Saturday, July 08, 2006
Qualifying 1/Race 1 - 7/8/06 - Blackhawk Farms Raceway
Well, today was certainly an interesting day at the track. For starters, we had very comfortable weather all day today. The temperatures reached into the mid 80s but the humidity was not too bad and everybody felt much better getting out of the cars today than they did after the last two races at Grattan.
I took to the track this morning and ran my first ever laps at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. I quickly found out that Blackhawk Farms has far less grip than Grattan did, as I spun twice in the first session. Thankfully, I was immediately aware of what I had done wrong to cause the spins and I did not spin for the rest of the day. In practice/qualifying 1 I was more than six seconds slower (in the 1:27s) than the fastest Formula First (FST) time. I was not very happy with that, but it was my first session on the track, so all in all things were not terrible. After all, I didn't hit anything. :-)
In the second session I gained two seconds (down into the 1:25s) but all of my times were disallowed due to the car being declared underweight by seven pounds. This surprised Jim (the owner of SR Racing, who is preparing the car), but there was nothing we could do about the decision. Bill Bonow had been declared underweight in the first session, but given the large disparity between the weights they quoted Bill as he ran through the scales multiple times, the theory among the FSTers is that Blackhawk's scales have crazy voodoo measurements. Bill was declared 40 pounds underweight, added 68 pounds (which should have made him +28 pounds), but his next run through the scales said that he was 40 pounds OVERweight (rather than 28). That would seem to indicate an issue with the scales, but the chief steward disagreed with us. Based on the weight issue, my qualifying times from the 2nd session were wiped out, so I started last for the race.
The race was a lot of fun for me, but it did not go as well for a couple of my fellow Formula First competitors. I was able to pick off one FST (who laid back on the start due to cooling issues) and pass about four Formula Vees before a full-course caution was thrown. As I traveled around the first half of the course I saw the double yellow flags from the corner stations indicating the full-course yellow but I did not see the reason why. However, as I approached the last turn I saw the cause of the caution (and the black flag ALL that followed). Jared Smith and Doug Seim had been dicing for the lead for the first half of the race, but Doug had passed Jared and put a car length or two between them. Under braking for the last turn Jared had a right front shock mount let go and the car shot to the right, did not brake effectively (due to the broken shock mount), and ended up going up and over Doug's rear wheels. Jared's car was still on top of Doug's as I came by. The two ambulances present at the scene worried me, but I found out during the black flag (where we were called to the pits to sit and wait for the accident to be cleaned up) that both Doug and Jared were OK.
When the race resumed, I was 7th on track and 3rd in FST. This would be my first restart during a race and I was taken to school by four Vees that drafted by me on the start. I believe I have learned a better way to restart. :-) Anyhow, I was able to repass all of the Vees that drafted by me (along with one more) and ended up 4th overall and 3rd in FST. By virtue of being 3rd I was called to impound to have the car weighed once again. Oddly enough, despite the fact that we added 12 pounds before the race, the car weighed in at exactly the same weight and I was moved to last place overall and in FST. On the bright side, a glance at the timing chart revealed that I had done a 1:23.1 (within 1.8 seconds of the fastest lap of the race in FST). I was very pleased with that ending to my first day at Blackhawk Farms, even though the man and the crazy voodoo scales did not give me the "official" results that I was looking for.
Hopefully tomorrow I can get into the 1:22s with my car, and hopefully I will make weight. I had an extra helping of dinner at the FST party tonight to make sure that I was doing my part to make weight tomorrow. :-)
I will do my best to update this blog again on Monday when I return to Kentucky. Thanks again to everybody for all of their support.
I took to the track this morning and ran my first ever laps at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. I quickly found out that Blackhawk Farms has far less grip than Grattan did, as I spun twice in the first session. Thankfully, I was immediately aware of what I had done wrong to cause the spins and I did not spin for the rest of the day. In practice/qualifying 1 I was more than six seconds slower (in the 1:27s) than the fastest Formula First (FST) time. I was not very happy with that, but it was my first session on the track, so all in all things were not terrible. After all, I didn't hit anything. :-)
In the second session I gained two seconds (down into the 1:25s) but all of my times were disallowed due to the car being declared underweight by seven pounds. This surprised Jim (the owner of SR Racing, who is preparing the car), but there was nothing we could do about the decision. Bill Bonow had been declared underweight in the first session, but given the large disparity between the weights they quoted Bill as he ran through the scales multiple times, the theory among the FSTers is that Blackhawk's scales have crazy voodoo measurements. Bill was declared 40 pounds underweight, added 68 pounds (which should have made him +28 pounds), but his next run through the scales said that he was 40 pounds OVERweight (rather than 28). That would seem to indicate an issue with the scales, but the chief steward disagreed with us. Based on the weight issue, my qualifying times from the 2nd session were wiped out, so I started last for the race.
The race was a lot of fun for me, but it did not go as well for a couple of my fellow Formula First competitors. I was able to pick off one FST (who laid back on the start due to cooling issues) and pass about four Formula Vees before a full-course caution was thrown. As I traveled around the first half of the course I saw the double yellow flags from the corner stations indicating the full-course yellow but I did not see the reason why. However, as I approached the last turn I saw the cause of the caution (and the black flag ALL that followed). Jared Smith and Doug Seim had been dicing for the lead for the first half of the race, but Doug had passed Jared and put a car length or two between them. Under braking for the last turn Jared had a right front shock mount let go and the car shot to the right, did not brake effectively (due to the broken shock mount), and ended up going up and over Doug's rear wheels. Jared's car was still on top of Doug's as I came by. The two ambulances present at the scene worried me, but I found out during the black flag (where we were called to the pits to sit and wait for the accident to be cleaned up) that both Doug and Jared were OK.
When the race resumed, I was 7th on track and 3rd in FST. This would be my first restart during a race and I was taken to school by four Vees that drafted by me on the start. I believe I have learned a better way to restart. :-) Anyhow, I was able to repass all of the Vees that drafted by me (along with one more) and ended up 4th overall and 3rd in FST. By virtue of being 3rd I was called to impound to have the car weighed once again. Oddly enough, despite the fact that we added 12 pounds before the race, the car weighed in at exactly the same weight and I was moved to last place overall and in FST. On the bright side, a glance at the timing chart revealed that I had done a 1:23.1 (within 1.8 seconds of the fastest lap of the race in FST). I was very pleased with that ending to my first day at Blackhawk Farms, even though the man and the crazy voodoo scales did not give me the "official" results that I was looking for.
Hopefully tomorrow I can get into the 1:22s with my car, and hopefully I will make weight. I had an extra helping of dinner at the FST party tonight to make sure that I was doing my part to make weight tomorrow. :-)
I will do my best to update this blog again on Monday when I return to Kentucky. Thanks again to everybody for all of their support.
# posted by Jaygo Racing @ 11:40 PM 
