LAGUNA SECA, CA – It’s been a few rounds since we posted a race wrap-up and that’s no coincidence, seeing as we haven’t had a whole lot to write home about recently.
We currently lie 5th in points, but we’re looking to make a big jump forward by racking up another win at our best track this Saturday. Here’s what has happened since our last update in May.
WATKINS GLEN 4 HOUR
June 26th
Result: 11th // Championship: 5th
Multi-class racing giveth and multi-class racing taketh away.
Every race, starting driver Ernstone is forced to overtake a few of the GS backmarkers. It is always a challenge, given the large horsepower advantage the GS cars have. It’s also critical however, that he makes the move happen as early as possible or else he risks falling back from the TCR pack while stuck behind a slow GS.
Early in the 4-hour race at Watkins, Ernstone tried an outside move on the GS class car of Ted Giovanis into the toe of the boot. Unfortunately, at the same time, another TCR car was making an inside move on Giovanis, spooking him and sending him wide into Ernstone’s right rear.
The damage was significant, but the Road Shagger crew busted their asses and got the car back on track to pick up 4 valuable spots and the precious points that go along with them.
WATKINS GLEN 2 HOUR
July 3rd
Result: 2nd // Championship: 4th
The 2-hour at Watkins nearly deserved a write-up; but the disappointment of leading the race with 2 laps to go and then losing that lead due to some multi-class shenanigans, meant no write-up was to come.
The car had great pace and Ernstone redeemed himself from the prior week with a storming drive to 5th before the changeover. Morley obviously found the car to his liking as well, setting a new track record on his way to the lead.
Starting the penultimate lap in the lead, Morley had a small, but comfortable cushion over second place. That cushion ended up being his undoing though when he was held up by some slow GS traffic into the bus stop.
The gap allowed the two TCR cars behind him to maintain their momentum and sail by Morley as he tried to get back up to speed. He tried to fight back, but was then interfered with by yet another GS car pointlessly getting in the mix with the TCR class leaders.
Ahhh, multi-class racing. No doubt at this very moment, a GS driver somewhere is complaining about getting screwed by a TCR car. It’s the circle of whine.
Morley crossed the line in 3rd and RSR was later promoted to 2nd when the Honda ahead of him was found to be underweight in post-race tech.
LIME ROCK PARK
July 17th
Result: 11th // Championship: 5th
We have never liked Lime Rock.
Our fuel pump failed on 2nd warm up lap.
We still don’t like Lime Rock.
It should be noted however, that our heroic crew burnt the shit out of their forearms changing the fuel pump, just so we could once again go back out and pick up a few extra valuable points.
These guys rock!
ROAD AMERICA
August 7th
Result: 6th // Championship: 5th
Much to Ernstone’s pleasure, we finally had a kinda-mostly-fully wet race!
Ernstone once again demonstrated his British roots and the accompanying wet-weather prowess, moving quickly from his starting position of 9th into a 4-car battle for P3. He stayed in that battle and ran the second-fastest race lap just before coming in to hand the car over.
The driver change went great and Morley sat calmly waiting to be released. The stop lagged. Morley saw the fueler pull and he left. Unfortunately, there had been a fuel flow issue he was not aware of and he had to immediately come back in for a splash.
After making a second trip down the longest pit lane on planet earth, Morley found the car much to his liking and was routinely running lap times 2-3 seconds faster than the leaders. Yet incredibly, in some of the most challenging conditions of the year, there was no full course caution over the remaining 50 minutes to give Morley a shot at the leaders.
In spite of that, Morley was able to close down the 60 seconds he had lost to Mikey Taylor during his extra pit stop and drag the car from 11th up to 6th, finishing half a car-length behind Taylor at the stripe.
So that’s where we’re at. It’s been very, very frustrating. But there are three races to go and as we’ve just proven, anything can happen.
Everything about this team is so good and we know the results will come soon.
Tune in this Saturday to see if we can turn it around and start a late season charge for the title!
The free TrackPass deal from Michelin still seems to be working, so you can check that out HERE.
Laguna Seca, CA
All times shown in PT for this event.
FRIDAY September 10th
PRACTICE 1 – 11:30 – 12:30
PRACTICE 2 – 3:10 – 4:10
SATURDAY September 11th
QUALIFYING – 11:10 – 11:25
RACE – 4:40 – 6:40
Road Shagger Racing is a professional motorsports team racing in the TCR class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. They race an Audi RS 3 LMS TCR SEQ and are sponsored by Streamline Home Loans, Simply Vegas Real Estate, The Simply Group, Clear Title and Race For RP. All of their races are available for live streaming on IMSA TrackPass.
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Gavin Ernstone's Road Shagger Racing 