RJRacing

April 22, 2012
Hot Buttonwillow Nights

With the thermometer spiking at 94 degrees and 78% humidity, the second round of the 2012 National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) at Buttonwillow Raceway Park would feel like a trial by fire. Even though the green flag would not drop until 30 minutes before sunset, ambient temperature on track was over90 plus. The relative nighttime coolness would bring no relief as the thermometer never fell bellow 80 degrees.

With sunscreen applied in copious amounts and drinking water within arms reach, RJ Racing (RJR) started off the race weekend bright and early on Saturday morning. Dialing in pressures on the Hoosier Racing Tires would be crucial with track temperatures through the roof. RJR would use their qualifying session and corresponding sprint race as test sessions for the 3-hour endurance race scheduled for later that night. During this time, RJR was able to tweak with the set up on their Stewart Development custom-valved suspension, ensuring that the car was in top form by the green flag.

With a jam-packed schedule during the day NASA was not able to schedule a enduro qualifying session. Instead, the starting grid was to be determined by the “name out of a hat” method. The RJR #23 Miata drew second to last of the thirty plus cars.

Racing was fast paced and intense from the green flag. Mid-way through the third lap, the #17 Super Truck West team that was leading the field began to throw out billowing clouds of white smoke, obscuring vision on the entire backside of the track. A few laps later, due to oil on the track, somewhere between six and eight cars went spinning off track in turn four, including RJR. This left Driver/Co-owner Rob Gibson sitting off track in a blinding cloud of dust, unaware of even which direction he was facing. “My helmet visor was caked with dust, the windshield was caked with dust and I was sitting in a dust cloud,” exclaimed Rob later after getting out of the car. With help from Crew Chief/Radio Spotter Craig Tsurumoto, RJR was able to safely get back on track and back into the thick of things.

Just past the halfway point, the race came under full course caution. This was right in the middle of RJR’s pit stop window so the call was made to stop as soon as the race went green. The #23 RJR Miata was in the pits for fuel and a quick driver change. As Driver/Co-owner John Gibson was greeted with an empty track as the rest of the field was battling it out half a lap away. With the pit stop in the books and John laying down fast and consistent lap times, RJR began gaining positions. As the remaining cars came in for their pit stops RJR quickly went from P5 to P1.

With RJR in the lead, the last 45 minutes of the race turned into a sprint race for the podium positions. The #024 Second Chance Roadster team was running P2, driving like their hair was on fire to close the gap on P1. The #23 grew the lead from about five seconds up to twenty-two seconds before the #024 started winding RJR back in. The radio spotters began feeding gap times to John: “Eighteen seconds to P2!” came across the radio. “ Fourteen seconds to P2!” came through several laps later. The gap to second place was narrowed to just three seconds. The next lap around, the entire team expected to see an intense battle for the lead – RJR wasn’t going to give it up that easily. Instead, the radio screamed “P2 is in pit, repeat, P2 is in the pits!!!” In an attempt to pass slower traffic, the #024 car made contact with a BMW through a twisty bit of track known as turn twelve. With severe damage to the #024’s left front, it was forced to pit for repairs moving the #05 949 Racing Miata up to second place… but over a lap behind RJ Racing. Exhaling a sigh of relief, John finished out the last final minutes of the race with measured laps to retain a certain win. First place in class and 10^th overall in Round 2 of NASA’s WERC series. Sweaty, sore, and tired, the RJR crew accepted their trophy and proceeded to attack the healthy layer of dust that had accumulated on the car with Mother’s Car Care Products.