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Sean Guthrie Blogs on IndyProRacer.com

Look for blogs by members of the Guthrie Racing Team this season on IndyProRacer.com. Be sure and check back here for updates!

This week: Sean Guthrie Relives a Month in (& out of) the Indy Pro Series Fast Lane

July 17th

I know it’s been a while since I have written a blog, and quite a lot has happened since then.

I have had some really strong runs and some very big disappointments - anyone can see that by looking at the results. So I am going to talk about what has gone on off the track in the last month.

During the last weekend in June, while racing in Iowa, I had my best run in my Indy Pro Series career.

I qualified third and ran as high as second in the race, and was comfortable in the top five when, due to many issues, I made heavy contact with the inside wall on the front straightaway. When I finally stopped just short of turn one, I was experiencing severe pain in both legs, as well as my left foot.

Later, after the IRL’s excellent medical team had a chance to examine me, I found out that my left fifth metatarsal (in my foot) was fractured and my kneecap on my right leg suffered from some injuries as well.

I flew home on Sunday as planned, having to use crutches for the first time in my life. I was originally supposed to be working at my family’s business, Car Crafters, for the next two weeks before the race at Watkins Glen, but was forced to stay in bed and let my body heal. That week after the race, I did make a few visits to the shop to work for a short time, but I mainly just relaxed and rested.

So what does an Indy Pro car driver do when he is under house arrest?

Well, a friend had given me a book about Bob Sweikert, so I read that. I also read radio-controlled (RC) car magazines, spent some time on the Internet and also worked on a few small things. I recently traded a gas powered RC car that I had for an electric RC helicopter, so I did some work on it sitting on the living room floor, and found out that trying to fly it while holding on to crutches and balance myself at the same time is not an easy task!

Just 10 days after the crash I was, once again, on an airplane headed towards New York to race in the two "Corning Twin 100s" at Watkins Glen International road course.

The weekend turned out to be one of the most difficult that I have had behind the wheel of a race car. We qualified 15th, but I had to brake about 100 feet before everyone else due to the limits imposed by my injury, and I finished right where I started. The second race in the doubleheader weekend, I also started 15th, and finished 16th.

I was relieved when my plane finally landed in Albuquerque after my New York adventures, as my engineer, John Block, had decided to get us home on Sunday instead of waiting a day in New York and getting home on Monday. We had to fly from New York to Charlotte, from Charlotte to Las Vegas, and finally Las Vegas to New Mexico. When my head finally hit the pillow at 4:00 a.m. on Monday, I was more than tired. I finally woke up around 1:00 p.m. Monday afternoon after some much-needed rest.

I clocked two eight-hour days at Car Crafters and then was back on a plane to Nashville for the next Indy Pro Series event.

The weekend at Nashville resembled the rest of our year. We were fastest in the first practice, and never left the top five from practice to qualifying, but when the green flag dropped for the race, everything fell apart. After three pit stops to fix the handling problems on the car, the race was finally over and we had finished 14th.

Now, I have spent two days hard at work in Albuquerque, have one more day to spend here, and then I’ll head out to Ohio for the final race in July at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course’s twisty road course.

This month has definitely been different than I expected. But, then again, how is that any different than any other month of racing? We’ll just keep going, work through each day as it comes and hope that our fast car can give us the results we’ve needed all year.

Jim Guthrie Blogs on IndyProRacer.com

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This Week: Guthrie Racing Team Rolls with Racing Punches to Weather Iowa Storm

June 28th

What a roller coaster weekend the Guthrie Racing Team had in Iowa! We spent a lot of time on the car and the setup for that track. We came off the trailer and were up to speed with both cars right off the bat. We were all very excited and had high hopes for the entire team. Both drivers loved their cars.

Obviously, Sean Guthrie had a great car for practice and was at the top of the speed chart all day long. Then he had his best qualifying effort ever – third.

During the race, our enthusiasm continued when he ended up passing Alex Lloyd for second, although Sean got caught up in traffic soon after that and Lloyd got back by him, and (Hideki) Mutoh also got by. By then, we figured we had a fourth-place car, which still was a strong finish.

Late in the day, with Sean running a real solid race, he once again got caught up in lapped traffic, got high and into the marbles and ended up spinning through the infield and into the inside wall, destroying his car and breaking is left foot. It was the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows, all within a few laps of each other. But that’s racing.

Luckily for us, we have a spare car. The car we crashed at Homestead was sent back to Dallara and is now repaired and will be completed by Friday. It’s going back together now and we just have a few things to finish. We’ll be ready for Watkins Glen. We don’t have to worry about spares for now, but if we have another problem, then the next one is a much bigger issue as we are running out of spares.

As for Sean, he’s taking things one day at a time. He’s still in some pain, but is off of his meds in order to allow the bone in his foot to heal faster. It’s basically up to him if he’s comfortable enough to race or not next week at Watkins Glen. We’ll have a car ready for him if he decides he feels OK – if not, we have some other options.

Handling both the ups and downs of racing is all that Sean and I know. Sean and I have been racing together since he was five years old in motocross - you crash, you cry, you fix it, get back on the bike and go racing again. I encourage him and he encourages me. We are fixers, so we fix things and move on. It’s a cool relationship we have. But that doesn’t make it easier to watch him crash. The Iowa crash was huge and totally unnecessary, but It’s part of the deal and "That’s Racing."

Tom Wieringa Blogs on IndyProRacer.com

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This Week: Tom Wieringa Talks about the Open Test at Indy

May 2nd

Expectations were very high for the Guthrie Racing Team going into the Indy Pro Series open test on April 28th, in preparation for the "Freedom 100" race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval on May 25th.

All of the Guthrie Racing team members worked feverishly on both the #4 car driven by my teammate Sean Guthrie, and my #40 car, between the last race in St. Petersburg and this test. Some days the crew exceeded 20 hours of work making sure everything was exactly right on the cars. Sean’s car needed everything rebuilt after his colossal crash at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March, and my car needed a lot of work as well.

Having accomplished that, the crew still had to do a last minute engine and transmission change on my car when they arrived at IMS. The engine never seemed to get up to proper power in the first few races this year. At the Homestead race, I couldn’t even stay in the draft with the other cars. I’m happy to report that the new engine is performing fine now and should carry us well through the first half of the season. The transmission wouldn’t shift when it got up to temperature during both St. Pete races and, unfortunately, it was damaged in an altercation with another car during qualifying at St. Petersburg. I actually have Sean’s rebuilt transmission in the car now, taken from his car that was involved with the big accident between Sean and Pablo Perez during the Homestead race, and it’s performing well now.

Friday testing on the huge Indy oval was a bit unnerving, as the temperature hovered at about 50 degrees, and bits of rain and drizzle confounded any meaningful results. We didn’t have any grip, and it was no fun washing out to the walls at more than 180 mph with little steering input. The better part of valor was to not run in those conditions, so we only did a handful of parade laps around that day before the IRL postponed the rest of the test until Saturday. We weren’t learning anything anyway in those conditions, so we parked the car early.

Saturday the Indy Racing League scheduled an extension for testing between 10 am and 2 pm. It was still cool early on, but it was at least sunny. Right out of the box, the car performed better, but it had a diabolical push, especially in turns one and two. Later, it was found that the tires from the day before didn’t set properly with the extremely cold temps, so we put on new rubber, and the whole car came in fairly quickly to where we were finally going flat to the floor all the way around the track.

Ironically, most of the drivers posted their fast times within the first few minutes after the 10 am start to the test while the air was cold, but the speeds slowed down as the day progressed. However, we started out slower and got progressively faster after we sorted out the tires and chassis, and we ended up being one of the quicker cars in the afternoon. I ran with some very fast company in the afternoon - actually pulling away from them. We were pretty happy with the setup, and aside from some minor tweaks, are planning on running the same car at during the Indy Pro Series practice and qualifying sessions on Thursday, May 24th. We only have one 45-minute practice before we qualify, so I’m pleased we have sorted out a good race car.

We ended up posting a best time of 48.0483 seconds on lap 73 of 81 at an average speed of 187.312 MPH over a total of 202.5 miles of practice.

A final thought on Indy is what a great opportunity it is just to be there - competing on "sacred ground" where thousands of legendary racers have gone before in the 90 year history of the track. It’s akin, I think, to having the privilege of pitching a game for the Cubs at Wrigley field…at 55 years old no less!

Life is good as we know it today.

Sean Guthrie Blogs on IndyProRacer.com

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This week: Sean Guthrie Looks Ahead to Friday's Pro Series Open Test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

April 24th

As my Guthrie Racing team flew home from Florida on April 2nd after a two-race weekend in St. Petersburg, there was only one thing that we were thinking about discussing: What car will I drive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

My #4 Car Crafters / Dallara was severely damaged after a crash I was in during the “Miami 100” Indy Pro Series event from Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the team was unsure if it could be repaired for the upcoming testing and racing events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, or at all. We borrowed a car for the two races in St. Petersburg, but had to find a way to fix our car, or buy a new one, for Indianapolis.

One week later, the Guthrie Racing Team was told that my race car was going to have to return to Italy for extensive repairs at Dallara’s main manufacturing facility. With the Open Test for the Indy Pro Series scheduled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 27th, followed up with the all-important “Freedom 100” race on Indy’s massive oval on Carb Day just a month later, it would be an impossible feat for the car to be shipped from the team headquarters in Albuquerque, repaired in Italy and then returned to either Albuquerque or Indianapolis in time for the late-April test. After many phone calls and negotiations, my father and team owner Jim Guthrie was able to work a deal with another team and was able to purchase a spare Dallara chassis.

On Saturday, April 14th, at 6:00 pm, the new tub – just the basic chassis frame with NOTHING else attached - arrived at the shop. I didn’t arrive too far behind, and evaluated the car to see what work was ahead for myself and the team.

I knew it was going to be a long night, and advised the team’s car painter of the same thing. The adopted car had not been raced in more than a year, and was partly stripped of paint, partly repaired, and fully in need of help. I, along with the team’s painter and team owner owner Jim Guthrie, went to work. At about 12:30 am the next day, we decided to head home and get ready for what would be a very long week.

By Sunday night, the car had a complete paint job, and by Monday afternoon it was ready to be assembled.

Guthrie Racing was facing two additional dilemmas, however: Tom Wieringa’s (teammate) car was still in the process of being repaired and prepared from his St. Petersburg accident, and my new car looked more like an empty sled then a race car.

From Monday to Friday that week, four members of the amazing Guthrie Racing crew and I put in 12+-hour days to have both cars very close to completion. The only break the team ever took was on Wednesday night when they stopped work an hour early, at 7:00 pm, to celebrate my 19th birthday with a cook-out at our house.

On Saturday morning - just a week since the car arrived in the shop - all that remained was the body fit, set-up, vinyl and some other loose ends.

Acting as driver, body man and vinyl man, I had a long day in front of me that day. I woke up at 6:30 am to cut all the vinyl the team needed for the now freshly painted #4 machine, and arrived at the shop shortly before 9:00 am. Through the rest of the day, the team and I worked very hard to get the car ready.

The Guthrie Racing Team had one more hurdle to jump, and then – we thought - it should be “smooth sailing” for the rest of the week. Ha!

While most of the body parts were able to be painted before fitting the body to the tub, the engine cover was not. (All of the parts on a race car must go through a pain-staking process of adding and removing material for a perfect fit so as to improve the way the car penetrates the air. This process is normally done prior to painting the car parts so that the paint will cover up any marks that are made during the fitting process).

The engine cover is the last piece of bodywork that is fit on the car, and it’s notorious for needing more work then all other panels. Because of that, the team had to wait until the entire car was assembled before addressing the engine cover, which also needed to be painted by Sunday morning.

When 8:00 pm rolled around, the team was still struggling with getting all of the pieces to line up, and the body fit was still not complete on the engine cover. Myself and the other 19-year-old on the team, crew member Jake McDade, worked through dinner and kept the progress moving ahead (OK, we had a short burger break). Finally, at 12:30 am, all of the pieces lined up and the majority of the work was done on the engine cover.

As I went to bed on what was now Sunday morning, I was thrilled at the progress that we – collectively - had made and assumed that all of the hard work was done.

When I entered the race shop later on Sunday morning, I begin to finish my final work, along with the rest of our guys. Everything was looking great, when the team noticed two long cracks in the engine cover. It appeared that, while sitting overnight strapped to the car, an epoxy joint had failed and would require some very creative and quick work to repair. The team had to have the part to the painter by 4:00 pm in order to get it done and in the trailer so that the trailer could leave on Monday morning for it’s trip to Indianapolis and the Open Test.

I shook my head, and realized that I was the man for the job. I gathered my tools and headed outside. At 4:10 pm, I was running the part out the door and to the paint booth. A few hours later, the part was done and the Guthrie Racing team bolted the part to the car.

The sun had already set that day as I finished applying the Car Crafters decals to my car, and the team then headed to dinner to relax and relish their victory (over the challenges of repairing and preparing a car this time – not any competitor).

The Guthrie Racing team had again performed miracles and had done what usually takes an off season to do…in just eight days.

Tom Wieringa Blogs on IndyProRacer.com

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This Week: Tom Wieringa Juggles Life, Work to Feed the "Need for Speed"

April 19th

The time between races in the Indy Pro Series can be quite long during the first part of the year, with almost two months between our last event in St. Pete and the next race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the end of May.

We have an open test scheduled at IMS next week, and I’m really excited to get back in my race car again in preparation for the upcoming "Freedom 100" Indy Pro Series race on Indy’s huge oval. I also have several businesses outside of racing that keep me really busy, along with some other hobbies that involve speed as well, like snowboarding and practicing giant slalom racing, which is what I did directly after leaving St. Pete. I spent some time on the ski slopes in beautiful Park City, Deer Valley and Snowbird, Colo., which was a great way to work off the stress from a racing weekend.

Like all race car drivers, I am also constantly searching for good corporate partners to bring into our Guthrie Racing organization. Meetings, phone calls and making arrangements for our guests to visit us in May take up an enormous amount of time, but that’s how good racing careers are built. The financial foundation has to come first.

Tom Wieringa in 2006 Star Mazda Photo: TomWieringa

But it’s not all work, either. Last week I got the opportunity to travel to the home base of Guthrie Racing, in Albuquerque, NM, for some fun on the Route 66 Raceway kart track with Sean and Jim Guthrie. We had a blast! I just bought a new 125 cc kart (non-shifter) and will be practicing locally around the Chicago area when I have time, and this Albuquerque trip was just the thing I needed to get motivated to keep using it.

Although it was only for a few hours, that time really got me back in "racing mode." That was great practice for last weekend, where I got the opportunity to race in a SCCA Star Mazda two-day (April 14 & 15) event at Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo, Colo., a 2.2-mile road course. I raced there last year as well, and ended up taking home a 2nd and 4th.

This year we had the honor of having two Wieringa’s compete in Star Mazda Pro cars. My 26-year-old son, David, also ran with me the entire weekend with the Eurosport Racing Group out of Brighton, Colo. In his formative years, Dave competed successfully in the Skip Barber Series, the Barber Dodge Pro Series and CART’s Toyota Atlantic Series. Dave won many events and held track records at several venues he competed in. Later on, he ended up testing an Indy Pro Series car, and also received his license to drive in the Indy Racing League during a test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, achieving a 208 mph average and a top speed of 218 mph. The ironic part is that Dave has since got married, has a second child on the way, and works full time. After a five-year hiatus, he jumped into the Star Mazda car and ended up beating his old man with a 2nd- and 3rd-place finish. Grandpa achieved a 4th and 6th in the double-header races – not too bad considering there were 35 cars competing.

Dave Wieringa Photo: TomWieringa

Dave plans on racing in the Nationals at the SCCA June Sprints held at Road America again this year, as well as also racing in a 12-hour enduro with me at Florida’s Moroso Motorsports Park in the Fall.

My other son, Dan, 27, and I will be racing 125cc karts together in the Chicago area throughout the year, too. Dan is a full-time information technology director at a large school system in Chicago, and has also recently taken on the management of my racing website, www.tommybobby.com .

I also plan on doing about three or four more SCCA races this year, when I can fit them in my extremely busy schedule and in between Indy Pro Series events. You may even see me compete in the prestigious and grueling "Baja 1000" race in a Baja Challenge car (like a dune buggy) during the Fall, too.

Sean Guthrie Blogs on IndyProRacer.com

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This week: Sean Guthrie Recaps the Opening Rounds of the 2007 Indy Pro Series Season

April 6th

What a opening to a season its been. When the Guthrie Racing team rolled my number 4 Car Crafters sponsored Indy Pro Series car out of the trailer at Homestead Miami speedway for the opening round of the Indy Pro Series myself and the team had very high hopes. The first few rounds of practice ended with us running right around the middle of the pack not really very encouraging but we kept working on the car. We finally find a good set-up when qualifying came around and we not only qualified 9th, the first time Guthrie Racing has qualified in the top ten at a mile and a half oval, but we also ran nearly half a second faster than we had all weekend. This was extremely encourage for the whole team going into race day. We again tweeked the set-up on the car and I went out for the morning warm-up. The car was just fantastic we ended in the top five again very encouraging.