It's raining. It's pouring. The old Saab is eating up the race track.

Photos provided by Jerry Winker (www.comicozzie.com), Alex Bellus and Tim Winker. 
Video provided by Travis McCormick.

We actually finished the 12-hour Hawk Performance World Racing League Enduro at Brainerd International Raceway. It rained much of the day, and our FWD Saab 900S took to the wet track like a pontoon boat to nearby Gull Lake. But it was hardly a cruise to the finish. It was, rather, filled with changes in strategy, and a fair amount of drama.

In auto racing, as in most endeavors, there are the amateurs and there are the professionals. The primary difference is the pros have found a way to make a living at it, while the amateurs need a day job to support their sport.

But there is also a hierarchy among the amateurs. There are those who spend a lot on their hobby, with fully stocked garages, enclosed trailers with work benches and cabinets, and some form of tow vehicle, usually a motor home.

On the other end of the amateur spectrum are the truly grassroots racers. Meet Fart-hinder Racing (that's Swedish for Speed Bump. Really! You can look it up.). We sometimes have a garage to work out of, if it isn't full of other projects. Our tow vehicle is an older minivan, our trailer is a tow dolly. We scrape to buy parts and pay entry fees. But we get out there a few times a year and get some track time in a 1992 Saab 900S with a 200,000 mile salvage yard engine.

Our most recent race was under the rules of a new racing body, the World Racing League (www.worldracingleague.org). The WRL was formed as an affordable way to go endurance racing with cars from several sanctions. It was born out of the increasing popularity of ChumpCar World Series and 24 Hours of LeMons, but includes cars built to SCCA Improved Touring rules, NASA, Spec Miata, and BMW and Porsche Club racers. There are several classes, based on the horsepower to weight ratio (PWR). Consequently, cars that haven't got a chance in ChumpCar where there is only one class, the alleged $500 crapcan, will compete against cars with similar power.

LeMons is more about the party than about the actual racing. ChumpCar has fallen prey to teams who build multi-thousand dollar engines knowing that the odds they will get protested are minimal. SCCA and NASA primarily run sprint races where the strategy is to go as fast as possible for a half hour. WRL provides a venue for all of these groups to compete in endurance races, not unlike the 24 Hours of LeMans, the Daytona 24-Hour and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The WRL race we entered was a 12-hour enduro at the track closest to home, Brainerd International Raceway in central Minnesota. We had hauled our Saab to BIR for some ChumpCar races, but gremlins kept us from finishing, and in one case, starting. Our strategy was to go out and have some fun, and to finish. Anything else was gravy.

Mike heads into turn 12. Still raining.

Initially our classic Saab 900 was placed in the GP3 class, the slowest of the three classes currently in the WRL rules. But at the weigh-in, our car came it at 2280 lbs. The factory rating on our bone-stock, high-mileage engine is 140 HP, for a ratio of 1:16.3. That put us at the low end of GP2, where the allowed PWR range is 1:15.1 to 1:18.0. GP1 is for cars with a PWR of 1:12.0 to 1:15.0. GP3 is for cars with 1:18.1 or greater. There were six starters in GP2, including a couple of BMW 325s that had added ballast so they wouldn't have to race in GP1, a very quick VW Golf and an even quicker Hyundai Accent, and an older Mustang sedan with a 4-cylinder and a turbo.

Heavy overnight rains continued into the day and the 12-hour race took the green flag on a very wet track. Tim was the first driver, and his ice racing experience showed on the slippery surface. After the first hour he had moved the Saab up to 10^th overall and 1^st in class! Even on the damp asphalt the stock speedometer indicated over 90 mph through Turn 2 and up to 105 mph before braking for Turn 3.

Speaking of brakes, we had just installed a set of Hawk Performance Racing brake pads before the race weekend. Their stopping power was remarkable, considerably better than the high performance street compound (purchased very cheaply on a closeout sale) that we had used in previous years.

EggBoy Racing SHO with a damaged front bumper
after smacking into the back of our Saab.

Our game plan was for each driver to do a 90 minute stint behind the wheel, then do it again later. Unlike some groups which limit drivers to no more than two hours, WRL does not have a time restriction on driving. We quickly found out that other teams in our group were aiming for longer driving stints and fewer pit stops. In addition, faster drivers were taking the wheel in the other cars, while slightly more cautious drivers were up next on the Fart-hinder lineup.

Mark and Mike each did their 1-1/2 hour stints on a wet track as well, with only a few issues. While Mark was braking for the tight left-hand Turn 12, the Saab was smacked from behind by the much heavier Ford Taurus SHO of EggBoy Racing. The hit knocked the rear bumper on the Saab slightly askew, but really twisted the front bumper on the SHO. Jeff Krekler from EggBoy came over to apologize, explaining that the driver was on his first lap and had not yet discovered how little traction he had in the wet.

Travis puts extra pressure on the left front tire.
Photo by Alex Bellus.

As Travis, our youngest and quickest driver took to the track, the rain began to let up, and it wasn't long before he was lowering lap times on the drying surface. We also began to rethink our strategy. We weren't that far behind the competition; the extra pit stops were a factor in our position. We told Travis to stay out a little longer than the usual 90 minutes.

By this time, the Hyundai had spent many laps behind the wall making repairs, and the VW was out with a transmission issue. The Mustang had to stop regularly for water as there was a small leak in the cooling system. We were now in 2^nd place again, behind one of the BMWs.

When Travis turned the Saab over to Tim a bit past the halfway point, the car was still running well, though we did have to add transmission oil about every stop. On the recommendation of another Saab team, we were using Honda MTF, a synthetic lube which apparently keeps the gearbox running cooler. Unfortunately our very stock, very old transmission seals had trouble keeping the fluid from leaking out. As Tim got in, we also noticed noise from the water pump. Tim said he would watch the temp gauge, but to locate the used water pump among the spares we had brought along and have it ready to install just in case. After a dozen or so laps, Tim brought the car into the pits for another potential race-ending issue, he felt a vibration in the left front which he feared might be a wheel bearing. In all the racing miles on the Saab, the wheel bearings had never been replaced. No odd rattles were found in any of the bearings. When he went to start the car again, it made an odd sound and would not fire. The team pushed the car, but it still refused to start before the end of the pits, so Tim wheeled into the paddock to figure out what was wrong. One final attempt to push start the car and it fired up. Tim returned to the track, hoping the vibration was just a flat-spot on a tire.

Just in case we needed to cut out a driver change / pit stop later in the race to stay ahead of the competition, Tim stayed out for two and a quarter hours. He also drove in higher gears so the engine, and therefore the water pump, would not be quite as stressed from higher RPM. There were less than three hours of racing remaining when he turned the car over to Mark. It began to rain again, and Mark was happy to turn the car over to Mike after less than an hour. Mike, too, was glad for a shorter stint on the slippery surface and Travis belted in for the final hour to the checkered flag. The rain had gotten heavier. So much so that there were flood warnings for the area the next day.

We begged Travis to take it easy. We had a substantial lead over the third and fourth place cars, so if we maintained a steady pace, we would be on the podium in our class. He was still setting pretty quick lap times, but what follows could just as easily have happened from a momentary loss of concentration at the cautious pace or from pushing hard under treacherous conditions.

With 20 minutes remaining, Travis tipped two wheels off the edge of the track on the exit from turn 11, the beginning of the main straight in front of the pits. That set the car into a backwards spin, it went off on the opposite side of the track, got caught in the gravel trap and ended up on its side, driver's door in a puddle of water. Travis unbuckled himself, climbed out the passenger window, and gave his best Evel Kneivel impression standing on the door. The rescue crew arrived and decided that the race would have to be red-flagged for them to safely tip the Saab onto its wheels. (In reality, a couple of strong guys could have pushed it over in a matter of moments.) It was decided that with only a short time to the checkers, the Saab would have to stay where it was until the race was over.

But, but, in order to be classified as a finisher under WRL rules, the car has to cross the finish line under its own power. No pushing, no towing, no assistance.

Travis stands on the wall away from the large puddle
where the Saabmarine ended its sideways journey.
Photo by Tim Winker (taken through the fogged glass of the tower window).

The WRL rule book is clear:

a. Cars must take the checkered flag to finish the race.

b. A car can not be pushed or pulled across the finish line by the driver, other drivers, crew members, or spectators.

Tim and Mark sought out race director Joey Todd for a ruling. Joey was reasonable. Once the race was over and the other cars were off the track, the rescue crew could tip the car over. If it would fire up and drive the short distance across the finish line, it would be considered a finisher.

So that's what we did. While other teams began their post-race teardown or impound, we stayed near the rescue effort. Once the car was on the pavement again, Tim got in and tried the engine. It fired right up! Despite a flat rear tire and lots of pebbles trapped in in the brake backing plates, the Saab crossed the finish line, then drove into the paddock for impound. A cheer went up from those in the pits. We wished we had champagne because we felt like we deserved it. Fortunately other teams handed us beers so we toasted with some of Minnesota's finest brews.

Mike Mandy, Tim Winker, Travis McCormick and Mark Fitzpatrick

After the awards were handed out, and after packing up in the rain, we decided we needed to go to dinner. We all still had our Nomex driving suits on as they were required for anyone over the wall during fuel stops. Since we were drivers and crew, we just kept them on all day. All of us were too exhausted to try to change, and we didn't have a dry place to change anyway since we did not have an enclosed trailer. We all wore our very damp Nomex to the restaurant.

Trophy for 2nd place in GP2.