NASA Track Event at Willow Springs Feb 9 &10

[ViperX]

Hey Guys,

It looks like our Speed Ventures Track Event is going to be rained out this coming Saturday and Sunday, Jan 26 and 27.

I found another event at Willow Springs on Feb 9 & 10 with NASA.

Prices are very reasonable and NASA events are very well organized with driving instructors for beginners and run groups from beginner to advanced along with a race group.

After talking with NASA head honcho Ryan Flaherty, I signed up for HPDE 3 (high perfromance driving event level 3).

For more info, go to: http://socal.drivenasa.com/

Let's hope for good weather.

See some of you at the track,

Dan <2

[ViperX]

Hey Gang,

Tried NASA for the first time this weekend.  Wanted to "test and tune" some changes that I'd made to my GTS and get a little practice before Viper Days.

At first, they wouldn't let me start out driving in their Level 3 High Performance Driving class and wanted me to spend several weekends driving with them ..... starting at level 1, maybe moving to level 2 after a few weekends and so on.....

After some begging, I convinced them to give me a shot.  I told them that I had driven Viper Days and some other track events.  One session later and they're asking me to work with them on identifying problem drivers on the track!  During that session, I had safely passed everyone in the Level 3 group.  The car performed really well.

We had three AZ Viper Club members who came to drive with us along with Michael Burgoyne from So Cal.  You guys missed a very busy weekend.  They ran a Honda Challenge Race and a Mazda Miata spec race along with several other race classes.  I've never seen so many cars at Willow Springs.

On Sunday, after passing everyone in their Level 3 class in a Viper line as a group - we were later referred to as the "Viper Train" coming through, we finally earned a bit of respect from the NASA guys.  Clearly, they were't accustomed to seeing how fast our cars are.

Call me if you're thinking about running NASA.  They are very structured and well organized.

Dan  <2

[PCH VIPER]

Hey Dan,
I heard you did good this weekend !   <1

By any chance was Manny racing a Honda this weekend?  My buddy was doing some work on his car.

See you at Button Willow.

Lance

[ViperX]

I think Manny Coats, a Viper Guy and a Honda guy, won the Honda Challenge series race on Saturday.  Unfortunately he DNF'd on the Sunday Honda race - his header came off while racing.

He also lost the transmission in his race Viper on Saturday while leading.

Tough weekend for Manny.

[caliviper]

I raced both the Honda and the Viper that weekend.  Having two cars in two different classes is awesome (double the fun.)

Unfortunately, both of my cars had issues.  The honda header broke in lap #7 on Sunday during the 2nd race while I lead the field.  I was able to take 1st on Saturday with the car, so I was real happy with it.  The crew that helps me prep the car did a great job in getting it set up.

The Viper wasn't so lucky.  Saturday morning during practice, I pushed real hard to see what the car (and me) had in it.  I ran a new best for me of 124.5 on some old toyos (same ones I ran the whole weekend at the last NASA race) and was very pleased with the results.  During qualifying the tires were starting to go away, or the track was getting dirty... either way, my times dropped about 2 seconds.  I certainly wasn't pushing for a lap record either since nobody had signed up for the SU class.   Found out afterwards that Kyle Foster was in the race and qualified a few tenths behind me in his Viper, so that motivated me. 

For the 1st race, about half way into lap #2, my transmission blew up in a bad way.  The car was done for the weekend.  Real bummer.

It's being fixed as we speak in preparation for the VRL race this weekend at Button Willow.

Some interesting things happened that weekend too.  My AEM unit went crazy and the car was running terrible for a while.  We had a backup stock CPU that worked and got the car going.

The tires were mounted with tons of soap and water, and apparently that water doesn't just dry up in the tires.   After my morning session where I ran the 1:24, the pressures went up nearly 20 pounds!   We were letting air out of the tires and steam was coming out of the valve.  I hadn't seen that before.

It was good to see Dan and Mike out on the track.  I hope to see you guys at all the NASA events from now on.  Dan, we need to get you into wheel to wheel racing.  Like me, I had to almost be forced into a race before I took the plunge.  Might have to do that with you  :-)

By the way, the Honda H4 car that set the track record that weekend, I sold it right after that, but the guy that bought it ended backing out yesterday.  He wanted the car for less than I was willing to let it go for and ultimately it fell through.   SO, if you want to give the Honda CHallenge class a try, let me know.