FUN ONE

[dj10]

Anyone know who the Hoosier Tire people will be @ the Fun One and contact number? Thanks.

[disquek]

Most likely it'll be Smarty from Northeast Racing Enterprises. Call him at 518-622-0329 ext. 22.

Kyle

[dj10]

Most likely it'll be Smarty from Northeast Racing Enterprises. Call him at 518-622-0329 ext. 22.

Kyle [/b]

Thanks Smarty is fixing me up!



Oh I see Greg Amy is coming, maybe I'll get to meet him finally. Greg look me up or let me know where your at. I'm usually behind the garages. Since no other ITR cars as of yet, guess I'll use this for seat time and testing.

[Greg Amy]

That's the plan, Dan! We'll be running both ITA and DP, primarily as a test-n-tune for the ARRC (we've got some various suspension and tire combos to evaluate).

I've no clue where we'll be parked (we're usually in a garage but they're full) so look for a white Ford extended passenger van with a white enclosed trailer in tow... - GA

[dj10]

That's the plan, Dan! We'll be running both ITA and DP, primarily as a test-n-tune for the ARRC (we've got some various suspension and tire combos to evaluate).

I've no clue where we'll be parked (we're usually in a garage but they're full) so look for a white Ford extended passenger van with a white enclosed trailer in tow... - GA
[/b]

Oh! That's right, I can run DP too! But that isn't a bad idea Greg, just in case you do want to test some changes. I'll wait for now, hopefully I won't need the extra test time. I could just start from the back of the pack.

<strike>THINK</strike> SCHEME

[Greg Amy]

C&#39;mon and play, sir! The more the merrier. plus, it&#39;s good for the ego to pass and lead some of these Big Bore cars (you&#39;d be AMAZED at how poorly some of them drive...!)

[dj10]

C&#39;mon and play, sir! The more the merrier. plus, it&#39;s good for the ego to pass and lead some of these Big Bore cars (you&#39;d be AMAZED at how poorly some of them drive...!) [/b]

I did some testing at a National in DP earlier this year, took 4th or 5th overall. I&#39;ll see how my qualifying goes in ITR. Like I said I just might start last just for the hell of it. It sure is tempting. I like you already Greg, you sound like a fun person.

[dominojd]

I did some testing at a National in DP earlier this year, took 4th or 5th overall. I&#39;ll see how my qualifying goes in ITR. Like I said I just might start last just for the hell of it. It sure is tempting. I like you already Greg, you sound like a fun person.
[/b]

Don&#39;t let him fool ya. When you meet him in person you&#39;ll say to yourself "what an A-hole".

[lateapex911]

Thanks Joe, my laptop needed orange juice spewed all over it!

[dj10]

Don&#39;t let him fool ya. When you meet him in person you&#39;ll say to yourself "what an A-hole". [/b]

Wow Joe! From your comment I guess you WON&#39;T be running against Greg @ the Fun One? If you are going to be running with Greg, I am definately lining up behind you two for the 1st few laps of qualifying any way. I wonder why GA hasn&#39;t responded to this abuse? Maybe he just considers the source.

[dickita15]

Dan, Greg and Joe consider that kind of comment foreplay. :P

[Greg Amy]

What Dick said...

[lateapex911]

said the man know as "Captain Panties"..

now where IS that pic of little Greg with the thong on his head????

[StephF]

So I am here at work waiting to get the day done so I can head out to the Glen tonight. Any reports on what&#39;s happening out there today will be appreciated! Ed&#39;s already there with both cars. Our race season began last weekend and ends this weekend. Oh well, I consider it a shakedown for 2008.

[Greg Amy]

The Glen needs wireless...

SUPER weekend. The weather was cold and rainy Friday night; C-O-O-O-L-D, cloudy, and windy on Saturday; BITTER cold and windy for the pig roast that night; and warmish and sunny on Sunday.

Saturday was simply too cold to go blindingly fast. The track started out slick in the AM and with no sun never really warmed up; most folks were complaining about a slippy track and that they weren&#39;t going as fast as expected (myself included).

One thing I don&#39;t like about the Glen is that the paddock area is so large. While it gives everybody plenty of space (and asphalt) it really spreads everyone out. You really have to take the time to drive around and actively attempt to find folks, and that&#39;s unfortunate. Further, with the track as large as it is, you really can&#39;t get a full perspective on what was happening on-track. As a result, with our busy schedule (I ran two groups) we weren&#39;t able to see everyone as we&#39;d like to; it&#39;ll take several folks to chime in and let us know what was happening in their part of the track...

Funniest move on Saturday that we saw was the start of the ITB race. Rick Benazic was on pole in his Honda; as they came careening into the Bus Stop Dave Zaslow makes a TERRIFIC pass under braking into the first apex. As he turns the car left into the middle of the chicane the back end steps out a bit and the HATCH POPS WIDE OPEN!! Rick, right on his bumper, has to check up to avoid hitting Dave (and I&#39;m sure a hatch popping open six feet in front of his face doesn&#39;t help) and gets it sideways, spinning to driver&#39;s left into the grass. The car makes a nice pirouette and slowly sliiiides across the track to the outside with ITB and ITC cars spewing all over trying to avoid him! Rick said his prayers that morning, &#39;cause everyone managed to avoid him. He got it back the right direction and eventually came back to finish third (I think?)

Funniest thing, though, Dave kept a&#39;goin&#39;, and every time he came by that hatch was wide open! Had to have been a parachute on the straights, though, as he was steadily marching backwards.

As for my experiences, I raced both ITA and DP. The Big Bore group was...well, interesting. Lots of power, but I suspect that a lot of these guys were on Spec Toyos or Continentals something. &#39;Nuff said. Interestingly enough, I wasn&#39;t the only competitor in DP this time: a DelGenio-built Grand-Am Mazda 6 driven by Herb Sweeney was there too and won both days, but our times were reasonably close; we found out later, though, that they were not running the required SIR, so I think we have at least a psychological victory...

And, you&#39;ll never guess who I saw in ITA: Ray Lee Chee and Phillipe Manuel! Yes, absolutely true. Both were there, I saw &#39;em with my own eyes. We paddocked together and had a good ole time. Unfortunately, we missed Scott Haven; I heard a rumor he had some troubles with his tow vehicle and could not make it. Really too bad, as we were looking forward to seeing you again.

I won ITA, but could not get down to my track time of last year. Blame it on the track, but I think it&#39;s more driver than anything. ITA standouts include Steve Gorriarian in second place in an SM Miata, having started from dead last (insert gratuitous shot at Miata ITA weights here) and none other than Ray Lee Chee in third! Michael Liggett surprised us all in that rocket-ship of an RX-7 in fourth, but Manu had a drive axle problem and fell out early.

Within Group 3, Dan Jones won overall and ITR in his immaculate E36 and set a new track record at 2:16.273; Jeff Harding trounced ITS, and Tony Swan solo&#39;d to the T3 win and a new track lap record of 2:18.665.

As noted before, only the hearty stuck around long at that night&#39;s pig roast. The food, beer, conversation, and company was most excellent, but with temps in the 40&#39;s (my guess) and a biting wind under the grandstand we could only take it so long. Most excellent food, though.

Sunday dawned mostly clear and sunny, with the short course track configuration looming. The day started cold, in the 40&#39;s, but once the sun got up higher it wasn&#39;t unusual to see some brave folks in t-shirts. The <strike>annoying-sounding</strike> F500s and FVs opened the day&#39;s activities and everyone scurried around to get ready. I was in DP in Group 3 again, and we hit the track 8:45 or so. But, immediately after pulling out of the pits we went full-course yellow; an American Sedan got as far as the Bus Stop before pulling over with his car on fire. They got the fire put out before the car burned to the ground (it was charred up pretty good and quickly made it onto Smarty&#39;s Wall of Shame), but the end result was only one lap of green qualifying. I think our "spec Continental" big bore guys had the same problem as the day before, as I again qualified 33rd in a field of something like 60 cars (I told Matt over the radio I was embarrassed to be in the middle of that field. His response was, "so how do you think the Corvettes behind you feel...?")

Group 5 had a good qualifying session, green all the way. The big surprise when the results came out was that the ITA pole was held not by Greg Amy, but by Steve Gorriarian driving a Spec Miata (insert gratuitous...ah, never mind...).

So, it was going to be a race.

The Big Bore race was fun. I had qualified a few spots behind Herb Sweeney&#39;s Grand-Am car, and Matt wanted to me beat him (we didn&#39;t know at the time he wasn&#39;t running the SIR). The start actually worked out pretty well, and I was quickly on Herb&#39;s rear bumper. He was driving aggressively, not giving me any quarter, but I managed to pass him a couple of times in the corners (once actually getting a killer run through Turn One and passing him on the OUTSIDE going up the Esses). But, the power of the NX was no match for the GAC-spec Mazda 6 (on regular Hoosiers, BTW, not GAC Hoosiers) and he would just motor by me on the straights. Eventually, we got tangled up in traffic and I lost touch with him, having to be satisfied with beating up on some Corvettes instead.

One little interesting note: towards the end of the race, our very own Ben Phillips in his SPO car comes BLASTING by on the back straight as I was braking into the Bus Stop. As we negotiated the Bus Stop some kind of radius rod/link came flying out from under the car; I had to dodge it to keep it out of the windshield. I thought maybe it was something he kicked up off the track, but just a few corners later Ben was pulled off to the side by pit-in with a left rear suspension that was obvious "de-rawn-jeh". Hey, Ben, go walk the Bus Stop, your part&#39;s out there somewhere...

The ITA race was a good one. Steve and I were lined up together in 6th and 7th place, and at the green I used the NX&#39;s power advantage to get in front of him and a couple of other cars. I tucked in behind Tony Swan in the rocket-ship T3 S2000 and put my head down to get some distance between Steve and me while he was tied up. Matt gave me running differentials over the radio, and we saw the gap was slowly opening up. I also noticed I was driving better, probably a function of the track getting nicely warmed up plus learning from following Tony (and from some acquired-during-beer great driving tips from our very own John Walsh). Suddenly, Matt calls in "he&#39;s pitting!"; so, I tell him to switch to giving me lap times, as I *really* wanted that short course track record. Working with Tony, I managed to pick up time here and there, and the lap times Matt was calling out to me were *very* close to the existing track record (1:30.31x, IIRC). We took the checkered on the slightly-shortened race (13 instead of 15 laps) and I had again won ITA, but we didn&#39;t know how close we had come to the lap record. Everyone went across the scales and we sat there in impound "BS-ing". An ITA surprise was second-place Stephen Wheeler in a third-gen Acura Integra with a hastily-made "ITA" on the side; the day before that car was on pole in ITS. When we inquired about it he told us that the car blew up during the race the day before so they swapped out all the drivetrain from GS-R equipment to GS/LS and entered ITA. That concerned third-place Ray Lee Chee (and, frankly, me), but I heard that the guy actually opened the hood to show them (yes, I know about the VIN rule...)

Once the results were posted, we discovered that I had, in fact, broken the short course by 2/10s of a second, with a 1:29.944. In fact, indicating how good of a day it was, *every* class in Group 5 broke their respective lap records: Dan Jones in ITR with a 1:28.354, Tony Swan in T3 with 1:29.294, and Jeff Harding in ITS with 1:28.599 (his very first track lap record!)

A fun weekend all around; if you weren&#39;t there you missed a good ole time! - Greg

[Doc Bro]

The Glen needs wireless...

SUPER weekend. The weather was cold and rainy Friday night; C-O-O-O-L-D, cloudy, and windy on Saturday; BITTER cold and windy for the pig roast that night; and warmish and sunny on Sunday.

Saturday was simply too cold to go blindingly fast. The track started out slick in the AM and with no sun never really warmed up; most folks were complaining about a slippy track and that they weren&#39;t going as fast as expected (myself included).

One thing I don&#39;t like about the Glen is that the paddock area is so large. While it gives everybody plenty of space (and asphalt) it really spreads everyone out. You really have to take the time to drive around and actively attempt to find folks, and that&#39;s unfortunate. Further, with the track as large as it is, you really can&#39;t get a full perspective on what was happening on-track. As a result, with our busy schedule (I ran two groups) we weren&#39;t able to see everyone as we&#39;d like to; it&#39;ll take several folks to chime in and let us know what was happening in their part of the track...

Funniest move on Saturday that we saw was the start of the ITB race. Rick Benazic was on pole in his Honda; as they came careening into the Bus Stop Dave Zaslow makes a TERRIFIC pass under braking into the first apex. As he turns the car left into the middle of the chicane the back end steps out a bit and the HATCH POPS WIDE OPEN!! Rick, right on his bumper, has to check up to avoid hitting Dave (and I&#39;m sure a hatch popping open six feet in front of his face doesn&#39;t help) and gets it sideways, spinning to driver&#39;s left into the grass. The car makes a nice pirouette and slowly sliiiides across the track to the outside with ITB and ITC cars spewing all over trying to avoid him! Rick said his prayers that morning, &#39;cause everyone managed to avoid him. He got it back the right direction and eventually came back to finish third (I think?)

Funniest thing, though, Dave kept a&#39;goin&#39;, and every time he came by that hatch was wide open! Had to have been a parachute on the straights, though, as he was steadily marching backwards.

As for my experiences, I raced both ITA and DP. The Big Bore group was...well, interesting. Lots of power, but I suspect that a lot of these guys were on Spec Toyos or Continentals something. &#39;Nuff said. Interestingly enough, I wasn&#39;t the only competitor in DP this time: a DelGenio-built Grand-Am Mazda 6 driven by Herb Sweeney was there too and won both days, but our times were reasonably close; we found out later, though, that they were not running the required SIR, so I think we have at least a psychological victory...

And, you&#39;ll never guess who I saw in ITA: Ray Lee Chee and Phillipe Manuel! Yes, absolutely true. Both were there, I saw &#39;em with my own eyes. We paddocked together and had a good ole time. Unfortunately, we missed Scott Haven; I heard a rumor he had some troubles with his tow vehicle and could not make it. Really too bad, as we were looking forward to seeing you again.

I won ITA, but could not get down to my track time of last year. Blame it on the track, but I think it&#39;s more driver than anything. ITA standouts include Steve Gorriarian in second place in an SM Miata, having started from dead last (insert gratuitous shot at Miata ITA weights here) and none other than Ray Lee Chee in third! Michael Liggett surprised us all in that rocket-ship of an RX-7 in fourth, but Manu had a drive axle problem and fell out early.

Within Group 3, Dan Jones won overall and ITR in his immaculate E36 and set a new track record at 2:16.273; Jeff Harding trounced ITS, and Tony Swan solo&#39;d to the T3 win and a new track lap record of 2:18.665.

As noted before, only the hearty stuck around long at that night&#39;s pig roast. The food, beer, conversation, and company was most excellent, but with temps in the 40&#39;s (my guess) and a biting wind under the grandstand we could only take it so long. Most excellent food, though.

Sunday dawned mostly clear and sunny, with the short course track configuration looming. The day started cold, in the 40&#39;s, but once the sun got up higher it wasn&#39;t unusual to see some brave folks in t-shirts. The <strike>annoying-sounding</strike> F500s and FVs opened the day&#39;s activities and everyone scurried around to get ready. I was in DP in Group 3 again, and we hit the track 8:45 or so. But, immediately after pulling out of the pits we went full-course yellow; an American Sedan got as far as the Bus Stop before pulling over with his car on fire. They got the fire put out before the car burned to the ground (it was charred up pretty good and quickly made it onto Smarty&#39;s Wall of Shame), but the end result was only one lap of green qualifying. I think our "spec Continental" big bore guys had the same problem as the day before, as I again qualified 33rd in a field of something like 60 cars (I told Matt over the radio I was embarrassed to be in the middle of that field. His response was, "so how do you think the Corvettes behind you feel...?")

Group 5 had a good qualifying session, green all the way. The big surprise when the results came out was that the ITA pole was held not by Greg Amy, but by Steve Gorriarian driving a Spec Miata (insert gratuitous...ah, never mind...).

So, it was going to be a race.

The Big Bore race was fun. I had qualified a few spots behind Herb Sweeney&#39;s Grand-Am car, and Matt wanted to me beat him (we didn&#39;t know at the time he wasn&#39;t running the SIR). The start actually worked out pretty well, and I was quickly on Herb&#39;s rear bumper. He was driving aggressively, not giving me any quarter, but I managed to pass him a couple of times in the corners (once actually getting a killer run through Turn One and passing him on the OUTSIDE going up the Esses). But, the power of the NX was no match for the GAC-spec Mazda 6 (on regular Hoosiers, BTW, not GAC Hoosiers) and he would just motor by me on the straights. Eventually, we got tangled up in traffic and I lost touch with him, having to be satisfied with beating up on some Corvettes instead.

One little interesting note: towards the end of the race, our very own Ben Phillips in his SPO car comes BLASTING by on the back straight as I was braking into the Bus Stop. As we negotiated the Bus Stop some kind of radius rod/link came flying out from under the car; I had to dodge it to keep it out of the windshield. I thought maybe it was something he kicked up off the track, but just a few corners later Ben was pulled off to the side by pit-in with a left rear suspension that was obvious "de-rawnj-eh". Hey, Ben, go walk the Bus Stop, your part&#39;s out there somewhere...

The ITA race was a good one. Steve and I were lined up together in 6th and 7th place, and at the green I used the NX&#39;s power advantage to get in front of him and a couple of other cars. I tucked in behind Tony Swan in the rocket-ship T3 S2000 and put my head down to get some distance between Steve and me while he was tied up. Matt gave me running differentials over the radio, and we saw the gap was slowly opening up. I also noticed I was driving better, probably a function of the track getting nicely warmed up plus learning from Tony (and from some acquired-during-beer great driving tips from our very own John Walsh). Suddenly, Matt calls in "he&#39;s pitting!"; so, I tell him to switch to giving me lap times, as I *really* wanted that short course track record. Working with Tony, I managed to pick up time here and there, and the lap times Matt was calling out to me were *very* close to the existing track record (1:30.31x, IIRC). We took the checkered on the slightly-shortened race (13 instead of 15 laps) and I had again won ITA, but we didn&#39;t know how close we had come to the lap record. Everyone went across the scales and we sat there in impound "BS-ing". An ITA surprise was second-place Stephen Wheeler in a third-gen Acura Integra with a hastily-made "ITA" on the side; the day before that car was on pole in ITS. When we inquired about it he told us that the car blew up during the race the day before so they swapped out all the drivetrain from GS-R equipment to GS/LS and entered ITA. That concerned third-place Ray Lee Chee (and, frankly, me), but I heard that the guy actually opened the hood to show them (yes, I know about the VIN rule...)

Once the results were posted, we discovered that I had, in fact, broken the short course by 2/10s of a second, with a 1:29.944. In fact, indicating how good of a day it was, *every* class in Group 5 broke their respective lap records: Dan Jones in ITR with a 1:28.354, Tony Swan in T3 with 1:29.294, and Jeff Harding in ITS with 1:28.599 (his very first track lap record!)

A fun weekend all around; if you weren&#39;t there you missed a good ole time! - Greg
[/b]

Nice job Greg, but they weren&#39;t "real" wins because Lawton wasn&#39;t there.

R

[dazzlesa]

i will add that we also have to congratulate paul curran for his ITB record (1:24.9) on saturday.
these were 2 races i will remember for a long time.

[jcmotorsports]

Greg
That&#39;s not a new T3 track record. Joe Aquilante went 2:15.9 in July and the rest of us were in the low to mid 2:17&#39;s. The records must not have been updated.

[Greg Amy]

John, send the Chief of T&S (Carl F. Dresie) a note; it was most definitely listed on the final results as a new lap record... - Greg

[benspeed]

The Fun One is always an awesome weekend and this was no disappointment. I hate to say that many of the 55 + cars in big bore seemed to be total newbs with more money than experience or just total lack of judgement. Evidenced by the SPO Lotus Exige S that was pummeled in T1 and other low percentage move driving by some very fast cars. When lapping the SPO Busch car on Saturday, I remembered the guy complained he only had 500 hp - I figured I&#39;d give him a wide line around. I think Greg lapped this guy also with his 160 hp NX.

Ran a 2:05 long course which was a personal best and placed me 7th overall, 2nd in SPO (hey, 7 cars!) - I was pumped and this weekend has officially put me in the Big Bore camp - way fun at the front with top drivers, many who have run pro much of their driving careers. Learned some very cool moves watching these guys - added to the bag of dirty tricks cause some of the stuff I saw wasn&#39;t all that friendly, especially at extreme speeds.

Sunday was a blast until I was sidelined. Didn&#39;t have a chance to put the car up and see what broke but I had no idea (Thanks Greg) that anything was wrong until T10 - the high speed lefthander before the straight. WHAM! car no longer attached to rear frame and what a handful to keep from wrecking at well over 100 MPH. Looks like the panhard bar broke and the driveshaft was disconnected. No idea what part nearly got Greg but I wonder if it was part of the panhard bar. Ran a 1:22 good for 7th fastest time.


I&#39;m addicted to the V8 power now but still think IT has the best racing forum going.

PS - on edit - way to go to Mr. Amy for erasing a cheater lap record.