Managing the 034 VW Jetta-Mahle Turbo SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Debut

I was asked by Christian Miller to manage and engineer his World Challenge TC Volkswagen Jetta in his team’s debut at the Laguna Seca finale. The car, an ‘05 bodied Jetta built in the late ’90’s by VW Motorsports, had a VERY strong Cosworth prepared 2.0L turbo engine (the engine is prepared by Mahle, the English arm of Cosworth’s customer programs). Chris and his family owned team are as warm and friendly as can be, and were also sharp enough to bring in a veteran to launch their effort.

The car was plagued with a number of issues in pre-event testing and throughout the race weekend; the VW Motorsports fuel tank and pump arrangement caused frequent starvation issues, a custom brake disc failed, etc. My notes to the team for the off season was to free the car from as many “VW Motorsports” custom parts, and replace them with standardized solutions that could be found or replaced at the track if necessary. In talking to Chris recently, the team has acted on that recommendation.

With fuel starvation (on a full tank) during qualifying, Chris only managed 3 hot laps with the car. Suffering an engine that was stumbling constantly under acceleration, he still qualified 28th out of 38 cars. Barring cutting the stock tank from the car and installing a custom ATL cell while in the paddock, something far beyond the fabrication abilities of any team at the event, the car was destined to suffer this problem for the race. The mechanics on our team had an indomitable spirit, and worked late into the night replacing all the fuel lines, the fuel pump, and fashioning new fuel pickups and a new collector can for inside the tank.

While this ended up being an improvement, it still didn’t solve the problem. Weekends like this are a great lesson on many fronts: no matter how well planned an effort might be, when dealing with a modest budget or an aging car, one’s first race weekend will usually have some big challenges to overcome. In a perfect world (or a world with a nice budget and new car), those problems can and should be minimized. Plenty of testing is prime solution to ridding your car of gremlins.

In this scenario, and because our 3-day test just prior to the race was cut short in the first 15 minutes of the test when the flywheel had a VERY messy divorce with the VW crankshaft at 7000RPMs, I knew the race weekend would be an uphill battle. I spent a lot of time preparing the team and mechanics for this likelihood–you never want to sour the mood of your team before an event, so tempering the news that we needed to expect to have unexpected problems to solve with the belief that we’d overcome those challenges no matter what they were, was vital. Every official WCTC session was cut short for us due to fuel-related maladies, and the fuel tank was opened between every session. Every mechanic had at least one arm completely immersed in a . I’m proud to say that the entire team kept their heads down, worked feverishly, and refused to quit when the reasons for pressing onwards were becoming hard to invent.

Knowing the race would be rather arduous, and that our late night fuel cell mods would have to go untested as the last session of the weekend was the race itself, Chris and I decided to take every opportunity possible to practice his standing starts on his way to grid, and on the parade laps for the race. The car was plenty fast when is wasn’t hampered by problems, so maximizing the start would be our best chance to make up for the unrepresentative 28th starting place we’d earned. We also knew that for as long as the car ran (and we’d hoped it would run the entire race with fuel being adequately delivered to the engine…), Chris would be marching forward.

I chose to call the race from the 4th floor of the Laguna Seca observation tower to give Chris an “eye in the sky” to help him with the multiple passing maneuvers expected. Chris nailed the best start in the field (hard to do with a FWD turbo-motor, BTW), and by lap 7, had passed 12 cars on his march up the field. On lap 7, and while in 16th, he locked his brakes at the corkscrew and was hit from behind by Memo Gidley. It wasn’t Memo’s fault–he had nowhere to go to avoid Chris. With his bumper cover dragging behind the car, Chris was called in and the boys ripped it free.

As if the race had to be run all over again, Chris returned to the track in the same spot he’d started in, 28th, and began the fight all over again. Minus his rear bumper, and with fuel starvation problems making an unwelcome return, Chris fought on for 8 more laps and picked up 5 more spots, retiring on lap 16 (of 20) while in 23rd place. We were ultimately classified in 32nd place.

Despite the numerous obstacles throughout the weekend, and what on paper looks to be a story of failure (started 28th, finished 32nd), there were actually some great positives to emerge. I’ve mentioned the impressive display of attitude and work ethic by the crew, but the pace of Christian Miller in his WCTC debut was also a revelation (not to those that know of him, but to the rest of the Pro Racing community that hadn’t seen him race before.)

Adding up the cars he had to pass and re-pass in the race, Chris made up 17 places! With nothing but limited track time in every session prior to the race, he overcame many trials that normally derail a driver from performing at his or her best. The Jetta has tons of potential, and Chris has the talent to make use of all of it. I’d expect Chris and the Jetta to make a strong push for rookie of the year in 2006, and wish them the best.