legokcen

Wow, such a wonderful weekend. Sorry it took me this long to finally get on this thing. I got home at 11:30 last night due to construction a little south of Macon. They took the interstate down to only one lane and progress was slow.

I had a blast all weekend. Did some emergency repairs (I'm not switching to lock-tite RED instead of Blue for critical components, even if they are smaller than 3/4" as Lock-tite recommends). The car did great. I still need to learn to drive it more aggressively. It definitely has a bit more in the corners than I'm giving it. It's still a blast though and I'm very happy with it, well worth the investment. I'm contemplating power adders now. That's all she lacks. Maybe a 13B, my neighbot has a 91 sitting in his garage. I also know someone close by who used to work for a Mazda race team during the IMSA days he's got a PPort 12A from a Daytona 24hr car sitting in his shop. Wonder how much that would cost me.

It was wonderful seeing everyone again. The only thing missing was 70 degree weather a nice breeze.

TA, or TTD Champion as you will hence forth be named, it was great seeing you again. You're fast as hell in that thing and I had several people ask me what you've done to it to make it so much faster. I told them you were cheating of course. Just kidding. That award by itself was worth the price of the transponder rental! Congrats!

OD, Roomie and fellow Pansy *** Motel Boy, thanks for the air conditioned room reservation. It felt great to come back to someplace nice to relax. Sat morning was great. I was restless and rolling around at 5AM waiting for the alarm and I heard you say, "Well, I'm ready to go to the track if you are." So, our Saturday started early. I definitely enjoyed riding with you and chatting during the session. It was a hoot. The midpipe sounds great and the driving is always phenominal. I'm glad you were able to get the belt replaced before heading back.

L8, thanks for working my friend. It was good to get the thumbs up on the way out to the track. I wish we had the chance to hang out more during the event, but we'll get a chance to do that at Roebling. I'm glad you didn't get hurt during the excitment Sunday. Are we all going to try to camp there as well? I'll be happy to if the weather is nicer than RA was.

Don, I hope you have everything back to normal soon. It should be an easy fix for Charlie. Let us know if there is anything we can do. I'm glad I could help you out Saturday. I appreciate the pictures on Sunday.

OnRails, you definitely get the Birddog award for sticking with it. I hate the windshield thing happened, but you recovered in style and got some track time after all.

TA2, always good to see you. You're still running fast in that Rustang and the inside pass on 1 was great. I hope you get to the bottom of the bumper issue.

Charlie, it's been too long so I'm glad you were able to make it to this event. Also, thanks for helping me out and giving my lady a nice "Tight Box" again. She feels great! We'll have to discuss the 13B conversion a little more soon. I'll start saving now. Rob Summers is trying to convince me to go V8, but I'd like to stick with rotary, we'll see.

Steve, that monster is, well, a monster. The Viper guy was asking about what the hell that had in it. I had a fun time riding with you. Keep looking for the point-bys. Hope to see you out again on the track.

Dano, That's a hell of a deal you got on that Miata. Great beginnings to a track car. I hope you have fun with it.

Gordon (the new one), it was great to meet you. Now we have 2 Gordon's with Red RX-8's. Welcome to the group and I hope you had a good time. I hope to see you out with us again.

Phlash, it was great talking with you on the phone on Saturday. Sorry, I had to say something about you as well. I couldn't leave you out. You were with us in spirit and we talked about you quite often. Not all of it was bad. See you at Roebling.

Stop&TurnFreak

GUYS, YOU HAVE GOT TO CHECK OUT THIS LINK I POSTED IN THE OTHER THREAD....

https://www.rx8club.com/se-rx-8-forum-30/anyone-who-open-tracks-has-got-see-video-jackie-stewart-124304/

SilverEIGHT

That was a great lesson Sir STF! Thanks!

L8APEX

Yeah, I did not know I would be that "in the thick of it" either. for all of the races, I had been moving closer to start finish, instead of where I was for my pit out duties. but for the races, no one would be entering the track at the start, and the first corner can be a bit busy right after the green flag drops. I thought it would be best if I was behind the concrete wall, not out in front of it. I had watched the pack of leaders go into turn 1, and as I turned back around, the white camaro was heading at me, he had clipped Randy's front end, and I knew he was going to hit the wall, and I tried to turn away, but it was so fast, that as I was turning, he had already hit the wall, and that wall is very short, only about 40 inches tall there, and all the tempered glass just came over the wall, and I tried to duck and turn my head, to keep from getting any of it in my eyes or anything. the other grid workers only saw me ducking, and then saw why. it was a little hair raising to say the least, but I am really glad I was where I was. the sound of him hitting the wall flat sided, I can still hear it, it was so loud, and so forceful. I can't imagine how it felt in the car, and then for him to carry on through most of turn 1, and then spin and end up at the top of the hill in the tires, and still have enough speed to re-arrange the tire wall, was amazing, I had no idea he ended up that far away from me. I was blown away by that.

It was a huge mess, and it took forever to get it cleaned up. It sucked that the DE and TT groups lost a session, but that happens. Eventually, it would be nice to see the racers do their own thing on their own weekend. All three races on Sunday were disasters, all 3 had major collisions, and two wound up in red flag situation, to go along with the morning TT session getting the red flag for a major metal to concrete impact.

SilverEIGHT

Holy crap! That's the stuff that season finally highlights are made of, L8. If you had been on camera, you would be seen in the reels for ever. We would be watching you on YouTube and sending the video clip to all our friends and relatives and saying, "That is a friend of mine! We had to go to WalMart and buy him a new pair of pants."

dbright007

L8,
Glad you are ok. You know the view we had from tent city, and I had set up a chair next to your tent to watch the race. I could tell something wasn't right as that pack was coming toward pit out - and WHAM!
I knew where you had been standing all weekend with some other workers, and thought "oh ****!". First thing I did was look over to see if any of the ambulances were rolling.
I drove down and saw you on cleanup duty, but for anyone who didn't see it, yeah, it was right there. And a BIG impact.

Don't think I would ever work again - especially there. Just drive man.

Phlash

That's why my damn ears were burning all weekend........

TrackAddict

L8 - that was a terribly close call. All I saw was a cloud of dust, smoke and **** Up. Glad you are OK!

Still waiting on final TTD results for Sunday.
My trophy picture I was sporting the Georgia RX8 Club cap.

SilverEIGHT

Did you see my post that your award is the shape of a Rotor?

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Jesus what a w/e.
Silver I just finished taking the fuel filter out of that pump you gave me. it was amazing that your car was running imho. The filter was totally black and full of oily grit. I couldnt even see the shop light AFTER i straighten out several of the pleats. Now i am NOT talking about the sock---i am talking about the actual filter(built in and a rpita to get out).
olddragger

OnRails

Well, the weekend didn’t start out so great but it got much better. I was headed down I-85 on my way to RA and about 20 miles out the car in front of me ran over a large piece of a truck tire and kicked it up into the air. I hit it going about 75 MPH. It hit the top of the front bumper, skidded up the hood, and smashed into the windshield. I didn’t have time to do anything but turn my head. When I looked up, all I saw was smashed glass. I was in total shock. After pulling off at the next exit and gathering my thoughts, I decided to go ahead and head to the track with the hopes that I could find some help there; Besides, it was about 2 and a half hours home and I knew I couldn’t drive that far with the windshield the way it was. You should have seen the looks I got as I drove into the paddock. I would pass people walking and then see them do a double take and turn around to stare as I drove away.

I was totally bummed because I just knew there was no way I was going to get any track time. I called all of the glass repair places in the yellow pages and they all said there was no way they could get a windshield on the weekend. I went to bed that night a sad man. As a last resort on Saturday morning I went to a collision repair shop about a half mile from the track called Zintars Collision Repair that I had passed on the way in. The owner (Zintar) turned out to be my saving grace. At first he too didn’t think he could do anything for me but he made some calls to his suppliers and found one who was willing to hook me up if I paid them an extra $75. They showed up in two hours and replaced my windshield in 30 minutes right there in the parking lot at Zintars. I was jumping up and down and shaking those guys hands. They probably thought I was crazy. The best part was that Zintar didn’t charge me a thing even though he spent about an hour on the phone finding these guys for me. I ended up only missing the first two sessions on Saturday.

On a side note, while I was waiting for the glass repair guys to show up, I was talking to Zintar about NASA. He had never heard of it! He told me he had no idea that there was somewhere you could drive your street car on the track. And this guy owns a shop a half mile from Road Atlanta! He had a badass 5 series BMW sitting in the parking lot that he had rebuilt and done all sorts of performance mods to and was using as his weekend fun car. I told him all about NASA and I he seemed interested in taking his car out to the track to see what it could do. I may have gained NASA another member.

After the windshield debacle, I had a blast! Rob was my instructor for the weekend. I hadn’t really met him before this event. Man, what a super nice and generous guy! I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed having him as an instructor and how much I appreciate the hospitality in the paddock. He was quick to loan me a vacuum to clean up all of the small bits of glass in my car and he made the air conditioning in his trailer available to us when we needed to escape the heat. He helped me learn the track and showed me how to be fast at Road Atlanta.

The two sessions I had on Saturday were kind of slow since I was still trying to figure out how fast I could take certain corners and how late I could brake into 10A, but on Sunday I had the track down and was able to turn it up a notch. After the first two sessions on Sunday, Rob turned me loose to solo. My first solo session was probably my best one of the weekend. The car was lighter and I was just out there having fun. I felt like I did pretty well.

The last session on Sunday ended up being a combined DE1 and DE2 session due to the incidents during the race. While I was sitting on grid, TrackAddict came by as he was walking the pits looking for anyone who needed an instructor and lured him into my car with the promise of air conditioning. It was great to get his feedback on how to be a better driver. Who better to learn from that the TTD champ himself!

It was great seeing everyone again. I think I like hanging out with you guys as much as I like the track time. Camping wasn’t that bad and the company was first class. It was nice to be able to put faces on some more of the names I see on these boards. I could go on and on but this is getting too long as it is. I’ll post more later.

OnRails

Pics:

dbright007

That is such an awesome pic TA!
You deserve it brother, well earned by a very fast man.

I bet the GaRx8 club hat wasn't the only thing you were "sporting" right then!
and where exactly is your left hand in that pic

Stop&TurnFreak

[QUOTE=OnRails;2013082]Pics:


[\QUOTE]

Hey, you have to quit giving the fat girls rides on the hood of your car.....

TA, you have the right idea, slim and sexy....

OnRails

Damn, you saw right through my cover story! And to think I went to all the trouble of making up all of that tire on the highway stuff.

SilverEIGHT

OnRails, that totally sucked... big-time! Glad everything worked out for your. Look forward to the vids through the good glass.

L8APEX

hey TA, how many points did you end up with due to your mods. I was reading the TTD thread a little, out of shear curiosity, and looked through the rules, and I would have gathered 18 points for my car. how close did you get to the +20. I would think you have more room to add wider tires, or at least a little more sticky tires.

TrackAddict

Based on my mods I have 15 points so I have 4 to go before bumping up into C.

L8APEX

I could not decide if removing the trunk liners on the side was what they meant by one in the weight reduction section, if it is, then I have to add one more. I already added 3 for removing the rear seats. and it looks to me like you get teh same points added for the coilovers I have, as you would for spring and shocks swap like you. unless I am reading it wrong.

again, this is all just for me to kill time today, I have no plans on doing TT. There would be no point.

L8APEX

we forgot that we need to have a moment of silence for the one casualty we had this past weekend...



our beloved EZ-Up was lost to the Kudzu jungle, thanks to some wind gusts.

OnRails

I got the best video I've ever gotten quality wise with the TracMount. And I'm not just saying that. You have got to sell me one of those things! I haven't had a chance to edit the video yet because I'm still recovering and trying to catch up at work but I will soon.

SilverEIGHT

OK, I think we have it down to just hardware now. I really want to see your vids to make sure before I nail it.

TrackAddict

You can use the alternate method. Means you can remove weight up until the base weight for your car (3045 lbs with driver at tech). I was 80 lbs over that when I had to be teched coming off the track.

L8APEX

ah, ok. i was gonna say, we don't save that much weight by taking them out. too many rules.

Stop&TurnFreak

Be careful,you keep doing good with the RX, and they will reclass it. I had it go the other way, I would have had to compete with TTA with my Evo last year, but this year, even with all my mods, I would have still been TTB.