Liam in Montreal

(adjust your contrast/brightness levels so you see all the blocks in this picture. Click on a picture for the bigger version)
<img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/contrast_adjust.jpg" border="0">

Watkins Glen with EMRA is always an adventure every year.
It always happens to be on my birthday too, which makes it extra special for me because I get to think that I'll have some extra luck or something for the weekend.
hehe yeah right.

I left Montreal friday evening with my pit crew (Vince P). about 10 minutes after crossing the quebec-ontario border, the car stops on the highway. After a movie-esque manoeuvre between two 18 wheelers, I manage to pull
over.
Car would start and idle, but would die as soon as I gave gas. bummer. 2 hours later I manage to call Yves from
Trac racing and he tells me to unplug my mass air flow sensor. luckily that worked, and Vince and I were faced
with a dilemna; drive an hour to go home, or drive 5 hours and try to fix the car at the Glen, and spend a
weekend there.

We drove on.

At the ontario-NY border, we were "randomly" selected for a full cavity search...ok not really but
it was close. 45 minutes later we were on our way again, finally arriving at 2am, only 3 hours over schedule
(9hour trip instead of 6). &lt;/sarcasm&gt;
Did I mention that I have no pass-side window (it's taped up) and no radio in the car?

Saturday was spent watching/taking pictures of all the racing (1 sprint and one really cool 2 hour enduro) and
fixing the A4. Turns out there was a wire to the MAF that was cut. some soldering and the car was running great
again. We put the hoosiers on the car, to send positive thoughts of dry weather for the sunday races..

Repairing the cut wire and cleaning out the MAF sensor.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/maf-repair1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/maf-repair1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/maf-repair2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/maf-repair2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Got tires? lots of civic tires. the A4 needs the mammoth hoosiers (on the left) to stick as much as the lightweights.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/gottires.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/gottires-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Car is ready, hoosiers on
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/car_ready.jpg.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/car_ready-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>


The enduro was really fun to watch compared to last year's. for one, there were less incidents and more racing.
alot of small battles were going on. In our pits were 3 cars from Montreal. Yves Bédard's insane golf VR6,
Martin Hamel/Alex Dupré/Joao Ramalho in Martin's civic,
Roberto Guerra and J-S Lafleur driving Rob's integra-civic, and Carl Wener/Vince Basile driving Vince's white
michelin civic (not so Michelin anymore might I add). Rob and J-S were last minute additions because J-S was
supposed to race in his ex-speedvision mustang race car but blew the engine that morning (after having won his race the day
before with an impressive 2:15 qualifying lap time).

3 quebecers on the front straight heading for the green flag
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/endurostart1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/endurostart1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/endurostart2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/endurostart2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Good battle between Carl and a miata, very close going into turn 1.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Another battle.....
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race11.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race11-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

..but not as close.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race22.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_race22-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>


The Carl-Vince switch took 5 minutes all said and done. (Gas, two wheel change, driver change). not F1 specs
yet but getting there
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit3-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit4-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Pit to our left was Yves Bédard's screaming golf
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit5-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Two pits to our left was AW's own John/TSR in his ITB golf.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit6.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/enduro_pit6-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

At the end of the day at the trophies presentation, everyone picked up a trophy for the day's racing.

Carl and Vince won ST1 even though Vince stuffed it into a sandtrap on the last lap. Vince is 2 for 2 for
sand traps (last year and this year) so he got his nickname "Sandman" that night at the dinner.
Carl and Vince laughing about the last-lap stuffing.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-vince1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-vince1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

picking up their trophy
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-vince2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-vince2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Alex, Martin and Joao pick up their trophy
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/dupre-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/dupre-1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Rob got 3rd place during his sprint.

Carl got 2nd place during his sprint
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

I think John/TSR won everything he raced in. congrats!
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/john-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/john-1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/john-2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/john-2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Carl being his usual good influence at the dinner that night at Seneca Lodge.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/carl-2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Saturday, woke up to cold and rain. I didnt have rain tires, only some crappy Yoko avid H4 all-season tires that
Carl found picking up dust in TRAC's storage room. I really wanted to try out the hoosiers as there wasnt really
any standing water, but everyone said that I was going to kill myself so I put the street wheels back on for
at least the first practice session.

Too friggin early to race....
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/morning.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/morning-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

It was pooring rain. Roadz tuning trailer in the back, which brought down Vince's 16 race tires and was also used
for some really good bbq'ing.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/rain.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/rain-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

<img src="http://www.comscc.org/tracks/images/glenelev.gif" border="0">
Even after a year of thinking about this track, and having watched an entire day of racing and in-car videos,
nothing could really prepare me for the real thing. I had forgotten how intimidating every turn was. the rain
might have had something to do with that, but the first session I was definitely taking it easy. the grip was
better than expected though, so that was a plus.

Following Carl up the esses. more grip than I thought here (for the right turn)...but tracking to the right slowly
during the left turn.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/will_carl1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/will_carl1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>


Thoughts of running the hoosiers disintegrated during the second session when it was pooring (full wipers used).
I was running with a new M3 and M5 during the entire 20 minute session. we passed many cars and only got passed
by a Z06 race car (he must have been going 140, in the rain). during that session I was hitting 123mph at the
end of the straight before the braking zone (just before the "600" sign). we were entering the "bus-stop" at
65mph. just crawling thru. To think that in the dry I brake at the "400" marker or further, and enter the bus-stop at 85..
Anyway, by now I had conceded that it wasnt about lap times anymore and about just getting a good time in for
the class win (STR).

I thought I was going to run in STGT but ended up in this class called STR. EMRA jokes that the "R" is for
Ridiculous, as in "ridiculous mods on a street car". I'd agree but they'll put you in that class with simple mods
like cross-drilled rotors. ridiculous indeed.
Amongst other cars that I knew of in my class were a 5.0 mustang, a stock volvo 850, an automatic lexus IS300
with a HUGE turbo. I'm guessing the lexus owner wasnt that bad a driver because he was running slicks in the rain
(he kept it on the track). he was running 3minute + lap times though, so wasnt really a threat. the Volvo..
well I beat it by 10 seconds/lap at Shannonville 3 weeks ago. Not a problem either.

During the 3rd practice session I was finally getting the lines that I wanted. driving down into the boot out
of the bus-stop, I was even feeling some nice Gs. not bad for $10 all-season tires, in the rain.
Friends clocked me at an average of 2:50 a lap. I clocked myself at 2:48 as fastest lap. I clocked Carl in the
ITR at 2:40, with mid 2:40s average. he was running on RA1s, so I was ok with my own times, although I knew I
was getting faster and faster, just a question of growing bigger ***** as the day progressed.
I tailgatted an SVT focus for most of the laps and then he eventually pointed me by. my frist lap in front, I
hit a hair over 123mph and decided to brake at the 600 marker instead of before. result: I could have gone into
the bus stop at ~80 mph but that would have been risking it for nothing (especially with the focus right on my
tail), so I just went straight.

Hounding the focus
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/will-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/will-1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Braking for the bus stop at 123mph
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/bus-stop1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/bus-stop1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

it's gonna be close...
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/bus-stop2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/bus-stop2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

..nope, didnt make it
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/bus-stop3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/bus-stop3-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

Made it through this time. look how wet it was out there.
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wet1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wet1-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wet2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wet2-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wet3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wet3-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

on the same lap I almost lost it in the toe of the boot, saving it with a really nice drift (longest drift I've
ever done, ever). it took me a few laps to recompose though, which coincided with the end of the session.
The focus driver came by later on to tell me that he thought I was running really well. funny that he referred to himself
as "the red focus behind you" when I was behind him most of the session. nice guy.

at 2h30pm the time trials were to start. for those unfamiliar with the format, it's basically 4 cars on the
track at the same time, no passing, 20 seconds between each car. half lap warmup, 2 hot laps, half lap cooldown,
best lap wins it. if you catch the guy in front of you, you get a re-run to get clean times.

I've raced with EMRA many times before and have always liked the organizing, but for this time trial, it wasn't as great as I was used to. the cars were placed in almost random order (despite the emra official TRYING to place the cars in the
right order), and I slept in my car for an hour before it was my turn to run. In my run group were a corvette
(old gen, not the Z06 gen), myself, the new M3, and another car behind him, which was none of my concern since
I wasnt ever supposed to see him.
I was, however concerned with the M3, knowing he was faster than me.... 20 seconds faster? we would see.
The Corvette guy was saying "you're gonna walk all over me!", but everyone says that so I didnt think too much
of it. My goal was actually to catch him (since you get a re-run = extra track time).

Waiting for my turn. the cars shown are not in their actual run order....that had time to change while I waited
there for an hour
<a href="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wait.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://1.8t.org/~vk/misc/watkinsglen/wait-thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>

<img src="http://www.comscc.org/tracks/images/glen.gif" border="0">
At 3h30pm my run group was about to go out. it had stopped raining for a while now, and you could actually see
some sun through the clouds. humm...
20 seconds after the corvette, I was off. immediately I could see that the track had dried up significantly (all
relative of course, to the conditions earlier) and pushed harder from the get-go.
After the warm-up half-lap, the hot lap started (between turns 7 and 8). At turn 10 I didnt lift at all (how I
drive it in the dry...I was braking all morning) thinking that it was dry enough.....wrong. I spun out at about
80mph. I kept the brake and clutch in, and didnt stall. I had done a 180degree counter clockwise, then 90degree
clockwise. I put it into first and gunned it. on the back straight 5 turns later, I couldnt believe it when I
actually SAW THE CORVETTE. going down into the boot (between 5 and 6) I had caught up with it and coasted till
the timer's finish line in the boot. "Cool" I thought to myself, while I did the 2nd hot lap behind the corvette
in 5th gear. Things were looking good as I entered the pit area; the sun was out in force. During my lap behind
the vette I had heard some squeeling from the street tires...meaning maybe the track was dry enough for slicks.
I ran back to the paddock area and Vince P and I changed the wheels in about 5 minutes flat. I got back in line,
behind about 7-10 cars waiting for their run (either first runs, or re-runs like me). Humm..birthday luck finally showing?

at 4h35 I started seeing cars being turned around in the pits, headed back to the paddock area.....what the...
yup, track closed folks, go home!
I felt robbed, having waited a year and not even getting one fast lap in for an official time... disappointed to
say the least.

the EMRA officials debated the situation for a while and at the trophy presentation came up with a solution,
which I dont fully understand yet, but basically it meant "we're giving away trophies to people so they dont
stay mad at us and it doesnt screw up their championship points".
in my class, STR, I ended up with a 2:55 time (that first lap where I spun out and caught the corvette) and a
3rd place trophy. 2nd place went to the volvo, and 1st place went to the IS300 with a 2:48 time. I felt even
more robbed as I knew I could beat both these cars easily.

FTD was 2:35 by a Z06, and half of the times were over 3 minutes.

As a small consolation, this race was part of the LAPS championship, and it secured my 2nd place in class for
the season.

Other Canadians from LAPS placed well also, with the volvo of Robert Lalonde in 2nd place in STR, Phillipe
Vachon finishing 2nd in his class and also winning the LAPS C/SuperStock championship in his jetta, ahead of
Stephane Vachon who finished 5th at this event, Remi villeneuve winning ST1 in his WRX despite crashing
into a wall on his 2nd hot lap (he's fine, car isnt though), and Carl Wener finishing 3rd in STGT with his
stock ITR. I'll add in a note that, besides Carl, it was all their first time at the track!
I'm writing all this from memory, so I'll have to re-check the results when they are officially posted.

Throughout the 3 days, 13 trophies were picked up by our group, but the best part was that this event really
marked the beginning of what I'm sure will be a tradition for our club, to come down here every year, with more
and more people every time (5 drivers last year, about 15 this year).

my top highlights of the weekend:
-the enduro
-saturday's trophy ceremony with all the canadian cars winning something
-fixing my car saturday which made the gamble to drive to the track a good one
-and finally,
on Sunday after the time trial trophies, one of the WG track officials (flagger/marshall..he must have been 60, one of
those old-timers you know have seen more racing than I've been alive) comes up to me while I'm
packing up to ask if I was the driver of the green audi. After acknowledging him, he says "I have to say, I was really impressed by the way you saved the car during that spin (he was the marshall for that corner). you were
out of there really quickly! ..but to see you again the next lap, already caught up with the car in front of you....WOW!
GREAT driving!" he shook my hand and then left.
Made my day, and kept my hopes up for next time. "There's always next year".

closing note: Glad I finally got to meet John/TSR. not sure yet what to think about him kissing mustang man's
bald head, heh.

Thanks to Yves and Carl from Trac racing, my crew Vince P, and Stasis, PES, GTA for putting the car together.
Oh, and J-S for the moose burger bbq'ed in the Roadz racing trailer. doesnt get any better than that

Liam

audiski

Wow man. That's a great synopsis coupled with excellent pics!

RAD69

Great post! I really wanna get to a track one of these days.

Tanner

Great post!

SCd_Walter

sounds like fun, I live about an hour from the glen, normally...

Vincent in Montreal

Great review. It was a really cool weekend, the most fun track even I went, ever!

RKA

After watching the weather alternate between rain, mist, hail, sun, and everything in between at the F1 races in Indy...I've been fascinated by the decisions you face at the track...both in tire prep and driver's judgement. I have to tell you...I read your post from beginning to end with nothing but a big grin on my face! Sounds like it was a great time! Nice work in turn 10 also...I think I would have had to pull into the sandtrap to change my shorts after that! Thanks for writing all this up!

BTW, I think you've posted before...but what kind of camera are you using for the action shots? They came out pretty well...much better than I'm able to manage with my nikon (I gotta learn to use the manual focus option more, but honestly, it's pointless because the LCD screen lacks the resolution for me to dial in the focus).

WYSIWYG

live and learn... 3 times i caught up with my groups - thats intentionally dwindling for 5 secs after they gave the go signal. 2 times i didnt have enough fuel to finish the re-run

happy bday btw

John/TSR

"Glad I finally got to meet John/TSR. not sure yet what to think about him kissing mustang man's bald head, heh"

"Cue-Ball" (aka Paul Levine) has been highly trained at the "TSR School of Racing and Carousing". He'll claim that I taught him how to RACE, but I'm not going to take credit for that...as he teeters between 'brilliance' and 'shipwreck' each weekend. He's just part of my large fan club...I should sell t-shirts. Not really sure why he was insisting that all the winners kiss his head, but (as you can tell by the can of Yuengling Lager in my hand) I was fully caught up in the spirit of the awards ceremony. SMOOCH. He's getting re-married in about 3 weeks, and I'm sure that the future Mrs. Cue-Ball won't approve of any of us...but boy-oh-boy is she in for an rude introduction when we all arrive. God help her. Paul's various racing friends are under NO orders to behave themselves.

You gotta start working on the rest of the Canucks about Summit Point in November. "FATT" (Friday at the Track) still has seats open on the Friday before, so you'll get to play, too. If Warren **** is lurking about here on AW, he can explain what hanging around with us for a race weekend at Summit Point can do to your brain...

the dev

good stuff man... makes me want to start racing!