Tim Comeau Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 (edited) Good afternoon race fans................ Get a beer now.......this is kinda long. I've been trying to catch up around the house. Anyway, it was a pretty good weekend. Cheap. Good racing. Good friends. Got a later start than I wanted, which meant a long time on the freeway Friday afternnoon. That's ok. I just settled into my Recaro seat and relaxed. Got to the hotel, checked in, had a burger and 2 Fosters. Good night. Jason, Dylan, and I shared a room, which helped make the venture cost less. Good teamwork! Saturday, practiced, qualified. It was a huge field. Only 3 of us, which hurt the TOYO TIRES bucks, but the whole grid was 70-something cars. They could only grid the first 50 or so. The rest of us were just kind of loosely lined up in the paddock. And that's how they let us out on the track for the start of the race! Holy Crap! What was that? Oh well...... Nice clean start. Cars stacked up on the right of the slow off ramp apex. Big hole around the outside though. Thanks, I'll fill that hole. Picked up 3 or 4 positions going around the outside. Caught up to Dennis, took the lead and was walking away. I finally had my first car-to-car contact. I got together very lightly with the # 17 VW rabbit coming out of the star bmazda turn. Fender and door damage. He folded my side view mirror back! I just pushed it back out, made a slight adjustment and it was good to go! The enduro was foremost in my mind since the week before, so I started working on more and more speed, trying to learn the track for night time. Pushed a little too hard coming out of the bus stop........round she went. Crap! Stalled the car! Frickin' rookie! I never stall the car! There goes Dennis for the lead. Couldn't catch him before the race ended. But, at least now I knew how fast I COULDN'T go in that turn! 1. Puddester 2. Comeau 3. Spargo 2 hours till the enduro. Dylan and Discussed a very simple plan since we didn't have radios. I'd come in at the half way point for fuel (Dylan) and a possible driver change(Dylan) depending on how I felt. I said I'd conserve the tires and fuel. Shifted at 5800 rpm, never went through Riverside flat out, slowed for other turns. That was the plan. We thought I'd use 3/4 tank in 1.5 hours because I usually burn 4-5 gallons in a 35 minute race. Tom Spargo would man the fire extinguisher at the 8:00pm pit stop. Race started at 6:35pm. Just getting dark. BTW, NASA was RIGHT on schedule almost all weekend, like a German train! Nice! Away we went, got sorted out, and started into a machine-like effort. No fights for turns, etc. I only wanted to finish. I wanted to find out if I could drive for 3 hours in race conditions. I had my new Camelback water system in place. Somehow, the hose got stuck under my shoulder belt. Couldn't use it. I wasn't that thirsty anyway. I was very careful to keep assessing my performance, watching out for dehydration or fatigue-induced mistakes, but I stayed consistent. Well into the race some idiot pulled a really stupid move and forced me to lock up the fronts and go up onto the curbing to avoid contact. Flat spotted both fronts, one severely. Ruined that tire. Pissed me off. We had words after the race.I made it VERY clear that he made several stupid, silly decisions. Called him a F&ckin' idiot to his face! Anyway, just a hair after 8pm flashed the headlights several times down the front straight, then came in on the next lap. I had to piss like a race horse! Into the tower I went, helmet still on, into the bathroom, people lookin' at me all funny....I said, "What? This is a real pit stop!" Slammed a pepsi while Dylan finished fueling. We only added about 7 gallons. Burned half a tank in 1.5 hours. Jumped back in and pulled out. On the way out of the pits, another Mazda was coming in, I guess, and looking for his pit box. He stopped very suddenly and I had to grab a whole hand full of right steering wheel to keep from hitting him. It was close. The racing gods were just trying to throw obstacles at me. Back out into the race. Ran harder for the last half hour because I wanted to finish ahead of that butthead in the Mazda who ruined my tires. Couldn't catch him. Finished the enduro at 9:35pm. Thank you to Dennis and Laurie for saving me some trackside BBQ food. I was dead tired after that long day. Thanks to Dylan and Tom for making my enduro debut possible. Sunday's sprint race was a challenge. Qualifying was cut short because Jason's car was stuck on track after only 2-3 laps. I wasn't running hard yet when they threw double yellows, then "black all." Saturday, I qual'd at 2:16.7. Sunday I qual'd at 2:29!!!! I started the race in 66th out of 68 cars. Dennis was 12 cars ahead of me! Tom was 3 spots ahead? Jason started dead last, but at least he was there. My work was cut out for me. Head down, turn on the racing machine. I caught Dennis in 3 or 4 laps. The traffic was wildly fun! In star mazda, a Miata spun in front of Dennis and he got screwed. He didn't have much time to "read" the spin, and he chose wrong. He went hard left up onto the painted curbing, oversteered hard and lost his head of steam. I had a little more time to watch things unfold because I was farther back. I went through with just enough of a speed advantage to pip Dennis going into the esses. We were side by side up to that point and I gave him all the room I could, almost putting the left 2 in the dirt. I walked away, dialed it back a little, held the lead and won. 1. Comeau 2. Puddester 3. Spargo 4. Wilberding I have roof-top video of both races! ps. I DID have a can of Campbell's soup just before the race................there's something in that soup....... It was a busy, hectic, fun, exciting weekend with some good buddies. Hope to see more of you guys soon. Edited April 7, 2004 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Comeau Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 You guys, I swear I didn't type "pee-diddly-diddly" when I wrote this report. Someone wussy-fied it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgrow Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Sounds like fun Tim. Dennis is great fun to race with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David J Marguglio Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 At the risk of swelling your already over-swollen head, well done Timmy. Perhaps next time you can rig a catheter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom #16 Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Anyone know why mylaps.com only has the Enduro and Groups L and B? Is it due to protests? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanutinCA Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 That would be my guess Tom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Comeau Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 There were a number of infractions reported by corner workers. I saw the list myself. I wasn't on it this time! They may be sorting out the final results, which is ok by me because it extends the time I have to earn and turn in my TOYO TIRES Bucks! 90 days from release of official race results, right? Oh, and I have to keep pumping up my own ego............cuz you guys keep bashing me, throwin' down the voodoo curses, puttin' psychlogical warfare post cards on my dash just out of reach after I'm belted in........... It all evens out and I come out just a regularly modest guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
944-Spec#94 Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Could be that since it was a Nor-Cal/So-Cal crossover event Nor-Cal did their groups and the endro while So-Cal will post theirs. I heard they would be posted Wedensday. Maybe it will happen later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASA Jim Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 You guys, I swear I didn't type "pee-diddly-diddly" when I wrote this report. Someone wussy-fied it up! Ah, yes, we have Ned Flanders filtering out bad words on the forums. It happens auto-magically. Good Enduro! Those pesky SE-Rs can't touch the mammoth gas tank of the 944. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtbracr1 Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 fuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtbracr1 Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 it does filter words automatically!!! i tried to write f u c k and it changed it to foo diddly diddly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtbracr1 Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 shit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Comeau Posted April 8, 2004 Author Share Posted April 8, 2004 Aw, come on Jim. My tank is only 17.4 gallons. I can keep up with those SE-R's on some tracks but they have a little better power to weight ratio. Plus I was shifting at 5800 to save fuel. If you want to talk PESKY................it's the chic-car Miata's! I had to swat 'em like flies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkworm Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 I had a good time chasing you guys in the 944s! Hope you guys can make it up north for some of the Norcal races. Paul Cabana #33 PS-1 RX-7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom #16 Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 I had a good time chasing you guys in the 944s! Hope you guys can make it up north for some of the Norcal races. Paul Cabana #33 PS-1 RX-7 I hope so too. I must run Thunderhill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Comeau Posted April 10, 2004 Author Share Posted April 10, 2004 Yeah, I'd love to run TH also. It's all a matter of $$$$$$$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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