Continental Tire
Sports Car Challenge: BMW Performance 200 recap for HART Racing
After a long winter break, HART is ready to start the 2014
season with a new 2014 Honda Civic Si and its current 2012 Civic Si from last
season. The driver lineup will stay
mostly the same with Chad Gilsinger and Michael Valiante driving the #93 and
Steve Eich, Kevin Boehm, and John Schmitt sharing duties for the #92 car. The crew has been spending the off-season
updating equipment, tools, and most importantly, practicing pit stops. Races are often won or lost in the pits, and
HART is sure to be one of the teams to watch down pit lane.
With temperatures being below zero and snow covering the
ground, the Ohio-based team had a rough few days loading for this season’s
opener, but everyone is always excited to head down south to Daytona. The
team has always been strong on the famous Daytona circuit and was leading the
race last year until suffering brake pad failure, which forced it to retire.
After testing with multiple brake pad manufacturers, the team is
confident that reliability will not be an issue this year.
Practice
1 would set the tone as each team went on track to kick off the 2014
season. The off-season work and
continuous improvement from the team paid dividends early as it led the first
practice session, setting the bar for the weekend. Knowing the car was strong, the team used the
second practice session to fine-tune the chassis that would keep the car
consistent throughout the entire 2.5 hour race.
New for this year, teams are required to start the race on the same tires
they qualify on, so it will be more important to manage tire wear, even in
qualifying. Qualifying is once again a
15-minute shootout for each class. At a
track like Daytona, it is critical to get a draft. Without a draft, you can
lose 1-1.5 seconds of lap time, which could cost you 10-15 spots on the grid. The team decided to partner with other teams
to try and work with one another out on track.
John Schmitt qualified the #92 car while Chad Gilsinger qualified the
#93 car. Both cars were slotted solidly
in the middle of the field in the early laps, but the team knew both cars were
stronger. It’s all about timing, and
Gilsinger was able to time the draft in the last few laps of qualifying, laying
down a 2 minute, 04.861 second lap on
the last lap which put him second on the
grid, only 0.092 seconds off of pole.
Schmitt was unable to catch a good draft and had to settle for 18th
in the 35-car field.
On the morning of race day, the team used its final practice
to focus on pit stops. The drivers would
do ‘out’ and ‘in’ laps to practice actual ‘hot’ stops in the pits, just as they
would in the race. This was valuable
testing as the team was able to set up the equipment perfectly for the race. As practice came to a close, the team only
had a couple of hours to get the cars ready for the race. The weather was the best it had been all week,
with sunny skies and brisk 60-degree temperatures. The green flag would drop at 1:45 p.m. to
begin the 2014 season. Both cars had a
great start, as #93 battled with two BMWs for the lead and #92 was able to use
the draft to move through the field. The #93 would continue to swap places
between 3rd and 4th with another Civic Si, but the two
BMWs up front were gaining a little bit each lap. The 6th-gear ratio in the Honda is
great for fuel economy in public use, but at 150 mph, it could not keep up with
the Autobahn-designed gearing of the BMW.
Meanwhile, the #92 car was able
to pick up some spots and made sure to stay with the pack until the first round
of pit stops.
A yellow-flag came out just before the halfway mark, so HART
decided to take the opportunity to pit both cars for driver changes. Michael Valiante would take over the #93 car
and Kevin Boehm would now pilot the #92.
This year, the new IMSA timing and scoring system logs total time from or
’Pit In’ to ’Pit Out’ for each car. The
HART crew lived up to its reputation and
proved that practice does make perfect as both cars were serviced in almost
exactly the same amount of time and their pit stops were among the top five best times among all the teams! At this point, it was up to the drivers.
After the first round of pit stops, Valiante was still in
the top five on track and Boehm was right around mid-pack. Both drivers were anxious to move to the
front, but the second half of the race was littered with cautions that
restricted passing and ticked time off the clock. Valiante was able to move up to fourth while
battling with another Civic Si fielded by the Compass 360 team, and Boehm was attempting
to move into the top 10. With about 15
minutes left in the race, Valiante and the Compass Civic Si were nose-to-tail
while approaching a lapped car going into the “bus stop” turn at 140 mph. The lapped car did not yield to the leaders
and caught the Compass car off-guard, causing him to take an evasive maneuver
which led to contact with the HART car, and the rest is history. Once again, the bad luck streak at Daytona showed
its head, as the Civics made contact with each other and then the wall. The race was done for the #93 car, and would
now end under caution to clean up all the debris. This would ultimately hurt the #92 car as
well, forcing it to finish in the 13th position under caution.
“It’s not really the result we were hoping for, but at least
we know we have strong cars”, said crew chief Andrew Salzano. “The crew did an awesome job during the pit
stops and the drivers showed our competitiveness. We did everything right, but
we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The damage to #93 was
limited to mostly bolt-on parts, so the team should be able to repair the cars
quickly for the next race in mid-March at Sebring. This will be the first time the team has been
to Sebring in many years and the first time it will run the Civic Si
there. This first race was filled with
plenty of ups and downs, but the HART team has high hopes moving forward. This being Race One of a 12-race series, the
excitement has just begun.
You can follow all the action on the new IMSA website,
www.imsa.com
The next event will be at Sebring on March 12-15th. This will mark the first time for many HART
members to visit this historic track.
To keep up with HART’s progress and to see pictures and
video of the cars and team, Like us on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/HARTracingteam
)
Follow HART on Twitter
@HARTracingteam
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