Happy Friday, Race Fans!
FRIDAY NOTES:
Morgan is in the Apple Motorsports SRF3 this weekend with support from Mike Amy and Dog Gone Racing. We are at Pittsburgh International Race Complex, aka PittRace, northwest of Pittsburg, PA. Friday is all about testing and reminders. With only one weekend last year here, a bit of a brush up on the layout and nuance of the track will be important ahead of the 2-day SCCA Majors event starting tomorrow.
During today’s laps, Morgan will find the places where the track itself has changed. Looking for new cracks or sealer, changes in curbs, fresh paint and the like. Each of those can affect where to place the wheels of the car by a few inches. There are 19 turns here. That’s a lot of detail to record, remember, and plan for each lap of the course. Fortunately, Morgan is wired to do that very well!
More to come as the day progresses!
Test Day Results: PittRace delivered truly lovely weather today! There may a bit of sunburn and windburn on the happy faces here in the Dog Gone Racing paddock.
With four sessions on the day, Morgan feels like the car is dialed in well for the Majors event starting tomorrow morning. Looking at the forecast (and we know how changeable weather is), we may have some dampness overnight and into the morning sessions. That changes the equation dramatically but with the dry baseline well set, adjustments for wet conditions won’t be too hard to make.
The hardest part is always what tires to choose. It needs to be wet enough for the rain tires to work properly. Not wet enough and they wear out very quickly. In contrast, dry tires may be the right call even if it is a bit damp, especially if the rain is ending. I’m anticipating a fair amount of debate about it in the morning.
SRF3 runs in Group 1 this weekend. If you have Race Monitor or Race Hero, you can pull up the 72nd Cumberland Classic and watch the times. Unfortunately, there’s no video feed this weekend. Given the early start, I’ll be back again after qualifying tomorrow with the results for you!
SATURDAY NOTES:
Qualifying 1 Results: PittRace got about seven and a half minutes into the first qualifying session of the day (our 15 minutes of course), when we got a lightning strike within 5 miles of the track. That is an automatic shutdown for 15 minutes, and that time resets with every new strike in the zone. Our session clock stopped and we have just heard that the session has been checkered. This line of thunderstorms is getting bigger, stronger and heavier as it pushes through.
The shortened session worked to Morgan's advantage. He has the pole time, even though he was on dry tires as the rain started, and others were on wets. Once again, we are impressed with Morgan’s ability to warm up quickly and lay down a good lap early in the session. Today especially, it was critical to get that lap in before the track got too wet. Conditions deteriorated rather fast after the first couple laps and then lightning stopped the session. Many others were not so lucky. Morgan enjoys running in the rain in contrast to many others who are overly cautious. His pole time is almost 2 seconds clear of P2!
Race 1 Report: The rain stopped long ago. That made the tire choice for the race very easy - dry tires. We still have high clouds chasing across the sky with a pleasant breeze and the sun is trying to peek out. That means that any remaining dampness is receding very quickly. This track drains well and has a surprising amount of grip in any conditions if you know where to find it. Clearly, Morgan does!
The way that the start stand is situated, there isn’t much time for them to see the field before deciding when to throw the green. At the crest of the hill, the field looked good, the green waved and they rushed on down to Turn 1. That’s where they disappear from our view as we stand on the pit lane. It isn’t until Turns 9-11 that we catch another glimpse of them.
Morgan leads!! Then they go behind a clump of trees. And we wait again. We get to another look as they come into Turn 15 and go down to Turn 16. Still leading! Now they are behind a hill and we don’t see them again until they crest the hill approaching Start to complete the lap. Lap 1 done and we relax a bit as the field isn't packed in so close together now. Morgan leads with P2 close behind and the rest of the field is stretching out. Looks like it will be a close race today for Morgan.
Morgan and P2 swapped spots a couple times mid race, with Morgan taking the lead back with several laps to go. With about 7-8 minutes to go, we start to work hard on the calculations for how many laps might be left. With a timed race (25 minutes), the lap times (1:54) really matter. We had initially figured on 12-13 laps. As it got closer, it became clear that it was going to be a pretty close call as to when to throw the white flag marking one lap to go. They crossed the line at the end of lap 11 with about 2:10 to go. That ensured 13 laps.
Morgan was working hard to retain the lead. He can be pretty difficult to get by, but he’s also quite fair about being passed. On the last lap, they caught up to back marker traffic going into the Turn 16-18 complex. Of course we can’t see what happens down there, but we stare intently through the hillside hoping the image in our mind of our boy in front is what's really there. Yay!! Morgan’s nose is the first one to pop up over the rise! The cheer is short lived though. P2 seems to have an abundance of torque and power coming out of turns. He squeezed by Morgan at the line half his car length ahead. A P2 podium finish after a hard fought race still feels good.
Qualifying 2 Results: We wrap up the afternoon with a qualifying session for the Sunday race. The fastest time from any of this and the previous two sessions will set the grid for tomorrow. Here at the end of the day, it got warm and sunny. With a stiff breeze on top of that, there just wasn’t more time to be had. Morgan ran about three laps and packed it in. Nobody went faster. Tomorrow’s race grid will be set using the times from today’s race which were the best of the day. That means he'll be on the pole again tomorrow.
End of Day Review: Between and after sessions today, Morgan spent a lot of time reviewing video and data. With four drivers in the paddock, there is a lot to go over. It’s interesting to listen in on the critique on the line, brake points, turn in points, apexes, and track out points. They talk about whether to use or not to use the curbs. Morgan finds a dozen different ways to explain the concept and intent until he finds something that clicks in the minds of the others. And people get more comfortable and faster after they talk to him.
Now we grab some grub, relax and hang out laughing and telling stories together.
SUNDAY NOTES:
Set Up: Zippers. Trailer doors. A train in the distance. Couple of dog barks. Drone of the blower cleaning the track. More zippers.
Good morning from PittRace! A few folks are up with the sun, yawning, rubbing eyes, walking dogs, and beginning to get the pack up started. Our comfy home on the road “apartment” is all put away. (That's the top deck of the trailer.) Cars will ride there going back to the shop. There was no dew overnight so the walls of the tent can come down and get folded up for storage.
We wait, sort of patiently, for it to be time to get the cars moving. Everything is as ready as it can be. Stuff gets moved around anyway. Cars get polished again. Because sitting still is anathema to racers.
Bright sunshine, brisk breeze and cool air should make for good race conditions. We are hopeful that it will be a good one. We are due to go out about 9:15. After that, there is the flurry of post race activity, then pulling down the rest of the tent and packing the trailer. The target is to be all done by around 1:00.
Wish us luck!!
Race 2 Report: As anticipated, this was quite a good race! The top three, Morgan, Justin, and Ben had a very tight and very clean race. They traded spots frequently and all of them had a turn at leading the race.
As I mentioned before, standing in the pits, we don’t get to see much of the track. There is a lot of tension while we wait for them to come back into view so we can see the order and the gaps.
This was a 16-lap race so we could be certain about when the last lap would arrive. What we weren’t sure about was exactly when they’d catch a pair of back markers. They were closing on them at 4-5 seconds per 1:55 lap. Morgan was in third with 3 to go when they got there. We were hoping that perhaps it might be an advantage to Morgan and Ben by slowing Justin down a bit so they could close up tight and set up a pass. It didn’t happen though as both back markers let all the leaders by without breaking them up. That is what the spectators always want to see - keep the race close. Of course, the racers themselves and their teams have a slightly different perspective on that.
Morgan gained back one spot on the last lap in Turn 6. Ben got a little loose and Morgan slipped through. Unfortunately, he didn't get the opportunity to grab that last spot despite best efforts. There was only 3/4 of a second between them all at the line, but they were clear is P4 by 17 seconds. The finishing order was Justin, Morgan, Ben.
While a win is always preferable, pulling consistently strong finishes brings good points to the championship run. A pair of second place finishes this weekend is a very good points haul for the Northeast Division Championship. We will have one more race in that series coming up at the end of May.
WHAT’S NEXT?
We go to Round 3 of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California where Morgan will be back in the Hyundai Elantra N with VGRT. That's sure to be a great one! Peacock TV will carry the broadcast live.