June Gingerman recap
With one race weekend under my belt in "Thunder Grinch", I was very excited heading into our 4th NASA race weekend of the season. Gingerman Raceway, near South Haven, Michigan, and a little under a 2 hour drive from Fast Farmer Autosport HQ, has been full of firsts in my racing journey. I participated in my very first track day there, almost exactly 10 years ago, and was immediately hooked. It was also the site of my first NASA weekend, I participated in HPDE1 back in 2017, and tested out into DE2 that first event. A year later, and I was in HPDE3 for the very first time at this track, then in 2021, I was in Comp School there and earned my NASA Wheel to Wheel racing license. It hasn't all been good memories at the track, however. In 2019, I experienced my first major body damage when I went off exiting T9, and my splitter dug into the ground causing it and the entire front fascia of my 2010 Camaro to be ripped off the car in spectacular fashion. This event is what spurred me into finding an actual race car, instead of risking more damage to my street car. In 2022, my first actual racing experience at the track, I was forced to end the weekend after running only 7 laps in the Saturday race due to a transmission busing leaking fluid all over the track and my exhaust. Then, last season, due to other obligations, I was only able to participate in the Sunday races. Part way through the morning race, I began to notice an odd noise in the rear of the car, which after the race we diagnosed as most likely being broken teeth on the ring gear or pinion. Since the damage had already been done, I decided to "send it" for the afternoon race. After just a few laps, the car began acting like it was running out of fuel coming out of certain turns, despite being clear full. It eventually got bad enough that I decided for safeties sake to pull off and pack it in. That ended up being a great decision because in my post race inspection, I discovered that the exhaust was melting the fuel tank, and causing a vapor lock in the fuel line. If I had kept running, that may have been a very exciting day. Onto the 2025 June event at Gingerman.....
FRIDAY: As usual, the first part of Friday was an open practice day, along with the 2025 Competition School, then during the last 4 hours of track time there would be an endurance race. I planned on doing the same routine as the previous week, which I intend to follow all season, by running a couple of the practice sessions, along with at least three 20-30 minute runs during the trec race. As I prepared to start my practice day, everything was perfect, it was going to be an awesome day, leading to a great weekend, then we hit the track. The first two laps were uneventful, I was still slowly building up confidence in the car, and learning how it handled on this particular track. Laps 3 & 4, I started picking up the pace a bit, and by the start of lap 5, decided to push things a little to end the session. Well, I must have gotten a much better run out of T2 then I had till that point, and the engine bounced off the rev limiter twice right as I was about to lift for T3. "Note taken, you need to shift to 4th between 2&3, got it." As I braked for the corner, I noticed a rattle coming from somewhere in front of me..."Something with the brakes? A stone maybe? Possibly a body panel latch? We'll have to pay attention to that." Those were the thoughts running through my head. As I excited the corner, and stepped on the gas, the car refused to accelerate, and the noise got worse. "Uh-oh, not good, something with the engine or trans." I decided I would limp around to the pits off line, but then, just as I got to the kink that is T4, I began to smell oil, immediately followed by smoke from the left side wheel well. "CRAP." I got the car off the track in case I was putting oil down, and immediately shut it off. After a nice tow back to the paddock area, I pulled the hood off, and discovered a small hole in the side of the block at cylinder 1, it literally looked like the entrance hole a .22 rifle makes. That's not something you want to see in the side of an engine.
With that engine toast, a couple of the experienced TR drivers set to work scouring the world wide web for replacements. It didn't take them long to find a pair of prospects, both within 2 hours of the track. After talking it all through with my wife during the lunch break, it was decided to see if we could grab one of the engines later that afternoon, and since these motors are fairly easy to swap out, the rest of the guys were pretty sure we could have the car back up and running in time for Saturday's race, if not even qualifying. As we researched the possibilities, it was discovered that the engine I would have been able to pick up that afternoon was a different generation than what GTR's use, and that the electronics in the car would most likely not play nice with the electronics on the engine. I didn't feel like being a guinea pig, so decided not to get that motor after all. At first this seemed like it would be the end of my weekend, and then, after about 15 minutes, it suddenly dawned on me...... There is another car sitting in the barn at home, and that's less than 2 hours away. So I quickly loaded up The Grinch, and we hustled home. Once there, it was an epic thrash to get my 2010 Camaro SS converted from street mode, to race mode, then loaded into the trailer. I was able to unload the Thunder Roadster, give the Camaro a quick bath, change the brake pads from a street compound to a race compound, re-attach the brake duct hoses, put the 3 inch wicker on the rear spoiler, and change to race tires, then load it up, all in just over 2 hours! After that I took time for a shower, then we grabbed a bite to eat, before turning and burning back to South Haven, we made it back to the track just before 10 pm. I went to bed in a much better mood than I had been several hours before.
SATURDAY: A new day brought renewed promise, and an entirely new race group to run in: Time Trials. Since I hadn't planned on competing in TT on a regular basis, the car had not gone through tech, or had it's horsepower certified for classing purposes, so I entered it in the the "Open" class, TT GT. My only competitor in that class this weekend just happened to be driving a C8 Corvette, not exactly an even match for my nearly stock 2010 Camaro, so I knew there was little to no chance of me finishing first. My goal for the weekend: Have as much fun as possible whipping my "old" car around the race track! During the second TT session, I was able to set a new personal best lap time for that car/track combo, with a 1:45.471, around a half second better than my previous best. What I didn't realize, until my wife sent me a text, was that since my other competitor had spun during the session, his lap times were erased, AND since the class we were running in is new this season, that meant I was the track record holder in our class. Of course, I knew that it would only last until the next session, but it was still a cool feeling knowing that I was the first record holder for that track. For the day, I placed second, and received a trophy at the Saturday night awards dinner. I'm new enough at this, that it's still a thrill to get a trophy, even if it is plastic and my class only had two participants, so it was a good day.
SUNDAY: The event's of Friday were pretty much completely forgotten at this point, so I was looking forward to more play time with my Camaro! It's crazy to me that I can own a car for 15 years, and have autocrossed/tracked it extensively the last 10 years, but still have a huge grin on my face almost every time I get out of it, but that's how it is with this car. it's more an extension of me than it is a vehicle. I only ran the first two TT sessions on Sunday, due to it getting very warm in the afternoon, and since I had already bounced back from one car breaking, I decided to play it safe and finish the weekend on a high note. I wasn't able to improve much on my fast lap from the previous day, but most of my times were very close to each other (my FTD on Sunday was one HUNDRETH of a second slower than Saturday), and consistency is what I'm going for. Plus, due to some mechanical problems for my competitor, I finished in first place for the day, so the weekend really couldn't have ended better, especially when compared to how it started.
Next up for NASA, we go out of the Great Lakes region and travel back to the northwestern side of Lake of The Ozarks for my first drive in a Thunder Roadster GTR at Ozarks International Raceway. But, before that, I'll recap a very special weekend driving for an endurance team that fields some awesome BMW race cars, at a bucket list track of mine, Sebring International Raceway in sweltering Sebring Florida.
