Dateline: Thursday, May 18, 2023

A: Knock, knock.

Q: Who’s there?

A: Gotta hike.

Q: Gotta hike who?

A: Glad you asked!

Flat tire, yellow flags,
air conditioning from hell.
And yet, podiums!

P2 at COTA. Feels good to be back here.

Q: Well, that’s something! But before we get to the racing, how do your Instagram numbers look?

A: Strong. Currently @teamscR34 (that’s me) boasts 168 followers. That’s a 45% improvement from just two months ago. So, while @axle_sweet_magoo (that’s the dog) maintains a narrow lead with 174 followers, the gap has closed considerably.

Now, I am aware that several of you that chose to start following me in the past few weeks also chose to follow my dog. While I don’t blame you (he is kind of cute), this doesn’t do anything to help my cause here.

Q: Ok, let’s talk racing. Was that really a second-place finish at COTA?

A: Heck yes. And it came on the heels of a similar performance at NOLA back in April.

P3 at NOLA. I don’t know why we sported shades here but not in Austin.

Q: I’m liking this vibe. It’s been a while.

A: It has been. Five races into the 2023 season we are quietly lurking in fifth place in the GT4 America Pro-Am category, but that’s only part of the story. Behind the scenes this team has had bushels of bad luck – more than enough to make us all sorts of grumpy. Yet we have rebounded every time to find our way to the front of the field. If we ever start getting breaks that go our way, we are going to be scary good. The recipe is working, even if the air conditioning is not.

Q: Describe some of the bad luck for us.

A: Sure. Throughout all of our testing and practice at NOLA, we were 99% confident that I was the fastest Am on the Pro-Am side of the grid. Now I can’t confirm that with hard data because SRO’s new timing, scoring, and session data platform is equal parts terrible and useless. I might have already mentioned that. But nevertheless, I was frankly as fast as I have ever been, crushing my personal best by more than a full second.

On Saturday morning I was ready to click off a time fast enough for our first pole position since 2020. That wasn’t meant to be, however, as midway through my first qualifying lap the right-front tire began to leak. A lot. The crew radioed the situation to me and requested that I stay out and do my best to salvage a decent time, but when the car got to Turn 13, I nearly took the tire off of the wheel as the front splitter scraped along the curbing.

Now up to this point, I was about 0.5 second faster than I had been on any other lap I had driven that week. But then it all fell apart. The tire, anyhow. I crossed the start/finish line with about 12 PSI in the right-front tire. My actual lap time of 1:44.4 should have easily been a 1:43.something had the racing gods not rudely taken away our pneumatic integrity.

Going fast at NOLA in practice with four fully inflated tires.

Q: Was there a rebound?

A: Oh, yes. That’s our theme, right? I was still able to qualify P5 in class and P11 overall. Which ain’t bad for a car running 12 PSI in the right-front tire. The Pro-Am pole time was a 1:43.9, and I am pretty damn sure his right-front tire wasn’t flat. In spite of the setback, however, we were massively confident that when the green flag flew for Race 1, we would be able to work our way by the four cars ahead of us and drive #82 to the front of the field.

Q: Did you work your way by the four cars ahead of you and drive #82 to the front of the field?

A: No. Because the GT4 America Am side of the grid can’t go more than one freaking lap without somebody wrecking so badly that we need to parade around under a canopy of yellow flags.

When Race 1 went green, I was immediately able to move up from P11 overall to P10 overall. Thankfully, I was able to make this happen in the first 30 seconds of the race before the track went full course yellow. The opening-lap wreck, and the various foibles that ensued, dictated that over the next 25 minutes I would see exactly one green flag lap of racing before handing the car off to Tyler. I came into the pits for the driver change sitting P9 overall but still P5 in class.

It’s not exactly asphalt, but this is where you want the racecar to be.

Q: Did Tyler get some green flag laps?

A: A few, yes. Notwithstanding a bit of drama of his own (pit lane congestion, an opaque windshield, and – gasp! – more yellow flags), Tyler was able to drive #82 onto the Pro-Am podium. So, while the on-track competition was sparse, the result was awesome. Our first trophy of the season, even with a flat tire in qualifying. I’ll take that.

For his next trick, Tyler will extract me from a racecar while blindfolded.

Q: How was the race on Sunday, then?

A: Well, it’s complicated. The race on Saturday (Race 1) actually didn’t take place on Saturday because of monsoonal weather conditions. It took place on Sunday, which meant we didn’t have a Race 2 at NOLA. Which sucks because we would have kicked ass.

So, in summary, we left NOLA with a trophy, one green flag lap (for me, anyways), and a lock on fourth place in the GT4 America Pro-Am Championship standings, only 31 points out of first place. The glass was clearly more than half full as we left New Orleans.

Q: Will NOLA Race 2 be rescheduled for a later date?

A: Well, that’s what we are told. Supposedly it will be run during the Sebring weekend, but this is SRO so anything can change between now and any given point in the future.

Q: Off to COTA. Was there more bad luck there?

A: Oh yes there was, but our rebounding skills were again on full display. Let’s start with my crash on Friday afternoon.

This is me trying (in vain) to avoid hitting the wall at the exit of Turn 11.

Q: That doesn’t look any good!

A: No, it wasn’t. All throughout practice, #82 was running like a freight train, consistently at or near the top of the leaderboard. This was accentuated by a hero 2:14.8 lap that Tyler laid down on Friday afternoon in the final practice session. After he solidified his P1 overall, he handed the car over to me, and I was going to do everything in my power to do the same.

Here’s Tyler again, this time trapped inside of an invisible box.

On my out lap, I was completely dialed in. As least, as dialed in as an Am can get. The car was fast, the track was fast, and I had every intention of getting within a few tenths of a second of Tyler’s time. By the time I got to Turn 11, the data shows that I was nearly matching Tyler’s performance.

Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, a small issue experienced during Tyler’s stint had disabled the traction control system. Buy me a beer at some point and I’ll give you the details. This resulted in the car blowing off both rear tires at the exit of Turn 11 as I went to full throttle.

You know what happens next: the slow, lazy slide across the track during which you have enough time to rehearse your radio communication back to the crew who don’t yet realize that, instead of drinking beer and eating pizza, they are going to spend the rest of their evening fixing the racecar that just moments ago was the fastest car in the field.

Friends, let me tell you, this is one of the worst feelings in the world.

Yes, I crashed. And I’m sorry about it. But it wasn’t really my fault.

Q: But y’all rebounded, right?

A: Bingo. And I like the Texas dialect there.

The impact with the guardrail was severe enough that it broke the right-front tie rod, so the car had to be towed back to the paddock in embarrassing fashion. But otherwise, #82 brushed it off like a champ. Daniel and company had the car back together in time to have a beer before calling it an evening, but I still felt horrible about it.

HKDT to the rescue! She’s as good as new.

Q: Was the car OK for qualifying the next morning?

A: Yes. Throughout all of our testing and practice at COTA, we were 99% confident that I was the fastest Am on the Pro-Am side of the grid. Now I can’t confirm that with hard data because SRO’s new timing, scoring, and session data platform is equal parts terrible and useless. I might have already mentioned that. But nevertheless, I was frankly as fast as I have ever been, crushing my personal best by more than two full seconds.

This is me not crashing during COTA’s Thursday practice.

Q: Wait a minute. This sounds like the NOLA story all over again.

A: Yes. Including more bad luck during qualifying. On Saturday morning I was ready to click off a time fast enough for our first pole position since 2020. That wasn’t meant to be, however, as I was egregiously blocked not only once, but twice, on my first flier lap and then had to take evasive action on my second flier lap when a car spun to a standstill on the racing line, directly in front of me in Turn 7.

Up until Turn 7 on that lap I was about 0.7 second faster than I had been on any other lap I had driven that week. My actual lap time of 2:15.8 should have easily been a 2:15.verylow or maybe even a 2:14.veryhigh, but it simply wasn’t meant to be. Again.

Q: If you were egregiously blocked in qualifying, why didn’t you protest that with the stewards?

A: Oh yeah, that. Turns out you need in-car video of the infraction to show the stewards, but before we could download the in-car video from the car ourselves, the SRO tech folks took our SD card for some other reason. And then promptly lost it.

This is all of the in-car video we have of the blocking incident.

Q: Seriously? They lost your data and video?

A: Seriously. Poof. Gone.

An apology was made to our team, but it didn’t change the fact that they had lost all of our data and video from my qualifying lap (a personal best at COTA). And as a bonus, they also lost all of the data and video from Tyler’s qualifying lap, as it was stored on the same SD card (more on this later).

But as it pertains to the dialogue we were just having, they also lost any basis for us to file a protest about the blocking incident. So, there you are. Three for the price of one.

Q: That sounds worthy of being a little bit grumpy.

A: Well, I was, but we were still able to qualify P4 in class and P11 overall. Which ain’t bad for a car that lost about 0.8 second on its flier lap. The Pro-Am pole time was a 2:14.9, and I am pretty damn sure he wasn’t wasting any time avoiding an errant Aston Martin in Turn 7. In spite of the setback, however, we were massively confident that when the green flag flew for Race 1, we would be able to work our way by the three cars ahead of us and drive #82 to the front of the field.

Q: Did you work your way by the three cars ahead of you and drive #82 to the front of the field?

A: No. Because the GT4 America Am side of the grid can’t go more than one freaking lap without somebody wrecking so badly that we need to parade around under a canopy of yellow flags.

Q: Haven’t we already covered this?

A: I know, right? This is now COTA, not NOLA. Everything old is new again.

When Race 1 went green, all hell broke loose. It’s a COTA thing. There seems to be a tractor beam at the apex of Turn 1 which is powered by equal parts adrenaline and overconfidence. It sucks cars in with such force that it nearly always ends in bent metal and broken dreams.

Saturday morning was no exception. I counted myself fortunate to have ONLY been hit once and to have ONLY lost seven positions in the fracas.

Q: Doesn’t that make three first-lap, full-course-yellows in a row for you this year?

A: Yes. Maybe somebody should do something about that.

We spent the next ten minutes circling around the track at about 50 miles per hour while the safety crews cleared the carnage. I was shuffled back to something like P18 but was ready to move forward once the track went green again.

Yellow laps look like green laps through the camera lens.

Once the track did go green, I was immediately able to move up two positions. Which was cool. The car was fast, and I was in the proper frame of mind to charge forward. And then more unexpected surprises.

Q: Oh no.

A: Oh yes. One small detail that I have not mentioned to this point in the story is that we were finally cleared to use the air conditioning at COTA! There had been some enhancements made to the system, and we had every reason to believe that it would work just fine. Which it did, all through testing, practice, and qualifying.

Unfortunately, a completely unrelated air conditioning failure mode appeared out of thin air as I approached Turn 11 following the restart. Buy me a beer at some point and I’ll give you the details. This resulted in the car failing to move under its own power, a particularly significant problem for a racecar.

You know what happens next: as you begin coasting to a coast to a stop you have enough time to rehearse your radio communication back to the crew who don’t yet realize that, instead of drinking beer and eating pizza, they are going to spend the rest of their evening fixing the racecar that just moments ago was confidently working its way through the field. Again.

Q: This whole newsletter is like Groundhog Day.

A: Indeed. The car eventually started up again, but wouldn’t do anything racecar-like thereafter, so we had no choice but to limp it into the paddock and watch the rest of Race 1 from the garage.

Q: Obviously you got it fixed for Sunday morning. Rebound?

A: Rebound for sure. But not without some more tension first.

On Saturday morning Tyler put in a personal-best qualifying performance, but the cooler morning air worked to our competitive disadvantage. Consequently, he was starting Race 2 P6 in class and P8 overall. In the words of James Clay, that’s solid, but we knew we would have more relative speed if the weather warmed up a bit.

Tyler on his flier on Saturday morning.

The green flag flew on Sunday morning and thankfully the field made it through Turn 1 without tears. With the air conditioning gremlins banished, Tyler was able to enjoy some drama-free laps, moving up to P3 in class and P6 overall before he handed #82 off to me with about 28 minutes left in the race.

Q: So far, so good.

A: Yes, until we got the full-course yellow. This took place exactly four seconds into my stint. Maybe less. I am completely not exaggerating here – the safety car rolled out directly behind me as I entered the track at Turn 1.

It was a great stop, but he’s still got to beat that pace car out. It’s gonna be close!

Q: You know, maybe it’s you.

A: I’m not sure about that, but I didn’t get a single green flag lap for the rest of the race.

Q: No kidding?

A: No kidding.

Q: So if Tyler gave you the car in P3, how did you move up to P2 without actually racing anybody?

A: So, we did attempt to go green with about 19 minutes left to go in the race. And that’s when it all went crazy. Again. In case I have not said it before, the GT4 America Am side of the grid can’t go more than one freaking lap without somebody wrecking so badly that we need to parade around under a canopy of yellow flags.

This time, a car back in the field dove deep to the inside approaching Turn 1 at the restart, seemingly without braking at all. The Turn 1 tractor beam sucked it in with such great force that he completely cleaned out the two cars directly in front of us running in P4 and P5 overall. Thank God nobody was hurt, as it was a huge series of impacts that instantly took all three cars out of the race.

Front-row seat to the mayhem. Way too close for comfort.

Q: It never went green again, did it?

A: It never went green again. The double yellows came out almost immediately, and there effectively ended Race 2.

Now, while I will not ever complain about a P2 finish, this isn’t how you want them to evolve. But racing is racing, points are points, and we made our trip to the podium with a sense of relief. After all of the crap we had been through all week, it was so gratifying to be able to share a taste of champagne with the entire BimmerWorld Racing crew. Those guys were laser focused all week long and really earned that trophy.

Q: Where does this put you in the Pro-Am championship?

A: Well, I would love to tell you, but the new timing, scoring, and session data platform is equal parts terrible and useless. I may have already mentioned that. Now, there is a link on the SRO homepage to Race Results, but it has us sitting in ninth place. Which is simply wrong. So, as a public service to the entire GT4 America Pro-Am grid, here’s the scR motorsports version of the latest Championship standings following COTA Race 2.

This may or may not have been generated with Matt Travis over a beer.

Q: Do you think SRO will appreciate that?

A: Not sure. But if it’s taken in the good spirit that it was meant, I don’t see why they shouldn’t.

Q: Your accounting has you in fifth place, then?

A: Yes, only 18 points out of first place. And I had an accountant helping me with this, so I’m pretty sure it’s right. Although, to be fair, we were both a little drunk (and irritable), so somebody ought to check our math.

Q: In spite of the challenges, it sounds like you are off to a great start to the season.

A: It’s exactly like that. We are just one race away from the GT4 America Pro-Am Championship lead with just 5 out of 14 races complete. That’s a fantastic place to be at this point. We are fast, we are consistent, and the team is firing on all cylinders. Tyler is a stud and the new G82 has proven to be a rockstar (as long as you are not using the air conditioning), so all we need now is a little good luck to push us onto the top step of the podium.

Q: Any changes in store before VIR in a few weeks?

A: Well, we are trying to find a way to install Apple AirTags on all of our SD cards in case SRO decides to swipe another one. Other than that, the team is simply striving for more of the same.

The momentum is awesome, and VIR is BimmerWorld’s home track. With a little bit of good luck, it should be a terrific event.

See you at the track!

JWJr
#82 GT4
@teamscR34 <- click here to follow us!
@axle_sweet_magoo <- click here to follow the dog!
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