Nov. 8,9 LVMS American Iron Round 8

Subject: Chris' Racing Weekend, AKA "Coulda Been A Lot Worse," AKA How To Win $500 in Vegas

Round 8 of American Iron West at the "Outside Road Course" at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was the last in the 2003 season. Unlike the 2002 LVMS event, it was cold with rain in the forecast and we ran at 2:10 pm instead of 10 pm. I was there to finish the last two races of my season and hopefully hang on to the points that would leave me at #2 overall in the field for the year.

Jason and I drove out on Thursday and stayed in Primm, NV at the stateline, to save some money and get a ride on the rollercoaster at Buffalo Bill's. The rollercoaster doesn't run in the off-season we found out when we got there, but for $30 a night and some dinner and nickel slots we were very happy without those ups and downs. The A/C in the room was very loud and with a huge weekend before us, neither of us slept very well. But maybe it was just the excitement of being in Vegas that was the "insomnia"?

On Friday we decided to skip downtown Las Vegas and The Strip in favor of finding our hotel and taking it easy. (Those of you who have seen us in Vegas know this means "get a drink and get the gamble on.") The official hotel for the racers was the Cannery Casino and hotel in northern Las Vegas which was just built in Jan 2003, and was about 5 minutes from the racetrack. Good things: new king bed mattress, quiet A/C, 3 restaurants and 1 buffet in the hotel, penny slots and cheap games, and 80's music piped in on the main casino floor. Not to mention $.99 breakfasts before 7 am AND carafes of coffee at your table. (Both are very needed on a budget and before a full day of racing.) We spent about $250 for hotel rooms over the SEMA weekend in Vegas for 4 nights, and the food was cheap too. Nice! Friday night found us sampling the buffet and realizing that 3 plates of food each don't work on a dieter's stomach used to less than 1 plate, so we passed out before 9 pm. Gluttons!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to the track. We found a slot between Griggs (gasp!) and the BBK and Brothers' guys and unloaded ole' #29. For the first time this season the only GM product in AI was amongst the Fords in the pits. Usually I shy away and hide with the GMs in the Camaro-Mustang Challenge class, but this time those CMC'ers were at Sears Point so I was on my own. We unloaded the car, got situated in our pit, and I was off for my 9 am practice session.

I've never driven "the outside course" at LVMS, otherwise known as the Derek Daly school course. I've been there for OTC ( the Open Track Challenge--7 tracks in 7 days) as support but I've never seen the track. And they've added some new pavement, so the course was pretty challenging. I think there was every kind of textbook turn there can be at this track, and it was very flat with changing pavement to boot. A cold car with cold tires on a cold track means zero traction, so I took it very slow at first. I was concerned about a few turns that the Camaro didn't seem to respond to very well--pushing instead of hooking up--but I knew Mike Armstrong and I ran together at Buttonwillow so I decided to run with him in qualifying. Somehow we didn't hook up and I just decided to go for it alone, when in turn 5 there was gravel everywhere (thanks to an off by Bruce Griggs) and after slowing a bit I found Tim Gilpin behind me in his SN95 Brothers' Mustang. Heck, no way was that guy gonna get by me! So the next lap I decided to let him study the rear of my Camaro but after the new back straight and the new pavement section I found myself too hot into the turn, sliding off the far side of the course and into the gravel. "Both Feet In!" of course but in gravel, locking your brakes only makes your tires turn into skates.

As I'm pumping the brake pedal, sawing the steering wheel, watching the K-wall get closer and the flag station get closer still, I'm thinking, "Tim, hit the brakes! Tim!" My car slows and stops just back onto the pavement of the course, right at the apex of the turn at the perpendicular to traffic and I wince expecting the BOOM but nothing happens. I throw the shifter into reverse and gas it to get out of the way and realize Tim (and JR Smith behind him) have slowed to "sane" speed and we're all OK. Those two pass me and the flagger waves me on (with a huge thumbs up from yours truly) and I calm down BIG TIME for half a lap. I get one more lap and the session is over. Slightly shaken and definitely stirred I pull into impound for car weight with the rest of AI and give Tim's hand a shake and a huge "thank you."

So Jason and I, at that point, are still fighting loose and missing header bolts. Seems that everytime I go out another couple or 10 bolts fall out at the heads. Of course, every time I run the engine gets hotter and takes longer to cool, and makes it harder for the bolts to go properly into the aluminum heads. At least the beast isn't leaking oil anymore! We decide to let everything cool, munch on some found snacks, and wrench later. My drivers' meeting is at 12:15 and the race is at 2:10.

Wow, wouldn't you know, we're right next to the airstrip at Nellis AFB! We were treated to the landing of F-15s and F-16s at lunch, and only more to come all weekend. Before the Saturday race as we were in pre-grid the F-16s flew in, in formation, and pulled off separately for clover-leaf turns for their landing right over the racetrack. On Sunday as we arrived there were A-10's landing, and right before the race drivers' meeting there were F-16s doing landing-and-take off exercises there were incredible. Then the AWACS took off and an C5 landed too. WOW! I thought the race car was loud but in the car, even with my ear plugs, I could hear the jets.

It was noted at the drivers' meeting that spewing rocks onto the track in your session is due to yourself or a fellow competitor going off course, and that if you yourself cause rock spewage, you and your crew gets a lift by the track crew to sweep it up. Yikes. "We're faster on pavement," Mike the race director tells us, "Keep it on the pavement." Yes, sir!

Jason and I try to get the last of the header bolts in, check fluids, check tire pressures, and find lunch but we were only slightly successful. Looks like 6 of 8 bolts on the drivers' side and 3 of 8 on the passenger side will hold the headers to the heads. "We only need a finish," is our mantra, "Don't push it." is another. ("What happens when the headers fall off?" "Don't worry about that." Is the unofficial mantra.) "At least it's not spewing oil," is the official statement. My grid position is #14, with John Lindsey behind me (he didn't qualify and I got the slowest time). For some reason a Porsche running the Super Unlimited class alone gets between John and I, which is strange, but I don't think twice about it.

We start on the parade lap with Jerry Brown (HPDE director) behind the wheel of his white E30 M3 as the pace car, and never get to "bunch up" for the start. That means all the "slackers" in the back are single file when the green is dropped (I hate when that happens). I anticipated JWL's pass on the inside but instead I see the Porsche in my right mirror and so compensate with a later turn-in for Turn One. Acutally, I'm thinking, "Whatever dude, go for it, thanks for screwing up my start," and I leave him room. As I turn in to the right, back on the gas, there's a BOOM and I've been hit--I turn off to the left off course and drift in the gravel. I shut off the car and the master switch since I'm sure I've been hit in the rear and I'm not sure what's up with the fuel, and coast to the flag worker. He's not jumping up and down or running to me with an extinguisher so I fire it back up and drive forward more, out of the danger zone, and shut it off again. At turn 2, one of the leaders had spun and made a huge dust cloud that caused everyone left to stop, so race control black flagged the race and brought everyone into the hot pits. Emergency crews respond to me and the Porsche and tell me I'm fine with no fuel leaks, to run back counter-course into the pit area so they can tow the Porsche off. I guess his oil cooler was right up front, and it broke when he hit me, so he had no more oil in the engine. Bummer for him--but he's not running in a points series today! I high-tail it back to the trailer.

Needless to say I was a bit perturbed at the whole situation. Tim Gilpin was my major competitor for 3rd overall, and he'd missed a couple of races that pushed me into 2nd overall in the points. I wasn't sure how I would measure up against him in our last chance for points, and since I'd "been in second" once I didn't want to let it go. Basically, that Porsche--at that point--screwed up my chances. I knew they'd set for a restart and since the car would move I figured it would be able to run. I drove it into our pit area, with Jason running to meet me, and we surveyed the damage. There was a lot of oil, which we weren't sure wasn't brake fluid from my car, and some fender dings. After the "sniff test" we decided it was engine oil from the Porsche, and Jason jacked up the car and two guys (one a Griggs guy and one a guy building a 2nd gen F-body for AI next year--a spectator at this event) helped out to get the wheel off the car. They put on the spare, and we didn't see any suspension damage, and so decided to run....."Chris, get strapped in and we'll let it down!"

One new wheel on, I pulled back into the re-grid just at the 3 minute mark, and made the restart. I finished 5th out of five and was amazed that the car wasn't shaking or vibrating or anything. Videtto won with Tim Gilpin second, and later Videtto's car was found to be over the limit and he was DQ'd. Videtto, Gilpin, Roco, Walton, Knight was Saturday's finish, but with the DQ I placed 4th. We were just so happy that the car was running; "coulda been a lot worse," was said a few times.

Saturday night we'd arranged to meet for our first ever AI unofficial track dinner at the Mexican restaurant in the Cannery, which was nice and accommodating. A small bar outside let us gather for chatting as the tables were cleared, and then we were seated for a very well organized dinner considering the amount of patrons attending. Some of the people near us were John Lindsey and Kaylie, Ryan Flaherty and Jody, and Jerry Brown, and they were all interested to hear about the Porsche aftermath. John told me that when we saw the Porsche attempt the pass, and then saw the smoke from the tires when the brakes locked up, he yelled out loud, "Oh no! Christine! Watch out!" in his helmet! After dinner Jason and I cruised the casino, played some video poker and then roulette with Cosmo from the Griggs team betting with me on #29. At 11 pm we decided to call it a night.

Sunday found us a bit tired and sore but we went out to the track to do it all over again. A cold engine awaited us and we got almost all of the header bolts in and tight. "What? We have 7 on each side?" was the new mantra. We put new front brake pads on and put the matching tire on the left rear and I qualified last again. I rolled the "damaged" wheel over to the tire guys who cleaned the Porsche fiberglass bits out of the bead and confirmed that the wheel was straight. Jason put on new rear brake pads and returned my good rubber back onto the rear while I was in my driver's meeting, and we actually got to eat lunch!

The race was uneventful but Roco's engine had grenaded during the morning practice so he was out. Mike Armstrong and Ryan Walton (the super-fast rookie) had a huge battle for position but Mike is AIX and Ryan is AI so that was more for fun than points. Also Bruce Griggs and Paul Mashouf "duked it out" for AIX first position with Bruce ultimately winning. I finished uneventfully in 4th. Unofficially I'm still in second overall for the season. We loaded up the trailer and went back to the hotel for dinner and the Rams game.

So, the part about the Porsche. The guy did a bonehead maneuver, bottom line. He wasn't racing for points (I was) and you can never win the race on the first turn. We both filed incident reports and talked to Mike (race director), and he found Mr. Steve Bernheim to be at fault and suspended him for Sunday's race. I talked with Jason and John Lindsey, and actually quite a few other American Iron guys, and I decided to ask Mr. Bernheim to pay for his damages. After lecturing me that "it's just not done in racing" to pay the person you hit (after you are a bonehead and slam into them, whatever!), I persist and wind up with 5 $100 bills in my hand. That's the biggest win I've ever had in Vegas! :-)

Now we're home and getting ready for next weekend at Buttonwillow. The war-scarred Camaro will be racing in Super Unlimited to reign supreme in it's second class for the 2003 season. And everyone will be partying for my 30th birthday as well!

Pics: http://www.z28racergirl.com/LVDD11.8.03.htm

Thanks for listening!
Christine