TCRA at Willow Springs - March 22 & 23

[Banzai Ben]

Lance,

No, I never made it to the Hot Import Nights show. I was beat too. I had a hard time staying awake on the way back from Willow. I don't know if you noticed, but I kept sticking my head out of the window to try and keep myself awake.

You did great for the first time on that track! Are you hooked now?

Ben

[redtanrt10]

Ben,

congratulations on your 3rd place finish!!

Mike

[Banzai Ben]

Thanks Mike. That was the closest thing to racing that I have ever done. It sure was fun.
Are you going to Vegas?
Ben

[ViperX]

Nice pics guys.

Ben, nice driving.  Congrats on the trophy.

Lance, way to stay on the track!

I think Mike had fun too.

On Sunday, we had something in common, I was really too tired to do anything fast (including drive fast) but didnt' try the head out the window trick!  I corded my rear tires on the first run in the morning, and almost missed the second run trying to get new tires mounted, so I put some old Hoosiers on and they were kinda slippery - really should have been in the trash.  The next run my rear brake pads starting acting / sounding funny (they were pretty worn out).  Time for new tires and brakes.

I did drop a couple of seconds too and was smoother and more consistent.  I was able to run consistent 1:37's on old tires and worn rear brakes without getting loose.  Bob is a very good instructor.

Mike Burgoyne come up on Sunday and ran some really fast laps in his SRT-10.  I'd guess his best times were in the 1:32 range.  Ahh, to be 30 and fearless again.

I'm going to Buttonwillow April 12 and 13 with Speed Ventures.  Hope you guys can fit that one into your schedule.  It will be getting a bit hot for me after April but I may do one more track event in May, depends on the weather, then Viper Days in September.

Question for you guys.  I'm thinking about trying to set up a "Car Control Clinic" at El Toro or Fontana later this year / first part of next year.  The idea is to see if we can get Bob to come out and talk to our group (maybe we could get Sam Hubinette?), maybe do some demonstrations - set up a few stations where we can do some hard lefts (and corrections), hard rights (and corrections), hard stops (ABS), a skid pad, maybe a 0 to 60 competition and perhaps a slalom.  I think this could be fun under controlled conditions in a large parking lot with cones where we can't really hurt anything.  I would suggest we limit speeds to about 60 ish mph max.

I know there are some guys (and maybe some wives and kids) in our group that would benefit from this.

Your thoughts / input would be appreciated.

Dan  <2

[PCH VIPER]

Question for you guys.  I'm thinking about trying to set up a "Car Control Clinic" at El Toro or Fontana later this year / first part of next year.  The idea is to see if we can get Bob to come out and talk to our group (maybe we could get Sam Hubinette?), maybe do some demonstrations - set up a few stations where we can do some hard lefts (and corrections), hard rights (and corrections), hard stops (ABS), a skid pad, maybe a 0 to 60 competition and perhaps a slalom.  I think this could be fun under controlled conditions in a large parking lot with cones where we can't really hurt anything.  I would suggest we limit speeds to about 60 ish mph max.

I know there are some guys (and maybe some wives and kids) in our group that would benefit from this.

Your thoughts / input would be appreciated.

Dan  <2

Hey Dan,
That is a GREAT idea which would be very beneficial for us.
Bob Blizzard is not only extremely knowledgeable, but is great at instructing in a way that even a rookie can understand. 
Car control is KING.

Sam is a great guy.....but make him bring his OWN car to do a demo in.....MINE is out of rubber !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Banzai Ben]

Dan, I also think it's a great idea and I would be interested in participating.

Lance, Wow! Looks like a burnout contest. Now you can get some R compound tires for the track. Was that today? How did your car do against the Superformance coupe?


Ben

[PCH VIPER]

Hey Ben,
The picture was from the TV shoot on Tuesday.  I was tooooo tired when I got home last night to post up the pictures.  I'll do a write up and post hopefully tonight.

I was going to try your head out the window trick to stay awake...but didn't want to get one of those huge yellow bug splats on my forehead.

Lance

[racecars]

Hey Lance,

Now that's a great picture ^8 ^8 ^8 ^8 ^8 >2

OGO  O O O

[redtanrt10]

Dan,

We'd be in for the clinic, I need to get Diann to drive the SRT-10 or at least drive her 911 hard in a controlled environment.

I'm thinking about returning to Willow at the early May event, are you going, anyone else??

Lance,

Holy #$%T, I think I see the cords in the second picture.

Ben,

Wish I could get to Vegas but...

Mike

[PCH VIPER]

PS, I think I broke the RR KW either on the 405 going up (the two bumps that my rear tow hook scraped -I'll never go that way again)  or finally on the track? Any advice on a shop closer then DC or A&C?

Hey Mike,
For something like this I would talk to Andy Weiss at Impulse Engineering.  They did an great job on my alignment and lucky for me they are only a few miles away.

Impulse Engineering, Inc.
15321 Transistor Lane
Huntington Beach, California 92649
714-895-1000

Lance

[redtanrt10]

Lance, thanks!!