By Pat Griffith

AJ Nealey is another WDCR member who has entered his second season racing in the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup, and he feels a new approach to this season will help him in the championship chase.

“This year, I’m a lot more relaxed,” he said. “I’m working more on the mental approach and getting my head straight at the task at hand. Last year it was the fear of failure, and it affected how I was driving.”

AJ is also trying to copy the path Timmy Megenbier took to the series championship last year – staying clean and trying to accumulate points.

“He and Andy Lee [series runner-up] ran smart, methodical races, and that’s what I want to do,” he said.

Through the first three rounds, the plan has worked – he finished third and fourth in the opening two races at Virginia International Raceway, then two weeks later at New Jersey Motorsports Park, he finished fifth after qualifying 10th.

He also thinks the year’s experience will help him as well because, except for running a new configuration at Miller Motorsports Park and a race in Mexico at Autodromo AMOZOC, it’s a similar schedule this time around, and the cars are exactly the same.

“I didn’t really think I’d be eligible to compete again because of my age, but Volkswagen grandfathered returning drivers in,” he said. “I looked around, and the TDI Cup is a good professional series for the money. It’s a legitimate series and has a lot of notoriety. It was the best decision for me.”

TDI Cup drivers begin each race weekend with a track walk where they go corner to corner with tutelage from one of the series driving instructors. “We’re all vigorously taking notes and writing stuff down. It’s input, input, input.”

Drivers are contractually obligated to not drive on track at all before the race weekend – no races, no trackdays, nothing. For AJ, he watches YouTube videos, and even for a track that he knows well like VIR and Mid-Ohio, he still spends time studying videos leading up to the race.

He said one of his most memorable races last year was on a track he had never been to – Road America. It was a wild race with a frantic battle up front and remembered for WDCR member Devin Cates (who’s racing this year in the Grand Am series) rolling his Jetta, and AJ ended up on the podium in second place.

“It was Saturday evening at dusk, so the lights were on around the track, and all the cars looked really good,” he said. “As far as atmosphere and track layout, Road America was a fun weekend. It’s an awesome track.”

Helping with sponsorship this season is Brimtek, which provides technical products to the U.S. government and military. Headquartered in Ashburn, Va., AJ was introduced to the company’s CEO, Dave Tilton, at a MARRS weekend at Summit Point by Tristan Herbert, who races a Brimtek-sponsored ITB Golf in the series. AJ showed Tilton his sponsorship proposal, and “he liked what he saw” – Brimtek came on board for the last few races of 2009 and agreed to continue support in 2010.

“Some may call it luck, but it was really opportunity meets preparation,” AJ said. “I sold everything – my truck, my racecar, my motorcycle – to finance last season and use it as a front to approach sponsors.”

With Brimtek’s government audience and Tilton’s background as a Navy SEAL, AJ is supporting the Wounded Warrior Project this season. Before each race weekend, he calls to veterans centers and invites wounded warriors to the track for what he called “full hospitality access.

“They sign a star on the hood of the car and get the red carpet treatment,” AJ said. “It’s just really cool to support them.”

Although AJ plays online in iRacing, which has many of the same tracks that the TDI Cup visits, he mainly focuses on physical training to prepare for racing. He started doing Bikram Yoga, which he said is “pretty intense – you can burn up to 1,200 calories a session. You experience the same heat as behind the wheel of the car, and it pushes your body to its limits.”

AJ began his motorsports career in 2002 autocrossing a turbo Civic in Street Modified, and he quickly realized it wasn’t the car for the class. He kept it simple by finding a second-generation Honda CRX for G-Stock (“after I de-riced it,” he said with a laugh) and famously missed his senior prom to autocross at the SCCA Pro Solo at Virginia Motorsports Park. He did 40 events his first year and then co-drove with WDCR member Mike Neary in his D Street Prepared Acura Integra.

“Autocross contributed heavily on my car control skills,” he said. “It’s a cheap, low-risk way of learning the limits of the car.”

For the three years after that, he raced shifter karts all along the east coast.
“I raced at Road Atlanta – all the big tracks – and that was an awesome way to get into road racing,” he said. The “chess game” of drafting on the bigger tracks helped hone his racecraft.

Next, AJ dabbled in the open-wheel ranks after attending a Skip Barber School (where he was classmates with Frankie Muniz of “Malcolm in the Middle” fame), but after doing a few regional races, he realized he couldn’t take the financial burden.
“I dreaded getting in the car and I was so happy to get out of it,” he recalled. “I was racing against these CEOs who didn’t care about contact and could just write a check if they wrecked. That’s when it hit home.”

He went back to a familiar — and inexpensive — car, a Honda CRX, finding one that had been used for autocross and track days. It had a rollcage and other safety equipment and was pretty much just a turn of the key away from Improved Touring. And since he worked as a mechanic at Hondamans in Pasadena, Md., which if you can guess is an independent Honda repair shop, he said he was excited about racing a car in which he had “all the parts for in the shop.”

He drove it to an ITA MARRS Championship and third place at the American Road Race of Champions at Road Atlanta, and then came the TDI Cup.

As for after the TDI Cup, AJ said he’s researching on what’s the best next step. He wants to stick to sportscars and ultimately race in the American LeMans Series and at the 24 Hours of LeMans, but for now, he’s comfortable just making that next step that makes sense logically as well as financially. Most of all, he wants to continue the enjoyment of coming to the track.

“I have the mentality that I’m here to have fun,” he said. “I don’t get that aching feeling of nervousness before getting on track.”

You can follow AJ on Facebook, Twitter and his personal Web site.

WDCR SCCA Solo is proud to announce a sponsorship from Apple Ford. Apple Ford is located at 8800 Stanford Blvd., Columbia, MD 21045 (800) 673-2466.

Apple Ford is your Ford Racing, SVT, Shelby and Roush Dealer! Check out the Web site at www.appleford.com

We would all like to welcome Apple Ford to the SCCA community!

By Pat Griffith

Ryan Ellis is a WDCR member who’s competing in his second season in SCCA Pro Racing’s Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup, which launched in 2008 as way to introduce clean diesel technology to the U.S. market and develop the best of motorsport’s up-and-coming talent — drivers selected range only from 16 to 26 years old. The cars are identically prepared turbo-diesel Jettas.

Ryan, 20, actually started racing at the age of four in 1/4 midgets and go karts.  At the age of 11, he moved into Legends cars then into NASCAR Late Models at the age of 16 and finally into Spec Miata a year later.  He has also raced in the MX-5 Cup series.

After not reaching the podium in 2009, Ryan started the 2010 season with a bang by winning the opening two rounds of the TDI Cup at Virginia International Raceway.  He also took pole position in each race. 

A lifelong Washington Capitals fan, he also landed a sponsorship from the team for the 2010 season.

Ryan is a sophomore at George Mason University majoring in business-marketing (“For racing!” he said), and also works at Allsports Grand Prix as a driving instructor, and at Flint Hill Private School as a teacher.  He also plays hockey for GMU.

We caught up with Ryan to ask him some questions about the 2010 season and what it takes to be a professional racing driver.

Straightpipe: Compare your preparation this year with last year — what did you focus on for the selection process?

Ryan: I actually didn’t do much different this year than I did last year as far as preparation. If anything, I changed my physical fitness. I try and work out and run — I am for three miles — at least once a day but it is hard with two jobs and classes as well. I watched a lot of tape of last year’s races at all of the tracks and relearned the techniques to passing in TDI Cup.

The funny thing about tryouts is, I missed all of it, minus one day because of the massive snowstorm that hit the D.C. area. I couldn’t fly out of the area until the last day of tryouts and luckily, Volkswagen worked with me to give me an even chance of making the series.

To get ready for the beginning of the season, I debuted the MazdaSpeed3 at Daytona in the Continental Tire Sports Car Series and finished 10th in my first ever race!

Straightpipe: Describe yourself as a driver — what are your strengths?  Weaknesses or anything you try to focus on before a race?

Ryan: I believe that I am more experienced than just about anyone in the series. I am 20, which is in the middle-aged range for the series, however, I have been racing for 16 years. The experience helps me adapt to new tracks, situations, and other scenarios quicker than other drivers.

My biggest weakness is that I have never really raced front-wheel-drive cars before, especially diesel, and that is a huge change for me as the main car I have roadraced is a Miata.

Straightpipe: When did you decide to try for the TDI Cup again? 

Ryan:  I was looking at going into the Grand-Am Continental Tire Series, however, I didn’t have the money to jump into it. I was actually leading rookie of the year points after Daytona and was still hoping to get into it, but I just couldn’t afford to move up.

The Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Series is by far the cheapest way to get into pro racing and it just made sense to always have that in the back of our minds, and when the Continental Tire deal never worked out, TDI Cup became the main focus.

Straightpipe:  How do you prepare yourself when going to a track you’ve never raced on before?

Ryan:  To prepare for a race, I watch tons of tape. I try to find many different angles and car’s videos from a new track and just watch it endlessly until I can almost drive the track in my head. In fact, right now I have a YouTube video of a Miata racing the East Course at Miller Motorsports Park playing in the background — the location of Round 4 for TDI Cup.

Straightpipe: How did you get Capitals sponsorship?

Ryan:  The Capitals sponsorship was always an idea of mine. I have been a Capitals fan since I can remember and go to games and practices to meet the players and get autographs and such. I was supposed to be introduced at Game 7 of the Capitals last playoff game on the jumbotron with a video of my car as the driver of the Capitals car, however, I had a marketing presentation for one of my classes due at the same time as the game!  [Editor's note: Sadly, the Capitals were eliminated from the playoffs, so Ryan will have to wait until next season for that chance to appear on the jumbotron.]

Straightpipe: Are the cars the same as last year?

Ryan: The cars are all the exact same as last year, no changes whatsoever.  We are still only allowed to choose which tires we place on which corner of the car.

In the Washington Capitals #6 car, Ryan Ellis leads the field at Virginia International Raceway.

Straightpipe: Tell us about the VIR weekend. 

Ryan: The first practice was actually a huge surprise to me and gave me a TON of confidence. I was nearly two seconds faster than the second-fastest driver. I hadn’t ever been fastest at any track in any session of TDI Cup, and to have that kind of margin was pretty outstanding, even if it only was practice. I had only had one session at VIR since last year’s race, and it was the Playboy MX-5 Cup race in the fall, but I don’t think it helped me at all in the opening TDI Cup weekend.

I was fastest both qualifying sessions, and as the weekend went on, the gap between my laps and [Juan Pablo Sierra Lendle] kept getting smaller. Eventually, we were running very similar laptimes.

The first race, we swapped the lead nearly six or seven times and because we were constantly racing one another, never put much of a gap on the rest of the field. However, as we crossed the stripe for the last lap of the race, JP cut to the inside and missed his braking marker, and overshot his turn-in, allowing me to pull an inside-out move. I missed a shift I was so excited and I left turn one with a small gap over JP and then Jake Thompson who caught us all in our battle.

We made our way into the back esses and Jake had just gotten by JP when he blew a tire in front of everyone, giving me just the gap I needed to have a comfortable lead for my first ever TDI cup win! It was an amazing feeling to say the least.

Day two, myself and JP made a pact not to race each other until the last couple laps so we could break away from all the other drivers. He lead the majority of the race, and I couldn’t hang with him except for staying in his draft. Going into Oak Tree on the last lap, he caught the curbing a bit too hard, and lost his momentum for the backstraight. I pulled alongside him and we entered the dangerous braking zone side-by-side. We took all of the roller-coaster section side-by-side before I got a small gap going onto the front straight and JP had lost the momentum he needed to pass me back. It was another thrilling tremendous race and I couldn’t have been happier.

Straightpipe:  So you won the first two races then followed it up with a disappointing finish at New Jersey — what happened there?

Ryan:  All of the veterans had the same tire strategy (except for JP) and we all chose rear tires which were too worn causing the cars to have way too much oversteer. We all qualified in the back and I qualified 10th. Juan Pablo qualified pole so I knew I had to catch him quickly, and in the first corner I passed five cars on the outside and moved into fifth position, and going into the Turn 3 chicane I got overaggressive and tried to pass for fourth position. I was alongside another car who didn’t see me and I was pushed into the dirt on entry and rubbed my tire into his wheel causing my tire to blow.

I drove the rest of the lap with three tires and got a new right-front tire on but was already a lap down and couldn’t recover as the races are very short — 30 minutes.

Straightpipe:  How do you work on your driving away from the track?  Karting?  Video games?  Reviewing video?

Ryan:  A little bit of all of those. I am a driving instructor at Allsports Grand Prix, a local karting facility. I mess around a lot in iRacing, a driving simulator, mainly racing the TDI Cup Car obviously, as it is extremely realistic. I watch video before every race and when I get the time, I race with MARRS and have some events planned later in the year! Unfortunately, I couldn’t race at VIR until after TDI Cup raced there, as it is against their testing policy.

Straightpipe:  What are you looking at for your future career?  Any other series you’d like to get into and why?

Ryan: Obviously I’d love to move out of TDI Cup as much as I love it. I will drive anything with four wheels if I have the money and I’m hoping to move into Grand-Am within the year. My dream is actually to race GT in the Rolex Sports Car Series or WTCC/BTCC. But, I really don’t care what I’m driving as long as I’m racing.

Straightpipe:  You raced at VIR before entering the series last year but also raced at several unfamiliar tracks.  Which one was your favorite?

Ryan:  I’d have to say it’s a toss up between Mid-Ohio, Mosport and Virginia International Raceway. All three are beautiful tracks and have great atmospheres around them. They all flow very well and have great elevation changes; the key to the perfect track. I cannot wait for Mid-Ohio this year as I feel I have a great chance to podium and/or get my third win! Last year, I was running top three for a lot of the race in my best run of the year.  [Editor's note: The Mid-Ohio race weekend is June 18 to 20.]

Ryan battling with King Rat buddy, Richard Hromin at Summit Point Raceway.

Ryan of course is hooked up in today’s information age.  You can follow him on Facebook, his athlete profile on Facebook and his personal Web site.  Hopefully, Straightpipe can follow more of his successes during the season!

The “Get the Dust Off” rally (GTDO) has been the Region’s season-opening road rally for some years now. Put on jointly by MGs of Baltimore and the WDC Region, this event has developed a solid reputation as an enjoyable event which is easy to finish and hard to win. This year was no exception.

Warm and clear spring weather greeted the 29 crews contesting this year’s event. Some of them were out for a day of low-key sport with like-minded friends while others were there to accumulate points toward the 2010 Road Rally National Championship. Neither group was disappointed. This year’s event was a Monte Carlo style rally, or Monte as it is called. On a Monte, the exact location of the checkpoints and the exact tome you should arrive there is right in the route instructions. All you need to do is actually get there when you are supposed to. It sounds easy and it is……unless you are competing with twenty other teams trying to do it better than you.

The event started at Rallymaster Eric Salminen’s farm in Kingsville Maryland and finished at the Mount Felix Estate Vineyard and Winery in Havre de Grace. In between, the teams traversed some of the best rally roads in Baltimore and Harford Counties.

The entry was interesting in terms of vehicles and people. Fifty years of sports cars were represented, from a 1952 MGTD to a 2001 BMW Z3. In domestics, the scope went from Jeep Wrangler to Saturn. The presence of three modern Minis may indicate that the Mini club has discovered rallyes. In human terms, the entry ran the gamut from three National Championship winners to novices just out of rally school. Everyone finished and everyone had a smile.

The scores were equally remarkable since each penalty point represented one-one hundredth of a minute (yes that’s 1/100)! Heading the lists for the fourth straight year was the team of Teter/Head (past national champions) with two penalty points for first overall and first in class E. Second O/A and first in class L with four penalty points were Miner/Gezon (another national champion). Third O/A and first in the stock class was Wakeman/Haas (more champions) with 10 points. From there the scores dropped off, but one notable result was Lytle/D’Andrea with 20 points and FOURTH OVERALL AS NOVICES! This shows that it can be done. Further awards were given in two historic classes, SOP and novice. Full results may be seen on the WDC Region website.

Not to be left out was the wine tasting and picnicking that went on all over the winery grounds.

The next series event is Steve Gaddy’s “Historic Bridges of Frederick County Tour” Flyers are available on the WDCR website.

The fun never ends, and the second DC Region Championship Solo event was no exception to that saying. After the great spin-cross that was the first Solo event on the freshly sealed E/F lot, we found ourselves setting up on an entirely new-to-us lot at Fed Ex Field. Having been relocated to the B3 lot by Stadium Operations, the Solo Committee had a large task to accomplish in time for Sunday’s event #2.

All reports are the B3 lot was fine, it is not sealed, and the size is not bad either.

Look for a complete report from Marshall Cone coming soon.

Author: Gregg Ginsberg

After having won the 2009 MARRS ITA championship with just a single race win in what was essentially a Spec Miata with upgraded race tires, Brian Price hade a lot to prove. He arrived at the first Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series event with a new car, purpose-built for the class, and was ready to do battle with series and class regular Gregg Ginsberg in his Honda CRX and past MARRS champion Ed York, in his newly built Mazda Miata.

Qualifying

Faced with a newly patched Summit Point Raceway and mixed weather conditions, Price and the other 12 combatants in ITA took to the track for Saturday morning qualifying, sharing the surface with a gaggle of competitors in T3, IT7 and Spec RX7.

Having rained during earlier sessions, what the drivers would see was a mystery. Price and Ginsberg were on their Hoosier slicks, York on his intermediate Toyos, and other strong runners such as former MARRS IT7 champ Owen Schefer and Brent Simonson mounted Hoosier Radial Wets.

Immediately, the drivers witnessed how the remnants of the rain pooled at the transitions between old and new pavement, making for a trecherous first few laps, but as the weather warmed and the sun made its entrance, the track quickly dried, leaving those equipped for wet running in the lurch. Brian Price, in his #51 RP Performance / Unlimited Auto Body / Performance Auto Works Mazda Miata rose to the occasion and set a blistering fast lap of 1:25.696, besting the current track record by almost a half second.

York qualified for the Saturday afternoon race on the outside pole almost four seconds off of Price’s pace, with Ginsberg two tenths further back in third position.

Second year racer Mike Bletzacker would qualify fourth in his Honda CRX, while Mark Johnston in his Nissan 240sx and Owen Schefer in his Miata would qualify closely behind.

10-Lap Qualifying Race

While many of the front-running ITA cars were grouped closely together at the front of the pack for the start of Saturday afternoon’s 10-lap qualifying race, the spectre of the faster T3-class cars wreaking havoc for the ITA cars in the dry conditions was always a possibility.

As the cars came thru Summit’s Turn 10, ready to take the green flag for the first time in the 2010 season, polesitter Price jockeyed towards the center of the track, muscling York’s car towards the left edge of the track. When the starter raised the green flag, this gave Ginsberg the opportunity to claim the inside lane and move head towards Turn 1. Unfortunately, that clear real estate disappeared quickly as York and Price started moving back to the right.

Faced with the possibility of being forced off track, Ginsberg let out of the gas slightly and filed in behind the two Miatas heading thru Turns 1 and 2 and down the short straight to Turn 3.

During that time, the superior horsepower of Alan Hime’s T3 Honda S2000 helped get him to Turn 3 even with Ginsberg. This separated Ginsberg from the lead pack and he would be unable to recover during the course of the race.

York hung with Price as long as he could, but at the end of 10-laps, Price had set a new ITA track record of 1:25.800, eclipsing former ITA champ AJ Nealey’s best lap time of 1:26.174, and had taken the checkered flag a full 10.5 seconds ahead of York.

Ginsberg crossed the line another eight seconds in arrears, followed by Mark Johnston, Mike Bletzacker, Andrew Johnston, Brent Simonson, and Jack Raymond.

Although there was precious little jockeying for position between the front runners, Tommy Thompson and Cesar Ochoa in their Neons and Dahl Curry in his Miata were closely packed and fighting for position the from green to checker.

18-Lap Feature Race

On Sunday afternoon, it was time for the 18-lap feature race. Grid positions for this race were set by fastest Saturday lap time, therefore Brian Price and his Miata were assured pole position.

The T3 car of Alan Himes took the outside pole, Ed York in his York Automotive Miata was to start third, Mark Johnston in his Aflac Nissan 240SX fourth, Ginsberg in his Casa de Amigos / AllSports GP / Dahl-Morrow International CRX would start fifth, and Mike Bletzacker in his 3D Racing / ESI Honda CRX would close out the third row in 6th position.

The cars ambled down the front straight waiting for the starter to raise the green flag. Waiting until the front row of cars was almost under his starting stand, they were off. Himes’ T3 S2000 superior speed beat Price to Turn 1 while York and Ginsberg filed in behind.

Mark Johnston continued his run from the outside position running side-by-side with Ginsberg heading into Turn 3. The two cars came together, allowing both Johnston and Schefer to gain 3rd and 4th positions in ITA.

Price again quickly gapped York and proceeded to run his race unencumbered by all but Himes’s S2000. Rounding Turn 10 to begin Lap #2, York had already built a considerable lead on Johnston and Schefer.

Making a run out of Turn 10, Ginsberg passed Schefer on Summit Point’s long front straight and then passed Johnston in Turn 2. This left Ginsberg to make up a seemingly insurmountable gap to York’s Miata and left Johnston and Schefer to battle door-to-door for position until the checkered flag flinally waved.

Although slowly reeling York in, by lap six the ITA leaders started to encounter the rear of the Spec RX7 race, and lapped traffic would present an excellent opportuning for Ginsberg to take fight for second place.

By lap eight Ginsberg had wheeled his CRX to within 10 car lengths of the York Automotive Miata when both drivers came upon the weekend-long battle between the Dodge Neons of Thompson and Ocha, and Dahl Curry’s Mazda Miata.

As all five cars headed out of Turn 8 and up the hill towards the Turn 10, York attempted to use the Neons as picks, hoping to not only slow, but halt Ginsberg’s advance. Instead, Ginsberg hung just feet from York’s rear bumper as both cars rounded Turn 10 in 3rd gear. Ginsberg drafted York’s Miata down the front straight, popping out to attempt a difficult outside pass going into Turn 1. Succumbing to the pressure, Ginsberg missed a shift, grabbing fifth gear and taking his CRX off-course, giving York all the gap he needed to take the car home in 2nd place, 21 seconds behind Brian Price.

While York and Ginsberg cruised the final laps to their podium positions, Mark Johnston and Owen Schefer battled it out, door-to-door until Johnston had his own “excitement” at Turn 1 with mere laps to go. This allowed Schefer to grab fourth while Johnston fell into the waiting clutches of Mike Bletzacker, but eeking out a fifth place finish over the CRX by just 1.2 seconds.

A little further back, Brent Simonson battled closely with Mark’s brother Andrew in his #02 Adrenaline Automotive Integra, with the Acura taking seventh place and the Simonson’s Miata just 0.4 seconds further back in eighth.

Having earned the maximum possible 400 MARRS points and a new track record, Brian Price takes his #51 RP Performance / Unlimited Auto Body / Performance Auto Works to Virginia International Raceway, where he’ll twice do battle with York, Ginsberg, the other strong MARRS racers, and the best of the Southeast Division’s ITA drivers over Mother’s Day weekend.

Notes:
You can view the author’s in-car video of this race at http://vimeo.com/11257943
You can view in-car video of MARRS races from various classes at http://vimeo.com/groups/marrs/videos

The authors in-car video. Higher resolution available via links above:

ITA Feature Race — MARRS 1 — 4/25/2010 — Summit Point Raceway from Gregg Ginsberg on Vimeo.