Its Monday afternoon and no race reports from Hyperfest yet. Come on slackers, out of 18 SE30 cars surely someone can give us an update.
Hyperfest Report
Patton
#2
How about the pre-race hype…
I didn’t realize that there was a race. No report by 3;30 is unusual.
Regards, Robert Patton
screwynewy
#3
I heard that Vic and John Allen got together in the heat of the battle for 1st place. Luckily Vic is alright but his car was not so lucky.
Elephant4
#4
For real, I’ve been waiting for an update all day. I actually did some work instead :lol:
stevekappy
#5
Saturday was a great day to race. Practice was rather sedate.
Qualifying was another story. A 944 had some sort of problem that held up the first line of cars mid-pack. So they sent out the second line of cars and then released the first row of cars remaining. I was following Carter our and they released us under double yellow. Once we passed the flag stand, they started green with the three of us (944, Carter, and I) unaware. Jens and Skip flew by us with Jens having to use some of the grass to miss us. After talking with Jens, he saw them release us under yellow then proceed to go green. Still, I think this still begs the question of why we are not green from the beginning for qualifying.
The racing was pretty close with three packs of cars: The leaders in the 1:29s, the mid-pack at 1:30-1:31s and the 1:32s on back. I tried to catch the 1:30-1:31s but my front left wheel bearing was howling and I was not comfortable pushing it, for example, through the chute. I ended up finishing 10th with Eric Rupert passing me (starting from the back) and Matt Russell taking to the gravel after 3. Eric had two brake lines and a rocker arm fail during this weekend, but still managed to be in both races. Once that car is sorted, he is going to extremely fast.
Johnny and Vic did have a racing incident on Saturday at the crest of the hill after turn 3. It was definitely a relief to see Vic giving the thumbs up when we passed by. His car was heavily damaged. I left my results in my truck (which is not at my house) or I would have posted them here. I think the order was Johnny, Skip, and Dubovsky.
Sunday was great racing. I started 9th and was keeping up with Scott Curran and Jon McAvoy just ahead of me. Matt Russell was right behind me. Carter was not able to qualify and started from the back. Scott went of in turn 5. Jon, Matt, and I were battling it out when Carter caught up to us. In typical Carter fashion, he worked his way up and was between Jon and me. Carter and Jon were dueling down the front straight but Carter could not get a good line on Jon. This continued (with me watching behind them) until the carousel where Jon took the outside line. Carter went inside (wow! what a move!) and the two of them went side by side through 7 and 8 when Carter moved in front after 9. What great racing by the two of them!
I managed to get by Jon when he got caught behind a 944 going into 10. Jon and Matt never let up and were waiting for me to make a mistake… which… I did. 
Coming out of turn three, I got the car sideways and ended up looping it on the outside. I watched as Matt, Jon, and the next pack of E30s passed me before I could get back on track. But, it was one of the best races. There were battles all over the track and if you won one of the battles, another one was right there in front of you.
Sadly, the session ended in a red flag when a 944 flipped over and stopped upside down after turn 3. The driver was not seriously hurt in that accident either.
Hopefully that will wet the appetite of those looking for results (and someone else will post other stories). I heard there was a battle between Han, Eric, Al, Mike O, and others just behind our battles.
-Steve
FARTBREF
#7
Hmm…Green/yellow problem in qualifying, imagine that!
I think this is how the problem started, for whatever reason the 944’s that lined up in the second line did not leave the middle row open in case someone had a problem…I saw it happening but there was nothing anyone could do.
I was slow as heck all weekend, I felt my motor was down on sat and sure enough when I checked my newly installed used AFM, the horn had come loose in the box ands was blocking airflow. Anyway my other excuse is very old tired tires…
I never saw Kappy on track all weekend, which is very strange.
I did have a good battle with Han in Saturdays race and finally got my battle with Osborne on Sunday, hopefully he will post his video. I finished behind Mike but ahead of Han and Curran.
The red flag was kind of tough, I knew there were 2 turbo supercups trying to pass our 3 car battle, sure enough I dont think they saw the red, I tried to roll as far as possible and stopped in the middle, just relieved that I did not get hammered, I should have rolled thru and moved left or right. One of the P cars took to the grass, I am just glad no one got hit, I think there were 11 cars parked right there…
Al
mrussell
#9
edavidson wrote:
[quote]Ouch - what’s the story on Fly Navy?[/quote]IIRC, it was a quali accident in T10 on Saturday.
stevekappy
#10
FARTBREF wrote:
[quote]Hmm…Green/yellow problem in qualifying, imagine that!
[/quote]
Yeah… seems we run into this problem more often with bigger fields…
I am not sure how to take that statement 
I am taking it as a positive only because I had a great race with Matt, Carter, and Jon. It breaks with tradition, however, since you and I seem to always be battling for position.
-Steve
Carter
#12
My weekend was a bit crazy. Carter Jr and I left Raleigh and got to the track just in time to get a spot in the Spec E30 paddock. I mentioned to some Porsche guys that this really is the Spec E30 area (true, according to the NASA paddock map) so they moved their program over to the Porsche area.
Saturday went fine but I noticed that my just-installed transmission was leaking some. Not too bad but enough to require a top off after a couple of sessions.
As Steve K mentioned, during the Saturday qualifying session the 944 in front of me failed to put his window net in place on the grid so they stopped our line as we were leaving the pit lane. They then allowed the other line to go, putting us about 5th from the end of the field. As we went out, the leaders had already come around and were up to speed. I saw Skip Bennett and Jon Allen go by (both are always fast) so I tried to stay with them for the session. Due to all the traffic, I would drop back a few lengths, and then catch back up. I ended up 6/1000ths behind Jon, and in 6th place of the 18 Spec E30 cars on the grid.
The race went well and I ended up racing with Jens and Skip, while Vic and Jon battled for first just ahead of us. Due to Vic’s crash and my getting past Skip, I think I finished 4th or 5th…which I’m kind of proud to get considering the talent in that race. And speaking of talent, Steve D was second on the grid (huge improvement from past races) but I can’t remember where he finished.
Saturday night Carter Jr and I stopped at the convenience store across from the hotel to get an ice cream cone. We returned to the 2004 E350 boxtruck (one of our company service vehicles) and the engine wouldn’t turn over. I finally got it turning but heard a loud clattering sound as it ran. Not good!
Sunday morning, I called three taxi companies and none could get us to the track. Steve K thankfully took pity on us and he and the always friendly (and very attractive) Pilar came to pick us up. I had prepped the race car after the Saturday race so there wasn’t much to do. We had missed the morning practice session but qualifying wouldn’t be a problem. As they arrived, I was going through the mental checklist and realized I didn’t have the race car key. I’m usually very organized at the track but in the quick switch to his Tahoe, I couldn’t find the key, although I thought I had put it in my gear bag. After a couple of searches, I wanted to get Steve back in plenty of time to make qualifying.
After arranging a ride back to Raleigh for Carter Jr, I looked for the key again. No good. Thankfully, Barry Battle of RRT saw my situation and had the ignition cylinder out in 5 minutes, and had the car started and running. Wow!
With a few minutes to get to the grid, I stepped into Steve D’s trailer to get dressed. I put on my suit, then the left racing boot, and as I picked up the right boot to put it on, I felt something move in the boot. "You’ve got to be kidding" I said as I placed my right hand under the boot and turned it over. Yes, the key fell on to my palm.
Due to not qualifying, I started 18th. After a good start where the guys drove cleanly to turn one, I was able to get by a few Spec E30 cars. I drove very hard but cleanly and got up to Steve K and Jon M and had a great time racing with them. Both have stepped-up their game significantly so I had to work very hard to get by them. My car was perfect, balance-wise, and despite the ever-present dip in the power from about 4000 to 4700 rpm, the engine felt good.
Because my car was so good, and the fact that a few of the front runners spun off or broke, I was able to get to either 5th or 6th by the time the red flag came out. We were close to the finish anyway so I don’t feel slighted on the race time.
I left the car and trailer at the track - thanks Jens - and the local Ford truck dealer towed the boxtruck in for repairs. I got a ride back in a huge motor home, which wasn’t too bad.
Many thanks to Barry for the hotwire, Steve K for the fun racing and the ride to the track, and Jon M for the hard but clean racing on Sunday. We did many corners nose-to-tail and a few side-by-side without touching once.
Despite a few setbacks, the weekend was a lot of fun for Carter and me and I can’t wait for VIR in July.
Carter
jonmca
#13
Many thanks to all for a great weekend. Perfect cool sunny weather, nice people, and a car that never gave me an ounce of trouble and did not require anything more than one tire swap and some lug torquing.
I think everyone has summed up the stories well enough by now.
I too had a great time racing with Russel on saturday and Carter adn Steve on sunday.
There is no doubt that I need to work on my rolling starts as both days I lost two positions right off the start.
I would like to add one observation which is that each race weekend seems to have more bumping and banging than the last. Vic’s car is totaled, the other RRT car now has front suspension damage, and from what I have heard there are many other bumpers and body panels out there that are no longer in the condition they arrived in. I hope that this trend reverses itself for all of our sakes.
Thanks again to all those I raced with; it was a blast as usual.
mrussell
#14
OK we just put our Hyperfest report up on the Axis of Oversteer blog. If you want to take a few minutes, you can download my on-board video at the end of the post (right-click, save as).
Go here to see teh write-up: http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/
We are trying to build some decent coverage for all forms of motorsport, but naturally we try to give SE30 as much of a plug as possible.
screwynewy
#15
mrussell wrote:
[quote]OK we just put our Hyperfest report up on the Axis of Oversteer blog. If you want to take a few minutes, you can download my on-board video at the end of the post (right-click, save as).
Go here to see teh write-up: http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/
We are trying to build some decent coverage for all forms of motorsport, but naturally we try to give SE30 as much of a plug as possible.[/quote]
Russell,
Glad you had a good time at Hyperfest. Sounds like it was close racing throughout the group. I wish I could have been there.
I can’t seem to download your video. If you get a chance, email it to me or check the link and see if it works for you.
- Ken
secu
#16
Like everyone else has said, it was a real fun weekend. It was a bit of a shame that so many cars got damaged, but it wasn’t just us, every class, including the DEs had a lot of carnage.
Sunday’s race was a lot of fun. I started 7th but a few laps in I didn’t get the car slowed down enough coming into 5 after trying to catch back up to the group in front of me after I lost a little time somewhere. Ended up perpendicular to the track in the grass right around track out and got to watch the entire field drive by. After that I was able to work my way back up a bit and ended up having a real fun battle with Han and Al for a couple of laps until the red came out. Was a great weekend and I’m definitely going to be looking forward to next years event.
mrussell
#17
screwynewy wrote:[quote]
Russell,
Glad you had a good time at Hyperfest. Sounds like it was close racing throughout the group. I wish I could have been there.
I can’t seem to download your video. If you get a chance, email it to me or check the link and see if it works for you.
- Ken[/quote]
Hi Ken. Missed your orange monster at Hyperfest. I know we would’ve had some close racing.
This link to the blog write-up seems to work. Here is a direct link to the video file download (right click, save as):
It will take a few minutes to download. It’s 109mb so I can’t email it.
Let me know if it still doesn’t work. If not, I’ll load it to Youtube for everyone to see there.
-Matt
jjadczak
#18
Ray/Dad and our team are busy getting the needed parts to get the Fly Navy car back out there in a jiffy. Thanks to all who have offered support, counsel, advice, etc to get us back on our feet.
Johnny Allen: My father may need to contact you after all but I am sorry I did not get your number or email on Saturday. Can you get in touch with me off the board?
And yes we are going to keep the car color Navy blue with yellow graphics.
Jeremy Jadczak
#14 Black 944 Cup
stevekappy
#19
mrussell wrote:
[quote]OK we just put our Hyperfest report up on the Axis of Oversteer blog. If you want to take a few minutes, you can download my on-board video at the end of the post (right-click, save as).
Go here to see teh write-up: http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/
We are trying to build some decent coverage for all forms of motorsport, but naturally we try to give SE30 as much of a plug as possible.[/quote]
Matt,
Thanks for being my camera man for the weekend. Can I contract you for the next race too? 
-Steve
mrussell
#20
stevekappy wrote:
[quote]
Matt,
Thanks for being my camera man for the weekend. Can I contract you for the next race too?
-Steve[/quote]
Sure, because I’m planning to point my camera backwards for that one. 
Seriously, it was great being paddocked near you and Pilar. Looking forward to the next time.