5 Tracks in 5 Days to determine who really is the fastest driver/car/team
Buttonwillow Raceway
April 22th, 2004
The Final Shootout at Buttonwillow
The River Card is Turned Up - Who Will Be King?
5 Tracks in 5 Days to determine who really is the fastest
driver/car/team
Autowave is maintaining and tuning the Flamemobile
This is not the "Official OTC" page. It is my "unbiased" (heh) interpretation of the events prior to the Open Track Challenge, and a diary of what happened during the event.
Performance Parts by Comptech USA
So we are cruising along to what looks like a first place victory for overall OTC champ. Our plan is that we both run two sessions each today. We send Erik out the first session, and I'll go out the next one. At our test day a month ago, I ran a string of 1:56's pretty easily with Speedventures.
The Petersen/Kennedy/Kleinhaus S2000 needs a little tape....from a street "incident"
Erik turns a 2:02, 1:55.9, 1:56.x. Looking good. On the next lap, smoke comes up from the NSX! Shit. Erik pulls in, and it looks like the old front tire that we mounted from the bent rim at Sears blew. He comes in....tire has air still, but the entire rim is about 2 inches backwards, rubbing on the fender well. Shit. Suspension piece cracked.
Compliance Pivot Lower Bracket shattered, and Compliance Pivot Assembly tab was
bent
All we needed was one more fast lap.....
We do a quick mental calculation........we are averaging about a 1:58. Dearing and Haney will beat that with the Viper and the WSR car. We still win overall. But if Coffey/Lampe, or anyone else run a string of 1:58's.......we lose, as we come up 5 points short.
As of lunch time, Dearing is looking like he is gonna be King!
We are hunting for parts on the phone, and Wayne is firing up the 360 Modena, ready to do a cannonball run from Huntington Beach to Buttonwillow. Erik is pulling parts off the Flamemobile, trying to identify all the broken parts. Wayne says that he might send his nephew Dana to bring the part down, but I tell him that time is of the essence, and we need that part on the car, with a quickie alignment, by 3:40 p.m. We then need to run at least one fast lap (1:55), or else we could be the bridesmaid this year.
Cobra guys getting car prepped for the final day
11:30 a.m Wayne getting ready to hop on the 405 freeway. Pull over to the right, and let him by!
11:32 a.m. - Oooops. We forgot to make sure that Wayne picked up Honda specific ball joint tool. Back to H.B to borrow the tool from Autowave. Meanwhile, Dearing and I are are doing the "What If" exercise. It looks like this:
Dearing needs the outcome for today's Buttonwillow times to be:
1. Dearing
2. Haney
3. Coffey/Lampe
4. Hayashi/Messley
And then Dearing becomes King. He needs two other teams to be between him and the Flamemobile.
Haney is fast here, but Dearing is convincing his teammate to tone down the WSR
car,
and stay right behind his string of laptimes, but not beat him. I'm
telling Coffey that he and Lampe should just park their 240Z and go home, and
then Erik and I become Kings of the OTC by default, as it looks like no one else
will break out a string of 1:58's.
PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD
Looks like Vesko and Flaherty will win Touring 3
But Coffey and Lampe have only one ambition: To crush the Viper and the Flamemobile at Buttonwillow, and then laugh about it for the next 365 days until the next OTC. They don't give a shit that they have a lock on 3rd overall, and they don't care who wins overall, as mathematically, they can't take 1st or 2nd overall. So they just want to kick our ass at this track. They have their car dialed in real well, and Lampe knows Buttonwillow like the skin on his...oh never mind.
Pulp Racing took 4th over all in 2002. 4th overall in 2003.
Shit....not 2nd place in 2004!
12:10 p.m. - Wayne pulls into the middle divider lane in the street in
front of Autowave. He yells at them to give him the ball joint tool, kinda
like a relay runner. He doesn't want to pull into Autowave, as it is a
pain in the ass to get in and out of their parking lot. Autowave runs the
tool to the middle of street, and gives it to Wayne. With all the Autowave
employees looking at the 360 in the middle of the street, Wayne checks to make
sure it is clear, and then does a Rockford-style U-turn out of Autowave,
smoking the tires all the way down the street.
The Hass/Wilnai RX7 needed an engine swap for Buttonwillow
1:30 p.m. - Erik has the entire left front corner of the Flamemobile taken apart, inspecting the broken pieces, and seeing if anything else is bent or broken.
Erik pulled the left front corner off to inspect and fix
2:15 p.m. - Wayne Arrives in BW (175 miles away from H.B.) Traffic was bad through Los Angeles, or else he woulda been there quicker.
Fedex and UPS suck compared to Modena Express Delivery
2:20 p.m. - Lampe/Coffey run a blazing 1:55-1:55-1:55, beating Dearing, who is out of tire. It appears that the Rusty Old Datsun is totally dialed in. We win the OTC, as Dearing had to beat us, Haney, and the Rusty Old Datsun Lampe/Coffey team, with us placing 4th or worse, in order for the Viper to win.
Coffey and Lampe threw down some serious times in their Rusty Old Datsun
3:00 p.m. The last session for Touring 3 is about to go out.....and Robi shows up with his EVO with a new motor! They found a dealer that would swap them cash and parts in return for a new motor that is installed.
PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD
Robi gets new motor overnight, drives 275 miles, runs the last session, and wins
T3!
They worked most of the night and morning on the motor swap. Then, they had to drive from Sears Point to Buttonwillow, and made it just in time for their last session. They go out.....and do 3 decently fast laps to have 5th fastest T3 time, they pick up 3 points, and win Touring 3 by one point! Incredible!
Close up of the Robi/Oursbourn/Sigal Evo
(photo by Jack Olsen)
3:15 p.m. Robi's Evolution dumps a ton of fluid on the track. Looks like the tranny fluid plug wasn't tightened, and it fell out somewhere. He's being trailered home. But he wins the class!
PULP RACING EVOLUTION SCOREBOARD
Only one Evo is able to drive home. Vesko wins the Evo Survivor OTC Award!
3:20 p.m. - New part is on. Erik doesn't want Lampe to have top time of the day....because they are room mates. Ya can't have that. And as a defensive measure, just in case Dearing is sand bagging, Erik thinks we need to get on the track in that last session. After all, Dearing might have a set of new sticker tires sitting around, (hoping that we can't finish fixing the car before the last session) that he could throw on in the last session, and make one last attempt at taking out the Coffey/Lampe team.
The Rogers/Bernard Cobra getting ready for the final day. They win
Unlimited AGT class!
3:40 p.m. - Final OTC run group of the day(week/year). Dearing isn't out there. Looks like he is conceding.
3:55 - Erik runs 1:54-1:54, combined with the 1:55 earlier, we get top time of the day. We are the OTC Champs! Dearing wins the Paul Mumford "Top Gun" award, being voted the person who best embodies the spirit of the event! Congrats to Dearing! He said he was going to make sure the trophy goes to Paul's parents. Mumford is smiling down down on us, probably doing a little smack talking, saying how we are all lucky he wasn't at the event!
EMI prepared cars take the ENTIRE podium for overall honors (Flamemobile, Dearing, Coffey/Lampe), and also takes 1st in Touring 1 with Terry Rossi's Viper. Messley can make your Viper handle like Dearing's and Terry's by modifying your OEM shocks. Send them to him with $500 cash, and your Viper will be capable of kicking ass at the track also, providing you uhhh...know how to drive fast!
Dearing wins the Top Gun Award! He's our hero!
11:40 p.m. I'm at home, and ready to hit the sack.
Schriber wins Unlimited GT2
A quick thanks to Autowave, who installed and tuned the AEM. We went five
tracks in five days, full throttle, with no engine problems, no supercharger
problems, no brake problems, no overheating problems, etc. We just
had to turn the key and go! And we beat the living crap out of the NSX!
The AEM was an ffing homerun!
Jack Olsen/Tyson Schmidt wins T2, and is the overall winner in Touring. He
beat the T1 guys!
Sponsored by TRE Motorsports,
Elephant Racing,
Wevo
(self portrait by Jack)
Thanks to EMI Racing Suspensions, for dialing in the NSX so it was handling incredibly well. And for co-driving some fast laptimes.
Terry Rossi wins Touring 1
Thanks to Brent Reiss for trackside support, and driving the RV 2000 miles. Thanks to Brent Ethington for some great pictures. Jonathan Blevins has a couple of spectacular ones also. Thanks to Wayne for buzzing the part up to us! How many people get their go-fast parts delivered via a Special Delivery 360 Modena! Thanks to NASA for yet another smooth running event.
Wayne. Coffey. Messley. Lampe. Reiss. Hayashi.
Since I blew my racing budget on the OTC, I'll probably put the NSX in storage until an attractive event comes along.....like maybe a California Speedway race day! I hear Speedventures will be there on June 25th (Friday), and that could be a nice test and tune event. Rumor has it there will be a race group with the Radicals in it.....hummm. In the meantime, I'm on baby sitting duty full time for a couple of weeks.....
Haney/Dearing win Unlimited GT1
Other OTC diaries/photos are at:
Hot Chip Racing -
http://hotchip.com/otc2004
Derek Wang's Evo team - www.otcevo.com
Ryan Cashin - http://otc.midnight.net/
Jack Olsen's quest to become the Touring Champ - rennforu...threadid=129664
OTC 2004 Results - 2004 Results Available Here
Cool lap times summary of the history of OTC laptimes - http://motors.blazen.com/laptimes/
Lofgren/Lofgren win Touring 4
EPILOGUE
After the OTC, it took us about 5 days of sitting on our ass to get back
into the swing of things. I got suspension parts on order, and should have
the NSX ready to go in another month or so for some fun and games.
Wayne's business is gearing up quite nicely. If you need a multi-line business phone system (like Norstar/Meridian type of phones), call him at 714-843-9999! He needs the cash to get his Evo fixed! Before the OTC, he was working out at the gym 5 days a week at 8:00 a.m, and I would make it twice a week there. With the new business, now he is trying to get into the gym at 7:00 a.m. for a quick workout before the chaos start at the shop.
The Rusty Old Datsun is on the seller's block. U3 OTC winner two years in
a row!
Coffey decided that he is going to retire the Rusty Old Datsun, and is going to sell it in order to buy some type of spec-racer wheel-to-wheel machine. He'll have more info on his website at www.betamotorsports.com in a week or two. It is not what you would call a "normal 240Z". Here's some info about the car:
1970 Datsun 240Z < 2,200lbs
Sunbelt 3L Nissan L6 - 320hp
Motec M48 EMS
Quartermaster Pro 5.5 double disk clutch
Quaife Sierra 5 speed sequential close ratio dog box transmission
Penske 8760 triple shocks with digressive valving tuned by EMI Racing
Suspensions
Outlaw 2800 4 piston calipers all around
Tilton master cylinders
Kodiak 16 x 10 wheels (2 sets)
R180 diff with Quaife ATB (2)
Cobra Imola 2 seats
Dave Kent 8 point roll bar
Featherlite 3110 open aluminum trailer
The Rusty Old Datsun runs 1:28 at Willow, 1:48 at Sears, 2:00 at Thunderhill, using Hoosiers. (You could probably drop another 1-2 second with some Cheating Bastard slicks). Compare laptimes with other cars, and you can kinda see how fast it is. (World Challenge Touring cars ran 1:52 at Sears last year). Coffey/Lampe came in 3rd overall at the OTC this year, and have won the OTC Unlimited 3 class two years in a row. And with a little luck, if Dearing and I would have broke, they could have been King of the OTC. All this hardware, sweat, blood, and love for only $31,000. It might be the fastest 240Z in the country.
The PMUM S2000 is rebuilt, and will be terrorizing people on the street and
tracks near you
April 28, 2004.
Autowave finished building the PMUM S2000. Before Paul passed on, he told
Autowave that he wanted his S2000 motor to be rebuilt to handle boost from a
Comptech supercharger, and it has to be able to run 50 laps in a track day at
the redline, with no problems, no overheating, and it must be able to drive home
on its own power. Brett decided to buy the PMUM S2000, and told Autowave to
build it just like Paul wanted to. Only problem is that there is one guy
that does the block, another guy that does the custom pistons, another guy that
does the sleeves, another guy that does the head, another guy to do the custom
pulley, another guy that does blahblahblah.....and after Autowave gets all the
pieces, then they can button it up, put the headers on, custom EMI exhaust, then
install, test, and tune the AEM. Brett flies down from Arizona to put the
break in miles on it. He drives around sunny California for 120 miles, keeping it
below 6000 RPMS. In a convertible with the top down. With no
sunscreen. He's cooked like the hot dog on the back of my bumper on the
OTC test day. Later that night, he puts 120 more miles on it driving
around foggy California, freezing his ears off. Now he knows why I wear that ridiculous looking Rocky
and Bullwinkle hat.
April 29th, 2004.
Brett drives around sunny California for another 250 break in miles. In an
S2000 convertible.
With a hat. But no sunscreen. Now he is cooked like the hot dog the back
of my bumper after Messley caught fire at Willow. Later that night,
Autowave retunes and throws it on the dyno for some full power dyno runs.
The chart looks like this:
The old PMUM S2000 with built engine, at 13 lbs of boost. Motor was built
to handle 30 psi.
April 30th, 2004.
395 RWHP? Ah......kinda hard to believe. Brett said that he thinks
it is faster than the Viper he used to own. We line up the F355 against
the S2000, and from a rolling start....the PMUM S2000 destroys it. We do
it again on the freeway, doing a 40 mph to 80 mph blast on a deserted part of
the freeway. The F355 eats
dirt again. Hummmm.....maybe I'll to rethink a new street car strategy.
The PMUM S2000 went scoreboard against the F355
The F355 is working great, but I think I need to get a daily driver. The F355 GTS F1 goes up for sale, and gets put in the Ferrari Market Letter. Unfortunately, they put the wrong phone number in, and the number they put in just rings and rings, no one ever answers it. The info about the F355 is at www.nsxfiles.com/f355. Tell your friends! It's a great car, and it will change your life. I'm just not sure if it will change your life for better or worse....but I guarantee you it will be exciting!
If you see this Arizona plate, be prepared for an ass whupping
May 1st, 2004.
Almost exactly one year after the green light was given to build the PMUM S2000,
it is now sitting in the garage of its
new owner. Imagine 395 RWHP, Penske triple adjustables tuned by EMI Racing
Suspensions, big ass Brembo brakes on all four corners, with 18 inch wheels on
all four corners. The spirit of PMUM lives on!
Hopefully you can join us next year at the OTC 2005, and soar to new heights!
(click here for bigger picture)
