American Iron At Watkins Glen Oct 2nd and 3rd 2010

[Al Watson]

American Iron At Watkins Glen Oct 2nd and 3rd 2010

 

American Iron, American Iron Extreme and Camaro Mustang Challenge racers took to the pavement at Watkins Glen this past weekend. To start the weekend off we had 7 AI cars, 7 AIX cars and a fellow CMCer which to date is the largest turnout in the Northeast for the series. Thanks to all who came out to race including several drivers from other regions. Nasa northeast put on a great event for all including a saturday night BBQ which was a big hit.

 

Saturdays AI qualifying had Brian Faessler and his 2011 Mustang on the pole. Come race time Faessler took a commanding lead setting a new track record but in the closing laps slowed which allowed Rob Avati to close up and pass for the win by a fender at the start/finish line. The final order and best laps were Rob Avati 2:10.439, Brian Faessler 2:09.457, Todd Honczarenko 2:11.138, Albert Watson 2:13.520 and Raphael Prato 2:16.905. Jay Andrew and Bill McNerney both had mechanicals and didn't start ending their weekend.

 

Sundays AI qualifying had Brian Faessler on the pole again. At race time Faessler, in his 2011 Mustang prepared by Pauls Automotive Engineering, took his pole and converted it to a win resetting the track record from saturdays race. Rob Avati slowed in the race allowing Todd Honczarenko to take second. Albert Watson lockup up the brakes and put his mustang in the gravel traps giving 4th to Raphael Prato. The final order and best laps were Brian Faesller 2:08.662, Todd Honczarenko 2:10.564, Rob Avati 2:11.444, Raphael Prato 2:16.428 and Albert Watson 2:12.071.

 

AIX/CMC: Guys please chime in with your stories as well. Thanks.

 

In Car videos to come shortly.

[Red Tornado]

Nice! That was one of my favorite weekends of last year. Sounds like you all were tearing it up and no blown zr1's this year to halt race early..

[74 mach]

First of all, it was nice to see all the AIX cars signed up. Sorry that a few had problems.

 

I have not been to the Glen since they put the chicane in, and it was Brian's first event there, so we were excited about the weekend.

 

During Fridays testing, Brian said that he knew he was going to like the Glen, but didn't know he was going to like it this much! Apparently the track suited him well!

 

Jake Parrott brought his nicely prepared 2nd gen camaro, which ran very strong(great race start on Saturday!).

Chris Belieu brought his fox body turbo car, and was running well on Friday testing, but did not show up on Saturday. What happened?

Brian and Nick Gill brought their FR500C(from Alabama I believe), and ran well.

Jim Pantas brought his Fox Mustang(in which he finished 2nd at this years Nationals), and other than an alternator problem ran well.

William Hallinan brought a 94-98 Mustang(not sure what year). William and I both had no start problems for Saturdays practice session, and we both had to get towed in from the grid. I did not see his car again.

It turned out that I had a blown fuse, which was easy to fix.

With the 5 min to go signal on grid for saturdays race start, I pushed the start button and the fuse blew again. Luckily I had taped an extra fuse to the roll bar, and was barely able to unbuckle, take my gloves off, replace the fuse, and strap back in with seconds to spare.

I was very happy how my car performed, as we were able to burn almost all the gas(over 50 gallons) we brought, and other than rotating tires didn't have to get a tool out of the tool box.

 

Most of the AIX guys stopped by to say hello, and I appoligize for not getting around to see your cars.

 

Thanks to Tom Statnick for your help showing me around the track.

 

There was a great group of people this weekend, and my family and I had a great time.

[Al Watson]

In car videos from #70 AI: http://www.youtube.com/user/302blown

[jrsmotorsports]

Paul, it was nice meeting you and your son this weekend, it was even better racing with you.

I had a wet sump oil pan decide to crack and drip oil on the exhaust during saturdays race, i finished the race in 5th overall behind paul. The manufacturer metal finished there welds on the sump, and evidently there wasnt enough strength as it cracked right along edge, we could not get it fixed good so we did not race sunday.

I will be installing an a.r.e dry sump set up on the car in the coming weeks, beyond that, i can now start to fine tune the car.

Again, sorry I didnt meet everyone, with the oil pan issue it didnt leave alot of time.

I will be going to njmp thunderbolt over halloween, hopefully we can have a nice field of ai/aix cars there.

Jake

a few pics my wife took.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Guest

[AJ Hartman]

I'll be at NJMP Halloween weekend. See you all there.

[tacovini]

Good stuff! How awesome is that to see the early Camaro & Mustang out there with the modern iron!?!?

Hats off to you guys...sounded like a great event!

 

-=- Todd

[jrsmotorsports]

Few more pics from an awesome weekend.

[thonczarenko]

Great pic of the 2011 Mustang.... from that angle, it looks like nobody is driving.

 

That was the best weekend of racing I have ever had (I think it's my 5th race weekend ever, but I know it will be my favorite for a long time).

 

Paul's Performance, you forgot to mention you needed to replace a lost nut for one of the hood pins.

 

Can't wait to do it again!

-Todd

[74 mach]

Todd,

 

I did forget about replacing the hood pin nut. Thanks for digging one up for us.

 

By the way our shop's name is Paul's Automotive Engineering.

 

Looking foreward to racing with you guys again next year.

[Jim P.]

It was a blast! I can't wait for next year! I can see that I need to ditch the 375hp engine and go with 800hp to keep up with that crowd!