So, as a tradition the last day is un-officially called the hangover skid pad. That's because after 7 straight days of thousands of transit driving and racing on the countries finest racetracks it's time to kick back and have a few cold ones! On our way to Southbend on Friday afternoon we stopped in at the Great Lakes brewery in Cleveland, OH. We met up with a bunch of other fellow One Lappers, had some good food, brew, and great company. My dad drove with us over to South Bend for the finale of the event. After this long and enduring week I am beat, time to kick back and get to the finish line. We went out to a local Notre Dame bar, had a few drinks, and stayed true to my drink of choice, Vodka w/club soda & lime and I felt great in the am other than only getting 3 hours sleep again.
Skid Pad time... We were first in class and tied for 6th overall at this point.
It was literally FREEZING this morning at Southbend. The wind was blowing hard, like 35+mph, it was cloudy and gloomy, and on top of that it looked like it was about to rain, err snow that is with this ice cold mist that kept blowing through the parking lot as we prepped for the event. The M5 hasn't performed well on the dry skid pad in past years, and I didn't expect anything marvelous this time around. We tried a different set-up that was recomended by pro-driver and ex-Michelin tire engineer Brian Smith. We pumped the front tires up to 42 + and the rears 6 lbs lower to make the car rotate around the skid pad better. The idea behind this was to make the front tires stiff so they would grip and the rear tires to have some rollover with the lower pressures.
It was soo weird lining up behind an Ultima GTR, that we are tied for 6th position with overall standing. A weird lineup it was, and everything in front of us was pretty much a full blown race car of sorts. So there is no way that the M5 can beat the Ultima GTR in the dry skid pad. We were praying for rain, due to the weight the M5 does very well in the rain. On the flip side the GTR does poorly in the wet due to it's light weight and it absolutely dominates in the dry. All the skid pad is a 200 foot circle and drive on the edge of understeer for the fastest time around. It didn't actually start raining so the pavement was still dry, cold but dry. The Ultima definately got us and we were bumped to at least 7th. At this point we couldn't get lower than 4th in class, since we were up by 15 points to the Audi. We would be tied for 1st place again if that happened, and it did. The S4 got 1st in skid pad, and the two M3's just eeeked in front of us by .02 of a G. I asked how this is going to be determined since we were tied for 1st in class, whomever has the lowest cumulative time of all the events put together takes the win.
Drifting time!!! At this point it started raining and the skid pad was pretty wet. I always wanted to give it a shot drifting around a skid pad and keeping the car at a constant slip angle. I went 1 and a half times around and then went a bit wide and spun out. I tried for another few runs and had limited success. It was fun and time to call it a day.
Lunch and the awards ceremony was starting... we had nothing packed, the car was filthy and desperately needed a wash, still had to get it ready to go on the transporter, and leave immediately after the awards ceremony to ride down to Indianapolis to catch our flight to Orlando and Andrew to catch a flight to Miami. Keep in mind with the wind chill it was in the 40's outside. We hustle to pack the car, and start washing this beast so we can get going asap. We are frozen and wet, my socks are soaked and I only had one pair left. Oah, boyy... Got another pair of socks, changed and went to the awards ceremony. Andrew was a champ through out the whole trip and a great help whenever something needed to be done.
"I'd like to first off thank my wife for letting me take her car on the One Lap again" That was my opening line when we went up for our 7th overall award. Definately got a good chuckle from the crowd, lol!! The class award was coming up and the Babcock's get called up for 1st in class, what??!?! Even they were confused, we were tied in points and we must have gapped them much more at the different events for a lower overall cumulative time. It's all good... We took second in class, however that was figured out and we then had to jet out of there to catch our flight out of Indy. Drove down with Peter and Ian in their truck, meanwhile Catesby Jones and Jose in the SC'd M3 were going to drive the car back to S. Fla. Exotic Car Transport offered to bring multiple cars back to Florida if needed and I extended the offer to Catesby. He was ecstatic! We are now on a plane together headed to Orlando where we will celebrate Rachel's graduation with Catesby and Jose before they drive a rental car back home tomorrow.
The One Lap is all about the great cars, experiences, and friends that you make along the way. From one adventure to the next, now we are getting ready for next year to do it ALL over again!!!
~ Czarny out!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Kicking ass and taking names - Beaverun May 7th
Today was the final race track event at Beaverun in Pennsylvania. Last night was the longest drive of this years route thus far. We had to drive over 600 miles from the BMW Performance Center in SC. We got into Beaverun around 2am last night, and my dad that was coming down from NY was still running a bit behind. I crashed out hard, and my dad Frank got in around 2:40am from NYC. The track was only two miles away so we got up almost on time, hit the snooze button and slept over a half hour, whoops. It looked like it was soggy outside but infact the weather was clear and it wasn't wet, whoo hoo. I was up late studying the track notes that Tom Long had left for me and watching some in car track video on You Tube. I was fairly comfortable with the track and the overall line/speed of the turns. I slept on it, and was ready to go in the morning with yet another 3 1/2 hour sleep night.
Beaverun session 1:
I went out in a run group that was behind the group that I normally run with, and the cars were a bit slower, so I went out first in line. I was 1.5 seconds faster than the Audi S4 racecar at the end of lap 2, but on the final lap I caught the Mitsu Evo coming into the last turn complex. He held me up and I lost 2 seconds! I ended up in 2nd in class, 12th overall, lost to the S4 by .40 seconds. All the studying last night had paid off. This is such close running it's ridiculous, great racing for sure. At this point we are tied for class points for 1st in class with the Audi, and about 30 points ahead of 2nd/3rd place.
As I mentioned, my dad come down fron NYC to Beaverun and just like last year he brought 25 lbs of authentic polish Kielbasa. In his rush to leave, he forgot his bbq grill! So, we asked the police interceptor One Lap car if we can use their Crown Vic bbq grill/trailer and they were very welcoming. We must have fed 30 + people and everyone loved the Kielbasa. My dad brought 3 different types, with all the fixings! Even had Polish beer for those who weren't driving. We have some of that left over for the evening....
Second session, Beaverun:
On the second session I took it up a notch and found an extra second in the last turn coming onto the front straight. I had the track down at this point and was booking it. My lap time was right at about 1:06's and the GTR in 1st place was running 1:08's!! I ended up 1st in class, and the two M3's got between us and the S4. This is great for us since now we are 15 points, or 3 finishing positions ahead of the Audi! Come to find out the Babcock's, father and son, in the S4 had some serious problems with the car at the end of the last lap. It seems as the car went into limp mode possibly b/c of oil blow by in the intercooler. Also, thier strut tower was seperating from the frame/chassis on both sides of the front end. Hopefully they can limp the car back to TireRack and finish the dry skid pad tomorrow. For now, we have to finish in front of the Audi, or at least 3rd in class behind the Audi to keep our 1st in class position. At the begining of the 2nd Beaverun session we were still in 6th overall, although the Ultima GTR was 10 points behind us and may have slipped into 6th. The Ultima is a supercar of course, and one of Lee Noble's first great achievements. So, it will all come down to the skid pad tomorrow for final finishing position. We are hoping that it will be WET!!!!!!! This piggy likes the wet :)
Fun Run Hot Laps at Beaverun- end of day:
Brock let us have an open track day at the end of the final run group of the day, so what a better way to take my pops on the racetrack and have him experience high performance driving than today! I found a helmet for my dad and we were off! Andrew Carbonell jumped in the back seat and we were off doing laps with 3 people in the car, lol! I ran the race pace and probably a little bit faster, although we didn't time the laps. My dad was completely BLOWN AWAY of what a car can do on the race track... He thought that we were literally going to flip over and not make the turns. The M5 is such a capable car on the track it is truly an engineering and automotive marvel. ALL the Sport and ALL the luxury, it doesn't fall short in either department. Peter Lier followed us in the GT2 and was amazed of how fast I was moving the M5 around the track. Andrew, who was riding in the back seat comented on how I was hitting all my marks and there wasn't any time being left on the table around Beaverun. A very appreciated comment from an incredible pro driver, I was taken, and very excited to hear.
1st in Class and 6th Overall moving into tomorrow! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Beaverun session 1:
I went out in a run group that was behind the group that I normally run with, and the cars were a bit slower, so I went out first in line. I was 1.5 seconds faster than the Audi S4 racecar at the end of lap 2, but on the final lap I caught the Mitsu Evo coming into the last turn complex. He held me up and I lost 2 seconds! I ended up in 2nd in class, 12th overall, lost to the S4 by .40 seconds. All the studying last night had paid off. This is such close running it's ridiculous, great racing for sure. At this point we are tied for class points for 1st in class with the Audi, and about 30 points ahead of 2nd/3rd place.
As I mentioned, my dad come down fron NYC to Beaverun and just like last year he brought 25 lbs of authentic polish Kielbasa. In his rush to leave, he forgot his bbq grill! So, we asked the police interceptor One Lap car if we can use their Crown Vic bbq grill/trailer and they were very welcoming. We must have fed 30 + people and everyone loved the Kielbasa. My dad brought 3 different types, with all the fixings! Even had Polish beer for those who weren't driving. We have some of that left over for the evening....
Second session, Beaverun:
On the second session I took it up a notch and found an extra second in the last turn coming onto the front straight. I had the track down at this point and was booking it. My lap time was right at about 1:06's and the GTR in 1st place was running 1:08's!! I ended up 1st in class, and the two M3's got between us and the S4. This is great for us since now we are 15 points, or 3 finishing positions ahead of the Audi! Come to find out the Babcock's, father and son, in the S4 had some serious problems with the car at the end of the last lap. It seems as the car went into limp mode possibly b/c of oil blow by in the intercooler. Also, thier strut tower was seperating from the frame/chassis on both sides of the front end. Hopefully they can limp the car back to TireRack and finish the dry skid pad tomorrow. For now, we have to finish in front of the Audi, or at least 3rd in class behind the Audi to keep our 1st in class position. At the begining of the 2nd Beaverun session we were still in 6th overall, although the Ultima GTR was 10 points behind us and may have slipped into 6th. The Ultima is a supercar of course, and one of Lee Noble's first great achievements. So, it will all come down to the skid pad tomorrow for final finishing position. We are hoping that it will be WET!!!!!!! This piggy likes the wet :)
Fun Run Hot Laps at Beaverun- end of day:
Brock let us have an open track day at the end of the final run group of the day, so what a better way to take my pops on the racetrack and have him experience high performance driving than today! I found a helmet for my dad and we were off! Andrew Carbonell jumped in the back seat and we were off doing laps with 3 people in the car, lol! I ran the race pace and probably a little bit faster, although we didn't time the laps. My dad was completely BLOWN AWAY of what a car can do on the race track... He thought that we were literally going to flip over and not make the turns. The M5 is such a capable car on the track it is truly an engineering and automotive marvel. ALL the Sport and ALL the luxury, it doesn't fall short in either department. Peter Lier followed us in the GT2 and was amazed of how fast I was moving the M5 around the track. Andrew, who was riding in the back seat comented on how I was hitting all my marks and there wasn't any time being left on the table around Beaverun. A very appreciated comment from an incredible pro driver, I was taken, and very excited to hear.
1st in Class and 6th Overall moving into tomorrow! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
To make long story short - May 7th CMP & BMW Performance Driving Center
Today was a very interesting day... Another very WET day in the morning. But this time it worked in our favor! We got some decent sleep last night and had to wake up even earlier for the event at Carolina Motorsports Park that starts at 8am instead of the usual 9. After our great success over the last few days at Sebring and Daytona we were getting ready for another smooth run at CMP. CMP is one of the tracks that Andrew knows very, very well with many test days with Grand Am, sprint and enduro races, he's got it down packed.
To make a long story short...... The 1st session was very wet, we got out in the 4th run group and luckily the rain stopped a while before and the track was drying out! The GTR took top honors again, and Ian in the GT2 battled the slippery conditions in the beast of a Porsche. We thought Andrew slipped in between the GTR and Ian by a few tenths, thank goodness it wasn't so, because we would have taken more points away from Ian if we finished in front of him. Ian beat us by .02 of a second, two hundredths of a freaking second between 3rd and 4th!!!!! 5:45.596 and 5:45.576 respectivly!! It can't get any closer than that. We took 4th Overall and 1st in class in the soggy conditions. We are starting to think that the M5 loves to run in wet conditions, oah yes all that weight is good for something afterall.
The second session was completely dry and it made for some very fast and close competition. Carbonell did great but the tight corners and constant radius turns at CMP made for a challenging situation for the M5. We ended up running very close, with Audi taking first only 4 tenths of a second separating the two, the BMW Performance School M3 taking 2nd, and we came in a close 3rd, 2 seconds behind.
At the performance driving school we did exactly was needed. I drove a clean run with out hitting any cones (each cone is a 10 second penalty!). We got 2nd in class and 11th over all in the tight course. There was this one left hand turn that crests a hill on the back side of the track that Ian was talking about going almost full throttle through it... well oah no, not in the M5; I entered the corner fast and almost took out an entire family of cones!!!!! At the apex the hill crested and I was in the throttle at this point sideways with the back end of the car maybe a foot or so away from a row of 10 cones! I slid sidways on power in 3rd gear at about 70 mph for a hundred feet or so. It was awesome, but I was freaking out about hitting any cones, and thankfully I didn't.
At the end of this day we are 1st in class by 5 points (which is one position worth of points) and we are 6th overall out of a 60 car field. A luxury car hasn't taken a top ten finish since the early 90's where an E34 M5 finished with top honors. It will be tight running from this point out, only two events left and the dry skid pad is not the M5's strong point.
Oah, BTW no pictures today b/c I left my camera with Rachel in Orlando, duh! Will have my dad's camera tomorrow as he is meeting us in Pennsylvania at Beaverun!
To make a long story short...... The 1st session was very wet, we got out in the 4th run group and luckily the rain stopped a while before and the track was drying out! The GTR took top honors again, and Ian in the GT2 battled the slippery conditions in the beast of a Porsche. We thought Andrew slipped in between the GTR and Ian by a few tenths, thank goodness it wasn't so, because we would have taken more points away from Ian if we finished in front of him. Ian beat us by .02 of a second, two hundredths of a freaking second between 3rd and 4th!!!!! 5:45.596 and 5:45.576 respectivly!! It can't get any closer than that. We took 4th Overall and 1st in class in the soggy conditions. We are starting to think that the M5 loves to run in wet conditions, oah yes all that weight is good for something afterall.
The second session was completely dry and it made for some very fast and close competition. Carbonell did great but the tight corners and constant radius turns at CMP made for a challenging situation for the M5. We ended up running very close, with Audi taking first only 4 tenths of a second separating the two, the BMW Performance School M3 taking 2nd, and we came in a close 3rd, 2 seconds behind.
At the performance driving school we did exactly was needed. I drove a clean run with out hitting any cones (each cone is a 10 second penalty!). We got 2nd in class and 11th over all in the tight course. There was this one left hand turn that crests a hill on the back side of the track that Ian was talking about going almost full throttle through it... well oah no, not in the M5; I entered the corner fast and almost took out an entire family of cones!!!!! At the apex the hill crested and I was in the throttle at this point sideways with the back end of the car maybe a foot or so away from a row of 10 cones! I slid sidways on power in 3rd gear at about 70 mph for a hundred feet or so. It was awesome, but I was freaking out about hitting any cones, and thankfully I didn't.
At the end of this day we are 1st in class by 5 points (which is one position worth of points) and we are 6th overall out of a 60 car field. A luxury car hasn't taken a top ten finish since the early 90's where an E34 M5 finished with top honors. It will be tight running from this point out, only two events left and the dry skid pad is not the M5's strong point.
Oah, BTW no pictures today b/c I left my camera with Rachel in Orlando, duh! Will have my dad's camera tomorrow as he is meeting us in Pennsylvania at Beaverun!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Daytona Rolex 24 Road Course - 6th Overall and 1st in Class!
Today was this "big" day at Daytona. I have always wanted to race at Daytona since I was a little kid. Every time I planned to do a SCCA or NASA race at Daytona something came up, and I have yet to be on this famous race track. So, after a great night of being home for Cinco de Mayo and sleeping in my own bed we were ready to roll! Last night we went out to a block party near UCF for Cinco de Mayo, had a few Coronas, tequilla bombs all in the great spirit of the Mexican holiday. The M5 hadn't been washed since the begining of the event so after about an hour at the block party in Waterford Lakes we got to work. After the success at the drag races and the excitement of going home in the middle of the One Lap, we forgot to eat dinner! I only realized it when I was a few minutes away from Orlando! lol. There's so much excitement that it takes over your hunger.
Tom Long joined us for the run to Orlando, some friends met us up there, and we all partied it up for an hour and headed home. My wife, Rachel was soo great as to make everyone panini's for dinner and lots of other goodies. After we all ate, we split up to do different duties, Rachel and my buddy Sam washed the ultra filthy M5, Andrew worked on down loading the videos, and I focused on getting a few laps in on i-Racing (the best racing simulator used for driver training) at Daytona. Andrew had issues downloading the videos, and I needed some driving coaching around Daytona. Andrew took a few laps to show me the optimal line and I got behind the wheel to get some practice in before I actually have to do this in real life where the consequences of a mistake are steep. I got 20 or so laps on the Sim and I felt pretty comfortable... It was time for bed. Got to bed and crashed out, it was already 3:30am! Crap, we had to get up at 6am and prep for the 1 hour + trek to Daytona, which in normal circumstances is your regular "long" one hour drive, but it was more like a hop, skip and a jump.
Since Daytona is pretty much our stomping ground within just a few miles outside of Orlando, a lot of friends came by to cheer us on. Thanks to everyone that came out-- it was great!!! After lunch there was a full parade lap around the oval. I took my aunt Ela and three of our friends in the back seat around Daytona for a first hand view of what Daytona is all about. Driving on the high banks it feels like you are driving on a wall, literally. I had to keep the car over 75 mph to keep it on the banking without having to counter steer up. We got a little bit of distance from the cars ahead of us and took the M5 up to 145 around the oval with 5 people in the car! Everyone in the car riding along had a great time and left with big smiles!
Courtesy of Pat from the parade lap:
Some visitors!! (Thanks for coming!)
Daytona - 1st RUN:
I went out for a recon lap and boy is Daytona a very big and intimidating track. The road course is a 3.56mile beast. I took all the coaching from Tom Long and Andrew on i-Racing and went for it! The downward compression going around the high banking is almost unbelievable! The M5 ate up Daytona and we had to do good here since we are just behind the S4 Racecar in points for the class lead. Going around the tri-oval was almost scary, umm actually it was scary and the car felt unsettled going around Nascar turn 4. I just had to keep my foot planted on the throttle as the mph kept rising, and the speedo needle started to work it's way to the maximum value on the speedometer. I saw 182 MPH as I glanced down before the start/finish line and I was still at wide open throttle. Hustling the big M5 down from 185 mph or so is just nuts. The rear end got light under braking big time. Big Snow White did VERY well around Daytona's enormous high bank turns and I was Full Throttle 90% of the time where the M5 shines with it's BMW Motorsport developed exotic V10 powerplant. We finished in 6th place over all and 1st in class. Way ahead of our competition, lap times were right around 2:10's-2:11's.
Here's Andrew in between runs taking a nap:
Daytona - 2nd RUN:
I wanted to take it up a notch for the 2nd round. At this point I was freakin' exhausted from getting less than 3 hours sleep last night, doing the morning session and running around in the midday Florida sun. I was drained. Oah well, time to get out there and give it another shot! Since the track was hot and temps were up the track didn't have the same grip that it did in the morning session. For the infield kink, I did a light lift and went back to full throttle in 4th gear, oah crap, I pushed wide all the way to the outside yellow curbing and lined the car up in a straight line just in time for the braking zone. I kept at it and had a great run into turn 1 braking later than ever, the rear end started dancing around and this big girl dancing around at 180mph is a freaky feeling. Got her slowed down and hit turn 1 on the spot. Ended up running faster than the 1st session, even though the track had less grip. The last run was a total time of 6:36.4396, a second and a half faster than the 1st session of a 6:37.887. That was good for another 1st in class finish and 7th Overall, the Z06 Vette driven by Dick Clark moved into 6th position, with a 2 second total advantage.
We said our good byes to friends and family and packed up to head out to South Carolina. We just got into SC at 8:30pm, a good nights rest at last!
Tom Long joined us for the run to Orlando, some friends met us up there, and we all partied it up for an hour and headed home. My wife, Rachel was soo great as to make everyone panini's for dinner and lots of other goodies. After we all ate, we split up to do different duties, Rachel and my buddy Sam washed the ultra filthy M5, Andrew worked on down loading the videos, and I focused on getting a few laps in on i-Racing (the best racing simulator used for driver training) at Daytona. Andrew had issues downloading the videos, and I needed some driving coaching around Daytona. Andrew took a few laps to show me the optimal line and I got behind the wheel to get some practice in before I actually have to do this in real life where the consequences of a mistake are steep. I got 20 or so laps on the Sim and I felt pretty comfortable... It was time for bed. Got to bed and crashed out, it was already 3:30am! Crap, we had to get up at 6am and prep for the 1 hour + trek to Daytona, which in normal circumstances is your regular "long" one hour drive, but it was more like a hop, skip and a jump.
Since Daytona is pretty much our stomping ground within just a few miles outside of Orlando, a lot of friends came by to cheer us on. Thanks to everyone that came out-- it was great!!! After lunch there was a full parade lap around the oval. I took my aunt Ela and three of our friends in the back seat around Daytona for a first hand view of what Daytona is all about. Driving on the high banks it feels like you are driving on a wall, literally. I had to keep the car over 75 mph to keep it on the banking without having to counter steer up. We got a little bit of distance from the cars ahead of us and took the M5 up to 145 around the oval with 5 people in the car! Everyone in the car riding along had a great time and left with big smiles!
Courtesy of Pat from the parade lap:
Some visitors!! (Thanks for coming!)
Daytona - 1st RUN:
I went out for a recon lap and boy is Daytona a very big and intimidating track. The road course is a 3.56mile beast. I took all the coaching from Tom Long and Andrew on i-Racing and went for it! The downward compression going around the high banking is almost unbelievable! The M5 ate up Daytona and we had to do good here since we are just behind the S4 Racecar in points for the class lead. Going around the tri-oval was almost scary, umm actually it was scary and the car felt unsettled going around Nascar turn 4. I just had to keep my foot planted on the throttle as the mph kept rising, and the speedo needle started to work it's way to the maximum value on the speedometer. I saw 182 MPH as I glanced down before the start/finish line and I was still at wide open throttle. Hustling the big M5 down from 185 mph or so is just nuts. The rear end got light under braking big time. Big Snow White did VERY well around Daytona's enormous high bank turns and I was Full Throttle 90% of the time where the M5 shines with it's BMW Motorsport developed exotic V10 powerplant. We finished in 6th place over all and 1st in class. Way ahead of our competition, lap times were right around 2:10's-2:11's.
Here's Andrew in between runs taking a nap:
Daytona - 2nd RUN:
I wanted to take it up a notch for the 2nd round. At this point I was freakin' exhausted from getting less than 3 hours sleep last night, doing the morning session and running around in the midday Florida sun. I was drained. Oah well, time to get out there and give it another shot! Since the track was hot and temps were up the track didn't have the same grip that it did in the morning session. For the infield kink, I did a light lift and went back to full throttle in 4th gear, oah crap, I pushed wide all the way to the outside yellow curbing and lined the car up in a straight line just in time for the braking zone. I kept at it and had a great run into turn 1 braking later than ever, the rear end started dancing around and this big girl dancing around at 180mph is a freaky feeling. Got her slowed down and hit turn 1 on the spot. Ended up running faster than the 1st session, even though the track had less grip. The last run was a total time of 6:36.4396, a second and a half faster than the 1st session of a 6:37.887. That was good for another 1st in class finish and 7th Overall, the Z06 Vette driven by Dick Clark moved into 6th position, with a 2 second total advantage.
We said our good byes to friends and family and packed up to head out to South Carolina. We just got into SC at 8:30pm, a good nights rest at last!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
You Dropped A Bomb On Me - May 5th Sebring Intl & Drag racing!
That was our theme song today - The Gap Band; You Dropped A Bomb On Me.
Sebring is my home track and we NEEDED to shine today and also tomorrow at Daytona, the two biggest tracks. And oah was it a heck of a day! We got into Sebring at 1:30am, had a Crown & Coke and crashed out hard at 2:30am. I slept great until about 6:45am, the time that Troy has been friggin waking me up every morning. My alarm wasn't set until 7:15am, but I just couldn't sleep any longer so it was up and at 'em! Cruised down to the lobby and snagged an OJ and some Yoplait and took off. We had to bleed the brakes again, because the brake pedal felt a bit soft and we wanted to be 100% certain that there was no issue with the brakes at Sebring where speeds on the back straight reach 150 mph to the longest bumpiest turn on any race track in the world. We have to make sure we can slow this 4000lb beast down in a hurry. So, Andrew and I scrambled to bleed the brakes for the 3rd time on this trip. We got it done with plenty of time left to run the first session at 9am. Teamwork was an A plus.
In the First run at Sebring the first lap was great, on the second lap I got the "red cog of death" on the BMW I-drive display: Transmission failure gear selection is limited. The car went into neutral out of turn 9. I was like F*^! .... I'm done. I moved the gear lever over to neutral still coasting, and back into gear a couple of times and she went back into gear! I was off again...! The thing is, now I had lost 5-6 seconds or so and the Z06 that started behind me was catching up. I ran hard and tried to make easier shifts, not going into 2nd gear in the hairpin. On the last lap the red Z06 piloted by Dick Clark (a fellow spec miata racer) was coming up on the back Ulmann straight. I braked early and let him by on the inside going into the last turn 17, that slowed me down by another 2 seconds or so. Even though we lost about 8 seconds, we were 12th place over all and 2nd in class! We beat the M3's and the CTS-V; the only car that beat us was the S4 Race car by a mere 6 seconds!!!!!! We would have the class win if it wasn't for the freakin' transmission fault! Oah well-- there was still 1 more run left at Sebring!
Sebring 2nd Run: I went up to the trackside Sebring Chateau hotel, got a late check out, and took a two hour nap. Oah, was that much needed. The nap was worth at least 2 seconds a lap! lol. I lined up behind the CTS-V and off we went! I ran the car faster than I ever have before at Sebring. Coming into Turn 1 at 140mph, I slowed down just a bit and was at a 20 degree slip angle sideways through the apex! No transmission faults, no brake issues, it was a smooth run hauling some serious tail. I sawthe CTS-V in my sights coming down the back straight, I was reeling him in, I went deep into the braking zone into turn 17 and made up 10-15 car lengths on him. I got a run out of 17 and it was a drag race down the front straight with Caddy's fastest production car ever, with the new 550hp ZR1 powered engine. I was pulling on the CTS-V and got back in line for Turn 1 on the final lap! YES, it is on video and it's coming soon!!! On the last lap the engine temp warning came on, the oil temp was 278 degrees! I had to take the last lap in 1 gear higher than normal to keep the engine rpms down a bit. Coming into turn 14 out of Bishops Bend (fast 120mph sweeper) there was the 79' Camaro infront of me. I dived to the inside and passed him, it cost me about a second or so in that corner. I'm getting to why this was important... The results came up and we were 9th overall and the S4 Racecar got a total time of 7.45.721, I got a 7:45.948!!!!! We lost to the S4 by 2 tenths of a second in 12 miles of racing! We got 2nd in class! Good, but damn.... it was close.
The DRAG RACE - M5 vs. CTS-V!!!
I posted a best time of 12.799 at 113.8mph and the CTS-V ran a 12.838 at 113.00mph!!!!! I beat him and we have that on video too! you can tell what Cadillac had their sites on when they built that beast!
The bracket races were next: You have to "Dial" in your time and whomever gets closer to their dialed in 'target' time with out exceeding it wins. My Dial in time was 12.70, and my first run I got a 12.71!! That was the closest time of the event and I won. I ran the other GTR and knocked him out in the first round! My buddy Ian was soo ecstatic that I beat out his competition (on video too!) On the Second run I raced the Performance driving school M3 and beat him by a good margin! On to round three! I won round three! And it was down to the final 4! Ran my worst time ever at 12.97, 2.97 off my target. I got 3rd place overall in the bracket drags and beat all of the cars in our class for 1st in class and 13th overall.
Rachel's mom & siblings came to watch- and rooted me on the whole way!
Headed home tonight! Cinco de Mayo!!!!! Amigos at UCF here we come!!! Tequilla bombs, WHATS UP.
Slide show below:
Sebring is my home track and we NEEDED to shine today and also tomorrow at Daytona, the two biggest tracks. And oah was it a heck of a day! We got into Sebring at 1:30am, had a Crown & Coke and crashed out hard at 2:30am. I slept great until about 6:45am, the time that Troy has been friggin waking me up every morning. My alarm wasn't set until 7:15am, but I just couldn't sleep any longer so it was up and at 'em! Cruised down to the lobby and snagged an OJ and some Yoplait and took off. We had to bleed the brakes again, because the brake pedal felt a bit soft and we wanted to be 100% certain that there was no issue with the brakes at Sebring where speeds on the back straight reach 150 mph to the longest bumpiest turn on any race track in the world. We have to make sure we can slow this 4000lb beast down in a hurry. So, Andrew and I scrambled to bleed the brakes for the 3rd time on this trip. We got it done with plenty of time left to run the first session at 9am. Teamwork was an A plus.
In the First run at Sebring the first lap was great, on the second lap I got the "red cog of death" on the BMW I-drive display: Transmission failure gear selection is limited. The car went into neutral out of turn 9. I was like F*^! .... I'm done. I moved the gear lever over to neutral still coasting, and back into gear a couple of times and she went back into gear! I was off again...! The thing is, now I had lost 5-6 seconds or so and the Z06 that started behind me was catching up. I ran hard and tried to make easier shifts, not going into 2nd gear in the hairpin. On the last lap the red Z06 piloted by Dick Clark (a fellow spec miata racer) was coming up on the back Ulmann straight. I braked early and let him by on the inside going into the last turn 17, that slowed me down by another 2 seconds or so. Even though we lost about 8 seconds, we were 12th place over all and 2nd in class! We beat the M3's and the CTS-V; the only car that beat us was the S4 Race car by a mere 6 seconds!!!!!! We would have the class win if it wasn't for the freakin' transmission fault! Oah well-- there was still 1 more run left at Sebring!
Sebring 2nd Run: I went up to the trackside Sebring Chateau hotel, got a late check out, and took a two hour nap. Oah, was that much needed. The nap was worth at least 2 seconds a lap! lol. I lined up behind the CTS-V and off we went! I ran the car faster than I ever have before at Sebring. Coming into Turn 1 at 140mph, I slowed down just a bit and was at a 20 degree slip angle sideways through the apex! No transmission faults, no brake issues, it was a smooth run hauling some serious tail. I sawthe CTS-V in my sights coming down the back straight, I was reeling him in, I went deep into the braking zone into turn 17 and made up 10-15 car lengths on him. I got a run out of 17 and it was a drag race down the front straight with Caddy's fastest production car ever, with the new 550hp ZR1 powered engine. I was pulling on the CTS-V and got back in line for Turn 1 on the final lap! YES, it is on video and it's coming soon!!! On the last lap the engine temp warning came on, the oil temp was 278 degrees! I had to take the last lap in 1 gear higher than normal to keep the engine rpms down a bit. Coming into turn 14 out of Bishops Bend (fast 120mph sweeper) there was the 79' Camaro infront of me. I dived to the inside and passed him, it cost me about a second or so in that corner. I'm getting to why this was important... The results came up and we were 9th overall and the S4 Racecar got a total time of 7.45.721, I got a 7:45.948!!!!! We lost to the S4 by 2 tenths of a second in 12 miles of racing! We got 2nd in class! Good, but damn.... it was close.
The DRAG RACE - M5 vs. CTS-V!!!
I posted a best time of 12.799 at 113.8mph and the CTS-V ran a 12.838 at 113.00mph!!!!! I beat him and we have that on video too! you can tell what Cadillac had their sites on when they built that beast!
The bracket races were next: You have to "Dial" in your time and whomever gets closer to their dialed in 'target' time with out exceeding it wins. My Dial in time was 12.70, and my first run I got a 12.71!! That was the closest time of the event and I won. I ran the other GTR and knocked him out in the first round! My buddy Ian was soo ecstatic that I beat out his competition (on video too!) On the Second run I raced the Performance driving school M3 and beat him by a good margin! On to round three! I won round three! And it was down to the final 4! Ran my worst time ever at 12.97, 2.97 off my target. I got 3rd place overall in the bracket drags and beat all of the cars in our class for 1st in class and 13th overall.
Rachel's mom & siblings came to watch- and rooted me on the whole way!
Headed home tonight! Cinco de Mayo!!!!! Amigos at UCF here we come!!! Tequilla bombs, WHATS UP.
Slide show below:
Monday, May 4, 2009
Let the good times ROLL! May 4th 2009 - "Little Talladega"
The One Lap of America experience is more than just a cross counrty trek with a hundred fellow car nuts, when you are on the One Lap you are one big family for 1 wild week of street driving and road course racing. The One Lap is about all the great people that you meet along the way, sharing these incredible experiences with fellow racers, and you end up making some great friends along the way. The diversity of people that compete in the One Lap is also incredible. You have pro drivers like Tom Long competing along side with club racers; your average joe's doing it just for fun that have run the Cannonball since it's inception (26yrs) where it was a time to distance event on the public roads! To sum it up, the One Lap is about the great preople, cars, race tracks, cities and all the other bizarre stuff that you see along the way that you will never see any where else if you were not on the One Lap of America! Speaking of cars, the cars range from a sub-compact Honda Fit, to a full "race car" Hybrid Nissan Altima, to a full race Nissan Skyline R35 GTR with 800hp and everything else in between!
Today was a very WET day in Alabama! FINALLY I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night! I'm starting to feel like a human being again, and not in a zombie state from the living dead anymore. We are currently tied for 3rd place in the Luxury class after the Auto-X yesterday; our big girl didn't handle as well as the more nimble M3's and the S4. We got 4th in the Auto-X with my co-driver Andrew Carbonell behind the wheel. Andrew did an excellent job still with a time of 44.051 secs, and the prepped M3 4 door and the race Audi S4 were at 43.714 and 43.680. Not bad considering Carbonell made a 4000 lb elephant dance! The results are coming in late in the day, so I will be updating the results the next day in most cases for the prior day.
So, back on track... A very WET day indeed. We woke up again at friggin 6:45am because Troy (Derek's chief tech/tuner/engineer/maniac... j/k on the maniac part but it is sort of true, lol)...
so Troy is insistent on waking up early-- it's all good because it's actually a good thing to wake up early,... err on time that is.
Upon getting to the little Talladega track today just before 8am it had just stopped raining. I walked the track with Tom, Rhett, Mike Renner (BMW performance driving school instructor) and got a few good points from Tom. The track was soaked still but it looked like it had pretty good grip. The surface wasn't concrete, it was asphault with aggregate showing, and this type of surface has much more traction in the wet than concrete, just fyi.... (Sebring, for instance is all concrete and slippery as goose $h*t when it's wet...) So, we go out and there IS alot of traction. Ian Stewart goes out first, of course, he is #1, (meaning car #1) and ironically he ended up finishing in first place. Ian is an underspoken and an overachiever of sorts for a driver, undoubtedly one of the absolute best drivers in the One Lap. Ian's opportunity for pro-racing will come soon enough, this is one of the oddities of the racing world, the best don't always get a chance to race in Grand Am, American LeMans or the likes. But nonetheless an excellent driver! and friend!
OK... Back to reality.... haha..
The two GTR's got 2nd and 3rd most likely, and that is crazy because the track was wet and the GTR's are AWD (All Wheel Drive) where the GT2 that Ian was driving was RWD only. (Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) for some that may not know the acronym). Once again, these are unoffical results but kudos to Ian for piloting that beast. We are 17th in line to go out based on the results from Autobahn on the 1st day; which is our running order. By the time we got out it was the 5th run group and the track had dried a little bit and there wasn't much spray coming off the tires. I had a good run and some people that were timing laps said we were right there with the other M3's and S4. We were hoping that the rain would hold off, but we were not that lucky. Right before lunch the rain started coming down HARD!!! It was coming down in buckets! At this point we got on the phone and ordered pontoons, a rudder and a prop! The track was going to be a freaking lake. Take a look at the pics below, pheww.
So after some good conversation and a bbq sandwich it was time to hit it hard again for the 2nd run of the day. The rain had just stopped right before the 1st run group but the track was like a bowl of soup. I went out behind the Mitsubishi VR4. With Snow White's (the M5) big power and RWD, we felt we did VERY well, but will not know until later today.
We are now on our way to Tallahasse to drop off my 3rd co-driver Matt Hale. Just got into Tally now and dropping him off.
Sebring here we come!
We will be in Sebring tonight for tomorrow's event! We are waiting on the green GTR; they were doing a quick tune on the fly so they are 30 mins behind us... Now we are stopping at Fridays for some dinner and we will be getting into Sebring after midnight or so!
Check out the slide show below and you can click on the pictures to go to the whole album.
Until then.... we will check in tomorrow!
Check out the slideshow:
Today was a very WET day in Alabama! FINALLY I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night! I'm starting to feel like a human being again, and not in a zombie state from the living dead anymore. We are currently tied for 3rd place in the Luxury class after the Auto-X yesterday; our big girl didn't handle as well as the more nimble M3's and the S4. We got 4th in the Auto-X with my co-driver Andrew Carbonell behind the wheel. Andrew did an excellent job still with a time of 44.051 secs, and the prepped M3 4 door and the race Audi S4 were at 43.714 and 43.680. Not bad considering Carbonell made a 4000 lb elephant dance! The results are coming in late in the day, so I will be updating the results the next day in most cases for the prior day.
So, back on track... A very WET day indeed. We woke up again at friggin 6:45am because Troy (Derek's chief tech/tuner/engineer/maniac... j/k on the maniac part but it is sort of true, lol)...
so Troy is insistent on waking up early-- it's all good because it's actually a good thing to wake up early,... err on time that is.
Upon getting to the little Talladega track today just before 8am it had just stopped raining. I walked the track with Tom, Rhett, Mike Renner (BMW performance driving school instructor) and got a few good points from Tom. The track was soaked still but it looked like it had pretty good grip. The surface wasn't concrete, it was asphault with aggregate showing, and this type of surface has much more traction in the wet than concrete, just fyi.... (Sebring, for instance is all concrete and slippery as goose $h*t when it's wet...) So, we go out and there IS alot of traction. Ian Stewart goes out first, of course, he is #1, (meaning car #1) and ironically he ended up finishing in first place. Ian is an underspoken and an overachiever of sorts for a driver, undoubtedly one of the absolute best drivers in the One Lap. Ian's opportunity for pro-racing will come soon enough, this is one of the oddities of the racing world, the best don't always get a chance to race in Grand Am, American LeMans or the likes. But nonetheless an excellent driver! and friend!
OK... Back to reality.... haha..
The two GTR's got 2nd and 3rd most likely, and that is crazy because the track was wet and the GTR's are AWD (All Wheel Drive) where the GT2 that Ian was driving was RWD only. (Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) for some that may not know the acronym). Once again, these are unoffical results but kudos to Ian for piloting that beast. We are 17th in line to go out based on the results from Autobahn on the 1st day; which is our running order. By the time we got out it was the 5th run group and the track had dried a little bit and there wasn't much spray coming off the tires. I had a good run and some people that were timing laps said we were right there with the other M3's and S4. We were hoping that the rain would hold off, but we were not that lucky. Right before lunch the rain started coming down HARD!!! It was coming down in buckets! At this point we got on the phone and ordered pontoons, a rudder and a prop! The track was going to be a freaking lake. Take a look at the pics below, pheww.
So after some good conversation and a bbq sandwich it was time to hit it hard again for the 2nd run of the day. The rain had just stopped right before the 1st run group but the track was like a bowl of soup. I went out behind the Mitsubishi VR4. With Snow White's (the M5) big power and RWD, we felt we did VERY well, but will not know until later today.
We are now on our way to Tallahasse to drop off my 3rd co-driver Matt Hale. Just got into Tally now and dropping him off.
Sebring here we come!
We will be in Sebring tonight for tomorrow's event! We are waiting on the green GTR; they were doing a quick tune on the fly so they are 30 mins behind us... Now we are stopping at Fridays for some dinner and we will be getting into Sebring after midnight or so!
Check out the slide show below and you can click on the pictures to go to the whole album.
Until then.... we will check in tomorrow!
Check out the slideshow:
Sunday, May 3, 2009
May 3rd Kentucky Auto-X
Getting up early IS overrated! Today was nuts... Pombo and I were talking about racing until odd hours into the night, and had an early wake up call from Derek and crew that were waiting in the lobby at 6:40am, -- we were supposed to wake up at 7:45-- that is an hour of sleep for goodness sakes! It was bad enough that we got to the hotel at 12:30am after a grueling 400 mile journey from Autobahn in Juliet, IL. Pombo is a super cool fellow driver and now a genuine friend. His passion for racing is deep, and he devotes his whole life and makes many sacrifices to do what he loves. We all do, but in his case he, his brother and dad have made a great respected name for the "Pombo's" in the racing community. Just google his name to find out a bit more about him and all the cool stuff that has been on Speed lately.
We get to the Auto-x this morning and the track was soaked, it had been raining all morning. Rain or shine the Auto-X must go on. (For those who are not familiar, an Auto-x/Auto-cross is a course set up with cones often times in a large parking lot) My co-driver Andrew Carbonell ran it as I was sooo tired and wasn't up to doing the event. While Carbonell was walking the track I sat in the M5 and got some rest. The Auto-X is the best of 3 runs. Carbonell has only Auto-crossed twice before, although I had faith in his driving abilty, my buddy Ian -the pro Auto-Xer himself- was very doubtful of Carbonell's Auto-crossing skills. The first run was in the wet, the second was still a bit damp and Carbonell picked up a pretty good time with a 45.5 sec lap. That was good for 2nd class or so, but then the 3rd run was in the dry and the two E90 M3's picked up another second and we shaved off .5 for a 45 flat. Results are not up yet, but I think we got 3rd in class.
Next up was the mini-oval. It's been raining like crazy all day so the event at Highland Rim Speedway (TN) was cancelled. I am beat, time for some Zzzzz's. Til' tomorrow..... where we will be at little Talladega, Alabama!
We get to the Auto-x this morning and the track was soaked, it had been raining all morning. Rain or shine the Auto-X must go on. (For those who are not familiar, an Auto-x/Auto-cross is a course set up with cones often times in a large parking lot) My co-driver Andrew Carbonell ran it as I was sooo tired and wasn't up to doing the event. While Carbonell was walking the track I sat in the M5 and got some rest. The Auto-X is the best of 3 runs. Carbonell has only Auto-crossed twice before, although I had faith in his driving abilty, my buddy Ian -the pro Auto-Xer himself- was very doubtful of Carbonell's Auto-crossing skills. The first run was in the wet, the second was still a bit damp and Carbonell picked up a pretty good time with a 45.5 sec lap. That was good for 2nd class or so, but then the 3rd run was in the dry and the two E90 M3's picked up another second and we shaved off .5 for a 45 flat. Results are not up yet, but I think we got 3rd in class.
Next up was the mini-oval. It's been raining like crazy all day so the event at Highland Rim Speedway (TN) was cancelled. I am beat, time for some Zzzzz's. Til' tomorrow..... where we will be at little Talladega, Alabama!
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