Guys - I am OK and in good spirts. I don't know exactly what happen to the car, but either I blew the head cylinder gasket or a turbo. I will find out next week when I tear her down. It was unfortunate since the car was handling better than it ever had before, and I was flying around turn 12 at turn in 110mph! I really can't figure out why since both the coolant and oil temps where good. I will probably find out what really happen when I rebuild her - I will let you all know.
Thank god it blew at the exit of turn 12 and I came to a controlled stop (off track) so that is why no one lost any track time due to me!

 

Good to hear your ok, for a moment I thought you had pulled a viper move.

If you need anything let me know,
Mike

 

Glad to hear it wasn't worse... hope its not too bad once you get into it. Yeah, that would have really sucked for someone to drop fluid through T12. It was bad enough around 6/7 on Sunday with the oil acting like the Forza track line LOL.

BTW... if you've got enough time to see how fast you're going through T12... you aren't going fast enough

 

Actually - I didn't look at my speed - my friend behind me told me how fast I was going. Since I complained that I felt slow - and he corrected me that it was due to the new pavement and I was going to damn fast!

 

i know this is a little random, but maybe you folks know. i'm trying to find the lightning race/qual results from this weekend @ RA, but nasa-se's web site seems barfed (main page works, the 'Results' link 404's). specifically, i'm trying to find spec miata qual and fast race lap times... anyone know of an alternate posting somewhere?

ahm

 

MD,

Sorry to hear about your motor. I was already gone by then as I had a pretty bad day on Saturday (if you count smashing up a race car as bad). My fault though so I've got no one to blame but myself.

Guess that means you won't be at Sebring? I was thinking about heading down if Mark will add me to the instructor list (since I won't be racing that weekend now).

amolaver - I don't have the results but qual times for SM were in the 47s or so. Fast race lap on Sunday was in the 45s. I never turned a really fast lap due to traffic (SM and SpecE30 don't mix well), but had some terrific segment times that would easily eclipse my personal best there. I had one lap where I was at 120mph (nothing to the high HP guys but smoking for 118hp) by braking for T10, but the overall lap time sucked due to traffic from T1 - T7.

My guess is that the track record will fall this weekend at the National if it isn't too hot. I can easily see Mark Pombo dropping a 43.5 in his SM.

 

Why don't you bring the Z and we can both drive at Sebring than? Sorry to hear about the crash, I take it you are OK?

I was thinking about going still and talk to Mark about training to be an instructor instead of driving?

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...16279923174577

Video of Sundays Thunder start....

 

A standing start ?!?!

Wow, that's an interresting free for all! Well done!

By the way, I have bandwidth and storage space for your videos.

 

Thanks Kolia, unfortunately my computer does not have enough space to down load the whole video. I suppose it's time to upgrade.

 

Just got the whole results - Saturday's #1 SM qual was a 1:46.718, but the fast race lap was 1:46.087. Things got faster Sunday... #1 SM qual was 1:45.733 and fast race lap was a 1:45.362.

I was instructing and running about 8/10's with a 1:50 flat. I imagine some more practice on the new asphalt and qualifying pace/effort I could run a :47, but not much faster. I can't even conceive of a 43.5 in a SM. Of course, my motor is an untouched donor with the 94hp dyno sheet to prove it I can't wait to see in-car vid from the fast guys...

ahm

 

..Meant to add one more thing. Holy freaking Radical's batman! The faster of the two ran a 1:27.105. Whats amazing is that while obviously fast down the straight, not as monstrous as you might expect. Mid-corner speed through one, then acceleration up the hill were downright silly. Even the H1 cars, which are pretty damn fast, were getting smoked with what looked to be a 20mph delta at the exit of 1.

ahm

 

The radicals didn't brake for 1, they just lifted. Try that in any street car.

BTW Pics:
http://www.wesduenkel.com/Events/070...SA_Atlanta.htm

 

Hey Mood, I met you this weekend at Z1. I was in the white Track model. Nice meeting you.

 

Armitage - Nice meeting you too. I met so many people that day since they had me work behind the parts counter, I have to say that was a lot of fun. I usually don't really like car shows, but helping people out all day was loads of fun!

Marty - those Radicals where sure fun to watch. I think I would have to re-learn how to drive if I had one of those. Did you see the two of them drafting off of each other coming out of T12? They where about 1 cm apart! Now that is racing at its best!!

 

A couple of shots I took from the RA SCCA National last weekend. Some Nissan/Datsun content.