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NASA NE GTS -­‐ Events one and two of 2015. Written by Michael Gershanok, Photos by Mike Woeller. Time really flies, the memories of the long snowy winter are still fresh. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in a middle of a short, pleasant spring quickly transitioning into the summer with already two events into the season! The big change in GTS Rules for the 2015 was the switch from Peak to Average Horsepower in the Weight / HP Class Ratio calculations. The new formula allows all cars to lose some weight – more or less depending on the shape of the curve on the dyno graph. The big question – if drivers will take advantage of it, which should bring the competition closer. As expected at the first event, few drivers were not fully prepared for the change in Rules and our Dyno operator was busy all Saturday long! In our Region as well as in GTS Nationally, the emphasis this year is on further development of the compliance testing protocol using AIM Black Boxes in addition to the onsite Dyno, and enforcing strict safety standards of safe and clean racing. The goal of the development in compliance testing is to arrive to the point of having a predictable, easy to use in car unit, which would generate the pass / fail value to the officials immediately at impound scales, as well as provide the data for analysis if needed. So far we are getting very promising results in that regard! Our first two events were at NJMP – the first at Lightening Course and the second – on Thunderbolt. The early indications are that this year we will see the return of a good size group in GTS2 retaining most of the last year competitors and a healthy growth for GTS3 and 4 (especially 4!) with number of new drivers and cars joining the field. On April 18 -­‐ 19th we gathered for the season opener at NJMP/Lightening Course. The first race brought out 24 racers in total for the GTS (6 -­‐ in 2, 9 -­‐ in 3, 8 -­‐ in 4 and 1 -­‐ in U) with many others absent either not being ready after the long winter or making repairs falling the victim to the early start with other groups. The entire weekend in GTS 2 turned into a back and forth battle between Luke Pardi and Michael Sousa. Saturday turned out to be Pardi's day with him winning the pole and coming out on top in the race, which was very intense and exciting to watch. At the end Luke was one short second ahead of Michael. On Sunday, the roles reversed and Michael managed to get the pole and held on to win the race. David LeBlanc could have potentially challenged the dominance of Pardi and Sousa, but an engine failure took him out of the battle barely 5 laps into Saturday's race. Thunder group was filled with action. GTS3 was dominated by Hugh Stewart both days, even though Luiz Serva made an attempt to steal it from Hugh, especially on Sunday, when he managed to out qualify his teammate, but the experience of HS paid off and he finished ahead by a good margin both days. Frank Ferrara was 3rd both times. In GTS4 on Saturday -­‐ Mathieu Lussier ran away from the field finishing almost 11 seconds ahead of Michal Kuna and more then 1 sec better per lap time. 3rd was Rob McInerney -­‐ new to NASA NE driving Cayman. On Sunday, Lussier didn't run, and in his absence, Jeff Segal took charge, not only by winning the race, but also putting down the GTS4 lap record time of 1:10.081. Rob McInerney managed to finish 2nd just ahead of Michal Kuna this time. Both races went clean which marked a promising start to the busy season of 2015. On May 15 – 17 we returned to NJMP/Thunderbolt for Round 2 running the chicane configuration. This time we had total of 35 (!) drivers pre-­‐registered for the weekend in GTS. After the practice day on Friday the field shrunk slightly due to the few mechanicals, but still gathered 5 starters in GTS2, 11 – in GTS3, 10 – in GTS4 and 2 – in GTSU (future 3 and 4 cars once the dynos are sorted out). Saturday’s Lightening Race group was on the grid first lead by 3 GTS 2 drivers all qualifying within 1 second of each other. Pole was occupied by Michael Sousa who ran a fast 1:33.083, followed closely by Dan Harnick and Aaron Turek. All 3 cars are E36 M3 BMWs running with restrictor plates. The entire race was nose to tail between those 3 drivers, entertaining to watch and keeping the audience on the edges of their seats. Unfortunately for Michael Sousa, in the heat of the battle, while defending the position, he attempted the inside pass on a lapped Miata in T1, which didn’t work very well. This attempt sent the Miata off and resulted in minor bruises to the front bumper of his car as well as a DQ, which gave the win to Dan Harnick, who finished 0.040 ahead of Aaron.
(See above -­‐ nose to tail all weekend long GTS2 trio). Saturday’s Thunder race gave GTS its own start as a second wave (now a tradition in the NE – and hopefully will evolve in its own group soon!). Hugh Stewart (2nd place finisher at last year’s East Nationals) was untouchable in his somewhat restricted but very fast E46 328i/M3. He qualified ahead of the entire GTS field with very fast 1:30.8 and qualified almost .5 sec faster than the top GTS4 car driven by Michal Kuna. No-­‐one could seriously contest Hugh during the race and he ran away from the rest of the GTS3 field with the best lap of 1:29.8 and finishing almost 15 sec ahead of Luiz Serva (another member of HSM team). Rob Jakowitz, a regular with BMWCCA, made a rare appearance with us in his E36 and we hope to see more of him in the future. Chris Petersen and Frank Ferrara finished 4th and 5th respectively in their E46 M3s. The GTS4 field was dominated by Michal Kuna in his wide body E46 M3, running the best lap of 1:29.75. Shaun Ashley was getting comfortable in the newly built E46 325 with M3 engine and sequential box. He was improving from one session to the next, finishing 2nd in the race, 7 sec behind Kuna. Jack Haberman and Mathieu Lussier kept the tensions high running bumper to bumper through the entire race. Kudos to both for running close but clean and with respect to each other and everyone else around them and finishing 3rd and 4th respectfully. Sunday morning treated us with light rain on and off, felt like nature couldn't decide what to do. By the time the Thunder group rolled out to grid -­‐ the rain was gone and the sun was out. (See above -­‐ the battle of the sequentials -­‐ Sean Ashley vs. Brian Casella). Sean Ashley (GTS4) was on pole of the GTS group with Q time of 1:30.1, joined by Hugh Stewart (GTS3 -­‐ 1:30.6), followed by M.Kuna (1:30.9) and Jeffrey Segal (1:31.0) -­‐ both in GTS4. Ashley ran away and never looked back, feeling much more comfortable with the new car. Jeffrey Segal was piloting former Josh Smith's car, which he acquired in off season, (the car that Josh won 2 National Championships with in GTS 3 back in 2011 and 2012, now upgraded for the GTS4 class). He is a fast driver in a fast car, but sometimes still struggles with consistency in the heat of the battle. On lap 7, he went too hot in T5 (left hander), dropped 2 wheels off, attempted to correct, couldn't catch it and spun and collected Hugh Stewart on the way. Hugh was an uncontested leader of the GTS3 at that point. Both cars landed across from each other on the opposite sides of the track creating a tunnel between T5 and T6. To everyone's surprise the expected double yellow never came. The track was doing hot pulls and the entire field was navigating around the wreckers for a good portion of the remainder race. Kuna finished 2nd in GTS4 followed by Jack Haberman who struggled the entire weekend with the rear grip and overheating of Left Rear tire. With Hugh Stewart out, the battle for the win in GTS3 was in between Frank Ferrara who took the lead after the incident, and Luiz Serva, who got stuck behind Haberman for a few laps. Serva managed to get around Haberman and caught up to Ferrara at the octopus one lap before the end of the race. Luiz, who was in a better position at the exit of the octopus, took advantage of the traffic slowing down Ferrara, made the pass and never gave it back. At the checkered flag they were separated by 0.137! The Lightening grid was the exact repetition of the Saturday -­‐ Sousa, Harnick, Turek. On Lap 7 (seems like lap 7 was a magic point for both groups) Harnick suffered a flat tire and was out. Aaron Turek challenged Sousa, but at the end Sousa came up front even though only 0.4 sec ahead. We were still missing Mark Lounsbury whose car was not ready after the accident at VIR, as well as Luke Pardi who blew the engine at the same VIR event, as well as few other regulars, especially in GTS2 and GTS3. John Defelice lent his car to his brother Chris for the comp school on Friday, but it started to overheat for race day. Chris completed the school and will join the GTS line up, but John couldn't race it. Edgar Cabrera -­‐ the 2014 GTS3 National champion, brought out the GTS2 car for Michael Paterson to use at a comp school, which worked fine on Friday, but died suddenly right after and no matter what -­‐ could not fire up for Edgar to race -­‐ there is something mysterious in lending race cars for comp school which makes them fail right after. We had VAC on site supporting GTS as usual, offering helping hands to drivers and contingencies for racers displaying their banner on cars. In addition to Ashley's car equipped with the race sequential gearbox, VAC brought their own E36 M3 "Bella," successfully campaigned through the years -­‐ now with new Samsonas sequential gearbox -­‐ for which they are the main importer of. Brian Casella drove the car for the first time and was quick out of the box showing competitive times, but like everything else new in the race car requires seat time to master, which was true also about Matt Gaetano driving his new E46 M3 built by HSM (Hugh Stewart) with the seq box. We expect more cars with sequential gearboxes on the grid soon (mine is being finished soon after the last year's incident at LRP) with few other drivers considering the upgrade. Seems like .2 penalty is well worth it. Few after thoughts. Judging from the first two events -­‐ the season is promising to be exciting with a lot of close and intense battles, especially in classes 2, 3 and 4. We hope that drivers will take advantage of the weight loss offered by the new Rules, which should bring the competition closer. But the biggest concern is to keep the competition clean and safe. With increased intensity -­‐ we see more risky moves and lapses in judgements. Looking at the big picture – let’s not forget that we are doing this for fun and none of us earn a living at the track. We love racing, but we need to return to our families and jobs on Monday morning -­‐ let's make it safe for ourselves and our fellow racers. From the standpoint of the officials -­‐ I can only promise that we will be as strict as our rules allow us in making sure the spirit of club racing and the safety of racers are protected and preserved. We hope to see all of the GTS racers back in action at the June 13-­‐14 Thunderbolt race at NJMP which is the support race for the Trans Am event and then again on July 4th weekend at Lime Rock Park, where we hope to have enough drivers to claim our own Autobahn Group. For more images, please log in to http://www.windshadowstudios.net/nasane-­‐r2-­‐051615