ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Carl and I headed out for our second session. I could tell the track was getting in my head, and my approach wasn't as instinctive as the first session as I begun to overthink my plan of attack for the 2.3 mile uphill/downhill battle that is Whiskey Hill Raceway. Definitely overthinking it while trying to take his feedback and translate it from my head to my hands, feet, and eyes

This track requires a great deal of attention, with no so called "throw-away" corners and really no rest or "reset" areas as the front straight is actually a bend where you are fighting the car and gravity in excess of 125mph to keep it all out of jersey barriers before braking into turn one. A botched entry into one turn at the beginning of a complex can impact you as far as three turns down, throwing your line and speed off completely (you know, as a botched line will do to you)


I shook my session two frustrations off, grabbed some lunch, and hung out


and took some more pictures


Checked out the best spectator spot (mountain goat it up some rocks by turn one) with Jared


And checked out the crowd with Brian and Lil G

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Tony ran into some issues out on track with his instructor behind the wheel (fluke accident by the sounds of it - no contact, no dropped wheels, no curbing?)

Tony, Paddy, and the crew were able to square it away and get him back out with time to spare before session three

I feel really bad for Tony, but am happy he was able to get his car back out on track for the rest of the day. We're looking into other splitter options for his track day in a few weeks out on Watkins Glen with SCDA


Tony's back to the old look without the splitter, but was good to head out on track



I found my rhythm again with session three, and begun linking the 15 turns together

COMSCC brings out some great racers across all run groups, and I learned a lot after I'd throw a point by and watch their line

The speed came back and I was gaining my instructors confidence - him telling me he was just about comfortable sending me out solo for the last session of the day kept me as clean as I could be with entry points, lines, exits, speed, and traffic


Great session - the monster of a track got out of my head a bit!


Tony and I checked out the crowd on the other end of the paddock


and some action on the front straight



Tony and I were sent out solo for our forth and final session, fought through some traffic, and had some more fun together out on track towards the end of our session

I believe that E30 M3 in front of me here was FTD during the time trials the next day, so I learned a few things in his tow. I set my fastest lap trying to mirror his line



Here are my fastest two laps of the day, a haggard misshift looking for forth down the front "straight" (forth! a straight up shift! she just didn't want to give it to me - scary scary!), then some fun with Tony

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

You couldn't ask for a better 100,000 mile birthday present for your RX-7 than a track day! And I am sorry, but you will never time it as perfectly as I inadvertently did - she officially turned six figures coming in from my forth session

Awesome chapter closer to start the next century (is that what you'd call 100K miles? I have no idea - but you get my point)- here's to the next 100,000 miles!



Safe and in one piece - all's well that ends well!


Tony, Carl, and Pete


Tony and I packed up, gave Pete a hand getting the Puch running


then headed to Garage Rotary Amuse to drop the RX-7 off


Made it to the garage, all tucked in and dirty



Felt like a lot of work, but it was all well worth it!


Huge thank you to:
Heidi for you continued patience with me and for supporting your RX-3.5

Paddy for all your help in the garage getting the car ready; I don't think I could have gotten the car ready in time without you - cheers bud!

Danny "mRow?" McVicker for the awesome oil cooler kit, perfect timing, and install support

Mary and Hugh for your amazing hospitality over these past weeks

Ginnie for the amazing late night dinner the night before the track day and your continued generosity and hospitality

Mom for your continued help at Garage Rotary Amuse

Tony, Tommy, Alex, Nguyen, and Andrew for your help in the garage

Mr and Mrs Le and Emily for your hospitality

Jared for your GoPro, last minute prep help, trackside support, and awesome pictures - that panorama's so gnarly!

Brian and Lil G for your trackside support and awesome pictures - I'm telling you, keep Lil G away from cars and racing, its a slippery expensive slope! Glad to have been a part of his first track day

Phil Sansossio and Sansossio Auto Body for the awesome job on the bodywork and great company


Thank you all so much - the cars are cool, but you guys make it all worth it!


Huge Congratulations to Tony for Earning his COMSCC License! So much hard work, awesome job!



I am heading back to the garage this Saturday to clean the car out, clean the brake dust off the wheels, give her a full bath, and get her ready and buttoned up for a track day in a few weeks up at NHMS

More updates on that shortly, but first two back to back nine-to-five endurance races back at Whiskey Hill Raceway with the McParland's S2000 next weekend - the pain train continues!



Cheers!

ATX-RX

iTrader: (5)

Quick question. how tall are you? I've been through every thread and I just want a definitive answer on driver height, seat choice, and helmet clearance for personal track purposes! I want to buy the right seat the first time, not waste money...

Other than that- Super Sexy car, and unbelievably jealous of where you live. Very minimal tracks in the area of Texas that I live, but at least I have COTA!

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Thanks the compliment

Having COTA right there wouldn't be bad at all. Have you run it yet?


In regards to the seat: I tried two other sets of seats (Sparco Pro2000s then Sparco Torinos) before getting this set up (Sparco EVO driver and Sparco Sprint V passenger) and it still isn't perfect. I'm 6'0 and am pretty snug to the roof on the lower seat rails with my helmet on. You might have a little more clearance if you have a Base or R1/R2

I might bring my car to a fab shop eventually to have the seating position set up perfectly for me, then have the seat permanently floor mounted

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

The Devil's in the Details

Blackadde///

iTrader: (27)

Car looks good! Nice photography skill too.

Smokey The Talon

iTrader: (33)

Any idea on how much weight you saved by going to the Carbon/Lexan hatch?

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Thanks Mike I appreciate the compliments


I didn't get the numbers on my set up, but Damian weighed his lexan window at 12 pounds and his carbon fiber hatch at 14 pounds versus the stock hatch and glass at 53 pounds

I'd say I saved around 27 pounds before the wing

If you are thinking of changing up your set up, I'd jump on the lexan rear window while you still can - they're going to be hard to come by soon with FAL's mold being destroyed

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

Don't they scuff and fade easily? Are you doing anything to protect yours?

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Lexan does scratch easily, so care is needed with cleaning (clean microfiber, non-alcohol based cleaner). I was considering doing a thin 3M layer for protection

I bought Howe Lexan Cleaner to prevent fading; alcohol based cleaners will eventually create hazing

I'd say the weight savings are worth the extra effort

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

I don't believe I'm alone with this, but I grew up with my Maisto 1:18ths, Matchbox 1:64ths, Lego supercar kits, and supercar posters and magazine cutouts plastered all over my walls - bulls, lightening, horses everywhere

Nowadays I prefer grassroot race cars built with blood, sweat, and tears from and for the everyday man, but dreaming about supercars was my gateway into this ridiculously expensive motorsport hobby of mine.

Bear with me, as this post is more for that wide-eyed lustful little kid I used to be than for the dream-come-true-living adult I am today - somehow over the years though, I still go crazy over these rare beauties

When my wife got an invitation from a business consultant to see their latest project, a local auto museum showcasing a local enthusiasts supercar collection, and asked if I'd want to drop our evening plans to head out to Newport I couldn't resist



There's not much of a story here other than some ridiculous eye candy, so I'll get right to the pictures

Ferrari 458


Ferrari 430



Ferrari 360


Ferrari Enzo



Ferrari F40 - my favorite installment of the collection

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Ferrari 310B - Michael Schumacher's 1997 Formula 1 car (possibly built off the 1996 Ferrari 310)



Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing



Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing



Porsche 962 Kremer K8 Spyder - 1995 24 Hours of Daytona Champion

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Porsche Carrera GT



Bugatti Veyron



McLaren MP4-12C

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4


This car just about epitomizes what I dreamt about (besides Tiffany Amber Thiessan - also on my wall) as a kid - completely over the top

Bear with the black and white, it helped me to better see just how insane every line of this car truly is



Ford GT



De Tomaso Pantera



If you are ever in Rhode Island, it is worth heading down to Newport to check out the Audrain Auto Museum. It's free to the public and the collection changes quarterly


As I said above - I truly do believe I am living my childhood dream of not only owning but racing my own dreamcar. Totally cheesy, but it is truly humbling and makes me very proud to have seen this dream come true. I sometimes forget how awesome it really is, and couldn't imagine how stoked little me would have been if he knew what was in store for him when he grew up


Thank you very much sweetheart - that was a lot of fun


Next up:
- Double nine-hour AER endurance races with the McParland Motorsport S2000 out on Palmer Motorsports Park
- NHMS COMSCC HPDE with the Rotary Amuse RX-7 (spoiler alert: HP+ pads no longer cut it!)


Cheers!

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

I like how they put a picture of the "previous iteration" of the car behind it. Very cool.

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

Always enjoy your story and photo

I actually saw one of these at a local car show this past weekend.

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Yea, the design and layout of the museum was well executed. I would love to see a few of the predecessors in person some day - mostly the Bugatti EB110 and McLaren F1


Thanks Henry - I appreciate the complement


The F40s just so damn cool - my favorite F-car for sure

Were there any more supercars at your local car show?

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

Yeah, there were lots of cars that day, filled up one end of the mall parking lot.

Saw this thing, original owner. He also own the car next to it, I forgot what it was.






Also this one.


Few more in here, sorry for the poor quality pictures haha.
Car Picture by Henry Yung | Photobucket

I only take pictures of the rare one, but there are tons of the usual stuff like Lambo, Viper, Z06, Mustang, GTR and etc., few NSX and Supra and 3 FDs including mine.

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Definitely looks like a good turnout. That Kuro Datsun's beautiful! So nice

The pictures are great, thanks for sharing the set

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

There's a new endurance series, American Endurance Racing (AER), that has a pretty cool weekend long event schedule, with practice and qualifying Friday, a nine-hour race Saturday, and another nine-hour race Sunday

They scheduled a race at the new Whiskey Hill Raceway at Palmer Motorsports Park; the first wheel to wheel event to be held at the new race track - we couldn't resist!

Paddy had put in a good amount of prep work on the car to get it ready for the long weekend. We added Mickey to the lineup which added a twist to the current seating position with Pete and Paddy being around 6' tall and Mickey being a little shorter than that. Paddy ordered the first FIA approved seat rail and brought it to his fabricator to have him cut out the floor pan, create a new box for the seat and rails, then fabricate a system that brings the seat forward and up to give Mickey greater visibility. He also had the transmission tunnel trimmed for another one of our drivers, Mike, who was prone to running out of room with his right elbow. Paddy also had to have a bar trimmed out of the overhead halo bar to the side bar to clear helmets with the new seat placement. Paddy had also replaced the exhaust dump for a muffled exhaust to meet Palmer's strict dB level maximum. Just about everything last minute, and we were good to go.

Pete and Mickey drove got in late from Brooklyn the night before, stayed over in Shrewsbury, then met up with Paddy at the track early Friday


I ended up working all Friday, which turned into keeping an eagle eye on our live timing qualifying results streaming through Race-Monitor. I had thought we took provisional pole of thirty-one entrants with a 1:53.28 before leaving the office. I headed home, packed up, kissed my wife, petted my furbabies, then headed up to the race track

I ended up at the track to find Pete and Mickey hanging out with the AER staff and race entrants trading stories from the day, with Mickey cracking everyone up. The guy's a riot!

One story shared over lemonade (yes, AER brings a lemonade stand - mostly for booze though), cookies (I can't make this stuff up!), and beers from the day was that we actually got squeaked out of pole position by an E36 M3 laying down a 1:52.230 leaving us with outside pole. Pete was confident he could have taken it back, but we ran out of time. No worries - its a nine-hour race - the race can be absolutely lost in the first corner, but will definitely not be won in it. We've got time to make it up

We had some minor changes to make for Saturday's race



Pete, Mickey, and I squared away the S2000, made a five-gallon funnel to replace our overhead fuel rig, cleaned up our pit area, talked to some fellow entrants poking around the S2000 (I was somehow voted team public relations representative), and then headed out for some pizza before calling it a good night

Huge thank you to my mother-in-law for hosting us for the weekend!


We woke up bright and early, headed back to the track, and met up with the rest of the crew: Paddy, Hugh, Jason, Brian, Tom, and John

We squared away the lap belts, converting them from pull down to pull up tightening, Cool Suit suit plumbing and ice box shelf and mounts, adjusted the toe, took the drag and whistle enducing (it's that woot-woo!) light bar off (fellow racer on grid *points to light bar* "you guys better not be high beaming me out there" me "listen bud, this isn't our first rodeo" fellow racer "oh, ok" me *smile nod* fellow racer *smile handshake* me "good luck out there" fellow racer "yea, you guys too" *eye roll*- making friends/enemies before the race even starts - might be losing my PR rep status before it even begins)

Out on starting grid with Pete taking the first stint and Mickey on communications


Left to right: Hugh, Mickey, Brian, and Paddy



We were sent out at around nine with a few formation laps behind the safety car before going green

Coming out of T14 onto the front "straight" (constant fight down the front "straight" to keep the car out of jersey barriers - this track does not have any resting points like Lime Rock's front straight into Big Bend)



Safety car is in and we're green!



Nine hours to go in P2 - let's do this!



Pretty clean into T1...

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

...and now we wait

Left to right: Tom, John, Paddy behind Jason, and Brian



The beauty and pain about working pit crew is there is a decent amount of waiting: breath a sigh of relief as you see your car roll by carrying on to run another lap, keep tabs of the competitions laps, fuel and pit stop strategy, stay hydrated, eat, laugh, make new friends, get our next driver ready for his stint, but absolutely and ultimately stay frosty in case we are caught out in need of a quick turnaround pit stop or waiting for a yellow to bring our car in if we get lucky enough


Paddy with an old COMSCC friend - Fred Furguson, the Palmer Motorsports Park CEO


Car's looking good, running pack's starting to spread out, some fresh air to run our race



Run another lap, hope for the best, rinse and repeat



We waited all morning and got lucky with a double yellow caution when we were running P2 - go time to put in a good pit stop!

Safety car heading out to pick up the field



Race strategy 101 - wait for a yellow flag, bring your car in, do what needs to be done, get your car back out there without losing ground

It's as easy as that, however AER hadn't figured out yellow flag / safety vehicle pit stop operations yet. We did an awesome fuel up, filled the Cool Suit box with ice, changed out the water bottle, and swapped out Pete with Mickey for stint two. We waited at pit out for what we thought was to be our three minute minimum until being sent out to rejoin the field

What should have been us getting a leg up on the competition by bringing the car in for one of our five mandated, three minute minimum pit stops saw us held at pit out for the field to pass and then again until the EV cleared for us to pick back up at the back of the field ONE LAP DOWN - WTF!!!

A well warranted and much needed argument / search for answers between us, a few other teams caught out on a bad call and AER management ensued



Ultimate call - an apology, AER admits we (McParland Motorsports) are right in how it should have played out, but AER can't make it right. Lesson learned, we carry on a littled pissed off a little behind the eight ball. Sometimes terrible calls are a part of racing - wasn't the first, and won't be the last; just hope its the last to screw us over for the weekend


We're back to green battling back up to the front of the pack a lap down on the new race leaders


And the waiting and battle continues, as it gets interesting keeping closer tabs on our lap times and position working our way back up



We send out Paddy for the third stint, then Pete for the forth stint

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

and we're back up to the front of the pack. You know, science - right Mickey : )



Mickey suited up for his next stint and made friends with the new track manager - she was really friendly and funny, but I can't think of her name for some reason now, but we'll see her again in August with COMSCC



We had four of our mandatory pit stops done and were running P1 over all with about a half hour left to run. We were running almost one lap ahead of the P2 bimmer sitting right in front of Pete out on track. The P2 team strategist walked over to our paddock and asked how many pits stops we had left, hoping to get lucky and catch us out. "Four, you?" "four as well".... we knew this, but it was interesting nonetheless to know they were racking their brains as well on what to do...

So what do we do? Bring the car in and hope for a phenomenal pit stop and get back out without losing any ground knowing P2 has to come in as well... Or do we wait until P2 comes in knowing we are right behind him with P3 further back, knowing we are good for fuel so good for a quick pit stop, and keep him almost a lap down... Let's go with option two!

P2 bimmer comes down T14, turns into the pit lane "PIT PIT PIT!" over the radio and our race is just about won...

Funny thing happens with P2 stopping in our pit box just as our car is heading down the pit lane towards us. The bimmer driver starts to panic as I jump off the pit wall to welcome him with frantic expletives to get him out of our way before our car gets there. He panics, throws the car in reverse, then forward, then stalls, then moves up to his team's pit box, one pit box over from us. Somehow, we didn't lose too much time. Good thing is any time we lost they lost with the fumble. I didn't see it that way at first not giving them the benefit of the doubt, seeing that they did it on purpose to either throw us off or to gain some ground on us at pit out. That wasn't the case as it was an honest mistake. I shook it off then worked through the pit stop - five gallons of fuel to see us through to the end, windshield wipe, and we're off

The P2 strategist comes over to me after both our pit stops as I smile and ask him what the wrong pit box mistake was about, then apologize for cursing his driver out as he apologizes for his drivers mistake. "So you guys were waiting for us to pit, right" he asks realizing that their P1 chances are gone, me smiling back "of course!" I shake his hand, congratulating him on a good, clean, well fought battle, as he prematurely congratulates us on our win


Hugh making sure everything still looks good and that our math is right



Watching anxiously as the race isn't won yet as the rain starts to slowly come down...



White flag out - my stomach's in knots...



Pete takes the checkered flag and we did it - we're all over the moon with excitement!



and this is the exact moment our race was won



The bad luck of our past few races is instantly forgotten as we soak the victory in


Our driver's ran a hell of a race, keeping it clean all day



and working with the full crew was so much fun as always - such a great group of people! Jason (missing from this picture) had to head out a little early to get some celebrating in for his birthday - I hope he liked his first place present : ) he absolutely earned it!

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Off to the trophy ceremony


Mary was able to make it out just in time


Hugh's too funny!



We celebrated for a while, chummed it up with the competition - especially P2/P3 (same team, Team Mancave), a great group of guys and girl who gave us one hell of a battle

We then loaded up the car to bring it back to Shrewsbury for a full reset for the next morning

I had to get back to my mother-in-laws, but the crew was up late Saturday into Sunday getting the car ready for another nine-hour battle bright and early


What an awesome day! Great job team - I am honored to have been a part of it and proud of our P1!



More to come on Sunday's race two shortly



Cheers!

ZumSpeedRX-7

iTrader: (12)

Continuing from where I left off with the AER Saturday June 20th race...

The crew headed back to Shrewsbury Saturday night after our race win to change fluids and do a thorough run through of the S2000 to prepare it for another nine-hour race bright and early Sunday


I woke up, headed to the track and had a feeling we'd have our work cut out for us for the day



I met up with Jared as we waited for Paddy with the car. Paddy headed out to the drivers meeting as Jared and I talked pit stop strategy and we talked through what needed to be done. Paddy came back shortly and told us there was a three hour race start delay. We called the rest of the crew to give them the headsup so they could get a little more sleep after such a late night

Jared doing a walkaround



We decided we might as well grab some breakfast, so headed to a local coffee shop and met Tom and Mickey for some much needed caffeine. Turned out a good amount of the race field had the same idea

We met some of the locals then headed back to the track to make some minor changes on the S2000

Paddy, Pete, and Mickey had bought two sets of 180 treadwear tires (softest tire allowed by AER) and were on the fence about whether to run the second set or not. We went out for a few recce laps in Jared's truck and found that there were pools and rivers all over the track and the skies showed no signs of letting up

Second set of Direzzas it is!



We pumped out some fuel to fill the five gallon fuel jugs for the first few pit stops



and unfortunately missed our cue for heading out to pre-grid and lost our pole position spot carried forward from race one's finish



I tried my damnedest to get our spot back with race officials and P2 and P3, but team Mancave (P2 / P3) explained that they weren't here for the weekend but for the season and they were in P1 and P2 overall where we were definitely there for the win but also just there for the weekend with AER. I understood where they were coming from completely and it was our mistake - I just figured it was worth the effort

We ended up roughly third from last - not at all ideal but we'd have 6 hours to make our way back up to the front



The field was eventually sent out with twenty minutes or so behind the pace car to dry out the track and race line as much as possible



Definitely going to be an interesting day



Pace cars in and we're green with about five and a half hours to go



and now we wait...