Phoenix, AZ, June 12, 2006. Team MGR Racing's first stop of the season at Buttonwillow Raceway Park brought the Team two solid fourth place finishes. The weekend however, was once again a test of character and determination for the Team.
During Friday testing the #27 Symbolic Ford did not handle as well as expected. The car did not seem to respond very much to setup changes. In a final attempt to record a fast lap for the day, Manuel Gil del Real lost control of the car at the exit of the final turn and ended up sliding backwards into the tire wall. Although the damage to the car's back end was mostly cosmetic, it effectively ended a bad practice day. Ralph Byers -Crew Chief for Manuel- who had also been fighting a stomach virus all day, wasted no time after the incident and had the car back in race condition just a couple of hours later.
Due to a delay in the race schedule, Saturday's qualifying was reduced to 3 laps. Running into traffic during the third and "hot" lap, Manuel had to settle for seventh place at the start of Saturday's race. With outside temperatures in the 100 degree range, getting the tires to perform turned out to be quite a challenge. Buttonwillow's race starts are some of the most eventful for ASC drivers. Seeing racecars take a sharp right turn at the end of a long straight with cold tires, cold brakes and cars going three and four wide, makes it for a great spectacle... or debacle. This time though, everyone seemed to make it through unharmed.
Half way through the race, Manuel Gil del Real had moved up to fourth place. It was at this point when Jeff Glowniak in the #34 came up along side the #27 going through Riverside turn. Unable to make the #34 stick through this fast left hand turn, Glowniak's car leaned on the #27 just enough to push Manuel Gil del Real into a spin. Although the #27 was able to get back on course right away, the illegal move had moved Manuel Gil del Real back to fifth place. It was at the conclusion of the race that Race Control penalized Glowniak for making avoidable contact, and Manuel Gil del Real was reinstated with a fourth place finish. Up front, Ken Stinnett won the race followed by Robert Davis and Mike Arnheiter.
Still not satisfied with the Symbolic Ford's handling, Ralph Byers kept experimenting with the setup. By Sunday's morning warm up session, despite being on old practice tires, Manuel was able to turn a lap time over a second faster than his fastest race lap the day before. Just when things started to look brighter for Team MGR, Manuel learned that he would also start the qualifying race from the pole thanks to inverting the top four finishers from Saturday's race. "Now we have a fast car and a pole position!" said an exuberant Manuel to Ralph.
The short qualifying race once again proved to be as exciting as costly for most of the ASC teams. Manuel had a great start and by the time he approached the critical turn one right hander, he was clear of the second and third place cars to be able to turn in clean in first place and not side-by-side. But this is Buttonwillow and this track always finds a way to make things more interesting. Manuel turned in but the car did not respond. Now with the front brakes locked up and the ASC freight train going by him, he found himself driving through the dirt outside of turn one before he was able to get back on track and running in last place.
While wondering what happened or why the car understeered so severely, the #27 kept charging from the back trying to advance as many positions as possible. It wasn't until later in the first lap at the exit of the "Bus Stop" chicane, when several other cars made contact. This time, Manuel was able to thread his car through the various cars spinning in front of him and gain four positions in the process. Now running in fourth place with one lap to go, the #99 of Belinda Endress came up behind him. Just before the final turn leading into the front straight, Belinda hit the back of Manuel's car getting him loose. Manuel was able to recover and still cross the checkered flag in fourth place. Ralph Byers, however, was not so happy about having to repair the back bumper area of the car one more time thanks to the #99's unrealistic last second pass attempt.
The question remained as to why the car's handling went away after the earlier morning practice. Ralph started to check again every chassis and suspension component looking for possible causes. It turned out that the front suspension left lower control arm mounting point was loose as a result of a broken weld. In other words, there was not much resistance from the left front tire when the car was turning or braking.
The start of Sunday's race proved once again that at Buttonwillow, making it through turn one at the start of the race should be part of the victory celebration. Robert Davis started from the pole and took the lead right away. However, the Arnheiter brothers (Mike and David) running in second and third place respectively, had contact going into the turn. This resulted in David's #62 car spinning right in front of Manuel Gil del Real's #27, who had no choice but to go wide and take the turn through the dirt one more time. All other cars made it through including Mike Arnheiter who was able to rejoin the race. David was not so fortunate though as his car ended up against the inside tire barrier and his race was over.
After a couple of laps behind the pace car to clean up the track the race resumed. The #27 Symbolic Ford was now running in sixth place in a close battle with the #87 driven by Scott Ivie. Although Gil del Real was quicker in most sections, he did not have quite the speed to make a clean pass. "Stay with him, keep trying, keep trying" said Ralph to Manuel on the radio. With three laps to go, Manuel's persistence paid off. Exiting Riverside and going into the Bus Stop chicane, Scott Ivie's car went into a spin allowing Manuel to go by. Although Michael Arnheiter was now behind Manuel, at this stage of the race he did not have enough grip left to stay close enough to attempt a pass. Robert Davis went on take first place followed by Belinda Endress, Ken Stinnett (with severe brake problems) and Manuel Gil del Real finishing in fourth place.
After Buttonwillow results, Team MGR Racing moves from seventh to fifth place in the overall standings. The next race for the team is scheduled to be at Thunderhill Raceway Park on August 12-13, 2006. For more information, be sure to visit
www.MGRRacing.net
