Saint Petersburg is really a very nice town but the race track is pretty narrow in some corners, the concrete walls, guardrails are rather unforgiving, almost no escape roads….what could possibly go wrong? A lot of cars and drivers found out throughout the weekend.
Thursday we had the traditional track walk and it took us about three laps to wrap our heads around 95% of the place with 5% still being somewhat of an unknown especially for Ethan who had never been at St. Pete before.
Friday morning, first practice and very early a few cars suffered severe damage that ended their weekend. The track was very dirty, no grip and both drivers offered very similar feedback. Nate had pushed a little harder than Ethan and was complaining about traction on corner exit and a vibration underneath the car in the driver seat area. We made a small shock adjustment in prediction of grip improvement and to try to help with the reported traction problem.
The second session was pretty good as we were on older used tires as opposed to most of the field on new stickers and Nate put in a lap that was good enough for 3rd fastest while Ethan made a measured but noticeable step forward while still coming to grips with the track. More track accidents but we were clear of any damage and our cars were pristine. The after session debrief was consistent with both drivers again complaining about traction. After talking to other drivers and hearing that most everyone was having traction problems, we felt pretty good about the upcoming qualifying session. We were able to cure the earlier vibration problem reported by Nate.
Practice 3, was a 15 minute session right before qualifying, the cars were a known quantity, we were relatively confident in a front row start and did only one installation lap to scrub a set of stickers for race 2 while avoiding unnecessary risks.
Qualifying:
We were in Pit boxes 1 and 2 on new tires and decided to leave right away to avoid traffic problems and not really try to get the benefit of anyone’s tow as we knew that Nate was fast enough for pole or P2. Of course the red flag came out, during our prime lap, before we could cross the timing line and had to abort the lap. Both cars return to the pits. We were now unlikely to get pole but, what we didn’t yet know and, we only found out after qualifying, Nate had a differential problem and therefore his chances for a good starting position were actually compromised. Never the less he put in a great lap and qualified P7 with Ethan making another half a second per lap improvement that was good enough for a P 19 start in a very tight field. We knew that Ethan races very well so we were still hopeful of a strong race like at Daytona but, at the same time, the thought of him starting so far back was unnerving due to the increase probabilities of getting caught in someone else’s mistake.
After the qualifying debrief, we decided to do more car checks and discovered that the traction problem on Nate’s car was due to a failed differential clutch. Mazda did not have another spare differential, therefore we had to search for one from another team willing to loan or sell us one. There weren’t many good options available but luckily our friends at Advance Autosport came to the rescue and agreed to help us. Our crew changed the differential the morning of race 1 and we were now ready.
Race 1: Normal start, no drama, both cars made it through, and we could breathe again. The very next lap, Nate lost a few positions, and it became clear that something was wrong. Turns out the differential we had sourced, unbeknown to us or Advance had his own problems and that was the reason why Nate had lost positions but he quickly adapted to the deficit and learned to drive around the problem to compensate for the deficiency. Cars aren’t always perfect but good drivers adapt, so did Nate. After about a lap and a half he regained pace, started to hold position and a lap later started regaining spots. Ethan, in the meantime, was driving a measured race and improving positions without taking major risks and only making high percentage moves. The race settled into a rhythm until a competitors differential failed and lost oil on the track causing a major accident with multiple cars involved. Nate was ahead of the oil but Ethan was right behind the failure, had great situational awareness and was able to come through unscathed while other cars crashed. I remember Prost doing the same thing at Zeltweg in Austria 1985, several top drivers out but he avoided it. Some drivers can do that, they don’t have a sixth sense, they just have more situational awareness. Yellow flag and Nate gets passed by Workman, we report the incident to race control and the officials make him cede position back. No harm no fowl, almost. Nate is now P5 and Ethan P 9. I would happily take the results, both cars are still immaculate, but the emergency services do a great job. There’s still a restart and a few more minutes to go. Nate is under pressure but defending his position well placing the car perfectly. Last lap, Workman that had passed Nate under yellow is behind him and pushes him off track resulting in substantial damage for Nate. Workman’s car gets a 10 second penalty but ends our race with Nate Cicero and, to add insult to injury, he his classified ahead of us. I am livid and so is the rest of the team, but we maintain composure…considering the circumstances anyway. Nate is obviously upset and demoralized after putting such a strong effort, emotions run high and we all want a head on the platter….Workman comes over to offer a poor apology to Nate and says: “it was a simple mistake, you know I don’t race this way”. (Editors note- the rest of this section has been omitted due to political correctness, if you want the rest feel free to reach out to Jay Saito).
Race 2: The crew changed the differential again on Nate’s car (courtesy of our friendly competitors at MMR that came to the rescue…they truly are a great group of racers and outstanding people…we can’t thank them enough and clearly, we owe them) but the car is wounded from the previous day’s accident. Nate puts another outstanding performance, 5th and solid points is the best he could do under the circumstances. Ethan’s Car brakes an oil filter housing bracket and suffers a sudden oil pressure loss on the out lap and, ending the day before even taking the green flag. In short St. Pete could have been worse, but it certainly wasn’t kind to SMG and its drivers. We move on to Barber for round 5 and 6 on May 2nd through May 4th . As usual a final thank you must be for our drivers Nate Cicero and Ethan Goulart and our wonderful crew: Rob, Zach, Chuck, Cory and Niki.
Everyone put in long hours and did a great job, it just didn’t go our way, let’s go after it, we deserve better.
Final thoughts on the weekend:
Yes, I get it, It was a chaotic race, it is a hectic environment, we are all human and we all make mistakes… but there’s something called post-race review where things can be reviewed with a little more time, in the proper light and results rectified appropriately.
Driver behavior should and must be punished by the officials, we received a lot of stiff penalties last year for minor incidents.
There’s nothing in the rule book that specifies different penalties for A teams or B teams or lighter penalties for certain drivers.
Some cars caused accidents and received drive through penalties while others committed comparable offences and only received a 10 second penalty. How is that for fairness?
The facts are the facts, the precedents are known to all, why is this driver not receiving a racing ban?
I still maintain and have expressed on deaf ears that driver behavior must be improved for the benefit of the competitors, the series, the public and tv audiences that enjoys racing as opposed to yellow flag parades.
The suggestion is to start with though but fair officials that sets clear expectations applying the same consequences for all, it continues with fines imposed to drivers that are deemed at fault and cause physical damages to other cars.
First offense is a “friendly talk”, The fines start at $ 750 per driver and per offended car for the second offense with a “stern talk”, it should escalate to $ 1,000 for the third offense, coupled with a race ban, $ 1,250 for fourth offense and a competition ban for an entire event.
5Th offense is a mandatory 3-month suspension from active participation in IMSA competitions.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see certain individuals to achieve the 3rd offense level in a single competition weekend.
Fines should be collected by Andersen promotion for distributions to offended team cars.
Simple and effective solutions are needed. What’s the worst that can happen? Teams will have a little more funds for cosmetic repairs.
