July 2009 - Lincoln Trail - Porsche Club of America

Two More Wins and a
Track Record at Putnam
Park
Mount Meridian, IN – Co-op Racing participated in the
second round of racing in the NASA Midwest racing
series. This round was held at the very popular regional
Putnam Park Road Course in Eastern Indiana. This was
the first weekend of dry weather for NASA Midwest
and the team. Driver Andy Berberich in the Eurosport
944 was consistent in his results of first place in each
race. The weekend went well for the team, but not so
well for others who ended up totaling their car due to
an off track incident.
The qualifying session was the first session of the year
that finished with a dry track.
Of the five 944-Spec drivers, Berberich qualified the
Eurosport 944 third behind Angel Blasquez and Eric
Kuhns. Ray Freundt and Berberich were held up in
traffic and never got a clean lap. Overall, the session
did not end well for Kuhns. An off track incident
resulted in Kuhns flipping his 944-Spec race car.
Kuhns, with a trip to the hospital, was uninjured.
However, his car has since been retired from racing and
is in the process of being dismantled and sold for parts.
Kuhns has since repurchased his old car, which he has
had a lot of success with, and will be back behind the
wheel at the next race. For the remainder of the racing
weekend, Kuhns drove the Race Works/Bennington
Motorsports rental 944-Spec car.
Blasquez started up front with Freundt just behind the
Eurosport 944. A melee of Miatas in turn one allowed
Ray to pass for second position. It took about four
laps for Berberich to track down Angel and another
four laps to reel in Ray. After several attempts to pass
Ray, Berberich finally got a run on him into seven
which resulted in good track position coming out of
turn eight. At this time, the two were approaching lap
traffic. The traffic forced Berberich to aggressively
overtake the first place position. “Looking back, it
was probably a little too early in the race to make
that aggressive of a move” Berberich pondered.
“Unfortunately, the pass was made with slight body
contact.” Berberich held onto the lead and finished first
in the five car field.
Following qualifying third on Saturday, Co-op Racing
was looking for opportunities to pick up the pace.
The team turned to Kauth & Mayeur owner and Spec
Miata driver Michael Benet. The discussion involved
car handling characteristics, setup options, and
driving techniques. The conversation resulted in a few
modifications to the car and to Berberich’s driving.
The results were a first place Sunday qualification and
a new 944-Spec track record of 1:24.048. Berberich
broke the record by about half a second and it couldn’t
have been done without the help of Benet and Kauth &
Mayeur.
At the start of Sunday’s sprint race, Kuhns got a good
jump at the start and slipped passed Berberich into first.
Berberich applied pressure to Kuhns and was waiting
for his opportunity to pass. That opportunity came
when an overtaking car fowled up Kuhns’ run through
turn seven. Berberich experienced that same situation
earlier with the same faster overtaking car. With multiclass
racing, passing and “blocking” opportunities are
available utilizing faster and slower cars. The multiclass
format also requires racers to maintain a certain
level of racing etiquette. In this scenario, the faster car
broke this etiquette by interfering with two cars battling
for position in class. When the overtaking car made a
run on Kuhns in the outside of turn seven, Berberich
tucked in and made the same pass. “It was pretty early
in the race, but it was a passing opportunity that I
couldn’t miss.” Berberich remarked. “Utilizing traffic
is part of the fundamentals of road racing. It has hurt
July 2009 0
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