Firecracker Regional - Blackhawk Farms 7/7-8

[shwah]

Post up if you are going to be at this event.

I will be there in ITB #20 White Golf. :026:

[rabbidmk1]

The car still isnt running right, but i will be there.

[shwah]

I thought you guys found the issue? FWIW Chris found his.

[Greg Gauper]

I'll be there, but I'll be wearing worker whites instead of Nomex.

[shwah]

Thanks Greg! I will try not to repeat the stunt driving maneuver at T6 this time around. :eclipsee_steering:

[shwah]

I just checked the entry list, and was thrilled to see the ITB cars signed up. I was worried we would be 2 or 3 after the RA event.

Here is the entry list.
Firecracker Entries (http://www.dlbracing.com/clubs/clubdrivers.aspx?EventID=2796)

[Greg Gauper]

Chris,

A little birdy told me you won on Sunday. Good job on the sweep!

That was a nice move on Saturday to get the ITA car between you and the Volvo. I think he would have been tough to beat if he was closer early in the race.

[shwah]

I had a great time racing with you guys - despite the heat.

It was a real pleasure to meet and talk to Randy Keller and his Volvo from hell. Also met 'new guy' Mike who was running a Ford Escort at his first IT race - quite different from the FV that he normally campaigns. It was good to see that Aaron's Golf 3 is continuing to get faster, and I was real happy to see Tom Daly at registration after he was forced to miss Saturday.

It was HOT all weekend, but other than almost everyone discussing the attitude of their temperature gauges, it was a pretty smooth weekend for the IT guys I know. Randy did change a head gasket Saturday night, but had such a good handle on it that it didn't seem a big deal. Only one S car and one R car, and no C cars, but I saw a number of As on track.

Saturday was interesting for ITB, as all of us had some sort of issue during qualifying, so no one knew where they really stood. I was in the row ahead of Aaron, who was in the row ahead of Randy. Randy and I both got a strong start, but I found myself boxed in by Miatas entering T1, and relenquished the advanage gained to make sure that all of us got through cleanly. Luckily I was able to put one or two of them behind me, and in front of Randy in the first lap, and pull a slight lead out. However at about half way, there was that Volvo looming behind the Mazda following me. He made a move on the Miata in T7, and seemed right behind me, but got loose in the corner and let me get back away. I was able to eke out a bit of a lead but Aaron in the meantime had started gaining on Randy. In the end we finished in that order, but we all had best laps within .5s of each other. At one point during the race we entered T1 with a debris flag, a Miata was off and his bumper was laying just wide of the line. Another Miata was trying to pass me on the inside, so I plowed into it pretty hard with the left side tires. The car held together, but I was asking myself every lap if I thought a tire was going down. It was a relief to finish and get my first win at this track. :smilie_pokal:

Sunday was even hotter, and Tom Daly had arrived to join the fray. Worried about my tires (after the bumper killing incident the day before), I decided to run on the Hoosiers that I had intended to save for future events. HOLY COW! My qualifying time of 1:25.790 was 1.6s faster than my time the day before, and .1s off the lap record set last October. It felt great to have a little more space between me and the other B cars on the grid. I got another strong start and was able to move past the Miatas that were gridded ahead of me in the first few laps. I latched onto the tail of the red ITA CRX and ran several laps following him. It was hot and so was the oil in my new motor. A snafu resulted in running sans oil cooler and the temps were 280+ on the oil side. The clutch got wet near halfway. I looked back and could not see the other B cars, so started making the shifts more deliberate to avoid slippage. My crew - Tim - told me he would let me know if I opened up a big lead, and suddenly there he was waving his hat from pit lane. I started short shifting by 500rpm to get the temps down. I let the Miatas and ITA Scirocco by as I moved my shift points down another 500rpm with more results seen on the temp gauge. We took the win :smilie_pokal: , then got a stern talking to from the Black Flag Steward about the line I was driving through T5 - apparently the cornerworkers didn't like me placing my left side wheels in the grass every lap - and took a victory lap to cool things down some more. In the end we managed a best of 1:26.1 in the race, which is 1 full second faster than my best previous race lap back in October.

It was a fun weekend racing with some good guys. Thanks to all of you for coming out, lets do it again soon!

A huge thanks to my wife Brandy who was my only crew on Saturday :OLA: , and my 'real' crew Tim Garner, who was my only extra pair of hands on Sunday :023: .
Also big thanks to Gary at 247-parts.com once again for helping us move this car to the next level of development this season. :happy204:

[rabbidmk1]

It was a great weekend overall. I definatly learned a lot about my car. I was pretty happy with my results, in the new car, I ran a second faster out of the box then I had ever run in my rabbit!

Who is going to Road America at the end of this month?


Aaron

[shwah]

I will be there at the end of next month.