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rbt510
10-24-2004, 08:49 AM
Any word of results from VIR enduro??

Knestis
10-24-2004, 04:43 PM
We'll have a full write-up when the pics come from the team photographer but I'm very pleased to be able to announce that the www.philstireservice.com (http://www.philstireservice.com) Team GTI won ITB (of 6 entries) and finished 30th overall, of the 59 teams that started.

It was a great weekend from start to finish. I won't start thanking people yet becuase we'll have a full accounting later but everyone did a WONDERFUL job.

BTW, if you are shopping for brake pads this winter, consider for a minute that we did the entire 13 hours on ONE set of Hawk Blues from Cobalt Friction Technologies - http://cobaltfriction.com. One of our competitors asked late in the event if we were going to have to do "another" pad change before the end: Scott Giles just smiled at him.

Congrats too, to the "Young Whight Boys" - Jeff Young, Mark Whight, et al. - for finishing in the top 10 among the Spec Miata runners. Word has it that the top two were excluded for fuel tank irregularities but I'll let them fill you in on their success.

K

PS to J. Lucas - If you are out there, I hope that it wasn't you that I blocked in Oak Tree. I was embroiled in my own little race for position...


[This message has been edited by Knestis (edited October 24, 2004).]

JOESELLSVW
10-24-2004, 06:44 PM
Hey Kirk, Did you have to gring down the Hawk Blue pads to fit the calipers? I used these pads on my A2, but on the A3 they won't fit unless they are ground down. maybe they changed the material thickness? Joe
PS Congrats on the win... I hear that our MINI lost the gearbox in the last hour....

Knestis
10-24-2004, 07:31 PM
We used the pads right out of the box...

K

Bill Miller
10-24-2004, 08:37 PM
Congrats to Kirk, et al, looking forward to the full write-up. Joe, I saw your post too late to try and do anything. Kirk, we'll figure out how to get that stuff swapped.

------------------
MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI (sold) | MARRS #25 HProd Rabbit
SCCA 279608

Knestis
10-24-2004, 09:02 PM
We officially have a flaw in our carefully thought-out plan, Bill: One of the mufflers on my system was discovered to be completely blown out on top while at VIR. The guys tried to take it apart but the joints were suffering from POW (permanent oxidation welding) from a decade of life in NoVA so the entire thing ended up victim of a Sawzall, abandoned in a track garbage can.

The good news is that the car sounds more like a racer now and it (a) gained a few mph at the end of the straight, and (B) lost a few more pounds. The bad news is that we have to try again on the swap. Let me know offline what you want to do.

Meanwhile, I forgot that I had a few pics on my camera...

http://it2.evaluand.com/gti/images/enduro04/IMG_0023.JPG

Yes - the charging system DID have enough capacity for the lights.

http://it2.evaluand.com/gti/images/enduro04/IMG_0020.JPG

K

[This message has been edited by Knestis (edited October 24, 2004).]

Dave Zaslow
10-25-2004, 06:13 AM
Originally posted by JOESELLSVW:
Hey Kirk, Did you have to gring down the Hawk Blue pads to fit the calipers? I used these pads on my A2, but on the A3 they won't fit unless they are ground down. maybe they changed the material thickness? Joe
PS Congrats on the win... I hear that our MINI lost the gearbox in the last hour....

Joel,

Hawk sells the A3 pattern # pads in two thicknesses. Make sure you get the thinner ones next time. Bill Suloff has this all figured out.

Dave Z

Bill Miller
10-25-2004, 06:43 AM
Kirk,

No problem. Not really that worried about the muffler. We'll talk off line later. Again, congrats to you and the crew on the win!!!

------------------
MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI (sold) | MARRS #25 HProd Rabbit
SCCA 279608

JeffYoung
10-25-2004, 11:00 AM
Kirk, thanks for the props. You guys looked great out there. No dents, dings or wrinkles, and one of you turned a 2:30 which is a damn good ITB lap. Congrats on the class win.

First time in a Spec Miata for 3 of the guys on our 5 man team, although we had two ringers (Alyn Robson, the guy who started the UK equivalent of Spec Miata and Rick Thompson, longtime IT7 champ). Rick and Alyn turned 2:23s and 2:24s and kept us near the front.

I cost us two laps with an incident with an ITS car in Oak Tree, and two more as team manager in "ordering" a brake pad change when the crew had correctly told me we didn't need to. If we have those four laps back......

Also, learned a LOT about fueling. Started out taking 2-3 minutes to fuel, till Ron Earp cut our funnel down and significantly lowered our refueling times.

Lots of fun, and we'll take the 8th (or 6th, I've heard about the protest but don't know the outcome) in a brand new car. Miatas are fun cars to drive.

Ron
10-25-2004, 01:46 PM
Way to go Kurt! We made 6 laps before dad hit some dirt on the track between 2 &3 ond off he went into the gaurd rail. Sad thing is I just finished fixing the same crash damage from Road Atlanta two months ago.
I will get it back together for next year.

Ron Sattele
Ford Mustang ITB

Greg Amy
10-25-2004, 03:34 PM
What Kirk didn't elaborate on was that we won the race by only 5 laps. Now, you might think that's a lot, but this race was a battle of fuel stops.

Ron's Mustang led the pack to the green with a convincing pole. We had some very good success during the twilight qualifying the night before and were in second, but it was apparent that there was going to be a fight between the top five ITB cars. As Ron noted, unfortunately they ran into misfortune soon after the green, taking them out of the race.

While everyone ran pretty fast, we had more frequent stops than the others, for a couple of reasons: one, we managed to run Kirk out of fuel during the night practice on Friday and he could not drive back to the pits after it choked, so we knew we needed to stay within our ultimate range. Two, and probably just as important, with four drivers we wanted to make sure that each got sufficient track time during the 13-hour race, so that guided our fueling decisions.

Scott Giles did a great job keeping up with the ITB pack at the start, but our main issues soon came to light after our first stop to bolt Kirk into the car: the 02 car went much longer than us before stopping for fuel (wasn't it around 2+ hours?) and the BMW, while significantly slow in lap times, went WAAAYYYY farther than any of us on fuel (over 3 hours?). Each one of our stops was a minimum of two laps lost, so the battle soon became a hare/hare/tortoise one.

The orange 02 Golf II led the way for the lion's share of the day. They were faster than we were (one driver pulling in 2:27s to our low-30s), and they were consistent. Lap after lap we watched them go by, with Evan Webb reeling them in at times, losing space on others, but we had decided by mid-afternoon to consolidate our lead on the third-place BMW and work towards a solid second place, and see what happened.

Suddenly, with about 4 hours to go, we hear over the F&C radio that the leading #02 Golf had pulled off at South Paddock! We were surprised that they had not yet pitted for fuel, so we wondered if they had "Kirked" the car (our euphemism for running out of the liquid stuff), but within a few minutes the workers were calling for a tiltbed versus a flat tow and we knew their situation was worse than simply fuel. We assumed the lead three laps later, much to our muted glee.

The tension was not yet over, as there was the BMW tortoise to contend with. We knew we had two more fuel stops to go (for a minimum 4 laps lost) and we estimated the BMW had only one. That meant we needed to maintain our then-existing two lap lead, preferably extend it. Those last two pit stops were the best ones our AWESOME crew did all day (they changed front tires faster than we could get fuel and driver in), the drivers pushed as much as we dared (within reason), and Scott did the "clean-up" job to bring us across the checkered with a five-lap victory.

My response to Kirk was, "You know, I kinda like this 'winning' stuff".

Even better, with the exception of a minor doughnut on the passenger door from the start ("...a glove, some compound, and about 4 minutes to fix..." sez Kirk) the car was dent and incident-free. That's more than I can say for a LOT of the other cars out there, especially the Spec Pinatas...

I'll let Kirk fill in the details and mention all the sponsors but I want to toss in big thanks to Phil Phillips of Phil's Tire Service (those Toyos hung right in there), Lee Grimes of Koni (nice shocks, dude), and Cobalt Friction for the Hawks. I mentioned time and time again on the radio that the car was spooky consistent from the beginning to the end of my stints. EVERYTHING on the car was the same from the second lap to the last. I had a lot of confidence that the shocks, tires, and brakes would be the same they were the lap before, giving me the confidence I needed to drive reasonably well.

On top of that we had a load of fun, I met some super folks, and I hope that these new friendships will last for a long time. If you've never done an enduro, I'll tell you it's a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun.

Now I gotta catch up on the rest of the board...

GregA


[This message has been edited by GregAmy (edited October 25, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by GregAmy (edited October 25, 2004).]

gsbaker
10-25-2004, 04:08 PM
Great write up, Greg. Thanks.

G

Knestis
10-25-2004, 05:17 PM
A few other points of trivia to consider, re: Project GTI...

** The engine is stock - as in "the same 122,000+ mile unit that came in the car", unopened and not refreshed in any way

** The gearbox has neither an LSD nor aftermarket final drive

** The car is inspected and licensed and is regularly driven on the street, albeit not for everyday transportation purposes

** In addition to the 13 hours, that car completed a double school, four regionals, the Blue Ridge hillclimb, two Tarheel club track days, and a rallycross this season

** We covered 938 miles at an average of over 70mph and approximately 11 miles per gallon of premium pump gas (purchased at the station out on highway 58)

** We earned the unofficial nickname of "Team Sawzall" when the crew removed the stock exhaust system and added a cheapo turndown in the paddock, between the test day and official practice

** Yes, the catalytic converter is still in place

K

Bill Miller
10-25-2004, 06:15 PM
Great write-up!!!

Greg,

I've never driven in a long enduro, although I have run some 2 and 4 hour ones (not the same). I have crewed on a couple of long enduros though, and you're right, they're a lot of work and a lot of fun. Consistency is the key!!!

Kirk,

I guess this means we'll see you and Pablo at the Summit Point 12 hr next June!!!!

------------------
MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI (sold) | MARRS #25 HProd Rabbit
SCCA 279608

lateapex911
10-25-2004, 07:29 PM
Originally posted by gsbaker:
Great write up, Greg. Thanks.

G

Yes, nice write up Greg. But you missed on the spelling of "Hair" (twice) which is actually "hare"...so it is not the "Tortoise and the Hair". So, A-, better spelling would have netted a sold A.


Great job guys...if anyone would trust me in their rear drive car it sounds like it would be a blast.



------------------
Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]

Greg Amy
10-25-2004, 08:05 PM
<font face=\"Verdana, Arial\" size=\"2\">...you missed on the spelling...</font>

I don't understand, Jake, looks fine to me...<shrug>

(Thanks for the silly spelling katch)

I think you would have enjoyed it. The IT7 crowd looked to be having a blast...

Mike Spencer
10-25-2004, 09:27 PM
Originally posted by GregAmy:
...The IT7 crowd looked to be having a blast...

I don't know if anyone else is going to address this, so I'll throw in my $0.02.

I was crewing for the purple&yellow (Plum Crazy Racing) #15. We were one of two cars entered in that class. The other was the black #91 (sorry, but I don't know them even though we shared a pit stall with them. They weren't there much. More about THAT later....)

Each of our 6 (yes, S-I-X) drivers had two turns in the car. Since we have the stock 14-and-some-odd gallon fuel tank in the car, we weren't going much more than an hour between stops.

Unlike Kirk-and-company, we had to change brakes once during the race. We did so just before the mandatory double-yellow. By the looks of the old pads, we waited just about as long as we could. One pad had almost nothing left. Of course, my heart goes out to the guys in the Mini (they pitted just in front of us). Somewhere just after it got dark, they came in and the front right caliper was literally on fire! There was a brief scramble for an extinguisher, but after replacing a few parts, it seemed there was no permanent damage.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Within the first couple hours, the 91 came in with the rear axle bent. (I'm assuming there was either contact or a significant "off", but didn't get any definite word) The car was moved to the paddock, and (as I found out later) someone drove back to the shop for a replacement. The car came back on-track many hours later, but continued to post better lap times than we did. Fortunately, we were about 120 laps ahead, and held on for First-In-Class.

We did NOT, however, come through unscathed. The front left corner was "dinged", so the standard headlight needed a little "help" as night approached.

We got another "ding" on the left rear directly over the fuel fill door. That required a little minor surgery, but we were able to fuel the car normally.

As we went green after the (lengthy) double-yellow, we discovered we had lost 2nd gear. Well, no REAL problem. Once underway, we can use 3rd on all the "slow" corners including Oak Tree.

With 3 hours remaining, I watched in horror as I pointed to car out of the pit and it just sat there and reved! We lost FIRST gear!!! Well, $#!+!!!! Several of our larger crew members jumped the wall and we got it push-started. The remaining two stops also required the driver to leave the pits in 3rd.

We had been having sporadic radio problems all day, and the "icing on the cake" was having to send Heather (the car owner) out the last hour with a completely dead radio. There was JUST enough light from the pits (I think) for her to see the pink pit board with the smiley face ("You're doing fine!").

I think we finished something like 47th overall, but yes; "we were having a blast"!

Thanks to everybody for a great weekend! The teams around us coordinated with us to make sure we all knew who was coming in and when (ours and the spot ahead were both shared between cars). We got bumped by the Mini in turn 1 and I found out about it from THEM (One of their crew leaned over and said "Sorry, guys!") before my driver told me over the radio!

I don't know the exact count, but of the 59 cars that started somewhere near 50 finished. Congrats to all!!!!!

------------------
Mike Spencer
NC Region
ITA/7 RX-7 #60
1990 RX-7 Convertible (street car)

JeffYoung
10-25-2004, 09:38 PM
There is a post on the Spec Miata board about the 91 -- it got together with an SM and the SM ended up rolling down the backstraight.....

jlucas
10-25-2004, 09:57 PM
Originally posted by Knestis:
PS to J. Lucas - If you are out there, I hope that it wasn't you that I blocked in Oak Tree. I was embroiled in my own little race for position...

Kirk, I meant to stop by and say hi, somehow just got too busy. Don't remember the Golf specifically but I did get run off by someone on the inside (big scrape straddling the curb but appearantly no damage)in the right hander before oak tree. It was a very different perspective from the TL (ITE). It's a very strange feeling to never have to look in your mirrors as opposed to SSC where you are always looking in your mirrors. http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif The only car that stood out in my mind was the old clapped out 2002 that repeatedly turned into me, driving me off track many times to avoid contact.
Well, then there was that car with the 4 HID's on the hood that blinded me every time I went by. http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/wink.gif

Anyone know where the full final results are posted? Did not get a copy at the track.

------------------
Jeremy Lucas
Team Honda Research
Kumho - Cobalt - Comptech

Greg Amy
10-25-2004, 09:59 PM
Let's not go into discussions on our opinions of the driving antics of the Wreck Pinata boys. It will quickly turn into heated and ugly discussions about various persons' heritages and initial driving instruction.

Ironically, the majority of the comments on the SM board tend to reflect about how 'clean' and 'well' things went (ignoring of course the endo rollover, many consistent off-course excursions, and obvious significant body damage), further confirming - for me at least - that ignorance is bliss.

I have theories as to why these kind of things are happening with these guys, but since I really doubt it will affect a change there's no value in starting a flame war. Let's just close with the fact that most non-SM/SSM drivers commented about how 'disappointed' they were with the driving.

GregA

Catch22
10-25-2004, 10:03 PM
Yep, it was a whole lot of fun. My first long enduro and hopefully not my last.

We were certainly not the fastest ITB car on the track and we knew it going in. Our plan centered around reliability, stints (1.5 to 1.75 hours) dictated by the fuel tank, and staying out of trouble (especially after dark). Well, the plan worked as we won the thing.

No mechanical issues, no contact, no brake pad changes... A truly flawless race that went 95% in line with Crew Chief Lee Grimes' plan. Our crew was awesome as well, with gassing and tire changes all going off without a hitch.

I am, however, still amazed at how many people completely forget they are in a 13 hour war of attrition as soon as the green flag drops. Man, people just immediately started driving like they were in an ARRC sprint race. Forcing themselves under people, donuting doors, and just plain wrecking each other while driving a balls-out sprint pace.
Not us. All of our drivers stuck to the plan, stayed out of trouble, and took care of the equipment.
I started the race and then finished it 10 hours later. I can't describe how amazed I was to find that the car felt exactly the same at 8:45pm as it did at 10:45am when I handed it over to Kirk.
Now THATS how you win an endurance race!!!

Big thumbs up to our drivers and crew. Winning something like this is no small feat and it was a total team effort.

JeffYoung
10-25-2004, 10:22 PM
Greg, you are right about taking the high road....one semi-objective comment.

I typically drive a TR8 in ITS. A friend and I built a SM to run this enduro, and to try and rent out next year to cover the cost of doing an enduro each year.

First time this weekend driving an SM. As an IT driver, I've always wondered why these cars always seemed to be bumping and banging off of each other.

I think, after 2.5 hours in the car on Saturday, I can make two perhaps helpful non-driver specific observations for non-SM drivers:

1. An SM makes you feel like superman. I'm not kidding. It is underpowered, handles great (and predictably), and stops well. You can do things in that car that would get you killed in your IT car. Case in point: when I get the Uphill Esses exactly right in my TR8, I am much faster through there than I am in the SM. BUT, if I am even a few inches off, I'm toast, off the track and possibly in big trouble. WIth the SM, I could go flat out through the esses using a couple of different lines. The SM would recover just fine.

2. Lifting in the SM is death -- the car just comes to a halt and the rest of your competitors sail away. As an IT driver in a car with torque, I can back off, and then get back on the throttle and not totally kill a lap. In the SM, any lift would have dire implications for several corners at least. I think this encourages, at least it did with me, trying to find ways NOT to lift at all.

My first session I was certainly guitly of playing Wreck Pinata, puttin gthe car in the tire wall in Oak Tree with an ill advised pass of an ITS car that was just going to run me down on the backstraight. After seeing the cost to my team (2 laps pulling out the right front fender) of that move, I settled down and just tried to be consistent.

So, while I like and respect the car, I think I am going to put down teh crack pipe and stay with my TR8, which requires me to be more precise and stay out of trouble to go fast. The Miata, on the other hand, just tempts you and tempts you to do things you shouldn't.

The solution? An SM only run group. Let them have fun in those cars because I do think they are/need to be driven differently than most other IT type cars.

Catch22
10-26-2004, 12:00 AM
Lifting in the SM is death -- the car just comes to a halt and the rest of your competitors sail away

You've apparently never driven an ITC car. Lifting... anywhere... anytime... kills the whole lap dead and often gets you passed. Spec Miatas are A Sedan cars in comparison to a carbed '85 Civic econobox.

SMs are no more of a momentum car than most ITA, ITB and certainly ITC cars. The drivers of these cars might *think* this is the case, but its not. The front running SMs have a better power to weight ratio than most, if not all, ITB and ITC cars and are about even (maybe a tad lower) than the ITA guys.

I think its more a matter of overpopularity and a bunch of guys that really aren't all that good driving cars with no real advantage over each other. They can't get away from each other, so they eventually end up hitting each other.
This is a very broad generalization as there are some damned fantastic drivers in SMs. But there's a hell of alot more SMs out there than there are good drivers in them.
And THATS the problem, In my humble opinion.

Their own group... I'm all for it. As soon as someone figures out how to put even MORE in the already full weekends. I'd love to see some of those 10 to 20 car formula groups combined, but it ain't gonna happen.

oops. I feel this one falling off topic. Way to go Amy.
Friggin troublemaker.

VBDgraphics
10-26-2004, 01:13 AM
Great race guys... congrats to the A3 GTI and team members! We had "another" hub failure in the left front...(same issue as 2 years ago in the 12 Hour at Summit) check your qualifying sheets though, we were on pole in ITB not the Mustang...(all good though) Just goes to show why we love endurance racing, anything can happen at anytime, thanks to the other A2 GTI for a parts donation to get us back out for the checker... This was a good and clean race and we'll be back for sure next year and we have left something on the table for sure............. Greg Shaffer / Paulo DoCouto

------------------
Custom Motorsports Graphics at: www.vbdgraphics.com (http://www.vbdgraphics.com)

evanwebb
10-26-2004, 01:36 AM
Hi all, I'm getting in on this late but I'd just like to chime in and say that it was a great time racing with Kirk, Scott, and Greg at the 13 hours! I learned a ton from these guys and I'm looking forward to doing some more enduros in the future! Woohoo!

m glassburner
10-26-2004, 02:53 AM
The 25 hr is coming up soon http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif

jlucas
10-26-2004, 06:24 AM
Originally posted by m glassburner:
The 25 hr is coming up soon http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif

Yup, we'll be there. Hopefully the new pads will last more than 3.5 hours.

------------------
Jeremy Lucas
Team Honda Research
Kumho - Cobalt - Comptech

Greg Amy
10-26-2004, 09:41 AM
<font face=\"Verdana, Arial\" size=\"2\">...I feel this one falling off topic. Way to go Amy...Friggin troublemaker.</font>[/b]

That's my job, and I do it well... http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/wink.gif

As someone that has raced SM, I can say with confidence that both John and Scott are quite the bright and observant fellows. Combine their two posts and you've got my sentiments exactly.

What can be done about it? Not too much, as it requires inward reflection by the participants, and there's no evidence that this will happen any time soon. If/when it does, though, I predict a hell of a firestorm.

Greg/Paul: Mea culpa on the oversight of your pole position. Well deserved! It's quite possible, then, that we didn't qualify second. I seem to recall that Ron was in the grid position in front of us because I was giving him grief on the grid about how our ace starter Scott Giles was going to run him through... http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif

Hey, Mike, in the "small world" category, it turns out that Natasha's dad flies the same kind of airplane that I do. I noticed the airplane circling VIR mid-afternoon during one of my driving stints and recognized the make and model, and made an inquiry on a separate email list to find out who it was. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he was scoping out the yellow-and-purple RX-7 that his son-in-law was driving!

www.euliss-uftring.org/pictures (http://www.euliss-uftring.org/pictures)

And, damn, that Acura TL is wicked fast. I loved having that car come by me because I didn't have to worry about their dive-bombing me; they'd simply wait for a straight and - BAM, GONE.

To get back on point about endurance racing and VIR, I have a well-proven system to avoid conflicts whenever possible. I call it "aggressive yet leave yourself an out." I suggest that the biggest conflicts on the track came when a passee was trying too hard to let people by. Remember the topic we had a few weeks ago (maybe in the NE forum?) where we talked about the passee's responsibility when a faster car is coming through? I made it clear that my position on the matter was to drive your line, be predictable, and keep your speed up as best you can. This way you become predictable so the passer knows where you're going, you'll maintain your speed through the corners (thereby helping both drivers), and the faster car can then plan on using their strong suits to pass you at a safe and convenient place.

To illustrate this, let's take an example of where one of the ITE cars was coming up on me. If it's on the straight, I made it clear well in advance to the passer that I saw them, and I made it clear to them which side of the car I wanted them to pass me. In that manner, there was clear communication that the passer has been seen and that I will accomodate them. in extreme examples, such as in the slow left-hander before the Snake, I'd even gesture wildly out the left window with a spinning motion of my left hand that I will delay my turn-in and they should aggressively work to pass me there. However, I would NEVER drive offline to accomodate the passer; if they couldn't make it happen offline and in a safe place then it didn't happen.

There are a few places where a pass is unsafe (in my mind) such as after that left hander, again into the entrance to the uphill esses, and through Roller Coaster. In those cases, I made it clear to the passing driver that I was *not* going to accomodate them there by either waving a "no" with my hand inside the car and/or by drifting towards the middle of the track, thus discouraging the pass. However, once done I would make sure that I kept my speed up through the esses and while flying through the corner (at South Bend, for example) would gesture the side for them to pass me coming out of the corner.

As you can see, I was not only managing MY own car, I was managing the OTHER drivers as well. I was not "blocking" them per se, rather I was managing when and where they could pass me, and limiting it to safe places. This kind of attitude is slightly different than in sprint races, because I realize that sprints don't give you the luxury of time, but the same ideas and rules apply.

Let's take the other point of view. If I were a driver in one of those well-handling-but-low-powered vehicles coming up on a slow, underpowered, 300-lb-heavier box, the last thing I'd want to do is dive-bomb the box into a slow corner. The result, at best, would be two cars now going much slower through the corner side-by-side, with the possibility of the fatter box - now having been forced offline - understeering out of the corner into me. Not only have I significantly increased my risk, but I've needlessly killed any semblence of a good lap, especially given I could easily cream him coming out of the corner.

Instead of losing 2-3 seconds on the lap with that method, I'd lift or brake about 100 feet earlier, keep my momentum up through the corner, and go screaming by on the exit. Even better, it's possible the refrigerator will get a good exit out of the corner, and now I have a free aero tow for at least half the straight, possible regaining that lost half-second.

So, because in general that was not happening, I as the refrigerator driver had to take a different tack on actively managing the slower cars. In that case I had to, in many cases, take a much more aggressive stance to keep cars such as this from dive-bombing me. If a certain well-handling performance car was in tow down the straight I made it clear which side of the car they were to pop out and pass, and I made it clear that I was going to accomodate them. However, if it appears that the driver was coming from too far back and they were going to try a Hail Mary pass (which was pretty damned obvious based on their "body language") I'd make it crystal clear that I was *not* going to accomodate them by moving over to make sure they KNEW there was not going to be a hole when they got there. For the most part, the other drivers got the word and backed off and drove their normal line, and as a result they - TA DA! - killed me coming out of the corner. Funny how that works out.

I believe that the end result was no hard feelings among the fast cars, as I did my best to accomodate them in a safe place, probably no hard feelings among the faster more experienced small-but-well-handling drivers, but quite likely some cussing from the slower SWH drivers. No apologies for that last group; trust me, that nasty-tasting medicine was good for you in the end.

Our results were no significant contact and a race win. You decide if the tactics are valid.

GregA

Kolin Aspegren
10-26-2004, 04:13 PM
Our team was driving the 05 SSC Neon. We
ran a pace 7 seconds slower than what the
car could do. The idea was to save fuel
and of course race nobody. We won our class
by 7 laps, overall do not know. Hope we
stayed out of everybodies way who was
racing,Crackerjacks must have been giving
out free SCCA licenses that day. Witnessed
stuff never seen before, care to guess
what class. We drove very slow and still
won so no worries.

Lots of fun

Kolin

gsbaker
10-26-2004, 04:28 PM
Originally posted by Catch22:
...But there's a hell of alot more SMs out there...


We have, what, 11 days to go before we see this scene again?

http://www.isaacdirect.com/images/ARRC%252...07-0727_IMG.JPG (http://www.isaacdirect.com/images/ARRC%25202003/107-0727_IMG.JPG)

I must admit, these guys are fun to watch when they are the only flock on the course.

G

lateapex911
10-26-2004, 08:24 PM
Originally posted by GregAmy:
........ I noticed the airplane circling VIR mid-afternoon during one of my driving stints and recognized the make and model......GregA


Glad to see that driving a race car on the track with lots of other race cars gets so much of your attention Greg! http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/wink.gif

Does Kirk know what you spend your time doing while you're in his car?? ("Hey..that plane looks JUST like mine...hmmm...THATs a pretty cloud..looks kinda like a bunny rabbit....") {ooops...thats a 'hair' to you.... http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/wink.gif }

hee hee hee...


------------------
Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by lateapex911 (edited October 26, 2004).]

Greg Amy
10-26-2004, 09:13 PM
<font face=\"Verdana, Arial\" size=\"2\">...Does Kirk know what you spend your time doing while you're in his car??...hee hee hee...</font>

This, I believe, was the same driving stint that I kicked out some fast laps and the crew chief came on the radio to tell me I was so consistent I was boring him...

http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/wink.gif


[This message has been edited by GregAmy (edited October 26, 2004).]

Knestis
10-26-2004, 10:42 PM
http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/rolleyes.gif

Sheesh.

To clarify, the grid list had us 2nd behind the 02 Golf and ahead of the Sattele Mustang.

Our fast race lap was a 2:31.015 which sure gives me something to shoot for next season. All sheeshing aside, I'm pretty impressed with that.

K

[This message has been edited by Knestis (edited October 26, 2004).]

Greg Amy
10-27-2004, 04:42 PM
Results are now available at the following URL. PhilsTireService GTi was upgraded to 28th of 65 starters overall due to DSQ of a couple of Miatas.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/i/rickcone/SCCA/...3Hour/index.htm (http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/i/rickcone/SCCA/VIR/13Hour/index.htm)

Knestis
10-27-2004, 08:42 PM
Did you notice the html "time cards" that you can download? All 287 laps of our race.

K

jlucas
10-28-2004, 09:04 PM
cool http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif

Knestis
11-01-2004, 06:07 PM
We have a more complete write up of our adventures at the 13 hours, at http://it2.evaluand.com/gti/enduro04.php

I hope those of you who frequent this board and participated in our success are appropriately recognized for your contribution...

K

ShelbyRacer
11-02-2004, 12:07 AM
Originally posted by Kolin Aspegren:

Our team was driving the 05 SSC Neon.


Man that team had slow pit stops... Musta been the idiot fuel guys.



------------------
Matt Green
"Ain't nothin' improved about Improved Touring..."

Kolin Aspegren
11-02-2004, 12:12 PM
Matt we had the easy part, you guys
made Kevin,Erich,and myself look
good. Joe Leonard puts together one
hell of a good team.

thanks for everything

Kolin

Greg Amy
11-22-2004, 10:00 PM
<font face=\"Verdana, Arial\" size=\"2\">We made 6 laps before...</font>

Ron, I just realized I've got some in-car video of the first 6 laps of the race. It shows the after-action of the guardrail incident (doesn't show it happening) plus some clear video of an altercation with a Spec Miata a couple of laps before that...

Ron
11-29-2004, 10:10 PM
I would love to see what my dad was doing.
PM me [email protected]

Knestis
11-29-2004, 11:36 PM
Low bandwidth - http://home.comcast.net/~whitney.bill/87sm.wmv

High bandwidth - http://home.comcast.net/~whitney.bill/87sm2.wmv

K

Edit - you can see the camera wobble where we got the "Big E" bump-n-run in two. http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Knestis (edited November 29, 2004).]

Ron
11-30-2004, 10:11 AM
That sure does tell alot. Pops started racing back in the early IMSA days when love taps were the norm. I am sorry about that I am going to talk to him.

Ron Sattele