Here is a race report I posted on Honda-Tech in Spring 2007, a few months before I started this blog. It's the account of what was probably our best enduro result ever. Steph (see story) asked for a copy of the write-up to show his son (see photos), who is now all grown up and a quick racer in his own right. Enjoy!
We’ve come
to appreciate endurance racing more and more in the past couple of years. It’s
better value for money than sprint races and the whole teamwork aspect makes
each event that much more special. There are not that many enduros in Canada (although
I believe that will change when more racers try the format and see how cool it
is), so choosing to attend the Sundown GP at Mosport was a no-brainer for our
little team. We participated in the 2005 edition with my Civic. At that time,
we ran with street tires as I wanted to get in some good practice for the
Quebec Touring championship (which used street tires in 2005). This made us
less competitive, as we were the only team not on R-compound tires. We ended up
11th overall and 4th in class that year. We had miscalculated our fuel needs
and ended up making an extra stop to top up. Despite that, we had enjoyed our
experience.
We decided to line up the same three drivers (Carl Wener, Stephane Trahan and
myself) in the same order for 2007. Teams were allowed to run one, two or three
drivers. We figured we could do quite well as we would have race tires this
time. We also have a few more ponies under the hood of the Civic. We lined up
our friend Will as our fuel man and we borrowed our friend Choo from Heron
Motorsports as our mechanic. As is our habit, we drove the race car to the
event. Carl brought his Type R to carry our gear and as a parts car.
We figured that Carl and I would run the practice and Steph (who was only
rolling in around lunch time anyway), who was the fastest of the three drivers,
would qualify in the early afternoon. At the TLC lapping day last fall, Steph
had turned 1:39’s in the Civic with a passenger (me!), so we figured he could
qualify us at 1:38. During the practice, I ran a couple of 1:44’s and Carl ran
1:43’s. I was still driving conservatively in turns 2, 4 and 8 (the two blind
downhill 4th gear left-handers and the high speed corner at the end of the
straight).
I admit that I am scared at Mosport. I don’t want to wad up my car and I don’t
feel confident with the car sliding at 150+ km/h. Also, I had an off in turn 2
in 2004 and was lucky to only damage one wheel and my bumper cover. I am trying
to build up the confidence to go faster, but it’s a slow process. I need more seat
time on high speed tracks and I need to generally drive with more confidence.
The race car was loaded up with all our racing stuff and 4 race wheels. Carl
had another four wheels in his car. We had seven fuel jugs ranging from 20 to
25 liters in capacity, including the two quick pour ones I had bought for this
type of event. The fuel bill at Sunoco was 224$. Ouch! Luckily, there are three
of us splitting it.
The other cars in the event were a mixed bunch. There were several Spec Racer
Fords, a few of those Nissan Sentras from the old one-make series, two E30
BMW’s (one of them belonging to fellow Quebec racer and all-around nice guy
Sebastien Rochon) and three other Honda Civics. We knew that Sebastien’s BMW
was way faster than our car, but he was not in our class. The other BMW, the
pink Barbie car, was faster than us and in our class. The fastest of the
Civics, what seemed like an ex-Honda-Michelin car with a K20 engine, was also
significantly faster than us.
I have to mention something about noise: some of the cars in the race were
extremely, unpleasantly loud. I could not believe anyone would want to run such
a car. The pink BMW and the fast Civic were so loud we have to plug our ears
each time they drove by (and that Civic did 100 laps in the race). I know that
some tracks have no noise restrictions, but there should be some common sense
limit or something. Next time I go race in Ontario, I guess we’ll need some
earplugs, and we’ll have to shout at each other in the pits.
Steph showed up with around lunch time and suited up for the qualifying
session. It only took him a couple of laps to get down into the 1:38’s. Seb
Rochon was lapping in the 1:33’s… Seb is an example of a fast driver in a
well-built car (built by him). He would be co-driving with his usual race
partner, 71-year-old Bruce Loomis. The loud Civic was putting in times about as
fast as Steph, and the pink BMW was even faster. When the results came out, we
saw that Steph had qualified us 3rd, behind the 2 BMW’s, with Sebastien on
pole. The loud Civic was just behind Steph. The next few cars were all Spec
Racers followed by the Sentras and Civics. The Civic hatch was starting last, I
guess for some technical reason, as it was pretty quick.
We realized that none of the eight used tires we had brought would likely tough
out the three-hour race in the front, so we mounted two brand new tires we had
brought. Steph scrubbed them in on the skid pad area and we were good to go.
The car had performed flawlessly so far. I was testing the new quick pour jugs
and realized that they were fairly useless, as fuel spilled out of the breather
valve when they were more than 3/4 full. What a waste of money! I will have to
modify them in the future so I can add a tube to the breather valve, which is
stupidly close to the main cap. Poor design, quite disappointing. There were
serious penalties for spilling fuel, so we decided to use the regular fuel jugs
in the race. We poked bigger holes for the breather valves in the hopes that
the fuel would pour more quickly, and followed the advice of Seb’s mechanic by
wrapping shop towels around the cap where it met the jug to absorb small leaks.
We elected that Carl would run the first stint, with me doing the middle hour
and Steph bringing us home. This was our formula in 2005 and we all liked it.
Carl has always been good at clean starts usually resulting in a few gains in
position. We knew that any gain in position would be next to impossible this
year as the only cars in front of Carl were the BMW’s. We simply hoped he could
hold on to his spot or maybe lose only one position to the loud Civic.
Eighteen cars took the green flag and Carl managed to hold third position into
turn 1. The next time the pack came around, they were already spreading out.
Seb was alone in his Bimmer, followed a few seconds later by the pink BMW, then
the loud black Civic, then Carl. Carl now had 4 spec racers right behind him.
The Civic hatch that had started last had passed six or seven cars… we figured
he would be one to watch. The spec racer guys had been building confidence and
speed all day, so it was no surprise they were reeling Carl in. Also, Carl was
not lapping quite as fast as Steph had in qualifying. We didn’t have any radios
to communicate with the driver, but Carl told us about his system for giving
information to the driver using the pit board. We made a big arrow using duct
tape and he told us the following: arrow pointing up means your lap times are
going up, so you need to speed up, arrow down means you’re picking up speed,
make sure to keep it under control, arrow out means you’re running stable laps
and arrow in means pit in. Carl asked us to give him arrow out when he started
doing stable 1:42’s. Over the first few laps, four of the Spec racers caught
and passed Carl. A fifth one eventually got by him, but he managed to stick
with him. At this point we were running in ninth. Eventually, we saw the spec
racer just ahead of Carl spin at the exit of the last turn coming onto the
start-finish straight. Carl had the right reflex to stay on the outside as the
other car spun to a stop on the inside, luckily missing the wall. After that,
Carl got into his groove and did several laps in the 1:42’s. At around the 45
minute mark, the pink BMW pitted. At first I thought this was a good sign for
us, as it meant they would have to pit three times. It turned out, however,
that the car retired at that point, I never found out why. It was too bad, as
they had been solidly in second place. At least we only had to cover our ears
once per lap from then on. The rest of Carl’s stint went on without incident
and we called him in after about 56 minutes.
I was standing by for the driver change. We checked the car and all was good.
Will dumped one and a half jugs of fuel into the car. Carl hadn’t used enough
gas to allow us to empty in 40 liters. Carl told me that the car was perfect.
With the fueling finished, I hopped into the car and buckled in and I was off.
As I headed out, I was pretty much alone on the track. I was still tentative in
turn two, but I was no longer braking for turn four (although I was lifting for
a long while!). I had told Choo to show me the arrow when I broke into the
1:43’s. On my first laps, I felt a vibration at speed, like a slightly
unbalanced wheel. More worrisome was the fact that the car was not shifting
smoothly from fifth to fourth. This was enough to break my concentration at the
end of the straight as I braked for turn 8… not a good place. The middle part
of my stint was uneventful… I got passed by the loud Civic, and I saw one of
the reasons it was getting better lap times than us: it had some serious power
down the straightaway and pulled away from my Civic quite easily. It was also
fast in the curves… basically, it seemed to be a well-built car with a solid
driver. I was looking at the watch taped to the dash, wondering how much time
was left in my stint… I felt like I was slow and letting the team down. There
were still 38 minutes left, and I was still waiting for Choo to show me the
arrow. I wondered if he had forgotten what I had told him or if I was just not
that fast. I felt like I was carrying a lot of speed, so much so that I was not
able to turn into my apexes at turns 1 and 3. I passed a couple of the Sentras
and the Spec Miata; I got passed by some spec racers. I can see why Carl let
the spec racers by, because it was annoying to try to stay with them. We were
faster in the straight and they were faster pretty much everywhere else.
Sometimes when I was about to pass one of them at the end of the straight, I
would back off and stay in fourth. That eliminated the problem of downshifting
into 4th as I was already there and I didn’t have to think about where they
would pass me in turn 9 or 10. I think this helped me eventually increase my
speed through corner eight. I was eventually trying a heel-toe downshift at the
end of the straight for a smooth shift into fourth. It took me a couple of laps
to get it just right (not too much braking, just enough gas). I had one brain
fart when I saw smoke in the distance as I was approaching turn 2. It turned
out to be campfire smoke, but I missed my braking and turn-in for turn 2.
Luckily, I had been taking that turn slow enough that I could go offline and
get back on without too much drama. I realized I was understeering in several
corners and I thought it best to try to use less throttle through those corners
and really hit my apexes. I didn’t want to hand the car over to Steph with
overheated front tires. This style of driving felt slower, but I finally got
the arrow from Choo. The bad news was that I must have been lapping 1:44 or
slower for 2/3 of my stint. The good news was that I was finally in the 1:43’s,
which was my personal best for Mosport. Knowing that gave me confidence, and
Choo was showing me the arrow every lap. I guess the saying is true, smooth is
fast. I was finally getting into a groove, but my stint was coming to an end. I
looked at the clock and saw that I was due to come in, but I didn’t get the
signal, so I stayed out one more lap. When I finally came in, Choo said they
gave me an extra lap because I seemed to be doing better at the end. It turned
out I had managed to dip into the 1:42’s near the end.
As the driver exiting the vehicle, it was my job to man the fire extinguisher
as Will poured in the gas. I had left the key in the “on” position so I could
see the fuel gauge. When will had poured more than half the second 20-liter
jug, I saw that the gauge was over the F of full and told him to stop pouring
so we wouldn’t overflow and incur a penalty. We sent Steph out in about sixth
place. There was a scoreboard showing the top five positions, and we were not
on it. We could only see the scoreboard by jumping up or standing on the
railing near the pit wall, which was forbidden. Seb Rochon’s co-driver had been
driving significantly slower than Seb, and they had had a long pit stop (they
needed to dump in 60 liters!). That BMW of his, which is a 2.9 stroker if I
recall correctly, is fast, but thirsty. Seb and Bruce had fallen back well out
of the top five. To make matters worse, the two drivers had each been fined
100$ for not wearing balaclavas under their helmets while their mechanic was
fined 100$ for wearing a two-piece fire suit instead of a one-piece while
fueling the car. Not funny.
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| Pit stop, no driver in the car while fueling |
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| Getting some tips from Carl |
There were 16 cars still running, as one of the spec racers had dropped out. We tried to figure out who was ahead of us to see if we could move up. Apparently, several of the top 5 cars had not pitted. We guessed that, like us, they could run a little more than an hour on fuel and they were holding out as long as possible without pitting, while we had elected to do exactly one hour between stops. As one spec racer pitted, our car number appeared in fifth place on the board. We had finally cracked the top 5! The leader was the loud Civic, and I was told they had pitted once at the 90-minute mark. I couldn’t believe a car like that was on a 1-stop strategy! We had no hope of catching them. The other cars ahead of us were the Civic hatch and two more spec racers. We calculated that Steph was 15 seconds behind one of the spec racers and closing. We made a sign that said “+15”. Steph was catching him when the spec racer pitted in. Sure enough, each one of the other cars that was ahead of us pitted, except the loud Civic. Meanwhile, Steph was turning laps of 1:38 and even 1:37. We looked on the big board and saw that we were in second overall. We couldn’t believe it! We wrote “P2” on the pit board to show Steph. We also noted that Seb Rochon was on a rampage in his BMW, making up positions like there was no tomorrow. He was back up into third, and we were calculating if he had the speed to catch us. He would have had to make up 35 seconds in fewer than 10 laps, so we knew it was impossible. In the pits, we prepared for a splash-n-go, in case Steph was short on fuel, as he had been in 2005. The checker came out for the loud Civic, and when Steph came around a little while later, we were ecstatic, literally jumping for joy. We were second overall, behind Gunter Schmidt in the loud Civic and ahead of Seb Rochon’s BMW. The loud Civic had completed the race with only one fuel stop and that team deserved the win, 100%.
When Steph pitted, we piled all of our stuff into the car and headed back to our paddock area. The sun was setting and our whole team was on a sort of high. We went to the trophy presentation and received a tall trophy and some champagne. We congratulated the winners and our buddy Sebastien. It was the end of a great race day for us, and we used the last remnants of daylight to pack up the race car, change to street tires and head out for a well-deserved late dinner.
All in all, we greatly enjoyed ourselves. It could not have gone better. I want to thank my co-drivers Carl and Steph and my crew Will and Choo, as well as Trac Racing for preparing and maintaining the car. It was an unforgettable weekend. All I can say is that if you are thinking about trying an endurance race, I strongly suggest you go for it. See you at the track.
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| Carl, Vince, Steph and his son JC |
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| Getting ready for my stint |
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| Civic on track |
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| Me, Choo, Steph, Carl and JC |
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