Weekend highs and lows [Archive] - Texas American Iron & Camaro Mustang Challenge

mitchntx

04-21-2008, 04:14 PM

Post'em up so that somoe might formulate a weekend write up ...

Friday TNT ...

Broke another rotor and blew a hose off the water pump. Some thrashing got me back on track for the final hour.

Saturday ...

Thanks to Glenn Landrum for showing me around the track. Helped a lot and was able to put the LAW motorsports, NAtwell Welding and Supply, Moonlight printing and Graphics Pontiac #9 on pole

Race 1 was interesting. I wanted to maintain a good distance between me and the CMC pack because T1 and T2 can get awefully crowded. And it was.

I tried really hard to put some distance and cars between me and the #8 car. I finally got my chance with a couple laps to go. I was able to get a run and draft on 3 car battling and was able to pass all 3 on the front straight and prayed to the Gods of grip to hold it T1/T2. It all worked out.

Race 2 was eventful in that Steve and I raced hard for several laps till he had a mechanical issue. He blew the center out of his pressure plate and the car was stuck in gear.

As always, the whole CMC crew pitched and helped get him going once again. By 8:30, the car was once again ready to roll to grid.

Race 3 wasn't so pretty. There were numerous incidents involving the GTA cars. The Race Director was grossly clear about body contact and on track respect. I don't think many of them know what that is.

Still had a good race, unable to shake Steve once again, till I had to muscle some GTA sight-seers out of the way. Once I got them to look in their mirror and see that there were other people on the track, I was able to get by.

Others weren't so lucky.

This is just one man's opinion, but I think we should all band together in a show of solidarity and let NASA Texas AND NASA National know that the kind of ass-hattery displayed by the GTA drivers and series director is not acceptable.

Lots of bent cars this weekend because of stupidity behind the wheel.

AI#97

04-21-2008, 04:38 PM

Having tested 3 weeks earlier and not changing anything I thought the weekend would be uneventful...but some gremlins showed up and chewed on my car prior to saturday morning...

Saturday, practice saw very little productive info other than running two GTA cars off the road because they didn't have position so I gave no room...got passed by a GTC BMW under a double yellow flag, a white Honda decided to blow up in T1 which collected 3 or 4 cars and I called it quits after 3 or 4 laps.

Qual showed more problems with the car not running right and the tires feeling like someone armor all'd the contact patch on the rear...worst qualifying for AI97 since early 2006....

Saturday Race 1, made a few changes and was still dealing with a poor running car but made it up to second place only to have the car die on me on the 2nd lap falling back to 5th or 6th...drove what was left of the wheels off and climbed back to 3rd but an ontrack incident bumped me to 2nd!

Race 2, was gridded 4th...barged my way to first in T1...stuck to a plan of legally making my car 20' wide on a 72" track width and made it work to my advantage and pulled off a win in a vastly inferior car that was coughing and bucking as well as sliding all over the place. also blew a 2" seal out of the top of the gas tank on the last lap for some cool video from Donovan's car...glad it didn't turn out like Joe Johnson's Cobra R and thankfully made weight in tech!

Sunday Qual....car would barely run on the out lap, smelled fuel, came in to figure out the problem, found the 2" hole in the tank had about an hour to fix it before the race.

Race 3...Patched the tank, started Dead last, car still barely running on the pace lap and just as I rolled onto the straight I put my foot to the floor and the car suddenly had power so instead of diving in to conceed the race, I took off in chase of the AI pack. Turned out CMC2 decided to make it a triple split start and cried only to see the lead AI cars diving into T1 as CMC2 rolled onto the straight...killed any chances for my typical race from the back of the pack... :cry: IMHO, CMC2 should be starting in front of CMC but my plight at the back was purely my doing.

Ended up boiling the rear tires off the car and making it as high as 3rd in AI and had an outstanding battle with Chris Lyons for several laps and he got me back in T3 to retake 3rd place. Did my best impressions of a Formula Drift competition for the rest of the race with a gas pedal that was either on or off...and gave the corner workers in T2 a view of a 110mph drift from the "box" all the way to the exit of 2. Hit a GTA car in the carousel "Gently" and learned when sliding sideways that bugs can hit your helmet with the windows down. Barely made it over the scales at tech because the car would only idle or move at full throttle. Pulled into the pits and found that the Mass Air Meter had come unplugged completely and had likely fouled all the plugs. Ended up 4th in the hardest race I have ever had. Even though this was my first finish off the podium in my career not including a DNF, I still felt I had accomplished something with the mechanical troubles I was having.

Had a great time hanging out with buddies and only complained about high gas prices one time... :lol:

Pretty well sums it up.

cjlmlml

04-21-2008, 04:38 PM

I agree with Mitch

I have spent a lot of time working on my car in the last year or so and now it is f-d up due to a dillweed on the track in a POS Honda Civic that left oil on the track.

I wasnt the only one who spun due to that, I just happened to be the first one through there.

Nasa allowed him on the track with a smoking car because he was just getting some carb cleaner out or at least that is what I told.

If you have an ill prepared car or out of class pos, get your own damn run group or stay off the track, you put others at risk.

Now I am out a custom made aluminum splitter, a front nose, perhaps a strut, 2 bent c/c plates, & thats all I know of so far.

Granted, maybe that the risks go with the racing, but I would ask NASA TX to stop introducing un needed risks into our run group.

I believe the Enduro perhaps overshadowed & clouded the judgement of Nasa TX this weekend.

AI/CMC group has worked long and hard to get their own run group.

We know who we are racing against/with for the most part and have developed a certain level of trust there.

Why dont others who race in our run group sign some kind of damage agreement? Or we do the same if we are in theirs?

I admit Nasa TX has come a long way from several years ago, but I feel other improvements can be made.

Clifton , I hope you read this.

My 2 points for NASA.

1. Deliberate seriously before combining different run groups.
Evaluate the levels of racers coming in to our group as well as those already in strongly.

2. Be consistent with the times of our races.

We pay for 20 minute races, how about starting the clock from the time the green flag drops?

With expenses increasing all the time, $1,000 weekends may be the norm.

Listen, I am not perfect, I make mistakes, I am talking about risk management here. Something to think about.

Before you think this is all sour grapes, it is not.

On balance, it was a very fun weekend , I would not trade.

I will say that the weekend was brutal for me. College Station has always been brutal on me. If you knew all of my history there, you would think I was crazy for returning.

I will also say that the spirit of our group was alive and well when I came in with a wrecked car.

EVERYONE pitched in to help me , or offered help.

I wasnt in a very good frame of mind at the time, so people just got busy and helped me out.

I tried to thank everyone personally who helped out, if I didnt, then Thank You right now.

oz98cobra

04-21-2008, 06:21 PM

Downunder Racing had an awesome weekend - it was the first time we had raced with a "complete car" now that the splitter was finally complete, so we were happy to see that it is as competitive as we had hoped.

Mason did an awesome job on Sunday! Bagging a pole, a lap record, and our first win ain't too bad for a rookie who was only in his 7th race!

I learned a few things - like missing the 2-3 shift then finding 5th on a race start is very ugly. I learned that no matter how experienced you are or how carefull you are, contact can happen when you race as hard and close as we do. I felt really bad for the contact with Chris on Saturday after his off in practice - I don't think I did the wrong thing- we were racing close and hard and the door was wide open - I had to go for it, and based on the lap before, I had no inkling that Chris would shut the door in such a decisive manner - but Chris had already suffered more than his fair share of car damage so the last thing he needed was contact. Unbelievably, we found ourselves in the almost identical situation the following race only this time I think we both a little more aware and we pulled it off. I have say that although I would have liked better results and would prefer not to have any contact ever, it was some of the most wicked wheel to wheel racing I have ever had! The video from both races is awesome!

I also learned that our directors might need to study up on the CCRs when it comes to IRBs and reviewing incidents - but I will cover that in a separate post. Suffice to say we will be handling things a little differently if we are ever involved in contact again.

We learned that when we think there might be a problem with the car, we probably should action that sooner rather than later - this happened to us twice this weekend - the first was the loose shifter that I had told myself I needed to adjust since the last time I drove it but got busy on other tasks and never got it - it cost me bigtime in race 1! The second was that ever since we put the exhaust under the car last year we have figured it was too close to the fuel line and would cause the fuel to boil with our recirculative fuel system - it nearly ruined our weekend as Mason had to limp around the last 3/4 of the last lap of R3 with a spluttering car! He would have been gutted if it died on the that last lap! Time to re-route the fuel lines!

Oh and Matt, you think we were fast this weekend, wait till we actually take the time to set up the aero the aero and suspension - and learn to use it to the full extent - remember this was the first weekend either of us had raced with full aero and the first weekend either of us had raced at TWS (I missed this one when racing Adam's car).

y5e06

04-21-2008, 06:27 PM

LOWS, Lows, and more lows.

Wednesday & Thursday, trusted & loyal dog of 8 years becomes suddenly Ill. Throwing up bile, not eating, drooling, barely moving etc.

Friday am- afternoon. $1K vet bills from multiple tests and I had to put the poor guy to sleep.

Friday eve. contemplated on weekend

Saturday leave to TWS 4 am. 6am fuel stop. notice unusual 'spray' coming from truck at start up. 6:20am notice heavy coolant smell at track gate. then noticed lots of leaking while unloading truck

saturday early afternoon. events on track. decide to bail off course as opposed to risking tank slapper w/ safety crew near by. Unknown damage to car. Car sat (for the most part...) out off T7 the whole day, couldn't retreive it due to where the valet decided to park it during R1. I'm sure something is broken, I don't feel like looking at it right now.
unclear stories about treatment of said car while driver was NOT present (details still TBD).

Saturday late afternoon. R&R rad in old truck. thank God Oreilly's had a rad.

Saturday eve. Unload truck at home, notice unusual spots on rear of 'burb doors & on hitch. realize heavy oil leak coating underside. doesn't look like tranny or rear. Dang, does it ever end? at least I 'm home.

Unload, take a shower, & went to bed.

Monday. One of those days at work. Hope to go home soon and drink a beer... or 6

AllZWay

04-21-2008, 06:36 PM

First off....I really hate to see all the damage that ocurred this weekend, but again the cars are repairable and thankfully no one was injured.

As for my weekend...it was truly a mixed bag.
R1...I botched the start and got killed. I did have a good 4 car battle with Al,Michael,& Morgan. (video coming soon). Morgan made a necessary decision despite the consquences to his car.

R2...I started outside poll and for a change got a good start and tucked in behind the AI guys until they motored away. Luckily the guys behind were busy racing each other and I was able to get a little breathing room. That is until the sharks got aligned and chased me down, being led by the Great Blue shark with White number 19 on it.
Once JeffW caught me, the pressure of trying to win my first race and keep him behind me began to mount and I made some mistakes. Luckily not many laps were left and ole CMC28 got a little wider and I barely won my first race. WHEW :P

R3...It was pretty much a repeat of R1,but maybe worse with yet another botched start. Tranny started getting harder to shift and reverse is out again.

I will be pulling it prior to Hallett to get it fixed, perhaps it might be a clutch issue also.

I did get to see a good battle with Steve and Mitch.

So despite a win....I had a disappointing weekend overall.

cobra132

04-21-2008, 07:42 PM

I had a blast this weekend. Droped the trailer off on Thursday night. On friday made some suspension adjustments and did 4 30 sessions breaking in 2 sets of R888's for the enduro, etc. Did a 1:56 on new R888's, thats my fastest lap at TWS so far.
Sprint races went well but I am now stuck in limbo between the AI front runners and CMC. I'll get there eventually.
The enduro started out good. Qualified 5th and got a good start. Had a blast trading places with MM. On lap 13 the left front hub gave out and I limped into the pit. I was ready to throw in the towel but then came to my senses and we changed the hub and brake pads. Not easy as they were red hot. Thanks to all for helping with tools etc. We were not prepared for something like that. That stop took 30.5 minutes. My crew did a good job. They were a bunch of guys I work with in the OR. The other 3 stops were all less than 3 min with driver changes. As always Jorge drove great. We ended up 18 laps down. If the hub didn't sideline us, we would have been right in there.
The Toyo R888's performed great. They were not shaved. I put 30 min on them on friday and then ran the enduro for just under 3.5 hours. The back tires are worn evenly and have 3/32 of tread. They were 6/32 to start. The fronts have most of the tread worn off the inside half but no chord showing.
I look forward to Hallet. FMR

AI#97

04-21-2008, 09:47 PM

The Toyo R888's performed great. They were not shaved. I put 30 min on them on friday and then ran the enduro for just under 3.5 hours. The back tires are worn evenly and have 3/32 of tread. They were 6/32 to start. The fronts have most of the tread worn off the inside half but no chord showing.

HORRY CHIT!!! That is outstanding news!!!

NASA13

04-21-2008, 09:55 PM

We had a nice adventure.
Truck broke down outside Caldwell. Lisa, Damian, Canon(2 year old), Charlie(trusty dog) and me.
Intermittent injector failure.
Stuck with 28 ft trailer in the hay field that I pulled over in.
Buried truck and trailer, 4 low and lots of rocking , buried truck much worse. Plowed most of the field and never got out, even after unloading race car and other heavy stuff.
Pulled out by 4 wheel drive tractor after about 3 hours.
Went home with piece of crap truck, limping with tail between legs.
I hate 6.0 PSD's
Good Times!

Rob Liebbe

04-21-2008, 10:01 PM

The weekend started out a couple of weeks ago with car prep. This turned out to be a new concept for me and an eye opener. There were a LOT of things on the car that needed attention including steering shaft, rear lower control arm bushings, hubs, rotors, a few loose bolts, serpentine belt routing, tire management, etc. Everytime Todd would look at a different piece of the car he would just kinda stare in disbelief at the lack of maintenance or how "underdeveloped" the car seemed to be. My take is that the car IS developed, but just with the lowest denominator parts - meaning a lot of stock stuff. Oh and Todd complained about the grimy condition of the underside of the car.

Friday Practice - I took the car out for a short session to check out all the parts we replaced. Car felt good on the new "Covini Tune". Todd got a good bit of run time to knock the rust off his driving skills. He had not driven a CMC car since he wrecked his at TWS over a year ago (GET THE CONVERTIBLE TO THE BODY SHOP!!!!!!!). I even got to run against Patterson in Glenn's car for a while.

Saturday - I was driving all of the sprint races for the weekend. Car ran great!!!! TWS, my car, and myself all seem to be at one with each other as I had a strong running all day long. I qualified third for R1 and got a 2nd place!!!! For Race 2, I got the case of no-shift-ums on the start and a parade of cars went by me before the start/finish line. Dammit!!!! I ran consistent 2:00's while chasing Burch but could not catch the incredible 4 car battle up front. They sure were fun to watch though - congratulations James!!!!

Saturday night - while working on the car late in the evening and discussing the shortfalls of my car being "underdeveloped", Marshall Mosty spits out the quote of the week. "God help us if Liebbe ever actually tries!" Thanks Marshall, I'll take that as a compliment.

Sunday - Qualified 2nd for R3 and got another good start by going around pole sitter Wirtz with Burch and Landrum close behind. It ended up with me running my a@@ off trying to keep Wirtz behind me and wishing for a white flag on every lap. Wirtz finally capitalized on a mistake I made in turn seven and we entered turn eight door to door but he had me. Dammit!!! I followed him to a second place finish. GREAT RACE WIRTZ!!!!

I don't think that I have ever put the car on the podium two times in one weekend even though I really do try.

Enduro - The car prep for the enduro paid off as the car performed very well for the entire event. Our major fault was lack of team prep. It may be hard to imagine, but Todd is a procrastinator and I'm not too far behind him. So a lot of team planning was not done. We were the opposite of Glenn's effort. I will be taking all of Glenn's suggestion to heart. There was an on-track incident on lap 4 where the Spec Ford spun out in front of Todd who evaded by practically parking the car off track and preventing a very serious crash - T-bone a Mustang into a Spec Ford would not turn out well. Good job Todd, you did the right thing. I also spilled fuel during the first pit stop and had to come in for a two minute penatly which really ended up costing about five minutes overall. Todd continued on, running out the first two hours. I took over and tried to run as hard as possible, but had to slow down a bit to conserve fuel. Overall, the enduro was great!!!! Thanks to Clifton and the NASA crew for doing it!!! I would also like to thank the Jordans, Roy Kaylor from my office, and Al Fernandez for helping crew our enduro effort.

For me it was a great weekend, I hope that the bad experiences of others can be overcome and that we will see each other sooner rather than later.

Al Fernandez

04-21-2008, 10:33 PM

I love race weekends, and this one rocked: the enduro was awesome, and I just had a lot of fun. My car, however, has decided to start paying me back for all of the neglect from last year. In R1 a front hub let go on the last lap and even though I tried to block like mad Mosty still got by me for 5th. :lol: Then in R3 the serpentine belt decided to eject and left me without power steering...and unlike the Mosty brothers in the enduro I just parked it 8) I had some really good on track battles though, particularly w/James in R3, and started learning my way around this place.

marshall_mosty

04-21-2008, 10:41 PM

Marshall Mosty spits out the quote of the week. "God help us if Liebbe ever actually tries!" Thanks Marshall, I'll take that as a compliment.

It was meant as a compliment. You're one hell of a driver Rob.

Wirtz

04-21-2008, 11:04 PM

It was a great, fun weekend for us.

Friday:
Ran the half day TnT. Thanks to Misty and the whole TWS crew, it was a great day at the track. I ended up losing a tire at around 5:30, so I got to hang out just before T4 to watch for a while.

Friday Night:
To those of you who went to Rudys, I apologize. I did not realize most were not familiar with that place. I should have made suggestions on what, and how to order their BBQ. You know it is a real meal when you order meat by the pound. I say we go back next event and we can get it right.

Race1:
My luck with qualifying continues, so I get to start on the pole. My lack of luck on opening laps continues, and I was 4th by the end of lap one. But I had a great view for a train of CMC cars that ran together within inches until the swiss flag incident. That let JB get away a bit, with Rob chasing him down. After working at it all race, I was finally able to make a move and get inside of Glenn for 3rd, but then we ran side by side through 1, 2, and 3 if I remember right to finish it off. Great race Glenn!

Race2:
Got a better start, and me welding Robs shifter into 2nd gear worked (see above). James was flat out shot from a cannon in the opening laps. I had a good tussle with Glenn, then Michael. Then I tried to run down James. Here is a link to the final lap and a quarter.
Right Click - Save As (http://www.rcubedmotorsports.no-ip.com/webpost/08_TWS29_R2_finish.wmv)(sorry for the crap video, but I thought the action was good enough to overshadow my junk camera)
Can you tell James really, REALLY wanted this on? Great drive James!

Race3:
Another good qually session got the pole back. I had to work traffic really hard for that one. The start seemed like a replay with me falling to 4th in short order. But again running nose to tail, this time with Rob at point. The we had the GTA deal and as you saw from Michaels video, it messed JB and Glenn up enough for me to sneak through. I can't even remember how many laps it took to get back close to Rob, and then I just started working on every turn I could trying to force a mistake. It was great racing, and I have never tried so hard to find an advantage I could turn into a move. I threw everything I had at Rob, but he was driving great. Right near the end, I was finally able to get an opening I could use, then protect it home to the finish. What a race Rob!

Thanks again to everyone. It was just a pure fun weekend, and by far the very best racing action I have been apart of.

Jeff

Todd Covini

04-22-2008, 12:17 AM

The Lows for me were to see more than a few of you having really tough times. Off the top of my bald head...

Morgan...dude...dog, radiator, field on, field off, drive home. You need a break and a win real soon.

Jerry MacNeil....bring the whole family out from MS to show 'em TWS and our great bunch of folks only to have the TWS curse come back and wrench endlessly on the car to fix motor gremlins. You Army guys really know how to put your head down and work on stuff without regret!

Misty...fuel issues returning...rewiring & wrenching. Sux.

LiiR....self imposed fuel issues. I hate it when I forget to fill 'er up. We've been there...but the panhard failure leading to fuel cell failure was a bit much. Hate to see you guys have troubles, but the car really does seem to be coming around with more track time this weekend than ever!

Wiley....the Royal Purple machine continues to have Royal issues and has been having more DNF's. Tough luck.

Steve....grenaded clutch. Sucks to change 'em at the track.

Gary....locked up and slid off into the T1 corner worker stand. Luckily after a bunch of speed was scrubbed and the damage was minimal.

Jerry J....worn hub and a wild ride heading for the guardrail. You had Control/T&S out of their chairs. Glad you and the car are OK.

As mentioned, the Jeffs, Al, Chris, Matt, Mitch and others were having their challenges. It definately was a busy weekend.

For me, I can honestly say that I'm back on the horse and in the saddle. Rob's car is rock solid and was awesome to drive...and drive it we did Friday, Saturday and all day Sunday. That Mustang saw an entire season of tracktime this weekend! Thanks again, Rob & Crew!!!

On the lows, I was somewhat disappointed with my times in Rob's car. While I was definately cautious and didn't want to hurt the car, I really thought that I, too, was capable of 1:59's in it...but couldn't eek out anything better than my own car.

The near miss with the SRF in the enduro was a low, but looking back on it we definately dodged a bullet there as any contact at that speed would have been substantial. Mental note, those little cars don't drift and slide to a stop, they just zip around and instantly stop. I went from full throttle corner exit to "oh shit...he just went sideways in front of me!!!"....exit, stage left.

All in all...a great, momentus weekend. We achieved our goal of bring the car home in one piece. Memories are created today...and that is one weekend that I won't forget.

(Shoulda had a group photo...but individual pics will certainly do!)

-=- Todd

BryanL

04-22-2008, 09:08 AM

Bottom line: AWESOME WEEKEND

Lows-started thursday night when I was about ready to load the car into the trailer a huge hailstorm hit. Damage included: roof, windows, siding, gutters, trees, chairs, plants etc. Suburban, trailer, race car and another camaro.
Make great time getting down to the track. Unload car and the car is dead as a doornail. Try to jump the car and figure out what is wrong. Can't open the rear hatch either as the lock is busted. The drivers meeting for T&T is starting. Paging Dr. Robertson "Stat". He steps in and tells me to go to the drivers meeting and he will work on the car. After short meeting I walk up and Frank has the hatch up (I guess having surgeons hands made the difference), tightening battery cables as one came off, battery charger hooked up and says I will be good to go.
Thanks Frank for helping me out. From there on it was pretty much highs.

Thanks to Steve for letting me spend so much time following him around on Friday to learn the track and get up to speed.

Saturday went pretty well. No car issues, stayed closer to the pack and had a little racing. Enjoyed helping Steve out with the clutch swap. Good dinner with Jerry and Jay (thanks for letting me drive the IS)

Sunday-lot of fun during the race staying on jays back bumper behind Macneil for several laps. Pretty happy with several 2:03's. Fell back trying to let the GTA cars by as I thought they would take me in several corners as I gave them the point by. Check eng light came on and had oil on my windshield so I decide to cooldown and come in. Watching my mirrors I see two AI cars coming.
Sorry to you two for going off-I was trying to time it so you could go by and I wouldn't slow either down. Lesson learned about driving with the mirrors.
Stuck around for a great time in the Enduro.
Speed home thinking about the weekend and already looking forward to Hallet and learning a new track.
Home in time to play with my baby before bed was a great finish to the weekend.

Wirtz

04-22-2008, 10:26 AM

I just realized the link to my video was borked. I think it is good now if anyone was trying to DL it.

Jeff

mitchntx

04-22-2008, 10:31 AM

I just realized the link to my video was borked. I think it is good now if anyone was trying to DL it.

Jeff

Jeff ...

I didn't realize that was your Dad helping you this weekend.

I would really like to sit down and chat with him sometime. He has got to have great racing stories in his library.

AllZWay

04-22-2008, 11:12 AM

I just realized the link to my video was borked. I think it is good now if anyone was trying to DL it.

Jeff

I figured out anyway... Thanks for posting it. I swear the car felt much worse than it looked. :D

Wirtz

04-22-2008, 11:17 AM

Yeah, I was not very consistant in introducing him to the group. He flew in for the weekend. He races with the northern Cali NASA group himself. Our little group 3 left an impression from what I gathered. He thought very highly of the great racing that was all over the track, and how everyone hung out together between sessions.

He is starting to think about snow birding in the winters, so I was saying he needs to come down to Texas with his car and trailer and run with us.

Jeff

mitchntx

04-22-2008, 12:43 PM

From what I understand, he's been racing longer than most these guys have been alive!

Alien

04-22-2008, 01:47 PM

I'm sure I'm one of them ^^^^

Spent the 2 weeks prior fighting to get spring spacers installed, doing a brake job and installing my first set of real race pads amonst general prep. Thursday night, get the final touches done, hook up swaybar... can't find one rubber endlink bushing. Ugh.

Backtrack to previous Monday: Bought a 01 GMC 2500HD so I wouldn't have to listen to Boudy say "He's towing a CMC car with a Ranger?!?! I GOTTA see this!"

Friday: I had already arranged to take my brothers F-150 and wanted to some basic maintinence before towing wik the HD. Go to hook up the trailer, turns out all I have are drop hitches that end up dragging on the driveway. Oops. End up bringing the trailer back home behind the Ranger and hooked it up to the HD. Friday morning comes around, planning on leaving ealry, but now the HD is completely dead, won't even jump. Goto NTB, new battery, truck starts, won't move, trailer brakes engaged. Ugh. A quick rewire to disconnect the constant hot to the brakes. Hope nothing on the trailer got messed up having the brakes engaged all night. Get loaded up, head out after a quick stop to grab some endlinks.

Saturday: Glenn asks Burch who's going to be the one to give me my first donut. I decided to do that myself. During practice going into one, see a car (Chris?) way off drivers right, let up, slight brakes, back end comes around in a hurry. Decide not to be a hero, last thing I want is to go sliding into a car that's already hurt. Off I go sliding sideways in the grass drivers left to thank the corner 2 workers. Car stops after the length of the passenger side gently kisses the tire wall at the corner station. Back to paddock, no damage except a small crease in the front fender and a minor dent.

The rest of the weekend went well. Was sure to let both cars by if they were fighting for position. Got permission to take off the Rookie aarRrg's (Whoop!). Times dropped from 2:14s during practice to 2:06s during the 40. Slowly getting faster, and having a blast doing it. This is an awesome group.

mitchntx

04-22-2008, 02:14 PM

Your car looked really good on track. I raced with you a couple laps and had no issues at all. Great job!

Al Fernandez

04-22-2008, 04:18 PM

Holy shit Gary, that is a HUGE jump. Congratulations!!!! :D

michaelmosty

04-22-2008, 11:18 PM

What a great weekend!!
I ran the Friday HH and the car felt good but didn't turn left as good as I wanted. Made a right side camber adjustment Friday night and the car felt great on Saturday.

R1 - Qualified 5th and was ready for the usual dog fight during the race. As the green flag dropped I quickly realized I made a terrible gear selection (3rd) as I dropped back to 7th place. The first few laps of the race were intense with Morgan in front of me and Proctor hot on my tail. I tried to pick my spot to get around Morgan while seeing James get very close in my mirror. Unfortunately I had a front row seat for Morgan's off in T7 as he shot off the track. With a 1/2 lap to go Mitch gave me a point-by to try and catch Al who was about 10 cars in front of me. Going into the carousel Al slid WAY out and caught it just in time to stay in front of me. Al, having a wheel hub failure, then slid wide in T13 and also T14 as I got past heading onto the straight for the checker for 5th.

R2 - I got a great jump and cut down to the flat for a great drag race with Jerry all the way down the straight. I went through T1 with James in the lead and Glenn behind him. Glenn made a mistake goint into T8 and I got around him at T9. Later Wirtz got a run on me going down the front straight and we went side-by-side through T1 + T2 and he edged me out going into T3. Now in 3rd I had Glenn right behind me. Coming out of T4 the unthinkable happened. Can you believe Glenn actually bumped me from behind!! I couldn't believe it. :lol: It was a tight race to the finish with the top 5 cars all less than 2 seconds apart!!!!

R3 - We had an amazing 5-car CMC battle with all cars nose to tail until......the ASC cars came into play. One ASC spun and decided to rejoin the race right in the middle of us. Another one decided to park his car in every corner to look at the flowers. It sucked seeing the ASC plowing into JB and him eventually retiring from the race.

Enduro - Marshall had an amazing start and went from 7th to 3rd in the first turn!! We had planned for 1 hour sessions to space things our and maximize our enjoyment for the race. Marshall came in a little after 1 hour for the driver change and said the motor is not well, do your best. When I got out on track I quickly realized it was not healthy and way down on power. I also realized the power steering was starting to feel stiff and was not always there. I pulled in after 35 minutes concerned with the motor and asked Marshall if he wanted to continue. He jumped back in the car and drove for another 45 minutes until his arms felt like jello. I then got back in the car and unfortunately it felt just like I remembered. My first hot lap out had Liebbe's car right behind me and I actually gave them a point-by on the front straight (and I didn't lift). After 45 minutes I gave the car back to Marshall to bring it home. We finished the race and it felt great.

I told Marshall CMC cars feel like a street car with parts on them. This AI car felt like a true machine. What an amazing experience!!

All in all it was some of the best racing I have been a part of yet!! I can't wait to get to Hallett and have another go at it.

oz98cobra

04-23-2008, 02:52 PM

...

I told Marshall CMC cars feel like a street car with parts on them. This AI car felt like a true machine. What an amazing experience!!

....

So does this mean you might turn your car into a "true machine" and come race AI in 09? :wink:

Wirtz

04-23-2008, 07:05 PM

I'm kind of bummed there have not been more videos posted. There looked to be great racing all over the track, and my buzz is starting to wear off.

Post em if you got em.

Jeff

David Love AI27

04-24-2008, 01:27 AM

I gotta say we had lots of lows but they were over shadowed by the highs...

Screw the lows... Jason got his first starts in R1 and 2 with a 1st place finish in R2... Nick Runyon joined us in the enduro after running the sprint races in a RX7... Thanks to the 3rd gen guys for pointing out the out the necessity of an air dam to push air up to the radiator... Son in law Adam and Jason fabricated new air dam lowering temps from 260+ to less than 200 in the enduro... We had a great time with family and friends... My lack of prep for the enduro was evident when I noticed our empty pit stall for the first 20 min. We had to deal with dragging exhaust, over heating, oil leaks, poor preparation and broken panhard bar, but it was great to have fun with family and friends... more details to come...

AllZWay

04-24-2008, 08:44 AM

I'm kind of bummed there have not been more videos posted. There looked to be great racing all over the track, and my buzz is starting to wear off.

Post em if you got em.

Jeff

I cut these last night and they are just raw video with a few cuts to shorten some, but they are all big files.

So Right Click...save as:

http://www.sulphurrivertrails.com/videos/TWS_R1_0408.wmv
This video has some good racing with Al, Morgan, Michael with Morgan's off in R1.

http://www.sulphurrivertrails.com/videos/TWS_R2_0408.wmv
This video is the first lap and the last lap only of R2.

http://www.sulphurrivertrails.com/videos/TWS_R3_0408.wmv
This video is really big and has lots of good racing with Al, and then good racing between Steve and Mitch.