If this race was a plane flight, it might very well play out the way that our trip home did: starting off according to plan, getting derailed part-way along, and resulting in a successful return home, if somewhat behind schedule. And so we begin...

Crew Chief Ian McQuillan and I arrived at the track Thursday night, meeting my parents, Ruth and Phil, who had towed our rig to Virginia from Toronto as their "summer vacation." What dedication to the team! We prepared our pit, as usual, next to our friends David, Rich and Clevis from ICY Racing, Matt Connolly and his crew chief John Vincent.

Friday morning saw us getting the car through tech and doing some last-minute prep of the car. We were ready for the first practice. Zach Arnold, who had driven earlier in the year with Matt joined me as co-driver for VIR. He'd shown real talent in his races with Connolly, and we had good reason to hope for another top-ten result. In the first practice, we discovered that the replacement gearbox we'd fitted after Homestead (a race which resulted in a trashed tranny) didn't work. Fortunately, we'd arranged another replacement, which was shipped to our hotel in advance of our arrival.

On the other hand, our BMW Z3 Coupe had developed an unexpected problem: it would occasionally go off-song, requiring a restart of the engine and the ECU. Suspecting a fuel problem, Ian removed the fuel filter in our fuel cell, and sure enough, there were bits of fuel cell debris in it. Earlier this year we found that the fuel that Sunoco provides was degrading our fuel cell, and so we sent it off to Fuel Safe for a rebuild. Alarmingly, this cell was installed prior to Mid Ohio, and so it's less than three races old. Ian carefully removes all of the gas after each and every event, so it's not like it has the opportunity to sit for a month between races.

We tackled the problem we thought we could solve immediately, which was the transmission. Our pals at ICY let us use their trailer as a shop lift, which was so much nicer than lying prone on the sandy ground of the paddock. By midnight on Friday we'd swapped trannys and were keen for Saturday.

In early practice, the car felt good to me. The transmission was the nicest of the bunch we've had so far this year (four), shifting smoothly throughout the box. I was also happy to have no hiccups from the engine mangement, and all seemed well. Alas, when Zach took his turn, the "limp mode" returned. We were able to fix it by restarting the car a couple of times, but it was less than ideal situation. So, back to the paddock it was.

Once there, Ian found some wires in the harness that looked like they'd been subjected to some serious heat, and he started disassembling those. In the spirit of Grand Am Cup racing, a fellow wandered through our pit taking pictures. It turns out that Conrad works at a nearby BMW dealership and he became very hands-on, helping Ian separate every wire and wrapping it individually until we had a solid harness once again. This seemed like a reasonable answer to our problem, and we hoped for the best.

On the parade lap, Zach found that the problem returned. Nothing to do but work with it. And so, just after the green flag dropped, he restarted the car and pressed on. The car worked well thereafter.

I can't overstate the amount of work that Ian has done on the suspension and set-up of our car. There's no question that we have a power deficit from the top teams (Turner, Speedsource, Lexus and Fenton), but you'd be amazed watching our in-car video; we really do make up a bunch of time through the twisty bits!

Zach reset the car a couple of times, and it settled into a groove. Unfortunately, it was pretty close to last place. Originally, nearly 30 cars were schedule to run in our class, ST; by race day it was down to 23.

Under the first yellow flag, Zach elected to pit for fuel, as he'd had some hiccups during the slow-down period. We'd been having radio troubles (to add to the frustration), and were not really expecting Zach when he dropped into the pits. This resulted in us being a lap down after the pit.

Zach went back out and continued to turn good, consistent times. Unfortunately, the expected attrition in our class, ST, failed to materialize. By the end of the race, almost every ST car was still running, which meant we really didn't gain much by others misfortune. In fact, the misfortune was primarily ours. We knew, at the beginning of the year, that we would a race like this; still, it was frustrating to actually be in that situation.

Around lap 40, just when our fuel window was perfect for a driver's change, a yellow flag came out. I swapped places with Zach, and headed out. Our car felt fabulous! The balance was exceptional, the suspension perfectly tuned for the track, with just a little understeer from the apex to exit worth tuning out.

My stint lasted 30 laps. I made up a couple of places, and turned similar laps to Zach (a good driver pairing, then). But it was not nearly enough, with us winding up in 17th place in class (although the 33rd overall out of 60 cars was worth mentioning -- there was a LOT of attrition in GS). After hopes of a top ten, even a top five, 17th was not what we wanted.

Still, we took the checkered flag for the eighth race in a row, which -- in itself -- is quite an achievement, especially for a first-year team. Ian and I head down to the next race (in Alabama) early, to see if we can fix the electronic problem. With only a week between races, there's a heck of a lot to do, but we'll get it done.

As for the plane flight, after the race, Ian and I ended up hanging out in the Atlanta airport waiting after our connecting flight (which was cancelled due to "mechanical difficulties" -- I mean, come on, there must be a better way to deal with this than cancel a planeload full of people) was re-routed through Montreal. Getting home well after midnight (after spending the better part of the day in uncomfortable airport seats) was not an option, so we finally finagled our way onto an Air Canada plane for Toronto in the mid-afternoon. I'm quite sure we will not be travelling with Delta in the future!

On to Barber in short order!

LINKS TO THE ARTICLE:
The Race Site.com

PRESS RELEASE FOR VIR AND BARBER:
On the Grand American site.