Well here we are, A week after my 1st and 2nd Pirelli World
Challenge race weekend at Brainerd International Raceway with the Breathless
Performance Racing team. Welcome to part 2 of my article about my experience of
living out a dream of mine.
Through the first article, I took you back to when I was a
kid watching researching race cars at Road America. All the visions in my head,
and watching the drivers from the other side was now flipped. I was a driver,
and I was "in the spotlight" so to speak. I travelled up on Thursday
and got a good night's rest at a friend's house, set my alarm for 5am and went
to sleep.
Fast forward to after I woke up a few times in a panic that I
had missed my alarm, and to when I arrived at the track. the crew was busy
getting everything set up. We had a 5 car stable at Breathless Performance
Racing. My Mazda2, Ernie Francis Jr's Miata and Camaro, another Camaro, Jason Fichter had his mini cooper, there
was a mustang as well. I met the crew and was assigned Les as my crew
chief. He was there to take care of
everything on my car, or any needs that came about. Les is a quiet guy, but he
is funny as can be, and a very hard worker. Friday was the promoter test day,
and it was raining. Not just a light sprinkle, raining cats and dogs. I had
raced in a World racing League event a couple of months ago and described it
one of the worst experiences I have had in a race car. Rain, fogging
windshield, and generally not ideal circumstances. So having the rain this
morning was literally my worst fear. Not to mention the fact that I had not put
rain tires into my budget for the weekend. We worked out a deal for the rain
tires, got them mounted on a set of rims, Les went to work swapping them out
from the slicks that were on the car, and I was off to practice session #1 in
the rain.
Throughout the next 3 sessions, I managed to learn the car
and the tendencies of it in the rain. Saturday was supposed to have a low
chance of rain, and Sunday was supposed to be a torrential downpour. For my
last two sessions I had a drying track which was comforting. The whole TCB
class besides the top 2 who were 3 seconds faster for some reason was within 2
seconds of each other. in racing, that is a lot of time but I felt that I was
at least in the ballpark. Friday did exactly what it was supposed to do, give
me some time in the car, and prepare me for the rest of the weekend. The main
event!
With Friday over I checked into my hotel, and set my sights
on the 1st day of racing. Practice, qualifying and a race at 4:30pm. Saturdays
weather was supposed to be the best of the weekend, it was bad but there was a
constant mist, or drizzle in the air, nothing like Friday morning's test
session. I started the day running 2.11 second laps in the rain, again we were
all pretty much running within a few seconds of each other so I felt good about
it. Practice ended with me in 11th out of 13 with a fastest lap of 1:57.798,
just 3/10ths away from the next driver. ahead of me. Besides the top 2, then
rest of the times ranged from 1:55 to 1:58.8. On to the autograph section of the day, I had
my promo cards set up and I sat down in the row of drivers to sign my name
however many times I needed to. It was great to see the fans and the kids that
showed up to grab a card from me, at one time I was one of those kids walking
up to Al Unser Sr, and Danny Sullivan for their autograph. Just like when I was
a kid, I watched what the other drivers were doing, just so I didn't seem out
of place. It's weird to think that there is a way to sign autographs, but there
is. I'll spare you the details on that one...back to racing things. The rain
had let up and the track was drying so we switched over to a new set of Pirelli
tires, headed out to the track. After our first warm up lap it was go time!
Qualifying! I headed down the back straight and as I was exiting turn 2 I hear
over the radio my teammate say, " it's raining in turn 3. I was going
about 95 mph when the call came in so I slowed up, qualifying was a wash,
literally. I ended up in starting 13th, dead last. My teammate Jason started in
12th, so I felt like I had a "friend" nearby, and really for my first
race, it was ok to be in the back to see everything unfold in front of me
rather than worry about being in the middle of a pack.
there I was, about to start my 1st professional race, it was
a standing start and the weather was dry. I had not had the opportunity to
practice my starts, but really, the idea is, " just don't stall it. The
red lights come on, rev's go up, and they turn off, I dump the clutch and
realize that I had a great start! Up the inside to turn 12 I went. I picked off
about 3-4 cars leading into the 1st corner which was turn 12. The numbering of
the corners is such because there are 2 course at Brainerd. The old school 3.1 Donnybrook
course which uses the drag strip, and the 2.5 competition course. So here comes
the first corner, a really tight left hander, and we were probably 3 wide at
this point. I held my inside line and made it though. TCB is a class of cars that are so closely
matched that if the pack leaves you, your race is pretty much over, well at Brainerd
it is. I rode around the track for 40 mins doing the best that I can to pick
away at my lap times. I was taking corners that I would normally slow down for
flat out, and braking later and later for each corner. Saturday's race ended
with me finishing in 10th. A Top 10! And no damage!
on to Sunday. With one race behind me and a clearer idea as
to how this all goes down, I was ready for Sundays events. Practice and a race.
If there is one thing I am good at, it is running consistent laps, Sundays warm
up had me at 1:57.7, good for 9th in the morning warm up, and 1second separated 4th through 9th. Again, In
the ball park! I started the race in 11th spot, based on lap times from the
previous race. oh by the way, the weatherman in Brainerd should be fired, a
torrential downpour forecast was scrapped for a beautiful day, much to my
liking. We swapped the rear tires to the front and went out for the warm up
lap. Once again we were doing a standing start, red lights came on and went
out. In the middle of that sequence I took my eyes off the lights at the exact
wrong time. The result was not a great start but I moved up one spot by the
time the first lap was done, another on the 2nd lap, and yet another on the 5th
lap. Progress! What took place from lap
13 to 20 was probably the most fun I have ever had in a race car. After a tangle with my teammate the car
driven by Michael Ashby was behind me, he eventually caught up. I made the
mistake once of not drafting with him in the middle of turns 1 and 3, but wised
up the next time around. He drafted me and got by, but every time into turn 3 I
would brake later than he would. We swapped spots 5 times in 7 laps! Looking at
the Chart for the race, we were pretty much the only two cars in TCB that were
swapping spots. The racing was very clean on both of our parts, and very
respectful. I wish I had started to draft with him earlier, Rookie Mistake! After
a while I realized that I could not hear my pit crew on the radio, for whatever
reason, so I had no idea how much time was left. Michael got by me on lap 19,
and protected the inside line in turn 3, which was a smart move on his part
considering that is the corner that I passed him in a couple of times. After
the race was finished, on the cool down lap, we both gave each other a thumbs
up through our window nets. I finished in 11th spot on Sunday but one of the
best parts was getting to race with Michael Ashby, and having him come over to
my pits to talk about our racing and both of us thanked each other for racing
clean and hard. Thank you again Michael! My best lap time was down to a 1:56.5,
1 second away from 4th place. It's crazy how close this field is during the
race.
Overall the weekend was awesome, I couldn't have asked for a
better crew to be with, the SCCA officials were all very welcoming to me. They
knew through my story and being 1 of 3 Minnesotans racing this weekend that
this was my 1st pro race weekend. Breathless
Performance Racing did everything they could to make me feel welcome. I am
sorry that I had to inform them on Friday afternoon that they bought 3.2% beer
at the store, and not "real beer," but I was glad to set them
straight. ( In Minnesota 3.2% alcohol beer is sold in gas stations, 5.5%
alcohol beer is sold only in liquor stores) anyways.... We had a great time, I
wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. I think I was more nervous in my 1st
chump car race in 2012. All the work leading up to this was a lot tougher than
driving in the race, once I got to the track all I had to do was drive.
What the future holds, I do not know at this point, but I
will be travelling down to Circuit of the America's for the Continental ST
series race, and in October I will be travelling to Georgia for the IMSA
Continental Series race at Road Atlanta. Hopefully I can secure some seat time
in a car in either of those races, chances are slim of course. I would like to
thank the 20+ people that came to watch me in my 1st pro race weekend, family,
local teammates, family friends, and friends of mine, it was great to see
everyone stop by the pits and get in the car to see how it was. Also I would
like to thank my sponsors, First and foremost, Go Puck, if you don't have one
of these, please go over to www.chrisholterracing.com and click on the Go Puck
logo enter code " cholter " at check out for 20% off. this is a great
product that will help your phone, tablet, or any other electrical devices stay
charged on the go. #whereablepower .
First Gear Project, with Guy Cosmo! thank you for taking me under your
wing and providing me the platform to tell my story and get some financial
backing for this race weekend. If you have a motorsports financial need, check
out www.firstgearproject.com and submit your project and GET FUNDED like I did!
Thank you to the American Brain Tumor Association for their support, I hope we
can do more in the future! Fuel Clothing for keeping my feet fresh with
colorful socks, I love colorful socks....TMI.... Thank you Matt from
NASportscar for asking me to write this 2 part blog! and thank you to Ernie
Francis and the whole crew for working with me and providing the tools I needed
to have a successful weekend!
Here is to hoping that this won't be the last time that you
see my name on a racecar, or in the results category of a race. Till next time
NASportscar fans!
