CART in New Jersey: Born to Run by Liam Dwyer
The Lightning Circuit at the New Jersey Motorsports Park held the Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team's most recent track day on Friday May 29th. A day much like Pocono, rain the days before and the threat of rain all day limited the number of participants to 33. That didn't matter to those who showed as we were rewarded with a bright sunny warm day and a very fast, smooth track. The track was shared with the Aston Martin Owners Club. They would run and hour and we would run an hour.
The track itself is 1.9 miles long with a half-mile long front straight. The front straight ends with a blind apex, blind exit right hander to a short straight. This can be taken a lot faster than expected. Next its a sequence of turns, 2, 3 and 4. Turn 2 is another fast right hander that can be taken with more speed than expected, you run your exit wide to get set up for 3 and 4 which is a set of tight esses. Late apex turn 3 (right hander) and turn in earlier than expected for 4. This sequence when done right shaves quite a few tenths off your time. The exit of 4 leads into a decreasing radius, uphill, blind right hand corner. As you track out of 4, let the car straighten out and head straight for the outside curbing for turn 5. Right before the turn in point, scrub some speed and turn in. The car understeers at first, then when it hits the hill, the front bites pulling you in towards the apex, you crest the hill before hitting the apex
meaning the car gets light. Keep your wheel turned, hit the apex and the car will track out as you start feeding in throttle. You should be full throttle after apex, letting the car track out, then bringing it back to the right side of the track. You are now on the back straight, as you cross under the bridge, keep your foot in it as there is plenty more straightaway remaining before you have to really slow down a left hander. This corner lead onto another straight that brings you down into the Lightbulb. The Lightbulb is a 180 degree banked right hander. Some compare it to the Bowl at Nurburgring. Come in hard, stay about ¾ of the way up and track your way around. The track will actually start to go downhill, when it does this, turn in a bit more and start feeding in throttle. Right before you apex the corner you should be at full throttle. Let the car track out, but make sure you stay mid track, the course goes up hill and after the uphill
it bends to the right. If you run all the way out, you crest the uphill and are off into the dirt. Come down the hill to complete your lap and do it all over again. A fast lap around here is under 80 seconds, a VERY fast lap right now is under 75 seconds.
Dana held the drivers meeting pointing out to everyone the passing zones and then lead us on a slow course drive around. As the track dried from the previous nights rain, the cars got faster and a line was developed. We had 2hrs of track time before the lunch break. The hour breaks between run times worked out great as people got a chance to come in and rest and fix or make changes to their cars without actually losing any track time. After lunch was over we moved right into the timed portion as the threat of severe weather moving in was imminent.
Onto the results, Bill Evans lead all stock classed cars in time and took home the SS class win in his Z06 with a lap time of 82.097. John Margaritas drove a 350z to the BS win, stopping the clocks in 86.405 seconds. Shawn Oconnel's Miata clicked off a 98.947 second lap to earn the CS class win. Mike Demaio started out his Iron Man weekend of racing with a win here at New Jersey. His Audi TT took the DS win with a time of 84.175 seconds. Alex Kern showed German engineering is superior in ES as he drove away from Andy Breault's MR2 and Jim D's Miata. Kern's Porsche 944 ran a 86.845 second lap. Another German make took a class win in GS. Allen Briere's Audi A4 beat Mike Mazlauskas' Neon.
In street prepared a battle for FTD took place, that battled lasted all of one lap as 500+whp fury, found in Matt Sorensen's Z06 took it away. His 72.589 was by far the fast time of the day. In BSP, the largest and 2nd fastest class was won by Liam Dwyer in his 350z. Jordan Levitt thought he had it locked down with a lap time of 76.152 in his Evo, but Liam took that way on his last lap, sliding sideways and dropping tires. He almost pushed it too far as he only won by .06 seconds. Liam's time was 76.092seconds, 2nd fastest on the day. If you thought the BSP win was class, CSP was closer. Quinn Kizis put on an exceptional run in his Miata putting down a fast time of 84.387. Tom Casey stole it away on his last lap running a 84.358, just .029 seconds faster than Quinn. In DSP, another close battle ensued. Mike Raver's Miata took a the win running just .117 seconds faster than Phil Breault's BMW. Mike's best time was 88.152 seconds. Justin Weinstein was fastest in ESP while Steve Tracy earned the FSP class win.
The sweet sound of Matt Jablonski's 350z was leader of the pack for XP. His 78.347 lead the way and was barely behind Nick Fandacone's 77.281 second run. Nick won BP. Nick, doing his best Liam impression, dropped tires on every run and at a few points put 4 tires off. Were not sure if he was trying to create a shortcut; we didn't have video to go back and check. Marc Boerma's beautiful 65 Mustang, rumbled its way around to a CP win with a time of 91.234 seconds. Rob Carter won Dp with a 91.753 second run. FP was a single car with two drivers. Joe Stampfl got the best of his co driver and piloted the VW Corrado to a lap of 82.039 seconds. Last but not least, and STILL not as fast as newbie in the Z, Dana Robbins. Robbins best lap of 80.868 too the AM win.
A thank you is in order to all who made the track day possible and to the extremely professional NJMP track staff who flagged the entire day for us. Our next track day is June 18th at Limerock right here in Connecticut.
