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I don't believe there is a Porsche owner that hasn't at one time or another thought how much fun it would be to race. Few pursue their desires because of fear of wrecking their baby or simply the cost of racing. Last weekend Andy Jenks and I went to watch a fellow club member in his new racing venue. The venue is SCCA and the track was New Hampshire's NHIS. Rob Stoesser is no stranger to Porsches or speed. As a child he spent much time at the track with his PCA dad and when old enough spent a great deal of time racing karts. Once Rob joined the PCA he showed us what he could do with a Porsche at both Autocross and Driver Ed events. Deep down Rob is a racer, as competitive as they come with a mindset that is geared towards kicking your ass. I have found this out on a competitive level in autocross and at F1 Boston, as I write this I am 2 days away from the enduro at F1's outdoor tracks where I will get another taste of it. Raising a family and working never leaves enough time or extra money to spend it on PCA Club Racing. This is too bad, had Rob kept the 1989 944 S2 we probably could have talked him into joining us in F class but Rob's last Porsche was a 911 Turbo with a European spec motor, more than a handful for anyone on a racetrack. After succumbing to his inner demons Rob realized he had to make time to spend some time behind the wheel of a racecar. Deciding that racing his Porsche would probably keep his kids from attending college he set his energy on selling the turbo and finding a Spec Racer Ford. The SRF is a spec series where the car cannot be tampered with other than chassis set-up. These are closed-wheel Can-Am style racecars that have to weight about 1,600 lbs. including the driver which is nice because it doesn't penalize the heavier drivers in favor of the 18 year old Brazilians. Rob has done a few races already this year and is on his way to being a force to be reckoned with. As with everything else, very seldom can anyone just step in and start winning. Always placing within the top ten (unless something unfortunate happens) he is learning the car, learning the competition and who to stay away from. This is the focus of my article this month. Andy and I spent several hours watching all of the 7 classes qualifying and hung around long enough to watch Rob's race that was scheduled for right after lunch. We had always heard that SCCA was real racing with rubbing and everything. This is the case! More on that in a minute. Since the racing bug has bitten the Team Northeast guys, there has been talk of racing SCCA. Not in Porsches though. The classes are not very well thought out in my opinion, probably because they race anything on wheels. We saw cars that we had never seen before. Ever hear the term Baby Grands in reference to a racecar? They are the weirdest little cartoon cars that look like Stock Cars but are just a bit bigger than a ride-on lawn mower powered by a 1300 CC Yamaha engine. What we want to race (in SCCA) are 5.0 Mustangs. They are cheap to buy and easy to make fast. Whatever we'd race would get beat up real fast. While watching Rob's race it was amazing how little respect some drivers have for the other people on the track. We spent all of our time in the bleachers at Turn 3. If there is going to be anything happening (good or bad) it will happen at Turn 3. We watched countless numbers of drivers totally oblivious to what was going on around them. In one race there had to be 5 or 6 instances where someone was making a clean pass inside on Turn 3 and the car getting passed would just turn in causing both cars to spin right in front of everyone. I honestly can't tell you whether it was by accident or deliberate, either way it is not for me. You could clearly tell the drivers that were clean. If they were getting passed they would make room and then try to get it back. There was one Acura Integra (yes in the same race with SRF, Baby Grands, Modified Rabbits, TR6s, and a couple other makes) that blew his braking zone 3 times and went into the tire wall at Turn 3. That's 3 out of about 25 laps. He had to back his way out of the tirewall and get out and try it again. I would think that after one time he would get the message. How he didn't take anyone with him is beyond me. There was a 914 that was blowing oil the whole time and was clearly not running right. Why they even let him out amazed us both. Of course there will be the unavoidable accidents in every race. In this case one of the Baby Grands spun between Turn 9 and Turn 10 (also visible from where we were) as a SRF came out of Turn 9 with nowhere to go but right into the Baby Grand. Just look at that area of the track. All that you have around you are other cars and Jersey Barriers. Take your pick! I will say that SCCA drivers have big balls. How else can you hit a tirewall broadside 3 times and not pull in to see if anything important is damaged. I suppose when something breaks because it's been squashed or bent 3 times it will happen while your all alone on the slowest corner that has lots of run-off and foam padding all around. What track has that, certainly not NHIS. As always, while roughnecks are trading paint the leaders were having a nice clean race. This is the group Rob and Francesco were running with. Who would of thought such a mish-mash of automotive breeds would be so close when driven properly. The winner was a SRF with the VW Rabbit (on steroids) in second. Our buddy Rob came in around 7th or 8th overall and 5th or 6th in class. Francesco Melandri (also PCA) was close behind. One thing Andy and I decided was that we would have to be real desperate to race SCCA. It just didn't look like fun. They let in too many different cars that have different performance characteristics that will race together and also some are real junk boxes that I wouldn't drive on the street let alone trust my life in it. Another disconcerting nuance is I never saw any Xs on cars to indicate rookies. With companies doing the whole SRF arrive and drive thing it is easy for someone with a few bucks to come out and race with little race preparation other than a few laps on a test day. Of course there are the good drivers that do it such as our own Francesco Melandri that is still trying to decide whether or not to buy and maintain his own car or stay with the rent a ride. The difference with someone like Francesco is that he spent a few years learning to drive at PCA Driver Education events before attempting the racing. I have to say he has really improved as a driver in the SRF series. He can't rely on his C4 to save him or blast by slower cars. Now he has to drive the cars and he is doing pretty well at it. Look for him and Rob to start getting to the front soon. I have to wonder... if you do the arrive and drive thing and you pay more money than the average arrive and drive guy do you get a better prepared car or does someone get a less prepared car because they were spending to much time on the money guy's car. Francesco has a couple of stories of less than proper preparation. I also spoke with a couple at the track that both were racing 911s and ask them whether they had any plans for PCA Racing. At this point another driver spoke up and let us know that he thought clean racing was for pansies and less-than-real-men types. This clearly is the guy I want to be on the track with, not! I think some driver's camouflage skill with rubbing and justifying it because they don't know how to drive. Stay in the SCCA goofball. One last thing I don't like about SCCA racing is the lack of track time. On this particular 2-day race weekend each driver gets a 30-minute qualifying and a 30-minute race on each day. PCA Club Racing gives it drivers a lot more. On a 2-day weekend (no enduro) each driver gets about 1 hour and 20 minutes of practice on the first day. The second day gives the drivers a 20-minute practice, 30-minute qualifying and a 30-35 minute race. If there is an enduro add an additional 2 hours. Maybe that is one of the problems with the track incidents. How can a driver drive safely if he is not comfortable on the track? Well, I'll stick to Club Racing until I return to LeMans. Sorry for writing about racing all the time but it is what fills my thoughts when I let. So my Driver's Window will remain open while I strive to be the first to get the checker. |
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