Race reports

#1

Any reports? Videos?

#2

Overall a fun weekend. There were 5 of us starting Friday but Tom White blew motor #2. Hopefully he makes it back soon and has a motor that runs a bit longer. The weather was a bit touch and go but our group got pretty lucky and both races were in the dry. Finishing order both days I think was

Simon Hunter
Kyle Smith
Michael Osborne
Joe Woodward

Saturday race I got a good start and had a small lead but the gap stayed the same for a number of laps until I started pulling away. I think Kyle and Michael were battling which allowed my escape. On Sunday it was the same for me, good start and then I pulled away. But I heard there was a really good race between the other 3, with several lead swaps. I have some video but I’m not going to bother posting as it was pretty boring except for the first lap.

Also Kevin Sweeney was there in HPDE but he broke a rocker arm on Saturday. We tried to change it but after a lot of swearing, we packed it in and I think he drove it home on Sunday on 5 cylinders. I’m probably not going to Road America but have signed up for Mid Ohio in August.

#3

Cool!

My car is in Ohio right now with my business partner. He was planning to come to the event to run in HPDE (he is not licensed yet) but a trip to Japan superceeded the NASA weekend. I’ll tell him about the August event.

Don

#4

You have to tell him to get that thing moving!

#5

I’d have to agree with Simon. The weekend was a fun one for sure! But it wasn’t without it’s trials. We shredded an alternator belt during Friday’s practice and picked up a screw in one of our fresh shaved R888’s. Luckily there were no major mechanical issues. It was certainly a busy weekend. The other member of Team FASTtech, Sean Louisin was running our car in PTE. So we crewed for each other. It was great to have crew, but we were still very busy.

As for the races, Simon checked out on both days. Man is he fast. I was able to qualify well on both days, two tenths on Simon’s time on Saturday. The screw we had in our freshly shaved tires meant I had to go out on full rains for Sunday’s qualifying. The track was drying very quickly. Despite that I still managed a second place spot while remaining gentle on our rain tires. But that meant nothing as Michael and Joe got amazing starts both days. I’m gonna have to work on my starts. Saturday’s race Joe got the best start flying past Michael and I. Joe, Michael and I went three wide into turn eight with Simon just slightly ahead. We sorted ourselves out by Thunder Valley Michael was on my bumper with Joe just behind. Michael hounded me for the first half of the race. I did my best to match Simon’s pace, but there was no reeling him in. By the halfway point I had used up my tires trying to fend off Osborne and Simon set sail for the win. I was finally able to pull a bit of a gap on Michael and secured a second place finish.

As exciting as the start was on Saturday, it didn’t come close to the excitement of Sunday’s race. Again Simon led us off and Michael and Joe got great starts. I was a little slow at the start again, but Joe remedied that by bumping me a little. We dove down into turn seven and again went 3 wide through Madness with Simon edging us out and me in tow. At turn eleven Osborne made a nice inside pass while Joe was on my bumper. Both Michael and Joe got around me into turn 13 and the chase was on. The three of us exchanged positions several times while Simon disappeared. Sadly, late in the race I made contact with Joe in the keyhole. I managed to place my front bumper/fender against Joe’s rear bumper and got him a little loose. But we remained in the same position. I wasn’t trying to pass there as we were under a local yellow. Joe just checked up a little more than I thought he would and began his turn. I was so focused on maintaining a decent run out of the keyhole…it was a rookie mistake. I left a little silver dollar-sized smudge on Joe’s bumper and dimpled my driver’s front fender a little. I apologized to Joe after the race and we agreed it was a racing incident. I was able to get clear of the battle with Joe and Michael a little later in the race and drove off to a second place finish. Joe and Michael continued to battle but Joe drew the short straw when a Spec 944 drove him off track in the Carousel. It was a bummer as I think it affected the outcome of race 2. But it sure was an exciting race.

Simon, Michael and Joe are great guys. Fierce competitors, but very friendly, helpful and fun to chat with. I’m looking forward to running with them again. Jeremy Lucas (owner of FASTtech) will be running our car in August. Sean and I are gonna split PTE to get some seat time and finish our rookie races. Sean deserves some good seat time as the group C race was rained on heavily on Saturday and cut short on Sunday.

I have Saturday’s race on video. I’ll try to post that later this week. It’s not as fun to watch as Sundays race. However, we gave Sunday’s tape to the race director. Sunday’s group C race ended early in a red flag. There was an incident in Thunder Valley. Sean Louisin was running our car in PTE and caught the incident on tape. In fact he slid to a stop about 3 feet short of hitting one of the cars in the maylay. He did a great job of avoiding contact. We’re not sure of the affected driver’s condition. But he was alert when he was pulled from the car. Hopefully he’s OK.

#6

Let me add that this was only Kyle’s 2nd and 3rd race and he is already very quick.

#7

Elephant4 wrote:

Congratulations Simon on the wins (enjoy them while you can) and to Kyle for the fast start. Just what all of us old geezers need: more young, fast talent to contend with.

Regards, Robert (how about a seniors race group? ) Patton

#8

Patton wrote:

[quote]Elephant4 wrote:

Congratulations Simon on the wins (enjoy them while you can) and to Kyle for the fast start. Just what all of us old geezers need: more young, fast talent to contend with.

Regards, Robert (how about a seniors race group? ) Patton[/quote]

Thanks guys! :slight_smile:

#9

Elephant4 wrote:

Actually 3rd & 4th, but only Kyle is really counting (so he could get his novice book signed off).

Congrats Kyle! Hopefully I can do as well next month.

#10

Congrats to all the racers, it was fun to watch you guys in action and I can’t wait to get out there! My broken rocker arm did end my weekend, and along with the rain made for a bummer of a time. I would like to thank everyone who pitched in and tried to get us back on track, especially Simon for providing parts (yes, he had extra rocker arms in his toolbox!) and Michael for use of tools and wisdom. You guys are a great bunch and I look forward to seeing you all next time.

Kevin

#11

jlucas wrote:

[quote]Elephant4 wrote:

Actually 3rd & 4th, but only Kyle is really counting (so he could get his novice book signed off).

Congrats Kyle! Hopefully I can do as well next month.[/quote]

Thank you sir! Yep, Friday was my 4th race so despite the contact with Joe I now have all 4 signatures for my hard card.