VIR 13 Hours by Sean K. Banerjee (photos by Ryan "RJ" Jenkins)

The first weekend of November plays host to the annual Charge of the headlight brigade race at Virginia International Raceway. This year John Tavolacci and I would be there supporting the ITA #18 Acura Integra LS team. John and I serve as crew member and crew chief respectively for one of the driver's, Jon Kofod, in the DC Region MARRS series. The #18 car has an illustrated career in road racing, having been owned by the famous Nonnamaker family and raced extensively in Grand AM Cup before being sold to current owner Andrew Zimmerman who currently races it in the NASA Honda Challenge Series. The team would comprise of 2007 MARRS ITS Champion and two time NASA Honda Challenge Champion Jon Kofod, car owner and 2006 NASA Honda Challenge Champion Andrew Zimmerman, Spec E30 driver Johnny Allen and rookie Will Fox. Serving as crew would be John, Brian Curry, Will Fox Sr and yours truly.

John and I arrived late Friday night; we set up camp and began developing strategies with the team. Due to a family emergency there was a question mark about whether Will Fox one of the co-drivers would be participating. Contingency plans had to be made in case we had to rely on three drivers. Earlier in the day Johnny Allen had put the car on pole with a sizzling lap in the 2:22 range. Due to weight restrictions we were adding 50 lbs of ballast to the car and would put Andrew in the car for the final stint. My calculations said that we would need 17 gallons of fuel to make the first 2.5 hour stint with Johnny Allen driving.

Day break came, in a frenzy of meetings and car prep we began what would be a long and arduous day. Johnny Allen took the green flag and began putting on a show for all of us. He was up to P5 overall at the end of the 2nd hour mark and running consistent times in the 2:18 range when he radioed in and said the car had run out of gas. We were baffled; the car had consumed 17 gallons of gas in 2 hours and was not getting the fuel economy we had hoped. A quick word with the stewards and we were told we could refuel the car at the south paddock pits. We hopped in the truck and got him fuel; a lucky full course yellow as we fueled him meant we didn't lose too much time.

Johnny stepped out after another half hour out on track and we put Will Fox in and fueled the car with 20 gallons of gas, Will being new to the car and track took it easy and was doing consistent times in the 2:23s. He was still 4 seconds faster than the leading ITA cars and we were quickly making up lost ground. Disaster struck again when Will radioed in to say 4th gear was gone. The car would shift but zing to the limiter, a tranny swap would be 1.5 hours and we were still lapping faster than the other ITA cars. Will suddenly radioed to say the car had stalled and out of gas he was coming in. This was a big surprise, he was lapping slower and even with a full course yellow section we had used 20 gallons of fuel in 2 hours. It was becoming evident the car was not getting all the gas and something was amiss with the fuel cell or the fuel delivery system.

Will came in and we fueled up with 17 gallons of gas and sent Jon Kofod out, he began slow as he designed a plan to work around the lack of 4th gear and then began to tick off laps in the 24s and 23s and even as low as 22s with no 4th gear. Some issues with slower cars meant he was getting frustrated; a good run would be lost because a shift to 5th made the car flat on its face. During the stint we were black flagged for car to car contact, Jon came in and there was no penalty. A conversation with the other team and they said their driver did not report any contact, a small frustration but it wasn't costly. Jon came in at the 2 hour mark and Andrew Zimmerman would get in for his stint.

Another 17 gallons of fuel and Andrew went out, but things started going haywire. Andrew reported smoke coming from the car, Jon Kofod went to the wall and immediately we saw the car spewing smoke as it went by. We had to bring Andrew in otherwise we would be black flagged, a quick inspection under the car and under the hood did not report anything obvious. We had to go back behind the wall and figure out what was happening. We jacked the car up and realized tranny fluid was spewing out from the intermediate shaft. Taking apart the shaft and we began finding remnants of 4th gear coming out. A tranny had to be installed and with the amazing skills of everyone combined the tranny was swapped out in 1.5 hours and we filled the car completely to the brim with gas. That meant we had 23 gallons of gas in the car and knew since there was 2 hours left we would have enough gas to finish the race.

Will went out for another stint, but soon radioed in that the car was stalled and wouldn't fire. It would fire and quit, fire and quit. Radio was spotty so we had no idea where he was, initial thoughts were battery. A while later EV towed the car in and we discovered the distributor connector was loose, a zip tie and the car was fixed. At this stage no one really wanted to drive, Johnny Allen said he'd finish up the stint. He went out and ran over some debris and had to come in as we had to remove it. The car was running ok for a stock LS tranny and he began clicking laps in the 2:22s, until suddenly he came in with 20 minutes to go with no fuel. The car had apparently eaten 23 gallons in less than 2 hours; something was amiss in the fuel cell or fuel pump. A splash of gas and he was off into the night. The 13 hour mark struck and we finished, it was a long day but fun regardless with a team of amazing drivers and crew.

While it may seem a 4th place finish wasn't a success, the car made it to the trailer under its own power and everyone was safe and sound. The team will be back again next year to take on the battle. I would like to thank everyone involved for their efforts:

Andrew Zimmermann (Car owner and principle driver)
John Allen (Co-driver)
Will Fox (Co-driver)
Jon Kofod (Co-driver)
John Tavolacci (Crew member and mechanic)
Brian Curry (Crew member and mechanic)
Bill “Doc” Fox (Crew member and photographer)

And of course the team sponsors:

Hankook tires
Davis Acura
Icarp.net
Poore Performance
Tein
Partners Capital Investment Group, LLC