Sebring Race Report
Demon Speed is committed to come to all of the PCA races that are featuring the Clubsport events. We at Demon Speed hope to be able to fund end of year points trophies, we are just waiting on the go ahead from PCA. Clubsport points and ranking will be appearing on the Demon Speed website soon so stay tuned! Points trophies are great, however the individual race trophies are pretty darn cool all in themselves. So, sign up for VIR on March 21st through the 23rd and come race with us. It is a great track and we will all have a great time.
Good day everyone.
Here is the race report for Sebring.
Hauling to Sebring is a bit of a ride for us, we usually do not go that far. This is only the second time we have ventured to Sebring. The last time was in 2018 where we were there with International GT in our successful quest to take home the Carrera Cup Championship for that year. It was still winter in Cleveland, we loaded the trailer then stashed it in a building for a week so everything would not freeze. We left on a cold Tuesday morning, heading south to make the Thursday practice sessions. I, unfortunately, woke up with a cold which set the tone for the whole weekend. Travel went well, we made it as far as the Florida Georgia line before it was time to stop to get some sleep. We did not get a hotel, but slept in the truck for fear of things disappearing while we slept.
More driving followed on Wednesday, but we arrived at the track early. We were pleasantly surprised at how well organized the club was for assigning us parking areas and escorting us to our spots. We really appreciated that and it was a special extra touch.
Thursday morning meant practice day was upon us. Many of the cars on the track had already been there the previous two days as well, so we were off the pace and watching the mirrors. The first session out it was obvious the Demon Speed car had an issue. The car had a miss which eventually fixed itself, but not for the better. Now we were running on 5 cylinders. The ONLY advantage of this is we sounded like the Cadillac DP car. We received many compliments on this. The saying physician heal thine self comes to mind as we wandered the pits for spark plugs and coils. We did get some help from Autometrics and Speed Sport, both great groups of people. The real help had to come from home. The Demon Speed team left behind sent an overnight a full set of the 991.1 NGK spark plugs and the factory coils.
Friday came, but the early AM UPS that we paid for did not. The box finally arrived at about 11:30. New parts in and our first session under full power was qualifying. With full power all of my braking points and what I was used to in the long sweepers was out the window. We managed a respectable time, but still 5th out of 6 competitors.
The first race on Saturday was a great time for us. Great battles with the other guys in class and managing the higher class cars that ended up around us. Knowing that the second race grid was predicated on the fast lap of the first race, I made sure that I had at least one flying lap to set myself up well for the second race. A second attempt at a flyer saw me flinging myself around between 15 and 16.
The plan worked well. I was able to move from 5th in class to 1st in class for the grid for the second race. But, as can happen when you come to a track for a second time in a decade, one fast lap does not make for a fast race, so in the second race I was shuffled back to third. Jeff Smith was very fast. He was able to cut through traffic with much more confidence than I had.
Still, a great race put on very well. A trophy ceremony commenced for the Clubsport classes after the second race (which I missed). They also had live streaming, which you can still get to on Youtube (see link below). If you are looking for the Demon Speed car, you will only see glimpses, however, because the focus was on the battle at the front overall. But, awesome the PCA had it live streamed. Still fun to watch a race with yourself in it with some great commentary.
One short 17 hour ironman drive home that contained 4 gas stops and nothing else and we slept in our own beds Sunday night.
Again, please put VIR on your calendar. Don’t let me podium alone or at least, don’t let the podium get handed to me. Yes, I have been to VIR more than once in my lifetime, but it has been 3 years now since I was there, so I will be doing some relearning. And, hopefully I will not be sick for the whole week like Sebring. From the entire Demon Speed Team, we look forward to seeing you there.
Here is the link for the PCA race streaming.
https://www.youtube.com/live/rTH_dMnZRX4?si=y5sCEoFNHRi5fv9p
