April OIR recap
Round 2 of the NASA season took us to my absolute favorite
track I’ve had the pleasure of racing on (and home to the 2025 NASA
Championships), Ozarks International Raceway, located between the northern and
western branches of picturesque Lake of The Ozarks, in western Missouri. I had two goals going into the weekend: 1.
Get my lap times consistently into the 2:55’s or under. That would be 4 seconds under what I ran
during my last visit, and 3 seconds quicker than my previous best single
lap. Consistently improving your lap
times by 3-4 seconds in a weekend is a tough ask, but I’ve accomplished it
several times in the past. Also, to be competitive at Championships in
September, I will need to find around 7-8 seconds, so hopefully I can find 3-4
in April and again in July 2. Get
better acclimated to the EXTREME elevation changes and almost constant changes
in direction every lap. Both of my previous trips have seen me suffer through
terrible motion sickness, to the point that I’ve had to park the car part way
through races to avoid wrecking and/or getting physically sick. In order to finish a 45 minute race, I’m
going to need to make that go away.
Friday: The track was quick to remind me during practice that it DEMANDS respect. During my second session, I started to feel a little too comfortable, and should have wrecked, but somehow saved it. Turn 5 is one of the more sketchy corners on the track, due to the previous corner being a slow 3rd gear corner, 5 being downhill and off camber, plus you need to be under heavy acceleration by the apex. I usually short shift into 4th before starting turn in for T5, so I can give the car more throttle without worrying about getting the car out of shape by spinning the rear tires. This lap, I decided to keep the car in 3rd until the shift light came on, giving me more acceleration down the hill. Unfortunately, as I shifted gears, my foot slipped off the clutch. This sudden change in momentum caused the car to jump sideways, just as it crested the hill at turn 5’s apex. Somehow, I kept my head and slightly lifted while slowly correcting my steering, which straightened the car back out with little loss in speed. The only damage being to the grass on the outside of the exit curbing. This reminded me to give the track it’s due respect and at the same time, gave me a big boost of confidence for the remainder of the weekend. Here's the video, it happens much quicker on here than it felt like in real time......
Saturday: The first day of competition started off on a good note. During our warmup session I turned a lap on par with my lap times from last year, and since my laps in the warmup are slower than race laps, I felt very confident heading into qualifying. Things got even better during qualifying, I got clear track on my second lap, and didn’t waste it. I glanced at my Catalyst as I crossed the line and honestly, though I read it wrong. After the official results were posted, I realized I had read the screen correctly. I reset my personal best lap time with a 2:53.8, FOUR SECONDS better than previous PB! After seeing that, I could NOT wait for Saturday’s race. Unfortunately, race drivers did race driver things and laps 4-6 of an eight lap race were ran under full course caution, leaving little time to get into any sort of rhythm for consistent laps. Even though we only had 5 green flag laps, I still managed to eclipse that qualifying time on laps 2, 7, and 8, with the final lap setting my new PB at a blistering 2:47.7, good for third fastest lap of the race in my whole class! Hold on, this lap is SSSSMOKIN......
Sunday: To say I was excited heading into race 2 of the weekend on Sunday morning would be a gross understatement. However, that didn’t last long, turning the entire day into something that just needed to be survived. I got off to a hot start in the race, picking up a couple of positions in the first lap and running a 2:54, right at my target pace for the weekend, with your first lap very rarely being your fastest of a race, I felt real good. That all changed when I exited turn 11. At apex, right as I started to apply throttle, the rear end stepped out violently, I caught it and re-applied the gas. It did the exact same thing! I corrected again and continued on my way, but my brain was trying to figure out exactly what was happening. This pattern continued in all the remaining left hand corners, leading me to assume I had oil or something on my right rear tire, then I got on the front “straight”. This section of track isn’t a straight at all, it more closely resembles a quad oval. If you’re a NASCAR fan, just picture the front straight of Charlotte or Texas, and you get the idea. It’s a constant turn from turn 19 until you pass start/finish. You are usually under full acceleration in this section, in my car I typically hit 112-115 at the line. This time, I struggled to keep the car off the wall, and was only able running around 80 when I crossed the line. Then I got to turn 1. As soon as I turned into the corner, the car again tried to spin out, this time though, it was accompanied by loud thunks from the rear of the car. As I continued down the hill, the car got sideways twice more. Somehow, I was able to keep it from spinning into the outside wall, and finally coaxed it to a stop in the grass, mere inches from the wall at turn 2.
After reviewing my video, it appears that I ran over a piece of debris on the formation lap before the race even started. This caused severe damage to both right side tires, rendering the front unusable, and causing the rear to go completely flat during my second lap. Since I only had 2 sets of tires, not counting wets, and one of those was last years worn out tires, the final race of the weekend suddenly looked very bleak.
This is how the tire looked after my car was unloaded from the roll back:
I lined up for the final race with Toyo’s on the right side of the car, and Hoosier’s on the left, tires with two drastically different compounds and handling characteristics. The goal for that race was seat time and nothing else. I started off well enough, picking up two spots in the first couple of corners, but lost one before the lap ended. I spent several laps fending off a furious assault from the car behind me, before the old tires decided they had had enough of that and started losing grip. I gave up the position and tried to maintain contact while hoping to cool my tires, and mount a charge at regaining the spot before the race ended. After a couple laps of this strategy, the 85 degree ambient air temps (usually the cabin is around 20 degrees hotter) and constant up/down, left/right of the track began to take a toll, and motion sickness started to hit me. Having experienced first hand what can happen when it really sets in, I decided to call it a day. Despite all the struggles, I was still able to run several laps in a row under 2:55, with a fast lap of 2:51.9, remember my first goal for the weekend? Yeah, I definitely accomplished that, so despite a couple of bad finishes, it was a very successful event for me. When I return for a final tune up in July, my goals will be to get back into the 47’s, and run consistently in the 51’s, or less, and to further improve my ability to keep the motion sickness at bay. Next up is round 3 of the NASA season, this time at Mid Ohio Sportscar Course on Memorial Day weekend. My goals for that weekend are to successfully break in another new set of Hoosier’s on Friday, since I ruined my only set, and be as competitive as possible on worn out Toyo’s the rest of the weekend.
