Welcome, Race Fans to Sebring, Florida!
The IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring International Raceway is a 2-hour race held Saturday, March 15 at 2:05 PM. See the replay on Peacock TV or YouTube.
TUESDAY NOTES:
Rolling south on the way to Sebring, Florida, we are treated to a time lapse movie of spring unfolding. At home, while the snow is gone, all is still wrapped in its brown winter coat and the trees are bare. By North Carolina, the maples are pushing out their bright red baby leaves, brightening the grey trunks. The Bartlett pear trees make their appearance in South Carolina. Georgia adds bright splashes of yellow in the roadside shrubs. Reaching Florida, everything is green and growing fast. It’s full on Spring!
It is glorious today! Clear blue sky, light breeze, low humidity. If only it could stay this way. The paddock bustles with teams setting up tents and race cars crawl through the throng of carts and tuggers and people making their way to tech. The drivers are already discussing scenarios - can’t hear them, but the hands describe the car movements very clearly. They are all excited for the coming event.
There is a track walk this afternoon where they will get to see if anything has changed since last year. The only session Wednesday is Practice 1 for an hour at 11:25. Live timing is here: https://livetiming.alkamelsystems.com/imsa. Poke the hamburger menu at the top of the results page to get to live timing. Don’t forget to check out the icons at the bottom and you can always change the contents of columns too.
The #67 CSM Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 RS Clubsport, driven by Morgan and Gordon Scully has a red, black and white livery with blue mirrors and new sponsorship from Full Send Sims and Alpha Live Timing. We are excited to get going!
WEDNESDAY NOTES:
After a quiet morning drive to the track, passing fields blanketed in low fog, we were greeted by the throaty roar of the V8 Mustangs taking their first circuits of the track. What a way to start the day! Get ready for Practice 1 for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Sebring International Raceway! We go out at 11:25 this morning.
Here’s the wrap on a lovely day at Sebring. The #67 Porsche gave the guys a lot to think about. For the first half or so of Practice 1, the times put them around 15th. Ultimately, things finished up with 7th place in the session.
They learned a lot about the setup and have some good ideas for what to try tomorrow in Practice 2. The pursuit of a few tenths of a second here and there is never ending.
We also want to welcome a new crew member this weekend coming to CSM from Operation Motorsport. OpMo focuses on medically retiring or retired vets by providing opportunities to find a sense of purpose, identity, and team in racing paddocks. OpMo is a non-profit doing exemplary work helping veterans in the US and Canada in their recovery.
Tomorrow brings a very early start with the 1-hour Practice 2 leaving the grid at 8:00 as the first group of the day. Qualifying goes out at 2:30 for a mere 15 minutes. It’s gonna be another fun day!
THURSDAY NOTES:
Morning mist pools over the fields by the roadside. A layer of light fog drifts at treetop level, lit up by headlights and taillights, it thickens and thins as it swirls overhead. We could almost be in a movie set on an alien planet on this arrow straight road hurtling in the pre-dawn dark toward our unknown future.
Well, we do know where we are going, but we just don’t quite know what Practice 2 will bring yet. It’s still completely dark when we arrive - early enough to walk across the track between Turns 16 and 17. Sunset Bend ( Turn 17) could briefly be called Moonset Bend just now with full moon sinking toward the horizon in the west. Looking upstream toward Turn 16, it’s just a black void. Can’t see a darn thing that way. Our paddock is in that direction, but trackside, it's all swallowed in the thick blanket of the night. However, we do hear engines warming up already, so it is certain we are in the right place.
Practice 2 - The sun is rising now as we wait on the pit lane for the session to start. It throws its red light along the guard rail and people cast long shadows. Heat waves off the cars shimmer and glow. The crew is checking equipment - tools and hoses precisely placed so they are ready to use in a pit stop. The zing, zing of air wrenches reverberates up and down the pit lane.
The green flag is out! We pause a bit for the lane to clear and then Morgan goes. They hop in and out of the pits doing short runs with small changes in between. Practice 2 is for fine tuning and both guys get some laps in the car. With the hour expired, it all comes together and the drivers are happy with 5th in the session.
Now we wait until this afternoon’s qualifying session at 2:30 when we get our 15 minutes for Gordon to put in the best effort.
Qualifying is done! As usual, it’s only 15 minutes long. We go to the pit lane about 1:45, but we have to wait for a while. The TCR cars in the group go out first. Once they are done, there’s a very short break and it’s our turn. There are 25 in the GS class and we finish in 13th, right in the middle. It'll do.
FRIDAY NOTES:
There’s been no rain since Monday, and in every session the cars lay down more sticky rubber. It’s also warmer each day. That means that the track is a little bit or maybe a lot different each time the drivers see it.
No matter. It’s all going to get really interesting when the race starts at 2:15. Watch Saturday's Michelin Pilot Challenge race live on Peacock TV or on YouTube.
Race Day morning. It’s full of anticipation and hope. Perhaps a wee bit of apprehension thrown in as well. The paddock is bustling as the early races and qualifying sessions get their track time. The crew is pumped and excited. The drivers are well rested and ready to go! We spend a lot of very enjoyable time catching up with friends old and new and meeting new folks too. It is delightful to find commonalities with so many everywhere we go.
The cars get a final polish and the drivers practice their changes a few more times. They have something new to manage this weekend - a cooling system. It gets very hot in the car with no separation between driver and engine in the cockpit. It is Florida, so - also hot. And the windows don’t open. Keeping cool in there while working hard during a race is difficult to do. To manage it, the drivers wear a special fireproof shirt fitted with narrow tubes sewn onto it. The cool system pumps refrigerant through the tubes and keeps the core of the body cooler. It makes an enormous difference!
Finally, off to the grid we go! At the always invigorating grid walk, Sebring is sure to bring lots of smiles and good vibes. The energy and excitement rises as fans eager to see the cars up close, talk to their favorite drivers, and get autographs flood the grid. The crowd is thrilled to be this close to heroes and horsepower. All too soon the grid is cleared. Prayer, anthem, flyover and it’s time to get serious.
This time, John and I get to help too! John handles the lollipop that marks our pit box for the drivers coming in for a pit stop. I put the right rear tire in the correct spot for the tire changer to grab and retrieve the spent tires, pulling them back over the wall.
This race is relentless. Yellow flag time - if, when, how long - can’t be predicted. The team runs the green flag plan until something changes. Gordon runs an excellent first stint, keeping the car in good shape, laying down good lap times, and picking up spots too. By 45 minutes with no yellow, it’s time to pit from 6th place. We do a full fuel, 4 tires, and a driver change. Morgan goes in to take it to the finish.
Morgan rejoins the flow in 14th and settles in to run clean through the middle of the race. As the GS class starts the 2nd round of pit stops, Morgan rises through the ranks to lead two laps. On our 2nd stop, we gamble a bit and take only left side tires. It is a good call and we settle in to run 8th for a long way. Unfortunately, that spot slips out of our grasp on the last lap and we finish 16th.
We are very proud of our CSM drivers Morgan and Gordon. Their pace was comparable to the leaders and they were quite consistent throughout a race that went green all the way.
We are all looking forward to Laguna Seca coming up May 9-11. Can’t wait to go again!