Lots of stuff going on in my racing world.  Our LeMons team (Chicken and Waffles) has been accepted to the April running of LeMons at Gingerman Raceway in scenic South Haven Michigan.  Work is underway on the 1987 Quantum Syncro to get it into battle shape.

Also this past weekend I got my first taste of ice racing with the Furrin Group at Turk Lake, north of Grand Rapids.  This was an incredible exercise in car control or, in my case, lack there of.  I managed to spin out on every lap and throw down some very slow times.  I managed to get one good run put together that had my spin come up that lap as i was coming across the finish line.  That run earned me a third place in the RWD class.

It was a really fun time and I hope that I get to make another round of racing before the ice melts.

Pictures and results from ice racing will be on www.furrin.org soon!

The Lemons schedule for 2010 was released and there are quite a few races that we plan to hit next year.  The Fiero is gone, what should we drive next?

A great Lemons write up by team member and Automobile Senior Web Editor Phil Floraday

http://blogs.automobilemag.com/6581210/motorsports/the-lamest-day/index.html

Phil writes a fantastic blog for Automobile, bookmark it and check back often!

In other news, I am going to miss the season closer for the Furrin Group autocrosses due to deer camp.  I'm looking forward to trying ice racing and seeing if these Hakka's are as great as I recall.

Hello Race Fans!  It's been a while since I've updated.  I may finish the DDC write up, I may not, but here is a racing update from me.

I've done some auto crossing this summer and managed a few class wins with the Furrin Group (www.furrin.org)  They put on great events and I recommend racing with them in West Michigan.

October 2, 3 and 4 was the Nelson Ledges running of the 24hrs of Lemons.

I attended with a few friends and this fine ride.  After a number of mechanical and electronic difficulties through the afternoon, night and morning, Team #89 finished a strong 70th.  I think that with another 24hrs we would have been able to move up in the standings another 30 places.

Tuesday April 17

Competition Day #3, we arrived at the rail station in Narbonne, then traveled by coach to the section of the station where they unloaded the cars. We stood around and waited for a while.
As you can see, it was another fantastic morning. There was a cool breeze, but the sun was warm. After we got through the gate to the train yard, we walked over to the car hauler and pulled the car off. While waiting for our turn, I spotted this thing:
It's a bike that was converted to use car tires and has a sealed side car. It was really an interesting bike.
We packed back into the car, fired up the GPS, consulted the route book and headed out of town.

It was about an hour ride and then we arrived at the track. And I can tell you this: Dunlop found some prime property for their track. The map below shows how close the track is to the sea. It's in the upper left of your screen.


Click this link to explore the area on Google Maps.



Not a bad place to be for those who work there everyday. And certainly a great place to spend a day playing with cars in the Mediterranean sun.
Here we are unpacking just after arriving.



It's really easy to find our car in the sea of silver and gray cars.


Next up was lunch time!

Here, you can see some of our wonderful Dunlop hosts having lunch with us. They sure do know good food.





Check out this desert table!

It's got one of my all time favorites, creme brulee.

After lunch, we took some time for our food to settle and looked around. The pictures that follow, can not even start to do justice to the beauty ofthe country side, sea and even the track.


Just off of the proving grounds there were, what appeared to be, vineyards. I am not sure if they were connected to specific wineries or just sold their stock, but I am sure that it is delicious.

This was between us and the sea.

You can see the same view, in a wider angle.




The steeple is in the center of the frame, between the flag poles..



Back to business, we suited up and got more information about the events for the day. We were going to split up into three groups for the first part of the afternoon: a lead and follow group to get familiarized with the big track, a session of wet handling and time at the drag strip. No word on the competition portion yet, just that it would involve the big track.








My group went out on the track first and did a number of laps rotating through the group. The track was pretty exciting. There is a pretty long front straight that goes into a tight right and into a downhill that was broken up by a cone chicane and then into another right. Then flat on the gas until braking for the hard left into a right then hard on the gas, braking for a right at the end of the straight and then track wide through the left into another left and then back right to get setup for another uphill slight left into a right holding
the gas wide open for a run down the front straight. All told, from standing start to standing stop it was about 110 - 115 seconds of adrenaline rush. We did a few laps and then switched drivers, then did a few more laps.


Next we went out to the the wet handling course and drove with the traction control turned on through a precision handling course covered in water.
All the drivers did several laps, finding the limits that the vehicle stability control, traction control and ABS would let us get to. It was a lot of fun. The safety systems kept the cars running pretty straight and true.

Then it was time to turn the TCS and VSC off and have a little fun around the long sweeper...

By looking at the car number, I think that one of the instructors was driving the above car. Everyone loved this exercise, but had varying levels of success.

I got one good slide in...











And for the the rest I either had too fast of a vehicle speed to rotate the car or I was too slow to counter steer and ended up spinning out.




(Like So)

Ralf is on the radio letting me know that I should be a touch faster next time. Or something close to that.




After play time, we went over to the drag strip for our race there. When we arrived the format was explained to us. It would be heads up racing, starting with the two partners going against each other and then moving on from there. It was different from a traditional drag race in that we would start from a roll. The timer would start when the starter dropped the flags...













And then ended when the flags came down at the finish.

It was supposed to be scored in a bracket fashon, so as each pair of racers competed, the winner would advance to the next round until there was only one racer that was undefeated and the scoring would run down the list. However, due to some unforeseen problems, what actually happened is that each teams time from their final round was used and we were ranked that way. It was a little confusing at the time, but in the end, it all worked out.






After the drag strip, it was back up to the pit area to find out about the scoring opportunity known as the Mireval Masters.














This event consisted of a standing start, then one lap as quick as you could then coming to a very fast stop inside of a cone gate. If your car stopped outside of the box (either not far enough into or too far past) you had to move your car until it was in the box and then the clock stopped. It sounds pretty simple but I would guess that we were braking from about 170kph into a box that was only slightly longer than the car.














The final team score would be tabulated by adding both team members times together and the lowest overall time team time is the winner. There would be more than one car on the track at a time, but we were sent off at relatively long intervals so that you were really only racing the clock.





Egon and I hopped in Goldie and took another lap of the track as a group and then lined up at the grid. We decided that I would run first.






Back into the car and then wait for my turn to come up at the start line. The start looked like this.









We got a count down...



Three...











Two...












One...















GO!







And the finish, like this:



So not only did you have to stop in a very short box, but you had to do it in front of a crowd that was sure to heckle if you missed the mark.









I had a run that was not fantastic. I really had a hard time with the section in this picture, I came in way too fast and scrubbed off too much speed before heading up the hill. I knew it was bad when I did it, but at that point there was nothing more to be done, but drive the rest of it like the wind!







After I got back Egon got in and was ready to go. With Mr. Bouncy as co-pilot, Egon gives the thumbs up and storms to a really quick lap.















As with all of the competition events the scores were tabulated and then checked again and given to us over dinner. This meant that it was time to pack up and go after a quick tire inspection. It was determined during the tire inspection that a number of the teams needed new fronts after two very hard 2-driver track days. We were one of the teams that got new fronts, so we spent some time changing them in the pit area.



Manfred, Frank and Lee are enjoying the afternoon sun















As we were finishing up with our tire change, the media crew came up to the Clark(e) brothers, Egon and I and asked if we would be interested in do a photo shoot on the track. Of course we said yes! We spent about another 35 minutes on the track and the photographers got some fantastic shots of the two cars dicing it up.










That was some of most fun we had all day and when it was over, we got a splash of fuel and it was back on the road.

We did hit a little bit of traffic.














Everyone survived the French roundabouts during peak traffic hours.














We were also treated to spectacular colors as the sun set.




After some tricky navigating through Cap d'Agde we arrived at the Hotel du Golfe and checked in.


We sat down to a very tasty dinner that started off with this delicious salad





Being on coast, fish was a big part of dinner.






There was a really cool wine room adjacent to the dinning room. We sampled some fine French wines and waited for the results.








With the competition being so tight after day #1, we were all very anxious to hear the results.




First we got the Drag Strip results where we placed a slightly disappointing 7th. The drag race turned into a strategy game and we had a bad plan. We were still in the hunt, but would really have to step up our game to stay in the top 5.




Next came the Mireval Masters results. Thanks to Egon's seriously quick lap we took a very respectable 3rd. It was too early to really tell, but it looked like it was going to be a very hard fought race all the way down the down the line.

Team USA I was leading with 670 points, followed closely by team Netherlands at 650, team USA II at 620 and then USA III at 570 and rounding out the top 5 was team Germany at 530pts.









As soon as the results were posted, all of the teams began to pour over them and make a plan for tomorrow at the off road trials.




At this point we also started the new tradition of putting a sticker on the car of that days winner. Here you can see Erik and Erik celebrating their victory at Mireval.
After dinner and some general socializing it was time to head to the room and get ready for our trip into Spain and the Off Road trial section.



Until next time, when Egon says "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain!"

Monday April 16th, 2007

After a good nights sleep at the Motodrom Hotel at Hockenhiem Ring in Stuttgart Germany it was up and to the track for running and stretching in preparation for both our long day attacking the 'ring and for the upcoming running and biking competition in Spain.




We took a short walk under the track and ended
up just inside pit lane.






We took some time and warmed up in the pits area. After some brisk walking and light running, we were sent out on the ring to do a lap and get our heart rates up to the Polar OwnZone to give everyone a taste of what it was to come in Spain.


It was a beautiful Spring morning, there was a little mist on the track that made the experience of running on a F1 track even more surreal. It quickly burned off and we had a clear track.

As we ran up the parabolic straight, i got to thinking about how fast we were going to get going at the end. Let me tell you, I couldn't have really been ready for how fast it was.

Here is our fearless leader Silvana in an easy gate enjoying the morning.



She makes it look easy, while the rest of us are out there chugging along.





After our warm up run, it was time to circle up the group and do some stretching.



If you look at the picture, you can see that somebody was really confidant in their driving skills and was out doing dough nuts before we got there. I wonder if there were any pit lane penalties handed out for that stunt.






After the run we were comparing what our watches were showing for our heat rates, I think that there was a problem with Lee's watch

... (mine is red, his is gray)



Next up was a tasty breakfast buffet of all the tasty German goodness. I'm not really sure why these guys look so serious, it's all in good fun, right?

After a quick shower, we emptied out of our rooms, packed up the cars and moved the show into the infield of the track for a quick briefing where we got to hear about the days activities.

So they talked...













and we listened...







We were told that in the morning session we would do some reconnaissance laps in a lead and follow format and that the Rookie group (the Americans) would have to take a few low speed runs at the hairpin turn at the end of the famed parabolic striaght.

We all lined up and Ralf stood in the infield just before the corner and gave us pointers about braking points and turn in.














The Dunlop Sport MAXX tires gripped pretty well and helped show off that the 350's were still setup with comfort in mind.




Can you say body roll? I'm not sure if it was Egon or I that was driving, but I know that whoever it was should have been off the brakes by that point. That is why we test, right?






There was a quick briefing about things to watch for at full speed and then it was back to the pits.













After the time spent at the hairpin, we each did a few full laps of a lead and follow exercise to familiarize ourselves with this famous course. We then parked the cars and went in for a fantastic lunch buffet.

After carb-loading at lunch we met in the Baden-Wurttemberg Center for a drivers meeting.














Dunlop ran the event with stereotypical German efficiency, so we signed in for all of our drivers meetings and were penalized for being late.













After everyone had assembled, we had our drivers meeting. We learned that we would be scored, not on lap speed, but on how well we drove. Specifically, we were scored on cornering execution, braking and accelerating. The driving instructors would be placed at key (but unknown to us) points on the track to watch and evaluate our driving. The scoring on this event would not involve any timing equipment and would be totally subjective.

After the meeting, it was back to the garage to have another look at the course map, devise a plan and get ready to ride!







What's that I see ahead?

Ah yes, it looks like victory!








We took one warm up lap and then it was time to grid for the start of the judging.
We went into grid in the order that we finished the carting race the day before and Manfred started us, two cars at a time by waving the German flag.


All lined up and ready to rock and roll!











We had a pretty long session to prove our skill and as time went, the group spread out and you got to concentrate on cutting the perfect corner after hitting the braking marker exactly.










We went in two groups, I went first and then Egon loaded in the car and headed out to the grid.













Is that the look of a guy who is ready to do battle, or what!


Egon took off like a mad man and looked great.





Only time would tell what the judges thought.



Here, trusty #14 charges through the famed Motordrom







After the second group ran, we gathered up again to hear the results and opinions of our fearless leaders.


There was good news to be had! The instructors said that they were pleased with the group as a whole and shocked to announce that the "rookie" Americans had tied for first and taken fifth!





Needless to say that we were all surprised to see how well we had stacked up against this group of international talent and were curious to see how things would go as the competition progressed.









At the end of the day, this is how things looked. It was a strong start for the Americans as a whole, but it a very long competition and anything can happen. Egon and I were happy with our finish, but hoped to move up at some point. After all, just being top 5 in a field this deep is an honor.







We got into a group again and took a photo to commemorate the successful finish of the first full competition day.



That's a great looking group of people, don't you think?








After the photo opportunity, it was time again, to pack into the Z350's and head down the road to Stuttgart and load onto the train for the overnight trip to France and the Dunlop test facility at Mireval .

Till next time, keep it on track!