NorCal SpecE30 Back at Infineon for April
written by AJ Goldsmith, Race Chair
April 2008
Carl Chiu in the VMWerks #36 Car Leads the Pack Into Turn 2 at the Start of Sunday's Sprint Race
Photo by JS Clough
The NASA schedule was tight this weekend at historic Sears Point / Infineon Raceway, with an announced 492 entries overall and over 300 race entries. This allowed only 10 minutes of practice or about 3-4 laps in practice sessions each day. In addition, the afternoon temps were soaring into the 80s and with no recent rain the track had a lot of rubber down.
Saturday April 12, 2008
Saturday qualifying we got in about 3-4 laps before the session was red/black flagged because someone in a Miata had driven off of Turn 2 and was hurt. Lesson learned that getting a good qualifying lap early is important. Starting race position was Donny Edwards on pole (1:58.55), Kevin Borchers on the outside of Row 1 (1:59.91), then in order Brenden Selvig (2:01.87), AJ Goldsmith (2:03.89), Scott Neville (2:04.09), Steve Krshul (2:06.86), Adam Lazur (2:09.23), Walter Ford (2:10.15), Mike Schwarzbart (2:11.29)and Ron Harness (2:15.91). A jumped start resulted in a eventual black flag/stop and go for Kevin but not before he turned a blistering 2.00 lap the second fastest of the race by 3 tenths. Donny was his usual stellar driving self, weaving he way through traffic to his eventual win and fast lap of the day. The racing was pretty good near the front with Brenden holding 2nd for a good part of the race while I was hot on his heels and Steve right behind me. It went like that for several laps until Brenden got a little sideways coming out of 11 – with just a gap between Brenden’s sideways car and the wall, but with the track-out momentum I went left and Steve went right. In getting control of his car Brenden drifted slightly left, closing the door on me and Steve passed us both on the right to assume P2 and Brenden recovered enough to hold me off to maintain 3rd place. The race finished on the podium with Donny (1.59.982), Steve (2.01.738), Brenden (2.01.852). The rest of the field finished AJ, Scott, Kevin, Walter, Adam, Ron and Mike. For a full race in-car video from Scott Neville's in-car click here.
Saturday's Podium L to R: Steve Krshul, Donny Edwards, Jennifer Garmand & Brenden Selvig
Photo by Scott Neville
Sunday April 13, 2008
Sunday as usual the qualifying was a little faster and the temps were warming up creating excellent conditions for a great session. On the 6th lap of qualifying after already turning a 2:01.167, I turned into T7 only to have a USTCC car lock up its brakes and collect me, ending my qualifying and requiring quite a bit of work between Qualifying and Race. The starting race positions were Carl on pole, Tommy Lo driving Valley #2 on outside of row 1, followed by AJ, Steve, Brenden, Scott, Ron, Adam, Elliott and Mike.
Mike Schwarzbart Inspects the Damage on AJ Goldsmith's Car after an Incident with a USTCC Car
Photo by Walter Ford
Once I got towed off the track, lots of guys came to my aid. I had 5 minutes to look at the damage and had to report to tech to fill out the contact report and then take it to Race Control. In the meantime, Kevin and Rich V. started looking at the electrical and by the time I returned they had diagnosed it as fusible link probably blown because of a short in the vicinity of the cage where the car was hit. They were spot on! The guy who hit me offered use of his tools and people to help with anything and we used a garage spot and his camber gauge to get the camber set up again. Finally, returning to the Spec E30 paddock I needed to set the toe properly and again Kevin came to the rescue with toe plates and a quick instructional and we had it set in about 15 minutes. I had about an hour to spare before the race and went to find Albert to see if he’d let me out in Group 4 HPDE to make sure all was right before the race. Turned out well and after a couple of laps I had the confidence to go race it like I stole it!
Fast forward to 4pm – we are on grid and given the lecture from Will this morning, nobody is going to jump this start. When the green flag flew, the start was awesome – Tommy, Carl, Steve, Scott and I were about 3-4 wide in a pack going up the hill to T2. Carl powered up the hill and got the inside edge of T2 and made it pay off by getting the eventual hole shot. Steve and I flanked Tommy up the hill with Steve on the inside and I was on the outside. Coming through 2, Steve assumed 2nd place and set his sights on Carl, while I barely held off Tommy and we took over 3rd and 4th respectively. Steve kept Carl in his sights and passed him down through the Carousel only to give it back coming out of 7 when Steve’s tranny locked up in 2nd gear, ending his race. Jumping around a rapidly slowing Steve, Tommy took right and I took left and we went side by side into the esses, daring each other to lift. Eventually the positions shook out as Carl, AJ, Tommy, Scott and Brenden and raced like that for several laps with Carl opening up a nice lead on the pack and Tommy, Scott, Brenden and I mixing it up and exchanging positions a number of times. Overall for most of the race there was some really close racing in two packs - the Scott, Tommy, Brenden, AJ pack and the Ron, Adam, Elliott, Mike pack. For a full race in-car video click here from Scott Neville's car click here.
 Tommy Lo, Scott Neville and Brenden Selvig with Traffic in Turn 2
photo by Walter Ford
With the 4:00pm start and amount rubber down on the track, there were a few sunny parts of the track that got really greasy as the day wore on – notably T7 and T11. T7 is a good place to try and execute a pass either under braking into the turn or underneath during the turn. So lots of speed and defensive inside lines combined with a greasy surface resulted in a fair amount of sliding around, four-wheel drifts, and general throttle-on oversteer fun up there from about the midway point of the race.
Adam Lazur leads Ron Harness in Turn 2 on Sunday
Photo by Walter Ford
Over the last few laps Brenden did a nice job of picking his way through the pack from 5 to 4 to 3. With two laps to go it was Carl, me, and Brenden but too much speed into 7 and I went wide, opening the door for Brenden to get an inside shot and take over 2nd coming out of 7 and going into the esses. The racing was furious for the last two laps, with me pushing Brenden and Scott taking a position from Tommy, but in the end the finishing podium order was Carl (2.01.114), Brenden (2.01.508), AJ (2.01.851). The rest of the field finished Scott, Tommy, Ron, Adam, Elliott, Mike and Steve (DNF). The top 5 finishers all had their fastest laps within 7/10ths of each other.
Sunday's Podium L to R: Brenden Selvig, Carl Chiu & AJ Goldsmith
Photo by Scott Neville
Sunday's Podium Race Report
by Carl Chiu
The Sonoma and Marin regions fell under an unusual hot spell for this time of the year, and Sunday was no different. Great weather for racing; a clear dry sky and a mild breeze that was not moving any debris. This race weekend was a record in attendance for NASA at Infineon, so morning practice was expectedly crowded. Given only a 10-minute run for the warm-up session, it was a basic shakedown under very crowded groups. The session went well, and the changes made to the Valley Motorwerks #36 car were evident to me in comparison to the last time we raced here for the season opener. I was pretty excited about the car after this run, anticipating how the rest of the day would turn out. Everything about the car felt dialed in.
Qualifying yielded a clean session in some traffic with a time of 2:01.11. My goal was to break into the 2:00 window, but alas that was not to be. This placed me 2nd in the starting grid behind a seasoned racer, but new to SpecE30, Tommy Lo taking the pole in the second Valley Motorwerks car 37 at a time of 2:00.7. This made for a 1-2 Valley Motorwerks standing start for the day’s race to come!
NASA shuffled the Group A race with SpecE30 over 4 hours later after qualifying at 4:00pm. Therefore track conditions had changed quite a bit under the heat of the day and constant driving sessions, making for a slightly “greasier” track. Anticipation was high for everyone, and as the second green flag fell, all seemed to make a very good start. For me gridding on the inside of the track, I had to make some gains into turn 2 or I would not be able to control my entry into it. Fortunately this was the case, as I got my car in front of Tommy’s and was able to come into Turn 2 clean with Tommy and Steve Krshul fighting it out. Into Turn 3a I had a car length ahead with Steve Krshul, AJ Goldsmith, and Tommy Lo in line. The car was doing very well in this first lap and I was able to lead securely. The only “incident” of the race to speak of is Krshul dropping out this lap due to an issue with his transmission.
Into the review mirror I see AJ Goldsmith, whom had another car during qualifying smash his right side pretty well, making moves and running fast. I was both surprised and happy for him as at one point it seemed his Sunday was lost. So there we went lap after lap of clear track for about 4 laps until we caught up with some back markers from a Honda challenge group that got the first green flag start. With about a 2 second lead at that point, I knew that managing traffic both slower and faster was going to be essential to keeping my lead – and of course myself turning consistent laps. That was the sum of the rest of the race, and I was able to maintain a decent rhythm for the remainder. All went well with traffic with only one hair raiser on the last lap, of the lead Honda Challenge 1 car making an unnecessary pass on me between turns 3a-3b and locking up his tires to do so. The checkered flag dropped, and gave me my first win at Infineon with a +9 second lead over the 2nd place car of Brenden Selvig, and the fastest race time of 2:01:11. I am a very happy driver, especially thanks to Valley Motorwerks, Aim Tire, Evil Genius Racing, and our new sponsor Auto Analyst II!
For more event photos click here for the VM WERKS Gallery and here for photos shot by JS Clough |
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