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Willow Springs trackside report


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Greetings Chumps in Chumpdom-land!

Well... I won't rub this in too strongly for our friends, co-workers and Chumps in Wisconsin... but

IT'S NINETY FREAKIN' TWO DEGREES HERE AT WILLOW

SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY! SUNSHINE, BEER,

40+ SUNSCREEN, MORE BEER, FAST CARS AND MORE

SUNSHINE!

Like I said... I don't want to rub it in.

John :lol::lol::lol::lol:

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I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine a "race" on a 2.1 mile road course with 186 cars.)

John, watch this video and tell me that it was a parade. This was some of the best dicing I've seen in crapcan racing. I watched much of the Infineon race live on UStream and it was great. I love CCWS, but I have to defend Jay on this one.

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Fair enough. Like I said, I wasn't there in person. From that video, it appears to me that a fairly quick car with a good driver could weave through traffic at will. Timid drivers could easily fall into line and follow the herd. The three dicing cars in that video were NOT overly fast cars. One was a Rabbit, another a 40 year old 510 and the camera car, a quick SE-R. No E36's, or Miatas in sight and none of the three dicing cars were near the top of the fast lap charts.

As for the video, sure it's a snippet. The poster had a great battle and wanted to share it. I was at GingerMan last year and in one stint, I went almost 20 minutes without having another car within 1/4 mile in front or behind me. It was spooky weird. If not for seeing cars across the track, I would have thought I was all alone out there. It was great since we were way down on power and I didn't have to get out of anybody's way, but it was rather boring at the same time.

I can't wait to go back to Nelson Ledges and run with 60-75 cars. I was there with LeMons in '09 and we had 122 cars on the track, in the rain, for 24 hours. That was a bit like a really fast drive into work, but it was still a hoot. ven with 122 cars at the start of the race, there were only 50 or so on the track in the middle of the night. Many teams, including ours were repairing our busted-donkey cars. NL can hold two-wide the entire way around and in the Infineon video, I saw four-wide at times. As long as the track isn't a one-line track, I have no problem with a high car count. Were 186 too many? Yes, but I would have thought it would look way worse before I watched that video. Maybe it was late in the race after attrition was high.

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Cars have been racing for about an hour now, without incident! A few cars had to come in to deal with some transponder issues (i.e. NO, your karting transponder we said won't work, REALLY won't work. Thanks for trying though..) Only a couple of cars with some minor value penalties. And, not to steal his thunder, but Parid managed to get the live timing up and available on the internet. WWW.RACE-MONITOR.COM $5 for the app for iPhone and Android. It isn't ours and it's all beta, so YMMV. No warranties expressed or implied. What IP and Port? Not willing to provide that just yet. Look for something from Parid soon 8-).

AND BOOM, as I'm typing we have our first casualty. Dead at the top of turn 1, Flat tow dispatched. Too soon to even tell you which car number.

Stay tuned and have fun!

More to come.

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1st 66 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar Mazda Miata 74 Laps Best - 1:35.483 EXCEPTION CLASS
2nd 72 B Team - Kill Phil BMW 3 74 Laps Best - 1:33.587
3rd 11 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata 74 Laps Best 1:31.560 BEST OVERALL LAP
4th 44 EcoChallenged Porsche 944 74 Laps Best 1:36.277
5th 7 Lotus Vegas MitsuDodgebishi 3000StealthGT 74 Laps Best 1:38.445
6th 92 Vehicular Manslaughter Honda Accord 71 Laps Best 1:37.740
7th 41 CheeseZ Racing Datsun 280Z
8th 14 Zoom Zoom Boom Mazda 323 Hatch
9th 84 Barbarian Motorsports BMW 3
10th 5 Team Phat Volvo Volvo 242DL
11th 24 Team Toofah Racing Porsche 924
12th 26 Carpet Pissers Honda CivicCRX
13th 15 Top Gun Down Under Ford Mustang
14th 16 Top Gun Mavericks Ford Mustang
15th 13 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar2 Subaru Impreza

It's close here at the Streets. The Chumps are tearing it up, and currently have nearly a 5 place tie for first.

As John Reported, both Mustangs are down with mechanical failures. One has a fuel delivery issue, the other lost a freeze plug then water, then later oil, and quite possibly, the engine.

Last place will be moving up, as, well, they just got here, and just got out on track. They had a tow vehicle failure on the way in.

Stay tuned.

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1st 11 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata 117 Laps Best 1:31.135 BEST OVERALL LAP
2nd 66 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar Mazda Miata 115 Laps Best - 1:34.656 EXCEPTION CLASS
3rd 72 B Team - Kill Phil BMW 3 114 Laps Best - 1:33.587
4th 92 Vehicular Manslaughter Honda Accord 111 Laps Best 1:37.740
5th 7 Lotus Vegas MitsuDodgebishi 3000StealthGT 107 Laps Best 1:38.445
6th 44 EcoChallenged Porsche 944 107 Laps Best 1:36.277
7th 84 Barbarian Motorworks BMW 3 106 Laps
8th 14 Zoom Zoom Boom Mazda 323 Hatch
9th 41 CheeseZ Racing Datsun 280Z
10th 5 Team Phat Volvo Volvo 242DL
11th 24 Team Toofah Racing Porsche 924
12th 26 Carpet Pissers Honda CivicCRX
13th 13 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar2 Subaru Impreza
14th 15 Top Gun Down Under Ford Mustang
15th 16 Top Gun Mavericks Ford Mustang

And that's what it looks like after 4 hours.

One-sixth of the way done!

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We have live internet live timing up for smart phones running right now! It's only a beta test, but things are looking great so far. We're using the application that was found in the other thread at http://race-monitor.com/. Even out here in the middle of the desert, cell connections are staying strong and up. If anyone else has the app and wants to peek in on the action, you can connect to our relay at:

Relay Server IP: 50.56.68.254

Relay Server Port: 50003

post-198-1301781441_thumb.jpg

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1st 11 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata 205 Laps Best 1:31.135 BEST OVERALL LAP
E-C 66 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar Mazda Miata 203 Laps Best 1:34.656 EXCEPTION CLASS
2nd 72 B Team - Kill Phil BMW 3 194 Laps Best 1:33.587
3rd 92 Vehicular Manslaughter Honda Accord 194 Laps Best 1:37.740
4th 84 Barbarian Motorworks BMW 3 194 Laps
5th 44 EcoChallenged Porsche 944 190 Laps Best 1:36.277
6th 7 Lotus Vegas MitsuDodgebishi 3000StealthGT 189 Laps Best 1:38.445
7th 41 CheeseZ Racing Datsun 280Z
8th 14 Zoom Zoom Boom Mazda 323 Hatch
9th 5 Team Phat Volvo Volvo 242DL
10th 24 Team Toofah Racing Porsche 924
11th 26 Carpet Pissers Honda CivicCRX
12th 13 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar2 Subaru Impreza
13th 16 Top Gun Mavericks Ford Mustang
14th 15 Top Gun Down Under Ford Mustang

And after the safety break, we're racing again! Track configuration is shortened and safety lighting is deployed. It's warm and nearing sunset in the desert and the chumps are only 1/4 the way through. And IMMEDIATELY after dropping the green, 2nd place #72 car, B Team-Kill Phil in the BMW 325 is down. Smoking engine, on the tow rope right now.

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1st 11 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata 319 Laps
E-C 66 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar Mazda Miata 311 Laps
2nd 84 Barbarian Motorworks BMW 3 298 Laps
3rd 92 Vehicular Manslaughter Honda Accord 296 Laps
4th 7 Lotus Vegas MitsuDodgebishi 3000StealthGT 291 Laps
5th 14 Zoom Zoom Boom Mazda 323 Hatch 284 Laps
6th 44 EcoChallenged Porsche 944 271 Laps
7th 41 CheeseZ Racing Datsun 280Z
8th 5 Team Phat Volvo Volvo 242DL
9th 24 Team Toofah Racing Porsche 924
10th 72 B Team - Kill Phil BMW 3
11th 13 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar2 Subaru Impreza
12th 26 Carpet Pissers Honda CivicCRX
13th 16 Top Gun Mavericks Ford Mustang
14th 15 Top Gun Down Under Ford Mustang

So, the Pussy Wagon (Kill Phil team) is out with a blown motor. It was quite spectaular, much shrapnel discharged in every direction, rods and pistons included. The Carpet Pissers are also in pits with a destroyed CV. They are parts-less but believe they can weld something together that will suffice. The Top Gun Mavericks have fixed the water pump on the Mustang, after they realized the belt path and belt itself was wrong, and were spinning the water pump the wrong direction. It runs much cooler now. CheeseZ racing is fighting a horrendous lighting problem, but may have figured something out.

Fun nightime racing to be had! More later

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E-C 66 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar Mazda Miata 449 Laps
1st 84 Barbarian Motorworks BMW 3 438 Laps
2nd 14 Zoom Zoom Boom Mazda 323 Hatch 414 Laps
3rd 11 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata 409 Laps
4th 7 Lotus Vegas MitsuDodgebishi 3000StealthGT 402 Laps
5th 24 Team Toofah Racing Porsche 924 375 Laps
6th 5 Team Phat Volvo Volvo 242DL 348 Laps
7th 92 Vehicular Manslaughter Honda Accord 342 Laps
8th 41 CheeseZ Racing Datsun 280Z 330 Laps
9th 44 EcoChallenged Porsche 944 319 Laps
10th 72 B Team - Kill Phil BMW 3
11th 13 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar2 Subaru Impreza
12th 16 Top Gun Mavericks Ford Mustang
13th 26 Carpet Pissers Honda CivicCRX
14th 15 Top Gun Down Under Ford Mustang

Previous leader Eyesore Racing (11 - Miata) suffered a dual failure, the motor mount went, but was repaired. They lost a screw from the intake butterfly throttle thingy and it ended up inside cylinder 1. It didn't leave, though, and must be wedged somewhere. If it goes out the exhaust, they'll scatter that turbo and everyone will know. Time is not on their side. The #92 Honda had an off and suffered 2 flats, and an obliterated rear control arm. They didn't have a spare, so they packed it up and they're on their way out. At their best they were showing 3rd place. Not bad for a dead stock beat up '91 Honda Accord. The rest of the field have all had minor issues that keep them coming and going from the pits. The rock solid car is the 323 Hatchback. It's so slow, but so solid, so they just keep climbing on up.

More to come later.

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1st 84 Barbarian Motorworks BMW 3 531 Laps
E-C 66 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar Mazda Miata 527 Laps
2nd 11 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata 501 Laps
3rd 7 Lotus Vegas MitsuDodgebishi 3000StealthGT 488 Laps
EC 14 Zoom Zoom Boom Ford Escort 472 Laps
4th 24 Team Toofah Racing Porsche 924 455 Laps
5th 5 Team Phat Volvo Volvo 242DL 429 Laps
6th 41 CheeseZ Racing Datsun 280Z 404 Laps
7th 44 EcoChallenged Porsche 944 392 Laps
8th 92 Vehicular Manslaughter Honda Accord 342 Laps
9th 72 B Team - Kill Phil BMW 3 308 Laps
10th 13 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar2 Subaru Impreza 194 Laps
11th 16 Top Gun Mavericks Ford Mustang 129 Laps
12th 26 Carpet Pissers Honda CivicCRX 104 Laps
13th 15 Top Gun Down Under Ford Mustang 23 Laps

Car 44, the 944, has suffered an illumination cessation. The questionable construction of the front clip has given way and their lighting, which was more questionable, is now mounted to nothing solid at all. They're in the pits reconstructing. The Mazda 323 blew their head gasket, and they're done for the night. However, they pulled a 91 Escort out of the trailer, paid to enter that car, slapped a transponder on it, and are back on track! They're out of the points running, but all their drivers get to see the light of day. Backup plans are good! The warmth of the day has most certainly given way to the windy bone chilling cold of the high desert night. Not frosty, but cold enough. The chumps are tired and are working to keep it together until daybreak.

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E-C 66 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar Mazda Miata 854 Laps
1st 84 Barbarian Motorworks BMW 3 851 Laps
2nd 11 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata 827 Laps
3rd 7 Lotus Vegas MitsuDodgebishi 3000StealthGT 778 Laps
EC 14 Zoom Zoom Boom Ford Escort 774 Laps
4th 24 Team Toofah Racing Porsche 924 717 Laps
5th 5 Team Phat Volvo Volvo 242DL 700 Laps RETIRED DNF Mechanical
6th 44 EcoChallenged Porsche 944 681 Laps
7th 13 MaxxisFujiSumoRisingStar2 Subaru Impreza 486 Laps
8th 41 CheeseZ Racing Datsun 280Z 443 Laps RETIRED DNF Mechanical
9th 92 Vehicular Manslaughter Honda Accord 342 Laps RETIRED DNF Mechanical
10th 72 B Team - Kill Phil BMW 3 194 Laps RETIRED DNF Mechanical
11th 16 Top Gun Mavericks Ford Mustang 137 Laps RETIRED DNF Mechanical
12th 26 Carpet Pissers Honda CivicCRX 104 Laps RETIRED DNF Mechanical
13th 15 Top Gun Down Under Ford Mustang 23 Laps RETIRED DNF Mechanical

That was a refreshing nap! The early morning crew relieved at 3AM and didn't have any bandwidth to make updates in my absence. Understandable. Racing still happening, although the field is down another 2 vehicles. The CheeseZ Racing 280Z had pretty noisy lifters when they got here, and incredibly noisy ones when they called it and threw it on the trailer. They popped a radiator but with some compressed air, JB Weld, and a little curing time, it held just fine. The other car that just went off track is Team Phat Volvo. Their valve timing just went horribly, horribly wrong and it won't run. Whatever broke won't be repaired before race-end. Team Eyesore with the #11 Miata is still rolling, but is permanently stuck in 3rd gear. They've been cleared for some.. creative starts from stopped in the pits. An hour and 15 minutes till the checkered flies!

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I've just been informed of one of the most epic chump-worthy fixes to see the track. The Team Top Gun Mavericks with the 5.0 powered mustang had broke all engine mounts. This morning, in the light of day, they rigged up some nylon cord, some bungee cords, and 2 precisely mic'ed rocks from the trackside to serve as engine mount / spacers. They rolled a good 30 or so laps that way until in a corner one of the rocks fell out, and the bungees and nylon cords started rubbing the exhaust manifold and resulted in a smoky molten mess. And that was the end, as sourcing additional bungees and nylon cords, and a new rock, was no longer a tech-approved solution. Ya gotta let em' try it, right?

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Guest Methius

I inspected the car personally and, while it looked like a spec miata, it was lacking a few key ingrediants... the owners were great and told me they were building a shared track car and wanted some test and tune time. Great bunch of guys and great to have them there.

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Thanks for the updates!

I was kidding when I asked if everyone was asleep. I know how hard those 24H can be...

I'm glad to see another 3000GT having some success! What's the big fuss about Miatas and BMWs???

Watch out for those Mitsus... ;)

The Eyesore Miata is very fast, but is also driven by very good drivers! I tried to learn from them the few turns I could follow it after it passed me at PBIR!

Congrats to the Barbarians! (Your next race better be another 24H with such a MOV!)

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