Good morning, race fans!
This fine, sunny, breezy, cool day finds us at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (You can already tell what I am enjoying about this one - perfect race weather!)
This is an SCCA event and Morgan is in the red/black #27 Apple Motorsports SRF3. Unfortunately, there won't be a YouTube feed to watch. Boo. We have a test day Friday and then have qualifying and racing both Saturday and Sunday. Because our regular guy, Dog Gone Racing’s Mike Amy, has other customers at our home track, we are in the capable hands of Alliance Autosport for this event. (Yeah - there is an event at home. Our house is full of people attending it and we aren’t there - again. At least we can make it easier for so many to enjoy it.)
FRIDAY PRACTICE:
Track Orientation: Road America doesn’t hide like many other tracks do. This one is all right there to see from a rather long road frontage. Also unlike many others, this place provides lots of opportunities for passing. Road America is a big track - 4 miles and it's a lot of high speed sections connected with 90 degree corners and punctuated with a few really challenging corners. There are 14 Turns with some long straights to get up to high speeds between them. Coming into the straight-approach brake zones that go into those 90 degree corners is where we will see lots of passes happen.
The front straight is quite long and sharply uphill approaching the Start/Finish line. Then it tilts gradually downward approaching the right at T1, which is faster than many think because of the way the corner is shaped, with lots of runoff room. It continues down more steeply through T3 (right) toward T5 (left) where the downhill approach steepens even more, offering great passing opportunities. There is often lots of action here before yanking it back up the next steep hill. It does flatten for the T6 (left) brake zone so lots more passing happens there. Limited sight lines add to the difficulty there. Sloping back downhill again through the Hurry Downs (T7-8, right-left) toward the Carousel, it's squirt and brake and turn all the way.
Many talk about the Kink (T11 - a fast right bend) as being the scariest turn. It comes out of the long, wide-arcing, right-bending Carousel (T9-10) with gradually falling elevation where you have to be patient feeding in the power. Too much too soon makes you slide wide. Once you can give it the full beans, the Kink comes up fast, but there’s not much room before the wall on the left if you don’t aim it right or try to carry too much speed. Going off left there carries a big risk of being chucked back to the right across the track, perhaps into traffic.
You come to the right at T12 Canada Corner after the Kettle Bottoms, a flat, but not straight, run through a canopy of trees. This is one of the trickier turns and it gets a lot of passing action. Next, it’s back uphill through T13 Thunder Valley (big power cars echo a lot here). Pop out into the open again at Billy Mitchell Bend (left) and into the final fast right at T14 onto the front straight. The view coming out of this turn is like looking at an asphalt wall, so steep is the rise up to the line (100 feet up in about 1,000 feet forward).
SATURDAY NOTES:
Saturday Qualifying: That’s first qual in the books. It may seem like 20 minutes is a good long time, but 4 miles is a long circuit and it takes a while (about 2:30) to get around. With 55 cars, there are plenty of people to either run with or have to get around.
Morgan didn’t need long to get warmed up before laying down good laps. The top 8 are under 2:30 and Morgan is 4th, just 0.35 back from the pole sitter. He managed to get hooked up with quick buddies and they got some space fairly free of slower traffic. This is a pretty good spot for the race. Not bad for a first appearance here, eh?
The 35-minute race is scheduled for 3:40. We are hoping for a good race. We will watch the race from the pit lane, where all we can look for is the right roll bar and helmet to find Morgan as the cars stream by.
Saturday Race: Today’s race was a bit shorter than expected - on both ends. At the start, the pole sitter decided to hit the gas very early. The starters were not accepting the jumped start and they waved it off. Everybody slowed down and lined up to go around and try again. A new pace car picked them up at Turn 5 to lead them around for another attempt.
The second one went much better! They stayed at a steady pace until the green flag flew this time. Morgan’s column didn’t get going quite as well as the other column did, but he was still in a good spot when they slipped out of view around Turn 1. Then the waiting begins.
Over the next 6 laps, Morgan stayed in the lead pack, which he described as a revolving door. The way this track races, it makes the draft very powerful and sometimes you are going to have to make a pass whether it is part of your strategy or not. The trick is to time that pass so that it does happen when you want it to.
Morgan did not get that chance, unfortunately. Late in the 8th lap, a bolt in the left front suspension let go. Morgan felt it going bad and backed off but he still couldn’t get the car through the final turn. He went off through the gravel trap and stayed there until the end of the race. Bummer finish.
But there is a very nice bright spot in the day. Morgan set the fastest lap time of the race - 2:29.862!
Tomorrow we do it all over again with the suspension fully fixed. We will have qualifying at 9:45 for 15 minutes and then a 12-lap race (max 35 minutes) at approximately 2:55.
SUNDAY NOTES:
It’s another lovely day at the race track. There are high clouds, but it’s still quite sunny. Looking for mid-70’s today. We are well rested thanks to Uncle Ron Burkhard who, with his lovely wife Kathy, are providing our roost while we are here and enjoying the racing with us.
Sunday Qualifying: Morning qualifying sessions go quickly at only 15 minutes each. That gets even shorter when someone makes an error that shuts down the session. As a result of that person’s mistake, Morgan got two flying laps only. That was enough for 3rd in this morning's session. However, it is the fastest of times from all sessions run thus far that set today’s grid. Nobody up front did any better this morning than they did in yesterday's qualifying or in the race. The grid order will be the same for this afternoon and Morgan will start 4th again.
Sunday Race: Today’s feature: Lap-by-Lap View From the Pit Lane
A lap around Road America is long enough that I can do a lap-by-lap run down from my vantage point in the pits. This is a 12 lap race, or 35 minutes (whichever comes first).
Green Flag: Good start! Nice and clean.
Lap 1 Morgan comes by in the lead! A bit early for that, but ok, still looks good.
Lap 2 in P4 with a good group of guys to work with. Top 10-15 are building a little gap to the rest. Looks like that revolving door might start working now.
Lap 3 in P5. Tight running in the top 10. Unfortunately, 4 top guys are out after an incident at T12. And the rest of the prior top 15 are all jumbled.
Lap 4 sees the top 2 moving ahead. Morgan is thinking about a look for 4th going into T1.
Lap 5 Morgan crosses the line in P3, but P4 and P5 train by going into T1.
Lap 6 in P5 but right on the tail of P4. It could be a good fight for the spot.
Lap 7 still P5 but he goes by as if he and P4 are a single car. Good drafting. P1 and P2 are together and gone. P3 is alone and dragging the belly a bit.
Lap 8 that close group broke up and they are all separated. Morgan is in P6. Had a rough ride off at T13, but seems ok going by here - not that we can actually see much of the car.
Lap 9 he’s closing in a bit. Still a big lift to get back to 4th.
Lap 10 looks a lot like lap 9.
Lap 11 repeat again.
Lap 12 (checker) he found something out there and in a battle at the line, he took 5th! He had a strong run on 4th too!
Good finish despite all!!
Post-race: That Lap 3 incident was a lucky escape for Morgan. An error at the front of the train crunched everyone together, resulting a lot of crushed noses and retirements. Morgan got damage too, but not bad enough to stop. The off in Lap 8 came from a very rude and undeserved hip check off the track by another driver. He almost caught that guy at the line.
This race demonstrates that fortune, fast hands, perseverance, and an ability to adjust driving style to manage damage are critical to surviving to the finish! Well done, Morgan!
WHAT’S NEXT?
We go back home for a week and a half before coming back to Road America for IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Round 7. We cram in all the work hours, household chores, and other catching up with our home peeps over the next nine days, but it’s an even quicker turn around for Morgan though as he jumps down to VIRginia International Raceway for three days as a coach with the Skip Barber Racing School after just a few hours at home. Come back again soon!