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mskeen wrote:
[quote]155MPH wrote:
[quote]DMoses wrote:
Not until you sweep both of the wins and Fast Laps… 
[/quote]
…when I am in attendance. ;)[/quote]
Mikey, NOW your getting the idea! Looks like hanging out together at VIR paid off!
Keep it up!
Springtime in Kershaw, SC. where else would you want to spend a weekend. Whether you’re staying at the Executioner Inn (as Al Taylor calls it), or driving a scenic 30 min. back to Camden, SC. to NOT stay at the Executive Inn. All the fun and excitement of rural South Carolina’s active night life is yours for the taking. My race preparations started the Sunday after the Road Atlanta race ordering a new clutch from Bimmerworld to replace the one I felt slipping at the end of the race. The next step involved talking Brendan Digel (defacto crew chief) into ‘helping’ me change it out. Mostly I held the heavy stuff and tried to hand him the right tools.
Fast forward to Wed. the 2nd. Clutch is installed I’ve reached out to James Clay owner of Bimmerworld and part time Spec E30 hired gun to go drive the enduro. Adjustments to the car mean that we should be able to do the 3 hour race with less then 5 pitstops. James casually asks if I’ve broken in the new ‘race’ clutch. Figuring that part of the directions to be optional I respond in the negative. He informs me it is a good idea, to which I ask who builds a ‘race’ clutch that needs 500 soft break in miles?
With that becoming another of life’s little mysteries I sign up for the DE on Friday in addition to the enduro to ensure all the mechanical tidbits are happy and loved. This of course means I have to get up around 4:30am in order to make the drive, unload the car, etc etc.
Hard work rarely goes unrewarded and our keen strategy of minimizing my time in the car and our time in the pits pays off. The hardest part of these enduros seems to be getting Clay to show before they start. I enjoy the new in car radios by rattling off movie quotes during my leisurely drive, Clay alittle more focused barks, for me to call out lap times during his stint. The haunting orange headlights creates an eerry Scooby Doo ghost car look and Team Coat & Tails cruises to a first place class victory. We celebrate at the local Mexican restaurant that serves 42oz. Margaritas.
Sat. brings rain, lots and lots of rain. Since Carolina Motorsports Park is filled with sand, adding rain is like going to the beach without the fun. Qualifying proves to be a case of the “have’s” vs. “the have nots”. As in those that have rain tires…. Thankfully I learn most lessons quickly and seeing how the rainy Road Atlanta race turned out, I made an investment. Unfortunately it seems every problem I fix reveals another one. Rain tires = good traction, No Defroster = no visibility. Driving around 80 - 100 mph and not being able to see the hood of your car, whether you’re on track, and only the faint outline of some lights in front of you is probably one of the stupidest things I’ve done in my life (and that is a long list). Regardless I qualify in the 4th spot. Green flag drops and the rain is no longer a downpour but steady, and we still have a very wet track. I sneak into 3rd place and battle slower race traffic (ie 944’s and Spec Miatas) to build a somewhat comfortable gap. Double yellows bunch the field and I miss a shift onto the straight (white flag last lap) and Keith Smith sneaks by. He proceeds to do unto others by trying to pick me behind slower cars. I keep up but figure I have to make a move soon. He sticks me behind my favorite 944 #27. I’m sure it isn’t intentional but this dude is perpetually in my way. I contemplate a dive bomb from left field that would have probably wrecked us both, think twice go into turn 8 hot and off line. That is where my bag of talent runs short. The back end wiggles I correct and stomp the gas to plant the backend. Wrong answer. I loop it and go spinning into the bushes at 70+. 3rd place and a hero’s welcome becomes 14th and I’m the goat.
The little #008 Spec E30 that could, can’t be kept down and responds to rough treatment like your favorite old girlfriend. With thoughts of bushes running in my head I decide to put one in the fairway during qualifying and end up in spectacular 8th place. The track was still pretty damp from the night before and I had gone to the dry weather setup. Everyone else had too, but that’s still my excuse. Standing start for the race and well you can watch the rest.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=788339057874866786 (edited for interesting stuff)
Shortly after my celebratory fist pumping it dawns on me that I still have to make weight. I have an approximately 30% idea of what this car weighs after a 40min race in which I have no fuel gauge and have changed out about 17 things since I last put it on scales. I decide conservation is good and drive my cool down lap in a way that would make any Toyota Prius owner proud. Turning the car off every chance I get I finally get on the scales. 2747 the girl says (2750 is our minimum weight), I proceed to throw up in my mouth and wonder if my belt will hold when I hang myself in the bathroom, or if shoelaces are better?. She then says “You’re good”, huh - come again? 5lb tolerance plus or minus. My heart starts beating again.
As they say “All’s well that ends well”. Despite missing more shifts then an alcholic steel worker I manage the 3rd place that had eluded me yesterday.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Brendan Digel and RWL German Imports for their hard work and assistance keeping this beater running despite my best efforts to sabotage their hard work. And also Bimmerworld and James Clay who really really enjoys beating Dave White, even though it isn’t that hard ;)-
mskeen wrote:
[quote]155MPH wrote:
[quote]DMoses wrote:
Not until you sweep both of the wins and Fast Laps…
[/quote]
…when I am in attendance. ;)[/quote]
I figured you would try and steal my thunder. JP and I had no rubber left on the track from all the rain and were still only 3/10ths off your lap record. You would have been my bitch this weekend too!
Wow… what a weekend.
I pulled into CMP friday afternoon at around 1:30 and committed to be the fire bottle/fueler for 3 teams (BeerTech, Malt Liquor Tech and #82 car). The sky looked threatening but didn’t interfere with the race. It was interesting to be a part of each teams strategy to beat the other. In the end it came down to team MLT making a bad call on a fuel stop. If they had filled up all the way… they could have had the overall win. But I’m sure the #2 car (Al’s car number not a reference to the condition of the car) team is happy with the 2nd place trophy.
Saturday was wet and miserable most of the day. Practice was alright but the track during qualifying was some of the worst conditions I have ever been out on. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. I couldn’t even keep the car in a straight line on the straights. I qualified 16th out of the 19 cars that showed up (3 cars either didn’t go out or didn’t do a full lap)… so I was dead last. And after watching the Thunder race I was telling everyone I wasn’t going to race because I didn’t have rain tires… of course I was saying this as I’m putting on my drivers suit and climbing into my car.
While race conditions were far better than qualifying it was still pretty slick. My fastest lap was a 2:10.498. But none of that mattered. It was a great race. I was able to move up spots but the highlight of the race was on the last lap, when coming out of turn 8 I got in front of IndyJim as he was coming back on to the track after a spin. We had a great race all way to the start finish. We were drag racing down the front straight while all the cars passing the start/finish line were almost coming to a complete stop. With Jim and I door to door… I wasn’t going to lift until I reached the finish line. I’m not sure if I was more than an inch or 2 ahead of him or if our transponders were if different locations, but it didn’t matter. I beat the 2008 CMP 6th Place Award Winner.
Sunday didn’t start as sunny and clear as we had hoped. For qualifying we were the second group to hit the track and there were still several slick spots. I got behind a 944 that wasn’t willing to let me by so I came in early and settled for my 12 place spot.
I completely blew the start by spinning my wheels and then shifting to 2nd with nothing to go on. I got passed by 3-4 cars before ever even getting to turn 1. I was able to work my was past a few cars and played leap frog with Bob Chrystler most of the race. The highlight of the race (for me) was on lap 11, when I caught up to the Pink Panther, Gasman and Bob going into turn 1. We were all bunched up and we 3 wide coming out of turn 2 and I was able to pass all 3 of them. My brakes had started to fade and I was having a much tougher time going into 1, 11 and 14… and my lap times had started to go up. Steven’s #77 had been reeling me in for a while and I could no longer fight him off. Going into the kink with a lap and a half to go, he moved ahead and held on to that top 10 finish that I’ve been chasing since the start of the race.
(video to come)
While 11th is pretty good—especially when you consider the level of drivers that were in our 19 car field, I was mostly pleased with the fact that I left CMP with the 9th fastest lap of the day (1:54.963), the satisfaction of knowing I’m improving my performance (with lots of room for improvement), and that I still have my car and friendships in tack.
Looking forward to RRR and the IFU2… oh and a 10th or better finish
The Enduro… of note the top 3 E2 Spec e30 cars were in sight of each other after 3 hours of racing. My call on the fueling probably cost us the first place but knowing James Clay it would have been tough and I am happy with 2nd especially as our car was literally a steaming, rattling heap of used up parts. I am really surprised that I made it through the weekend and was able to drive the #2 car home last night.
Saturday, I got everything wrong tire wise, dont even know where I qualified but finished 7th…again.
Sunday I was surprised to have qualified 4th.In that session I could not reel Scott in until he got tied up behind a Miata and a 944. He pulled in, I stayed out and appearently the 944 towed me enough to get me the 4th spot…I was in 3rd for the first 2 laps but could not hold on, 7th once again.
Track conditions were horrible sat and I did take a drive through the sand, luckily I did not stop!!
Congrats to Scott M, Canterberry, and Christler on their fast laps on Sunday…
Team Malt Liquor tech is in the E2 points lead in the enduro series with 2 2nd’s and a 3rd…
Al
Ranger wrote:
[quote]Here’s a CMP story. “My what big eyes you have”.
Qual today was wet. I spent most of it behind a Miata. He wasn’t that fast (ok, neither am I), but I letting folks by and my own ineptitude were preventing me from getting the pass. Finally the stars aligned just right, there was no traffic and I had a good run at 8. I was gonna get by this guy before the kink.
As a rookie, I can count my race passes on one hand. So any pass I do is fairly significant. Passing the Miata would increase my lifetime pass total by maybe 25%.
My good run at 8 did the job. And I was a celebratin’ mofo. I’d just executed a pass. Kiss my ass and call me sweet cheeks.
Remember now, it was raining hard enough that there is standing water all over the place, and the patterns of water were changing constantly.
I got the SOB with plenty of time to set up for the kink. I was hauling ass, but really no faster then the earlier laps. This was going to be MY LAP because I now had open track. I was gonna open a can of whoopass.
I made it thru the kink just fine with the Miata now drafting right behind me.
Then in a blink of an eye I was suddenly…backwards. I had spun 180deg so fast that it hardly registered. The Miata and I were now bumper to bumper. Front bumpers. I remember seeing his really big eyes.
It wasn’t really an anxious moment. I was right on line heading towards turn 11. I was still ahead of the damn Miata. I was just…backwards.
After a couple min I started thinking about how to recover from this. I had the clutch in, but after breifly hitting the brakes, I’d backed off the brakes in order to attempt to control the direct of the slide. There was already someone in the infield so I didn’t want to go that way. And it didn’t seem safe to end up on the track, so I figured that I’d try to slide towards the infield (towards the pits).
Eventually the slide seemed to adopt a vector that would take me towards the pits, so then I hit the brakes. It was all very civilized. A moment later I was off the track and backwards into the wet grass. “Perfect”, I thought. “Now I’m off the track”.
Which is when the car seemed to accelerate at 10g’s. Goddamn how that wet grass was frictionless. What seemed like only an amusing misadventure had just turned very evil. I was watching the tire wall approach in my rear view mirror and it was looking bad for the kid.
But it worked out ok. I slid to a stop near Camden. Did a couple donuts trying to get back on to the track and off I went. My fastest lap for Qual turned out to be the warm up lap. Sigh.[/quote]
Gotta love those Gress stories!
They just make me laugh 'cause you’d have to meet and talk to Scott…so stoic in person, you know, the engineering type. But behind the keyboard he can tell a story.
Thanks for the good humor Scott.
Regards, Robert Patton
Indy Jim and Scott Mc can tell a good story too.
And there are always the adventures of Al Taylor.
Thanks to all for the recounts of the weekend, the close racing and even temperment of the competitors.
Regards, Robert Patton
Patton wrote:
[quote]… and Scott Mc can tell a good story too.
[/quote]
The Beertech gang may think they’re powered by awesome but I think they’re powered by methane…
IndyJim wrote:
[quote]Patton wrote:
[quote]… and Scott Mc can tell a good story too.
[/quote]
The Beertech gang may think they’re powered by awesome but I think they’re powered by methane…
:P[/quote]
methane is a natural byproduct of awesome it may make you weak and dizzy but it won’t hurt you…
The video of my hellacious spin at the Kink Pond is at ftp://FileSharing.BrasselerUSA.com
The file is called:
“CMPRaceQual5Apr08Face2Face ForRacers”
Download before playing.
The video indicates that I probably couldn’t see the whites of the Miata driver’s eyes. But nothing like a little urgency to sharpen your eyesight. And what seemed to be minutes turned out to be seconds.
Post kink I was on line, straight and settled, at ~80mph. And backwards. Beat that.
Later edit: Thanks to Craig for pointing out I switched \ with // in the ftp address. Don’t know what my malfunction is but I always screw that up.
What a great weekend!
Since I had a 34534534 hour tow home Ill recount my weekend a little later, hopefully with some video but for now, here are some pics.
Thanks To Alex for taking these pics while we were racing.
Brian Jones, or BJ as his ‘friends’ call him, in the 380 Beertech car looks to be a welcome addition to the post race shenanigans. He survived his pledge weekend, and I think everyone looks forward to Travis’ return and the continued BT / MLT rivalry.
Friday: I caved to peer pressure and decided to team up with BeerTech’s Brian Jones to run the enduro in the rain (that would save equipment). It never rained. Brian starts and drives his 1.5 hours. Uneventful, successful pit stop. He mentions that he might have flat spotted the tires. I get in and there’s definite vibration. So much so that I can barely see for the brake zone of T11 every lap (sunglasses bouncing, head bouncing, dashboard bouncing, etc all at different rates).
35 minutes into it, I’ve actually only seen 1 car. The vibration’s getting worse and worse… Would like to vomit a little into my helmet but think it’s a bad enduro strategy. And my car is now sliding uncontrollably on left handers. I pit to find out the right rear is now completely flat. Ends the enduro for us.
Saturday is wet, as mentioned before. Practice goes well, qualifying goes well, race goes well as well. I started 7th and finished 5th. Fun, fun race. If I remember it was Robert Patton, myself and Foushee? Perhaps the best part was the last turn, last lap, I got a slightly better run on Foushee to take him by a fender or so across the checker. I finish 5th, he gets 6th. He gets $130 worth of brake pads, pictures with the trophy chicks, applause, a t-shirt and a trophy. I get $25 worth of Toyo bucks, 3 months later maybe, after filling out a bunch of paperwork. Racing’s a high speed chess game and I was playing checkers.
Sunday dried out, but not to what everyone was hoping for. Qualifying was still slick. I was figuring a 14th place start but surprisingly, was in there like swim wear on the 3rd row (5th). By race time, it was warm, dry and I was cranking up the cool shirt. The standing start was good to me and I was able to gain a spot by taking Keith Smith into turn 1. It was a pretty good bar fight between Al, Keith and I for a few laps. Al lost out in the horsepower war despite all efforts to keep him going, Chuck started to appear in my mirror and out of nowhere comes Robinson. Robinson gets through all of us, Keith passes me and is able to hold on, Al drops back. Chuck never manages to catch me fortunately. I started 5th, ended 5th… with a whole bunch of fun in between.
No video from either day. I just fired my A/V guy for his incompetence. Ranger, who are you using? You have better footage (with data overlays) than SpeedTV’s World Challenge coverage. However, it’s ftp:// not ftp:\
[size=5]When’s Roebling? [/size]
CMP was a blast. This was officially my second race weekend ever and first with the South East group. I did run the enduro at RA with Scott Mc but not the sprint races. I now have my four races (2 from last year at VIR) in my rookie booklet and off it goes for an actual comp license. Now on with the recap….
Friday: was going to be nice and relaxed. A leisurely ride to CMP, unload, hang out and crew for the enduro boys. I had been itching to do the enduro myself, as I have only been to CMP once and that was 3 or 4 years ago and I wanted the seat time. In the weeks leading up to the event I couldn’t find a driver willing to drive my non ABS car nor could I find anyone dumb enough to let me drive their car….and then there was Geeger.
JP and I talked Craig into doing the enduro with little effort as he already wanted to do it anyway. It was fun until we retired early so as not to hurt anyones feelings by winning the whole thing. It would have been awkward for the rest of the weekend you know? I’m pretty sure we were leading when we had to pull it behind the wall. See Craig’s writeup for more.
Weather was great all day until the evening when the storm rolled in. We had a great lightning show for about an hour and then Al said….”Hey, I think it may start to rain soon.” And then a split second later the skies opened up and absolutely poured on us until Saturday night. Awesome. This meant that Casey, JP’s brother, would be sleeping in the BeerTech Motor Home with us instead of his tent. I can still hear the snoring. That was remedied for Sat night.
Saturday: Since I got zero sleep thanks to the Snore-a-saurus, I was wide awake as the rain poured down and filled my race car full of water. I enjoy driving in the rain but having a car with no ABS and no rain tires makes for interesting sessions. Practice, Q and race were all very wet and slippery. I changed tires three times for three sessions that day. talk about soaking wet. I Qualified 13th then finished 15th and a big thanks goes to Steve Foushee for selling me some rain tires that I had mounted for the race.
We had a rolling start and I didn’t start well. I dropped two spots right off the bat. I was running well besides the fact that I could not stop the car in any of the braking zones. I would start to brake, lock up, release, lock up, release, turn in, at every corner. It was interesting and manageable for a while until I went off in 14 once and lost two spots, oops. I got those two back but in 15th is where I stayed. It was a lot of fun though. Scott Gress and I had a great run for a while and I managed a last turn pass for 15th!
Sunday: Beautiful day once the sun came out. Qualifying was wet at 8:50 AM. Nice. Back to shaved tires I went and managed to qualify 10th. I had a decent start and a good race. Steve Foushee and I had a great race together for several laps, should be good video. Thanks to Steve for the clean, fun racing. I managed to finish 8th.
Over all a very good weekend for me on the track and as always, the Spec E30 community is amazing. What a great group of people and a fantastic bunch of racers as well. Thanks to NASA-SE as well for again dealing with the weather and keeping things on schedule. I cant wait for Roebling and the IFU2.
Maybe Canterbury can bring some chicken to cook up? Just keep it away from the MLT boys or we may have a Max Mosely scandal on our hands in Spec E30…
What I learned this weekend;
Videos:
Sunday Sprint
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3205457123729721846
Saturday Sprint
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5349603988839025915
Damn how I had a great time.
Although a lot of folks headed out for chow Friday night, I chose instead to stay at the track for the camper’s BBQ, shoot the shit and generally conduct more bonding activities then I’d done before.
Was really fun.
I got my ass kicked all weekend, lol. But I had a great time. And if instead I’d a won, I’d a had a great time and a beer mug. I already have beer mugs.
My best news is that the problem of shuddering brakes is figured out. I just wasn’t braking hard enough, which apparently causes pad material to deposit unevenly on the rotors. I finally caught on to the cause of the problem when I compared the appearance of my rotors to everyone else’s. Mine were blotchy. JP and Jim Robinson had the explanation. So about an hour before the Sunday race, I resolved to get on those brakes like I have a pair (of balls, not brakes) and stand the damn car on it’s nose.
Of course a race might not be the right time to experiment with something completely different. So although the brake shuddering problem is gone and I better understand how much braking power I have, my braking in the race was godawful.
Being on the brakes harder was causing the pedal to travel much farther. So much farther that I was often clipping the gas with my foot. So I was often hard on both the brake and the gas right in the middle of the braking zone. I about gave a 944 driver a heart attack…He was passing me on the outside of 11, I was being a good rookie and making it easy for him, and then I hosed up my braking and couldn’t stop in time.
When I managed to not clip the gas pedal on the way down, my foot would be so far past the gas pedal towards the floor that I couldn’t heel and toe. Which almost kicked my rear end out from under me a number of times.
When I did everything right and I stood the car on it’s nose, it would be too early. My old braking zone was a marker too early for the new technique. But I didn’t dare move my braking point up, because half the time I hit the gas with the brake. What a goat screw.
And every minute of it was a goddamn good time. But before we meet again, I’m gonna practice some of this new non-pussy brake like-you-have-a-pair business.
Here’s my Saturday Video… It was a pretty good battle from start to finish. The best part (IMO) is in the 11th lap.
enjoy
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8120787006742659650&pr=goog-sl
and then there was this… 
I like the chicken in the picture above… Nice touch Scott.
That looked like one he!! of a fun 40 minutes!
TheRedBaron wrote:
[quote]I like the chicken in the picture above… Nice touch Scott.
That looked like one he!! of a fun 40 minutes![/quote]
That poor chicken…
Looks like CMP has a new 6th place winner! Congrats Mr. Gashole. Wear the t-shirt with pride. 
