VIR July 24-25th

#41

donstevens wrote:

i found the same thing on my car recently, flooring the pedal only opened the throttle up 90-95%. after tightening the cable a couple of turns it opens fully. i’m definitely hearing more about my cheater motor now.

#42

my 128hp motor from a couple of years ago was the result of a bad TPS…never gave the wide open signal…

Results should be up in a day or so on the mA site, I cant remember much but this:

Saturday

Grace
Cobetto
R Allen
Hansen
A. Taylor
Carter Hunt

I didn’t open the hood on my car all weekend, checked tire pressures once Saturday and rotated tires once Sunday, that is a great weekend for me.

Al

#43

It was great to see everyone again. From an on track perspective, I had a very frustrating time. But I learned you cant just jump back in the car after 9 months away and expect to pick up where you left off. Everything has changed a lot since october, not all for the better. We have a lot of great new guys (Frans Hansen is a very quick, smart driver), but I hope some of those old regulars can make a comeback before too long. Its not the same without them. And really, spec3 needs to start behind us. Some of these guys dont even belong in HPDE3.
But thanks to drivegear for the wings. Congrats to R Grace. Really untounchable this weekend. Even if skip, mikeD, etc had been there, I dont think anyone could have caught him. Great work and well deserved. For sure the first of many…

#44

The Super Sweaty Summer Slam at VIR was a pretty awesome weekend for the 74 team. I ran test and tune with Robert Allen, Frans Hansen, Rick Mariani and a few others. Frans was finding speed in every session, and Robert Allen showed that he was still going to be a contender even after nine months out of the car. Unfortunately Rick blew a head gasket and his weekend was over before the good stuff really got going. By Friday night almost everyone was at the track and it was a blast hanging out.

It felt about 96 degree when Saturday morning at the drivers meeting, even hotter by the time we got out for practice. The car felt good in practice and was on top of the charts. Qualifying was pretty crowded by I think most people were able to get a decent lap in somewhere, I felt that I had a decent lap but wasn’t sure it was going to cut it. I beat out Cobetto for pole by 0.054 seconds, my first pole ever.

The temp was roughly 118 degrees at race time, I was wondering why I don’t have a cool shirt setup in the car…The start was pretty clean, a waving yellow in T1 added a little confusion but it was pulled before we got to the brake zone so everyone was able to dice it up. I came out of T2 in the lead but Cobetto was in P2 so I knew I needed to lay down some qualifying laps. Robert Allen kept him busy for a few laps and by that time I was on my own. I didn’t want to start thinking about how this could be my first win EVER until I could actually see the checkered flag…to keep my mind occupied I kept pushing as if Cobetto was right on my bumper, not 6 seconds back. I crossed the stripe P1 and was able to celebrate my first victory with my family and track friends! Once out of the car and nomex Jonny handed me a celebratory brew and the post race party began. A very special day at a very special track, with some very special people.

The trophy ceremony was great, I took my champagne back up to the DriveGear paddock sprayed down Travis and Al a bit and then enjoyed a great night of DriveGear wings and good company. The Southeast guys told me that the MA might have some good racing but NO one can party like them….when they showed up for 10:00AM qualifying Sunday morning at 9:55….I believed them.

Sunday’s race was pretty much the same story as Saturday’s for the 74 car. I made it two for two on the weekend. Frans pulled out third place and almost got Cobetto for second.

It was a phenomenal weekend and I owe a lot of thanks, most of all to my Dad. He is the primary sponsor, wrench turner, truck driver, and so much more and without him this would be impossible. I also want to thank all of the E30 guys who have helped me over the last couple of years. MikeSkeen.com for coaching me last year and then actually responding to my frantic text messages about car setup and starts the next morning, just hours before I ran my first race at VIR. Cobetto for always putting on a great event and showing me how it’s done on track. Robert Allen for helping me through a lot of my rookie confusion last year since he had just been through it himself. Mike D. for providing tons of technical advice and always being down for an epic battle. Skip gave me my first taste of bump-drafting the day after I got my comp license. Carter for always keeping the series in check. Bob Ott, Rick Mariani, and DriveGear for helping me out with some emergency parts at some pretty clutch times. And Jon Allen for always giving me good answers to all of my questions no matter how ridiculous they may be and being the one to tell me to grow a pair and just drive! when I start looking for excuses.

Looking forward to the rest of the season and maybe finding my way into the South as well.

See ya at Summit!

#45

Thank you Robert. Great race report and congratulations on your first win.Fast out of the box is the way to do it.

RP (the old guy in the Southeast)

#46

I had a great time… other than the freaking HEAT. Wow - hottest track event I’ve ever been at.

On saturday I was suffering from 3 hours of sleep and heat stroke and completely forgot that cars required GAS to finish a race. Noticed this on the 2nd lap of the race when I started having starvation in turns. Ended up having to DNF and pull in.

Sunday qualified 6th with a 2:22.6 (Track was slow!) and ended up 6th in the race after unsuccessfully trying to get past J.Allen for a few laps. That man can make a Spec E30 quite wide. Learned a lot though.

Olde Gold finally beat her creator… better luck next time Travis. :slight_smile:

#47

Fun race weekend – it was great to see such a strong turnout. Congratulations Robert G. on a dominating weekend!

#48

Here’s video of Sunday’s race from the perspective of a back marker. My 2nd race ever.

http://vimeo.com/13774772

Saturday’s race was better for me. I think I was getting pretty tired since I had done Comp School on Friday.

Gotta work on my race craft…

#49

Watching the first couple of turns in that video makes me glad I was taking it easy that race…

Al

#50

rrroadster wrote:

[quote]Here’s video of Sunday’s race from the perspective of a back marker. My 2nd race ever.

http://vimeo.com/13774772

Saturday’s race was better for me. I think I was getting pretty tired since I had done Comp School on Friday.

Gotta work on my race craft…[/quote]

Post or email some pics of your gauges. That dash piece that you made looks nice in the video.

#51

Ranger wrote:

I had the pleasure of checking it out in person last weekend and it is a very nice piece. Actually the entire build is really nice. Lots of attention paid to the little details. I walked away with a lot of great ideas. Thanks Kevin!

#52

Glad you liked it guys. I’ve been hangin’ out at the track for a while and wanted my first real race car to look professionally prepared - at least on the inside. I like fabbing too - I guess it’s my creative outlet. I’m going to do some learning for a couple of years before going for the exterior (if ever).

#53

another view

#54

different view

#55

and a side view

by the way, thanks for the bolts Andrew. I had misunderstood my mechanic - it wasn’t the tranny mounting bolts that were missing, rather the exhaust bracket bolts that mount to the end of the transmission.:ohmy: