WAMPUM, Pa. — It was off to Pittsburgh Int’l Race Complex to wrap-up a very successful season in the North American Formula 1000 Championship Series with two more victories.
Back in the seat with the Arrive Drive Motorsports F1000 car that I had won seven times this season and earned a championship, we wanted to finish off the season in victory lane.
The format for this weekend was two sessions each day.
Unfortunately, the car had a mechanical issue during Friday’s first practice session. We had already planned to run just one lap (a quick out and back into the pits) at the beginning of the session to make sure the engine didn’t have any issues, but it started to make some weird low-note noises.
The oil and water temperatures as well as the fuel and oil pressures all looked good, and the crew tried a fix it in pit lane. I went back for one test lap, but the problem got worse. That was the end of that session for me. The engine had a blown head gasket and the only solution to continue to race that weekend was either to find another engine or get in someone else’s car.
Our team principal picked up a spare engine from former F1000 champion Alex Mayer.
We missed the second practice because it was a five-hour round trip to pick up the engine. When I showed up in the morning, the car was ready to rock and roll and we headed out to qualify for race one. The plan was the same as before, run a lap and come back in to make sure all was well.
They checked over the car when I came back to the pits and said everything looked good, so they sent me out so I could start going to work.
My goal was to get up to pace as quickly as possible, so I could get a good lap time in case the session ended early for whatever reason. My personal qualifying record at the track is a 1:35.5, just one-tenth off the track record, and my race record is a 1:35.7. On my sixth flying lap, I was able to get a 1:36.44, finding my pace again almost immediately despite the looseness of the car at high speed.
I pulled into the pits after that lap as I knew it was pole position for the time being and I already knew what change I wanted to make with the car.
I wasn’t going to get much faster with the rear wing as it was, but as it turned out I didn’t need to because nobody threatened my lap time. The second-place qualifier was seven-tenths off my lap time. We made a small adjustment to the car’s rear wing to improve the high-speed loose problem for the first race. I didn’t want to overcorrect and make the car too tight, but either way I felt pretty confident starting on the pole.
I got a good start at the green flag and defended my position through turn one. I made a defensive move to the inside on the straight heading to turn three to fend off Reilly Harris.
His car, like in previous weekends, had significantly better straight-line speed compared to me and once again he was able to take the lead from me as he outbraked me on the outside into turn three.
I thought I had braked already later than I otherwise would have, and he managed to brake still later.
Fair play.
However, as I ran just behind him over the course of the next few laps, I noticed how much he was struggling with his car and tires. I knew it was only a matter of time when he wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace, so I decided I would just bide my time and sit back and watch.
Unfortunately, at the end of lap five, I noticed that the engine was doing something weird. The engine was spinning up, but it wasn’t translating into forward drive. I radioed in the problem as it got progressively worse and worse over the next couple of laps. On lap eight, the team called me to the pits.
The internal clutch of the engine we had swapped in overnight had failed and needed to be replaced.
The guys worked hard to get the engine’s internal clutch swapped out and the next day we were ready to qualify. But as I tried leaving our tent to head to the grid, none of the gears would grab and I couldn’t roll forward.
Despite some very hard work, we couldn’t get it fixed in time to participate in the session.
However, I was able to get a hardship lap once the problem was resolved, which allowed me to test out the car as well as get as much of a scrub of the new tires as I could. It’s always exciting starting at the back of the grid, and even a little more fun, because I was confident I could still win the race as long as nothing went wrong.
Forty seconds into the race, I was up to second place. I took the lead on lap three when I passed Steve Hamilton.
I never looked back, taking the checkered flag 32 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher with a relatively dominant victory to close out my championship-winning season in the North American Formula 1000 Championship.
Despite the unfortunate race one result, we bounced back with a dominant second race.
During the whole process I also got the opportunity to coach my Arrive Drive teammate for the weekend, Paulie Gatto, a veteran 250cc super kart driver.
Being able to help him, allowed me to take my mind off my car’s struggles and focus my energy into something productive which ended up paying dividends as Gatto got faster and more comfortable throughout the weekend.
Overall, the highs outweighed the lows, making this weekend another great one.