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OTC 2004 |
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Justin's Short Account of the OTC Derek Daly LVMS : 2:12.596 This was the new 2.4 mile track. First time there and I would consider this a Very technical course. Not really worth the drive unless attached to an event like the OTC. I have no goals for this track as I probably won't be back to it any time soon. I believe 90% of the turns were decreasing radius. Ugh. What broke in Vegas, an EVO VIII being run by Rick White and Wayne Mello popped it's second motor the first session out. The car only had 3000 miles on it. An EVO being run by Shiv of Vishnu tuning in Pleasanton lost a crank angle sensor and a Porsche 944 Turbo lost an Oil Pan Gasket. Willow Springs : 1:46.935 My first time at the "Fastest track in the west" and they aren't kidding. Not as Technical but my co-driver and I only had one session on it each as we had a 7 to 8 hour drive to THill to look forward to. Lots of fun, and requires lots of bravery. I know I lost a lot of time on turn 1 every single time and I kept taking an early apex on 9. I'll be going back. I want to break into the 1:3x.xx time frame. What broke at Willow Springs, A Shelby Cobra had a steel line rub thru an oil line (Thanks to Alan Blaine fixing the only place this could have happened in my car). Turn 9 was messy. Vishnu tuning got their Mitsubishi backed EVO back up and running and the guys in the 944 managed to replace their gasket and ran with us too. A highly modified AWD Mitsubishi Eclipse from Road Race Engineering blew a head gasket. My Co-Driver went off just past the Budweiser balcony on the decreasing radius turn there. No Damage. I have some nice Video of a Mini S getting sideways coming out of 3 and hitting the hill pretty hard, just a bent rim. Thunder Hill : 2:16.821 Back at THill for the, I dunno I lost count, umpteenth time. I ran about half a session here before there was an Incident. I still managed to run my best recorded time there. I only ran the one session. My current goal is a 2:13 with a 2:0x:xx somewhere on the horizon. I let Erik Messley drive my car for my second session (which didn't count for points with a different driver) and his first full lap out he ran a 2:07 and backed it up with another 2:07 then pulled in. It is amazing to watch someone like that out on the track What broke at Thunderhill, Well, Derek Wang took his EVO http://www.otcevo.com off at 8 and I have no idea how me managed it but he made the car do an Endo and flipped end over end 3 times. You always have to be careful out there. He said it was on a cool down lap. I have pictures that I will eventually post on my site http://www.stifiles.com Shiv's EVO showed up briefly but didn't run all day and eventually went home broken. Not sure what happened to it. Sears Point : 2:05.743 Sears point actually started out pouring down rain in the morning. I was planning on not running when some of the guys that were close to us in points ran the first session. I was just too competitive to let them run with no challenge. Even though I have a healthy fear of Sears from all of P. Cabana's stories :) I ran a 2:31:xx in the pouring rain which was a pretty good time in the wet compared to everyone that was there. However, It dried up and everyone went back out. My goal for Sears is a 1:5X:XX. Sears was probably my favorite track of the event, While probably pretty intimidating for beginners I had no fear after running it in the rain. What broke at Sears, A pretty yellow S4 being run by a Father and Son (Team IronButt) of Mike and Norm Babcock took a spin down the front straight in the wet and kissed a wall. They dented in the rear bumper and broke their right rear lens. They just pulled the bumper and used some Yellow racers tape to keep the bumper closed and kept on racing. An EVO being run by Robert Fuller with Gene Sigal as the hired gun driver popped it's motor. The last running EVO driver Vesko Kazorav was scared into lowering his boost from a stock to 14lbs. Button Willow : 2:13.285 Button Willow was a fun track, We ran Track configuration #13 CCW. Everyone was beat and though we were towards the bottom of the pack we had secured not being last (our original goal) we were trying to fight our way up one extra spot. Robert fuller and his team towed the car from Sears to San Rafael Mitsubishi. They got a motor from a totaled EVO, worked all night installing it. Towed the car back to Sears, then drove it to Button Willow per the Touring class rules. They made it just in time for the last session. They ran 3 good laps when they lost the front diff and blew smoke and gear oil everywhere. It was enough for them to secure first place in Touring 3 though. We were making pretty good power, 313Hp/334Tq with a weight of about 3530lbs w/ me driving. We also had upgraded brake lines, fluid, pads, and some aluminum hat rotors up front along with a cornerweighted suspension using some 16 way TEIN RA struts. We also had a pretty aggressive alignment. I already have more plans for better handling, even with the front as soft as possible and the rear all the way stiff we couldn't dial out the understeer. We were using Falken Azenis Sports for tires and they worked pretty decently as long as you gave them a cool down lap after every couple hot laps. I'm looking forward to lots of track time this year. Over all we are happy with the results. We accomplished our goals of not being last and keeping the shiny side up Check back for pictures to be added. |
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