Great recap, Rich. On one hand,SORRY about second place...but on the OTHER HAND...CONGRATS to Bobby and the Team for a GREAT season and his 2nd place finish !!!
ARCHER AND VIPERSPEED AT SCCA RUNOFFS - CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
- Thread starter Steve-Indy
- Start date
Mike H
Enthusiast
Well, it definitely would have been nice to Bobby Archer take the win, but its still great to see the Viper definitely making its mark in the racing world. Congrats to the Viper speed team on some great racing and hope they take it to the Bow Tie Boys next year!!!
Rich Wesorick
Enthusiast
Bobby Archer’s string of consecutive victories in 2002 in the SCCA T1 class in his No. 32 SuperClubs/The Lodge/ViperSpeed Viper came to an end on September 21st at Mid-Ohio as Archer finished in second place behind the Corvette of John Heinricy at the SCCA Valvoline Runoffs. Going into the T1 National Championship race at the Runoffs, several observers had picked Archer as the favorite to win the race. Given Archer’s season-long undefeated streak in 2002 and outright dominance in several races this year including the June Sprints at Road America, the choice seemed like a good one.
The format for the Runoffs gives the drivers twenty minutes of qualifying time on each of three days during the week, followed by the T1 race on Saturday. In the first qualifying session, traffic played a huge role and few drivers got in clean laps. Archer had the fastest time, but the session was cut short due to an incident involving Archer’s teammate, Dr. Deborah Loth. Qualifying on the second day saw Heinricy set a new track record, while Archer went slower than on day one. The other ViperSpeed drivers, Dr. Loth and Dan Knox, did improve their times from the first day though. On the third and final day of qualifying, Heinricy again set a new tack record and Bob Schader, in another Corvette, bested Bobby’s time, bumping Archer to 3rd place on the starting grid. Meanwhile Archer, Loth, and Knox, struggled to improve their times on day three. After three days of qualifying, Bobby would start the race in 3rd, while Knox and Loth would start 15th and 16th, respectively. It was clear the ViperSpeed Vipers were just not handling properly and after a thorough inspection of the cars on Thursday, Crew Chief Mike Archer found that the shocks on all three Vipers were improperly set.
The morning of the T1 race, the skies were cloudy and the temperature was in the 60’s. The ViperSpeed drivers were anxious to get on the track for a scheduled ten minute warm-up session to see if the shock settings were indeed their problem. The cars handled better during the warm-up session, but Archer’s car developed a fuel pick-up problem. The crew spent the next three hours replacing Archer’s fuel pump and getting the ViperSpeed Vipers ready for the 1:40pm T1 race.
The sun peeked out and the temperature rose to the low 70’s in the eraly afternoon for the T1 race. When the green was waved to start the race on the back straight at Mid-Ohio, Archer got a great a jump and got by Schader to move into second place right away. Loth also got a great start and moved around teammate Knox and another car or two in the first few turns. Midway through the first lap, Archer’s power steering failed, making it even harder for him to give chase to polesitter and race-leader Heinricy. The top five cars of Heinricy, Archer, Schader, White, and Lyons, respectively, began to pull away from the rest of the pack and also began to spread out amongst each other. From there on, the exciting racing went on in the middle of the T1 field between the Vipers of Loth and Knox and the Corvettes of Kevin Mixon, Henry Gilbert, Jim Rathman, and Nathan Chesmore. Loth made a clean pass of Mixon down the inside of Turn 7 and then had to fight to keep the spot as he tried to regain it by ducking underneath her, and making contact with her, coming over the hill in the ensuing Turn 8. Shortly thereafter. Loth would lose several positions after taking evasive action to avoid an on-track incident. She then found herself behind the Corvette of Gilbert and made the most exciting pass of the race by going around him on the outside of Turn 7 and then holding the line to squeeze him out going into Turn 8. Just in front of Loth, Knox was all over the back of Mixon and relentlessly looking for a way around him. Despite a little brake fade, Knox’s car was really running well, as evidenced by the fact that he had the 5th fastest race lap. On the last lap, Knox gave it all he had to get around Mixon but ended up spinning out instead, which allowed Loth to get by him for 8th place in the race. Meanwhile, up at the front, Archer drove as hard as he could for 20 laps, but had nothing for the rocket ship of Heinricy.
Archer’s second place finish at the Runoffs would be more than satisfactory to many people, but not to Bobby, who had set his sights on victory and nothing else. Hopefully, the race results will precipitate the SCCA to remove the Viper’s inlet restrictors and look at other competitive adjustments. Regardless though, Archer and ViperSpeed, who have won 15 T1 National races in the past two years, will return next year to defend their Division titles and seek the T1 National Championship for Viper. More information on Archer, Loth, and Knox can be found at www.bobbyarchermotorsports.com and www.viperspeed.com.
The format for the Runoffs gives the drivers twenty minutes of qualifying time on each of three days during the week, followed by the T1 race on Saturday. In the first qualifying session, traffic played a huge role and few drivers got in clean laps. Archer had the fastest time, but the session was cut short due to an incident involving Archer’s teammate, Dr. Deborah Loth. Qualifying on the second day saw Heinricy set a new track record, while Archer went slower than on day one. The other ViperSpeed drivers, Dr. Loth and Dan Knox, did improve their times from the first day though. On the third and final day of qualifying, Heinricy again set a new tack record and Bob Schader, in another Corvette, bested Bobby’s time, bumping Archer to 3rd place on the starting grid. Meanwhile Archer, Loth, and Knox, struggled to improve their times on day three. After three days of qualifying, Bobby would start the race in 3rd, while Knox and Loth would start 15th and 16th, respectively. It was clear the ViperSpeed Vipers were just not handling properly and after a thorough inspection of the cars on Thursday, Crew Chief Mike Archer found that the shocks on all three Vipers were improperly set.
The morning of the T1 race, the skies were cloudy and the temperature was in the 60’s. The ViperSpeed drivers were anxious to get on the track for a scheduled ten minute warm-up session to see if the shock settings were indeed their problem. The cars handled better during the warm-up session, but Archer’s car developed a fuel pick-up problem. The crew spent the next three hours replacing Archer’s fuel pump and getting the ViperSpeed Vipers ready for the 1:40pm T1 race.
The sun peeked out and the temperature rose to the low 70’s in the eraly afternoon for the T1 race. When the green was waved to start the race on the back straight at Mid-Ohio, Archer got a great a jump and got by Schader to move into second place right away. Loth also got a great start and moved around teammate Knox and another car or two in the first few turns. Midway through the first lap, Archer’s power steering failed, making it even harder for him to give chase to polesitter and race-leader Heinricy. The top five cars of Heinricy, Archer, Schader, White, and Lyons, respectively, began to pull away from the rest of the pack and also began to spread out amongst each other. From there on, the exciting racing went on in the middle of the T1 field between the Vipers of Loth and Knox and the Corvettes of Kevin Mixon, Henry Gilbert, Jim Rathman, and Nathan Chesmore. Loth made a clean pass of Mixon down the inside of Turn 7 and then had to fight to keep the spot as he tried to regain it by ducking underneath her, and making contact with her, coming over the hill in the ensuing Turn 8. Shortly thereafter. Loth would lose several positions after taking evasive action to avoid an on-track incident. She then found herself behind the Corvette of Gilbert and made the most exciting pass of the race by going around him on the outside of Turn 7 and then holding the line to squeeze him out going into Turn 8. Just in front of Loth, Knox was all over the back of Mixon and relentlessly looking for a way around him. Despite a little brake fade, Knox’s car was really running well, as evidenced by the fact that he had the 5th fastest race lap. On the last lap, Knox gave it all he had to get around Mixon but ended up spinning out instead, which allowed Loth to get by him for 8th place in the race. Meanwhile, up at the front, Archer drove as hard as he could for 20 laps, but had nothing for the rocket ship of Heinricy.
Archer’s second place finish at the Runoffs would be more than satisfactory to many people, but not to Bobby, who had set his sights on victory and nothing else. Hopefully, the race results will precipitate the SCCA to remove the Viper’s inlet restrictors and look at other competitive adjustments. Regardless though, Archer and ViperSpeed, who have won 15 T1 National races in the past two years, will return next year to defend their Division titles and seek the T1 National Championship for Viper. More information on Archer, Loth, and Knox can be found at www.bobbyarchermotorsports.com and www.viperspeed.com.
