Revisiting some epic road trips: Watkins Glen - 2002 to 2004

In winter, I often end up watching YouTube videos of groups of enthusiasts going on epic road trips. I get kind of envious watching these, but then I remember that I made a few of these epic trips of my own, in the days before smartphones and influencers. This has motivated me to dig up the photos and stories of three separate trips I took to race at one of the most famous race tracks in the USA, Watkins Glen. Before I had this blog, before I had videos or a lap timer, the only way I had to document my car adventures was writing what I called “race reports” after each event. Also, I had bought my first digital camera in 2002 (1.3 megapixels!), so I still have the photos of most of these events in digital form. I realized that I hadn’t made any blog posts about these events, so I figured now was the time to do so. In all, my friends and I (and Alex) made the trip to the Glen on three separate occasions.

What led us to make these trips? My track buddies had all heard of the track, as it had hosted some pretty big events over the years (including F1 and Nascar), but none of us had ever been there. It was not that far for us, around a 6-hour drive. My friend Will was well connected in the world of modified VW-Audis, and he was the one who told us about a club, the Eastern Motor Racing Association, which held events at various tracks in the Northeast. What made these events attractive to us was the fact that there was a time trial and wheel-to-wheel racing on the same weekend. Also, there was usually an enduro, where two drivers could share the same car in the race, which meant we could get a lot of track time for the money. By 2002, I had also become friends with Carl Wener after meeting at time trial events in about 1999, and we enjoyed bouncing ideas off each other and, eventually, attending events together and sharing cars. He is the only person apart from me who was part of each of the three Watkins Glen trips. When I sold the 2000 Civic race car in 2014, the one that features in the 2004 Watkins Glen trip, Carl is the one who bought it, and he still owns and races it to this day (and lets me drive it on occasion).

The Civic in 2002

2002

Back to the summer of 2002: I had sold my Dodge Neon, the first car I had ever bought with track events specifically in mind. The Neon’s performance was fine (I had won my class in our local time trial championship with it), but I was not happy about the reliability and quality of the car, and I wanted to go wheel-to-wheel racing. I couldn’t see myself investing in that car (roll cage, etc.). I ended up buying a 1988 Civic ex-Honda-Michelin car. The Civic was basically stock, except that it had a roll cage (as well as the full interior!). I paid 2200 $ for the car, less than what I had got for the Neon. I had almost no budget to build this car. I stripped out the interior and painted the floor, installed a used (quite ugly) Momo race seat and bought the least expensive suspension I could find (H&R Race springs, KYB shocks). For wheels, I bought some used Civic VX 13-inch wheels (only 8 lbs each), and some used race tires from a Formula Ford team (20$ each). The car had 92 hp, but incredibly enough, this would not even put me in the slowest class with EMRA... there were still people racing MG Midgets and Renault 5's, so there were in fact two classes slower than the ST4 class of the Civic DX.

 

At some EMRA events, the club would squeeze in a race license evaluation group. When we found out that there would be an event in Canada in the summer of 2002, at Shannonville (Ontario), I signed up because I wanted to get my race license. I described that event in another race report HERE, but long story short, it went well and I got my license. Also, I realized had met a few people from EMRA and I liked the vibe of the club, and so I mentioned it to my friends (Will and Carl) and we decided to try to put together a trip to the Glen. The plan was to drive the “race” cars to and from the event, swap on our race tires, and hopefully drive home afterwards.

I managed to get the car featured in Grassroots Motorports in 2002, I was pretty happy about it!

Cleaning up the floor and cage after removing the carpet on the 88 Civic

My race suit was so new!

In 2002 when I got the 88 Civic, my friends Mazen and Jean-Walter had each bought brand new WRX's

Here is the race report and photos from the 2002 trip:

Watkins Glen sprint and enduro, EMRA, October 18-19, 2002

Our 2-day road race event began on Friday, while it was cold but dry. I was scheduled for a practice, a qualifying session and a sprint race in the small bore class with my 1988 Civic. I would be sharing my car with Jean-Sébastien, one of my racing friends, in the enduro. JS would also run the second sprint race.

At the first practice session, which was my first time on the track at Watkins Glen, I tried to follow a beat up old Opel Manta to learn the line a bit quicker, but I was feeling pretty lost. The car was working well. I followed the guy for a couple of laps and thought “hey, I may not be the slowest guy out here”. At that point, the guy decided to try for real and he left me in his dust. Confidence level: low.

My next time on the track was for a qualifying session for the sprint race. It was still dry and I felt I was learning something and stringing together some decent sections. However, I had a little slide in turn 1 and drove off the track, aiming as soon as possible for the spot where I would get back on. Unfortunately, I hadn’t noticed that the path I had chosen led through a small part of the gravel trap. I hit the gravel pretty hard, but was carrying enough speed to keep going right through. After that, I was going slower and was paranoid about having screwed up the alignment or something. It turned out the car was fine (just full of gravel and dust) and I had qualified 4th out of 6 in my ST4, class with a high 2:34. It wasn’t that bad though, as I was only 3 seconds behind the 1st place ST4 car and 2 seconds behind my instructor from the EMRA school who drove an almost identical car to mine. Confidence level: not bad.

Our sprint race was scheduled to run after the big bore race. However, there was a major incident in that race which required taking one driver to the hospital (he was ok, only a concussion). As a result, we could not run our race with only a single ambulance left, which makes sense. We were instead promised a race first thing in the morning and were allowed on the track anyway for another practice session. This session went great, I finally felt like I was running some decent laps. The car was working great and the gearing with the new final drive felt perfect for the track (3rd and 4th everywhere). I even passed some of the guys who had outqualified me. Unfortunately, this session was not timed, so I could not tell if the seat-of-the-pants improvement resulted in a faster lap. Confidence level: relatively high.

The next morning, it was raining. Confidence level: down the toilet. We had 2 warmup laps and then the race. My driver’s side windshield wiper failed on the first lap and I was freaking out in the car. I couldn't see at all. When I stopped to grid after the 2 laps, one of the officials was kind enough to move the defective wiper up so the passenger side wiper could at least function. He said "most of the turns are to the right, you'll be fine!" and I started the race, feeling better. I realized that the visibility was quite bad, as it was raining so much that I couldn't see much better out the passenger side of the windshield. I managed to hook up with my former instructor’s Civic. I figured if I could stay with him until the end, I would have a nice result because he was the series points leader. Also, we had almost identical cars, so I could copy his braking points. We passed some cars, some cars passed us. We saw cars spin right in front of us. Actually, the same MR2 spun twice and re-passed us twice. I almost hit the barrier at the very slippery exit to 6 (left hander after the chute) when I oversteered onto the narrow strip of grass between the track and the Armco, somehow bringing it back (I don't remember how) and barely losing any ground on the other Civic. I managed to follow him to the checker and took second in class, 9th overall out of 21. I was really happy with that. I had totally not been expecting to come home from my second road race ever with a trophy, especially not at this track! I went to talk to the guy who beat me by 1 second, my former instructor, to see if he had been really pushing it. He said that he hadn’t because he knew we were 1-2 in class and he only had to keep me behind to win it. However, he had to admit that he couldn't let off too much because I always was right there.

My co-driver JS was running the second sprint race in my car. It was raining less, but we tried a switch to the Hankook tires we had brought since they looked better for the wet (we had never tried them though). Well, JS put the car on pole for the class and 6th overall! He said the tires were great and he posted a 3:01 in the rain. He ran a thankfully uneventful race and finished 3rd in class, 7th overall.

I got a late start in the enduro practice because JS forgot to bring me the car in the pits after his qualifying session! Then I only ran 1 hot lap before the session was black flagged. I was trying to get around the Nissan 200 SX SE-R who left right in front of me as I was faster in most corners, but I could not pass him in the straights (140 hp vs 92), which was the only safe place in the rain with my experience level. Unfortunately, I made 3 major mistakes:
1- I didn’t know it was a qualifying session, I thought the gridding for the enduro was random or something
2- I didn’t see the first couple of black flags (they black flagged the whole group) and was forced to exit the track by some other track exit after being instructed by a marshal, which led me to the paddocks and not the pits
3- I didn’t know the session was re-started after I parked it in the paddocks. The guys came to see me and said “Where were you man?” I said “What, I was out there”. And they said “Not for the longer half of the session”. Result, a sad qualifying time of 3:09 which put me in 20th out of 24. Only consolation: a 3:01 like JS had pulled off earlier would still only have put me in 17th.

The start of the enduro went well. I had passed a couple of cars in the first laps to get up to the position where I should have qualified us. We had switched back to the Yokohama’s because the track was almost completely dry. As soon as the race started, so did the rain. As the track got wetter, I was following an Alfa Romeo Milano down the front straight when I totally botched the braking zone. The track in that area felt like an oil slick. I stuck it deep in the gravel as 3 other cars had done on the same lap. Actually, there were 2 in the gravel and one in the barrier, as the driver had been unlucky and skipped right over the gravel, damaging a really nice Grand Am Cup Integra Type R. The race was black flagged because of the four of us and I was towed back out of the gravel trap so I could drive around to the pits. The car seemed fine, but the battery light was on. We re-started and I came in at the 1 hour point to gas up and let JS have his turn in the car. I opened the hood and saw that I had thrown the alternator belt. We tried to race on just the battery, but it died near the end of the race. JS had pulled over with no more spark and been towed to the paddocks. I thought the race was almost over and that we should park it, but Carl, who was acting as our crew chief, said that the race had been extended because of all the black flags and that there were still 25 minutes left. We had no spare alternator belt and knew it would take at least 15 minutes to change, so we just borrowed a battery from some kind soul and stuck that in, figuring it could easily run for 20 minutes. We sent JS back out, but just as he got to the pits to try to re-enter the race, there was another black flag and the officials ended the race. So after all that, we finished 20th in the enduro, 4 laps down on the winner.  

We were still very happy with our event. It was one of the coolest weekends ever for me and I see why everyone loves this track. It is nerve-wracking in the rain. There were at least 10 accidents and 5 or 6 major wrecks in the 2-day event, so I'm glad my car is still in one piece as well. I can’t wait to race there again next year and would like to thank EMRA for organizing a top-notch event.

The amazing paddock garage at Watkins Glen. Will's A4 behind the Civic

 

Those wheels are small

Will had rented a fancy digital camera and took some great pics

Small car on a big track

Learning in the wet

The recognizable blue guard rails at the Glen

2003

In 2003, I was actually had two “race cars”, the Civic and a 1990 caged Mazda 323 ex-rally car. I managed to save up for a small engine swap for the Civic, and my then-mechanic Richard installed a 125 hp 1.6 liter single-cam vtec engine in the Civic. This is not a lot of horsepower, but it made the 1988 Civic, which only weighed 1940 pounds, quite a bit quicker. The funny thing is that this swap bumped us up three classes in the EMRA system, from ST4 to ST1. This meant we would run in the “big-bore” run group, with ex-Nascar trucks and some other really fast machinery. I had taken the car to Shannonville again in 2003, sharing the car with another local driver named Eric, and we managed to win our class in the enduro, simply because we were the only ST1 car. Still, it had been a strong showing for us as we had finished 4th over all in the race.

People in our circle had heard about our 2002 presence at the event, and wanted to be part of the trip in 2003. Both Carl and I had been raving about how much fun we had in 2002, and work had got around. In the end, there would be five other Quebec race cars joining us, and seven time trial cars. This was maybe the most “epic” car trip I was ever part of… 13 cars from Quebec at the Glen, with drivers and crews. It was an amazing atmosphere and even now, over 20 years later, I remember the surprise of the Americans that we managed to get such a large group out there. We even "borrowed" a Canadian flag from our hotel to display in our area of the (amazing) paddock at the track. I hope that the other Quebecers have as many fond memories of the trip as I do. 

Here is the race report and photos from the 2003 trip:

The Glen 2003, Watkins Glen, EMRA, October 17-18, 2003

As we first did in 2002, we decided to bring my Civic to EMRA's “Fall Foliage Tour” event at the Glen. The weekend consised of a sprint race on Friday, a sprint and a 2-hour enduro on Saturday and time trials on Sunday. This year, I was sharing the car with Carl Wener, a friend and racing buddy who is the service manager for our local race/tuning shop TRAC Racing. We worked out a mutually beneficial arrangement where TRAC would prep the car and Carl would get to drive one sprint and co-drive the enduro. This arrangement did not, however, include a tow vehicle and trailer, so we found ourselves driving the car the 540 km to the track. Carl was also bringing his stock-class Integra Type R to the event to run the time trial. There were also 5 other Quebec road race cars and 7 other time trial cars from Quebec (most of them much faster than we were) joining us for the weekend, leading to a full on Canadian assault on the event. We managed to pawn off the transport of our tires (16 just for my car) on a friend of ours with an enclosed trailer.

Back for more, now with 125 hp. Hand-cut vinyl numbers and letters.

The weather forecast was for cold all weekend with rain Sunday and possibly late Saturday. We arrived Thursday night and I stuck my homemade numbers and class decals on the car before turning in. I was scheduled to run the Friday portion of the event. We got to the track Friday morning and put on the race tires, taped up the headlights, pulled out the passenger seat and uncapped the Supertrapp muffler. Result: instant race car. I headed out for my practice session and the car felt good. The only other time I'd been to the Glen, I only had a 92 hp from my 1.5 liter engine. This year, I had a blisteringly fast 125 hp 1.6 in the car. My best lap last year had been a 2:34, while Carl had done a 2:27 with his ITR in the time trial. My goal was therefore to get down to 2:27 over the weekend with the new motor, as I figured that matching the time of an unmodified Type R would be a strong performance for the Civic. During the session, I eventually got stuck behind a big Alfa Romeo Milano, which had much less handling and braking than I did, but tons more hp and torque with its 3.0 liter V6. Not wanting to pass too aggressively in the practice, I was stuck behind it for a while as I couldn't get close enough on the straights to pass it in the corners. Right from my first hot lap, I decided I could take turn 10 flat out as I had last year. It turns out I could, but let's just say it was a little hairier this year with the extra 33 hp... still, I was making up tremendous ground on higher-powered cars there all weekend. The session ended after only a few laps and I pulled into the pits. I was not too happy with my performance of sitting behind the Alfa for most of the session. When Carl told me I only ran a 2:32, I was even more frustrated and was cursing myself for wasting the session.

My next time out was for qualifying. I tried to get some open track but found myself again stuck behind another car, this time a 1st gen RX7 which had more straight-line speed than me. Fortunately though, the driver seemed to be lapping a lot faster than the Milano and I didn't mind following him for a while. As there were no cars close behind us, I backed off for one lap and then gradually caught him up on the next lap. I was preparing to back off again for another hot lap when he graciously waved me by. I ended up with a 2:26.0 while the RX7 had a 2:26.9. I was happy with the session as I had already surpassed my goal for the weekend as far as lap times went. However, in class, I was only 3rd out of 4 cars, and the 4th guy had not even qualified at all, which meant I was more like 3rd out of 3. The other two qualifiers in the ST1 class were a 2nd gen RX7 and a Datsun 280 Z and both had qualified in the 2:23's. The non-qualifier was a Saturn wagon. Carl seemed impressed with my times and I wasn't too worried about my position in class, as I know my car was underpowered for the class. This is always the risk you take when you do an engine swap. We were also quite impressed with the 2:15 clocked by our buddy JS in his ex Speedvision World Challenge Mustang.

Carl was to get his first stint in the car in the student race, which was also a practice for anyone who showed up (to get more participants to create a race-like atmosphere for the students). When Carl came in after five laps, he was actually quite astounded that I could get any kind of decent lap times out of the car as he thought the handling was less than confidence-inspiring. The car felt nowhere near as precise as his Integra (which had double-adjustable Koni shocks and was mechanically perfect). He also thought the steering was very vague. Basically, he was less than impressed with the car after his first few laps. 

In the afternoon, I lined up for the 12-lap big-bore sprint race (with my big-bore 1.6 liter engine!). There were a couple of Nascar race trucks and many Mustangs in front, but that was not an issue for me as I figured they would only lap us once in 12 laps. At the start of the race, I had a good little battle with one of the RX-7’s, whose driver tried to take me on the inside of turn one but failed as he was off line. I managed to use a blue Mustang as a pick and pass it and the car behind it in the downhill braking zone for turn 6. I believe I passed 3 cars on that lap and was passed by one other. After a couple of laps, I was catching up to the 280Z. I knew I was turning faster laps than I had in qualifying, but I knew it would be tough to pass this guy. I began to hound him a little and finally got the pass in turn 6, only to realize that he was slowing down with a problem. I think he DNF'd with brake problems, maybe because of some pressure from a certain white Civic? I got into a battle with a CRX Si and Integra which caught up to me (one had spun and that's why it was behind me, the other, I don't know). The Integra was clearly faster, but could not pass me so easily. After a couple of laps, the driver made his presence known with a little bump drafting at almost 120 mph in the long straight. This was a new experience for me, but it was manageable. Later that lap he made the pass and I was left fending off the CRX. On the last lap, I had fuel starvation in turn one and the CRX got by. I managed to get the position back at turn 6 (turning out to be my trademark passing area) only to lose it again when the engine again cut out at the crucial uphill in the toe (turn 7). I finished behind both of those cars, who were not in my class (they were actually in a slower class). All in all, it was a good race and things went smoothly, except for the fuel starvation. When I came into the paddock, Carl was ecstatic. He told me I was lapping in the low 2:24's, which far exceeded my expectations. Then someone told me I had won the class, which did not make sense at the time, as I had never passed the ST1 RX7. It turns out that the driver who qualified the RX7 was not the one who raced it and that it had started from the back of the grid and never caught up to me (he was lapping around 2:30) and I had indeed won the class. It felt a bit hollow though as 2 drivers from a lower class passed me on the last lap, but I figured a win is a win and besides, I was lapping 2:24 with a beat up 88 Civic that I drove to the track and which is riding on 46$ shocks and 150$ springs. I couldn't complain.

The next day was Carl's turn to run a sprint race. The weather was similar, but a little colder. Carl headed out for the practice and was starting to get the hang of the car. It was different from his own, but he would be able to drive it. When he went out to qualify, we knew everything would be all right as he did a 2:26, as I had done the day before. Our friend JS with the Mustang blew his engine up quite spectacularly in that session. A quick deal was struck and JS would co-drive the B18 powered EG Civic of our friend Rob (who had not planned to do the enduro at all).

Before Carl’s race, I went out in the enduro qualifying us and put us 14th on the grid with a 2:26. I was only a hair faster than JS in Rob’s black Civic, which was surprising, as Rob had been lapping the car 6 seconds slower than Carl earlier in the day. Put it down to experience on the track (Rob had none, JS had co-driven my car last year). The front end of my car seemed to be gripping less, possibly due to the cold. Carl and I were finally on the same page though.

In the Saturday sprint, Carl came up with a second place and another trophy for the little car that could. All that was left was the enduro.

We decided to start the enduro with the same 205-50-15 Toyo RA1's we had been running all weekend. They were supposed to serve only for the sprints, but we figured he had enough rubber for the enduro left in them. They were almost slick, which is the sweet spot for these tires. The enduro featured some very quick Hondas from our group of Quebecers, and a quick Mk.3 Golf, also from the Quebec touring car series, not to mention Matt's very quick EG Civic (Matt was a new American friend of ours). We filled up the gas tank until even the filler neck was full to try to make sure we could do the full hour on one tank. Carl went out and easily pulled away from Rob, who was right behind him on the grid. He eventually ended up sandwiched between a pair of Spec Miata’s in front of him and a pair of Spec Racer Fords behind him. He swapped positions with the 2nd Miata several times, and the faster SRF eventually passed the whole group. He was in the groove and consistently lapping as fast as he had in qualifying, even hitting the 2:25's at one point. He came into the pits at about the halfway point and we fueled the car. As I strapped in, a member of our crew who was checking the tires noted that we had corded the right front. Since we had no other tires of this size, we decided to change both fronts for much fresher 205-60-13's. After spending a couple of minutes with this change (the crew was very efficient, even though a couple of the guys were “officially” crewing for a friend of mine, they helped with my tire change), I was back out on the track. I was afraid the car would feel less precise on these tires, but they were fine. Had I known they would feel as good as the 15's, I would have started the race on them. I was running 2:26's as Carl was. The only cars that lapped me in my stint were the fast Hondas and Golf of our friends (200 hp cars). 

One of the American MG's hit the wall at the exit of turn 11 (just before the start-finish) and the race was temporarily stopped. I figured this would help with fuel conservation. I was worried that the car hadn't been as full after my pit as it was when we overfilled it before the race. We headed out for the few remaining laps and I was having a blast, as we were allowed to begin racing as soon as we exited the pits and the whole field was bunched together. I ended up catching Rob's black Civic with JP at the wheel, who was having fuel starvation. I also caught up to the Spec Miata that had been battling with Carl earlier on. We had a good battle and I was finally ahead of him when fuel starvation reared its ugly head. I realized it was only in right-handers and changed my approach to these turns: instead of coming in at medium speed and accelerating through the apex, I would pitch the car in at a speed at which I couldn't come back onto the gas, even if I wanted to, and then only accelerate once the car was pointing in a straight line. This seemed to work everywhere except the Toe of the Boot, which was hopeless. We got the flag for the last lap and I was ahead of the Miata until the engine once again cut out in the Toe and he passed me. I managed to catch him up and planned to pass him on the inside of the next turn, a right-hander that was a little tighter than 90 degrees but that had a lot of room on exit if you early apexed it. As I moved over to the right to set up that pass, the Miata driver, who had been aggressive but fair all through our battle, slowly moved to the right as well. I guess he figured he would take the tighter line to force me to take an impossibly tight line. I waited until the last second and then pulled hard all the way back to the left side of the track, where there was now just enough room to pass him without driving on the grass. I passed him and was on the right line for the turn! At this point, with my excess of enthusiasm, I locked up the brakes in the braking zone and went off the track. I still had control of the car and would have brought it back on the track (losing the position) if it hadn't been for the gravel trap. I stuck the car deep in the gravel and watched all the people I had passed in the last few laps drive by to take the checker. I was angry at myself because the problem was not that I braked too late, but that I braked poorly and locked up the tires. I figured it wasn't that bad, since I only lost one lap out of 40-something and that we would still have a result for the enduro. During the trophy presentation, we found out that the result was another class win (I don't know how...) as we still had 42 laps completed. We could not believe it. This little car that we drove to the track had racked up three trophies in three races, 2 of them for class wins. We were only 15th overall out of 31 cars, but we learned a few things (as we do every year) and expect to be back with a better package next year.

I highly recommend the EMRA club and this event in particular to anyone within a 10-hour drive of the Glen, as the organization was top-notch and the racing was clean and fun with very few incidents. I was also glad to meet the two Matts and Jeff, all driving Hondas. I'd also like to thank Carl and TRAC racing for all the help and the good times. I think that everyone who made the trip with us also had a weekend to remember. I hope to see the whole gang again all next season. 

P.S. Funny story: on the way home from the Glen, I ran over something and got a flat tire. Of the 16 wheels we had packed for my car, there were zero in my Civic! We had to wait until one of our friends came by with some Honda wheels so we could use one to get home. It all worked out in the end, but another lesson was learned: always carry a spare!

Rob, me, Matt and Carl

Dollar-store duct tape on the headlights

ST5 was for very low-horsepower cars

RX7 and Alfa Milano

Another white Civic

JS's ex World-Challenge Mustang

Receiving one of our trophies

Matt and Me, Matt's Civic

Yves's quick Mk4 Gold was part of our gang from Quebec

A Midget is a small race car

Several more Midgets

Looking down at the pit lane

Carl getting comfortable in the Civic

Three Quebec Civics

Carl in the Civic

More great photos taken by Will

Spectating when it wasn't our own session

Carl brought his Integra

Rob brought his Integra-powered Civic, built from a shell we found for 75$.

Massive paddock garage

Carl was having a ball

The Canada corner of the paddocks

That blue Civic on the left was also one of our gang

Will and Vincent P.

Rob and his Civic

Getting ready for a sprint race

Yves made the trip with his regular crew.

Quebec crew out front

Will had a big lens

Teams are set up in the pits for the enduro

Civic at speed

Sharing crews for refuelling

Carl rolls in for the driver change

Getting ready to swap front tires

We had enough crew to do both at the same time

Waiting to head out for my stint

Yves takes on more fuel

I head out for my stint

Will's Audi time trial car was pretty nice

In high spirits after the race

Excited to take home another class win

Big dinner at the lodge at the end of the day

Rob and Will

Destroyed tire on the way home

Lots of tools with us, but no spare!

Carl on the phone trying to secure us a spare wheel

After having won our class in two enduros with EMRA, Carl and I decided to attend the club’s before-last race at Lime Rock in late 2003. I re-posted that race report HERE. We won our class at that race as well, and three wins was enough to secure the 2003 EMRA ST1 enduro class championship. What a way to end the season! Unfortunately, the year 2004 got off to a terrible start for me. I had negotiated the right to run in the Quebec Touring Car Championship with my 1988 Civic, even though the cut-off year was 1992 (or newer) and they stopped making my model in 1991. I realized after the end of the 2003 season that the chassis of my 1988 car was starting to really show its age. When I found cracks around the base of the cage, I made the decision to change the whole shell. One of the other racers from EMRA had seen my car and told me he had a rolling shell just like it, except it was a 1991 and rust-free, and that he didn’t really have a plan for the car. I bought the shell for 50$US (!) and a racer friend from the Montreal area helped me pick it up in upstate New York. The plan was to reuse my engine and cage, but of course, plans change. Carl called me and told me a client of his was selling a 1991 CRX at a very low price, and it had the 160 hp B16 and Koni shocks. I bought the car, took the engine and shocks, and installed my parts in it, then sold it to my friend Etienne for about the same price I had paid for it. Carl convinced me to go for a more modern roll cage that would be custom built by Trac Racing. The old 1988 shell was cut up into pieces and sent to the scrap yard. 

2004

The project was getting a bit out of control (budget-wise) but by Spring 2004, the new/old white Civic was ready to test. I took it out for the first time during a break at the racing school where I was instructing, at the old St-Eustache track. Early in the session, I lost control and crashed at the “oval-in dogleg”. The car was totalled, just like that. To this day, I don’t know what happened… I have no recollection of the moments just before the crash. I was uninjured, but it was depressing. That was supposed to be my rookie season in touring cars, but it would have to wait. I soon started looking for another car, and I got lucky. 

The 1991 Civic, crashed on its first outing

The new shell, needed a bunch of parts to become a usable car again

New custom cage, again

The car looked pretty sharp when it was done

I found a shell, a 2000 Civic SiR, for only 1500$. It was a bit banged up and it had no engine, transmission, interior or bumpers, but it was rust-free (it was only 4 years old!) and it had the 4-wheel disc brake setup. Over the summer I found all the parts I needed (including a 170 hp engine from an Integra GSR) and had another (expensive) custom cage made. The car was ready to test by October, and we figured the surest way to test it was to take it the EMRA event at the Glen. I don’t know why, but this ended up being our last ever trip to this event. I think one reason was that EMRA stopped holding the event at the Glen for a while. Also, I had spent a ton of money on the 2005 Quebec Touring championship and ended the season with a blown engine. I guess we figured that we would eventually get back there, but it just never happened. Here is the story of our last trip to the Glen.

Watkins Glen sprint and enduro, EMRA, October 22-23, 2004

It’s been a while since I’ve written about any events and the main reason is that I simply haven’t participated in any. As some of you may remember, I totaled my newly built 1991 Civic B16a this spring while testing (at a race school where I was instructing, of all places). It took me all summer to put together a replacement, a B18C1 powered 2000 SiR coupe. That’s just the way it goes when you don’t have tons of money to throw at a new car. In any event, I’d been looking forward to the EMRA event at Watkins Glen all summer, knowing that no matter how slow the build of the new car went, it should be ready by this event. Well, long story short, it almost wasn’t ready. After some last-minute testing, we had to change a steering rack and a rear trailing arm. I also had to buy a new tire and repair a wheel after a little off and puncture I had at Mosport a few days before the event. This would be our third year at the Glen event with EMRA. In 2002, we ran the sprints and enduro with my 1988 Honda Michelin Civic with a 92 hp 1.5 liter. We had DNF`d due to my losing the alternator belt in an off early in the race. In 2003, I co-drove with my friend Carl Wener for the first time with the same Civic, but with a 1.6 liter 125 hp engine. We had won our class in the enduro last year despite being down on power in comparison with other ST1 class cars. The car had been dead reliable and we were turning great lap times for the setup we had, although not the fastest in the class. We had won due to reliability and consistency. We hoped to do as well this year as we had a better suspension setup and more power. There were several Canadians making the trip down this year and our friend Rob Guerra was one of them. He brought his Type R powered 1993 Civic hatchback. He was there for the two sprint races, not wanting to go through all the consumables necessary to complete a 3-hour enduro. Carl and I were splitting my car, each doing one sprint race and sharing the enduro seat time. I would run the 12-lap sprint race on Friday and Carl would run the Saturday one. The forecast called for sun and cloud and only 10% chance of rain. We headed down from Montreal to stay at a Holiday Inn on Thursday night. After stopping at the wrong Holiday Inn not once but twice, we got to bed around 1:30. So much for a good night’s sleep! It was still raining at that time and I couldn’t imagine the track possibly being dry in the morning sessions. Sure enough, when we left the hotel at 6:30am, it was still drizzling. We got to the track and removed all our gear from the car as well as the passenger seat. It was time to go racing! It was still drizzling when I headed out onto the track for my first session around 9:00.

We had relatively new Hankook Z211’s for dry and damp conditions (drove with them all the way from Montreal!) and some brand new Hankook K104’s (performance street tires with deep V-grooves) for serious rain. I went out on the Z211’s as the track wasn’t soaking wet, just quite damp. I was going to take it really easy, as I didn’t really know much about my car or its handling yet. The session went OK, I had no speed and I locked up the brakes once at turn 8 where the braking zone was extremely slick. Our friend and fellow Honda driver Matt didn’t hesitate to stick his car deep in the gravel on the first lap of the session. I could sympathize with him, having stuck my car there in the dry last year on the last lap of the enduro. I didn’t even bother to look at the lap times as they were sure to be quite sad. The car felt stable and I knew that I wasn’t pushing it the limits of adhesion or anywhere near that point. I wasn’t yet comfortable with the car. Also, we realized that our non-Vtec transmission’s ratios were completely wrong for this track (and probably most tracks). Second gear was too short for the slower corners as you would run out of revs at crucial moments, while third was too long. In fact, you can go over 100 mph in 3rd with this setup. We lost a lot of time at the toe of the boot for this reason. The second session was qualifying. By then, the track was about 75% dry. As you all know, you can’t turn a good lap on a mostly dry track either. There was still quite a bit of wetness in turns 2 (first part of the esses) and 6 (laces of the boot). I was still in “take it easy” mode. Rob, who had gone out on the K104’s, eventually lost it in turn 2 and hit both guardrails. I saw his car on the side of the track and wasn’t too worried about him as the damage seemed very minor. As it turned out, I was looking at the good side of the car. The right side had sustained heavy damage and the car was towed away on the flatbed. The session was black flagged and I saw the true extent of the damage when Rob’s car came in. Fortunately, Rob was walking along beside the truck so we knew he was OK. His seat was bent to the side by several degrees from the impact. He seemed disappointed, but not too angry. It was sad to see his weekend over almost before it began since he came all the way from England to do this event. With a positive attitude, he began working on the car to see if there was any way he would be able to drive it home. He doesn’t have a tow vehicle either. He ended up having to change an axle and 2 wheels and play around with the alignment a lot. As a joke, Carl painted all the duct tape on the body black to match the car, and it actually looked much better! 

Before my sprint race, Carl got his first stint in the car in the “hardship” practice. We were beginning to notice that car consumed serious amounts of motor oil. We had suspected this after our track day at Mosport. We wondered how we would ever finish the enduro using a pint of oil every 20 minutes. Carl’s lap times were encouraging though. The track was slow but he was doing OK. He was finally at the point where he could be flat out from the exit of turn one to the inner loop (chicane). This had been a piece of cake in the old car, but it had much less power. My short qualifying hadn’t produced much of a result as I had still been in “drive slow, you don’t want to wreck a second car in one year” mode. I was 15th out of 20 cars in big bore. There were several Craftsman style trucks who hadn’t bothered to qualify starting behind me. As one might imagine, they all thundered by me on the first lap. The race was going OK and I was finally gaining confidence and beginning to take the fast section flat out. There seemed to be a flat spot around 7000 rpm though and I realized I might be short on oil in some corners. Then the check engine light came on and I knew that there was no longer enough oil for the Vtec to come on. I came in. I hadn’t brought any oil to the pits so I went and parked in the paddock. I could hear that the race was still going on so I got out, threw in a liter of oil and drove back to the pit lane. I waited to be waived on to the track and gunned it. I then caught up to a bunch of the pickup trucks and realized the checker had already dropped and I was on the cooldown lap. They even black flagged me on the second half of the lap because I had gone out after the checker (after being waved on by a pit official, but anyways…). I was pretty pissed off, as this was only my second DNF ever. I didn’t stay pissed off for long. It was a good day in that the car came back in one piece (I have new standards for a good day since wrecking my last Civic) and that I was slowly building up confidence. I only regretted running out of oil right when I was starting to feel good about my driving. We had to figure out what to do about the oil consumption before Saturday. We bought 5 liters of 20w50 and did an oil change at the end of the day, hoping the extra viscosity would solve things. Carl went out for his practice in the morning and put down some really good laps, several seconds faster than I had gone in my half sprint race. He had his race an hour later and did pretty well, although there was no way to win the class as there was a Mustang GT lapping 4 seconds a lap faster than him. Still, he was beginning to see that the car had potential and we knew that it would not do anything evil or unpredictable. It looked like we were consuming a lot less oil and would be able to manage 45-minute stints in the enduro without having to add oil. We were supposed to get a 45 minute session to practice and qualify for the enduro. We decided to split the session and have Carl put down a good lap and then bring it in so I could finally get some seat time in the dry. The session was shortened to 30 minutes and I expected him in after around 13-14 minutes. He came in after only 8 minutes and I asked what was wrong. He said we were overheating. We hadn’t expected this as the car had never overheated before in any circumstance (despite having no fan on the rad because I didn’t find one in time). I decided to go out anyway and see if the temperature would come down. I was short-shifting, but I could see it was pointless, so I went to the paddock and parked it. We had qualified last in our class, which included the Mustang and the quick cars of our friends from Quebec who had joined us on Saturday and had classified themselves in STGT as well, although we considered this to be wrong because these cars were far from the spirit of the ST class (for example, you can’t have drastic weight reduction or lexan windows, which all of these cars had -- The M3 obviously didn’t belong in ST either. They were all later reclassified by the officials). When we checked the car, we saw that the overflow was full and there was not much fluid in the rad. We ran around asking for suggestions. We filled it up with water and changed the rad cap, borrowing the one from Rob’s (crashed) car. We weren’t that confident that this would solve the problem so with 15 minutes to go before the race, we decided to change the thermostat for a borrowed one. Now, we all know that changing a thermostat is a piece of cake, but it’s a bit tougher when the engine is still hot. I mean, quite hot, even through my Mechanix gloves. We finished installing it with no time to spare. We couldn’t properly bleed the system as the water would shoot up as soon as we poured it in with the engine running. Carl was strapping in as I added oil. We heard the race beginning and knew we were going to get a late start. We figured it would be worth it to have reliability for 3 hours though. Did I mention the car wouldn’t start any more? We figured we must have soaked a wire to the starter or something, so we started the car on compression. When Carl made it to the pits, he was sent out immediately. I arrived there shortly after on foot and wondered how many laps we had missed. Carl was gone and the field came around to get the green flag. We hadn’t missed any laps at race speed and when the tail end of the field went by the start-finish line, I saw that Carl was not far behind the slowest cars. Not bad! I was feeling pretty good about our last-minute efforts to get the cooling system in order. My bubble burst when Carl came in after only 20 minutes. The car was overheating again. We did a driver change so I could go out and get a few laps before we parked it. I went out and the temperature went quite high right away. I did 2 laps and decided to call it quits. I came in to the pits and decided that we should try to do a proper bleed, even if it took 15 or 20 minutes. I think Carl was ready to park it at that point, because he knew I had to drive the car over 540 km back home the next day. Although position was no longer a factor, I figured we should try to get out money’s worth and do some laps, so the guys got to work. Rob (who was now a member of our crew) and Carl did a proper bleed and I went out. I constantly kept an eye was on the temperature gauge, but all seemed in order. Second lap as well. And the third… It seemed our problem was solved. I decided I’d do a few laps and then let Carl take over so he could enjoy the now functional car. He got in the car and went out for a few laps before coming in for gas, oil and because the car was overheating again. I was floored. I had been sure that the problem was solved. We added the necessary gas and oil and I got back in the car and went out for a few short-shifting laps before the race was temporarily black flagged to clear up an incident. We were not allowed to touch the car or do any work while it sat there in the line of cars in pit lane. I asked a pit official to let me work on the car and assess us some sort of penalty. He wouldn’t let us. It was agonizing, having the car sitting there with the engine off and with all our bleeding kit right there. We told them that we couldn’t wait for me to do another lap with almost no coolant. Finally, the marshal let us push the car out of the way (still no functioning starter) and they told us we could start working on it after the field re-started. We did another proper bleed which took several minutes. I went out for a few more laps at speed with some minor short-shifting (8000 rpm instead of 8500). It was hard to string together a good lap as my eye was always on the temperature gauge. I had trouble maintaining the concentration necessary to turn a fast safe lap. I came in after a while so that Carl could get some more laps in. One or two laps later, the Mustang in our class blew its engine big time and dumped oil all over the race line leading up to turn 8. All cars came in and I went to see Carl. This was to be a long black flag and again we were refused the right to touch the car. Again we waited until all the other cars left to do a coolant bleed. It went better as the engine had cooled a bit during the delay. In fact, we completed the bleed fast enough that we didn’t even go down a lap. That means we only took about 2 minutes to do the bleed. When we sent Carl out, he caught up to the field which had been running behind the pace car. Carl was short-shifting for 3 laps before the temp went up yet again. He pitted with about 30 minutes to do another a driver change. At least we were using a lot less fuel than anticipated. We even sold some to another team during the event. As I strapped in, Carl did a quick bleed by himself as Rob was nowhere to be found (probably working on his own car by then!). I went out and the temp was high right from my first lap. I tried to carry as much speed as possible through the turns and think I learned quite about the track a bit in doing so. When using fourth gear instead of third in most turns, the car totally became a momentum car. I was more confident in the turns and was really riding the rumble strips in the chicane by now. I was torn between trying to limp to the checker (limp is a relative term, I was still catching other cars) or parking it to make sure I could still drive home the next day. Each lap the temperature was peaking higher and dropping less. It was getting to the point where it would be stupid not to come in and call it quits. Then, miraculously, the checker appeared! The race was over. All I had to do was get around one more lap. I did most of that lap in 5th but still the temperature was near the red zone. I guess that by then there was simply no more coolant in the engine. I made it around the cooldown lap and didn’t stop at all in the pits, just wanting to get the car back to the paddock. When Carl joined me, our spirits were high. We really hadn’t expected to still be around at the checker. At the trophy presentation, we found out that we had actually won the combined STGT/STE class! We were the only finishers. We had completed 48 laps. The overall winners had run over 60. We had won by being the least unreliable car. As the saying goes, to finish first, first you must finish! 

When playing with the car after the race, I noticed we had unplugged a connector leading to the starter so that problem was quickly solved. The passenger power window was stuck down and I had to do a ghetto fix of running the battery directly to the regulator with booster cables to get it back up before the drive home (so that my fiancée wouldn’t freeze). I later realized that this problem was likely caused by someone accidentally pressing the “no one else can control the power windows button” on the driver’s side. The drive home was uneventful, although we got a speeding ticket for 68 mph in a 55 zone and drove much slower the rest of the way home. I’ve parked the car in my parents’ garage and am just going to let it sit there for a while… I’ve spent enough time and money on it that I’ll be glad to take a break and forget about the car’s problems (probably a head gasket) for a few weeks. I’ve got all winter to sort them, right?

P.S. I’d like to thank Carl for being my partner this weekend and sharing the car (and the expense) for the weekend. I want to thank Alex, my fiancée, for putting up with me this weekend (and in general) and listening to hours of car-talk. Thanks to Rob and Rémi for crewing for us. Thanks to my sponsors TRAC Racing, TK Race heads, Enjo Precision Products, Progress Technologies and Motul. Finally, thanks to my mechanic Richard Veilleux for assembling the car from a bunch of parts before TRAC could make it into a race car.

At my parents' house, ready for the trip

More home-made numbers, a couple or sponsors

ENJO sponsored me with some motor mounts

Hard to believe Rob fixed this car well enough to drive 540 km home

Carl and Rob at the hotel

Good times after our race

End of the day in the paddocks

Nice Evo 8 when they were still new

Beautiful Lotus Elan

Nice Mustang

Older Mustang, very clean

Restomod E-Type with modern brakes

Really nice Integra race car

The big guns: E46 M3 and Viper

So that is it… that's the story about how we ended up heading to Watkins Glen three years in a row, and then never again. Of course, Carl and I went on other adventures (2007 Integra Type R Expo, 2012 Devil in the Dark) and who knows what we will put together in the future? I would like to find a way to head back the Glen at some point, when I have a reliable, tested car (the EK coupe or the RSX, either will do). I hope some friends will come along for the ride.