My 2009 Nationals Week

[GlennCMC70]

I said I wasn’t going to do it, but I guess it wasn’t a bad idea (Matt).
The drive up started w/ me leaving Sunday at 10 pm and catching up w/ Al, Todd, David and Jeff in the RV. 1500+ miles of 60-65 mph is slow. After 3 blowouts on the trailers (1 for me and 2 for Al), a stop at Walmart in Denver to resupply the spare tire stock, a few hours sleeping in a rest area in Laramie, WY, we finally arrived in Tooele about 11 am Tuesday.
The track facilities are unreal! The place looks like it was built yesterday and there was no expense spared. the GP garages have their own private bathroom for each garage, a TV w/ live video feeds from T/S. the Timing and Scoring Control booth is unreal. 24+ cameras that caver the track, each w/ pan, tilt, zoom. All camera's feed to a DVR that is kept till the end of the day. The bathrooms for the poor folks have individual shower rooms. They have a door that provides privacy, a nice bench to sit on, they were just really nice. There was a cleaning crew there that hit each bathroom about 2 times a day. Everything was always clean! Free pit space was nice - all asphalt.
Wed - spent the day bedding brakes, heat cycling tires and learning the track. Got the times down to a 2:19 or so if I recall right. I managed to get a dyno slot and was shocked to see the car made 228/301 (226/297 is what it made in Texas).
The track has lots of run-off, gravel traps and such that hitting a wall is no real issue. So it was easy to push it a little. Hitting the curbs results in a lot of pad knock-back. at first I thought it was pad fade, but soon realized it was a dead pedal. Once I diagnosed the problem correctly, I resorted to just stroking the brakes on the sections between corners to get a good pedal feel under braking. This track requires a lot of "tweaking" of the set-up to to get the car to balance compared to tracks we run here. Normally I'll make 2 or so changes over a weekend, but at Miller I was making 3-5 per day from Wed thru Sat. a lot of it was due to the mix of high speed corners that resulted in an aero push, to low speed hairpin's that showed too much caster. It’s a fun track that has a good rhythm.
Thur - nothing to report really. made a bunch of tweaks to the car, had a nice qual session. ran a clean race. got put on the dyno post race - made 220/287. not sure why the numbers dropped, my guess is the 93 fuel in my tank was burned off finally and I was using 91. I was making 15 less HP the Dave B and likely the same w/ TQ.
Fri - shocked at Dave B's qual time. had me by .5 seconds. I thought for sure he was going to win that race.
Sat - was using practice to work on a few corners I was having issues w/. I knew Dave B was going to be tough. in the Champ race, I got a good start and managed to put a few CMC-2 cars behind me. from there on, I just put me head down, turned consistent laps, and watched my gap to 2nd. I'll post video as soon as I can.

There are tons of stories to tell about our own Texas folks, Cali Regional Directors, and NASA Brass. A good time was had by all.

Thanks to all for the well wishes and congrats. Thanks to Steve Mulder for his help, Jerry Jordan for his support, Mitch and Mike P for over the phone tech suport. Michael Mosty for helping me when I needed a hand.
A big thanks to Dave Balinget for putting on the best NASA Nats to date.

[michaelmosty]

I didn't help much but about 2 minutes with a tire change. I guess my big contribution was Glenn got to see my smiling face for 4 days. 8)

I flew in Wed night and picked up the rental car. Made a quick stop at Subway for a sandwich and the gas station for a 30-pack of Keystone. Took the short 30 mile drive to the track and arrived at about 9:30 PM. Even arriving at night I could tell the facility was incredible!!
Thursday I saw the facility in the light and was even more impressed. Burch and I watched practice from T1 and boy is it a hard braking zone. JB got an awesome pic of MFW's glowing rotors!! It was a standard day of qual and racing. One amazing thing I noticed was the sick speed differential of the AIX cars. I overheard Ernesto made 811 hp to the wheels and it looked like Griswold was even faster down the straight. :shock: After the race Al had me baby-sit Martin and Lindsey's cars at the dyno. Talked with them briefly and they both seem like pretty cool guys. Standing out in the sun for a while was the only bad part. :) Thursday night was the party night and everyone enjoyed the Shiner Bock keg that Todd and Al so graciously brought, thanks again!! Then Jim Pantas brought over the Jim Beam and it got alot more interesting for a few people. :lol:
Friday was another day of qual and qual racing. MFW had a nice off in T1 with a brake failure (incredible in-car video) during the end of the qual race. Friday night, more drinking and NASA put on a nice banquet for everyone. Good food and Utah microbrew.
Saturday was alot of little work repairing the front of MFW's car. Watched the CMC/CMC2 race and there was some great action. Glenn got off to a great start but the best battle was b/w Love and Margetta for 2nd place. We were all focused on the CMC2 field as Jeremiah worked his way through the pack. I'll let him elaborate but I haven't seen anyone push a car as hard as he did on that last lap of the race!!
Saturday night there was a big wind storm that came through at about 3:15 AM. JB missed out on the picture of a lifetime.
Sunday put the finishing touches on Matts car. Watched an incredible AI race. Action all throughout the field!!

All in all it was an incredible event. Todd, Adam, and Al did an amazing job as directors for AI, CMC, and CMC2!!
It was great meeting everyone from the other regions.

Big time congrats to all the TX participants that made the trip and ran great. Congratulations!!!!

[David Love AI27]

AWSOME JOB!!! Typical Ironman fashion... BACK to BACK NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!

[jeffburch]

Saturday night there was a big wind storm that came through at about 3:15 AM. JB missed out on the picture of a lifetime.

OMG I'm an idiot.

MM, TC, AF, AG all running around (some on ladders) battoning down the hatches (securing awnings etc.)

ALL in their underware!!!!!!!!!!

My camera was handy but I was sleep walking and it didn't occur to me to get it.

Crap!

jb


http://www.argentlab.com/nasatx/jeff/065sm.jpg

http://www.argentlab.com/nasatx/jeff/066sm.jpg

[AI#97]

Well, the ONLY place to start this post is to thank those that helped out in getting me on the podium at Nats. Thanks go out to Michael for a TON of help in working on the car and keeping me fresh and focused, Glenn for some parts and theory help, my Dad who had a blast and was a big help getting the car put back together after Friday's "ride" and to Al, Todd, David, Burch and Jeremiah for all being there and being friends. I also want to thank Richard P and Daron/Mason for the pre-event discussions on design and Daron for driving the car and helping with the handling issues....although he may end up regretting it now that the thing turns! ;) Damn, had to come back and thank Donovan for the pictures and being our "man in the trenches" saving me time of finding stuff out. The drama around Lindsay's car was pretty crazy and I finally just decided to ignore it.


As for the trip, I left the house in Plano on Monday am around 4:30am, lost a trailer tire in Dalhart but was fortunate enough to find an old Sinclair Service station in Clayton, NM that was open on Labor day and got me a spare. Made Cheyenne, WY around 8:30pm and settled in for a great night's sleep at an Holiday Inn Express. Left Tuesday am around 5am and ended up catching Glenn/AL and caravan'd to the track the rest of the way in and arrived right around Noon. Rolled the car off the trailer and straight to the dyno where it picked up power from Dallas and made 320/336. Started crunching the numbers and was going to be VERY close on weight with the ballast I had on hand so finished unpacking and got the car ready for practice on Wednesday. Got to drive the track in a golf cart with Burch/Love and Jeremiah got us all into some minivans with the track instructors for a ride around. MAN was the track different than the videos!!!!

Wednesday, got out on track in practice and immediately found I had a brake problem after 3 laps. Made some brake duct deflectors (thanks Glenn) and it helped, but still boiled the SRF and could only make it 6 or 7 laps before I had the same problem again. Started flushing fluid after every session and used up the rain tires and heavy wheels but was running in the top group so things were looking good. Had a couple beers wednesday night and had a great time shooting the shit with our local guys and went to bed early to be ready for the Thursday race.

Thursday was pretty uneventful, car worked great and the switch to the race tires and light wheels saw lap times dropping every session. Ended up qualifying up near the front and finished 3rd, but post race dyno DQ'd Dean Martin and ended up with a 2nd place finish behind Lindsay! Whoop!!!

Friday Qual ended up 5th on grid and ran a decent race dicing with Tommy, Ross and Corey. Was running 4th on the white flag lap #7 and dove down into T1 and the pedal went to the floor at about 135mph. Pumping the pedal did nothing and I shifted down from 5th to 4th, to try and use the motor to slow down. Turned in to stay away from the wall filling my windshield and went off sideways but got corrected straight in like 1/2 second but dust filled the car and ended up nosing into a drainage swail and destroying the nose of the car and cutting up 3 tires on the splitter as it "left the building". We found it several hundred feet from where I finally stopped. The dust was insane and I just held the wheel a little to the left to stay out of the catch fence WAY off track. I think the announcer said something about me wanting to go get I burger or something since I was so far off. I should have gone to buy a lottery ticket as I ended up 6th even though I didn't take the checkered flag because I was the last car on the lead lap as the AIX leader took the checkered immediately behind me. Awesome luck! That night, I picked up my dad at the airport and went to home depot to get all the stuff I needed to put it back together. Had a quick dinner at the banquet and went back to the pits to take advantage of the cooler air spent about 3 hours building the new splitter.

Saturday: Started right at sun up where we left off Friday night. Michael came by about 8am and we lined out what needed to be done to get the car on track. We found out there was a 5pm practice session and worked our asses off putting every thing back together so well, it doesn't look like a track fix at all. It looks permanant!!! We even had time to watch the CMC/2 champ race and were going nuts as we watched Jeremiah drive an outstanding race to be there at the end and podium! David did an outstanding job too after his early spin and kept his head in the game to work back through the pack! I am so proud of those guys for showing the TX crew are a bunch of badasses!!! In the 5pm practice, on the out lap, there was a terrible vibration on the right front and had to come right back in. After a lot of head scratching, we found the strut mount bolts had loosened and I think it was the paint melting on the new strut from all the heat had things loosen up a bit. had we not found it then, we would have been wasting the practice on Sunday morning.

Sunday: Practice session had me running just a couple tenths behind Patrick Lindsay and my spirits were high being gridded 4th. Start of the race was a little crazy as we weren't lined up very well, but Tommy and I drug the pole sitter into the T1 and then Tommy had a suspension failure which sort of hosed me to avoid him. I think I entered T1 in second and left it in 10th. Talk about mad! (not at Tommy). Grabbed a gear and got back in the mix and put the hammer down. Worked back up a few spots but was REALLY using up the car, brakes and tires. I think I was in 4th and missed a gear exiting T6 and Corey drilled me in the right rear and got by. Settled into a pace to last the 40 minutes as the brakes were beginning to fade. Luckily, it was that way for most of the front runners and then we had a couple cars off and a double yellow! Yeah!!! I think I drove 2 full laps at a decent pace without ever hitting the brake pedal. Thing cooled off, looked at the stop watch and saw we had about 10 minutes in the session left. The last 5 laps were a GREAT battle with Corey Webber all the while, Rusty was knocking on my back door. Having to put moves on Corey to get by AND staying defensive with Rusty the 18 year old wonder kid was a chore and I think we put on a great show. With about 2.5 laps to go, two more cars were off course and it started to rain a little. Knowing Corey had no ABS, it was my time to attack. Made up some ground and nearly got under him a couple times under braking. Pratt Cole was in one of the supercharged school cars and got between us and the race ended up finishing the last couple turns under yellow as the rain and oil from ernesto was dicey at the end.


All in all, the most amazing week of racing ever. The people, the facility and the event all blew me away. I ended up following my own advice I gave Jeremiah before his sunday race and it paid off. The "never fucking give up" attitude was shared amongst all of us and we all did an outstanding job and kicked a SHIT TON of ass in Utah and brought home the bling!!!!

Sundays race vid!

http://www.aggie97.com/nats09long.mpg

right click and save as....600 meg.

[MikeP99Z]

It only wants to download 125megs. Oh well, great recovery in the the first couple laps !!

[AI#97]

It only wants to download 125megs. Oh well, great recovery in the the first couple laps !!

I'll test it and worst case, delete the middle 1/3 or so. It was mostly me dealing with fading brakes and clicking laps. The good stuff is the first 5 laps and the last 5 laps!

[David Love AI27]

Hope you could hear me at T1... Jeff and Glenn were looking at me hard as I jumped up and down screaming GO MATT.. GO GET EM!!!..

Great job, Matt!!!... still gonna give you sh!t tho....

[BlueFirePony]

Matt you really did put on a show (can't wait to see your "moment").
Not sure if anyone told you but they held on you and talked about how hard you were charging for about half a lap and mentioning your sig "Pushrod pansies"! ;)
I thought you had Corey there for a bit. I wish they had shown the CMC race. I was cheering our gang on watching live results which drove me nuts because it kept sticking and flipping people.

[AI#97]

Matt you really did put on a show (can't wait to see your "moment").


Well, here it is...not bad but Donovan might want to look away!

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:

http://www.aggie97.com/oh%20darn.mpg

[David Love AI27]

Just watched the video :oops: :oops: :oops: HOW EMBARASSING!!!... My mistakes were so obvious... I wouldn't blame JB if he never spoke to me again... 3rd was not earned but a gift from God

Was running second with only a CMC2 car between me and Glenn... and threw the whole thing away. I'm a f@cking idoit... I started turning in too early on all the corners especially the one I spun in...

took the spoiler off a couple of hours before the Championship Race to get more speed and didn't soften the rear or stiffen the front enough to compensate... Turning in early and pinching the car on exit made it worse.. DUH!!

[AI#97]

Also forgot to mention that I did an interview with 5.0 Mustang magazine on Saturday and a follow up on Sunday after the race! Don't know about pictures and such as the car was "repaired" at that point but they are going to do an article on the event and maybe I will get a mention...?

[AI#97]

here is the new link...

http://www.vimeo.com/6602551

[nasa-rm]

Just watched the video :oops: :oops: :oops: HOW EMBARASSING!!!... My mistakes were so obvious... I wouldn't blame JB if he never spoke to me again... 3rd was not earned but a gift from God


Dave. A podium is a podium no matter how you got it. You had a few slip ups (I've got great video of your spin in T1), but you recovered and kept it up front. You should be proud of your finish - I know I was happy for you.

It was heart breaking of course to watch you and Kevin pass me and then motor away with 2 laps to go.... :( Looked like you 2 were having a good battle.

[nasa-rm]

And now for my own ramblings.

Thank you so much to all the Texas AI/CMC folks who made the trip out. I am glad we were able to return the hospitality that you have provided to us in OK.

I hope we showed that regardless of Texas, Colorado, So Cal, Nor Cal, or Arizona - there are some top notch people racing in CMC. It could have easily gone many ways in both classes. I'll be working with Al to get our car counts back up into the 30s - 35's for 2010 and we will put on on hell of a show.

Congrats again to Glenn and Dave Shotz on their CMC wins.


I will be back next year with all the electrical gremlins excised from the car!!! Sucks to have the car poop out with 2 laps to go. :wink: Who the hell scheduled a 45 minute race anyways???

[donovan]

Matt you really did put on a show (can't wait to see your "moment").


Well, here it is...not bad but Donovan might want to look away!

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:

http://www.aggie97.com/oh%20darn.mpg

Uhg... I feel sick to my stomach...

[chris-CMC#35]

Well, here it is...not bad but Donovan might want to look away!

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:

http://www.aggie97.com/oh%20darn.mpg

Matt - that is some SERIOUS dust. :lol:

-chris

[AI#97]

Well, here it is...not bad but Donovan might want to look away!

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:

http://www.aggie97.com/oh%20darn.mpg

Matt - that is some SERIOUS dust. :lol:

-chris

yeah, the wrecker driver said it was corn starch....I'm still coughing nearly 5 days later! :lol:

[cobra132]

Wow, that reminds me of.......oh yea, me. I just watched the AI race, nice job Matt, congrats again. FMR

[Al Fernandez]

Interesting that we had three trailer tire failures on the way out, but none on the way back. My new Carlisle tires kick ass!! :lol: 36 hours of road time from north Houston, including tire changes, alternator changes, having to drive for five miles to find a place to turn around, and multiple discussions around who'se having the fewest sleep deprivation unduced hallucinations.

Yes its expensive, yes it burns a bunch of vacation time, yes its absolutely worth it. You guys that havent have got to do nationals.

I am so proud to be part of this group of racers I just cant express it. All of our guys on the podium, all of them with a never say die attitude. Flat awesome.

[rpoz27]

Watching Matt's in car right now with Martin. He says, "Wow, wow! That's some thrashin' around racing. They're like 3000lb. go karts!"

[David Love AI27]

Just watched the video :oops: :oops: :oops: HOW EMBARASSING!!!... My mistakes were so obvious... I wouldn't blame JB if he never spoke to me again... 3rd was not earned but a gift from God


Dave. A podium is a podium no matter how you got it. You had a few slip ups (I've got great video of your spin in T1), but you recovered and kept it up front. You should be proud of your finish - I know I was happy for you.

It was heart breaking of course to watch you and Kevin pass me and then motor away with 2 laps to go.... :( Looked like you 2 were having a good battle.

Thanks Dave... Copy of the spin would be nice for our end of year video...

You are a class act and put on a great event... enjoy your vacation, it was well earned...

I'm done beating my self up... I watched MFWs vid and I saw an awsome driver make a few bobbles just like me...

I was joking with MFW about getting a bigger helmet, but I now believe he needs bigger pants to fit that pair of bowling balls he carries around... to have an "off" like that and turn around with your performance is absolutely great! (I'm still gonna f@ck with you any chance I get)...

[AI#97]

I'm done beating my self up... I watched MFWs vid and I saw an awsome driver make a few bobbles just like me...

I was joking with MFW about getting a bigger helmet, but I now believe he needs bigger pants to fit that pair of bowling balls he carries around... to have an "off" like that and turn around with your performance is absolutely great! (I'm still gonna f@ck with you any chance I get)...

Yeah, I think the 3rd gear synchros are toast in the tranny. 6 years of abuse and only one fluid change has probably done the thing in...well, that and ME driving it! :lol:

As for the bowling balls....well, I had two choices....puss out or fucking shove it in deep. As Mr. Burch put it....I didn't come all this way to fuck around! ;)

[David Love AI27]

I had two choices....puss out or fucking shove it in deep.

I saw that vid on the internet

[Todd Covini]

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:



I see the plans for a new traveling trophy coming together!!!

[ShadowBolt]

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:



I see the plans for a new traveling trophy coming together!!!


The trophy is your old vert. What would be better?


JJ

[David Love AI27]

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:



I see the plans for a new traveling trophy coming together!!!

Sounds good.. supersize net year... CMC AND AI...


ok JB you can quit rolling your eyes now :roll: :roll: :roll:

[gt40]

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:



I see the plans for a new traveling trophy coming together!!!that's right up there with Mosty's. Mosty had a higher pucker factor, though (from the other drivers!)

[ShadowBolt]

Matt you really did put on a show (can't wait to see your "moment").


Well, here it is...not bad but Donovan might want to look away!

Maybe I have the new record for highest speed in an AI/CMC TX off?! :oops:

http://www.aggie97.com/oh%20darn.mpg

How far into the video is the off? I tried to watch it by bumping it through real fast and did not see the off.


Jerry

[chris-CMC#35]

Jerry - no need to bump through, it's not very long. and it ends when the car has settled.

-chris

[ShadowBolt]

Jerry - no need to bump through, it's not very long. and it ends when the car has settled.

-chris

I was watching the race vid instead of the off vid. Dumb a$$.
I had them both on the desktop.
Thanks Chris.


JJ