rxblue7

I hope this is not inappropriate, but it's somewhat of a kill....

The 2007 Open Road Racing season got off to a great start in Ft. Stockton, TX with the 10th Anniversary of the Big Bend Open Road Race on Highway 285. The Mazda Motorsports, RX for Your 7, (sponsors needed, your name could go here), RX-7 was finally ready to run after a rough ending to the 2006 season.

Objective: cover 118 miles in 54 minutes 27.6 seconds for an average speed of 130 mph (tech speed window 100mph-168mph)

Results: 54:26.9 @ 130.001 mph for 1st Place out of 12 cars in class (time variance of +.761 seconds)

The team that I captain, Team Invaders, also took 1st Place in the Team Challenge by laying some butt whoop on 8 other teams, including 5 corvette teams.

While there were no off-road incidents, there were plenty of DQ’s. Rain hit on parts of the course and caused some participants to go exceed their tech speed trying to make up time lost in the wet spots. As if wet spots weren’t enough, Deana and I also had other variables to deal with: Fastest speed we’ve ever run this course and new, unfamiliar tires.

Of course, we couldn’t hit the wet spots on straight-aways early in the course. Oh no, that’s no fun, let’s run into wet roads during the toughest turns on the course only 15 or so miles from the finish of the first leg. These are turns I worked hard at when we ran this event at 120 & 125 mph. Now it’s wet and I need to average 130 mph. Needless to say we were losing time faster than Ford losing money. At one point Deana tells me I’m 4 seconds slow, so I’m accelerating as hard as I can between turns (for the first time in 20 events, I actually had to hit the brakes before some turns). I’m totally focused on the roads and can’t watch my speedo but I think I’m doing ok, only to hear I’m now 10 seconds slow! Arrghh! It’s not panic time but I know if I don’t get under 10 seconds before 5 miles out, this leg is going to be way off. I tell Deana I’m going to drive as fast as I safely can until she’s tells me I’m close. After some harrowing, butt puckering turns, I finally hit target speed with only 2.93 miles left and we close the first leg only .5 seconds fast.

At this point I thought we had an interesting first leg. Well, a good friend of mine runs an old Winston Cup NASCAR in the Unlimited Class. He and his wife smacked a full grown buzzard at 170+ mph. It caught the upper corner of the passenger A-pillar. It literally peeled the metal back on the car at that corner. It didn’t break the windshield though, so they kept driving. Well, with their full face helmets, neck braces, and head supports they couldn’t see what really happened. When they crossed the finish line and slowed down, Marsha, the navigator, unfastened her window net and PLOP! Buzzard head in her lap! When they got to the grid area the car was a mess: buzzard head in the floor board and buzzard body and guts in the back of the car. Yuck!!! They got the car cleaned up, taped up the damaged metal, rinsed off their suits and finished the race though. In fact they set a new course record by averaging 172.584 mph with a high trap speed of 213 mph.

We were hopeful our second leg would be a little easier. NOT! It was raining at the start line! About half way through the tough turns, which mercifully are near the beginning now, Deana informs me I’m not even on the page. In fact I’m 40 seconds slow. A big smile creeps across my face because I know when I get out of the last tough turn I’m going to need to drive very fast to make up 40 seconds. Oh darn. I fly out of the last turn at 150 mph grinning ear to ear. But wait; Is that a corvette I see up ahead?!?! Yes, it is! Well, if I need to drive fast to make up time, might as well drive faster and run down a corvette. Deana gives me permission to run him down but not to pass unless he acknowledges me. I punch the rotary up to 160 mph and set my sights on catching him before the next set of tricky turns. It was not to be though. I get to within 100 yards or so and Deana informs me that I’ve made up my time and tells me to back off to our target of 130 mph. Rats!!! (we discovered at the awards banquet that he never saw us coming)

Our next event is the Nevada Open Road Race on May 20th out of Ely Nevada. We hope this 1st Place showing is the first of several this season.

Thanks for your support!
Blue
Captain, Team Invaders Open Road Race Team
Lifetime #261, ’93 Mazda RX-7 (R1)
Street ported engine built by RX for Your 7
Bonez downpipe
Racing beat catback
Fluidyne aluminum radiator
Purple PFS computer
PFS intercooler
Custom built air intake
RSR Race Springs
Tokico Illumina adjustables
Kirk Rollbar
B&M short shifter
ORR links
www.openroadracing.com
www.sscc.us
www.bborr.com
www.rrorr.com
www.sorcrace.com

Buzzardsluck

Nice, I always want to do this but I don't want to try and meet specs for the higher speeds.

rxblue7

Buzzardsluck,

How much safety equip you have to add depends on just how fast you want to go. If you want to exceed tech speed of 168 mph, your concerns on what you have to add are very valid. You’ve basically got to build a real race car: full cage, fire system, fuel cell, etc. However, ORR rules won’t let you run that fast on your first time out anyway, so it’s easier to test the waters at lower speed to determine if you really like the sport and want to invest that type of money into going faster.

The max most events will let you run on your first time out is a targeted average speed of 125mph with a max tech speed of 140mph. That speed provides plenty of fun on the tamest of highways. To do that all you need that’s out of the ordinary is a 5 or 6 point harness. (I don’t consider a 2.5lb fire extinguisher or SA2000 helmet out of the ordinary) However, the harness isn’t really the issue; it’s the bar to attach the shoulder harnesses to.

I think there are a couple of companies that offer ready made harness bars for 3rd Gens, but with a little creativity and access to a good welder, you can fabricate a harness bar that bolts in and out. I did so for my first event and I have very little mechanical abilities. There’s a threaded bolt point behind the plastic trim on the B-Pillars about head-high that appears to have been put there for that specific purpose. However, I was hooked after my first event and immediately installed a roll bar and moved up to the class I’m in now.

Feel free to PM me if you’d like to discuss ORR more.

Blue

Buzzardsluck

I want my FD to stay stock as possible which means no roll cage or any other "forgein" stuff in the interior. Id rather not have a targeted speed, I just want to go as fast as possible.

My enjoyment for speed and corners is not a question for me

So basically I won't be doing ORR racing anytime soon but have been trying to get my buddy to do it and Ill be his codriver.

Good luck in your racing rxblue7