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Greg Amy, (formerly ITA Nissan, ITS Integra, ITB something weird), and Tom Hoppe (Formerly ITA Integra), Kirk Knestis (ITB Golf) and Taylor (?) Traftz(?) are sharing his ITA Miata at VIR and have a pit cam set up streaming live. Currently, 3 hours in, they lead by 2 laps. Cameron Conover, who posts here as well is wrenching.
Theres a chat feature where you can sign up for free and give Greg crap.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/vir13
What's the link?
+1 :shrug::blink::024::eclipsee_steering:Quote:
Originally Posted by JoshS
Oops, was in a rush, I guess.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/vir13
Are they in the 68? If so, they lost a hood somewhere :)
technology rocks!
hard to believe that we can see it like this....
No the 68 is, I think, a pit box share team. They lost the hood yesterday, from what i've heard. I think the correct number is 9.
Nice job all, a little drama there at the end just to keep everyone interested:happy204:
Anyone gonna spill for those who couldn't watch?
I *THINK* they were way ahead in ITA when an alternator went. Something about duct taping a couple batteries in the trunk to keep her running for the win?
Something like that... ;)
Andy's right - we think the alternator gave up the ghost (driving lights?) with a 10-lap lead in class. It cost us 7 of them, I think, to stay ahead of the car's electron needs and get home.
The battle for 2nd in class had 3 cars pretty much on the same lap.
A big thanks to Tyler Raatz for all of his efforts!
K
It was very cool watching the stream last night. When you stop and think about what the technology is accomplishing, it's pretty amazing.
It was a bit of a nail-biter at the end, with those watching the stream calculating how much of a lead the team had, and how much time they could surrender in dealing with the electrical issues. I didn't walk away for the last half hour, and that's saying a lot, considering you had a single camera view, no live T&S, and only limited information from the team's posts.
Nice win, guys! :happy204:
ITA was a pretty good race. CAme down to 4 cars although the issue was never really in doubt.
Tom Fowler had a smoking fast Integra (of the Tom Hoppe vintage, not sure of the designation). Ran a 2:18.9 in qual and about that in the race. Another team had a slower Honda Civic Si but it I think could go 2+ hours on fuel. Raatz, etc. al. had a slow qual, think they were really just sorting the car. We qualled second in ITA in what was basically a Spec Miata without a restrictor and a huge header. It was WAY down on power, I got passed repeatedly by SSMs on the backstraight.
Lyonel Kent was in the mix early too with another Civic coupe, but fell out.
Our first stint went pretty well. I think we laid down the third fastest time in A overall, and while the car had no power it was pretty consistent. I could turn an occasional 21 and a fair number of 22s. Raatz was a tick faster at 20 flat.
30 minutes in, the temp gauge starting going crazy and finally pegged at 260. THought we were done. Came, in and lost 5 laps fixing a leak on the back of the motor. Back out, and power was fine.
Caught Tyler and quickly determined while I could get around him from Turn 1 to 10, once we hit the backstraight, we were toast. So, settled in and tried to just run good long stints.
Finished my 1:30 in the car and Earp got int. 20 minutes later, back in -- temp gauge going crazy again. Found another pinhole leak in the radiator. Made 2-3 more stops for just water over the next couple of hours and finally resorted to the old pepper in the radiator trick, and it worked.
After that, car was fairly reliable although it steadily lost power over the course of the race.
We got back to second (Tyler, et. al. didn't have any early trouble and were as much as 10-12 laps ahead at some point). End of my first stint, I saw the Fowler Integra essentially lose a wheel at the top of rollercoaster, and got towed in. I thought they were done.
WRONG. THey fixed it (it was an axle) and went back out. And started gaining on us and the unknown Civic Si.
We continued to have brake shake issues, and while the motor ran, we ended up putting 5-6 quarts (sucker was new too) in over the course of the race, TWO in one stop. So, while we could turn essentially the same times as TYler and the yellow Civic, we were down on laps to Tyler, and down on endurance to the Civic. And Fowler was COMING.
By dark, Fowler had gotten around us and the Civic, although as Kirk notes we were all essentially on the same lap.
We went back and forth with the Civic on stops. ABout 45 mintues from the end, we see Tyler come in with no lights....hmmm....see furious activity in the pits, not but sure what it was (now know).
Fowler got within 3-4 laps of Tyler (who had to make a second battery stop about 20 minutes from the end) but couldn't catch him. Tyler's car died on pitlane after the cool down lap. We finished fourth about 2 laps behind Fowler and nearly a lap behind the yellow Civic.
Great team effort by our guys. I thought the car was done, and Jeff Giordano ran the car basically out of fuel the last stint hoping (a) Fowler woudl break; (b) Tyler's Lucas electrical system would lose all of its smoke and (c) that the yellow Civic Si would have to pit.
Had fun. Miatas are tough little buggers.
The Cameron/Kirk/Amy/Raatz/Hoppe team was of course meticulously prepared EXCEPT for one thing -- no beer at the end of the night. I had to give Hoppe a case of Miller High Life to quench their thirst...
Serioulsy, congrats to those guys. They ran a great race.
Congrats to all the 'boxers. I was very surprised that Hoppe and Jeff did so well since they have such a problem with turning right:smilie_pokal: Chuck
I can't say thanks enough to the group, drivers and crew. The entire operation ran like a well oiled machine, I could not have done it without you guys! All I had to do was supply a proper prepped car to this group and everything else just fell into place. Flawless pit stops, perfect driving, PATIENCE, and a Miata that just would not die made for a great endurance race.
The only person to put a wheel wrong the entire race was ME. Tom and Kirk convinced me to slow down for my second stint and win the race, not win the lap. That piece of advise is what won the race. I would have gotten in the car for the 2nd stint and tried to set a lap record like a moron, instead I drove the car very conservative and didn't burn the car down.
Greg, Tom and Kirk were the model of well diciplined consistincy.
The Alternator failure at the start of the final hour was a bit of a trial for the crew, but we all pulled together and got it done. The creative dual battery jumper cable duct tape bandaid gave us just enough volts to make it to the end:lol:
Thanks a million
Kirk Knestis
Greg Amy
Tom Hoppe
Cameron Conover
Wes Eargle
Jeff Underwood
Melissa Nemeth
Kyle Hinckley
Gerri Raatz
Blake Meredith (for building an engine even I could not kill!)
You guys made this win a reality!
Tyler Raatz
C&R Motorsports ITA Miata:smilie_pokal:
Tyler, sorry about totally bungling your name! Nice job to you and the team.
On a related note:
As I was wandering around the paddock between stints, I was amazed at the amount of expensive rolling infrastructure. One of my team mates commented that this appeared to be the most professional Amateur endurance race ever. Holy crap, it looked like every Grand Am rig not in foreclosure was there. It was good to see a few competitors still working off open trailers and pick-up trucks. It was also good to see that most of the big boys got spanked by us amateurs.
:smilie_pokal: Chuck
True, true. But let me tell you: the Runoffs paddock was *much* more impressive. You know, the end-of-the-year "amateur" Runoffs...? I felt so out of place rolling in with the 'Teg on an open trailer...!
:shrug:
One thing that could have affected that is that yesterday and today are test days for Grand Am at VIR. Notice all the trucks and trailers at the South Paddock (especially after dark, the place was lit up like Party Central)? That was them. So I'm thinking several teams decided they were going to be there anyway, why not run the race in another car?
GA