STUMBLING OUT OF THE GATE

John Miller's 2014 CTSCC Update 1

Daytona and Sebring are behind us and the anticipation and pre-season excitement has long faded. Next, we are gearing up for the rest of what will be a busy summer season. Some teams are hoping to use their strong early finishes to build momentum, knowing they have emerged as championship contenders. Others, like us at Compass360 Racing, hope we can drag ourselves out of a deep and dark hole that we dug for ourselves after the first two opening rounds.

Auto racing is a sport where getting a good result demands that every single person on the team has to function at the highest levels. A mistake by the driver? You’re in the wall and your race is over. A mistake by the pit-crew? You lose track position (that could mean a slow stop, a fuel tank that doesn’t get filled, a wheel that doesn’t get put on completely tight, or any number of things that result in a penalty) and your race is over. A mistake by the engineer? The car is slow, hard to drive, and thus uncompetitive - and your race is doomed from the start. In just about every other sport, mistakes can be made early and often, but you can recover.  A fumble doesn’t necessarily cost you the football game. A double fault? Carry on. A penalty? Go sit in that box for a few minutes while the rest of your team plays on. Racing demands perfection and mistakes are almost impossible to overcome.
Then there are the things outside of your control: what other drivers do on the track and mechanical failures that can happen to everyone. Even though you can’t control these two things, when they take you out of contention they can cause jaw clenching frustration. Sometimes mistakes by race control can get in the way of the competition or worse they can affect a podium finish, but that’s a subject for another post and already written about extensively related to the first two races this season. Finally, luck matters in racing too, but luck favors the prepared. That’s why I could not be happier and more confident in my team this year. Compass360 Racing operates with high standards and high expectations. Still, despite all of the preparation and positive things we have going for us, this has been the worst points start to a racing season for me - ever.

Rewind to January: I didn’t know that I would be driving for Compass this year until about a week before the start of the season. At the Roar Before the 24, I was asked to drive with another ST team in anticipation of spending the year under their tent. It was going to be a development year in an exciting new program, but with so many unknowns we set realistic expectations. A few days after that test, the racing deck got shuffled and I ended up landing in the closing driver role in the #74 Compass 360 Honda Civic Si, with a strong co-driver in Patrick Seguin. We were driving one of only two full time Civics for Compass360 this year and the other car was filled by returning Championship runner-ups Kyle Gimple and my good buddy (and halfway decent driver) Ryan Eversley. My outlook on the season changed dramatically, with the expectations and pressure increasing accordingly.  - We were being given a chance to fight for race wins and the championship, but along with the chance also came expectations.  Compass 360 is a winning organization. To be honest, I was jumping out of my skin with excitement at the opportunity in front of me.

Daytona, one of my home tracks and historically a strong track for our Hondas, was supposed to be the place where we would make ourselves known. We were going to kick ass and take names. But like many of the best laid plans in the paddock, things did not go our way. We had a fast car early in the weekend and a great strategy going into the race. Unfortunately we finished in 26th place, the first car one lap down. How we lost that lap came in three easy steps:

1. My co-driver got hit in the first corner of the first lap, and though he lost a few spots, was able to recover and move forward, until a few laps later when…

2. A car in front of him knocked a cone onto the racing line and he couldn’t avoid hitting it, which caused a bad vibration and the car lost power, which meant an unscheduled pit-stop…

3. The unscheduled pit stop was also an unannounced pit stop, because we had a radio problem that showed up on the first lap of the race. The crew didn’t know he was coming in nor did they know the issue with car, which meant an extra-long pit stop. We just barely went down a lap.

To make matters worse, we actually had an opportunity to get our lap back during the next caution period. We were called to take the free pass, but because of the radio issue Pat never got the message. When I got in for the last half of the race the car was in surprisingly good shape and running strong! I passed quite a few cars and had plenty of pace to run down any of the ST cars I came upon. It was a bittersweet feeling knowing that we had the pace but not the track position.

Sebring’s story is even shorter. On the fourth lap of the race, after a great start from my co-driver, he was making a pass in turn 10 when got hit from behind by a BMW that was trying to follow him through. The hit knocked him across the front of the car he was trying to pass, which then sent him sliding towards the wall. Pat made a valiant effort to gather it up and continue, but he ran out of room and slapped the concrete wall with the left rear corner. Trailing arm and knuckle, bent. Race, over. We spent about an hour fixing the car and I was able to get back out for the last 45 minutes of the race to salvage a 29th place finish, worth 2 points. 

Next: Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca.  May 3, 2014.

In the downtime between races we have had a lot to talk about. One major change is that my co-driver, Pat Seguin is going to be driving with a different ST team and Canadian hot-shoe, James Vance will be joining me in the #74 for the rest of the season. We will miss Pat, he has been a great team player and has become a good friend. Sometimes sponsorship and other dynamics mean that changes like this are necessary. I am looking forward to working with James and wish Pat the best at his new team.

Things have not been rosy for our sister car either. The #75 of Kyle and Ryan are down in the points hole with us after getting caught up in a late race crash at Daytona and a breaking an axle at Sebring. The entire Compass360 squad is hungry and motivated to get back to our winning ways. Nobody on the team is satisfied with our “potential.” We are all hungry for results. In the Compass360 tradition, excellence, performance, and execution will get us to the front.

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Originally published on Jon's blog.