Last week, while at Virginia International Raceway for a track event, we had May showers for most of the time, which limited our on-track productivity. Certainly, rain doesn’t mean you aren’t on track at all, but, depending on the goals for the particular drivers or team, bad weather can really limit the amount of running one does. However, the rain got me thinking about one of the most intense rain races that I’ve been a part of.
My most memorable rain race was early in my pro career. It was my second race with Dempsey Racing in the Mazda RX-8. We had just come off a third-place finish at the Rolex 24, which was my first podium experience at Daytona, and being teamed with a movie star made it especially unique!
The next race on the schedule was Homestead-Miami Speedway, and after sunny days for practice and qualifying, race day brought torrential rains. At the time, I had limited experience in the RX-8 GT car—let alone in the rain—and we were up against a full field of talented GT drivers.
I knew the team was prepared for the weather when they secured a squeegee to the roll bar, just in case the windshield started to fog on the interior!
The team worked through various changes to the car for the rain, such as adjusting springs, dampers, sway bars and wing angles. We also changed the adjustable brake bias to be more rearward because less braking force was going to be required.
I recall there were big pools of water, especially where the road course infield came off the banking. It just felt like a game of survival, because if you spun off into the wet grass, there was a chance you might not be able to get going again.
I remember being concerned, with all that rain, about how fast to go through the sections of the track that used the oval. Typically, it’s wide open in the dry. I had to decide how much I was willing to push the limits on the banking in the rain.
With the long straightaways that Homestead has since it uses parts of the oval, knowing where to start braking was something that had to be learned, too. Where do you start slowing down from the high speeds when it’s raining? Getting the braking speeds dialed in with the adjusted bias was something I had to figure out as I went.
As the race unfolded, I began to get more comfortable in the car and began moving up through the field. Eventually, I found myself leading the race just past the halfway point!
After several full-course yellows due to stranded cars, and with the reduced airflow that resulted, the front windshield did indeed fog up, and I had to use that handy squeegee the team had thought about prior to the race. I remember watching the TV broadcast afterward, and they had me on there, using the squeegee and holding it while shifting with the sequential shifter.
As fate would have it, a prototype would knock us off the road before the finish, so we didn’t pick up that win. Nevertheless, it was a fun memory about jumping into a new situation with both feet and persevering.