Blackhawk Farms Carl
Mueller National May
21st, 2006
The weekend
was tough all around for the
2nd National of the year.
The weather this time around
at BHF was almost perfect
with sunny skies and almost
perfect temperatures.
This weekend
I had been testing several
items on the car in an
attempt to get it to turn
better in the middle and
exit of every corner at BHF.
I was finding that with the
car setup the way it is and
the rules we have in place
for Spec Miata, not much I
was doing with adjustments
was making much difference
in the performance of the
car. The changes are so
subtle because of rule
limitations that the large
understeer induced by the
BHF surface was not going to
be easily resolved. I was
still running about as fast
as I ever have at BHF, but I
wanted to see if there was
anything I could do to
improve the situation, in
case I ran across this tight
condition at another track.
With no luck finding a
mechanical fix for the
understeer at BHF, I just
pushed the car as hard as I
could and adjusted my
driving as best as I could
to optimize the conditions.
There were two qualifying
sessions for this weekends
National event on Saturday
and in the first session I
had a very tight dual with
veteran SSB racer Harry
Manning for the pole
position. On the last lap I
made use of the light fuel
load and nipped Harry
Manning by .003 seconds for
the fast time. However in
the 2nd qualifying session
while I improved my time
again by about .1secs, Harry
Manning improved his time by
.2secs and took pole for
Sunday's race.
I knew If I
could get a good start and
get in the lead I felt like
I could run more
consistently over the 20 lap
race and pull away, so I
really put a lot of thought
and planning into what I was
going to do on the start and
into turn 1. Things went
almost perfectly on the
start and into turn 1 and I
came out just ahead of Harry
Manning on the exit of the
first turn. Manning maybe in
an attempt to intimidate me
or force me to the grass on
my left came over and bumped
me. Obviously I was not
happy at this point and
decided I would not leave
Manning any racing room in
turn 3. Because the track
bends around in a S pattern
I let the car out to the
inside of turn 3 as I pulled
ahead of Manning. Manning
had no choice now but to
slam hard on the brakes and
give up the corner. From
turn 3 on I led the race and
pulled out a little more of
a lead each lap. About the
3rd lap though, I started to
hear a loud howling noise
coming from the transmission
while in 3rd gear. It was
just a couple laps later and
3rd gear exploded
effectively ending my day. I
tried to salvage some points
by running around in 4th
gear, but unfortunately I
was about .5sec/lap too slow
to stay in the top 5 running
in 4th gear alone. So off to
Mid-Ohio to hopefully get
back on track.
April 28-30th SCCA
Shootout at the Blackhawk Corral National
Test Day: This weekend my brother Mike
was able to join Nick and I however, we were missing our
only full time mechanic as our Dad Nino took a well
deserved vacation with our Mom Ruth. So, our friend
Rocco Falbo came out to help us all three days and he
was given a crash course in race mechanics. Rocco is our
electronics expert, so it was no wonder he picked up on
everything in a hurry. The newest addition to our
family, Melissa Coello also made it out to the track and
helped keep us under control and well fed. Things went
really well on the test day as I found a little more
speed in my Miata doing some chassis tuning, while Niki
did not do much running in an attempt to save his more
fragile FC car. Mike however was the busiest of the
three on Friday since this was his first laps of the
year and he did a great job getting up to speed in a
hurry. The test day also allowed me to do some spying on
some of my National
competition
as the very experienced SSB veteran Harry Manning was
present with his converted 1999 SSB car now running in
specmiata. It did not take long for the games of
national racing to start up, as Harry Manning was very
careful not to show his hand. I have heard stories of
the rather quick straightline speed his 1999 car has and
when I ran him down on the test day to compare our cars,
he immediately backed off his pace. The weather was
incredible on the test day as it was the previous
weekend which is very rare for April in this part of the
country.
Saturday: On Saturday we would each have
one 25 minute practice session and qualifying session.
Niki was first up in FC and his practice was littered
with way too many open wheel cars so he only did some
installation laps and pulled the car in. It was apparent
he was atleast a second faster than the next closest
car. SM has it's own run group in the National series,
so with only about 15 cars on track we had a much better
practice session than Niki. I had run my best times of
the year getting down to a 1.23.0 while Mike ran his
best laps ever at BHF and was only a tenth off me at a
1.23.1. As soon as the lunch break arrived, so did the
rain and a day and a half of mess followed. Niki's
qualifying was first up and Niki was placed in the
delicate position of trying to figure out how hard he
had to push the car in very wet conditions to grab pole
but without risking damaging the car in the wet. Niki
did a great job, although a driver from Colorado Kirk
Kindsfather was able to grab pole. One thing we need to
work on for sure with Niki's FC is going to be the rain
setup. This was the first time Niki has run his Formula
Continental in the rain and while the car worked well in
the wet it could definitely use some improvement. Mike
and I don't have that problem with the Miatas, because
there really is nothing to change on the car for the wet
conditions. I really have a lot of fun running the Miata
in the wet, so while I was not happy to see it raining
out, I definitely was not worried about it. I had not
run in the rain for about a year, so I took the
opportunity to really try and find the limits in the
rain again and had good success grabbing pole position
by over 3.5 secs. It was no surprise that it was all
former go-karters that were next on the grid with Steve
Welk in 2nd, Jacque Dresang in 3rd and Mike in 4th. The
first non-karter was SSB veteran Harry Manning.
Sunday: We got a pleasant visit from
Dominic and Andy Rosetto who came out to see the races
and also lended a helping hand, Thanks guys! The racing
this weekend turned out to be a little more exciting,
mainly because of the constantly changing weather
conditions. Niki's race would be the first of ours again
on Sunday and the conditions were only slightly damp
with the track drying. There was definitely not enough
water to run rain tires so the entire grid switched over
to slicks. Just as the cars started to roll out the rain
started to come down again. Since everybody was in the
same boat, it was going to come down to who could
control the car in wet conditions on slick tires.
Kindsfather took the early lead, but immediately had
troubles keeping the car under control and Niki took
over the lead. From there until the end of the race Niki
was hounded by Steve Thomson. Thomson made a couple
attempts at passing Nick but with no luck and Niki took
his 2nd National win of the year.
The conditions were changing again as
the track had dried out the most it had all day just 15
minutes before our Spec Miata race. But unlike Niki's
race, it started to rain pretty heavily just before we
went down to the grid allowing me time to switch over to
the rain tires. I also made a last minute decision to
start from the outside row in an attempt to have a
straight run to the rain line in turn 1.
Check
out the video below, it is my in-car footage of the
first two laps. Basically the video covers all of the
excitement for the race and gives you an idea of how
slow going it is in the rain around Blackhawk Farms.
Both Welk and Dresang got by me on the start, but I
picked them off by the completion of lap 2 and was able
to pull away for a comfortable win. Mike was in the meat
of the rain battle and was running in a solid 3rd
position with one lap to go when a lap car ran him wide
off the track. Unfortunately this allowed two cars by
Mike and he would finish in 5th place. Jeff Luckritz
took 3rd and Harry Manning was 4th place. I was really
happy about this win, it was in the rain and it also was
my first National win in just my first attempt. It
really felt good to be back out at the race track and
behind the wheel of a race car after a nice winter
break.
Next race for me will either be at
Grattan, MI Mother's Day weekend or back at Blackhawk
Farms May 21st. Both events are SCCA National events and
will be crucial for trying to win the Central Division
National points championship.
April
20-23rd SCCA Quad Regional/Driver School
Test Day: First race of the season for
me started out with a test day Thursday, in which I
spent every session I could on the track trying to shake
off all of the winter rust that had built up on me and
the car. I always like starting out the year at
BlackhawkFarms, it is basically our home track and it
really gives both the driver and the car a good workout.
Because of their frequent test days before a race
weekend it also allows me to get in a little extra track
time to make sure both myself and the car are in good
working order. Nothing really has changed over the
winter in regards to the rules or performance of the
car, so other than checking over the couple items that
needed to be fixed from the ARRC accident I had at the
end of 2005, the day went very smoothly mechanically.
School Days Friday and Saturday: This
first weekend is one of our regions School weekends as
well as the first regional race of the year. Niki has
taken a position on Milwaukee Regions Board, so he was
given the task of helping out Scott Sanda with running
this years first Driver's school. Nick had asked if I
would help out as an instructor, so I stayed at the
track as an instructor for the school on Friday and
Saturday. Since Niki nor I had to be behind the wheel
either day it allowed us some time to visit our buddy
Rocco in nearby Monroe, WI Friday evening. Rocco is
always a great host and we had a blast hanging out.
However, Monroe has now taken on the same status as Las
Vegas and so what happens in Monroe stays in Monroe! :-)
Race Day Sunday: Once again this year, I
am fortunate on race days with my spec miata to be able
to enter two classes SM and SMT. This is always nice,
because it allows for double the track time at a rather
reduced price. Mike Coello was not able to make the race
this weekend because he was in Florida on vacation with
his family, so my biggest competition on this weekend
would be Mike Backus. In both classes I qualified on the
pole position and in both situations Mike Backus would
be starting 2nd. Mike is a good friend of the family, so
I always look forward to racing with him. Both races
were very uneventful which is a great way to start out
the season and I was able to lead every lap on the way
to winning both SM and SMT. Niki also had a very
uneventful day as he won by a rather large margin but
also set a new track record in the process. Nick and my
Dad worked very hard on the car over the winter and it
looks like they have found some significant gains both
in the aero and drivetrain departments. Some of the
thanks for that has to go to Steve Knapp of Elite
engines who worked on improving an already strong
engine.
