I was cleaning up my office today and found this old picture my buddy Derek shot back during my first weekend racing my RX7. It was in August 1997 and I was trying to get the wipers working as the car had been sitting for a while and the motor and mechanism was a bit stiff. It was starting to rain and I felt like I needed wipers to do 1:45's on hockey puck Firestone Firehawks. The car ran like crap as I didn't know anything about TPS adjustments and there was nobody to turn to as I was the only guy in Ontario Region racing an RX7 that year.

Whats funny is that after that race, the next weekend I went down to Michigan International Speedway to test a couple of Sprint Cup cars. Hard to believe it will be 15 years this summer.....

That got me thinking about all the cars that I have raced since 1982. A freakin' ton of them at tracks all over North America. There have been a wide variety of them from 100 HP FWD Suzuki's (in the mid 90's I was a master Suzuki - wan racing with a Factory Team, LOL) to ex- World Challenge cars to 700 hp Monster Cobra R's and Cup cars. If there is any interest, I will try to dig up shots and start posting them.

Eric

 

Great shots. I'd love to see more, and hear some of the stories.

 

+1 ^

 

Let me start with my favorite RX7 Racing Story. It was in the 1999 SCCA/CASC Race on Labour Day Weekend. You have to keep in mind that in Ontario we run to a funky Bracket Racing set of rules. So I decided to enter both the Ontario Challenge Race and the GT Race in GT3 for the Ontario Challenge and GTC for the Sprints. It was super hot, well over 33 degrees on Saturday when I went out to qualify. The break out time for both classes was a 1:42.00 and that was pretty hard to get to as my motor was still the stock S4 NA Motor and had about 172,000 kms on it.

We went out for the Sprint Qualifying and I drove the car as hard as I could. I was watching Dave who is my long suffering Crew Chief, Race Engineer and good buddy and a couple of times he was jumping up and down on the wall so I knew I was close. After the session Dave told me that he thought we had broken out, so I was pissed and resigned myself to start at the rear of the pack.

We then went out for the Ontario GT Qualifying and again I drove the car really hard. In this race we could win money if we placed in the Top 10 Overall, so everyone was giving it everything they had. So again I saw Dave jumping up and down and after the session when I pulled in he said that we were close again, but he thought we were okay. I was shocked as the motor was sooo tired that half the time we had to tickle it into life and it had no torque at all.

So when the times came out we were both flat out gob smacked that I had the car on the Class Pole for both Races. In GTD, we had put in a 1:42.013 and in GT3 we had put in a 1:42.009. Talk about consistent, LOL. So we ran in the 3 GTC races and afterwards, low and behold we finished 1st in Class. Got a great trophy and felt all warm and bubbly. The races were tough with lots of brake lights and breakouts, but we just drove the car hard and won the darn thing.

The Ontario Challenge Race was something different. The race was 1 hour long. It was 32 degrees C at the start. There were 42 cars in the race and being on Pole for GT3 put me in 16th place. I had about 12 cars in class to beat for a trophy and 6 GT2 cars to pass for money and still not break out. Weellll, the race was very very hard. I pushed the old pig as hard as I could, lots of effort and a couple of times Dave told me I had broken out as the pack I was in was a group of about 5 cars going at it tooth and nail.

On the last Lap of the race, I knew I was up a ways further than where I had started. I had let my tires cool down a bit as they had gotten too hot and greasy. Just ahead of me was a white FC RX7 with a monster J-bridge in it (later to become Al's car) and it was sssslooowww in the corners. I got a huge run coming through Turn 2 on the car and let my RX7 float out onto the rumble strips on the exit of Turn 2 at about 170 kmh. The driver of the RX7 saw me coming and stayed to drivers right to force me to go around him on the outside of Turn 3. I knew it was a no go so I flung my car up the right hand side of him and put the 2 inside tires into the dirt on the entrance, slung the car a bit sideways and passed him. He had way more jam than me so I needed to stretch out the the lead a bit if I could. I took Turn 4 flat in 4th, stood on the brakes on the inside of 5a, went down to second and got a monster pull out of the corner. I looked in my rearview and he was about 6 lengths back. I thought, man I may be able to hold him off, then WHAAAAAAAAAA the Jport just blew past me as I was pulling 4th gear at the first flat.

I was like, awwww FREAK (actually a stronger word) than that and watched him pull me by about 4 lengths going into Turn 8. I saw him brake really early for 8, so I decided to try to take 8 flat. With just a momentary rear end step out mid corner, I had caught him at the exit of 8 with a ton more momentum. I pinched the car to the inside of 9, carried the front wheel in the air over the apex curbing and passed him again. A good turn 10 and shamelessly making my car 10 feet wide down the front straight, I held him off. Great race and great fun.

As soon as I lifted, the adrenaline ended and all of a sudden I felt the heat and got all woozy and stuff. I tried to keep the air flowing through the car on the cool off lap and pulled in to the pits. Dave was yelling at me that we had got 3rd place and I was what, I thought we had broken out, but he seemed certain. I felt so bad that I didn't want to stop so I drove straight back to our pit area and shut the car off. I was so sick and dizzy that I couldn't even pull myself out of the car. The SCCA Team beside us saw how bad I was and came over and pulled me out of the car. I just laid on the grass and tried not to throw up in my helmet. The SCCA guys threw some cold water on me and I started to cool off and felt a bit better. By this time Dave had made it down to me and told me that the final results had been posted and he had stayed to get the official paper.

Turns out that I had finished 3rd in GT3, had pulled off a 1:42.001 (yes really) on the last lap and the other FC that I had passed had put me into 10th place, so I won $200. Just a great race and one where I gave it everything I had. What is even better, is that I have it all on tape and I get to watch it whenever I want to pump myself up.

Attached is a picture of the car from that race.

Eric

 

A pic?? post the video!! lol

 

I want to see this video. Please find a way to get it online. AWESOME story!

 

Found the link to the video.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...4121760373243#

I am sorry for the quality, but this is a transfer from an old Hi8 machine to my computor about 6 years ago. The footage in question starts a minute in and goes for the rest of the video. Its all from the one race. You can see the cut and thrust of the leading cars in class and I was stunned to find out I finished 3rd. A couple of the cars in front "broke out" in the last couple of laps.

Enjoy.

Eric

 

Thank you. That was awesome to watch. Sounded like a swarm of pissed off bees for 7 minutes straight but was worth it.

 

Hey I saw my car in your vid from the old days, i recognized the rear spoiler lol

 

Yep, thats your car from the 1999 - 2000 period. Amazing that even now you go past me about that fast, LOL. We are just going about 5 to 6 seconds a lap faster.

I still have about 2 hours of in-car from the Suzuki showing the back end of your car going around Mosport, MT. Tremblant, the GP Circuit in Montreal and the Toronto Indy Circuit from when it was a Firehawk car owned by Richard Kamihara. It seemed like I followed that car for hours around racetracks all over Canada, LOL. Even though it was a class higher than us, our laptimes were almost identical.

Oh man I have great stories, both good and bad from the Firehawk and Michelin Enduroseries days........

Eric

 

I guess these were the good days!!!! Man I wish I could've gotten a chance to see you guys rip it on the track...

 

Then you should have come out to the BEMC Indian Summer Trophy Races last September. Al and I started at the back of the grid and made our way to the front. I then started to detonate a ton and had to back off a lot and Al continued up to the front.

We are both still racing the cars, though I am not doing more than 3 or 4 races a year now due to real life commitments, Al is still running a fair bit. I am planning on doing a number of GT Challenge races with the RX7 this year, if the detonation is finally, FINALLY, cured, so you can see my car then. I like the 1 hour format as you get to set the whole race up and spend some time passing cars that are close in speed.

Eric

 

Hehe, will do! Going to uni right around the tracks, so me and my vert, tii, or hopefully my possibly new super fc will definitely come by and watch!!

 

From 2001 to 2007 I had the privilage of racing one of Ford's factory Race Cars for a Dealership Team based in Vancouver. It was the Race Cobra R and one of only 2 that were actually raced. The rest of the 100 cars went to collectors and track day guys that beat on them pretty well. This car was rated at 385 HP and torque at 6250 rpm. Kinda a low figure when the car would rev to almost 8,000 rpm. and had all kinds of super trick stuff on it. My buddy Tim bought a couple and proceeded to absolutely trick out one of them as a full on Trans Am car based on a factory tub. The engine was totally rebuilt with higher compression, new cams, headwork, new crank and rods, intake manifold, custom built long tube headers and mapped to within an inch of its life. In the final version, the car was making in the low 600's whp. A very fast car.

The whole suspension had been changed with a complete Kenny Brown developed sub-frame and control arm setup. The shocks were Koni double adjustable race shocks and a number of the body panels had been replaced with carbon panels to lighten it. Needless to say it was a rare car and cover featured in a number of Mustang and Ford based magazines. Every time I drove it, I was cognizant of the fact that the car was a one-off rare beast and more than likely worth what a house was worth. Every time I flew in to drive the car, it was different. One time the car would have a different seating position (12 inches further back), or World Challenge Crawford CArbon Wings on it, different wheelbase 4 inches further forward, a sequential G-Force gearbox, different slick and tire sizes (the car ended up running on the same tires as the ALMS Corvette Team). Needless to say, it was a learning experience and I never got any time in the car to learn it before the race. I just had to jump in it and go, sometimes in the middle of the race at a drivers change. I can remember one time as I pulled out of the pits, I called the crew chief and asked what the shift pattern was, LOL.

Anyways, back in 2002, when the car was in a lower state of tune, I was invited to come out and drive the car in the ICSCC 8 Hour Season Ending Enduro at Portland Raceway. This track used the whole front straight from the NHRA legal dragstrip. We were pulling well over 150 mph out of the car going into the braking zone in Turn 1. All the Kenny Brown stuff had been just added to the car. We had also just gone to a wider and softer Dunlop Slick as compared to the earlier version Goodyears. I was lucky and got 4 laps of practice in the car and just got a chance to figure out where the switches all were before I had to come in. I was going to be the 3rd Driver who had to do the last 2 1/2 to 3 hours from dusk, into the night and finally finish the race. For some reason, I am very quick at night and have had a lot of night racing because of this. So, when my turn came to get into the car, I was told that the brakes, tires and car was good. We had dealt with a few brake issues, so the car had dropped back to about 12th and I was told to "Giv' Er".

I stormed out of the pits and started trying to learn the way the car wanted to go around the track. I had been given a red line of 7,000 rpm and the brake bias had been adjusted, so I was to leave that alone. As I picked up the pace it was great fun just hammering past the slower cars. The car sounded absolutely fantastic and loved how the exhaust echoed off the dragstrip walls when I wailed down the front straight. As night fell, a lot of cars were going slower, but I was picking up the pace as I tried to close the gap on the leaders. I was passing cars on the straights, into the corners, outside of them on the corners, LOL, I was passing maybe a dozen cars a lap. I truly had no idea where I was on the track.

With about 20 minutes to go, I needed a quick splash and dash to make the finish. I came in and as the crew was loading the fuel and changing the tires to a new set, the team owner came on the radio and told me that we were up to 3rd overall and I could go to 7,500 rpm. He also yelled an obscenity at me" You Da' $%#ing Man", but I won't repeat that here. So the car came down off the jacks and I hammered out looking to do my best for the team. I knew that I had a possibility of catching the second place Porsche 911 GT2, but that 1st was way too far gone. I started really pushing hard and brought my lap times down to very close to the fastest lap that the car had ever done. I was taking all kinds of stupid chances like cutting inside of other cars as they went up onto the apex curbing at the end of the straights. Big huge power slides onto the front straight in 3rd gear at over 100 mph, all kinds of stupid stuff.

With about 10 inutes to go, I was within 3 seconds of second place and lapping about 4 seconds a lap faster, when as I hit the braking zone into Turn 1, at night, at about 140 mph, with stock headlights, I pounded the brakes and the car snapped hard right. When I say snapped, I mean that I had to go to full lock to catch it. It swung hard left, then right then left. I was sawing at the wheel as hard as I could, all the while thinking DON'T CRASH THE CAR. I luckily gathered it up on the outside of Turn 1 and then at a much reduced rate of speed drove back to the pits. I radioed the crew and said that I thought a tire had gone down, or an oil line had popped or it had started raining, but every time I got on the throttle, even a little, the car would slew all over. When I pulled into the pits, the crew guys said that all the tires were good and to go back out, but the owner said to jack up the car and make sure. They jacked up the drivers side and everything was okay. They dropped me then jacked up the passenger side and the rear wheel flopped over. It seems that the upper control arm had snapped under the pressure. They dropped me down and I waited until the checker fell and idled around the track to finish the race.

Later that night, the owner said to me that I was lucky that it had popped where it did. I had lots of room to gather it up. If the arm had broken under cornering load, I more than likely would have rolled the car at over 100 mph. I went a little blank at that and realized I was really lucky.

So, we finished 9th overall and 8th in class. The car was sorta in 1 piece and I didn't flip the car and get killed. All in all another day of racing.

Eric

 

Seeing as you guys like video, here is some from a race a few years ago at the track in Seattle, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utV6t...feature=relmfu

And here is some more;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfeZn...ture=endscreen


Eric

 

Great Videos! I am enjoying this thread a lot.. keep the stories coming Eric

 

I always love reading your race stories!

Thanks for posting them.


I think I have (or had) a 1/64th scale version of the #8 baby ruth winston cup car.

 

I had this all typed out, then I was time frozen out by the site and lost it, GRRRRRR.

Anyways, my first Pro Race. I was very fortunate starting Car Racing. I had won the ASN-FIA National Class Karting title the year before, so I was able to jump straight to a Pro- International License. My karting team owner (and boss) had a hankering to move into cars, so we did some hunting around and found that Suzuki Canada wanted to show the capabilities of their Swift GTI model and they offered us 2 cars. NTN Bearings, Litens Automotive and our other sponsors came on board and we ended up with 2 cars, a new Dodge Dakota Pickup with a 24 foot enclosed trailer and enough money to do the year with nothing coming out of my pocket. I enlisted a buddy of mine out of Vancouver who had Formula Atlantic, Trans Am, GM Players and Honda Michelin experince to by my co-driver and we entered the thriving Firestone Firehawk Series.

This series was big stuff and had all their races broadcast on TSN, they attended all the big events and had race lengths ranging from 1 hour to 24 hours in length. It was a great series and I was very excited. Suzuki worked with us by giving us all kinds of trick parts for the cars and a fair amount of spares. My involvement in the auto industry gave us the rest and we got the cars prepped and ready to race. My actual first race was a Regional at Mosport and we did okay and learned some about the car. The big issue was that the car only had 100 hp stock and the series was for Showroom Stock cars, so we were a decided horsepower underdog. Some of the other cars in my class had 180 hp so we needed all the car and drivers could give. We were going to have to beat on that car for every second of every lap.

The first race weekend was a 2 hour during the Victoria Day Trans Am Weekend at Mosport. We decided that Derek was going to start the race as he had started Pro races before. I was going to watch from the sidelines until the fuel stop then we were going to switch. When the cars were being rolled out onto the front straight for the TV Shoot, a crew guy from Multimatic ran up and asked my team owner if they could borrow me for a bit. It seems that Scott Maxwell, who drove their all aluminum Taurus development car had gone missing. I was like, GULP, I had never even started a race before and now I was going to start the race in a car I had never driven before from the second row with about 60 cars behind me...... Fortunately as I was getting dressed and standing beside the car, Scott ran up. It seems that somebody had locked him in the Bathroom, LOL.

The race started and Derek was driving well. He had passed a couple of cars, then after about 5 laps he called in and said that there were a ton of gas fumes in the car. After about 15 minutes he said that he was feeling sick and that he was coming in. The crew refueled the car and I jumped in all **** and vinegar. I pulled out onto the track and went at it. The crew chief called me and said that the car had taken about 3/4's of a tank. I was like WHAAAA???? We should be able to go about 90 minutes on a tank, then promptly forgot about it as I was in a heated race with a certain Blue RX7, that later turned into Al Balinsky's beast. It was the start of a season long adventure following that car. About 15 minutes in, the gas fumes were very bad. I called in and let them know. About 25 minutes, I was holding my hand out the window to collect fresh air so that I could breath. At the 30 minute mark the car started to hiccup. I called in and said that I was going to come in as we needed gas, I was feeling sick and to get Derek ready. They said no can do as Derek was at the First Aid Center.

I pulled in and they refueled the car, opened the doors and blew air into the car from the air tanks. The team owner told me that Suzuki Canada people were at the race and that we needed to do well, so get back out there. I grabbed some clean air and thought that as the car could only do about 30 minutes a tank while it was spraying gas out the overflow, I would be able to change in another half hour. I pulled back on to the track and started racing again.

(GROSS ALERT!!!!!!)

About 15 minutes later, I noticed liquid sloshing around in the passenger side footwell. I looked at it closely and realized that it was gas, GAS, GAS !!!!!!! I must have been a bit wrecked on the fumes at that point as all I did was turn on the blower fan to dry it up. I was totally sick and started tossing my cookies up into my mouth a bit. The issue was that I was wearing a full face helmet and a head sock and it had nowhere to go, so I had to swallow it back down. This happened about 3 or 4 times further then the car started hiccuping again and I called in to get Derek ready as I was done.

The crew chief told me that, Derek was unavailable as he was totally throwing up back at the Motor Home. I was like, OH YEAH, I'M FREAKIN PUKING IN MY HELMET! But I had to stay in the car as we only had about 20 minutes to go. I come in, they refuel me and out I go again. By this time I am just lapping about 5 seconds off of our best pace. It is everything I had to stay in the car. When any car came up behind me, I would pull over and let them by. I was totally done. Then I was told 10 minutes as I came down the front straight. As I pulled into Turn 1, I moved all the way to the left to allow a group of faster cars go by. I got tagged in the passenger side rear quarter by another car and spun sideways in the track. In a FWD car, to pull out of a skid, you turn the front wheels in the direction you want to go and floor it. In this case I was already floored and there was nothing left. I slid around the corner sideways and hammered the inside concrete wall at the exit of Turn 1 at about 60 -70 mph, head on. The car bounced and spun backwards out on to the track in a cloud of dust. I was a bit dazed and saw these dark shapes flowing past me in the dust cloud. It took me a second for it all to come back into focus. I was facing uptrack in the middle of a dust cloud in Turn 1. I tried to start the car and it started. I found reverse and the car backed off the track with no fuss. I thought about driving it back to the pits as the hood was all puffed up in front of me, so I put it into 1st gear and pulled back onto the track. I wiggled the car a bit and nothing rattled, vibrated or shook. Hmmmmm.... second and thrird were the same. All the gauges were normal and I looked in the mirrors ( the center mirror had fallen off from the impact) and I wasn't trailing anything. So by the time I got to the backstraight I was up to full speed again. I came by the pits and the crew chief said that the car looked like apug, but there wasn't anything leaking and we only had 5 minutes left, so go for it.

I ended up doing our fastest race lap 2 laps later.

After the race, I found out that we had finished 12th out of 22 cars, not bad for 2 extra stops and a crash and spraying gas everywhere out of our overflow tube. When I had hit the wall, chunks of concrete had flown into the grandstand and people had got peppered with it, LOL. I had made the end of the race. I could taste gasoline for about 2 weeks after the race every time I burped, but the scariest thing was still to come. I had to stay and help load everything up. As well I was feeling like crap as the gas fumes had made me sick as a dog with a major headache. I also had to tow back to the shop and drop everthing off. Al had come out to the race and later that night had called my wife to ask how I was. Remember that this was before cell phones. He told her that the last he had seen of me was that I had hit the concrete wall in Turn 1 and he had no idea what shape I was in. Needless to say that I had a very excited wife to come home to later that evening. Also, the race car finally had a nickname, "Spewie".

There it is, my first Pro Race. I doubt that any body else could have that much stuff happen in theirs.

Until later.

Eric

 

Eric, these stories are awesome. Keep them coming.

My minor track exploits seem so pitiful. We are truly not worthy.

 

That first video, looked like you were making up some serious ground at corner 5!

 

I always have been able to do that with the RX7. The car is a monster braker and I do take a slightly different line into the corner. What is interesting is that I have always run the stock 4 Lug single piston caliper and rotor with Hawk Blues and some decent air ducting. It has always worked for me at Mosport, while at Shannonville I can turn the brakes into crispy critters pretty quickly when I try hard. I even still run the unvented rear rotor, LOL. I like just enough brakes and not too much.

Eric

 

For my next story, I am going to let you guys decide. Choose between the following:

1) NASA Thunderhill - involves night driving, Porta Potties and monster tows
2) Michelin EnduroSeries - involves great Montreal dining, *****, monster crash
3) Firehawk - involves GP Support Race, looking for a bathroom, car protest and great pass
4) EMRA Shannonville - huge battle, RX7's and Vanderbuilt Trophy
5) CTCC ALMS Race - great Qualifying, huge mistake, monster fast race
6) CTCC NASCAR Support Race - Flat out great race

I honestly have tons of stories involving cars all over the U.S. and Canada. I just don't want to be boring and drone on and on about stuff nobody cares about but me.

Eric

 

I'd read them all :P

 

I'd read them all as well.

 

Well, I guess we will start with Number 1. I am actually enjoying writing these down as I remember all kinds of details about these fun times.

So my buddy Tim asks me if I would be interested in racing his new 2000 Cobra R at the NASA 12 Hours of Thunderhill. The car was brand new and nobody had even seen it on track yet in the U.S. and there was tons of buzz about it. I said something like, HELL YES!!!! and we started to figure out how to put this all together from Vancouver to race at Thunderhill in December. At that time, I was travelling to Vancouver almost monthly, so it was easy to help them get ready for the event. This was also before my son was born, so I had no guilts about being away a ton.

Tim also brought on another friend Tony, who had won a number of Formula Ford Championships and was the last Western Canadian Honda Michelin Champion, so we knew that we had a good driver mix as Tim is just flat out bullet fast in higher horsepower cars. We figured out that we needed a crew of about 4 or 5 guys, plus drivers to pull this off, so we ended up with a bunch of friends to do the refueling, tire changing and at track prep. I contacted NASA and entered us into the race. I booked hotel rooms in Willows California and then flew out to Vancouver to help them get the car ready.

It was super cool, this was a BIG EFFORT. We loaded the car into the trailer and finished packing alll the stuff we thought we would need. The next morning we set off to Thunderhill in a convoy of an F350 dually Crewcab towing a 28' trailer, a V10 Excursion and a regular F250 loaded with the pit stuff. We crossed the border with some hastles, but we were on our way. I was monster excited as I had never raced at Thunderhill as it was a very new track at that time. The grid was oversubscribed with cars and of course we were over confident and thought that we were going to kick butt.

I know that none of you have ever driven with Tim when he is towing, but it is usually very exciting. As an example, we had crossed into California just over an hour before. It was late in the day and we had been traveling for about 10 hours. I was in the passenger front seat and I dozed off. I sorta started to wake up and I felt this rythmic surging, something like an RRRRRrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrRRRRRrrrrr and I felt pretty strong g forces. I cracked one eye open and looked at Tim. He was all hunched over the steering wheel and it was twisting back and forth. I woke up quickly and realized that the noise was from the truck at the speed limiter (100 mph!) and that the truck was drifting around a hugely long turn around Mount Shasta. I looked in the mirror and the trailer was hanging out in a drift in the other lane. Tim had a huge grin on his face and I looked and the 2 guys in the back seat were totally frozen and hanging on for dear life. Of course we made it out of that drift, but Tim always had a problem with his trailer tires blowing sidewalls and I finally understood why, LOL. We did stop at the Wal Mart in Willows and it was like a party. It seemed like everyone in town was there. I remember that they were having a sale on rifle bullets and there was a crowd 4 deep around the counter, LOL.

Anyways to the race. We get to the track and unload, then go to the hotel to crash. The next morning we show up at registration and its all a shambles. It seems that there had been even more entries at the last minute and everyone was over whelmed. I waited in a couple of lines and someone gave my a pit slot and a number and said, GO! I asked about scrutineering and teching our fuel rigs and even having someone look at the driver's Race Licenses and they said that someone would be by later. They never showed up and we ran the event without ever meeting a tech person, LOL. Time went out in the car first. None of us had ever driven at Thunderhill and we had no idea what a fast time was. Tim drove the car hard shaking it down and set a time at 2:01 and change. Remember that at this time the car was a basically stock Cobra R with safety stuff, long tube headers and an alignment. I went out next and really just wanted to learn the car and track. I can honestly say that it was all a bit much and overwhelming as the track just didn't seem to flow for me and it was all starts and stops, blind corners and way to much thinking about what was going on. I was only just in the 2:07's. Somedays are like this and I knew that I needed to walk away from the car, let the other guys practice in it and I would get back in later.

I went for a walk, laid down and reviewed what was going on with the car and track in my head. When I am racing, I usually take some time and joke with the crew that I am going to go have a nap. I lay down, close my eyes and actually visualize going around the track and mentally pracicing what I am going to do with my hands, feet, controls and car placement. I am usually much better after I do this.

While I had been off meditaiting, Tim had ripped off a God Lap of a 1:58 and change during qualifying and we were 8th out of just over 55 cars. A super great job. Tony had grown a bit more comfortable in the car and had got it down to a 2:04. I had my next session planned for the night practice as, of course, I was going to drive the car at night and bring it home. We were also running the car on these Goodyear slicks that fit on the stock wheels. Both Tony and I thought that they were a bit small and after Tim had put in the monster lap, the tires came in with one of the fronts totally beaten up and the edge almost rounded off. I decided that I would go out on our fall back tires in the night session just to see how fast we could go on BFG KDW's.

For night practice, I realized that all we had were the stock headlights. I had raced the Suzuki for 4 hours in the 24 Hour Mosport Firehawk race with no headlights after a crash, so I was concerned, but not scared as the car had aftermarket 100 watt bulbs in it. It is 8 o'clock in Northern California in December and night practice is starting. The air temps have dropped down into the high 30's and its pitch black. The nearest town was 10 miles away and we were surrounded by fields. There was no moon and little light from the track other than a few headlights and a couple of street lights on the front straight. Being stupid, I wail out of the pits and go for it. I warm up the tires as the KDW's really didn't want to grip well at that temp. As I pulled out of the light bubble near the pits, I realize that I am on low beams. I pull the stock for high beams and the lights don't change. Oh ..... man I can only see about 10 feet in front of the car. I get around to the back side of the track and the tires are gripping finally and I get on it. Thunderhill has a double kink on the back straight that you need to take flat and in this car it was about 120 at this time. I only had 10 feet of light and there were no corner markers and it was dark. I honestly felt like I was playing that old Night Driver Arcade game. Everything would appear out of blackness and I would have to react. Pretty nerve wracking trying to pull it off and not crash this brand new car.

I made it around the lap and my ego wouldn't allow me to pull in and say that it was too dark and I couldn't see, so of course I wailed on the car down the front straight, hit the light bubble, could see for 150 yards, got the car up to about 140 mph then plunged into blackness. I truly couldn't see a thing and as we were one of the fastest cars in a straight line, I was passing cars so I couldn't use their lights to guide me. I knew the first turn was around here somewhere.... turn in, nope pull back, where is it????? There it is, crank the wheel at 100 mph for the corner and made it. I spent the next 20 minutes at night figuring out how I was going to do this and ended up pulling a 2:01 and change out of it before I came in. We were second fastest and just looking forward to a good race as we knew we could do well on race pace.

The next morning the race started. Tim ran the first shift and quickly passed 2 cars and brought us up t 6th. Tony and I were looking at each other and grinning. Tim was doing well and we knew that we could easily go pretty quick and at night we were going to kick butt. After about 20 minutes, tim called to say that he was coming in as he had a front end vibration. The car pulled in and the crew looked at the front and saw that the passenger side front tire was down to the cords on the outer edge and swapped the tires off for new ones. Tim blasted out and went after it again and trying to make up time. He started pulling off consistent 1:57's and Tony and I started getting worried. He was pushing really hard, very early and we were concerned. After about an hour, he pulled in again and was refueled. The front tires were corded again and we needed to swap them again. It seems that the Goodyears weren't holding up at all well and Tony and I knew that we were going to be running on the KDW's for sure.

At the 1 hour and 40 mark, Tim was missing. The announcer said that there had been a hi speed off at the end of the straight behind the pits. Tony decided to run over and see if it was Tim. All the rest of us waited holding our breath. About 10 minutes later the tow truck comes in towing the R Model by the back. They dropped it in our paddock spot and we all rushed back to repair the car. It seems that the rear end had locked on the car going into the braking zone at about 130 mph. Tim had steered the car past the Corner workers stand in a huge slide, spun the car around backwards and had slid right up to the door of a Corner Workers Porta Potty. We never found out if there had been somebody inside, but it was a great place to crap yourself, LOl.

We took the wheels off and tried to turn the rear end. It was locked. The crew chief thought that it was the diff that had seized. so we loaded up the car and went home. Tony and I were very disappointed, but we knew that we were going to have to stretch out a set of KDW's for about 5 hours to finish the race based on the way the Goodyears were wearing out. By this time it was 1 pm and we left the track to start home. We stopped in a roadside truck stop and refueled all the trucks, I bought a Burl Ives Christmas Song CD and Tim said that he was tired and pissed off and would I mind driving. Secretly all the rest of us gave a thank you and we drove home. Yes I drove the rig straight for 14 hours all the way to Vancouver and got in at 5 in the morning. I slept at my Brother In Laws place for a few hours and caught an earlier flight home. The next day Time got to work on the car to find out what had broken in the rear end and it turned out not to be the diff at all, but the heat from the brakes had caused the rear brake disc to fatigue and snap off the hub and lock the rear end. We could have fixed it easily at the track, but we were just to pissed off and tired.

Not all the stories are full of on track stuff. This was one of most memorable events due to all the outside stuff and it was when I learned to visualize my driving.

Eric