RX-8 wins at Mid Ohio
 

I was crewing at Mid Ohio this weekend (my team runs a GS-class E36 M3) for the Grand Am Cup race. I was happy to see Sylvain Tremblay of SpeedSource score his second ST-class victory of the season, in the first year of development. Wild and crazy race, as usual for Grand Am Cup. I believe it will be broadcast on Speed Channel this coming Sunday, the 15th. Note: Grand Am runs two series, Rolex (prototypes and GTs) and Cup (production cars with limited modifications). Both are broadcast, but usually separately, so be sure to look at the Cup broadcast if you want to see the RX-8 win.

Sweet!!!!!!! Thanks for the update Blake. How did she sound with open exhaust?

The rx-8's are very quiet, my rx7 is at least 1.5 times louder. And tremblay was fast all weekend. Too fast in fact, and when he was on the dyno it did not sound like they went WOT. but that's racing. The speed source team runs 5 rx-8's and only 2 finished. they had some bad luck this weekend. but i think most teams did.

Which e36 were you with? akg?

RTG Limited, the yellow #64 M3. AKG originally prep'd the car, so there is AKG badging on it. Just a small privateer team based in Seattle. The owner always drives one stint and rents out the seat for one or even two other stints in the race (we ran three drivers at Mid Ohio; two renters). We were with the series back in the Motorola Cup days, and are just biding time until having to build a new car for next season. The E36 will not be permitted to run again due to its age. I'm trying to talk the team owner into an RX-8, so every ST-class win by Sylvain and company helps! :) But, I think he really likes being in the "big bore" GS class -- even uncompetitively -- so that might not happen. Honestly, it doesn't matter that much to me...I just like racing at the "professional" level, regardless of car. It's like taking an adventure-vacation every month or so, particularly when hopping the wall to change tires under the pressure of a hot pitstop. Big adrenaline rush!

yeah, that is the car i was talking about. what did you come in overall? and that is an interesting fuel rig you have.

21st in class; 34th overall. We lost the gear box half way through and finished by running the whole course in 4th gear. I'm just happy we finished without major damage. Those Grand Am Cup drivers are crazy! It seems like ever race is a demolition derby and we are just trying to stay out of the mess.

As for the fuel rig...um, it sucks. Takes up way too much space, it's about a hundred years old, and it's falling apart (thank God for duct tape). We were under the impression that Grand Am was going to mandate a spec fuel rig for this year, so we were waiting to replace it with the "right" rig. Suprise! No spec rig, so we still have our POS one until further notice. Funny thing was that at Daytona last year, one of the firemen (who had a vest signed by all the famous NASCAR drivers, including Dale Earnhart) complimented us on the design, which he said lowered vapor pressure, or something. All I know is that it takes up WAAAAAAY too much pit area and it a PITA to set up and break down.

So, are you crewing/working/driving or just a fan?

I'm a car chief with one of the ST teams.

Sorry to hear about the loss of the gearbox.

Honestly the grand am cup is hardly a demo derby compared to teh speed touring series. Those guys crash bash and punt their way to first place. It just seems that mid ohio was pretty rough for almost everyone. Hell, the zippo team flipped before i had time to place a bet on how many laps they'd make it.

Which ST team? Fenton? Lexus? SpeedSource? If you don't want to say publicly, shoot me an email or PM and I'll say 'hi' at the next opportunity (I believe we are just doing VIR and Fontana; probably not Homestead and definitely not Barber).

I agree it's not a complete demolition derby (I was being facetious), but it can get rough and sometimes it seems we should be sponsored by Target. Obviously 60+ cars on any track is a lot, particularly on a technical one like Mid Ohio, but there are also a lot of drivers who seem to have a chip on their shoulders or perhaps insuficient experience. I'm not talking about the contenders, but the mid-packers who get frustrated and do something stupid. I guess that's pretty much the case everwhere, though.

Just a reminder: the Grand Am Cup race at Mid Ohio will be broadcast on Speed at Noon Eastern/9am Pacific on Sunday (Aug 15th).