Road Atlanta, Sept 29, Braselton, Ga. Round 9 of the 2006 SPEED World Challenge GT race as seen through the Woodhouse Windshield
The Place
This is totally wrong, a select number of male species in the human race have a desire to come as close to killing themselves as possible, then live on the thrill of telling others about it. (Do I fit here?). Road Atlanta, a road racing fantasy for thousands of drivers due to its ability to exploit the phenomena just described. It receives credit for the endorphins still in my bloodstream a day later. Thrilling and dangerous, yes, but throughout the week the old-timers emphasized: “this is a “cake” course since they took out the big hill and put in a corner approaching turn 12. The old coarse took real men!” OK, whatever, my aww-S… meter was pegged plenty of times, can’t say it was missed.
To be at Rd. Atlanta in the fall sunshine and cool air, to be part of the IMSA governed Petite Le Mans show, to witness the increase of 60% in ticket sales, it was all good. To be part of both the Touring Car (driver Brian Smith writes the TC story for you) and the Grand Touring Series of World Challenge is “living”, meant in the vernacular of Steve McQueen “racing is life, all else is waiting” something like that.
The Politics
One race to go to decide the championship for the 2006 season. The pressure is on, going into this round Porsche was leading the manufacturers championship by one point followed by Dodge. Cadillac has every intention of ripping it from the grasp of either. At Atlanta the intent was apparent, instead of their usual two car team there were three, with their all year guy, Andy Pilgrim who everybody loves, then Ron Fellows and Mad Max Angelleli, fondly (or not) called Max the Axe. At this writing however Dodge is now leading, (hold the applause for one more race).
You feel the posturing, the tension in gatherings and the sobriety of the drivers and team owners, whether Porsche, Cadillac, Dodge, or Corvette.. It is pull out all the stops, make everything count. Lead driver in the Dodge Viper camp, Tommy Archer was concerned by his ability to qualify even close to what he speculated the competition was capable of if pushed. It turns out he had plenty to worry about even though he killed everybody with his pole time. On that bonsai lap he found pieces of race track to run on that didn’t exist.
There is an overwhelming depth of preparation that goes into each car before it hits race start. Alignments are scrutinized by 100ths of an inch, corner weights are within 10#’s, engine oil is low friction, fuel tanks filled to only that needed to get to the end. Some creative interpretation gets used as well, we can’t talk about that can we. Hey, over there, not here, we passed post race tech with flying colors, we are grateful we even get the chance to be teched. It was rewarding to see Brian Smith in the #13 Dodge/Kicker/Woodhouse Auto Family SRT-4 post the quickest practice time of the week-end for TC and to have the other #13, Dodge/Kicker/Woodhouse Auto Family Viper Comp Coupe post the second quickest in GT practice times. Counts for nothing though. The SRT-4 received it’s reward by having the power reduced for the balance of the week-end. And so you know, his 11th place finish was also done with a wounded engine.
The Race
Waaaaiting; aaargh, excruciating, all day you think about nothing else but the race, you wish it were under way, finally it is 4:15, time to suit up. I drive the car to pre-grid. Most drivers don’t, letting their crew chief do this, they walk out and wait along the safety rail visiting with each other. For me, I want to be alone, just Rick for the next ½ hour, I can reflect and be calm. I watch the others out the windshield, they look classy in their driving suits, fidgety, looks of anxiety, mannerisms show, scratching an itch that isn’t there, putting on the dark sunglasses then pulling them off, anticipating the big show, finally the ear plugs and helmets go on and the crew chiefs help them to their seats.
On track and assembling for the start, Rick warns me, “there will be no one minute board, the lights will come and go out as soon as the cars settle”.
That they did…. catching me in a confused state with launch procedure. Somehow I managed to turn the pit speed limiter on and fumbled through turn one before thumbing it back off. Five of my fellow competitors are probably still trying to thank me for that. Into the S’s in the valley, I was ticked at myself for that lack of intellect and tried making things worse by attempting a pass there on the Yellow Vette of Doug Petersen. Patience prevailed and I got by on the inside of him at corner 6.
Corner seven is the beginning of the long straight and you can find out how well you did that corner by who got to the other end first, it so happened the corner was good to me and at the end of the straight we managed to get back a couple more spaces leaving us one car back from our original 10th grid spot.
As the race settled in on lap four, Mike McCann and I were in a Porsche 997 sandwich with the AXA team of Lawson Aschenbach and Ricardo Imory on both sides. We couldn’t shake em or overtake em. They were faster in the slow corners of 5 and 7 and we got it back on the high speed down hill of corner 12. Lap 18 McCann Viper gets by the Lawson AXA Porsche, then the Lou G Corvette leaving me watching the Porsche and Vette do battle three car lengths in front.
“The Pass”, here is what all the ruckuss was about (Coolest Move of the Race): Coming out of turn 7 Lawson sticks his nose inside Lou making a side by side dual the entire straight. I am stoked, these two have their hands full with each other but if I stick my car to the inside coming over that 160 mph hill, Lou (a smart racer) will forget about Lawson and close the door to the corner. So with throttle foot buried I stay behind Lawson till waiting longer would end up involving corner workers. Then yank left, across their back sides to the inside. I see a Yellow Corvette disappear past the passenger window and a clear corner appear in the windshield, well actually part track and part grass by the time I slid up to 10b. Gee that went well, two for the price of one. Lou had to remind me he was not that impressed by putting his nose on the back of my quarter, then again square between the tallights on the way out of 10b.
Finishing 4th was a blessing since that pass put us into 6th but the misfortune of Mike spinning at corner 5 and Sofranos losing his suspension gave up a couple spots. Gratefully accepted.
Tommy had a really great race finishing 2nd behind Andy Pilgrim. He did Cadillac battle the whole way with some of it respectfully done, some not (referring to the Cad team here.) His show had everyone on their feet and yelling at the end as he passed Ron Fellows 100 yards from the finish line in turn 12..
Remember the people that make this possible and deserve 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
Also look for the Woodhouse Auto Family/Kicker/Dodge SRT-4 story authored by
driver Brian Smith, if you do not get his report e-mail him at brian@full-lock.com
Find more info at www.speedtv.com or www.world-challenge.com
Race will show on SPEED at 3pm GT and 2pm TC est. Oct. 14th Sat.
bobwoodhouse@woodhouse.com
