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PARTNERS
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News For March 31st, 2007
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Great Cars, Dedicated Crew, Excellent Drivers, Fantastic Weekend |
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Braselton, GA – Co-op Racing continued it’s partnership with Midwest Eurosport by providing track support
for PCA racers at Road Atlanta on March 30th through April 1st. This season Andy Berberich chose to concentrate
on a Midwest race series, so the Eurosport 944 did not make its season debut in Road Atlanta. While Berberich
stayed in the garage prepping the car for its season opener, Jason Hartnell represented Co-op Racing as the crew
chief of four cars. Among those supported were Mike Faems, Mike Walsdorf, Bob Klaskin, and Mike Keck with some
assistance going to other cars when necessary. The stage was set for an interesting show of driver and crew teamwork.
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During the off-season, Road Atlanta was repaved, making it a new learning experience for drivers and crew. Weary
eyed crew began prepping cars for the Friday’s events before the sun even had a chance to wake up. Fuel levels,
tire pressures, fluids, and brakes were among the thoughts of the crew as they performed intense inspections of
the machines. As the morning crept along, drivers began showing up and communicating their strategy to the crew.
With cars and drivers ready, the team shifted gears. Three practices sessions and a fun race made the day pass
in a flash.
Over the course of the day, all four of Hartnell’s drivers were continually improving their fastest lap times in each session. The track did not seem to be wearing tires as much as it did in the past. At least this was the consensus of the drivers and crew. Drivers started pushing their cars harder and finding they had a lot more grip than they remember from past events at this track. Since this was Mike Walsdorf’s first appearance at Road Atlanta and second PCA event, fellow Eurosport drivers were all helping to ease him into the groove. With this advice and Walsdorf’s dedication to improvement, he seemed to be catching the fast groove very quickly. It was even more impressive that all the drivers were showing better times each session even though each session was shorter than the previous due to cautions. Soon, it would be apparent why there were so many cautions. Of the Eurosport Racing group, Bob Klaskin was the first unfortunate soul to find out why there were so many cautions. Since he is now on 13-month probation from the incident at Sebring, we were all relieved to find this incident was a mechanical failure. The left front control arm pin of Klaskin’s racecar, which holds the spindle to the control arm, broke causing him to slide off track. Fortunately no one was injured from this off track excursion. Diligently working to replace the broken part and realign the car, the crew had the car ready for more abuse in a short time. As the sun faded for another passed day, sounds of dedicated crew preparing cars for the day to come were still echoing through the paddock. Shivering in the dimly lit early Saturday morning, the crew fought the cold morning to finish car setups for the day’s events. Not without incident, warm up and qualifying sessions were over quickly, and it was time for sprint races. Mike Keck was the second unfortunate soul in the mechanical failure group. Same as Klaskin, the left front control arm pin failed at the spindle. After hearing from other teams with similar failures, this was starting to become a common phenomenon. Now that the team figured out the easiest way to remove the broken pin, the crew replaced the pin and realigned the car in less than twenty minutes. The efforts of Hartnell and the Eurosport crew allowed Keck to enter the lineup for the sprint race. Race weekends never go without excitement, and driver Mike Maron’s crazy racing action is a perfect example. As told from Mike’s point of view, he was approaching the tunnel just before the large downhill run at turn 12. For reference, is the most challenging sequence of turns at Road Atlanta. He noticed the faster Cayman in his mirror and decided to be a gentleman racer and move aside to let him by. As he crested the hill, he was out of track, and he soon dropped two tires off the pavement. Crew chief, Nick Avalia, cringed as his mind started to replay a previous incident that ended in Maron demolishing his car on this same stretch of track a couple years earlier. What seemed to be an out of control spin down the hill soon turned into an amazing display of driver ability. Maron recovered from the spin and quickly regained speed to put himself right back in the race in the same position. We, the crew, applaud you Mike for saving us a lot of work. Sunday morning began with preparations for the endurance races, and quickly jumped right to the race. The first endurance race began to be a crewing nightmare. Scheduling mandatory pit times for four Eurosport cars between all the caution flags became a difficult task. Since cars were not allowed to enter the pits while under a caution and Eurosport was only allotted two pit stalls, there was little real estate for a lot of activity. Fortunately, Mike Faem’s co-driver, Jeff, managed to squeeze into the pits just before a caution flag came out again. This gave the crew extra time to sort things out. Faems made it out on track just in time to catch one green lap before the race ended under caution. Mike and Jeff finished the endurance race 6th place in class. Shawn Young was the third Eurosport driver to break the left front suspension, which was the cause of the final caution of the first endurance race. As he was coming off of turn 12 into the front straight, the suspension collapsed, and he sailed into the tire wall just before the start-finish line. At the time of the incident, he was having a strong run in second place. Fortunately, he was not injured, but the race was finished under caution due to the lack of remaining time for the track crew to repair the tire wall. With clouds looming overhead and threatening rain, the crew was pondering tire swaps to rain tread. With twenty minutes to go until the second endurance race, rain began to fall lightly. Instantly, the paddock rang with the sound of crews clamoring to change tires. Four guys, five sets of tires, and twenty minutes later, drivers began to back out as the crew torqued the last lugs and set tire pressures. Since the rain would slow the race, track officials decided to merge the last two endurance races into one exciting event. As the race began under light rain conditions, drivers were slipping all over the track trying to find a dry groove. Bart Crosby, another Eurosport group driver, came into the pits in the first few laps to clean his windshield. He managed to make a lap without much visibility from a fogged up window. Unfortunately, a few laps later he decided to change this to an off-road rally rather than a road race. Returning to the pit, the crew took what seemed like a truckload of gravel from all the crevices of the car. After the short rain, it looked as though the race might finish with damp but not soaked conditions. With about thirty minutes remaining in the race, rain started pouring from the sky. Chaos began to unfold on the track as cars started sliding off the track all over the place. In a grand finale of the race, Bart Crosby spun off of turn 12 coming to a rest against the inside retaining wall of the front straight. Bart was uninjured, but the car did not fair as well. Mike Walsdorf, Mike Keck, and Bob Klaskin finished the race in the rain. Mike Walsdorf deserves a special note of respect as he displayed outstanding stamina and shear bravery for completing his second PCA event and first event at Road Atlanta in the pouring rain. In addition, he drove the entire hour and a half with only a short break out of the car during the pit stop. What a feat! |
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SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR RACING PARTNERSEurosport Racing is a premiere Midwest Porsche street and race specialist. They specialize in Porsche service, track support and transport, engine design and rebuilding, dyno tuning, and suspension setup and alignment. They also offer a full line of OEM, aftermarket, and high performance parts and accessories. More information on Eurosport Racing can be found at www.midwesteurosport.comKauth and Mayeur provides the finest import services in Peoria, IL. They offer a wide range of maintenance and repair services for import cars. Specializing in high performance streetcars. Kauth and Mayeur can be reached at (309) 673-1412 or http://www.kauthmayeur.com. |
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