Clemson Sports Car Club

Rob and Mike tear up the track in HPDE

NASA's Nov 6-7-8 event came and went this weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park. We had absolutely clear skies all three days and, after the sun came up, the temps were beautiful for being outside. Mike C., Rob F. and Kerri were all driving in HPDE and David E. and Zach G. were on course manning flag stations, along with the usual friends-of-CSCC working other posts.


Matt Morgan storms the Comp School field

Matt M. took part in the Comp License School this weekend and cruised past all the other students to an easy victory in the mock race Sunday in the Gregory-Green #11 VW he shares with Nevit. Congrats Matt! In other CSCC-alumni news, Rob Summers is beginning to get a taste of what life in Spec Miata is like with two new visual features added to different parts of his car! Whether he's going to stick with Spec Pinata for the long run remains to be seen.


My car gets vinyl markings courtesy of Ted and a new coat of paint!

The newly-renumbered #01 SpecE30 and I survived the weekend but had lots of trouble. I arrived Friday just in time to do tech and get ready for the enduro, only to find that the engine didn't want to run clean once I got out on track. I pulled in to check various things like spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil connections, vacuum leaks, injection component connectors...I even got some spares from other E30 drivers and tried them, but no effect. I only ran 27 laps in the enduro, vs the winner who ran 91 laps. I spent a lot of time just sitting still in the paddock, of course.

Saturday morning I went out for practice to see if any of the parts I swapped made a difference but they didn't. I think I threw my fan belt too at the end of practice so I went into town to find a new belt and also some of the ignition components I wanted to replace. No one had anything but the belt though, and I missed the qualifying session while I was gone. Qualifying doesn't mean anything when you are a rookie driver anyway, they start you from the back of the field for your first few events. I drove the entire race on Saturday but the car ran like crap, not only was the breakup still there but I also ran the car low on fuel so I was getting the fuel starvation through right handers. I later found that I had run it a lot lower than I thought, either it was using more fuel than normal or I hadn't noticed the starvation earlier because of the breakup...anyway I added another 10 gal (had already added 5 before the race) and got ready for the IFU3 gimmick race. That's Inverted Field Unlimited...they start you in reverse order from your qualifying, and then they stop the race a couple times and manipulate the field in other ways to keep it interesting. Surprisingly, the car started running pretty well after adding all the fresh gas, I'm thinking I had water in my tank and just had to burn it out. As usual for IFU, "That Race Was Nuts!" and we all had a blast, right down to the "LeMans finish"! As an interesting side note, we're not sure if it was the IFU or just chance but NASA-SE supposedly hosted the largest-ever SpecE30 field in the nation this weekend with something like 26 entrants! And I got to race behind all of them!

Sunday the car threw the belt again during the qualifying race so I only got one lap in. I had to run to town twice to get new belts because the one I had gotten Saturday was too long, and the next replacement I got was too wide. I got back with the correct belt just as the green flag was thrown for my race, so I put it on and got on track only about three laps down. It ran OK the rest of that race, though I was really noticing now how poorly it was handling. It had really handled pretty bad all weekend but the engine was a bigger concern to me. I really need to get the alignment re-checked and then look at my data from the datalogger to see if I'm just driving poorly.

Time to get ready for Road Atlanta with NASA on Dec. 4-5-6!

---

I meant to include this as well in the notes about CSCC people: another HPDE participant, Matt S., didn't have such good luck this weekend...mechanical issues struck early in the weekend preventing Matt from driving most of the event. Fortunately he was able to stay in pretty good spirits and, as usual, there seemed to be plenty of people around to help get the car wherever it needed to go! Hope to see the 328 back in action in short order!

As a side note, where's the 'Edit' button?

Congrats Shaun, Matt, Keri, Rob and all!

When you're younger, you think winning means "I came in first and got a trophy... SEE?!?!?!?" When you get a little older and wiser, you realize it's winning to be out there racing and competing.

It always amazed me the monday after a race or a hillclimb, I'm wiped, tired, behind on sleep but still feeling the adrenalin... and I ask people "What did you do this weekend?" They say "Playstation3" "Went to the park" "Saw a movie" "Cut the grass" "Made a fountain in my back yard" "Watched my nephew play soccer"... and I realize how lucky we are to have the hobby that we do. It's better to be sitting in the pits working on your car and never race than to be sitting at home on the couch dreaming and playing Forza...(well, maybe not Forza 3. )

Proud of you guys. Keep it up. Glad the decals held Shaun!

sounds like everyone had a good time. i swear i'm going to make it to a track day at some point in the near future.

same here. quite honestly, I had though that this year would be the year. Z was ready and everything. I had already been planning on buying some cheep street tires for the 17's to learn on. oh well. Tracy is very interested though. Once things stabilize for us there is a purty high chance that Ken might see us at a few events. That or we will be waterskiing (we both love skiboats.)

---

Wow, there is no edit option. Not that I can see at least. Crazy.

---

it just adds any double posts to your previous post.

Nice to hear the weekend went well for everyone.

It was a blast. Ted's right; when you talk with people it makes you realize just how much more exciting of a weekend I had than almost anyone I know.

What'd I do this weekend? Drove a truck / trailer about 7 hours round trip, slept in a tent in 40 deg. weather, drove my Miata around track and lapped my DE group, got a ride in a Miata that left me shaking, learned to steer with the gas (and learned what that actually means), learned how to do more body work, learned how to bump start a car, went to a party and stood in the cold next to Rob S.' car talking with about half a dozen of the old CSCC guys, and pushed a BMW onto a trailer because it's motor gave up on track.

I can't even describe how much fun this weekend was. I won't be driving Road Atlanta in a month (might work, not sure yet), but I cannot wait until next year.

I'm going to point out that it wasn't my BMW that had to be pushed onto the trailer It's a black and orange one...

I also pushed several cars this weekend including our paddock neighbor's Honda Accord. Don't camp at the track in November... it's too cold. I'm getting a hotel room for Road Atlanta. And some instructors are very very hard but man, when they tell you you did a good job, it means a lot more coming from them. I hung in there the DE2 students and even managed to pass a couple cars (ok it was the same car in two different sessions). And of course there were a bunch of dogs at the track and my favorite was the German Shepherd who stayed next to us.

I don't get picky about this, but I will point out that my name is K-E-R-I

That's what I wrote... K E R I......

Awww...snotburgers.
(This post was last modified: Today 01:21 PM by Theodore.)
I hate it when it does that...
Tedd

(11-10-2009 11:23 AM)Theodore Wrote: [ -> ]That's what I wrote... K E R I......

Awww...snotburgers.
(This post was last modified: Today 01:21 PM by Theodore.)
I hate it when it does that...
Tedd

Haha, it's all good

Did anyone happen to see Draco performance's cars? They won TTS and were 2nd in TTA. It is a shop in NC that i son another forum I go to. Very nice people. Their TTS car looks amazing too.

(11-10-2009 08:37 AM)straight four Wrote: [ -> ]same here. quite honestly, I had though that this year would be the year. Z was ready and everything. I had already been planning on buying some cheep street tires for the 17's to learn on. oh well. Tracy is very interested though. Once things stabilize for us there is a purty high chance that Ken might see us at a few events. That or we will be waterskiing (we both love skiboats.)

---

Wow, there is no edit option. Not that I can see at least. Crazy.

---

it just adds any double posts to your previous post.

Edit button's down on the buttom O.o

(11-10-2009 06:07 PM)humjaba Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-10-2009 08:37 AM)straight four Wrote: [ -> ]same here. quite honestly, I had though that this year would be the year. Z was ready and everything. I had already been planning on buying some cheep street tires for the 17's to learn on. oh well. Tracy is very interested though. Once things stabilize for us there is a purty high chance that Ken might see us at a few events. That or we will be waterskiing (we both love skiboats.)

---

Wow, there is no edit option. Not that I can see at least. Crazy.

---

it just adds any double posts to your previous post.

Edit button's down on the buttom O.o

So not seeing it

Comp school was a blast! I don't think I have had that much fun in a long time!

The weekend started out with the first session of the day Saturday morning. It was the first time ever wearing a HANS, the seat had been moved from my previous experience, and the windows were covered in dew and fog. Needless to say I wasn't very comfortable in the car and was not pushing it at all. The car ran strong and, even without me pushing hard, I was amazed at how well it pulled and handled.

After the "warm up" session, we had Comp school class. We were assigned drills to do for our next on track session (three laps on the extreme right of the track, then three laps on the extreme left, rinse, repeat). During the second session I was more comfortable but I right before going on track I popped the bumper lose from its mounts driving across the grass grid. Nevit He-Maned it back into place and I was able to get on track at the end of the pack. I was probably more nervous for this session because right before pulling onto track Nevit reminded me "You spin, you fail" Thanks Nevit my gastric ulcers hadn't bothered me in at least an hour

Third session found me paired with another comp school student in Robert Patton's E30 (James I think) We were doing passing drills when the first group of instructors came out to play. Rob Summers picked our group to harass by placing himself in inconvenient locations entering and exiting turns. Made it through that and that was the last session of the day.

Sunday again we had a warm up session but this time I had a much more enjoyable time since I had remembered to cover the entire car the night before. Car was still running amazingly strong and with the shortened intercooler pipes I couldn't get over the throttle response. I was once again paired with Patton's E30 and we were really mixing it up. I remember at one point thinking to myself that this must be some instructor I had never met that Jim specifically brought in to mess with me. Turns out he used to have a race license with another organization. go figure.

After lunch I was paired with Gordon in the Pontiac Firebird. The thinking was that our cars were comparable in power (vs weight) and it would be easier to stay together doing the drills. Again the instructors would pop up from time to time and put themselves where we weren't expecting. At one point Drew Ewing showed up in his Silver M3. I decided to try and follow him for a couple of turns just to see how the jetta stacks up. yeah. well. hmmm how much weight do we have to add to get to GTS2?

Time for the race. Jim, in his infinite evilness, decided to put the faster cars in the back (me included). At the start I had two spec E30s and two Spec Miatas directly in front of me. I knew I could out accelerate them but I wasn't sure about braking or turning. As soon as the green flag fell I mashed it and pulled alongside the E30 in front of me. Only problem was that he was pulling alongside the miata in front of him. That put me half in the grass on drivers left. Oh well, Drew said that he wanted to see some driving so off we go! I made it through T1 in fourth place, passed one miata in the carousel and went for the pass on James in the Spec E30 going into 8. I must not have carried the speed I though I would have because he was still there entering the kink. I knew he was there on the inside so I stayed out and gave him some room. According to him later, he reached out and adjusted my mirror for me we were close

I knew that the instructors were coming after me to mess with me, so I put my head down and went. I had the car singing! Most fun I have ever had on track. I felt like the fox, with the hounds running me down. Only problem was everytime I looked, there was noone there! I knew they had to be coming but where? When? Would I make it till the end before they caught me? Push harder! Go Faster! so I did.

Two laps in, I see Nevit in the start stand waving frantically for me to slow down. Guess I had a gap on the pack. :mrgreen: I cruised the last lap just to make sure I didn't wad the car up.

(11-10-2009 06:07 PM)humjaba Wrote: [ -> ]Edit button's down on the buttom O.o

Which button is it?

So how do I sign up as a flagger for the next one?