Strategic VS Exciting
April 29, 2023
Watkins Glen International Raceway
GridLife Festival Tour at the Glen: Spring race / Time Attack / Drifting Event
Driver: Team Slowbro: Donald Lui, Vincent Mak, Chris Kong, Nic Zhang
The rain soaked grounds have all dried in NY and the air is filled with dust in the couple weeks that have passed from GLTC Watkins Glen debut showing. Team SlowBro, a comparatively lower budget tier race team, has their EK Civic sitting in the driveway now collecting pollen. I rang up Donald Lui for a quick recap of the weekend’s performance but the conversation took a different turn. More back of mind questions came up; for instance, where is this team going? How did they settle on an over 20 year old chassis for such a competitive series?
It starts with a gentleman named Kraig from Ohio: think of a Valteri Bottas-like pleasure first, business second mustache, and the neck muscles of someone who lives at a karting track. Kraig was selling a completed K-Swap EK Civic with BBK, but it lacked the cage and other systems needed for racing series compliance. Team SlowBro would take over the build completion if they agreed to Kraig’s primary demand: “I want to see this on track- not a pretty parking lot build.” The boys were happy to comply with sub-2400 lb EK Civic in tow as they made their way back to NY. In 2022, GridLife began offering endurance trial series - it was a perfect opportunity to get some shakedown races under the belt in addition to seeing how the car and crew adapts to the longer stints and more involved pit-stops.
Incrementally, the car has been developing. One race turned to four. A P1 at PittRaceway gave the team a big confidence boost along with a new radio system for this weekend’s Watkins Glen Event. The radio back to crew and spotters is essential to clean starts to maximize first lap positioning during the shorter sprint races. With the weather playing the greatest factor in WGI this weekend, there were many yellows, shorter racing cycles and the aforementioned communication played a vital component to their success.
WGI, known for its miniature Spa-like mannerisms, means fast flowing turns with many sequences that reward taking risks, despite those light blue walls that are usually just a few car lengths off the track edge. Other drivers came home with blue stripes added to their car’s sides. In fact, it happens so often the track crew often jokes - “if the drivers keep wanting to paint their cars blue, we have many gallons of extra paint in the maintenance garage, they don't have to keep hitting so many walls!”
The recent repavement of WGI means that some drivers found success taking the dry-lines in the rain, while others were staying out in more wet-line territory. This change-up provided lots of passing opportunities that normally wouldn't have been seen. Wide lines at times were faster, and inside narrow at times took the preference depending on the level of dampness and bravery of the drivers.
Donald and I spent some time discussing the benefits of these sprint format races that you don't get with the longer duration endurance events. In a Sprint Race, first lap performance and qualifying success plays a vital role. Team Slowbro has a significant advantage running the lighter EK civic platform compared to larger high hp cars. The minimum weight requirement means they must run a ballast - and are able to place it with strategic benefits. Higher hp cars have limitations on power - but the power can be exploited with flatter torque curves so it comes on quicker and stays in the powerband longer. The rain helps to neutralize that difference. Longer endurance stints also limit those advantages as bigger power = more fuel weight loads.
When I asked Donald if a new driver would benefit more from shorter sprint races or the extra seat time offered in the endurance format races, it became a hard choice one way or the other. Ultimately, it comes down to individual needs of the driver. Do you need practice with the excitement and fast-twitch decisions of sprint races, or work the strategic choice muscles of endurance racing where reverse engineering the timing backwards from the finish instead of forward from the start provides sound results. The irony from TeamSlowbro selecting an affordable FWD honda platform to slowly gain expertise for endurance racing has found them immersed in a fast-paced very contemporary and growing culture of GridLife spring racing where every lap is driven at 100% pace. They are surprised where they found themselves and they're loving it. The team is looking forward to more events later this summer and growing deeper in parallel with the GridLife community.
- Chris Booth // www.EdgeOfAdhesion.xyz
- Photos: Chris Booth
