We all have our special moments on the track, autoxing, running an enduro or some special motor sports event.

What's yours?

Private track day at Thunderhill a few years back. The whole track for a full day for only 3 of us.


And the guy who paid for the whole thing only ran for maybe 30 minutes.

Late '80's 6 hour Firehawk race at Riverside (long course). Drove an '85 mustang GT where we cracked the heads in practice. Bob Bondurant rented us a set so we could start -dead last cuz we missed qualifying. (Started 75th as I recall.) Drove the first session like a madman and turned the car over to Dutch (car owner & co-driver) in 28th place. Loved that track!

I have two.

My very first autocross. A friend who was an avid autocrosser and a poor law student needed someone to drive behind him so cops couldn't see his expired tabs on his TVR. The autocross was at the Air National Guard site at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. I had a 240Z. What the heck I thought, I wasn't planning to do anything else. We got there and I got goaded into entering. At the end of the day, I had taken 2nd place by .02 seconds in my class. I did 19 more autocrosses that year.

The second was my first track day. A buddy of mine that I used to autocross with and went to SCCA Nationals with had been after me to come out and do a track day. I kept flaking on him but the organization had a policy that you could cancel and reschedule but not cancel and get your money back. So, I finally had to show up to get my moneys worth. He is an instructor so I didn't see much of him but I had a total blast and at the end of the day, he told me that they had been watching me and were promoting me to a higher run group. I was hooked for sure!

My first DE ever...at VIR....you never forget your first time....

Had just bought "Buttercup" 2 weeks before & now in Green with Mike instructing...
Went agricultural due to lifting in turn 4 & hard street tires not helping at all....no harm done. Great sessions on first 2 days, started getting into the rhythm of the track...
Third day, second session came out of Oak Tree turn & hammered down that long back straight--crested the hill & BAM, no power, smoke & flames in rear view mirror. Mike, ever the perfect instructor hollers in the intercom "Why'd you lift?" Me..."We're on fire, grab the fire bottle on your way out" as we come to a stop to the right. Came in on the hook, no fire damage but shrapneled out the #4 piston from the top of the case through a fist-sized hole.
Sooo...."Favorite" maybe not....but certainly most memorable for sure!

A couple:
First PCA Club Race at Carolina Motorsports Park - passing someone in the Kink!! I could have pulled in right there and not run all weekend it was so exhilarating!

Second is my second PCA race, this time at Road Atlanta. Broke a CV joint first lap of first practice (of first time EVER at RA), didn't fix it until after qualifying, so started in the back. Came over the crest of T3 into T4 and saw a sea of 944's in front of me and thought "Wow...I can pass ALL of them!!" and I passed ALMOST all of them, picked up something like 23 spots in the race!
Here's the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U0KeDXozMc

Lap Record at Watkins Glen

Here is how "it " happened. Back in 1998 I was driving my 914-6 at Watkins Glen in the all-Porsche Gmund Cup. After completing the race and relaxing beside my car (#914), I encountered a steady stream of people looking at the car and then congratulating me. After a while I thought I had better check with Scoring and Timing and get the results sheet.
Much to my amazement, I had finished first in this prestigious event ... ahead of Brian Redman, Bob Snodgrass and a host of talented drivers in some very fast cars. I took that result sheet (see below) to as many of those drivers as I find and had them sign it.

Now that you are in disbelief, take a closer look at that sheet. My 11th lap was erroneously recorded at 17 seconds! 3.37 miles in 17.174 seconds ... that's over 700 mph.

Of course, the results were corrected but I have "proof" that the fastest lap ever recorded at Watkins Glen was in a 914

My last PCA autocross against a buddy in a Cayman R. He just moved here over the summer and was an accomplished spec miata driver. He was stationed in Germany and has a couple hundred laps on the ring under his belt. We were running in the same heat and were swapping back and fourth for FTD. I coned out on my second to last run and he picked up .2 faster than my best on his last run. I took my last run, and picked .4 seconds beating him by .2. It was a great time.

Another Riverside tale:

It was the late 1970's when a friend and I were both racing Datsun 510s. He came up with the idea of running the 3-hr enduro, driving his car.

My bud did 1st practice with me at the wheel for the 2nd on Riverside's Long Course. I was coming down the LONG back straight and just shifted to 5 gear when I heard: Wobble, Wobble, BLAM.....tinkle, tinkle, tinkle. Something hit my right arm with BIG force and I figured I should even look until I coasted back into the pits. At the "tinkle" sound I looked up and saw the drive shaft cartwheeling on the track behind me.

Once in the pits, we found not only had the drive shaft over-speeded and failed but the bell housing broken, the diff housing was broken and the starter had been shaken to pieces and broken too. Happily, I was NOT bleeding as it was the fire extinguisher (with no shap edges) that was launched from the tunnel to my arm. The driveshaft blew a hole in the tunnel and catapulted the fire bottle.
The sharp edges stayed put in the sheet metal of the tunnel.

We figured we were DONE and it was time to go home. Then this damn SCCA guy showed up and asked how bad things were. We told him while moaning the destruction. He asked 1 question: "Well do you have spares to fix the car?" We looked at each other and said "OH, CRAP!" All we needed was
in my garage only 2 hours away.

So we dragged his car back, raided mine for the parts and were up to 2:00 AM putting it back together. I drove the 15 miles home to get only 3 hours of sleep and then was back to drag the 2 hours to the track.

We started from my co-pilot's practice lap time for the grid position and while being top-speed-limited by wrong gearing in my diff, we finished 2nd in class. What a great time to play enduro Racer!

Terry

Last summer at Buttonwillow during the 24 Hours of LeMons.

Drove a '68 VW Bug with a 914 motor that I helped build.
My moment was driving the 4:00-6:00am stint.
From full darkness to sunrise and full daylight.
I was like a dream.


Click to view attachment


We finish second in class after 24 straight hours.
422 laps to the winner's 424.

I drove six hours of the race.


KT

I can think of three events which share the top spot among my racing memories.

1) 2004 NARRC Regional Runoffs - Started on front row;
Set personal best laptime at LRP (1:01.4) with only 140hp;
Passed a much faster 240Z by outbraking him deep into Bigbend;
Finished 1st in class, 3rd overall.
Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnnPIlJfuNs

Part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmIusBf-kUM


2)2003 SCCA Lime Rock Spring National - Rain Race; 100hp engine;
Fell to dead last on the first lap; Passed everyone except 5 E Prod cars, to finish first in F Prod, 6th overall;
Passed a former F Prod National Champion; photo finish with the 2nd place car - a faster 914.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77oRaG_PoSg


3) 2003 SCCA National Championships - My first time at Mid Ohio; Started 21st, finished 14th - with 100hp;
My last 5 laps were an intense race with a Lancia on his home track;
Coverage of the last lap of our battle was shown on Speed TV with commentary by Johnny O'Connell and Dorsey Schraeder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aSeHAx7cW8

My son is now 14 and has been "tagging along" with me to the track for the last year. You can't put a price on these experiences. He gets to soak up the "track life" and old timers stories (pic attached of him listening to the guys in our hauler). This last year I have taken him to Road Atlanta (few times), Barber M.P., and the armpit of Roebling Road.

Also, I captured a pretty neat picture of Father/Son up the Yosemite Valley trail with Half Dome in the background - Porsche is displayed prominently in the picture so I thought I could share it!

Click to view attachment
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DE at VIR in my Dodge Viper
The Maxton Mile in the same car.

About 3 years ago I went to an autox school with my dad that Trekkor setup (first one I think). About half way through my dad and I switched cars, Me driving his 944 and him driving my A4. On my first run in his car I took about the 4th corner a bit to hot and the tail came out just a hair, I throttled through it to keep my line and then said to myself "what the heck" and spent the rest of the time drifting the course. To this day it was some of the best drifting I had done, getting close the the apex's going though most of the corners all the way though in full drift, linking corners, ect. I know it wasnt the fast way around the track but boy howdy was it the most fun!

About 5 yrs ago, autox, a large lot with good pavement. The '14 is dialed IN, the sun is out, and I'm totally ALL OVER IT. The stock 2.0 is getting a work out, as are the 205 hoosiers. I can attack any corner, lift, rotate, and its all just as wonderful as it can be. My dad shows up, my wife and her mother are there also. And there are only 2 cars faster. A supercharged Emod miata, and a supercharged S2k. Both live in trailers until sundays. Mine was driven to the event. And the S2k only escaped the wrath of the 914 by a tenth. There were 120+ cars in grid that day. It was magical. I was so excited that my dad, mother in law and wife could see what my sport was all about. The announcer was an old 914 guy, and was making sure that anyone with ears knew what was happening here with a stock 2.0 vs those 300+hp SC cars.

Best. Day. EVER.

I have one hill climb run that I’ll always remember and then there are a bunch of autox’s. The hill climb was last year at Cascade Lakes.
This was the last run of the day after breaking the SPU record for the hill by four seconds the day before (*). The weather, unlike the day before, was finally warm and I knew my tires would hook up, so had a bunch of adrenalin working while sitting on the starting line.

When I started out and went for second I hit reverse, and then hit reverse again, and again. After 3 seconds I finally got the car into second and started up the course knowing full well that I had blown the run.

But with the warmer weather and the car sticking I decided to go for it and started pushing through the corners. After the first high speed part of the course and a (slow down slalom) everything felt good, the car was handling great and I started pushing harder (8/9 tenths) through the corners. Good news was that I made up a huge amount of time and ended up a second faster than my record run of the previous day. Also ended up within a second of the two fast well driven Z-06’s - so my day was made. (*) The first day run is on YouTube (Cascade Lakes Hill Climb / Randal Barrick)) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfwSBy8B7a8

My other run, really runs, were done on various autox venues all over CA and Oregon. My objective on any autox run is to go absolutely flat out, i.e., full acceleration, braking as hard as I can or steering through a corner; no time in between.

Of course reaching my objective of a “perfect” flat out run is tough as everything, i.e., all transitions, have to be perfect to pull it off, but once in a while you get close and the times will reflect as much. Great feeling when you get close.

Chris, I had already seen the other two videos, but that last one is an absolute hoot. Amazing what you can get out of these little cars. No offense to anyone else, but I'd love to get a chance to watch you race in person some day. Cool stuff bud!

+1

I really had no expectations when I went to the Runoffs my first time.
It turned out to be the best of the 3 years I went: best finish, great competition, no major troubles, smallest budget...
... and good coverage on national TV 3 months later - when Speed found time to air all 24 races near Christmas.

Exactly one week after that race I severely wrecked the car at the Regional Championships in a qualifying incident.
Unfortunately I forgot to start the video camera so I can't share all the carnage.
But here's a pic of the car on a frame machine where I pulled out most of the damage.
Click to view attachment

The two long videos are from the same Lime Rock event one year later.
I redeemed myself by starting on the front row, having a great race in the top 3 for all 25 laps, and setting a lap time I still haven't beaten.

Fun weekend at Willow Springs in September with HSR West. Qualified for the pole on Saturday and won the race.
Qualified for the pole on Sunday and won the race.
Competition included Shelby Cobras, Shelby Mustang GT350's, BMW, Porsche 911, Datsun 240Z

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Racing a McLaren MP4 - 12C on the Streets of Willow, Willow Springs International Raceway. He couldn't keep up in the turns!

Click to view attachment

Check out the 6 digit ass whooping from a 4 banger at 7:50


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc9PvQlZlTk

...the poor McLaren had a driver without a clue. Nice editing showing his utter lack of understanding (apexing, braking zone, throttle control, transitions, etc., etc.) is too! Appears to be an goofball with a fat wallet (and zero driving skill)! He was so bad he was a hazard to even be on the course...

Video: I like all the camera angles - do you have 3 or 4 go-pro's stuck on your car or another set-up? Interested.

I actually had 5 GoPro's that day, but only 4 made it into the video. If you think that guy was bad, you should've seen his girl take her Audi R8 around the track....in high heels....

Thanks. BTW, I meant no disrespect to you...your car sounded and looked good. It was just watching the M car drive all over the place...

Happy New Year!

Cracker

Usually don't allow mixed run groups on the track at the same time? Will give the guy credit, most Mclarens probably never see the track, just rodeo drive.

Really nice lines (and driver disipline) at Lime Rock Chris. Your average speed must have been really high!

That guy in the Z was lucky he didn't go off, i.e., a bit all over the place!

Sure would like to run that track.

What HP is your motor now and how much do you think you picked up by dry sumping it?

Lime Rock rewards smoothness, especially when there isn't much to work with in the engine compartment.
My good laps are above 86mph.

My best lap is a tick below 90mph. That came in the race with the 240Z.
Chasing those 3 other cars was really good incentive for me to push my own limits.
It was so satisfying putting the move on that Z driver after the way he slammed the door on me.
It required setting up the move 2 corners ahead because of the hp difference.

The 1.8L engine I just pulled for servicing makes about 180hp @ 7500 rpm.
I don't think the basic 2 stage dry sump system has a net positive effect on hp.
However, my secondary (external) dry sump scavenge system may create enough vacuum to improve ring sealing but I haven't had a chance to collect comparative hp data.

Whenever my little 2.5 liter 914 was moving fast on Laguna Seca it was pretty much a peak expreince for me. Chasing down 500 HP F car was one of those fun times.

http://youtu.be/w8xE1XNpoGE

One of my first sub 2:20 runs up Hoopa Hillclimb in my Z was fun too! Im shooting for sub 2:15 this year!

http://youtu.be/0vaePrOHohc

http://youtu.be/Da9astpXo0Q