Beaverun

Beaver Run.

The trip into Beaverun was grueling. We started the day before in South Carolina and then traveled 106 miles to the BMW testing grounds for a quick lap around there test track and finally we trekked nearly 600 miles up to Beaverun. We got into the Hotel around 2am and were up at 6am to go racing. Although we seemed OK the three of us were beat up pretty good and what little sleep we got only served to mask the real exhaustion we were all experiencing.

Like many of the stops along the One Lap route we had visitors take time out of there day to come down and cheer us on. We had three complete strangers from Rochester NY whom none of us had ever meet make the trip down because they were following along on our website and wanted to see what we were all about . Steve’s wife and Mom also made the trip along with his best man Ben and his two kids too. A fellow GalantVR4.org guy stopped by as well. I can’t tell what it means to us personally as well as mentally to have this kind of support. Where ever we go we have supporters and it didn’t go unnoticed. MotorTrend and our fellow One Lappers were talking about us and the following we had. To everyone who stopped out and supported thank you.

Beaverun is a track that we had used the month before when we first tested the One Lap VR4. I was familiar with the layout but I was also feeling the pressure. RJ in the STi was 10 points ahead of us in class so we would have to win both sessions at Beaverun as well as the skid pad to snatch second place from him. I know Steve can school him on the skid pad which meant that it was up to me to win out the day.

My first recon lap went well and I felt comfortable with the track but the car was sputtering again and down on boost. It felt fast enough as is so I didn’t touch a thing before my timed runs. I got out of the hole pretty good and the first couple of turns I did well. The car was still sputtering but I pressed on. Coming up the hill on the back side of the course is an uphill right hander followed by a quick left with a blind apex leading to a tiny strait and finishing with a sweeping downhill right hander with a blind apex. I nailed the way up the hill but I was hitting the down hill right to hot and pushing out wide into the a part of the track that was pretty bumpy. This was hurting my times and from the sidelines Mike could see my line was off. Turn 10 which puts you back on the front strait is one of those turns that nobody gets right and feels slow to everybody. Because of the turbo lag I did it in second which felt really slow on turn in.

I didn’t get a good feeling as I finished up knowing I wasn’t fast out there. From the observation deck I borrowed a stopwatch and watched RJ in the Sti nail the same turn I had messed up three times in a row hit the marks with perfection. My hopes sank when I got his first lap time 1:11s. My lap times were 1:12s and I knew it was over. It was a long walk back to the pits but “it is what it is” and RJ earned the win without a doubt.

Seeing Steve’s wife and Mom show up put me back in a good place and I relaxed and really enjoyed the break between sessions. The second session I had a great little cheering section that I could see from inside the car. I also had a little bit of pride to deal with. I was not going to loose two times in a row to RJ. I opened the glove box and gave the boost controller a good twist and I went over the entry to the down hill right hander in my head a couple of times just for good measure. My first recon lap went well and I broke a bit harder into that turn and I landed right on the apex like I wanted and it felt fast. On my third lap coming out of turn 10 the transmission balked again on the shift from second to third and it felt like I lost an eternity out there.

It finally went into third and as I passed the start finish I got the checker flag to signal the end of my run. I pulled into the pits knowing I hadn’t left anything out there and I was confident RJ would struggle to match that time.

When the results posted I had indeed lost the first session to RJ. I finished 21st with a 3:34.6s while RJ finished 17th with a 3:32.5s run. Almost 2 seconds faster. My second run was the money with me finishing 14th overall running a 3:27.9s run and RJ 15th with a 3:30.7s. Not only did I beat RJ but I beat him by nearly 3 seconds and almost tied with the 13th overall finisher in the GT3 which calls Beaverun his home track. I was pleased with the results to say the least.

We packed up, said our good byes, and headed out to the last event which is the dry skid pad at the Tire Rack. With today’s performance we are third in class trailing RJ by 10 points. In order for us to steal second place from him we will need some help. Not only will we have to beat him he will also have to finished third or lower in class. At this stage in the event his driving is in top form and luck will have to come into play.