Tales of the Washed

Back in the Saddle Again

This weekend was the Grand Prix long course at Sebring, one I last ran in '93 but at that time I was more concerned with holding the shifter on the car and just getting around in 2nd gear without blowing the engine than paying attention to the course. Finish was all that mattered so the last time I ran the GP course to race was the Twin Sixes in '91.

The track has changed since then.

Saturday morning start out well, with us being late after believing it takes only a bit over an hour to get from Orlando to Sebring. I figured leaving at 6 would be plenty of time. Wrong! 45 minutes gets you to the entrance to Disney, roughly 17 miles away. Tolls, traffic, and stop lights really hold things up. Sebring is actually 100 miles from my door to the paddock.

So in a rush, we look for this blue 440 I'm renting. We pass it three times and on the fourth, we spot it but it is BLACK! It turns out is is a dark of a blue as you can get.

Rest goes smooth and I get in the car for practice, not wanting to get there too early so as to follow the pack. After the final call for the grid, I am on my way and get there to find it empty. They've already gone, I think, so now I won't get to follow them.

Wrong, I'm first there, so I get to lead them. having never driven a 440 or any open wheel car before, this is really not what I want. Unfortunately, being mild and all on the track, no one passes. I should have done a stop and go in the pits but the long course has a 1475 ft long pits, which means by the time I got through it, they would have all been gone and I'd be lone again.

Finally I get a Vee in front to chase, since my total lack of experience of leading the pack makes me much better at chasing than leading. So I get to run hard now for a few laps but a Vee's line is so different, I don't learn much, except that I want in FRONT of the Vees and not in with them.

I also learn that you F440s drivers at NUTS!!! You pay money to get beaten to death! This F440 makes my Corvette ride like a Cadillac. I can't stand when I get out, my left knee feels like it is broken. Both calfs have cramps since the pedals are too close. Both elbow feel like someone has taken a hammer to them. I couldn't see the mirrors as my head kept bouncing too far back and of course, the tach, too. I feel like a week in a hot tub will be the only cure.

I can best describe the feeling as sitting on a skate board with an engine behind and running down any highway in Chicago. On second thought, the skate board has more suspension give.

The concrete at Sebring is NOT for F440 guys. We kept wondering why so few F440s were there and I know - they don't do concrete.

I figured I'd bore all of you now since I'll be talking about this for months if I don't tell someone. Even though it beat me to death, I had a GREAT time. open wheel is so different, it is hard to explain. It is like sitting on the front bumper of a car as even a motorcycle has something in front of you. I think I understand what you F440 guys feel like now. What a rush!

P/Q times come out and I have the pole. Obviously a mistake. So now not only did I have to lead the practice, I have to lead the race. Looking at the times, I have a 2:39 and the closest Vee has a 2:41 so I guess I really do have it. But remembering that Vees and F440s don't mix well, I keep in front and put some distance behind. If I'm 2 seconds faster, then I need to keep 2 seconds in front all the time.

Sunday in practice, I do get to start at back. I want to practice how to deal with Vees. Well, you deal with them with the right foot down, I find, and by the Club Pits In (old Turns 1 & 2, now apparently Turn 1 on the club course, which is after the Hairpin, roughly half lap on the long course), I have not only learned how to get through some of them, I am through ALL of them. And I quickly demonstrate why any driver who drives OTHER cars should ALWAYS remember he is in a F440. There is NO CLUTCH and DON'T try clutching!

Clutching to shift (Hitting the brakes) coming out of old Club 3, now Club 2 (I think 9 on GP course), which is off camber 90 deg right, I slide it sideways and point it to the inside guard rail. Into the dirt on an easy slide and have to wait for everyone to go on by. Well, glad it is practice. Little humble pie is good for breakfast.

The race is still on yesterday's qualifying so I start the pole again. Both times I took drivers left for the start, so if I goofed up, maybe someone should tell me. Probably should have taken right since you need to cross to the right for Turn 1 after the start but I get straighter sooner coming out from under the bridge to line up for the green and the green was real early, like before the walk over bridge.

I make a great start and jump in front just like yesterday but the Vees begin to swallow me on turn 4 and the carousel. In the first three, I begin falling back in the Hairpin. The tach winds up and the motor revs but I don't go. Having to let off, the belt hooks up and then I go. This begins to repeat at each corner, so even though I run back up through them while all is engaged, each corner I lose it and have them crawl all over me.

About lap 3, I come by the 3rd place Vee on the front straight S/F and take her on the outside of turn one. She claims she doesn't see me and runs right up to me, pushing me off into the grass at turn 2. I think she is just using old karting tricks (she is a pro kart racer) and knows that I've never driven open wheel before and will avoid any wheel to wheel contact at almost any cost, but it could be an accident. She claimed she didn't know I was there even though I nosed ahead at the S/F line, a long time before the corner.

The bounce through the dirt lets me know I _HAVE_ to get out of this pack of Vees no matter what. And about that time, the belt begin working. I don't know if dirt tossed up scuffed things enough to work or things got hotter and grabbed or what but I had power again. And I began going back up through the first three.

A Vee line is so far off of anything I have ever seen that they make it really nasty for me in each corner. they brake far too early (and of course open wheel have no brake lights) and I have to be far inside on the Hairpin to go by, which doesn't help it going through it fast. they arc through a corner more, taking an earlier apex than I want. Of course, their turn in means I HAVE to or hit but then I push on the exit if I do. Going onto the back straight, they go in full throttle, and run this huge sweeper taking most of the airport. For me, this is an advantage as I brake slightly to turn in and apex the pylon corners twice and cut off about a mile it seems from their line.

The lead Vee is tight on me most of the next couple of laps and knowing how I have pressured the guy in front to make a mistake in more than one race, I know that thinking about him will make me do it, too. So I change my line. I begin running the line of the Corvette and it is so far from what the Vees do that his following me slides him sideways at least twice. But a F440 has enough throttle oversteer to run it without problems. and that was when the gap opened back up so that I was 7 seconds ahead at the end of race at Lap 10. the Corvette line was so much better than what had been told to me as a line for F440s that I opened a 7 second gap in about 5 laps. Best time was 2:37. Average speed is 83.212 mph. Best Vee was 2:38 so the difference in line made the difference in gap. Basically it is like everyone says, you don't slow down any, just wide open most of the time.

And it was really neat. Of course, I sat in a hot tub for about an hour and can hardly walk today, but it was neat!

Save the Wave,

The Doctor