Despite suffering another mechanical issue in practice that caused him to miss qualifying and start from the back, Novato native Dave Smith mounted a charge in Saturday’s ARCA General Tire 200 at Sonoma Raceway, climbing the field more on skill than car performance.
Smith had been unable to even get under the green at Portland International Raceway’s road course the previous week due to gearbox issues, so at Sonoma he was prepared to loosen the reins a little if necessary.
“That car was pretty vulnerable. I was driving it with a little bit of leeway to see if I could get into the top 10. That was the strategy,” Smith said.
By using road-course-style heel-and-toe braking while other drivers were braking with their left foot, to avoid upsetting the finicky transmission, Smith was able to race hard without straining himself.
“The advantage I had was track knowledge, I knew the lines,” Smith said. “I could see a lot of my competitors making mistakes, but I was able to swallow them with a much inferior car. Braking and downshifting into seventh and 11th gear. I felt pretty consistent in that respect.”
Smith had a car in the mirror that would ultimately finish inside the top 10 and had a good chance of redeeming itself in the opening round of the NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 weekend.
But on lap 21, the No. 77 Global Office Inc/King Taco Toyota Camry shifted into second gear heading into the short start/finish straight.
“I drove really slow in second gear and then I came in to the pits,” Smith said. “I thought maybe I could jack it up because the link bars get stuck sometimes. And they said, ‘It’s an internal failure,’ and that was it.”
And that was just when his race strategy started to work.
“Then you just pray for a caution, because it will pack the field up and give you another chance to pass,” Smith said. “And it also gives the car a rest, because the car needed to rest. It wasn’t a fire-breathing beast all the time.”
But another transmission was made.
“We made some patchwork repairs on the car to try to finish in the top 10, but we fell short,” said Smith, who finished 26th.
Despite his frustrations, Smith prefers driving big stock cars rather than the agile, high-tech Porsche Cayman GT4 Club Sport he races and shares frequently each year.
“It’s analog. There’s no electronics. No anti-lock brakes. You just steer the car how you want it to,” Smith said of the rumbling stock cars. “Around here you’re just trying to tame wild horses. You’re slipping and sliding. Whoever can stay mentally focused is the one who ends up doing pretty well at the end.”
Smith did his part, but his horse became lame again.
