LDRL Howl-o-Ween Derby (10/31/15) - 7 hours - Portland International Raceway:
It was our first race with Lucky Dog Racing, and their first event at PIR (I believe it was their 3rd event ever). We knew we would be racing with a lot of familiar faces, just in a different format. Cathy McCause had been running ChumpCar on the West Coast previously, and we are a big fan of how she runs events, so we are excited! The weather is not great, but asking for dry weather in Portland in October may be asking for a bit too much. I don't mind a wet track, both Nathan Feigion and I have been drifting for years and we have also drifted a fair amount at this track. So to some extent the rain gives us a bit of an advantage. Unfortunately since we just upgraded to much bigger tires on our light car, this doesn't bode well for hydroplaning. This will be the first even with just Nathan and I driving, and we typically are battling each other for fastest lap (for our car), so this should be good.
Lucky Dog does qualifying as they have different classes, unlike ChumpCar. We go out for qualifying, and it is already sopping wet out there. When racing in the rain you have to be aware of the rubber worn into the normal racing line. The rubber makes it so much more slick, that the "rain line" typically just means anywhere that
isn't the racing line. The problem is, it's impossible to go around the track without crossing the racing line multiple times, so you try to plan for it and do it where you aren't turning as much if possible. Portland has another unique feature as a track, and that is the Goose Poop. Depending on the day, geese may pepper one corner or another with their "banana peels". We qualify with a 1:55, which is a far cry from our fastest lap (1:31.9) but this still puts us in A, the fastest class. It's wet, but not raining too hard yet.
My Dad shows up for moral support, and even though the doctor says he can't race yet (after his open-heart surgery) he doesn't want to miss the event. It's great to see him walking around!
Nathan Feigion starts the race in 13th place, and the rain has really moved in now. Big puddles are forming and the rain just keeps hammering down. Hydroplaning is a serious problem, with multiple cars spinning on the track due to it. Nathan puts his drifting experience to good use however, and gets us up into 1st place on lap 12. You can see some drivers car very cautious after their car slides, and while we are not be rally drivers, sideways is pretty normal for us. As the rain continues to pound and puddles turn to small lakes, the high horsepower rear-drive cars fall further back and the front-wheel drive cars start to gain an advantage. The extra weight on their front tires and typically narrower tires than ours is allowing them to start catching up. At one point the rain lets up enough that Nathan runs a fantastic 1:35.9 lap!
There's a track here somewhere..
Lake 10 (formerly known as Turn 10):
Lucky Dog does their pits slightly differently from ChumpCar, and we are not able to have anyone in the car while fueling. This is the first time we've done a pit stop like this and we are a bit slow. This is the worst weather I've ever tried to race in. It is so sloppy wet out there, and I am really struggling to pass the front-wheel drive cars at times. The "back straight" at PIR is actually turn 9, and when there is this much water it definitely feels more like a turn. The normal racing line is very wet, but off the racing line is so much water that there is severe hydroplaning. Trying to determine how fast is possible on the straight is a little mix of bravery and stupidity. Even though we have the factory defroster on full blast and good wipers, the visibility is atrocious. I have seen cars get written off in various walls at PIR, particularly on the back straight. While I'm trying to go fast, there is definitely the looming danger that the car could be written off if I make the wrong move. The track has a lot of grass around it, and grass does not slow down a race car.
This Camaro was not so lucky and needed a tow.
I make it through my stint in the car without any incidents (other than a few hydroplaning clean-your-shorts moments) with my fastest lap as a 1:54.0. I turn the car back over to Nathan with us still in 1st, a couple laps ahead of 2nd place, #177 Finally Racing in their E36 BMW. We manage to pit during a very long yellow to clean up an incident, and this fortuitous timing helps us even more.
Nathan puts in another stint filled with hydroplaning, slides and consistent lap times to continue to build on our lead. As long as we can avoid hydroplaning we can really excel out there. Nathan puts in a fastest of a 1:55.3 and turns the car over to me for the final stint on lap 154.
It's still drenched for my last stint, and I put in a 1:54.9 before taking home the checkered flag in 1st place. And to us the craziest part is, by FIVE LAPS! The combination of our balanced car, our drifting experience, and some very fortunate timing for pit stops really paid off.
There was nearly two inches of rain during our race! Here's a quote from the local news:
Quote:
PORTLAND, Ore. ? A drenching storm took its toll in Portland on Saturday, as nearly two inches of rain over a stretch of 6 hours in the metro area. However, wet as it was, it was not the wettest Halloween ever.
According to the National Weather Service, about 3.69 inches of rain fell in October in Portland. Of that, 1.97 inches fell on Saturday. Normal rainfall for October is 3 inches for the entire month, but the all-time record on Halloween is 2.44 inches - set back in 1994.
After reading these soggy statistics, you might be surprised to learn that October 2015 was actually the warmest October on record, according to KGW Meteorologist Rod Hill.
|
Driving on the edge of destruction for that many hours is exhausting, so now it's time to go dry up and be ready to do it all over again tomorrow!
Video Overview (only last two stints):