Jaygo Racing

Still Plays With Cars (Sunday Race at Roebling Road)

2008-07-10T22:50:00.002-04:00

The weather for race day dawned...iffy. In keeping with the weather throughout the weekend it looked like we were in for a day of random weather patterns. True to form, the first race was run under a beautiful Georgia sky only to have some of the day's later races take place during a deluge. The weather for our Formula First Challenge Cup race was clear with overcast skies. It appeared that it would rain shortly after our race but we thought we could sneak our race in under the wire.

I rolled off the grid fourth and proceeded to get a great start. I powered down the front straightaway literally inches from my 2nd place teammate's gearbox. Unfortunately, all of the top six cars got amazing starts and we rolled through turns 1 and 2 nearly in pace lap formation. That was difficult on those of us who started on the outside (2nd, 4th, and 6th) and I briefly settled in at the back of the lead pack.

I was running seventh at that point but you could have laid a blanket over the 4th through 7th place cars. By the halfway point the 4th and 5th place cars had spun off the track and left a two-way battle between myself and Dmitri Mariutto (in my old BRD chassis). We both had places on the track where we were faster (and slower) than the other one. As you might imagine, that led to a race that the fans said they enjoyed watching - but they didn't enjoy it half as much as Dmitri and I did sitting behind the wheel. We traded 4th position several times throughout the race. Unfortunately, my Nicci Gilland Photography Evolution wouldn't get down the straightaway as well as I would have liked. While that led into some exciting dices down the front straightaway, it was frustrating to be able to pull a gap, albeit small, in some sections of the track and then give it away down the straightaway.

After losing the battle down the front straightaway, I slipped back to 5th with about 4 laps to go. However, on the next lap I was able to slip past Dmitri using a lapped car as a pick in the twisty bits on the back side of the course. While the fans enjoyed my pass, I yielded fourth yet again down the front straightaway. I begin plotting my final move for the final turn on the last lap so I could prevent Dmitri from returning the favor!

I ran a solid last lap and could see that Dmitri's car was struggling with grip as we neared the last two corners. Unfortuately, as I tried to coax every ounce of speed out of my Evolution I put the left side tires in the marbles on the left edge of the track. The car began to fishtail and, while I nearly kept the car on track, I made a fairly dramatic 90 MPH slide through an enormous mud puddle on driver's right. I immediately straightened the car out and motored to the flag with a solid fifth place, despite the fact that mud had invaded every corner of the car, the cockpit and my firesuit.

Everyone in attendance got a big kick out of my dramatic, muddy finish but what mattered is that I landed a solid top five finish at a track that I had never been to in my life. That weekend gave Jaygo Racing a solid start to a (hopefully) championship season. Check back in soon for more updates on Jaygo Racing's 2008 season!

Rain, Rain Go Away (April 4th/5th @ Roebling Road)...

2008-04-05T21:17:00.004-04:00

Our weekend started Friday morning with the first of three test sessions on the day. Unfortunately, the morning got a late start due to a fog delay that kept cars off the track for over an hour. As you might imagine, it is helpful to be able to see down the track as you're traveling at over 100 MPH!

Once the fog burned off, however, we were able to hit the track for our first session. While the track was slick with moisture, the abbreviated session did allow me to get the lay of the land a bit. Even though we just got two or three laps in, it was easy to tell that the track was going to be a lot of fun once we got a full, clean session on the track.

That last two test sessions on Friday were mostly uneventful. I spun two or three times across the two sessions but I was able to knock several seconds off my times throughout the day and I was within shouting distance of the fast times by the end of Friday.

Saturday morning it started raining and the rain did not stop before we all hit the track in our Formula Firsts. Since the track was fully soaked, we ran the session on our fully-treaded rain tires. It was an adventure for everyone but I was able to post the fourth fastest time of the session. I wasn't thrilled with that, but after a couple of off-course excursions during the session, I felt like being in the top half of the field was a solid effort.

The rain continued off and on throughout the late morning and early afternoon before stopping near the end of the lunch break. The combination of no rain and a bit of sun and wind meant the track had dried out too much to use rain tires. That meant that the entire Formula First field qualified on a wet, but drying, track on our slick tires. As you might imagine, the conditions created very slick track conditions that were entertaining...for everyone watching. I'm not sure that any of the drivers would use the word entertaining to describe the track conditions that we experienced. When I returned to the trailer after the session (and three off-course excursions) I was frustrated and quite sure that I would be near the back of the Formula First grid.

After a few conversations, however, I realized that the track conditions were frustrating for everybody. Following some of those conversations I got a look at the grid sheet and realized that I had qualified fourth for Sunday's race. I am pretty pleased to be able to roll off fourth on Sunday. The weather forecast is clear for now, but we'll race in the afternoon...and afternoons in the south often mean thunderstorms. Anything can happen tomorrow, so keep checking back for all the latest. Thanks to everybody for their support!

Opening Day - 2008 Racing Season Begins April 4

2008-04-03T23:11:00.003-04:00

In the morning, the #25 Evolution will take the track for testing prior to Saturday's opening round of the FormulaCar Magazine Formula First Challenge Cup. Please check eformulacarnews.com and JaygoRacing.com for updates throughout the weekend.

Grattan - Memorial Day 2007 - Race 1 & 2

2007-06-14T21:37:00.000-04:00

This will be a short post because there is not much good to say about how this weekend went. A short summary is below.

Qualifying 1 - Carb float problem caused the car to bog down coming out of most corners. This qualified me in the middle of the overall pack but behind most of the Formula Firsts.

Race 1 - The brake pedal got progressively longer as the race went on. We discovered leaking master cylinder after the race. I finished 8th of the 11 Formula Firsts in the race.

Qualifying 2 - This was a qualifying race (rather than an open qualifying session). That would have been a lot of fun had all four spark plug wires stayed attached. Unfortunately, only three of them stayed attached and I was the last car running on the track. This stuck me near the back of Sunday's field.

Race 2 - I was looking forward to charging up through the field to join my fellow FST drivers near the front. Unfortunately, the set screws in the front of the car had other ideas. After I spent almost three laps trying to figure out why the handling was so all over the place, the set screws finally worked themselves out of the grooves they sit in and the car pitched left coming up the hill towards the esses. I kept it straight and pulled into the pits, but we could not repair it in time and my race was over after four laps.

This weekend is Road America. I finished 2nd here last year and hopefully all of our bad luck is out of the way for the year.

Website Updates for 2007

2007-01-02T21:32:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! 'Tis the season for racing sponsorship discussions and website updates, and Jaygo Racing is no different. We've updated our website and our press kit for 2007 and are currently in discussions with current and future marketing partners regarding our 2007 campaign. We look forward to making some announcements in the very near future. Thanks for your support and keep checking back here and at www.jaygoracing.com for updates.

Qualifying 2 - 9/24/06 - Nelson Ledges

2006-09-26T18:59:00.000-04:00

As you'll note, the title of this post is shorter than usual. Unfortunately, the last time I crossed the finish line in this qualifying session was the last time I would cross the finish line during the weekend.

We made some adjustments to the car Saturday night to help it oversteer a little more. After reviewing Doug's video from the race, it appeared that my two brief offs during the race on Saturday were due to the understeer that the car had, rather than me taking incorrect lines through the corners. He and I appeared to take nearly the same line through the corners but my car would not turn-in like his car would. Thankfully, the handling changes at least made the car more comfortable to drive.

Sunday morning's session was somewhat uneventful until the last lap. I did spin out once trying an ambitious pass at T12 on a Formula 500 that was holding me up (despite the fact that I had slowed down and let him go ahead of me twice during the session). Given the differences between FST and F500 in cornering and straightaway speed it can be very difficult for an FST to pass an F500, even if the FST is faster, due to where the F500 has an advantage (the straightaways) over the FST. There was also an incident where an FV took to the grass in the kink to avoid a slowing FV. That happened right in front of me but I was able to bypass that excitement with no problem.

Apparently, shortly after I crossed start/finish for the last time, the checkered flag came out for that session. As I turned in for T1 I tried a little bit of a different line and hit a very large bump. That bump caused the back end of the car to step out a little bit. The car started sliding towards the inside but I had nearly straightened the car out (the wheel was pretty much straight in my hand with the car headed towards the grass) when I heard/felt a THWACK in the right-rear corner of the car. That impact knocked my head into the left side of the roll bar and jerked the car left towards the track so I steered my car to the right as best as I could, even though the steering was only connected to the LF wheel at this point. I pushed the brake and the clutch in (which was amusing in hindsight considering the impact ripped off the kill switch and shut off the engine) and the car stopped. I looked up to see the #01 Formula Vee 7-8 feet in the air. He came down on his nose and rolled a couple of times before coming to rest upside down.

Thankfully the track safety team was on the site after just a few seconds. They quickly identified the severity of the accident and set about taking care of Ryan (the driver of the #01 car) and I. They evaluated me for a concussion and other upper body injuries but proclaimed me OK (other than immense soreness and bruising). Ryan suffered a broken tibia and broken collarbone in the accident, and our thoughts and prayers are certainly with him as he recovers.

Unfortunately, my 2006 FormulaCar Magazine Formula First Challenge Cup season came to an end with my damaged car sitting in the grass after qualifying. The car could not be repaired before the race and so the Jaygo clan left the track early in search of a big lunch. Graciously, my dad paid for lunch since he felt badly about the big hit my wallet took as a result of the accident that morning.

I am somewhat pleased with my first season of racing. I finished 3rd out of 16 competitors in the championship, and the two drivers ahead of me both have national Formula Vee experience. Although, my championship placing was in part due to bad luck befalling some other drivers, I was also able to avoid some incidents this year that would have set me back in the points. As many people reminded me, luck is certainly part of racing. All things considered, it was a solid first season, but I'm definitely looking for bigger and better things in 2007.

Thanks again to everybody that supported and helped me this year. Jim, B.J., and Brandon of SR Racing prepared solid cars all season, Doug Seim and Robert Guhde were extremely helpful with in-car video, track tours, and advice, Bill Bonow worked his tail off to provide a fun series for Formula First racers to compete in, and Rob Howden ponied up the support of his magazine, FormulaCar Magazine, to sponsor the series. Go to http://www.formulacarmag.com to subscribe to the magazine and support Rob. Without FCM I would not have landed all of the sponsorship I needed this year, so many thanks to Rob.

Lastly, thanks to my wife for her support (and not freaking out when she saw me in a wrecked race car), and thanks to my Dad and brother for hanging out at the races as much as they could and offering advice as much as possible.

I'll post here periodically during the off-season to update everybody on my progress with marketing partnerships and things of that nature, but the racing updates will begin in earnest in 2007. Thanks again to everybody and I'll talk to you soon.

Qualifying 1/Race 1 - 9/23/06 - Nelson Ledges

2006-09-26T18:29:00.000-04:00

Saturday's first qualifying session at Nelson Ledges started under gray skies. The track was pretty much dry (though there appeared to be a few wet spots off of the racing line). Following an early morning discussion/infield tour with Doug Seim, I was prepared to tackle the fast, bumpy 2-mile circuit.

My laps on Saturday confirmed that Nelson was indeed both fast and bumpy. As I noted after the session, it sure would be a ton of fun if they paved it more often and it was in a warmer climate! That being said, it was still a very enjoyable track. I completed the full qualifying session and my fastest lap was a 1:17.879, just a shade over two seconds off the pole time set by Nelson veteran (and championship leader) Greg Rice. I was pretty pleased with that time and was greatly looking forward to the afternoon's race.

As a side note, I was called to impound after the qualifying session so the tech folks could have a look at my seating position in the car. After measuring it, they determined that I was probably sitting an inch or two too high in the car. We spent most of the afternoon repositioning the seat padding and the lead in the cockpit so that I would sit lower in the car. We determined that I was probably sitting a little over two inches lower after all of our work that afternoon. That would prove useful on Sunday.

Anyhow, back to Saturday's events. The race started on Saturday and I got a very competitive start and briefly looked at 4th headed into Turn 1. Given the intimidating nature of Turn 1 I did not try the low-percentage pass and as the field left T1 I assumed the fifth spot (my starting position). I was able to hang with the lead pack for the first several laps but a couple of brief offs coming out of the Carousel and out of the kink set me back several seconds and I rode home with a decent fifth-place finish. It was not what I needed points-wise but I was not disappointed with my finish considering it was my first time there. Also, I was able to knock nearly a second and a quarter off my fastest time in the morning, so all in all I was pleased. Bill Bonow brought home the victory in Doug Dale's Evo and that ensured that the championship chase would carry on into Sunday.

After a trip back to my little brother's place in Akron, some delicious chili prepared by Mrs. little brother, and some football on the tube, I was ready for Sunday morning prepared to hang with the lead pack on only my 2nd day at the track. Check out the next post for Sunday's details...

Update coming soon...

2006-09-25T16:58:00.000-04:00

Good afternoon everybody. I wanted to post here quickly to let you know that I will be updating this blog tomorrow (Tuesday the 26th). As far as the reason for the delay, when I post the blog you will understand...

I'll talk to everybody tomorrow.

Qualifying 2/Race 2 - 8/27/06 - Road America

2006-08-29T20:21:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning's weather was vastly different from Saturday morning's pea soup, so everybody was looking for a good session. I was especially looking forward to that morning's session because I had only made three dry laps on the track on Saturday (and that was with a wicked handling race car). I rolled off the grid to begin the session and attempted my first hard braking at Canada Corner (turn 12). The car immediately darted to the left and, owing to the fact that there is a concrete wall to driver's left heading into Canada Corner, I jerked the wheel back to the right and spun into the front edge of the gravel trap outside of Canada Corner. I thought that I had hit a large bump in the track but when I hit the brakes hard again for Turn 1 on my second lap the car darted to the left again. I realized that this was going to keep happening so I adjusted my lines accordingly. However, between fighting the unsure handling under braking and being mired in heavy traffic for most of the session (largely because I was not fast enough to escape from slower cars) I qualified sixth in FST with a time nearly four seconds off the pole lap (set by Greg Rice).

After I brought the car back to the truck I told Jim (owner of SR Racing) that the car was darting to the left under braking and that downshifts were very difficult as the car warmed up. They adjusted the toe (toeing the car in a bit) and made some other minor adjustments to correct the braking issues. The clutch issue proved to be more difficult (encompassing the starter, some loose bolts near the flywheel, and other fun stuff) but Jim and Brandon worked hard to correct the issues and the car was ready to race by 1PM that afternoon.

I actually started fifth in FST (owing to Doug Dale's engine giving up the ghost in Sunday morning's qualifying) for Sunday's race. Doug qualified ahead of me but he was not able to make the race due to the aforementioned engine issues. I got my best start of the year during Sunday's race and was able to hang with the lead draft of Formula Firsts (and one very fast National Vee -- thanks again for the advice, Bruce, and congrats on the win) for the first few laps. Unfortunately, Jared Smith dropped out on Lap 1 due to mechanical gremlins. That was a real shame after he turned the fast lap on Saturday. A few laps later Doug Seim dropped out due to engine issues. My psychic abilities determined that this was likely to happen after Doug oiled down my helmet for a couple laps that I was following him (just kidding, Doug -- sorry about the tough luck again). He pulled off outside Turn 3 and has to win the award for best flagger of the weekend for waving us to the outside of the track to avoid his car pulled off to the inside of T3.

After all of that activity I was running fourth on the race track and third in class. The order at that point in time was Rice, Mark Kelly (in the SR Racing Evolution), Bruce Livermore (National FV driver), and me. I hung with this pack for the first five laps and really began to believe I was going to be a factor in this race. I passed Bruce heading down to turn 5 and began to set after Greg and Mark in first and second. About a lap after that Greg began to experience engine problems and that left Mark and I to battle for the win. I believe I made my first passing attempt during lap 7 as we headed down on Turn 1. However, there was a white flag out from the corner stand and, from my vantage point, it looked like there was a yellow flag behind it. I decided that I didn't want to penalized for passing under yellow, so I dropped back into line. I was able to complete the pass on the next lap and I was in the lead of an SCCA race for the first time in my life. Mark raced me hard and we traded the lead a couple more times before I took it from him again with a couple laps to go.

I knew that he was not done trying to pass me, and he got an excellent run heading down to Canada Corner on the last lap. I moved to the middle of the road to make his passing attempt as difficult as possible and I braked as late as I had the entire weekend. At that point, I had decided that I was going to win the race or spin out trying to defend the lead. Thankfully, I did not spin out and was able to thwart Mark's passing attempt. I headed to Turn 14 and was just a tiny bit too careful in the braking zone there. It slowed me up enough for Mark to get a draft off me heading to the flag and, despite my maneuver to only leave him one clear lane of racetrack for the pass, he nipped me at the line by .098 seconds - the second closest FST race of the year.

When I rolled into impound everybody was very congratulatory of the show that we had put on out on the racetrack and lots of people said very kind things to me about my race. Despite the fact that I lost by the thinnest of margins, it was a very successful day. My 2nd place finish kept me in the points chase and I was very, very pleased that I was able to race my way to the front. In addition, I found out that I turned the fastest lap of the race by .7 seconds, so at least I was #1 in something. :-)

Thankfully, my wife and my dad were there to see both races and they greatly enjoyed Sunday's race. My dad was thrilled with the result and it never hurts to show your wife that you can actually go fast once in a while. She noted that it's more fun to watch me run 2nd than 6th, and I agreed that it's more fun to run 2nd.

All in all, I learned a tremendous amount this weekend. Thanks to Doug and Robert for the tips and advice, thanks to Jim, Brandon, and B.J. for working on the car, thanks to Bill for coordinating everything (and Rob for sponsoring the series). It's been a great year and it's not over yet.

I'll blog once again from Ohio in a few weeks (either Mid-Ohio or Nelson Ledges).

Qualifying 1/Race 1 - 8/26/06 - Road America

2006-08-29T19:33:00.000-04:00

Based on the points situation heading into rounds 6 & 7 of the championship, I was rooting for good weather all weekend so I could learn Road America in nice, dry weather and hopefully get up to speed quickly.

Naturally, Saturday dawned foggy and misty - and proceeded to get worse from there. Our morning practice/qualifying session was delayed about an hour and run on a wet (but drying track). Given those conditions, the First drivers elected to go out on slicks. Anybody that went out on wets would have destroyed a set of rain tires and since no FST driver has an unlimited budget, everybody stuck with the dry tires. As you can imagine, that proved to be a very interesting experience. You had to hunt for a dry line on the racetrack but I was able to hook up with Doug Seim in his BRD and that proved very helpful to me as I could follow him around to learn the lines and pick up some braking points from him. Given that this was my first session on the track at Road America and the conditions were treacherous, I was very happy with my second place qualifying effort. I felt like that set me up well for the race and, with every point counting at this time in the season, I needed a solid race to stay in the championship hunt.

As we rolled to the start of Saturday's race, I was actually lined up on the inside of row 2. A Formula 500 (we usually run with Formula Vees and Formula 500s) had outqualified Doug (F500s are faster than a Formula First) and I was starting behind him. I had high hopes that the F500's superior straightaway speed would give me an advantage on the start. Unfortunately, this was my only second start at the front of the pack and I'm still learning how to start up front (as anybody who watched the start could tell). I got a horrible start and ended up heading to Turn 1 side by side with the #49 car (driven by Jared Smith). Jared was on my outside and then I noticed Greg Rice in the black/pink Problemchild SM2 FST diving up the inside as we braked for Turn 1. Jared and I realized that three of us weren't going to make it through T1 side by side by side so we backed out of it (I ended up braking quite hard to avoid being the meat in an FST sandwich) and Greg motored through. As we braked for Turn 3 I noticed that my car did not want to turn right. I really had to fight the car through Turn 3 and this resulted in losing my spot to Jared as we raced down the back straightaway. I had trouble again in Turn 7 (another right hander) and had big trouble through the Carousel and the Kink (turns 10 and 11) because those are both fast right handers. An ambitious pass through the kink from a Formula 500 resulted in my left side tires riding through the dirt coming out of the Kink. Anybody who has been around Road America knows that the Kink is the LAST place you want to have tires off on the dirt but I was able to keep the car straight heading to Canada Corner. I noticed that the car would not get through Turn 14 very well either (T14 is also a right-hander) and I lost two more spots (to two National FV drivers) going up the hill to complete Lap 1. I believe I had lost seven spots on the first lap and I was still trying to figure out why the handling on my car was so devilish...

On Lap 3 I found out why my car handled so badly the first couple of laps. I had re-passed the two national FV drivers on lap 2 so they were trailing me as I accelerated away from Canada Corner (turn 12) on lap 3. As I accelerated away from Canada Corner the car slewed to the left. I thought my left front tire had gone down but a quick look at it showed it still full of air so I kept my foot in it heading to Turn 13. Right after I turned in for Turn 13 the car felt very unstable and another look at the left-front corner of my car showed that a rod that connected the LF wheel to the steering wheel in my hand (a rather important piece) had come loose from its mounting. I quickly realized that I needed to be very easy on the brakes approaching the next turn because hard braking would shoot me across the racetrack into the path of the two Vees I had passed. Unfortunately, even my soft braking shot me halfway across the track. Thankfully, the first Vee had already passed me and I was able to keep the car straight enough to where the second Vee didn't hit me (and he did a great piece of driving to avoid me).

Sadly, that was that. I limped the car up the hill and back to the paddock. Brandon of SR Racing was able to repair the car in a few minutes but 30 minute races leave no time for mechanical failures. This failure left me in a bad spot for the championship (as my chief points rival, Greg Rice, won the race), but there was still another day left at Road America and I was determined to make it a good one. Stay tuned for the next blog post to get all of the details of Sunday's action.

Coming soon...my weekend at Road America

2006-08-28T09:11:00.000-04:00

Thanks for checking the blog. Due to some issues with the hotels this weekend, I was not able to blog on Saturday night as I usually can. However, I plan to update the blog late tonight (Monday) with the full report from both days of my weekend at Road America. It was certainly the most eventful weekend I've had this season. Stay tuned...

Race - 7/23/06 - Watkins Glen International

2006-07-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

Sunday's race was another interesting experience. It ended up with a good result for me but it was a fraught race for several other FST competitors.

All of the F500, FST, and FV competitors dove into Turn 1 to begin our 11-lap race. My father-in-law and brother-in-law were in the grandstands with an excellent view of the start and subsequent turn 1 carnage. After Doug Dale made an excellent move to dive inside of me going into Turn 1 (second great start in two races, Doug -- I'll get you one of these times!) all heck broke loose at the front of the field. I arrived at T1 to see Doug Seim (the overall and FST polesitter) spinning down to the inside of the track and a Formula 500 spinning to the outside of the track. After locking my brakes up and sliding around a bit I aimed to head between the two cars and successfully did that. Apparently a Formula Vee collected the spinning F500 behind me and the track went to a full course caution. After two laps behind the pace car we set off for Turn 1 again and this time everybody made it successfully. Unfortunately, this lap was my first dry, green lap on the track all weekend and I had two huge bobbles on the back side of the track that cost me positions and seconds on the track (and took me out of the FST lead battle that was, from what I have heard, excellent). I recovered from those bobbles and began learning the track in the dry and picking up positions and time on the cars ahead of me. Unfortunately, during our 6th green flag lap there were two separate incidents in the chute part of the Boot at Watkins Glen. First, Doug Dale hit the wall turning onto the chute after the car washed out into the marbles during a passing attempt by Carl Middelegge (who finished a strong second - congrats to Carl). Second, Guy Bellingham experienced a stuck throttle in the toe of the boot and hit the wall quite hard. His car suffered extensive damage and Guy was taken to the hospital in Elmira to have his cuts, scrapes, back pain, etc. tended to by medical professionals. Guy has since reported (via the Formula First Exchange) that he is mostly alright but still pretty banged up. Needless to say, a serious incident such as this brought about the second and final full course caution of the race and the race ended under yellow.
Due to the incidents in front of me I came home 3rd this weekend and got a cool looking trophy for my third place showing (after I had to convince the guy in impound that my car was not a Formula Vee). I would rather get a third on pure speed but part of the battle is finishing and I was able to do that. My result put me just five points behind Bill Bonow for the championship lead and I'm looking forward to going to Road America and hopefully challenging for the win there. I'll report to you in about a month from Elkhart Lake, WI. Thanks for everybody's support!

Qualifying 1 & 2 - 7/22/06 - Watkins Glen International

2006-07-22T22:36:00.000-04:00

As Jim, B.J., and I rode to Watkins Glen on Thursday in the SR Racing hauler, Jim told me that an "official" Formula First session had never been run in the rain. This morning at Watkins Glen that officially changed. Along with that, I'd never raced in the rain either. Needless to say, today was a very interesting and educational day.

Due to the fact that the Watkins Glen long course is 3.4 miles long (which makes for approximately 3-minute laps in our cars in the wet) and the fact that the Glen region specified 12 minute qualifying sessions this morning and this afternoon, our class only made eight laps of the track today. For the many Formula First drivers here this weekend who were new to Watkins Glen this proved to be a big challenge but everybody made it through the sessions with no on-track incidents.

In the first session this morning I ran a 3:01.4 (6th out of 10 FST cars that took to the track this morning). The goal for this morning's session was to learn the track, learn about driving in the rain, and keep the car off the guardrails. Thankfully I succeeded in doing that this morning.

This afternoon I wanted to get down under three minutes so that I could outqualify most of the Vees and get closer to the race at the front of the Formula First field. This afternoon I followed Rob Howden (in the brand new SR Racing Evolution) to grid and we both laid down times in the 2:56 range to qualify 4th (Rob) and 5th (me) in FST. Other than the exciting moment that I had almost spinning out in the inner loop (due to not being able to see a thing in front of me (including the turn-in point) except spray from other cars), this afternoon's session was reasonably uneventful on the track.

Kudos to my father-in-law and brother-in-law for making the four hour hike from NJ to Watkins Glen, NY to see me qualify this afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to put on a good show for them during the race tomorrow! I should be able to update the blog Monday or Tuesday night this week with a full report from tomorrow's race.

Qualifying 2/Race 2 - 7/9/06 - Blackhawk Farms Raceway

2006-07-11T20:28:00.000-04:00

After I turned a 1:23.1 during Saturday's race, my goal for Sunday was to turn times in the 1:22s. The fastest lap turned during the race on Saturday was in the low 1:21s, so I thought turning a few 1:22 laps would make for a largely successful weekend, especially since this was my first time at Blackhawk Farms.

After adding 13 additional pounds of lead underneath me so as to appease the crazy voodoo scales at Blackhawk Farms, I rolled the car to the grid for Sunday morning's first qualifying session. Jim and B.J. from SR Racing were standing by the fence giving me times and they displayed several times in the 1:23 range so I was pleased with my consistency but disappointed that I had not cracked the 1:22 bracket yet. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I consulted the official timing sheet and noticed that I had turned a 1:22.986. I did not think it was fair to criticize Jim and B.J. for being off by 14-thousandths of a second. :-) I was pleased with the morning session but I felt that I could still do better.

Prior to the afternoon qualifying session I requested more oversteer in the car (making it "looser" for you NASCAR folks). I felt that I would be a little faster if I could get the back of the car to swing through the corners a little better. Jim and B.J. added a pound of air to both rear tires and we rolled back to grid for the afternoon qualifying session. By combining my better handling car with a shifting tip from Bill Bonow (recommending I approach a corner in 4th and then downshift to 3rd rather than taking the whole section in 3rd) I ran a 1:22.520 to qualify 2nd in Formula First and 3rd overall. I nipped eventual race winner Doug Dale by a couple tenths of a second. I was quite excited after qualifying and looking forward to a fun race.

Doug outdragged me to turn 1 on the start and he and Bill Bonow proceeded to distance themselves from me after a few laps. However, I ran a consistent race (lapping several of the Formula Vees in the race) to finish 3rd in Formula First and 3rd overall. This was my best weekend in the car so far and I continue to get more and more comfortable with the car. A quick check of the points standings (found at www.formula-first.org) shows that I'm 2nd in the points behind Bill as the series heads to Watkins Glen. I will only have about 10 laps there to learn the track prior to our race on Sunday, but I will do my very best to run up front and bring home another solid finish for our sponsor, Progressive Basics!

Thanks again for everybody's support. I plan to have the photo gallery operational at www.jaygoracing.com this week, and I'll be blogging from Watkins Glen in a little less than two weeks.

2006-07-11T08:06:00.000-04:00

I will put up a complete post tonight about Sunday's track action at Blackhawk Farms, but go ahead and check out www.formula-first.org for an unbiased :-) review of this weekend's races. Plus, if you click the link for points standings you will see that Jaygo Racing is sitting 2nd in points after four rounds of the championship. I'll talk to everybody tonight.

Qualifying 1/Race 1 - 7/8/06 - Blackhawk Farms Raceway

2006-07-08T23:40:00.000-04:00

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.

Qualifying 2/Race 2 - 5/28/06 - Grattan Raceway

2006-05-29T22:06:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning dawned clear, hot, and muggy for Round 2 of the championship. In pre-qualifying preparation on Sunday morning Jim was able to diagnose two issues with the car that had plagued me in Saturday afternoon's race. First, he diagnosed and fixed a gear selection issue that was causing me to miss over half of my downshifts into 3rd gear on Saturday. He also corrected a second issue with the throttle that was costing the engine 300-400 revs down Grattan's long front straightaway.

I gridded for Sunday morning's qualifying session with the car feeling the best that it had the whole weekend. After watching the qualifying for the other open wheel run groups I had also discovered some different lines to take through some of the turns. The improvements to the car and line/braking point discoveries I had made prompted me to set a goal for myself to get into the 1:32's in the morning session.

The car felt good in the morning session and I did not have any off-track excursions. I did have one significant moment when a missed downshift after "the jump" caused the car to jump sideways quite a bit. Thankfully I caught the car and continued the session.

I brought the car back to the pits after completing 11 laps in the morning session. I checked my time to see that I had run a 1:31.8, an improvement of 4.8 seconds from my Saturday qualifying time. That was only 3.5 seconds off the pole and within a second or two of some very experienced First/Vee drivers. Needless to say, I was quite happy and looking forward to the afternoon's race. I qualified fifth in class (kudos to Jared Smith on taking the pole) and seventh overall.

The afternoon's race did not go quite as I had planned, but I was able to bring home a fourth place finish in class thanks to no off-track excursions and Jared Smith's unfortunate failure while leading the race (very tough luck -- he was having a great run). I got a decent start and was able to beat the eighth place qualifier into turn 1 on the first lap. However, I took it too easy on my tires through the next section of the course and was passed by two cars at "the jump". I was able to keep the red car (I believe it was Chris Satterley) in my sights but I was not able to reel him in and came home a decent 7th overall and fourth in class. My best lap was a 1:33.5 (about 1.7 seconds off my morning time). I learned a lot during the race, specifically that I need to race the racetrack rather than the cars around me. When you're concentrating on things other than proper braking, shifting, and turn-in points it will slow you down. Of course, they told us this in racing school but sometimes you have to learn things yourself!

All in all, it was a reasonably successful weekend. Two fourths puts me in a decent points position to start the season and I learned a tremendous amount about the car and the brakes. Hopefully everything I learned this weekend will help me get closer and closer to the sharp end of the field as the season goes on.

Thanks to Rob Howden for his coverage and sponsorship of our series (check out FormulaCar Magazine and www.eformulacarnews.com) and thanks again to Grand Rapids Auto Auction for making this weekend possible for me. I'm proud to have Progressive Basics on the car for the next three events this season and I'm looking forward to bringing them some strong results!

Qualifying 1/Race 1 - 5/27/06 - Grattan Raceway

2006-05-27T22:22:00.000-04:00

I started off the 2006 season this morning at Grattan Raceway in Belding, MI. Shortly after 11AM I pulled onto the track for my first laps of Grattan Raceway and my first laps in a Formula First since September of 2005. Grattan is a very tricky track with lots of elevation changes and that makes it a difficult track to learn, especially in one session. As soon as I took to the track I noticed that the engine was lagging at low revs but once the revs got higher the engine seemed OK and I was able to reel in one of my Formula First competitors after just a couple of laps on the track. I went to pass the other FST at the last sharp right hand corner on the track, outbraked him, and then outbraked myself and spun the car into the grass on the outside of the turn. I kept it running, shifted to 1st gear, and accelerated out of the grass and back onto the track.

Unfortunately, as I accelerated and upshifted the engine started lagging quite badly and it also developed a very disconcerting popping noise. After a slow lap to evaluate the situation, I pulled off and ended my session in hopes of diagnosing the problems with the engine. Jim (of SR Racing), after initially worrying that the engine had blown, removed the valve cover and noted that one of the pushrods was no longer pushing the rocker arm and the car was only running on three cylinders. This was quickly resolved and the car was ready for the race that afternoon. My best lap of the session was a 1:36.6, approximately eight seconds off the Formula First pole. I only turned three laps at speed in the session.

I started the race 5th in First and 12th overall (of 18). I had a good battle with a Formula Vee during the race and eventually passed the Vee after 6 or 7 laps. Unfortunately, two laps after that I spun in turn 4 and the car stalled in the middle of the track. After a few anxious moments the VW motor rattled to life and I accelerated away once again. After that, it was an uneventful run to 4th in class and 10th overall. My fastest lap in the race was a 1:34.2, approximately six seconds off the fastest First lap of the race.

It was a challenging day, but we're looking for better times tomorrow and less spins! Check back on Monday for another update and don't forget what Memorial Day is all about.

On a personal note, it was an awesome experience to have my brother and his wife, my dad, and all of my grandparents at the track on Saturday to witness my qualifying session and the race Saturday. For my mom's folks, it was their very first time at any race track and it meant a lot to me that there were able to be there and be part of it. Thanks again to everybody that has supported me!

(Pictures of Jaygo Racing at Grattan will be forthcoming later this week after a few technical problems with the camera)

Welcome!

2006-04-02T21:58:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Jaygo Racing's blog. Please check here or at www.jaygoracing.com for all the latest updates on our 2006 season. Thanks!