Hello, Race Fans!
Thursday August 30
Round 7 of IMSA's Michelin Pilot Challenge is at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Today is sunny and warm and it's a good thing that golf carts were allowed on the track walk yesterday. It is four miles around this place and it was a sticky day. We are watching the forecast compulsively for the weekend. There may be rain around and it may or may not fall during our sessions. No matter, it will be whatever it will be and we will adapt. Tomorrow should be cooler and cloudier and that always helps.
Summer is in full force here in Wisconsin. The lush green forest around the track gives off a slight haze in the bright sunshine, but the humidity isn’t too bad yet. The sound of race cars surrounds us with its song of horsepower, the notes rising and falling as the cars stream by on both sides of us, toward Turn 1 one way and toward Turn 5 the other way. They call it America's National Park of Speed and Four Miles of Black Lightning for a reason. It’s fast everywhere, along the straights and through the turns. The route slides along in and out of tree cover where the pavement takes a while to dry out. Fast turns connect up the straights with a couple steep hills, one long gradual rise, and lots of downward slopes, one steep. It may seem straightforward, but there is more nuance than it seems at first glance.
Michelin Pilot Practice 1 rolls off this afternoon at 1:15pm CDT. Practice 2 is Friday morning at 8:20am CDT. Qualifying is Friday at 2:15pm. The two hour race starts at 12:50pm on Saturday. Keep an eye on live timing to see how Morgan and Gordon in the #2 CSM Porsche Cayman fare in all the sessions. And as always, wish us luck!
Practice 1
It’s been a pretty slow day for us waiting for things to get going and it’s hot and still under the awning. From our vantage point on the hill above the main part of the paddock, the flags flutter in the intermittent breeze, but it is entirely blocked by trees and trailers where we are.
Practice 1 is done now. It always feels good for the drivers to get back out on the pavement. We all get back in the swing of things quickly. There are a few turns here where track limits are enforced, notably at Turn 1. Using a little extra pavement there can provide a speed or position advantage so it’s not allowed. You get two warnings before a drive through penalty is applied, though any lap over the limit is invalidated.
Despite having had his very best lap deleted, Morgan’s second best (only 0.2 seconds slower) was good for 7th today. His time of 2:16.408 is pretty good for this track and only 0.6 seconds off the top time. With the one session down, we wait again. this time for the debriefs, reviews of data and video, and discussions on tomorrow’s plan to take place. We have a nice grassy and shady spot on the hillside overlooking the busy paddock below with lots of activity to watch and chat with lots of folks.
Friday, August 31
Early morning at the racetrack is just about my favorite time of day. It’s quiet and calm. There's no drama anywhere yet, just the promise of a new day. Shadows are still long, but the sun is well clear of the treetops. The crew has everything well in hand preparing for the session when we arrive. We exchange hellos with everyone and we greet the race car too, giving it a soft pat and encouragement for a good day.
Practice 2 goes off at 8:20 this morning. The sunshine early has given way to deepening overcast skies and cooler air than yesterday too. That is very helpful to all as evidenced by faster lap times today. With less sun beating on the pavement, it stays cooler and so do the tires. They stay in the best temperature range more easily in these conditions. Morgan made the most of it and his 2:15.178 puts us in 3rd for the session, only 0.3 seconds off the top time. We were doing a driver change to get Gordon in the car when a 10-minute red flag to repair a wall came out, shorting his time in the car. Even with less time, he went quicker today as well.
We have a few hours to wait before qualifying goes out at 2:15 Central. The crew is busy managing tires, the soft hiss of released air mixes with the high pitched joyful sound of Lamborghini engines as they go qualify. Once the car cools a bit, they’ll do the post-session checklist, making sure everything is tight and tidy. The drivers and engineers review the data and video, looking for the details that worked well and what to avoid. And we all have lunch too.
Weather is the big mystery of the day. Some are keen to have it rain for qualifying, others might prefer it stay dry. A wet track creates opportunity for those with great sensitivity to their machines, but also brings risk to those who overstep the bounds of friction. Do a rain dance for us if you will and come back in a few hours to see what happens!
Qualifying
During the run up to the qualifying session, nearly everyone at the track has phones out looking at a dozen different weather providers. None of the models agree. Some show rain already falling (if so, it isn’t reaching the ground). Some have it starting imminently. Others show it still a half hour away. When it comes to the last moment to decide, we go with dry tires. That is entirely the correct call as the much discussed rain has thus far declined to arrive, even almost two hours after our qualifying session ended.
The session starts well with Gordon warming everything up nicely. He has just started the real flying lap when a red flag comes out for a car off the track. We have passed the minimum green flag time for the session and it takes a while to clear up the incident and effect repairs. Gordon did not get to complete what may have been his best lap. Eventually they throw the checkered flag early without restarting the session. His time of 2:16.624 puts us in 17th. However, others have penalties for various things and we move up the grid by two spots. We will start tomorrow’s race from 15th.
It has been a good day and we are done a bit early so of course, there's ice cream! Green flag time is 12:50 Central and we race for two hours. My guess is it will be another agonizing run up to the tire decision point again. But who knows? Maybe it will be obvious what to choose. Watch on YouTube or Peacock!
Saturday, August 1
It's race day, people! Morgan certainly is feeling it this morning. HIs first comment of the day: "It's like waking up on Christmas and finding a present shaped exactly like what you wanted." It's raining! Now, if it will just keep up through early afternoon, that would be ideal.
The drivers all came back from the morning meeting with the series officials with wet hair. They'd worn raincoats, but had no hoods or umbrellas. That's the way to embrace this wonderful light rainfall! While he was there, we awaited the arrival of a few special guests. Family members living in the area come to see the race today as do old friends from scuba diving trips. They have a closer connection to the race because they have someone to root for that they know personally. That connection changes the perspective on the race.
When it comes time for the fan walk, the gentle rain is still coming down. It may soak into the ground, helping to relieve the long dry spell here, but it does nothing at all to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd. It is bonkers today! It certainly feels more packed today than previous years (post-race note: yeah - lots more people officially counted). They stroll by in a constant stream and we pass out hero cards to all comers. Lots of them get autographs too - we use up more than one pen.
It's time to clear the grid for the pre-race ceremonies. It's still raining, and IMSA has declared it to be a wet race meaning that starting on wet tires is required. The rain hasn't stopped, but it also hasn't been steady, so we'll just have to see how long it will stay wet enough for those tires. The cars fling a lot of spray into the air and that's thickened with lots of cars in close proximity all trying to go as fast as they can. They get two pace laps to feel out the surface and try to find where the best grip is hiding.
The drop of the green flag is always a bit of a hold-your-breath-and-watch moment, but that's intensified in the rain. Deeper in the train of cars, the grip is better, but the visibility is so much worse. It requires the attention of all your senses to find your way forward without sliding the tires, locking the brakes or bumping into anyone else. Gordon keeps it tidy, as do most of the others during the early laps. He's running lap times in the 2:35 to 2:30 range, and moves up several positions when others don't do so well. With the passage of every set of Michelin tires, there is less and less water on the pavement and more in the air.
The pit lane at Road America is quite long, stretching from the bridge at the top of the hill to long past the start/finish line, but not all the way to the brake zone for Turn 1. That means that there's plenty of room for all the pit boxes. This week, we even get a few extra feet, reducing the cramp of the typical weekend. We actually have room to work around the fuel rig and move tires easily. As a bonus, this cloudy, rainy weather is keeping temperatures below 70 degrees, odd, but very welcome for August.
When the full course yellow comes out for a car in the Carousel gravel trap, 14 laps down and about 36 minutes in, Gordon has made it up to 10th place. By now, his lap times have come down into the 2:28 range - faster than most of the GS field. When the GS pits open up and we bring him in on lap 16, the minimum drive time has elapsed. We do a driver change, adding a full fuel load and a new set of wet tires. We executed a precise and clean stop, putting Morgan out two spots higher into 8th.
With 53 minutes elapsed, the green finally comes out again to begin lap 20. That's where things go a bit off for us. The track surface dried out significantly during the yellow period, with the cars trundling around and the rain slowing to nearly nothing. The wet tires were not the right choice and we pull Morgan in again right away to fit dry tires. This drops us nearly to the bottom of the running order, but when he rejoins the track with fresh dry tires and the fuel topped up, he is a half a lap away from everyone else and has clear running. He makes the most of that space, with lap times down to around 2:18.
After a few laps of green running we are in 23rd. A car goes off at Turn 12, Canada Corner, and we know a yellow is coming. Many teams dive into the pits for that go-home splash of fuel before the full course yellow flies on Lap 27 and closes the pits while others have to wait until they open later. This time we stay out to gain some track position back. It helps, we restart Lap 34 in 15th. Morgan gets a good run off of Turn 5, making a pass going up the hill. They are all racing elbows out through Turn 6 and the Hurry Downs, with some minor and some major shoving. And right in front of him, one of these cars is ejected off to the left at Turn 8. Morgan wisely moves right to avoid, getting by both cars involved. And we are back to yellow after only half a lap of green. This effectively extends the yellow period, letting us save more fuel and ensuring we get to the checker without another stop. Now we are 12th.
When we go green again, we are closing on the end of the race, only 24 minutes remaining. The bumping continues and Morgan gets a little assist at Turn 1 where he runs quite wide. There's lots of pavement out there and he gets back on cleanly, but loses three spots. Coming out of Turn 12, others get involved in shoving and Morgan gets some spots back again. And now we are 10th. As we stay green, things spread out a bit and the back-and-forth continues.
With just under 10 minutes to go, there's another incident, this time in Turn 11, the Kink. This one will take more time to clear than we have left, so with the running order frozen here, we take the checker in 11th place. In post-race, we move up one spot when a car ahead of us gets a time penalty for that shove at Turn 12.
We didn’t get quite the luck with weather today that would have helped a lot. However, we had really good pit stops and both Gordon and Morgan drove very well, keeping the Porsche “clean.” Well, it was filthy at the end - rain will do that, but no serious scuffs. Many other cars were less fortunate. A 10th place finish brings decent points today as we head into the final three races with our "home" race at Virginia International Raceway August 21-22. Get your VIR tickets now and hope to see you there!
Check out the Schedules.
Photo credits to Sasha Guinot, Ron Burkhard, Beth Burkhard.
