SCCA Regional Race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

I'm here with my crew getting ready for a wet race this afternoon, and hopefully a dry race on Sunday.
The car is back together after 4 weeks of steady repair work. I painted the new quarter panels and rear bumper, along with the metal repair areas, Thursday night. From the outside you can hardly tell I was in a wreck at Lime Rock a month ago.

From this:
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To this:
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Its raining right now (6:30am) and the forecast is 50% showers all day, around 60 deg F. This is perfect weather for my car to do well on the Hoosier Wets.

Bring an umbrella and come out to the track. We're paddocked in North Garage #20, and I'm itching for one of these today:

Go get 'em Chris!!!

There's a chance I'll make it even though the weather man says an additional 1"-2" of rain is possible.

to fucking cold

It was not too cold for my wife to stand in pit lane for the entire race without complaining.
Besides, you missed a really good race. I only led two laps, particularly the one that counted the most, after biding my time behind a group of Miatas duking it out on a wet track, with a constant light drizzle.
Today I brought home the overall

Awesome!!

I qualified on the front row this morning, only missing the pole by .002 seconds.

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At the start of the race I was passed by a group of spec miatas on a mission.
I knew I had to be careful on my old tires so I took my time getting up to speed and picking the miatas off one by one.
Eventually I was up to third, when a Full Course Caution came out mid-race, for a car disabled in the middle of turn 3.
I knew I was faster than the first and second place cars but they were racing each other and I didn't want to be a spoiler or get caught up in an incident if one of them lost control.
Fortunately when I made my moves they didn't contest the position and I had opened up a 2 second gap when the checker flew.

Here's a pic of my happy crew in the car this evening.
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Tomorrow's race grid was set by today's results so I start on Pole for the second race of the weekend.
I'm expecting sunny weather around 70 degrees for the race start around 11 am, and I will be on my new slicks.

Congrats Chris. You put a big smile on my face.

Today's result: First in class, 4th overall. I led the first half of the race until the fastest car, an EP BMW passed me easily. He only finished 11th in the rain Saturday, so it took him a while to catch me. Then I backed off and let the two Spec Miata leaders past me as they were really fighting for the class win and I didn't have any reason to push, or to get in the way of their battle.

Excellent, Chris!

--DD

way to go! turn 3 is a bitch in the rain...everyone goes into the tires...really slick on line.....

Fantastic Chris...!

-- Rob

I had a little too much front brake bias and locked up on the second lap of the race, sliding onto the gravel with my left side tires. I recovered, but not before hitting one of the cones placed off the edge of the pavement for brake markers.
There are faint scratches on both left side fenders from the cone.

This is great news!
I'm trilled you got your car back on line so quickly this time around!

Zach

dang son, you rock!

Nice job, Chris.

Nice work, Chris

Bitchin'!!! And that is a 4 cylinder too isn't it.. hmmmm...

Yes it is! A lowly 1.8L

Wow. Very cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNJ5nEqxHU

Those pics with the checkered flag make it all worth it!
So glad to hear the 2009 season is shaping up well for you
Interesting to see small naca ducts where there used to be giant intakes.
The CF front end is cracked, ooohhh noooooo. All that fresh tangerine on the back end takes your eyes off it though. Keep up the good work, and keep sharing these cool, photos, videos, and stories.

I only took one checkered in my short career. I can still remember that race like it was yesterday. To take two wins in one weekend is outstanding!!

That is excellent, man. A great pay off from what is obviously a hell of a lot of
work and time invested. Get those flags framed with a picture of the car as
it is now and hang it in your shop.

Has your car or your story ever been chronicled in Excellence? That would make
a great read......



John

Great job Chris.
That rain was scarey though.
John

The only time I got really nervous was when I followed too close in the oval.
The spray was so heavy I couldn't see a thing, and backed off.
The miata drivers were pushing hard in the oval and getting pretty loose - not something I was ready to do this time out.
I'm only a little

Way to stay after it Chris!

Good Luck!

Sunday Edition:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_I3dl2684E

Here's a highlights vid from 2003 that I just uploaded:


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

Here's one from Watkins Glen in 2005:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmwlAK7k10A

I'll be at NHMS again this weekend. Races both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. If anything exciting happens I'll put up more youtube video.

Best of luck. Come home in one piece. I'm off to Lightning at NJMP.

No video from this weekend. I forgot my camera at home, lol.
It wasn't too exciting from a race perspective anyway.
I had a 2nd on Saturday (4th overall) and a 1st on Sunday that was handed to me when the class leader made contact with a Spec Miata he was lapping.
I turned my best laps of the season at NHMS on Sunday so I was pleased with how things went from that perspective.

I always look forward to reading this thread when it pops up to the top.

Here's a summary of the weekend:
Qualified in the rain on Saturday just before lunch - outside front row, next to Mark M driving a black GTI. I had an engine cutout problem that carried over from the last event which I thought was cured but was not...
in the garage I found a loose nut at the main battery cable connection on the kill switch and the "intelligent" battery charger said the battery was full after being only 80% right before the nut was tightened. Could this be the source of my ignition woes?
The rain stopped an hour before my race but the cloud cover stayed and the track looked wet still, so I went out on my rain tires - so did Mark.
The track had a dry line almost all the way around so I really cooked the rain tires. I was passed at the start by both EP cars from the second row. The 240Z had slicks and he was the fastest. I ran in 4th overall until my throttle cable frayed and stuck nearly wide open. I pulled into the pits and shut off the engine with 3 laps to go. No problem, I was classified as a finisher - and that was my main goal of the day, and the rain tires have a little life left in them. Ignition problem - history!

I had a spare throttle cable so that was the major chore before dinner. Mary took some pictures of me stuck inside the car. If they don't look too incriminating I'll post one or two.

Sunday qualifying was sunny and warm. My times were just ok so I was gridded on the outside of the second row. The race proceeded without incident for me. I passed quite a few Spec Miatas but couldn't keep up with the 4 front runners. As I pulled into the pits after the cooldown lap Mary was signalling to me that I won, so I took a victory lap. It turns out that Mark was hit by a Spec Miata that he was lapping with only 2 laps to go. Sometimes it pays to be patient!
So we both took one victory and one second without crossing the finish line. The other two FP drivers that pre-registered were no-shows for the weekend.

I ran my best laps of the year on Sunday at 1:17 flat for the 1.6 mile course, but still a second off my best ever times at NHMS. The oval was where I wimped out. Even the Spec Miatas were catching up to me there but I pulled away from them on the rest of the track. Then, after the race a crew person from a SM team told me that he saw the rear of my car bouncing while I was braking for turn 3. Maybe I have a shock problem that is affecting my ability to push in the fast corners. I guess I need to start shopping for better shocks.

It's strange seeing your car with the new rear clip.

I'm with you there.

Here's what its like for a big guy working in the pedal cluster area of a 914 race car:

One of our own, Matt Romanowski was at all 3 events I raced at this year taking pictures. Here are some samples of his work:
Last weekend:




3 weeks ago:


This is one at LRP before my crash:

Great stuff Chris!!!

Great results- will you be at the run offs at Road America next week? I'll be there and it'd be cool to stop by and see the car up close.

Matt has a fast 914 too!

I like your wet lines in turn 3..
does the south oval still have the bump?
I did glance at the speedo once....showed around 95mph. the wall at the turn 3 turn in comes up fast!

way to go!

Not this year. Maybe in 2010. I really want to drive there!

Did you see the line I took on lap two of the rain video?
I didn't feel any bump in the south oval but there's an unpleasant one just after turn 12 that is a wide patch on a diagonal to the direction of travel.
Just before braking for turn three should be the fastest place on the track but I was wimping out in the oval and only going about 85, so I was faster just before turn 1.
I think I was getting up to 105mph (by rpm calculation) at the end of the front straight last weekend compared to 100 (measured by GPS) at the previous event, after I cured an electrical problem that was causing a brief ignition cutout right after turn 12.