You guys are awesome. Mr. Weld.....you should have made the trip, it was an epic weekend =) and I would love to meet you in person someday.
I got to meet a ton of people from this forum, great people all of them. I loved talking with everyone (I am not great with names sorry about that)
Pretty great group we have here.
What an insane weekend, not even sure I can put it all into this post but I will give it a shot.
Rolled in with my friends from Seattle and their bad ass car. Got some fuel in the old girl and got through Tech and threw some stickers on it. Very cool place to spend some time.
So day 1 was autocross day and I was pretty nervous. I had done a few auto cross races but not enough to be good at it. I quickly found out a few flaws in my plan.....seat.....seatbelt. I ran through the auto cross course 11 times I think in the course of three hours. There were some incredibly quick cars there and crazy talented drivers.
Towards the end of my morning session I realized I had to do something about staying in the seat as I was having to hang onto the outside of the truck in order to stay in the seat, but it just was not working.
I did make some incremental adjustments to the truck that morning though, adjusted the settings on the coilovers a couple of times to get it to flatten out a little bit more as well as dropped the air pressure in the tires to increase rearend grip. They both helped a ton and the truck was working really well.
It just so happens that my friend Dan (DBasher) had bought a set of ProCar buckets for his mustang project and he was picking them up there. I thought they might be close so I unbolted my seat and looked how close it would be. Two new holes in my brackets later and I had a seat that would hold me in.
The good eyes will also notice a steering wheels swap... this one has less dish, is an inch bigger and has nubbs on the back for traction. These two changes transformed the truck....I am learning a lot.
Funny thing is that these seats put me in a way better driving position, lower and farther back. I ran the rest of the weekend with this setup.
So we got through lunch with the seat swap and off to the Speed Stop challenge. This is a little faster and really tests the take off, turn and brakes. This was awesome and I really enjoyed this, the truck did really well. It was awesome being lined up with all of these beautiful super high dollar cars in the staging lanes and holding my own =)
Dan shot some great photos and sent them to me (Thanks Dan for the help all weekend, you and your boys made the weekend for me)
Truck flat hooks from a dig.
Those that were asking how the brakes work pay attention here. FANTASTIC!!! It took me a few tries in the stop box to get it dialed in but the big girl comes to a stop and fast.
Great weight transfer and the truck did really well. Finished I think 13th out of 24 in my class. I have never done this before, I was really happy with how the truck performed so far.
Did the evening cruise with no issues and actually really enjoyed it. I met a ton of new friends and people and once the truck was out on the courses I got a few more people coming by to talk to me about it. Pretty sure people loved it
I went over it all early sunday morning and could not find an issue so far, all bolts were tight. Made some additional adjustments to the coilovers before hitting my track session.
I was really nervous to be honest.
I had three really great track sessions but slow, I am not comfortable on the track yet but the truck was awesome. First session was loose in the backend and I ran really low on fuel so I pulled off. Filled up the tank and the back end got a lot more planted. I need stiffer rear springs, I know that.
Keep in mind this is a pickup, built in my garage in just a few months and it was hanging with some pretty cool cars out on track.
I lost a power steering belt on the last session, ran the 15 minute session with no power steering and other than being a handful on the arms the truck still drove fine so I stayed out there the entire session.
Power was awesome, the motor did not miss a beat, has a ton of power and not to sound cocky but it sounds friggin incredible when I am on it.
Exhaust turned an awesome color at the end of the weekend after getting some hard beating for hours and hours.
Tires are nicely scrubbed in and have worn pretty well. =)
So here is where the weekend took a turn.
These guys came over and started to talk to me, then they got a few more people to come over and look at the truck, then they wanted more information and asked if we could go take some better video and sit down and talk about the truck.
It was super cool and they dug the truck.
So these guys shot a bunch of video of the truck. I got it all loaded up and ready to hit the road as I had not placed anywhere in the top spots.
Hanging out at the end watching them announce the class winners and they got ready to read out the overall but started with the "Spirit of the Event award" Presented by K&N. I had talked to Mike from K&N for a fair bit of time over the weekend.
I was in utter amazement when he called up number 68....that was my number. This was just not happening right now....Not it was real.
I hustled up on stage and shook Mike's hand and Jimmy Day from OPTIMA's hand and they asked me if I can make it to SEMA. Of course I can make it to SEMA.
They took a little video of the truck and me and we all got on our way.
I could not be much happier with how the truck performed over the weekend, I have a lot to learn and some small changes to make like Brake Ducts, proper Seat, harnesses, some better front brakes (for brake fade on the track not more stopping power.)
Thanks all for the encouragement over the past few months, it was all totally worth it.
Sean
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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