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Laguna Seca on Monday-Ferraris/Club race/ IMSA Pros.

Hi folks-

As you know from previous posts, the Historic Races at Laguna Sea was a 
very exciting event.  The only thing that would have made it better 
would be if John Brownie from Seattle had been there and written about 
it.  I won't recap Saturday and Sunday. Monday was an equally fun day.  
The Ferrari club had the track and allowed the BMW CIA to hold a club 
race.  This was very generous of the FOCI.  They gave up a lot of track 
time to allow this.  I didn't do the club race, however, I did get to 
run with the Ferraris throughout the day.

The morning started out harmless enough with your standard drivers 
meeting talk.  'Keep it safe, check the ego at the gate, let faster cars 
by (the Testers drivers effectively filtered this one out), watch the 
corner workers,' etc.  They even had THREE instructors.  For 25 cars per 
group.  (the CIA has 1 per student).  Inexperienced drivers were 
'encouraged' to take advantage of them.  You can probably imagine the 
type of day it was.  The run sessions were like Green Flag Track days, 
but you're running with guys that can afford to fix their cars if you 
swap door handles.  Even though there were no car-car incidents, I would 
think twice before running in the Red group with a four setae.  The 
Testis in the blue group didn't appreciate a four setae passing them; 
the egos have got be higher in the Red group, where passing is allowed 
everywhere but turn 11.  Passing a Testers on the track is like getting 
around a mobile version of the Great Wall of China.

With a 348, or 355, you only have one problem:  their car is faster than 
yours (HP to weight, that is).  OK... you can fix that by holding back 
on entering a turn, then jumping hard on the gas just before the apex 
and 'Wa-La': your car is faster and you can get around them.  With a 
Testie, the problem is two fold:  not only is that BB 512 faster than 
your car, getting ALL THE WAY AROUND takes time.  You jump on the gas, 
exit the turn and by the time you've moved over two time zones to pass 
him, his RPMs have climbed toward his ego and he' gone.  Bottom line:  I 
need a supercharger.  just kidding.  It actually was quite a fun day.  
I'm sure they didn't see me back there.  You can only be in one mirror 
at a time on those cars.  ;-)

Besides running around the track, it was great watching a BMW CCA Club 
Race.  Boy those guys move.  Unfortunately for Clint DeWitt, he had 
power problems and had to bring it in after 1 lap.  TC Kline had it 
together with lap times of 1:47:50 to 1:49:00.  Not bad.  He won his 
class, of course.

The only drawback was that the race finished under yellow.  An E30 early 
apexed turn 4 (some of you know where I'm going with this), got two 
wheels off the left side (a few more know where I'm going), and then 
tried to get back on the track too quickly (now the driver knows where 
I'm going with this).  The result is the front tire catches a grippy 
surface first, the back end has no traction and all of a sudden his back 
end is sliding wide and he's going into the inside tire wall.  OUCH!  
That hurt.

Lesson-  If you get two wheels off the track, leave them off.  Slow 
down, and GENTLY ease the car back on the track at a lower speed.  When 
you come back on the car will JUMP on the track when the tires hit the 
pavement.  (I don't know about you guys, but watching race cars crash no 
longer brings the same excitement as boxing.  I feel their pain.  And 
with boxing... well... I'm never getting into a ring, so I still kinda 
chuckle when Mikey lays a mitten on some poor sap.)

Also, Pete Halsmer and Billy (??) two of PTGs IMSA GTS-2 drivers were on 
hand, giving joy rides in the 97 M3 show cars (They weren't in show 
condition Monday night).  The two-door (yellow) would take a driver and 
passenger, while the four-door (blue) took a driver and THREE 
passengers.  While I didn't get a chance to ride with them, it looked 
quite fun.  Four people in an M3, sliding out of turn 11 sideways, and 
doing laps at 1:52- 1:54.  ON STREET TIRES.  That's why those guys get 
paid the big bucks.

For those heading to Laguna in November with the ACA, the track is in 
great shape.  Now there's one surface instead of the four- five 
different surfaces they had before.  It's a combination of pavement and 
old tires.  Very high tech and very grippy.  See you there.

- -Richard Biscevic
95 //M3