Putnam Park - May 17/18

#1

I know there was some banter in the MidOhio thread - but thought I’d start one here.

I’ll be there running HPDE.

Who else is coming? Maybe we can get there early and get some of the paved paddock space before the AI guys take all of it? :stuck_out_tongue:

#2

I’m in. I’ll be racing. Won’t be there till Saturday morning so I won’t be able to save any space.

#3

Kyle registered our car. We’ll be splitting Sat & Sun races since SE30 & PTE are in the same run group.

I forget, is Putnam the same time as Eastern right now or is there an hour split? Should be able to be there Friday night before the 7:30pm cutoff.

#4

Indiana is eastern all the time now.

#5

I’m in! Running HPDE 3. I’ll be signing up tonight. Where is everyone staying? I checked hotel availability and it seems like everywhere is booked.

#6

kmsnsx wrote:

I haven’t booked yet, I better get on that otherwise I’ll be driving home to Indy.

#7

kmsnsx wrote:

#@!&%$*@%#$!!!

Everything in Cloverdale is booked solid. I usually stay at the Motel 6 there.

I am getting a room in Plainfield I guess - not exactly next door to the track, but looks like its the best we can do.

#8

DaveCN wrote:

[quote]
Everything in Cloverdale is booked solid.[/quote]

Man, you weren’t kidding. I might as well drive home if we get any closer to Indy :unsure:

#9

we’re probably gonna end up at Lee’s Inn in plainfield for anyone who cares

#10

Huge setback for me tonight. At my daughters’ softball practice (I am the coach) I had a stupid freak injury.

Just got back from the ER - a couple of hairline breaks in the left ankle bones.

Off to the Orthopedic Dr. tomorrow to get a better assessment.

ER Doc says walking on it should be managable soon, but he thinks using a clutch may be 4-5 weeks away.

:frowning:

And I got my exhaust, and the car was coming together nicely . . .

:frowning:

#11

'Sorry to hear the bad news!

I hope it gets better quickly.

Carter

#12

I hate taking meds - but I am seriously thinking of asking him if he can give me a cortisone shot when the time comes . . .

:stuck_out_tongue:

#13

BTW, for those going to Putnam, notice on the info page now that we cannot park Friday night without a $25 fee! That’s disappointing to say the least.

#14

Between you an Osborne half the region is on IR :laugh: , get better soon, you need to make the comp school in July.

Yeah that sucks, I’m arriving Sat morning so that doesn’t effect me. Putnam has never been that accomdating when it comes to leaving stuff at the track but charging a fee is a bit cheeky.

#15

Indeed that sucks. There was always a friday open track day and that group used to allow the NASA guys to come in and drop. (A lot of the drivers were there for both anyway).

Bum ankle or no, I rebuilt my shifter linkage and installed all new bits and a z3 M Coupe shifter. Crossing my fingers I’ll be able to make it still.

#16

Quick update, more to follow. 2 of us at Putnam, plus Kevin in HPDE 3. Jeremy Lucas and Kyle (sorry don’t know your last name) are sharing a car. Jeremy Lucas drove today, we both qualified within 7/100ths of each other, 1:23.6. The race was absolutely brilliant. I ended up winning but it was far from easy. Jeremy was probably faster lap for lap and he put the heat on the whole race, plenty of traffic to deal with made it very exciting. We should have some great video. Jeremy mentioned that Kyle is as fast, I’m sure he won’t let up on me, should be another cracker. Good to have more fast quality drivers in our region. I think its safe to say that Jeremy had a blast in the car today and he has plenty of previous racing experience. They are already talking about building another car…

#17

Short note b/c it’s on my phone. Great fun today; one of most fun races in 7 years of racing - definately in my top five. We need to spread the SpecE30 word and get more cars!

Got lots of good video, we passed more cars than I could count. Will get the video up when we get back.

#18

It was great to finally meet a few guys in person! The weather was perfect and a few pointers from the racers helped a ton and those guys are fast! Thanks Simon, Jeremy & Kyle. Watching the race between Jeremy & Simon was intense! See everyone next time.

Kevin

#19

Got to add a quick note too. It was nice meeting Simon and Kevin. Simon, thanks for the Spec E30 window decal. We’re now offical! Plus it looks good on the car and promotes the class. Kevin, you need to get that car done and come out and run Spec E30!

As for the event, that’s gotta be the most cars I’ve ever seen at Putnam. NASA sure is growing. We just need to continue growing SE30 in Great Lakes/Mid West regions. I’m happy to report that our new car gave us no problems. As for me, Sunday was my first ever race and I must say I’m hooked! Despite dropping down through the field I had a blast! I was significantly off my March pace but managed one lap within 6 tenths of Saturday’s race pace. We decided to run our old RA1’s in the race which may have had one heat cycle too many. I fought a loose car from lap 1. But high slip angles generate big grins. On a positive note, the data from our DL1 showed very consistent lap times despite the car being a handful. Plus I learned quite a bit about running with traffic. HPDE traffic is much different. Sadly, I wasn’t able to keep Simon in sight. He pretty much checked out. I need to learn a little more about working the traffic. But I’m already looking forward our next race at Grattan.

#20

SpeedSmith wrote:

My car was completey different on the R888’s, so much better! My old RA1’s (9 heat cycles) also sucked and the car was very loose on Saturday. I corded the left front in practice on Sunday but I had a number of open laps and I couldn’t get under a 1:24. I think if you had put on the R888 it would have been a different story.