Race Report – VIR March 2011 | John George Racing

Weekend of March 25-27 I was at VIR for the first race of 2011. Towing down with Jim hauling the FFR 2-car enclosed trailer we got to the track Thursday night. After getting the car teched for 2011, we were all set for Friday test/tune. The first 3 sessions were a breeze, car running well, was happy that the new wire harness I put in over the winter worked. Well, on session 4 I’m on track and the fuse blows to the computer, killing the car instantly. I get towed back in by the track safety workers, and after diagnosing the electrical issue, getting some really weird behavior (fuse blowing even with the ECU not connected to the wire harness..) I finally get a combination of ECU/sensors to work by replacing the existing with spares that I have brought and am all ready for Saturday.

Saturday rolls by and in the practice session car dies again, blown fuse… here we go again. Swapping out the computer again (I brought 2 extras) to get it to stop blowing fuses, driving it around the pits car seems fine. Qualifying session starts, I line up right behind Jim and as we pull onto the track not even 300ft car dies again. This time no fuse blows so now Im completely puzzled. Diagnosing the problem, the ECU is completely dead, take out my last spare ECU and swap it out. Car fires right up, drive it again in the pits like I have done before, seems good.

Saturday’s sprint race has me last in the FFR group because I didn’t qualify, P7, at the green flag I get a great launch and am able to sneak in the middle of Peter and Marty and set off to catch the leaders Jim/Paul along with Carl in 3rd. Carl and I have a good battle until Carl decides he can break really late for turn 1 and promptly goes off the track leaving me with a clear path to go catch up to Jim and Paul. I set a blistering lap while chasing Jim who is now in 2nd as Paul being a master in traffic is able to gap him. With Jim in my sights I get a great draft on the back straight and am able to pass him, then he gets a nice draft off me on the front straight, this goes on for a couple of laps. We both see the white flag.. one lap to go, its on, both Jim and I pushing the cars to their max.. I unfortunately make a mistake at the oak tree turn (before the back straight) and Jim gets around me. Not loosing too much time I’m back on the attack, breaking really late at the end of the back straight, now back on Jim’s bumper.. a couple of more turns to the front straight and the checker flag. Coming out of the last turn the car bobbles a little fighting to gain traction, I’m still able to get a mean draft off of Jim’s car and at the start finish we are side by side, at the time not knowing that Jim about 1ft in front of my car! The difference between Jim in 2nd and me in 3rd was .029 seconds! Paul won the race. As a bonus, my blistering lap catching Jim and Paul turns out to be a new lap record 2:11.950 for FFR!

Sunday brings a wet track as it has rained throughout the night. Jim not having rain tires stayed dry in the trailer. I put my rain tires on the car and went to qualify. Towards the end of qualifying a dry line started to form all of us hoping to be able to use our dry racing tires for the 40min race at 1:20pm. Peter packed up as his knee was bothering him so that left us with 6 FFRs (new guy Ray Pasquerella’s car had overheating issues and he packed up Saturday). The race grid was Paul on pole with me second, Carl, Marty, Tom and Jim gridded last. At the drop of the flag Paul and I start what will be an epic race swapping positions just about every lap. I was able to get in front of Paul early and was building a nice gap to him until traffic messed up my plans. Paul was flying trying to catch me, eventually got back on my bumper starting the back and forth battle. 2 laps to go Paul gets a great run onto the front straight and is able to force me to the outside of turn one, both of us going full speed and breaking at the last possible second. Well, I broke a little too late locking up the front wheels and went off the track.. as I get back on the racing surface, there goes Jim flying by with not enough laps left to catch him I finished 3rd.

Paul when he was chasing me ended up breaking my lap record set Saturday by .003, he now has the lap record at VIR with a 2:11.947.

Carl’s Race Report: http://ffrchallenge. … ts/2011/ecs_0311.pdf

Pictures (not that many): http://www.johngeorgeracing.com/gallery/index.php?/category/292

Incar Videos:
Quadscreen of Saturday’s race from Jim, Paul, me, and Carl: