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Ford LA Street Race, September 5-7, 1998
Sponsored by Downtown L.A. Motors Group and PRO Racing Series

Getting ready for a "Le Mans-Style" Start on Figueroa Ave. Engines off, waiting for flag to drop

XXXXX NSX-FILES REPORT EXCLUSIVE XXXXX MONDAY SEPT 07 1998 1:00:09 PT XXXXX
(Yeah, I know the pictures on this page are big, and it time consuming to download them. BUT, it is almost 1999, and soon after that the Millenium, so if I were you, I would be getting ISDN or ADSL or Cable Modem or Direct PC Satellite or SOMETHING other than a 28.8 modem. Cause if you are are running at 28.8, you ain't got no business surfing for stories about fast cars on the web.....fast is a way of life, either you do everything fast, or you are just plan slow and inefficient....)

It's Frank Carlone's fault. Wayne and I will blame it on him. He's the guy who called me out of the blue and left a message saying, "Hey, why don't you race with us wheel-to-wheel in the Pro Racing Series event in the streets of Los Angeles, it will be a blast!". We were perfectly content doing our Time Trial events, but here's a chance to race wheel-to-wheel by the LA Coliseum, Science Center, Rose Garden, Natural History Museum, University of Southern California, etc. Shit, I could even one day boast to my future grandkids(kinda hard, as we ain't got kids yet), "Yeah, I did a Pro Racing event in the streets of LA, it was pretty cool". So because of Frank's phone call, Wayne and I went through a bazillion hoops to get to this point.

The Los Angeles Street Race main event was the NASCAR Featherlite Series, and their race was called the NASCAR Southwest Series Kragen Z-One 200, and they had guys like Mark Martin running in that event. They also had the American Cities Racing League running the Sports 2000 cars in it. The Ultra Wheel Trucks also were racing. And, they have this group of racer dudes called the Pro Racing Series, which is the group we were in. Our schedule was a one hour enduro on Saturday, a half hour race on Sunday, and a one hour enduro on Monday after the NASCAR event.

There were three NSXs entered in the LA Street Race(www.lastreetrace.com) in the PRO Racing Series.

1. The Flame Mobile - with Doug and Wayne as co-drivers, weighing in at 2840 lbs. with no driver.

2. Mike Duncan - in the RM Racing prepared NSX weighing in at 2400 lbs. He has 3 lb doors built with Randy Marchetti. Mike also has Randy's big NOS kit on his car, but the Pro Racing Series organizers would not allow him to use the NOS because of "safety" reasons. Bummer for Mike and Randy, as that took a lot of horsepower away from him.

Saturday - About 48 cars are entering in the Pro Racing Series event. Monster cars. I mean MONSTER CARS. Big time Porsche guys. I mean big time. Wayne and I are looking at each other, thinking that we thought the Button Willow Enduro two weeks ago had some stiff competition. We just multiplied that by a factor of 4 for this race.

Someone said there are lots of guys here who buy frames/chassis/rollbars/body direct from Porsche to race, and it is $150,000+ new from the factory.......with no motor and other stuff you need to go fast. Some of the guys in the race supposedly have $500,000 into their cars. My guess offhand is about twenty Porsche 911's are entered, seven BMWs, three NSXs, a Mustang, a Porsche 928, three Porsche 944, three Porsche 914's, a Prelude, Ferrari 308 and a 348, Eagle Talon, etc.

After a 40 minute practice, we are to have a 45 minute qualifying session. Plan is that Wayne drives first 20 minutes, and then I qualify for the last 25 minutes, and we take best time. However, qualifying is cut short by 30 minutes. 30 MINUTES! AND, they never gave any advance notice that the session would be cut short, they just waved the checker flag and had everyone come in. I never got a chance to drive, and neither do other co-drivers. I guess when you are a support race, you get bumped for time.......anyways, Wayne does an awesome job, and qualifies us 22 out of 48 or so, considering that at least 38 cars are full race cars, stripped down, and much faster potential than us. Other drivers aren't happy, as they didn't get the time to really start burning up the track...but hey that's racing........so we start middle of pack.

Saturday afternoon - One Hour Enduro - we do a Le Mans-style start, since there are 48 cars, and we can't do a rolling start and get all the cars lined up properly. Plus it probably makes for a good show, and the spectators will enjoy it.

1. We line up at an angle towards the next turn on Figuroa Avenue. All 48 cars.
2. Everyone shuts off their engines
3. When Green flag is waved, everyone has to start their car, haul ass without hitting the other cars that are shooting out at an angle down the straightaway, barreling into turn 1.

I drive the first 20 minutes of enduro, and Wayne drives the last 40(according to enduro rules for this race today, odd number cars had to make mandatory 3 minute pit stop and optional driver change in first 20 minutes). It is pretty intense, duking it out with the similar type cars, and then having the Porsche 911 race cars dive bomb on you in the straights and corners.

Since everyone has to make a mandatory 3 minute pit stop, it is hard to tell what place you are in. Since it is also an hour long, some people have to refuel, some don't, some people have to stop for repairs, etc, so no one really knows who the hell is in first place. We complete the race without incident. Pro Racing says they won't have results of the race until the morning, but we are just happy we didn't wreck. We also get a big time adrenaline rush from racing in the LA Street Race...and I mean BIG TIME adrenaline rush......

Trying in vain to hold off a 911 Turbo - Photo by Bruce B. Miller 323-737-3227

Sunday Morning:
We are to grid for the 30 minute sprint race today according to finishing positions in the race yesterday. At 10:00 a.m., they finally post the results. WAYNE AND I TAKE EIGHTH PLACE, and second in our class behind a Mustang! (possibly turbo charged) It was manual timing, so I am sure there is room for error, if ya know what I mean. Mike Duncan in the RM NSX passed us once, and we never passed him, yet they have him as 11th, 3 spots behind us. But Wayne and I ain't complaining...hey, that's racing..(Manual lap keeping is tough. After reporting to the list two weeks ago that Wayne and I came in 3rd out of 20 in the three hour enduro at Buttowillow, a week later I get a call from Pro Racing saying, "uuuhhh..we made a mistake, the ZR-1 beat you, you are really the 4th place finisher, can you please send your 3rd place trophy back?") Anyways, we learn that in an enduro race, your car has to be dependable, you can't spin, and ya gotta be able to finish. Some people would say, "Slow and steady wins the race", but instead, we say, "Medium speed and excellent driving wins the race".

Sunday Sprint Race:
Another Le Mans style start. I am gridded eighth, behind four horribly fast 911 Twin Turbo race cars(10 seconds a lap faster than us, and we are turning 1:14 or so), a turbo charged(by Mech Tech) Z3 that was really fast, I could never catch the guy), and a Mustang(possibly turbo-charged), and a 944 Turbo.

I figure I need to get a good launch. The crowd is cheering at the start because it is quiet, everyone waiting for the green flag to drop so everyone will simultaneously start their engines and haul ass down the straight.......green flag drops, I turn the key, mash the pedal, the NSX launches out fast....but then it gurgles....and gurgles again....meantime 30 other cars come screaming by me trying to avoid me. I am not sure what I did, if I turned the key too quick and floored it and the ECU got confused.....or maybe I just boneheaded and tried to start in 3rd gear???nah.....I couldn't have been that stupid, could I?? I jam the car into neutral....rev it a couple of times, drop it back into first, and finally engine kicks in......meantime I am cursing up a storm as I was gridded 8th, now I am just about last in the damn field......we get about 4 laps in, then big time waving flags.....apparently a 911 Turbo T-boned a beautiful looking BMW M3 Lighweight so hard that rear wheels of the BMW ended up eight feet high on a tire wall, with the nose pointing down, kinda like it is dive bombing into the ground.

They fly the checkered flag after only about 10 minutes of racing, as opposed to 30 minutes.......which really sucks......as I am at the back of the back, which really hurts our chances for gridding near the front for the big race on Monday......I really start cursing about my stupidity on the start........what a loser, just when things were going so good for us.......

I talk to the race officials, and they said since it is an aborted race, they are going to use qualifying grid from SATURDAY instead of Sunday. What luck for us! So we grid 8th!!! Except 911 Turbo crashed. So we grid 7th!! But BMW Z3 Turbocharged machine bent a valve. So I think we will grid 6th for the big race tomorrow if the race officials don't change their mind.......true, we really LUCKED into it, as we aren't even close to having the fastest car or most experienced drivers.......but hey.....that's racing!

Hopefully, if we can hold our own, we can end up in the top 10, as there is a pack of angry Porsches behind us that are pissed that they got screwed in the qualifying......and they are going to be looking for blood tomorrow!!

1. Doug Ota/Jeff Littrell in Ota's black M3 - overheating problems again during Saturday enduro, they DNF.....bummer.
2. Frank Carlone - breaks a Comptech dual disk clutch during Sunday Sprint race....right after fixing his crack rear drill rotors from Saturday....DNF(NOTE: it was incorrectly reported by me earlier that this was a Comptech dual disk clutch. That was an error on my part)
3. Mike Duncan - having problems shifting.....could be he broke a Comptech single disk clutch. (NOTE: Comptech says that they feel their new single disk clutch is exceptionally strong, and well suited for the supercharger. It has a 7lb flywheel. They said that they would like to throw one in my car for me to test, to prove that it cannot be broken).
4. Paul Porteous in a BMW has tranny problems.....DNF

Doug Ota's BMW M3. After two enduros the score is Hayashi/Mello 2, Ota/Littrell 0

Randy Marchetti is out here with John Scott, assisting Mike Duncan with the RM prepared NSX. Randy and John are also graciously helping out me and Frank Carlone. Hat's off to Randy and John for helping us NSXers out at this event!

Monday morning
Doug Ota says he saw me on the CBS Channel 2 News 11 p.m. Sunday night for about 15 seconds, doing an interview with a female hottie reporter while I was sitting in my car. There was also a clip earlier on a CBS showing the "AVOID 55" license plate, and talking about a street car being in the LA Street Race. Channel 9 News talked about the NASCAR race, and in the background of the reporter in the backdrop was a picture of my car.

Bonehead reporters on channel 9 obviously didn't know that an NSX is not a NASCAR automobile. However Jennifer the Reporter did a very good job interviewing serveral people, and CBS shot about 5 minutes of footage for the news that night. HEY, any of you out there work for a company that wants to see a big logo of your company across the hood of my car, let me know, I am sure we can work out a deal......this is twice in two years that my car has been on the biggest news stations in Southern California. Highest bidder wins.... :-)

Sunday night, the printout for the grid for the one hour enduro said that I would start 6th on the grid, as they were using the final end results from the one hour enduro race on Saturday. I was pretty jazzed, as we finished 8th, and two cars in front of us broke, which puts us 6th on the grid. The organizers had options of using:

1. Results from the aborted Sunday race(we only had about 9 minutes of actual racing due to big accident between a 911 Turbo and a BMW M3 Lightweight)
2. Results of the Saturday race, which went the full hour
3. Results of Saturday's qualifying lap times, which was supposed to be 45 minutes of qualifying, but was cut short to only 15 minutes of qualifying. And they didn't tell anyone they were cutting it short, they just ended it after 15 minutes, so a lot of people never got a chance to really run their cars hard for qualifying. Some people didn't even get their car on the track, as they figured they had 45 minutes to run a good lap. Tough, that's racing, it is about time we penalize people who aren't on time! Wayne put us 22 out of 48 on the grid.

About two hours before race time on Sunday, the organizers changed their minds and went with option 3, since they felt that too many slow cars(excuse me?) were in the front of the pack, and it might be dangerous with all the big horsepower cars in the back of the pack weaving around during the race around the slower cars. Anyways, since we qualified 22 out of 48 cars or so, this meant that we grided 16th, since six cars in front of us broke. At least they didn't go for option 1, which would have meant that I would have grided about 35th due to my horrible start on the Sunday race.

We have a 10 minute practice session at 9:00 a.m., and I send Wayne out to do the practice session, as he didn't drive on Sunday. Then we have to wait EIGHT HOURS for our race, waiting for the ACRL Sports 2000 folks to finish, then the Spec Trucks, then the NASCAR Featherlites, then us as the mop up act. We got a lot of time to kill, so we end up going to the IMAX movie, "Into the Deep", which is playing about 20 feet from the end of our paddock. Mike Duncan, running the black RM NSX, tries to use his clutch that is acting flakey, and sees if blipping the throttle helps get the car into the right gear during the practice, session, but it ain't working. He declares himself out of the race, as he feels it would be too dangerous if he can't get the car into gear with all the big horsepower cars in the field.

So we grid, and we are late as all hell. We are supposed to race around 5:00 p.m. But now, it is almost 6:10 p.m. by the time we do one pace lap and start to grid for another Le Mans standing start. The organizers changed the rule, in that now we can have our engine running before the flag is dropped, as opposed to having our engine turned off. Surprisingly, the stands on Figueroa Blvd are still full with race fans, as they didn't bail after the NASCAR guys finished. Personally, I think our race is WAY more exciting for the fans, as there is a huge variety of easily identifiable cars in the field, as opposed to the NASCAR cars that all look the same to me. Plus, some of the big Porsche 911 Turbos are running times almost as fast if not faster than the NASCAR Featherlites.

Wayne and I plan to split up the driving for this part of the event into me driving the first 25 minutes, and Wayne driving the last 35. The reason why we got Wayne driving more than me is that I have to be suited up, helmet on, for about 30 minutes before we start the damn race, and if you have ever sat in a full suit for 30 minutes and THEN drive for 25 minutes, you are pretty wiped out. Plus, in theory, Wayne should drive the car smoother than me as he doesn't want to wreck my car, thus he should be saving a little more gas than me. We barely completed the Saturday enduro without refueling. We are setup with two way radios from Racing Electronics, Wayne has one in the hot pits with a headset(the cars are so loud you can't hear a hand held radio in the pits), and Doug Ota is sitting on Figueroa with a radio to help spot when the flag drops, so he can yell over the radio as soon as he sees the starter moving the flag.

So I am gridded 16th, and there are FIFTEEN Porsches in front of me. (Hey, all you NSX drivers out there, we all gotta go to racing school, take daily shots of testosterone, get 200+ more horspower, and develop a killer instinct to beat these Porsches guys, cause they don't screw around. ACURA - ya gotta get us NSX drivers some factory go-fast parts. The Porsche guys can order go-fast parts right from the factory, including full on stripped down frames/body with rollcages installed by the factory. Sure would be NICE if Acura could do the same for us, along with getting 450+ horsepower out of an NSX engine! Us NSX drivers don't care how ya do it, but we need more horsepower from the factory or the Porsche drivers will continue to kill us in these races! There are 911 Twin Turbos that look like they are straight from the Porsche factory setup for racing, 914's that have slicks that look about 18 inches wide, one 944 Turbo, and right in front of me is a car in my class, P3, and it is a 1979 911 with 195 horsepower, and weighs 2300 lbs. Behind me are another 25 cars, varying from Ferraris to BMWs to Mustangs to Preludes to Vipers and a bunch of big time Porsches that didn't finish the qualifying race. The car that finished 2nd at Le Mans in GT3 a couple of years ago is one of the cars in front of me.

Okay, so we do our warmup lap(pretty cool seeing those 911s swerve side to side warming up the tires). Starter is ready, everyone is gunning their engines, and I pray I don't blow the start again. The fans in the stands and on the sidewalks are standing up and cheering. Starter drops the flag, and I get a good start!

I blow by about 4 or 5 of the Porsches in front of me that had problems on the start, including Joel in his 1979 911, so I am first in the P3 class going into the 90 degree left hand turn 1 onto Exposition Blvd. We get bunched up a little bit on the first turn and on the minor chicane(minor because the races in front of us beat the shit out of the pylons and the metal ball thingys that marked the chicane)

I hit about 110-120 at then end of Exposition blvd before a left hand 90 degree turn onto a parking lot backroad and hit about 80 before braking violently for another left hand 90 degree turn. We are now in a right hand sweeper that is about four cars wide with concrete blocks on both sides that goes right by the IMAX theatre, before a quick left hander, which leads into a short straightaway four cars wide, and then a quick right hand/lefthand turn three cars wide with concrete barriers on both sides, and a big dip in the street before going back onto Figueroa. Things are pretty hairy, as the big 911 Turbo machines are dive bombing into the turns, and using their big horsepower to whiz by the slower cars. The damn 914's are really fast also, as well as the regular 911's.

Suddenly, Wayne radios back to me that the people in the hot pits are screaming to everyone that the race will be over in 35 minutes, that at 6:45 they are calling the race due to darkness setting in. Which means we will be racing for only 35 out of 60 minutes. Now, everyone is really confused. Odd-number cars with single drivers have to do their mandatory 3 minute pit stop in the first 25 minutes, and even-number cars must do their pit stop in the last 25 minutes of the race. However, many of the driver's DON'T have radios, and the hot pit is in an area where you really can't put up a board to signal to your driver to come in and pit. So the even-numbered cars probably won't pit, as the race will be over before their scheduled pit. Wayne and I try to figure out what to do. Should we pit? Should we pretend like we didn't hear it and just have me drive the full 35 minutes and get as many laps completed as possible and say we didn't know about the shortened race? Apparently at the start finish line the starter does have a board up signaling for everyone to pit(which actually is on the short straight BEFORE Figueroa, and since it is between a couple of quick turns, it is really hard to read the board as you are looking in your rear view mirror as the 911's are jockeying to dive bomb on you before the quick right/left and turn before Figueroa)

We opt to go by the rules, and I pit with about 22 minutes left, and thus have Wayne drive the last 13 minutes or so. We make our pit. Wayne hops in, and takes off after the mandatory 3 minute pit time. After about 7 laps, Wayne is running 1.5 seconds a lap faster than me in my own car. Curiously, at Brainerd Raceway the weekend before using Wayne's car, I was about 1.5 seconds faster than him in HIS car. Jeff Littrell's theory on this is that when you drive someone else's car, you are more careful, and careful means smooth, and smooth = fast. My theory is that since you are in someone else's car, you beat the living shit of it because you don't have to drive it to work the next day.

The Porsches's are getting real aggressive, and are passing in the short right/lefthander chute before Figueroa.

I radio to Wayne that they are waving the white flag, so one lap to go, and there are no other P3 cars in our class nearby, so we are looking good. Wayne then starts screaming on the radio, "Oh my God, you won't believe what just happened. Don't worry, I didn't wreck, but it was close". Apparently down in the braking zone at the end of Exposition Blvd, someone dumped oil. If we are hitting about 120 mph or so, the Porsche Turbos gotta be hitting 145+, and Wayne said that the people in front of him were spinning all over the track into the run off areas and the tire walls. Wayne said he hit the oil and the car went left-right-left-right but was able to catch it before going into the concrete or the tire wall. Wayne saw the 911 behind him in the rear view mirror doing a 360 coming toward my NSX. Wayne makes it out of the turn in one piece, and brings the car safely home for the checker.

All the cars are then herded and parked side by side right infront of the start/finish line as the sun is setting. I walk over from the hot pits and high five Wayne as we feel we did pretty damn good, and we didn't wreck.

Race is over, and we are hanging out at the start/finish line, waiting to hear results

No BMWs or Mustangs, or Ferraris or other brand X cars passed us except for a monster Viper. Wayne is still amazed at seeing all the Porsches spinning out down Exposition blvd. Fans and friends are now milling around all the cars, kinda like what happens at the big F1 races that you see on TV, and the announcer is going around interview drivers.

There are a bunch of trophies to give out, and prize money also. (I got a check for $43.73 from the Pro Racing Buttonwillow Enduro two weeks earlier for 2nd in my class, so I figure if I win a thousand more races without putting any money into the car, I can pay for my modifications....) There is some confusion, however. Because of the pitting situation, they are trying to figure out who pitted and who didn't pit. The Pro Racing organizers had a vendor that was going to setup transponders for all the cars for free, but the people incharge of the scoring booth(not sure if it was the NASCAR folks or not) refused this option earlier in the week and wanted to do it manually. After about 30 minutes, a decision is made for the first three OVERALL winners. The Pro Racing organizers apologized for the score keeping mess, and say that they will call us tomorrow with the results.

So I called Pro Racing today(Tuesday), trying to get results. They still haven't tabulated the results, as they were exhausted from the entire weekend and slept in. They said the scoring is kind of a mess, as some people pitted, and some didn't. I said just give the people that didn't pit a five minute penalty, as they couldn't read the damn pit sign at start finish(which by the way, I never saw as I was worried about the damn 911's on my ass). Dave said he wasn't sure what they were going to do, maybe just take off 3 minutes worth of lap times and extrapolate from there. He almost made it sound like they might not give out trophies, as they are not sure what would be a fair way to allocate them. A week or so later, the results finally get posted to their web site. BUT, then the videos tapes were reviewed, and the final results were modified.

We ended up coming in 8th Place out of 36 cars!!! We beat ALL of the 911 Turbos and the Supercharged 928 with my street car! Talk about being underdogs, we thought we were going to get creamed in this race. We swear that the 6th place Mustang didn't pass us, and are not sure that the 4th place Civic passed us either. But then again, it was manual scoring, and I am sure a bunch of the 911 drivers in the final standings are swearing that they passed us. So we made the Top 10, and placed 2nd in our class, and picked up $175 cash in prize money! (Note: These are the latest updated results just in on October 2nd, 5:00 p.m. Apparently after viewing some film, three people were bumped lower than us because they either passed under yellow flag, excessive pit speed, ignored black flag, or backed into pits). And don't forget there were lots of spins and people with faster cars going into the run off area, whereas Wayne and I had no spins for the race.

Overall	Class					Laps
Finish	Finish	Car #	Driver(s)	Car	Color	Finished	Sponsor
1	1-P1	66	Colby	911	White	21	Sutro & Co
2	2-P1	8	Beck	914/6	Blue	21	OI Racing
3	1-P2	14	Hainer/Cross	911	Yellow	21
4	1-P4	52	Tipton	Civic	Black	21	Tipton Honda
5	2-P2	15	Poe	911	White	20	Eleventh Day Prod
6	1-P3	74	Murray	Mustang	Black	20	Turbodyne
7	3-P1	4	Rumbaugh	914/6	Black	20	Scott's Porsche
8	2-P3	55	Hayashi/Mello	NSX	Red	20	Microsoft/RM Racing
9	3-P3	44	Bowman	911	Blue	20	Scott's Porsche
10	4-P1	98	Agajanian/Agajanian	993	Silver	20	AASCO
11	3-P2	86	Raines	944T	Red	20	Powerhouse
12	1-P1T	89	Steurer	928	Yellow	19	Tilo's European
13	2-P1T	93	Doolin	RSR	Red	19
14	3-P1T	92	Jamar/Anderson	930	Yellow	19	Alain Jamar Design
15	4-P3	73	Forcellini	944T	White	19
16	4-P1T	75	Ollila, T.	914/6	Red	19	OI Racing
17	5-P1	35	Messler	Viper	Blue	19	Claude Short Dodge
18	5-P3	22	Ward/Gamble	M3 CSL	Yellow	19	Long Beach BMW
19	2-P4	29	Harrison	Prelude	Black	19	DPR Racing
20	6-P1	91	Zamboni	911	White	19	EZ Lube
21	7-P1	40	Kauffman/Petty	911	Red	19	Pharb
22	6-P3	21	Webb/Hartman	A4 1.8T	Yellow	19	Intrax
23	5-P1T	16	Parker/Roush	930	Yellow	19
24	6-P1T	7	Ollila, R.	930	Blue	19	OI Racing
25	7-P3	67	Khajavi	944T	Zebra	19	Huntley Racing
26	8-P3	64	Flynn	914/6	White	18	GT Graphics
27	3-P4	11	Wright	944	Red	18
28	4-P4	10	Gomez	M3	Black	18	Tecate
29	8-P1	39	Sweeney/Lange	911	Red	17	GAS/Lange Ins.
30	4-P2	88	BeckerKunz	348C	Red	16	Mr. G. Becker
31	5-P4	78	Saldana	M3	Red	16
32	6-P4	37	Tallini	Eclipse	Black	16
33	5-P2	27	Mehterian	930	White	15	Performance Products
34	7-P1T	76	Roig	930	White	14	RoigWest
35	8-P1T	34	Jump/Jump	930	White	14	Superior Dent Removal
36	9-P1T	6	Peeler	RSR	White	12	ARE Racing

Other facts/revelations
1. Only damage to my car is to the rear plastic valence on the driver's side. My RM Exhaust tip uhh....fell off on Saturday practice, so the hot exhaust fumes when out to the side of the car, and melted this. The tip is held by clamps, and while racing, it fell off at the intersection of Figueroa and Exposition. Luckily, someone grabbed it and I was able to get it on before the race. I wish I could blame someone for this.....but I was the one who put the exhaust on and tightened the clamp.......or sorta tightened the clamp... The RM exhaust was able to handle the Comptech Supercharger without blowing up! Kudos to Randy. And it also sounds GREAT also. The RM Clutch held up excellent also.

2. The Comptech Brembos worked awesome. You can also change the brake pads in just a couple of minutes, as there is a clip you can remove by hand, and then push the pad back with a screw driver, throw in new pads, and put clip back. No stupid wrenches/sockets/weird tools like the stock NSX brakes. HONDA, please take note for the next gen NSX!!!!! You can also bleed the brakes without taking off the wheels....

3. Mike Duncan's goal is to build his NSX so he can be the overall winner at events like this. Stay tuned for Mike and the RM prepared NSX!!

4. I stated to the announcer, who had me on the PA system, that I was driving my car home. After the race, we didn't bother to change from the Hoosiers to the street tires, so I just got in the car and drove home. We passed a bunch of trailered race cars that we were competing with!

5. Participating in his event was a huge, big, intense, adrenaline rush that is really hard to describe. I am still buzzing from it. The only thing I could really compare it to would be seeing Bruce Springsteen in 1978 at Winterland in San Francisco, where he and the E Street Band put on an incredible 4.5 hour long show that made the other 100 concerts I had seen prior to that seem like yawners, including Led Zepplin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, etc. I pretty much stopped going to concerts after that night, as nothing could match the buzz from what I saw that night and subsequent Springsteen indoor concerts in the very early 1980's. Wayne and I agree we are pretty much ruined after this event, as we need to get an adrenaline buzz like this again......

6. Frank Carlone, the other NSX driver, is a pretty funny, interesting guy to hangout with. He ain't got a computer yet, but we should try to invite him to some events. He is a crackup! And a pretty good, very aggressive driver. He doesn't mind rubbing fenders if the situation warrants it. He says that sometimes he "bounces" the rear tail of the NSX off the tire walls when exiting a corner, to help him launch into the straightaway.

7. I gotta hit up the Acura/Honda marketing folks for some help here. Here I am, taking my daily street car, entering it into a PRO Racing event(not SCCA PRO, "PRO Racing Series" is another sanctioning type of body), doing pretty damn good against cars that are 90% full stripped down, race cars, unlicensed and illegal for the street. It seems like there could be a lot of advertising mileage Acura could get out of this, especially with an NSX with 125,000 miles on it that finished a 3 hour endure in 110 degree heat at Buttonwillow 4th out of 20 cars, finished 8th overall out of 48 in the Saturday one hour enduro at the LA Street Race, and finished 8th in the one hour enduro on Monday at the LA Street Race, and then drove it home that night!. I guess I got lots of homework to do on this one.

I think this would be a good picture for an Acura NSX daily driver advertisment.

8. I should have time to dyno the Supercharger with Randy's exhaust in the next week, and work on getting it finally dialed in for max performance. I currently have 10,000+ miles on the supercharger, with at least 1700 track miles at the redline, and 8300 street miles at the redline.

9. Again, thanks to Randy Marchetti and his co-hort John Scott, as they spent the weekend there helping us all out. Now that is what I call "Vendor Support" to their customers!

Thanks to the following people for making my car go-fast:
1. Larry Garcia - Mechanic - Riverside Acura - 909-785-6600 (overall maintenance/installation of just about everything)
2. Chris - Service - Riverside Acura 909-785-6600 (Service guy at Riverside that works with Larry)
3. Comptech - Bob/Shad/Tim - 916-939-9118 (Brembos/Supercharger/Toelinks/Bushings/etc)
4. Randy - RM Racing - 602-273-7175 (Clutch, exhaust, sway bars, good advice, promptness, ontime, reliability, dependabilty, etc!)
5. Ian - Kiwi Autotech - 714-841-4184 (Rollcage, installation of Brembos)
6. Mark - Dali Racing - 619-238-4948 (sway bars, BP battery mount, etc.)
7. Denny- Allen Tire -Costa Mesa 714-646-5236 (it seems like he is changing tires every week for me, stores tires, etc)
8. Anthony - South Coast Acura - 714-979-2500 (Acura parts)

Current configuration of my NSX:
1992 Red Acura NSX
126,300 miles
Comptech Supercharger
Comptech Brembo Brakes(switching between Performance Friction and Porterfield R4 pads)
Comptech Toe Links and Bushings
Comptech Headers
Comptech Cat Replacements
Comptech Technomagnesio 17/18 inch wheels
Comptech Airbox
Comptech Ring and Pinion
RM Exhaust (Works GREAT with Supercharger)
RM Clutch
RM Light Flywheel(to be installed)
Short Gearset
Ground Control Adjustible Koni's
Ground Control Eibach Springs
Kiwi Autotech Roll Cage/ignition kill switch
RM/Dali Sway Bar
Dali BP Battery mount
Odessy Battery(supposedly same as BP 1200)
Hoosier Tires for the track, 275/35/18 rear, 225/45/17 or 245/40/17 fronts
Bridgestone Potenza SO2 for street, 285/30/18 rear, 225/35/17 fronts
OMP Seats
Simpson Cam Lock five point harness
Alpine Stereo/amp/headunit/EQ