Mikelly

Weekend Wrap up at VIR with PCA Club Racing

I wanted to collect my thoughts on this weekend in one spot, and with all that was leading up to, and the planning by all parties involved, I wanted to accurately reflect the mood and temperament, leading into Thursday. These are my thoughts, captured from my perspective on the weekend.

I had a lot of pressure on me with an unknown car, and with all the activities surrounding the remembrance of a special guy and dear friend. I had zero expectation of the performance of the car. I knew it was “pretty quick” and handled “pretty well” and stopped “OK”. That was about it. PCA Club Racing, and especially Zone 2 reps Scott Hoffman and Phil & Josie Grandfield, really stepped up for this effort, getting the Club to run a missing man formation lap at the start of the first Black Run Group session. Props to all the racers for keeping it steady during those pace laps, not a traditional start.

I’d been asked to contact the family and coordinate a host of activities that the club wanted to do in honoring Greg Hobbs memory and his contributions to the SP1/944Spec community.
The family is still grieving the loss and the emotion is still raw. They agreed to participate in the weekend’s events and were special guests of Zone2 for the entry, allowed to watch the race from the timing and scoring area and were given the opportunity to go out for charity laps before the race started. They also would be at the awards banquet dinner.

Did I mention I’m in a car I’ve never raced at VIR and I have a new platform, new tires, new equipment and a host of new and challenging problems? First of which was the data on the Hankook tires I ran all weekend. What first was thought to be an issue with tire pressures, turned out to be an issue with the front suspension. I left my box of springs home and would have really benefitted from less understeer. In practice I found I could push the car through the corner fairly easily with throttle.
We played with tire pressure and I thought maybe I could adjust the bar, but in the end, I think the car needs less spring so it can have a slight amount of travel. Shock valving wasn’t curing this. In the end I just gave up on troubleshooting and just “drove around it”. It got better as track temps rose, but will need to be addressed.

I was staying at Mary Hobbs’ guest house, along with my wife and our Friends Dennis and Dianne. Dennis had met Greg and stayed at the Hobbs farm with me several times when we raced at VIR with Greg from 2018-2022. Dennis had gotten to know Greg in the years Dennis had worked as my crew. So, when I told Dennis about the plan, he naturally asked to work the race as crew for me.

Practice on Friday started with me flat spotting a right front tire first hot lap of the morning. Getting used to new tires and brakes on a very chilly 38-degree morning. I looked for damage, but missed the spot because it was on the inside of the edge and every time I rolled and looked, I missed it. I’d stay out on that tire for TWO MORE SESSIONS before taking them off for new scrubs. Boy howdy that was a near miss.




My guess is this tire was contributing to my struggles with T3 exit, as the car would push on exit, sending me further onto the exit curbing. A couple times I put 2 wheels off, and once I put 4 off while fighting the understeer.
The third session I ran my fastest lap, a 2:11:7xx. I knew then that the car was capable of 2:10s, maybe a flyer/draft lap of a 2:09, which given the tires/wheel combo is respectable. But I knew that Mark Calzaretta and Robert Linder would be tough competitors, with Mark running a blistering 2:07 in practice. Qualifying came and Mark had left the session because he was racing a Cayman GT4 in GTC7 and he couldn’t wait for the on-track accident to get cleared. We ended up getting two hot laps. Fortunately, I was able to fend off Robert Linder by half a second. This would put him right behind me going into the start.

Weather moved in overnight and rain came hard and steady at times. By 0700, it was a mess. We’d anticipated it would be damp, and as with everything else in this situation, I was new to Hoosier H2O rain tires. I also wanted to make sure the windscreen wiper and rain light would work for a full session. So this would give me the chance to try both out during the morning warm up.
Of course, no rain session is complete without a Mike Kelly spin. Yup, exiting T1 I got on the gas a little hard and the car did a lazy pirouette in front of a gaggle of Boxter class cars. Fortunately, nobody hit me. Fortunately, the rain would leave us and the track would dry by the 1240 race start!

Before Race 1 started, members of the Hobbs Family arrived and some went to the tower, while others took advantage of the parade laps to see what the terrain was like. I spoke with Greg’s son, Teddy and his fiancé Grace and walked them through the missing man formation and explained there would be a few kind words spoken by the announcer about his father. I’m glad I was in the car and didn’t get to hear the announcer’s words, because there wasn’t a dry eye in the booth or the timing tower.
Race one starts off (Link below) and I got a reasonable start, not great, not bad. VIR is my “home” track and I have thousands of laps there in person, and thousands more virtually. I am comfortable going off anywhere on the course at this point. I’m also comfortable placing my car in spots that don’t always work out for some drivers. I’d use this racecraft to my advantage throughout the race, trying to put other cars between Linder and myself. I knew that Mark would be lurking in the back somewhere and if he was able to do a string of 2:07s from the start, he’d likely catch and pass me.

The video speaks for itself but suffice to say I had some issues with passing some higher HP cars, because I’m still trying to “pass in dumb spots”. I need to get better at laying back and building up that head of steam to get a run around these faster cayman/boxster/F class cars. As I progress in the car, this will be my next challenge to focus on, because Linder was doing this and doing it well.

On the last lap Linder would get a run on me in Oaktree and nailed the exit while I was not getting a run on the car in front of me. Linder would pass me before the braking zone for T14, and then I did what Greg Hobbs had done to me more than once. I pulled the “under” fake, going to the inside of T14 at his door. Robert got on his brakes harder on the inside of 14A pushing him out past me. I went under and down rollercoaster with Robert gathering it back up and fortunately not going off into the grass. This should have been an easy finish, but I target fixated on a car hitting the tire wall way outside in the field exiting T17 and like a dummy, I lifted for a brief second while watching that car sitting there, thinking “I hope he’s ok”, and Robert caught me. I would beat him at the line by 1/10th of a second. Much closer than I’d have expected, but also, How the heck did I just win this race in a car I have hardly any real-world experience running hard in? I would take 10th overall in the field, which is my strongest finish in a field ever in sprint racing.

Race 1 video:

The family and friends of the Hobbs, along with strangers whose names I still don’t know, came up and congratulated me for the win and the show we put on. I can’t say that has happened a lot in my racing career, beyond my crew and wife. It was so nice to hear how the announcer, Ed Pardue’s son, James kept the play by play while I was out there battling it hard with Linder.
I don’t know why, but something told me to check my email, and I briefly looked at it and saw Scott Hoffman had sent an email asking if I’d come up and chat about the awards banquet. So, I ran up to the tower and chatted with Scott and Phil. They asked if I’d be kind enough to say a few words at the awards dinner, and I said sure.

I’ve been on the verge of tears all weekend, and now you’re asking me to speak to a room full of “strangers” (we’re all PCA so we’re all FAMILY, but I digress) about the man I am still getting over the loss of too. This was my first time back at VIR since Greg’s passing last fall and I honestly had some anxiety about being there. But I said “sure, anything for the Hobbs family”.

Back at the trailer we’re checking the car over and getting ready for the next round and I’m like “Hmmm I could now win this thing, because Mark C. DNF’ed and I was running 2 seconds per lap faster than Linder in practice, so I knew I just had to stop being dumb behind the wheel. I told myself if I win this thing, I’m going to hand the trophy to Greg’s wife and have a good cry. I’m a believer, but for those of you who aren’t… “Somewhere there’s a god pointing and laughing at a confident man and his silly plans”.

Under all this “Stuff” of preparation and planning for racing this car, I’d taken it to John Behe in Brooklyn, Md to tune it. He’d advised me the car wasn’t making “competitive” world beating power. I noted that it didn’t seem to use a lot of fuel. I was basing the remarks on the AIM dash display. Behe said if wasn’t using fuel because it wasn’t making “peak” power, but it was making “OK” power. 200WHP on a Mustang Dyno and 192 . That’s about what you’d expect out of a bone stock 968 motor, based on what I’ve been told. Anyway, we “assumed” the display on the AIM was correct from day 1. Turns out, it was not.

We line up for race 2 and because Linder was faster in race 1, he was gridded in 9th, with me in 11th. I’m pretty good on rolling starts and I’m not afraid to dive into a T1 start. Matter of fact, to me, starts are the highlight of the race. We get off great and by lap three I’ve pressured Linder and gotten past him with my own run out of Oaktree. The race played out with me throwing down some exceptionally consistent laps. I did have a little drama 8 laps in when I followed a boxter passed a 911 into T4 with more momentum than previously and heading into T5 I ended up with that understeer issue, driving off and back on-track between T5-6 wide open, fortunately without incident. That was exciting, to say the least and by the video (link below) I never lifted.

About two laps later I noticed the car starting to hesitate exiting hard right hand corners. With 1 to go, the car was in “limp” mode (there is no limp mode in an old 944 Turbo. There is “We have no fuel mode”). I nursed the car while Mark C. passes me for the win, which doesn’t matter because I finished the first race and Mark didn’t. But… As I’m coming down rollercoaster, the car died and I barely make it onto pit road before it dies for the final time, still registering 2 gallons of fuel. One corner and a ¼ of a mile. I lost the race by ONE CORNER and a QUARTER OF A MILE!!!

Some video from race 2. The footage from the gopro cuts at about the 9th lap unfortunately, but the last lap shows the off between 5-6.



So this is where I’d normally go into full on “Woe is me/pity my poor pathetic life” mode, right? Well, no. I just drove the drive of my life and according to those who were timing me and announcing, I was in a commanding lead with 2 laps to go. I drove a great race with the only error being that I didn’t “know” the thing was needing 2 more gallons of fuel. Now I do. So, I tell my crew (All one of him) what’s up, walk down to black flag and tell them the car is broken (*we didn’t know it was out of gas at the time) and then I head off to find my phone and tell my wife I’m alive and I’ve just cost us more money for whatever I broke. I get to my car trailer and say allowed “Greg I let you down buddy, I’m so, so sorry”. Instantly a calm came over me. I felt happy and well, like Greg was there with his arm around my shoulder giving me a gentle hug.

Mary Hobbs greeted me on pit road at the fence and I could tell she was upset for me. I told her word for word what happened above. And that night at the awards banquet, I relayed the same exact thing when speaking about my friend and the man he was.
This weekend with PCA Club Racing was hard. Emotionally it was hard. But the racers, the competition, the comradery, and the passion for motorsports, those things embodied the man that I new and called friend. Those ingredients help make up this sport that can be so selfish and so selfless all within a session on track or in the pits. And it’s the thing I miss when I’m not there on the grid or in the pits.
Godspeed Greg Hobbs. A fitting send off for such a great man. My deepest thanks to Scott, Phil and everyone at Zone2.