MARRS 5&6 - 2007 - Nelson Ledges Race Report
Old track, new track. Nelson Ledges Road Course has been around for quite a while but this would be the first time Team Sisu has participated in a MARRS Championship race at the course. So we had no data and no practice on the course before the weekend. Doubling the trouble was the fact that we would unfortunately miss the practice day on the Friday of the race weekend. The schedule was tight, the two races would be each matched with a single qualifying session on each of the two days. So, one qualifying session on track before the first race. No time to lose, really no time to find the line, just go for it and hope for the best.
The best was not the best. We were only a few seconds back from the front of the ITA field but the mixed class field meant that there were many cars between the Team Sisu Nissan 240sx and the leading ITA cars of Rick Jarrett and, championship rival Chris Perera. Jarrett and Brad Barnhouse called this their home track and that was a distinct advantage. The Team Sisu Nissan driven by Kirk Dohne qualified 5th and saw little hope of moving up. There was not a lot of room to pass on the very bumpy track but very fast track. The track length was the same as our home track of Summit Point but the lap times were 10 seconds and 10 mph average speed faster.
The start of race #5 of the season did not high speed for long as a 5-car crash early in the race brought out the red flag that stopped the race to clean up the track blockage. We had passed a few cars and moved up behind the next competitor in our series and class, the VW GTI of Matthew Yip. We spent almost the entire remainder of the now shortened race getting by his wide car. We finally got by the VW and then tried to put down some fast laps in preparation for the race the next day while having no real hope of catching Brad Barnhouse for 3rd. We were successful in dropping about 2 seconds off our lap times, but needed a couple more seconds to really compete.
The qualifying for the second race showed us more competitive but although we gained speed, so did everyone else. We moved up within the field but still needed more speed. The unfortunate fact was that our ca setup was too stiff for the bumpy track. We needed softer springs that we did not have. We were looking at fighting the car for the entire race but we were closer to our main challengers for the race, Brad Barnhouse and Chris Perera. Lady luck would be with us for the race. Chris Perera came into the pit early with an electrical problem, we were immediately behind and gaining on him at the time so we easily passed and set off after Brad Barnhouse. Unfortunately, we fought hard to pass a car that was out of our class and Brad was able to pull out a lead that would turn out to be unsurmountable. The Team Sisu Nissan finished 3rd and added to our MARRS Championshiup lead. Consistency is often better than speed in a series Championship but we neede to get some speed back to compete for a race win. Two wins, a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th have been our finishes for the year and we have opened up a significant lead in the overall points but with the two drop structure of our point system, we needed more top finishes.
MARRS 5 Race Results
Finishing Position Name Car Laps Fast-Lap 1 Rick Jarrett Honda Civic 10 1:18.144 2 Chris Perera Acura Integra 10 1:18.313 3 Brad Barnhouse Honda Civic 10 1:20.142 4 Kirk Dohne Nissan 240sx 10 1:20.503 5 Matthew Yip Volkswagen GTI 10 1:20.642 6 Doug Kinser Toyota MR2 10 1:22.136 7 Tommy Thompson Chrysler Neon 10 1:23.181 MARRS 6 Race Results
Finishing Position Name Car Laps Fast-Lap 1 Rick Jarrett Honda Civic 15 1:18.672 2 Brad Barnhouse Honda Civic 15 1:19.172 3 Kirk Dohne Nissan 240sx 15 1:18.881 4 Tommy Thompson Chrysler Neon 15 1:22.282 5 Doug Kinser Toyota MR2 15 1:21.232 6 Chris Perera Acura Integra 10 1:19.508