Race Report 2000

WGGT Series, Race 1 - Sebring

by Terri Hundertmark

March 18, 2000

I have had a difficult winter. I have been planning, putting proposals together and trying to come up with a ride for 2000. I haven’t had much luck until I got a phone call that told me to pack my driving shoes; I was racing in Sebring in only two days. I was to race in the Women’s Global GT Series for my sponsor, Michelin. My dreams had come true!

I was very nervous when I arrived. I had put a lot of pressure on myself. I hadn’t prepared for the race, as I usually would have. I hadn’t been in the Panoz GT-RA since the Inaugural Women’s Global GT race last April. The last time I raced was at Phoenix International Raceway in a Skip Barber Formula Dodge in February. I was feeling rusty and intimated by the experience of the other woman drivers. All but two of the drivers entered had raced most of the WGGT races last year. I had only had one race under my belt in this car. The only comfort I had was that I had raced at Sebring before and knew the track.

It was Tuesday morning and I had no time to prepare. I had to pull it together and go out for my first practice session. I drew car number 22. I took the car out cautiously as I normally would and started to run quicker and quicker. The car felt fairly good and I started to push it in the corners and brake zones. Halfway into my first practice session and tracking out of turn seven (Sebring’s hairpin) my motor blew. The motor was un-repairable so I got a new car, car number 20.

My second practice session on Tuesday was hard. The new car that I drew had brakes that locked up when pushed hard. I found myself several times off track in turn 3 and once even in the run-off area of the hairpin. After the session I gave my feedback to the crew and hoped that they could fix the brakes.

Wednesday morning I had a good practice session. I turned a 1:35.8, which ranked me in the middle of the 14-car field. The brakes weren’t fixed yet; I was still locking them up in quite a few corners. The brakes would lock up and not release even when I backed off. This scared me but I had to deal with it and make the best of my session. My feed back to the crew was the same except while trying to change the brake bias; my safety off switch was catching on my brake bias knob not allowing me to move it.

In Wednesday afternoons practice my times slowed. The track had gotten slicker and my frustration with the car grew. After working with my brake bias more, I finally found some improvement. I started to put more pressure on myself. I wanted to perform better. I was at the point where I couldn’t tell if the trouble I was having was the car or my performance. I had lost two seconds somewhere. I was disappointed because I was now ranked 12th.

Thursday’s qualifying saw no improvement. I tried to gap myself and get a good run but I got stuck behind a slower car. By the time I got past her and in the gap someone else dived past me and spun in turn 10. I pushed the car hard trying to come up with a good lap and had the brakes lockup again in turn 15, almost hitting the wall. This time I flat spotted the tires and could feel the vibration. I had to deal with it and put it out of my mind. My qualifying time had me 12th.

My second qualifying session on Thursday wasn’t much better. I had a tried to get a quick qualifying lap right away but traffic didn’t allow it. Once again I had to hit the brakes hard and swerve out of the way when I unexpectedly came upon a car that had spun in turn 13. I started having trouble focusing on my task at hand with car troubles and still not knowing the car. I had stayed in 12th qualifying position for the race. The crew rotated the flat-spotted tires to the front and I discovered that I was allowed to change the air pressure in the tires. I had felt the car pushing through the turns but I thought that it was something that I was going to have to deal with. I had so much still to learn about the series and the cars.

Lowering the air pressure in the front tires had helped my car’s handling through the chicane (turns 3-4). I felt that I could push the car harder and I was getting comfortable to the feel of the brakes. The brakes required a hard hit of pressure followed by quickly backing off and coasting into the turn before accelerating. This was opposite of the Formula car that I was used to. I was used to rolling on to the brakes hard and then at the apex, hitting the gas to rotate the car. Doing this in the powerful Panoz caused it to spin. Smoothness was very important in the Panoz. During the middle of my morning warm up, a temperature alarm went off. The PI dash told me that I had an oil temperature problem. I had to back-off and bring the car in. My oil temperature had risen to 230 degrees. The crew felt that it was a sensor problem and as long as it didn’t go above 250 degrees that I would be ok. The crew lowered the air pressure another pound in the front and readied the car to race.

For the race I was gridded towards the back on the outside. I knew that survival at the start on this track was so important. I had seen so many races ruined for people charging into this corner trying to win the race on the start. Turn 1 at Sebring is not forgiving. It is very wide and quickly narrows. My outside lane was slower than the inside lane and I was passed by a slower car. When we reached turn 1, two cars had contact and were spinning on the track. I tucked behind the slower car and applied pressure. She was overdriving her car and I knew that she was about to spin. Keeping my head up, I waited and got a good shot off of turn 13, passing her on the back straight. I caught up to the train of traffic and tried to better my laps. The oil temperature light went off again. I radioed in and was told to run it. This was distracting. Every few turns the light would go off. I had to monitor the temperature and conserve the motor. I knew finishing the race and collecting points was so important because I was running for the championship. About 8 laps in, I tried to charge harder into turn 15. My brakes locked up. I headed straight for the wall. I backed off the brakes and still had no response. I hit the brakes hard again and stopped just short of the Armco. I quickly got the car underway and tried to catch up. I saw other cars in the distance and kept pushing. The day was extremely hot and exhausting. I started turning my best laps ever, a 1:35 and I started catching the field. The harder I pushed the car, the more the car started to understeer in the turns. I kept trying to work with the car and make up time. Unfortunately the race was only 45 minutes and not enough time to catch the traffic. I finished 9th place and found out that I had a sharp learning curve ahead. My next race is in only two weeks at Charlotte, NC. I am looking forward to learning more about car set-up and competing the rest of the series. I am also looking forward to working with Michelin and learning more about tire performance.

--Terri Hundertmark

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