Race Results

2012 Season

The Maisey Racing Pro1600 season got off to a rousing start at VIR. The drama and anguish of the season opening test day was survived and relative success would follow.

VIR is sort of our home track being less than 200 miles from home. We get there often. It’s a great track. Sean would begin his second season in the Pro Series with his “John Deere” Citation, and the old man would return with a nearly new car to play with: a Piper. Sean would do half of the test day and the old man would pass wishing to minimize wear and tear on the driver unit. Our rented garage space was between Tim Dunn and the Cape Motorsports kid driver (Matias Koykka) from Finland. There were many under twenty year olds in the Series this season, hoping to move up from karting to the highest levels of motorsport. Damned talented kids with superior reflexes and budgets.

Thursday Practice. Sean goes out and immediately turns quick laps in the 2:05 bracket. As the session wears on, times slowly increase. After maybe 10 laps, Sean arrives in the pits with car smoking and the familiar smell of fried CLUTCH. Clutch is now slipping so much; it is a challenge to drive it back to the garages. Day done for the Citation.

With a little arm twisting, I convince Sean to take Piper out for the last practice session (which was paid for, so why not use it?). On the second lap of the session, the Finn kid decided to slow in the esses and warm his tires by swerving widely. He hit Sean’s front wheel and bent the push arm. Sean would limp the mile or more back to the pits with the nose of the Piper riding on the skid plate. The skid plate would get eaten and the intense heat from the friction would melt the rubber heel of Sean’s racing shoe. We would have repairs to entertain us.

Rousing start indeed.

We did dinner at the OakTree tavern and suffered an hour long wait for at best mediocre and not terribly warm food. After dinner, Sean decided to return to the garage to work on replacing the Citation clutch. I retreated to our room and promptly dosed off. It was getting a tad cold. I don’t know how long Sean spent splitting the car (tranny/oil tank from the engine) to get to the clutch, but he did it.

Friday offered two practice sessions, with the first one at 11 AM, so there was time to fix the Citation. Sean found parts but determined that the oil tank seal was leaking profusely, wetting down the clutch and needed to be replaced. That task would require the removal of the rear suspension and the opening up of the differential. A major undertaking best left to doing at home. After considerable reluctance, Sean agreed to drive the Piper. Game on, modify the bead seat some, and get ready.

Within a few laps, he was turning several laps in the 2:05 bracket.

In the Saturday morning qualifying session, he would have a couple of “offs” getting grass/straw in the radiator openings and the engine would overheat spitting the contents of the overflow tank on the unfortunate guys following him. No harm to the engine. Qualified 14^th of 20 closely matched cars.

Race 1: Got off to a good start and was running 10^th after one lap. A brief double yellow at lap 6, bunched the field. Sean picked off cars until in 6^th place. For the last two laps he was embroiled in a battle with Art Foster (a race winner in 2011), but ran out of time to make that final repass. A seventh place finish was excellent and a new personal best for Sean. The “kid” racers would take top 4 places and the Finn kid would win the Aussie built Spectrum.

Race 2: Sean would turn several 2:05 laps in qualifying and end up 12^th on the grid. Progress. The race would endure one waive off before beginning in anger. In the early laps, there was an intense battle with Andy Brumbaugh. At lap 10, after stalking him for many laps, Mike Scanlan would be passed for the P9 position and a weekend best lap of 2:04 would be achieved. Again, the top 4 spots were held by KIDS, with the Mygale factory drivers taking the top two spots. (Fin kid crashed on lap 3).

Lime Rock May 2012

The Maisey racers headed north in time to reach the northern Virginia traffic backup at 0630. It took hours in stop and go aggravation to clear Washington, D. C. After that, the trek went smoothly.

Sean was looking to improve his mid pack finishes at Lime Rock last Pro season. The oil leak in the Citation had been remedied as well as the binding 4^th gear in the gearbox. A rear suspension binding had also been found and fixed.

Perhaps due to the sagging economy, the entries for the race were down considerably with only 16 cars entered. The “kids”, now generally referred to as the “jockeys”, numbered five and as at VIR would be the fastest guys. (Maybe a factor in why so many mere mortal racers stayed home?) The weekend was being shared with a small vintage car group and a new Trans-Am series. The Trans-Am group of 15 or so cars included a lot of drivers of yesteryear like Tony Ave, Peter Halsmer (who won the Trans-Am race at Lime Rock 25 years ago), and Simon Gregg. There were even several thousand spectators on the hills around the track.

Friday practice and qualifying went without drama. Sean was unable to improve his lap times over last year, but that was true of most of the field. Six top series regulars were and average of 0.8 seconds slower. Sean also, but it was still annoying.

Since the track gas contained 10% ethanol and was marked up considerably, we decided to buy some gas in town. Big mistake. For race one, the car was a major slug. Not fun at all. Finished 15^th. Since we had not changed anything else on the car, we surmised that gas was “bad” and drained it.

Race 2 was a lot more competitive. The 11^th thru 16^th qualifying cars were very close in speed and there some good racing. Sean and Doug Stout traded places several times. About 5 minutes left in the race, there was a full course caution that bunched the field for a final three lap shootout. Sean from about 14^th place got a great restart, passing 4 or 5 cars when a hole opened up on the outside. On the next lap going into turn one from the back of the field, Stout left his braking a late, smoking his tires, slinging past several cars, spinning and bouncing off the apex curbing. Sean looked over and saw him airborne by two feet. When he came down careening across the track, he hit Sean’s rear tire. Sean would lose several race places. Three of lead pack of cars would have an incident in turn one on the next lap and the race would end under a yellow flag. Finished 13^th.

VIR 8 April 2011

Sean did the test day on Thursday with his newly completed car and did all five sessions, steadily improving lap times. With my lingering back pain, I decided to forgo the test day. Given that I haven't raced at VIR for a couple of years and it was my first time there in the Swift/Honda, it probably wasn't a good decision.

Friday we got two practice sessions. I had a mechanical problem in both sessions and got a total of 6 laps. (See my somewhat lengthy weekend report here: REPORT). Sean continued his improvements and had no problems.

Saturday qualifying session was semi wet and cold. The track got better as the session wore on, but being somewhat gun shy and driving very conservatively, I came in early. Results:

Sean 2:07 and 13th of 29 cars Me 2:18 and 28th

Saturday Race was intense. Results:

Sean 2:05 and 9th Me 2:09 and 20th

It was very overcast and not too warm for the noon qualifying session (but the Hondas were making great power!) Results:

Sean 2:02 and 9th Me 2:08 and 26th

It got quite warm for the late afternoon race but the tires were beginning to show their age. Pretty much everyone went a bit slower. Results:

Sean 2:05 and 9th Me 2:07 and 18th

Overall, it was an excellent race weekend.

Watkins Glen 4 June

Our formula car series would be running as support races with the Rolex Grand-Am cars. I decided to forgo the race having just gotten back from a trip to Vegas, but would be going as Sean's crew.

Sean had raced once at the Glen 16 years ago, so the learning curve would be steep. It was relatively chilly and very windy at the Glen. The track is an intimidating place with the dreaded blue armco lining the track like a street circuit. There is little room for error.

The F1600 25+ car field consisted of the usual fast guys (including 5 Runoffs winners) and many track knowledgeable locals. Sean improved his lap times in every session, but clearly needed more track time to be a top ten car. Eight cars would be under the track record (some by more than 2 seconds) in qualifying. Sean would finish 15th in the Saturday race and 19th on Sunday (running out of gas on the last lap).

Mid Ohio 2 July

With the increasing obvious fact that my Swift DB1 is not competitive in the F1600 Series, I decided to forgo the long tow to Mid Ohio and to go along as much need crew for Sean. Leaving at 0430, we arrived mid afternoon at the track and quickly setup. Series allocated track times started at 5PM each day and three session were at one hour intervals. Truly, an unique schedule that allowed little time between sessions. We got lots of practice changing tires, adding gas, checking the car in about 15 minutes.

There were 29 F1600 cars that started the weekend. There were several new cars and drivers, including the Australian Spectrum and two Aussie "kid" drivers. The level of competition continues to grow in leaps and bounds in the Series with 15 drivers logging times well below the Mid Ohio lap record for FF. (including Sean) The "kids" dominated the podium. (damned those superior reaction times and absence of fear of consequences!)

The "old" guy on the left (3rd place) is Tim Kautz, the current RunOffs winner. Sean's race one was marred by an early spin and a late race spin in a large oil slick. In this series, if you do not have a drafting partner, you lose about 2 second per lap. He finished 16th.

Sean qualified 19th for the second race. He lost a couple of spots on the start and drove conservatively for the opening laps. After a few laps spent getting around Jim Oseth, he was closing on a train of 6 cars when the course went double yellow. With two cars off in a dangerous spot and oil down in turn 4, the race was ended behind the pace car. Sean finished 14th.

With the possibility of the Series adding a Swift DB1 Challenge for the next race at Lime Rock, I may return. (Didn't happen and I sold my DB1, planning to purchase a more modern/new car.)

Lime Rock 16 September

We made the arduous trek pass the traffic chaos of Washington, DC and New York City to reach the very rural northwest corner of Connecticut and Lime Rock Park. I was chief map reader and crew. Sean has never been to Lime Rock, so the learning curve would be steep. A needed tranny gear did not arrive in time before leaving home, so our first order of business on Friday was to change gears. This is always a big hassle as the Staffs box really doesn't like to go back together nicely. Sean would spend the practice sessions and qualifying doing as many laps as possible in order to learn the track. Of course, this just degraded the one set of tires allowed for the race weekend. Next year, he'll be able to save tires.

As Sean got up to good speed, it became obvious that his gearing was off. The Honda was running into the rev limit about 2/3 down the straight. So much for the "recommended" gear stack. Saturday morning, (race day because there is no racing allowed in Connecticut on Sundays) we decided to change gears. Well the gear box would not come apart, despite a BIG hammer. The gear shaft was frozen to the bearing in the case. Sean would make do running out of umph on the straight.

Although many had said one could do the "downhill" flat out, Sean was never able to achieve it. The car would push at the apex. Sean even managed two spins exiting the downhill, testing the limit. If he didn't have to spend so much time learning the track, perhaps we could have tuned the suspension better. Next year.

Sean qualified 15 of 20 cars for the first race. Six to eight laps towards the end of the race was under the double yellow. Near the end, he was picking up some good speed and caught the end of a pack of 6 cars. Then the race ended. Finished 12th.

The F2000 race that preceded our F1600 race turned out to be a major crash fest. See photo.

Race 2 late in the day found Sean qualified 16th. He got a good start and passed a couple of cars. He then got embroiled in a major battle with a "local" in an older, but fast car. Ah, the joy of track knowledge. They swapped places several times each lap for 10 of so laps. Sean eventually got clear of him and closed on a pack of 4 or 5 cars. Then Tim Kautz blew an engine and oiled the track. Everyone slowed considerably. Sean would finish 10th. Not too bad.