Double Podium at COTA in Trans-Am
They say everything is bigger in Texas. We proved that true based on how they barbecue and build their race tracks on our recent visit to the Lone Star State. Circuit of the Americas doesn't need any introduction, especially if you're an F1 fan and it was special to have the chance to go racing at one of the country's most prestigious venues.
Trans-Am does a terrific job bringing their National and West Coast series together for the final race each year at COTA. It results in big fields that fill out the extensive 3.4-mile circuit. This year, we've had David Hampton, Larry Luck, and Martin Sarukhanyan competing in Trans-Am's West Coast GT Championship. All of us were excited to have the season culminating race at COTA, especially David who was in contention for the West Coast Series Championship.
Entering the event, David sat 2nd in points, narrowly behind JC Meynet in his Corvette. The two have battled extensively throughout the season, finishing side by side at the previous round in Spring Mountain, with JC taking the win by the narrowest of margins. However, David was still in the running with a good result in COTA.
A crew of Martin, John, Josh, and Hector left early on Monday to handle some repairs/prep work on all three cars at Mark Martin's shop, about an hour and a half from the track. They gave us some space to fix the M3, which needed almost everything on the front right suspension replaced after Larry was hit after his spin during the race in Spring Mountain. Martin did a great job sourcing all the spares needed for the repair quickly, and the boys got to work getting everything replaced and squared up. The rest of the crew arrived Wednesday, which was set up day in a packed paddock. We were spoiled and had a garage to work out of all week with floors that were so clean and shiny you could eat off them and best of all, Chef Ben Bettinger joined us again, bringing his magical talents to keep our stomachs smiling.
Photo Credit: Mike Cartier
Thursday and Friday were very productive test days for everyone. We learned that the track was bumpy. Very bumpy. Not the curbs but the pavement itself. "Outside of the bumps, the track was just amazing to drive, so fast and flowy," said David. Larry explained similar thoughts. "This track is just crazy. So much to learn and lots of blind spots that you don't notice until you're out there doing it. But the back straight is something else. Just so fast!"
One staple of COTA is the massive tower in the middle of the track. Open to spectators and spotters, it's the place to watch as it allows you to see nearly the entire track from 25 stories or 250 feet up. We discovered that Eddie, Kyle, and a few others weren't big fans of the height or parts of the glass floor at the top. The whole thing also shakes a bit in the wind, but it's a spectacular view that is worth the trip if you've never been. It also makes it quite nice for our spotters.
Saturday morning was qualifying day for Trans-Am after a morning practice session. Martin's Miata "Greta' has been hungry for transmissions recently and ate another one at COTA. The original failed at the end of the race at Spring Mountain. With only hours before qualifying, the crew jumped into action to try and salvage the two broken transmissions and build one usable one without doing a complete teardown and repair. The garage floor wasn't so pretty for a bit while John, Martin, Josh, and Steven were going to work. With driver and crew chief meetings amid all of this, they somehow got it assembled in hopes that it was enough to get him through the qualifying session. Martin, Austin, Kyle, and Hector got the transmission installed, and the car made it to the ground minutes before the session was set to start. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, as the car would not go into gear in the garage. "It didn't end up working out, but it was a valiant effort by everyone to chip in to try and get me out on track. I'm thankful to be surrounded by such a great group," said Martin. Luckily, Austin was able to locate a friend about an hour away who had an NB 6-speed transmission, and we were able to retrieve that and install it late Saturday night. Most of the crew stayed late to get it swapped and ready before Sunday's race.
Photo Credit: Mike Cartier
David qualified 3rd in the West Coast GT class, right on the heels of Kevin and JC. All three of them were only separated by half a second! Larry qualified 4th, and Martin did not set a time and would start from the back on Sunday.
David and Larry decided to also enter the International GT Series (IGT) and Trans-Am at COTA. IGT is a series of recent factory-built GT cars that compete against one another in various classes. From GT4 Clubsports to Porsche Cups to Ferrari Challenge and a few special 911 GT3 Rs that were former IMSA cars. It was a fantastic mix of modern machinery to share the track with and it also provided Larry and David with more track time. Sunday morning, IGT has a 1-hour enduro allowing drivers to share their cars with a co-driver. Eddie joined David in the Cayman, and Martin joined Larry in the M3. Our crew all had some bets going on which pairing would win!
Photo Credit: Mike Cartier
David and Larry had a great stint and ran some solid times in the early morning fog. Larry found nearly 4 seconds of lap time during the enduro and ran some fantastic laps. David matched his best time of the weekend as well. Eddie "Nocatto" (timing and scoring mistake) and Martin finished it out both running nearly identical lap times to each other, with both of them in the 2:22s. In the end, Eddie and David finished 4th out of 6 in the Cayman class which was an excellent result considering all of the other Caymans had proper pro drivers behind the wheel for half of the race with the likes of Spencer Pumpelly, Eric Filgueiras, Riley Dickinson, and Katherine Legge sharing cars with their clients. They held their own and ran as high as 2nd after the pit stops.
Larry and Martin finished on the podium in their class! But David and Eddie did end up beating the boys in the M3. The enduro served as a great warm-up to get the drivers' mindsets right before the big dance in the afternoon.
Photo Credit: Mike Cartier
The Trans-Am race got off to an excellent start for our drivers avoiding contact and settling in. David had a great series of opening laps, quickly passing Kevin and sticking with JC in his Corvette. The two raced nose to tail for a few laps before David drafted him down the back straight and went late on the brakes to pass him into the hairpin to take the lead in the GT West class.
Photo Credit: Justin Kasulka
Larry had Martin on his bumper for a bit but was slowly able to pull away before a caution came out, bunching the pack back up. After the restart, Martin was hounding Larry again for a while. JC stuck behind David for 2-3 laps, but David found his groove and started putting down a bunch of quick laps to start pulling away.
Photo Credit: Justin Kasulka
David still had his hands full, though, as he tried to fend off another national GT class car for third overall. Todd Napieralski, in his Camaro, was hot on his heels for most of the race. It was a hotly contested race down to the final few laps. Todd got a good run onto the front straight and moved to the outside, while David went late on the brakes to defend but unfortunately ran a little deep and missed the apex, allowing Todd to sneak through. David crossed the line 1st in the GT West class and 4th overall out of 12 in GT National. Larry drove a smart, clean race and took home 3rd in the GT West class and 5th overall in GT, and Martin finished 4th in GT West and 6th overall in GT. To have all three of our cars in the top 6 out of 12 in the GT class was a big success in our book!
David drove one of his best races, finishing over 20 seconds ahead of JC on track. Considering these two have been nearly equal at every track, David having the upper hand is a testament to his hard work to quickly pick up a new track! "I learned so much listening to Thomas, Austin, Brad, and John. Those guys keep me motivated and continue to help me find more speed. To improve over 10 seconds from the start of the week till now is just unbelievable". We had a communication issue with Trans-Am and were issued a post-race penalty for not following their waveback procedure properly under the early caution. We entered the pit lane and did a wave back, but we did it a lap after the rest of the field. David, Larry, and Martin were issued a 40-second time penalty, which only affected David as he was moved from 1st to 2nd on the official results. It's not what we expected, but sometimes these things happen. We learned a few things and will be better prepared to prevent this sort of communication issue from race control in the future.
Luckily, this did not affect the Championship, as JC still would have clinched it by finishing second. Congratulations to their team; it was well earned, and it was a privilege to compete against him and Kevin all season.
We are very proud of David, Larry, and Martin. These three worked really hard to improve their skills, racecraft, and consistency all season which includes sometimes learning from mistakes. They all earned some fantastic results that we know they are proud of. We can’t wait for what’s to come in 2024!
COTA was pretty amazing and we can't wait to return in the future. It was a fantastic facility to race at, especially when surrounded by over 300 other professional and vintage race cars filling the paddock and Chef Ben served us delicious meal after delicious meal. He's truly our secret weapon, keeping everyone happy and full. His culinary creations never disappoint.