We Made it !

The CTF Crew !!

The CTF #85 finished in 16th position in the GT class and 27th overall. We were literally 1 tire and 4 stud bolts away from at least a top five finish. We have an awesome team all the way around ! Frank and the crew did an awesome job and gave us a great ride. The CTF kids gave us inspiration to finish and persevere through this gruelling event. My Co- drivers are studs, talk about getting it done the last three hours. El Pollo Loco(aka Richard) was the man. Driving the last 2.5 hrs with no clutch and no 5th gear. What an effort by everyone involved. Over the next few days I will post a race summary on my experience, but today " I'm going to Disneyworld !!"

So.... what are we going to do next year. I feel a podium coming on !!

Year 2, Take 2, Keep those Fingers Crossed

Well, I guess we are ready to go !
Finished up with the afternoon practices yesterday. Richard was cranking. He got down near 1:52 Flat in the am session. In the afternoon, the car started to feel light in the front end and picked up a little left front vibration. My goal was to stay away from everyone one the track, and just shift some gears. Unfortunately, you can't do that on a race track. I was tippy toeing around in the high 55 low 56’s. Then the Ferrari wants to race I lift to left him by, he doesn’t go in the bus stop. I have more speed down in to turn one. I lift again he takes me on the outside then throws it off the track into turn one and turns back right in front of me as I turn in. Luckily, knowing these guys are idiots I was ready and went off to avoid. Car was placed in the garage safely. The Ferrari wrecked my 63 car last year and our wreck our sister car 64 last year and took them out of contention. So we’ll suit up tomorrow and run with what we got !
Before the afternoon session we had an autograph session with the kids, they were having a great time crawling all over the car. Jill and Bob Beck did a great job putting it together. All of the CTF people have been awesome to be around. Looking forward to today’s session.
We then had a CTF dinner in the Evening, It again was a well planned great event. It was moving for the team to get autographed plaques from the kids, and talk with some of the parents. I think the non-medical members of the team got a lesson on how tough it is to deal with a chronic disease process and what we as physicians have to do every day when we see patients.
Tomorrow(today) will be busy. The goal is to stay rested before the race !

AND GET IN A CAR! Hopefully in the top ten, then I can start my march to the back ! My goal is to be on the lead lap when I get out of the car.

May the race gods be with us !! and EJ too

Ron

Wolf Henzler is the MAN !!!

Frank and I dejectedly Push the 85 CTF car back from post qualifying tech

Wow!
What a Day. They talk about the highs in lows in motors sports, I feel like I’m Bipolar after today!!We arrived at the track at 7am Got everything ready for Wolf Henzler to shake down the car so we could start our rotations. Wolf had an incident when the splitter separated from the car. No contact or off road excursion. So We had to replace the splitter which took up the rest of the practice session. Wolf got back in and the car was tight into the corners and snappy loose off just as it was last month. The crew worked diligently to get the set up right with one hour before qualifying we found there was an issue with one of the vacuum lines which had to be replaced. We were now ready for qualifying, Wolf took the car out and reported a vibration on his out lap, to the point he could not drive the car, He brought the car to pit road, our hearts dropped. Grand Am said we couldn’t touch the car. Wolf went back out and with a HUGE vibration in the car he started turning laps and getting faster and faster. Any vibration in a race car is bad, he laid down a 1:51.0 we were estatic, over the radio We hear in a German Accent, “think I can go faster”, Next lap 1:50.5, Frank, our gruff but loveable crew chief tells him to park it. He wants I more lap, He turns a 1:49.885 and the time P3. We end up 5th in Spot. This guy has LARGE ones!!. That is why he is one of the best Porsche drivers in the world.

Wolf Henzler, No. 85: "I left the pits and then I had a big vibration in the car. It was too risky, so I pitted immediately. The crew couldn't find anything, so I said I would go out again and I would do only one timed lap. I did 1:50.1, then I heard on the radio that Andy Lally [in another Porsche] was doing 49.5 and I knew I could go quicker. So I decided to do another lap. Even with the vibration, it was better and the more laps I did, the quicker I went. The crew did a good job and prepared the car very well."

Our goes through tech, Frank and I are down waiting for them to release the car. When I here the official call for Frank, We are disqualified from the session our car is too low. Which means we would have to attempt to qualify for 20th spot tomorrow. We were crushed. Frank takes the car back to the garage to get ready for the night session and finds that our splitter had be damages which caused our infraction. He calls the official over to show him and they allow us to appeal the ruling. Hours go by and we hear nothing. At that point is was my turn to get in the car, I jump in around 7:30 and start winding out a few laps. Never really get a clean one, but into the low56.s Then as I come into the bus stop a Ferrari in front of me stops at the turn in I have to jump on the binders and Do a big loopy spin at about 120mph Mostly on the pavement as I’m Locked up backwards I see the comforting sight lights of 3 DP’s bearing down on me. I keep the car running and Hustle out of there with no damage other than to my shorts, and a few flat spots on the tires. Turn a few more slow laps and turn the car over to Dan who goes a great job, down in the 56’s as well.
We head back to the garage. As we are putting the car away for the night, we are told we have won Our appeal (which never happens!!) and our 5th place run counts !

Back to Happy
We’ll see what tomorrow Brings.
I hope less drama !! But I doubt it
Ron

Notes from the Roar Before the 24

"Night Practice, Talk about Fun !"

Well we finished up with the "Roar before the 24" 10 days ago. The good news is we found our fourth driver, Richaed Campollo (a.k.a. el pollo loco). He is an outstanding young driver in the Formula Renault series in Europe, and a quality individual that adds that youthful enthusiasm to the team. The best was when he was calling Wolf Henzler, one of the best Porsche guys in the world "Langsam", which is slow in German. Wolf drove the #85 R4R car down in the upper 1:51 range and I believe that was in the top 5 times for the weekend. Richard speaks 7 languages and will also be our teams Babe Magnet. Our driver line up has great chemisty and a good strategy for the race. I hope it pans out. Our crew chief Frank Resenetti is one of the best, He worked with Krohn racing when they won the championship, and was Dale Ernhardts crew chief on the #3 Corvette team. He expects a lot out of us, I hope we live up to those expectations.
The bad news is that we were chasing the set up on the car all weekend long. It would push into the cornor and then become snappy loose just after apexing the cornor. It was a handful. Towards the end of the test, we started to get it dialed in, but we were still slower than we needed to be. So, we still have some set up work to be done when we get back to the track. Richard did well in his first test in a car with a roof on it. His times methodically kept dropping, and he remainded level headed in the car (which had to be hard for him !). Dan Graeff ran consistently all weekend as did Micheal Gomez. When it was all said and done an intact car was placed back into the hauler! Any time you can roll the car into the trailer after a three day test in Grand-Am you had a sucessful test.
So, we are ready to go !, We need to pickup a little more speed, but our consistency should payoff for us. All that we need to do is keep it on the track, Stay out of the pits except for fuel, tires and driver changes and we should do well. Sounds easy enough! but it ain't. It's those 54 other cars that cause the problems.

See ya in Daytona

Ron