Well if VIR was any sort of measuring stick for the rest of the season, Mosport was sure to be an interesting weekend; and that it was.  I arrived in Toronto, Canada after a very long night.  I left Santa Barbara around 3pm so that I could beat the ever present traffic that forms a halo around LA at seemingly random times each day.  My flight out was not until 9pm so I definitely completed a soduko or two, but it was worth the assurance of making my international flight.  The only decent priced flights that worked out with my college class schedule meant that I would be taking the red-eye to Toronto via a Las Vegas layover.  When I arrived in Toronto at 7am with an hour or so of sleep under my belt it was time to head out to the track.  I like to arrive the day before we need to be there so that I can do a little reconnaissance and perhaps sneak in a track-walk during lunch. It was actually more of a "track-jog" as I had 20 minutes to cover the 2.459 mile raceway, but it was worth it nonetheless.  Later that day we did the official VW track "walk" (it was actually in golf karts) with the other VW drivers and the driving instructors.  What a magnificent track!  None of the videos I watched could have accurately portrayed the amount of elevation change.  Well after that I had to head back to Toronto (about an hour drive) to pick up my driver coach Tony Kester and one of our VW driving instructors Tommy Byrne.  This meant that I didn't get back to my hotel until about midnight, which was a long time away from Thursday morning when I was last asleep!

 

Saturday was my first chance to see Mosport from the proper perspective: from the driver's seat.  The clouds had been looming all weekend and the weather reports were all over the place, but the mechanics had gone ahead and bolted the rain tires on the Jetta TDI Cup cars.  The rain started coming down as we rolled out onto the grid and the following 30 minute practice session was definitely a handful.  I saw countless cars spinning around and sliding all over the place, as well as a few with minor damage.  To be honest, I thought that the session would be red-flagged (cancelled/stopped) within five to ten minutes due to a heavy crash so I was very thankful that we got to run the full session.  I never got a clean lap for a good time, but that wasn't the point of the session; it was to experiment with different lines in each corner and find the grip in the wet.  I ended the session somewhere mid pack, but looking at my good corners strung together I would have been up front, so that was nice to know.  It was very exhilarating to run on a completely new track (in a new country) in the wet in relatively new cars when there are great consequences for going off-track (as the concrete walls line most of the course).

 

The next few hours were spent analyzing data with my driving coach Tony Kester of Datasport and, of course, taking advantage of the great buffet lunch provided in the VW hospitality mega-tent.  Then it was time to qualify.  Now that all the cars had been fitted with rain tires of course the sun decided to break through and it actually became a decent day.  Unfortunately, with 30 cars in the series it was not possible to change back to the slick tires so we would go out and qualify on wet tires in the dry.  This was definitely a new experience for me and one that will likely prove valuable some day, as the car feels completely different on the "floppy" grooved tires when it is dry.  I never really put together a great lap on the rain tires; most of the guys who qualified up front were running a few laps and then coming into the pits to cool down the tires, but I still needed the track time so I pushed the whole session and the tires went away quickly.  I put in a time that would have been good enough for 12th or so if I remember correctly, but after qualifying we were informed that the SCCA would be handing out penalties from the last race at VIR.  It was confusing to me that the penalties from last race would be applied to the current race (as they had already penalized 20 cars or so in the form of points and money loss earlier that morning, myself included), but there wasn't much we could do as drivers because the decision was final.  They would hand out penalties to 18 of the 29 cars in the form of qualifying grid spot penalties.  I was to receive an 8-spot grid penalty for contact in Virginia, which I completely disagreed with, but knew there was little use to argue with them.  This would put me back to 20th or so for the start of the Mosport race.  Yet, when the qualifying sheets were printed out I, along with another driver, had been moved to the back of the field.  Surely this had been a mistake, as the time listed was good enough for about 14 positions ahead of where I was placed.  I sought out John Martinsen, who was the Chief Steward of the event, to clarify this issue.  I may have been willing to accept an 8 spot penalty (even if I felt it was unjust), but I was not going to sit back while they moved me back to one position ahead of dead last!  After a series of confusing conversations with both John and Jan (the chief driving instructor), I still felt as though I could not get a straight answer as to why I was being singled out for this massive penalty.  I did, however, see that there was little room for argument and that I was going to have to swallow this one.  As some of you may know, I had a very big "character building" experience last year when I felt that I was robbed of the SCCA National Championship title and this felt like I was dealt another blow.  But to be honest, in the long run it may be even more advantageous for the development of my racecraft to have started in the back.  So I would start 28th and that was that; now it was time to start thinking about the race.  My family would come on Sunday to watch so I definitely wanted to put on a good show for them.

 

While I was sitting on the back of the false grid in pit lane I had a great view of the entire field as the rain started to sprinkle down.  However, for the first time that weekend we were on slick, non-grooved racing tires.  This should be interesting!  We qualified in the dry on wet weather tires and will race in the wet in dry weather tires; yet another surprise that Mosport has thrown at us.  I am excited because I know that if I make it through Turn 1 cleanly I should have a real shot at making up a significant number of positions.  Judging by what I had seen in practice and qualifying, I knew that if I just went as fast as the car would go without spinning or sliding off the track I would be just fine.  We did our pace lap behind the Audi S5 pacecar and I was working hard to try and get some heat into these tires.  After the pace car pulled into the pits I did one final burnout to put some heat in the fronts and then assumed my grid position for the F1 style standing start.  The front straight at Mosport is not very long or wide so we were packed quite tightly together.  The red lights come on and I am on the brake and gas to put the car into launch-mode.  The lights go out and I get a great launch, even though I have to come out of the throttle significantly to minimize the wheelspin of the cold tires.  Unfortunately, there is absolutely nowhere to go in front of me so I slow down and stick to the left edge of the road.  Unsurprisingly, with the mixed up qualifying grid after the penalties, there is a significant wreck in Turn 1 taking out three cars.  I almost had to come to a complete stop to avoid contact, but I was determined to keep the car clean and make it to the end of this race.

After a lengthy safety car period it was back to green flag racing and the rain was coming down even harder.  The conditions were really playing into my hands and I was making up multiple spots on every lap.  My biggest moment came when I was passing a car using the rain line through Moss corner; after going around the outside and being side by side before the apex I was readying myself for a drag race down the Andretti straightaway. However, the car on the inside tracked out completely, leaving me no racing room, and knocked me off the track.  Luckily, I barely avoided the concrete wall, but his front left wheel had hit my front right and had definitely bent a suspension component.  I spoke with the driver afterwards and apparently he was having transmission problems and the gearbox had locked up mid corner and he slid into me, so I appreciated the explanation.  Regardless, the alignment was definitely skewed as I was now going down the straights with about 45 degrees of steering input with the wheel.  Other than that it actually felt decent.  The rain was really starting to come down now so I knew that I had to make up positions before they called the race early, injured car or not.  I managed to make up a few more positions and eventually crossed the finish line in 11th place.  I actually passed a car around the outside of the last corner to beat him to the checkered flag by two tenths of a second.  In the end, even though I faced some trepidation in qualifying, I felt that I put in a good performance passing 17 cars in around 5 laps of actual green flag racing.  

Though it wasn't quite the podium finish I was looking for in Mosport, I felt that I did the best that I could considering the circumstances.  After the race we had our debrief and had to clean up our racecars; luckily, mine was in pretty good shape this weekend, all I had was a damaged wheel rim and possibly a bent toe link.  After that it was time for some interviews and some autographs, just some of the perks of being a professional racecar driver.

 

 

After that it was time to pack up and head for the airport.  After another lovely late night flight I got back to Santa Barbara at 4:30am, but like the race, it could have been worse.  Now it is time to set my sights on our next race in Portland and begin training for that.  Now, beginning with the third race, the points are going to be fully distributed (instead of the half points the first two races were worth) so it is vital that this is the turning point of my luck for a shot at the championship.  For now though, I am more worried about papers and finals until I get out of my classes here at UCSB.  After all the traveling I have done this year I am beginning to appreciate why most people pursuing a career in motorsports do not attend college: the last thing you want to do after arriving from an international flight at 4:30am is to wake up for a 9:00am class!  On that note I am going to sign off here and I will post any updates of interest.

Thanks,

-Nick 

Here is another website that will have updates on the Jetta TDI Cup series: click on the VW

Well the first race of the new Jetta TDI Cup series was very interesting, to say the least.  For the official VW release please click HERE.  From my point of view the weekend was one of mixed emotions.  While I gained more traffic management skills in that thirty minute race than in my entire last season of racing it is still painful to cross the finish line in 14th.  It was great to get an opportunity to race at VIR and I will give you a quick summary of the weekend from my point of view.

    I arrived via Raleigh-Durham on Wednesday night to be on the safe side (which is why I am still playing catchup with my college classes).  I hung out at the track for the majority of the day on Thursday to try and get a feel for the place as I have never run there, much less been to Virginia.  As always, VW had an extremely impressive presence with their F1-type hospitality and technical tents. It was also a great chance to walk around and visit with some of the teams from Grand-Am and Speed World Challenge.  One of the many great things about the Jetta Cup is the opportunity to be paired with various other professional series on race weekends.  I sneaked out for a very quick track walk during the lunch break, I had about 45 minutes to study the 17+ corners on the 3.27 miles so it was a half walk/half jog.  It was good to get out and see the corners first hand however.  We also did another, official VW track walk at the end of the day so I definitely got my cardio in for the day!

On Friday we finally saw our first real track action in the Cup cars as we had two scheduled 30-minute practice sessions.  I was trying to learn the track as well as the car, but it went reasonably well; if I remember correctly I was somewhere mid-pack (11th or 12th maybe?).  It is definitely a significant transition from my Sports2000 background to now be driving a heavier, front wheel drive sedan, but it is definitely a fun challenge.  Unfortunately our second practice session was cut short when one of the drivers (Noah) went off in the lower esses and had significant damage.  He was just fine, but unfortunately his car wasn't which is a real shame because he's a great guy and it would have been fun to race with him.  I also could have used the extra track time to really feel out the car when it is on the limit.  With this limited track time I would say there was definitely somewhat of an advantage for the guys that have been to VIR before, which many had in karts or formula cars, but every track is going to be someones home track so you just have to suck it up and drive.  I spent many hours when the day was over with my driver coach Tony Kester of Datasport analyzing many data channels trying to find any advantage possible.  It is a nice format where VW makes one of the leader's data available as a reference so the data analysis proves very fruitful.

     Saturday was qualifying day and everyone was definitely ready to pick up the pace and the track was rubbering in nicely.  Unfortunately, my qualifying session was less than perfect.  I knew there was significant time to be gained for me in a few corners and I knew I had to push early on to get a quick lap in case the session was cut short.  I tried to carry a bit too much speed through 17a and caught the curb wrong and performed the TDI "two wheel drift" where the car actually lifts up onto it's outside wheels while sliding and when the car finally grounded itself I slid off track at the exit.  Not too big of a deal, brought it back on the track safely and felt the car out.  It felt alright, but it is always difficult to trust the car after an off; you simply picture the brakes failing or the suspension breaking in a high speed turn, but the car felt healthy so I began to push again.  By the time I was on the back straight I felt comfortable again and was setting up for a hot lap when the car suddenly fell out of gear and then lost fire in the engine.  I was unsure of what to do, I tried turning the ignition off and on, but it was to no avail as the car must be in park to be restarted.  However, it happened to be on the fastest part of the track and luckily I was carrying at least 100mph when the problem occurred.  I barely made it to the top of the hill and then carried as much speed as possible to make it barely back into the pits (which had never seemed so steeply uphill until then).  I had just enough speed to coast back precisely to the spot where all the VW techs were.  As they were looking over the car I got the engine to refire and asked if I could go back out.  Luckily I was able to get in another flying lap or two, but it wasn't quite enough to put in a good time; I would start near the back of the field in 25th.  Every driver has a whole book full of excuses for any poor performance, but in the end of the day it was what it was and I had to start thinking about race strategy.

    Sunday was the big day: the first race.  We were the last race of the day so it was a long day of sitting around and waiting.  I tried to make the best of my time by analyzing data and picking out key areas to focus on during the race.  I could write up a race summary post that would be equally as long as what I have already written here, but in the interests of brevity (and to avoid boring you) I will keep it short.  I had a decent start, made up some positions and from there on out it was simply "carnage management."  With thirty equal cars and thirty drivers trying to win in turn one (as well as every other turn) it was a recipe for lots of close racing that often resulted in contact.  I tried to keep my car as clean as possible, but I got caught up in much more contact than I would have liked.  I definitely saw some things that were new to me (in both good and bad ways) and so it was definitely a worthwhile experience in terms of learning racecraft.  I got hit from just about every side throughout the race, including a door ramming side impact in the middle of the back straight; no part of the track was safe.  Again, dipping into the book of driver excuses, the alignment of both my front wheels was severely altered due to some of the impact early on in the race so it was definitely an issue of trust again with the car as it was quite the handful.  Also, there were many laps run under caution, which didn't help me in my journey towards the front, but it was still a decent run.

     I would be lying if I said that I was happy with my performance in Virginia, but it was definitely enlightening.  Second place is hard enough to swallow for a driver, much less 14th, but it should be a different story in a few weeks in Mosport now that I have a feel for the format.  I still need to figure out these front wheel drive racecars, but I am very excited for the next race in Canada and stay tuned as hopefully I will be able to update you with some better news in a few weeks time.  I know this isn't a TV interview, but I still have to thank Volkswagen for putting together this amazing series as well as my family for supporting me and Tony Kester for all the help he has given me throughout the years and this weekend.  I apologize if this post is a bit disorganized, but it is 2 am and I live in a frat house so you must cut me some slack! Thanks again and stay tuned!

-Nick