After 7 Days and 7 Nights
April 12, 2003
"Presenting the OTC Kings"

The Hope. The Glory. The Scandal.  The Redemption. The Truth!

Johnson/Dalen/Morris have one of their cars become the Overall Winner of the 2003 OTC

Overall Winner of the 2003 Open Track Challenge was the Radical team of Johnson/Dalen/Morris.  Congrats to them on some good driving, and keeping their car together for 7 days. The margin was very narrow over the Mumford/BP Viper Competition Coupe.

 
Mumford/BP take 2nd overall by the narrowest of margins

Third went to the Dalen/Johnson/Morris Radical team.

Dalen/Johnson/Morris took 3rd overall

Fourth went to us, the Hayashi/Messley/Mello Team.

We took 4th overall...for the second year in a row.....damn....we'll make podium next year!
(Also the highest finishing "Street Legal" car)

5th overall, and 1st in U2 went to the Smith/Arnold, who stunned everyone with their lap times

Sixth went to the Mello/White 944 Turbo, who took sixth overall, and third in U2, narrowly getting beat by the Kennedy/Rhoades team in their supercharged S2000 for 2nd in U2.

7th overall goes to Kennedy/Rhoades in the Comptech Supercharged S2000

Coffey/Lampe take 8th overall in the BetaMotorsports 240Z

Update:  May 10.  Coffey claims that they are Fastest Street Legal car, as they ran DOT tires (Hoosiers/Kumhos) at the track.  The rest of the Top 10 ran slicks.  Minor technicality, if you ask me....saying  Hoosiers are DOT streets tires is as close to the edge as you can get....

Rylan's gutted normally aspirated S2000 takes 9th overall

Rogers/Barnard Unlimited AGT Cobra takes 10th overall, and was loudest car on the track!
(photo ripped off from DanD)
 

THE DIVISIONAL WINNERS
Presented at Planet Hollywood/Caesar's Palace
(All these photos taken by our crew member Brent Reiss)

My guess is the teams collectively spent a total of a million bucks to win these trophies!

Unlimited 1 First Place and Overall Winners:  Johnson/Dalen/Morris

Unlimited 2 First Place:  Smith/Arnold

Unlimited 3 First Place:  Coffey/Lampe

Unlimited 4 First Place: Chang/Lee

Unlimited American GT 1st Place: Rogers/Barnard

Touring 1 First Place:  Bragg-Smith/Vietro

Touring 2 First Place:  Hardee/Southwell

Touring 3 First Place:  Hayashi/Messley/Rhoades

Touring 4 First Place: Yoo/LeFrancois/Foo

\
Touring American GT First Place: Newton/Morley

The Top 10 Overall teams/cars/drivers were:

Continuing my "unbiased" analysis of the Top 10 Overall Teams:

1. Two British Cars:  DJ's and Dalen's Radicals
    

2. Two German Cars - Wayne and Rick in the 944 Turbo, Smith/Arnold in the BMW
    

3. Two American Cars - Viper Competition Coupe, and the Shelby Cobra
    

4. One vintage style Nissan - Coffey/Lampe's 240Z
    

5. THREE Hondas in the Top 10 - My Comptech Supercharged NSX, Kennedy's Supercharged S2000, and Rylan's normally aspirated S2000.  Hey Honda, you should donate some SPONSORSHIP parts so the Honda Guys can continue to Go-Fast!  <grin>
    

6. Dearing didn't make it to the Top 10 with his Viper.  He got beat by two Honda S2000s! (Dearing is fast, we gotta rag on him when we have the chance!)   Where's the rest of the Viper guys?  Get yer ass to the OTC!
    

7. No Touring Cars made it to the Top 10.  Fastest Touring Car was Rupert/Vietro in the Mosler at 11th overall, and they whupped everyone in the Street Tire class.  Dearing took 2nd in Touring with his Viper, and Olsen 3rd in Touring in his Porsche 911.
    

8. Only one V8 made it, and that was the Cobra in 10th place
    

9. None of the Vette guys (5 of them) made the Top 10.  Maybe Irby/Eckhaus or Wurth can change that next year.  <grin>  Where's the Mustang guys?  Flaherty/Lindsey need to be out there!
    

10. I think the only cars in the Top 10 that are street legal are ahh....the Three Hondas and the Coffey/Lampe 240Z.  Hey Honda, You Should Use Us In a Commercial.  "Dependable....Reliable.....Kicks Ass on the Track". 
     

11. Update: May 9th, 1:00 p.m. The Coffey/Lampe put in the claim that THEY are the fastest Street Legal Car in the OTC, because they ran their car on Hoosiers and Kumhos, so in their "race trim", they were legal, unlike the rest of us in the Top 10 that were running slicks.
     

12. Two of the Top 10 cars were powered by Comptech Superchargers.  I don't see any other aftermarket forced induction kits in the Top 10 of the OTC!  Why not?  Can't your kits last 7 Tracks in 7 Days?
     

13. Three of the Top 10 cars had suspensions by EMI Racing - NSX, 944 Turbo, 240Z
     

14. Five of the Top 10 regularly attend Speedventures Events where they strap on AMB transponders to gauge how much they are improving - The Hondas and the Radicals.  You need to constantly measure your performance in order to be fast!
     

15. The "sleeper cars" in this group were the Smith/Arnold BMW M3, and Rylan/Bradfield/Bitterman with the normally aspirated S2000.  I don't think anyone expected these guys to be in the Top 10.  No offense to Smith/Arnold, but no one seem to know how fast they were gonna be.  And Rylan's S2000 has no engine work other than straight pipe, racing clutch/flywheel, ECU, and air intake. 
     

16. Nine of the Top 10 do wheel-to-wheel racing. (All except for Kennedy/Rhoades)
     

17. Out of the Top 10, Wayne/Rick probably spent the least amount of cash getting their car prepped.  I would guess that he did the event on less than $2500 in tires and parts for the event.  They ran on mostly used slicks purchased for $50 each a couple of years ago, so their tire cost was zero except for mounting and balancing.  Wayne bought new shocks, did some suspension work, and bought some rims. 
     

18. Mumford probably spent the most, as he got a whole new car right before the event.
     

19. You can't sneak into the Top 10.  Everyone there deserved to be there.  They were fast, had lots of track experience, had fairly dependable cars, and if they broke, they could figure out how to quickly fix them so they could continue to run fast laps.  So the rest of you aftermarket manufacturers, creators of Go-Fast parts, other so-called Hot Shoe jockeys that think you know your stuff.......bring your "A" game to the 2004 Open Track Challenge, and let's see if you have what it takes to kick ass against some of the best drivers and cars on the West Coast.  We wanna see if you can make it to the Top 10!

It was a great event.  Hopefully those of you who didn't get a chance to run your car this year will be able to attend OTC 2004.  Come prepared with a fast car, the ability to fix the fast car, and the ability to drive a fast car if you are in it to win your class.  Otherwise, come prepared with a reliable car to have a great time and hang out with track nuts for 7 Tracks in 7 Days.

On the way home we get a phone call to update us about the Viper Days event that Mumford did the day after the OTC.  Someone spun in front of him, Mumford made contact (unavoidable), lost some body work off the Comp Coupe.......but Mumford motored right on by and took first place in the wheel-to-wheel race.  The OTC training makes you strong....,makes you superhuman!  The 6 hour drive home in the Vegas-to-SoCal traffic jam gave Erik and I a lot of time to come up with our Cheating Bastard tactics for next year.  And we got some whoppers and some incredibly wacky ideas (don't ask about future plans, it is a secret!) that we are going to research for the next few months, because dammit, one of these years we are gonna win Overall at the Open Track Challenge, or at least make the podium.  Or go broke and destitute trying. 

I'd like to take minute to thank the main people that made the Pulp Racing OTC effort fun and successful:

Thanks to Rick White, Wayne, and Pit Crew Chief Brent Reiss!
 

Special thanks to Co-drivers Erik Messley and Jason Rhoades!

Thanks to Shane and Mark from Autowave for getting the NSX in top shape!

Shad at Comptech, along with Doug Petersen and Don Erb!

Thanks to Dick and Costa Mesa Honda for maintaining the S2000!

I probably won't make it back on the track until August, as I need to take some time off.  The Touring Car Racing Association event at California Speedway on August 3/4th looks like it will be a lot of fun.  The wife and I are expecting a baby around May 10th so it will take a couple of months to get situated and figure out how to maintain and operate a newborn child.  I figure it can't be as hard as making it to the Top Four overall at the OTC.....can it?  I mean with both the Baby and the OTC, you have to prepare for a full year in advance, be ready for the unexpected, you get no sleep at all, you have to diagnosis problems and fix them as you go, change fluids frequently, you need a good co-driver on your team, need to buy the right accessories and aftermarket gizmos. etc.  Right?  It can't be that hard.....

Autowave is maintaining and tuning the Flamemobile

Performance Parts by Comptech USA

EPILOGUE
When we got back from the OTC, we just dumped everything out of the trailer and RV and threw it in the shop.  We pretty much sat on our ass in front of the Tivo for three weeks.  We were cured of the Go-Fast Crack Pipe addiction after 7 crazy days at the OTC.

The shop was a disaster.  We had no energy to clean it up.

But then The Pipe called.  Wayne broke down first, and after 21 days, he went out and bought a Honda Motorcycle with only 300 miles on it from Ebay.  I am trying to give him money to buy a life insurance policy....in my name....

Right after he buys it, I break down.  We spend a day getting fixing the Tony Karts at the shop.  I had a broken axle, we needed to bled brakes on the karts, etc.  At 5:30 p.m., we have to "test our work" and go blasting up and down the streets outside the shop at 75 mph, doing opposite lock U-turns in the cul-de-sac at 40 mph.....yeah......that felt good......

The Babcock & Babcock Audi S4 that took 3rd in Touring 3 did the opposite of us.  They entered the One Lap of America, and are kicking some serious ass in the Luxury Sedan Class. So they are doing something like 15 Tracks in 30 days, with tracks on the West Coast, East Coast, and some in between!  Now that is some serious track driving!

EMI Racing Suspensions can make you and your car Go-Faster

Erik said that his shop was real busy before the OTC with my NSX and S2000, Wayne's 944 Turbo, Coffey's 240z, Dearing's Viper. etc.  Those cars did pretty well, with two 1st in Class, a 2nd in class, a 3rd in class, and 4th and 6th overall.  Don't forget he prepared Mumford's Viper last year (2nd overall), and that same car won the the last Sport Compact Car Ultimate Street Challenge competition. Things have slowed down to a more manageable level, so if you are looking do to any of the following to your suspension:

1. Analysis of your existing suspension and how to make it better.

2.  Sales and installation of shocks/springs to make your car go-faster around turns.

3.  Driving instruction/test/suspension tuning at the track to show you how to get faster around the track.

4.  Custom machining and monoballing of suspension components

Then you might want to email Erik at emiracing AT mindspring.com. (disguised to keep the spammer's bots from collecting his address)  He ain't cheap....typical labor rate starts at $75 an hour, but he has proven himself to be fast, and he builds fast cars, and he can make you and your car go faster!   Don't call him and ask for advice unless you call his 900 number....he is spending 8 hours on the phone talking to people, and he's gotta pay rent!

I figure that after doing 7 Tracks in 7 Days, and getting some tips from Erik, all you drivers out there better be ready for an ass whupping when I get back on the track.  You guys are gonna fear me like you fear this guy. (1.2 meg Windows Media File).  (commentary about the file is here)

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