Jeff Lawton Dominates the Double!

 

Jeff Lawton pulled up his panties to take both ITA wins at the Pocono Double, Mother's Day weekend. That boy drove his butt off and deserved the wins.

Jeff Lawton

After a disappointing showing at the first race of the season, and knowing I was running against two of the best in the country in Joe DiMinno and Marc Cefelo, I went into the weekend not worrying about wining but just looking to have fun...and I did have fun!!!

For Saturday’s race I managed to grab the pole by 7/100ths of a second but quickly lost it on the start to DiMinno and shortly there after was passed by Marc Cefalo in the infield. Marc and I battled for half the race, letting Joe get a good gap on the both of us. After passing Marc, I slowly reeled Joe in and passed him on the second to last lap for the win [making Joe scream like a little girl as he crossed under the checkered flag... - Ed.]

At lunch time on Sunday we were talking about the ITA track record of a 1:52.6. I think my exact words were, "I don’t care who’s driving the Saturn, there is no way that it could go that fast". Hmmmmmmmmm...

Sunday’s race was gridded by the fastest lap from Saturday’s race. So, I had the pole again but - again - Joe got by in Turn 1 with a nice outside pass. On lap 2, going into Turn 3, Joe went a little wide and got held up by an ITS car leaving the inside open for me. As I dove down inside, the ITS car in back of me locked up his brakes, hitting me and spinning me almost 180 degrees at the apex. I had to pull around in the grass to turn around and get back onto the track (all the while hoping the oncoming cars saw me) in the straight between 3 & 4. By this time, Joe and Marc were long gone and I had a lot of cars between them and me.

I had no illusions of catching the two lead cars. But I was pissed!! There’s nothing worse than a car in another class making a dumb move that affects the outcome of a race [with "Ed." in his ears trying to get his brain back online and get him back in the game...- Ed.]

It took until the halfway point before I realized I was gaining on Marc and Joe. A lap or two later I caught up to Marc and as he came through Devil’s Elbow he got a little sideways. This gave me a great run on him down the back straight. As I rolled up on him he gave me the signal to bump draft him but I had a great run; I drafted by him and braked into the chicane in front of him. He got his revenge, though, by tapping me a little in the middle and sending me through the grass on exit and up onto the banking. He tucked in behind me, bump drafted me down the main straight, and we both made up a ton of time on Joe.

On the second-to-last lap I got a good run on Joe coming out of the chicane and was able to get in front of him just as we went under the "1 to go" sign. But Joe didn’t go down without a fight: I had to take a very defensive line going down the back straight and into the chicane giving him a great run coming out, but he wans't able to get anything but a nose nose up to my rear wheel at the checkered...

Remember that "1:52 isn't possible in the Saturn" discussion? Best lap of the race, !:52.8...only 2/10ths off the track record!

Mission Accomplished!

 

Greg Amy

Dudes, I have driven the magical power-on oversteer race car; it's called a Suzuki Swift GTi.

This little whore (I just can't think of a better name for it) has a welded diff, and it STICKS. 205/55-14 'Kooks on the thing and it's a BITCH in the paddock. In fact, it's a bitch in just about every place you choose to drive it except in one place, and that's mid-corner on out. When you finally get this little whore turned in and drop the loud pedal, it STICKS and it SCOOTS. It's got so much front grip that you better damn-well have that steering pointed where you want it to go, 'cause it's going THAT WAY and it's going there NOW. In fact, if you have that steering turned when you stomp on that loud pedal (ain't nothing like "subtlety" with this toy) it pulls so damn hard that the ass end of the car flicks outward as if you'd hit oil. You find yourself doing this steer/countersteer dance not trying to get the front end to grip - it's got plenty 'a that - but actually trying to get the back end back in back.

I've never driven a front-wheel-drive car quite like this...

This little 1985-pound, 1298cc raw fury of a beast pulls a consistent 1.15-1.2 g of lateral load (assuming I've got the balls to let it), so much so that I had this things two wheels off the ground on a corner and just about damn-near turned it over. Twice. In fact, the corner worker came to me and said that one time he'd already keyed the mic and called in an emergency when he saw me doing my Joie Chitwood imitation, only to see me somehow get it back on all four (there's nothing like having to overcome fear of an oncoming oval wall that filling your windscreen, and somehow talking yourself into turning toward said wall to get the car back down...plus, all that screaming was very distracting...)

This little rocket was just pulls and pulls coming out of corners, so much that I had to LIFT on corner exit in order to keep from running up and hitting cars with 25% more horsepower (you just don't bump-draft a 2500# + Audi Coupe with a 1900# Suzuki...he bump-drafted me so hard once my head was ringing from the helmet hitting the HANS and then the seat back...and he said he didn't even hit me very hard...)

Power-on oversteer from a front-wheel-drive car. It's possible. And it's good.

Oh, and we blew up the engine: probably overheated it drafting the Audi, popped the head gasket, and my pard Jeremy did the coupe de grace on it in his race (cracked the whole backside of the block...)

But, dayum, this thing's got potential...

 

Jeremy Billiel

With a baby on the way in August, I will have to limit my season, and since the Integra is still not complete Greg roped me into driving the newly-acquired Suzuki. What a hoot! The car is a BITCH to drive in the paddock with the welded differential, but on the track it simply hooks up on the throttle. You had better never let go of that wheel and with no power steering this car needs to be muscled around, BUT the car has potential. It's like a big go kart that needs constant throttle modulation with power on oversteer. I was racing in ITB and it was a sleeper after I mis-shifted into 3rd gear four times coming out of Devil's Elbow, lost the draft, and I simply worked on figuring out how to drive this car. Over all it was a fun weekend and I was able to get some respectable times for never driving this car or track before.

Besides me blowing the motor up, it was a great weekend! Heck I made $20 from Greg who bet me that I would not race this year and Congrats to Jeff on the double win!

Funny events from the weekend:

 

Jeff's In-Car Video

Saturday: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5102549/13534949

Sunday: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5072947/13476376

External video, Sunday's ITA race (courtesy Jeremy Billiel): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPjsV5r3Zk&feature=channel_page