One Hit Leaves Quine Wondering at Lime Rock
September 24, 2014
(Team Release) MEDINA, OH—September 23, 2014 – Aaron Quine is eager to prove he’s not a one-hit wonder in the Trans Am Series, and he hoped to do that with a strong showing at Lime Rock in his second Trans Am race. But a hit by a competitor in turn one on lap one of the race left Quine wondering what might have been.
The weekend started off slowly for Quine and his TA2 Tony Ave Racing Mustang, qualifying 8th on the grid with an ill-handling car. “We made a rookie mistake and forgot to put any wing in the car,” said Quine. “We had zero degrees of rear wing when we should have had 13 degrees in it, so the car was very loose.”
Quine’s crew worked late into the night on Friday trying to find some balance, adjusting shock settings and adding rear wing. The changes paid off handsomely on Saturday, with Quine third fastest in the morning warm-up, just two-tenths off of polesitter Adam Andretti.
“I couldn’t believe how much better the car was,” noted Quine. “We only ran five or six laps and could tell the car was much faster, so we parked it knowing we were ready for the race.”
Unfortunately, Quine didn’t get to take advantage of the Mustang’s new-found handling. Heading into the right-hand turn one on the first lap of the race, another competitor came inside Quine and sideswiped the passenger side of his car, knocking him off track. The blow bent the right side tie rod and did some other damage that didn’t surface immediately.
“I could tell we’d bent a tie rod because the steering wheel was crooked,” said Quine. “I got back on track and slowed down a bit and the car seemed okay, so I picked up the pace again.”
Quine picked up the pace enough that he actually caught and passed three other TA2 cars, but then he lost power steering and temperatures started rising. A pit stop revealed that the blow had moved the power steering pump just enough for the belt to eventually fail. And because the power steering belt also drives the water pump, the engine started to get hot.
Quine’s crew quickly put on a new belt and sent him back into the fray. He managed to finish half the race before the belt failed again and temperatures started to rise, so the team decided to park the car to save the motor. Quine and the crew spent the rest of the day repairing the car and changing the gearbox for VIR’s long straights.
“It was a tough blow. With the changes we’d made to the car after qualifying, I really believe we were capable of making the podium,” said Quine. “I wish we could have had a better result for all of our sponsors, especially our new sponsor, Dayton Logistics. But that’s racing.”
VIR Notes
• Aaron Quine ran once at VIR in 2001 when he participated in the Cannonball Run. The event stopped at VIR and competitors completed a total of three hot laps before heading on to the next track. Quine is looking forward to completing quite a few more laps in the Trans Am race.
• SVRA will be joining Trans Am at VIR, and Quine is looking forward to seeing all the vintage race cars on track. “I sent Tommy Kendall a Facebook message about a restored 1970 Dodge Challenger race car for sale,” laughed Quine. “It was the perfect color green. Tommy would look good running that car before our event.”
###
About Quine Racing
Aaron Quine has been an SCCA racer for more than 20 years with many poles, race wins and track records in the T1 and T2 classes. He finished fifth in his Trans Am debut at Mid-Ohio in 2014. Quine Racing sponsors include Dayton Logistics, Tony Ave Racing, Ford Racing, Ford Driving Skills for Life, The Mid-Ohio School, Fallsways Equipment, Hoosier Racing Tires, Track First, Masters of Disaster, Kumho Tires and D3PR (www.d3pr.net).
