Endurance race pushes both cars and drivers to the limits

Published: Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007 12:11 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
TOOELE — The outcome of the Grand Am Sunchaser race at Miller Motorsports Park this week will involve more than just a fast car and good cornering abilities.

It'll take muscles.

In the main event, drivers will pull to the line at 11 a.m. For the next seven hours and 30 minutes, or 1,000 kilometers, whichever comes first, the cars will stop only to change tires, get fuel and change drivers.

Last year's race went 193 laps or roughly 900 miles in nine hours.

The endurance race is a favorite among some auto-racing drivers. As one driver said during the inaugural event last year, it pushes both cars and drivers to the limits.

What it takes to win, said last year's winning team of Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri, is good steady driving, concentration and "fighting off fatigue ... especially on this track."

The Miller track is long, 4.48 miles, and turny — 24 turns in all, going both left and right.

The winning Michael Shank team was driving a Lexus Riley prototype race car.

One difference this year is there may be more cars on the track. Last year there were 40 cars in the final race.

Story continues below

So what is it like to race on the Miller track?

Jon Fogarty, an eight-time polesitter, recently gave a turn-by-turn preview. Here is a condensed look at his report.

" Miller is long with many corners, but after a few laps it's easy to break the track into sections and focus on separate parts rather than the whole. The first third for me includes what I call corners 1 through 10 (that's more than a lot of tracks have in total!) This includes the first set of' 'esses', beginning at turn 1. This is a fast, left-right-left-left sequence that is very high speed, with the final left being flat out. Because the last corner can be taken flat, it is important to be patient in the early portions of this sequence, so that you are building speed throughout making the exit of the second to last corner the start of your straightaway leading into a slow long left-hander ...

"The triple left-hander is a tricky section for sure, as it has a very fast entry and elevation change. It is easy to slide wide going in, and if that happens the whole sequence is ruined. I try to keep it fairly tight and maintain a high minimum speed throughout — the problem is the balance of the car is always changing because of those elevation changes. It can be frustrating and it is hard to be consistent — but when you get it right you know it and it is very satisfying. The next right is turn 9 and is quite fast and long in duration ... After turn 10, you have a long, flat-out, not-so-straight straightaway. Here you get all the way up into 5th before the 11-12-13-14 sequence, a right-left-right-right set that has many different variations in the possible line, and thus a lot of give and take ... Too much speed through the first kink can throw off your rhythm for the next two corners, so there is a fine balance of aggression and restraint here — give up some here to get it back a little later.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image
August Miller, Deseret Morning News

The team of Southard Motorsports driven by the team of Lewis and Stanton leads the pack last year through the a turn named "bad attitude" at the Miller Motor Sports Park during the Discount Tire Sunchaser 9-Hour Grand American endurance race.

previousnext

Latest comments

See ya later Paul. Have fun in Portland making way too much money.

wow! i cant believe this! he was a great man and no one expected this. he...

Just another example of the skewed world of professional sports...true...

LDS seminary principal is arrested in sexual abuse

wow!! he lied to so many!!!!!!

I forgot what I was going to say. Let's go ride bikes!

I have had it up to here......next time I am voting for Prop Hate!

Everyone here blames the victim over the teacher in these cases...regardless...

"friend says..." dang typos.

LDS institutions will not crack down more on this issue...they tend to...

In economic bad times if your neighbor is out of a job, it's a recession. If...

Advertisements