TeamDI Pro IT – New Jersey Motorsports Park – Round 6
by Ben Phillips
It was a wet Friday morning qualifying for round 6 and 7 of the TeamDI Pro IT racing series. It was raining hard as the cars took the grid for practice and it continued to rain throughout the day turning the paddock into a muddy quagmire. But that didn’t slow down the competition! The day was filled with great on track action by both the drivers in the TeamDI Pro IT series and the Jetta TDI Cup drivers also practiced and qualified in the wet. I will point out that no TeamDI Pro IT cars came in on the tow trucks while at least 3 or 4 TDI cars came in with heavy damage.
During the TeamDI Pro IT qualifying there were several interesting incidents that bear mentioning. The most spectacular was Ray Blethen coming into turn 1 in his ITS Porsche 944S and erupting into a fireball that stretched 20 feet behind the car! A rod bearing failure put a hole in the block of his 2.5 liter four cylinder causing the flames. Fortunately Ray was fine and parked the car safely out of the way for the rest of the session. The oil in turn 1 made for some excellent entertainment for those of us watching and many drivers got to experience what ice racing must feel like with many cars dancing through the rain and oil, fighting to keep it on the asphalt.
Saturdays practice was wet and I felt I had to take to the track. I hadn’t qualified as I didn’t have rain tires and none were available for sale at the track that fit my rims. Everybody behaved during the practice despite the wet and all cars were ready for the race. Nick Leverone was on the Pole with his SM Miata and proceeded to set a blistering pace while the rain drizzled. About halfway into the race the skies cleared and a dry line began to form. I had started in 46th position and had not worked my way through many cars, fighting the wet. Then a full course caution flew and bunched up the field. That and the dry line allowed me to spend the second half of the race running down cars to finish 12th overall and 3rd in ITR. Attrition in my class earned me the podium and I made no mistakes on the track. Matt Rooke in the Ridge Speed Racing ITS Mazda RX7 was the overall winner and took the lead from Autotechnic's Rob Driscoll with three laps to go in a hard fought and clean battle.
The northeast Pro IT series was concieved in 2007 at the ARRC at Road Atlanta. Seeing what the Atlanta region was doing we knew we could do this up north. The reasoning behing this series is to allow our drivers to have more track time during the weekend. There is always an oppurtunity to 'double dip' and race in at least 2 races per weekend. This was also a way for the host region to collect an additional entry fee as well as provide the sponsors a showplace for their products. The Pro IT management does not receive any benefit besides seeing the racers have fun.
In 2008 we kicked off in Pocono and ended in New Jersey.
In 2009 we had our first Pro support race at NJMP with the ARCA series.
