RJRacing

June 23, 2012
Out Of The Darkness And Into The Championship Lead

RJ Racing (RJR) takes second place in E3 on their second visit to Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Round 4 of the National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC). The temperature for the weekend barely broke 90 degrees, considerably lower than typical mid-summer Buttonwillow weather. This, of course, would benefit all teams.

With the focus shifted solely on endurance racing, RJR would utilize four Time Trial sessions before the raceto dial in their Stewart Development Custom Suspension for the rhythmic turns of the technical Buttonwillow race track. Tire strategy would also be crucial as the sun would set mid race. Technical Director Sean Ryan would have to plan for this when dialing in the team’s Hoosier Racing Tires.

The green flag dropped at 7:10 pm for a three-hour race. Once again, the grid was randomly generated and it put the #23 RJR Miata fourth from the back. Rob Gibson, Team Owner and Driver, would tackle the first stint. He gracefully and expeditiously negotiated several heated battles with competitor cars and made his way up to third in class when the team pitted for driver change and fuel at the midway point of the race.

John Gibson, Team Owner and Driver, would quickly vault into the lead after the pit stops shuffled one competitor farther down the field and the leader in class suffered electrical problems. However, as quickly as things start looking up they can just as easily turn around. As the sun sunk further into the horizon, one of RJR’s auxiliary headlights – positioned to the apex of the turn to provide a blanket of light onto the track – would lose a retaining screw causing the lamp to point up in the air and, thus, reflecting the beam of light against the dusty Buttonwillow air. With a moonless night and less than stellar lighting it was going to be a long night. After several laps of bouncing off the Buttonwillow Raceway curbs, the lamp eventually tilted even further back pointing directly in John’s eyes and forcing him to turn them off. RJR would be forced to finish the race with just the main halogen lights to pierce the pitch-black darkness. With just under 10 minutes to go, there was nothing the team could do when the second place car of Trackspeed Engineering/949 Racing took the lead. With too little time and too little life left in the tires to regain the lead, RJR would cross the finish second out of 13 in class and eighth overall in a field of 29 endurance racers.

While a win would have been ideal, the team came away satisfied with a comfortable lead in the championship point standings with only two rounds remaining. The team’s two main competitors had problems of their own and would finish well down the charts. The three month break until the next round will allow the team to begin preparations for the 2012 25 Hours of Thunderhill and complete development projects before Round 5 in picturesque Sonoma, California.

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RJ Racing: info@rjracing.net

www.rjracing.net P:949-305-3552

Stewart Development: Custom suspension work

www.stewartdevelopment.com P: 336-899-0072