Sorry for the delay, I know that some of my friends have been begging me for a new blog post as they simply can’t get enough of my witty weekend renditions.  However, they have plenty of “ammo” on me as I was recently on the cover of our local magazine Forest & Bluff (do your worst Anthony).  Anyways, back to Limerock.  I was very excited about coming here as it was a track I had watched on TV many times and knew it was a true “drivers” track; simply meaning that a good driver can really shine here, even without the best car.  This is due to the level of commitment a few of the turns require for a fast lap.  I had done my usual Youtube research on the circuit and had recently honed my driving skills on the new Mariokart videogame for Wii, so I was ready to go.  It would also be a cool weekend as we were teamed up with the NASCAR Camping World East Series.   Unfortunately, my driver coach Tony Kester was unable to make it this weekend so I was going to fly solo for this race. I arrived in Hartford, Connecticut on August 14th not knowing what to expect- not only from the track, but from an area of the country that I had never been to before.  After I picked up my rental car, I became increasingly thankful that I had opted for the navigation system, as the New England definition of a “highway” is significantly different from my Midwestern/Californian experience.  It was about an hour drive to my hotel in Torrington and it was definitely one of the most confusing I have ever been on.  The navigation system would request that I “turn left on Highway 7” and the approaching entrance looked as though I am entering someone’s private driveway.  After I snaked my way through the country “highways” in the hills, I finally found my hotel and then headed towards the track.  I was a bit disheartened to find that it was a 45 minute drive to the track, as I knew the VW people would want us there bright and early each day.

As I arrived at the track I was sure to obey all of the posted speed limits within the facility as I have heard that there are often state troopers who will write you speeding tickets for breaking the 5 or 15mph limits.  Driving over the bridge into the infield, I couldn’t help but think back to the recent motorcycle race at Mid-Ohio where a fan had spilled his cooler on top of a pedestrian bridge dropping water onto the circuit and taking out the top three riders; oops!  I got out for my track walk in the early evening, which was nice as the day’s activities had lessened and the track was very serene.  I was able to take my time and really observe the track from every corner multiple times.  It is very unique, to say the least.  Limerock is a very fast, predominantly right handed track with great elevation change.  It was also repaved recently (which would be a large factor later in the weekend).  Even on foot, I could tell that the last downhill turn was going to be one that would require “large attachments,” to quote the great David Hobbs; I was really looking forward to getting into the Cup car and giving it a go.  I bumped into my friend, and fellow S2 racer, Noah Arundel and we grabbed a bite to eat and then I headed back (on the long drive) to my hotel.  It was not exactly a five star resort, but it did have a bed and a shower so it got the job done. 

Friday got started at a leisurely 5:30am so that I could be sure to arrive at the track before our 6:30am deadline.  We all stumbled around half asleep before we piled into golf carts and went out on our official VW track “walk” with Jan and Ryan.  After surviving yet another treacherous golf cart outing with the VW kids we had time for a quick bite to eat and a driver’s meeting before our first open practice.  The first time out in the cars was great and Limerock was even faster than it looks; we were only really using 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th gear with an average lap speed being over 90mph.  One of my downfalls in the series thus far has been my extra-cautious approach and not getting up to speed fast enough.  If you were to look back through the lapcharts from all of my sessions throughout the year you would see that I go faster in every session and always turn my fastest laps during the race.  This is both an advantage and a disadvantage.  It is a disadvantage because it has caused me to qualify somewhat poorly in the last few races and an advantage because I know that I am usually going to go faster than those in front of me during the race (I have made up between 5 and 17 positions in each race).  It was also interesting to note how many of the other drivers had been to Limerock before and many of them multiple times.  Limerock seemed to be the type of place where local knowledge, combined with limited track time, would be a large advantage as there are some blind corners that are very fast.  Rain was predicted, but never fell and the practice session was decent with no major surprises, I was just trying to feel the car out on the new circuit.  I ended up 12^th in the practice times with a lap of 1:00.734, off of the lead group by about half of a second.  I was ok with this as I knew I would go much faster and the top guys were already close to peaking.  We had a break and went over our cars with the techs and adjusted tire pressures for qualifying.  However, walking through the technical tent and speaking with some of the drivers it was apparent that many were having large problems with their tires “chunking” and throwing large pieces of rubber off the front left tire.  This was due to a combination of the (relatively) high g-loads and the new, grippy surface.   Usually, Michelin tires are bullet-proof, but my personal opinion is that the tires were not suited to the cars under these conditions (whether it was the track or car setup).  Basically, the tires we use are Porsche Cup front tires on all four wheels.  If you think of the weight distribution of a Porsche versus a heavier, front-engine, front-wheel drive VW running around a track that is more of an oval than a road course, it is not really that surprising.  I felt lucky that I was not having any issues, but that was short-lived.

We grabbed some lunch and had a few more meetings and sponsor/media/technical talks and then it was time to qualify.  I was excited about qualifying as I had learned a lot from analyzing the data and from some of my talks with the faster guys like Mike Denino.  VW informed us that they were going to set tire pressures for qualifying and would bring us in at the 15 minute mark to check everybody’s tires and send us back out.  As soon as I heard this I knew that it would be over when they brought us in and had to be sure and get a decent lap in early.  I spent the first few laps finding a nice spot in the field and then began to push.  I cranked off about 10 laps and was able to get one nice, clean lap at a time of 1:00.363; but I was still unsure of where that would put me in the field.  They then brought us all in, and sure enough, did not have time to check/change all the damaged tires so the session ended prematurely in the interest of safety.  Oddly enough, even though my tires were ok in practice I was suffering from the blistering and delamination problems in qualifying.  Perhaps it was due to some of the changes I made in my driving style after looking at the data.  I am still not quite to grips with the front wheel drive sedans, but I am getting there.  After qualifying I was pretty happy to see that I would line up 7^th on the grid for Sunday’s race.  Unless there were any crazy Mosport-like post-qualifying penalties I was looking forward to a good race.  I was very confident going into the race knowing that I have never lost positions in a race, but only gained.  After we met with our techs and decided on tire strategy, we were told that the VW technical staff was going to make some changes on the cars overnight to try and help the tire-wear problems.  It was strange that they were being so coy about it, but I simply assumed it would be an anti-roll bar and/or shock adjustment.  On the plus side, we were going to be allowed a 15 minute warm-up in the morning to try the new setup out.  While everybody else was free to go home, myself and about 8 or 9 other drivers were called into a “special” meeting with our head driver coach Jan.  Our group of drivers was the ones experiencing tire problems and they wanted to talk to us about understeer and tire wear and show us some data overlays of driver “X” versus Jan’s laps.  With no disrespect intended, in my honest opinion it was not worth a “special” meeting.  The group consisted of the majority of drivers in the top 10 qualifying positions, Jan’s data was from when he had a different setup on the car, and the lap times were not comparable.  To further this, I am sure that most of knew exactly what we were doing, and although it is not the “classic” way to drive many racecars, these Jettas seem to like a certain style.  I understood what they were saying and appreciated the effort, but I would have much rather been eating dinner and/or sleeping.  Anyways, it was off to dinner with a fellow Chicagoan Timmy and a whole bunch of other drivers/parents and then back (on the long drive) to Torrington.  I got back to the hotel just in time to fall asleep in preparation for another 5am wake up call.

I knew that the race was certainly going to be interesting, I just didn’t know how interesting.  It was a tight field, the top 20 cars were covered by less than 1 second in qualifying; in fact, if I would have gone 1/10^th of a second faster in qualifying I would have lined up 4^th.  After morning warm-up, I had a little bit of time at the track to check out some of the Mustangs and NASCAR stock cars we were sharing the paddock with.  However, the majority of my time was spent analyzing data and worrying about tires.  I did not know what to think of the tire problem.  I knew that if I drove the way that made the car run fastest the tires would fail, but when and how bad would they let go?  I reasoned that between the tires I had chosen to stick up front and the probable yellow flags that would come, I would be alright with pushing hard so long as I gave them a break every few laps.  We had our usual race day preparations and then it was show time.  We lined up in the false grid and proceeded to pit lane.  We were to go out and do a reconnaissance lap behind the pace car, line up in our grid position, and then do another pace lap before the race.  This is a great time for a driver to observe any changes in track conditions and note potential hazards.  We came through the final turn down the hill and proceeded towards our grid positions.  I did a few more burnouts for good luck (and to get some tire heat/pressure) and stopped in my spot.  It was a lot nicer to see 3 cars directly in front of me rather than sitting mid pack.  I made a good start, picking up a position or two, and then held my position for the rest of the lap while trying to stay out of the mayhem.  It was important that I got an inside line into Turn 1 which allowed me to protect through the next turn.  The tires were not quite up to temperature yet and my Volkswagen Jetta TDI was quite a handful, but I was really having fun.  I pushed, but Limerock is a very hard place to pass people (especially when they are running virtually the same lap time) so I hung around and simply picked off positions as people made mistakes.  After a few laps I found myself running in 4^th position with the top 3 fighting it out just a few car lengths ahead of me.  I knew that if I stayed with that group I would have a shot at a podium or even a win, which would have meant a lot in what I consider to be a disappointing season.  I hung with the lead group for about 14 or 15 laps, but I noticed the car was starting to become more and more of a handful to drive.   “Crap,” I thought to myself, “my front left is starting to give way.”  It was decision time, I could either start to ease off and be gobbled up by the many cars behind me, or I could drive the crap out of the car and hopefully make it until the end.  I said “screw it” and kept driving hard.  I understand and appreciate the aspects of endurance racing and preserving the car (and will hopefully showcase those skills in 2009), but this was a 30 minute sprint race and I knew other people were suffering from the same problem.  I had also probably made the wrong tire choice before the race as I took a gamble there as well.  The car was understeering worse and worse at each corner and I was barely making it through each one.  I was just starting to think about nursing it home to a top 10 finish when I turned in to the right-after-the-left turn and felt something was immediately wrong.  I knew I was not going to make the corner, but it was not going to be too dramatic. 


I eased off, only went off track about a car width and was getting ready to resume with my nurse-it-home plan.  I went back to the throttle and absolutely nothing happened.  I looked at my instrument cluster and noticed that the car was shut off!  I had no life in the engine and was simply coasting.  I was baffled, had my leg hit the key?  No.  Had I accidentally hit a switch?  No.  The off track incident was fairly mundane so I was certain there was no real structural damage.   So there I was, just coasting with car after car going by me, able to watch my potentially best finish disappear before my eyes.  I finally coasted to a “safe” area at the bottom of the hill and they had to tow me up the hill and eventually into the pits.  Every racecar driver hates the feeling of getting towed back to the pits, or even worse, riding back on the wrecker holding pieces of your car (I have been there too).  It seems as though everyone has their eyes on you and you just want to say “I swear it was the car and not me,” but there were actually some pretty supportive fans coming up to me and saying things like “I thought it was your race kid” and “You had the best line through Turn 3” so it was not all bad.  I got back just in time to see the podium that I felt I should have been on and was let down that I did not give the fans, as well as my family, a better showing.  However, I took solace in knowing that I had figured out these unique racecars well enough to run up front and had learned a few lessons along the way.  Unfortunately, that little blunder was enough to move me from 4^th position to 29^th by the end of the race (not technically dead last!) and effectively take me out of championship winning contention for this season.  However, that was simply the halfway point of the season and anything can happen.  I am anxious to see how well I perform the rest of the year and am already starting to formulate plans for 2009.  Even if I end up far back in the points where I am now, this year has not been a loss by any means.  I feel like I have become a much better racecar driver (both in and out of the car) and am anxious to show people what I can do in a car more suited to my style. 



On the plus side, Limerock was one of the cheapest weekends for me as my car came back relatively unscathed, but that is of little comfort for the race result that could/should have been.  In between races I did have the opportunity to travel out to California and see some friends, catch some snakes (yes I know I’m weird), and do some fishing!  Here are a few shots from my fishing trip out to the Channel Islands and my visit with my great sponsor LEAC, shoot me an email if you want to know any more as this post has already become far too long!  Back to work now (and looking for racing partners!), so keep your eyes out for some exciting news in the coming weeks concerning my 2009 racing plans.

*For the record:
-For the record I don't condone the killing of sharks (or any apex predator for that matter), but the boat that I was on was keeping one or two sharks for dinner (and they were mighty tasty!), and what guy could pass up a picture like this?!?

Thanks,
-Nick