Scott Norton
Epic Win, I push limit
Mission Race Report Races 9 & 10 9/4-9/7
Thank you to all the ICSCC & SCCBC Officials and Volunteers!
We arrived at Mission Friday around 1:00 pm to partly sunny skies. The weather forecast for the weekend was not very promising. Traffic and the wait at the border wait were non-existent. Once allowed to enter the track at 4:30 pm we sent up our pit spot.
Saturday woke early and arrived at the track to find it wet from the night before. We were the first practice session and went out on wet tires only to find the track drying part way through the session. Our wet tires are just street tires and are useless even in standing water. Our times were slow for the radial sedan class, 6th out of 7 I believe in class.
Our friend from Vancouver Wayne arrived early. When he found out that we were only entered in one class he sponsored us for a second entry. Thanks Wayne! We just managed to fill out the forms and get entered with 5 minutes to go for our next (new) class, SPM practice session. Hurriedly got dressed and just made it to grid on the street tires. The track was still wet but the puddles were gone. Our times were still slow due to the tires and conditions.
Our outgoing 2009 Race Steward Mike B. gave his last Driver’s meeting prior to handing over the reins to Bill S. Of course his last meeting was filled with the jokes and great sense of humor he is known for.
The sun was peaking out and the wind picked up slightly to dry the track. We went out on the dry tires. Yes! The car works again, will actually stop, turn, and even accelerate. What a pleasure compared to the morning sessions. Our dry tires are 3 plus years old and about 2.5 million heat cycles but so much better then street tires. Although we only qualified 6th out of 7 in Radial Sedan we improve our times from last race at Mission by over 2 seconds per lap! A set of new tires will pick up the two seconds we are lacking. We felt very good about how the car was working. Our 3.73 differential we built was making a difference. My wife Judi and Steve’s wife Gracie arrived just in time for our SPM qualifying session. This class is just for fun and laps. Had a good run and ran my fastest laps ever at this track to that point.
So then we changed out of our super hero costume and proceed to tidy up our pit and relax. Once racing was over we celebrated fun day. Many racers stopped by to say hi and partake in relaxing. We then wandered around the pits a bit to annoy those who had not.
We then proceeded to Mission Springs Brewing Co. Grill for beverages and some tasty food.
We got up early Sunday as we were first group out at 8:30 am. Track conditions were dry. We bettered our times from Saturday but so did everyone else so our qualifying position remained the same. Same goes for our SPM class.
Our Radial Sedan Class race went okay no real battles. The RX7 I played with last time at Mission had made some significant improvements. He stayed in front of me pretty easily. Ran an event free race to finish 4th. But 2nd and 3rd place did not report to the scales after the race and were disqualified! So we ended up in second place and received a nice shiny trophy.
More importantly though we accomplished what we set out to do the first race day. That was to complete our 6th points race (9th race overall, first 3 races were novice no points) that we need to qualify for the Season Point Championship in Radial Sedan. Finishing this race in 10th place or better also lock up the Radial Sedan Season Points Championship for us. Our nearest competitor could win the remaining two races and poles and not even catch us.
A very fun thing happened at the end day. ICSCC Officials asked some of us to go out and “play” with the novice group as there were only 4 signed up in novice class. Randy coached us on how he wanted us to find someone and pass and let us be passed. I found an RX-7 that was just a bit slower then me. Trying to drive slow enough to be passed was very difficult for me. I tried short shifting, and I even different gears in the corners to help this happen. Eventually the RX-7 figured it out and we swapped passes for about 20 minutes and had great fun. I would pass drive away then miss shift and let him catch me and then pass me. Then I would pressure him for a lap and then pass. We even ran side by side for an entire lap!
Randy had set up a bunch of tests for the novices; yellow flag for no reason, safety vehicle, and debris flag etc. It was like a refresher course
I am so proud of my team in our first season to be competitive most of the time and win a championship. This is something I could never have done alone. It really does take a team to make this happen and is much more fun because of this. Successful accomplishment is a great feeling but sharing it with those who made it possible is better.
This championship belongs to: My wife Judi, Crew Chief Cam, Engineer Ashis, Friends and Sponsors Steve & Wayne, and about 25 other people whom all contributed to our efforts. If anyone of them had not participated none of this would have happened. We are very fortunate. This also belongs to the ICSCC Officials and fellow competitors whose guidance and mentoring was/is invaluable.
We must also thank the members of nwBMWClub.com, BMW Car Club of America Puget Sound Region for they’re support also.
But more importantly we have made some good friends whose company we enjoy greatly.
Of course this accomplishment meant we had a mandatory celebration in the pits after racing was over. This meant sharing with family and friends-fellow racers that stopped by. We did not let the pouring rain slow us down in the pits.
Monday we awoke to rain. It would rain, stop, rain, and stop all day long. We ran SPM first and went out on our street/rain tires due to some standing water. This proceeded to dry up pretty fast and we ended up blistering them. It was worse then driving on ice. I spun backward into the tire wall at turn 6. But it was only lap two and I was going about 12 miles an hour when this happened so no damage.
The sun broke out for our Radial Sedan race so the track was dry at the start. We managed to record our fastest laps ever at Mission in Radial Sedan configuration (ballast weight) by almost a full second. We finished fourth and this time everyone went to the scales.
Good times, good times.
As of this writing still my CFO is still deciding if we can make the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Dash Charity race.
Racing back to back weekends makes it tough on the bank account but we are trying. Yesterday I got an FIA racing seat and harnesses installed so if we go we can give the kid’s rides around the track. Hope to see you there.
There is only one more race in the season left at Pacific Raceways on 9/26-9/27 and we will be at that race. Then out comes the “Honey-do List” for the next 6 months as we have lots to do around the house.
Kevin Doyle I hope your right arm and shoulder socket are okay you set a new standard in driver communication.
Thank you to all the ICSCC & SCCBC Officials and Volunteers!
We arrived at Mission Friday around 1:00 pm to partly sunny skies. The weather forecast for the weekend was not very promising. Traffic and the wait at the border wait were non-existent. Once allowed to enter the track at 4:30 pm we sent up our pit spot.
Saturday woke early and arrived at the track to find it wet from the night before. We were the first practice session and went out on wet tires only to find the track drying part way through the session. Our wet tires are just street tires and are useless even in standing water. Our times were slow for the radial sedan class, 6th out of 7 I believe in class.
Our friend from Vancouver Wayne arrived early. When he found out that we were only entered in one class he sponsored us for a second entry. Thanks Wayne! We just managed to fill out the forms and get entered with 5 minutes to go for our next (new) class, SPM practice session. Hurriedly got dressed and just made it to grid on the street tires. The track was still wet but the puddles were gone. Our times were still slow due to the tires and conditions.
Our outgoing 2009 Race Steward Mike B. gave his last Driver’s meeting prior to handing over the reins to Bill S. Of course his last meeting was filled with the jokes and great sense of humor he is known for.
The sun was peaking out and the wind picked up slightly to dry the track. We went out on the dry tires. Yes! The car works again, will actually stop, turn, and even accelerate. What a pleasure compared to the morning sessions. Our dry tires are 3 plus years old and about 2.5 million heat cycles but so much better then street tires. Although we only qualified 6th out of 7 in Radial Sedan we improve our times from last race at Mission by over 2 seconds per lap! A set of new tires will pick up the two seconds we are lacking. We felt very good about how the car was working. Our 3.73 differential we built was making a difference. My wife Judi and Steve’s wife Gracie arrived just in time for our SPM qualifying session. This class is just for fun and laps. Had a good run and ran my fastest laps ever at this track to that point.
So then we changed out of our super hero costume and proceed to tidy up our pit and relax. Once racing was over we celebrated fun day. Many racers stopped by to say hi and partake in relaxing.
We then wandered around the pits a bit to annoy those who had not. We then proceeded to Mission Springs Brewing Co. Grill for beverages and some tasty food.
We got up early Sunday as we were first group out at 8:30 am. Track conditions were dry. We bettered our times from Saturday but so did everyone else so our qualifying position remained the same. Same goes for our SPM class.
Our Radial Sedan Class race went okay no real battles. The RX7 I played with last time at Mission had made some significant improvements. He stayed in front of me pretty easily. Ran an event free race to finish 4th. But 2nd and 3rd place did not report to the scales after the race and were disqualified! So we ended up in second place and received a nice shiny trophy.
More importantly though we accomplished what we set out to do the first race day. That was to complete our 6th points race (9th race overall, first 3 races were novice no points) that we need to qualify for the Season Point Championship in Radial Sedan. Finishing this race in 10th place or better also lock up the Radial Sedan Season Points Championship for us. Our nearest competitor could win the remaining two races and poles and not even catch us.
A very fun thing happened at the end day. ICSCC Officials asked some of us to go out and “play” with the novice group as there were only 4 signed up in novice class. Randy coached us on how he wanted us to find someone and pass and let us be passed. I found an RX-7 that was just a bit slower then me. Trying to drive slow enough to be passed was very difficult for me. I tried short shifting, and I even different gears in the corners to help this happen. Eventually the RX-7 figured it out and we swapped passes for about 20 minutes and had great fun. I would pass drive away then miss shift
and let him catch me and then pass me. Then I would pressure him for a lap and then pass. We even ran side by side for an entire lap!Randy had set up a bunch of tests for the novices; yellow flag for no reason, safety vehicle, and debris flag etc. It was like a refresher course
I am so proud of my team in our first season to be competitive most of the time and win a championship. This is something I could never have done alone. It really does take a team to make this happen and is much more fun because of this. Successful accomplishment is a great feeling but sharing it with those who made it possible is better.
This championship belongs to: My wife Judi, Crew Chief Cam, Engineer Ashis, Friends and Sponsors Steve & Wayne, and about 25 other people whom all contributed to our efforts. If anyone of them had not participated none of this would have happened. We are very fortunate. This also belongs to the ICSCC Officials and fellow competitors whose guidance and mentoring was/is invaluable.
We must also thank the members of nwBMWClub.com, BMW Car Club of America Puget Sound Region for they’re support also.
But more importantly we have made some good friends whose company we enjoy greatly.
Of course this accomplishment meant we had a mandatory celebration in the pits after racing was over. This meant sharing with family and friends-fellow racers that stopped by. We did not let the pouring rain slow us down in the pits.
Monday we awoke to rain. It would rain, stop, rain, and stop all day long. We ran SPM first and went out on our street/rain tires due to some standing water. This proceeded to dry up pretty fast and we ended up blistering them. It was worse then driving on ice. I spun backward into the tire wall at turn 6. But it was only lap two and I was going about 12 miles an hour when this happened so no damage.
The sun broke out for our Radial Sedan race so the track was dry at the start. We managed to record our fastest laps ever at Mission in Radial Sedan configuration (ballast weight) by almost a full second. We finished fourth and this time everyone went to the scales.
Good times, good times.
As of this writing still my CFO is still deciding if we can make the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Dash Charity race.
Racing back to back weekends makes it tough on the bank account but we are trying. Yesterday I got an FIA racing seat and harnesses installed so if we go we can give the kid’s rides around the track. Hope to see you there.
There is only one more race in the season left at Pacific Raceways on 9/26-9/27 and we will be at that race. Then out comes the “Honey-do List” for the next 6 months as we have lots to do around the house.
Kevin Doyle I hope your right arm and shoulder socket are okay
you set a new standard in driver communication.