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FFR’s Ride the
Rollercoaster That Is Grattan Raceway
Belding, MI - On June 5 & 6, The
Great Lakes FFR’s returned to Grattan Raceway to race the track that
easily compares to the wildest rollercoaster ride with it elevation
changes, blind corners, and off-camber turns. Brian Sanders, Peter
LaRose and Lyle Riggen showed up Friday for the best two out of three
challenge. As for the weather, no one could ask for anything better. It
was virtually perfect.
Friday morning practice was cut
short as Steve Kolrud, former FFR owner, stuffed his home built sports
racer into a tree. This meant that qualifying would be attempted with no
previous hot-laps. The qualifying session put Sanders on the pole
followed by Riggen and LaRose. For the race, all cars in the group were
gridded by qualifying times rather than class. This put a car or two
between each of the Challenge racers. In the mad scramble at the start
of the race, Sanders and Riggen entered turn one together but by turn
three Sanders was able to claim the lead. With Riggen on a new set of
RA-1’s and Sanders on a well seasoned set, Sanders was able to stretch
out his lead to over thirty seconds by lap twenty, when it all went
horribly wrong as third gear exploded in Sanders’ tranny. Over the next
3 laps Riggen motored on, turning laps fifteen seconds faster than
Sanders. On the white flag lap Riggen passed Sanders to take the lead
and a seventeen second victory. While Sanders struggled with 2nd
and 4th gear laps, LaRose was sitting trackside after
throwing a drive belt about the same time as the gear loss.
Immediately following the race a
tranny swap was started. As always when a Challenge car goes down,
everyone jumps in. First on the scene was Joe Gilmartin, Riggen crewman
and future Series racer. Shortly thereafter he was joined by Lyle and
Julie Riggen and LaRose. In short order the tranny was out and it was
decided we should join in the NASA post race awards and dinner. Then it
was back to the install. At this point the swap team was joined by
Kolrud to button up the swap. This reporter would be remiss for not
mentioning the extra effort put forth by Joe. It seems that Joe was
concerned about the firebottle system on Sanders car and felt it
necessary to test it (grin). It was discovered that Joe had left a
wrench on a driveshaft bolt when it was decided to move the car. The
wrench caught the actuation cable and discharged the system. In Joe’s
defense there is a little more to the story. The decision to move the
car was because it was not very stable on jack stands in the grass
paddock area. As Joe lay under the car wrenching on the drive shaft, the
car shifted and he scrambled out from under the car. And needless to say
the wrench was forgotten.
Saturday qualifying went well
for no one except maybe Riggen. Sanders was feeling out the new tranny
making sure nothing was amiss. Just as he was convinced and ready for a
hot lap, a GTS car exploded on the front straight and oiled down the
turn one braking zone and all the way up to turn two. Session over! On
the bright side, Riggen and LaRose got in a couple good laps and ended
with Riggen on pole followed by LaRose.
For the Saturday races, the Race
Director decided to grid the cars by class with the class with the most
cars up front. This put the GTS cars in front of the FFR’s. This also
put Sanders right behind Riggen for the start. As the green flag waived,
Riggen went to the center of the track as Sanders dove to the inside
over the pit-out blend line and found no one in front of him. A car died
in the outside row jamming everyone up and Sanders grabbed a 5 second
lead very quickly but short lived as double yellows starting flying at
every corner. This put Riggen right back on Sanders bumper as the cars
were picked up by the pace car. On the restart, Sanders and Riggen took
off to battle. Nearly every lap of the race had them running within a
tenth of one another and nearly nose to tail except for when Riggen
would poke his nose out for look going into turn one. However, Sanders
was able to hold him off for victory by a mere 0.191 seconds. LaRose
rounded out the field running faster and faster personal laps at this
challenging track.
For race two, the grid was the
same. This time Riggen got the stellar start followed by LaRose and
Sanders bringing up the rear. It would stay this way over the next five
laps until Sanders looked down at his gauges to see the temp gauge
pegged. At this point he retired. Riggen roared on to his second win of
the weekend and Peter turned even fast personal times.
Since this weekend was a best
two of three race format, Riggen walks away with 200 points, Sanders 190
points and LaRose 175.
The next stop for the NASA Great
Lakes FFR Challenge Series is Mid-Ohio on July 11 & 12. Joining the
Great Lakes regulars will be several racers from the east coast making
this the largest Regional Challenge Series to date.
C’ya at the track!
Brian Sanders
Great Lakes/Midwest FFR Challenge Series Director
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