[Fot] 2013 Kastner Cup: GT6 Notes from the FRONT

[Scott Janzen]

Well written, Jason!
I can't write as eloquently as Jason on my GT6 run, but I know I had at least as much fun - I started near the rear, as i did not run the rain session and was gridded based on car number. I had a great run, though, climbing to 14th with some great racing along the way.  I flogged the car harder than perhaps I ever have, knocking two seconds a lap off my best previous times for the weekend.  Looking at the cars and drivers who finished in front of me, I have no complaints with the outcome.  Well, perhaps two - I think if I can get the stock brakes to run cooler and bite harder, I can certainly turn better times on this track.  The entry to turn 5 was killer, coming from 120 mph down to a mid-second gear turn at the end of a downhill  - as Peter Egan says, the turn "smokes about $10 of brake pads every lap"!  And, I know I'm leaving something on the table in the Kink.  But, I'm not leaving paint on the concrete walls there, so I guess that's a good thing!
There was a sense of comfort racing with all Triumphs - knowing many of the other drivers, and the feeling that the cars, all designed by the same people, somehow behaved in a predictable manner out on the track - I felt like I knew what moves they would make, more so than when racing Porsches, Datsuns, etc, which each dance to a different tune.  Finishing the race flat out up the hill on the main straight to the checkered flag, right next to one of Sam Halkias' TR6s, being driven by Jack Madison, that was a finish to remember!

I'll be back to Road America, and I hope the Cup event will be there again soon too. I don't think I'll beat Jason's times, though - he's out there performing on one tire size smaller than mine - amazing! 

I'm still smiling, even after a 16 hour tow home.

Scott

On Sep 11, 2013, at 11:06 AM, Jason Ostrowski wrote:

From my perspective, the weekend was met by perhaps the fiercest multi- GT6 contingent seen in America since the 1969 runoffs at Daytona. Right off the bat, it was Chuck Gee’s immaculate yellow beauty setting the quickening pace for our group 8 coupes. Early on, it was seen that our GT6’s would have to be in the low 2:50’s to even be a contender for the Cup. Road America seems to eat GT6’s up. I knew that from a disappointing trend of half-finished race weekends there over the past few years. So, going in I had focused very hard on presenting a car that was stout enough to go the weekends many session distance requirement. VSCDA weekends offer over 3 hours of track time in a variety of different races, practice and qualifying. My weekend goal was simple and threefold; get in enough track time to feel totally comfortable, beat my own personal track record and without-fail be the fastest GT6 in the end! (When Chuck set that time pretty easily right off the bat, clearly it was going to take some real inspired driving to be running at the front.) Like any race track disguised as a gorgeous national park, Road America can take the very best cars and put them on the trailer early. Such was the fate of the booked-about hot-rod of my new friend Chuck Gee…broken on session 3.

Enter Scott Janzen and Clark Lincoln. Scott’s car is set up with an eye for high quality. His giant, daunting, Webber Carb set-up brings the hot breath of a mid-evil dragon to the 2 -liter table. Scott’s car has a great vintage history and he has updated it beautifully. Surely a bit more seat time and better qualifying race conditions would have put him closer to the front. Clark’s orange and black car has taken the rear end of the GT6 into a new and totally different dimension. Rich in fresh conceptual development, the #71, is a fearsome new contender. His hard thought choice for a transmission set-up ratio at Road America made him a bullet on the front stretch. And he turned out to be the one in my sights or in my mirrors as the weekend progressed. Jeff Clark also brought a car that he and his inspired crew stuck with and maintained all weekend, against diversity, a long way from home. (Nice work)  

Friday, I broke a velocity stack. It fell off the car at full song towards the end front strait. The noise was significantly explosive as it popped the bonnet upwards. I rolled in under my own power back to the paddock. Like a factory sponsor, my dear racing friends and trick part’s supplier Alexander Racing immediately provided me with an updated ARE stack with reinforced flange welding.

In the first qualifying session Saturday, I went careening off the track in spectacular fashion at turn7 as the bottom of my right front upright sheared off at the top of the trunnion. Through the gravel trap, into the grass and near ye wall. John Reed jumped on car like a young George Bignotti and had the whole thing taken apart and determined what we needed to replace. Pretty quickly, he had the upright, and ball-joint replaced from our magic parts bin and a new trunnion was sourced from Scott Janzen. We were back in action before the lunch break. Yet, the removal of the “kitty litter” rocks, measured by the pail, continued for quite some time.

Then it started to rain. I really like to race in the rain. This played into my hands quite nicely as a drying track allowed me to leave the rain tires in the trailer and go out on dry tires in slightly wet conditions. I played it fairly conservative in the slippery conditions and posted a 3:03 for a final qualifying time. Somewhat to my surprise, that meager 3:03 had put me 3rd on the grid for the Cup race. This was golden for FGR, as Sam Halkias was choosing to start in the back to wage war with the 250K. It was an all GT6 front row for 2013.

The pace lap was slow and my car was acting funny. Some strange fuel delivery gremlin seemed to haunt me from the get go. I yelled at myself through my helmet; something to the effect of “This is Your Race to Loose! Drive this Car! This is your chance!” (Really, I did).  I was in the perfect mindset; totally psyched yet almost calm. I felt a sweet confidence in both myself and the car, and just kind of told myself to drive through the fuel problem and push it like I never have before. And so I did. In a nice little drag race and a game of same-direction” chicken” with Clark Lincoln, I led the pack into 1 and got a pretty good run out of 3. I led through 5 and up the hill… but the car, she coughs a bit. Under the circumstances, things were really ticking along good until the car cut out bad coming out of the kink and opportunistic Mark Weatley and Tony Drews were able to slip by. Seeing my good racing buddy Tony go by really got me focused on staying up front. In a wonderfully spirited Battle Royal Tony and I swapped spots back and forth several times each breaking our own track records during the fight! Clark was back there too, but we were going so fast that the rear view mirrors showed nothing but vibrating nothingness. Somehow I seemed to pull away a bit until I saw the grey and blue Ken Knight in shining armor on a charge from behind.

As I entered Canada Corner with the Knight in my mirror,… the car, she breaks. And in a poetic lost Joust, I violently bounced across the rumble strips, skipped across the runoff and coasted along the grass. I came to a stop close to the wall, no contact, but beaten by equipment. I gave it all I had but it was not my year to win the cup. This time the #69 broke it’s other (right) front upright in the same spot. This has never happened before, yet, here… twice in one weekend.  Surprise, surprise, as we all know… it is fairly easy to make these toys go faster and faster for shorter and shorter periods of time. For what it’s worth even though I had to break the wheel off doing it, I met my goal and set the fast GT6 time of the weekend in the Cup race with a nice and tidy 2:52.7. The GT6 class win went to Clark Lincoln in his ready to race #71 hot orange coupe.  

In spite of my defeat, the personal rewards for me were great. The positive comments I got from Kas will keep me chasing the cup for as long as there is a cup to chase. I got A Big Bear Hug from Tony Drews and lots of complements from so many drivers and some of my favorite FoT folks. I’ll be smiling all the way to Eagles Canyon.

A big thanks to my crew chief John Reed and our FGR mechanical genius Brian Garcia. Brian went out Friday afternoon and sourced a new tach and got me out there Saturday with some well needed RPM info, as the Friday sessions were ran on a glimmer and a hope that I was in the proper range. John did everything he could to keep the car running up front all weekend. The car carries with it his long legacy of front running and it was an honor to drive it his way and to his approval…we were fast and at the front.  Having a good performance and racing with the best of my Triumph Friends in front of Triumph legends…Don’t wake me up! I think I must be dreaming. Thank You ALL!

Jason Ostrowski

Friendly Ghost Racing

Owner/Racer of 2 original privately owned historic GT6+ racecars.  #27… The David Dooley SCCA National Contender. And, The #69 Zippy Racing, Crystal Tack Cloth “Zippy” ; the most raced GT6 ever.

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