But let’s start out with the story of Round 3 of the Jetta TDI Cup, held May 17th at Miller Motorsports Park alongside the ALMS event. My girlfriend and I decided we would drive, seeing how at only 1,100 Miles away it is the closest race of the season to home. Leaving Thursday morning we drove as far as Twin Falls Idaho the first day, and then got up early enough to reach Bonneville Speedway before lunch Friday morning. Anyone who gets the chance to visit the Salt Lake City area should definitely make the drive to see the Salt Flats. Words can’t do justice to how incredible it is, but it is so big that you can clearly see the curvature of the earth. There was nothing setup at the site of Bonneville Speedway when we stopped by, but it is amazing to think how much the history of speed owes to that spot.
Upon arriving at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP) later that afternoon I was equally impressed with the quality of the facility. The track is the vision of the late Larry H. Miller, and we were lucky enough to have his son Bryan race with us a guest driver as well as speak about the history of MMP. It is undoubtedly one of the finest race tracks in America and I encourage everyone who can to support the venue either as a spectator, racer, or even at a driving school, because we need more places like this.
|
Saturday morning we were finally back in the cars and right away I had to deal with something new from VIR, congestion. We were running on the 2.2mile West loop at MMP, and with lap times in the 1min40 range, it was definitely a struggle to find clear track amongst the 30 cars. At one point someone went off right in front me in the highspeed turn 3, and came back across the track, covering it in a huge cloud of dust. It was a scene straight out of ‘Days of Thunder’, I couldn’t see 2 feet in front of me and it was too late to stop, so I just had to drive through blind and hope I didn’t hit anything (“I’m Going High Harry!”). Luckily, just like Cole Trickle in the Daytona 500, I got through. In practice I only got a couple of clear laps, so I had no idea where I would sort out on the timesheets. When I came in I was happy to hear that I had finished up 2nd overall, although a full 4 tenths back of Timmy Megenbier’s fast time. After looking through the data with driving coach David Jurca, we were able to find a few things I could do differently with gear changes and were hoping that would put us at the top of the pack.
For qualifying, it was a huge task again to find a clear piece of asphalt. In fact as I cruised around in the early laps looking for a gap I even had to dodge a couple of spinning race cars. When I finally had clear track I put my foot down and banged out one of those perfect laps that you only dream about. Everything was spot on, but when I crossed the stripe I was still shocked to see just how much faster I had gone than practice… a full 1.4 seconds! I pulled it into the pits because I knew I wasn’t going to beat that time. As the session wore down I went back out to get a couple more laps in, before I brought it back to the garage. I got out of the car and waited until it was official, my first pole of the season. Megenbier slotted in second just a tenth back, but behind him there was a full half second to third place Juan Pablo Sierra Lendle, and then a further 4 tenths back to 4th. I knew in my head that if we drove smart Timmy and I could make it a two-horse race.
For the race on Sunday I knew I was going to struggle a little bit with tire wear as I had cut a right front during practice which meant I couldn’t run the tire strategy I had been hoping too. None the less, I still had a good shot at my 2nd win of the season. There is something about starting from the pole that makes you extra nervous, as I could feel the weight of expectations on my shoulders. To make matters worse I bogged the motor doing my practice start so I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to get a good launch. After two warm-up laps I pulled into P1 and waited for the lights. Red Lights on, foot on the brake, floor the gas, wait, wait, wait… GO! Phew, I managed to get a good launch and held the lead through turn 1 taking things nice and easy on cold tires. Through turn 2, the car felt nice and stable, and that gave me the confidence to attack the high speed turn 3 onto the backstraight… big mistake. I got major loose right at the exit and had to jump out of the gas. I saw right away in my mirrors that Timmy had a run. He was right up beside me into the braking zone, and I knew there was no point fighting this battle on lap 1. I slotted into 2nd, content with the knowledge that we should be able to pull away from the field. Timmy was setting a hard pace out front and I was just doing my best to stay in touch while taking car of my tires. I figured I would wait until the second half of the race and hope I had better tires to mount an attack.
With about 10 minutes to go, I had a full straightaway behind me to 3rd place, and was hanging around about 1.5 seconds back of Megenbier. I had been saving my tires for this moment, time to push. Over the next 2 laps I managed to pull the gap in a little bit, and for a few moments I thought my strategy was working. But 3 laps into my ‘charge’ I felt the front tires going away fast, and then I pushed right off the track in Turn 3. My little off cost me the time I had pulled back in and more, plus I had clearly hurt my tires pushing to the car to its max. With only a few laps to go I knew my chances of victory were gone. Looking in my mirrors I still had a straightaway back to 3rd place, so I backed off to bring the car home in one piece. I drove the last few laps really cautious, in part because I had put on my helmet with a wrinkle in my balaclava that after 30minutes in the hot sun felt like it was drilling a hole through my skull. After 18 tough laps, I was happy to finish in 2nd, and take an 11 point lead in the championship away from round 3. Congrats to Timmy Megenbier who took his first win in the series. I think it would have been a better strategy to try to stay right with him the whole race, rather than save the tires for one big push, but regardless he had a little bit more than me on this weekend.
|
I stuck around to enjoy the start of the ALMS race that afternoon. It’s a fabulous venue to watch a race from and even with Audi missing this year, the beautiful Acura’s, Mazda’s and the new GT2 BMW’s made it worthwhile. Finally, it was back on the road for the trip home.
After arriving in Vancouver I had 3 more weeks of work left at my job. June 5th was my last day before I moved home to Calgary, where I will be able to put more focus on my racing career. As we all know, there’s not much worse than moving, so I am happy to say I am now comfortably settled in and the moving is behind me. I also found the time to re-launch www.jakethompson.ca with a new look that I think is quite a bit better. The last few days I have been logging simulator laps trying to get ready for Mid-Ohio. I also have a new project in the works in partnership with a couple of other amateur athletes looking for their big break, that I hope to be able to tell you more about next time.
Until then,
JT
Digg this story!
Email this article
Printer friendly page