Houk Wins at Mid-Ohio
Ayrton Houk turned his first laps in the BHR Piper DL7 F1600 car at the SCCA Autumn Classic at Mid Ohio Oct 17-18. When the track canceled a planned test day before the race weekend, it meant that Ayrton’s first laps would be in the weekend’s first qualifying session. To make the task even more daunting, mother nature provided cold temps to keep grip levels to a minimum. With some chassis adjustments to help with the lack of grip, the team provided Ayrton with a stable and forgiving platform for that first qualifying session. He would end that session in P4, behind two other young guns, and a former national champion. A very solid start to the weekend.
Saturday afternoon would bring Race 1. With slightly warmer temps and a good group of FF/F1600 cars, it was sure to be a fun race. Staring from P4, Ayrton made a great start and jumped to P2 through turn 1. Over the first few laps, the more experienced drivers would work their way past, with Ayrton slipping back to his P4 starting position. After settling in Ayrton would get faster with each lap. On lap 6, with a strong move in the draft down the back straight, Ayrton passed Lewis Copper III to move up to 3rd position. Then two laps later, he would take advantage of a bobble by Nic Sheppard exiting the carousel to move up to 2nd position. From there he was able to hold off Cooper to finish his first race in 2nd position. While race leader Thomas Schrage had checked out to take the win, Ayrton and the BHR team had made huge progress after just two sessions together. And while the overall goal for the weekend was still just to gain valuable seat time, and continue to progress, there was a sense that challenging for a win on Sunday was not out of the question.
For Sunday, the weather turned even worse, with overcast skies, continued cool temps, and even an occasional rain shower. The day would start with a morning qualifying race to set the grid for Sunday afternoon’s final race. Luckily, the track was dry for the qualifying race. Ayrton would start in P2. With another good start, he charged to the lead in turn 1. One lap 2, a lock-up under braking for turn 4 would allow Saturday’s winner Schrage to take the lead. From that point, Schrage would pull out to a comfortable lead, and likewise, Ayrton pulled out to a comfortable gap over 3rd place Sheppard. So it was another 2nd place finish, but the progress was obvious. At this point Ayrton was clearly the 2nd fastest on the track, and the gap in pace compared to frontrunner Schrage was much smaller than it was on Saturday.
The weekend would wrap up with the final race on Sunday afternoon. The mid-day rain had passed, but the temps were still cool. For the final, Ayrton would start in P2 alongside polesitter Schrage. The first several laps had a pack of 4-5 cars all challenging at the front. But by lap 5 things had settled a bit with Schrage in P1 and Ayrton close behind in P2. On that lap, Ayrton would take advantage of a good run through turn 1, and pass for the lead heading to the keyhole turn 2. He would never look back, continuing to get faster throughout the race, and taking the checkered for the win with a 1.4 second gap over 2nd place Schrage.
It was an emotional win. The team and driver had been preparing with video, data, training, and sim sessions. And throughout the weekend, Ayrton, Brad, and Kevin worked extremely well together, progressing the car and driver for each session. It was great to see all of the work pay off on the track. Now we take this foundation, and continue to build towards the 2021 season. BHR and Ayrton Houk are working together on some exciting plans for 2021.