RJRacing

Willows, CA – The third round of the Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) saw the team take a commanding second place finish at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, CA.

The team knew it would be a challenging weekend. The 3-hour endurance race was going to be run clockwise instead of the usual counter-clockwise direction with which the team was familiar. This meant they would essentially be learning a new track. They were also going to be shorthanded due to Rob having a prior commitment that weekend. Lastly, the temperatures were expected to be in the high 90’s (F) with high humidity and the endurance race was going to be held in the late afternoon heat instead of the usual cool early evening.

After a long drive on Friday Tim and John set up the paddock space and prepared for a busy Saturday – with only two short 20 minute sessions before the race the next day, the team opted to participate in a High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) to get more track time. HPDE is designed for enthusiasts to run their street cars on purpose built racetracks. Running the Enduro practice and qualifying as well as four 20 minute HPDE sessions (sometimes right before or after Enduro sessions) meant the team had to be picture perfect all day long to get the best result.

Saturday started with a bang. The HPDE driver meeting early that morning was very helpful in learning the tricks of the track early. However, the cracks in the tight schedule already started to appear when the driver meeting ran late and cut into the first session of the day. The next two sessions were back to back and the team needed to make some changes to the car in under two minutes. Tim’s lightning fast tire change and last minute tweaks greatly improved the car for qualifying – and the heavy breathing and sweating showed the heat and humidity of Willows, California in late Spring.

John was able to qualify fourth in class for the Enduro – within a second of several local drivers with years of track experience. John used the next several HPDE sessions to fine tune the car and find that last second or two of speed on the track.

The race started promptly at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. John was able to get a great run on the group of cars ahead but had to take evasive action to avoid being slammed into the wall. The next 30 minutes saw the team fighting for third place as the leader and second place car built a gap. As the second half hour approached, the tire temperatures and pressures were at the desired levels while the nearest competitors started to fall off. Now it was time to track down the leaders.

As luck would have it, the second place car pitted a full seven laps ahead of RJ Racing. This meant they would not only have to stop twice compared to RJR’s one stop strategy, but John could put down faster laps with a light fuel load while the competitors were lapping with full tanks of fuel.

With second place effectively in the bag, the team developed a strategy to win. Knowing the leader had to save fuel to finish the race with only one pit stop John put the pedal down to force the leader to push their car faster thus using more fuel – a difficult task since the early on-track battling allowed the leader to build almost a one lap lead.

Towards the end of the race it looked as if the leader was getting ready to pit again. However, lady luck did not shine upon us this day. The race stewards decided to throw the checkered flag several minutes early. Second place again…

The team was hoping for a victory but second place allowed RJ Racing to solidify their second place in the championship with only three races left.

Thunderhill after finishing 2nd