From the Driver's Seat ...
For our report on the third and fourth races of the Yokohama Drivers Cup series held in Fontana CA at the Auto Club Speedway the first weekend of April, we would like to answer the proverbial racing question of “what was it like out there,” by presenting a realistic first-hand account by John Trefethen, the series’ 2007 996 GT3 Cup champion:
“Thursday April 3: Racing is a sport of expectations mixed with trepidation. Before the Auto Club Speedway race, we had installed new shocks which allowed us to run the car closer to the ground, realigned the suspension and installed our new MoTeC data acquisition dash. Our planned test day did not happen, so we left for Ontario with a sense of foreboding about a number of question marks. Never had we done so much work to the car before a race without a proper test day.
Friday April 4: We signed up with Yokohama Drivers Cup as our main series, but also with Porsche Club of America. We wanted as much time as possible to tune the car, work out the bugs and I needed to complete 3 PCA races that weekend to finally get my PCA competition license. We never expected that we would need all of Friday and all of Saturday morning just to get on the track with a competitive car!
I was careful on my first session because we had changed the suspension, the tires were dead cold and the driver was even colder. The car was self driving, going left, right or straight in what appeared to be totally random directions with little regard to the frantic steering inputs of the driver! After three laps I reported on the radio that I was headed in with a totally uncontrollable car that would not turn in, then would push until a combination of brake and throttle created a snap oversteer. But it was on the bumpy chicanes that it was really scary with the car randomly darting off right or left. I came in and Tim Barber, my mechanic, quickly took out some bump, but though better, it was still a hand full.
After the session and we went to work raising the car back up to its previous level and doing the whole suspension setup with strings going everywhere. I had barely noticed that the dash had gone completely blank after about two laps. We also noted that the engine would only run with the fuel pump on in the service/continuous mode rather than its typical automatic mode.
Tim aligned the car, we retraced my cars entire wiring system and I held tools, pushed pedals and centered the steering wheel. We reentered the track in the afternoon with everyone around me now up to near race speed and thankfully the car started obeying its sometimes master. More work was done throughout the afternoon on tuning the suspension and trying to get the German electrical system to talk to the Australian display.
Saturday April 5: We were resigned to running without a dash readout, but at least felt good about the setup. Then we tried to start the car. It would turn over, but made no attempt to come to life. Our immediate reaction was ‘oh no not more electrical problems,’ but we soon narrowed it down to that pesky fuel pump switch or the signals it was receiving from the ECU. We were finally able to hot wire it directly to the ignition and got the car going. In the meantime Phil Blank, our very calm MoTeC genius, had found the problem and could fix it in short order. But we had already missed all the warm-ups andqualifying and I needed to get out on the track once before our race. I think there were wires dangling every where as I sped out of the pits.
The car ran! We had one session until our Driver’s Cup race to change tires and rewire the MoTeC. I was now used to starting last and during warm-up, I reported that the MoTeC was working. I didn’t really know what all the numbers were on the dash, but I had rpm’s, shift lights, oil pressure and temp and the race began!
The start was a miracle, with a huge hole for me to drive thru and a bunch of cars on either side stuck behind traffic. I rocketed forward passing enough cars so that ultimately I was able to finish fourth in the 996 class. Saturday night we feel asleep at a restaurant table while everyone else was enjoying one of a number of parties with good food and someone else’s really good wine because I never showed up with my wine!
Sunday April 6: The first normal day. I was ready to get some track time and had actually started thinking about my driving rather than just getting the car going. Today was going to be a full day with 2 warm-up sessions, 2 qualifying sessions, and 3 races. I was ready. We were able to qualify on pole in the 996 class. This was a huge upper after such a difficult few days. Mark Anderson got by me early in the race. I had a pretty clear race after that and ran the race’s fastest lap, and although I could move up on Mark, he was able hold a solid lead, and we finished second.
This is a great series to run in. We could never have gotten back on the track without the support of several competing teams. I also worked a lot with the series coaches Craig Stanton and Scott Schroeder to visualize running the track when I was not in the car. This was a huge help as I am usually the guy who works up to a race using every practice session as a stepping stone.
Thanks to Greg Franz and everyone on his team, thanks to everyone who helped us fix the car, thanks to all the other drivers for being there so we could have a race and thanks to my right hand Tim Barber, my mechanic, my coach and one of the best race car drivers I know.”
Yokohama Drivers Cup USA is the premier American racing series that focuses on education and coaching to make its participants competent drivers at all levels.
Drivers race their own Porsche GT3 996 and 997 Cup Cars during three day weekends in an enjoyable atmosphere with one-on-one professional coaching and direct help from its technical partners. This unique blend of racing and education produces drivers that enjoy their on-track experience with competence.
