Hallett Summer Shootout - Race Vids and Pics

[ShadowBolt]

In reality it's pretty tough to get them done after R4 on Sunday, everyone is in teardown and go mode including the officials. I think we should be able to them via e-mail with one change, have photos of car with the e-mail so the official can verify stickers.

Whatever it takes but if I had done the paperwork at the track I would have been 20 to 40 minutes later leaving. We got out of the track at 3:10. If you miss that one you could be stuck for 20 to 40 minutes. I got home at 11:55 PM Sunday night so I wanted out of there as fast as possible. That is the one issue with running the Toyo race last.

On another issue.
I really like the format we run at Hallett and if I was King we would run that format at every event. Get rid of the 15 minute qual on Sun. and have a 25 minute R3 and a 30 minute R4. That would still leave five minutes we would be giving back. Thoughts?

JJ

[Al Fernandez]

First things first...my sincerest thanks to those that went out of their way to make this weekend as good as it was:
Chris, for being a top shelf race director and even running my saturday morning meeting with Lightning so I could qualify
David and Shawn for coordinating the food both nights and cooking excellent meats
Pranav, Dan, and Randy for providing parts for my jaloppy
Craig and Randy for doing the bulk of the work to get my car back to fighting trim Sunday
Everyone that brought food and drinks to the parties
All of my AI CMC friends and family that raced, hung out, told lies, and generally made the weekend one of the best weekends of the year

Definitely got the post race weekend blues and wishing I could do it again next weekend

[Storm Trooper]

WOW!
What A great weekend. The best racing that I ever have had! I stuck my nose in where I didn't think I ever could! I raced along side you guys when I normally watch from the back! Man this group of guys are Amazing! This is what makes Texas AICMC the bomb!

Mike and Casey- thanks for the help and kick in the butt!
David- Thanks for sharing the "Orange Is Fast" garage and all the tips on how to "BBQ for dummies"

[BryanL]

What a fun hard weekend. Thanks to all who contributed to the meals fri and sat night but especially Dave and Sean. Again impressed with the skills on the grills. Food was great-midnight ribs was something different.

Man that was a fast field. In R1 14 CMC cars were under 1:30 with the ones that weren't just outside. Congrats to all the race winners and for the championships to Stacy, Patterson, Lyons, and Mosty. Also to the track records by Patterson which stood for 10 years, Lyons, and McCormick. I said Hallett was designed specifically for the F Body and they won the first three including a track record even though none of the winners had the fast lap of any race all weekend. Of course the only one that mattered was in the end when Ford ruled and in the absence of McSpadden the Fox took the win along with the track record. It was great having the record set by a Camaro only to see it broken by 4 Mustangs in the final. Craig thought he could get a 1:26 and sure got close with an awesome 1:27.2.

Now to my race report. I treat this like a summer vacation to myself with it being right before Fathers Day and my birthday. So I headed up Thursday night to take it all in and was glad I did. Friday didn't start off well with the alternator pulley I installed to keep it's RPM down was too thick so I had to change it out. Ended up doing the half day. Bedded brakes first session, second guess what the car is loose. Talked to my crew chief and decided to try the 225 lb springs and save the new set of tires. Came off pretty pumped I was generally able to keep up some with the fast foxes of Craig and Mosty. Call it good and start trash talking the rest of the night with some sweet ribs. Then the rain came with gusto into the morning so I got some beauty rest and skipped a wet practice session. New tires on for qual and overconfident after the first lap I went off after Turn 1 and probably caught some air on the whoopdedoos just off the track. Luckily I completed one full lap so I qualed 10. Race 1 went real well and I was happy with my 5th place to get some bucks. But then the car wouldn't start-thanks to a quick push I made it back but the alt wasn't charging. Dealt with kid drama on the phone after our drivers meeting and ended up pulling a battery out of my truck and changing the alternator. Barely made R2-nothing special but finished decent. Great sat evening!!!
R3 I messed up on the start which maybe I'm glad I did as it was sure crazy. I settled in at the very back and took it easy but made my way past a few. Then I come over the hill heading into bus stop and see Francis all four in the dirt which helped me pass three cars I believe. Then Wright goes off track but tries to save it but it's a tank slapper and some have to avoid so again I move up several spots. So due to the carnage and getting by one more on the final turn I had a decent finish. So seeded 6th for the final. Just wanted to get in a single file line for awhile and try to keep up with the front pack and possibly get some distance from behind. Plan was working great until McCormick goes off and I get by him but miss third after bus stop-go into defense to keep the yella terra behind me a little while and again miss third. Think I did it at least one more time every time getting passed by 1-2 cars. So in the end I get some bucks in 10th and happy to drive the car in the trailer. Resulted in a nice drive home-i like the drive to Ada and then to Durant since a bridge was out to Madill.
I was happy to finally have the car handling decent after over a year. So different from last year at Hallett when I basically finished last the whole time. Now it's time to put the car away and enjoy summer.

Such a great time with so many great people, so many smiles, laughs, and happy faces is what makes this so fun for me and Hallett special.

Lastly a huge thanks to all the out of Texas Region guys for coming. I hope they continue and think we should extend a bigger invitation next year to make sure we include them in our sat night dinner. I would have liked to hang out with more of them and hear their story's.

[Fbody383]

Is Fast

So Scott and I rolled out of the OiF garage around 5:30 on Thursday morning; that usually does a decent job of getting us out of Houston and Dallas at a pretty good time. Miles rolled on pretty good until about 12 miles south of Gainesville when I notice some white smoke from the left side of the trailer. Found a safe place to get of the road and when we didn't see a dust cap OR outer wheel bearing we knew it was going to be "interesting."

We let the english "speaking" owner of the gas station/storage/car wash know the car would be there and told the kid with "the V6 camaro with a bad engine for sale" we weren't local and had something else to deal with at the moment. We should have taken his picture so we would have know who stole a trailer and a CMC car. We dropped the trailer for the parts run to Gainesville since it was off the brake axle and the backing plate was only 2" or so off the ground. AutoZone kept it's reputation intact, but we bought grease from them since they did look up the part number on the inner and told us about T & T Trailer down the road. If you're ever near Gainesville and need parts:

Jerry & Terri Threadgill
2300 E. Hwy 82
940-668-2818

No, of course they don't have a website or email address - Jerry only looked at the hub and came back with parts. Scott was smart enough to have him put the races in and we were glad since he had to fight one of them pretty good. We would still be at that gas station.

Back on the road we called the Tulsa Home Depot to make sure we could pick the "hotel" up - answer was yes, and by about 7:00 PM we were parked at the track with an RV kit and big dreams. Sean and Keisha had ham and cheese sandwhiches waiting and we air conditioned 16' of Penske box truck in no time.

What's there to say about Friday practice? 2nd time out on new springs, 2nd time out on RRs, and of course it rained and went from stuck to nearly stuck doing some alternating corner farming with the 45. Derek got caught up in the beauty of the OK hills and tried to round off nearly every corner of his ride. Fortunately, Friday evening came with a pre-plan for ribs - but only 4 racks. 4 racks of pork with the red hatch chili peppered rub and chipotle/honey BBQ sauce glaze. (They weren't really very good; I had to take the two last ribs to down to Ken and Dustin)

Saturday was pretty good - qualified with my crewe in the Mid Pack. R1 was a success. Decent start and got by a couple, got passed by a couple, didn't run out of brakes or patience and came home ok. As good as Saturday evening festivities would be, R2 was the pinnacle of the weekend. The picuture at the start of the thread may have been the break of the race. I had good closing speed on Denton and then Gary and Tim and was able to get the 39 in the middle. A couple of laps later I was going by the 77 just before T2 and the rest, as they say is history. About 3 from the end I went up the hill into the Bitch too far to the right but gathered it up, took a couple breaths, and got back into a decent rhythm to put up a W. 'Bout darn time - if you guys would just eat more, and leave the cars alone I might have a few more. Sean was getting set-up tips from Casey and Patterson all weekend so be ready when the Stormtrooper gets just as wide as that Ole 77.

Saturday night at Hallett - this one was done right. Sean volunteered to put the brisket on and fired up the smoker around 2:00 am; you know, when you were awakened with rain, lightning, and thunder? Had to, takes 12lbs of HEB discount beef a while to cook up right. We pulled it out about 5:30 to have time to heat up sausage(s) and etc. before a six o'clock slicing and feast. Certainly missed the jalapeno popper dip but Regan represented the Mustang Grill with the Buffalo chicken dip that was as good as any Fbody win. And what celebration is complete without Midnight Ribs(tm)? I mean we had a smoker, three racks or ribs, and time. Great crowd of old and new friends huddled up at the 13/14 raceport well into the evening. Yes; all the ribs were gone.

Sunday morning at Hallett is.... sunday morning at Hallett. Quick devotional in the winner's circle with the new, hope to make more NASA events chaplain, and the day was officially in gear. Well technically at Hallett they "wake up with the chickens" at 7:00. Just in case you need a fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENJxl-THS8

Went quickly downhill from there. Green for R3 went well and made a good move first time through T1 and T2. Since I had started WAAAAYYY at the back, I was trying to make up too much time too quickly. Put the chrome horn on the 5 and some wiggling, waggling, spinning, bumping, and 50/50 damage would see both drivers quickly, though safe, in tech doing paperwork. The 5 had friends jump in get it done to be ready for the Shootout and the 39 drove a rented box back to the Depot; no rush after all, Saturday's events made it clear it was going to be a DQ and 1 race suspension. C'est la vie.

First thing Al said to me in tech was "are YOU all right?" Another reminder that it's easy to fix the cars in this deal.

Scott and I hung out and watched the rest of it all. When I saw Gary on pole I truly believed it would be a win - dude is hard to catch when he can get away. Was nice dumping some water on him in the celebration. Congrats to Mosty for the win, McCormick for the record. Yeah, yeah, those AI guys had winner's and records too. (And brought ribs and car advice)

Enough words - need more pics and videos or it didn't happen.

[AllZWay]

Dude I want to hit another TX event at the end of the year, can't wait until next year. Screw nats, I prefer a big diverse field of cars.

Bingo... Always an outstanding and close event. I hated that I missed it yet again.

[ShadowBolt]

Bingo... Always an outstanding and close event. I hated that I missed it yet again.

We wish you had been there James.

JJ

[Storm Trooper]

R3
https://vimeo.com/130930771

[Supercharged111]

I'm still laughing at Francis's move, that was impressive! Looks like even Mosty got a piece of the pie! And of course you can see the 45 get whalloped going into T6, shoulda just played it safe instead of pulling up next to what appeared to be a car that was reeled back in. I'll have my short R3 up soon seeing how it processed the fastest.

[Fbody383]

I'm still laughing at Francis's move, that was impressive!

I know, right? Did you see how bad Al was out of control and spinning when I first rammed into him at about 3:50? The front wheels were turned so far, so long, I thought it was a drift car. Probably knocked the rear bumper cover clean off.

It must look like he was so out of control that he was able to continue his line and try work a pass on the 15 into T2.

And I wonder, just where were the left wheels before the 5 spun?