May 24-26, 2003 -- Kershaw SARRC/SARRC/ECR

The Central Carolina Region put on a big weekend of racing at Carolina Motorsports Park near Kershaw, South Carolina. CMP is a relatively new road course, completed in the summer of 1999. It is 2.235 miles long with only about 35 feet of total elevation change. Coming out of pit road, the first half of the track is fairly fast. After a few left - right combinations and the carousel, there is a short straight leading to a slightly banked, slightly climbing corner, where a surprising amount of speed can be carried, which opens onto the back straight. After hard braking at the end of this second straight, the remaining half of the course is very tight and much slower. This half is also somewhat technical, with decreasing radius turns, and a deceptively acute corner leading to the front straight. As one fellow competitor put it "Kershaw has a racetrack on one end and an autocross course on the other". Tire wear was about average, but everyone was talking about how hard it is on brakes. Lots of grassy runoff encourages "testing the limits", and a fairly good view of the track from the paddock and pit areas make spectating interesting.

The weekend schedule called for "a la carte" SARRC races on Saturday and Sunday, and a Carolina Pro Cup race and ECR on Monday. By "a la carte" I mean that practice, qualifying, and the race all took place on the same day. This format is great for flexibility in choosing to compete in one or two races without having to sit around a lot during the weekend waiting for other groups to do their thing. I ran the Sunday SARRC and Monday ECR. Ruthie and I just drove over on Saturday rather than trying to rush to get out of town and fight holiday traffic on Friday. Chuck Fullgraf met us there to serve as crew.

2003 Races

November
   ARRC
October
   VIR School
   Roebling Road
August
   Road Atlanta
July 
   Road Atlanta
June
   Charlotte
May
   Kershaw
April
   Roebling Road
March
   VIR
   Birmingham
   Road Atlanta

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I was surprised to happen across Rusty White and Jamie Blair there.

We got to the track in time for registration on Saturday evening, and saw Rusty's Twin Turbo Rx-7 in the paddock. He had managed to cure the turbo boost problem he was having in Savannah by reattaching a vacuum hose that had come off. Rusty had started the Saturday SARRC race but retired early because of overheating. Unfortunately, he didn't manage enough laps to get credit for the race, and didn't stay for the Sunday SARRC.

I should have expected to see Jamie there since he only lives an hour or so away. He is a former Chattanooga Region member who, due to job changes, now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Although I had never been to Kershaw, I still got close enough to Jamie's lap times to start next to him for the SARRC race on Sunday. I managed to stay fairly close to him during the race, but I never got close enough to challenge until he had to come in to the pits due to heating problems. That put me in second, where I stayed for the rest of the race.

Things changed between Sunday and the 1 1/2 hour ECR on Monday. For one thing, the nice weather from the day before went to a moderate rain at the start of the race, bringing a definite change to the character of the track. I had qualified my ITC Honda Crx just behind John Fine / Ken Stegall in an ITC Honda Civic, and just ahead of Alan Berkelhammer / Rick Phelps in an ITB Volkswagen GTI. John and I were off to the start of what looked like it would be a hard fought race, with both of us getting loose occasionally in the turns. Unfortunately, I let Alan get by me when I got out of shape in a corner. It took me half an hour to get around him well enough so that he couldn't catch me and drive around on the straights after I passed him in a corner.

After I passed Alan it didn't take long to reel in John, but no sooner than I caught and passed him, he made his pit stop and driver change. Even though the track was drying nicely towards the later part of the race, I never seemed to be able to get my rhythm back from the day before. Add that to the fact that John's co-driver Ken is a few seconds a lap faster than me anyway and they succeeded in putting enough distance between us to finish squarely in second.

Mark Senior won ITC in both the SARRC on Sunday and the ECR on Monday.

I might mention that we had one of the fastest pit stops I think I have participated in. After getting the driver out of his belts and out of the car, putting in fuel, checking under the hood, checking tires, cleaning the windshield and putting the driver back in the car with belts refastened and window net back in place, we still had over two minutes left in our required five minute stop. All of this with only two crew members! Thanks a lot Chuck and Ruthie!

Kudos to the Central Carolina Region workers and officials for putting on a well run, enjoyable and user friendly event. And kudos also to all of the competitors in all classes for clean racing and staying on schedule!

-- Art Thompson