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Timing is everything. I received an email from Frank Simmons after my last article. He told me how he has been roughing up his wife about her love for cement bunnies. Sorry Maureen. I didn't mean to fuel Frank's sarcasm. Well, a couple of weeks ago we started our race season when we all went to the Lime Rock Club race. I started the weekend on a slower note than usual. Although I am starting to get a handle on keeping the 944 Turbo on the edge of control, I wasn't quick to get it hooked up on the short twisty Lime Rock. I did finish faster than I had been earlier but still not flat out. A lot can happen on that little track. For the remainder of my article I would like to introduce you to some of the Northeast Region's better club racers that represent the level to which I aspire. I contacted a few of the racers to send me some info and a favorite story in their racing career. I will contact other racers for later issues. If you are an established PCA Club Racer I will contact you soon. The first racer is Russell Castagna. A quick note I have about Russell took place at Randolph Racing in Stoughton, MA. Russell's car was in the shop being prepped for the next race by Kevin Salzman. Russell has one of the smallest (thinnest) aluminum seats I have ever seen and I decided to try it on for size. I got in it OK but it took me twenty minutes to get out of it. Russell How? Russell's story: I started doing DE's in 1986 and racing in 1996. I think that one of the best races that I have had was last year at LRP. The car was working great for the practice and my times would have put me on the pole. When I went out for qualifying the car died on the 1st lap. I ended up missing qualifying and had to start from the back. I was on a mission to win that race. By the end of the front straight on the first lap I passed about 6-8 cars and never looked back. By the last lap I had closed to half the front straight on Ronnie Savenor. I ended up 1st in class and 3rd overall. It was the most fun I had had in a long time. My favorite track of all time was Bridgehampton. None of the tracks that I have driven since have the same pucker factor that the Bridge would give you. Since Russell mentioned Ronny Savenor I thought I would get to him in next. All of the drivers I will talk about in this article are great drivers with very cool heads. Ronny adds one more trait to that list. He has an enormous ego (sorry Ronny). This makes him almost unbeatable and almost unbearable. I only wish he had given me more for this article. He has a lot to say and must have a lot of great stories. If you ever get a chance to watch Ronny take a car around the track it can be quite amazing. Ronnies' story: I've been racing since the first club race in 1992. I had a lot of great races over the years. The best stories are of the friends I have met and competed against. Nice group of people. Favorite race, photo finish in 1996 with Bruce Duff at Summit Point. 47 wins later, 3 racecars later and I still can't wait till my next race!! As they say "It's all about the people". Next, I would like to mention our cover photo driver. Cal Calamari is a guy I just met last year and immediately liked him. He is a quiet guy with an uncanny ability to drive the edge. Cal gave me a lot of info so sit back and enjoy it. Cal's story: I started DE in 1995 when I bought the bone stock 1986 Carrera with 105,000 miles. The first year I did all the 4 NER NHIS events, Lime Rock, The Glen, Pocono, Bridgehampton, and Mont Tremblant. I guess you can say I was hooked. Especially on Bridgehampton. Upgraded my suspension on the off season and then did more than 20 days the following year. I then ripped everything out of the car and added in the full cage, safety equipment, exhaust, etc. and started club racing in 1997. The first year I just wanted to survive with no incidence, which I'm happy to say I did. The second year I started with a win at LRP in the pouring rain, a second at Mosport, and a first at Mont Tremblant. As you know F is a real tough class. There are usually many F cars in a race, and when the cars are classified properly, the competition is very close, within tenths of a second. This keeps constant pressure on all the participants and this is why I love this class. It could be anyone's race and leaders don't usually have much of an advantage. My favorite all time track is Bridgehampton - a racers track. Very fast track, very technical, blind apexes, beach sand runoff that flips cars very nicely. Hostile track conditions, always getting cracked windshields, and bumps you wouldn't believe. Knocks your fillings out, but if you could run that track fast, you could do any other track. Favorite race story? Every race has its own experience, they are all very different. Track conditions, weather conditions, mix of competition, etc. But one that sticks out in my mind is at LRP a couple of years back. Mark Forester and I were doing Team Boston, racing funds for Children's Hospital and I qualified 3rd and Mark 4th, behind Scotto and Henk. Although Mark and I agreed to behave and not let Bob and Henk get away from us. At the start of the race, Mark went door-handle to door handle with me around Big Bend, slowing us both down and then squeezed himself in to the left hander, forcing me to the outside where I raced him to the right hander, but gave it to him. I chased him down and got even with him on the front straight. I ended up on the outside, so we went through Big Bend again, door handle to door handle. This time he forced me to the inside of the left hander and stayed with me all the way to the right hander, down No Name and to the up hill where I gave him the turn. (See how polite am I?) I caught him on the front straight and took the inside as we went around Big Bend, but now I squeezed him on the left hander and then was aggressively protecting the turn when I lost it and started mowing the grass on the right side of the track. I proceeded across the inside of the right hander, coming back out onto the track by the flag station, and doing a 360 on the track, but I was facing the traffic at this point with 24 cars coming around the turn as fast as they could. Backing off the track as fast I could and waiting for traffic to pass, I then started from last place. I went from 3rd to 28th but regained 20 positions during the race and received the Hard Charger award. After the race I asked Mark what that was all about and he said, yeah we had a plan, but he figured if he let me go, he would never see me again until the paddock. Well, it still turned out this way, but he finished 3rd in class and I finished 8th overall and 6th in class. We had a great laugh about it and he knows payback is coming. He doesn't know when, or how, only that it will happen, and it will be years after that fine, glorious day at Lime Rock Park. Maybe I should get Mark's side of this tale. It sounds like Cal behaves better than I would have but it goes along with my new racing philosophy, "Friends don't let friends by!" Next I would like to introduce you all to Dave Maynard. Dave is a very cool guy and always a great help whenever we, as newbies, have questions about the race program. That's because Dave is also a PCA Scutineer for the Club racing program. Dave is very passionate about racing but every once in a while finds himself on the wrong side of the pit wall when it comes down to race time because of work. Dave sent me a lot of stories so enjoy. Dave's story: I have been doing the PCA stuff since '92 and have about 80 races under my belt. Racing the 924 GTS in my 1st race and taking 1st in class and first overall at Limerock. Then being told by the steward that I had to re-class my Factory stock car to the old C class (what now is GT-4). Went on to win every race (6) in my new class with that car in spite of it. (It's a hell of a car and Allen Friedman the new owner, has yet to win a race in it. Go figure.) Steve Boris' note: I races against Alan and the 924 GTS during the 2001 Watkins Glen race and found Alan to be a reoccurring road block in the corners. On the straights the car ran like stink but he chopped me many a time in the corners. Flashing my lights at Jim Hamblin in the rain at Sebring whilst coming up behind him, having him spin in front of me and getting a perfect center lens pan by his in-car camera of me taking evasive action to avoid him by going across the grass as he spun. Caught me leaving the track, cutting the corner in the grass for about 50 yards and re-entering as he stopped spinning (wish I had a copy of the tape). Racing on a wet track at Summit Point and having 4 cars spin in front of me. Took the car anywhere they weren't and ended up going into what I would nicely refer to as a "hog wallow". The car came up and out and back on the track, but I couldn't see for all of the mud on the windshield. As the wipers struggled to get across the windscreen, I could just barely make out two of the cars that had spun, directly in my path. I managed to avoid them by going off track again and into another mud bath. Went on to win my race in spite of having changed the color of the car from blue to brown and not being able to see much as the mud hardened. Qualifying in the pouring rain on Hoosiers at Road Atlanta, coming up over the rise on the back straight and seeing Peter Kitchak's engine and rear suspension in the middle of the track. The only time I've ever passed under yellow. Hit the brakes and slid past the car in front of me. Never heard anything about it, as it was raining so hard the corner workers didn't see it. I think they may have been pre-occupied with finding the other half of Peter's car and of course, Peter. What a mad man! Again at Summit Point racing against Mike Bavarro in GT-3. Hunting him down slowly, gaining about 50 yards a lap. He's trying to get by one of the Franco brothers and keeps attempting to do a braking pass at the entry of turn one. After 3 laps of the same, he tries a desperation pass on the 4th try and ends up looping it. I squeak under him and quickly dispense with Franco to take the overall lead. One lap later, I'm black flagged for "overly aggressive driving" and retire to the paddock, only to be told that it was a mistake and the flag was meant for Bavarro. I guess that's racing! Sharing a car with my dear deceased friend Michael Melton, with Mike using it to do DE and me for racing until he got good enough to race himself and logging countless 1000's of miles to and from events with him in the truck. Remembering that big $@%# eating grin of his every time he got out of the car after practice or a race. Never saw anyone enjoy the comradeship, the sport or driving competition as much as he did. Mike's nickname was the "Rookie". PCA now awards The Rookie of the Year award to the best rookie racer of each season in Mikes' memory. Last of all for this issue is our own Track Committee Chairman Arnie Zann. Although a tough competitor Arnie is currently not racing his own car so he finds himself co-driving a few cars in the enduro portion of the club races. I also recently found out that Arnie was one of Kevin Buckler's (of Racers Group fame) first instructors. Arnie's story: When Club Racing started, there were a few of us who were dedicated to making this program work. It took a great deal of dedication on the part of Alan Friedman to convince PCA National that Club Racing was a viable and desirable program. It was just as hard a sell in the beginning to the Regions. It took a year and a half for me to convince Chicago that this was worthwhile. I got my racing license in 1991, the first year Club Racing started in PCA, and I started, promoted, ran, and raced in the first PCA Club Race at Road America in 1992. This was among the first races in all of PCA. That event drew 77 entries. Two years later, with a better date, Labor Day weekend, we ended up with 350 participants between Club Racers and DE run groups. I was the Event Chair of this event through 1997. Road America is still one of the largest PCA Club Race events in the country. I am proud of making it a spectacular Porsche weekend with closed streets for the big party, concours and a police escort to get the racecar entries from the track to and from the village. Two of my most fun memories of my early days of Club Racing was passing a competitor on the outside of the Carrousel at Road America, a thrilling ride flat-out at any time, even more so on the outside. Another one for me was a race at GingerMan in South Haven, MI over the 4th of July weekend a few years ago. I was having a great race with a guy, but he was blocking me lap after lap after lap... So, I started playing with his mind. On one corner I would fake to the inside. The next corner, I would fake to the outside, and each time we would approach a corner, I would change my move so that he never knew which way I was heading. Even the spectators could tell that he was driving more in his rear-view mirror than looking down the road. He starting making mistakes, dusting the edges of the track until we came around into Turn One, and I faked to the outside. Then, as he moved to block, I dove to the inside and passed him while he still had his eyes in his mirror while driving straight off the track (GingerMan is in an open field with plenty of run-off). Many people said this was the best race within the race of the whole weekend. For racers coming along, there is a lesson here. Outsmarting your opponent is always better than brute strength and dive-bombing your opponent in a corner. By doing this, you live to race another day. I'm back! I hope you enjoyed reading about these 5 guys as much as I did. So stay tuned for more Northeast Region's Club Racers next month. So until then the Driver's Window is open. |
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