World Challenge Round 6, Woodhouse Pit Report from Watkins Glen, NY 7/3/2010
We have all had one of those days: The mood is buoyant, the world is full of sunshine; suddenly.......... crash; we are talking literal here. Friday July 2nd at Watkins Glen Int. Raceway was that day. Not just one Woodhouse Performance/ Dodge Viper Competition Coupe hit the wall; two. Within 15 minutes of each other both of our cars were wounded in separate one car incidents. What are the odds?
The drama began with Dodge Motorsports manager Gary Johnson and yours truly chasing to the Kuno Wittmer crash site just in time to witness the ambulance with lites flashing boiling down the gravel road to the medical facility. After a quick corner worker interview to get their take on "What happened?" We are off to see Kuno at the medical building only to find him AWOL; released, what a relief. (Later when we caught up to him we learned a sore neck, stiffness, and some swelling at the juncture between his legs was the extent of it. The situation earned him a new nickname by the Realtime AcuraTeam; "Walnut", Draw your own conclusions.)
Arriving back at the transporter we locate the red #13 Dodge Viper CC looking like a Humvee after an encounter with a land mine. This focused our attention so much that it left no room for the brain to process the blue #99 Dodge Viper sitting just feet away on the alignment rack appearing as if a Grizzly attacked it sitting there with half the nose and splitter lopped off.
This is racing and stuff happens; but let me explain why this was a defining moment: We are in this to bring our drivers and Dodge Motorsport a Championship. This is midpoint in the season with driver Kuno Wittmer ranked #2 in points and Jeff holding top ten as well. If we DNF this race we are no longer a contender for the 2010 season.
No time to dally. Need a game plan. Qualifying is one hour away. From the team meeting came a decision by Jeff Courtney to put Kuno Wittmer in his #99. That was a huge decision on his part. My eyes got watery. By doing that he gave teammate Kuno a shot at the championship.
Every member of the team spoke few words for the next 60 minutes as drivers and crew focused on mending the nose and splitter of the blue #99 Viper Competition Coupe and converting it to #13 car for Kuno. The car made pit lane with 3 minutes to spare and as qualifying runs closed Kuno was sitting in 4th and Jeff was sitting on his thumbs. OK time to fix that, off I go to shop for a suitable rent-a-race-car for Jeff. With less than 24 hrs until the race, this would be a daunting task.
Our competitors Tony Gaples, owner/driver and Ray Sorenson crew chief of Black Dog Racing served up a Corvette and the deal was sealed. It just doesn't seem right to have a good Viper driver in a Corvette but hey, ya do what ya gotta do. First you put on our sponsor lettering, KENDA tires, then you take a large Dodge label and place it on the rear end over the Corvette name. Done in fun but you should have heard the Corvette fans howl. All Images © SCCA Pro Racing, Inc.
We have all had one of those days: The mood is buoyant, the world is full of sunshine; suddenly.......... crash; we are talking literal here. Friday July 2nd at Watkins Glen Int. Raceway was that day. Not just one Woodhouse Performance/ Dodge Viper Competition Coupe hit the wall; two. Within 15 minutes of each other both of our cars were wounded in separate one car incidents. What are the odds?
The drama began with Dodge Motorsports manager Gary Johnson and yours truly chasing to the Kuno Wittmer crash site just in time to witness the ambulance with lites flashing boiling down the gravel road to the medical facility. After a quick corner worker interview to get their take on "What happened?" We are off to see Kuno at the medical building only to find him AWOL; released, what a relief. (Later when we caught up to him we learned a sore neck, stiffness, and some swelling at the juncture between his legs was the extent of it. The situation earned him a new nickname by the Realtime AcuraTeam; "Walnut", Draw your own conclusions.)
Arriving back at the transporter we locate the red #13 Dodge Viper CC looking like a Humvee after an encounter with a land mine. This focused our attention so much that it left no room for the brain to process the blue #99 Dodge Viper sitting just feet away on the alignment rack appearing as if a Grizzly attacked it sitting there with half the nose and splitter lopped off.
This is racing and stuff happens; but let me explain why this was a defining moment: We are in this to bring our drivers and Dodge Motorsport a Championship. This is midpoint in the season with driver Kuno Wittmer ranked #2 in points and Jeff holding top ten as well. If we DNF this race we are no longer a contender for the 2010 season.
No time to dally. Need a game plan. Qualifying is one hour away. From the team meeting came a decision by Jeff Courtney to put Kuno Wittmer in his #99. That was a huge decision on his part. My eyes got watery. By doing that he gave teammate Kuno a shot at the championship.
Every member of the team spoke few words for the next 60 minutes as drivers and crew focused on mending the nose and splitter of the blue #99 Viper Competition Coupe and converting it to #13 car for Kuno. The car made pit lane with 3 minutes to spare and as qualifying runs closed Kuno was sitting in 4th and Jeff was sitting on his thumbs. OK time to fix that, off I go to shop for a suitable rent-a-race-car for Jeff. With less than 24 hrs until the race, this would be a daunting task.
Our competitors Tony Gaples, owner/driver and Ray Sorenson crew chief of Black Dog Racing served up a Corvette and the deal was sealed. It just doesn't seem right to have a good Viper driver in a Corvette but hey, ya do what ya gotta do. First you put on our sponsor lettering, KENDA tires, then you take a large Dodge label and place it on the rear end over the Corvette name. Done in fun but you should have heard the Corvette fans howl. All Images © SCCA Pro Racing, Inc.
So what happened that both of these Viper beasts that they would crash at nearly the same time? Coincidence mostly, Jeff and the blue #99 had an "off" in the "bus stop" portion of the track while working on an alternative line. In the case of Kuno and the red #13 car, the data retrieval told part of the story. People like Kuno Wittmer are rare human beings. They get all the goodie out of a car at every brake zone, every corner and every straight, and do this lap after lap. If a car makes a hiccup, there is no safety net or 5% window left for recovery. A wheel speed sensor decided not to participate for whatever reason. When that happens the ABS brain says this is getting complicated so it drops out of the game leaving less stopping power.
After putting closure on the Friday from Hell, the team focused on getting a good result out of round 6 of the Sports Car Wars brought to you by World Challenge on Saturday the 3rd at 4:15. Kuno finished 2nd behind Ron Fellows and in front of Randy Pobst the points leader. Jeff did all he could with a car he sat in for the first time that day and brought it home 12th, both maintaining their position in the points chase. The end result brought a good feeling for stepping on the gas when one of life's speed bumps pulls you off the road. Find more at www.world-challenge.com. Next.............we have seven days to make this all good and be in the paddock at the Toronto Grand Prix. Lets hope Dodge and all of you will stay our friends and support us through this. Thanks for being there Dodge people. Stay tuned to see if we make it.
Bob Woodhouse of Woodhouse Performance Racing Team.
No comments:
Post a Comment