With every advance in my racing history the complexity and challenges faced have increased by the same amount. I can't imagine being able to do this without a few key people that have provided support, inspiration and encouragement. Jerry at EuroEastParts.com has been a constant source of these three important things for many years and has given me the encouragement and, sometimes, counseling that I needed to push through some tough times getting to where we are. Thanks also go to my wife, Esther, who has tirelessly supported our racing effort with both her presence, patience, and talking me off the ledge for many years. Special thanks go to both of you for all your help, this wouldn't be the same without you. I want to thank the companies that help us in sometimes large, and sometimes small ways. EuroEastParts.com provides immeasurable support every year. THis year we were also helped by LNEngineering who made the cylinders for our engine. Mobil-1 Racing for breaking out a barrel of the coveted racing formulation oil for said engine, Hayden at WEVO spent a lot of time helping me with our transmission, Tarett Engineering with some great new sway bars, and MotoDelta Motorsports (ie, Moi).
So lets get in to the action! We started out this years NASA National Championships with the goal of being number one. With the amount of both physical and financial effort that this takes, shooting for anything less doesn't seem worth it! To that end, we packed up nearly the entire shop into our 24' trailer and headed off to MidOhio Sports Car Course this year for another shot at the national title. Jerry St.Germaine and Mike "The bagel" VanWyk came out to help! 
I decided to invest in an extra testing day with Mid-Ohio’s resident instructors. My instructors for the day were Tommy Byrne, ex F1 driver, and Dave Roush. We started the day by reviewing some in-car video. They gave me some pointers regarding turn-in points and the flow through the back section of the course. Most notably though, Tommy told me that I was "working the wheel" way too much and I needed to slow down my movements. I was chewing on this suggestion as I motored down to the pit-out to do some lead/follow exercises with him. He looked over at me and said, "You’re driving an early Porsche car this fast? Forget all that *^&% I told you about working the wheel, you have no choice in that car! Show these guys the size of your arms, I bet those guns are big from driving that thing." Comforting and disturbing words all at the same time.
We finished the day doing more lead-follow, some ride-alongs, and reviewing more video. They put a solid emphasis on flow between the difficult sections of the track where most time is lost for newcomers. Overall it was a good day, I felt that I had to make some adaptations to the instructions for the peculiarities of the 911, but got good value for my money.
We anxiously tracked the weather and predicted temperatures for the upcoming 4 days remaining to make proper tire selections. Thursday was open practice; Friday and Saturday were heat races. In these races you earned points that determined your starting position for Sunday’s final championship race.
On Friday I qualified 2nd, I started the race in 2nd of 48 cars, also 2nd in class. It seemed that everyone was going for broke this day as there were numerous contacts with inanimate objects and car-to-car today. It was starting to be a real concern with the series directors. As a director I have no official capacity at Nationals because there are too many potential conflict of interest issues, but our opinion presumably carries some weight. The car was running well though the weather was warmer than predicted and the soft compound tires we selected weren’t quite the best choice for the day. I finished 2nd in class behind John Haas in another Porsche, in front of Jamie Fuerenberg in a BMW M3. The three of us were sent to scales for weight verification and to the dyno to check our horsepower. John’s car came up around 14 HP higher than earlier in the year so he was DQ’d for the day which gave us first in class and a few extra points for Sunday. More good news from the day, the dyno showed the HP on the engine has held steady throughout the season giving us good thoughts about the engine. I need to find 12HP or lost 125 pounds to optimize the power-to-weight ratio for our class, but for now, I’ll take what I can get on location.
Saturday brought more of the same weather but with it, some concern with the car. The left rear axle nut needed to be re-torqued every session meaning the sealed rear bearing was failing and if that weren’t enough there was a pretty wicked knock being projected through the rear-end from the right side of the car. It got progressively worse in each session and there were concerns about the car holding up through the weekend. I qualified 2nd for Saturday’s heat race due to a higher-classed car dropping down into our class, this car was to change back later, but it stole some much desired points. As I write this it brings up the rather frustrating nature of competition when things come to a single-event finale. Despite intense levels of preparation there are so many factors outside of your reasonable level control that impact your results. This week we were impacted by inaccurate weather forecasts, competitors changing classes at the last minute, and the inevitable random mechanical issues that manifest themselves when you push your equipment to the limit. This is not to say that there weren’t also things that worked to our advantage… …but when you join the best of the best for head-to-head competition and margins of victory come down to a few hundredths of a second, these "swings of fortune" can often determine the winners rather than the actual competition.
Chris Streit followed closely by the BMW M3 of Jamie Fuerenberg
The car felt loose today but I held 1st place for the first 10 minutes. On the opening lap I was on the outside lane in turn 1, the car to my inside braked too late and ran wide forcing me off-line and had to run on the far outside through this fast corner. I lost some momentum gathering up the car in the dirt and marbles and was passed by one, two, three M3’s from a lower class freight-trained down the inside line. I tried to get back on-line but there was no room between them to slot back in and I was off-line. I had to back off and settle in behind them. This placed Fuerenberg right on my bumper throughout the session. I kept searching for an opportunity to pass them back because my lap times were suffering by nearly 4/10ths of a second being behind these cars. I knew I could have passed one or two under braking or a straight, but if I couldn’t pass all three at once, I would be forced off-line through the next few corners and could very well end up losing my position in class. Before I could make that pass, Fuuerenberg made a very late braking maneuver entering the keyhole turn a few minutes later. I was forced once again to run wide to avoid contact and lost the drive out of the corner. He was able to keep in front of me taking a defensive line for the last 10 minutes and I finished 2nd in this session. I was quite aggravated from having to trade my position to keep my car intact, but there’s not much you can do after the fact. Unfortunately there will always be drivers who are willing to accept contact in order to gain a position, I am not.
The points for Sunday’s race start were added up and I was placed on the pole for GTS4! Great, but now I’m really sweating. The forecast for tomorrow still showed as being in the 50’s all afternoon and overcast so our choice of soft-compound tires should be a good one.
We checked tire pressures, torqued the wheels and axle nut, filled the tank and after some last minute sway bar tweaking headed out to the grid.
Sunday’s race started out as an emotional one. The prior month, one of our GTS drivers, John Engle, was killed in a chance accident at Mid-Ohio. As a tribute to a man who was very well liked and left a legacy of very good memories the entire GTS field ran a "missing man" formation for our first lap. It was the hardest race lap I have ever driven. God Speed John.
Remember last nights weather forecast of 50 and overcast? Well it was almost 80 and sunny. Jeers to the weatherman, I knew our tire choice was wrong but we didn’t have any other options, it was too late. We completed our warmup lap and took the green flag. Too make matters more concerning the rear axle was making a LOT of noise and the rear of the car was actually moving a bit. When I did a post mortem on the car later on in the week, turns out the bearings in the axle, left wheel, and right side differential carrier had all failed completely.
I had to take a very defensive and aggressive line through the first few corners and went side-by-side through the first 4 corners with two other cars (yes, 3 wide) because I knew I couldn’t give up an inch. I had the outside line so I really had to work the car to hold my speed and line. After 6-7 corners we were starting to slot-in single file and I could actually relax a little and work on watching Jamie Fuerenberg in the 2nd place BMW. As the race progressed traffic started becoming a very strategic item, dictating the gap between us based on who got the better break through. I managed to pull a 5-6 car gap after the first 25 minutes of the 40 minutes race.
Close racing at the front.
As we neared the 30 minute mark I saw John Haas in the yellow Porsche putting a lot of pressure on Fuerenberg. I was hoping that this would allow me to pull another gap because the M3 was right on my bumper at this point. I don’t think I took a standard line once through the entire second half of the race. Instead I was having to take each corner in "defensive mode". Blocking is not allowed in NASA so once you’ve picked the inside line down into a corner, you must hold it. This put an extra load on the tires and they were slipping badly.
Each corner was a mighty struggle for car control. Every corner, every went like this. I’d enter the corner inside to keep the M3 from taking that line. Brake with the left side of my right foot, while blipping the throttle with the right side, working the clutch for downshifts with my left foot. Once I finished braking and downshifting, I’d turn the wheel in, then switch feet on the pedals, lightly pumping the brakes now with my left foot, and working the throttle for additional steering with my right. I had to use the brakes to get the car to turn in or it would just plow to the outside. I knew if I made a mistake, I’d get passed.
With 5 minutes to go I knew the white flag was coming. We entered "madness" (a very challenging momentum section at mid-Ohio) and the Haas Porsche made a nice pass on the M3. I knew he was going to attempt the inside pass going into thunder valley. I turned the wheel to take the inside and the car just didn’t respond. I tried pumping the pedal ralley style again but the front tires started to lock, they were gone. Haas easily passed me to the inside taking 1st with only two laps to go.
I gave myself the briefest of moments of regret but needed to focus on trying to get that position back (unlikely with the condition of my tires) and holding the 2nd position. Jamie Fuerenberg must have smelled weakness and stepped up his efforts to get by in the two remaining laps, but I was drawing deep from the First National Bank of Ralley Driving. He told me later that he was pretty sure he saw more of the side of my car those last two laps than the rear, since I took early every corner in full slide/opposite lock to keep some semblance of speed.
We had a real shot at 1st this year but those outside influences ended up being our biggest enemies. That’s racing! Finally the checker came out and we finished 2nd in the National Championships again in 2007. Not bad for the oldest car in the GTS Nationals!
On to the Champagne and trophy girls!
