5 Tracks in 5 Days to determine who really is the fastest driver/car/team
Las Vegas Derek Daly Track
April 18th, 2004
Everyone Shows Their Cards
5 Tracks in 5 Days to determine who really is the fastest
driver/car/team
Autowave is maintaining and tuning the Flamemobile
This is not the "Official OTC" page. It is my "unbiased" (heh) interpretation of the events prior to the Open Track Challenge, and a diary of what happened during the event.
April 18th, Derek Daly Track
Okay, here's the start of the OTC!
Erik shows up at 8:30 a.m., getting no sleep last night. He worked on the 240Z until 4:00 a.m., and then drove up to Vegas. I figure he will run two seconds faster than my 1:58 yesterday, which was the 2nd fastest time behind the WSR car.
There are more Corvette drivers entered in the OTC than any other marque. I count six Corvettes in Touring, and two in Unlimited. I don't see any BMWs, Ferraris, or Supras entered this year. (those guys are slow anyway, maybe that is why they didn't show up?)
The Lofgren/Lofgren team came prepared with a big ass wing to duke it out in T3
We throw Erik in the car, and having not been on this track in the new configuration, he throws down a 1:55, 1:56, 1:57. Looking good. |
PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD
The Mitsubishi Evolution seems to be the car to beat in Touring 3. Who
will win?
I am also timing Dearing in his Viper, and I look at the stopwatch, and holy shit, I see a 1:54.x. WHAT? Dearing runs a 1:54?
The Lofgren/Lofgren team also entered a Mini in the 2004 OTC
Erik and I were surprised that Dearing was that fast today.
Lampe showing how to ride (hump?) an S2000 motor
Erik has to blast back to Long Beach at 11:00 a.m. I'll run the next session, but we have to concede to Dearing's Viper that we ain't gonna beat his string of three 1:54 laptimes. I'm hoping to run in the high 1:56 range, as we are on the 5th heat cycle for these slicks. We decide to save the other sets of tires for the rest of the week.
Chris Rooke is back with the 996 Twin Turbo
Wayne's EVO died in the first session. Looks like main bearing. Sucks. That motor rebuild lasted 600 miles. So he will soon have his 3rd motor before he hits 2500 miles on the car. Ouch.
PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD
Wayne's Evolution throws a main bearing in the motor in 1st run group.
He's a DNF. Bummer.
Rylan's S2000 is engineless. After dropping the engine, they decided not to put Aaron's motor back in, as it would take alot of time, and then on Friday they would have to re-swap it again. And, if Rylan blew it up, then he has to fix two engines.
Coffey's deadly OTC Scooter
Around 11:15 p.m., we got Erik back on the road to Long Beach
successfully. How he drove up from Huntington Beach to Vegas on no sleep,
drive a session, and then drive BACK to Long Beach I'll never know.
Provost said that it is the "Messley Matrix", and Erik just seemlessly
moves in and out at will....no one can control his schedule, including himself!
Hash marks for people who flipped it. Me, Messley, Coffey(twice)
In the second session, I run two laps in the 1:56 range. The OTC competition rules state that everyone is comparing their top three laps at each track. So as of lunch, Dearing had a 1:54, 1:54, 1:54. We had 1:55, 1:56, 1:56. Which means that Dearing kicked our ass. As of lunch, no one else was close to us except for the Shelby Cobra, which ran a couple of high 1:56.x, so they are starting to make their move.
I didn't think I could beat Dearing's string of 1:54's unless I threw on new tires, and suddenly became superman. I figured we conceded Day 1 to the Dearing/Haney Viper team, hoping that we take 2nd for the day, and we try to win 3 of the next 4 tracks against them. We are pretty sure we can beat the Viper at Willow, since our test day laptimes were stupendous, but not sure what they can do with the WSR car. This also enables us to save the car, and get on the road to Vegas. I don't think the WSR car is running well, as they were working on it. Rumor has it that Coffey/Lampe were trying to dip into the 1:56.x range.
PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD
The Vishnu/Gerrard Evo is having motor problems. Bummer. Who will win?
We find out that in the first session for Unlimited 3, the Evolution piloted by Vishnu/Gerrard had a crank angle sensor fail, so their car isn't running. They are having someone from the bay area deliver a new one to Willow Springs.
PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD
Robi's Evo is having ABS problems, and flies into the fence. Who won't
break at Survivor EVO OTC?
Robi's Evo is having problems with the ABS, and they overshoot the braking zone down the straightaway, and end up caught by a chain link fence.
Stottlemyer/Beebe entered a WRX. More at
www.stifiles.com!
So we had to tow Wayne's car back to Willow. We figure tow it there, and then call a tow truck to take it back to Huntington Beach. The Sunday traffic from Vegas to anywhere south is a nightmare. Plus it is spring break for a lot of people. We decide to not take the 15-58-14 freeways to get to Mojave, where our hotel is. Instead, we decide to take a "short cut" and go through Pahrump, around the back way to the 190(?) to the 395 to the 14 to the 58 to our hotel. We figured it was an extra 90-100 miles, but at least we won't have to hit the Vegas traffic.
1:45 p.m. We leave the Vegas Track
We cruise into Pahrump, and kick their ass
3:00 p.m. Arrive in Pahrump
Wayne is sleeping in the RV.
I say on the phone that I need to stop and use the restroom, and get some food
out of the motor home. We can either stop at a gas station or the casino.
Wayne jumps up out of a deep slumber, and says, "CASINO?". Looks like we
are off to the casino. We park, and wolf down some rice and filet mignon
that I barbequed before we left Southern California. I went to Costco, and got 14 kick
ass filets, and 3 big ass steaks for about 90 bucks. That is like 6 bucks
per hunk of meat. The meat was delicious. Our crew this week is on
our moditfied Atkins Diet, meaning we eat filets, steak, rice, spaghetti, bread for all
our meals. Meat, and uh...lots of bread/pasta/tortillas/rice. Atkins
almost had it right, he just screwed up on the "no starch" rule.
I have four big ice chests with big blocks of ice, storing all kinds of food for
the trip.
Stopped somewhere on our way to Death Valley - photo by BP
Our agreement is that we stay for 15 minutes, then hit the road. BP, Brent, Wayne and I are playing blackjack, with Rick checking out the action. We are on a hot streak. Provost is now "Mr. Eleven", as he gets an eleven on the first two cars about 7 out of 10 times for a bunch of double down opportunities. We are KICKING THEIR ASS! Wayne clears a couple hundred, Brent clears a hundred or so, Provost clears about $300, and I clear $1000! Yeah, we take the casino for a total of $1500! We look at the clock....oh shit, it is 4 p.m. We get in the rigs, and drive out of Pahrump, with a big smile on our face.
Going up the hill to Death Valley- photo by BP
I call the wife, and tell her we are using the back way to Mojave that we used on the first OTC two years ago. She said, "Are you sure the truck and trailer will make it, as I think it is real steep and tight?". I say, uh....sure it will be fine. I guess I have a bad memory. We are going to go through Death Valley. There are some sections of road where the truck can only pull the trailer at 20 mph for twenty five minutes. Holy shit, this truck pulls up the Grapevine (6% grade or so) at 40 mph no problem. Is the motor dying? No....gauges look good. I guess it is uhh.....steep. Real steep. And I have Wayne's Evo in the big trailer, so we are probably around 30,000 lbs in total weight, going up this big hill. Brent is driving the RV and kart trailer behind us, and since the RV is a big diesel pusher, it goes up the hills seamlessly.
Don't hit the damn mountain!- photo by BP
We get warning signs going down hill, saying, "Steep Grade 9%". What? I didn't realize a 9% grade existed. Who is the moron who engineered this hill? Shit. Glad I replaced the brake pads on the truck and trailer. As we are going down the hill, I can see the brakes smoking on the 48 foot trailer in my side view mirrors. It looks like a smoke bomb went off behind the trailer. Instead of being on my bumper, Brent backs off about a half mile, as Rick, Wayne, and him can see flames starting to come out from behind the trailer, as the brakes are way too hot, and they want no part of that wreck. Great, just what we need, another vehicle catching fire. Thank God we didn't carry fuel in the trailer above the brakes. After we get down the hill, there is one more big mountain to climb. As we start to go up the mountain, we see a sign flash by "Vehicles longer than 33 feet not recommended". Uh oh.....I figure I am about 65 feet, and Brent is about 58 feet. We thread our way through very narrow mountain roads for the next 40 minutes. We can't turn around and go back, as we would have to go up the 9% grade again, and down it again. And we are probably 70% of the way to our destination, so it makes no sense to turn around.
Whew! Made it down the 9% grade, now we just have to get through Death
Valley- photo by BP
9:00 p.m. We arrive in Mojave.
We are all
arguing whether or not this was faster or not. The majority of people say
it is longer. I say we did okay, as it was an hour from Vegas to Pahrump,
five hours from Pahrump to Mojave, for a total of six hours driving. If we took
the 15, we risked being caught in rush hour, and we would be bumper to bumper,
towing the trailers. Someone makes the comment, "so that is tougher than
going up and down a 9% grade?" Humm....
9:45 p.m.
We fire up the spaghetti in the motorhome, and
eat a couple of lbs each. We are ready for tomorrow....minus one Red Evo.
I can't find the results, so I don't know if we are really 2nd overall or not. Maybe some of the guys ran 4 session, beating on their car to take the spot behind Dearing. We will find out tomorrow.
Tomorrow we see who is the Fastest Team at the Fastest Track in the West: Willow Springs.
