2012 National Championships- Mid-Ohio Memories

           The 2012 NASA National Championships at Mid-Ohio are in the history books.  Even in another year of recession, the pits were full of drivers and teams chasing victory at the famed road course.  We saw Daytona Prototypes, Mustangs, Corvettes, Hondas, and everything in between.  Drivers raced hard and fast for 4 days, and in the end the drivers that were able to out race and in some cases outlast the competition- took home the trophy.

            Since we’ve got home, I’ve tried to figure out a way to put this past week into words.  It’s hard to describe the whole experience.  There are really two sides to last week for me.  There is the obvious racing side of things, and then there is the human element side of things.  For me, I always try to down play events such as this.  Even though this is the National Championships, in reality- it’s just another race.  I believe you can get caught up in the sheer spectacle of things and lose focus on the task at hand if you allow yourself to get wrapped up in the moment.

            No matter how long I’m at this game, the last few miles on the road until I pull into the racetrack are always the worst.  My insides are turning upside down and my mind is racing a mile a minute.  This past week was no different, in fact, it was worse- I mean, come on, it’s only the biggest race of my career.  I have to admit, it was pretty cool to have a set of credentials with the Mid-Ohio logo on it.  The whole scene was such a spectacle- just the sheer size of the event was awesome.

            I try not to get wrapped up in the moment to often, I feel like I should be past all of the shock and awe of racing, I’ve been around this sport for so long now- I feel like I’ve had my share of ups and downs.  It was really hard, especially Wednesday when I wasn’t out on the track.  It was both exciting and scary at the same time- to realize the tens of millions of dollars that surrounded me, in racecars-equipment-motorcoaches- and vendors.

            Much like I try to be at the racetrack- enough with all that crap- lets get down to business.  I was ready to get out on the track- that’s where the world still makes sense to me.  Time to see if the last 2 weeks of preparation have paid off.  The time out on the track was spent learning and trying to figure ways to make us faster.

            To make a very long story short- during qualifying on Friday, we lost 3^rd gear.  We tried all that we knew how, but in the end- the damage was to severe and with the resources we had at that time, we couldn’t fix it.  We were not able to compete in the final race of the Championship weekend- resulting in a DNF.

            Now that tells you the end result of the week, but it doesn’t quite tell you the whole story.  It has been a long time since I have seen people work with the speed, accuracy, and efficiency as my guys did during our time at Mid-Ohio.  I am very proud of the team and the car that they gave me.  Due to the rules package that we race under, we must declare our horsepower and weight before competition begins, as measured by a dynamometer.  We declare 148 horsepower- our competition declares over 390.  Without getting into the specifics of the rules- I’m giving up 240+ horsepower.  This is not to make excuses- its to drive home the point of the caliber of car my team put underneath me.  I was turning lap times within 2% of the pole winner after only 40 minutes on the track.  Now- practice/qualifying is not the race, but I’d say we would have had a pretty good shot at a podium.  But. . . we broke- so we’ll never know.

            To that point, we broke- we didn’t make a mistake and end up crashed.  We didn’t end our day by making a careless error in the pits- we broke.  Something that I’ve come to accept in this sport- parts break, bearings fail, tires go flat, and none of those things happen sitting in the trailer, they happen in competition.  Case in point, a few months ago, Dario Franchitti- this year’s Indy 500 winner, blew his engine on the pace lap at Iowa.  Now- I’m sure someone at Gnassi Motorsports got fired, but it’s a prime example of parts failing.  It happens- everything has a life span- and when its up, its up.  It’s the reason teams that compete in the most premier series don’t run parts more than once.

            All of this is of little condolence to the fact that our week ended early.  It is, however, part of the game we play.  It is why we continue to prepare our cars the way we do, and try to eliminate this from happening again.  Each time we have encountered a problem this year; we’ve redesigned it and fixed it.  I’m proud of that, and I’m proud of my team- Thank you.

            I want to thank our partners- OC2 Interactive (oc2interactive.com), RAD Racing (ncprs.org), and our latest partner- MRF (Motorsports Rehabilitation Foundation - mrf.org).  Without their support this year, we would not have been able to compete at the level we did.  We look forward to the rest of this year and looking ahead to next year as well.

            There are a lot of things to take away from Mid-Ohio, and we are currently tearing into the transmission to find the cause of the failure.  We will be posting some videos and pictures from Mid-Ohio soon, so check back often.  Till Next Week. . .

Changing My Views

            Another week has gone by, and as usual, the racing was exciting to say the least.  The duo of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas picked up, what is hard to believe; their first win of the season in Grand-Am. Ryan Hunter-Reay captured his second straight win, and the “ESPY Nominee” Franchitti blew up before the green in Iowa.  The boys of NASCAR were up in wine country this past Sunday.  I had the opportunity to watch some of the 4 hour pre-race show that NASCAR puts on, and I heard Darrel Waltrip talking about road course racing.  He mentioned how hard it is, and how you can never really rest- that you’re up on the wheel from the start to the finish.  Jeff Hammond talked about how the teams have taken road racing much more seriously in the last couple of years.

            In the last couple of years, I have been very fortunate to sit in a couple different racecars.  I have been able to win in all of them, but I too have changed my view of road racing.  I thought that real racing was short track racing, the beating and banging of Saturday night.  Man handling your racecar to get through the pack and get the win.  It meant replacing fenders and door panels, and spending all week getting the car back in shape for the next race.  Racing meant wondering where your next dollar was going to come from, and what was going to need to be fixed next.

            After having a week to download my last race, I find myself wondering why I felt that way.  Is that what racing is? Or, was I just a product of my environment?  I thought that road racing was something that just wasn’t on the same level.  I enjoyed watching road racing, but never really saw myself competing there.

            No one likes to admit when they are wrong, none more than me.  I must tell you, I have never worked harder in a racecar than last Saturday and Sunday.  While the car handled well, and was probably one of the most balanced cars I have ever sat in- it was also one of the most tiring races also.

            In oval short track racing, you get 2 chances every lap to hit your marks and drive the corners properly during a 15 second lap.  In a 10 turn road course, you have to wait 83 seconds to get another chance at the same corner.  Not only that, but you have to remember what you learned from the previous lap to be able to apply it to the current lap.

            Couple that with the different style cars all running together, and you have yourself a busy little afternoon on your hands.  Some cars corner ultra fast, but don’t have tremendous straightaway speed, while others fly down the straights, but corner like a dump trucks in the mud.  This poses many challenges on top of what the driver is dealing with inside his own car.  The timing and setting up of passes is even more critical than ever.

            I have some video that I haven’t had a chance to get up on the site yet, but it is angled back at me during the race.  I am always amazed to watch a driver drive his racecar- especially on a road course.  You watch him hit the brakes and set the car during deceleration, then he hits the clutch with a tap of the gas for an up-rev during his first downshift, and then while still pressing hard on the brakes with on the ball of his foot and big toe, he downshifts again with an up-rev.  Still decelerating you watch him look for the corner entry- another downshift with an up-rev.  As he turns in he gets back on the gas and starts lessening the input on the wheel.  He fades out of the turn and onto the rumble strips exiting the corner while grabbing a gear and heading down the straight away.  And that’s just one turn of one lap.

            I believe that a driver is very responsible for how the car performs on the track, but in road racing you have to hit your marks each and every lap.  Not to mention dodging the rocks and stones on the track that are kicked up from guys dropping their wheels off the track.  Its tough, racing in general is tough, but road racing for me has been a welcome challenge.

            Do yourself a favor- search youtube for “racecar driver and his footwork” and watch the video, it’s only a minute and a half, but it will give you a good idea what drivers do while out on the track.

            As for me and my team, we are hard at work for Pocono mid-July.  We are also doing some R&D work for Nationals out at Mid-Ohio.  We can’t wait to get back out the speedway and go racing.  Thanks to all of sponsors and supporters out there.  You guys make it happen, and mean the world to us.  Friend us on Facebook and follow me @justinonderko- Live updates at the track and news and events during the week.  Till next week. . .

2010 SVS Late Model Champion. . .

          The month of May is just about over; Indianapolis Motor Speedway has fallen silent.  All of the teams and drivers have gone home.  There are no more fans to sign autographs for, or pictures to pose with.  It is all over, and for 32 drivers it didn’t end the way they wanted it to.  Dario Franchitti, however, is probably pretty happy with the way things turned out.  For the third time, Dario has won the Indy 500.  In doing so, he has joined a very distinct group of men who have that honor.  Whether or not you agree with what happened or how the race ended, his face will be on the Borg-Warner trophy this year.  This year’s race will go down as one of the best Indy 500’s in a very long time.

            As for me, I am counting down the days until my season starts this year.  I cannot wait until we leave for Summit Point Raceway.  Our car gets its technical inspection next week, and after we get the proper signatures on some very important papers- we are good to go.  The car looks really sharp, and all the set-up numbers are coming back just how we want them to, so we are expecting a good outing.

            An article was brought to my attention earlier today via e-mail.  A young boy of 12 years who is named Tyler Morr, died earlier this week.  He was injured while racing at Auburndale Speedway in Florida.  I guess there is a class that allows 12-16 year old children to compete in mini stock races.  My Family and I wish to extend our sympathy to the family of this boy.  I cannot imagine having to bury one’s child.  While it may seem, to some people out there, that children do not belong in racecars- this is a sport, and younger people are encouraged to participate in its entry levels.  While I do not know the details of what happened, I only know that I started in go-karts, and worked my way up from there.  We took as many safety precautions as were available to us at the time, but I still took some pretty good shots and I flipped a couple of times.  I hope the decision to put this boy in this car was based on the experience he had, and not on anything else.  Please keep this family of this boy in your prayers.

            As we look back at the 2010 season, a season which saw me in my very first ride, I will tell you it didn’t start out like I had hoped.  RPM Fabrications Inc. was preparing the cars for competition for the season.  We put my seat in the car and got everything to fit me the way it needed to.  The team had set-up a test for me to shake down the car, and get used to the new car.  I was used to a big spring car and this one was a coil-over car- so it felt a little bit different, but a racecar is a racecar- no matter what.  Not only did the weather not cooperate, but we had a top end miss in the motor.  The test ended with almost no laps being turned at speed, and the team not sure what was causing the miss.  Our first race came and went, with us finishing 3^rd, but the motor still had the miss.  Turns out- on a MSD Ignition 6ALN Box, the Purple wire doesn’t match the Purple wire on the Distributor.  In fact, Purple goes to green and green goes to purple- it makes me smile every time I say it- kind of an inside joke of sorts.

            Once we got that straightened out, it was game on.  As we got into the heart of the season, we had a string of 4 straight 2^nd place finishes, and we ended the season with 2 straight wins to put the exclamation point on our Championship.  We also set the track record during qualifying for our last point’s race.  Patience, and only taking what the car had to give each race, and not putting myself in any avoidable bad spots was the key to our on track success.  A good crew was responsible for giving me what I needed to do my job.  On September 25, 2010 I was able to lock up my first driving Championship.  Sundance Vacations Speedway Late Model Champion- I was proud of what we were able to do as a team, and proud of myself for proving I could do it.

            Next week I hope to have all my loose ends tied up and will be able to breath easy until we leave June 15^th for Summit Point.  Check out the website for the results, and check me out on twitter @justinonderko for updates during the weekend.  We will also have video from the weekend, so everybody will be able to see what I see from inside the car.  Another step in the right direction for us, stay tuned.  Till next week. . .