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Chip Herr's Insight: SPEED World Challenge at Sebring 2007
By Chip Herr, STaSIS Engineering World Challenge Team
JustRacing.com is proud to present Part 1 of an exclusive 10-part column by World Challenge veteran and STaSIS Audi driver Chip Herr over the course of the 2007 SPEED World Challenge Touring Car season.
After a long winter, anyone that loves racing is waiting for Sebring. It isn't any different for drivers as it is for the fans. Every winter while putting together sponsors for the upcoming year and testing with the team in the off season, we are always excited about the 12 Hours of Sebring. For the STaSIS touring car team it is no different. Each year we add some new crew members to the team and, as this is very much a team sport, getting to know each and every new face is a very important part of bringing a team together. This year I have two new teammates in Ian Baas and Dino Crescentini. Both drivers are nationally known. Ian has driven many different cars but mostly Porsche's here in the states and over in Europe. Dino we all know from his successful seasons with the Tri-Point Mazda where he had many great finishes in SPEED World Challenge Touring Car. It turns out that Sebring was the first time that all of us ran together and it served to underscore that we have a very strong driver line up this year to contend for the manufactures/drivers championship. We have all tested but never all together. SCCA has a lot of items that need checked or inspected before the car even hits the track, so the goal on the first day when the team and the drivers show up is to help unload the cars and go through all the paces before the first race of the season.
The first session on track was the traditional Sebring test day and I was so excited just to see my name on the side of the STaSIS Audi again for 2007. I understand how hard it is to be a professional in this career, so I always take the time to thank the people that help me along the way. The first day I ended up making many changes to help the car work for my driving style and also to deal with Sebring's famously rough track surface. A big part of my job is working with our engineers to get the car to have fast corner speed, solid braking, and smooth acceleration. The hard part about Sebring for me is I like a low car that has little shock travel, but Sebring is so bumpy that you have to raise the car and that changes many characteristics of the car's handling. It takes a lot of effort on my part and the engineers to help figure out what we need to get the car to be as fast as possible. At the end of the day I wasn't completely confident and was placed somewhere just outside of the Top Ten.
My teammate Dino was dialed in and was quickest out of all the touring cars. He said he felt very good and the car was really working for him. After each session we spent a lot of time comparing data and learned where we can find speed. Once qualifying came I was lined up in the third spot because that is where I finished last year in the championship. I found some space to lay my hot lap with fresh tires and during the lap the car seemed to have moderate oversteer, more than normal, but I knew that the car would be great at the end of the race. The car changes from the start of the race to the end. One thing a driver must do is decide what is more important: a fast car on the start of the race or a fast car at the end of the end. I ended up in the 10th place spot. I wasn't very excited about the way I qualified but I was only .2 seconds from the fourth place spot. Our team was worried about SCCA changing our rev limit in first gear which will affect our launch. When the race started and the lights went out I was very lucky to have three cars sleeping on the line and moved into the 7th spot.
Running very close to Sofronas and Thomas in the BMWs, I could tell that the Bimmers were very strong as they have been historically in World Challenge. Coming out of turn 7 (the slow safety pin), Thomas was on the inside of Wittmer in the Acura and there was contact between the two, putting Thomas into a tank slapper which really checked up Sofronas. I had to make an evasive move through the grass to avoid contact and ended up getting by both BMWs which put me into the 5th spot. During the race I was having to make adjustments on the fly on the brake bias to help maximize my braking. I was losing the front 2 Acuras and 2 Mazdas a little bit at a time. The 4 cars were tucked in a draft and I was all by myself trying to run consistently and yet hoping for rain at the same time. Every lap on the back straight away I was praying to the rain to come. That would have been the only way to have any hope of getting on the podium. I did see that I was catching Wittmer and once I made a pass on that Acura and that moved me into the 4th spot. The rest of the race I spent trying to catch the front three - Altenburg, Pobst, and Kleinubing - but my car wasn't quite quick enough on the straights to catch them. I ended up finishing in the 4th spot which is a good start to the 2007 season. Unfortunately, 1 minute after the checkered came out it started to rain. I guess the stars weren't aligned for me that day.
Coming into the pits I found out that I had won the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars during the race and ended up on the podium with Ms. Sebring! In the end, STaSIS and I got off to a great start and we are all looking forward to the 2007 SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Championship.
I want to thank Eprodius.com, SafeRacer.com, STaSIS Engineering, Traqmate, Stoner Car Care Products, and Clear Capital in helping to make this a successful Touring Car season.
- Chip
For more information about Chip Herr and his racing career, please visit ww.ChipHerr.com.
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Posted On 3/28/07
 Del.icio.us
This story has been read 51193 time(s).
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