We had our Luigi BMW CSL down at the Velocity Invitational at Laguna Seca over the weekend. I have to say right up front that this "event" is a car happening with some racing added on the side. There were some pretty spectacular cars and displays in the paddock. And there were some spectacular cars racing on the track. It is an event you need to get to sometime. You will not be disappointed.
Luigi was in Group 7 which was mostly RSR Porsches, some Datsun Z cars, a lone Triumph TR8, a lone Greenwood Corvette, Jon Norman's Alfa, and 2 BMWs, mine and Thor Johnson's Schnitzer car. I was 3rd quick in the first practice but some of the quick RSRs weren't on track. In the afternoon session I was 8th quick.
Qualifying was a disaster. Our 2 20 minute qualifying sessions were combined into 1 40 minute session on Friday afternoon. I went out on sticker tires planning to scrub them, get them hot once, come in and let them cool before going out at the end of the 40 minutes to lay down a flier. 3 laps into our session an RSR blew up between turns 3 and 4. He managed to make it all the way around to the top of the hill before finally pulling over, but he managed to dump 14 quarts of oil all the way. ??!!??!!?? Several cars came very close to having a major incident, including me. The whole group was brought in while they cleaned up the mess and retrieved the smoldering RSR. By the time we got back out on track there was only time for a couple of laps, and with all the kitty litter on the track there was no grip at all. I ended up qualifying 12th with a lap of 1:45.7. :-(
Our race on Saturday was set for 4:55 PM. The sun set at 4:59 so we ran pretty much in the dark for the whole 30 minute race. A few cars had lights, and they had set up some light stands at strategic places around the track, but I was really glad I had some night racing experience from running the 25 Hr race at Thunderhill a couple of times. Its amazing how difficult it is to drive flat out when you loose all your visual references.
2 more Porsches died in our race and we spent about 4 laps behind the pace car while they put down some more kitty litter. The nice 4 second lead I had built up over Cameron Healy was wiped out. Once we got the green flag he was all over me for several laps as I was having the rear brakes lock up in what seemed a random way. In one corner they would lock, and the next they were fine. I managed to hold Cameron off and finish 6th. Best lap was a 1:40 and change.
After the race Jim had a look under the car and found that one of the rear rotors had developed a big crack. That was causing the random lock-ups. Between that and Mary coming down with either food poisoning or the flu we packed up and headed home Sunday morning.
I will be editing the video over the next couple of days and will post it on the forum when it is complete. Photo below courtesy of Dennis Gary.
BTW, they LiveStreamed the event. Here's the link to our Saturday evening race:
Luigi was in Group 7 which was mostly RSR Porsches, some Datsun Z cars, a lone Triumph TR8, a lone Greenwood Corvette, Jon Norman's Alfa, and 2 BMWs, mine and Thor Johnson's Schnitzer car. I was 3rd quick in the first practice but some of the quick RSRs weren't on track. In the afternoon session I was 8th quick.
Qualifying was a disaster. Our 2 20 minute qualifying sessions were combined into 1 40 minute session on Friday afternoon. I went out on sticker tires planning to scrub them, get them hot once, come in and let them cool before going out at the end of the 40 minutes to lay down a flier. 3 laps into our session an RSR blew up between turns 3 and 4. He managed to make it all the way around to the top of the hill before finally pulling over, but he managed to dump 14 quarts of oil all the way. ??!!??!!?? Several cars came very close to having a major incident, including me. The whole group was brought in while they cleaned up the mess and retrieved the smoldering RSR. By the time we got back out on track there was only time for a couple of laps, and with all the kitty litter on the track there was no grip at all. I ended up qualifying 12th with a lap of 1:45.7. :-(
Our race on Saturday was set for 4:55 PM. The sun set at 4:59 so we ran pretty much in the dark for the whole 30 minute race. A few cars had lights, and they had set up some light stands at strategic places around the track, but I was really glad I had some night racing experience from running the 25 Hr race at Thunderhill a couple of times. Its amazing how difficult it is to drive flat out when you loose all your visual references.
2 more Porsches died in our race and we spent about 4 laps behind the pace car while they put down some more kitty litter. The nice 4 second lead I had built up over Cameron Healy was wiped out. Once we got the green flag he was all over me for several laps as I was having the rear brakes lock up in what seemed a random way. In one corner they would lock, and the next they were fine. I managed to hold Cameron off and finish 6th. Best lap was a 1:40 and change.
After the race Jim had a look under the car and found that one of the rear rotors had developed a big crack. That was causing the random lock-ups. Between that and Mary coming down with either food poisoning or the flu we packed up and headed home Sunday morning.
I will be editing the video over the next couple of days and will post it on the forum when it is complete. Photo below courtesy of Dennis Gary.
BTW, they LiveStreamed the event. Here's the link to our Saturday evening race:
