Ohio / Indiana Region Spec Series Race Reports

Unusually fair weather welcomed racers to Gingerman in SW Michigan this past weekend. Many cars and drivers showed up Friday evening for a track sponsored "open" session. Most of the drivers felt the track was very "greasy", however, by the end of the three hour session, enough rubber had been put down and the track was "coming in."

We awoke to another beautiful day Saturday, sunshine and a high of 74. John McIver was the only competing spec racer this weekend. I have taken the liberty of printing John's email to me. As you will see he had a very busy weekend.
______________________________________________________________________
Spec. Racers raced at Gingerman racetrack for the 1st time. Unfortunately, John McIver was the only race participant and Brian Sanders was the only HPDE participant. Brian was able to run many laps each session, but always came in early with cooling problems.

I have a theory to share. Every engine I have seen with non-stock serpentine belt routing and non-stock tensioner positioning has had cooling problems. The engines with stock belt routing and tensioner position do not overheat. My theory is that the tensioner can only function properly at sustained high rpms (racing) when in the center of a long span of belt - at this point, just a theory.

So all I had to do was run the races to win. That was not as easy as it sounds. I had a few problems:
.. Engine stalled on track - loose electrical connections when a rivet came loose.
.. Small fire quickly extinguished.
.. Brake fade.
.. Rotor crack all the way across the face of the rotor - Gingerman is hard on brakes.
.. Broken radiator shroud
.. Radiator leak
.. Disconnected coil/shock assembly on left front - resulting in extreme oversteer that was actually kind of fun to drive, but not fast.
.. Two corded tires
.. Plug wire coming loose during qualifying
.. Cracked J-Pipe

I had some close racing with American Iron and Porsches with the help of some excellent starts.

For the record, I set the lap record for Spec. Racers during Sunday's race at 1:36:572.

email:John McIver 6/21/03
______________________________________________________________________

We are really working hard to build a strong series in OH/IN. Currently there are 2 competitive drivers, John McIver and Lars Latstrom. I'm chasing my comp license through NASA's HPDE program. Tom Denier and his son have bought a car from Adventure Racing and plan to join the series next month. And Two others are in the build planning stage. But don't let me forget to mention, Jim Schenk has been at 2 of our 3 events.

Our next event is at Nelson Ledges in NE Ohio on Aug. 9-10. I want to personally invite any spec racer to come out.

Brian Sanders
ffspecracer@fuse.net

Beaver Run, May 10-11

Race #2

This was the second event of the 2003 Ohio/Indiana Region schedule.  May 10 and 11 at BeaverRun proved to be a bit trying.  For the second event in a row, weather played a major factor in the morning of both days.  Both days began with rain and very wet track.  However, we got lucky and the rain quit mid-morning.  The sun and wind quickly helped the cars on track to dry it out in time for the qualifying runs.

On Saturday, we had an American Iron race, so the FFR spec cars found themselves running in a combined Big Bore/Small Bore race.  After qualifying, Lars Lattstrom found himself starting the race in the 10th spot, while John McIver started in the 24th spot without a qualifying time.  It took John 3 laps to catch and pass Lars.  During that 3rd lap, Lars started loosing power and fell further behind.  John ended up winning in class and 6th overall.  Lars finished 17th.  Congratulations John!

Sunday brought more of the same.  Lars' car was still losing power after a short run and John was still battling oiling problems.  However, today, John and Lars found themselves pitted against American Iron cars in a Big Bore only race.  Once again, John was able to pull out a class win and placed 9th overall.  Lars was 18th in the field of 21.  Also, John pushed his car hard and broke his old track record by almost a quarter second.  The new track record for FFR Specs is 1:07.919.

As a sidebar, the third spec racer in the Ohio/Indiana Region made its first appearance on track since the build began.  It won't be too much longer before John and Lars have another opponent.

Overall, it was a great weekend of racing.  Thanks to all the drivers for putting on a great show for the spectators.

Brian (FFSpecRacer)