While the Februrary event remained dry with beautiful cool lap record inducing weather, the specter of rain loomed throughout the weekend, with most forecasts pointing to rain Sunday. Team BTM had sets of full-tread RA1s ready, but as this NASA event was run along with the WERC Endurance Racing Championship, the schedule was changed to accommodate - Saturday qualifying would count for the Saturday race, but the Sunday race would be started from the Saturday finishing order, and that race would be extended to a 50 minute race.
This meant qualifying Saturday would be crucial for a good weekend's result. Norcal NASA's officials are famous for throwing curveballs at the massive Spec e30 field to keep the racing exciting, but nobody was prepared for the insanity they'd prepared for Saturday.
Typically, the racers would qualify and later, some portion of the field would be inverted...top 10, top 5, sometimes the entire field. This morning however, they decided to invert the top 15 -- but they actually announced it first in the Saturday driver's meeting before qualifying. Calculating what fastest laps were possible, perhaps high 1:56s or so, a mid-field position would probably be somewhere in the high 1:58s. Given a few good tools, and Jennifer Chittum returning as BTM Motorwerks race director, the team split their approach both cars coached on pace as qualifying began.
Both cars took off and attempted to set good baseline times, but by halfway through the session, given the plethora of Spec Miatas and an extremely healthy USTCC field mixed in to 30 Spec e30s all trying to hit a slow laptime it was nearly impossible for anyone to get a clear lap. Both Chittum in the #19, and McClure in the #1 car pitted for instructions, and both were told to get back out and set a faster lap, lest they miss starting even in the top 15.
McClure took off again and set a time just slightly faster than he'd intended, with a 1:58.5. But having sat in the pits for extra time to find a clear spot, Chittum took off on a similar pace, but slightly cool tires and a odd brake vibration caused him to essentially miss T2, brake too late, and go sideways through the turn. Then, upon reaching T4, an incident left a yellow flag flying there, and he managed a slower 1.59.1. Upon checking in again, Jennifer calculated that McClure's faster lap, after the 15 spot invert should land him about 13th, and Chittum 3rd, so the team decided to head in and stand on those times.
After weigh-in the paddock was in chaos with drivers all comparing lap times. NASA Norcal officials quickly posted results after some adjustments for on-track penalties, McClure would start 10th, and Chittum on pole. This would be Chittum's second pole of the year, the previous one in round 1 earned from a stellar lap in a well prepared car back from a long vacation...this one fired like a shot from an explosion of sheer chaos.
In the interim between qualifying and the race, the team prepped the cars and investigated the brake shimmy Chittum had discovered in qualifying. North Bay Bavarian’s Rick Row also pitched in, showing the fantastic camaraderie found in the Norcal Spec e30 field.
At the drop of the green flag, Chittum got a great launch up front, just edging out Scott C by T2. Unfortunately, Scott and Kevin N tangled someplace right around the apex of T2 causing Scott to spin. By the time he’d recovered, he rejoined in 28th. But the mayhem gave Chittum a clean break with the field, and a few laps of pushing found him far out of reach of the field.
Meanwhile, McClure starting from 10th began a charge that was the cornerstone of BTM Motorwerks’ 2011 championship. After initially slowing in the first lap snafu, Brad battled his way up to 2nd place by the end of the race, ahead of Kevin N and DJ Riley at the checkered flag. In post race scrutiny, however, Kevin was DQ’d due to the contact with Scott C, and relegated to the back of the pack, while DJ ended up just a scant 5lbs underweight. That left Andy with the victory, Brad in 2nd and put Bennett M on the 3rd podium step - a great drive for the familiar red and yellow car.
For the Sunday race, the Saturday finish left BTM Motorwerks covering the front row. Both BTM cars blasted off and set a blistering pace that again outpaced the field. Their first 1-2 finish the day before, BTM got its second, and ended up taking over the lead in the season championship as well.
BTM Motorwerks will return to the track April 14 and 15th at the legendary 3.0 mile track at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, CA.
No comments:
Post a Comment