RJRacing

October 14, 2012
Hard WERC Pays Off

The sixth and final round of the 2012 National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) would mean a return to Buttonwillow Raceway Park. RJ Racing would begin the race at the top of the championship standings in the E3 class. Their lead would mean that a fifth place or better finish in class would clinch the championship. However, many variables like a repave of the “Cotton Corners” and a last minute format change by NASA would make sure that the team could not relax for the final three hours of the 2012 WERC Series.

Round six would be split across two days, instead of the three-hour race at sunset that RJR had become accustomed to running at Buttonwillow. The first two hours would be run in the afternoon, with the remaining hour to be completed the next morning. The cars would be quarantined overnight, with the rules stating that nothing could be done to them until the race was resumed the next morning by the waving of the green flag. Perhaps the toughest part of this split format would be accounting for the vast temperature difference from late afternoon to early morning.

On the other hand, the split format presented an opportunity to the car that could slot just in front of the overall leader of the race at the end of the first two hours. The pace car, at that point, would pickup the field starting with the overall leader. This would afford any car just in front of the overall leader an entire lap on the cars just behind the leader. It seemed as if RJR had played its cards just right as the first two hours were nearing an end. They were running P2 in class, just 13 seconds ahead of the overall leader with one lap to go in the first session. However, because of a set of circumstances that will probably never arise again, the overall leader was on the same team as the E3 class leader. The overall leader, being a few laps ahead in his own class, went from running 2:05 lap times to a 3:00 lap in order to slot his E3 teammate just in front of him and give him the lap advantage over RJR. The RJR crew was slightly caught off guard by this, as they are not used to affecting the on-track actions of an ES car aside from being slower traffic. “At the end of the day, we were more flattered than anything,” commented Driver/Co-owner John Gibson after emerging from the car.

The next morning, the racing gods would give the lap back to RJR. The E3 Class leader would have to resume the race from the pits. Their problem would be quickly diagnosed as a disconnected fuel line that had most likely came apart due to the temperature fluctuations from sitting overnight. They would resume the race seconds behind the RJR #23 Miata. The ensuing battle for position would see both drivers setting personal best lap times. RJR became severely hindered when an E0 car suffered from mechanical problems and sprayed fluid all over the front of the #23 RJR Miata going into turn one. John Gibson was forced to lock up the brakes to keep from going off track. This would put an already worn set of front tires on their ragged edge.

Settling for second place in class would not be too difficult for RJR, as they would finish third overall. That means they beat the entire E2, E1, and E0 fields as well as all but one of the ES field. This would also mean completing one of the two main goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the year. They had emerged as the 2012 Western Endurance Racing Champions in the E3 Class. All that remains is defending their position as 25 Hours of Thunderhill Champions.