What's Next?

As we roll through Iowa today I have plenty of time for reflection, that's one of the reasons I travel with the cars when I can. (It keeps me pretty focused on work too, since there's not much else to do.) The question on the teams mind, and the one we keep asking Vesko is what car is next? Keith, ultimately has the final decision, but he's not here to pester. In true Vesko style he's not giving much away.

Racing can be painful, but "nothing good comes easy," right? Keith is feeling the pain today, turns out he has 5 broken ribs, he was just too tough to realize it. The team in the toter is feeling the pain trying to stay on the no ac program Vesko believes in for heat-tolerance training—it's been 96º in here for most of the day. I do think it works, and every time I get to grouchy about it all I have to do is think about my sister and her family who are missionaries in the Dominican Republic —they never have the luxury of ac, or hot showers.

This weekend was another disappointment, but I hope we learned a lot, and I think we had fun anyway. We had some of the best accomodations and food that we've had at a race. Hanging out by the fire at Somewhere in Time was just icing on the cake. Thanks especially to our team, from this race Boli, Josh, Joe and the rest from other races this year, the Bush Decor gang, our strategsits John and Sara, Andy the miracle chef, and Keith and Vesko, my co-driver Byron, and to Grand-am for letting me race! This is truly a team sport, we wouldn't get anywhere with out the complete team, thanks again to Penske Racing.

Looking over this blog there's a lot of disappointment, but also a lot of fun, teamwork and passion. I've met so many great people and gotten to travel to interesting places, and best of all gone racing. So the question isn't are we going racing again, it's when?

Mid Ohio Race Day

Monday, June 22, 2009

Race Day (pictures to come later) By Sara Levitt

Sitting in the trailer listening to the bits and pieces of the awards ceremony that drifted over from the loud speakers, it really hit me that the weekend was over. While it was exhausting and at times frustrating, it was always fun. The company, the food, the track even the disappointments, is all part of racing which means that mishaps and hardships included, its one of the things I love most in the world. 

Unfortunately we weren't able to finish the race. With only ten laps remaining, a call came over the radios that made all of our hearts sink. "Guys, I'm coming in. We don't have brakes. The car isn't drive able." We had lost the driver's front caliper, our race was over. Since other cars had ended their races before we did, we finished 26th, dropping only two spots from our qualifying position, even with mechanical problems. 

Byron and Lara drove their hearts out and all things considered with the car, were incredible. The amount of mental and physical focus that goes into endurance racing is something many people don't comprehend. Our drivers need to drive flawlessly for over an hour. By the time you get our of the car, you're both physically and mentally exhausted. When you factor in the heat, the traffic, the pressure and the stress, its a victory alone that they kept lap times consistent and made minimal errors. I'm so proud of both of them, for all of us, for being here and doing it, finishing position aside. 

All in all I think the weekend was a great success. We learned a lot about the cars and team dynamics that provided vital information for the future. You have to start somewhere, and its never going to be perfect. Learning from our mistakes will only make us better. And while I can only speak for myself, it was an amazing time and I learned a lot about myself. 

Most importantly, I need to thank Doug, John, John and Fred fromPenske for helping us with our pit stop. We couldn't have even started the race without you. You brought a great confidence to the team, especially by letting us sit in the "condo" to watch timing and scoring. And for letting me pretend to be Roger Penske for two hours. Congratulations on your fourth place finish. I also want to thank Nancy at Somewhere in Time for graciously opening her beautiful home to us and making amazing breakfasts very early every morning and to Jeff Smallwood at Grand-Am for being so helpful and supportive. He made me feel so welcome and included. It was so nice to see a friendly, smiling face every time I was at the Grand-Am trailer. Wes Duenkel was also a great help today taking pictures for us (Wes took the pictures I will be posting later). He was also staying at the same bed and breakfast. It was great getting to talk to you and look at your amazing pictures. They are very different than most motorsports pictures, and the artistic element in them is incredible. 

And thank you, for reading and following us this weekend. I'll leave you with Keith's words of wisdom from the weekend - "Why not?"

Qualifying and GS race

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Qualifying and should have been our race day. By Sara Levitt

Another early morning, another day of rain. Lara drove awesome in the rain, very smooth and very fast. It dried up for qualifying which turned out to be like a race. Lara said people were passing and driving like it was race day. Unfortunately that meant it was tough to get a good, clean qualifying lap. We ended up 24^th, but I’m sure we’ll do well tomorrow.

After our sessions, we practiced our pit stops. At first, Lara and Byron were practicing our driver changes. After a couple pretty tough shin scraps, Joe took over as our stunt double.

After taking a couple seconds off our pit stop times, it was time to relax. Yes, this is Vesko enjoying a beer! 

Everyone is in good spirits tonight as we sit across the fire in the back yard of our bed and breakfast. There are peacocks… making peacock noises… (I don’t know what you call the noise that comes out of this bird) and watching the fire flies. Its been a great weekend so far and I think tomorrow will go well.

 

Friday at Mid O - Rain to Dry

Overall I would classify today as"uneventful" although it really didn't feel that way from where I was sitting. As the always helpful Koni staff member Jeff Smallwood said "Did you damage any cars? Ruin a set of tires? No? Then today was a good day."

I didn't think so when I was headed into the same tires Keith ran into yesterday. Thankfully I ended up getting the car turned a bit and missed them by about a foot. Then I did it again, different place. The car is fine, I'll be qualifying tomorrow.

This afternoon we alse had a tornado scare, the sky got black and green and coulds were spinning in a circle above us. The wind got crazy and we were all tying down our easy-ups and securing everything light. We took a few moments to watch the sky but the clouds moved on and blue sky prevailed. Keith was hoping for one that would pick up the Mustang so he could turn it in into his insurance.

Byron and I are still challenged by the Civic, but are making some progress. Neither of us could break out of the 1.40's. First session was heavy rain while I was in the car and stopping during Byron's stint, but never drying up. Even an hour later when the Rolex cars were out, it had not rained anymore, but was still very wet. We walked the whole track and watched them, which helped me learn the rain line better.

The second session of the day I made the mistake if pushing too hard and having some big offs. Unusually we finshed early and had time for a dinner out together. There aren't many dining options here in town, but it's beautiful, and a terribly fun track.

Koni Practice Day at Mid Ohio

Here's a post from Sara our new Civic strategist, management assistant and all-around help. You'll see her posting here now to help me keep up and also I hope there will be post from John Hanson our new head strategist for the team. Thanks Sara and John and also to ALL of our fab crew!

Practice, Day 1 at Mid O What a day...
By Sara Levitt

We got to the track at 7:00am, after a 6:15 wake up call and awesome breakfast by Nancy (our house "mom"). It was humid and slightly hazy from the early morning fog. We had all prepared for rain but luckily it never came. The track itself is a little disorienting for one being used to a wide open oasis in the middle of the Tooele desert. The track is in the heart of the country, where there are bails of hay and red farm houses. It comes out of no where, and all of the sudden you see the familiar semis, smell the race gas, hear the engines and you know you're at a race track.

We were in meetings until our first session, which went well. It was Byron's first time on the track and he dropped time like crazy. Lara has had a little more experience here and sounded
confident over the radios, she says the track "feels like a roller coaster". Vesko and Keith went out next and everything went as planned. Still no rain. Both cars had another session, then it was lunch.

After lunch the Civic went out again. Byron was dropping lap times and let us know he was having fun and the car felt good, even for the track being so "snug". Once again, everything was running smoothly and by this time it had cleared into a warm sunny day, perfect for racing.

And then, in true racing style, our day went from smooth sailing to gail force winds in one lap. Vesko had just brought the car in on the Mustang's third session, he jumped out and Keith jumped in. Keith's lap times had been close to Vesko's and we were all excited to see how much more time he could drop.

The course went to a black flag, Josh radioed to Keith to bring the car back into the pits. No answer. John tried. No answer. I called, at this point, a little frustrated we couldn't get a hold of him. Still no answer. At the same time a woman ran over to our pit spot and yelled "is your driver okay?! He's on the roof!!" On the roof?! All of us jumped in golf carts and took off to see what had happened. Keith was in the medical tent, so the rest of us went to see the car. This is what we found:



Keith had lost brakes coming out of the Key Hole at 100+ mph. As he hit the curbing,
Keith and the Mustang caught air, about 15 feet of it say the drivers behind him. Keith landed on the top of the tire barrier, pushing a solid concrete block about two feet outwards. Then, he landed on the side on the ground below.

Keith was "banged up but not broken" as John put it. Luckily and thankfully no one was hurt. Our morale suffered a little, but this is racing, and unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens.

We got the Civic ready for tomorrow, figured out a plan, and ate some awesome dinner, (thanks to Andy - our "dead man") and after an "atheistically" pleasing sunset, left the track and headed back "home" around 9:45 pm.

We've got our fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow, and with all hands on deck for the Civic, I think everything will go back to being as planned (knock on wood).

Civic Racing V2.0

Thanks to Keith and his trucks — that happened to be in Florida heading back to Utah — we were able to get the crashed Civic home. Vesko and Boli are looking for undamaged parts to use on V2.0. So far the passenger door works, as it was only slightly damaged.

Finding a trailer in the Orlando / Daytona area ended up being a 4 am to 7 pm challenge, but Vesko managed it and Boli, his dad and Jay drove the trucks home uneventfully. Thanks guys!

V2.0 is underway and we plan to have it in the Koni race at Laguna Seca in May. I'll be driving with Jeff Morgan.

We're packing for the Miami Koni race now. Vesko leaves with Pratt Cole and Ron on Saturday and we will both be returning with the hauler, which is still at Black Forest Racing in DeLand. They have been very helpful and supportive of our team. They are partial to Guinness beer (in a can) which is not in plentiful supply. I have found a few local areas to procure it and I make the rounds when I'm there.

Race Day

It was just another race day, a million details to follow-up on, crew to organze and dress, meetings to get to, and I wasn't even driving. I've decided it's much more stressful to watch and wait from the pits. I started the race watching from the in-field near turn two, where it turns out three cars went down on the first lap. The race included 7 full-course cautions, and a couple more minor contacts to the Mustang. Keith missed the first big crash by a small margin, but ended up clipping a Porsche who decided to park in the middle of turn one. This damaged the rear suspension again (that's two rear-ends in one weekend). The back left tire spent the rest of the race heading in the wrong direction and trying to put the back of the car into the wall.

The car finished a decent 17th in GS, finished being the keyword.

Daytona Practice and Qualifying

Practice - Hit in the first lap.

Vesko headed out for his first lap in the Mustang only to have a BMW not see him as he passed and hit him in the back left wheel. The wheel was destroyed and the Mustang spun six times close to the wall, then shot down through the infield still traveling at 120 mph. The compete rear-end was damaged and had to be replaced, but the car made it out for the second session, thanks to a hard working crew. Our crew is comprised of Erich Ficker as crew chief, four volunteers plus a gang that Keith brought.




Qualifying - Hit in the last Lap

Keith did an excellent qualifying lap of 2.03.1, which starts them 21st in a field of 34 GS cars. There are 69 cars total in the Koni Challenge race. On the last lap he had contact with a TRG Porche (John Potter?), which did some minor front end damage.

The End of Koni Test Days = The End of the Civic

Daytona was going GREAT, the cars were getting better and better, and we were all enjoying the track and the weather. It was 80 degrees and sunny — while it was snowing back at home — gorgeous days. The track at Daytona is a fun place to drive, we were getting faster, and finding what the car needed to be competitive. The Civic designed and built by Veskso was impressive. There were the usual improvements that can only be found by putting a car on track, but each session saw progress.

Vesko, and Erich Ficker, (our crew chief for the season) worked hard since we went without any other crew for the test. They had both the Civic and the Mustang GS car owned by Keith Rossberg to care for.

In the last session we had a renter in the Civic who lost it in the kink and ended up hitting the wall a couple of times. He has a broken wrist, but is otherwise ok. It was a terribly hard hit, which shows how well the cars are built–to be able to take an impact like that and protect the driver.

Our plan is to find another Civic, and work day and night to finish it for the Race in Miami. This will be a repeat of the first Civic, since he literally finished it five minutes before putting it in the hauler to head for Florida. This plan is contingent on Vesko getting paid for the damage of his car. Once he gets the money he can start ordering parts and looking for another Civic.

Daytona Test Days '09

I finally have a little downtime to enjoy the warm FL weather and relax for a minute. There are four of us here for the test days: Vesko, Keith myself and Erich Ficker as crew. That's right, once again we only have one crew member. It's been a little difficult and we're all ready for some sleep, but both cars are on track and looking great. I had my first session this morning and it was a lot of fun, but challenging to learn a new car and track at the same time. The Honda was jumping around so much I though it was experiencing technical difficulties, but that's just the track here, super bumpy!

We need to change the map—we're running on the factory settings. We are hitting the rev limiter too early and not able to use complete power in places, going around the oval we have to lift a little, and stay in 5th, since sifting to 6th actually slows the car down. we'll bring the computer home and get that fixed after test days. The cars are staying here until the East coast races are over.