| GarySheehan | 11-15-2001 10:58 PM |
USTCC Round 6 - Sears Point Race Recap (Long)
[IMG]http://www.i-club.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=1103967[/IMG]
It has finally happened. teamSMR has won its first race! After coming so close in the past only to have our chances taken away by strange mechanical problems or rogue Hondas, everything has come together at once and proven that this team and this car are not to be taken lightly!
Joel and I had been working lots of hours getting the car ready from our last race. The damage from that race was mostly cosmetic, but there was a lot of work to do. The majority of the right side of the car was really dented up. It took a lot of hammering and some blue duct tape to at least make the car presentable. We were expecting a lot of i-club members to be attending the event and wanted to get the car looking as nice as possible. In addition to the sheet metal was the damage to the custom side skirts and air dam. Both needed to be replaced and in very short order. So, with some technical advice from Tom at Kartboy, we learned what we needed to know and laid up our first fiberglass pieces, which came out pretty well, if we do say so ourselves. Hold on, I need to clap myself on the back again....OK, I'm done.
Not only did we have to contend with the damaged bodywork of the right side of the car, there was some more serious stuff that needed looking after. When Neil Vanni ran into the side of our car at California Speedway, the impact managed to break the battery box loose from its mounts in the trunk. During the race I could hear something banging around in the back of the car, but had no idea what it was and had no time to even consider it as there was a lot of ground to make up. After the race we found the battery box wedged in between the cage and the chassis, upside-down. Because it wasn't a sealed battery, it had puked battery acid all over the inside of the trunk and rear passenger area. Joel about puked when he stuck his head in the trunk and got a deep lungful. He also found out that battery acid will burn his skin, but not his tongue. It's best not to ask how he came to that conclusion. So we had to clean up that mess and build a new battery mount that could withstand a much harder impact. Like from TWO Hondas. The only thing that kept that battery out of my lap was the battery cable, which stayed attached throughout the race. Picture a rock. Tie a rope around the rock. Now swing the rock around your head. While running around in a small room. That's what was going on in the back of the car.
In addition to the inside and outside battering the car took, our braking problem raised its ugly head again. This time, it was a pad manufacturing problem. We custom ordered brake pads from Porterfield Enterprises. While the Porterfield pads are not up to our demanding conditions, they are resellers of both Performance Friction and Hawke brake pads. They also do a lot of custom cutting. We went to them looking for Performance Friction 93 compound pads. This is the same material that has been used in Indycars and has an operating range up to 1600 degrees F. Since Performance Friction doesn't make a pad for the WRX, Porterfield used a "donor" pad from a different car and cut it out to fit the WRX. That's where the problem came from. Brake pads have binder holes that the pad material goes into which helps retain the pad material to the backing plate. These donor pads have 4 holes. Two of the holes are VERY close to the edge of the pad, just below the ears that locate the pad in the caliper. Well, once we got the pads up to their hot operating temperature, the small amount of metal between the ear and the binder hole was no where near strong enough to withstand the braking forces, and the ear collapsed into the binder hole. This hung the pads up in the caliper and as we continued to wear the pad, caused the backing plate to separate from the pad material, causing the pad to crumble away.
So we took care of this by asking Porterfield to recut some of the same pads, but leave extra material underneath the ear and we would fit them ourselves. Then we trimmed the spring clips in the caliper to give a little more clearance. This allowed us to leave more steel between the ear and the binding hole of the pad and we trimmed the backing plate to fit while still leaving room for the pad to float. Hopefully we had our front pad problems fixed. Many thanks to Bernie from Aasco Racing in helping us diagnose the problem and with the solution.
ALSO, our wheel bearing problem wasn't solved. Both of our front wheel bearings cooked themselves at California Speedway. They didn't fail altogether, but during the race I was getting brake pad knockback, which makes braking for a hard corner a very exciting experience. It's so hard to stay flat on the gas when you KNOW that your brake pedal is going to go to the floor the first time you push it. When we disassembled them after the race, the plastic bearing retainers had actually boiled from the heat and were a mess inside. There was also evidence of the inner bearings spinning on the hub, which could account for a lot of that heat. So, we replaced both front hubs and both front bearings. Instead of repacking the bearings with the Redline CV2, we chose to use an exotic grease called Krytox from Dupont. Very expensive stuff that has a very high temperature rating. The documentation that came with this stuff had a whole list of nasty side effect if this stuff is eaten, stuck in your eye, got on your skin, etc. It was very exciting reading for Joel. He says it has no taste at all.
Finally, to cap it all off, we added even more ducting to the brakes and included several in line blower fans in the ducts that would help push air into the rotor and onto the calipers. There really is very little room to cram ducts in there, but with about a million zip ties and a lot of cursing, we managed to squeeze them in. We were ready to race!
We pulled into Sears Point around 7:15am on Saturday morning. Finally, a short drive to the track. It sure beats driving to Wisconsin! There were over 100 Legends cars already paddocked since Friday and Saturday were the Legends National Runoffs. The track is under construction right now and the nice big paddock area is a nice big mountain of dirt. So the new paddock, which is about the size of a driveway, is now located at turn 7. Needless to say, we did not get to park in the paddock that morning. We had to park up on the hill in the dirt. The forecast was calling for rain. There's a little foreshadowing for you.
Our first practice at 8:30am went uneventfully. It was dry and I needed to use the time to slowly bring our new tires up to temperature for their first heat cycle. The car was handling well and I got a few quick laps in at the end of the session. Quick enough to be fastest. We brought the car back in, switched to our old practice tires and put the newly cycled tires away to be saved for the race on Sunday.
Between practice and the first qualifying session at 10:45am, we set up our paddock. That's when David McGrath and his wife Lisa introduced themselves to us. Dave is a factory Road Race Technician for the American Honda motorcycle racing team. They drove up 400 plus miles from the LA area just to lend a hand and have a stress free weekend at the races. What a windfall to have him there! He tirelessly cleaned and shined the car and was full of helpful technical advice when we were making important decisions. The car has never looked so good throughout the weekend. Considering how many times it rained tells you how much work Dave was doing helping us present a good image.
Alex (Imprezer) showed up shortly after in some impeccable blue Bozz coveralls. Never has a coverall been exposed to less dirt and his wearing it disqualified him from any grungy work on the car. While Alex was walking around looking like a hired driver, the rest of us were laying in the dust getting the car ready for qualifying. I was beginning to wonder if I could borrow his coveralls. I liked Alex's role more than mine at the time. Of course, he had to put up with some good-natured ribbing from the rest of us. I remember one 'N Sync comment being let loose. Surprisingly, the spotless coveralls didn't make another appearance on Sunday…
Our first qualifying session was also rather uneventful. I got several clean laps and turned a fastest lap time of 1:28.89. We were out on really old tires that had seen race laps at Willow Springs, practice sessions at Road America, and even more practice sessions at California Speedway. The times were posted and we had again turned the fastest lap times of the day. We had the provisional pole position, being just .012 seconds faster than James Sofranes in his BMW 328i. Considering the pole is worth 10 championship points, I had a feeling the second qualifying session was going to be a real battle.
We switched over to our newer sticky tires before the final qualifying session. But that was not to be as the weathermen had a clue this time and their predicted rain started to fall, slowly at first but gaining enthusiasm as we cheered it on. Before too long the track and everything around it was soaked and the rain kept coming down. We finally had a use for our rain tires and quickly switched over.
We were upon the start of qualifying and it was still raining. This effectively handed us pole position because there was no way anyone was going to be anywhere near the dry lap times. We decided to go out in the rain for a little practice and fun. I had never driven the WRX, or any AWD car, on a racetrack in the rain. Since I love driving in the rain I had no hesitancy in going out and learning what this car would do. I was very much impressed with its ability to get the power down through all four tires. Sure it would skate around like a kid on a Slip'N'Slide while crossing over the dry line, but man, would that car hook up offline. We turned the fastest lap in the rain with a time of 1:45 by about 5 seconds.
Curiously absent from final qualifying was James Sofranes in his BMW. He was going to be our stiffest competition this weekend and we were wondering what his game plan was. We were immediately suspicious of his motives and started generating our own rumors amongst ourselves. The primary one being that he was using a special rain tire that he didn't want to let out of the bag too early. In the dry, we are required to run on 17" Hoosier R3S03 race tires, but in the wet, tire choice is open, as long as it sits on a 15-17" wheel and is DOT approved.
After qualifying we went back up to our paddock, which had turned into a mess. Walking around in that much was nasty business. Just a few steps made the bottoms of your shoes look like the feet of a plastic groom just pulled off a wedding cake. Joel said it didn't taste anything like that icing… Since the Legends guys had cleared out, we quickly moved our paddock area down to some nice pavement, tracking icing everywhere. We got set up and got ready to head home. We nearly had to pry Dave away from the car. It was going to kill him to leave the racecar there overnight with any mud on it at all.
Sunday dawned a beautiful, bright, sunny morning. Damn. What a thing to wake up to. I hate weathermen. We got to the track early and made some quick changes to the car. We took the rain tires off and put our old slicks back on. We also added some wire mess to the brake duct intakes because a chunk of rubber from the previous day had jammed one of our blower fans. By the time we got our work done it was time to go out for our last practice. It had rained some during our work, but it had stopped again and the track was damp. Considering it wasn't too wet and we wanted to save our rain tires for the race, we decided to stay on our slicks.
Along with everybody else. Including Sofranes. Practice went well and we again turned the fastest lap. Our best time was a 1:30. Sofranes was way back at 1:34 and everyone was commenting on how tail happy his BMW was around turn 7. I just assumed he was goofing around and giving everyone a show. The real deal was coming soon and I was confident he would be all business for the race.
It has finally happened. teamSMR has won its first race! After coming so close in the past only to have our chances taken away by strange mechanical problems or rogue Hondas, everything has come together at once and proven that this team and this car are not to be taken lightly!
Joel and I had been working lots of hours getting the car ready from our last race. The damage from that race was mostly cosmetic, but there was a lot of work to do. The majority of the right side of the car was really dented up. It took a lot of hammering and some blue duct tape to at least make the car presentable. We were expecting a lot of i-club members to be attending the event and wanted to get the car looking as nice as possible. In addition to the sheet metal was the damage to the custom side skirts and air dam. Both needed to be replaced and in very short order. So, with some technical advice from Tom at Kartboy, we learned what we needed to know and laid up our first fiberglass pieces, which came out pretty well, if we do say so ourselves. Hold on, I need to clap myself on the back again....OK, I'm done.
Not only did we have to contend with the damaged bodywork of the right side of the car, there was some more serious stuff that needed looking after. When Neil Vanni ran into the side of our car at California Speedway, the impact managed to break the battery box loose from its mounts in the trunk. During the race I could hear something banging around in the back of the car, but had no idea what it was and had no time to even consider it as there was a lot of ground to make up. After the race we found the battery box wedged in between the cage and the chassis, upside-down. Because it wasn't a sealed battery, it had puked battery acid all over the inside of the trunk and rear passenger area. Joel about puked when he stuck his head in the trunk and got a deep lungful. He also found out that battery acid will burn his skin, but not his tongue. It's best not to ask how he came to that conclusion. So we had to clean up that mess and build a new battery mount that could withstand a much harder impact. Like from TWO Hondas. The only thing that kept that battery out of my lap was the battery cable, which stayed attached throughout the race. Picture a rock. Tie a rope around the rock. Now swing the rock around your head. While running around in a small room. That's what was going on in the back of the car.
In addition to the inside and outside battering the car took, our braking problem raised its ugly head again. This time, it was a pad manufacturing problem. We custom ordered brake pads from Porterfield Enterprises. While the Porterfield pads are not up to our demanding conditions, they are resellers of both Performance Friction and Hawke brake pads. They also do a lot of custom cutting. We went to them looking for Performance Friction 93 compound pads. This is the same material that has been used in Indycars and has an operating range up to 1600 degrees F. Since Performance Friction doesn't make a pad for the WRX, Porterfield used a "donor" pad from a different car and cut it out to fit the WRX. That's where the problem came from. Brake pads have binder holes that the pad material goes into which helps retain the pad material to the backing plate. These donor pads have 4 holes. Two of the holes are VERY close to the edge of the pad, just below the ears that locate the pad in the caliper. Well, once we got the pads up to their hot operating temperature, the small amount of metal between the ear and the binder hole was no where near strong enough to withstand the braking forces, and the ear collapsed into the binder hole. This hung the pads up in the caliper and as we continued to wear the pad, caused the backing plate to separate from the pad material, causing the pad to crumble away.
So we took care of this by asking Porterfield to recut some of the same pads, but leave extra material underneath the ear and we would fit them ourselves. Then we trimmed the spring clips in the caliper to give a little more clearance. This allowed us to leave more steel between the ear and the binding hole of the pad and we trimmed the backing plate to fit while still leaving room for the pad to float. Hopefully we had our front pad problems fixed. Many thanks to Bernie from Aasco Racing in helping us diagnose the problem and with the solution.
ALSO, our wheel bearing problem wasn't solved. Both of our front wheel bearings cooked themselves at California Speedway. They didn't fail altogether, but during the race I was getting brake pad knockback, which makes braking for a hard corner a very exciting experience. It's so hard to stay flat on the gas when you KNOW that your brake pedal is going to go to the floor the first time you push it. When we disassembled them after the race, the plastic bearing retainers had actually boiled from the heat and were a mess inside. There was also evidence of the inner bearings spinning on the hub, which could account for a lot of that heat. So, we replaced both front hubs and both front bearings. Instead of repacking the bearings with the Redline CV2, we chose to use an exotic grease called Krytox from Dupont. Very expensive stuff that has a very high temperature rating. The documentation that came with this stuff had a whole list of nasty side effect if this stuff is eaten, stuck in your eye, got on your skin, etc. It was very exciting reading for Joel. He says it has no taste at all.
Finally, to cap it all off, we added even more ducting to the brakes and included several in line blower fans in the ducts that would help push air into the rotor and onto the calipers. There really is very little room to cram ducts in there, but with about a million zip ties and a lot of cursing, we managed to squeeze them in. We were ready to race!
We pulled into Sears Point around 7:15am on Saturday morning. Finally, a short drive to the track. It sure beats driving to Wisconsin! There were over 100 Legends cars already paddocked since Friday and Saturday were the Legends National Runoffs. The track is under construction right now and the nice big paddock area is a nice big mountain of dirt. So the new paddock, which is about the size of a driveway, is now located at turn 7. Needless to say, we did not get to park in the paddock that morning. We had to park up on the hill in the dirt. The forecast was calling for rain. There's a little foreshadowing for you.
Our first practice at 8:30am went uneventfully. It was dry and I needed to use the time to slowly bring our new tires up to temperature for their first heat cycle. The car was handling well and I got a few quick laps in at the end of the session. Quick enough to be fastest. We brought the car back in, switched to our old practice tires and put the newly cycled tires away to be saved for the race on Sunday.
Between practice and the first qualifying session at 10:45am, we set up our paddock. That's when David McGrath and his wife Lisa introduced themselves to us. Dave is a factory Road Race Technician for the American Honda motorcycle racing team. They drove up 400 plus miles from the LA area just to lend a hand and have a stress free weekend at the races. What a windfall to have him there! He tirelessly cleaned and shined the car and was full of helpful technical advice when we were making important decisions. The car has never looked so good throughout the weekend. Considering how many times it rained tells you how much work Dave was doing helping us present a good image.
Alex (Imprezer) showed up shortly after in some impeccable blue Bozz coveralls. Never has a coverall been exposed to less dirt and his wearing it disqualified him from any grungy work on the car. While Alex was walking around looking like a hired driver, the rest of us were laying in the dust getting the car ready for qualifying. I was beginning to wonder if I could borrow his coveralls. I liked Alex's role more than mine at the time. Of course, he had to put up with some good-natured ribbing from the rest of us. I remember one 'N Sync comment being let loose. Surprisingly, the spotless coveralls didn't make another appearance on Sunday…
Our first qualifying session was also rather uneventful. I got several clean laps and turned a fastest lap time of 1:28.89. We were out on really old tires that had seen race laps at Willow Springs, practice sessions at Road America, and even more practice sessions at California Speedway. The times were posted and we had again turned the fastest lap times of the day. We had the provisional pole position, being just .012 seconds faster than James Sofranes in his BMW 328i. Considering the pole is worth 10 championship points, I had a feeling the second qualifying session was going to be a real battle.
We switched over to our newer sticky tires before the final qualifying session. But that was not to be as the weathermen had a clue this time and their predicted rain started to fall, slowly at first but gaining enthusiasm as we cheered it on. Before too long the track and everything around it was soaked and the rain kept coming down. We finally had a use for our rain tires and quickly switched over.
We were upon the start of qualifying and it was still raining. This effectively handed us pole position because there was no way anyone was going to be anywhere near the dry lap times. We decided to go out in the rain for a little practice and fun. I had never driven the WRX, or any AWD car, on a racetrack in the rain. Since I love driving in the rain I had no hesitancy in going out and learning what this car would do. I was very much impressed with its ability to get the power down through all four tires. Sure it would skate around like a kid on a Slip'N'Slide while crossing over the dry line, but man, would that car hook up offline. We turned the fastest lap in the rain with a time of 1:45 by about 5 seconds.
Curiously absent from final qualifying was James Sofranes in his BMW. He was going to be our stiffest competition this weekend and we were wondering what his game plan was. We were immediately suspicious of his motives and started generating our own rumors amongst ourselves. The primary one being that he was using a special rain tire that he didn't want to let out of the bag too early. In the dry, we are required to run on 17" Hoosier R3S03 race tires, but in the wet, tire choice is open, as long as it sits on a 15-17" wheel and is DOT approved.
After qualifying we went back up to our paddock, which had turned into a mess. Walking around in that much was nasty business. Just a few steps made the bottoms of your shoes look like the feet of a plastic groom just pulled off a wedding cake. Joel said it didn't taste anything like that icing… Since the Legends guys had cleared out, we quickly moved our paddock area down to some nice pavement, tracking icing everywhere. We got set up and got ready to head home. We nearly had to pry Dave away from the car. It was going to kill him to leave the racecar there overnight with any mud on it at all.
Sunday dawned a beautiful, bright, sunny morning. Damn. What a thing to wake up to. I hate weathermen. We got to the track early and made some quick changes to the car. We took the rain tires off and put our old slicks back on. We also added some wire mess to the brake duct intakes because a chunk of rubber from the previous day had jammed one of our blower fans. By the time we got our work done it was time to go out for our last practice. It had rained some during our work, but it had stopped again and the track was damp. Considering it wasn't too wet and we wanted to save our rain tires for the race, we decided to stay on our slicks.
Along with everybody else. Including Sofranes. Practice went well and we again turned the fastest lap. Our best time was a 1:30. Sofranes was way back at 1:34 and everyone was commenting on how tail happy his BMW was around turn 7. I just assumed he was goofing around and giving everyone a show. The real deal was coming soon and I was confident he would be all business for the race.
| GarySheehan | 11-15-2001 10:59 PM |
Part II
The few hours leading up to the race were restless for us. The weather kept changing and we waited right up to the last minute to make our final tire choice. It had been raining off and on and had finally settled down to a light mist. The track looked wet enough to run with our wet tires and about 45 minutes before the race, our race director, Dave Balingit, declared it a wet race. Tires were open.
We had a fogging problem the previous day in the rain because we had removed our HVAC system several months ago. I tried to stop breathing, but that only worked for a very short time. I got foggy. So we tried to fix the situation using Rain-X Anti-Fog. I don't really trust this stuff, so I elected to go with the Wipey-stick as a back-up plan. The Wipey-stick is a stick with a rag taped to the end. When the window fogs up, you take the stick and wipey-wipey. Preferably not in a corner or while you are shifting, because wipey-wipey might turn into wipey-outie.
The reports were coming in that our man of mystery Sofranes had tricked us all. He didn't have ANY rain tires and was busy scrounging up a set of Toyo T1-S's from one of his BMW club buddies at the track. We were on Toyo RA-1's, which are much stickier. I still didn't trust the situation though, because his car was still up on jack-stands and it would only take a few minutes to switch to the secret ones. Sure enough, I was proved right. At the last minute they switched over to RA-1's. Hmm…that's not what I had expected. He must be a real rain-miester to be going up against an AWD car with no rain practice.
By this time, a fleet of Subaru's had pulled in alongside our paddock and we were overflowing with I-club members. Since it had been announced that every I-clubber that showed up would earn teamSMR a championship point, they came out in droves. Ken (WRXKen) did a great job of making sure that every I-club member got signed in with the race director, ensuring we got maximum points. I got to meet most of the folks that showed up and it was great to have so many excited Subaru enthusiasts surrounding us. It looked like the Subaru headquarters parking lot in New Jersey. Heck, it was probably raining there, too.
We went to pre-grid, speaking softly and carrying a long wipey-stick. I don't like pre-grid too much. You just sit there and think about the start. This time, there wasn't much to think about. We were on the pole with AWD and a wet track and it was going to be a standing start. My game plan was starting to form. It went something like this; Don't stall. Get to corner one first. Oh yeah, don't get run into by someone behind you.
The grid marshal waved us out and we rolled out behind the pace car, which happened to be Dave Balingit's brand new shiny white WRX! After all, it was raining. As we rolled out onto the track I was concentrating on getting some heat into my brakes. Something strange to do considering all the work we'd spent to make sure we could cool them effectively. But with the cold, wet conditions, I wanted to make sure I had nice warm brakes for turn one. One thing I didn't do was work the car around side to side to try and get some heat into the tires. There wasn't a chance that was going to happen with a wet track. You'd have to be silly to even try.
I glanced up in my mirror and notice Sofranes working his car side-to-side, trying to get some heat in the tires. I looked away and focused ahead of me, continuing to warm my brakes. I went through my mental checklist for the race start. I had my headlights and brake fans were off because I didn't want any draw off the alternator for our standing launch. I glanced up in my mirror again just in time to see James Sofranes's BMW slowly spinning while exiting turn 2 at about 30mph. I guess he didn't get any heat in those tires. I kept watching as the rest of the field passed him and wondered what the heck the procedure was at this point. Was he supposed to start at the back of the field or was he allowed to rejoin in his original position. I started flashing my lights at the pace car to notify her that we'd lost somebody. As we came through turn 5 I could see James coming back up to his starting position.
Dave was on the track to grid us. I pulled into my spot and Sofranes pulled up next to me. Dave walked back to grid the rest of the field, so James's position was settled. I kept looking over to James to give him a big thumbs up to poke fun at his mistake, but he wasn't interested. I watched in my mirror to see how the gridding was progressing. As Dave got the final drivers into place he waved to the starter that the grid was ready. I focused on the starter. I patiently watched as he raised the green flag, my engine screaming at 6000rpm, along with a field of Hondas and BMWs singing to the same tune.
The flag started its snap downward and I dropped the clutch, my eyes already all the way down the straight looking to turn one. The WRX leapt off the line without a hint of wheel spin and in the blink of an eye I grabbed second and mashed the pedal to the floor again. I took a peek in my rearview mirror to see how I was fairing and saw a blurry image. I hadn't focused my eyes far enough back to get a clear view of the field. I'd already pulled out a substantial lead over Sofranes and left him back there to deal with everyone else. At least the odds for being run into in corner one had dropped significantly.
I quickly settled down into my race pace and concentrated on putting some clean, error free laps together to draw away from the field. I turned on my headlights and brake fans, which would be on for the rest of the race. Or so I thought. After just 2 or 3 laps, with a nice cushion between me and a BMW in 2nd (not in our class), Kirkberg's BMW went flying off the outside of the Carousel and crashed into the tire barrier. There was a local yellow flag there for a lap, which soon turned into a full course yellow. Damn! There goes my lead.
After just one lap of the pace car, the blue BMW that was in 2nd place pulled off the track. That put Ali Arsham in his Honda Civic right behind me. Now THAT was a surprise, because Ali had started way back in the pack. He was running Hoosier Dirt Stocker tires, which are known to be a great DOT tire in the rain.
We continued around the pace car for another lap. Up in the stands I could see the Subaru contingent watching on. Some crazy guy was up there twirling his jacket around his head. I saw it, but didn't respond, not wanting to have a break in my concentration. Besides, I can wave to Alex any time…
The pace car turn its lights out half way through the Carousel and it was time to get back to business. The green flag waved and off we went into turn 1. Ali kept close for a couple laps, but I was slowly walking away from him. Joel was calling the split times between me and everyone else. I was pulling away from everyone at a quicker and quicker pace.
After a few laps the front windshield started to fog up. As I got onto the only remaining straight at Sears Point, I grabbed the wipey-stick and stabbed at the windshield a few times. This was complicated by a 3-4 shift in the middle of the straight. I barely had enough time to get another wipe in before stowing the stick and braking and downshifting for turn 1. My window wasn't completely clear of fog where I'd missed, and where I did get to wipe, it was a little smeary. I guess the wipey-stick was a little damp. No biggie, a streaky window was better than foggy.
By this time I was starting to lap some of the stragglers. Larry Webster, a writer from Car and Driver that was doing a story on the USTCC series, was one of the first to be passed. The poor guy came out to drive the Ground-Control Civic and they hadn't brought any rain tires with them. So he was out there just trying to keep the car on the track using slicks. After that, I can't remember who I passed because it was happening so often. I came up on some of them so fast it looked like they were out on a warm-up lap.
As I came around for another lap I broke out the stick again and worked more of the windshield. Since I had built up a lead of over 15 seconds, I could afford to delay my 3-4 shift and get most of my field of view cleaned up. I finished up and got back to driving.
A couple laps later, it was fogging up again in places. I waited until the straight and went at it with the wipey-stick again. This time it left brown smears on the window. What the hell was that? It was awful. It was blocking some of my vision. I tried wiping it again and put even more brown stuff on the windshield. ?! I looked down at the previously white towel on the end of the stick only to see it covered with mud. I held a moment of silence for the dead wipey-stick and laid it to rest for the last time. Now I had to contend with a muddy, foggy windshield.
I drove the rest of the race peering through the gaps in the mud putting in laps much cleaner than the windshield. Joel was still giving me splits as the white flag for the last lap came out. I kept quiet, as I had for most of the race, and concentrated on the track. By this time I'd lapped most of the field. I lapped Neil Vanni, in his rogue Honda, three times! James Sofranes, who was in 5th place at that time, was just a short distance in front of me when I got the white flag. Joel called out to me on the radio NOT to pass James Sofranes, just in case something happened. I didn't respond and kept pressing, trying to see how close I could get. I was within 5 car lengths as we approached start/finish. James got the white flag as he crossed over, which was immediately followed by the checkered flag as I flashed by a split second later.
I yelled into the mic to Joel that we finally won one! All I heard back was a long shout from Joel and everyone else around him in the pits. As I cruised through turn 7 in front of the pits I pumped my fist at ALL the people cheering and clapping for our victory. I continued on my cool down lap, took down my window net and waved at all the corner workers that were giving me claps and big thumbs up. As I passed the I-club contingent at the top of the hill at turn 3 I pumped both fists out the window at them. I finished off my lap and pulled into the pits with a huge smile on my face and a sense of relief because we'd finally done what we'd come so close to doing before.
I pulled into parc-ferme to the cheers of everyone around. As I pulled of my helmet and other stuff, Joel opened up the hood to help the engine cool off. Like a streak of lightening, Dave Balingit ran over to the front of our car to check on our boost telltale gauge to make sure we were legal. I've never seen him move so fast! What he saw satisfied him and he continued organizing the post race inspection. I finally climbed out of our awesome racecar and gave my girlfriend Sue a big kiss. Then I proceeded to thank everyone that was crowding around to congratulate us on our victory.
The podium ceremony commences shortly after with David Lang and his Honda Prelude in 3rd, Ali Arsham and his Honda Civic in his first podium 2nd place finish and me in the middle number one spot. Our trophies were presented and tons of pictures were taken. Then the trophies were taken away to a safe place and the champagne was handed out. David Lang managed to take me aside and we plotted to gang up on Ali since it was his first podium finish of the year. When we got the bottles open I was closest to Ali and attacked him with a healthy stream right in his eyes. Blinded, he turned away from me only to get another blast from Lang on his other side. He staggered backwards, hit the front edge of the podium with his heels and damned near killed himself as he went over the edge. He managed to hit the ground on his feet and keep himself in one piece. I jumped off the podium and ran to give my crew their traditional dousing. Joel must be afraid of champagne because he used Sue as a shield and managed to pull her down on her on her butt while trying to avoid getting wet. This champagne is dangerous stuff. It sure tastes good though!
Thanks very much to all the I-clubbers that came out to cheer us on and help us collect championship points for helping to promote the racing series.
So the points are still being tallied. With us gathering a maximum of 110 race points and lots of promo championship points and Sofranes having such a poor finish, the championship door is starting to open for us again. We now have a mathematical chance of winning the championship.
Our last race is scheduled for December 15th and 16th at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. We will be carrying an extra 100 pounds of ballast, the final reward for our race win. This doesn't concern me too much since this is the track I know the best and is what I consider the best track suited for our WRX out of the last three. We are looking to repeat our Sears Point performance at Laguna Seca, hopefully in front of another crowd of Subaru fans. And you all know what happens in California in December, right? RAIN! Start dancing now!
This story and pictures are up at [url]www.teamSMR.com[/url]
Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
[url]www.teamSMR.com[/url]
We had a fogging problem the previous day in the rain because we had removed our HVAC system several months ago. I tried to stop breathing, but that only worked for a very short time. I got foggy. So we tried to fix the situation using Rain-X Anti-Fog. I don't really trust this stuff, so I elected to go with the Wipey-stick as a back-up plan. The Wipey-stick is a stick with a rag taped to the end. When the window fogs up, you take the stick and wipey-wipey. Preferably not in a corner or while you are shifting, because wipey-wipey might turn into wipey-outie.
The reports were coming in that our man of mystery Sofranes had tricked us all. He didn't have ANY rain tires and was busy scrounging up a set of Toyo T1-S's from one of his BMW club buddies at the track. We were on Toyo RA-1's, which are much stickier. I still didn't trust the situation though, because his car was still up on jack-stands and it would only take a few minutes to switch to the secret ones. Sure enough, I was proved right. At the last minute they switched over to RA-1's. Hmm…that's not what I had expected. He must be a real rain-miester to be going up against an AWD car with no rain practice.
By this time, a fleet of Subaru's had pulled in alongside our paddock and we were overflowing with I-club members. Since it had been announced that every I-clubber that showed up would earn teamSMR a championship point, they came out in droves. Ken (WRXKen) did a great job of making sure that every I-club member got signed in with the race director, ensuring we got maximum points. I got to meet most of the folks that showed up and it was great to have so many excited Subaru enthusiasts surrounding us. It looked like the Subaru headquarters parking lot in New Jersey. Heck, it was probably raining there, too.
We went to pre-grid, speaking softly and carrying a long wipey-stick. I don't like pre-grid too much. You just sit there and think about the start. This time, there wasn't much to think about. We were on the pole with AWD and a wet track and it was going to be a standing start. My game plan was starting to form. It went something like this; Don't stall. Get to corner one first. Oh yeah, don't get run into by someone behind you.
The grid marshal waved us out and we rolled out behind the pace car, which happened to be Dave Balingit's brand new shiny white WRX! After all, it was raining. As we rolled out onto the track I was concentrating on getting some heat into my brakes. Something strange to do considering all the work we'd spent to make sure we could cool them effectively. But with the cold, wet conditions, I wanted to make sure I had nice warm brakes for turn one. One thing I didn't do was work the car around side to side to try and get some heat into the tires. There wasn't a chance that was going to happen with a wet track. You'd have to be silly to even try.
I glanced up in my mirror and notice Sofranes working his car side-to-side, trying to get some heat in the tires. I looked away and focused ahead of me, continuing to warm my brakes. I went through my mental checklist for the race start. I had my headlights and brake fans were off because I didn't want any draw off the alternator for our standing launch. I glanced up in my mirror again just in time to see James Sofranes's BMW slowly spinning while exiting turn 2 at about 30mph. I guess he didn't get any heat in those tires. I kept watching as the rest of the field passed him and wondered what the heck the procedure was at this point. Was he supposed to start at the back of the field or was he allowed to rejoin in his original position. I started flashing my lights at the pace car to notify her that we'd lost somebody. As we came through turn 5 I could see James coming back up to his starting position.
Dave was on the track to grid us. I pulled into my spot and Sofranes pulled up next to me. Dave walked back to grid the rest of the field, so James's position was settled. I kept looking over to James to give him a big thumbs up to poke fun at his mistake, but he wasn't interested. I watched in my mirror to see how the gridding was progressing. As Dave got the final drivers into place he waved to the starter that the grid was ready. I focused on the starter. I patiently watched as he raised the green flag, my engine screaming at 6000rpm, along with a field of Hondas and BMWs singing to the same tune.
The flag started its snap downward and I dropped the clutch, my eyes already all the way down the straight looking to turn one. The WRX leapt off the line without a hint of wheel spin and in the blink of an eye I grabbed second and mashed the pedal to the floor again. I took a peek in my rearview mirror to see how I was fairing and saw a blurry image. I hadn't focused my eyes far enough back to get a clear view of the field. I'd already pulled out a substantial lead over Sofranes and left him back there to deal with everyone else. At least the odds for being run into in corner one had dropped significantly.
I quickly settled down into my race pace and concentrated on putting some clean, error free laps together to draw away from the field. I turned on my headlights and brake fans, which would be on for the rest of the race. Or so I thought. After just 2 or 3 laps, with a nice cushion between me and a BMW in 2nd (not in our class), Kirkberg's BMW went flying off the outside of the Carousel and crashed into the tire barrier. There was a local yellow flag there for a lap, which soon turned into a full course yellow. Damn! There goes my lead.
After just one lap of the pace car, the blue BMW that was in 2nd place pulled off the track. That put Ali Arsham in his Honda Civic right behind me. Now THAT was a surprise, because Ali had started way back in the pack. He was running Hoosier Dirt Stocker tires, which are known to be a great DOT tire in the rain.
We continued around the pace car for another lap. Up in the stands I could see the Subaru contingent watching on. Some crazy guy was up there twirling his jacket around his head. I saw it, but didn't respond, not wanting to have a break in my concentration. Besides, I can wave to Alex any time…
The pace car turn its lights out half way through the Carousel and it was time to get back to business. The green flag waved and off we went into turn 1. Ali kept close for a couple laps, but I was slowly walking away from him. Joel was calling the split times between me and everyone else. I was pulling away from everyone at a quicker and quicker pace.
After a few laps the front windshield started to fog up. As I got onto the only remaining straight at Sears Point, I grabbed the wipey-stick and stabbed at the windshield a few times. This was complicated by a 3-4 shift in the middle of the straight. I barely had enough time to get another wipe in before stowing the stick and braking and downshifting for turn 1. My window wasn't completely clear of fog where I'd missed, and where I did get to wipe, it was a little smeary. I guess the wipey-stick was a little damp. No biggie, a streaky window was better than foggy.
By this time I was starting to lap some of the stragglers. Larry Webster, a writer from Car and Driver that was doing a story on the USTCC series, was one of the first to be passed. The poor guy came out to drive the Ground-Control Civic and they hadn't brought any rain tires with them. So he was out there just trying to keep the car on the track using slicks. After that, I can't remember who I passed because it was happening so often. I came up on some of them so fast it looked like they were out on a warm-up lap.
As I came around for another lap I broke out the stick again and worked more of the windshield. Since I had built up a lead of over 15 seconds, I could afford to delay my 3-4 shift and get most of my field of view cleaned up. I finished up and got back to driving.
A couple laps later, it was fogging up again in places. I waited until the straight and went at it with the wipey-stick again. This time it left brown smears on the window. What the hell was that? It was awful. It was blocking some of my vision. I tried wiping it again and put even more brown stuff on the windshield. ?! I looked down at the previously white towel on the end of the stick only to see it covered with mud. I held a moment of silence for the dead wipey-stick and laid it to rest for the last time. Now I had to contend with a muddy, foggy windshield.
I drove the rest of the race peering through the gaps in the mud putting in laps much cleaner than the windshield. Joel was still giving me splits as the white flag for the last lap came out. I kept quiet, as I had for most of the race, and concentrated on the track. By this time I'd lapped most of the field. I lapped Neil Vanni, in his rogue Honda, three times! James Sofranes, who was in 5th place at that time, was just a short distance in front of me when I got the white flag. Joel called out to me on the radio NOT to pass James Sofranes, just in case something happened. I didn't respond and kept pressing, trying to see how close I could get. I was within 5 car lengths as we approached start/finish. James got the white flag as he crossed over, which was immediately followed by the checkered flag as I flashed by a split second later.
I yelled into the mic to Joel that we finally won one! All I heard back was a long shout from Joel and everyone else around him in the pits. As I cruised through turn 7 in front of the pits I pumped my fist at ALL the people cheering and clapping for our victory. I continued on my cool down lap, took down my window net and waved at all the corner workers that were giving me claps and big thumbs up. As I passed the I-club contingent at the top of the hill at turn 3 I pumped both fists out the window at them. I finished off my lap and pulled into the pits with a huge smile on my face and a sense of relief because we'd finally done what we'd come so close to doing before.
I pulled into parc-ferme to the cheers of everyone around. As I pulled of my helmet and other stuff, Joel opened up the hood to help the engine cool off. Like a streak of lightening, Dave Balingit ran over to the front of our car to check on our boost telltale gauge to make sure we were legal. I've never seen him move so fast! What he saw satisfied him and he continued organizing the post race inspection. I finally climbed out of our awesome racecar and gave my girlfriend Sue a big kiss. Then I proceeded to thank everyone that was crowding around to congratulate us on our victory.
The podium ceremony commences shortly after with David Lang and his Honda Prelude in 3rd, Ali Arsham and his Honda Civic in his first podium 2nd place finish and me in the middle number one spot. Our trophies were presented and tons of pictures were taken. Then the trophies were taken away to a safe place and the champagne was handed out. David Lang managed to take me aside and we plotted to gang up on Ali since it was his first podium finish of the year. When we got the bottles open I was closest to Ali and attacked him with a healthy stream right in his eyes. Blinded, he turned away from me only to get another blast from Lang on his other side. He staggered backwards, hit the front edge of the podium with his heels and damned near killed himself as he went over the edge. He managed to hit the ground on his feet and keep himself in one piece. I jumped off the podium and ran to give my crew their traditional dousing. Joel must be afraid of champagne because he used Sue as a shield and managed to pull her down on her on her butt while trying to avoid getting wet. This champagne is dangerous stuff. It sure tastes good though!
Thanks very much to all the I-clubbers that came out to cheer us on and help us collect championship points for helping to promote the racing series.
So the points are still being tallied. With us gathering a maximum of 110 race points and lots of promo championship points and Sofranes having such a poor finish, the championship door is starting to open for us again. We now have a mathematical chance of winning the championship.
Our last race is scheduled for December 15th and 16th at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. We will be carrying an extra 100 pounds of ballast, the final reward for our race win. This doesn't concern me too much since this is the track I know the best and is what I consider the best track suited for our WRX out of the last three. We are looking to repeat our Sears Point performance at Laguna Seca, hopefully in front of another crowd of Subaru fans. And you all know what happens in California in December, right? RAIN! Start dancing now!
This story and pictures are up at [url]www.teamSMR.com[/url]
Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
[url]www.teamSMR.com[/url]
| [email protected] | 11-15-2001 11:25 PM |
WOW!!!
thats all i got to say..
and congrats too
see you in december
[email][email protected][/email]
thats all i got to say..
and congrats too
see you in december
[email][email protected][/email]
| [email protected] | 11-15-2001 11:27 PM |
HEY!!!
Where's your Kartboy Kap?
Where's your Kartboy Kap?
| Sergeant_V | 11-16-2001 12:08 AM |
Gary,
You are obviously a terrific road racer. Have you every considered a career in writing? That was a terrific narrative. Congratulations on the win.
-V
You are obviously a terrific road racer. Have you every considered a career in writing? That was a terrific narrative. Congratulations on the win.
-V
| Arnie | 11-16-2001 12:26 AM |
Congrats!
Great to hear you guys finally did it. I wonder if the USTCC will eventually ban the WRX because of the 4 wheel drive advantage, like what happened to Audi way back when.
So, how was driving an AWD car at the limit in the wet? Did you have any understeer or oversteer problems in the corners? Did you have to back off more due to the conditions or could you really just hammer?
Give us the scoop on how you had to drive, technique wise, in the wet with this car. Enquiring Newbies want to know!
Once again, good show and congratulations.
Arnie
PS I agree with the Sarge, great narrative. Insightful and humorous.
So, how was driving an AWD car at the limit in the wet? Did you have any understeer or oversteer problems in the corners? Did you have to back off more due to the conditions or could you really just hammer?
Give us the scoop on how you had to drive, technique wise, in the wet with this car. Enquiring Newbies want to know!
Once again, good show and congratulations.
Arnie
PS I agree with the Sarge, great narrative. Insightful and humorous.
| Kostamojen | 11-16-2001 01:21 AM |
Woo! Congrats :D
Great story, really cool to hear from the first person perspective of a race driver like that :eek:
Im really tempted to stay after the I-club Laguna Seca event on the 14th to see you win ;) :lol:
Great story, really cool to hear from the first person perspective of a race driver like that :eek:
Im really tempted to stay after the I-club Laguna Seca event on the 14th to see you win ;) :lol:
| 10th Warrior | 11-16-2001 01:22 AM |
[QUOTE]Walking around in that much was
nasty business. Just a few steps made the bottoms of your shoes look like the feet of a plastic groom just
pulled off a wedding cake.[/QUOTE]
:lol: :lol: :lol: well said, jeeves :)
once again, congrats on the win.
nasty business. Just a few steps made the bottoms of your shoes look like the feet of a plastic groom just
pulled off a wedding cake.[/QUOTE]
:lol: :lol: :lol: well said, jeeves :)
once again, congrats on the win.
| Marquis | 11-16-2001 07:35 AM |
Wow, sounds like a great time. If only I had some way of getting over to CA for the last race... :(
| Scoobyslack1 | 11-16-2001 09:48 AM |
again congrats Gary and crew
maybe next year I'll see you at Vegas again.....and HOPEFULLY on TV soon
| Tim K. | 11-16-2001 10:21 AM |
Gary,
I've always looked forward to reading your race reports. This one was well worth the wait. Congratulations, and thanks for the awesome writeup.
And keep Joel away from the battery acid... :)
Regards,
Tim K
I've always looked forward to reading your race reports. This one was well worth the wait. Congratulations, and thanks for the awesome writeup.
And keep Joel away from the battery acid... :)
Regards,
Tim K
| Radio Flyer | 11-16-2001 10:50 AM |
Great story, great writing! Congrats on the win! :cool:
Loved the allusions to Joel's constant taste-sampling of things! :lol: Good that you allowed him to 'taste' victory -- even if it was at Sue's expense!
It looks like I'll be moving to NM in the near future, so there's a decent chance that I'll be able to make it to one of your races next year. :)
- Eric
'98 2.5 GT Wagon - [url=http://members.i-club.com/ViewMemberPics.cfm?MemberID=143]Pics[/url] - [url=http://www.jeneric.ws/eric/radioflyer.htm]Page[/url] -
ICQ #: 9292601
<i>PS: I'm rather curious, what became of </i>Killer Bee Racing<i>?</i>
Loved the allusions to Joel's constant taste-sampling of things! :lol: Good that you allowed him to 'taste' victory -- even if it was at Sue's expense!
It looks like I'll be moving to NM in the near future, so there's a decent chance that I'll be able to make it to one of your races next year. :)
- Eric
'98 2.5 GT Wagon - [url=http://members.i-club.com/ViewMemberPics.cfm?MemberID=143]Pics[/url] - [url=http://www.jeneric.ws/eric/radioflyer.htm]Page[/url] -
ICQ #: 9292601
<i>PS: I'm rather curious, what became of </i>Killer Bee Racing<i>?</i>
| GarySheehan | 11-16-2001 11:16 AM |
Killer Bee lives on. Richard is building a 200mph Honda Civic! He's already had it in the low 190's. He'll get that record very shortly.
| BrandonC | 11-16-2001 12:09 PM |
BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Wipey-stick....AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
wipey-wipey....AAAAAAAHAHAHA *cough cough* HAHAHAHAHA *choke*
*sniff sniff*
That's some funny stuff right there. Excellent racing, excellent writing. I could read this all day.
Wipey-stick....AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
wipey-wipey....AAAAAAAHAHAHA *cough cough* HAHAHAHAHA *choke*
*sniff sniff*
That's some funny stuff right there. Excellent racing, excellent writing. I could read this all day.
| KC | 11-16-2001 12:22 PM |
Hey congrats Gary!
Here, lemme show you some support on the upcoming race....
[IMG]http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1430177&a=12941001&p=52842286[/IMG]
Here, lemme show you some support on the upcoming race....
[IMG]http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1430177&a=12941001&p=52842286[/IMG]
| philioWRXman | 11-16-2001 12:24 PM |
WOOHOO!
Way to go Gary, I can't wait to hear the Laguna Seca write up, you did a great job on this one.
I just feel bad i wasnt able to make it to the Sears Point, and Im only 45 minutes out with traffic.
How many I-Clubbers showed up after all?
I just feel bad i wasnt able to make it to the Sears Point, and Im only 45 minutes out with traffic.
How many I-Clubbers showed up after all?
| nqwan | 11-16-2001 04:50 PM |
how much $ is this wipey stick and where can i get one? :D
| tfrwrx | 11-16-2001 04:50 PM |
suspension
Gary
What suspension system do you have on your USTCC car??
What suspension system do you have on your USTCC car??
| Dussander | 11-16-2001 04:56 PM |
[QUOTE]What suspension system do you have on your USTCC car??[/QUOTE]
It is all here:
[url]http://www.teamsmr.com/html/body_racing_the_subaru_wrx.html[/url]
It is all here:
[url]http://www.teamsmr.com/html/body_racing_the_subaru_wrx.html[/url]
| Joe Lee | 11-16-2001 07:52 PM |
Great news Gary! Great narrative!
Congratulations and good luck with the Championship.
Any chance you guys will be at Lime Rock next year??? Our NASA Region would LOVE to host!
Joe Lee
[url]www.NASANORTHEAST.net[/url]
Stuck in the East ...
Congratulations and good luck with the Championship.
Any chance you guys will be at Lime Rock next year??? Our NASA Region would LOVE to host!
Joe Lee
[url]www.NASANORTHEAST.net[/url]
Stuck in the East ...
| WRSport | 11-16-2001 09:44 PM |
Well, once again thank you for taking the time to write this up!
Can't wait to watch you guys Win the first season of USTCC at laguna!!!!
Rain or Dry.
Cheers,
_chris
Rest in Piece Mr Wipey Stick :)
Can't wait to watch you guys Win the first season of USTCC at laguna!!!!
Rain or Dry.
Cheers,
_chris
Rest in Piece Mr Wipey Stick :)
| wrxken | 11-16-2001 09:58 PM |
STICKY STUFF
THE MUD AT SEARS IN UNFORGIVEN ONE CAR WENT OFF INTO THE MUD AT TURN NINE ITS LIKE GLUE SUCKED HIS SPLITTER OFF THE FRONT OF HIS CAR
JOB WELL DONE AND YOUR TEAM EARNED IT
GARY SUE AND JOEL IT WAS GOOD TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN
AWD "POWER " TO THE SUBIES LMAO
SEMPER FI WRXKEN/KEN WRXWOMEN/GILLY
JOB WELL DONE AND YOUR TEAM EARNED IT
GARY SUE AND JOEL IT WAS GOOD TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN
AWD "POWER " TO THE SUBIES LMAO
SEMPER FI WRXKEN/KEN WRXWOMEN/GILLY
| direwlf | 11-17-2001 12:04 AM |
Gary, your my hero!!!! Congrats on the victory :D
| Joel Gat, 1.8L | 11-17-2001 02:28 AM |
Hello,
WOO HOO!!!! It was so good to finally get that elusive win... :) Heh... you know, it's funny that I taste everything, but when we all thought we blew the motor at a test session at Thunderhill, no one complained when I tasted the dripping fluid under the car (in the hot-pit area) and announced "It's not oil, it's tranny fluid - probably the power steering." And I was right... :)
Joel Gat
Chief Mechanic........................Shop Manager
Sheehan Motor Racing...............Mostly Mazda / M2 Performance
[url]http://www.teamsmr.com[/url]..........[url]http://www.m2performance.com[/url]
#72 USTCC Subaru WRX
WOO HOO!!!! It was so good to finally get that elusive win... :) Heh... you know, it's funny that I taste everything, but when we all thought we blew the motor at a test session at Thunderhill, no one complained when I tasted the dripping fluid under the car (in the hot-pit area) and announced "It's not oil, it's tranny fluid - probably the power steering." And I was right... :)
Joel Gat
Chief Mechanic........................Shop Manager
Sheehan Motor Racing...............Mostly Mazda / M2 Performance
[url]http://www.teamsmr.com[/url]..........[url]http://www.m2performance.com[/url]
#72 USTCC Subaru WRX
| WRSport | 11-17-2001 06:38 AM |
Now thats a devoted mechanic.
| Joel Gat, 1.8L | 11-17-2001 02:17 PM |
Hello,
Great story, Gary! I can't believe with all the work we put into that car that you have time to write that much. You must never sleep!
By the way, I hope we see at least a million of you folks at Leguna Seca on December 15-16. Of course, all of the people going to the scooby event on December 14 should stay for the weekend races. And do rain dances with us...
On the 14th, a lucky bunch of y'all will be able to take rides with Gary in the racecar... But everyone will be able to watch Gary dominate at his home track... Come and cheer!
Joel Gat
Chief Mechanic........................Shop Manager
Sheehan Motor Racing...............Mostly Mazda / M2 Performance
[url]http://www.teamsmr.com[/url]..........[url]http://www.m2performance.com[/url]
#72 USTCC Subaru WRX
Great story, Gary! I can't believe with all the work we put into that car that you have time to write that much. You must never sleep!
By the way, I hope we see at least a million of you folks at Leguna Seca on December 15-16. Of course, all of the people going to the scooby event on December 14 should stay for the weekend races. And do rain dances with us...
On the 14th, a lucky bunch of y'all will be able to take rides with Gary in the racecar... But everyone will be able to watch Gary dominate at his home track... Come and cheer!
Joel Gat
Chief Mechanic........................Shop Manager
Sheehan Motor Racing...............Mostly Mazda / M2 Performance
[url]http://www.teamsmr.com[/url]..........[url]http://www.m2performance.com[/url]
#72 USTCC Subaru WRX
| GimmeScoobySnacks | 11-17-2001 03:23 PM |
alright good job!! i already put in my request at work so i can go watch at laguna seca....so how do i get to be one of the lucky ones who get a ride in the car?
Sid
Sid
| Templar | 11-18-2001 09:14 AM |
All I can say is Bravo and congrats. I am thrilled that Subarus are really starting to recieve some recognition in the US motorsports world.
Well Done.
Kent
Well Done.
Kent
| BattleVersion | 11-19-2001 02:22 AM |
Great job Gary, Love the write up.
Thanks Joel for letting me use the air compressor, I still havent fixed the nail.
Alex
Thanks Joel for letting me use the air compressor, I still havent fixed the nail.
Alex
| Jason | 11-20-2001 01:12 AM |
blower fan for the brake?? :eek:
that fan must been pushing over 100cfm.....
anyway, congragulation on the 1st win. :)
that fan must been pushing over 100cfm.....
anyway, congragulation on the 1st win. :)
| GarySheehan | 11-20-2001 02:44 AM |
145 cfm, to be exact.
Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
[url]www.teamSMR.com[/url]
Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
[url]www.teamSMR.com[/url]
| omahasubaru | 11-20-2001 11:23 AM |
Congrats on the win...
Great write up as well. I got butterflys in my stomach and chills a couple of times... made me feel like I was in the steat with your (or next to you). Sounds like a blast!!!
Do you by chance know if the USTCC will be adding [url=http://www.midamericamotorplex.com]Mid America Motorplex[/url] to it's schedule? Also if you ever want to come out to the track let me know, I can take care of arrangements for you.
CONGRATS ONCE AGAIN!!!
Jon
Great write up as well. I got butterflys in my stomach and chills a couple of times... made me feel like I was in the steat with your (or next to you). Sounds like a blast!!!
Do you by chance know if the USTCC will be adding [url=http://www.midamericamotorplex.com]Mid America Motorplex[/url] to it's schedule? Also if you ever want to come out to the track let me know, I can take care of arrangements for you.
CONGRATS ONCE AGAIN!!!
Jon
| the_gille | 11-20-2001 08:26 PM |
Congrats on your first win!!! I knew that you would get one before the season was over. Great write up as well.
Ben
Ben
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