Is anyone else from here going to the Grand-Am cup this weekend at Mosport to watch the Rx-8 teams run?


Neo, Hellbreed and I will be going on Sat. along w/others from the Rx-7 forum.

 

Did'nt know about the race, man I haven't been to Mosport in years. I will try and get out there weather permitting.

Years back < eighties > I remember a Z28 race they had in between the bike races. Guy in a Black Z lost it and kept spinning till he hit the concrete retaining wall. Vaulted the car into the air and landed it, 50% 50% balanced on the wall. Twenty or so feet from a bunch of us inebriated bikers frying bacon and eggs for breakfast.

No one even flinched, safety crew checked the driver out he was fine. Not a single egg or bacon strip was dropped.

 

What time you heading down on Saturday? I'm going to try and head out no later then 10AM, I have a few things to do in the morning. I want to get there to catch the Mazdaspeed Miata race after lunch.

 

Neo and I are going to head down there for about noon.
He's gonna come to my house for about 11am-11:30, we are gonna probably fry up some burgers or something and then head on out.

If you want you can meet us at my house in the morning, or give us a call when you are on your way and we'll meet up at the gate or on the road.

 

Just replied to your PM but I will try to get there by noon as well, If I can make it to your house by 11-11:30 I will, I'll call you on the way.

 

Scott,

I've accessed a snowflake white pearl RX-8 for the weekend. I'll be up there this afternoon (ie. Sat).

24h Le Mans is on too. Good weekend of racing.

 

Saturday's Grand Am even was great, met a number of forum members there as we watched from Corner 5. The day started off really good as I had my new Digital Camera (Canon A520). I took a number of pictures of the SpeedSource Racing RX-8's, I then cruised over to corner 2 to watch the Mazdaspeed Miata race and practice some moving vehicle photo shooting. Although tricky with a this type of camera the pictures turned out fairly good.

All prepped and ready to go to get some nice RX-8's in action, a message pops up on the display "Replace Batteries" , they were brand new that morning. I figured that the new batteries would last at least 1 race worth of pictures but I ended up only getting 15 pictures. I think the batteries were duds.

Ah well, sucks but what can you do, you'd think that there would be at least one vendor there that sold batteries but nope.

Anyways the racing was really good, although the RX-8's did not qualify strong they put on a good showing. There was much concern about the uphill back straight which did play in the end results, but given the qualify position the number 70 car did really well, lead the 2nd half of the race to finish second to a charging Chevy Cobalt (boo! ). The RX-8 did not give up, on the last lap he was on the cobalts *** and managed to pull to the inside at corner 5\6, they came out of the hair pin side by side but the uphill came into play again and the cobalt got in front.

Sure the cobalts are quick, but what do you expect from factory supercharging and 200 lbs less racing weight. Stick a factory supercharger on the RX-8 and they'd be running in the GS class with the Porsche and M3's.

All the RX-8's finished except for the White one, it came around the track on a tow truck bed with the whole front end crushed in, will have to catch the race on TV to see what happened.

I'll have to re-size the pictures I have, I will then post for all.

 

Nice to meet some new faces and see old faces I haven't seen in a while.
The racing was excellent and it was nice to see the actual speedsource Rx-8's up close and personal, even with the matching duct tape on some.
Who ever didn't show up missed an amazing afternoon of side by side bumping, flying bodywork, close calls racing.


Hellbreed: Can you send me the hi-res pics via e-mail? let me know and I'll PM you my home account.

 

It was a fantastic race! There should be more racing like that..Great to see the hardcore people out along with some people that managed to make it out (Mr. Eccentric! )

I hope the ALMS series will be as intense as the Grand Am race!

Lates,

 

No problem, I should be able to get them out tomorrow some time.

 

We were there on the weekend and met Sylvain Tremblay from SpeedSource. He is going to contact me when he gets back about carrying some of their products. We ran Sunday in the Ontario GT Races (white 01 RX-7). The white RX-8 hit the wall between turns 2 and 3, he got sideways coming out of 2 (real bad news) hit the bump on the exit and planted into the inside wall. It was his second race weekend with the car, which was built by SpeedSource. SpeedSource doesnt think they can repair the car, but will look closer when the car get back to Florida. It was interesting comparing notes with Sylvain about speeds etc between my 2nd gen and the his RX-8's. He said the 8's have about 190 HP at the wheels, and we have about 230, yet he was still about 4 seconds a lap faster than me! His best ;ap was a 1:33.9 and my best is a 1:37.7 I was very impressed with Sylvain Tremblay he was a real gentleman and spent lots of time talking, where most people at his level of racing would have to concern for a grassroots racer like myself.

 

*** Neo. Damn you mang! I'll see you at ALMS, however hopefully we'll all catch up before that.

*** Hellbreed thanks for the drive back to the paddock. That trek back from 5 is brutal. I owe you a beer.

*** MyRxBad. Good to see you again. It's been ages.

*** Moyenne... strange, I remember seeing a 944 race when I was young where a car got perched on a wall perfectly balanced outside 8. The old IROC series was fantastic. Richard Spenard has no fear.

Sorry I couldn't hang around and chat more but my friend that came doesn't know the first thing about cars. However every time he hears that the big races are coming he gets about as amped as me. I think it's a good excuse to get away from his wife and drink.

*** #84Racing... Nice showing on Sun... what did you go out with late in the race? Mechanical? It looked like you were on a charge in the early going then progressively slowed things up. Those S5 tails look great when you dig into the brakes coming up on five. I was at the bottom of 4... and more than a few beers in by the end of the day. I jumped up on the fence a few times and gave you the wild arms to spark a charge. You were probably a little busy trying to hit your mark. Good to hear Tremblay's a class act.

 

You called it right! I tried to take off at the start and get ahead, 30 minutes is longer than the car usually runs (20 minutes is the regular). I was cruising at the mid point and brain faded and let the VW get by. I was running him down at the end by almost a second a lap, then with 4 laps left I was closing on him in 8 when the car filled up with smoke! I thought I had blown the motor as I was turning about 9800rpm every lap going in to turn 8 (thats about 135-140mph). I coasted into the pits even though my gauges said everything was fine. It turn out the REBUILT half-shaft boot on the inside drivers side disintigrated coating everything including the exhaust in bearing grease! What a crappy way to end a good weekend, as we were 2nd in the 1st race after starting last.