For immediate release:

Team Falken Awesome announces it's entry for the 2014 Chumpcar 14 Hours of Sebring on Saturday, September 20th.

Drivers:
John Faure (FourBlades)
Shane Sparks (JetsetSurfShop)
Joe Smoot (tooms351)
Marc Thompson

We can't wait! I'll post some videos, pictures and results when available on Saturday.

Thanks to those who have helped us out all along the way:
914World.com
CFR/Tangerine Racing
914Rubber.com
PMB Performance
Rennemetal.com
Stable Energies

More

HELL yeah! Car looks awesome!

I just texted Shane this morning to see how you all were coming along. Cant wait to see you out there.

Miguel

WoW! George you have done a fantastic job on your 914 I remember the first time I saw your car at biff and the difference is night and day, I here by nominate you for first stint!!!!

Should be a Good Weekend of Racin! See you Friday!

My Steed this weekend!

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Good luck and keep us posted!

Its a long race.
Take it easy and don't abuse the car.
I'm expecting you to cross the finish line.

Good luck to you all!

Good luck guys!

Car looks great.

John

Second....

George the car looks great...all the best out there this weekend...

Car looks awesome. I Hope you all enjoy yourselves and cross the finish line, Question: what are the bumps on the headlight covers hiding??

Good Luck and have fun!

Thanks guys. Proud we could represent The World and the awesome vendors we have here.

The bubbles on the headlight housings were necessary to provide a little more clearance for the projectors protruding out of the back of the headlight buckets. Difficult to explain without taking them all apart again, but at some point I'll post pictures of how I did it. Sebring is DARK at night, so we needed a good modern headlight solution and went with HIDs.

So we're here and with 5 hours to go we're at least running! 72nd out of 96 cars! Shane, John, Joe and Marc have all been in the car and are having a blast as far as I can tell.

We had a few issues in the morning, including a rocker pivot shaft that came off due to a loose nut. Then we blew up a clutch right after getting back on track. After that we've been running non-stop though! Oil temps and pressure looks great.

So very proud of these guys and grateful to have them as my friends. Thanks for helping me achieve one of my dreams - running my own car, as slow as it is, at Sebring!

I stopped by the track today....Couldn't believe the car was running...and no smoke around the curves...might be a first for a type 4 powered 914...great prep George and crew...hope you see hour 14 . that super beetle was fast all things considered

Great job guys!!!

George, I'm proud that you kept after it. Losing the 1st Four Hours would have sent most people home.

Team TC did pretty good I heard!

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Chief Mechanic

Never would have guessed a pretty much bone stock 914 would make the great majority of a 14 hour race... but we did it! Car was by far the slowest thing out there, which really just outlines how fast even the most basic cars have gotten over the years. But our drivers were phenomenal. We really bonded throughout the day and everyone found a way to pitch it. I was overwhelmed at how knowledgeable and enthusiastic everyone was. Truly awesome. Special thanks to Keith, Shane's step-dad, who immediately was able to diagnose some of our issues and got us back on track much sooner than I would have been able to. Also special thanks to our buddy Chad (chads74) as the spare engine he loaned us gave us the spares we needed to keep going. Luckily, we didn't need to change it out but we did do some picking from things we needed. I owe him a new clutch and a rocker pivot stud.

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We placed 65th out of the cars that started. Might have cracked the top 50 if we had been able to stay out all day. Either way, I think it was cool that four guys all got their first wheel to wheel experience in one weekend, and they all did an awesome job with the car. Congrats Shane, John, Joe and Marc!

It was really cool that we got to race with TC too! Shane apparently diced it up with him during one of his stints. TC got stuck with a 2 hour stint in the hottest part of the day and he was unfortunately extremely dehydrated. I was bummed that I didn't get to drive on track with him, but it was awesome seeing TC's driving experience in person finally, not to mention that we're all glad he's okay.

We went strong until the end and only got tagged once. Apparently a VW Rabbit doesn't handle as well as some drivers think they do. Guy went in too deep and rubbed the side of the car when Marc was going through 14 at around 10 pm.

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Lastly, I had no idea you were there Lorin! You should have come by and said hello! Shane checked 914World later on and saw your post so we all were excited to finally meet you, but we never did see you. Come to the Tropical Ramble - we all want to hear some of your stories about driving in the REAL race - the 12 hours.

Great to hear you guys had so much fun.

After blowing the clutch into 50 pieces and replacing it the car ran 10 hours straight without missing a beat. What a great time.

We could brake later than most cars and turn just as hard, we just need another 50 horsepower to keep up on the long straights. Nothing like going into turn 7 with ten maniac drivers all jostling for position. I am surprised there was as little contact as there was. In the close to two hours I ran I never saw one incident of contact.

What a great time! Thanks again for inviting me George!

John

Well my Story was almost the Opposite of George & Team Awesome!

Our car was Stone Cold Reliable except for a Transponder that went out and Laps that I ran weren't being counted. I had to make 2 Pit Stops for about 20-25 Minutes to get it fixed. Other than that we just put Gas in the car. We finished 22nd out of 96 Cars. They gaves us some Laps back for the Transponder Issue, but not all of them. We count it as 8 Laps that are Missing. If they add those 8 Laps back, we will be in the Top 15. Add in the Time that we lost fixing it and we could have been in the Top 10

Yeah, I got Severely Dehydrated and had to get an IV. I was in full Body Cramp mode after I got out of the car and almost threw up in my Helmet getting out of my gear. I was actually in the car for 2 1/2 Hours in the Hottest part of the day due to my Full Stint plus the Pit Stops plus after the 2nd Pit Stop there was a Red Flag situation on Track so I was held at Pit Out for at least another 5-10 Minutes with no air movement. I had never had Cramping like that before and I still don't feel back to normal. They told me I was in Stage 2 (out of 3 Stages) on the Dehydration Scale. I did not do my next Driving Stint as I did not feel like taking any chances to my health or my Teammates Car.

I did post our Teams Fastest Laps!

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Excellent job gentlemen!! It was really great to see you all clicking away at the laps till the very end! You should be very proud of your accomplishment! That was a long race on a track that is rough on equipment.

I wish I could have spent more time visiting but we had our hands full in garage 5.

George what's the plan now for your car? Are you planning on using it at Nasa/Chin events? Any thoughts on the 24hr race at Homestead?

Miguel

Nice job guys!

What engine were you running? I'm sure it's somewhere on a build thread but I've missed it - 2.0? any mods to it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPolekH33OI

It seemed like a big deal to me at the time. Doesn't look so bad in the video. Was worried about a second car involved in the spin and the Mazda getting through too. Anyways, CHECK OUT GEORGE'S LIGHTS AT WORK!!!

http://youtu.be/gPolekH33OI
Maybe this will work...

Yeah the link works.

I could not tell if there was a flag at the corner worker station. I would have been in trouble there.

M

That was me. People asked me how can you sleep with 90 cars going by 40 feet
away. Well, my wife and I watch racing on the weekends lying on the couch
and the sound of the cars droning around always puts us to sleep before the end of
the race, so I've just been conditioned. Doesn't matter how many decibels it is...

John

Having a minor clutch issue.

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Putting the transmission back in.

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Heading back out for 10 more hours without an issue.

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Getting passed by a very fast v6 MR2.

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We had no champagne but we enjoyed some victory lane beers...

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Ya should have been there...

John

Great pics guys...so glad ya'll had a great time!!

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nice shot, thats gotta be t17!

Its one from AWOL. I think it you driving, Joe.

AWOL does a great job. I've know Eric since he was a little Kid!

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Yup thats me.......I've got my eyes closed!

Great picture of you at the hairpin T.C.!


Have not got a chance to go through all of the video yet, but I did find my tank-slapper going into turn 15/Gendebien bend.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jrz7WjIxU


I had just passed a 944 in turn 13 and was waiting for him to come back by (you can see the lights off to the right of the car). Was afraid he was going to dive-bomb me, so I stayed wide, but missed my turn-in point. Anyhow, it was a fun ride through the pasture out there!

Here's my night fast lap (term is used very loosely).


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



I'll have everyone else's full stints up soon.

WOW, way faster then me. Very impressive in the brake zone. Still accelerating past the first set of brake cones in turn 7. Impressed.

I get that same unloading of the rear in turn 15 also sometimes. I think, my case, its from over turning. Have you talked to anyone about this. I would like to learn more about how NOT to do this its kind of unnerving when it does happen.

By the way the lighting looks great!

Miguel

I think I just have more experience with this car Shane. Much lower power and no slicks, which is I'm sure WAY different than driving your car. Remember you set a 3:20 really early on in your first stint. With less traffic and more time in the car, I'm sure you're faster. I've been watching your videos and it's good stuff - you're a good driver.




Miguel - Shane and I put in 180 lb springs before the race to try to dial out any understeer on turn in and through the middle of the corner. If anything, I think it's perfect where it is. That unloading feeling is the rear end slowly stepping out as the outside tire reaches it's grip threshold, I think. Once I got a handle on it, it was a blast to drive and I could lay on (what little power) there was far before the apex. With a higher HP engine I'd probably step the spring rate down some, or in the best case scenario, put wider tires on it.

You just have to get used to the car being "twitchy". No sudden corrections and taking the correct line into the corner is paramount. In the case of my tank slapper, I was just carrying way too much speed for the angle I was trying to achieve. If I turned in a shade earlier, it made all the difference in the world and I could bleed speed off through the turn, rather than slamming on the brakes and killing momentum. Remember, as Harry Hogg said, "Loose is fast."

Did you drive the BMW at all? I hope to get on track with you at some point at a DE in the near future.

John's first stint (until we had the rocker pivot shaft problems).


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

Hey George thanks for posting these videos, it's kinda boring in work today!

Thanks George!

That first stint was crazy. Wet track and dodging 90 faster cars.

I just wanted to bring the car safely to the next driver.

The radio system really helped a lot.

Thankfully, Keith and crew fixed the rocker stud problem.

Someone reused a stud with boogered threads (maybe without realizing it) and the stud was not up to it.

John

No problem Joe. Marc's is up next cause it's the shortest. Yours should be up by tomorrow - it's going to take awhile to process.

Thats ok I'm working tomorrow too hahaha....boohoohoo! John as I was watching your video I was gonna ask if you played dodge ball, cause you looked pretty good at it, good job driving and saving everyones ups!

I was going to see if George could install the seat backwards, it would have made it easier.

That convex mirror he put in saved the day though.

John