MARRS IX - Summit Point Race Report
The ninth and final race of the season would decide the MARRS ITA championship for the year. The Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx was in a good position to win the championship. We could determine our own fate by finishing first or second, or beating the one driver retaining a chance of the ultimate victory - the Honda CRX Si of Chris McClary. The weather seemed ideal with cool, sunny environs - perfect for good speed and limited variables. After the last race in damp but drying positions, taking the tire choice variable out of the equation would be a big benefit.
The first qualifying help promise of good things to come. The Sisu Racing Nissan was second, behind only the Honda CRX Si of Gregg Ginsberg who had been eliminated from the Championship hunt with the Sisu Racing win in race 7. McClary was third but 8/10s of a second behind. This was good. McClary thought maybe he was down on power. Hmm, this might be an easy weekend...
...Wrong, McClary came back in the second qualifying session to nip us by 1/10 of a second. The top three ITA cars would start in one clique amongst the fastest ITS cars (with a race of their own). The goal would be simple: get ahead of McClary and stay ahead. The start would be critical.
The start was slow and we went into turn 1, side-by-side with McClary. By turn 3 we had inched ahead. Second in class behind Ginsberg. That was fine, if we maintained the position ahead of McClary the Championship would be ours. We worked to pull out a lead on McClary while chasing Ginsberg. It quickly appeared that Ginsberg had the superior speed of the day but we were able to pull out a 1.7 second lead on McClary on the first lap. Unfortunately, McClary was able to make up the time in the next two laps. The final 14 laps would be nail-biting.
With McClary on our rear bumper we would make the car as "wide" as possible. Driving an extremely defensive line we began to feel out where our advantages were and where our disadvantages were. We were equal down the straight - so lets make sure we maintain an inside line down the straight, always making the Honda take the outside line into turn 1. We were fast through turns 3 and 4 - so lets blast through there. Turns 5-6, understeer made us slow - let's stay inside to make sure we do not get stuck outside. Turns 7 and 8, slight advantage to take us up to turn 10 and onto the main straight - let's blast through there. Now to deal with lapped traffic, let's plan to make sure that we do not lose momentum in the pass.
You could throw a blanket and cover both cars. It was close, rarely more than 1/10 of a second separating them, never more than a second. This was a great race for the Championship. We knew that if McClary got past, we lost control of our own destiny in the Championship. This is how it is supposed to be, last race of the year, last laps of the race and the Championship was still in tight contention. If only we could stay out of trouble.
Then trouble knocked on the door, well the front left corner anyway. Donald Dodd in an ITS Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE spun in the Carousel (turn 6). Getting back on track slowly, this was a clear opportunity for McClary if the Mazda slowed us up so we could not slow down. Pushing hard we needed the Mazda to be predictable. Unfortunately, he was not. Exiting turn 6, with us already assuming he would stay to driver's right, with a 30mph closing speed, 3-4 car lengths separation he decided to cross track. With the left being taken away, we quickly moved to driver's right but the we ran out of of time and space. Clouting the Mazda hard but staying on the power with McClary close behind. Fortune, in an odd way, was smiling upon us. We got hit far enough inboard on the major structure of the car to keep the heavy damage from pushing the fender off the tire, and just far enough outboard to avoid crushing the radiator. With the damage visible but no felt ill effects in the handling or seen on the gauges we pressed on. Just a few more laps and the race was over. The finishing order was Ginsberg, Dohne, McClary. McClary came up afterwards and said "I was just waiting for you to make one mistake but you never did. I thought for sure that when you hit that car it was my big chance but you didn't even slow down. Didn't you worry about the damage." Truth be told we did for a split second as we looked fror tell-tale signs of terminal damage but then we motored on. We had lost the battle but won the war.
The Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx driven by Kirk Dohne is the 2004 MARRS Champion!
MARRS XI Race Results
Overall Class Class Name Car Laps Race 1 1 ITS Lytle - Marshall BMW 16 01:27.4 2 2 ITS Frye - Jay Acura Integra 16 01:27.5 3 3 ITS Gibson-Mark Datsun 240Z 16 01:27.8 4 1 ITA Ginsberg - Gregg Honda CRX Si 16 01:28.8 5 4 ITS Cummings - Jim Datsun 280Z 16 01:28.6 6 2 ITA Dohne - Kirk Nissan 240sx 16 01:29.2 7 3 ITA McClary - Chris Honda CRX si 16 01:28.4 8 4 ITA Christie - Sean Honda Civic Si 16 01:30.9 9 5 ITS Coch - Robert Mercedes 190 16 01:31.1 10 5 ITA Cummins - John Mazda RX3 16 01:30.8 11 6 ITA Liggett - Michael Mazda RX7 16 01:30.8 12 7 ITA HollingerIII - William Mazda Miata 16 01:30.3 13 8 ITA Ford - Kez Mazda RX7 16 01:32.0 14 9 ITA Yip - Matthew VW GTi 16v 16 01:32.0 15 10 ITA Simonson-Brent Mazda RX7 16 01:31.1 16 11 ITA Rowe - Matthew Dodge/ShelbyChr 16 01:32.2 17 6 ITS Counts-John BMW 325i 15 01:32.2 18 12 ITA Asman - Michael Mazda RX7 15 01:31.1 19 13 ITA Wiesert - Dale Mazda RX7 15 01:32.8 20 14 ITA HollingerJr - William Mazda Miata 15 01:32.7 21 15 ITA Doane-Peter Toyota MRZ 15 01:33.6 22 7 ITS D Walter DeHaven BMW 325is 15 01:33.5 23 16 ITA Burgee - Wade Toyota FX16 15 01:34.0 24 17 ITA Johnston - Mark Nissan 240sx 15 01:33.9 25 18 ITA Genatowski - Kurt BMW 2002 Tii 15 01:34.9 26 8 ITS Wilbern - William Honda CRX SI 15 01:34.6 27 19 ITA Zick - Bill BMW 2002Tii 15 01:34.4 28 9 ITS Dodd Jr - Donald MazdaRX7 GSL-SE 15 01:32.0 29 20 ITA Hummel - Dick Toyota MR2 14 01:41.8 30 21 ITA Jaso - Art Toyota MR2 *13 01:34.2 31 10 ITS Lucas - Jeff Datsun 240Z *10 01:28.4 DNS ITS Asinugo - Sam BMW 325IS *0 No-Time