It was exactly 11:00 pm Friday night when I pulled in the driveway in Arlington, VA - home. It was so good to be home and to see Suze again. I was exhausted and within 20 minutes I was in bed and sound asleep. The alarm was set for 6:30 am so we could return the rental car to National Airport and then head south to Richmond for a morning of indoor carting (that's right, more racing) and then the late afternoon nuptials joining Jon and Katie.
Brian is back in South Bend holding up the driving duties. It is early afternoon before I finally speak to him. The results are final and Brian has beaten the M Coupe in the dry skid test pulling 0.984 G's. It is good enough for 11th best while the M Coupe comes in 16th. The dry skid pad win seals the first in class victory by 10 points. Woody and Neil are second in the class with the Porsche Cayman a distant third. The 335i finishes 14th overall with the M Coupe in 16th overall position. It is a great result for both teams. And way to go "B"!!!!!!!
This was one of the best One Laps. The back and forth between us and Woody and Neil was simply fantastic. Toward the end it did not matter where we would finish as the competition was all the fun. That said, I know full well that Neil and Woody will be gunning for us again next year and vice a versa. I can't wait!
Thanks Woody, Neil, and especially Brian for a great week. Would not have missed it for the world.
For now, I will say goodnight. More to follow on stats of the One Lap and other news.
Cheers!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Brew Pub - Day Eight (Part Four)
It has become a small tradition that many of the teams stop in Cleveland at a local brew pub to have a pint and snacks before driving the remaining 250 miles to South Bend. This year is no exception, but for I will not be going on to South Bend. I am very disappointed in not being able to finish and the feeling that I am abandoning my co-driver is overwhelming. We have made a great team and have had way to many laughs. It won't be the same for either of us after I depart for home a day early. Why you ask? I am attending the wedding of a good friend in Richmond, VA on Saturday and I do not want to miss it.
After a beer or two, the teams start departing for South Bend. In lieu of Brian driving me to the airport where I have a rental car waiting I call a cab. This will get Brian and the M Coupe carrying Woody and Neil on the road to Indiana sooner. The outright win will rest entirely in Brian's hands and his expertise at the dry skid pad on Saturday morning.
I arrive at the airport Hertz rental depot and pick up my car from the Gold Level aisle. It is a lovely Toyota Camry. I am on the road by 5:15 with a 6 hour drive ahead of me. I have told Suze that if I get too tired I will pull over to sleep. If I muscle through, I should be home by 11:00 or so.
As predicted, it is a lonely drive without Brian and the sadness of departing the other teams and the sense of accomplishment in finishing weighs heavy. There is always next year though!!!!
After a beer or two, the teams start departing for South Bend. In lieu of Brian driving me to the airport where I have a rental car waiting I call a cab. This will get Brian and the M Coupe carrying Woody and Neil on the road to Indiana sooner. The outright win will rest entirely in Brian's hands and his expertise at the dry skid pad on Saturday morning.
I arrive at the airport Hertz rental depot and pick up my car from the Gold Level aisle. It is a lovely Toyota Camry. I am on the road by 5:15 with a 6 hour drive ahead of me. I have told Suze that if I get too tired I will pull over to sleep. If I muscle through, I should be home by 11:00 or so.
As predicted, it is a lonely drive without Brian and the sadness of departing the other teams and the sense of accomplishment in finishing weighs heavy. There is always next year though!!!!
Nelson Ledges - Day Eight (Part Three)
Sorry for the time delay on the update! It is going down to the wire as we last updated the epic battle. After the morning session, we had gone up by 10 points over Woody and Neil in the SSGT1 Small Bore class. This was due to the Porsche Cayman coming between the two of us. It provided us some very limited breathing room in the event we did not win the afternoon session outright. If we did win in the afternoon the first in class would be ours (assuming we could stay on top of the Cayman). Second best would leave us still 5 points ahead of the M Coupe with one event remaining. If the M Coupe were to beat us at the dry skid Saturday, we would be tied. The tie breaker is the total time of all events - the least amount of time between the two tied competitors determines the winner. We hope it does not go that far and that the Cayman does not play the spoiler.
So here we go - I am strapped in and ready to drive the afternoon event. I am feeling a little apprehensive about the session and I am not sure why. I did very well in the morning, but I think Woody may have simply bobbled the M Coupe at the start line and accidentally tripped the timing beam. I'd like to think the pressure was getting to him. I would like to take the afternoon win and not have to worry about the dry skid pad.
As I head out of pit lane, I think of Brian's words from the morning. Be aggressive. I also say to myself, this is the last event. We have traveled over 4,000 miles at this point and completed many fast track laps and not balled up the car or hurt it in any way - let's not do it now at the last event! Again, the session is over quickly and feel good about the run. I did have one moment on the last lap where I pushed just a bit much and dropped two wheels off at track out. It did get my heart racing a touch as it is a place where there is not much run off that is flat. Approximately 4-5 feet from track edge is a rather severe (by run off areas) drop off in the terrain of 2-3 feet. At 90 + miles an hour that could get hairy in a hurry. Experience set in and I did not panic or jerk the wheel to bring the car back on track immediately. I dropped the speed by 10 miles an hour and then smoothly came back to the racing surface and then put the peddle back down. It did cost me some time. Hopefully not too much.
Woody is in the run group after me. As Woody is coming off track, Brian arrives and tells me the not so good news. I was 3 seconds slower in the afternoon and Woody was 12 seconds faster than he was in the morning. The net is that Woody ran my time from the morning and I was 3 seconds off that pace. The question is where is the Cayman? If they come between us, we are right back to tied. If not, we go in to Saturday with a 5 point lead intact.
The gents running the Cayman arrive back to their paddock space and the news for them is not good. The car went in to limp mode during their session and caused them to lose significant time as they came to a complete stop on track, shut off the car and then restarted it clearing the fault. We benefit from their problem unfortunately.
The final results for the event place Woody at 20th fastest and me at 22nd fastest. We depart Nelson Ledges with a 5 point lead in the class and 14th overall with Woody and Neil 15th overall.
So here we go - I am strapped in and ready to drive the afternoon event. I am feeling a little apprehensive about the session and I am not sure why. I did very well in the morning, but I think Woody may have simply bobbled the M Coupe at the start line and accidentally tripped the timing beam. I'd like to think the pressure was getting to him. I would like to take the afternoon win and not have to worry about the dry skid pad.
As I head out of pit lane, I think of Brian's words from the morning. Be aggressive. I also say to myself, this is the last event. We have traveled over 4,000 miles at this point and completed many fast track laps and not balled up the car or hurt it in any way - let's not do it now at the last event! Again, the session is over quickly and feel good about the run. I did have one moment on the last lap where I pushed just a bit much and dropped two wheels off at track out. It did get my heart racing a touch as it is a place where there is not much run off that is flat. Approximately 4-5 feet from track edge is a rather severe (by run off areas) drop off in the terrain of 2-3 feet. At 90 + miles an hour that could get hairy in a hurry. Experience set in and I did not panic or jerk the wheel to bring the car back on track immediately. I dropped the speed by 10 miles an hour and then smoothly came back to the racing surface and then put the peddle back down. It did cost me some time. Hopefully not too much.
Woody is in the run group after me. As Woody is coming off track, Brian arrives and tells me the not so good news. I was 3 seconds slower in the afternoon and Woody was 12 seconds faster than he was in the morning. The net is that Woody ran my time from the morning and I was 3 seconds off that pace. The question is where is the Cayman? If they come between us, we are right back to tied. If not, we go in to Saturday with a 5 point lead intact.
The gents running the Cayman arrive back to their paddock space and the news for them is not good. The car went in to limp mode during their session and caused them to lose significant time as they came to a complete stop on track, shut off the car and then restarted it clearing the fault. We benefit from their problem unfortunately.
The final results for the event place Woody at 20th fastest and me at 22nd fastest. We depart Nelson Ledges with a 5 point lead in the class and 14th overall with Woody and Neil 15th overall.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Nelson Ledges - Day Eight (Part Two)
No, this is not an update on the morning results. There were two "incidents" that are note worthy.
First, as Amanda Hennessy is completing her laps in a Chevy HHR she jumps the curbing at mid-turn and it is enough of a jolt to set off both passenger and driver side airbags. The spectators at the turn could hear the bags going off as they replicate close range gun fire. Don Flanigin (Joe Drumheller's co-driver) has a great photo showing the passenger side window completely filled with airbag. Imagine having a gun go off next to your ear and pushing your head over violently to the right as you are making a high speed turn and thinking about your threshold braking point and downshift in to the slowest corner of the track where exit to the front straight is critical to a good lap time (I wrote that long sentence just so you get the idea of everything that is happening as the airbags deployed). She kept right on going!!! Great work Amanda - I think I would have pulled in and collected my thoughts.
The second incident occurred when a new 2010 Mustang was coming down the back straight and its motor let go - as David Hobbs would say.."its done blow'd up". There was a huge cloud of white smoke pouring from the rear of the car. The driver continued on through the very fast right hand sweeper and eventually made his way to the left hand corner (same corner Amanda had detonation of her airbags). As he pulls the car on to the grass the car is clearly on fire with the driver rushing out fire extinguisher in hand. The emergency crew is getting there at the same time and directing the driver away from the car who is at the ready to put the flames on his car out. He obliges the emergency crew and steps back. At this point the fire crew have hose in hand and are ready to extinguish - as they pull the lever there is no water. I kid you not. The driver is standing there with his fire extinguisher in hand and still cannot assist. The fire crew yells to try the other tank. Another lever is thrown and at last there is water to put out the flames. The car does not look to bad for wear, but it is clearly out of the event.
As I write this, the morning results are in. I took 16th overall and Woody 33rd. The Porsche Cayman finished 23rd. This puts us up by 10 points in the class over Neil and Woody. It also moves us up to 12th in the overall dropping Woody and Neil to 13th. I need to stay on my game as it is not over yet!
More later.....cheers!
First, as Amanda Hennessy is completing her laps in a Chevy HHR she jumps the curbing at mid-turn and it is enough of a jolt to set off both passenger and driver side airbags. The spectators at the turn could hear the bags going off as they replicate close range gun fire. Don Flanigin (Joe Drumheller's co-driver) has a great photo showing the passenger side window completely filled with airbag. Imagine having a gun go off next to your ear and pushing your head over violently to the right as you are making a high speed turn and thinking about your threshold braking point and downshift in to the slowest corner of the track where exit to the front straight is critical to a good lap time (I wrote that long sentence just so you get the idea of everything that is happening as the airbags deployed). She kept right on going!!! Great work Amanda - I think I would have pulled in and collected my thoughts.
The second incident occurred when a new 2010 Mustang was coming down the back straight and its motor let go - as David Hobbs would say.."its done blow'd up". There was a huge cloud of white smoke pouring from the rear of the car. The driver continued on through the very fast right hand sweeper and eventually made his way to the left hand corner (same corner Amanda had detonation of her airbags). As he pulls the car on to the grass the car is clearly on fire with the driver rushing out fire extinguisher in hand. The emergency crew is getting there at the same time and directing the driver away from the car who is at the ready to put the flames on his car out. He obliges the emergency crew and steps back. At this point the fire crew have hose in hand and are ready to extinguish - as they pull the lever there is no water. I kid you not. The driver is standing there with his fire extinguisher in hand and still cannot assist. The fire crew yells to try the other tank. Another lever is thrown and at last there is water to put out the flames. The car does not look to bad for wear, but it is clearly out of the event.
As I write this, the morning results are in. I took 16th overall and Woody 33rd. The Porsche Cayman finished 23rd. This puts us up by 10 points in the class over Neil and Woody. It also moves us up to 12th in the overall dropping Woody and Neil to 13th. I need to stay on my game as it is not over yet!
More later.....cheers!
Nelson Ledges - Day Eight (Part One)
Welcome to Nelson Ledges - Garretsville, OH about 25 miles west of Youngstown, OH. This track is not much to talk about from a facilities standpoint and the track itself is generally in a state of disrepair, but it is really fast and fun. Back in October, we ran a 24 Hours of LeMons race here which certainly allowed for a lot of practice on this course. Nothing like lapping for 2.5 hours in the middle of the night to know a track.
Despite the recent experience, I still walked the track and collected my thoughts. Neil joined me just after turn one. It also provides us with some much needed exercise - a good stretch of the legs. Strangely, it looks exactly the same as it did in October. I will admit that I had never walked the track at the LeMons event and it did open my eyes as to the amount of positive camber in most of the turns and the slight up hill portions allowing more grip for turn in or braking.
At 8:30 the call goes out over the PA for the first 15 cars. I suit up and start strapping in for the first session. The pressure is on as Woody is a great driver and we are tied for points in class as we enter the day. There are only three events left and if either of us walk away with two wins over the other the class win is over.
I make it to grid and Brian wishes me good luck, says be aggressive, and kick-ass. His last chore is to turn on the video and remind me it is a cold track. The temperature was in the high 40's as we arrive this am. I get my recon lap complete and it feels good. Coming up to the start finish I replay Brian's words in my mind - BE AGGRESSIVE (meaning.....grow a pair of attachments lad!!!).
I decide at the launch to not over do it and get the customary wheel hop as it just loses time. The run is quick (a total of about 4 minutes) and before I know it I have completed the 3 hot laps. At speed, the track is very bumpy and it makes for some excitement at track out locations and braking zones. As I come off the track I yell out - "I love this friggin' track". It so fun and FAST!
We'll have to wait for the final results of the morning to know if we have a leg up on Woody and Neil going in to the afternoon. Stay tuned.
Cheers!
Despite the recent experience, I still walked the track and collected my thoughts. Neil joined me just after turn one. It also provides us with some much needed exercise - a good stretch of the legs. Strangely, it looks exactly the same as it did in October. I will admit that I had never walked the track at the LeMons event and it did open my eyes as to the amount of positive camber in most of the turns and the slight up hill portions allowing more grip for turn in or braking.
At 8:30 the call goes out over the PA for the first 15 cars. I suit up and start strapping in for the first session. The pressure is on as Woody is a great driver and we are tied for points in class as we enter the day. There are only three events left and if either of us walk away with two wins over the other the class win is over.
I make it to grid and Brian wishes me good luck, says be aggressive, and kick-ass. His last chore is to turn on the video and remind me it is a cold track. The temperature was in the high 40's as we arrive this am. I get my recon lap complete and it feels good. Coming up to the start finish I replay Brian's words in my mind - BE AGGRESSIVE (meaning.....grow a pair of attachments lad!!!).
I decide at the launch to not over do it and get the customary wheel hop as it just loses time. The run is quick (a total of about 4 minutes) and before I know it I have completed the 3 hot laps. At speed, the track is very bumpy and it makes for some excitement at track out locations and braking zones. As I come off the track I yell out - "I love this friggin' track". It so fun and FAST!
We'll have to wait for the final results of the morning to know if we have a leg up on Woody and Neil going in to the afternoon. Stay tuned.
Cheers!
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