Fun weekend at Willow Springs!!

[Spec-944#70]

Had a great time Sunday even though we could get Jims car to fire up. I was looking forward to playing with Norm as he joined the race and had passed me but we went through a real nasty dust cloud from someone going off in 9 and it resulted in dirt all over my windsheild and eyes plus it made me go 2 wheels off where I picked up a nasty vibration. Would have been fun otherwise.

Sundays race had Mike W easily winning with Tim in second shaking out his new car. Not sure who got 3rd.

PS The other classes of drivers still need to get more heads up and not race with cars not in their classes as we were help up quite a bit. In fact if the Miata and (Honda I think) would have let us pass I would have been able to miss the cloud. Oh well!!

[Packfill]

Fun, My A*S...

 

Seriously, the worst week of my racing career... In a nut shell, the racing Gods just did not want me on the track.... the story of my last 4 days would make any racer laugh....acnd cry....

 

Special thanks to Eric Sorrenson for being a great guy, Jim Richmond for providing info, test tools, flywheel sensors, etc... and TC for the effort... although a VERY FRUSTRATING couple of days, the people are why I joined this class and they did not disappoint....

 

Overall, this is the first race I have DNS's in two years, because of a mechanical..... I probably shouldnt complain...

[Tim Comeau]

Yeah, that was a great weekend. Not only did Norm loan his exhaust hangers, I loaned my spare late computer to Jim Marks, Jim Richmond gave a couple tires to Tom Spargo. Jim wouldn't take any money for the tires.......he just told Tom to be as generous to other drivers in our class. How's that for a class act AND an example of the kind of behavior that our class of equal cars, equal people brings out! NICE! By the way, that not only made Tom's weekend better, it made my weekend better because Tom and I were able to have a great dice specifically because he had those newer tires. See how goodness avalanches?

 

My new car ran flawlessly. Other drivers had lots of nice comments about how clean and sharp it looked. Much appreciated guys! Wait til we get the new Liqui-Moly sponsored graphics on there! I got it going faster and faster. It feels a bit different from the zebra car, though the suspension is identical. In fact, the new red car HAS the zebra's whole rear suspension. The car has a great 75K mile street engine right now, but we might drop the proven zebra engine in there......

I missed racing on Sat. Couldn't get to the track until around noon, then lost some time doing an interview and pictures with a nice lady named Roselyn Poon for inclusion in an Australian Porsche Club magazine. We know a little about Austalia's more expensive 944 spec series. Now they'll know a little more about ours!

The fear of the high desert heat must have made some people shy away because we had only one big race group on track, which made it even more interesting than usual. It also provided more track time, which the event directors kindly translated into another race! An Aussie pursuit! I liked the new NASA beer garden on Sat afternoon! Free beer!

 

Had a great dinner with Jim Richmond, Jay Barton, Mickey Dowling. Mickey was attending the Racing School.

Thanks a ton to Greg Brandeau for hauling a set of wheels back up north to Ken Huey! Greg came down from NorCal just to do the Driving Concepts racing school. How's that for motivation?

There were a few new faces in our camp. Steve Stepanian drove in the HPDE groups and plans on building a 944 spec car. There was also a guy named Robert in a red 85.5. He's a tech from the AUTO GALLERY in Woodland Hills (formerly Ogner Motorcars). They're a big sponsor of the POC's Tribute to Le Mans. So we had Mickey and Norm from the AZ group, Greg from the NorCal group, and the rest of us from SoCal.

 

There were a few others who showed up. Norm came in on Sunday morning and jumped into Mickey Dowling's red car for the race that day. Michael Weeks was there on Saturday but lost a clutch? Jim Marks showed up on Sunday morning along with Eric Sorensen, but Jimmy couldn't get his normally obedient car to start up! He had to sit out Sunday's race. Mike Zanghi drove his other car in Saturday's HPDE then had to head home.

The race on Sunday was fun. I had a great chase/dice with both Jim Richmond and a surprisingly quick Tom Spargo. Tom has become so much faster it ain't funny. He did a stellar job keeping me behind him for most of the race! I was really impressed and told him so afterwards. You know, the driving and close racing just keep getting better in this coolest of classes!

Check out these lap times from Sunday's race finishing order!

1. Weitze 1.38.176

2. Comeau 1.39.919

3.Richmond 1.39.881

4. Hamden 1.40.411

5. Barton 1.40.999

6. Spargo 1.39.752

7. Sorensen 1.42.029

 

Saturday had only 4 944 spec cars racing. The finishing order was:

1. Weitze

2. Spargo

3. Richmond

4. Barton

 

 

 

TOYO TIRES dollars are going out to the first 5 finishers! Get those forms to me to sign and let's get a check back to YOU! My fax # is 619.794.0523

 

This was round 3 of 4 in the new Southwest 944 spec Championship. The final round will be in Dec at PIR. Michael Weeks, a spec car driver and the owner of a new company called, 1st American Racing Products dropped off the gift certificates from his company for the top 3 positions in the Southwest Championship Series! $300 for first, $200 for second, $100 for third.

 

Jay Barton got the big handshake and "Welcome to the Show!" as it was his first wheel to wheel race with NASA! Congrats, Jay!

Edited August 8, 2006 by Guest

[944-Spec#94]

Given the above Results Mikael Weitze takes the lead in the Southwest 944 spec Championship fight.

 

Although the top 9 guys have shot given the 200 points up for grabs in Phoenix this December

 

1. Mikael Weitze.........390

2. Tim Comeau..........345

3. Darren Griffith........329

4. Joe Paluch............. 324

5. Vince Vaccaro.........294

6. Steve Sapareto.......284

7. Glenn Gormley........245

8. Thomas Spargo.......235

9. Norman Hamden......231

 

So the champion will come from this group. The count is 3 So-Cal guys to 6 Az guys. So-Cal does have the top 2 spots, but they have held 4 of the 6 races to date so maybe it was just home town advantge at work.

 

[genikz]

I was close to dragging my sorry ass out there to watch, but got tied up.

 

Sounds like you guys (except Jim ) had fun!

[n wright]

Thanks Eric and Tim for the great re-cap posts. Good seeing Sunday's race turnout. Looks like the heat slowed the field a bit, or maybe traffic?

 

I really can't wait to get out there with you guys!!

 

I'm getting closer. Dropped in the new radiator, fans, front wheel bearings, oil cooler, and master cylinder over the weekend. Still have a ways to go but hope to be done (mechanically) by end of Sept.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Tom #16]

I had a great time also. It's good to be in the middle of the field.

 

Yes, Sunday was much slower than Saturday for some reason.

[JamesWilson]

Good to see the race went well for most! Decided to sit this one out and do some autocross testing on concrete with the new front sway bar setup. Insanely tight course opening to long high-speed offsets up at El Toro with the PCA-Orange Coast Region.

 

With more parts and safety gear coming in all the time, I plan on being out for HPDE4/TT at Buttonwillow in October...it's my birthday weekend, and we've had a few good times up there the past few years with the SCCA groups.

 

-JW

[mweeks]

Tim,

Thanks for the plug!

 

I got one day closer to getting a license, but had a Torque Tube Bearing failure that caused me to miss the sunday race school

 

This class will have the POTENTIAL of a full field soon, there were about 10 drivers attending the race school and 4 where future 944SPEC racers!

 

Anyway, if somebody knows where I can get the torque tube rebuilt or replaced by a good one, let me know.

 

Thanks

[Tim Comeau]

I have 2 or 3 in stock. Early and late.

The early ones don't have the "crash hooks" as an integral part of them. I dig that because you don't have to rotate the torque tube to slide it back for a clutch change, (once you remove the brackets that hold those crash hooks on the early tubes).

[Tom #16]

Jim:

 

What was the problem with your car?

[Steve S.]

What a great time I had this past Sunday at Willow. I started my license quest by driving HPDE3. I was lucky enough to be parked next to Tim and Jay, then to meet Eric and a few other drivers from the 944 Spec class.

 

First off, a BIG Congrats to Jay for is first wheel to wheel race! I wish you could have seen his face from his qualifying run to what it looked like after he took his helmet off as he climbed out of the car. I believe his quote was "That was freakin' awesome!" I can't wait to have a smile that large on my face. Furhtremore, I think Tim was almost as excited for Jay as Jay was for himself.

 

Tim, thanks for taking the time to share some insight and your thoughts on a host of topics. I really do appreciate to taking the time to educate a newbie like me. I am seriously motivated to hit the HPDE's and get on my way to my license. No doubt, I need to hook up with this group. As friendly as they are fast.

 

I hope to meet more of you guys soon and look forward to the next event.

 

Steven Stepanian