nape

iTrader: (1)

It's that time of year again, fellas.
We went to the dyno yesterday and made our certification run.

The motor is still strong @ 301RWHP and 304RWTQ out of a humble $2500 305.

Come out to a race and get a chance to look over real race cars

gearhead0384

iTrader: (7)

I think I am going to make one of these races for real this year. I really would like to get into this at some point in the future. Ill let you know when the time get closer TJ.

Kevin

whitealexander

i would love to see the race.. wish i have time..

nape

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a plan. I'll try to keep bumping this up before each race so everyone keeps seeing it.

If anyone really gets the urge, I'll make you a helluva deal on the car. I'm jonesin' to build another one

3.8TransAM

Ill be out of town for the first putnam race.

I will be at the Autobahn for sure.

I might even have a shell for you TJ :-)

gimme a holler at some point

92RS(real slow)

thats some great numbers out of a 305 how much money you got in your car I would love to get into racing like this, but I dont think I could ever afford to start out

anthony714

iTrader: (5)

im going to sound like an *** but what do you do at these races? who races? can anyone? will i go and pay to watch others drive?

nape

iTrader: (1)

I've probably about mid 20s into the car if you count all the spares, doing things twice, etc.

I think I could build a copy of this car for about $15k and have it track ready. That's not counting any labor other then the cage work.

There are cheaper ways to start out getting on track if you're really interested in doing it. NASA (National Auto Sport Association, the group I run with) has ways for beginners to get on track as long as your car is road worthy. They provide you with an instructor and class room time to teach you. It usually runs about $300-350 for an entry fee but you get a lot of track time for the money. Four 20 minute sessions on Saturday and again on Sunday. Your first time, you'll be worn out by Sunday and wonder how some 60 yr old guy is still out there and looks cool as a cucumber

Anyway, you can get a taste of being on track really cheaply vs. buying a race car and the headaches that come with it.

Anyone can come and drive if your car is sound and you register (pay). NASA will set you up with an instructor, class room time, and track time. To race, you have to have track experience and go through a licensing school (NASA, SCCA, Skip Barber, etc). If you just want to come check it out, there is usually a small gate fee and you're free to walk around, watch, talk to the people driving, racers, whoever.

Check out www.nasamidwest.com for more info.

nape

iTrader: (1)

I didn't miss your post, but I've been busy getting everything ready. Autobahn sounds like a plan.

I'll try to call you this week.

92RS(real slow)

I might have to give this a try

RockinGTA89

i did enjoy going out last time when i was with dave in his bird....nice cruise out to the autobahn.

i found something interesting about this another racing series that seems very similar to NASA series....dunno if they're the same by rules and regulations, but earlier this year on SPEED, I taped a programmed that featured the SCCA series. However the division is know as the American Sedan, which had 3rd and 4th gen birds, camaros and fox body mustangs racing against one another. They had real glass windows and utilizing stock bodies & minor modification with roll cages. I was awed by watching them road racing and i have to say i'm starting to love road racing more with stock production street machines. So hopefully I'll be making another spectator run out there this year! Go Speed TJ Go Speed TJ...GOOOO!!!

nape

iTrader: (1)

Yep, ASedan. AS is more then minor modifications, but the bodies are pretty stock and the max wheel size is 16x8. Up until 2009, they were required to use unported iron head castings and a .480 lift cam max. The top motors made ~400HP at the flywheel and they'd turn them over 7000RPM with huge cams to make the power. Seeing Jesel shaft mount rockers on a 305 is odd.

I bought a mid-pack AS motor (305 .030 over) as a backup over the winter and it's got a 250/250 solid flat tappet cam in it

Most people think my 305 has a lot at 220/230, I did a double take when I read the cam card for the new one.

nape

iTrader: (1)

Well, it rained all weekend at Road America and I'll bet the average temp was somewhere around 40*.

We struggled with the windshield, hatch, and mirrors fogging all weekend but we got that solved and it turned out pretty well.

Here's a write-up I sent in to the regional director for a report:

"(Not so) Quick summary: The rain was insane. I've never been in spray like that. This was the first time I've ever raced in the rain in a car that's close to competitive and not on old, dead RA1s. Last time at RA in the rain (2007), I flattened the driver's side of the car between 7 and 8.

I took it easy on the starts, so not to have a repeat of '07. I made a couple mistakes shaking the cobwebs out in the first race, like finding 1st instead of 3rd coming onto the front straight, but was able to gather it up and chase down Dave Algozine for a less than 1 second gap at the finish.

In the second race, I let the mist clear then started chasing Dave down again. By the finish the gap was less than a half second.

For the 3rd race, I decided I'd been running well, outqualified Dave Algozine and Jay Andrew, so I'd see what I could do about keeping them in the rear view mirror. It didn't last long, with Dave getting by me on the start with his superior horsepower (and racing ability). He beat me into T1 and Jay followed suit a lap later in T5 when I got on the brakes early because I saw tail lights through the fog. We followed like that for a little while and I believe Dave started to pull away. Then I locked up coming into T5 behind Jay trying to go deep, went right to miss him, couldn't make the turn, did a u-turn in the T5 runoff, then headed up the hill towards T6. I was chasing Jay down then saw Dave limping the car off-line between T4-5. A couple of laps before the end, I had a good run on Jay coming out of the Carousel, through the kink, deep on the brakes into Canada, we were side-by-side on exit, both getting sideways trying for traction and I won the race into T13.

3rd was like a win for me, Robin and Rusty were checked out all weekend, might as well have been in a different state

We didn't have any mechanical issues other then the y-pipe almost falling off in R2. Just added ducting to try to clear the windshield to see so we didn't have to use the rag-on-a-stick method. The full tread R888s were great in the rain, as were the new-to-me Hawk DTC70 brake pads. Awesome modulation and release."

So, out of 7 cars and being the only GM product, I did pretty well.

Here's a picture of the Start of the Sunday race: http://photobyedmund.smugmug.com/gal...23607578_UG4QB

I'm the 3rd car back on the left (closest to pit wall). It's an interesting feeling doing 130MPH in fog trying to pick out when the pit wall ends as a brake marker. If you waited until you could see the corner, you would've been deep in the gravel trap if not the wall.

Anyway, we're doing a dance for some good weather at Putnam Park on May 16th and 17th. Come check it out if you're close. I don't believe Putnam has a gate fee, so come watch free racing!

nape

iTrader: (1)

Putnam Park is this Saturday and Sunday. Be there or be square.

nape

iTrader: (1)

Alright, here's the full report.

I showed up on Friday night about 7pm EST hoping to get a good spot because of all the rain we've had lately. The asphalt at Putnam is precious and few, and it was all gone or saved by the time I showed up. We ended up off back paddock road in the field. I knew it was going to be rough pulling in because the ground was so soft, and I only got 3/4 of the way in before my van got stuck :angry:. Luckily, I was able to trade some guys driving a PTF Cavalier some 1/4-20 hardware they were looking for in exchange for pulling my van out and moving my trailer into place with their 4x4 Duramax dually.

As we're driving to the hotel, the radio is talking about strong T-storms and tornado warnings for the area. Great...

We show up the next morning to a swamp. I get the van stuck again, but luckily out of the way. I set fast time in practice with a 1:19.x on 3 RA1s from last year and one from 3 years ago. It looks like rain, so we go ahead and swap on the R888s we're using as rain tires. Strong winds and only light rain for a short time lead to a dry track for qualifying, but we leave the R888s on to find out what they're like in the dry. I get lucky and have clear track after 3 laps and do my flier early. Before the driver's meeting, I go check the results and find out I put it on pole with an 1:18.2! That's my first pole and more importantly, 4 bonus points. So, before the race, I'm only 1 point behind Dave Algozine for the championship.

At the start, I'm lined up outside 3rd row, with Algozine inside 4th row and Matt Erickson outside 4th row. The flagger threw a late green and the AIX car leading my line mashes the gas and does a rolling burnout. So, the inside line gets a run going and Algozine beats me to T1. Erickson gets screwed in AIX/ST traffic and falls back. Dave and I check out after a few laps. About 8 laps in, he bobbles coming into T9 and I pull along side coming through T10 and we drag race down the front straight with me on the inside. He had me by about half a car entering the braking zone, but I knew he would hit the brakes at the 300 marker and I could go to the 200 marker (thanks 2950lbs and 13" Wilwoods). I led for 2 laps until I made a mistake working an FFR we were lapping. Coming through T9-10, I tried to take an FFR and lost momentum and Dave got a way better run onto the straight and got by me. After that, I chased him through traffic for the rest of the race. He would hit traffic and pass them on the straight, and I'd end up having to work them through T2-T7. So, he'd gap me through there and I'd close the gap from T8-T1 and more if I got lucky in traffic. Both of us drove the tires off the cars, so we were slip sliding around. On the white flag lap, he hit some SU/ST traffic and I caught up again. He put two ST vettes between us going into T1 and I was able to get by one of them coming out of T7 and got close to the next one through T8. I was on him though T9 and he slowed up through the corner so I lifted off the gas. The gap got bigger, so I got back on the gas and the car stopped turning and shot straight off. I barely missed the T10 guard rail and used another 50 ft of grass and part of pit road to get slowed down before hitting the guard rail.



By some stroke of luck, Chris Griswold (AIX, overall leader) lapped Matt Erickson right before the checkered, so as long as I crossed the finish line within 5 minutes, I had second place locked in! Of course, I didn't know that, so I was all pissed off. While fixing the car, people came up to me and congratulated me on my win... WTF? Evidently, Algozine's alternator quit during the race, and it didn't have enough voltage to run the transponder for the last 6 laps. The MSD box finally quit on pit road after the cool down lap... :blink:



We got the car mostly straightened out that night and finished the repairs in the morning.



The RR tire was garbage halfway through the race and a cut in the LF tire got bigger as we shook it down in practice, so we decided to bolt the R888s back on for qualifying and race. I put in a whole qualifying session trying to figure out the tires and got some valuable seat time on them. I caught Mark Adams in an AI Fox-body through T10 on a flier and passed him down the straight. He tagged onto my bumper for the next few laps and ran his fastest lap of the weekend. He thanked me for throwing out the tow rope . I checked the results later hoping I scored another pole, but found out Algozine bolted some fresher RA1s on for today and ran a 1:17.7, I ran another 1:18.2, and Erickson caught up with a 1:18.3. :blink:

For the race, I was gridded to start behind a Koni Challenge RX8 running in SU. His crew said he'd try to let us get by since that car doesn't start well (rotary, low torque). When the flag flew, Algozine got a bad jump or something and was even, then started to pull me. As soon as he evened up with the RX8, I ducked in behind him and we were a two-car freight train again with Erickson about half a straight away back after a lap or two. Once we hit heavier traffic, Erickson sucked right back up to us. I had a couple hairy laps trying to hold him off in various spots on the track. He has superior horsepower (3300lbs vs. my 2950), but I would get a good run off T10 and stay in the center until he would start his run, then I would make my one allowed move towards the inside (not blocking). He could pull even or a fender in front, but I could get on the brakes later and keep it in P2. A few laps of this and Dave and I got past two cars into T1 and Matt got caught up. When he got past them, he overdrove T9 and spent a little time in the grass, but recovered well. With breathing room, I resumed my assault on Algozine. I could see his tires going off and was just waiting for a mistake I could capitalize on when going into T7, *POOOOF*. Something expired on his car and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving oil all over my windshield. I got the car slowed down early and made the turn. After that, I got the white flag and dropped down to 5-6 tenths. I could see Erickson coming in my mirror, but knew he didn't have enough time to make up that much ground, so I took my time and didn't make any mistakes.



All things considered, it was a good weekend even though I bent the car a little. I learned a lot about the R888s and I don't think they're a bad tire, just different.

nape

iTrader: (1)

If anyone is interested, here's the in-car video from Sunday's race: http://vimeo.com/4741509

gearhead0384

iTrader: (7)

Hey TJ I think I might be going to the event at Blackhawk Farms in August. I just got back from there this weekend watching my buddy's car and had a ton of fun. So let me know the particulars on for whats going on in August.

Frozer!!!

iTrader: (11)

I hope I can make at least one of these this year. If not next year it is

nape

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a plan, Kevin. We should be there. I haven't written up a report from the June Blackhawk event yet, but I'll let the picture do the talking:




We the head gasket on cyl. #1 started to go on Sunday but we ran it in the race anyway. It would be fine all race them **** all over as soon as I stopped beating the crap out of it. It was still fast enough to reset the track record by .7 seconds to 1.19.288. We ran another .5 seconds faster in qualifying with a 1.18.755, but it has to be in the race to be official.

So, we pulled that engine out and I've got a iron TPI head backup going in. The Autobahn Country Club event in Joliet is July 18th/19th, so make sure you make it out and we'll give you some things to watch, etc.

gearhead0384

iTrader: (7)

Those are some cute trophes TJ. lol Going to Joliet seems like it would also be a good time and closer. I would still want to go to Blackhawk too, for some reason I really liked Blackhawk. So finaly I will stand true to my word on get out there and see your car race.