~ by Daniel Demaras ~
Four years ago, I met the DriveTeq team of Rick and Gerry on my first ever track day. I never imagined all this time later, I’d be racing for them. Joining DriveTeq for a season of endurance racing at Round 2, having missed the Shannonville race in May, would be a challenge. My first event with the team would be at my home track of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Saturday morning, over 20 cars lined up on pitlane for the first eight hours of racing competition that weekend. A field of mostly Hondas, BMWs, and Porsches, teams big and small were ready to tackle the hot conditions and attritional endurance race.
Teammate Daniel Ali was the first to take the track in the No. 822 DriveTeq BMW. After a strong start to the race, he radioed in before the 30 minute mark, reporting smoke from under the hood. A faulty oil cap had allowed the oil to spill throughout the engine bay. The crew worked swiftly to replace the cap and clean the smoking engine, losing a few laps but getting the car back on track.
After the morning setback, the team got into a steady rhythm, slowly moving up the field with strong pace while others ran into their own difficulties. Crashes and mechanical failures occurred throughout the day, showing the challenges of such a long race. At 3:00 pm, I got in the car for my first ever endurance racing stint.
Getting in the car mid race was a unique challenge, coming to grips with the car and conditions while on track with other drivers fully up to speed. A big kick of oversteer out of turn 5 made me knock the windshield wipers on while settling the car down, and it took a while to find a groove. When I did, the #822 machine was the fastest car on track, working its way through packs of cars.
Endurance racing posed novel challenges to me, coming from sprint racing. It was imperative I be gentle on the tires and equipment, as the car was running under high stress for a long period of time. Trying to strike the balance between aggression and preservation was difficult, and took a while to understand. Luckily, endurance racing provides the driver the opportunity to learn and improve throughout a stint.
With about 45 minutes remaining in the race, I’d made up ground and continued to do so, when I began having difficulties with the gearbox. I reported the issues to the pits, realizing I had lost 3rd and 5th gear. They told me to finish the stint and bring the car home; deal with the issue.
I took a few laps to understand the best way to deal with a gear too high to provide launch out of the corners, and a gear too high to produce power on the straight. Eventually, I found a way of lapping within a few seconds of my earlier times with just 4th and 6th gear.
Although the gearbox ordeal caused a slowdown, I managed to hold on to 5th in class and cross the line without further issues. I felt all kinds of fatigue after this hot 2 hour stint, but was eager to come back on Sunday for another shot at racing glory.
To be continued…