Our opening line-up of drivers was going to be Trekkor,
Christen, me, Cameron, John, and then Jim. We needed to alternate the
McClelland drivers due to some shared race equipment issues. Once the cars
lined up, all the fooling around was done, not necessarily the foolishness,
just the part we did for laughs. The race was like bats out of hell from start
to finish. If you’ve never seen bats out of hell check out the YouTube link and
simply switch the bats for cars in your mind and you have an accurate depiction
of the race, all 24 hours of it except the drivers are not equipped with radar,
only small mirrors with no time to study them.
Trekkor got us out and going, with his LeMons racing
experience, getting the feel for the car and avoiding all the troubles 130+
cars will make going at race speeds on a 3 miles track. I did the math; evenly
spaced going the same speed we would have about 70 feet between each car. That
barely happened; only on the opening few laps under the yellow flag when each
car was let onto the track one at a time; picture a funeral procession with
everyone going at a sedate speed, no passing, all polite and respectful. Then
the green flag came out and you should refer back to the bats-out-of-hell view
of the race. The only times it wasn’t so nuts was when the yellow flag came out
and then there is no passing from yellow to yellow. There were two corner
worker changes that came under a double yellow flag with two emergency vehicles
keeping everyone in check and the slow procession was on; we learned from the
first switch of corner workers and ducked in for a driver change and fuel stop
loosing only a lap in the process.
The only other exception to cars going round and round the
track was under the one red flag condition. Everyone stopped where they were when
the red flags came out once the car rolled that I referred to in the first
post. With all the video available on this race I am really surprised that
nobody caught this. It was a scary moment in time met with a relieved cheer
when the driver climbed out on his own power and walked it off.
Round and round the track is merely a figure of speech for
the Buttonwillow Raceway. Here is a track map of the raceway; they have 29
different race and test configurations none of which are circles or even close
to an oval. It is a very technical track to drive and that’s one thing that
attracts me to it. The other is the utter majesty of the surroundings. Well, I
couldn’t find the sarcasm font for that part…
This is the map of track configuration #15. It doesn’t
really do justice to the banks or lack thereof or of the hills that are just
big enough to hide the back side. A nice, technical track, sure to test drivers
of any experience level.
Christen’s stint was cut short after only a few laps when
the driver of another team slammed side on into her, cracking two rims while
blowing out the tires. She did a fantastic job of limping the car into our pit
where we spent about 30 minutes or so doing body work, changing to the older worn
tires, getting me ready to take an early shift, and costing us a minimum of 10
laps. In my opinion, this other team should have been DQ’d for being so out of
control even though the driver found her and apologized. During the award
“ceremonies” we had to restrain Christen from going after them when they were
named the B Class winners. Secretly, I wanted her be for real mad and break
free so I could separate them but she was clowning, mostly; peacemakers have
opportunities most folks don’t notice during the fray.
Getting into all of the driver’s gear and squeezing in
through the roll cage is a chore and takes practice. The driver dives through
the cage in full gear, settles into the seat, and gets his arms out of the way
while two team members strap him in. I had to laugh when I got home Sunday from
the race when I found ESPN on the tube and they were showing a driver being
belted in by two teammates; it was exactly what we went through over our 24
hour race. I couldn't find a YouTube video of this chore so you'll have to use your imagination or watch the next race on TV. Picture putting a sardine back into the can and re-sealing the it.
I was completely un-prepared for my first shift. I got onto
the track having gotten lost on the way and then sped on to merge with traffic,
not too bad getting on and then I was through turns 2 and 3 and heading to a
nice configuration of turns when the bats caught up with me and there was not a
moment of relative peace on the track after that. Even the yellow flags gave
only a few minutes of respite from the hectic pace. I got two or three laps in
when I blew the first of two valve cover gaskets having gone well over our
self-imposed 5,000 RPMs in my adrenalin induced need to complete and keep the
other, more aggressive drivers off my bumper…and fenders. I lasted another few
laps and spent a total of about 45 minutes on the track when the second gasket
went. I know I cost us six or so laps with that.
We changed quickly from me to John ostensibly to get him on
the track in case we had to pull off for good if the high oil pressure couldn’t
be controlled. John did great, giving us many good laps over his two-hour shift
without blowing a gasket as did everyone else who drove throughout the race,
even me, until the last couple of laps when Jim went more all out to catch the
eventual winner, more on his final stint later.
There were no other incidents of note along the way that
brought us to a halt or even a long pause. My second shift was from 10 p.m. to
midnight when I turned into a pumpkin. Somewhere along the way between shifts I
caught a 30 minute nap and was really ready to go; more prepared for the pace
of the race, my own driving shortcomings, and 4,500 RPM limit we put on the
car. Driving at night was surreal; the track was barely lit by only reflectors
and the islands of light surrounding the turn worker stations. We were going so
fast that to take your eyes off the track could send you out into the dark,
lost from all observers, only to be found after sunrise and the circling Turkey
Vultures. Headlights, driving spot-lights, and the lighted decorations of the
cars made it like some sort of B movie horror flick of monsters chasing
monsters through the night. As I said, I didn’t blow another car gasket, only
the gasket we have between race competitiveness and road rage when a bedeviled
BMW dove in on me and hit my left front bumper. I barely maintained decorum
where I could have turned hard into the contact and sent him spinning off into
the infield where he belonged and we both continued on. I have to confess here
that I took some perverse pleasure in seeing the devil car being towed off on a
flatbed truck and out of the race for good sometime later in the pre-dawn
hours.
We then arranged our rotation so that Jim could cross the
finish line and receive a well deserved checkered flag. I drove just before him
for my final shift from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. having found an hour nap with a couple
of noddings off here and there. Daylight had just taken hold when I re-entered
the track and my nemesis, the stretch limo/Titanic, was just ahead of me early
on. I kept getting stuck behind him not having the race skills required to get
around him without causing a multicar pile-up. I totally misjudged my
opportunity with nobody behind me coming on and I tried to pass him on the
outside of a sharp curve leading into the ess turns. He just kept coming
further out into the turn and left me nowhere to go but off and so into the
penalty box for leaving the track at a further cost of 3 laps. After getting back
on the track I made some decent laps, not enough to overcome the eventual
winner, but some decent laps. I did get rear ended when a very slow moving car
was in front of me going into a curve and someone fast approaching me from
behind. The driver in front inexplicably went to his brakes; I was able to
avoid hitting him but the guy in back of me got me. I thought we were going to
lock bumpers but was able to shake him off and continue on; it was a close call
with a serious time wasting as the penalty if we couldn’t shake it off; there
were no black flags for us and we went on our way.
Jim got into the car and we only had a three lap deficit. As
the race neared the climax more and more teams gravitated to the second story
of the race tower just behind the finish line. There was loads of excitement as
different teams calculated their positions in the race using a smart phone app
tied right to the race computer. Jim closed the gap and then the red flags came
out when the car tumbled off the track and back on. It was another 20 minutes
until the race restarted and that could have meant another lap on the leader
for class C. As it was, there wasn’t enough time even without the stoppage, Jim
pushed the car and turned a 2:22 on the lap. That’s 17 seconds better than my timed
run in the racing 914 without other drivers around to contend with. Amazingly,
he blew out the gasket on the last lap, received the checkered flag and
immediately left the track by the back door because he was out of gas and
sputtered into our pit area.
I hate doing the math on this since we finished second by a
mere two laps and everywhere I looked my shifts cost us laps. Somewhat
objectively and very much in the way of emotional self-preservation, we
overcame everything within our control but could not overcome the eight lap
penalty and the 10+ laps the classless B driver cost us early on in the race.
Jim was ecstatic about the whole race, our team, and our getting it all done.
That was my victory lap.
For an official race wrap up by the organizers go to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWIJ-8H29Ow
For more videos search YouTube on: 24 hours of lemons 2012
buttonwillow
Part 4 will be my personal reflect on "The Race in the Rearview Mirror".
jjwhite
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