Lisa Devlin's Racing Diary

The Final Season Finale at Thunderhill

by Lisa Devlin

Just when I thought racing season was over, Pat Landrum, invited me to drive in the four hour Illgen Classic Enduro at Thunderhill on November 20-21 with him and Kevin Fox, in Pat's late model PE class Mustang.I was really looking forward to the whole experience of getting back into a late model Mustang - of getting back into any race car actually - and getting to do it "arrive and drive" style as opposed to "work, arrive, work, drive, work" style.

Kevin and I were to split the first practice. Kevin was going to start and break in the new enduro tires, then I was going out to get some practice in. The track was pretty slippery due to the dense fog, but I got used to the track conditions and settled back into sedan driving pretty quickly. There was one point during my session where I had the briefest brake lock up - just a minor chirp - going into Turn 11. It was so insignificant that I didn't even think about it until I got in and the left front tire had been flat spotted. Wow! I guess it has been a while since I've been on radials!

I searched for a new tire to match the BFG's we were running, while Pat and Kevin, put on the practice tires for Pat's afternoon practice. We hadn't found a matching tire, so we were going to wait until after Pat's practice to decide what to do. Well, when Pat came in, he had also flat spotted the left front tire. Things weren't looking good.

Pat and Kevin had come equipped with all sorts of spare tires and wheels. Pat had two that looked like they'd be fine for the four hour race, so we had those mounted and put on a different set of practice tires for warm up on Sunday morning.

Again, Kevin and I split the warm up on Sunday morning. When I got in the car, I was a little shy about the brake lockup flat-spot thing, so I took it easy and warmed up slowly. Things were going really well until I put a pass on this little yellow car-thing with an oblivious driver. I took the inside line and was next to her approaching the apex of Turn 8 when she just turned in on me. Now I was feeling pretty invincible with all this steel around me, so there was a split second when I considered holding my line and nosing her off the track. However, I didn't feel like paying for bodywork and tires, especially since it was only practice, so I just locked 'em up and wrote off the practice tires that were going to get thrown away anyway. I ker-thunked around the track until the end of practice, which was only about two more laps. Yep, kiss another left front good bye.

Time for the actual race. Four hours... Would the tires hold out? We put the new ones on and stocked up our pit space with all the spare tires we could find. Kevin was to drive the first leg which was to go until fuel ran out. I was in the "cradle" running second until the fuel ran out. Pat would run the last leg and we had calculated that we would need a splash of fuel to finish the four hours. This race requires two mandatory five minute pit stops, so were going to use those for the driver changes, and when Pat came in for fuel at the end it would be a quick splash and go. That was the plan anyway.

Kevin only made it an hour before the fuel ran low. He came in and as I was getting strapped in, they lifted the car and changed the left front tire. With a tire change after the first hour, things were not boding well for the Landrum/Fox/Devlin team.

I first knew I was in trouble when I had a brake lock up going into Turn 9. The tire started thunking a little, but I needed to stay out as long as possible. I started being really cautious with the brakes, and my lap times suffered. I just wasn't sure how hard to push it in hour two of a four hour race with another tire wasted. Even with babying the brakes, I still had a lock up going into Turn 1. Turn 1 at Thunderhill is a light braking turn, so locking it up there was a bad sign. In the meantime, the tire was thumping more and more. As it got worse, my imagination pictured the tire going down past the cord, through the steel belts... I didn't want to go much farther. I stayed out until I was at about a quarter tank and the tire was thumping so badly I was convinced it was going to explode. I'd still managed to stay out for fifty minutes. Two hours down, two to go.

Pat got in, got fuel, a new left front tire and was outta there. When things calmed down in the pits, I went over to inspect the damage. It actually wasn't too bad - only down to the steel belts about a third of the way around the tire. Kevin had made it down to the belts pretty much all the way around. More experience or less imagination? I'm sure it was more experience.

Pat was past the three hour mark when he came in for fuel and a tire. This time it was really bad. The tire was bulging through the steel belts in one place. Good timing.

The tires did hold out and we did finish the four hours. Not as high a finish as we'd hoped for, but in a four hour race any finish made us feel good. We'll be back.

--Lisa Devlin

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