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Rain thundering off of the roof of the RV woke me at about 4 a.m. Sunday morning. The rain continued through the early morning and when the drops lightened the heavy clouds only promised more to come. This was my event as an organizer, and I did my best to caution everyone of the dangers of Mosport in the rain. It is an amazing track but it will not tolerate a driver who does not respect it or who is not running the proper equipment. The rain continued off and on throughout the morning with only minor glimpses of clear sky. This allowed some drivers to get a partial dry line thus some very good times while their competitors faced a fully wet line track. Quite a challenge when you are working with a timed series.
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| Wipers on, water splashing up around the wheel wells – practice when it is wet so you’re ready in competition. |
By mid-afternoon the weather broke and, after a bit of crocodile lapping to dry off the track we were back running with everyone on a dry, albeit green, line for the final sessions of the afternoon. Katie had to switch instantly from her wet line approach to a dry line, as she only had one session left. After providing some encouraging words, probably something inspirational like “You’ve already won so be careful, keep the car on the track and don’t bang it up.”, I moved to the track tower to watch her times. Katie went from a wet line time in heavy rain of 2.15.584 to dry line times of 1.50.361, 1.50.047 and finally 1.49.013. I can only imagine what the times might have been if it had been a sunny day with a perfectly warmed up track. The FTD for the day was 1.32.116 and was set by the ENMO Racing twin-charged Civic. Paul McFadden in his Subaru WRX ran the course in 1.34.755 on his way to the overall victory. Katie won her class and also ran faster than Touring 2 and Touring 1 – mind you, the infamous T1 Mustang GT was not competing. At this point in the season Katie was in a very comfortable lead in Touring 3, well placed to finish the year in the top ten, and had set class records at TMP, the DDC and, even though the weather was not cooperating, at MIR.
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| Grassroots Motorsports like CASC-OR takes a lot of people – both participants and volunteers. And it’s fun! |
Even better, our car was running in top form and this was something it had not done since early May. Our rebuilt alternator, new rad and new head gasket were working perfectly. We had worked through our mechanical challenges – it is amazing what you can accomplish with money and knowledgeable, great friends. I really have to stress the friends here. Invaluable in any grassroots racing project.
The final two events of the year took place at Shannonville Motorsports Park. We arrived Friday in time for some lapping on Friday evening on the Fabi circuit. It is a tight course with the third corner being a challenging reducing radius corner. I rode in the right seat and tried to talk Katie through that corner, but I could see her frustration was building as she couldn’t find the line. I was also very aware of our absolutely non-existent budget at this point of the season and that the organizers had indicated that a second driver would cost additional. The only way to work through the corner was to demonstrate, so I was relieved to get the okay to drive for a couple of laps simply as an instructor to show the line. That visual was all Katie needed to be off and running.
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| Katie taking her Mom for a tour around Shannonville Motorsports Park. Just what every Mom wants on their birthday. |
Saturday was sunshine from first thing in the morning until the end of the day, absolutely a beautiful day to spend at the track. We parked our car and RV beside Joe Smiley and his wife. After supper we chatted for a bit then I helped Joe put the cover on his 69 Corvette. This is a story in itself, as Joe has been racing longer than most MotoIQ readers have been around. He got this Corvette in 1978, when he bought it as a wreck after it had been stolen. It has been his track car ever since.
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| Joe Smiley is just coming to SMPs quarter mile straight. It is beautiful to watch this car accelerate down the track. |
Mechanically all is well, but with over a half-dozen track events on our Toyo R1Rs there was some noticeable wear. We had looked after them well, as after each event, and sometimes mid-event, the directional tires were rotated front to back to provide even wear. Further, after three events the tires were flipped on the rims to reduce the effect of camber/cornering wear. Prior to Shannonville I had thought about flipping them again, but the wear after Mosport was on the outer edge of the front right and the inner edge of the rear right. Flipping would not correct that, but it was sunshine so we went out without worrying about directionality and putting the most rubber where it was required. The tires did not mind the direction change and the car was planted in every corner. Katie put down consistent times with five of her twelve laps in the 1.20 range, a best time of 1.20.656 for a solid win. I had two wheels off so my first three laps were DNF and 6 of my nine subsequent laps were in the 1.21 range. And that is when it happened. I was trying a new strategy in the final turn and it was feeling quite good. So good, in fact, that I turned a time of 1.20.616. For the first time in what seemed like years, I had bumped my daughter off of the podium of our Father-Daughter competition. Katie came running up to me on pit row with the news of my time, one of those blip laps that can be so irritating to the person who got bumped, and yet I could see in her face that she was proud of my accomplishment. After several moments of typical male bravado, I calmed down. Subdued by the simple fact that Katie has overwhelmed me all season long. A win by 0.04 seconds was certainly not going to change that. (But Katie, I still beat you at Fabi!)
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| Joe Smiley needed to run to get his six events in. He was running slicks and it was pouring rain! Just a slow run and, while in the pits, we shared some laughs under an umbrella. |
