Post-Hallett Media

[marshall_mosty]

All,
This past weekend was a blast. There were definitely some "hi's" and "low's" for all parties.

Racing was tight in all three classes and with driver's having to not only continue the development of the RR's on their car, but also work with a new track surface that for those who tested Friday, seemed to "go away" in the afternoon.

I'd like to especially thank Dan Allford for helping weld on yet another Mustang after my Watts Link decided it wanted to fail during practice on Friday. For me, it was bitter sweet. After finally chewing my times down to a weekend class best of 1:25.19, the wire on the back of my ignition switch became loose and was intermittently turning the car on/off during the championship race and forced my retirement. That issue will be resolved prior to the next event, so all will be good, but my curse at Hallett continues with 3 starts and 3 DNF's for the Championship Race at Hallett... grrrr.


Congrats to the three class winners for the Summer Shootout:
AI: Mark Smith
SI: Jack Murray
CMC: Bryan Curtis

[Fbody383]

Just for consistency shouldn't this thread be under 'Racing' with the other racing video threads? Either way, we'll find it.

Started off at a low point, more green than orange... just felt horrible Friday. Hard to test on 09/09/07/06 RA1s when you feel like you're going to throw up in your helmet.

And then find that your shifter looks like a pogo stick, not an uncommon issue for me at Hallett. Quick check - all the bolts are there and tight. Next session - same, same. Replace broken trans mount with borrowed trans mount (that later become a broken trans mount)

Qual for R1 ok but race better. R2 go from 5th-to-back to 3rd-from-front. R3 - wow! THAT video should be interesting. I think Sean/Gary/Others? will start penalizing me for not lifting when I have a "slight" off... apparently an underpowered GM CMC car will gently toss tiny, tiny pebbles into the air, coming to rest lightly upon the paint and front windshield of the following racing vehicle.

OR, according to Sean: 260hp of firebreathing Chebby Racecah chunks boulders of epic proportions the size of the Chrysler building at the speed of sound.
HERE is the GoPro lens kit.

Champ Race was a hoot to watch - was a great weekend for the Orange team and a success everytime we can drive the car on the trailer to go home.

It looks like the 2015 AI trophy needs to be a pinion gear welded on to its companion ring gear with some other bits from the 'box of rocks' it came out of - i think you guys have at least the top 3 covered from this weekend alone.

Dustin - thanks for the racing and sportsmanship. Bryan/Ryan - nice run.

1/2/3/4
RA1/RR/RR/RA1
4th gen/Fox/4th gen/4th gen - see those cheater Mustangs still have too much adavantage.

[mach1]

Highs
Tied CMC track record with a 28 flat in TNT on Friday with old "crappy" RA1's
Qual'd 2nd on Sat, I was driving fast but racing(starting) poorly, had plenty of issues with the starts(Car, Me).

Lows
I am going to open the trans up to replace 2nd gear and 4th gear, having shifting issues and when I had it opened last they were the worst members in it, should have done it right the first time :-/
I was having hell with T1 on the RR's, I cut(damaged) 1 RR in qual so I put a RA1 back there and that corner felt better imo, it could take more abuse, the grip was there much sooner, etc.
Had fuel cutout issues all weekend, cost me several positions in every race, I think my baffle is broken in the gas tank, hopefully I can get some advice on fixing that from some mustang guys.
Minor contact with John in R1(Sorry!), broke my new RPF1 on the curbing so I was running RA1's on the left side of the car and RR's on the right, also running 17x9's on the left and 17x9.5s on the right.
When my brakes are cold it feels like my front end is going to fall off from extreme vibration, is this a side effect of floating rotors?

The weekend was a bit of hell but I still had fun, learned a lot, love racing with you guys!

[Pranav]

A good weekend is when the only stuff I needed to unload from the truck was to help others.

Made the mistake of leaving Houston at 3am Friday morning after a couple of weeks of skimping on sleep, then practicing. Was dragging HARD all Friday, sleepy Saturday, was feeling great Sunday morning until the Championship race; was more ready for a nap than for a race.

Horribly behind the pace all weekend and just tired.

Car ran a little hot, but fine all weekend, go figure.

Next year I'll take Thursday and Friday off so I can actually enjoy Hallett.

[MikeP99Z]

Grats to Mark, Jack and Bryan on their R4 wins!

For those not there, I blew up my diff on Saturday morning qualifying - didn't even make a full hot lap. The car ran really well on Friday TNT though.

It wasn't a good weekend for AI F-body 10-bolts. I'm sure there is absolutely nothing left of my pinion gear. Jim blew his up in Race 3, and Shawn Graham broke his on the start of R4. Casey's survived (note - his went boom at Cresson).

We'll be researching other options for the future as this was my third ring/pinion failure in 12 race weekends.

Insult to injury when we pushed the car in the trailer the splitter caught the back edge of the trailer destroyed it.

The beer and conversations were good =)

[MikeP99Z]

broke my new RPF1 on the curbing

If you need Enkei RPF1s, I can get them at a really good price.

17x9.5 around $200-205 each - silver
18x9.5 around $260-270 each - silver
Tax not included. No shipping.

Other colors may be available for slightly more, I'd have to call.

[Dulaney]

My goal was to finish R4, since I haven't done that the last two years. I didn't even get to start R4 this time.
Race 1
http://youtu.be/uXbfKmQLTtI
Race 2
http://youtu.be/ZxqzfvCXjYM
Race 3
http://youtu.be/DLSSu3S8IwU

Finishes for the weekend were 1, 5, 12 (DNF).

Anybody in the Dallas area have any 8.8 stuff they can part with? I'd like a housing to start chopping up, but I'll take stuff on loan for measurement purposes too. If not, I'll head to the salvage yard. PM me if you have something, don't want to clutter up this thread.

My apologies for oil drops on everyone's windshield. 7 Qts in 3 races is crazy.

[ShadowBolt]

Highs
Tied CMC track record with a 28 flat in TNT on Friday with old "crappy" RA1's
Qual'd 2nd on Sat, I was driving fast but racing(starting) poorly, had plenty of issues with the starts(Car, Me).

Lows
I am going to open the trans up to replace 2nd gear and 4th gear, having shifting issues and when I had it opened last they were the worst members in it, should have done it right the first time :-/
I was having hell with T1 on the RR's, I cut(damaged) 1 RR in qual so I put a RA1 back there and that corner felt better imo, it could take more abuse, the grip was there much sooner, etc.
Had fuel cutout issues all weekend, cost me several positions in every race, I think my baffle is broken in the gas tank, hopefully I can get some advice on fixing that from some mustang guys.
Minor contact with John in R1(Sorry!), broke my new RPF1 on the curbing so I was running RA1's on the left side of the car and RR's on the right, also running 17x9's on the left and 17x9.5s on the right.
When my brakes are cold it feels like my front end is going to fall off from extreme vibration, is this a side effect of floating rotors?

The weekend was a bit of hell but I still had fun, learned a lot, love racing with you guys!

I don't understand the RR's. On Friday in T&T we ran RR's with all four having a bad flat spot from TWS (two were down to the cord so we put them on the back. The car was perfect on Friday morning and Jay turned a best of 1.284 and I ran a 1.29 flat. Friday afternoon the car (with zero changes) pushed like a dump truck to borrow a phrase from Ol DW. We changed shock settings, air pressure, rear sway bar and nothing helped. Sat. morning for qual we put on a new set of RR's (we did run four laps on them on Friday and let them rest until Sat. morning). Car was not any better but played with pressures and got it where we could run about a half second slower than Friday. Jay finished second in R1 after Michael got punted by Brian Curtis. In R2 I started fourth from the rear and was going through the field when Al ran off track out of turn one and I tried to pass but got in the grass with the left tires under braking into Buss Stop and thankfully Al, and Gary let me spin off track and did not hit me. I went from like seventh to almost last but with others having trouble and some better driving on my part I think I finished like tenth. In R3 I started I think eighth and after the slowest ever rolling start I went to first just before the flag fell and got a great start. I was in fourth going into Buss Stop and passed everyone but the Sam by the end. For the first time in my life I drove a smart race and did not overdrive trying to catch Sam. I knew he had a DNF in one race and a poor finish in the other so I did not need to pass him. Our points put us third on the grid and Jay lit the tires up in the standing start and thank goodness an Orange car pushed him to turn one in fourth. Brian got around Michael and Ryan and Jay stayed right on Michael rear (as Michael was on Ryan's). They stayed this way lap after lap and I really thought Michael would pass Ryan and Jay and Ryan would race for the last podium spot. Did not happen. A really slow running Spec Iron car was about parked in turn four and Ryan and Michael had to get on the brakes hard to keep from hitting him. By the time Jay saw what was happening it was either hit Michael or try and pass them both on the left side of turn four. Jay got in the marbles and never even had a chance to save it as the rear snapped around and that was it for us. Jay passed a few cars and Dan got punted in the Bitch so I think we finished seventh. Brian Curtis told Jay he put back on his RA1's on Sunday morning and ran faster than on brand new heat cycled RR's! I bet he ran RA1's in R4 but I forgot to ask. Several drivers (Sam, both Brian’s, and a few others) ask if we were getting a lot of chatter from the front tires while turning......we were. Also the RR’s squeal like hell when pushed. Got lucky after four years of not finishing R4 we had a second year of making every lap. In fact had I not screwed up in R2 we may have started on the pole or at least P2 but it was not to be. Hallett is still the best place we race.

JJ

[Suck fumes]

I'm sure the fact that the track had a new grippy surface was the cause of tires skipping on the pavement. To much grip!

I vote for Maxxis to be spec tire next year. You actually get a real tire if you win. So two free tires per weekend

[JMR81]

Well our weekend was a pretty good except for one unfortunate incident. Qualified on pole ,unfortunately we ran into the back of one of our friends who was in AI. his car was ok our race was done. Rules is rules so we sat out the 2nd race on Saturday. Dave did let us test the repairs during one of the HPDE sessions so we knew we had a good car for Sunday. Race 3 started 3rd took the lead in turn 1 built the lead and then cruised for remainder of the race. Race 4 started 3rd took lead last corner of lap 1 repeat of race 3 . Dennis and Mike are really showing improvement and are fun to race with. I wish more of the SI cars had been there. Really want to thank Jason Massey of Illicit Motorsports for taking care of the car this weekend. He did an awesome job of getting us back on track. Ed Gilfus and the guys at Motorsports Development Group did a great job prepping the car and setting up the HVT suspension which we were using for the first time. Except for Air pressure we made no changes to the car all weekend. We really enjoyed the weekend and especially enjoy running with the AI/CMC group.