Midwest Round 1 Recap – One Word Summary: Smokin’! Print
Written by Neal Agran   
Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:20

The NASA 944 Spec Midwest season opened April 20-22 with smokin’ lap times, close competition, and clear, cool weather at Autobahn Country Club.  The conditions were perfect for great racing: 50 degrees; sunny; and a double digit field of sharply prepared cars at the nation’s premier motorsports country club.


Sprint Race #1 – Saturday April 21

Did I mention that the lap times were smokin’ fast?  The field jumped into Round 1 qualifying as if the offseason never occurred.  Eric Kuhns took the pole under lap record pace, with Neal Agran only a hundredth of a second behind.  Dan Pina and Angel Blazquez captured row 2, followed by Ken Frey, Sid Chhikara, Michael Dalton, rookie Kurt Ristow, and Ray Freundt, who started “shotgun” after a malfunctioning transponder left him without a recorded qualifying lap.

At the start, Kuhns did a masterful job of moving Agran over to the left, giving Pina an opening to move forward and challenge for 2nd.  Agran and Pina ran through Turn 3 mirror-to-mirror, with Pina coming out the victor, Blazquez close behind in 4th, and Kuhns taking advantage of the melee to build a small gap.  Agran managed to re-pass Pina under braking for turn 11, by which time Kuhns had built a three second lead.  An epic chase followed, as Agran and Kuhns reset the lap record time and again in their identical Pine Tree Motorsports cars.  After 35 minutes of lapping at sub-qualifying pace, Agran managed to close only half the gap; Kuhns took the checker with a 2 second lead and scored the new lap record of 1:39.8 to boot.  Perfect bifecta!

Behind Kuhns and Agran, Pina held third over Blazquez, nicely working traffic to open a gap.  Frey, Dalton, and Chhikara engaged dramatically for 5th, swapping the position before Frey regained it for good over Dalton in 6th.  Ristow finished in 7th, while Chhikara was forced to the pits with an unfortunate cut tire and Freundt retired with a leaking exhaust.  Lap times across the field were… smokin’!  Several drivers recorded a personal best and reached their target times for the weekend.



Sprint Race #2 – Sunday April 22

Sunday dawned with a clear blue sky, lots of sunshine, and more cool temperatures.  With ideal conditions ahead and everyone back in the groove, several drivers took advantage of TraqMate data coaching and a chalk talk by Agran and Freundt on Sunday morning.  And the lap times reflected it.

Agran took the pole, with Pina on the outside of row 1.  Positions three to seven qualified within tenths of each other.  Series regular Sam Grant and Frey secured the second row (Kuhns was unable to attend the Sunday race and generously loaned his car to Grant for the day).  Blazquez, Dalton, Chhikara, and Ristow filled out rows 3 and 4.

When the green flag fell, Agran held off Pina for the lead through the opening turns.  Pina was not to be denied, hounding Agran for three laps with a pace below the prior lap record and some cagey feints.  Agran was ultimately able to use traffic to stretch out a lead, at which point he went to work trying to regain his lap record and take the overall win from FFR driver Brian Sanders.  Sanders and Agran exchanged the lead twice, with Sanders taking the overall win and Agran coming *this close* to getting the lap record back (picture a thumb and forefinger a tenth of a second apart).  Pina turned in a flawless drive for 2nd (and 3rd overall).


The battle for 3rd and 4th raged throughout the race.  Blazquez methodically worked his way past Grant and Frey in the opening laps and then took advantage of the scrapping for 4th to check out in lap 9.  Grant and Frey traded 4th multiple times, with Grant pulling it out, followed by Frey and Chhikara at only a 4 second gap.   

Dalton was able to pass Chhikara for 6th in lap 5 and briefly join the fracas for 4th, but was unable to hold the position and soon found himself facing an onslaught from a charging Ristow.  This culminated in the best battle of the race, as Dalton and Ristow spent the final 20 minutes almost nose to tail.   Dalton was all smiles after emerging with the position by less than 0.3 seconds at the line.  

With this race, Kurt Ristow completed his NASA rookie weekend and brought his lap times into very competitive territory.  We’re excited to have him as a regular member of the series, but skipped the traditional Gatorade cooler shower due to the weather.
Frey and Grant also deserve special mention for hard charging laps in this race.  NASA Instructor Frey took advantage of our regional allowance permitting him to use up a set of TOYO R888 tires and came within a couple of tenths of the R888 lap record.  Grant took 4th never having seen the wickedly technical Autobahn south track before (or driven Kuhns’ car) and turned amazingly competitive lap times.  Absolutely incredible!



Enduro – Friday April 20

Several 944 Spec drivers took the green for the opening round of the Midwest Endurance Challenge on the Autobahn full course Friday afternoon.  Agran and Kuhns shared Kuhns’ #80 car in the hyper-competitive E3 class, with their sights set on a third series championship.  Blazquez used the enduro as a warm up and shake down, running the 90 minute version in E2.  Michael Palmer ran the full 3 hours as a test and tune for his new car, which looked sharp and will be a great addition to the series.

Blazquez turned in a perfect, consistent 90 minute run with no issues to take 2nd in E2.   Warm up and shakedown fully accomplished!

Agran and Kuhns also had a spectacular run, with quick pit work by Jim Hartman, Kelby Hartman, and Sid Chhikara bringing them home in 1st – a mere 5 seconds ahead of the 2nd place Miata of the Aaron Kaplan team.  This race was a corker, with Agran earning the E3 lap record in the first half and Kuhns screaming out of the pits directly in front of Kaplan to take the class lead after the driver change.  Both cars remained within a few seconds of each other, exchanging the lead two more times before Kuhns drew it out to victory.


Epilogue

Besides having an outstanding time, Midwest 944 Spec drivers took home over $1500 in TOYO, HAWK, and BFG contingency dollars this weekend.  A special thanks is due to Jim and Kelby Hartman, who offered technical support and superb lunchtime grilling to all competitors during the event and put in long hours over the past 2 months on final preparation for half the field – all of which ran trouble free.

If you’ve read this far and you’re not racing with us… why not?  We’d love to have you out to an event and give you a ride, let you take a test drive, and get you involved.  We believe 944 Spec Midwest is the best way to get racing fast and to get faster!

Pictures can be seen at http://s897.photobucket.com/albums/ac171/dpracingdan/ACC%20NASA%20944%20Spec%20April%2021-22-2012/ (courtesy of Scott Molitor)

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