Learning to race update #3 - video & photos - long

[MarkP]

Wow, May was a busy month learning to race vintage Porsches (68 911). Memorial Day weekend took us up to Mission British Columbia for the BC Historics weekend. The Canadians were great hosts and it was a fun event.

The track at Mission is a tight busy one – short 1.6 miles with nine turns including four 180 degree hairpins. Plenty of concrete walls and not much run off. I never even got into 5th gear on this track, it was like a big autocross with other cars on the course. It’s was a lot of fun.

I ran with a mixed group of 26 cars under 2 liter. After qualifying near the back of the back I started race one (Saturday) in the back of the grid and got aggressive about the first passes of my short racing career – what a blast tailing someone close for a few laps, recognizing where they’re slow and then surprising them with a pass in a corner.

I moved up to 12th spot after passing several other kinds of cars and two 911’s (photos below and passes on the video). On the last lap, with ½ mile to go in the race, I had what sounded and felt like major engine failure. I was able to coast into the pits with a DNF.

A bunch of the other 911 racers jumped in and helped me figure out that one of my rocker pins had worked its way out and the rocker had fallen loose. NO damage –we had it back together in an hour and it was running perfectly – amazing!

On Sunday, because of my DNF I started at the back of the grid again in race 2 and moved up quickly into 12th position and had a great battle with a nice black 67 911S (Gary Tisdale). I never got around him, but it was a dog fight the whole race.

In race 3, I was gridded in the middle of the pack right behind Gary. After the start down the straight we were side-by-side through hairpin one and two. Coming out of two I got the pedal down quicker and made the pass. For the next 15 minutes he was chasing me and again, it was a great race!

With five minutes left in the last race of the weekend I got the meat ball flag from the starters tower – this means something mechanical is wrong with your car, go immediately to the pits - I did and (this is when I got po’d) the pit guy tells me that my car is over the noise limit and I had to quit racing!

In two days this was my sixth session on the track – final race, five minutes to go and I’m finally kick’n some a__ (OK middle of the pack, but it’s a start) and they pull me off the track because my car is 2db over the sound limit! Jeez, they can keep their funny looking money (sorry Doug).

Anyway, it was a fun weekend and I learned a bunch and met a bunch of great folks. Despite the noise issue, I’ll go back next year.

For those of you who don’t want to download the big video below are some frame grabs from the video of my first two 911 passes. My wife was in the stands with the camera.

4 minute in car and out of car video – 32mb

First 911 pass, I'm the orange car...











Next Lap

I think you did great. It looked good at least. I really like the engine sound. Great stuff.

What was the smoke in the end?

[Sonic dB]

Cool Video Mark... reminiscent of Steve McQueen at Le Mans. I kept yelling "catch him" when you were behind that little MG, or whatever it was... then you tracked down and passed that white 911. Good work. Red Cars go faster you know...

[MMARSH]

Good Job! Looks like your really starting to get the hang of it. It's alot of fun actually having to think about where you can put a move on a car and have it stick, then having to defend your position. It's fun to win (so I've been told) but as long as your having a duel with another car it's a total blast.

When's the next race?

[MarkP]

Thanks all - yes, this is super fun!

Mikkel, the smoke is when the rocker pin slipped out and oil was leaking in through the valve (I think??).

The next race in the Pacific NW Historics, July 4-6 at Pacific Raceway in Kent, WA. Should be the biggest event of the year with cars from all over the US and 15,000 spectators.