We made it! Last year (2022) we had Sebring as our first race of the year and first stop on the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour but epic levels of snow across the mountain passes had us locked in the Pacific Northwest but this year, the snow hit earlier in December and by the first week in January, the passes were clear!
The January 12 – 15 race weekend which included a test day on Thursday, qualifying on Friday/Saturday AM and two feature races on Saturday and Sunday, would not only be the first race of the year for the team, organizing body and the drivers! We came prepared with patience, positive attitudes and a singular goal: improvement.
Each of our drivers put in serious hours of training on the simulator, studying historical race videos and watching track walk videos from the likes of Ross Bentley, so that when they got on the track for the first time, they could focus on getting comfortable leaning on the car and not worrying about where to turn next!
2023 Driver Lineup and a new addition!
For the 2023 tour, we continued with the same driver team from 2022 with Ann Doherty in her Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport but now competing in Touring 1 class (versus GT2). Starting in 2023, the Touring 1 SCCA class has changed to allow the GT4 race cars that are currently competing in SRO and IMSA series, a place to race in SCCA Club Racing. You might ask, but why? They are professional level race cars – shouldn’t SCCA club racing be about non-professionally built race cars?
Historically, that has been true and most would agree but a couple things are happening that have forced the hand of SCCA and we are in full support. First, for many years as Pro level cars have aged out of the pro series (new cars have shown up and the “old” cars are no longer allowed to compete in the pro leagues) they have been sold to amateur drivers and teams, who then drive them at track days and increasingly, club racing leagues. For example, many of the old IMSA/Grand Am Continental Tire Series Grand Sport (GS) cars that were retired from pro racing, trickled down into SCCA Touring 1. IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge GS class is the new version of the old Conti Challenge and the top class (GS) is made up exclusively of FIA homologated GT4 race cars.
Second, and the biggest variable, is that newer street cars come with advanced electronics that need to balance performance with emissions and safety regulations. These systems are so advanced that it has become increasingly difficult, cost prohibitive and in some cases, impossible to tweak the OEM controllers so that the car can run reliably in race conditions.
The net result is it is equally as expensive to build a Touring 1 level car from a street car and less reliable than simply buying a factory built race car, like the GT4 race cars. So in an effort to save the Touring 1 class, SCCA has moved to allow these cars in T1. Not only do we fully support the shift to the future for the class but specifically for the Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, it’s inline with the spirit of Touring class cars (race on Sunday, sell on Monday) and it has a much better chance to compete at the front, compared to GT2 cars that have thrown most connections to the street cars, out the window (along with the windows!).
In the Touring 3 class, we had Dave Orem returning in his #44 2001 BMW 330ci in Spec E46 trim, Simon Asselin in his #81 Spec E46, Gama Aguilar in his #109 Spec E46 and joining the group is Thad Berger in his #60 Spec E46! As you can probably tell, we love them BMW Spec E46’s at Racer on Rails!
Unfortunately for Simon, his engine developed an issue on the very first test day session which sounded like an engine throwing the white flag so he jumped into Gama’s #109 to finish the weekend. Gama would end up sitting out the weekend and focused on coaching.
Speaking of coaching, we welcomed back Ray Phillips from Precision Driving Analytics and Seth Thomas, who coached the 2022 team to significant improvements, multiple podiums, some race wins and personal bests that simply couldn’t have been possible for drivers coming to the bucket list tracks we drove at in 2022.
Finally, Simon Asselin was not just piloting a Spec E46 but on the way to Sebring, we made a detour stop to pickup his new (to him) 991.1 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that races in the GT2 class! While we normally would not advise anyone to pickup a race car on the way to running said race car in a competition weekend, we worked with Autometrics Motorsports out of Summerville, SC (who was the previous custodian of the car) to get it as prepared as possible for competition in SCCA GT2 class. A big thank you to Adam, Gordon and the Autometrics team for helping it a smooth transition process for Simon and our team!
Ramping up on new tracks fast and competing at the front
One of the biggest challenges of going on the Hoosier Super Tour, being based out of Seattle, WA and generally, the Pacific Northwest, is that these are all new or relatively new tracks for each driver. Drivers can’t lean on their thousands of laps at local tracks like Pacific Raceways (that is literally our back or front yard now!). The competition tough, the fields are big and track time is limited. Even with a test day.
So the drivers and we as a team have to figure out how to get up to a respectable pace fast and improve every session. As mentioned above, each driver put in 10+ hours on the simulator before the race weekend and little by little, each driver progressed, chipping away at lap times and every once in a while, taking large chunks.
Over time what has happened, especially for the drivers that were part of this tour in 2022, is that they got a lot of experience learning new tracks and they got better throughout each weekend. Over the races, they started developing not a library of tracks that they reference, but instead a library of corners. So a new track isn’t a completely new thing they haven’t driven before, but instead a track that is a collection of corners that some they have driven before. So for example, turn 1 at Sebring is a lot like turn 1 at the Ridge (high speed left hand corner where you float as much speed as possible into the corner). Turn 7 (Hairpin) is similar to Turn 11 at COTA – slow speed corner where there are multiple lines that can be taken and the exit is paramount due to the straight away that follows. The bumps at Sebring, especially the exit of Sunset Bend (respect the bumps!) is similar to the exit of Turn 9 at Pacific Raceways (respect the bumps!).
We find (and found!) that when drivers start thinking about new tracks in that way, they are able to anchor themselves to a familiar feeling of what the car should feel like and a sensation for the speed. It doesn’t mean that you treat the corners the same but it’s a high informed starting point to begin really leaning on the car and the tires. Because until a driver really starts leaning on the car and tires, the lap times won’t drop materially.
Touring 3
With a solid day’s worth of practice, Thad, Dave and Simon were set to go after a solid qualifying position to start the races. Qualifying 1 was rained out and with no further rain expected the rest of the weekend, most of the grid didn’t quality for T3 including Dave and Thad. In qualifying 2, Simon locked up P3, Dave had a time good enough for P4 but his transponder decided to quit on us so he would start race 1 from the back and need to make his way through the field. Thad started P6 and knew exactly what he needed to to gain positions and lap time.
Race 1 was close battling from start to finish! Simon lost some positions on the start but jumped back in, regained positions and while simultaneously battling T3, T4 and T2 cars, mustered out a P2! Dave let the lap 1, turn 1 mayhem happen and then got to work, moving his way through almost the entire T4 field, five T3 cars and came home in P3, on top of improving on his personal best time of the weekend!
Thad was in the thick of the front T4 battle but he took no prisoners, held his ground and took out 2.6 seconds off his qualifying 2 lap time. Let the big dog eat!
For race 2, everyone started in better positions and the themes were similar. Hard racing the entire race for each driver, further improvements in personal bests and not a moment to catch your breath! Thad dropped a further .9 seconds off his personal best to a 2:32.7 and finished P4 in his second ever Hoosier Super Tour.
Want to pause here and emphasize what Thad did. Thad has been wheel to wheel racing for less than 1 year. He jumped into the deep end of the pool, competing against experienced/fast drivers, at the Hoosier Super Tour and at a bucket list track that he had never driven. On top of all of that – in qualifying 2, on the first flying lap, he had a real big moment at Sunset Bend (Turn 17) where legitimately almost put the car into the wall. But he didn’t. He gathered the car up, drove through pit lane for a quick visual check on the car – everything looked good and he immediately got back at it. That is something he and we all, will never forget. Great job, Thad!
Dave continued his progress through the field after losing a couple positions on the start, focused on consistency and dropped another .5 seconds off his fastest time of the weekend for a 2:31.4 and with Simon’s DNF, a P3 and a double podium weekend!
Finally, Simon had one of the most intense races ever, battling T2, T3 and T4 cars again! And while he also took almost a full second out of his fastest time of the weekend for a 2:30.1 lap time, with a lap to go, he went a little hot into a corner, got the car sideways and was unfortunately collected by a really competitive out of class car. That unfortunately ended the race for him but he sustained no issues and the 109 has already been repaired – the incident did not detract from the weekend as a whole. Watch Simon’s race below (with picture in picture of the SCCA broadcast!)
Touring 1 and GT2
Lucky for us, both Ann and Simon race in the same group but in two different classes so we got lots to follow during their group race!
While Ann hadn’t been to Sebring, she has developed a reputation for ramping up quickly at each new track and by the end of the race weekend, competing towards the front of the grid or the front of the mid-pack and that was last year, in GT2! Well she did not disappoint! After missing qualy 1 as it was also a wet session and no forecasted wet sessions for the rest of the weekend, she qualified P6 out of 10. And while she finished P6 in both races, she finished only about 1.5 seconds off the race pace of the podium finishers and the five drivers in front of her were ex-professional IMSA drivers, current SRO drivers, multi-national champions and seasoned (and fast) Touring 1 cars/drivers. Lots of work left to get close to the top 5 type of drivers but her performance coming out of the gates and through the weekend were amazing!
This was Simon’s first weekend with the Porsche GT3 Cup Car and we all came into the weekend with specific expectations: learn the car, get quality laps, and have fun! With a new car to the team and no testing beforehand, we had really no gauge for how the car and Simon could perform. However, we were all extremely pleased to get the car running by mid-morning of the test day. Seth Thomas drove it on it’s maiden track session under the Racer on Rails umbrella, to provide a baseline for how the car simply ran and once confidence built up, a gauge for the pace of the car.
The verdict? It’s a great GT3 Cup Car! While it wasn’t fully compliant to GT2 rules at the time (hadn’t added the full ballast required), the lap times Seth put down were well within the front of GT2 class range that we saw throughout the weekend and it gave Simon a rabbit to chase throughout the weekend. You might be asking – how can you figure that after a single person driving the car in one session/5 laps? First, the team has worked on factory built Porsche’s throughout the years so we had a solid foundation of what to expect re the machinery itself and setups. Second, Seth has driven a wide variety of race cars and including several Porsche GT3 Cup Cars (along with being somewhat of a Porsche nut himself) and he’s driven/raced at Sebring dozens of times, with likely thousands of laps at Sebring. So after he had 3-4 laps underneath him and the tires were finally in a working range, he was able to start really leaning into the car.
The results? Simon finished P5 in race 1 after a hard fought battle with another 991 GT3 Cup car and P6 in race 2 where his tires started to show signs of aging after taking a couple of qualifying sessions and a full race 1. All in all, Simon ended up ~2 seconds off the race winner but only ~1 second off the leading Porsche GT3 Cup car in the field. Awesome first outing and race weekend for Simon in the Porsche GT3 Cup Car.
Check out the in-car and live broadcast from Simon’s first race below!
Catch the next race report that recaps our stop at Circuit of the Americas!
