SPS

Friday morning, September 19, 2003 started off dry and calm in Dayton, Ohio. We awoke unusually early and drove our project ION to MidOhio for the SCCA National Championship Runoffs race. Our friend, Mike Kramer, would be racing his 1997 Saturn SC2 in the Showroom Stock C race as part of his ongoing quest to win his first national championship.

Mike and Tom pose next to the Thundersport SC2.

He had practiced and qualified well all week. For that matter, even in previous years, Mike had always done well at the Runoffs. But this year was going to be different. A course redesign for 2003 (to eliminate the chicane prior to the keyhole) had served as a huge advantage to the gearing of the SC2 – and a huge disadvantage to the gearing of the previously dominant Honda Civic Si. And thanks to a bump-draft push from fellow competitor Ken Payson on Thursday, Mike set a new SSC track record and earned the pole position for the start of the race.

The concern for the day was the weather. Hurricane Isabel had hit the east coast the day before and was moving northward and inland on Friday. The forecast called for lots of rain. As we drove northward on Interstate 71, the dry calm of the Friday morning turned wet. Then it became steady rain. And as we approached the Lexington area, the steady rain became pouring rain. But as we picked up our tickets at the front gate, the rain stopped and only clouds remained. As we parked the car, Bryan called from his desk at SPS with an internet weather report: The forecast was still calling for rain, but the radar clearly showed that the precipitation had already moved north of the track.

As we approached the ThunderSport Racing paddock, we could see crew chief Tom Brandlehner staring at the car. We said hello to crewmember (and fellow ITA racer) Chris Berube and stuck out a hand to Tom. But Tom was already wearing his game face. He looked me straight in the eyes and simply said, ‘Which tires?’

Now, I would love to think of myself as the man to ask for important tuning decisions prior to the most important race of Mike Kramer’s career. But I’m not. Tom has been racing with Mike since 1995 and has years of experience making this sort of decision. Whether or not he really wanted a specific answer from me, he didn’t get it. Instead, I shared what I knew about the weather: 1. The rain was moving north. 2. We drove into it on the way to the track. 3. Since it had stopped raining, the rain had probably already moved north. 4. This was confirmed by Bryan’s radar report. My guess was that we would not see any more rain for the rest of the morning.

At this point, Tommy got really excited and started exclaiming ‘Dry tires! We’re switching to dry tires!’ And Tom, Chris, and Ralph Kramer (Mike’s crewmember and Dad) got to work swapping wheels and tires. Mike was hanging out in the trailer, trying to stay calm and claiming to be oblivious to the gut wrenching decisions and physical labor going on under the canopy. This was going to be an exciting morning.

Jen and I always offer our labor to the ThunderSport crew. But at this point, we know that it is just a formality. These guys have their racing game down to a science, so we are free to act as careless guests. So we started our long walk toward the infield to watch the race from the hill above the section called ‘Madness.’

We arrived at our usual vantage point in time to catch most of the C Sports Racer (CSR) race. One of our friends from our own SCCA region was racing. Thanks in part to attrition, he finished quite well. But the race was mayhem. The track was still quite damp, so there was very little traction. And as a result, this first race of the day involved lots of off-course excursions and body-to-body contact. And these guys were normally more careful than the showroom stock group! Oh boy, if this was the CSR race, what was the SSC race going to be like? We started to feel a little anxious.

After the cleanup from the CSR race, the SSC group entered the track for a pace lap. Mike’s Panasonic-sponsored SC2 looked great. ‘Hope it looks that good after the race, too,’ I thought to myself.

From where we were standing, we could not see the green flag, but we could hear the start. Forty small-displacement 4-cylinder racecars with unmuffled tailpipes sounds a lot like a swarm of very large angry hornets when they all mash the throttle simultaneously. The entire field suddenly rushed into view at turn one, just below us. Mike was still on the inside of the front row, but his lead was measured with inches.

In years past, the first turn of the first lap had always brought incident. Nothing serious, generally, but almost always, someone gets punted off into the sand trap (known as China Beach) or gets turned around with a missing bumper cover. Miraculously, this year, the entire field made it through without any obvious issues. And as Mike apexed the turn and motored up the hill, it was apparent that he had already managed to pull out a slight lead over the second place Neon of John Fernandez.

When they came back around on the next lap, Mike was still in the lead by a full car length at least. Fernandez was behind him, and Tom Long was in the third spot in his Honda Civic. All three cars had already put some distance on the rest of the field. Further back in the top ten, the friendly clean racing had given way to hardcore ‘gotta get to the front’ racing. The Civics of Ken Payson and John Phillips got together in the keyhole, causing Payson to drop from 8th to 23rd, and causing Phillips to retire early.

Meanwhile, Mike seemed to be cruising toward victory. His lead had grown to several car lengths, and Fernandez and Long battled occasionally for the second spot, giving Mike an even greater advantage. But on the fourth lap, all of that changed. Last year’s champ, Joel Lipperini, and several other cars slid off the track at the end of the main straight (what most of us call turn ‘one’ during the Runoffs.) Several cars got stuck in the sand. Lipperini managed to keep enough forward momentum to get through the sand, then very narrowly missed the wall on the other side, and gingerly rejoined the action at the back of the pack. The others cars were not so lucky and would need to be dragged out of the sand by a tow-truck. This brought out a full-course yellow – which meant that the field would bunch up behind Mike, giving Fernandez and Long a fresh start. Bummer.

We could not see the restart. But like before, we could hear the engines go to full throttle as they got the green flag. And we could hear the announcers over the loudspeakers saying, ‘Mike Kramer gets a great start and it looks like he will restore his lead on the restart!’ Sure enough, by the time he came into view, he already had another full car length lead on Fernandez. Before long, the top three cars had created a seven second lead over the fourth place Civic of Bill Haggerty.

Tom Long had chosen intermediate tires for the race. And since the track was still pretty damp at this point, he managed to get past Fernandez to claim the second spot. But this would not last long. As the race wore on, the track continued to dry out. In fact, for a few brief moments, the sun even came out. At this point, it became evident that dry tires were the only good choice. Those drivers and teams who had chosen rain or intermediate tires were about to start moving backwards.

This included Tom Long, who eventually surrendered the second spot to Fernandez. Meanwhile, Mike was running away up front. It was beautiful.

After twenty laps, Mike passed the finish line beneath the checkered flag. He was still in first place. He had won the national championship race! (Holy crap!) Fernandez and Long finished second and third respectively. And Lipperini managed to battle his way back to the front to claim the fourth spot. (Holy crap again!)

However, at the Runoffs, the race seldom ends with the victory lap. The temptation to cheat at this level of racing is great. So immediately after the race, the top three cars are impounded. For the rest of the night, they are carefully inspected and scrutinized. The finish is not official until the scrutineers in the impound area say so. The ironic reward for winning the national championship is that you get to take your car home in a box.

But crew chief Tom Brandlehner also works as a service engineer for Saturn Corporation. So he has no fear. In fact, he actually enjoys dissecting Saturns. Doing it under the watchful eye of impatient scrutineers, however, can be stressful.

Nevertheless, ten hours later, the ThunderSport team was declared to be in total compliance – and thus officially crowned the 2003 Showroom Stock C national champions! Congratulations to Mike, Tom, John, Ralph, Carol, Chris and everyone involved with the ThunderSport effort. By winning the Runoffs in a Saturn, you guys did what most of the world thought was impossible!

The ThunderSport effort is also made possible by the hard work, effective parts, and financial support of their sponsors including Panasonic Automotive Systems, Kumho Tires, SPS, Carbotech Engineering, Ellis Engineering and Red Line Oil. You can learn more about the Thundersport team – and their 2003 championship effort – at their website, saturnracer.com.

SPS Parts Used on the Championship-Winning ThunderSport SC2 include:

1. Green air filter, part number GRN2105
2. SPS spark plug wires, part number SPW0803L
3. NGK spark plugs, part number NGK6953
4. 16mm 3-way adj. rear stabar, part number SWAY2SPS
5. H&R sport lowering springs, part number HR4341
6. K&N oil filter, part number KN1002OF
7. Red Line fluids and lubricants
8. Carbotech brake pads (coming soon to the SPS site)