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Any pictures of the yellow Camaro?

I'm borrowing it from a friend and taking it for a test drive.

http://www.race-cars.com/carsales/other/1226704866/1226704866ss.htm

Who is running that?

I will.

I'll be there driving a yellow '70 Camaro with Trans Am history. They may put me in the Shelby group or the Trans Am group.

David Andrews

http://www.mojavemile.com/index.html

Congratulations Michael And Virginia! Between your amazing garage, and your racing commitment with the ACR-X you show incurable addiction! It is wonderful to see people so nice living their dreams.

David Andrews

Viper Days is superior, in my experience, to other track days for a few reasons. One is the trackside support of Archer racing. They have tires waiting for you. They can fix almost everything, with Viper parts in stock, and get you back on the track quickly. They can track align and upgrade your car.

Viper Days has an unequalled record for training drivers for the next steps up like World Challenge. They teach Viper specific driving. There is also the bond created by a single car type.

One of the unspoken hinderences may be the distance of the haul. Most of the Comp Coupe racers are from the right hand side of the country, so it is a long, expensive proposition to come out west.

http://www.viperdays.com/complete_schedule_future.php

It may not be written in stone, but so far we are out of luck.

When I talked to them earlier last year they said they expected to do 3 California events. Ouch!

http://gallery.sharecapturedmoments.com/

More pics.

Code is willowspring09. Dave's are the last few

Thanks. On Saturday morning I earned timed pole(even faster than Malloy, a great guy). The clutch went, so my mechanic and Randy Begin, volunteer mechanic thrashed for 6 hours to rip the car apart and get it ready. Huge thanks Randy! He was smiling like a guy on a date with a supermodel. I missed the qualifying race Sat afternoon.

Sunday they started me at the back of the grid. It wasn't feeling quite right, but I was passing by the handful. It started clunking and sliding so I took it in, to find a broken side plate on the tranny, and a loose half shaft. My car is sprung at 2200 lbs/inch because of the downforce. On the huge surface transitions it was getting air, and having massive driveline loads when the slicks hit. That's racing.

Carl and I ripped it up. Vipers were not shamed. We heard stuff like "Maybe you're quick in the straights, but you won't hang with me in the corners" We painted that guy's bumper in the corners, passed him, slowed in the straight and blew him off in the corners.

We heard "my car should give you a run", only to find it's on slicks, in a slower group, and should have been timed with an sundial.

Many cars hit the K-rail as it's tight in places with no runoff.

We had a big dirty time.

Hey Curt, I saw your Viper looking good at Randy's garage today. I brought my '08 in for fluids and track prep.

I'm planning on shooting down on Sunday.  David said I can take his Lobster for a spin one session, what a great guy he is!


Last time at Coronado I let him grid the car, and he did, but pointing the wrong way. And he wasn't trying to be funny.

I'll be there Friday through Sunday running my Red Lobster GTP in group 6. Come say hello.

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/default.aspx?carID=6067&eventID=116&catID=784&whichpage=1


Carl Atwood and I will be running our Vipers there with the Porsche club on Thursday

David Andrews

I ran my March 83g Red Lobster car. I'm still feeling out the car, and a ways from using it at it's limits. I looked at the registration list, and out of about 30 cars mine should be the 3rd slowest. David Donahue was in one of the slower cars and that's a good reason for him only finishing two places up on me. He would have stomped me by far more in equal cars. Many of the pros hold back when they have been lent irreplaceable cars. I mentally preran the track more times than I ever have.

I looked again at the registration list, and more than half the drivers had run Indy Lights, Rolex prototypes, etc., so I had low expectations. On qualifying day I ran a 7000 rev limit, on a 7800 limit engine and tires from a previous weekend. I want to take it easy on the engine and focus on smooth. I got to the grid towards the back so I wouldn't get in too many people's way. I passed far more than passed me and steadily built up my speed. I lapped a few cars. I got t-boned mildly on turn 11, but it was in a vent that bent back and polished out. I was surprised to grid 10th. Some of the drivers were new to the track so I figured they would speed up, because I know the track pretty well. A DNS (did not start) or DNF(finish) can happen, you just don't want a DFL.(dead f'in Last)

In the pits the Nissan GTP I was buying was on display next to me. The seller hadn't got the car running and has agreed to refund my money, which is nice. He was pitted next to me, with a couple Can-Ams, including one that is drawn as one of the leads in the movie Cars 2.

In the race I stayed on the old tires because the weak link wasn't the tires. The car runs bias ply slicks. They don't have the absolute grip of radials, but allow it to be thrown around and give good warning of letting go. On race day I chatted with the guy gridded behind me in a 9 year newer 4 rotor Mazda, Patrick Dempsey. I knew his name as a pro driver in the Daytona prototype series when I drove a support race in a vintage class. I found out later that he is a movie actor and is an actor in "Grey's Anatomy". Nice guy, real pro level driver.


At the start I passed no-one and Dempsey and David Donahue shot past me. I picked up my speed throughout the race, passed a few, lapped a few and got passed by one. The car ran way stronger with the extra revs, and I started to get deeper into the downforce. With the added power I dropped 3 seconds! to a 1:29.0. I finished 10 th out of 21 finishers with a number of drivers with pro experience and faster cars behind me. There were no Oh shoot! moments for me, no wheels in the dirt. It was a very fast drive for me. The announcer apparently talked more about my car than any other, because of the paint. My 16 year old son was with me for the Monterey weekend, which was great.


Here's between turn one and two just after the start:


http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/2009...bile-races/#58

Here's some pics of the cars in the race. You have to click on scroll to see them all.

http://www.grandtouringprototype.com...de-action-607/

If you scroll down to 8a you'll see the race results.

http://www.montereyhistoric.com/event-info/results#Group%208A

It looks like I have twice the engine, but all those 3 liters are Porsche turbos, and are way faster on the straights.


The original mechanic for the car for 25 years was there, looking after a Can Am McLaren. He didn't really trust me with his baby when I bought the car from the original driver, but was all smiles when it finished strongly and safely. There were 40,000 people there watching, and I was glad not to embarass the car.

Here it is parked in the pits:


http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2865...96101482SRrGQa

So let's go on the track. Scroll down and play the video from the winner's helmet cam. You'll think it's bouncy and cut off by the top of the frame. Well, that's the view in the car. Fortuneately you don't see me in the video as he didn't lap me.

http://www.grandtouringprototype.com...guna-seca-540/

He, too, ran old tires. Their race team had a complete spare engine and trans on a stand.

Great track weekend.