May 13

The Streets of Willow
May 14, 2002
"The Short Track Kings"

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

I can't get a damn phone line connection to the Internet. No wonder the telecom companies are going broke. Either stupid ass MSN is down, or the stupid hotel can't get their outside phones to work, or some wacky dialing procedure that needs "x" amount of commas for the local telephone service to kick in. SHIT. How the hell can the telecom companies make money when millions of people can't easily dial in from a damn modem? No wonder they have lots of bandwidth sitting around wasted. It is because no one wants to spend half the damn night trying to get a modem connection. Microsoft needs to align itself with the telecom companies, and come up with some AI software that says, "I need to connect to 714-999-0202, and if it fails, it does a different iteration, if that fails, it goes to another portion of the decision tree, so eventually it finds a combo that works. And you can get some sleep while it takes its time getting you a connection. As it is now, I spend two damn hours trying to outwit MSN/Pacific Bell/Hotel desk clerks in try to get a damn 28.8 modem connection.

Amir's back! F40 launching up the hill at the Streets of Willow

The results for the Top 10 going into this morning, prior to the Streets of Willow event, for the OTC Overall Winner were the following:

1. Mumford/Provost - Viper ACR 580

2. Hayashi/Messley/Mello in the Flamemobile - 565

3. Mello/Messley/Hayashi in Wayne's 944 Turbo - 555

4. Lindsey/Flaherty - Mustang - 550

5. Rupert Bragg-Smith - Corvette - 550

6. Buzzeti/Chen - Lotus Elise (racing model) - 550

7. Ondrack/Salter - Porsche 914/6 - 550

8. Hardee/Allen - NSX - 515

9. Sheehan/Holdener - Subaru WRX - 495

10. Royce/Hickerson - Lotus 340 R - 495

Buzzetti/Chen - Short Track Specialists

Points are scored on something like the (number of cars) x (5 points) for first place, and then subtract 5 points for 2nd, subtract another 5 points for 3rd, etc. Kinda like the NASCAR geeks score points.

If you look closely, EMI Racing Suspensions is supporting the Top 3 teams in the OTC, meaning that they setup Mumford's Viper with their trick suspensions, they setup my NSX (it only took them four damn months <grin>), and they are helping Wayne out at this event. They are also supporting Brian and John's 240Z, which is battling it out in Unlimited 3.

Like I said yesterday, we felt pretty confident going into this event that we had our fuel pump problem fixed from the day before, and we are real close to getting the handling dialed in after two days at the track.

The field is divided into four run groups. Originally, a lot of us were figuring that we would run our car in only one run group, and get 10-11 laps in that run group, of which 3 will be our fastest laps. We would then pack up, and go to the next track, in order to "save the car" and make it last for all seven events. Unfortunately, everyone is using all four session, and getting faster each session. Which means that we are all thrashing the cars on the track in order to be the King of that particular track.

Amir is back on the track with his F40. Turns out it was some obscure cam sensor that came loose, and Tillack's Ferrari service fixed this, as well as doing an 6-hour alignment and corner balance on the car as it was badly out of alignment.

Erik and I agree that he would go out in session 1, I would go out in session 2, we would then make changes to suspension, and then we split session 3. This way I can try to learn what he feels the car is doing, and after we change it, I can try to feel the difference.

Monroe's Mustang

Erik hasn't been on this track in 7 years or so, and that was without the bowl configuration. We are among the first people at the track, so he rides our gas powered scooter about 7 laps to re-learn the track. In his first session, he destroys the field with a string of 1:27.xx laps. Everyone else is running 1:31 or higher in our run group. MWAHhahahahhaha! After all five run groups have been on the track once, the only other car close to us is the Lotus Elise race car, which is just a few tenths off our pace. The NSX is hooking up good, and the car looks spectacular in terms of handling when ripping through the turns by the stands. Erik thinks there is still 1.5 seconds left to gain if he pushes the car hard, but we'll try save the car and just wait till someone beats our time before pushing any harder.

I go out in session two, and am running 1:29.xx. Erik has the ability to go out on the track and blaze laps immediately, whereas I feel like I need about three sessions to get some rhythm going, as I usually drop 2-4 seconds between sessions 1 and 3. Maybe I should take up cone-dodging so I can learn tracks quicker. In our second run group that combines Unlimited One and Unlimited Two cars, I have the fastest lap of all the cars. We are dialed in!!

Amir and his co-driver burst into the 1:29's with the F40. Looks like their car is sorted out after their alignment at Tillack.

Mumford/Provost are having a hard time on the streets, and they are around 1:31.x or higher. We start doing some calculations, and they are probably in 10th place or so, which means we will score 45 more points than they do, since we have the three fastest laps put together for the day. Heh heh heh....those Viper guys are going down today.

At speed in the NSX

Session 3, we agree that Erik will drive Wayne's car for three laps to see if he feels that any suspension changes should be made, and then he will hop into my car to see if the changes he made help any. My first hot lap I run a 1:29.64, and my second lap looks like it will dip into the 1:28 range, but I botch up the mini NASCAR bowl turn, and catch it before I spin, thus ruining my lap. I go into the hot pits, and Erik hops in the car for a lap or two, but another car breaks down and, so everyone is waved in. Erik doesn't get a chance for a hot lap, but we aren't too worried, as no one else is really close except for the Lotus Elise, and they already packed their bags. Again, I have the fastest lap of our run group this session, but a good two seconds off of Messley's best time. But I figured if I had a couple of sessions in a row, I could get pretty close to his laptimes. We start packing up...figuring we save the car and not run in our 4th run group. Hey, when you are in first place at the track, no use taking a chance at breaking the car just to beat your own laptime!

Amir has more problems with the F40. Looks like no boost, so he is back to Tillack's for more work on the car. He says that instead of 7 tracks in 7 days, maybe 7 tracks in 14 days would be better, so every other day he can fix any problems on the F40. We hope to see him make a late appearance at Buttonwillow.

Ondrack/Salter are getting their 914-6 dialed in.....

As we are packing the cars in the trailer for session 4, rumor has it that the 914-6 blazes a 1:26 lap, so it looks like they are getting dialed in, but I don't think they have a total of three laps faster than us. So I think we may have won this event in terms of best set of 3 laps. In session 4, Mumford performs some Hail Mary last minute heroics, and drops his Viper on street rubber into the 1:29's. We think he took 4th place......and us first....which by my calculations put us......tied for first place at Death Race 2000: The OTC!

So we think we become the Short Track Kings in terms of team with the three cumulative fastest laps....taking down the Elise and the 914-6....but we won't know until tomorrow morning for sure. And we think we tied for Overall OTC King going into Day 4 of the Open Track Challenge...

Many thanks to Comptech for a reliable supercharger, ACR Motorsports for the clutch we are using at this event, Kinesis wheels for getting our two sets of rims ready in time for the event, Science of Speed for the diffuser. And of course to NSX Modified and EMI Racing Suspensions for race support and getting the car ready to kick some butt!

Lotus, Datsun, and Miata ready to duke it out