NASA Hyperfest 2009 ReidSpeed race report!

[fasthonda]

hi glen (sorry i didn't get to hang out with you more this weekend;  as you found out, it is jam-packed full of things to do!!!)!    it was awesome seeing glen, and darren, and josh, and hunt, and scott and and and ! 

here's the quick report; we gave it our best, but i let the Probe down on Saturday's short race - I qualified poorly, and was quite a bit down the grid for the start of the race. I got a good start, and drove super hard, and eventually got back to 2nd in PTE, behind Scott's #67 SE-R. I had used up the tires, and there was nothing i could do... 2nd place! i have some limited video footage of the race -- the camera came loose from the mount and fell off, hanging upside down by it's safety strap; most of the footage is upside down, of my feet and the floorboards!Sunday's long race was a different story; i qualified 2nd in PTE, and there were only a few cars between me and Scott (this Hyperfest weekend we were mixed with a bunch (maybe 10?) H2 Honda Challenge cars which are much faster than PTE cars). I got a good start, and the race was on! in very short order i was on Scott's rear bumper, trying to attack, but i had 3 much faster H2 cars behind me, also wanting to get by the both of us.... it was a real mess, with the H2'ers filtering in and out and at one point really separating Scott from me... I just drove as hard as i could, without burning the car down, and i reclosed on scott. we went at it really hard, and......i guess it's better to just watch the vid! (camera did NOT fall off this time!):

http://www.vimeo.com/5265084

excellent racing.the top three of us PTE'ers ran best laps of within less than a tenth (1:27.7 + or - a titch), and the track was NOT fast (i think it was at least a second slow). T1 was a mess, and the carousel was not good). we were moving.  i hold the PTE track record there at a 1:27.1, and i would have crushed that if the track had been fresh and 'good'....

todd

ReidSpeed
__________________

[Darren]

It was a fun weekend -- I have mixed emotions about my driving   Saturday's race was the big race and I really wanted to go for it.  About 30 minutes prior to the qualifying session the sky opened up and it was coming down pretty good.  Normally PTE cars are the fastest in Stinger, but as Todd mentioned the H2 cars were with us this time and they were an unusual challenge for us! 

Overall in Stinger on Saturday I qualified 2nd in the rain, a full 3.3 seconds ahead of the next PTE car.  My car was totally hooked up with a brand new set of Hoosier wets and my KAAZ LSD.  All of those RTR rain sessions finally paid off!

By the time of the race, conditions cleared and we all switched to dry setups.  At the start of the race, my first time ever being on the front row, I was a little distracted trying to keep pace with the pole car and watching for the green flag.  Somehow I was in the wrong gear, watching the wrong thing, and the green came out and I lost about 7 spots!  Silly mistake

I managed to still drive reasonably well and make it back up to 3rd in PTE, but no chance of getting back up to first!

Sunday's race I qualified poorly in very good conditions.  Traffic was a huge issue for me in qualifying and I just couldn't get a good lap in!  I qualified fourth and made it up to 3rd during the race.  Most of the race I was stuck behind an H2 car that just wouldn't let me by! Finally I bumped him pretty darn hard on the bridge straight and then got a point-by!

All in all it was a great weekend -- RTR guys are familiar with me always working on my car at events and this weekend was probably the first time ever having the car out where I didn't have anything to do.  The car worked really well and I'm looking forward to our next race in a month at VIR!

 

[betegh9]

Nice videos, Todd. I enjoy watching them, cause you seem to get always into the MIX of things and thus make it exciting to watch. I remember when you first started DE, you ran the piss out of that poor VR6. hock: