Another year of coast-to-coast, border-to-border racing competition and it’s already included some great wins as well as some life experiences in the politics of racing.
It all started with back-to-back race weekends at Homestead Miami Speedway in early January.
The plan at Byrd Racing was to run two cars in two classes — the Pro Mazda in Formula Atlantic and the F2000 in Formula Continental. Those two classes ran in two different groups, making it possible to compete in four races over the course of the weekend.
Unfortunately, after just a single session in the Pro Mazda, we experienced a mechanical issue that took it out of the race weekend’s conversation. That left us with just the F2000, but we were determined to compete in four races because the F2000 could compete in Continental as well as FX.
After winning the pole for the Continental race by nearly 3-tenths of a second, we also qualified for the pole in the FX Class. In Continental, we started in the front of our group as the fastest car. But in FX, we started in the middle because we were neither the fastest, nor the slowest.
It didn’t matter because in my first Continental race on Saturday, the car died and I had to pull off and wait for the race to be completed to get towed. But redemption was sweet when I won the FX race by staying out of trouble. The margin of victory was substantial because the cars in my class were not as fast as mine.
It was the second race, however, when the true action began.
I finished second by three-hundredths in a side-by-side battle to the finish line. The winner had a car that had insane straight-line speed over mine — the result of taking straight-line drag out of my car by removing one of the rear-wing elements.
This is where I was introduced to “Racing Politics 101.”
By removing the rear wing elements, the car was no longer in “pro-spec trim” according to SCCA rules. After we put it back on, per SCCA guidelines, it significantly increased our drag and reduced our straight-line speed to the extent that had no way of competing against Robert Allaer, our main Continental competition that weekend.
I was still able to outdrive him by out-braking him and making up speed in the corners. That made it a battle to the finish, despite my car being at a clear disadvantage.
Afterward, however, when the car was going through tech, Allaer threw his first-place trophy at me and said, “if you want the first-place trophy so bad, you can have it —hole,” along with some other not so pleasant sentiments.
That didn’t bother me as much as I would have rather had a conversation about whatever upset him.
Oh well.
In the second FX race, my goal was back-to-back wins in that division, but after a couple of laps and a few cautions, my left-rear tire. I ended that race in the exact same spot where I pulled off when my car died in the Continental race.
A win and a second-place finish in my first racing weekend, however, was a great way to start the season.
The next round of SCCA action was the very next weekend at Sebring (Fla.) Int’l Raceway. We got to spend an extra week in Florida during early January because it made more sense than returning home for a few days.
During Thursday’s practice, the Pro Mazda was stubborn and wouldn’t run. We switched gears to the F2000 car in the Continental sessions, so I could still get as much track time as possible.
This began my second lesson in “Racing Politics 101.”
On Friday morning, we were met by the SCCA head official and the SCCA head of tech. We were told if we turn a wheel in that car in practice, it would be disqualified for the weekend.
The roots of this dispute went all the way back to Homestead after I won the pole for the Continental race. Allaer’s teammate had come over to our garage and said our engine didn’t comply with SCCA general competition rules.
We were running a Mazda MZR engine and that isn’t allowed in the class that features Pintos and Z-tecs.
The MZR engine we were running had already been tested, baselined, and equalized to Z-tec and Pinto engines in another series, the FRP F2000 series, which allows all three engines to compete against each other.
The data indicates that with a heftier restrictor and a specialized ECU map for the engine, the MZR produces the same horsepower as the other two manufacturers.
Rules are rules, as they say, and SCCA rules don’t change easily or quickly.
At Sebring, we were under the impression that even if we weren’t going to be competing for the Continental win, that we would compete in the class for points as a part of a mini-championship setup by a fellow FRP F2000 competitor.
SCCA officials didn’t buy that rationale and I was out of competition for the remainder of the weekend and the car was parked.
We decided to cut our losses and compete with the F2000 car in the FX class instead.
We ran the F2000 car on Saturday race and pulled out the F1000 car we had on reserve and raced that on Sunday. But there was no way to run four races because the rules. We had to make a choice between one group or the other.
I rebounded to win the pole for the F2000 car in FX, but not without a little drama.
Another car made heavy contact with my fright-front tire on what should have been my first flying lap. My tire went flat from the contact.
I got back to the pits and Dustin Hodges, my Arrive Drive Motorsports crew chief and car owner ran all the way back to our pit in the paddock to get a replacement tire. We changed tires and I had just enough time to exit the pits for my one and only flying lap.
None of my tires were up to temperature and the tire he replaced the flat with was a different compound from the rest and completely cold. After warming up the tires on my out lap, I got enough temperature to keep the car from flying off the track.
I got one of the most satisfying poles of my career.
Later, I had my first F1000 session at Sebring. I qualified second in my class.
During Saturday’s FX race, my main goal was to stretch my lead early, which wasn’t too difficult. After a few cautions, the race was restarted with approximately two green-flag laps left.
Before the checkered flag waved, another caution flag waved to end the race under caution.
But a win is a win and my monumental qualifying effort paid off.
Because of my earlier situation with the SCAA official, that was my only session for Saturday. The goal of a weekend double would have to come in the F1000 car.
I started the race in pole and went on to win by a large margin. I pushed myself every lap to maintain my lead in the beginning and was eventually able to stretch the lead and focus more on my driving in an effort for faster laps. By winning the race, it was a great way to finish the second race weekend of the year.
These two January weekends gave me a lot of confidence to take on the challenges that will come with this year’s racing schedule.
Next up was a trip to Circuit of The Americas for the SCCA SuperTour Majors the first weekend in February.
We’ll save that story for the next time.