Hot Laps in Hot Cars – RFM Sports Goes Touring Car Crazy
By Kate Shaw
Photos © SCCA/Shaun Lumley 2009 and RealTime Racing
BRASELTON, Georgia (September 22, 2009) — My late Dad, who was a Saturday Night Dirt Track Speedway kind of guy, used to have a phrase to describe really fast cars. “It takes three guys to see him,” he would say. “One to say here he comes, one to say here he is and one to say there he goes.”

On the Tuesday before the 12th Annual Petit Le Mans, select members of the media were given the chance to see what that means from the inside of a SPEED World Challenge Touring Car, one of the quickest ways around the 2.5 mile natural road course with more changes of elevation and direction than a Six Flags Coaster. Two teams - the BimmerWorld BMW 328i team with driver James Clay and the RealTime Acura TSX team with driver Pierre Kleinubing – were equipped with specially fitted passenger seats to take us out on track for hot laps. RFM Sports sent our intrepid photographer, Craig Elliott, who has attended every running of the Petit Le Mans, to experience two flying laps from the other side of the windshield. Craig took his hot laps with three-time Touring Car champion Kleinubing, who currently stands second in points to Jason Saini (Tri-Point Mazda) with two races to go.

“For starters,” Craig related, “participants were fitted for a fire suit and helmet. After securing the harness, Pierre took me out for two pretty quick laps -- what turned out to be quite a ride on a sunny day at Road Atlanta. We rode in the No. 45 car which normally is raced, but for this event the fourth car was not driven.

“The most exciting was going over the curbs coming out of the esses, with the feeling the car just might keep going straight, and at the end of the back straight; when [Pierre] hit the brakes it threw me forward, and made me very thankful for a harness. As he made the left hand turn I finally settled back in the seat, then down the hill into 12. Turn 1 was exciting on the beginning of the second lap, at speed. I was never scared, I suppose because I trusted his driving skills 100%. I can think of some I would have been nervous riding with at half the speed Pierre drove.

“Amazing how quickly it warmed up in the car, in part due to the fire suit.”

Since Road Atlanta is a natural road course, the wild life occasionally interacts with the cars, but SPEED World Challenge Touring Car drivers (for whom the tarmac is frequently just a suggestion) prove to be prepared for any eventuality. “The guy who rode with [Pierre] first,” said Craig, “commented that as they were going around the initial half of the track a turtle was slowly crossing; he said Pierre never missed a beat and just maneuvered around it.”

“Everyone was very professional but relaxed,” he concluded, “and made it an enjoyable event.”

The tenth and final round of the 2009 Touring Car Championship will take place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on October 9-11. Both the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships are yet to be decided, so the entire season comes down to this one event. You can follow the race via lap notes and live timing and scoring, plus streaming audio, at http://www.world-challenge.com/ -- and meet us back here to see how the season ends!