You be the Steward: Track Position

Let's put you, the reader, in race steward shoes again.   This time it's four rather than two wheels and the consequences of the on track action,  spectacularly more severe.

Challenge Car Racing is a independent racing series with no affiliation with Ferrari, it is high end club racing for owners of Challenge cars of different vintages, from 355 to 458.   Round four of the series took place at Road America as a support to Pirelli World Cup.

The Ferrari 458 driven by Jim Booth and the 430 of Steve Hill touched on what on a track map looks like a straight but in reality is a significant left kink approaching the turn 5 braking zone.

The resulting video is both one of the most spectacular and graphic depictions of a crash ever recorded thanks to the multiple cameras on Booth's car and a testament to great engineering at Maranello: the driver walked away from a 150 mph crash, the 458's front and back windows still completely intact.  

But now you make the call:  would you rule against the black 430 for blocking or the red 458 for sticking its nose where it should not have been?

Bimmerworld Racing debuts BMW F30 racer.

Virginia-based BMW experts head to Wisconsin looking to strengthen their standing in the Street Tuner championship while also starting the on-track development of its brand-new BMW F30 chassis

Photos: MotorsportMedia/Halston Pitman

Cheers to our friends at Bimmerworld racing for they debut of a new BMW race car built on the latest F30 chassis.  The new car will join the team's E90 based cars in the Grand Am Continental championship, Street Tuner class.

Leading GRAND-AM Continental Tire Series team BimmerWorld Racing will have two objectives in mind this weekend at the Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

The three-car program, which has fielded BMW’s 328i chassis built on the E90 platform since joining the series in 2010, is once again in the Championship hunt. Two of its entries are currently inside the top-10 in both the drivers’ and teams’ standings.

With seven rounds already completed in the 11-race season, Road America marks beginning of the final push towards the 2013 Street Tuner title for BimmerWorld. And with the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i driven by Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers sitting fifth in the standings, and the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW 328i of Gregory Liefooghe and Tyler Cooke in eighth, team owner/driver James Clay sees great opportunities ahead for both cars to improve their respective Championship positions.

“We are still nicely in the pack for the Championship race and with four rounds remaining; each race is becoming more important,” he said. “With Road America being the first of two back-to-back races, coming through this one clean and with a solid result is critical. We have a solid team and equipment, and this is our time to shine.”

How to drive faster: Road America with Jörg Müller

We will eventually do a more detailed track guide for Road America, similar to the one for Watkins Glen but why waste an awesome video, courtesy of BMW Motorsport and the chance to have Jörg Müller take us around for a lap of this fantastic track in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin?

You ride with Müller in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M3 GT2.



(note BMW legal dept. in action as Jörg checks out the track map!)

The Great American Meltdown, Road America, April 2012

We're very happy to have our friend Jonathan Gitlin  as a guest writer on Axis of Oversteer.   
It's endurance racing season and we hope to bring you more reports from inside races of all kinds to add prospectives you might not get elsewhere.   
Chump Car World Series, while focused on extremely low cost ($500 cars) is not to be confused with the 24 hours of Lemons.  As you may recall Axis was banned for life from Lemons guilty of not realizing it had nothing to do with racing....Jon did not make that mistake.


The Great American Meltdown, Road America, April 2012

As a regular reader of Axis of Oversteer, it's probably no surprise that racing is fairly important to me. Holidays often involve visits to various circuits, and it probably wasn't a coincidence that my wife and I spent our honeymoon in the Cote d'Azur when the F1 circus was in town.

But as much fun as watching other people race is, donning nomex and doing it myself has been a goal for quite a while. Sadly, racing isn't the cheapest sport out there, and a career in science has been more intellectually than financially rewarding.  Fortunately different racing series now cater to different budgets, and the advent of the ChumpCar World Series has meant that you too can get your grassroots endurance racing thrills without having to drive a parade float either.

My first ChumpCar experience was at a very cold and somewhat snowy Road America in April 2011, where I discovered that video games actually could help you prepare for some aspects quite well, but were nowhere near as much fun. 

Work commitments and scheduling meant that I had a very long off season, for that was the only time I managed to get out on track last year. A year is a long time to wait, but last month saw us return to Elkhart Lake, WI, for the Great American Meltdown, a pair of 7 hour races that marked the start of my 2012 season and the first outing for our team's new chariot for the year, an immaculately prepped 1991 VW Golf GTI; big thanks to our sponsors, Frozen Rotors, Parts4VWs.com, The Alignment Guy, and The Four Firkins.

Photo: Alex Bellus

TRG Film Festival

The Racer's Group is not only a top tier racing organization but, of late quite the little film studio! TRG takes care of CG and the Axis GT3 so we're happy to share their best 2011 clips.

Let's start with Spencer Pumpelly, the world's fastest vegan, the Vegan Velociraptor, turning in early with big speed at Laguna Seca. Spencer is charge of TRG historic #66 GTC Porsche GT3.



Next Spencer's co driver Duncan Ende shows how to drive with one eye looking forward and one looking backwards at Road Atlanta



The next two clips are more like little features, the first at Road Atlanta (do some of those shots look familiar from the Porsche GT3 Cup commercial?) and the second is their year end wrap up. Nice work!




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Get in Gunnar's head

We love helmet cams. Here you are Gunnar Jeannette, driving the CORE Autosport LMPC at Road America.


(Photo ALMS)

Added another video with good audio from a fixed on board, also from Road America, after the jump

Real men don't lift

Insanely awesome qualifying lap by 24 year old Sean Edwards at Road America. 2:14.067 was good for P1 and a lap record in GTC which is essentially Porsche Cup running in ALMS.

Not bad for Team NGT's first try at ALMS, they certainly hired the right gun!.

The Sweet Sounds of the Flat Plane

Flat plane crankshafts just have that something extra....Joey Hand testing in the BMW RLR GT at Road Atlanta.



"Joey Hand - normally found in the No. 90 M3 GT - tests the No. 92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team M3 GT at Road Atlanta in preparation for Petit Le Mans 2010. Testing allows the team to try quite a few things to find every possible tenth. Here Joey was able to drive both M3s back-to-back to test two different spring set-ups. September 25, 2010"
(BMWNA Motorsport).

Bill Auberlen, Scott Tucker crash at Road America: You be the judge.

To me it looks like the BMW must have cut the LMPC rear left in the first contact and then slowed, I can't tell if the Porsche that was right behind the M3 had any kind of a role in this.

The other Rahal Letterman BMW M3 of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller went on to win GT though.





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Road America, America's Northern Loop.

CG made the pilgrimage to Elkhart Lake for a Porsche Club of America club race at Road America. This is his epic writeup, a must read for any aspiring tracktard.

Road America, America's Northern Loop.
Very excited about my first time at Road America. Until now it has always been a myth only experienced through the races on TV. It is really BIG! Any other regular 1.5 - 3.0mi you can easily reach any point within 2mins in a sccoter. RA is the MidWest's version of the NuburgRing. Massive 4.1mi track that follows perfectly the contour of the terrain. The Paddock is the biggest I've ever seen. I was well advised to rent a Golf Kart. It takes almost 10mins at full speed to cover beginning to end of the Paddock only! Never seen so many Prosche race/track cars in my life. Easily 300 and most of them with big team trailers; and there was still plenty of room in the paddock.

The story continues after the jumps along with more pictures and videos...



Additionally, the town of Elkhart Lake is spectacular, both vintage and contemporary. Great historic racing bar at the Siebkins, beautiful landscapes over the lakes, nice resort lodging and some very good restaurants. Definitively worked for us as a great family vacation-race weekend. My kids only cared about the massive indoors water park at the Blue Harbor Resort on Lake Michigan!.

As I do every time I go to a new track, I've watched almost every relevant Vimeo or Youtube in-car video I found to get a good sense of the track and to my surprise on Test and Tune day the track is relatively easy to learn and be fast in a short time (contrary to scary blind corner places like Mosport).

Spencer Cox couldn't go to the race so I wasn't given the quick ride that's the most helpful for me to learn what speeds are possible through every corner. I compared my first session telemetry (with lap times roughly on pace for the class as per last year's mylaps results) with Spencer's Cup Car telemetry, and found that I was doing OK in the slow corners but needed to pump up the "attachments" a bit more in the 2 fast corners/kinks.

As always, Farnbacher-Loles had perfectly executed on the logistics and the car was immaculate with the tires from the last NASA race, and two new sets ready for raceday (likely need only one but had 4 rear tires thanks to the NASA Hoosier contingency program). It was also great to have Kurt, the F-Loles ALMS crew chief, on board as he has his own very structured (I crave analysis and structure!) methods and made me try different stuff in the setup that ended up paying off. Initially I had the car relatively stiff, working great for the typical 80mph+ LRP. Mosport or WGI fast corners, but Road America is mostly 50-70mph apex corners with some exceptions. Additionally, watching the big ALMS boys qualify on SpeedTV showed the obvious approach "use as much of the track and beyond (as long as it paved)" for faster lap times. Big surprise then when I went a full car-width wide at T5 and almost lost my teeth and couldnt hold the steering wheel in hands; We needed to soften up the car. Softer front sway bar, less rebound and some bump adjustments and the car was a monster in the slow corners but required finesse and smoothness to allow it to take a controlled set on the faster stuff (T1, T7Kink, Carrousel, T11Kink and T14).

From there on I was always worried through the whole weekend about something breaking or coming loose from so much curb-riding. Thanks to the F-Loles guys for permanently complying with the every session inspections. Only the glovebox came off a couple of times.

Unfortunately, my class (H Stock) was unusually low on attendance, but the run group had some faster GT3-4R cars (fully mod, BIG wing P-Cars in slicks), I-J Stock cars (GT3s, 993 Turbo, modded Cayman) and GTC1-2 Cup Cars (964 and 993). Practice Day went smoothly and set up a decent time in Practice 3 that defines the Very important Qualifying session grid (10th out of 50). Had a lot "fun" in the Fun Race at the end of the day. I love starts and re-starts.. I sneaked by in the starts with "cold" tires and even lead the race by Lap 2, until the big boys tires came to temp and ended up 4th after 5 laps

Early change to sticker tires on race day. Clean laps, good weather and was able to set a fast lap of 2:31.6 in the Warm Up, which is the new H Stock class record. Came very happy into pits after 3 laps and ready for Qualifying. Qualifying was crowded and warmer, got in early a 2:32.0, and decided to save tires and car instead of fighting traffic trying to get some tenths off. Road America Tip: You will NEVER get your PB time if you encounter ANY traffic at Road America (any minor lift on the big straights or lack of 2mph out of a corner will kill your time).

We bled the tires a few pounds to compensate for the higher temp later in the day for the race, but that will prove to be not enough due to not having run long enough in Qualifying. I Qualfied 14th on grid first in my class in the middle of the faster GTR cars.



It was really a complicated Sprint race due to the mix up of cars with very different strengths. The Big Wing modded cars had great corner exit (race gearing, more HP) and where faster in the fast corners (downforce), but I killed them braking into the slower corners (Cayman is fast in - fast out) where downforce is low, and my top speed wasn't that bad thanks to better aero and less drag from the lack of Wing but I had a hard time holding the pace, specially in the back straight where they were faster through the T11 kink.

I had a good start and sneaked in as many positions I could in T1, T3 and T5 under braking and was running 9th ahead of where I should be. We screwed with the Tire pressures and didn't drop them enough for the warmer longer race session, so ended up fighting big oversteer after 8-9laps and lost 3 places in the last 3 laps (didn't want to be a jerk either and block them aggressively not being in the same class). I basically allowed them to run side by side into the corner if they held there under braking. On several occasions i was able to hold the outside line (curb and rumble strips included! Check the pcitures of T8 where I prevailed despite the massive outside line!) and hold the position but once the overheated tires are beyond their optimal pressure (4-5psi by the end of the race). I oversteered/drifted wildly ALL the way out into the rumble strips to hold on for position. At the end I had to give a 964 Cup the inside line on Canada Corner, but oversteered all my way beyond the rumble strips! (check part 2 of the Video). Gave the position one lap before the last. Finished 12th, 1st in Class and 1st Stock class car.

The Enduro Race day started great. It looked very promising for an overall win until I learnt the bumped I class into our Enduro and a new faster competitor that won his Sprint race in a 944Cup switched classes to run his fast I Class 996 in the Enduro. Wait and see what kind of times he pulls in Quali. Warm Up session objective was to make sure the tires were still up to their max pace. 3 laps, mission accomplished. Qualifying was rougher than expected. Despite having P1 on the grid and planning on having a 2nd and 3rd clean laps and be done; a good portion of the 944 grid decided to come out late and jump in just in front as I was crossing the finish line. Arrrggghhhh!!! Agony! 2-3 laps of frustration, whenever I thought I had 500-800yds of clean space ahead, it prooved not sufficient around this 4.1mi monster track. Calmed down and went into the pits to calibrate tire pressures and time the best exit possible. It worked. Got 2 clean laps and down almost to my PB with a 2:31.655 (check the video), good for P2. The I class 996, very well driven, qualified P1 with a 2:29.9 and he obviously chose the inside line for the start.

The 996 accelerated faster than I expected on race start and was easily 3 car lengths ahead by T1. He even made a mistake in T3 and ran wide of the apex but got on the gas soon and no chance to get close. Closed some distance on him braking into T5 and Canada corner and was on his bumper when we encountered a back marker. Never had a chance to even annoy him, but the good thing is that running those clean laps meant P3 was nowhere to be seen in my mirror after a few laps. In lap 7-8 encountered back marker 944 traffic and a oil smell appeared. I blamed the older cars and kept pushing. Temp was fine, top speeds felt the same so nothing to worry about until lap 10 when I got the meatball flag. Came into pits, Kurt checked the car; lots of oil between engine and gearbox and hopefully it is just the typical Porsche RMS failure.



After 5:30 hours of track time, the weekend was still a huge success despite my first DNF of the race season. Had lunch and proceeded to watch the Cup Car / Crazy-Fast car Enduro. Leader Quali times where in the 2:15-17 range. It is great to see 50+ 996 and 997 Cup Cars at the same time. Can't imagine why in the future I would want to race in any other series when there's so much competition in the Cup classes in PCA where usually you get 2-3 Pros thrown into the mix every race weekend. Had the chance to meet the night before the gentleman who was now leading the race in a 997 Cup only to learn that in lap 29 had a terrible accident with a backmarker, forcing the race to be stopped and both drivers airlifted to the hospital. The cars were in very bad shape but safety systems did their job and both drivers will recover in a few months from their several broken ribs. punctured lung and massive bruises. this ending really puts thing into perspective and reminds me of being very picky on the safety of my equipment, the race venue, the race organization and the other drivers.

Team Axis at Road America

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On the BMW menu: Fried Lizads with a side of Jake

It went from good to great for BMW this week end at Road America, 1-2 on the grid, 1-2 at the checker. Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen took the top spot followed by Muller and Milner.

Helped by a lucky full course yellow but fast enough to resist a late charge from the Corvette of Magnussen/O'Connel and newly "adjusted" Porsche Gt3 RSR of Bergmeister and Long, the RLR M3's were the class of the GT2 field today. I wonder if some of that ex-Formula 1 money has found it's way across the pond already.

Also announced today were new regulations for ALMS starting in 2010. The series will move to both simplify its classes to just 4 and encourage alternative fuels/"green" racing. Maybe now BMW's decision to quit F1 when all other manufacturers decided to let the the whole "green" fig leaf fall by the wayside makes more sense.

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ALMS: BMW qualifies 1-2 at Road America.

In a year that has been short of good news for BMW, the team must be overjoyed with their first and second place qualifying positions at Road America today. Cherry on top, both RLR M3's were under the Road America GT2 lap record set by Ferrari in the past.

Joey Hand and Dirk Muller will be starting ahead of the Long/Bergmeister championship leading Porsche GT3 RSR, which this week end received 25 kg of extra ballast from IMSA and the two Corvette ZR1. Dunlop must have come up with some very special rubber for this week end.

In case you missed qualifying streaming live on SpeedTV.com, take a look at the clip from the webcast. No wonder people hate racing on broadcast tv, usually you can't see anything, the commentary is bland and boring, whenever something is about to happen, there is a commercial. Webcast like this are, in my opinion, the future of motorsport broadcasting. Not only would web delivery allow for any commercials to be placed without interrupting the race but a multi channel transmission similar to what is already available through various pay services in Europe for Formula 1 could be easily implemented.

I wonder how many of us would be willing to pay for such a service if it was well thought out and reliable? Sign me up. Until then, we'll have to watch the race on SpeedTV Sunday at 3PM et.

Provisional Grid for the "Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase featuring the American Le Mans Series (rolls right off your toungue, doesn't it?

ALMS at Road America, Live Qualifying Stream.

Starting at 4:05 PM ET you can watch live ALMS qualifying from Road America by following THIS LINK. <--- ON NOW

Free Practice saw the top seven cars in the less televised but more interesting GT2 class, all within 4/10th of a second, with the BMW M3 of Milner/Muller leading the pack from the Porsche RSR of Wolf Henzler and Jaime Melo's Ferrari. That's pretty close for a 4 mile long track so qualifying should be interesting to follow. Results from Free Practice 1 HERE

Live timing will be available HERE
and live radio by RadioLeMans, HERE



(photo AC/Axis of Oversteer)



And here is the rest of it.