And Now For Something Completely Different

Grand Am, Round 2, Homestead, FL

You may remember in the last DZ when I wrote about our experiences at Daytona for the Rolex 24 weekend that also included the Continental Tire Challenge race. Well, the second round on the Grand Am calendar for 2011 was scheduled for Homestead, FL March 4th and 5th, and this time we were taking a different approach. I would be part of the SCCA F&C (flagging and communication) workers while Sheila was assigned to work in the Control Tower as a logger (she writes down everything that is said over the radios in a sort of short-hand code).

Thursday, prior to the official 2-day race schedule was slated to be a test day and most of the teams in both series, as well as the support race SCCA Playboy MX-5 Cup took advantage of the opportunity to get in some testing. My assigned position for the three days was at Turn 1, which in this case, is right at the end of the pit road wall that separates the pit lane from the front straight, so we had cars exiting the pits just inches away on one side of us, and more excitingly, we had cars turning in off the front straight at top speed inches away on the other; a very exciting place from which to watch the action. In fact, it would get very interesting indeed.

On Friday, during Continental Tire qualifying, I was on yellow flag duty, which means you have your back to the approaching traffic, so that you can watch the corner that the cars are entering. This would be extremely dangerous, if not for the trust you place in your fellow corner worker who stands facing you and in this case, in charge of the blue flag (blue & yellow passing flag). Part way through the session, she suddenly gets quite wide-eyed and yells, “Duck!” As I quickly do as told, I see a MINI sliding past the wall sideways, with the driver looking directly at us out the windshield while she slides by at 100 MPH + and I’m waving the yellow flag over my head like a surrender flag, while still being below the wall, trying to warn the rest of the oncoming traffic about the incident. As the car slid completely across the track and off on the outside of the corner, it was in an unsafe place and the session was black-flagged to allow for it to be removed safely. This allowed us to measure the skid marks distance from our wall. We figure about 27 to 30 inches, so allowing for front overhang, the bumper probably cleared us by about 2 feet! It certainly got our attention.

As the next manned corner station is at Turn 3 and Turn 2 sees plenty of “offs,” I was on a radio that only could communicate with Turn 3 so that they could tell us if we needed to change our flag condition for an incident at Turn 2 which they could see from their vantage point but it would be around the corner for us. This allowed us to safely warn our approaching racers without tying up communications for the rest of the turns, in case something serious were to occur at their stations.

For the Rolex racers, it was considered a sprint race after the 24 hour race at Daytona. This time, it would only be 2 hours and 45 minutes. The Daytona winners in DP, the Dinan BMW powered BMW Riley from the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates racing team was on hand, but with only the one car that will contest the entire schedule. The two Level 5 Motorsports BMW Rileys that ran at Daytona were also absent, so DP was down three BMW powered entrants, but there was a fresh face to add to the mix with the #61 Aim Autosport BMW Riley so in the DP Class we had two BMW powered cars to follow. One notable absence from the field was the Flying Lizard Porsche DP entry that was on the pole at Daytona and seemed quite a bit quicker than any other DP there. In the GT class, the PR1 Motorsports M6 that ran at Daytona was also missing, but the Turner boys brought their M3 that ran very well at Daytona, until problems dropped it way back to an eventual 17th place finish in class.

Even with the split start and the smaller field, we were sure we’d never get through that first turn without waving the yellow, but the 13 DP cars all made it through, as did the second group of 19 GT cars. We were high-fiving in relief.

Somehow, the Gainsco #99 car that was never much of a factor at Daytona, nor in testing on Thursday or practice on Friday, had managed to secure the pole, but their stay out front did not last all that long. The race was close for the entire time but the players at the top changed throughout and the Ganassi car was always in the hunt and finally took the lead for good with the clock running down and held on for the final seven laps.

Over in GT however, it was a different story. The Turner M3 had only qualified in sixth place and Paul Dalla Lana kept the car near the front throughout his stint, but once Bill Auberlen took over he moved the #94 to the front and held the lead for 80 of the final 82 laps. With race number one completed and it was so far, so good for BMW.

After a brief break to clean out the pit lane of the Rolex cars and bring in the Continental Tire Challenge cars, it was time for race number two. Among the 30 GS cars, were ten BMW M3s and in the ST Class (35 cars), there were ten BMWs, most of them the 328i, but two were the smaller, lighter 128i and there were still a few older 330i cars running, as well. In addition, we could cheer for any of the three MINI Cooper S entries, so fully one-third plus of the field were BMW related cars! And, with 65 cars in the race, we were positive we’d be wearing out our yellow flag this time around. Once again however, they played nice for the split start and we at least made it through the first lap without exercising our flag waving skills, at least at our turn.

The pole-sitter for this race was once again the Rum Bum M3 that won from pole at Daytona, but they were followed to the line by a Mustang, a Camaro, and two more Mustangs. There were four BMWs in the top 10, but mostly near the bottom of the top 10.

One thing about Grand Am racing though, is that many of the teams have what they call one “gentleman” driver and one professional driver. The gentleman’s job is to help finance the effort, by paying to be in the seat and also to just keep the wheels on the car until the pro gets in for the finish. It doesn’t always work that way. In this case however, the boys at Turner, who only qualified 10th and 12th, started their paying drivers and with mixed results. Paul Dalla Lana moved the #96 car up from 12th to 7th and kept the car in perfect condition for Bill Auberlen, while Michael Marsal was not as fortunate. Not his fault, but the car had most of the nose held on with racer’s tape by the time Joey Hand took over, but they managed to keep the #97 car on the lead lap, in spite of multiple visits to pit lane during the double-yellow caution periods.

Once Auberlen took over, it was as if he had another gear that heretofore hadn’t been used and he methodically, but quickly worked his way to the front. Except for some pit stops under green, he remained out front for the remainder of the race and won going away. While one of the Jack Roush Mustangs finished second, 3rd, 4th and 5th were all M3s. Oh, and Joey Hand managed to drive that ugly second Turner car all the back to finish 7th.

It was quite a feat for Dalla Lana and Auberlen, winning their class in both races in the same day!

In the ST Class, there was a photo finish when the VW GTi of Baas and Ellis that won at Daytona seemed lucky to finish 3rd, but made a last lap move to just beat out the iMoto Mazda Speed 3 with a MINI Cooper S taking 3rd.

By the time the checker flew to conclude the Continental Challenge we had to not only shed the sunglasses, but squint into the darkness to get car numbers of misbehaving racers who preferred the dirt to the pavement. It was a long day, but a great way to be a part of the race and still get to enjoy the competition. I highly recommend working a corner as a way to see a race.

Bob Morin