9-28-2003 - Fran Am 1600 race - Arizona Motorsports Park

SATURDAY 9-27-2003 - Friday testing went well and we ended up 3rd quickest.

Operating without Travis and Diane for Friday and Saturday was going to be tough (Travis was at a book festival doing a signing on his new book "The Silent Shadow")

Warm up went well Saturday morning with Colin 2nd to Al Unser.

Here Colin sits on pit lane getting ready for a session.

The track temp was 130 degrees with outside temp of 110 for qualifying.  It meant the first 2 laps were going to be the best before the tires and engines got hot.

Colin went 1.1 seconds faster than his best practice time from Friday on his 2nd lap.  That was good enough for pole position by .4 seconds over veteran driver John Knudsen.  The lap also broke the track record set this April by more than .8 seconds.

Tires were going to be a big factor in the heat.  The track was so slippery and the tires were being worked very hard.

On the start of the 30 min race, John Knudsen got the jump on Colin and pulled along side into the first right hand corner - on the outside!  The 2 drivers went side-by-side around the long 180 deg turn in 3rd gear emerging still side by side heading down the next 5th gear straight.  John now had the inside line and Colin moved him over further then pulled out to get the best line. 

When John turned left for the corner Colin dove under him as John slid wide carrying just a touch to much speed.  The 2 cars AGAIN exited the turn side-by-side, with Colin now having the inside for the next turn.  John tucked in behind and let Colin have the left turn, but the instant right after it saw John dive for the apex beating Colin there.  Colin slowed and cut under John as he got just slightly off line and into the dust on the track.

Again the 2 cars were side-by-side on the exit but this time Colin had the momentum and made the pass stick into the last turn for the FIRST lap!

From there Colin was able to open a 3 second gap.  The gap changed from 2 to 3 seconds with track conditions and tire conditions going downhill fast.  In the end Colin won by 2.3 seconds trying to conserve tires for Sunday's race. 

Colin set fast time of the race by .5 seconds and takes over the rookie of the year points lead and moves to 2nd in the overall championship, only 4 points out of first.  If you factor in the one race each driver is allowed to drop then Colin leads the championship by 2 points over John Knudsen.

So we try again Sunday.  Weather will be the same or hotter, and Travis and Diane are back from the book signing - thank God for Colin and I.

SUNDAY - 9-28-2003

In the warm up we tried a few things considering that we had to use the same tires from the race on Saturday, except one replacement tire.

Looking for something to abuse the tires less we made some gains. 

The lap times for one lap suffered some but the tire wear looked.

After the warm up and only 30 min before qualifying, officials decided to allow one new and one "used" tire to be used due to the severe graining most drivers had on the Saturday race tires.

Bad news for us, as our only "scrubbed" tires had 200 miles on them.  So with the help of the First Air Fran Am 2000 team we were able to dig in their junk pile and find a tire Robert Bell had used in the Denver race 1 month ago.  It was better than anything we had that was used and Paladin mounted it for us in record time.

Some teams had 2 lap scuffs to use (effectively a new tire), giving them 2 new tires to our 1 new and one from the junk pile.

In qualifying we worked on tire wear and conservation.  Colin set down a time on lap 2 then pitted for a change.

We are just about done here and sent Colin out for one lap to try the change.  It was better and we knew we had a good race car.

John Knudsen got the pole with a great lap leaving Colin 2nd.

By race time the track temp was 130 and air temp over 100.

This was going to be brutal on cars, drivers, and tires.

On the start Colin was side-by-side with John Knudsen into the first turn.  In an exact reversal of Saturday, Colin drove around the outside of the turn and the 2 drivers were neck and neck on the next straight.

John had the slight advantage and took the lead at the next turn.  This picture is at the end of lap one with Knudsen, Colin, Al Unser, CR Crews, in the top 4.

After the first lap it was a 3 car break away.  Knudsen, Colin and Unser in that order.

There was never more than 1 second from 1st to 3rd for the first 15 min of the race, as the picture shows.

Colin could stay with John and Al with Colin.

With 10 min to go in the 30 min race the tire factor started to play.

John started to slip and slide some, but never enough for Colin to attempt a pass.

Al was having a hard time as well and slipped a few tenths back.  Colin tried to keep pressure on John hoping for a mistake or a better run out of a turn.  He had a place picked out for the pass, but was waiting for the last lap to make it.

Here Colin's crew waits for something to happen.  Mom, Dad, and brother.....not exactly Penske Racing, but we work harder than them.

So with 4 laps to go Colin is right on John waiting for 3 more laps to attempt his move, when John hits the curb in turn 2 and slides slightly wide. 

Colin got a better run out of the turn and pulled along side on the long straight.  It was a breaking battle into turn 4.

Colin had the inside and waited for John to brake.  When he did Colin went for it and the threshold braking sessions at Speed Secrets Camps paid off!  Colin just about parked it in turn 4 but got the corner without over shooting the turn.  3 laps to go and he had a .3 second gap.  Al Unser gained on the 2 as they tried to out break each other and now took a stab at Knudsen.  This just gave Colin a .8 second gap and he held it to the end to score his 5th win this year (4 more than any other driver).

Colin also takes the championship points lead and stretches out his lead in the money earnings (over $13,000).

John Knudsen has been very good to race with.  He has so much experience and is not afraid to share it with Colin.  Great to have guys like that helping rookie drivers.

Here series director Steve Henry and Patty Halloran present Colin with the trophy.  These 2 as well as Fred and the people at Paladin do a great job putting on the series.

Next race is in Buttonwillow, CA October 18-19.