Equipe Rapide Challenge Cup # 1

I raced with the Equipe Rapide Sports Car Club in Dallas, TX this past weekend for their 1st Challenge Cup autocross of the season. I competed in X-class which is basically their "Pro" class and is PAX index based. We had 10 competitors on Sunday ranging from FM Formula 500s to STS Honda CRXs and a few Street Prepared cars in between.

The autocross was held Resistol Arena in Mesquite, TX which is an active Rodeo arena. We raced in a side-lot that is sloped concrete. Personally, I thought not a great lot for autocrossing (too small, surrounded by curbs), but beggars can't be choosers and there was some good National racers their to compete with. As you can see from the results, runs were in the 23 to 30s range which is the shortest course I have ever competed on.

Here are full results

With the Equipe Rapide club, racers generally get 6 runs - the first 4 runs are your regular class competition runs, but you can buy 2 more runs for $10 to compete in the Rapide Pax class which is basically a PAX index-based shootout for open to all cometitors. It pays a small amount of money and is a fun way to get some extra cracks at the course. As you can see above, I finished 2nd in X class by 0.032s behind 7-time ESP National Champion Mark Madarash. We were both on new tires for this event it was a pretty even match despite the fact that the course was very different from the larger National event courses. This was my first event on the Goodyear Eagle RS tire while Madarash was on Hoosier A6 tires. The Goodyear tire performed very well against Mark and the Hoosier tires. With some more seat time on the Goodyear tire on larger courses, I think it was very capable of taking home National Tour victories. In the Rapide Pax shootout, I picked up 0.3s to improve to a 24.5s run, but it seemed a lot of the fast competitors picked up significant time also so I finished 5th out of 73 competitors and took home $20. I gave the $20 to my faithful crew member Ali for all of her hard work.....high paying job, right!

Here is some onboard video (driver view and wheel view) from the event:

New Truck and Trailer Added to the Fleet

Ali and I made some new acquisitions in the racecar towing department this off-season. We knew going into the Winter that our 2003 Dodge Dakota was not going to cut it for long-distance towing with a full-size racecar....it worked for the kart, but the Camaro is just "slightly" heavier.

Here is the new rig:

The new tow vehicle and Ali's daily driver is a 2012 Ford F-150 Ecoboost SuperCrew 4x4. The Ecoboost engine is a 3.5L direct-injection twin-turbo V6 monster that sports big power (365HP @ 5000 RPM, 420ft-lb @2,500 RPM), V8-beating fuel economy, and great towing capacity (9,800 pounds). The torque delivery on this truck is very very smooth and it really does pull hard when get into the loud pedal. We towed with the new truck for the first time this past weekend and it performed very well especially in the hilly sections between Abilene and San Angelo (yes, there are hills in Texas).

Here is the ESP Camaro's new chariot:

My new trailer was made by The Trailer Shop in Dallas, TX. It was custom made to order and they have great customer service....they even served Ali and I fajitas at their friend's cookout when we went to pick the trailer up! The trailer is 18' long by 83" wide and fits the Camaro very nicely. The toolbox on the front runs the full width of the trailer and is 2' deep and 3' tall. It has locking doors on both ends which makes for easy loading. It's great for storing spare parts, tools, ratchet straps....you name it. With the 4' dovetail on the end of the trailer, the lowered Camaro and it's very low front air dam load with no problem.

Busy Weekend Starting with Baseline Dyno Run on Saturday

Ali and I had a busy weekend this past Saturday. We left at 5AM from San Angelo driving the truck and the Camaro up to Dallas. I went straight to LG Motorsports in Wylie, TX for 3 baseline dyno pulls on the ESP Camaro before wedding meetings, picking up my new trailer (more details/pictures to come), and then autocrossing the Camaro on Sunday. As for the dyno, I wanted to run a quick check on the Camaro pre-season to make sure the car was making adequate power and that there were no engine issues apparent from the horsepower/torque curves.

LG uses a Dynojet brand dyno. The Camaro's peak numbers were 340whp and 355wtq.  This peak values don't mean a whole lot since every dyno will read differently but the curves looked good and stacked up well to other LS1-powered cars that LG Motorsports had tested. Here is some GoPro video that I shot of two dyno pulls. For this video, I attached the suction cup GoPro mount to the shop so I didn't have to hold the camera....this mount has many uses!

Update on the ESP Camaro

I've been putting some work in on the ESP Camaro and planning the 2012 Season over the past few weeks. 

Here are some photos of the progress:

 I put on new vinyl number plates made by SPS. The car will have an Orange/White theme as it develops so this should work nicely. I also have my Goodyear contingency sticks and some other various sponsor decals placed on the car now. Starting to look like racecar!

I installed 2-point UMI Performance sub-frame connectors courtesy of Strano Performance Parts.  

I also mounted up the 315/35ZR17 Goodyear Eagle RS sneakers that I will be running this year. This first set will be used at local events and for testing. 

After these changes, I removed the trailer hitch finally (because I bought at trailer, more on this later) which removed a hefty 31.4 off the back end of the car. I also changed the engine and transmission oil with some quality Red Line products. The car is ready for it's first race this weekend of 2012! Before my first SCCA National Tour event in March, the main goal will be tire testing, suspension tuning, and weight reduction through an aftermarket battery, removing the A/C unit, and removing the radio/speakers. Got to keep making this car faster because you never know how things will shake out at the Solo Nationals this year.

Tires Tires Tires.....

I will be running Goodyear Eagle RS tires on my ESP Camaro Z28 this year. I just a received a shipment of 315/35ZR17 tires that should last me the full season. Hopefully, I can help put Goodyear on the top step at this year's Solo Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska. I can't wait to put some laps on the fresh sneakers!

2011 Racing Season in Review

To start off, here is a highlight clip reel from the season...

2011 was an interesting year....it started off with plans of selling all of my karting gear to go Spec Miata road racing, then I decided my plan was to stick with shifter kart racing for a while longer while also trying to compete in the Skip Barber and Bondurant driver shootouts in addition to some open-wheel road races. Well, the Skip Barber Shootout changed their rules which basically made me ineligible this year and the Bondurant shootout was a one-and-done, so that left kart racing in the SWRC and local events. 

I decided to kick it up a notch with some last minute plans to attend the 2011 SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, NE. Thanks to Lane, some help from my Dad, and late nights in Lane's garage, the Solo Nationals went from maybe to definitely, and that's when 2011 went from good to awesome. I finished 2011 undefeated in Solo events (3 for 3 incl. Solo Nats) with 2 feature race karting victories and 4th place in Stock Moto Senior points in the Southwest Regional Cup. 

Season Summary:

• Proposed to my now-fiance Ali (not racing, but still important I'd say)
• SCCA Solo National Championship in A-Stock Class
• 100% win ratio in Solo events
• 2 Pro Class wins and Overall Top PAX wins with Equipe Rapide Autocross Club
• 2 Feature Race victories in Stock Moto Senior with North Texas Karters
• 4th place in Stock Moto Senior points in Southwest Regional Cup
• Completed first full season of Regional-level karting
• Raced at 3 new kart tracks (GCKI, OMC, DKC)
• Completed a 3-day Bondurant Advanced Road Racing School
• Drove a 305 Sprint Car for the first time (thanks Gary!)

However, one of the things that made the 2011 racing season the most enjoyable was getting to do it with friends and family. My fiance Ali was quite the trooper and attended almost all of my races this year including co-piloting with me on trips to Oklahoma and Houston. I started autocrossing with Lane and got to continue racing with my Dad. Joe and Stuart bought shifter karts so now we have our very own karting team in San Angelo. This was a big step up from being the lone West Texas karter in 2010 and I look forward to keeping it going in 2012. 

Porsches and Rental Karts in San Antonio

This past Saturday, Yama and I made a quick day trip to San Antonio to pick his car up from Porsche of San Antonio. They have a fantastic new facility off of 1-10 and had a quite a collection of fine Porsches including a GT2 RS, GT3 RS, several GT3s, several hardtop and droptop 911 Turbos, and also had some new 991 911s.

Here are some photos of the GTRS:

After grabbing some Japanese food for lunch, Yama and I hit up Alamo Karts on our way back to San Angelo which is an outdoor rental karting facility that uses unique propane powered karts. This also the home of Alamo Powersports and Alamo Sportscars . Clearly, the owners of this business are my kind of people - they were motorcycles, racecars, street kit cars, shifter karts, and their own go-kart track. Here are some pictures of their facility:

 

 Here is some onboard video from Alamo Karts:

5 Cars I Love

Road and Track had a cool article this past episode where each editor listed 5 cars they love.....here is my list.


Here are 5 cars I love in no particular order:

1. Ferrari F40

2. Acura NSX

3. Crossle 50F Formula Ford

4. 2004 Yellow C5 Chevy Corvette

5. Chaparral 2J

The Ferrari F40 is my favorite Ferrari of all time and will be the first thing I buy if I hit the lotto. The F40 is a no-compromise supercar and I you can't beat 3.0L of mid-engine twin-turbo V8. The Acura NSX is my Dad's current toy and an absolute blast to drive. It also has the greatest gearbox ever installed in a production car. The Crossle 50F was a great learning tool and I have special memories racing this car with my Dad. The '04 Corvette has to make the list because it (along with Lane's tuning, thanks buddy) helped me win my first SCCA National Championship. The Chaparral 2J is a truly innovative racecar made right up the road from where I live in Midland, TX. Also, it is one of my favorite cars to drive in Gran Turismo.

I posted the link to my Twitter account and got a nice shoutout from R&T:

Link to the Road & Track Article: http://www.roadandtrack.com/column/cars-we-love

Simon Says...No Driving Style

I came across a very interesting interview with Honda Factory driver Simon Pagenaud done by SimRaceway. The article is basically his description of how to set blistering lap times around Mid-Ohio for which he is the overall lap record holder in a Panoz Champ Car pictures below.


The most interesting part of the article is when Simon describes his philosophy on "driving style." Here is the quote:

One would think that the techniques required to steer 800bhp of open wheel fury like the Panoz DP-01 simply would have no correlation with a rear wheel or all wheel drive production car. Simon begs to differ. “It is important to have a car that is the same on entry, mid-corner and exit”. He went on to explain that the car “needs to be predictable from entry to exit. I want the car to drive into the corner by itself, I never want to force it with the steering. I want to transfer enough weight to the front of the car with my braking or by lifting but I don’t want to have to turn the wheel too much. My belief is there is no ‘driving style’, you need to be able to adapt at every corner.”

I am a big fan of this philosophy. I think it is a very common "paddock myth" for drivers to blame a lack of pace on their "driving style" not matching a certain racecar. I think this is more due to the driver not being able to adapt to what the racecar needs....in the end it's the driver not the racecar. The same basic fundamentals of weight transfer apply to any given racecar, but the method to achieve the end result of perfect corner entry, mid-corner balance, and exit velocity will be different. This is why drivers with good fundamentals can hop into any car and be on pace with in a few laps.


Link to the article: http://blog.simraceway.com/2012/01/simon-says-a-lap-around-mid-ohio-with-the-track-record-holder-simon-pagenaud/

Mr. Yama's Cayman R

My buddy Yama recently purchased a new automobile....

It is a 2012 Porsche Cayman R with 6-speed MT, Sports Chrono package, Carbon fiber sport bucket seat, and a really nice Alcantara steering wheel. It puts out 330 HP at 7,400 while making it's trademark Porsche flat-six engine note. I was lucky enough to get to drive into work a few days ago....and I truly understand why there are so many Porsche fanatics out there. It is his dream car and all of our friends are happy to bum rides in his fancy Yellow Taxi anyday!

Here is an interior shot:


New owner with Cayman R:


Yama and I will be installing a hitch on his Cayman R soon so he can bring some Goodyear R-Compound tires with him on his track day adventures at Harris Hill Road in San Marcos, TX. Yama's current personal best of around a 1:29s lap will be in danger when he brings the new whip to HHR next month!