fly up to Sacramento on Friday morning, spend the day with them and pick Billy up at the airport that evening. Sounds great to me, that means Balinda gets to see her parents, I get to go to the track, her parents get to see us and we have a place to stay. I'm getting away with it squeeky clean again... Damn I'm good!

So with all these pieces coming together, all that was left was for us to get to the track:Friday: Balinda and I fly up to Sacramento Airport and rent a car to drive to her parents house in nearby Elk Grove (No, it's not the town in Little House On The Praire). After lunch, we all spend the day following Balinda around
her favorite place on earth, the Shopping Mall. I'll never understand the art of shopping, you never get anything done. You just wander around aimlessly for hours with no game plan, it's like going to war and having no idea who your enemy is. Anyway, after a two hour delay, Billy's flight finally makes it in at midnight and we check him into the only vacant motel in Elk Grove (there are only three in the entire town).

Saturday: Billy, Phil (my father In-Law) and I take the one hour drive out to Sears Point. On the way out, I explain to Billy the "Rules of Combat", basically, how to race safely and the common language that all Racers speak on the track. With his eleven years of Hot Lapping with racers, he has already informally raced many times. We arrive at the track in time for the Driver's Meeting. The turnout is good with a huge group of Time Trialers out for the event. After the meeting, we head over to the Race Car and try starting it... nothing happens. The battery is totally dead, apparently, the transporter driver had left the battery on for two days. Luckily, we're camped out with the Pulp Racing Crew (www.NSXfiles.com) and they loan us a Battery Charger (Thanks: Doug, Wayne and Larry!). It takes a while to get the battery charged (it read a whopping 2 Volts when we first plugged it in) but we finally get the car started as the Race Group is being called out onto the track. Billy goes out for two reconnaissance laps then slowly picks up the pace. It rained the night before so the track is extra slippery, on one of the laps, he gets the car completely sideways through the esses but recovers it which is a good thing because Sears Point is one of those tracks that has no runoffs, just an endless length of tire walls. For the next session, the track has dried out and I set the tire pressures according to my notes for Buttonwillow Raceway (Plus one pound of pressure to compensate for the ambient temperature), a track similar in configuration to Sears Point. Billy reports that the car is handling like it's riding on rails and the braking is phenomenal, he claims to be driving the car at only 80% of it's potential, coming from a man who drives 500hp Race Cars, that says alot. We decide to have Billy spend a session following behind Matt McFadden, one of my Co-Drivers in the Tribute To LeMans Enduro this year. Matt had spent some time driving the Jim Russell Formula Fords at Sears Point so he's quite familiar with the track. He's also one of the most talented drivers I know and finally, he drives an Improved Class Porsche 944S which would make both cars very equally matched. The two 944's run nose to tail for the entire session passing a lot of the more powerful cars, Billy returns from the session grinning from ear to ear.At lunch time, I finally get to drive the track in our rental car, a Chrysler Cirrus four door sedan. I get two laps in and hand the rental car over to Phil. Having had no track driving experience, Billy and I yell out directions to him: "Turn-In! Turn-In! Brakes!! Uhhhh... your apex is over there on the other side of the track... what's an Apex? It's the part of the turn where... oh never mind!". This continues for a few laps until Emil of the TCRA throws him the black flag while I sink down low in the passenger seat hoping I don't get recognized. We accidently leave the fan on in the Race Car at lunchtime and drain the battery so we have to sit out most of the Qualifying Session to recharge the battery again, but Billy manages to get the final four laps in before they flag the session. This grids him second to last in the Qualifying Race, right behind a Toyota Celica GT and a Volkswagen Jetta 16V Race Car. I give Billy a few pointers on his first ever Clubrace before they send the car off "Two Warmup Laps they tell everybody".

As the field slowly rumbles out of the last sweeper, I notice that the flagger is holding the Green Flag. As soon as I see him about to raise it, I yell to Billy over the radio "We're going Green! Go! Go! Go!". Sure enough, the flagger drops the green after only one warmup lap but Billy is already on the throttle and gets a jump on the Celica Race Car going into Turn 1. Both cars dive into Turn 1 with Billy coming out ahead of the Celica, and now on the Jetta's back bumper. Meanwhile, the overall lead is held by Jeff Litrell in his Sports 2000, followed a distance back by a monster Corvette, then Gil Caravantes in his very modified BMW. For the next few laps, Billy is sandwiched between the Jetta and the Celica followed by the "Great Pumpkin" (Marc Maksimow's Dayglow Orange Celica GT). Over the course of the race, the Jetta and Billy begin to pull away from the two Toyotas but I also notice that the silent Laguna Seca muffler in our car is getting louder every lap. Then, Billy begins to work on the Jetta, for several laps, he tries to outbrake the Jetta into the sweeper and on his third try, he makes a clean braking pass, tire smoke pouring out from the Porsche's wheel wells. Within two laps, he's pulled out a significant lead on the Jetta and starts to pull away. Then suddenly, Billy smells smoke inside the car and looks down to see that the shift boot is on fire! Apparently the exhaust had disconnected directly under the shifter and the resulting heat had caught the boot on fire. Meanwhile the driver of the Jetta is wondering what's going on up ahead as smoke pours out of the cabin of the Porsche. Billy swats away at the fire with his right hand and the hot ember bounces off the passenger door panel and onto his right lap! Now he's swatting madly at the ember and accidently waves his left hand... the one that's steering the car! Suddenly the Porsche steers off the carousel into the grass, Billy fights the wheel and refuses to give up, the Jetta buzzes by with the driver still very confused, the Porsche slides to the left, Billy corrects it, then to the right, Billy corrects it again, then he steers back onto the track behind the Jetta. This is where the Stubborness of the Racer (first paragraph) comes in, Billy sees that the flame is out and keeps going, even though the melting plastic is now creating fumes that help him see pretty colors! Meanwhile, I get a call on the radio from Billy that there's a fire in the car. But when the Porsche buzzes by start and finish on the back bumper of the Jetta, I figure I'm hearing things. Back on the track, Billy starts working the Jetta again, damned if he's going to let up! With a few laps to go, Billy starts to push the car a bit more and out drags the Jetta into Turn 1, taking the lead for the last time. When they cross the finish line, Billy has already gained several car lengths on the Jetta. Jeff Litrell
takes the overall win, followed by the monster Corvette, Bob Bradfield in his Porsche 944 Turbo Racer, a gaggle of BMW M3's, Doug's NSX (he was having overheating problems and had to back off), Gil's BMW, Matt in the other 944, Andy Hope in his lightweight CRX Racer, Billy, the Jetta and the two Celicas. Billy and I have a Post Race debrief and he tells me that for the Sunday feature race, he'll throw out all the stops.

Sunday: Billy and I arrive at the track and clean out the burnt plastic remnants of what used to be the base of the shift boot. We check tires, oil and send the car out for practice. The car is definately loud now, running open exhaust at the base of the header, at least there's nothing left to burn. Meanwhile, there's a new group of cars in the Race Group including a Supercharged Porsche 928S4 Race Car, an ex- Bill Elliot Winston Cup car and a couple more BMW M3 Racers. Since the track is still wet from the night before, everybody takes it easy, but Billy uses this opportunity to test out different lines. As the day clears up, the traack dries out and times drop even lower than Saturday's. Billy is running a couple of seconds faster than the previous day and is running equal lap times as a 2001 Corvette ZO6 (with Mods) on street tires. After lunch, I sneak out in the 944 at the last part of the session and get three laps in. Sears Point Raceway is really a tight and technical track with very little room for error (read: guard rails with tire walls and little runoff). We run the complete course with the famous downhill carousel which leads to the end of the uphill Drag Strip. When the NASCAR Winston Cup tour runs this track, they avoid this entire section, feeling it's too dangerous. The back part of the course contains a series of esses that can be taken several different ways. The back stretch leads into the final sweeper that is a test of courage on who can brake later. During the race, many positions are won and lost here. In fact, on Saturday's Qualifying Race, an SCCA GT2 Porsche 911 does a face plant into the Armco right here.Meanwhile the list of cars experiencing mechanical problems is growing. Both the Pulp Racing cars have their engine covers off all weekend. Doug's car seems to be overheating and Larry and his crew spend all weekend tearing it apart. Wayne just bought a fiberglass Porsche 944 Turbo, the car had spent the previous year sitting in a warehouse and some of the parts needed replacement so he would get a couple of laps in before discovering a new failure. The Porsche 911 crashes out, the Honda Accord Touring Car spends the weekend in the paddock with three mechanics underneath all weekend, Bob Bradfield blows the head gasket in his Porsche 944 Turbo, Marc bruises the "Great Pumpkin" when he hits the tire wall at Turn 2 (but he tapes the car up for the feature race) and the other Celica GT packs it up and goes home for
some unknown reason.The start of the Feature Race takes place at about 2PM. We grid the car at 9th place overall, not bad when you consider the field is 15-20 cars. We start right behind Andy Hope in his CRX Racer and ahead of the Jetta. Two cars ahead of us is Matt and of course Jeff is on the pole in the Sports 2000. We worry that the Winston Cup car in the back will charge the field into Turn 1, creating a dangerous situation, but the driver tells everybody that he'll wait until the field spreads out a bit. I tell Billy to drive a clean race and stay out of trouble, after all, we already lead the Class 7 field. After a warmup lap, they get the green and the pack roars into Turn 1 before disappearing behind the hill. When they emerge from the carousel, Jeff has already gained a few seconds over the Corvette, meanwhile Billy has also opened up a gap behind himself and the Jetta. Wayne dives into the pits when his distributor comes off again. The field breaks up into several different groups with very close battles. Gil works his way up the pack and battles it out with the Corvette, the 928 has a very tight battle with one of the M3's, Billy and Andy are running nose to tail for most of the race and Marc battles it out with the Jetta followed by the last M3's. Meanwhile, Doug limps the NSX along as his temperature gauge continues to climb, the Winston Cup car trounces through the field with his sights on Jeff's Sports 2000. At about mid race, Billy dives underneath Andy entering the sweeper, smoke pouring out from under the wheel wells, and slips in front of the CRX. From that point on, the gap opens up with Billy setting his sights on Matt. Meanwhile Matt notices that Billy and Andy are busy battling so he sets his sights on the BMW's ahead of him, ignoring the action behind him. Meanwhile, the racing gets intense as the action between Gil and the Corvette is a classic battle between horsepower and handling, a few seconds back, the same battle takes place between the 928 and one of the M3's, the Winston Cup car calls it a day after lapping most of the field but not gaining ground on Jeff. With two laps to go, Matt looks into his rearview mirror to see the Yellow RealRide Racing 944 on his back bumper! Billy dive bombs Matt into his favorite turn, the sweeper and gets inside Matt, but he blows the shift and Matt reclaims the position. For the rest of the race, it's a close battle but Matt manages to hold Billy off to the checkered flag. The crowd is cheering at this point as the incredible driving skill and aggressiveness of these two guys is clearly demonstrated lap after lap, one car with better handling and brakes, the other car with more horsepower. When the checkered flag drops, Jeff takes the win (again), followed by Gil who just edges the Corvette to the line. The 928 muscles the M3 to the line and Matt beats Billy by half a car length. Still, Billy takes the Class 7 win over the second place (in Class 7) "Great Pumpkin" of Marc. With checkered flagin hand, Billy takes his Victory Lap with all the corner workers giving him the thumbs up.

So for his first ever Clubrace, Billy did phenomenally well. His eleven years of Drivers Ed/Hot Lap Groups really showed through with outstanding car control and good judgement. The RealRide Racing Porsche 944 really performed well despite the new exhaust coming unbolted mid race. Along with my Class 8 victory in June, this event means that the car has won Two Clubraces in a row, with a DNF in the Los Angeles Street Race PRO event (When Tim was hit from behind). In two weeks we'll be running the same car at Laguna Seca, looking for Three in a row!
For more pictures of this event, visit the RealRide.com Gallery.