NorCal SpecE30 Race at Llihrednuht
written by Adam Lazur, Race Chair
May 2008


Adam Lazur Leads Walter Ford Exiting Turn 14 in Sunday's Sprint Race
Photo by Kregg Miller

It was a sunny and fun race weekend at Llihrednuht (that's pronounced "Thunderhill backwards"). NASA only ran one event last October at Llihrednuht, so most of the Spec E30 driver list was new to driving this direction. In addition to the new track, we welcomed BMWCCA club racing veteran Gil Cervantes and rookie driver Scott Clough to Spec E30. Because of the "new" track, three Spec E30 drivers (myself included) started the weekend on Friday with TrackMasters.

Friday's TrackMasters day revealed that Spec E30 drivers weren't the only ones trying to sneak a peek at Thunderhill in the wrong direction. At the driver's meeting, they asked drivers racing with NASA that weekend to raise their hands. At least 1/3 of the people in the room had their hands up. In the morning we drove Thunderhill in the normal, boring, counter clockwise direction. While the direction of the track was boring, life for AJ was not. two sessions into the day, his car decided it had enough and chose not to start. Bentley in hand, AJ spent an hour or two systematically debugging the E30 fuel system. The results of the debugging proved inconclusive. None of the data added up. It remained a mystery because the car spontaneously fired up just before lunch. I can only assume this was bittersweet for AJ: he could practice driving the track in reverse now, but the fail to start gremlin was still lurking in his car.

It is both exciting and daunting to learn a new track. This is particularly true of Llihrednuht, which provides higher speed straightaways and less runoff room in the opposite direction. The good news is that AJ, Mike, and myself all had half a day's head start on the competition.

Saturday Practice, Qualifying, Race

Saturday morning had a strong turnout of 10 Spec E30 cars. Maybe half of which hadn't driven the Thunderhill in reverse before. Many drivers who were new to the track arranged to also run in TT or HPDE4 to get some extra time to learn the track.

Saturday started off with a warm up session, complete with a pace car to orient everyone on the clockwise track configuration. When the pace car left the track, it would've been hard to guess that this was many drivers first time driving the track in this direction. Spec E30 times for the practice session started off relatively fast with Donnie Edwards putting down a 2:09 and Kevin Borchers at 2:12. The rest of the pack was spread from 2:19 to 2:30.

After the warm up session we went to the drivers meeting. It was the usual drivers meeting stuff with nothing particularly outstanding until the end when Will gave us a twist. Will pulled Spec E30 drivers aside and had us draw numbers from a hat. At that point, we had just done qualifying, and the number each of us drew from the hat turned into our position. Not surprisingly, Donnie and Kevin still qualified well, even when picking from a hat. In what some may consider a strategic move, Brendan (who was doing extra track time in Time Trials) missed the hat draw thus ensuring a start at the rear of the pack.

At the end of the drivers meeting, our attention was drawn to an incident at T5. A Miata had hit the flagging tower in T5 and knocked it over. This caused the T5 bypass to be closed, and everyone would now run "over the top" in reverse. With no bypass, we unfortunately cannot offer hang time pics like those from last year.

With qualifying positions out of the way, and the track reconfigured, we drove in a "qualifying" session that didn't really count for anything but more seat time. The new entry to T5 turned out to be difficult for many. There were quite a few cars off track at the T5 exit, and a good bit of dirt on track because of it. I certainly had a few close calls trying to carry way too much speed in, and I almost followed Brenden "an off in every Saturday session" Selvig off at Turn 5 as well.


Ron Harness Leads Walter Ford in Sunday's Sprint Race
Photo by Kregg Miller

Saturday's race began with the usual standing start. When the green dropped, we charged into T15 and entered the turn 2-3 wide. It's a testament to the skill of my fellow rookie drivers that there was no contact 2 or 3 wide through those initial turns. The field thinned to just 2 wide by the time we made it up to T11. At the exit of T10 I ended up drag racing up the hill next to Mike Schwarzbart. I lost and dropped in behind him for T9.  This is about when I realized that I should be thinking harder about the passing zones. A few turns later, I snuck by Mike in the braking zone in T6. By this point, the pack had walked a few car lengths away from us. In the subsequent laps, I lost Mike in my rear view, but also lost sight of the Spec E30's ahead of me. With a few laps to go, I spied Ron Harness off in the distance. I set my sights on Harness, and got nose to tail with Ron for the last 2 laps. I pushed hard, dove deep, but couldn't get around Ron.

The race finish was: Donnie Edwards (2:13.192), Kevin Borchers (2:15.445), Brenden Selvig (2:16.196), Gil Cervantes (2:17.977), Scott Neville (2:19.269), AJ Goldsmith (2:18.781), Ron Harness (2:24.057), Adam Lazur (2:23.269), Scott Clough (2:30.971), and Mike Schwarzbart (2:45.511) Donnie Edwards weighed in 26lbs light thanks to an excellent diet and an HPDE3 session before he weighed his car and was DQ’d.


Saturday Podium: Brenden Selvig (L) and Kevin Borchers (R). Not in photo Gil Cervantes
Photo Courtesy of NASA NorCal

Sunday Practice, Qualifying, Race

Sunday was a new day. The Spec E30 field changed a bit day on day. The changes included Gil Cervantes' car being piloted by Walter Ford, a withdrawl of Mike Schwarzbart, and the usual team changes for Team Valley Motorwerks (now Carl Chiu) and Team Brimstone Dynasty (now Elliott Taylor).

The morning warm up started off with an uneventful warm up session. A few hours later I lined up for qualifying right at the front of the grid with the big boys. I figured I'd try out putting in a fast lap or two early in the session before traffic really appeared. This was great, and I put down an okay paced first lap trailing behind Carl. I tried to step it up on my second lap. Running down the hill to T6 I saw the flagger with a waving yellow and a surface flag.  I spotted a Honda Challenge car on the inside just at the exit of T6. "Probably kicked up some dirt" I thought to myself. I knew that thought was wrong when around the apex of T6 I spotted glistening pavement on the line. The glistening line also happened to be where I was driving. Luckily, I only picked up oil on my back tires. When they kicked out, I countersteered and it was a non-event.  I put down 2 more laps, still with oil and a car on the inside of T6. My gas was getting low so I came in rather than ending up as the guy who ran out of gas in qualifying.

Qualifying times were: Carl Chiu (2:16), AJ Goldsmith (2:17), Scott Neville (2:19), Walter Ford (2:21), Elliott Taylor (2:22), Ron Harness (2:23), Adam Lazur (2:24), Scott Clough (2:25) Brenden Selvig skipped practice and qualifying in favor of fighting electrical problems all morning to no avail. He put the car on the trailer, packed things up, and headed home so we were down to 8 for the race at 2:25pm. Will Faules pulled no tricks with starting order on Sunday, the qualifying times were actually used to set starting position.


Ron Harness leads Elliot Taylor and Adam Lazur Early in Sunday's Sprint Race
Photo by Kregg Miller

Just as we were preparing to grid up, Brenden pulled up in his car in the paddock. He was revving the engine to keep it alive, but at least it was running. The story goes that he decided to try replacing a wire when they stopped to get gas. When he did, the car fired right up, and he had just enough time to get back to the track for the race. He gridded up last due to no qualifying time, but at least he going to race.

Sunday's race was the usual standing start. I got an okay start and dove to the inside on in the first turn (T15). Elliott promptly closed the door on me. I had to back off and follow him out of T14, where I saw him edge Walter out. I was impressed, as Elliott has really stepped up the aggression. In the first lap, my view of the field was Elliott in front of me, Walter, Brenden, and Scott Clough in my rearview. Everybody else was too far out of my frame of reference to matter yet. I spent a lap behind Elliott trying to figure out where to pass when Brendan snuck by me, and then Elliott. A lap later, Elliott did me a favor and went off to the outside of T6. I drove by Elliott in the grass, and had Ron Harness in my sights by the time I made it to the front straight. A lap or two later, I was trying to fill Ron's mirrors and Walter was trying to fill mine. We put in a fun lap of bunched up driving, with Ron pulling ahead a few car lengths.  I came over the crest for T9, touched the brakes, and POP!.... my windshield was covered in liquid. It was pretty obvious it was coolant, but it wasn't gushing out after the initial burst, so I limped the car into the pits. My race was done.

I did some quick diagnosis in the pits, left my aux fan running to try to cool things off, and went over to the fence to watch the rest of the race from the sidelines. It was great fun to watch the battle for 2nd place between AJ and Scott Neville (click here for in-car race video from Scott's car).


AJ Goldsmith and Scott Neville battle for second place in Sunday's sprint race
Photo by Kregg Miller

The finish order was: Carl Chiu (2:15), AJ Goldsmith (2:17), Scott Neville (2:17), Ron Harness (2:23), Walter Ford (2:23), Elliott Taylor (2:23), Scott Clough (2:25), Adam Lazur (2:23), DQ Brenden Selvig (2:19).


Sunday's Podium L to R: AJ Glodsmith, Jennifer Garmond, Carl Chiu and Scott Neville
Photo Courtesy of NASA NorCal

My car ended up being fine. The top thermostat hose popped right off, and was easily re-attached. I refilled the water and drove it home without incident (well, except for the plexiglass window coming out at 80mph on the highway, but that was my own dumb fault).

Contingencies

The Auto Analysts II random drawing for a set of brake pads to a finisher not on the podium went to Scott Neville on Saturday and Brenden Selvig on Sunday. Much thanks to all of the series sponsors: AIM Tire, Valley Motorwerks, and Auto Analysts II.

Scott Neville Wins a Set of Hawk Blues from Auto Analyst II
Photo by Steve Krshul