Happy June, Race Fans!
It's going to be a very busy month for Morgan Burkhard Racing.
FRIDAY NOTES:
Set Up: This weekend, we are back at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course again. This time it’s an IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge weekend and we are with CSM in the #67 Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 RS Clubsport. Morgan's car is red/black/white with blue mirrors. The CSM sister cars have variations on the red/black/white livery but have green (#2) and yellow (#16) mirrors. This is a 4-hour race this weekend and the Michelin Pilot Challenge is the featured group on the schedule. With the longer races, Morgan and Gordon Scully have Nikita Lastochkin along with them this time. Catch the replay on Peacock TV or on YouTube.
Being the group with the top billing means all the other groups go out first. The USF Juniors (small formula cars), VP Challenge, and Mazda MX5 Cup each have two races this weekend, all of which are available on YouTube also. While we await the first session on track, we have lots of time to catch up with the crew and other drivers and their families. We get down to business with the first session coming up this afternoon. Practice 1 goes green at 3:25 for an hour.
Weather is a dominant topic of conversation this weekend. The forecast is different pretty much every time anybody looks at it and each source is slightly different too. It's almost as if the mere act of checking it changes the forecast. For now, we have a lot of cloud cover and the occasional tricky peek of blue sky. Rain is likely to come and go and vary in intensity over the entire event. At the moment, it looks like it might be dry for Practice. We shall see. Everyone is keen to get going today!
Practice 1: The three CSM Porsches had a challenging first practice session. Really, all the Porsches in the GS class were a bit further back than expected and there were some surprisingly quick TCR cars. At Mid-Ohio, it's not uncommon for some of the lead TCR cars to be quicker than the some in the back of the GS field and we see that in today's practice results too. The two classes have very different aerodynamic capabilities and that makes a big difference in the 2/3 of the course where handling is more important than horsepower and the TCR cars excel.
After Practice 1, the three CSM cars (#16, #2, and #67) are in 19th, 21st, and 22nd in class respectively. The engineers have a lot to sort through from the three cars and will be making a number of changes ahead of Practice 2 tomorrow. Of course, Saturday is forecast to be dry whereas Sunday looks more like rain. That makes finding just the right set up particularly difficult this weekend. Some teams will get the good dice roll and others won’t. Hopefully, we get the good rolls in the next couple of days. We take the green for Practice 2 at 10:55.
SATURDAY NOTES:
Practice 2: Sometimes everything is easy. But this is racing so that is a very uncommon condition. Every race track is different and that means what you do with the car is different too. Each one needs a unique set up and often needs a tailored driving style as well. It’s finding that super specific special sauce that is the tricky bit. Sometimes you get it right from the start and sometimes you have to hunt around for it.
After Practice 2, the three CSM cars (#16, #67, and #2) are in 19th, 20th, and 22nd in class respectively, but times improved for each car. There is a lot of video and data to review and a lot of conversations among the drivers and engineers to come up with a plan to approach qualifying.
The crew is in for a busy afternoon and we will try to stay out of the way and keep ourselves entertained. In the meantime, there are three races going on track this afternoon. Our qualifying session rounds out the day at 4:30.
Qualifying: With the completion of qualifying, again some incremental gains were made. The CSM cars #67, #16 and #2 will start 13th, 17th and 22nd on the grid respectively for the four hour race on Sunday. Nikita qualified the #67 and will start the race for us tomorrow. His time was quicker than in either practice, so we are still moving in the right direction.
Looking ahead to the race: Being twice as long as all of the other races on the calendar (except Daytona), the strategy will be a bit different. Patience is key and it can be hard to wait until later in the race to do the hard racing. Clean, consistent laps by all the drivers and the fewest mistakes by drivers and crew will be needed to maximize results at the end.
Of course, the weather is still the wild card. Currently, the forecast says it will rain all day tomorrow. However, that pesky forecast keeps changing every time we look at it. As noted before, it has vacillated between completely dry and sopping wet, visiting everything in between over the course of the event so far - but never at the originally projected times. Either extreme is more predictable than changeable weather conditions. It’s how good your guesswork is that can make the difference.
In the wet, the drivers need very fine sensitivity to feel what the car is doing and how much it can be asked to do. Rain makes every turn of every lap a new experience. How deep are the puddles this time through? Are there new ones? Where are the streams flowing across the track and how wide? All of this changes with the intensity and duration of the rain. Visibility is a big issue because a lot of thick spray comes up from the tires behind a race car. Situational awareness must be at the maximum!
SUNDAY NOTES:
Autograph Session: This morning, there is rain. It's enough to need wet tires for the three support group races to start the day. We start off with an autograph session at 10 AM. From babes in arms to grandmothers and all kinds in between, the fans are all smiles as they get to meet and talk to the drivers a bit. The CSM guys have special "hero cards" to hand out that feature them with their cars. The fans also bring posters and hats and t-shirts to get signed. They are showing their team and manufacturer swag and despite the damp, they are excited to be here today. The MX5 Cup race roars by in the background amplifying the positive vibes for the day. Some fans are shy but many linger a bit to chat. All are grinning and laughing. So much fun!!
Fan Walk and the Grid: Next up is the fan walk on the grid at 11:00. The rain was heavier earlier but seems to be dissipating now. There is a lot of debate about tires still. The drop dead decision point is fast approaching. It is nerve wracking to say the least.
On the grid, we look over the other cars to see what tires they have fitted - about half have wets like us. With the radar showing no more rain coming and seeing the dry line started in the last race expanding on its own, we decide to change to dry tires. So did all the others. Now the pits are full of crews and carts and tires along with all the fans. The fans couldn’t get quite as close to the cars, but they did get a different kind of show - the pit stop exhibition.
The air is filled with new sounds above the laughter and murmur of the viewers. We now have the whining zing and chatter of the lug wrenches followed by the hissing release of pressure from the air jacks when the tire change is done. It's all over quickly and the equipment is cleared back to the pit box. We will go out on dry tires. It's the right call even if showers pop up later on.
The Race: Nikita did the qualifying, so he had the lead stint in the #67. He did a great job getting up to 8th and staying there a long time. Late in his very long 2-hour stint, the tires had gone off, other teams had changed to their faster drivers, and it was quite hot in the car. A few yellows gave him a little rest along the way. He held on the best he could, but slipped back a few spots.
At halfway, Gordon jumped in the car for hour 3. He too did a great job maintaining position and keeping the car clean. His entire stint was under green flag. As we approached the time to make the last stop and put Morgan in, the car in the box just ahead of us came in with broken suspension. Great efforts were made to repair it, but none worked and it was firmly stuck in pit lane for a worryingly long time. It's placement would have made getting out of our box very difficult. Fortunately, the desperate attempts to shift it forward and closer to the pit wall were successful just in time for Gordon to come in.
At last, it was Morgan's turn in the car and he took the final hour of the race, no more stops needed. It was a clean and smooth pit stop under yellow and he sped off on his way! Unfortunately, we had a safety car miscue during that yellow. The penalty was a 2:57 stop and hold. That is a stupendously long time to sit at the end of pit lane and wait to be released. Still it only cost us two spots, one of which was to a teammate.
At the end of it all, we came home clean, 15th and 2 laps down, which was still much better than others can claim. Several had spins or offs that cost them time and laps and others had more serious damage that forced them to retire. We learned stuff about the car and each time the team moves together more smoothly. Best of all, Morgan’s lap times during his run were within a half second of the leaders.
We were a bit on the back foot for a lot of this weekend. Despite the weather and set up uncertainties, the team kept the focus forward. Different things were tried and lap times kept falling each session. This crew is very dedicated to keeping up with all the adjustments. They are great!
WHAT'S NEXT?
Now we march onward to another IMSA race at Watkins Glen in 10 days. The team will review all the data and draw as much as they can to improve for the next race. See you there June 18-22 for a 2-hour race. Immediately following that, we are back at Watkins Glen for another SCCA Hoosier Super Tour race June 27-29