SE-R Cup race report

[Rob Cadle]

Lots of cross-posting here.  I apologize, but I wanted to get a wide
audience.

We had another NASA SE-R cup race this weekend.  This was my second race,
and the 4th race weekend of the series.  This one was a lot of fun.  Cut to
Willow Springs International Raceway, AKA, 'The Fastest Road in the West'.

As you may or may not know, Team Kickback (Tom Paule driving, Mike Kojima
advising) has dominated the series so far, taking every race win of the
year.  Things were due to change.  The field was down a bit this weekend,
with Jarred Holtein off in Japan to film a new movie, and the Jim/Sheening
NX predisposed to driving school duties so Sheening can finally join the
series and show the rest of us what good driving looks like.  The SR class
was therefore limited to Tom Paule, Naji Dahi, me and Phil Usher
(co-drivers), and John Almazon, aka Hybrid John for you old-timers, piloting
his SR-20 powered Sentra E in his first SE-R Cup race.

Friday practise was brutally hot, with strong winds, and nobody turned a
particularly impressive lap time.  Mike Kojima impressed all in attendance
with a lurid off in Willow's high speed Turn 9, then proceeded to bring the
car into the pits and collapse from dehydration.  The desert claimed its
first victim.  Saturday morning warmup was all Naji, and he streaked out to
a 4 second lead over Tom, followed by John and Phil bringing up the rear
(doing quite well in his first time at the track and only his third time out
in an SE-R).  As usual, the unlimited SRX class cars were significantly
slower than the SR car, although Andris ruled Willow's long straights with
his mighty 'Powered by Hotshot' turbo SE-R.  Tom was a bit sullen after
warmup, saying, "I wasn't pushing real hard, but I don't think I've got 4
seconds in me".  Naji's joy was cut short as he hit a rock on course and
punctured his radiator.  It looked as though another promising weekend would
be cut short for Naji.  He and his brother Jude scrambled to get the
radiator fixed in time, and just managed to get out on track for two
qualifying laps.  It was enough, as Naji knocked Tom off pole and put
himself in an excellent position to win the race.  John had a solid
qualifying performance, while Phil only got two laps into the session before
the primary-to-secondary bolts loosened up and the secondary promptly
dropped off the header.  Oops.  I meant to check those before the race.

The race itself was quite uneventful.  Phil made a fantastic start, gaining
11 places in the first lap.  Unfortunately, Saturday was brutally hot, and
after about 3 laps at speed, the car started to overheat.  Knowing I had to
drive the car on Sunday, Phil backed off, and had to let John past.  After
that, it was simply a matter of avoiding overheating the car and bringing it
back in one piece, which he did a beautiful job of.  Naji ran a great race,
running clean and up front the whole time.  Tom closed the gap towards the
end of the race, but couldn't really threaten Naji for the win.  The win was
a costly one for Naji, though, as he put a real hurting on a brand new set
of Kuhmos to pull it off.  It appears that the Kuhmos can't handle the
sustained high speeds in high heat for prolonged periods.  Or Naji is just
abusive on tires.

Sunday was my turn to drive the car.  I built speed very slowly in the
morning warmup, starting slow and building speed as I went.  The car was
very very good.  The Ground Control Advance Design suspension worked great.
I found myself having to force myself to go through corners faster, as I
couldn't believe the cornering speeds the car was capable of.  Willow
Springs is a high speed track and the car really seemed to love the high
speed sweeping turns, although some more power would have been very nice.
Sunday was much cooler than Saturday, and I was feeling good about my
chances since Phil had to back out of it so much due to the overheating.
John busted and axle and had some motor mount problems on Saturday, and
didn't run in the morning warmup.  Times showed Naji out in front by a
comfortable 2.1s margin, with me only .1s behind Tom.  I was getting
excited.... looked like we might be in for some racing.

Alas, it was not to be so good for me.  Tom picked the pace way up in
qualifying, cutting nearly 2s off his best time in the morning warmup.  I
was only able to improve another .2s.  Naji again put his car on poll.  John
barely missed qualifying but was set for the race.  The real surprise was
Jeff Naeyeart putting his underpowered but well-prepped SRX car .2 seconds
ahead of me in the field.  This was a great showing for Jeff, a real
improvement over any of his showings so far.  Andris unfortunately couldn't
race on Sunday after having a rock go through his windshield on Saturday.

The start of the race was fun.  The SE-R Cup cars seem to start really
really well, and can get a good jump on the Pro-7's and CRX's we are usually
running with.  I passed a couple of cars on the start, and was feeling good
about my chances.  Jeff just got away from me, but the car felt really good.
  I was trying most of the turns in a higher gear, following Tom's
recommendation, and was hoping the car wouldn't overheat today.  At the
start of the second lap, all things went to hell.  John got a good draft on
me on the front straight, and I let him go by down the inside.  He then
passed a Celica on the inside going into 1, and the Celica didn't see him.
John didn't pull off the clean pass, and the Celica turned into him.  It was
right in front of me.  There was hard contact, and the Celica spun sideways
right in my line.  I hit the brakes, and went to the outside, but the Celica
rolled backwards and I saw no way to avoid contact.  It was an incredibly
eerie feeling, how it happened so fast yet in slow motion at the same time.
I said 'screw it' and went for the dirt.  Turn 1 is a FAST turn, so I went
pretty far off, and it took me some time to clear the ditch and get back on
track.  The only two cars that qualified behind me got around me.  Great,
now I'm in last place.  I quickly ran down the GTi Cup car (VERY low power)
and the Pro-7 that got around me, and then reeled in John, who was able to
keep going after the accident.  Once he saw me in his mirrors, he put his
foot down, and we had a great nose-to-tail fight for the rest of the race.
I could catch John in the turns, but the car started overheating, and I was
short-shifting at 6100 RPM to avoid overheating.  I'd pull him in for the
turns, and then he'd pull me down the straight.  It was great fun, and the
field was thin enough that we had the track pretty much to ourselves the
rest of the race.  John did a great job keeping everything under control and
was able to hold me off for third place.  Unfortunately, he was DQ'D'd from
the race for the contact.  I think that it was a tough incident to call one
way or another, but John handled it with a lot of professionalism, and my
hat's off to him.  He'll be fun to race with in the future!

Tom and Naji had an incredible last-lap battle for the lead, and Naji just
held Tom off for the win.  Luis Molina has it on video, and damn was it good
racing.  Those guys looked like they had some fun!

Overall, it was a GREAT weekend.  The car held up well despite the
overheating, and was a blast to drive.  Our car is 115 lbs heavier than
John's car, and we're the heaviest car in the series.  Once I can get the
weight down, I really think we're going to be able to compete at the front.
I'm looking forward to next months race at Buttonwillow!

Rob