Willow Springs Raceway
May 13, 2002
"The Fastest Team at the Fastest Track in the West"

7 Tracks in 7 Days to determine who really is the fastest driver/car combo

Picking up from yesterday, Day 1.

So Erik, Larry, and Rueben pretty much worked on the car all night again to get suspension stuff fixed.  It sucks having a 10 year old car with 147,000 miles on it, lots of stuff breaks.

Photo by Head-On Photos
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I told Wayne and Dagmar I would make it from Pahrump to our hotel in Mojave by 9:00 p.m.  We get there late, at 9:01 p.m.  You can set the Atomic Clock by my scheduling.  We took some wacky back roads that Dagmar figured out from the map, and for the first three hours of the trip we didn't see more than 20 cars.  I think it used to be an old bombing range for China Lake, or something like that.  We make sure we scan the skies in case our RV and trailer looks like an Iraqi tank or Afghanistan supply truck to the pilots practicing to defend our country against terrorism. 

The Enemy - Mumford/Provost in the Viper ACR. 

In the OTC BBS about four days ago, I posted the following:

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The only sides bets that I had a chance to take are from the Viper dudes.  Mumford and I agree to the odds above, given that one of us wins overall.  So if I win overall, Mumford forks over $300, and if Mumford wins overall, I fork over $400.  I feel those are good odds.  Dearing and Wasserman also take the bet, so I have to fork over $600 to them if they win overall, and they owe me $300 if I win overall.

Dearing/Wasserman

After Day One at Pahrump,  Mumford/Provost were 1st overall, with me and Messley in 2nd place overall using the 10 year old Flamemobile powered by a 5 year old Comptech Supercharger, EMI Suspensions, and NSX Modified mechanicals/engine.  If the old suspension link would not have failed and the bolt for the rear A army thingy not backed out and become stripped with the high G-loads of our driving, I would have had the correct odds for the 1st and 2nd place teams, as we would have kicked their ass at Pahrump. <grin>.   I don't keep track of class winners, as there is only one thing we are focused on:  OTC King, meaning the team with the most total points of all 60+ cars entered in the event.

Under high g load at Willow Springs
Photo by Head-On Photos

The night before Day 2, Willow Springs, Erik, Larry, and Reuben perform  heroics on the parts that broke.  Meaning that I think Larry slept for a couple of hours in the truck at Erik's shop, and I think Erik did not sleep at all that night.  I guess when you run the 24 hours of Daytona, you get used to stuff like that.  Anyways, they pull up at the track at 8:20 a.m., which is about 10 minutes before our run group.  Perfect timing.  I go out and run a sloppy 1:32.xx, which is the fastest time in Group 1, (mostly Unlimited 1 and Unlimited 2 cars), despite having the car sputter because I didn't put enough gas in the car.  So I had to pit, get gas, and go back out, which really screwed up my rhythm.  Sessions are short, 20-25 minutes.  We are getting four of them a day.  It is a hot, dusty day at Willow, and people are running slower than normal.  Coming in from the pits, the hot pit workers said that I blew out the baffle on my straight pipe, and left it somewhere out on the track.  Great.  So we removed the baffle on the other side, and now it probably blows exhaust out at 125 db.  I now have the noisiest, most obnoxious car on the track.  It sounds louder than a 747 airplane

Lotus Elise 340 R

Session 2, Erik makes some changes, goes out, and runs 1:30.xx.  Wayne comes in and is ecstatic, as he ran a high 1:28 for the first time ever, which gets him Top Time of the Day out of all competitors at the track.   EMI Racing  is awarding a $50 "Big Dog at the Big Track" Award to first place finishers in each class, so Wayne is chasing down Erik and John, asking where his $50 is.  Don't forget that Wayne's team is technically  "Mello/Messley/Hayashi, as we are three drivers sharing two cars on our team.  

Mumford seems to be having problems with his street tires chunking.  The Lindsey/Flaherty Mustang is in the 1:29's, along with some other people.

The Lindsey/Flaherty Mustang

I go out in session three, and car is sputtering coming out of Turn 9.  Can't be gas, as I got enough gas this time.  I can't get better than a 1:32.   Suspension is feeling good, I just need more seat time.

Session 4, Erik makes more changes, and goes out.  He is running 1:32's also, but car is sputtering even worse after Larry bumped up fuel pressure.  But Erik is excited, as he said he didn't have to hit the brakes going into Turn 2, so he is almost there with the setup for Big Willow.

Larry checks out fuel pumps, finds out he isn't getting enough voltage to the fuel pump, rechecks some wires and the the ground wire, and it looks like we are back in business.  Unfortunately, the day is over.  But we should be ready for the Streets of Willow.  The results for the King of Willow are:

Yeah, I know, times are much slower than we expected by a couple of seconds, probably due to the hot temps at the track.  But I was correct in figuring that we are a good match for Mumford/Provost at Big Willow, as they barely beat us out, despite having the car barfing a bit coming out of turn 9.  We figure that we have to worry about the Viper at Big Willow and Thunderhill, as those are tracks that favor high horsepower cars.

Top Lap Time of the Day goes to Mr. Mello in his trusty 944 Turbo!

A surprise is that the Lotus Elise race car that is entered blazes to the 4th fastest combined time of the day.  That itty bitty car is a four cylinder, normally-aspirated rocket ship!

Luckily, the next event is the Streets of Willow Springs,  only 1/2 mile from today's event.  The short track specialist get their chance at revenge after getting their butts kicked on the high speed track.

The Lotus Elise is 4th fastest at Willow Springs big track

The ffing hot lap timer beacons that people are setting out are not working properly, so I am going to be the first one in the morning to go out there and setup a hot lap timer in the proper place.

We see Amir in the parking lot, and it turns out his problem the day before was a loose cam clip sensor, or something wacky like that.  He went to Tillack's, who fixed the F40 and did a thorough alignment on it as the car was way off in corner balance and camber/etc., so he is ready to make a comeback tomorrow.  Unfortunately he did not get to run at Big Willow which is the perfect track for the F40.

Mark O'Dell wins Touring 4 with a 1:40.9 at the big track in a Mini!!

I am feeling pretty good about our chances at the Streets of Willow, as the suspension is getting closer, and I have a couple of Cheating Bastard sessions on this track from earlier this year in the S2000, and now I have about 160+ more HP, and 240 lbs less weight with the NSX....heh heh heh....this should be fun.

After two days of battle, Mumford/BP 1st, Flamemobile 2nd, Wayne 3rd overall
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