Alton , VA November 4

The Flatoutracing.net/Hankook Tires team took a second shot at endurance racing this past weekend at VIR after their stunning rookie success in 2005 when the team won the 12 Hours at the Point (Summit Point Raceway). With most of the same team members coming back and a few new additions, the team was hoping of a repeat of their rookie success.

Endurance racing takes preparation, execution and luck just to finish the race, let alone win. The team had it in spades during the 2005 race but this year’s race at VIR proved quite different. Luck would not be on the team’s side this time around.

The team was comprised of mostly the same crew and drivers from the winning 2005 team.  Returning drivers were 2006 Honda Challenge Champion Andrew Zimmermann, two-time Honda Challenge Champion and SCCA ITS Champion Jon Kofod, and NASA BMW Spec E30 competitor John Allen (who didn’t drive in 2005 but helped crew with the team). The new addition to the team would be rookie Will Fox, who had impressed the team with his speed and consistency in his first season of SCCA racing in 2006.

The weekend got off to a great start when John Allen put Zimmermann’s #18 ITA class Acura Integra LS on the pole with a blistering lap nearly four second faster than the 2nd place #44 Mazda Miata. The Flatoutracing.net/Hankook Tires team would start 22nd on the grid overall out of some 70+ cars. John Allen would drive the opening stint followed by Fox, then Kofod and finally Zimmermann rounding out the first eight hours.

The race started with a green flag which saw nearly 80 cars take the checked flag. Allen immediately started matching his qualifying times in the first few laps and was picking off many of the faster classed cars and building a gap to the 2nd place #44 Miata. Allen was up as high as 7th place overall when the first kink in the armor started to appear. Exiting turn four at about the 1:45 mark Allen started to run out of fuel and finally parked the car in the south paddock near the back straight. After some quick inquiries with the chief stewards it was determined that a fill up of gas in the south paddock was legal and the team raced their tow vehicle to Allen and refilled the car. A full course yellow at the same time provided some cushion for the stop.

After Allen stayed out another thirty minutes it was time for a driver change and Will Fox took over. After getting comfortable in the car for a few laps Fox immediately started clicking off fast laps that were nearly four second per lap quicker than the #44 Miata and the third place #04 Miata.  Then the troubles began when Fox lost all use of fourth gear. Fox brought the car in shortly thereafter and the team then went about changing the front brakes and tires. The stop was made in record time but a quick glance over the transmission revealed nothing visible so Kofod was sent out for the next stint.

Over the ensuing two plus hours Kofod clicked of hot lap after hot lap despite the absence of fourth gear and was able to match or better the lap times of the #44 and #04 Miata’s. Kofod consistently ran in the 2:23 and 2:24 second range, even dipping into the 2:22 range a few times. However the lap times don’t translate how hard it was to pass cars which normally would be slower. Kofod lost all exit speed on the two most crucial parts of the track, the front and back straights where 5th gear meant a drag race with slower cars and last second brake dives to take a position. “It was really frustrating with no fourth gear and it meant I had to take many chances in other sections of the track where bad things can happen but I had nothing to lose so I just drove the wheels off the car.”

Kofod was slowly catching the #04 Miata when the call came in on the radio to come in to the pits for a stop and go black flag penalty for metal to metal contact. This meant the loss of all momentum and it was later discovered that an error had been made and no such contact had taken place. At this stage Kofod called in to get the next driver ready and Zimmermann suited up.

With Zimmermann in the car the transmission woes only got worse as gear fluid was leaking from the car and causing a plume of smoke from underneath. Zimmermann finally pitted after less than thirty minutes out on track. The team looked the car over in the pits and then decided to drive back to the trailer to locate the problem. Zimmermann and crew member Brian Curry quickly located the leak to the driver’s side axle and a decision was quickly made to swap transmissions as well. With the help of Sean Banerjee and John Tavolacci, Allen, Curry and Zimmermann swapped transmissions and axles around 7:00 pm and sent Will Fox out for another run.

Fox quickly got back up to pace only to encounter problems when the car died on track. He was towed back to the trailer and the team found that a distributor harness connector had worked its way loose. At this stage only two hours remained and John Allen was put in for the final stint.

Despite no limited slip differential and a stock final drive Allen put on a show in the closing stages, running qualifying like times for the remaining two hours.  The team did have to bring him in to the pits for an unexpected fuel splash with fifteen minutes remaining but otherwise the final stint ended with Allen taking the checkered flag at 10:15 pm at the front of the pack.

Despite missing a podium the team was happy to finish the grueling 13 hour race which saw a very high attrition rate in the last few hours.  A special thanks goes to Hankook Tires USA which supplied the team with Ventus Z214’s racing tires which proved their speed, durability and consistency throughout the race. In fact, the team was able to run the rear tires for the entire race and the front tires taken off at the half way point showed no significant wear and could have likely gone the distance had the team not needed to change front brake pads.
Special thanks go to the following:

Andrew Zimmermann (Car owner and principle driver)
John Allen (Co-driver)
Will Fox (Co-driver)
Jon Kofod (Co-driver)
Sean Banerjee (Team Representative and Crew Chief)
John Tavolacci (Crew member and mechanic)
Brian Curry (Crew member and mechanic)
Bill “Doc” Fox (Crew member and photographer)

Davis Acura
Icarp.net
Poore Performance
Tein
Partners Capital Investment Group, LLC