VIR

[rbt510]

Any word of results from VIR enduro??

[Knestis]

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 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]

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]

We used the pads right out of the box...

K

[Bill Miller]

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.

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

[Knestis]

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 ( 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...



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



K

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

[Dave Zaslow]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Great write up, Greg. Thanks.

G

[Knestis]

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]

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!!!!

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

[lateapex911]

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.



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

[Greg Amy]

<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]

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]

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]

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. 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.

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

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Jeremy Lucas
Team Honda Research
Kumho - Cobalt - Comptech

[Greg Amy]

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