Well as the 2008 season comes to a close its time to remember the roller coaster it was. Staring the year out with a brand new unsorted race car is never easy but I made the transition without too many problems. Time Attack was also switching into high gear, as PTuning’s Time Attack tC Verion 2.0 was debuted in Nashville. I also had a busy schedule instructing with various clubs and attending clinics. Its a shame to see the fellow track rats return to their garages and work on their cars for next year. I’ve heard all sort of plans for the winter, ranging between more power, a better setup, and the big one this year has been aerodynamics. But lets not get ahead of myself. A little more than a year ago i was saying goodbye to my, Rookie of the year chariot, 944 and began looking for my next race car.
After a few months of down time the corvette comes back out for a spectacular showing! The problems started at the last HPDE I instructing at in the vette. The Northern Va Corvette Club rented out the track and everything was looking great, until I was flying down the front straight braked for turn 1 and felt that I had no power steering. I had recently replaced the power steering pump with a nice Turn One unit and at first I thought that had failed. I looked at my gauges and was greeted with what looked like a Christmas tree. Every light that could be on was on, chimes were going of and the temp needle was pegged at 260. The damage had already been done and the culprit was a shredded belt. This was July 11th, and the car went back in the garage and back up on stands. While I sorted out the possible fixes, it seemed like the only way to be 100% sure, was to replace the head gaskets, and deck the heads to make sure they were flat.
Alright, well it looks as if we did get some video of the weekend. Its nothing like we wanted, but then again between waiting 30min for the start of my time attack (and only running 2 laps), and the lack of track time. There was really not much to capture. The video is from the GT sim race, where i got to kart people around the track in a mock race. It was a lot of fun and all my passengers had a blast! Most passengers had never been to an event before, let alone had a ride in a time attack car! Anyway, here they are!
After all the commotion on Saturday, between breaking the car and setting only one lap I knew sunday I would be on my toes until the time attack was over. I awoke at 6:45 to the sound of Justin’s alarm going off, again. The night before I had agreed to work Grid for the Time Attack on the Main track, because Redline was a little short on people. Without to much time we were out the door and to VIR by 7:30. It was just in time for me to check in, grab my radio and go to work. The next few hours were jam packed with action from all sides. During the practice James Elterman Driving the Takata Time Attack Subaru Sti lost his brakes going into turn 14. That is the turn right after the back straight in which cars, like his, can be 155mph+! The call came in that his car went into the wall and I thought the worst. Accidents there are usually bad and I hoped that with the hans, the cage and the rest of his gear that James would emerge unscathed. His car impacted the wall at 45mph and James did end up walking away. James, a Photographer at the event and I saw James E. AS he exited the medical tent and he said other than a little neck pain he was fine. The car, however, had seen better days. The damage was not horrific, but it would take some time to fix, time James did not have since the Time Attack would start in 20 minutes. James was informed of a “Transfer” rule in which season points can be transfered to another car, once, in the event of an accident.
Wow, Clearly I’m not doing a great job updating my blog as I should, because its been about 5 weeks since the video was put on youtube. I became a local star for wrecking a car in such fashion, and the shop was working on the car as fast as possible. Over those 6 weeks, they assembled a built motor, a built head, pulled, cut welded, and fixed the chassis, had custom hubs machined, and added further chassis stiffening. But the drama of this last weekend started for me as I arrived at the PTuning shop at 5pm on Friday.
You see those crash videos from time ti time on youtube, streetfighter, and the like, but never did I think I’d have one of my own up on the Internet. Turns out another driver, and a good friend of mine, James Elterman was video taping my Unlimited Time Attack session. You can see just what happens, I come flying into the bowl WAY to fast, and it simply launches me out of it, and into the wall. Its a little scary to see the video, and seeing just how sloppy my driving was. I can think of a thousand things I could do better, but we all know that hind sight is 20-20.
In better news the team and I will be looking forward to getting the car back this week. We have a whole slew of parts on order and we are still trying to make the VIR deadline. I’ve also been invited to help The Redline Time Attack Crew Work the New Jersey Motorsports Park event. So I’ll be up there for that, although not driving a car.
This past weekend at the track was really the biggest roller coaster I’ve ever had. The ups were just as high as the downs low, and something happened that I would never have expected. Dealing with the after effects has been a little easier than I thought they would be, and its nice to have PTuning standing in my corner! They are the best guys I’ve ever met, and they are my family! But you all want to hear what happened don’t you? Ok, ok, onto how the weekend went.
After an amazing first run and win at the 2007 Redline Time Attack at Summit Point PTuning committed to the unthinkable. The owners decided to take their award winning Scion tC show car and turn it into a monster!!! The list of modifications that needed to be made for the car to be the fastest Modified Front Wheel Drive Car in the country were numerous. With the dedication and the winter PTuning was able to make just that! In only a few months a rather “modest” time attack car was transformed into a bionic monster, they rebuilt it, making it stronger, faster, and more nimble.
After spending another three days at the track I managed to break the vette again! I managed to shred my belt on friday which caused a total failure on a lap. My dash lit up like a Christmas tree and the computer flashed every code it could. I pulled in and changed the belt, but I think the damage was done. On monday the car started over heating, and the same on tuesday. The car would overheat, and be low on coolant after I’d come in. However, the good news was that the power steering system is now amazing! The cooler I installed worked just fine, and there are no leaks at all!
Now that I’m back into the writing and actually updated my blog I figured I’d post something thats not actually automotive related! Shocking really, yes, the world is about to end in 3, 2, 1 pffffft… ok so maybe I over exaggerated that a little. But back on topic, the grand canyon! I’ve wanted to go to the grand canyon for some time now, and this year I finally went. The trip was put together very quickly but ended up being the best vacation I’ve ever been on. I booked a flight to las vegas, called a few buddies of mine and told them to come with me to the canyon! Two weeks later we had a hotel, car, flights, and reservations to hike into Havasu Falls. The trip promised breath taking views that overlook some of the highest falls in the area, flowing with crystal sea green water.
After a few months of down time the corvette comes back out for a spectacular showing! The problems started at the last HPDE I instructing at in the vette. The Northern Va Corvette Club rented out the track and everything was looking great, until I was flying down the front straight braked for turn 1 and felt that I had no power steering. I had recently replaced the power steering pump with a nice Turn One unit and at first I thought that had failed. I looked at my gauges and was greeted with what looked like a Christmas tree. Every light that could be on was on, chimes were going of and the temp needle was pegged at 260. The damage had already been done and the culprit was a shredded belt. This was July 11th, and the car went back in the garage and back up on stands. While I sorted out the possible fixes, it seemed like the only way to be 100% sure, was to replace the head gaskets, and deck the heads to make sure they were flat.
After an amazing first run and win at the 2007 
After spending another three days at the track I managed to break the vette again! I managed to shred my belt on friday which caused a total failure on a lap. My dash lit up like a Christmas tree and the computer flashed every code it could. I pulled in and changed the belt, but I think the damage was done. On monday the car started over heating, and the same on tuesday. The car would overheat, and be low on coolant after I’d come in. However, the good news was that the power steering system is now amazing! The cooler I installed worked just fine, and there are no leaks at all!
Now that I’m back into the writing and actually updated my blog I figured I’d post something thats not actually automotive related! Shocking really, yes, the world is about to end in 3, 2, 1 pffffft… ok so maybe I over exaggerated that a little. But back on topic, the grand canyon! I’ve wanted to go to the grand canyon for some time now, and this year I finally went. The trip was put together very quickly but ended up being the best vacation I’ve ever been on. I booked a flight to las vegas, called a few buddies of mine and told them to come with me to the canyon! Two weeks later we had a hotel, car, flights, and reservations to hike into Havasu Falls. The trip promised breath taking views that overlook some of the highest falls in the area, flowing with crystal sea green water.