MARRS V - Summit Point Race Report
The Sisu Racing Team Nissan 240SX looked forward to the fifth race of the Mid-Atlantic Road Racing Series with trepidation. Rear wheel drive and rain generally do not mix well unless everyone is in the same boat. With competition from front wheel drive Hondas and Volkswagens, the weather forecast did not seem to favor the Nissan in the Sunday race.
Let’s not get ahead of the story too far, Saturday’s first qualifying session Qualifying was under sunny skies. The first qualifying session ended with the top four cars being less than 0.15 seconds apart; the Sisu Racing Team was ecstatic to be at the head of that list. A first ever pole position seemed to be in the offing, as the heat of the day would rear its head for the second session. In qualifying for the second session there were two options; take off after the BMWs in the faster class and see if we could catch a draft off one down the front straight or stay with the group of ITA cars and see if a more extensive (but slower) draft would benefit. We took the first option while the other three top qualifiers took the second option. Unfortunately, we missed the draft of the BMW by about 1 second and were in noman’s land for a few laps before dropping back to the ITA pack. That slight strategy miscalculation allowed two of the other ITA cars to improve their best lap time by about a tenth of a second, moving us to third. The first three cars on the grid would be incredibly competitive, with 0.031 seconds covering the three cars; an even more incredible 0.001 seconds being the difference between first and second. The first two rows of the grid would be occupied by the faster class of ITS, then the first four ITA cars (Nathan Brasz in a Nissan 240SX with his firs pole, Chris McClary in a Honda CRX, the Sisu Racing Nissan of Kirk Dohne, Gregg Ginsberg in a Honda CRX), another ITS car, Larry Schiro in a Volkswagen Scirocco, followed by another 12 ITA cars.
Sunday awoke to cloudy skies and increasingly heavy rains. The late start necessitated by lightening forced the races to be shortened to 10 laps (from the normal 16). The leading contenders all got out their rain tires and we went racing. The Sisu Racing Nissan started from the inside row at the 7th overall starting position (3rd in class). At the late green, McClary missed a shift and dropped back. Brasz and Dohne took off, Dohne feigning to the middle but unable to make a move under hard acceleration. Dohne moved back to the far inside as Brasz took a wider line heading into turn 1. Dohne braked deeper for the entrance to turn 1 and got beside Brasz. Side by side through turns 1, 2, 3, and part of 4, Dohne finally made the pass stick heading into the braking zone for turn 5.
With Brasz in hot pursuit, Dohne took off after the ITS BMWs in a desperate attempt to place something between him and the nearest competitors. That brazenness was rewarded at the exit of turn 1 on the second lap when Dohne successfully passed Ted Giovanis’ ITS BMW 325 while Brasz was left to struggle with this traffic. Dohne pulled out a 5 second lead after 5 laps but then started to notice that the white VW Scirocco of Larry Schiro was making its way forward to contend for the lead. Pressing harder but still being caught, Dohne caught the third place overall BMW of Marshall Lytle just as Schiro caught onto the rear bumper. Lytle maintained for a lap and then, in a gesture befitting a gentleman racer, allowed the close ITA race to continue in front of him as he allowed us both by. We were on our own now and Schiro made a few attempts to pass. The Nissan has a bit more power than the Scirocco and, in these tenuous conditions, the Scirocco has a little more handling prowess than the Nissan. We would have to use our advantages to good effect.
The race progressed with the lead growing and shrinking (but always less than a second) depending where on the track we were and where on the track we encountered lapped traffic. Sciros moved alongside a couple times entering the front straight but then we pulled out about 4 car lengths down the straight. Corner exit of Turn 1/2 was about equal, we were slightly faster through 3, equal through 4, equal through 5 and 6, Schiro had a distinct advantage through 7 and 8 leading up the hill, and in 10 leading onto the main straight. The final lap started like the previous 3, the Sisu Racing Nissan with a few car length lead over the Sciro’s Scirocco. We maintained that lead around to turn 10 where we did not want to slide off in the last turn of the last lap, we slowed a little more than normal and Schiro took to the inside. As we exited the turn we were side-by-side, mirrors touching. Schiro later saying that, without any physical damage, his mirror was bending backwards we were so close. Schiro is a good clean driver and he allowed just enough room for Dohne to stay on track. It was a drag race to the finish; one which Dohne was well equipped to win. The margin of victory was 0.275 seconds. The Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx is on a roll with three series wins in a row. Our points lead in the season series is steadily growing but the race for the MARRS Championship will no doubt go down to the finale in October. Next up: Watkins Glen International, July 24-25, 2004.
MARRS V - Summit Point Race Results
Overall Class Car# Class Name Car Laps Race 1 1 56 ITS York - Ed BMW 325is 10 1:33.796 2 2 28 ITS Asinugo - Sam BMW 325IS 10 1:34.044 3 1 9 ITA Dohne - Kirk Nissan 240sx 10 1:41.024 4 2 32 ITA Schiro - Lawrence VW Scirocco 16V 10 1:42.609 5 3 64 ITS Lytle - Marshall BMW 325is 10 1:40.227 6 3 37 ITA Brasz - Nathan Nissan 240sx 10 1:41.426 7 4 72 ITA Ginsberg - Gregg Honda CRX Si 10 1:42.603 8 5 8 ITA McClary - Chris Honda CRX si 10 1:43.461 9 4 4 ITS Christian - Matthew Mazda RX7 10 1:41.640 10 6 77 ITA Cummins - John Mazda RX3 10 1:44.862 11 5 87 ITS Coch - Robert Mercedes 190E 10 1:43.313 12 6 46 ITS Giovanis - Ted BMW 325i 10 1:40.580 13 7 1 ITA Yip - Matthew VW GTi 16v 10 1:46.575 14 8 36 ITA DiMeo - Nick Mazda RX3 10 1:47.824 15 9 55 ITA Jaso - Art Toyota MR2 10 1:47.104 16 10 58 ITA Jim Linkenauger VW GTI 10 1:46.563 17 11 12 ITA Panick - Glenn Mazda RX7 10 1:48.565 18 12 69 ITA Wiesert - Dale Mazda RX7 10 1:50.879 19 13 17 ITA Johnston - Mark Nissan 240sx 9 1:52.005 20 14 6 ITA Harlow - Jonathan Mazda Miata 9 1:52.452 21 15 16 ITA Pelouze - Craige Mazda Miata 9 1:52.063 22 7 90 ITS BayerBroring - Carolyn NissanSentraSER 9 1:54.145 23 16 57 ITA Genatowski - Kurt BMW 2002 Tii 9 1:49.215 24 8 11 ITS Romeus - Wids Datsun 240Z 9 1:56.538 25 17 59 ITA Hummel - Dick Toyota MR2 9 1:57.889 DNS 84 ITA Sjolund - Roy Mazda RX7 *0 --- DNS 31 ITS Wilbern - William Honda CRX SI *0 --- DNS 91 ITA Ford - Kez Mazda RX7 *0 --- DNS 2 ITA Johnston - Andrew Acura Integra *0 ---