Enduro Results
- Thread starter pro7racer
- Start date
mikecolangelo
Well-known member
Jeff, good time had by most. The weather was sunny and cool at the start but then turned into near-monsoon conditions towards the end. Crazy weather, but not as crazy as last year.
Unfortunately, it was a rough day for Mazda products. See you at the race in April.
Almost forgot: The Team Lemon Lappers black & yellow Neon won the L2 class. Don't know about the other classes.
Unfortunately, it was a rough day for Mazda products. See you at the race in April.
Almost forgot: The Team Lemon Lappers black & yellow Neon won the L2 class. Don't know about the other classes.
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schwank
Code X Motorsports
Bloising Saddles (Eric Blois, Tucker Sheppy, Mark Estes, Eric Schwenter) won the L1 class in Mr. Blois' #92 E30. It was a great race... got pretty wet during the last couple hours but was a great time and some excellent, clean racing. The race was called about 15 minutes early due to standing water that was creating unsafe conditions.
Richard Broadhead
Flag & Com
The Enduro - Observations from Turn 3.
Actually, even as a Turn Worker/Spectator it was a pretty exciting race. With 19 entry's the thought was it would turn in to 6 hours of race car parade. That was not the case at all.
Early on, the #48 (Frost Engineering) BMW M3 driven by Stan Bovetz, Dominic Dobson, Jim Gallauger and Jerald Lowe blasted off into the lead opening a huge gap very quickly. With #9 (Retro Racing) Rx 7 driven by Mike Carrick and Barry Allen giving good chase.
Much to our surprise, the #4 (Prototype Development Group) GTM-R driven by Mike Holland and Rod Powell plus #46 (Two and 1/2 Men) Corvette driven by Joe Martin, Robert Hornbeck and Kurt Hall were gridded at the back of the pack! Oh my, gonna be blasting throug to the front early on. But that did not happen. Those two big bores showed great patience waiting for a full 3 or 4 laps before beginning their move.
The GTM-R #4 started picking off cars very slowly and steadily. The Corvette #46 did the same until he caught up with #3 (Lemon Lappers) Neon driven by James Wetter and Geoff Cochran (man yes, that's one FAST Neon). Then, #46 seemed to get stuck there unable to make further progress.
#46 Corvette then retired to the pits for a long time. Came back out after probably over an hour and continued on only to retire to the pits a while later. Yes, came back out AGAIN late in the race and showed some serious speed running just behind the leaders (many laps down though) and maintaining pace. Eventually only to retire with a tow in from T-5 very late. #46 is one of several cars to win my Determination Award!
#4 GTM-R continued its relentless advance throug the pack eventually catching up with #48 BMW M3 and they settled in to a pace swaping the lead.
Almost unnoticed was the #151 (Grassroots) BMW 325i driven by Randy Blaylock and Jeff VanLierop. Unnoticed in that they were turning just rock solid, clean and fast laps. They would eventually end up in 3rd overall with a good shot at taking 2nd overall away from the #4 GTR-M had the race not been checkered early in the monsoon conditions (Yes, it was raining so hard it looked like a solid wall of water coming down).
The #6 (DND Fabricating) 280Z V8 driven by Tracy Dye, Stuart Dye and SJ Giamberardini drove a solid race to 4th overall. Although clearly out powered by the #4 GTM-R and #48 BMW M3 the DND car was up there tight with the leaders on several occasions. Solid performance on their part. They did seem to have a right front brake issue in that it seriously locked up several times coming in to T-3 (I mean serious long lock ups) and during the last 2 hours they had a steady fluid leak of gas or coolent but they did finish a most excellent adventure!
When the rain came (light at first), #4 GTM-R ducked into the pits early for rains (good move) while #48 BMW M3 staryed out on slicks. Me thinks he was thinking this wouldn't last long and the track would dry again (which it didn't). The GTM-R came back out and was making huge gains on #48. But eventually #48 went in for rains. When he came back out, MAN he was fast. Just about as fast as on dry tire.
There were 2 full course yellows relatively early the race. The 1st when the #9 (Retro Racing) Rx7 (running 2nd overall) lost the right front wheel when the spindle snapped off taking everything including the brake rotor with it coming out of 2B. Fortunately, he was able to control the car and came to a stop drivers right part way on the track. When I reached him I told him what had happened. He said they were thinking about changing the spindles so they could run bigger tires. I said, nows the time!
Another of my personal Determinatioin Awards goes to #15 (Norton Racing) BMW E36 driven by Erik Krause, Steve Adams, Mike McAleenan and Scott Norton. During the morning warm up, one of the drivers had a serious spin at T-3 and backed it into the bank drivers left. It then 'spun' around and stopped on the escape road. I thought he was done for sure but OFF he drove and started the race! With about 1.5 hours to go, the other driver lost it under braking and went off drivers left at T-3 sending the car seriously UP the bank ripping the belly pan and front bumper off the car. Sure enough OFF he went to continue the race. Shortly later, we had to meat-ball him just to check the car and they removed to rest of the front bumper coming back out to finish the race!
#37 (Racing 4 Children Motosports) 200SS driven by Bryce King, Michael Shofsaff, Randy Karambelas and Pat Boyle wins another of my Determination Awards! They seemed to struggle early in the race with handling issues. Eventually, one of the drivers had an OFF at T-5 hard. Thought they were done for too. But they came back out after a re-tech and finished the race. Good going!
And the final Determination Award goes too..... #18 (Zoom'n Boomer's) Miata driven by Mike Tripp, Dave Dunning and Will Schrader. Mid-monsoon, one of them lost it on the straight by the S/F line. Hit a Jersey barrier so hard with the nose that it moved 3 or 4 inches! It was initially called as an ALERT but, off the car went! Pitted for a quick check over and came back out to finish the race!
#18 made on other notable impression on us. Early in the rain, it was a riot to see the little Miata sticking it's nose right UP the tail pipe of the GTM-R Prototype. And yes, eventually passing him and running away!
Another notable small bore was the #5 (Morning Wood Motorsports) Honda CRX driven by Rick Delamare and Michael Conatore in L3 class. Not sure where they finished overall. But they were screaming in the rain! Great show guys.
I'm sure there are many other story's from the race but that's what we saw or heard at Turn 3. There were many, many dices and races going on within the big picture. If I missed yours here, I'm sorry.
All in all a marvelious day of Endurance racing. NO contact calls that I heard. Just a few (maybe 3) spins in the T-3 complex and very few escape road users until if got real wet then we had about 4 or 5. A notable one was the #4 GTM-R who got sideways in the braking zone (during the monsoon) then straightened out and wisely choose NOT to try and make the corner but took the escape. That is what put him in the range for the #151 BMW 325i of Blaylock and VanLierop to take a late race serious run at 2nd overall prior to the early checker.
P.S. That Turn 1/2 paving must have worked! I don't recall hearing T2 'waving/standing' ONCE during the race.
Actually, even as a Turn Worker/Spectator it was a pretty exciting race. With 19 entry's the thought was it would turn in to 6 hours of race car parade. That was not the case at all.
Early on, the #48 (Frost Engineering) BMW M3 driven by Stan Bovetz, Dominic Dobson, Jim Gallauger and Jerald Lowe blasted off into the lead opening a huge gap very quickly. With #9 (Retro Racing) Rx 7 driven by Mike Carrick and Barry Allen giving good chase.
Much to our surprise, the #4 (Prototype Development Group) GTM-R driven by Mike Holland and Rod Powell plus #46 (Two and 1/2 Men) Corvette driven by Joe Martin, Robert Hornbeck and Kurt Hall were gridded at the back of the pack! Oh my, gonna be blasting throug to the front early on. But that did not happen. Those two big bores showed great patience waiting for a full 3 or 4 laps before beginning their move.
The GTM-R #4 started picking off cars very slowly and steadily. The Corvette #46 did the same until he caught up with #3 (Lemon Lappers) Neon driven by James Wetter and Geoff Cochran (man yes, that's one FAST Neon). Then, #46 seemed to get stuck there unable to make further progress.
#46 Corvette then retired to the pits for a long time. Came back out after probably over an hour and continued on only to retire to the pits a while later. Yes, came back out AGAIN late in the race and showed some serious speed running just behind the leaders (many laps down though) and maintaining pace. Eventually only to retire with a tow in from T-5 very late. #46 is one of several cars to win my Determination Award!
#4 GTM-R continued its relentless advance throug the pack eventually catching up with #48 BMW M3 and they settled in to a pace swaping the lead.
Almost unnoticed was the #151 (Grassroots) BMW 325i driven by Randy Blaylock and Jeff VanLierop. Unnoticed in that they were turning just rock solid, clean and fast laps. They would eventually end up in 3rd overall with a good shot at taking 2nd overall away from the #4 GTR-M had the race not been checkered early in the monsoon conditions (Yes, it was raining so hard it looked like a solid wall of water coming down).
The #6 (DND Fabricating) 280Z V8 driven by Tracy Dye, Stuart Dye and SJ Giamberardini drove a solid race to 4th overall. Although clearly out powered by the #4 GTM-R and #48 BMW M3 the DND car was up there tight with the leaders on several occasions. Solid performance on their part. They did seem to have a right front brake issue in that it seriously locked up several times coming in to T-3 (I mean serious long lock ups) and during the last 2 hours they had a steady fluid leak of gas or coolent but they did finish a most excellent adventure!
When the rain came (light at first), #4 GTM-R ducked into the pits early for rains (good move) while #48 BMW M3 staryed out on slicks. Me thinks he was thinking this wouldn't last long and the track would dry again (which it didn't). The GTM-R came back out and was making huge gains on #48. But eventually #48 went in for rains. When he came back out, MAN he was fast. Just about as fast as on dry tire.
There were 2 full course yellows relatively early the race. The 1st when the #9 (Retro Racing) Rx7 (running 2nd overall) lost the right front wheel when the spindle snapped off taking everything including the brake rotor with it coming out of 2B. Fortunately, he was able to control the car and came to a stop drivers right part way on the track. When I reached him I told him what had happened. He said they were thinking about changing the spindles so they could run bigger tires. I said, nows the time!
Another of my personal Determinatioin Awards goes to #15 (Norton Racing) BMW E36 driven by Erik Krause, Steve Adams, Mike McAleenan and Scott Norton. During the morning warm up, one of the drivers had a serious spin at T-3 and backed it into the bank drivers left. It then 'spun' around and stopped on the escape road. I thought he was done for sure but OFF he drove and started the race! With about 1.5 hours to go, the other driver lost it under braking and went off drivers left at T-3 sending the car seriously UP the bank ripping the belly pan and front bumper off the car. Sure enough OFF he went to continue the race. Shortly later, we had to meat-ball him just to check the car and they removed to rest of the front bumper coming back out to finish the race!
#37 (Racing 4 Children Motosports) 200SS driven by Bryce King, Michael Shofsaff, Randy Karambelas and Pat Boyle wins another of my Determination Awards! They seemed to struggle early in the race with handling issues. Eventually, one of the drivers had an OFF at T-5 hard. Thought they were done for too. But they came back out after a re-tech and finished the race. Good going!
And the final Determination Award goes too..... #18 (Zoom'n Boomer's) Miata driven by Mike Tripp, Dave Dunning and Will Schrader. Mid-monsoon, one of them lost it on the straight by the S/F line. Hit a Jersey barrier so hard with the nose that it moved 3 or 4 inches! It was initially called as an ALERT but, off the car went! Pitted for a quick check over and came back out to finish the race!
#18 made on other notable impression on us. Early in the rain, it was a riot to see the little Miata sticking it's nose right UP the tail pipe of the GTM-R Prototype. And yes, eventually passing him and running away!
Another notable small bore was the #5 (Morning Wood Motorsports) Honda CRX driven by Rick Delamare and Michael Conatore in L3 class. Not sure where they finished overall. But they were screaming in the rain! Great show guys.
I'm sure there are many other story's from the race but that's what we saw or heard at Turn 3. There were many, many dices and races going on within the big picture. If I missed yours here, I'm sorry.
All in all a marvelious day of Endurance racing. NO contact calls that I heard. Just a few (maybe 3) spins in the T-3 complex and very few escape road users until if got real wet then we had about 4 or 5. A notable one was the #4 GTM-R who got sideways in the braking zone (during the monsoon) then straightened out and wisely choose NOT to try and make the corner but took the escape. That is what put him in the range for the #151 BMW 325i of Blaylock and VanLierop to take a late race serious run at 2nd overall prior to the early checker.
P.S. That Turn 1/2 paving must have worked! I don't recall hearing T2 'waving/standing' ONCE during the race.
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MartiniRossi
Active member
I would like for some of the Team Chiefs to discuss their strategy.
I calculated that the #48 car pitted at 75 laps or 168.75 miles and spent 4:12 in the pits.
That time was taken when they entered the pits until the pit out (red) lights went out.
The #4 car pitted at 92 laps, 207 miles and had been on the track for 2:41:45:423 minutes.
I hope all of you that used R-Monitor got it to work. I did see about 6 teams on the network collecting data.
Great race!
I calculated that the #48 car pitted at 75 laps or 168.75 miles and spent 4:12 in the pits.
That time was taken when they entered the pits until the pit out (red) lights went out.
The #4 car pitted at 92 laps, 207 miles and had been on the track for 2:41:45:423 minutes.
I hope all of you that used R-Monitor got it to work. I did see about 6 teams on the network collecting data.
Great race!
schwank
Code X Motorsports
For what it is worth Michael, the supplied version of rMonitor did not work with 64 bit Windows 7. Would not install, just gave a message about incompatibility. By then it was too late for me to look for a compatible version, so we just went and visited some friends down the way that had it working. No worries we had a great time.
As for pits, we just came in every 90 minutes to change drivers and fuel up. We did have to switch to rains before the last stint due to the standing water.
As for pits, we just came in every 90 minutes to change drivers and fuel up. We did have to switch to rains before the last stint due to the standing water.
MartiniRossi
Active member
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48816513@N05/sets/
Let me know if it works. These are the pictures I took this weekend. Hopefully you can download them from Flickr.
Let me know if it works. These are the pictures I took this weekend. Hopefully you can download them from Flickr.
MartiniRossi
Active member
Leaders Report Attached
jeff_remfert
Well-known member
Ok, so here is what happened to the Retro Team.
RX7- The car was crazy fast, never had to rev the car over 8500 to do consistant 35's in the dry during practice. Top of the new strut sheared off going into turn 8 on the second lap. High end strut, just a fluke material failure. I am very lucky that it happened there, any where else and I would probably be in a very different condition right now. The car was amaizing so it's really a shame.
RX3- Mike was in the car, just turning laps in second overall. At 1h 15min, the right front spindle sheared off coming out of turn two. Again, just a fluke material failure. THis car could do 36's and 37's all day, what a shame. We now have a plan to magnaflux major parts after each race. Live and learn, again, could have been much worse.
Thanks to everyone that got us there, we promise to win one of these things some day.
Jeff
RX7- The car was crazy fast, never had to rev the car over 8500 to do consistant 35's in the dry during practice. Top of the new strut sheared off going into turn 8 on the second lap. High end strut, just a fluke material failure. I am very lucky that it happened there, any where else and I would probably be in a very different condition right now. The car was amaizing so it's really a shame.
RX3- Mike was in the car, just turning laps in second overall. At 1h 15min, the right front spindle sheared off coming out of turn two. Again, just a fluke material failure. THis car could do 36's and 37's all day, what a shame. We now have a plan to magnaflux major parts after each race. Live and learn, again, could have been much worse.
Thanks to everyone that got us there, we promise to win one of these things some day.
Jeff
jeff_remfert
Well-known member
Post Away, no problem.
Jeff
Jeff
Steve Adams
Just this guy, ya know?
I have attached a screenshot of the final lap (I think; it might be one lap before). This is from my laptop and isn't in any way official.
mark_hanken
Holeshot
Jeff,
You guys must have gotton home before noon? Sounds like a rough outing. Do you have any 13" Panasports for sale yet?
You guys must have gotton home before noon? Sounds like a rough outing. Do you have any 13" Panasports for sale yet?
Ken Shreve
Member
We gotton something before noon but they were no where close to home
In the #48 car, we were on Bridgestone shaved street tires for the race. We left the car out on track as the rain began to fall. It was still turning decent times and we thought the street tires would be decent on the wet(no standing water yet) track. We also had three drivers in the car and we tried to give them equal seat time. We were closely monitoring the storm cell as it was rolling in over Auburn. We were comparing the lap times of the GTM against ours and soon after they started lapping quicker, we brought the car in for a driver change and Hoosier rains. After the driver and tire change, the skies opened up and the Hoosiers did their work.
Would it have been better to bring it in 3 to 5 laps earlier? Maybe, but it worked out anyways. I was thinking that the second driver finishing up his 2 hour stint, might turn faster laps on the street tires then the driver who was just heading out on rains for the start of the stint. Once the skies opened up everyone would be slower and the new driver getting up to speed would be less of an issue.
Randy Blaylock
Highlander Motorsports
The Grassroots Racing strategy has always been to bring a slower car to the enduro, execute as perfect a race as possible, and hope for some environmental conditions challenges to equalize the competition and capitalize on our driver's strengths.
Our race strategy worked perfectly, one stop only for driver change, fuel and tires, no mistakes there. We did have to make an unplanned stop with about an hour to go to defog the windshield. We decided since we were in the pits to change from RA1s to new Hoosier wets as the skies looked like they were getting ready to unload, which turned out to be a serendipitous choice as the skies opened up shortly thereafter.
This stop moved us down a few spots in the running order, but the balance of the car and the dedicated wet tires, coupled with Jeff's skillful driving saw us moving up the order fairly quickly. The rainy conditions were exactly what we needed to challenge the faster cars.
For the 20 minutes prior to the early end of the race, we were lapping at 25 to 35 seconds a lap faster than everyone else, and had made up a lap and a half on 2nd place in only 7 laps. When the checkers unexpectedly flew, we had just caught the 2nd place car and were going to get on the same lap with 15 minutes to go and an average of a 30 second per lap advantage.
I can't help but admit I'm more than a little disappointed that the race was stopped with only 15 minutes to go, especially since it had been raining already for more than an hour, and the rain had actually eased quite a bit. Had the race been allowed to continue for only 15 more minutes, we had a very real chance to move into second place overall, and possibly even take a shot at the overall.
Of course, if we had not have been so stupid to be late to the driver's meeting, that penalty and associated pit road time would also have made a material difference.
To be very clear, none of this takes anything away from a fantastic race by the 48 team, my sincere congratulations to a terrific team. They did a superb job in very difficult conditions, as did every other team out there.
And finally, a great big thank you very much to all of the workers that had to endure that stuff.
Our race strategy worked perfectly, one stop only for driver change, fuel and tires, no mistakes there. We did have to make an unplanned stop with about an hour to go to defog the windshield. We decided since we were in the pits to change from RA1s to new Hoosier wets as the skies looked like they were getting ready to unload, which turned out to be a serendipitous choice as the skies opened up shortly thereafter.
This stop moved us down a few spots in the running order, but the balance of the car and the dedicated wet tires, coupled with Jeff's skillful driving saw us moving up the order fairly quickly. The rainy conditions were exactly what we needed to challenge the faster cars.
For the 20 minutes prior to the early end of the race, we were lapping at 25 to 35 seconds a lap faster than everyone else, and had made up a lap and a half on 2nd place in only 7 laps. When the checkers unexpectedly flew, we had just caught the 2nd place car and were going to get on the same lap with 15 minutes to go and an average of a 30 second per lap advantage.
I can't help but admit I'm more than a little disappointed that the race was stopped with only 15 minutes to go, especially since it had been raining already for more than an hour, and the rain had actually eased quite a bit. Had the race been allowed to continue for only 15 more minutes, we had a very real chance to move into second place overall, and possibly even take a shot at the overall.
Of course, if we had not have been so stupid to be late to the driver's meeting, that penalty and associated pit road time would also have made a material difference.
To be very clear, none of this takes anything away from a fantastic race by the 48 team, my sincere congratulations to a terrific team. They did a superb job in very difficult conditions, as did every other team out there.
And finally, a great big thank you very much to all of the workers that had to endure that stuff.
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Richard Broadhead
Flag & Com
Wes, 2 laps in to the race we heard a call for Open Black Flag to some car but we didn't catch who. There was no 'obvious' on track reason for it.. NOW we know.... Report on the radio wasn't 'late' but rather MISSED!
AGREE, Randy.
Based on those last lap times in the post above, you were doing 47 seconds a lap faster then the leader. Would have made a very interesting last 23 minutes of racing.
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