MARRS IV - Summit Point Race Report
The fourth race weekend of the year started slow at Summit Point Raceway. The Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx was more than two seconds off the provisional pole. The good news was that this placed us third on the grid and immediately behind the number two qualifier for the second qualifying session. Sticking with an older set of tires for the second qualifying session, we decided to keep the good tires for the race. The second qualifying time yielded a 0.7 second improvement in qualifying time but to better starting position. In this combined race with the, presumably, faster ITS cars; we were qualified 11th overall, 3rd in class. Our main competitors were the Honda CRXs of Gregg Ginsberg (qualified 1st in class, 5th overall) and Chris McClary (2nd in class, 9th overall). We would have our work cut out for us with so many other cars in the way of the ITA race. The ITS cars are generally more powerful and thus hard to pass when our advantage is in the corners and under braking.
Due to the 11th overall starting position, we were starting on the inside which is often a benefit; we were also directly behind McClary's Honda. The start of the race saw McClary take the far inside (otherwise known as grass) which did not work well. We went up the middle passing McClary and the two ITS Mazda RX-7s of Matt Christian and Nigel Patterson. Coming out of the first turn, the running order was ITS cars in the first six positions, Ginsberg's Honda, the ITS Mazda RX-7 of Steve Himmelsbach, and then the Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx having moved up to second in class and in sight of the leader. Chasing Ginsberg's blue CRX, we knew it was important to pass the out-of-class Mazda as soon as possible. Ginsberg bobbled on entry to turn 6, getting momentarily sideways and letting the Datsun 240Z of Jeff Lucas by to the inside.
At the start of the second lap, Ginsberg was close behind the Datsun 240z of Jeff Lucas and looking to pass (to add to the cushion back to us). We went under Himmelsbach's Mazda under heavy braking for turn 1 and made the clean pass, finally completed in turn 3 after a counterattack by the Mazda. We were now directly behind Ginsberg and slowly catching him for a number of laps just missing the draft down to the main straight to turn 1. Slowly pulling him in, very slowly. About lap 4, Ginsberg passes Lucas into 1. Ginsberg does not give Lucas room coming out and they have light contact - Ginsberg's rear to Lucas' front. Lucas barely stays on track by lifting slightly. We make a run through turn 3 and have the momentum to pass both but Lucas takes an aggressive line to try to repass Ginsberg in the short run to turn 4 and we gain nothing. Now behind Lucas, Ginsberg pulls out slightly.
We are both pulling away from McClary's Honda who had a rough ride through the dirt at pit out on the start. Lucas was probably a bit hot for the aggressive pass and definitely competitive for the overall position with Ginsberg; two laps later he takes the Datsun under Ginsberg into one. Tables reversed, Lucas crowds Ginsberg at exit and Ginsberg leaves track. Ginsberg returns but with slowed speed we are on his rear through 3. Side by side through 4 and into 5. The Sisu Racing Nissan on the outside. We yield the turn but with higher speed we dive under Ginsberg into 6. He turns in and we go over the curb. No grip on the grass so we slide into Ginsberg. He pushes the front end to drivers right, we countersteer left. Ginsberg is able to pull ahead enough to release from contact, with the steering input to the outside of the turn the Sisu Racing Nissan shoots off to the grass on drivers left, outside of 6. I breath the throttle and save the car, almost hitting tire wall, almost spinning around. We recover about 2 seconds ahead of McClary with Ginsberg about 4 seconds up the track and Himmelsbach back between us. We take up pursuit and are catching Ginsberg and Himmelsbach with McClary maintaining pace. About 4 laps later, Ginsberg makes a mistake in 3 and spins. His spin leaves him on track pointing in the right direction but stopped. We are close enough behind there is no flag entering the turn. We know 3 is where we were making up time so we are really pushing. Round the corner and miss him by maybe 4 feet at 100+mph. Now in the lead with 3-4 laps to go, we maintain overall position behind Himmelsbach until the end and keep McClary at a decent distance. Ginsberg runs his car really hot with no water and pulls off on the cool down lap having blown the radiator hose in the spin. Finishing order: Dohne, McClary, Kez Ford (Mazda RX-7), Ginsberg. Ford is disqualified for being too light and leaving impound so Ginsberg moves up one spot. The Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx moves ahead of the Hondas with two wins to each of their one in the season championship series. We finally capture a fast lap of the race and better our best lap time in this car by 0.7 seconds.
MARRS IV - Summit Point Race Results
OA CL Car# Class Name Car Laps Race 1 1 28 ITS Asinugo - Sam BMW 325IS 16 1:25.348 2 2 46 ITS Giovanis - Ted BMW 325i 16 1:28.203 3 3 64 ITS Lytle - Marshall BMW 16 1:28.160 4 4 0 ITS Lucas - Jeff Datsun 240Z 16 1:29.245 5 5 34 ITS Himmelsbach - Steve Mazda RX-7 16 1:29.915 6 1 9 ITA Dohne - Kirk Nissan 240sx 16 1:28.962 7 2 8 ITA McClary - Chris Honda CRX Si 16 1:29.619 8 6 1 ITS Patterson - Nigel Mazda RX7 16 1:30.235 9 7 4 ITS Christian - Matthew Mazda RX7 16 1:30.138 DISQ 91 ITA Ford - Kez Mazda RX7 16 1:31.102 10 3 72 ITA Ginsberg - Gregg Honda CRX Si 16 1:28.967 11 4 1 ITA Yip - Matthew VW GTi 16v 15 1:32.845 12 5 78 ITA Robert Prince Nissan 15 1:32.845 13 6 69 ITA Wiesert - Dale Mazda RX7 15 1:33.190 14 7 77 ITA Cummins - John Mazda RX3 15 1:30.906 15 8 32 ITA Schiro - Lawrence VW SCIROCCO 15 1:31.572 16 8 40 ITS Counts - John P BMW 325i 15 1:33.792 17 9 17 ITA Johnston - Mark Nissan 240sx 15 1:34.080 18 10 93 ITA Burgee - Wade Toyota FX16 15 1:35.130 19 11 2 ITA Johnston - Andrew Acura Integra 15 1:35.018 20 12 33 ITA HollingerJr - William Mazda Miata 15 1:33.997 21 9 90 ITS BayerBroring - Carolyn NissanSentraSER 15 1:34.908 22 13 59 ITA Hummel - Dick Toyota MR2 14 1:40.879 23 14 76 ITA McFadden - Gerry Mazda RX7 *13 1:34.351 24 10 87 ITS Coch - Robert Mercedes 190E 12 1:31.005 25 15 41 ITA Simonson - Brent Mazda RX7 *10 1:33.336 26 16 58 ITA Jim Linkenauger VW *8 1:31.468 DNF 56 ITS York - Ed BMW 325is *6 1:25.630 DNF 31 ITA Wilbern - William Honda CRX *3 1:40.339 DNF 30 ITA Duka - Brian Toyota MR2 *0 ---