ReidSpeed NASA Hyperfest Summit Point race report

[fasthonda]

hey guys,

Just got back from Hyperfest;  long tough weekend.  I was racing in PTE class;  very tightly contested class with a lot of cars.  A pro from out west came in with a Honda Civic, and was incredibly fast (he broke the lap record twice in two days).  My Probe was not running its best;  I believe the engine is finally tiring out after years and years of track abuse (tens of thousands of race miles);  it was down on power (i dynoed it at the track;  it was down 6 whp and 25 lbs-feet).  my mph was down at the end of the straight too, about 5 mph.   anyway, i had a terrible qualifying round on sat, and was way way way back in the pack (i can't even remember the last time i started 18th).  i pushed HARD and eventually got up to the leader in PTE (the civic from out west);  we had a good battle the last couple laps of the race, but i finished 2nd.

vid:  http://www.vimeo.com/25325634

sunday i qualified better, and it was a longer race;  i ran the wheels off the Probe, trying to catch the lead civic again (we were all mixed up with faster cars;  lots of H2 Honda Challenge cars and a few PTC racecars too).  the civic was too much for me, and i ended up 2nd again.  ran a 1:26.7, a personal best, even with the car suffering.  previouis to that weekend, that would have been a track record, but the civic ran a 1:25.7!!!!

vid:  http://www.vimeo.com/25327062

both vids are action packed the entire way thru; we were in heavy traffic the entire time, with quite a few crashes and yellows and whatnot.

results sheet from sunday:  http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=1938066

i think i would have been able to take the civic, if i had had full power.  enjoy.

 

[bobt993]

Good to see you there Todd.  That other car was just too strong in your class.  Jason Mahoney had a great showing in Spec E30 for his first race in a year.  I managed 2nd twice in a strong GTS3 field ( and was lucky to end up in 2nd).   I had a vacuum leak and had to safety wire the resonance flap and varioram wide open.  That forced me to use lower gears when I needed to be up a gear ( drops 50hp below 5K with them open instead of closed) so I had to stay in the upper rpms everywhere. Eric Wong had car trouble all weekend and Josh Smith cruised to 1st in both races.  Qualifying on Sunday was in the rain which benefited me for pole position.  The BMW's were really strong and well driven.  I spent most of the race battling for 3rd allowing the front two to scoot away. 

[MikeKling]

I will view this video throughly between for the next month for our foray with Potomac.