60+ Racing Adventures-5th
Round at Mazda Laguna Seca
The 5th Round of the 60+ Racing Adventures
League for drivers age 60 and older ran Wednesday,7/12 at Lagina Seca, running
the Pro Mazda. 25 drivers participated. The
event at Laguna Seca was broadcast live and memorialized on YouTube by
RaceSpot.TV. The stars of the day were
Portugal’s Antonio Reis and Canada’s Bill Lawrence while the two leaders of the
Drivers’ Points Championship, Canada’s Steven Carkner and the Netherland’s Jos
van de Ven, both struggled.
The man from beautiful Aveiro, Portugal, the 60 year old
Antonio Reis is fast with an iRating of 4071, the highest iRating of all the
60PLUS Racing Adventures drivers. He drives the 007 car. In the Group 1 race,
he set the fastest qualifying lap of 1:17.7. Starting from the Pole Position, a
bit like he did at Brands Hatch, he overestimated the grip on “cold” tires on
the first lap and lost control in the infamous “Corkscrew”, despite an early
warning of a loose race car in Turn 2, where he was able to recover. Unable to
catch the spin at the Corkscrew, Reis turned the lead over to Steven Carkner.
Above, Reis showing great skill catching a loose car in the
Andretti Hairpin on lap 1.
With tires still a bit cold in the first lap, Reis in
unable to save the car and spins in the Corkscrew.
Canada’s Steven Carkner, leader in Drivers’ points standing
going into the race holds the lead until lap 14 when downshifting on the entry
to the Andretti Hairpin, he blew his engine.
While this is not a common occurrence, it is easy to overrev the Pro
Mazda during fast downshifts—especially when downshifting from 6th
to 2nd gear under heavy braking. The last downshift to 2nd
often needs to occur while turning and it is easy to downshift a split second
too early—leading to a race ending engine failure.
With the demise of Carkner, the lead was inherited for a
short time by Jos van de Ven. But, like many drivers here, van de Ven spun in
Turn 6 leading to the Rahal Straight.
The lead was then inherited by Bill Lawrence who went on to win the
first Group 1 race. Below, Lawrence
leads on the last lap thru the Corkscrew. The shot shows the dramatic elevation
change thru this iconic corner. Lawrence
was joined on the Podium by UK’s Andrew Fidler and Florida’s John Morgan.
There were quite a few spins during this event. The League
Organizer and Fixed Setup Engineer, Donald Strout was on vacation and missed
this event, but he did issue this “warning”.
“In order to keep the fastest drivers in our League challenged, we are
running setups with lower downforce. The cars no longer have significant
‘extra’ rear downforce and require very precise steering and very accurate
throttle modulation---sometimes referred to as ‘maintenance’ throttle. In this
state, the car can be very loose—this is fast but dangerous.”
You could see this “fast but dangerous”
scenario play out in several corners but nowhere as apparent as Turn 6. Turn 6 leading onto the Rahal Straight is taken in the Pro
Mazda at around 106-110 mph. Some drivers slow more and use 4th
gear, while others are able to use 5th. In either case, the left
wheel must be precisely placed at the apex with a perfect line to the far right
track out point. Here Steven Carkner and
Jos van de Ven show almost perfect execution.
Actually, they could have placed the car about 6 inches
closer to the red “sausage” curb.
But, if the driver misses the apex, going too “wide” and is
not driving slow enough to have some “reserve” grip, the required lift or extra
steering input will lead to the spin as experienced by highly talented Jos van
de Ven, more than once. So, when you have highly talented drivers pushing the
limits of control and competition with a setup not having a lot of extra grip,
even small mistakes lead to a loss of control.
After blowing up the engine in the first race, Steven Carkner experienced more frustration, spinning in the exit of Turn 3 in the second race. Sort of the same phenomenon as in T6—lift or add steering to avoid tracking out too far here and you get a spin. John Unsbee was unable to avoid contact and suffered wing damage, but was able to finish 2nd in the Group 2 race.
Not every incident is a spin. In some instances, the
challenge of threshold braking leading to the Corkscrew locks up the front
brakes and the car just sort of runs off to the outside like Wayne Galloway
demonstrates below (Shortcuts are not allowed!)
It was noteworthy Florida’s
Mark Robertson, was the only driver to run a complete race with zero
incidents here. After a 21st finish in the Group 1 race, he drove a
conservative “Second Chance” race moving up from 21st at the start
to finish in P8.
The Group 2 “Second Chance” race was dominated by Antonio
Reis. He earned the Pole (As he did in the first race.) and led every lap.
Reis sat on the Pole for both races. He won the second race
with a 9 second lap lead over P2. He set the fastest lap in both races with a
1:17.2 in the first race and a 1:17.4 in the second race.
Perhaps the next most remarkable performance of the day was
by Canada’s Bruce Poole, who in the second race moved up from P9 at the start
to finish on the Podium in 3rd, behind John Unsbee. Below is a shot
of Poole skillfully powering thru the highly banked Turn 10. Note the
suspension compression with the left side pod almost touching the pavement.
After five events, the Team #1 of Carkner, Lawrence and
Robertson still have a substantial lead over the Team #6 of John Unsbee, Jim
Oliver, Michael Key and P J Salley. Not
far behind in third place in the Team Championship is the Team #3 of Jos van de
Ven, Rolf Just, Mark Lison and Gerard Florissen. Team #7 of Bruce Poole, Joel
Martin and Jay Freels remain in 4th.
Team #4 of Remigio di Pasqua, Campodonico and Reis moved up
to 5th place.
The series maintains a Driver Championship and a Team
Championship. Team assignments are
determined by the League Organizer to pair up 3 or four drivers that together
have a “fair” chance compared to other teams.
In other words, less experienced or accomplished drivers are paired with
the more experienced so each team is deemed to have a “fair” chance to win the
Team Championship that pays $100 to the Winning Team, $50 to the 2nd
Place Team and $25 to the 3rd Place Team for the Season.
Steven Carkner and Jos van de Ven swapped the leadership in
the Drivers’ Championship, with Jos van de Ven taking back the top spot. Bill Lawrence jumped into 3rd with
his win in the Group 2 race, but the Andrew Fidler and John Morgan are very
close behind, tied for 4th.
The next event for the 60+ guys is at Japan’s Suzuka
International.
