Mosport Round 8 of the SPEED World Challenge

TC Race Report Through the Windshield of the Woodhouse/Kicker/Alex’s Lemonade Dodge SRT-4

by Brian Smith

The Kicker/Woodhouse Dodge SRT-4 team would like to put in a request for “no luck”.  We do not need good luck … we just do not need the bad luck.

People talk about how tough it is to learn Mosport and how difficult it is to be fast.  I can understand why.  I heard similar comments when I first went to the Nurburgring.  Actually, Mosport seems like a scaled down (much scaled down) Nurburgring.  Hills, blind corners, high speed blind corners, bumps, off camber corners, etc.  If there was a track that practice would be important it would be here.

So, to make it an interesting weekend our motor decided to throw in the towel after a few laps in the first practice session on the promoter test day.  It probably decided it did not like life in the oil temperature range we had been asking it to live for half the season.  That meant no practice and the crew (Joel, Larry, Marvin) spent the rest of the day replacing the motor.  A few laps around the paddock that evening insured the car was ready for the next day.

The first official twenty minute practice session was utilized to learn the track and determine that our setup from Road America was not going to work here.  The car was bouncing around at inappropriate times, locking the rear tires during braking, etc.  Minor details.  The team did some significant changes to the setup for the second and final practice session which resulted in 7^th fastest.  Not bad considering we were utilizing our new restrictor from our friends at SCCA and we only had about 15 laps around the track.  If we had another test session we could have tuned the car better, but at least we were in the ball park.  Hope was high for qualifying and the race.

The qualifying session started off damp with a dry line at the end of the session.  We were quick in the first couple of laps when it was damp, but fuel pump issues in the fuel cell resulted in a sputtering motor after two laps.  So we were unable to take advantage of the drying conditions like everyone else.  The result was our worse qualifying position of the year for the Woodhouse/Kicker Dodge SRT-4 … 21^st.  Where was that “no luck”?  The positive was we would have a good shot at the “hard charger” award. 

Race day appeared with every team trying to play weather forecaster.  At the time for the cars to be taken to the grid the track was still very wet and there was light rain.  However, the radar showed it might stop during our race which could result in a dry line.  Hmm … the big question was whether to go out on rain tires or dry tires.  We chose rain tires with our best guess of a rain setup.  A few teams went to grid with dry tires.  All of them except one changed to rains in the grid … the car that did not ended up in the kitty litter during the race.  One team missed the grid all together while they were contemplating their setup.  This was going to be a fun race.  We lined up for the standing start only to learn that one of the cars had blown up on the warm up lap so we would be doing a single file rolling start.  Bummer!!  I am sure we would have gained several positions on the start.  The start came and I was caught out a little (the front guys started racing around turn 8) at the start.  There were several cautions which robbed us of green flag racing laps.  However, we were able to work our way up to 11^th.  We would have finished better then that except the handling went away in the last 4 or 5 laps and I spent a lot of time dueling with Altenburg for the 10^th position.  Actually, that was fun.  We were passing each other multiple times in the same corner.  All while in close quarters with less then ideal traction.  We never touched … not sure how.  Keep an eye out for the last part of the TV broadcast.  I did not mention that we had plenty of large oversteer moments during the race, but no issues.  We did have an interesting moment on one of the restarts.  I dove to the inside of the Tindol car into turn 1, on the slippery part of the track, which resulted in a full counter steer slide beside him.  The good news is we did not hit him or spin … the bad news is we did not get that position.  However, he did spin himself at turn 2 which allowed me to get around.

So we ended the race in 11^th with the “hard charger” award.  Not bad for the eventful weekend.  Hopefully we will have “no luck” at Road Atlanta and we can pull off a win.

Thanks to the entire crew for the long hours changing the motor, fixing the fuel issues and the setup changes.

Remember to go online at www.woodhouse.com to purchase your next vehicle no matter where you live, upgrade your car stereo system or purchase your SRT with Kicker products (www.kicker.com), visit www.turnonetrackevents.com for corporate and track day events and consider supporting www.alexslemonade.com in their fight against children’s cancer.

Rd. America Round 7, Elkhart Lake Wi. August 18-20  and

Mosport Round 8 Toronto, Canada Sept. 1-3 of the 2006 SPEED World Challenge GT races as seen through the Woodhouse Windshield

Loyal followers; I so apologize.  The Round 7 race report got buried among the staples of survival between races (ie: making a living).  I ask your forgiveness and offer resolution by putting 7 and 8 together. 

Road America, if they made a heaven for a car guy, this would be it.  Hundreds of acres of beautiful green trees and grass with a four mile ribbon of asphalt race track laced through it.  Included are three near mile long straights.  That equates to one of the faster average lap speeds in the road racing world .  And it is no less a rush.

The Race:  As the lights went out, the noise got deafening from all of these World Challenge GT race cars headed for turn one like hell shot out of a cannon.  I have a grin, I can’t recall a better standing start. Gridded directly in front of me in his Lime Green Viper Competition Coupe is Rob Foster.  Rob roasted em a bit so I pulled up along side, since asphalt was at a premium I had to use the grass.  Traction is less good on the green leaving a net gain of zero by the time we arrived at turn one.   Through turns one and two the cars stay two wide.  The #13 Woodhouse Auto Family/Kicker/Dodge Viper Competition Coupe is in the inside lane at the exit of turn five and we are blending into single file.  Rob goes a bit wide and the Viper in front of me now is Rich Marziale who slips to the inside and goes by Rob up the hill to 6.  I follow but am a half car short of making a safe pass.  Turn 8 again leaves an opportunity as I manage a fender to the inside of Rob going into the Carousel.  Again; pull back.  Through the carousel into the kink goes the line of cars using every ounce of grip their tires can create on this cool sunny day.  We arrive at the brake zone of  Canada Corner doing 140 mph.  Rob is directly in front and I speculate that he sees a large cloud of smoke in front of him and dives to the left earlier than expected.  Mind says:  “Bob, opportunity window, did you hear the bell or are you gonna just sit on the couch?” This is racing; I’m in, I brake softly and stay tucked to the inside of Canada Corner rattling over the inside candies.  At the apex comes a ka-whump-whump, as I peripherally observe the lime green machine careen off of the driver side.  Physics lesson at work, (you know, equal and opposite and all that) the ensuing spin into the gravel trap substantiates there are no new rules to go by.  The ka-whaump is no small thing and I in the mean time am wiggling around out of shape but manage to find a forward gear and move on.  Not before a Yellow Corvette comes blazing by. 

Two corners later I find my nose close enough to him going up the long straight to pull some draft.  As the Corvette approached turn one both he and I knew the intent; to pop out at the last minute and put my car on his inside at corner one.  So the Vette waited to brake as long as possible.  Perhaps too long since he slid off the end of the corner and allowed me to go on without him.  The entire race was full from beginning to end with battles like this.  Never this much war for a full race.  Big fun.  I recall passing Ritch Marziele on the restart (due to the crash of Adel Asayed and Mike Hartley in the Kink)only to be re-passed by him again later when we got into traffic. 

Near the race end, the Volvo had it’s drain plug fall out pumping oil onto the racing line, which came within a hairs width of changing the outcome of my day as I drove over it in full steering lock sideways followed by Jimmy McCann. 

Jimmy came through a bit more collected and found his way to my rear bumper going up the front straight.  He had every intention of doing unto me what I had bestowed on the Corvette at turn one earlier.  And it was happening, only this time I was the one attempting to wait to the last minute.  It ain’t easy guessing the exact spot to brake when you are clippin off 150 mph.  Apparently Jimmy got distracted slightly on his brake point and made a graceful arc past me on the inside and off into the corner exit grass on the other side of turn one.  No harm, no foul, but allowed me to maintain that 10^th position finishing spot.  Barely a top ten but it felt like much more.

Mosport; a place, like no other, the most famous of Canadian tracks,  50 miles east of Toronto.  Canadians take their racing seriously. 100,000 tickets sold for this  Labor Day racing weekend even though fans knew in advance it would be cold and rainy.  You marketing people, pay attention, this is being overlooked.  It is Saturday morning where practice and qualifying is taking place for World Challenge, American LeMans, Formula Mazda, and Formula BMW.  Rows of umbrella equipped people are lining two and three deep along this lightly fenced/safety walled race track. People as far as the eye will take you.  Many stay the week end on this vast “Mosport” Complex.  The surrounding hilly wooded areas are full of thousands of motor homes, trailers, tents and campfires

The track itself; is wanted on the resume’ of every established race driver who is alive to tell about it.  I humor you only a little.  2.5 miles of the fastest high speed blind vertical drop corners found anywhere.  This place is famous for lots of reasons, a sobering one; famed racers have met their maker here.  This is not a track to learn on your own. 

Qualifying began with light rain, but increasing during the session to deny a good lap time after the first 5 minutes.  That #13 on the side of the Woodhouse Auto Family/Kicker/Dodge SRT/Viper Competition Coupe brought good luck.  We qualified 4^th in the field. 

If you think women like to gossip, hey, you haven’t been around race teams when you throw in a few curve balls, like weather and drivers with names like Giolotti and the direction of World Challenge.  But lets focus on the rain.  Racers and officials were asking each other, “should we go to a rolling start?  Can we change the time of the race? Should the race  be cancelled?”  On pre-grid, front runner Andy Pilgrim came to my car window and says “ Hey Bob, maybe we should consider asking them to cancel.,  Ron Fellows in the ALMS practice reported standing water at the end of the long straight.  A 140mph car gets loose there and he could wipe us all out.”   I can’t tell you if that was a psych job (possible since we were gridded right behind him on the start) or sincerity.  You judge.  

The Race:  I can’t remember the last time we raced in the rain, I mean serious rain, so the chassis setup was pure guess on the Viper Competition Coupe.    We used one agenda: soften it. 

As the starting lights blinked out, this normally thundering field of high horsepower GT cars crawl off in slow motion with the hiss of tires squishing through water and the usual engine noise eerily subdued.  Windshield wipers wave at the umbrella’d crowd as the cars slither by.   You occasionally heard engines stutter from being reigned in by their traction devices.  Down the hill in corner two, the 5^th gridded all-wheel drive Volvo has blasted completely out of site.  

Side Bar:  Last year, this race started as a crash-fest taking out 8 cars in turn one.  This year the entire race went without a full course caution or a re-start.  Go figure. Maybe rain equals safe?  Tommy Archer, Mr. smooth moves from his less than ideal starting position to the head of the two wheel drive race cars around lap two. 

In my drivers seat, the race felt like it was three hours long, tense and slow.  Each lap was akin to wailing down your kids’ slippery slide in the back yard holding eggs in both hands.  The track had two kinds of grip, very slick and extremely slick.  Extremely slick could be found anywhere on the standard racing line.    Very slick portions (which is lousy but better) could be found in odd places like within a foot of the outside edge of a corner.  All this observed by looking through a windshield akin to your bathroom mirror after your wife finished her long shower.  Each lap a bonus is thrown in at the end of the long straight with the cars in front putting up a wall of taillight hiding fog from their wings and140mph speeds.  

I cannot share all of the set up tips with you since you never know when the enemy might read this, but we found our strength was the long straight between 5 and 8 and our weakness was corners two and five with a serious killing being done on us by the Porsches there.  Did I mention our setup was not perfect? Push issues. 

As the laps swished by,  a Cadillac fell back,  the Vettes were slowing, and the Porsches were gaining.  James Sofranos Porsche came past, then the Aschenbach Porsche is in full attack, he is really fast (comparatively) in turn five but I  find traction going uphill on the long straight, he drops back.   Next is Ricardo Imory, AXA Porsche teammate who makes a brilliant outside pass in turn one and two, I stick to the inside as we approach three, he runs the rim of the corner and his extra distance brings me even with him at the apex.  It was like ice skating and touching with two fingers.  That tiny touch caused a loss of traction on his car and he spins off, regaining the track quickly to finish 8^th to our fifth after a soggy and stressful 27 laps.  This race is a unique memory.  Incredible.  

Fellow Chrysler and Viper enthusiasts, thank you for your interest and support.  Lets’ keep the momentum for Road Atlanta.  Dodge is one point back of Porsche for the lead in the manufacturers title race.   

Find more info at     www.speedtv.com  or  www.world-challenge.com

Now to the proud people behind all this and deserving of your support:  www.woodhouse.com Woodhouse Auto Family

Kicker www.kicker.com livin loud.

Dodge Motorsports  www.dodge.com  

feel good about yourself, check out www.alexslemonade.com

Our Woodhouse Auto Family/Kicker/Dodge SRT-4 story is in the hands of it’s driver Brian Smith, if you do not get his report and wish to, e mail Brian at brian@full-lock.com

Humbly      bobwoodhouse@woodhouse.com

Road America Round 7 of the SPEED World Challenge

TC Race Report Through the Windshield of the Woodhouse/Kicker/Alex’s Lemonade Dodge SRT-4

by Brian Smith

First, I would like congratulate Rob and the 3R crew for claiming a great 3^rd place with their Dodge SRT-4.  Good job!  Also Bob Woodhouse for another top ten finish!  In seven races his worse finish has been 11^th once.  He is sixth in the points!  Not bad for an old guy … must be his coach.  Haha.

Ok.  Onto the Kicker/Woodhouse Dodge SRT-4.  A BIG thanks to the entire crew for all the hours in the shop and at the track testing.  We improved our handling, reduced our engine temperatures to what most people would consider tolerable, etc.

I think when they built Road America they knew there was going to be an SRT-4 produced.  This track was great for our car.  Three straights (throw the kink into one of those straights for entertainment value) we were in 5^th gear.  And the top of 5^th gear at that.  Talk about fast!  Mother Nature even decided to help out by keeping the temperatures in the 70’s all weekend and we were not at high altitude.  Basically we had ideal conditions on an ideal track for us to make good power.  About time.  Mosport will not be as friendly, but look out again at Road Atlanta.  I think we will have a shot of finishing were we had a chance to finish at Road America … getting ahead of myself.

The official practice days were interesting in that we never were able to run a full tilt lap due to a few issues that we resolved before qualifying.  We were confident we would do well in qualifying.  However, I caught a slow car on my flyer lap and had to follow it for two corners (12 to 14) before I was able to clear it.  This cost me a significant amount of time.  I am not talking tenths of seconds here so you math majors do the math and you can determine where we thought we were going to qualify.  I was going to do another flyer immediately after, but the hold up affected that lap also so I did a cool down lap instead and came into the pits to reset the pressures.  I typically only do one lap for qualifying to minimize the wear on the tires so we set the air pressures for one lap.  Once the pressures were set I went out for one more flyer at the end of the session.  Unfortunately one of the other cars blew up and caused the session to end early before I could do the flyer.  So we had to settle with a 7^th place starting position.

I actually was not too worried because (knock on wood) I have had good starts all year making up several positions.  The first thing I noticed when we were sitting on the grid for the flag ceremony was how narrow the track was on the front straight.  I guess they wanted to save a few dollars in paving cost since it is 4 plus miles around the track.  Throw in the pit lane wall and there was not going to be much room on the start.

We lined up after the formation lap ready to go.  Unfortunately I could not see the 5 second board.  As I radioed the crew to see if the board had been raised I saw the start lights come on.  Answered that question.  The lights went out and I had a great start.  There was no way I could give up the momentum I had so I was searching for somewhere to go.  Just happened there was a little light between Rob in the other Dodge SRT-4 and the pit wall in front of me.  Could I fit?  Probably, but I might have to shed a mirror or two.  So, I went for the hole with Curran following me.  I made it through the hole and past Rob.  This put me beside Cunningham who was moving over to protect the line.  I headed for the pit entrance to gain a little extra room.  The only problem was that it ended and there was only grass.  I squeezed my way over enough to the left to stay on the pavement and go through turn 1 with Cunningham next to me.  Cunningham is fast and has more experience then probably every one in the field.  So, I tucked in behind him going into turn 3 with a love tap on the rear bumper from Curran just to make sure I did not forget about him.  I was up to 4^th.

I followed Cunningham for a lap and realized I had a big pack of hornets behind that wanted to get by badly.  So, I started working on Cunningham.  He does not give you easy passes.  On the second lap I had a good draft going up the front straight.  I pulled to the inside and we entered the turn one braking zone side by side.  I was thinking I would out brake him and then slide past.  Not.  He took me in really deep.  I had to bail because if I had gone any deeper I would never have made the corner and probably took him with me.  I was able to stay halfway beside him through the corner which kept him from getting to the apex and carrying speed through the corner.  At Turn 3 I was back beside him, but this time we broke at the same time so I was able to go through the corner and clear him on the exit.  I was very loose exiting the corner which was entertaining.  Now I was in a comfortable 3^rd.

For the next 10 laps I basically kept myself about 1-1/2 seconds behind the front two cars.  I was watching the group behind me in the mirror and they showed no indications of being able to catch up so I paced myself with the front two guys.  The only glitch was about halfway through the race something cut the CV boot and allowed all the grease to leave.  Minor detail.  With about 7 laps to go I started to push a little harder.  Over the next two laps I cut about ¾ of a second off the lead guys.  This was going to be interesting.  I was sure we would catch the second place car with about 4 laps to go.  That would leave us time to try and get 2^nd and if we did maybe have an outside chance at getting the win.  Then disaster.  The left front tire went flat between turns 3 and 5.  Knowing I could not make it all the way around the track I went into the turn 5 cutoff which dumps you into the infield.  A quick check with the crew and I was driving back to the pits where they put on another tire so we could soldier on to an 18^th place finish.

Not what we wanted.  Especially since I thought we were going to be fighting for first and second in the last few laps.  However, a positive run for the Kicker/Woodhouse Dodge SRT-4.  Thanks again to the crew for great work all week and in preparing for the race.  We will be back at it Labor Day weekend so check www.world-challenge.com to see the results as they develop.

Remember to go online at www.woodhouse.com to purchase your next vehicle no matter where you live, upgrade your car stereo system or purchase your SRT with Kicker products (www.kicker.com), visit www.turnonetrackevents.com for corporate and track day events and consider supporting www.alexslemonade.com in their fight against children’s cancer.