First off: this is generally agreed to be one of the primary reasons why people race cars: They want to win races.



But what does that really mean?

It was a Double Regional weekend at Portland. I came away with only one win though, and (big surprise) there is a long version of the story.

You may recall that I had some issues with my defeat at the Rose Cups. Well, I set out on this weekend to put them to rest. My objective was to successfully pass Greg in the Golf for the win - twice.

I immediately encountered a problem in qualifying on Friday - I was faster again. I wound up on the second row of a pretty small group of 11. There was just Greg, Joe, Cindi Lux in her 325, and I in RS. Greg was on the fourth row. I spent some time Friday night trying to decide whether to try to let Greg by at the start, or just start at the back of the grid, or ??? After talking with my friend Dave I decided to just race the race that naturally unfolded.

I needn't have worried.

My start was ok, though one or two Porsches that I'd qualified ahead of went past as expected. I got thru the first few turns (or the first lap?) ok, and thought I'd done ok. And then Greg passed me. My first reaction was not positive, but after a short time I remembered what my objective was, reminded myself that this was after all what I ideally wanted, and I went to work on it.

I dogged Greg steadily, and eventually put a pass on him under braking for the chicane. This time I executed it well, and kept him behind me all the way to old T1. From there I knew I could pull out a gap, and I did. Greg stayed pretty close though, and got me back when I screwed up somewhere on the next lap. I went back to work on him.

In the mirror I could see Val in the 993 coming up from a bad start. At some point his progress stopped, and I hoped he'd stay out of our battle till I could put Greg away for good. But after 5 or 6 laps Val passed me and then spent several laps holding me up as he (from my point of view) failed to move aggressively to get past Greg. I was getting really pissed. Greg for his part was doing everything he could to keep Val between us.

Eventually Val got by Greg, and I was able to close again and start working on him. With one lap to go Greg appeared to slow well before the braking zone for the chicane. I took an easy pass and immediately opened a gap. Thru the next few corners I was thinking that that was too easy and I didn't make the pass I wanted - an "earned" pass.

In an instant on the back straight, I slowed and waved Greg past - I gave the win back to him. I know it sounds strange, and I've taken some **** over it. Friends and family have called me a sucker, said it was stupid, etc (so you don't need to say it again). I for my part wouldn't do it over again. But that's what I did, and that's how it happened. I just didn't want to take the victory lap without an outright victory in a straight fight.

Turns out that Greg's shift mechanism was malfunctioning, and he couldn't get 5th gear when I went by him. I explained what I'd done in impound, and while he credited me with being quite a gentleman, he told me never to cut him any slack again, as he wouldn't for me.

Some others suggested that I was this years leading candidate for Team Continentals Boner Jacket. Ouch - that really hurts (especially since I'm TCO). I'm sure that if I was a "real" racer, and beholden to somebody else, I'd be taken out to the woodshed or sacked. Fortunately I'm chief of operations for Berzerkowitz Racing, and I understand my drivers character - flaws and all. I'm going to keep him on - and he's not going to repeat this particular behaviour again.

You know how Moss has never been completely sure that he "really" beat Fangio at Aintree in the Mercedes? That was in the back of my mind at the time. I was obsessed with achieving a too specific objective, and I lost sight of the basic and much simpler objective. I've been reflecting a lot lately on the drive to victory and the cost to benefit of winning. To take this all too seriously is pathetic of course - which is why I was able to discard the win. I don't want to get carried away with the desire to win - I want to maintain a healthy perspective on this sport that's supposed to be a source of enjoyment and satisfaction. Obviously the subject can be made complex enough to result in some confusion - for those with a tendency to intellectualize excessively especially.

Some of the beauty of racing resides in it's simplicity. Putting victory back closer to it's proper place, I enjoyed telling Greg in impound after Sundays race - after MY victory lap: "No more Mister Nice Guy."

I didn't pass Greg on the track in Sundays race. I qualified a row or so ahead again, got a good start, drove the first few turns well and managed traffic well, and probably had some good luck. By the time we got to old T1 I could see that I'd opened a gap and I motored out to a continuous 3-4 second margin over Greg. Our fast laps were within a tenth - same as yesterday. I had some fun with one of the Porsches, but other than that I just tried to maintain a steady 100% output.

I made a few mistakes, mostly small. I was under pressure as I tried to hang on to the 911, and monitored the gap back to Greg. I NEVER backed off one little bit the whole time. I've decided that from now on the philosophy I adhere to on the track is "I'm here to race, I'm here to have a good time, and I'm here to beat you to the checkered flag."

One other goal I failed to meet was getting my lap record back on Sunday. Greg and I turned fast race laps Saturday of 1:29.803 and 1:29.899 respectively. He's really happy about that - he's never been in the 29's before. My 1:29.4 from last year doesn't count because it wasn't an SCCA race. I'll get it back though - absolutely no doubt in my mind.

Other fun included playing with Joe a little bit in qualifying Saturday afternoon. I came up behind him, and got a pretty good look at a couple of his laps. He got down to a 1:30.4 which is faster than he's typically gone. I couldn't make up any ground on him in the back section (old T1 thru 5), but had him on the straights and in the circus (old T7 thru 9). I went by him somewhere and he was pretty close coming up the back straight, and I thought "ha - watch this Joe." Serves me right that I then botched the brake zone and turn in, slewed the rear end around under trailing brake causing me to effectively turn in to an early apex - which in T7 means the inside two were inside the gators on the grass - I launched sideways on some pretty big bumps that I never should have known were there, and sorta got it going straight enough to then eat the curb on the inside of T8 real good. "Yeah Joe, watch this!" I wonder if he thinks I'm just banzai and lucky.

I tell everybody that the car is just easy to drive and saves me from the terrible consequences I occasionally deserve, and I don't think that overstates things too much. I know that CRX's bite their owners pretty good sometimes - I think extra wheelbase of the Integra contributes some valuable forgiveness.

Each day this weekend I showed up with about an hour before I had to be on track, leaving just enough time to unload, swap tires, and get changed. Greg and Joe aren't sure that this isn't just a psychological thing. Each day I had a short list of things to do to the car, and I'd just barely get them done in time to head to the track - which fortunately is just a couple of stop lights away from the shop.

Both Greg and Joe gave me lots of **** about how I should be trailering the car, running race gas, and working on it more - like they do. The feel it adds insult to injury for me to drive to the track like I do and kick their asses. And boy do they work on their cars. Greg is getting about 60 minutes between $500 gear box repairs, and Joe is forever changing diff's and FD ratios.

Insult? Like when Greg asked me if I went back to the shop to get "good" tires for qualifying - and I said "no, I went to get 'old' tires". He also enjoyed my telling him that I was running worn out leftover brakes from last year. He believed me, but I get the impression that nobody ever really believes anything anybody says. I couldn't believe that those Hawk Blues and Legend Rotors made it thru 2 more qualifiers and 2 more races.

My friend Dave says I absolutely HAVE to try the new PFC 01 compound. Maybe after I use up my last set of new HT10's and new rotors - which I'm saving for Thunderhill.

I think it's hilarious that other than changing out the rod bearings and bolts last year after overreving, the motors never been apart and the heads never been off. That motor is in its 6th year of continuous duty. A British magazine had a short article on Honda motors with red cam covers the gist of which was that this is the Terminator of the engine world. Mine certainly hold up well to that description. I plan to retire it to duty as a running spare and smog motor at the end of this year.

And now a few words about the friends who help me so much: Let's see what's lurking under the hood. Mmmm - the Goodness of Mugen:



Don't let anybody tell you that the Mugen Airbox is overrated, or overpriced. It starts with a big horn, and it continuously diverges from there to the large sorta-conical filter section. If you were going to design the ultimate airbox for the G3 Integra, that's what it would end up looking like - and I've never seen anything that looks like the Mugen airbox except the Mugen airbox.

My subjective impression of the results of switching to the Mugen Airbox and Mugen 4-2-1 Header is that it does pull better off the bottom of the powerband - say from around 6000. I think it then flattens out a bit on top. It's got longer primaries and secondaries than my Comptech so this makes some sense. It seemed that Greg wasn't able to pull me as much off the corners as he could at the Rose Cups - though I was working very hard at maximizing my corner exit speeds too. Later in the year if I have some money for it I'll do some semi-scientific testing at Loynings and see what that says.

Part of my decision to run the Mugen 4-2-1 was to get bigger and longer tubes, while preserving max ground clearance. I was disappointed to find that Mugen had, in their zeal to do the equal length / volume / pressure drop thing, run one secondary lower than the other - a little lower than the pan. I can live with it for now, but when/if I crush it, it won't get rebuilt the same way. The other thing is that the secondaries aren't parallel, which means it's going to require more surgery when I eventually cut it up to play with the secondary length and a Toda-like / B-Tec divergent cone at the secondary merge.

I am very grateful for the support and assistance (indulgence even, I'm afraid) of Scott, Bob, and Tim at King Motorsports. Without them I might be just another Spec Miata racer, instead of Underrated Phenom <mumble voice on>with sometimes questionable judgement <voice off>. As we were sitting in pre-grid Saturday the announcer referred to me as "one of the most underrated local drivers." Which got me wondering just who the hell has been "underrating" me. Kind of funny hearing that just before the 1 Minute Warning.

Scott, who now looks forward to the month of August...I'm trying to figure out how to make it to Thunderhill without incurring serious financial damage....




Modified by RR98ITR at 8:44 PM 7/7/2003

 

Whoa! Cindy Lux was racing??

 

You know I'm kiddin' with ya Pal... Good job.

I'll talk to Bill Murrey and see if he's done with the Boner Jacket... as a multiple winner, he may not want to let it go...

 

Scott, I haven't read this but I have a general question. During a race weekend, are you writing down notes when you get out of the car? I have trouble recounting anything with absolute accuracy w/out tape and usually that is marred by what I want to see (or want not to see). I find it very affirming that drivers from F1 to ALMS cannot accurately recount their "events" either - makes me feel rather normal. Just interested if you went to a race weekend with the sole intent of racing and ditching the premise that you have to report it - would it help or hurt? I know for myself, I cherish the fact that my race weekends are not up for public discussion - hell, I ain't paid for this, its supposed to be for fun, it would not be fun for me to have to produce a report at the end aside from something cursory to those who truly understand who/what/where I am racing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by phat-S &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have trouble recounting anything with absolute accuracy w/out tape and usually that is marred by what I want to see (or want not to see). I find it very affirming that drivers from F1 to ALMS cannot accurately recount their "events" either - makes me feel rather normal. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Interesting that you say this. Last weekend I was in the toughest battle of my rookie season (4th race) when I was chasing Randy Saucier, 2-time (or so I'm told) SCCA SSB / Pro Spec Miata National champion. It was fierce racing, and in my first encounter (1st race ever) I found myself 4-5sec behind. At one point during this last race though, I was actually bump drafting him... and only because I saw someone doing it in a video I downloaded from HT the week before (**** I think?) and thought it was cool, lol. We traded paint a couple times and at one point I SWEAR that he pointed me by (he did in fact in the qual race) and when I went to take the pass he f'in hit me! This enabled his buddy to get inside me and the last 4-5 laps they blocked me. I remember them using turn-signals and hand gestures during those laps, 2-wide in the straights, and single-file going through the turns. I ended up 3rd behind the 2 of them. I was furious but enjoyed the race. My goal had been to beat a couple local competitors, not have to deal with a couple of National Champion hot-shoes. So, while I was upset, I did have a helluva time. Afterwards there were some heated words between him and my, uh, "pit crew." The entire drive home, 2-1/2 hour towing the car home, I re-lived the events in my head. Including the "encounter" afterwards.

Or so I thought. I played back the tape from the on-board camera when I got home.... While some of what I remembered was accurate, other things were misplaced from race to race, and some things I thought I remembered I couldn't see at all in the video (one of which being his claim that I sent him 2-wheels off).

For hours after watching the video, I was dumbfounded that I thought I remembered things a certain way... only to see the video had things in a different order, or just plain different. I was definately in another place/zone while on track - I completely dismissed how hot and exhausted I was for that half-hour. Obviously events were not as clear to me as I recalled. Quite a strange feeling.

-Ben, who seriously enjoys reading Scott's stories and wonders how many of his own are skewed from actual events.

 

Adam,

I can't remember every detail of the race either - whether right after or days after. But I don't take notes - I'm not that deliberate about my writing while I'm in the middle of a race day. I have at times written each night of a race weekend, and maybe that helps me write in more accurate detail.

I remember certain details - like when and where I passed my competitor, but I can't clearly recall the particulars of Greg's passing me back - other than I know I screwed up and he was able to take advantage.

I've thought about the degree to whick my writing and racing influence each other, and I've talked about it with a good literary writer friend. But I don't know what to do about it besides simply wonder. They are two seperate activities, both of which I enjoy, that happen to come together inside this community. I don't look at my writing as an unpleasant task like schoolwork, but I do treat it as an objective of sorts.

The degree to which my failures are as public as my successes is just part of the game. There aren't too many secrets at the track, and so it's no more skin off my back to tell all here. And I do it in part because, as you say: "those who truly understand..."

Scott, who has struggled with normality all his life...

 

Scott,

do you have a pre-race ritual you go through in preparation? I noticed you discuss how you would respond to different possible scenarios but I always wonder about the mental preparation for a race on top of the usual car prep and imagining a perfect lap in your mind over and over.

 

Tuan,

I don't really have a ritual other than to generally have a collected and calm mental state - you know, everything ready and done, not too much haste. Even when I can't control all of that, somehow it all falls away by the time I'm in the car waiting to go.

I don't see how you can go into an elaborate ritual unless you rigidly enforce your solitude, which isn't generally easy to do unless you're willing to accept the social cost. There's always somebody coming up to the car before the one minute warning in pregrid so you can't count on much till then. Peter Greg was famous for getting to pre-grid early and sitting in his car and getting psyched. He unwittingly invited other racers to **** with him, which had to defeat the purpose.

I usually just tighten up my belts with a minute or so to go and then after I realize they've restricted the depth of my breathing I inhale and exhale once deeply just about the one minute mark and then I go "inside my head".

The other thing I think is that what happens at the start is not predictable, and you have to make the most of what fate drops you into. The only prep I can imagine for that is a pliant mental ambiance.

I can drive laps in my head, but I don't incorporate that into my immediate pre-race activities - I find practice and qualifying sufficient to tune me up. Besides, what with the mayhem of the first lap, cold tires, and the as yet unknown condition of the track surface, you might be better off without too set mental imagery.

I think the confidence a driver needs before and during the start of a race has to be innate or ingrained thru experience. Rituals can probably be helpful, but I have to wonder if that's just some form of self conditioning. I think the best ritual is probably the shortest one. And of course, gettting dressed, belted in, putting on gloves, etc is ritual enough in it's way - for me anyway.

Scott, for whom perfect laps are most often driven in his imagination...

 

Great Read! As Always... Thanks again for sharing. It always hits home.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share the great story. I respect your action taken against Greg during the first race. If I were in that situation I think I would have felt bad after the race, but would have been too excited at the time to give back the position.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Adam,

I can't remember every detail of the race either - whether right after or days after. But I don't take notes - I'm not that deliberate about my writing while I'm in the middle of a race day. I have at times written each night of a race weekend, and maybe that helps me write in more accurate detail.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Scott, while I don't disagree you write with great detail, its the accurate part that I was questioning (and if accurate indeed, how much of that energy could have been spent on racing vs. recording). But hey, no biggie, you like writing these treatises and folks always give your rounds of applause for writing them so keep banging them out.

 

Adam,

It's funny - I don't see alot of detail in this race report. Take it apart and the on track recollections are pretty elemental and seem easy enough to remember. And as to accuracy - it's my story the way I remember it, which is good enough for me.

I really don't think my racing suffers on account of my writing, any more than it does on account of my reading. Each is a part of the whole.

Yeah, I like writing these things, and it's nice to know that my friends on the board enjoy them. But it's not just exhibitionism, these are invitations to conversation - there's usually a philosphical thread or point of common interest in my writings here, and lets face it: isn't this a good place for it?

Scott, who has enjoyed Adams writing now and then...."Taildrift Lyceum"...ring a bell?

 

"taildrift lyceum" ... I penned that? Hah - that's pretty funny

Please G-d, if it comes from a long dialog of mine about some hpde weekend or heaven forbid a race, please do not show it to me - I'd hate to see what I thought I knew when I theretofore didn't know what I absolutely am sure I do not now know.

 

"The more I race, the more I know that I didn't know what I thought I knew."

I like that. Good one phatty.

I get dumber every weekend. I may learn a thing or two, but I typically discover 5 things that I really need to work on.
"One step up and two steps back." -- The Boss

This really is a very mean hobby.

Scott, discovering that its very hard to work with Bondo when its 96 degrees. It keeps hardening before I can get it on the car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Scott, for whom perfect laps are most often driven in his imagination...

</TD></TR></TABLE>

there's a story floating around that stated when Senna did his fastest perfect qualifying lap at Monaco, he had an "out of body experience" as if the car was driving itself and he could do no wrong...don't think I've reached that level of meditation while attempting to drive the perfect lap.

 

I don't mean to offend any Senna worshipers, but that's not that unusual. I've had lots of those, and so have other riders/racers I've known. Sudden premature re-entry to the conscious is a bitch though.

Scott, who used to have people ask me (too often for sure) what I was thinking just before I crashed, and I'd say "nothing - my mind was blank".....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I don't mean to offend any Senna worshipers, but that's not that unusual. I've had lots of those, and so have other riders/racers I've known. Sudden premature re-entry to the conscious is a bitch though.

Scott, who used to have people ask me (too often for sure) what I was thinking just before I crashed, and I'd say "nothing - my mind was blank".....</TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL. crash & burn on re-entry.

How much of it do you attribute to getting a rhythm as you drive the laps over and over? I don't know your series but is there a lot of traffic to throw you off a rhythm or do you and this VW fellow usually run off each other's pace?

 

All great reads. I cant wait to get into more racing in the not-too-distant future. Later, Clay

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Don't let anybody tell you that the Mugen Airbox is overrated, or overpriced. It starts with a big horn, and it continuously diverges from there to the large sorta-conical filter section. If you were going to design the ultimate airbox for the G3 Integra, that's what it would end up looking like - and I've never seen anything that looks like the Mugen airbox except the Mugen airbox.</TD></TR></TABLE>

AMEN to that.

Best investment besides pads and tires was the mugen airbox. My car feels entirely different with the mugen intake.

Anyhoo, Great read as usual Scott.

Chris - who can understand your thoughts on waving greg by, but would never have done the same... but then again I don't race, so I'm not entirely sure about that.