PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

We had a Thursday test day to start off the weekend. I got the opportunity to go out in both our car and the #95 car normally driven by Will Turner and Don Salama. The two cars had different setups so a couple of us drove both to evaluate the differences. The #95 car had the stiffer setup and I liked it a lot better so we opted to put the same setup on our car for the second and final session of the day.

Even with the stiffer setup the car still had way too much roll in the chassis. By Friday we had decided that the front of the car was way too low and we raised it up to the same ride height as the #95 car. This still didn't cure the roll issue so we started working with the shocks.

We had an unusually high number of practice sessions during the weekend, which was great for us because I felt like we were making really good progress each time we went out. With a combination of shock, anti-roll bar and camber adjustments we were able to get the roll under control and the car started to handle really well.

Qualifying was scheduled for Saturday afternoon. We had some rain earlier that day, which hampered our setup work a little bit and added some confusion. When Steve finally had a chance to qualify the car it was dry, but he had a lot of understeer at the entry to most of the corners. He still managed to place us fourth on the grid. Our teammate Will Turner claimed the pole position.

We had stiffened up the front of the car so much in an effort to control the chassis roll that I think we were picking up the inside front tire at corner entry. We made a few changes to try to fix this problem. Fortunately, we had one more practice session on Sunday morning to make the last few adjustments. By the end of the session I was confident that we would have a good car for the race.

THE RACE

The race started at 1:00pm on Sunday. It was a sunny day with no threat of rain. Steve started the race from the fourth position. He got off to a good start and ran anywhere from third to sixth, ultimately settling in third.

Our plan was to get Steve out of the car early because he had been sick for the past month and still wasn't feeling well. There were a number of cautions early in the race and Steve hadn't really done very many laps so we left him in the car longer than we expected.

Just prior to the end of the first hour there was another full course caution and we decided to bring Steve in for fuel and a driver change. We also took left side tires. The pit stop was so fast that I could barely get my belts on before I had to leave the pits. Once back on course I had a little time to get myself settled in the car. The #95 car had also pitted during the caution and Don Salama took over for Will Turner. Their pit stop was also very quick and they got out in the lead. We were out in second position.

During all the practice sessions I was preoccupied with getting the setup right and since I hadn't raced in the Sport Touring class this year I didn't know what to expect from my competitor's cars. I had an answer very quickly when on the restart the Chevy Colbalt of Andy Lally and the Acura RSX of Bob Endicott drove right by me on the straight. Before I knew what had happened I had been shuffled back to fourth.

There were still about ninety minutes left in the race at this point so there was nothing to do but try to fight back. I had no pressure from behind so I was able to focus my attention entirely on Endicott's RSX, which was in third place. I wasn't sure how the BMW's handling would hold up over a long run since we had stiffened up the car so much, but it was terrific. The longer the race went on the more pressure I was able to apply to Endicott. It seemed like the handling was actually improving over the course of my stint.

There were no more full course cautions for the rest of the race, which was unexpected. The longer the race went on, the harder I pushed to try to get Endicott to make a mistake. I would lose about five car lengths on each straight, so there was no way I could overtake in the braking zones. I got a lot of the gap back under braking, and the rest back in the slower sections. I was all over the RSX in the twisty sections of the track, but to Endicott's credit he never so much as bobbled.

On the second to the last lap we caught a Mini Cooper in the slower sections of the track. The Mini slowed Bob as he entered one of the sections where I would normally be right on his tail. I got nearly up along side him in the right hander just prior to entering Thunder Valley, but Endicott turned in and I backed off rather than making contact with the RSX. The Mini then held me up through the next turn effectively eliminating any chance of me mounting a last lap challenge.

The most frustrating part of the race was that most of the time I spent stuck behind the RSX I could see the first and second place cars just up ahead. I knew that if I could make a pass I could have easily caught the leaders and challenged for the win, but it wasn't to be. We finished in fourth place, just three tenths of a second off the podium.

It was otherwise a very successful weekend for Turner Motorsports. Don and Will finished in second place, and Bill Auberlen and Justin Marks claimed the overall win in the team's BMW M3. From an inside point of view it was easy to see why Turner Motorsports has won so many races.