Great video of the Probe-n-stein racing from the POV of Greg Amy. Check out the sliding!
Tag Archives: NASA
NASA Race – Summit Point – April 2009
hey guys! here is the race report from last weekend’s races at Summit Point — it was mid to high 90s, and sunny, with no clouds; dreadfully hot both days, but Sunday was totally brutal (sat race = 25 mins, sun’s race = 40 mins).
both days were good racing, but sunday’s race was incredible; it is by far the toughest race i have ever been in. it was 40 mins of non-stop, knock down, drag-out action, with three of us in the melee mix. i was PRAYING for the white flag to fly! from the drop of the green, til the checker finally came out, there was not a second of rest or relaxation….
scott’s (2nd place white SE-R in PTE) video footage is impressive to watch! at times we were splitting lapped cars and were running three abreast (me, scott, and darren (blue PTE integra driver)). darren was forced off the track at least once by a miata, and once he went on the grass intentionally on the front straight to pass a log-jammed miata pack (all i could see in the rear view was a monster cloud of dust!). oh, and at the start of the race, i am gridded next to a PTD Miata MX-5 Playboy Cup car (should be much faster than us PTE’ers). i get a good start and take him and lead the whole pack for a lap, and then he misses a shift and grenades his motor (it was his first test day ever in the car!!!!!).
the track was disintegrating really badly, due to the extreme heat and the patches were melting and tearing up; off-line was treacherous, and i almost lost it a couple of times when i misjudged the ‘marbly areas’…. i had to constantly watch my mirrors and protect the inside line, to keep the SE-R from slipping by me and into the lead! even with that terrible track (most classes were turning laps 1.5 to 2 seconds slower than the track record) we got down to within 0.4 secs of the track record (i hold the record at 1:27.110). if it had been a ‘good’ track and cool weather, i’d have been in the high 1:25s, i am confident of that!).
holy cow, that was some racing! when i was packing up, several groups of folks came by to say that it was one of the most exciting races that they had ever seen, and that they were happy that they had stayed to watch, instead of leaving for home!
Sunday’s Race at Summit Point 1 of 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k6ZVTQaX6s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLyNnBJYo1E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTjD4QQqJSw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6QfvcxjhCM
NASA Race – VIR – March 2009
ReidSpeed
NASA Race – VIR – February 2009
hi guys!
wow, what a great race weekend! other than it being SUPER cold (16 deg F at night!) it was a perfect weekend for me! report and vids as follows:
here’s the quick down-n-dirty ReidSpeed race report:
saturday: i qualified REALLY well; i got the pole position with a 2:18.5 (that would be a new PTE track record, if it had occurred during a race!). for the race, i lowered my tire pressures a bit too much, figuring that the tires would eventually heat up and grow; they did not gain enough heat (were at 32 psi when we came in after the race; too low for my car to work well on Toyos). anyway, i got a good start, and the black SE-R (steve harper) and i had a braking contest going into the first turn; guess who won! at that point, i took the lead in PTE; and then fought with Joe in the tube frame sports racer for a lap, and then gave up, not wanting to slow me further with fighting (i was running mid 2:20s — the tire pressure was too low, and i could feel it). Wade in the white SE-R caught up behind me, and i drove defensively, keeping him behind me most of the time (he got up next to me a couple times, once at the end of the back straight). wade’s car is FAST! i ended up winning PTE, with some last lap mayhem ensuing between the miata and a spec e30:
here is my incar vid: http://www.vimeo.com/3348562
here is Wade’s incar vid in two pieces (much more exciting than my incar, cause you get to see the probe for the entire race!):
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTU_1zJ-PKA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhE4zRUxIIs
man, after watching wade’s incar — when he got the good draft on me and tried to pass going up the backstraight — i never shifted into 5th, and instead just kept the mofo to the wood in 4th and let her eat! the tach was buried past 8k (the numbers end there!) and right before the brake zone you can hear me hit the rev limiter…. that’s a first for me; i’ve never hit the rev limiter in 4th! and in wade’s incar, i think the probenstien is actually totally drowning out his motor with it’s scream…. i’m sure glad she didn’t pop!
sunday: the track was slightly damp in places (just how i love it; nice and tricky to drive!). steve harper in the black SE-R and i had an amazing ‘race’ during qualifying; probably the most fun i had all weekend! we were both pushing very hard, and he and i can really drive close to each other without crashing…. i qualified first in PTE with a 2:19.5. i got a good start in the race, and started to check out from the rest of the PTE field. i spent the remainder of the race letting the GTS-2 cars by (i didn’t want to fight with them, and hurt their race, or endanger my car). the race ended under full course yellow, due to a bad crash between some 944s in Oak Tree.
i had a really nice weekend; it was great being with all my friends, and good racing action! i just wish it had been a little warmer on fri night; i froze my ass off!!!
the probe ran perfectly; the Ksport GT Pro suspension was incredible at VIR (lopped over 3 secs off my last time there!), and the ReidSpeed BBK gave me the stopping power to outbrake the other PTE’ers. i never even took the tool boxes or jack out of the trailer; i just added gas! i wish every race was like that!!!
enjoy
todd