OTC Day 4 - Sears Point

Sears Point/Infineon Raceway
April 21th, 2004
The Circus Heads to Wine Country

5 Tracks in 5 Days to determine who really is the fastest driver/car/team

Autowave is maintaining and tuning the Flamemobile

Wednesday, April 21th, at Sears
This is not the "Official OTC" page. It is my "unbiased" (heh) interpretation of the events prior to the Open Track Challenge, and a diary of what happened during the event.

You can say there was a little rain at Sears Point - photo by B. Ethington
(Click here for bigass picture)

We wake up in the morning, and it is a bit misty. We get to the track it starts to sprinkle, then a bit later, it starts to rain. The Audi guys are praying for rain, the rest of us want it to clear up. Sears has concrete walls everywhere, and no one wants to crash their car. In the first session, the green Audi runs a 2:14. I ran 2:28 with rain tires.

Prior to today, it looks like Matt/Robby/Gene are winning T3 right now with Robby's EVO. Terry Rossi is winning T1.

Dearing in the rain - photo by B. Ethington
(Click here for bigass picture)

Getting ready for our second session, not sure what the plan should be. I checked the weather report, it should clear up in the afternoon.

10:35 a.m. We got more rain. Dearing didn't run the first session, but he is driving the Viper in session 2. Erik and I decide that in order to win today, we should probably have Erik drive the two sessions in the afternoon, hoping they are dry, and I will run the two rain sessions and get my kicks. And talk about kicks! Zipping through turn 10 there is a big ass puddle, and as you are turning and hit that puddle, the entire car jumps about four feet to the left side, toward the short grass area that ends up next to a cement wall. And if you are doing 80 in the turn and hit the wet grass, you will suddenly pick up another 30 mph, right into the wall.

A lot of fun, as long as you don't hit a wall - photo by B. Ethington
(Click here for bigass picture)

Dearing goes out in the second session, so we put up our dukes to see who is fastest in the rain. It appears that I am faster than him in the first part of this session. I get down to about 2:20 or so, and it has finally stopped raining. Dearing pits, then comes back out behind me, I think because he discovered a short cut going into turn 2. He just completely bypassed it and cut it early and went through the dirt and went airborn back onto the track. I come out of the Carousel, blast down the straight into the hairpin, and I give it a little too much gas and spin. Damn. Dearing passes me. After a few more laps with rooster tails coming out of the back of my rear tires, they checker the session. I come in and I hear that Dearing ran something like 2:16-2:18-2:2x. He got me in the rain. This ass whupping must stop!

Adam/Lewis Mustang out for some fun in the rain - photo by B. Ethington
(click here for bigger picture)

We have lunch, and suddenly the sun comes out and starts drying out the track. We get Erik ready to go out on the track. After a few laps, oooops...he hits a rut right before a berm going up towards turn 2 and bends a left front rim. Why the hell the Sears maintenance guys don't fill in the ruts is beyond me. My NSX with the Penske triple adjustables is designed to "fly" over the curbs, kinda like how you see the Formula 1 guys purposely going over parts of the chicane, instead of staying only on the blacktop. Using the curbs effectively widens the track around couple of feet or so, allowing you to get on the gas quicker. But your suspension needs to be able to absorb the bumps and keep the rubber on the ground.

We do a quick tire change. Erik goes out and runs 1:47-1:47-1:48 in the four laps or so that he gets. Dearing is running fast, pulls out a couple of 1:46's or so. Erik also comes ripping through turn 9 (right hander), the back end comes around, he throws the steering wheel into opposite, lock, momentarily catches it.......but ends up spinning on downside of the turn. Luckily, he doesn't hit the grass. He pulls in, we do a quick tire change, and send him out.

The Cowdrey/Cowdrey Cobra, on slicks - photo by B. Ethington
(Click here for bigger)

Last session of the day. Dearing knows that if he loses today, he's gonna need us to break tomorrow in order to win. Erik knows that Dearing dipped into the 1:46's, so we figure we need a string of 1:45's in order to become the fastest car at Sears Point. We don't think Dearing can go any faster, as he was just at Sears a couple of weeks ago, so he is probably at the max learning curve of the track. Erik hasn't been to Sears in years (back when he was racing the 240Z), and only has about 5 laps under his belt today.

Ripping around turn 2 - photo by B. Ethington
(click here for bigass picture)

Erik goes out, and runs a 1:45! Looking good! We are timing Dearing on our stopwatch, and he pulls off a 1:45 also. Damn! Erik runs another 1:45, and Dearing runs a 1:45. Since we are doing hand timing in the pit area, we aren't sure if our watches are correct, but I got Erik with a 1:45.4 or so, and a 1:45.8, and Dearing has two around 1:45.8. We don't know how to operate our damn stopwatch to recall the times, and we of course blow a couple of laps that we are timing, so now we are not sure who is winning.

The Harris/Fraulini ZR1- photo by B. Ethington
(Click here for bigger)

The sessions ends, and I run upstairs to the timing booth to check it out. I appears that Messley beat Dearing by a cumulative of about 3/10ths of a second! We are victorious!

The fans were packed in to watch the OTC
(click here for bigger)

Dearing and Haney both said that on the last session, their Hot Lap timer stopped working after the 3rd lap. I told him I put out my Hot Lap beacon out there for the last session, as the day before at Thill someone pulled the beacon when I went out in the last session, so I didn't know what my times were. Sure enough, same thing happened today, but I had the beacon ready so Erik could get some laptimes for his final session. They kiddingly accused me of being a Cheating Bastard and putting my hand over the beacon when they came by, so they couldn't tell how fast they were going. (That's a good idea, but I would never do that!) I asked them when did they last replace their battery in the Hot Lap display, and they both looked as us like, "Replace battery?". Duh....I replace my display battery every two days, and they got about 5-7 days of operation on theirs. The battery always craps out when you need it the most...

Corvette having fun in the rain - photo by B. Ethington
(Click here for bigger)

Robbie's Evo loses the motor. Out of six Evos that are entered, one is left standing, and it is a stockish Evo driven by Vesko and Flaherty. Robbie and Co are trying to find a motor somewhere, install it tonight, and then drive back to Buttonwillow for the final day.

PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD

Vishnu/Gerrard didn't make it to the track. Robi blows up motor. And then there was one!

Off to Buttonwillow, for the final shootout, to see who will be King of their class. So far, we are up two places on Dearing, so a 2nd place tomorrow for us means we become the King of the OTC this year. A 3rd place means we are tied in points, but since we beat him at 3 out of 5 tracks, we win on the tie breaker. A 4th place finish, with Dearing taking first place, means we uh.....lose and take 2nd overall. If we screw up tomorrow and break, it will depend how many laps we get before we break that determine who will win.

Adam/Lewis tearing down the straightaway - photo by B. Ethington
(click here for bigass picture)

It is kind of fitting that two good friends of Mumford's (Dearing and Messley) are duking it out to see who will be OTC King. I am sure PMUM is watching down from the heavens, and has a big grin on his face watching them duke it out! Me and the Flamemobile are along for the ride, and it is a pretty damn cool ride!

Coffey doing his imitation of the white man version of Stevie Wonder
(Click here for bigass picture)