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Muscle Milk Trans-Am at Mosport
Thursday, May 24, 2009, 12:45 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen

Round 3 of the 2009 Muscle Milk Trans-Am series was headed north of the border to the infamous Mosport International Raceway and thousands of enthusiastic Canadian race fans. This was the first time any of us at Atlantic Autosport had been to the facility, but we were excited about the opportunity to share a race weekend with the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge series and some of Canada’s finest touring car drivers.

Arriving at the track midday Thursday, we were able to get the rig parked and set up in the paddock without any major trouble. We made final preparations to the car so that it would be ready for the promoter test day on Friday—my first opportunity to get on the track and forecasted to be the best weather all weekend.

Friday morning’s first session went very well as we got up to speed quickly with a baseline setup from Scott Murphy that was very good. We were already very close to the pace and had a good idea where we could pick up more time. However, the second session changed our weekend outlook.

After just a couple laps, I noticed the car start to sound a bit off-song, so I brought it to pit road where we could hear a significant valve tick. We ended the session early and took the car back to the paddock to find the adjuster bolt on the number four intake rocker arm stripped and loose.

We hunted the paddock for spares with generous help from our competitors, but none were a match for ours. Many locals pointed us to various shops and engine builders, but we still came up empty handed until we found Dan Boudreau, a local GM toolmaker of many years that happened to have a machine shop in his backyard. Within minutes, he had installed a screw thread insert in our rocker arm and we were ready to get the car back on the track. Unfortunately, we had already wasted the afternoon searching for a solution and missed all of the remaining Friday test sessions.

The weather forecast showed sporadic rain all day Saturday, but dry and cool weather all through race day. Rather than put extra time on the car for wet-weather practice, we left the car parked on Saturday and saved as much as we could for qualifying and the race on Sunday.

With very few laps on a new track and a car of unknown reliability, our goal for qualifying was to go out and set some baseline laps that would keep us in the top half of the field for the race start. After a couple laps, I had put in some decent times but I found myself in traffic and decided to pit for a basic check of the car. As soon as I stopped in the pit box we could hear a valve tick starting to develop again, so we parked the car early to avoid any unnecessary damage.

Back in the paddock we found that the push rod under our repaired rocker arm had been fractured on the tip and shortened to the point that the valve was out of adjustment. With a new push rod from our Canadian competitor, Blaise Csida, we were up and running again in time for the race.

We were optimistic with our fourth position on the grid, knowing we had a better pace than we showed in qualifying. With a clean start, I followed Trans-Am veterans Jorge Diaz, Tony Ave, and Tommy Drissi as we straightened out after the first turn. The car was handling quite well and the power felt respectable considering the abuse the engine had taken all weekend, but after a few laps I could feel and hear problems. It was tough to watch the leaders pull away when I pitted on lap four, but it was clear that the car had lost power and we were risking a catastrophic failure that could have oiled the track if I continued circulating. Rather than do that, we took the car back to the paddock and began to load up for the long haul home.

It is certainly frustrating to give up what could have been a great result, but as they say, “that is why we run the races.” To go to a new track with an under-developed GT-1 car and run competitively among an experienced Trans-Am field is quite an accomplishment for the Atlantic Autosport team. I am proud of what we have done with our second place at the series-opener and two strong runs to follow that up, but I am afraid we will not be at Round Four.

We accomplished our goal of getting on the track and acquiring some valuable experience. Now is the time to step back and develop our program to take advantage of the strong potential it has shown. Keep watching for us as we prepare for the future!

Muscle Milk Trans-Am at VIR
Friday, April 24, 2009, 11:45 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen

If I was reminded of one thing at last weekend's Trans-am race at VIR, it's that we are a small fish in a big pond! Some of you will remember that Atlantic Autosport was formed just weeks before Round 1 of the 2009 Muscle Milk Trans-Am series with a dedicated crew of volunteers and a GT-1 car that had not been run in 2 years!

Now here we are in April, running against the likes of Klaus Graf in the Muscle Milk Jaguar XKR and countless other teams that have been in this arena for years. Yikes!

Without the time or budget to test every weekend, we spend our time between race weekends improving what we can in the shop. There is, of course, no substitute for real-world track time and we always discover new things about the car when we put it on the track. Unfortunately, with just two practice sessions during the weekend, we had little time to get things right before heading into qualifying.

First time out the car was way off. With so many things changed after Round 1, we barely knew where to start. We addressed the obvious issues, but some were not as apparent. One of our biggest concerns was a leaking rearend housing that would plague us all weekend. As we tried to find a solution for that, we took the shotgun approach to narrow down some of the handling issues.

Our second and final practice showed that we were much closer to our target, but we still had not solved the leak. The crew worked many hours Saturday afternoon taking the rearend apart and solving issues one at a time to make the best of what we had available. Unfortunately, qualifying showed it was not enough. With a time of 1:48.1, which was well below the existing track record, we secured fourth on the grid after provisional pole winner Klaus Graf was disqualified because of a wing height infraction.

After qualifying, we made some final field repairs in an attempt to help our issue and that was all that could really be done. We spent the rest of our time watching the weather radar, as rain was predicted about when the race was scheduled to start. Just as the call was made to report to grid, we began to feel a few rain drops. They were sporadic and never really wet the pavement, so we left the slicks on the car and continued as normal.

I lost a few positions at the start of the race being on the outside of Turn 1, but I was able to keep up with the lead pack as we pulled away from the rest of the field. Klaus Graf was coming through the field quickly and I did not put up a fight when he came up on me. Before long he had gotten up to second place and a full course caution was thrown, putting him in touch with the leader, Tony Ave.

On that restart, I got past Diaz and Drissi and we continued to have a good battle for several laps before another full course caution flew for a big wreck in the uphill esses.

Fortunately, everyone was safe, but our car was starting to show signs of rearend trouble. The car had been smoking some from the leaked fluid burning off and a small vibration started to develop during the laps behind the pace car. I continued to circulate because a few rain drops were on the windshield, cleanup was expected to take a while, and the team wouldn’t be allowed to work on the car under yellow anyways, but when the pace car lights went out, I went to pit road.

The guys took off the rear bodywork with no surprises—a big mess and a car that was not going to finish. Watching the field take the checkered flag from pit wall was not fun, especially knowing that I was well ahead of the eventual third place finisher.

A disappointing weekend to say the least, but we are still fourth in the points and only 12 points from the lead. We are looking forward to Round 3 at Mosport on May 17th, but we have a lot of work to do in the meantime.

Thanks to some help from Smith Stokes Automotive Group, we will have something to work with in preparation for Mosport—hopefully we can build more partnerships to keep this underdog team afloat.

Muscle Milk Trans-Am at Road Atlanta
Monday, March 23, 2009, 3:15 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

Ask anyone in racing, and they will agree that our sport has the highest highs and the lowest lows—perhaps that is what makes it so addicting. For myself and Atlantic Autosport, the season-opener for the 2009 Muscle Milk Trans-Am series was the perfect illustration of this concept. Before getting to the details, I want to back up and give you some of the history behind what brought us to this event at Road Atlanta.

Some of you will remember my participation on Setup, which aired on SPEED about one year ago. During that time, I met Matt Moorefield at a TrackDaze event at VIR and we stayed in contact after that event, doing some SCCA enduros in his ITR BMW. Matt, the owner of Atlantic Retail Construction, was bit hard by the racing bug, and we spoke about how to get involved in some pro racing throughout 2008. When announcements were made about the resurgence of the Trans-Am series with Muscle Milk as the title sponsor, we thought that would be a good fit. Fast cars, action-packed sprint races, and one of the most recognizable series brands in American racing history. What more could you want?

Within the last two months, we formed Atlantic Autosport and found a well-prepared car at Shaver Motorsports. It was a great foundation, but all of our testing was spent fixing small issues that were the result of its dormancy over the last two years. After submitting our entry for Road Atlanta, we still were not sure we would make the event because we were rushing to get the car ready. We made it down for the test day on Friday and the car was doing very well thanks to a baseline setup from GT-1 driver Scott Murphy.

Some might say we were in over our heads against the professional teams in the series, but we were quietly optimistic. We stayed on old tires all day Friday and Saturday with the intention of saving our one set of sticker tires for qualifying Sunday morning. With decent times on old tires, we expected to qualify within the Top 5 on the good rubber, maybe better if we were lucky. We were also worried about our fuel mileage because we were running the existing fuel cell, which was designed for shorter races. Our plan before qualifying was to get near the front and just follow the top guys as best we could while saving some fuel for the end.

That all went out the window on lap two of qualifying. When I left the pits during that session, the car never felt quite right and we later learned it was because the center of our 3-piece wheel on the left rear had separated, allowing the tire to slowly deflate. At the beginning of the second lap, it deflated quickly and the tire came apart as I entered the concrete-lined esses. Fortunately, the car stayed off the walls and we just picked up some Georgia clay as I cut through the grass and parked the car at the Turn 6 flag station. Without a hot lap in the books, we were stuck at the back of the pack for the race start.

Our new strategy was to go all out from the start and put on the best show we could. Without any sponsors on board, we had to show we could deliver results, even if that meant driving to the front and running out of fuel. Our stellar crew of volunteers worked hard to get tires under all four corners and check over the whole car to make sure it was ready to go. At the start of the race, I carefully picked off cars as quickly as I reasonably could and I found myself in the Top 5 within a matter of laps. About 15 laps into the race, a fuel cut issue we had in testing began to resurface. It was subtle, but by the time I had caught Pickett and Drissi in the Jaguars, I could not accelerate fast enough to stay close at the end of the straights. At this point, I decided I would follow them, save fuel where possible, and wait to see how the cards would play out.

After a few laps of this, we got the blessing we needed in the form of a full course caution for several cars that had wrecked or dropped oil around the track. With numerous areas to be cleaned up, the race could not be restarted in time and we finished under yellow. Securing fastest lap, a lap record, receiving the Flowmaster Star of the Race Award and Sunoco Hard Charger on the podium in our first race was a great moment, and certainly the most exciting of my career. Second place never felt so good.

Round 2 of the 2009 Muscle Milk Trans-Am Series will be held April 17-19 at Virginia International Raceway in conjunction with the SCCA Oak Tree Nationals. Come see us!

Santa's Toy Run
Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 3:15 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

The final race of the 2008 NASA Southeast season was to end at Road Atlanta on the weekend of December 5-7. Friday would host an 8 hour enduro drawing many unique cars wanting off-season test time; the final points race of the season was held on Saturday; finally, Sunday offered a 45-minute fun race combining all race groups into a random grid. A busy weekend for sure, and a great way to cap off the year!

The MLT Team of Travis Wilson and Al Taylor invited me to join them for the 8-hour enduro, driving Travis’ SpecE30. With rain from the night before, the track was still damp and even icy in the brake zone for Turn 10a where a tunnel goes beneath the track. Because of the track conditions, the event organizers opted to have four pace laps before going green so that everyone would have time to warm up and feel out the track. I was the first driver in our car, and during these exploratory laps, we were black flagged because our transponder was not working. I was able to pit in and Travis fixed the situation without us losing a lap, but now I had to start the race from the very back.

With the poor conditions, many cars were off-pace, allowing me to make headway pretty quickly. I picked through the field steadily without making too many risky maneuvers and the team decided to leave me in the car at the first pit stop. I stayed in the car for the first 2h30m until our second pit stop, when Travis took over.

Unfortunately, there was some trouble during Travis’ stint that caused us to bring the car into the pits for repairs. The skid plate on the front of the car was bent and touching the crank pullies, the air dam was gone leaving the brake ducts hanging, and we later found out a motor mount had broken. After our first attempt at repairing the car, we sent it back out and Travis came back with a hole in a radiator hose. This was caused by the broken motor mount shifting and allowing the hose to rub against the alternator. This time, we fixed the car, topped off the fuel, and did our second driver change to put Al in the car.

While Al circulated, Travis and I recalculated the points situation to find out where exactly we needed to finish in order for the team to secure the championship. Fortunately, we were still well within range and really just needed to keep the car going to the finish rather than trying to win the race. So that’s what we did. Al was doing a great job keeping it on the track and with decent speed, so we left him out there to finish off the fuel load. He ran a little over 90 minutes until the car was out of gas and brought it into the pits. Travis wasn’t real excited about getting back in the car after his first stint, so the plan was to put me back in for the final 2h30m, which would be easily done on two fuel loads.

However, when I went back on track the car had a significant vibration that was not present in my first stint. I kept lapping to feel out the situation and the problem didn’t seem to be getting any worse, so I continued to monitor it. Suddenly, after about 30-45 minutes, the vibration started getting worse, and quickly. I signaled to the pits that I was coming in, fearing that a wheel was coming off. I limped around one more lap and made it into the pits. Sure enough, the rear wheels were loosening up a bit. We tightened them down and loaded up with fuel. The team told me they wanted me to stretch the fuel mileage to make it without another stop if possible.

Without having a good way to gauge my fuel mileage, I had to just go by feel. I started coasting the last 100 yards into every brake zone, skipping downshifts to minimize throttle blips, short shifting on upshifts, and simply staying off throttle as much as I reasonably could. As I watched the fuel gauge drop and received a countdown from the team, I just hoped we had enough. Finally, the white flag flew and I hadn’t yet felt the car starve for fuel any, so I thought we had it in the bag. I got back on the power and started to drive a normal lap, but when I got up to turn two the car started to bog down. It was back to fuel conservation mode. I went to 5th, coasted through the esses, and kept a light foot throughout the rest of the lap to finish the race and my 5th hour in the car! With our 7th position in E2, 12th overall, Team MLT finished the year with the E2 Championship.

After all that we were pretty tired, but there was an entire weekend of racing left! The sprint races on Saturday were worth double points and would decide the championship. I opted to skip practice because I was helping get the MLT car back together for the spring races, but qualifying still went very well. There was quite a lot of traffic, so I didn’t get a clean lap until the very end of the session, but I secured pole position with a 1:43.282—well under the existing track record and nearly 2 seconds ahead of 2nd place in SpecE30.

With a good start in the race, I made it out front and started to lay down laps to open up a gap. I was also eager to take advantage of the great weather to secure a solid lap time to put a stamp on the lap records. Traffic made this pretty difficult, but I did manage to best my qualifying time by 5 hundredths of a second, breaking the old track record by 1.7 seconds. The race went very smoothly for me, as I finished with a healthy 21 second lead over P2.

This marked the end of the 2008 points season, in which I won the NASA SpecE30 National Championship, NASA Southeast SpecE30 Championship, NASA Mid-Atlantic SpecE30 Championship, Geno’s Garage Cup Championship, and played a role in the NASA Southeast E2 Enduro Championship. But that’s not all…after the points were all wrapped up, it was time for an extended fun race that combined all the race groups into a single event with a random-order grid. I started near the back of the 74 car field and started picking my way through traffic. I made it up as far as 29th overall and 1st in class, but you really need to watch the video to get an idea of what this one was like. Check it out!

That’s all the SpecE30 racing for the year. Next week I will be going to Roebling Road in Savannah, GA, for a BMW CCA Club Race where I will be doing some coaching and co-driving in a K-Prepared E30 that is going for the National Championship. Stay tuned for results from that event and news about 2009!

NASA Mid-Atlantic FallNale
Monday, November 10, 2008, 11:55 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen

Summit Point What a year it has been in NASA Mid-Atlantic's SpecE30 class. The fields have been deep with talented, well-prepared cars at each event. The racing is always fierce, and any number of cars could walk away with a win each weekend. Coming into this final weekend of the year, I had a slim 10-point margin over Chris Cobetto, previous two-time National SpecE30 Champion. With no practice, and two races in one day to decide the championship, anything could happen.

As Chris said in the morning meeting, God proved once again that he loves NASA by providing awesome weather for us in West Virginia in mid-November! For this event, with the shorter daylight, two race groups had to be combined down to a single packed group of wide variety, making our 8:45am qualifying session very hectic. I came in and out of the pits several times trying to find some open track, but never fully succeeded. I managed a 1:27.3, but I knew there was a 1:26 in the cards--and sure enough, after checking out the data, I had a 1:26.6 before catching traffic in T9. Oh well, Jonny Allen managed to bring in the best lap, earning pole with a 1:27.0. Skip Bennett, Cobetto, and Richard Spenard (accomplished Canadian racer and guest driver of the weekend) rounded out the Top 5.

At the start of the first race, I dropped back to third place on the outside of T1, so I got in line and started planning out how to move forward. At the end of the first lap, I got an excellent run on Skip through T10 and had position on him in the brake zone for T1. Ahead of me, Jonny went wide and lost a lot of time at the exit of the corner by sliding through the dirt. That allowed me to catch right up to him, and I managed a pass on the next lap when we caught traffic in T9. Not half a lap latter though, we went into T1 where a Spec Miata had blown a motor and dropped lots of oil on the track. Unable to see it amongst all the patches in the pavement, I slid off and dropped back to third again, several seconds behind Skip.

With the help of some traffic, I caught back up to Skip in the closing laps. About the same time, there was a massive wreck in T5, so I knew we would likely go Full Course Yellow (FCY) and that I would need to make a pass quickly. I got another good run out of T10 and pulled off the same pass as earlier into T1 as we started the final lap. Sure enough, as we rounded T2, FCY was displayed at the T3 flag station and that was the end of it! With Cobetto finishing a couple spots back in P5, I had a bit of a points margin to work with in the final race.

Starting from the same positions as earlier, in the second race I managed to stay alongside of Jonny around the outside of Turns 1 & 2, giving me the advantage into T3 where I took the lead. As the guys behind me started battling for space, I managed to build a strong gap that would have offered me a cruise to an easy victory but for another FCY. I had put a couple of lap cars between me and the rest of the SpecE30 pack, but when we went green, Skip got a big jump because he heard the call via radio when none of us could see the flag. He and the others around him got a good run on me, and I dropped back to fourth very quickly. We had two laps to go and the Top 5 SpecE30 cars were in a tight battle amongst lots of slower, out-of-class traffic. In those two hectic laps, I managed to get up to second place, but you'll want to watch the videos to see the detailed action.

And that was it. With a second place finish, I secured the 2008 Mid-Atlantic SpecE30 Championship to go along with the National title earned back in September. There is one more Southeast event to go, where hopefully I can wrap up the third championship in a single season. Thanks again to all my partners that have made this possible. Stay tuned for news about what I'll be up to next year!

Back to the Grind
Tuesday, October 14, 2008, 10:55 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

After a great weekend with Freedom Autosport at the VIR 6 hour race, it was back to normal with the SpecE30 at Summit Point for NASA Mid-Atlantic's Octoberfast weekend. The weather could not have been more beautiful, with clear skies all weekend and highs in the mid 70s. Perfect racing weather.

This was my second trip to Summit Point, and in the time that elapsed since that first visit, the surface had been repaved in many of the key areas to address the washboard pavement. Saturday morning practice revealed a much better track, but it still was anything but smooth. Still, the car was working fairly well and really didn't need any changes before qualifying. I only managed a third place spot for the start of the race, but the field was very tight with just a couple tenths dividing the front runners.

At the start, I managed a small jump on the field and got a good run on the first row. I gave Cobetto a little push to get us to the first turn ahead of everyone else and it worked rather nicely. However, when we got to turn one, Cobetto went just a little wide of the apex and I slipped through to the inside to briefly take over the top spot. I wasn't able to clear him though, so he and Carter Hunt slipped by into turn three. I followed them for the next lap, until they got together exiting turn two, letting me get by Carter. It was then Cobetto, myself, Skip Bennett, and Carter, until he went off in turn five, ending his day. For the next couple of laps, Skip started trying to pass me, which let Cobetto get away. Skip managed to get by me for second, and I finished where I started, in third. This finish left Cobetto and I in a tie for the points championship with just three races to go.

With the points battle so tight, I decided I had to step it up a notch for Sunday. My brakes had been less than great in race one, so I decided to change pads and bleed the fluid. I also bolted up some new tires just to be thorough. In qualifying, I managed to turn the fastest lap of the weekend, a 1:27.084, to secure pole.

At the start, I got a nice big push (several!) from Skip Bennett all the way down to turn one and on the run up to turn three. This helped me hold station at the front of the line while things settled down behind me. I was able to finish up the lap with a gap over Cobetto just large enough that he couldn't quite make a pass attempt on me. From that point on, I slowly pulled out a few tenths per lap to give myself a comfortable margin. The race wasn't exciting in terms of wheel-to-wheel action, but it was similar to a battle in F1--constant pressure to run perfect laps, but no immediate threat.

Now, there's just one event, and two races in one day to decide the championship. I will go into the November event with a slim 10 point margin, but anything can happen. Be sure to stay tuned!

Playing in a New Arena
Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 12:09 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

You can also view this entry at SPEEDtv.com

Having the chance to drive with the Freedom Autosport crew for the final race of the 2008 KONI Challenge series at Virginia International Raceway was a great experience. For those of you that didn’t catch the pre-event article, Atlantic Retail Construction gave me the opportunity to run the #147 Mazda MX-5 with series regular Jon Miller and veteran driver Brian Smith that some of you may know as the track manager at Carolina Motorsports Park. Check out MikeSkeen.com for that article and more background on how I got to this point.

Thursday’s promoter test day was an excellent time for some reconnaissance laps to get accustomed to the new car and the way this new team works. Learning names is just as important as learning the team procedures or what gear to run through Oak Tree. Fortunately for me, the Freedom Autosport crew’s hospitality is excellent, making it easy to get up to speed.

Whether the team is preparing for a club race, checking tire temperatures on Derek Whitis’ Nissan GT-R during the Redline Time Attack event, or changing transmissions between sessions on the MX-5s, this team upholds a high level of professionalism while simultaneously enjoying the independence we have in this country to go out and play at a race track.

The weekend officially began with the Friday morning practice session at 11:15. I was put in the car for the start of the session, with a driver change scheduled in the middle to allow for Jon to get some seat time. After doing a couple of slow laps in traffic looking for track position, I decided to duck into the pits for a small adjustment and an opportunity to get open track. After returning to the track, I managed several 2:12 laps with a fastest of 2:12.2 that put me in second overall. By the end of the session, I dropped to third, but to get such a good result with the other two team cars right nearby in fifth and seventh was very confidence-inspiring.

For the second practice, Brian and Jon shared the session while I watched from pit road with the crew. With some good changes during the session, and great feedback after the session, we had a good direction for the setup. When the time came for night practice, we had finally gotten the setup just right, and even with a full load of fuel, I managed to put in a time that put the car solidly in the Top 10 on the time sheets. I came in for a practice change to get Jon in the car, and Brian hopped in later for the darkest period of the session.

Just to keep things interesting and give me the opportunity to get some seat time in the dark, crew chief Glenn Long called for a driver change with 5 minutes left in the session, giving me just enough time to get out for one hot lap. The experience of driving at night was all new for me and I can see both the difficulties and the thrill of doing it. I managed a 2:15.7 in my one lap, which was a decent “race pace” lap, but I knew where I could pick up more on my next time by if I hadn’t gotten the checkered flag.

For Saturday morning, the game plan was simply to bed some brakes and then park the #147 Atlantic Retail Construction/Palmetto Motorsports Club Mazda to save it for qualifying and the race. We also took the time to practice our driver changes now that we knew the driving sequence—I would qualify and start the car, Brian would run the middle stint, and Jon would take on the night session to finish up the race.

Qualifying was set to start at 10:30 and last for just fifteen minutes. With so many cars in the group, I knew it would be tough to get a clear lap, but I was looking forward to seeing how I would stack up against the rest of the field when everyone was ready to show their cards. With several laps of traffic to start the session, I was about to pit for clear track when it suddenly cleared for me and I began a flying lap. The first sector went very well, with a 2:09.9 flashing on the predictive lap timer as I crossed under the bridge headed towards the Uphill Esses. I was slowly catching the #22 Honda, but when we crested the hill and rounded Southbend we both found ourselves behind the #181 VW on a cool down lap. After checking up and having to make an outside pass at the entry to Oak Tree, I thought the lap was toasted. The predictive timer was showing a high 2:10 down the back stretch, so I continued to run through the gears and finish off the lap with a final time of 2:10.7—good enough for 8th place—but I knew there was more. A black flag ended the session early and I was extremely disappointed to not get another chance at a flyer given how close I was to a front row grid spot; however, I knew a Top 10 starting position was good enough for a six hour race—it would keep us in touch with the leaders and hopefully out of the way of slower traffic.

And that it did. At the start, I managed to pick off a few cars and get myself up to 6th by Turn 3. Over the next several laps, I had a few cars drive by me down the back straight because of our lower powered car. On the other hand, our lighter weight allowed me to make up some ground in the corners and brake zones, which kept me in contact with the lead train. After a few laps, things settled down a bit and I managed to slowly move back up the order, getting to 6th again before the first full course yellow. At that point, Freedom Autosport had all three cars in the Top 6 and we were looking very good. Be sure to check out the High Definition in-car video from my stint on Vimeo or at MikeSkeen.com.

After that caution period and the first round of pit stops, we experienced our first sign of trouble. The car developed a stumble that felt similar to fuel starvation, but we knew we had plenty in the car. We decided to come in for another stop to check the car over and do a driver change while trying to solve the problem. Brian jumped in the car and took it back out, but the problem resurfaced on the out lap. He took it into the paddock and the crew quickly went to work diagnosing the problem. With good feedback from Brian and help from the data, the car was back on track after going a few laps down.

Brian took the car back out and started turning some great laps before the problem resurfaced over an hour later. The problem was more-easily fixed this time and Brian finished off his stint strong with no other problems. Jon got in the car as the sun started to get low on the horizon and he put in steady laps as we thought we finally got our problems under control. With the light of the sun long gone and the race nearing its end, Jon brought the car in with a problem that put us out early.

Though each of the team cars had some trouble during the race, it was really impressive how hard the crew worked to keep each car going as long as possible. The hard work paid off too, because Tom Long managed to bring the #146 back from a lap down to a Top 10 finish, even knocking out fastest lap of the race and picking up 9th place on the very last lap.

To come out of the box with this type of performance in my first race with a high-caliber professional team was very encouraging and it is a testament to the work Freedom Autosport has done all year long to put these cars at the pointy end of the field. Though this event was a tough one for many teams up and down pit road, you can be sure this team will only get better as a result. I just hope to be a part of such a strong effort for the entire 2009 season as I love the challenge of the stiff competition in this series.

Preparing for the Finale
Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 3:45 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

You can also view this entry at SPEEDtv.com

The Rock banking What a year! The Grand-Am KONI Challenge series has seen some epic battles between multiple manufacturers in each class with some of North America’s best talent in the garages and on the track. From the sunny beaches of Daytona to mile-high Tooele, Utah, this travelling road show has put on great events every time.

For yours truly, the season-ending dual six hour event at Virginia International Raceway will be a chance to cap off what has been an excellent 2008 season and a time to look forward to new opportunities at a higher level in 2009. Those of you that caught season two of Setup back in February already know what great exposure that series was for me. Coming off years of karting and one season of SpecE30 racing with NASA, it was a great tool for getting a foothold in motorsports at the professional level. It offered an enormous boost to my career, but it was no golden ticket to a factory ride despite being the driver with the best record.

In the months that followed the airing of the show, I worked hard to find more opportunities to race while continuing my own racing at the club level. In doing so, I built up valuable seat time and experience, winning nearly three quarters of my races in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and taking home the 2008 NASA SpecE30 National Championship.

The show also provided for some excellent networking, which has lead me to where I am today, preparing for the season-ending KONI Challenge Street Tuner race. The relationship I have built with SPEED and Atlantic Retail Construction as a direct result of the show lead to this pairing with Freedom Autosport, where I will be matched with Jon Miller and Brian Smith in the #147 Mazda MX-5.

Miller is a KONI Challenge regular at this point, having run with Automatic Racing and BGB Motorsports for two seasons, and Brian Smith currently utilizes his vast racing experience as the track manager at Carolina Motorsports Park. The Freedom Autosport regulars will also be in attendance and this strong team will be sure to have three quick cars. Team drivers Derek Whitis, Rhett O’Doski, Tom Long, and Jim Daniels will show the way as we get on track Thursday afternoon in preparation for the weekend’s action.

This event will only be made better by the fact that it is at one of the best facilities and tracks in North America, Virginia International Raceway. The Full Course that we will be running has everything from tight, technical sections, to the fast “commitment” corners that separate the men from the boys. The lap begins with several low-to-medium speed sections near the paddock and Spectator Hill, before running under the bridge and through the Uphill Esses and Southbend—one of the best complexes of turns in North America. Then, through the trademark Oak Tree turn, the slowest point on the track, and all the way up the back straight into Roller Coaster where you brake as late as you dare and start your ride down the hill. Finish off the lap with a pucker moment in Hogpen and you’re done. Wash, rinse, and repeat for six hours.

In addition to the two six hour races, there will be lots of action to be enjoyed by all with the Redline Time Attack, Formula Drift Pro-Am presented by Mazda, karting, and much more. I hope to see you at the track for the ST race on Saturday at 2pm, but if you can’t make it, be sure to check out the updates, pictures, and video, here and at MikeSkeen.com.

Skeen joins Freedom Autosport for VIR 6hr
Thursday, September 25, 2008, 3:21 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
The Rock banking Since participating in the SPEED Channel's hit television show Setup, driver Mike Skeen has been looking to make the next step towards a career in motorsports. After winning the 2008 NASA SpecE30 National Championship and maintaining a 68% win ratio in regional competition, Skeen has taken that next step by signing with Freedom Autosport for the KONI Challenge/GT Live event at VIRginia International Raceway, October 4-5.

The KONI Challenge/GT Live event will play host to dual six hour races for the Street Tuner and Grand Sport classes, Redline Time Attack, Formula Drift Pro-Am, and countless other entertainment activities. With support from Atlantic Retail Construction, Skeen will drive a Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 in the Street Tuner race, Saturday at 2 p.m.

Skeen will document this event for SPEEDtv.com with a pre-race article, event updates, post-race article, pictures, and videos. Look for the first of this coverage to begin showing up within the next 5-7 days at SPEEDtv.com and MikeSkeen.com.

Freedom Autosport was new to professional motorsports at the start of the 2008 season, but the team has made big impressions already with multiple Top 5 finishes and a pole at the series' most recent east coast round at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Atlantic Retail Construction is a North Carolina based General Contractor that specializes in high end retail store build out. ARC currently operates in 41 states and Canada and views this as an opportunity to enhance name recognition while lending support to what they consider a very capable up and coming talent.

Roval Racing at The Rock
Monday, September 22, 2008, 8:39 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
The Rock banking After returning from NASA Nationals (with a Championship!) and about a week on the road, I really felt like spending some time relaxing. What better way than to frantically work on the car and load it up for yet another race in less than five days? Seriously though, my goal for the Rockingham race weekend with NASA Southeast was simply to enjoy myself and wear out some old Toyo RA-1 rain tires (that are no longer legal elsewhere because of the new R888 spec tire).

Being less than two hours from home, this race was an easy one to attend and made for a stress-free tow. I made it to the track early Friday evening and enjoyed hanging out with friends, recounting stories of the Nationals and looking forward to the racing action to come.

The simple layout of the track was easy to pick back up in Saturday morning practice, but the low-grip surface and old tires made constant corrections the norm. In qualifying, I put the car in second position behind Travis Wilson, who took first place by .05 seconds.

I was expecting a very close race because of the tight qualifying order, but after Travis went off course on the opening lap, I had the track all to myself. I slowly grew the gap behind me and started picking through traffic, but the race went by without too much out of the ordinary.

Later that day, the "Roll the Rock" race hosted both race groups in an inverted fun race putting lowly Miatas and SpecE30s up against the V8 muscle of the big bore classes. The mixed grid made for a chaotic and congested start, but it was very fun and accident-free. I was able to pick my way up to third place in class, but ran out of time trying to catch up to JP Coates and Vic Hall.

Sunday brought some unique occurrences though. In one of the early morning driving school sessions, a car went off track and ran over a chain link fence, which was unable to be repaired at the time. Because of this, a local caution had to be displayed for all sessions for the remainder of the day, meaning no one could pass in that area. However, the specific rule was not clarified before qualifying, which resulted in many people being disqualified for that session. The intention was to have no passing between corner worker stations 3 & 4, but the rule is that no passing can occur from the flag to the scene of the incident (in this case, that would be the damaged fence). In any case, I was one of the people that passed in this grey area between the fallen fence and the next corner worker station, meaning I would start at the back with several others.

Travis Wilson was not a part of this group and earned the pole yet again as a result. At the start of the race, I picked my way through much of the field, getting to second place in a matter of laps, but by that point Travis had built a pretty strong gap to the field. I tried to close in, but made no headway on those old tires. Upon inspection after the race, I found three of four tires worn down to the cords--no wonder they were so slippery!

It was a fun weekend with lots of action on and off the track and I awlays look forward to the next one. A win and two podium finishes is never a bad thing. Before the weekend was even over, it was time to head for VIR for some private coaching on the Full Course bright and early Monday morning. Fun stuff!

The Big Show at Mid-Ohio
Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 9:45 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen
I have been looking forward to the 2008 NASA National Championships for a year. After finishing third at the 2007 event in my rookie attempt, I really wanted more. In that first year, the car wasn’t quite up to par and I had almost zero experience racing against the Mid-Atlantic drivers that make up most of the field at Nationals.

This “weekend” started on Tuesday when we left Durham, NC, headed for the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Just twenty minutes from home our progress had already been impeded. A trailer tire had a massive blow out, leaving rubber all over the road and the rig on the shoulder. We had the tire changed pretty quickly and there was still one additional spare tire, but it wasn’t the good start we were looking for on this trip.

However, that proved to be the most significant trouble we had on the trip up. We made it to the track early Wednesday, unloaded, and claimed some territory. The rest of the day was spent taking it easy and getting ready for the four-day event.

Thursday provided us three practice sessions to get prepared to race. Each of these sessions, in my case, was used to “scrub” new tires to make them ready for use. I also had to bed some new Carbotech XP16 brake pads that I got from Brakeswap.com. Everything went very smoothly, with dry track and no unexpected issues. After a driver’s meeting in the evening, it was time to get down to business.

Friday was the first of two qualifying days in preparation for Sunday’s Championship Final. Friday and Saturday would consist of a warm-up session in the morning, qualifying early afternoon, and a qualifying race in the evening. Each qualifying race would award points, which are then added to produce the starting grid for the final race.

Unlike Thursday, Friday was very wet. I am confident driving in the rain, but with little experience setting up a car for the wet, I had a slight disadvantage to some of the veterans of the series. Mid-Ohio is also a difficult track in the wet because of the sealer on the pavement covering the traditional “dry line.” This sealer is incredibly slick and requires drastic alterations of the line.

Still, qualifying went very well. I posted a 2:08.2, as compared to the next-best of Chris Cobetto, a 2:10.8. However, at the start of the race, we both went off on the outside of the first turn, setting us back quite a bit. I made my way back up to fourth place and was playing it pretty conservative because I was comfortable with where I was relative to my competition. However, Cobetto made a stellar drive back to the front and caught some great passing opportunities to win the race.

Saturday offered up some dry track yet again, but the heavy rains had made the track much slower as all the rubber had been removed. This made it very difficult to know how fast was fast enough. I qualified second to Simon Hunter, the local hot shoe, by just .089 seconds.

My game plan for the race was to hold the outside line around the first turn, a pass that I had pulled off a couple times before. It worked like a charm and I took the lead and watched the battles ensue in my mirrors. Cobetto was charging up through the field, but I managed to keep a gap between us and bring home the victory in Race Two. Cobetto’s second place finish gave him enough points for the pole in the final, but I was in good position on the front row.

Sunday’s weather was a tossup with the remnants of Hurricane Ike coming our way quickly Saturday night. Most of the storm ended up going by us to the west, but we had lots of wind all day with steady increases as the day progressed. Despite the storm nearby, our race came and went without any rain.

With the final race scheduled at 40 minutes—twice as long as the qualifying races—I knew I had a lot more time to set up a pass for the lead. My plan was to give the outside a shot just like the start of Race Two, but if I couldn’t make it happen then I would slot in line behind Cobetto and follow him for a while.

That is exactly what happened. I couldn’t make the first-lap pass work, so I got in line and started to follow, but that proved difficult. Cobetto’s fuel cap had not been properly installed, so he was dumping fuel—lots of it—in all the left hand turns. This made the track very slick for a few seconds and visibility was poor. After a couple close calls, Cobetto got a black flag calling him into the pits to fix the problem. I dropped back and waited for him to pit-in, rather than risk running too close unnecessarily. Also during this time, my brake pedal got very long. It wasn’t a slow change and it certainly wasn’t normal; the change was abrupt, and felt like a seal in the brake master cylinder had let go. I still had brakes, but they weren’t as effective and it wasn’t very confidence-inspiring.

About halfway through the race there was a full course caution due to a couple of incidents around the track and Cobetto took the opportunity to visit the pits. At the restart, I had the lead in SpecE30, but the entire field was now bunched up with lots of out-of-class cars directly ahead. I gave myself a small gap at the green so we would have time to sort things out, but we did quickly catch traffic. Some local yellow flags complicated everything, but the rest of the race was spent looking for holes and watching the mirrors for my competition. On the last lap, Simon Hunter made a pass on Carter Hunt for second place and caught me quickly as I was stuck in traffic through a caution. This made the last half lap more exciting, but I took it easy and brought home the National Championship!

While I wish Cobetto and I could have had a battle royal with both of our cars at 100%, it didn’t happen this time. We’ll have a couple more rematches later this year at Summit Point, though. In the meantime, I’ll be bolting on a new master cylinder from Harrison Motorsports and heading to Rockingham! Stay tuned for updates!

Summit Point Boxing Match
Monday, August 25, 2008, 12:43 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
There's a first for everything, as they say, and this weekend was just that. It was a chance to race at a new venue, Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. I've seen pictures, heard stories, both good and bad, and watched numerous videos, but it's always fun to go to a new track for the first time.

The weekend started out well, too. Practice was first thing Saturday morning and the car felt great. I found my way around the track pretty quickly, and set the fastest time in SpecE30. Still, not everyone will show their hand in practice, so I didn't want to get a false sense of security based on that alone.

However, qualifying went very well too. I lined up as early as possible and was first on grid, getting many good laps at the beginning of the session. Skip Bennett was behind me for the session, and he is always one of the fastest cars at this track, so I had a good gauge of how I was doing. We were very close for the first couple laps, but I finally put one together that pulled a small gap on Skip, and it was all that I had. It was good enough, but just barely. I had pole position, but Skip and Chris Cobetto were within just a couple tenths of a second.

At the start of the race, I got a great start, but Skip still managed to pull a gap out before entering the first turn. This is where it got interesting. Skip slid wide, slowed the car down, and turned back rather abruptly, causing me to do the same. In the process, I touched his right rear corner and was pushed back track right into Jonny Allen, who appeared out of no where. At this point, Skip has gone on ahead and two more guys, Chris Cobetto and Carter Hunt, are now to my outside. That's right we're four wide at Summit Point (not a wide track) and we're all trading paint. Not the start I was looking forward to having.

We continue to run three-wide up to turn three, where I let Carter sneak by on the inside, but hold off Jonny Allen. Things cool down just a bit for the next lap, while I try to assess the damage. The car has some strange handling characteristics and I wonder if a tire is going down, but I later found out the left rear wheel was out of alignment (toe out).

On to lap three, I get a run on Carter down the front stretch and pass him into turn one. For the next couple of laps, I close the gap down to Skip and look for any opportunity to pass as we gap the rest of the field. We swapped the lead several times throughout the middle of the race, but it was tough to make a pass stick because I didn't have the top end that Skip did. Eventually, I did get a pass made in a good spot to hold it and get a small gap that was just enough to stay out front. However, nearing the end of the race, we came up on a lap car that I could not predict very well. I chose the wrong side to make a pass, went off track, and lost the lead to Skip. At this point there was no time to make up the gap and I had two more cars right behind me to worry about.

At least that's what I thought. Less than half a lap later, Skip nearly spun out and it became a four-car battle for the lead with a lap and a half to go. I got balked up behind Skip and Jonny made a pass for second place. On the next and final lap, Skip got sideways in the exact same spot and Jonny slipped through for the win. Skip blocked my attempts to move up, and I had to settle for third. A podium is not bad, especially for my first time on the track, but it was a very frustrating race because I knew there was more and circumstances just got in the way.

I wasn't very happy following the sprint race, but there was still more fun to be had. Sam Barnett had offered to let me co-drive his Spec Miata in the 90 minute enduro on Saturday afternoon and we were both set on having some fun with that. Since the results didn't matter much, we were all about having fun, which is good when the announcer makes third call and you're still changing the oil. You see, Sam's car had a brand new engine that had just been broken in that day, and the oil had to be changed after his sprint race, along with a tire change, and other details...like fuel. We made it to grid in time, but I was still taking things to pit wall to prepare for our pit stop long after Sam had started the race.

Sam kept us high in the order during his stint, but during our stop, he took his gloves off before fueling the car. For that, we got a 1-minute penalty, which gave me enough time to check out all the gauges and switches on the car, but apparently not enough time to put the steering wheel on straight. When I left the pits, the wheel was a good 30 degrees off-center. No matter, it was just one more thing to get accustomed to in the opening laps of my stint. The first several laps were traffic-free, but I eventually worked my way back up to 4th in class.

Though the enduro was fun, it was back to business on Sunday. My car was rather bruised and the rear alignment wasn't helping, but it was ready to fight another day. I bedded in some new brake pads during the morning warm-up, and it was time for qualifying yet again. I got out front for some clear track again, but the car was handling very poorly and the best I could manage was about four-tenths off my best from the day before. Still, it was good enough for second place behind Cobetto.

The start of the race was much cleaner this time. Cobetto had the edge into turn one on the inside, but I managed to keep a nose alongside him and my outside line gave me the run down to the next corner. I slipped by into the lead, but it wouldn't last long. At the end of the first lap, Chris got a run through the last corner had passed me down the front straight. I followed him for several more laps as we gapped the field and started picking through traffic. My car was a handful in the rights and most of the lefts (that's 90% of the track for those that haven't been), but Chris and I had a stellar race. Eventually, the rear tires burned off from sliding around so much and I had to settle for second place.

Its been a while since I left a NASA weekend without a win, but two podiums and a couple of great races will have to do. There are two more NASA Mid-Atlantic events at Summit Point this year, so I will be back with the car all healed up and ready to go for a win at full strength. In the meantime, preparation for the NASA National Championships will continue. The event is getting closer and the to-do list has only gotten longer after this weekend!

Triple-header at Road Atlanta
Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 12:43 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
Just two weeks ago I was racing with NASA Mid-Atlantic at the wide open spaces of Virginia International Raceway. This weekend the NASA Southeast traveling road show visited the tight confines of Road Atlanta’s concrete walls. Traditionally, the August event in Hotlanta is, well, hot. This year wasn’t exactly cool, but we were fortunate enough to get some relief from the heat.

Before I get too far along, I need to back up several months. Old friend and Spec Miata owner Jay Stroud contacted me back in March during the airing of Setup to catch up on what I was doing. Conversations quickly turned to doing a race together, and we eventually settled on the enduro at Road Atlanta. I’ve been excited about doing this race for quite some time because I haven’t really spent any time in a Miata. Unfortunately, we started at the back because the grid order was determined by championship points (which we didn’t have) and I quickly had to pit because of some tire rub on the fenders. After some jack handle engineering by Dave White, I was back on my way. I ran the car through a tank of gas and brought it in for Jay’s stint to finish the race. With another extra pit stop to fix the window net that had come out of its lower mount, we were well out of contention, but the race was great fun and an excellent way to get warmed up for the weekend sprint races.

Saturday qualifying went very well, with a pole-setting time below the track record and a gap over the field of more than 2.5 seconds. I held of Robert Patton at the start and gapped the field until the red flag came out a few minutes into the race. A few cars needed to be towed off course and out of the way, but nothing nearly as bad as the second red flag. That’s right, just a few laps after being restarted, we sat on the sidelines again as a bad wreck in the lower esses was cleaned up. Our 40-minute race was cut down to less than half, but a big thanks goes out to all the workers that were working hard all weekend cleaning up many reconfigured cars.

Sunday qualifying went even better, clicking off a 1:44.6, over a tenth faster than yesterday. Travis Wilson was second, with Robert Patton and Jim Robinson claiming the second row. At the start, Travis lost some ground and I got out front while the field went three-wide behind me, slowing each other down. Other than catching some traffic (some of which was almost humorous—watch the video), the race brought few surprises and I finished with a healthy lead.

Summer is coming to an end and there’s just one more event before the National Championships at Mid-Ohio. Look for results of the race at Summit Point in two weeks and stay tuned for the championship event two weeks after that.

Racing Through Your Neighbor's Greenhouse
Monday, July 28, 2008, 5:14 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
The land near Milton, North Carolina's Dan River was already green enough, especially in the middle of the summer, but at Virginia International Raceway, signs, fences, Armco barriers, and more wear a shade similar to John Deere's finest. Many cars in the paddock still wear the green battle scars from this facility, but fortunatley, mine (still!) does not.

I am fortunate enough to live within easy drive of this world class facility and am happy to call it my home track. The weather was great for July in the south, with ambient temperatures only slightly above tolerable. Fortunately, my friend Matt Moorefield was in attendance with his air-conditioned oasis that served us well between sessions. Saturday morning started out relatively uneventful with a late morning practice session that went well, but with times far below what we turned here at the February and March events. I was first in class on the time sheets, but it is hard to know who is pushing it during practice.

On to qualifying in the afternoon. The track has gotten even slower with the sun beating down on it, but I get some clear track after pitting-in for space and click off a quick lap to secure pole position for the first race. Skip Bennett qualifies second, with Chris Cobetto and Carter Hunt taking up the second row.

At the start of the race, Skip does an excellent job of holding the outside line and gets by me before Turn 3. At Turn 4, he goes off track and rejoins right in front of the whole pack, which scrambles to make room. Still in second, I follow Skip through the Uphill Esses and Southbend, where I get an excellent run on him into Oak Tree. I complete the pass and get a great drive onto the back stretch giving myself a few car lengths of breathing room. Skip drafts up behind me and pops out approaching the braking zone, but isn't far enough up to make anything happen on this lap. He has another look going into Turn 1, but still can't get far enough up and I pull out just enough of a gap through the next sequence of turns to keep him behind. Throughout the race, we turned very close lap times, but he was always a second or two behind me--just out of reach--and I held station for another win!

Sunday practice was a lot of fun because I had the car working well and I had no goals for the session other than to play around in traffic and feel out the car. Carlton Goldthwaite started the session behind me and we picked through the traffic for several laps before I headed in a bit early. Qualifying was much like the day before, except that I didn't get any clear track until the very last lap of the session. I was happy with the lap, but upon returning to the pits, found my right front tire flat from a puncture I likely scored on the way into the pits. This being my only set of the new spec Toyo R888 tires, I went searching for a replacement. Fortunately, Andrew Zimmerman of Drive Gear Racing was kind enough to loan me ones of his spares for the race.

Just to make things interesting, about an hour before the race the skies opened up and the rain came down rather heavily for a few minutes, soaking the track and the surrounding area. It quit in time to dry the track for our race, but it left the ground soft and wet, making any off-track excursions much worse than they might otherwise be. Skip was again starting second, with Chris Cobetto behind me in third position. I had a better start this time and held the lead through Turn 1. Cobetto went off track in Oak Tree on Lap 1 and dropped back a few positions, leaving Skip and myself with a small lead on the rest of the pack. He and I stayed close throughout the race, with several examples of the pass-repass exercise in Turn 1 and a couple attempts to pass entering the Uphill Esses. It was a more difficult race than the day before, and Skip did an awesome job offering up some extended side-by-side racing, but I came out on top again!

It's just two more weeks until the NASA Southeast event at Road Atlanta. I will be racing a Spec Miata with Jay Stroud in the 3 hour enduro on Friday afternoon and running two more sprint races in the SpecE30. Hope to see you there!

CMP Action and B.R.E. Motorsports Post-Race
Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 10:35 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
What a long weekend! The heat, sand, bugs, and live chickens brought a unique feel to this event that is unmatched! Regardless, the SpecE30 turnout was strong and everyone was ready to have some fun.

Joe Tripp, Director of Interactive Operations at SPEEDtv.com and rookie SpecE30 racer, convinced me to co-drive with him in the 3-hour enduro on Friday afternoon. We were all set to go, and Joe started us off with a solid first stint. After a short time, one of the NASA officials told us our transponder wasn't getting picked up, so we were not getting scored, but this wasn't a huge deal because we were really just looking for some seat time and to get the comparative Traqmate data. At about the halfway point, Joe brought the car in for our one and only pitstop(or so we thought!). I hit the track and started getting accustomed to the car. On the first lap out, I noticed the oil pressure light on the dash flicker going through Turn 3. It wasn't any better the next time through, and that started a sequence of pitstops trying to solve the problem. Without much progress in that direction, we opted to park the car rather than blow it up.

Saturday morning, I skipped practice, which turned out to be a big problem. Rather than saving the car, I actually put off a problem that I might have found before the race instead. I got through qualifying without a problem (nabbing pole position), but at the start of the race the water temperature started to climb due to a pinhole leak in one of the radiator hoses. If I had gone out in practice, I may have had this problem earlier in the day, but such is life. On to Sunday.

Again, I managed to qualify on pole, but some light-hearted banter during the day turned into a four-way challenge between myself, Travis Wilson, JP Coates, and Jim Robinson, to start at the back of the pack...and invert the order. That put me dead last on the grid with a long line of cars to pass before the finish. Robert Allen, a young driver that is new to the Southeast Region had qualified outside pole, inheriting the top spot for the race. Being an unknown in this equation, there were lots of possibilities for how this race would play out.

It took a couple of laps to get through the bulk of the pack, and in that time, Robert had pulled out a healthy lead on the rest of us. I was a little bit worried, but I knew the race was long (scheduled for 40 minutes), which was one of the reasons why I agreed to starting at the back in the first place. I began clicking off consistent laps and taking off a second or two from the gap each time by start/finish. Before long, I caught Robert and made a pass before the kink after he made a tiny bobble in T8. At that point, I pulled out a small gap and went into conservation mode.

On Monday, I stopped at B.R.E. Motorsports in Concord, NC, to check over my car after the overheating on Saturday. It ran fine during the race on Sunday, but I was a bit worried about potential damage. We hit the dyno and everything seems in order, but I'll do a little more work to make sure everythig is perfect before heading to Nationals at the beginning of September.

Recent Media Highlights
Sunday, June 29, 2008, 10:30 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
As some of you can probably recall, back in April I skipped a NASA-SE event in favor of a trip to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to race with the Skip Barber Mazdaspeed Challenge series for SPEEDtv.com. For those of you that missed it, you can find the article on SPEED's website in two installments at the following links: Part 1 and Part 2.

The adventure was a great experience, but I've recently gotten some additional exposure from a Road & Track writer that was also in attendance. If you pick up a copy of the July issue, you will find an article covering the event on pages 111-112. There's some more information on the event in the August issue of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, including a picture with me at a driver's meeting (I'll take what I can get!).

Finally, the News & Observer published an article yesterday, June 28, featuring yours truly. If you didn't get the printed copy dropped at your doorstep, you can find the article on their website.

Barber Motorsports Park - SpecE30
Monday, June 9, 2008, 09:38 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen
The trip to Barber was a last minute one for me. The two was going to be a long eight hours if I made good time, the heat was forecasted to be high, and the turnout wasn't looking too great. I finally decided I had to go in order to acquire points towards the Southeast SpecE30 Championship. Sure enough, the trip took forever and there was plenty of heat, but I did leave with some points.

The adventure started on the way to the track, of course. After making decent time through Atlanta traffic on a Friday afternoon, we found ourselves in traffic right before the Alabama border on I-20 due to construction. We decided it was a good time to get off the highway and take a break at the first exit where we ran into a fellow NASA racer. He had already found out that traffic went for miles and there was an alternate route via two lane country road. We followed. After that point it was clear sailing to the track and time to socialize at the local Mexican restaurant.

Saturday morning I found out the tire supplier didn't bring the right tires for me, which put me in a tough spot because I didn't have any of the new spec tires. Fortunately, everyone agreed to let the rule slide on this first event and I was allowed to run the old Toyo RA-1s. Unfortunately, the SpecE30 field was dwindling due to mechanical troubles in the enduro on Friday. By the time racing came around, there were just seven cars, but still some stiff competition. I managed to land pole and break away from the pack in Saturday's race, but Sunday wasn't quite as easy.

I had pole position for the start yet again, but this time there was a red flag thrown on lap one for a sports racer that caught fire. Everyone got out of that situation unscathed, but the restart put the SpecE30 pack right behind a group of Porsche 944s and PT cars that made the race interesting. After working traffic a couple laps with Damion Moses right behind me, he slipped by when I was slowed by a PTB car in the Tunnel Turn. He got a small lead on that lap with more help from traffic, but I looked at the clock and knew there was plenty of time to make up the difference. I took my time closing the gap and we went back-and-forth for a couple laps before I secured the lead on the outside of the hairpin. At that point, I put a couple cars between us and opened up a comfortable gap to finish in the lead.

What a great weekend right? Yeah, it was until I got back to Atlanta. The tow rig broke down and the weekend became a week. Oh well, see you at CMP even if I have to drive the racecar to the track!

997 GT3 Cup Test
Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 07:48 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
997 GT3 What an experience! I wish all my Wednesdays consisted of driving to VIR to drive a Grand-Am GT car. The offer for this test came about a week out, but I was all over it. I had never driven a Porsche before, especially not anything of this caliber. Upon arrival, I watched another driver take some laps in the car for a shakedownand then it ws time to have at it.

The 997 was the first of the Cup cars to come from the factory with a sequential transmission, so that was the first thing to learn upon getting in the car. The procedure for starting the car is a bit more lengthy than a SpecE30, but after starting off it all came naturally.

The whine of the gearbox and the perfect sound of the boxxer six only added to the experience that 2500 pounds and 400+ horsepower will offer you. Despite the old Hoosiers the car was running on, it was a blast to drive. Very loose in the slow corners where there was no downforce, but very stable at speeds.

It was a bit of a tease for the moment, but hopefully I'll be wheeling something similar soon!

SCCA Enduro at CMP
Tuesday, June 3, 2008, 06:45 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
Memorial day weekend offered up a great opportunity for me to run the SCCA ECR 90 minute race at Carolina Motorsports Park with Matt Moorefield in his ITR E36 325i. This was my first time driving this gorgeous car, but it wasn't hard to get accustomed to it. The car is just a little bit heavier than a SpecE30 with an extra 80 horsepower and a much more track-worthy suspension.

Matt was doing the normal sprint race double-header, so I went down on Saturday to check things out. The car was running flawlessly and Matt was getting comfortable with the track on his first visit.

Sunday morning I took the car in qualifying and got down into the 1:45s--faster than any ITR cars had gone that weekend. There were some slight handling adjustments to be made, which we took care of before Matt took the car out in the sprint race.

We left the car as it was for the start of the ECR and went to town. I had pole by nearly 6 seconds because most of the field was comprised of ITS, Spec Miata, and lower classes. The first several laps were trouble-free, but before long I caught traffic. Still, there weren't a ton of cars on track, so everything was manageable.

About 15 minutes into my stint, the shift knob came off in a 3-4 shift and went in the backseat area. It bounced around for quite some time before sliding under my seat up around the pedals. I nearly pitted to get it out of the way, but fortunately, it happened to stop for a bit right in front of my seat. I was able to grab it and re-install it before the end of the stint.

As everyone began pitting in the middle of the race, I caught the second place car to put them a lap down just before they made their stop. After another 10 minutes or so, I was also called in for our driver swap. Matt brought the car home P1 with second place right behind (one lap down!).

Be sure to look for the video to see some highlights!

Savannah Sizzler
Monday, May 19, 2008, 11:39 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

After a short break following CMP with NASA Mid-Atlantic, it was time to head for the sandy pines of the Georgia coast—that’s right, Savannah’s Roebling Road Raceway. The track manager’s thirty cats were enjoying the perfect weather as much as everyone else as things calmed down Friday night. After the paddock began to fill in we had the chance to relax and stroll around the track as the sun set. The weather was forecasted as dry, mostly sunny, breezy, with warm temperatures that were just right—in the shade.

Following the CMP event, I had to change the transmission in my car and realign the rear suspension to get rid of toe-out on the right rear wheel that was the result of a hit during the Saturday race. The transmission went in successfully, but the alignment didn’t go as well. I cut the damage in half, getting the right rear to three-sixteenths toe-out, but it certainly wasn’t what I was looking for. I’ll have to install a new trailing arm or sub frame before the next event, but there was no time for that before Roebling.

Never to be without some drama, my practice session was cut short when the car’s water temperature gauge stubbornly climbed higher and higher. I pulled in before finding the melting point of aluminum and found an easy fix—the upper radiator hose developed a pinhole leak that was shooting out a bit of steam. With the help of Robert Patton’s copious spares inventory, I had a replacement on the car in minutes and was ready for qualifying despite the lack of practice.

JP Coates and I were quick to the draw getting in line for qualifying, but our attempts at clear track were for naught when we came around to take the green and found cars still leaving pit lane. After a couple laps managing traffic and trying to make a clear spot to get a lap in, I successfully turned a 1:24.2, which felt like all I could manage considering the alignment. It was good enough. I had pole by .152 over Damion Moses, followed by Jim Robinson and JP.

The race start was pretty uneventful at the front. Damion slotted in line behind me and kept the gap small as we threaded through traffic. Nearing the end of our allotted time, Damion got loose in turn four and went briefly off track, allowing JP to pass him for second place. Around the same time, a Spec Miata spun and got stuck in an impact zone outside turn one. This incident led to a full course yellow that ended our race. One down, two to go.

That’s right, there are three races this weekend. Roebling was to host the second inaugural Inverted Field Unlimited (IFU) fun race. The format changed a bit this year, as cars lined up in groups of four, starting the race from pit lane separated by approximately 30 seconds. Naturally, I was in the last group, which started almost 2 laps behind the race leader. I caught and worked through traffic as quickly as I could, and just as I caught the leaders, a full course yellow was thrown. I was the first car one lap down. The race was stopped at the Start/Finish line to grid the cars for a standing restart—no, this isn’t normal. I quickly worked to the front of the pack, but I was still a lap down and there was no time to catch back up. I decided to pit and let the crowd back through so that I’d have more people to battle with, but as I came in the white flag flew and I decided to pack it in. Unfortunately, IFU2 didn’t serve up the same action-packed video as the first one, but the racing was still good. Congrats to Damion, the IFU repeat champion!

Sunday morning, I awoke to the sound of a few sprinkles of rain, but the brief shower didn’t last long. It did, however, return just as cars lined up on grid for qualifying. The rain was just enough to bead up on the windshields and scare some folks, but it didn’t wet the track and it didn’t come down any more that day. A tight qualifying session put the top nine within a second of each other and I nabbed pole position again by nearly two tenths.

At the start of the race, Damion got an amazing jump from the outside of the second row to take the lead into turn one followed by yours truly. The first few laps reminded me of the end of last year’s IFU—me trying to pass Damion on the outside of turn one each lap. Damion was moving along quickly, driving a wide car, and not making mistakes. I continued to pressure him as much as possible and waited for lap traffic to mix things up. After following him past a few cars, we caught a Legends car on the front stretch that moved to the right to let us through. Damion went left to pass, but I moved right and split the Legends car in order to get position for the inside of turn one. With two wheels in the grass and bouncing over the optional chicane, I got alongside Damion and made the pass stick. He pressured me for a couple laps, but I managed to gap him a little bit with the help of traffic. This race was an exciting win with some tremendously close racing.

Two for three—not bad. I missed a good finish in the inverted race, but secured wins in the two races that really mattered. As of now, I’m leading the points in both the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. I’ll miss the next Mid-Atlantic event at Hyperfest in Summit Point, West Virginia, but Barber event with NASA Southeast isn’t far off. Stay tuned!

South of the border!
Monday, May 5, 2008, 02:18 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

No, it's not that exotic, we just went to South Carolina for NASA Mid-Atlantic's Carolina Motorsports Park event on the May 3-4 weekend. The weather was great for racing, though maybe a bit hot for the time of year. A small field of just eight cars showed up, but most of the front runners came down to score points and try out a new track (this was the first time this group had run the new configuration).

Things didn't start out so well this weekend. In the first practice session, I went out and found a grumpy transmission in my car that did not want to go into fourth gear. Rather than put unnecessary miles on the gearbox, I brought the car in early and parked it. Before qualifying, we bled the clutch slave cylinder in the hopes that it would help, while knowing in the back of our minds that it wouldn't. I began to search around for a replacement transmission, just in case we decided to swap it out this weekend, we could tow the car up to B.R.E. Motorsports in Concord and swap it before Sunday's festivities. However, qualifying went pretty well considering, securing second place on the grid beside Jon Allen. At the start of the race, I managed to hold station going around the outside of turn one and just edged out Jon to take the lead out of turn three.

For the first several laps, Jon, Chris Cobetto, and myself had a great battle for the top spot. As we started to catch traffic, things got more interesting. In turn 14, Chris made contact with the right rear wheel of my car and put me briefly off track at the exit. Jon had a run on the outside of me into turn 1, but could not capitalize and slowed up himself and Chris in the process. With the resulting gap, I managed to continue putting traffic between us for the rest of the race while I battled a severely mis-aligned car with a dying transmission. With the day beginning as it had, I never expected to be atop the podium, but I'll take it!

Coming off a good result, I was a little more hopeful about making it through the weekend with the existing transmission. As a result, we decided to play it out and try to score more points on Sunday without doing the transmission swap Saturday night. I skipped practice altogether and only did a couple laps in qualifying, putting me a disappointing 5th on the grid.

At the start of the race, I got past Skip Bennett for fourth place and started to watch the top three pull away as I shifted from 3rd gear to fifth in three of the four normal locations on the track (I went to fourth out of the carousel because I could hold it for a long time). This race was stressful and boring at the same time; stressful because I never knew what to expect when looking for fourth gear, and boring because the gap on either side of me continued to grow. After about six laps, I made some headway on third place, but right as I get up to him I lost fourth gear entirely and that more or less sealed my fate--P4 was all I could muster today.

Not the results I was looking for headed into the weekend, but certainly not bad considering the obstacles. Time to call up Harrison Motorsports to get some parts! Roebling is in just two weeks!

MX-5s at Laguna Seca
Thursday, April 10, 2008, 10:55 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen

As I'm sure most of you know, I had the great opportunity to participate in the current season of SPEED’s hit show Setup, where I was fortunate enough to represent Pontiac, Geico, Stanley, and many other companies that offered the opportunity for me and 23 other amateur drivers to get some great exposure and experience. This exposure put me in the position to visit Laguna Seca to represent SPEEDtv.com and report on the brand new Skip Barber MX-5 Series. Unfortunately, I had to miss an event I had planned to run in my SpecE30 with NASA Southeast, but I guess it’s time to let somebody else win a couple races anyways!

As soon as I heard about the opportunity, I was all over it! First stop was Trackpedia.com to get local information about where to stay and go. Of course, lots of time was spent on the site analyzing videos, track data, write-ups, and information on the track to get a head start on the weekend.

I arrived in San Jose on Thursday afternoon to pick up the requisite cheap-as-possible compact rental car that would get me around for the weekend. Happy to see a handbrake on the center console, I knew this would be a good weekend. Fortunately, there was no rush to get to the track, so I had time to explore the area a bit and settle in before heading to the track Friday morning.

The schedule for the day included two practice sessions for each of the five race groups—three groups for the formula cars and two for the MX-5s. I was in the fifth group, so I would be there until the end of the day. Before all that, participants took turns doing “Van Arounds” with the Skip Barber instructors getting valuable information about the track and helping the learning curve immensely.

After the track orientation and driver’s meetings, I spent time hanging out with new and old friends, fans of the show, and anyone else that wanted to talk racing. I was happy to see a fellow KONI Challenge driver, Dion Von Moltke of APR Motorsport, and to have time to chat with him and his family between sessions. Unfortunately, we were not in the same race group so we wouldn’t have a chance to drive against each other, but we did share a practice session in the afternoon in which we were both under the lap record and just a couple hundredths of a second apart—a good way to end the day and head into the race weekend!

Unlike most track days at home, Saturday morning dawned before I had to leave the hotel room. Following a relaxed breakfast and trip to the track, I was happy to see that Northern California served up some great weather yet again. After greeting new friends at the driver’s meeting, it was time for the qualifying sessions to begin. Each of the five groups would get an 18 minute session to set the single fastest lap possible in order to establish the grid order. My session felt decent, but I knew I hadn’t set any personal best times. Though the time was off by about 7 tenths, it was still good enough to set pole position in my run group by a comfortable margin.

Since our group was last in the rotation, formula cars started to hit the track for their races just as we came off. James Hunt, a friend of mine from Setup, decided to come up and hang out, so we hit up the Cruisin’ Café for lunch and ventured around the track to watch the other race groups from different vantage points. The scenery at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is amazing on its own, but watching the Skip Barber cars carving up the hills is even better.

Unfortunately, in the third race group (the other MX-5 group), the #05 Trackpedia.com MX-5 that I had been running was wrecked in Turn Four, leaving it unavailable for my race at the end of the day. Luckily, the Skip Barber crew was quick to provide another car, help me transfer my camera equipment, and shorten the harnesses to a proper fit.

With the rush to get everything ready at the last minute, there wasn’t much time to “get in the zone,” but as I hit the track everything fell into place. The car felt great on the warm up laps and I was ready to grid up and see the green flag. The start was tight and the pressure behind was constant throughout the first lap, but this changed quickly on the second trip through Turn Four. As I came out of the corner, I looked up in the mirror to see the second place car drop a wheel on exit, begin a tank slapper, and take out the third place car. This left me a small margin, but my consistent times grew the gap to a 16+ second win.

I’d be remiss if I traveled all the way across the country without visiting the coast, so James and I decided to head for Monterey for the evening. After sampling the local cuisine on the wharf, we retired to the hotel early to watch some video from the day and keel over.

Sunday came way too quick! A weekend at Laguna Seca (or any track for that matter) can’t last long enough. The racing and camaraderie has been great, and Sunday morning is no different with a very relaxed environment and a trophy presentation for the previous day’s races offers up numerous opportunities for story-telling as drivers recount their experiences.

Sunday’s activities move along a little bit quicker because each race group gets one race with a brief warm up beforehand. This gets things done a little earlier and allows everyone more time for travel back to the real world. Qualifying is skipped and the result of Saturday’s race determines the starting grid.

Since the race on Saturday was pretty uneventful for me in the #07 Trackpedia.com MX-5, I opted out of my pole position and requested to start at the back of the pack for the race on Sunday. I had a mediocre jump at the start, but chose the outside line into Turn 2 trying to get around a pack of cars. Due to all the activity of the weekend, the outside of the track was just covered in dirt and I went wide, dropping two wheels in the dirt. Fortunately, I managed to keep two on the track (avoiding a stop-and-go penalty) and got back in line second from last. A good run through Turn 4 allowed me to setup a pass on the outside of Turn 5 and I got one more on the run up to the corkscrew.

On lap two, I made another pass into Turn 5—this time on the inside—and another into the tight final corner, Turn 11. On the exit of the corner, I could not find third gear very quickly—a foreshadowing of what was to come—and lost a position to the car I had just passed. With a re-pass in Turn 5 to put me back in 3rd Position, I set my sights on the frontrunners to make sure they wouldn’t get away. I was within about 6 car lengths by the end of the lap, but coming out of Turn 11 and going for third gear was a problem again. This time, it went into gear, but as soon as I let out the clutch I could hear and feel the transmission let go. I put it in 4th gear and attempted to lug the car around, but going up the hill to the corkscrew was trouble and I didn’t want to ruin any racing behind me, so I got out of the way and took the car to the pits.

Despite the short race, I had lots of fun for the first two laps and enjoyed hanging out to watch the end of the race—the two leaders were within roughly a second of each other for the whole race. Thanks to all the hard working Skip Barber guys that made the weekend run smoothly! I look forward to getting back out to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the near future!

Two-for-two at VIR!
Thursday, April 10, 2008, 10:05 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen

After spending most of my time in 2007 racing with the NASA-SE crowd (except for the maiden voyage at VIR), I was anxious to battle with the stiff competition in NASA-MA in 2008. The VIR race in February, for me, was hurt by qualifying with the traffic in Thunder group. After setting the lap record and making up lots of positions from my starting spot, I knew I had more in me than the result sheets showed. This event was redemption!

On Saturday morning, I decided to skip practice, which worked out just fine because I managed to grab pole position in qualifying! I had Jon Allen and a host of the series' top drivers surrounding me, so I knew I had to make a good start and focus on the track ahead.

The start went according to plan, but before the end of the first lap we were already catching 944 traffic. With Jonny right behind, I couldn't pause for a second to get through traffic. The two of us continued to go back and forth for the whole race with some of the best racing I've ever been a part of--or seen for that matter. In the end, I won with Jonny right alongside me.

The rain was back for Sunday. Qualifying was on a damp track, which made it hard to know what sort of time would get pole. I could see most of my competition on the track, so I could gauge my progress against theirs and I felt pretty confident during the session. Sure enough, when I showed up to grid for the race I had the pole! Still, the rain had picked up again and the track was wet. Having never raced with any of these guys in the rain, I didn't know what to expect.

The start was pretty uneventful until Turn 3, where I could see cars in my mirror drifting all over the place. I had made it through cleanly, so this bottleneck behind me had already started to create a gap. I started tip-toeing around the track as smooth and carefully as possible, and the gap just continued to grow. I got around several of the GTS-2 cars and made it all the way up to fourth overall before the checkers fell.

Can't beat that! Two wins from pole in the most competitive region for SpecE30--I'll take it! Look out at CMP!

Twisters at Road Atlanta
Tuesday, March 18, 2008, 11:13 AM
Posted by Mike Skeen
We knew it was supposed to rain in Georgia on Friday and Saturday, but we didn't know just what we were in for. The Friday night rain quit early Saturday morning and we got in practice and qualifying on drying track, but after lunch things got interesting. Numerous tornado warnings plagued the afternoon and stopped track activities so everyone could take cover from the hail and torrential downpours. After several on-and-off threats, the NASA Southeast crew adjusted the schedule and extended the day so everything would fit in.

Before all the weather-related fun, qualifying went down on a damp-but-drying track. Amazingly, I managed to qualify first overall, ahead of many high-powered GTS cars and the rest of the SpecE30 pack.

After the storms rolled through, our shortened race went down without a hitch for the Harrison Motorsports/B.R.E. Motorsports #143. I quickly got a comfortable gap on the first lap and simply cruised my way around, trying to stay out of the big puddles.

That night, after I left the track, several of my friends and fellow SpecE30 competitors were nice enough to "decorate" my car with NASA "winner" decals. I thought about leaving them on for Sunday qualifying in an ode to Ricky Bobby, but decided discretion was the better part of valor.

The track was still a little damp for our early morning qualifying on Sunday, but the sun was out and everyone was feeling a little more brave than the day before. The times came down some, but I still managed to qualify the car on pole with JP Coates and Damion Moses right behind.

Sunday's race was set to be a standing start, which meant it was great to be on the front row (just don't stall the car!). I got through turn one cleanly and looked ahead to set a couple blistering fast laps to pull away from the field. Damion spun coming out of turn five, and the field immediately stretched out behind me because of the confusion. After just a couple laps, I was catching traffic from the 944 start and I went into conservation mode. I simply managed traffic for the rest of the race and grew the lead to a healthy 25 seconds.

This weekend was pretty uneventful for me (other than the weather), but the next event at VIR with NASA Mid-Atlantic should prove challenging. I am going to miss the NASA-SE event coming up at CMP, but keep an eye out for a report from Laguna Seca!

Back to VIR
Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 03:19 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

After getting back out on track at CMP with NASA Southeast, it was time to head for VIR with NASA Mid-Atlantic to check out the country's most-competitive and largest SpecE30 region. Most of the veterans and a couple of new guys showed up for a 20+ car field on February 23-24 despite the cool weather. Due to the shorter days of winter, this event only had two race groups, which put SpecE30 in the "big bore" Thunder group with GTS and all the fast V8 cars.

This combination proved tough, with lots of traffic making clean laps difficult. Practice went by with little to report and the goal in qualifying was simply to find a gap in traffic. Well, it didn't work. On my fastest lap of the session, I had a low 2:19 lap going until Oak Tree (according to Traqmate data), when I was caught in traffic and lost well over a second. My low 2:21 was good enough for a 6th place grid spot, but it wasn't where I was hoping to be.

Not only was I a little farther back than I had hoped, but I was also on the outside of the track for the start. At Turn One, two cars got into each other in front of me, sending one driver off track and holding me up enough that I was barely in the Top 10 at the end of Lap One. After a short 7 laps, I managed to work my way back up to a mildly disappointing 5th place finish. As a little bonus, I managed to break the previous lap record, setting it at a 2:19.4.

On to Sunday. There was no qualifying, so we used the previous day's order, which put me back in 6th spot. After another rough start, I found myself in ninth at the end of Lap One. On Lap Two I got by three tough competitors with the help of a push from Vic Hall down the back straight. The five leaders were running nose-to-tail several seconds ahead of me, but with a new record-setting lap at a blistering 2:18.000, I was right with them by the end of Lap Three. In the next three laps I worked up to third place, but ran out of time to make any more head way.

The #143 Harrison Motorsports/B.R.E. Motorsports car clearly had the pace during the whole weekend, but the result sheets don't show as well as they could all because of the traffic in qualifying. Such is life. We'll move on to Road Atlanta and then come back to play with the Mid-Atlantic guys again at the end of March.

In the meantime, check out the race video in the media section and look for Setup on the SPEED Channel, Thursday nights at 8E/9P.

Winter Meltdown at CMP
Monday, February 11, 2008, 04:24 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen

Everyone has been looking forward to getting the 2008 NASA Southeast season underway and the weather was cooperating with us for the Winter Meltdown event at Carolina Motorsports Park. All three days were sunny and dry with moderate temperatures, though the wind was blowing pretty hard—especially Sunday afternoon.

This weekend started a day earlier than most. The new enduro series was set to kick off on Friday afternoon and I had teamed up with Travis Wilson in the #800 for the 3-hour race. With nearly everyone being new to these events, we did not know exactly what to expect in terms of pit strategy. The grid was formed by random drawing, giving us pole position. However, a couple high-horsepower cars from the second row engulfed the SpecE30s on the front row and we fell into line for the first few laps while things shook out. When that happened, I found myself ahead of James Clay (of BimmerWorld fame) who was driving Jim Robinson’s #008. We had a good race for a few laps before I managed to get a little breathing room in traffic. The #008 pitted early and that left me cruising around alone for the remainder of my stint, before handing the car to Travis just before the halfway mark. He did an excellent job getting it to the finish on fumes—our estimations were off on fuel and made it a close call at the very end. Fortunately, we did make it and finished third overall, second in E2, and the first SpecE30 (the real bragging rights!).

The first day got off to a good start and it was on to Saturday. My car had a new engine in it from B.R.E. Motorsports, so I was anxious to see how it would perform. In the first practice session I went out to make sure everything was right with the new install and to get an idea of what handling adjustments I might want to make. Mike Davidson lead the session and I was a ways off the pace, but not too worried because I knew I could get more out of the car. Sure enough, I qualified the car on pole with the adjustments made, a few tenths ahead of JP Coates and Mike.

The start of the race was pretty uneventful for the first few rows, but behind us there was a melee that caused a full course caution, which turned into a red flag and a long clean up period. At the restart, the SpecE30 field was at the back of the pack, behind Spec Miatas, 944s, Honda Challenge, and everything else. This made turn one very interesting. I got held up on the inside and fell back to third behind Mike and JP. Later that lap, I managed to get around JP with the help of some traffic and set my sights on Mike. I knew the long clean up left us with very little time, but I had no idea how many more laps there would be so there was no time to waste. I got around some more traffic and found myself about ten car lengths back from Mike when the white flag came out. I was closing fairly quick and found myself right behind him coming out of the carousel into Turn Eight. He got loose and I got alongside him going down the back straight, passing him on entry to The Kink. He almost got me back with a late-braking maneuver in Turn Eleven, but it wasn’t enough and I managed to keep it on track for the win!

Sunday’s race was a longer, 40-minute race in which SpecE30 would start at the back and have to work through traffic. I managed to qualify on pole again and got through Turn One cleanly. As the battle waged on for second place, I pulled a lead on the field and started setting consistent laps while working traffic. This race had little drama, much different than the shorter race on Saturday. I finished with an uneventful 22-second gap on the field.

But that’s not all! The racing was great this weekend, but I also had the opportunity to take out an S50B32-powered E30 owned by Carl Kircher. This was the first weekend for the car, but in just one session I had it down into the 1:44 range—just a couple seconds off the fastest laps of the weekend. There is plenty of development left to do with this car, so watch out for it at future events.

This was a fantastic event to start the season and now it’s on to VIR! NASA Mid-Atlantic will be hosting their season opener in two weeks and the event is shaping up to be a great one. Stay tuned and check out the video section for highlights.

KONI Challenge at Daytona
Monday, January 28, 2008, 04:23 PM
Posted by Mike Skeen
The high banks at Daytona offer a racing destination unlike any other. The huge facility has made history many times over in several different types of motorsport from motorcycles, to stock cars, to sports cars. Arriving in Florida during the winter is a welcome change of climate and the excitement of the Rolex 24 at Daytona weekend only grows during the week prior.

Arriving on Wednesday to see the track and watch the teams unload their equipment is a sight to see, but waiting for the on-track events of Thursday takes seemingly forever. Finally that time arrives, and the first practice session is about to begin. My co-driver, James Hunt, will start the practice and we will switch in the middle to let me finish the session. We are a couple seconds off the pace in this session, but considering I had never driven the car and neither one of us had seen the track before, it’s not surprising.

For the second practice session, we decide I will start and switch James in half way through. However, we discover a problem with the car when leaving the pits and lost over half the session. Rather than wasting more time with the driver change, I stay in the car the whole session. Because of this lost time, James has very few laps in the car, so we decide it would be best that I qualify.

In qualifying, I turned a 2:11.7, which is about a second off the fastest Chevrolet Cobalt of Jamie Holtom and Eric Curran. Still, with the tight field in KONI Challenge ST, this puts us in 19th place.
Friday morning’s practice session was used to let James catch up on track time, since he lost most of his the day before. I started the session to bed the brakes and practice the driver change.

Then it was race time. The goal for the first several laps was simply to keep the car out of trouble and let things cool down. After taking care of the car for a while, I started to move my way up the field, getting the car to 13th before the end of my stint. Right after our first stop for fuel and the driver change, there was a full course caution that put us down the order significantly. James was also suffering with a slipping clutch, which had begun during my stint. With about 30 minutes left, we came in for a splash of fuel, right after which the yellows flew again and we lost a lot of ground. At this point, the goal was just to get the car to finish, which we did, in 22nd place.

Although the result sheets for this race may not look outstanding, they don’t tell the whole story. James and I were driving for a new team, in a new car, and on a new track. Without any testing time, we really couldn’t get an ideal setup under the car. We made small adjustments that improved the car, but our steep learning curve limited our focus. I have no doubt that further development of the car and a little seat time will put us right up there with the fastest of the Cobalts.