The Motorsports Thread

[jlrSAAB]

I saw the race after lunch time and during some advertising I fell asleep. Sorry... nice circuit but bored for the races. too hot here in Spain, I got 40ºC in the Saab temperature display.

[Hirsch]

Yeah, Valencia is a nice circuit, but it does not produce good racing. At one point Vettel was 30+ seconds ahead of 2nd place.

The NASCAR boys finished up at Infineon Raceway with Kurt Busch taking the checked flag after 110 laps Jeff Gordon was 2nd in a race marred by retaliation wrecks. Early in the race Tony Stewart drove into the back of Brian Vickers and spun him, Vickers hit some other stuff and got hit a few times in the process. It was nt deliberate. Late in the race Vickers appears to let Stewart by just before turn 11, then hits him deliberately sending both cars into the tire wall. Stewart ended up with the rear of his car 4 feet off the ground, resting on the tires.

[Shazam]

I'm sorry, but I can't stand NASCAR. The only tracks where I actually like NASCAR is Watkins Glen, Infineon, and maybe... maybe ponoco

[Hirsch]

Sprint Cup cars were at Infineon and the Nationwide cars were at Road America. Two good road course races.

Pocono is one of the tracks that bores me to tears along with Michigan.

[Shazam]

Infineon was this past race? One of the two races I actually try to watch for the Sprint cup. Normally I don't watch for crashes, but good racing... Pocono can bring some trouble that is interesting in that one turn that is sharper than the other two. Other than that, it's boring.

I've never paid attention to Nationwide series (I guess it used to be known as Busch).

[Hirsch]

Yeah, Infineon was today. I'm not watching for crashes either. IMO, Pocono and Michigan is too much follow the leader and very little passing. I like the road courses, the short tracks(Bristol, Martinsville) and the super speedways(Talladega and Daytona). The mile and half cookie cutter tracks aren't my type of racing. (Although the NASCAR experience I just did was on a mile a half cookie cutter track)

The Nationwide series was formerly known as the Busch series.

I like almost all forms of motorsport.

I've been to my fair share of races and tracks. Daytona for the 24 Hours, Indy for F1 and the 500, Mid-Ohio for Indy Cars and Kentucky for Indy Car, NASCAR Trucks and ARCA.

[Shazam]

You did your NASCAR experience? How was it? Please give details!

[Hirsch]

It was a blast. I drove an ex-Richard Childress Impala at the Kentucky Speedway.

I went to the early class, 8am, and arrived about 7:15am. I got to drive through the tunnel and my V6 sound great in 2nd gear! Hanging out in the parking lot I got to meet Ernie Irvan.

The "drivers meeting" was a 20 minute video and a 20 minute Q & A session. Since it was early and a little damp outside we had to wait while they ran the track dryers and walked the top of the turns. Then it was a matter of waiting until your pager went off, but since it was in the early class there were only about 10 of us and the wait was short.

The cars are full on NASCAR stock cars bought from Sprint cup teams. They were all Chevy's, some Impala's and a couple Monte Carlo's. They were, however, "chipped". Rev limited to about 5200RPM. In the car you are in a 5 point harness, you have spotter to car communication with a spotter that talks to you all the way around the track. They start you out at about 4200RPM and step you up each lap. I saw 5000RPM on the back straight, about 150mph. My fastest lap speed was 147.85mph. The cars seemed, and I really hate to say this for fear of sounding arrogant, pretty easy to drive and I didn't think I was going anywhere close to 147mph. I'm certain the cars were set up specifically for the track, but still. Granted, I wasn't surrounded by 42 other cars either.

At any given time they are 4-6 cars on the track plus the ride-along car. I didn't pass anyone, but no one passed me. Except for the ride along car, which was blasting around the top of the track 20 mph faster than I was!

Me and Swervin' Ernie Irvan.

[euromobile900]

I just climbed (on feet) to the top of Mt. Washington to watch the Climb to the Clouds hill climb.

Here are the results.

And some pictures!

I like the bumper sticker in blue. It reads "It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether I win or lose!" Advice to live by.


Best paint job in class goes to this BMW 2002. It also had different rims on all four corners. It finished 2 minutes behind the leader. And yes, someone raced in a Freightliner cab. It got 0.36 seconds slower than the BMW.


A Sirocco. I always liked these. Too bad they couldn't bring the Durocco (twin engine version) there!


Still not sure what this is, but those gauges are beautiful! No roll bar or seatbelts.

At the finish line, they were going so fast I could barely keep them in the camera frame. Here's 3rd place, the Audi SuperChicken!

Nice intercooler! It has a 5cyl turbocharged engine running much boost, and utilizes a Quattro drivetrain for much traction on the dirt sections.


And the winner, with a time of 6 minutes, 11 seconds, was Dave Higgins of Subaru USA in a heavily modified WRX STI. It was a new record for the Mt. Washington auto road! And I saw him finish! He descended with the checkered flag sticking out his window. Considering the Mt. Washington auto road usually takes 45 minutes or more to drive up, and the hike takes 3 hours for an experienced, young, fit guy like me, and the fastest downhill skier to ever descend did it in about 6:12, topping 90mph at times, this is very impressive.
In the clouds at altitude like this, you really have to know the road. Dave Higgins spent hours and hours on the course yesterday and the day before, practicing. Since it's a hill climb, there is no co-driver and no pace notes, but you get lots of practice.

And finally, my favorite car of the day.

Which happened to contain my least favorite people of the day. TSL members... They were nice to me until the subject turned to forums. They asked me what forums I was on and what my username was, and upon hearing "euromobile900", one told me it "sounds like something a 14-year-old would come up with". Such immature snarky commentary does not go over well with me.
That said, as in many cases, I still like the car and driving, despite who's doing it. Here's an in-cockpit video:

He grinds on one downshift and has a wiper issue, but other than that, a clean run!

All in all, a good day at the rally! I was glad I did it this way--all the spectacle, and I didn't even need to pay for gas to get there

[Hirsch]

That looks like fun!

Sorry about the TSL members, usually the guys from the north east tend to be a bit nicer and more mature than, well, most of the rest of the TSL members.

Who were they?