Welcome back, Race Fans!
THURSDAY NOTES:
We are at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio for SCCA’s Hoosier Super Tour event. With support from the most excellent Dog Gone Racing and Mike Amy, Morgan is driving the Apple Motorsports red and black Spec Racer Ford Gen 3 and this weekend he is #27.
We arrived late yesterday evening in time to prepare the bratwurst for dinner, set up the “trailer apartment” and find the flush toilets. (Must say the port-a-pots are unusably full already. Yuck!) Looking ahead at the weather forecast, the rain was due to start around 2 AM. Sure enough, by 3 AM, it was pouring!
FRIDAY NOTES:
Practice: The live stream for this Friday at Mid-Ohio, starting at 2:00 EST. Our second session (qualifying) is scheduled to go out at 2:40.
Since weather forecasts are notoriously misleading, Mike set up one car for dry conditions and one for wet. That way only one of them needs to be changed once we look out the door and see for ourselves what the sky is doing right then.
Happily, it was still raining when it was time for first practice. You might think that would not be an ideal way to experience a new track for the very first time, but in Morgan’s case you’d be wrong. He relishes the rain. When you are looking for grip, the rain enhances the differences in the pavement across the track surface. He’s really good at finding where the car will stick.
The results from P2 are a testament to Morgan’s abilities. Take one reconnaissance lap to work out where the road goes and where the streams and puddles are. Then gradually work up more speed and vary the lines. Out of 26 cars, he set the fastest time by 0.6 seconds. Needless to say, we are proud again!
Qualifying: Howdy race fans! It's Friday evening and the day’s sessions are done! Short version - Morgan loves the rain!!! As I said earlier, he figured out the track very quickly and was fast.
The afternoon weather played games. Rain a bit. Stop for a while. Back and forth. Finally time runs out and a decision on set up must be made. Look at the track. Look at the sky. Look at the radar. Channel your inner meteorologist. Make a best guess and go for dry tires.
We knew the fastest times would be set at the end of the session. Things were looking pretty good early on. A couple drivers pushed the limits a bit too much, and brought out a yellow flag. Eventually, they black flagged the session to stop it and let the emergency services clean things up. When they got going again, there were only a few laps left. As expected, the last times were the fastest ones set. Morgan improved consistently and will start in 7th tomorrow.
There has been much discussion about how to change the set up to improve the handling and performance for the race tomorrow morning. Oddly, in the dry the track surface feels like glass, but has a surprising amount of grip. We think we will be in a good place to make the most of opportunities to move up the order.
Wish us luck! Morgan goes out tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM EST. Here’s your link for the YouTube feed.
SATURDAY NOTES:
Race Results: Race 1 is done! While the day is warm now, we were fortunate that it was still cool this morning for us. Morgan started 7th and had his work cut out for him if he wanted a podium finish.
I watched from Turn 5, “Madness.” It is part of a very tricky corner complex that rises on entry and falls away on exit with lots of side to-side transitions. It is the beginning of a very technical section of road where patience and smoothness are rewarded. Getting the car to rotate through here is critical to good lap times.
Mid-Ohio gives the green flag along the back straight at Turn 3 where there is enough room for the starters to see full fields before starting the race. That means that Turn 4, a medium speed right, gets very interesting at the start. The track is wide and it is a great opportunity for a passing move in the brake zone. Avoid going off left into the gravel and then rise up into Madness. It’s a great viewing spot!
Morgan made the most of his chances there, moving up a few spots in the first couple of laps. He made his way up to P2 - to my great elation!! It was a very hard fought race for places 2, 3 and 4 and the three cars traded the spots around while P1 just ran away.
In the closing laps, Morgan planned and executed his moves wisely. With 2 to go, he was back in P2! More elation from the Mom! The drivers in P3 and P4 fought even harder for that final podium step and that gave Morgan just a little breathing room.
It can be a bit nerve wracking to watch our boy in such a tight race, but we have come to trust his abilities in the racecar. He understands dynamics, race craft, and asks only for what the car can give.
Second place is AWESOME today!
SUNDAY NOTES:
Of course, we aren’t going to see him walk across the stage to receive his diploma this afternoon. We will still be on the way home from Mid-Ohio! Morgan’s second race of the weekend leaves the grid at 8:55 AM. Look for his red and black #27, staring around 5th today. They studied video and data deeply yesterday so with luck, the set up adjustments made should have the desired results today.
Race Report: You know by now that it sometimes takes me a while to get the final race report and weekend wrap pulled together. There is the usual visit to impound to celebrate the top three finishers and after that, the packing up and stuff.
Morgan finished P5 today in a field of 28 SRF3 cars. That is a really good finish! That it is a bit disappointing is a reflection of how high the bar has risen this year. Had it not been for some racing incident type contact (just a thing that happens some times when the racing is really tight and close) that happened early on, today’s outcome could easily have been more similar to yesterday’s 2nd place finish. Check out the YouTube race coverage.
It’s still good points toward the Super Tour SRF3 championship. Just as important as that is the knowledge and experience gained at yet another new track. Mid-Ohio was recently repaved so most drivers had a lot to learn about how the surface behaves. Most say it feels slippery, but it’s still fast (new record set today). This information will be extremely useful for the upcoming IMSA race next month.
An Extra Special Event: Even though Morgan wasn’t on the podium steps today, we hung around for a special photo. Given that is Graduation Day and Morgan has spent so much of his Senior year on the road at race tracks, we felt it necessary to take his picture in his race suit and mortar board on the podium. Being a (mostly) virtual student this year made it possible to achieve so much in a short time. After the race, the gentleman conducting the podium interviews made sure to pull him aside and ask him about it all. Morgan was featured as the lead segment in a very nice article about the weekend posted Sunday afternoon.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Now we get to rest a bit. We celebrate Morgan next weekend and then we are on the run again. Look for the next installment from the Watkins Glen Super Tour back in the SRF3.