National Corvette Museum Motorsports park report

[SSLance]

Things are starting to settle back down now that we are home, unpacked and trying to get back in a routine. My wife, two dogs and myself loaded up in a borrowed RV pulling Barney on a trailer and headed for the Ultimate Street Car Assoc event being held in Bowling Green, KY last weekend. Lotta firsts for this trip, and most of them went pretty smooth. The wife and dogs had a great time camping in the pits, Lance had fun thrashing on his car all weekend, the camaraderie at these events is top notch, even the guys with $150,000 cars and transporters hauling them are just as easy to talk with and share notes with as the little guys pulling their cars in on open trailers or even driving them in. Spent a lot of time chatting with Andy Hollis and his wife, super nice people, also finally met Jason Luebcke and his wife from STL and many others as well.

Enough chatting though, here are my fastest Speed stop and autocross runs...

TBvhqvUDphY

The speedstop course was crazy, it was held on the East part of the road course and had elevation changes, a blind corner after the chicane and the stop box was on a portion that was heading downhill. I slid completely through the box on my second run and never really recovered from that, stopping early on all of the rest of the runs.

The autocross course was the same as from the match tour held there a few weeks ago and while not really to my liking, I learned how to get the best out of it eventually. It took adding ballast in the right seat to finally set a good time there, to offset all of the long right hand turns at the start. I finished 6th in class in the autocross portion, pretty proud of that given the big names up in front of me.

Here is my video from the 3rd session on the road course.

NyQflxgPmug

VERY technical and intimidating course...got to watch a good friend running from his 63 split window with flames leaping ten feet high from it on my second session. Sobering events like that will change your perspective in a hurry. This track will bite you in an instant if you aren't on top of your game, 8 or 9 laps at speed on it will wear you and your junk out. Super fun but I had to be cautious at the same time, call it self preservation... On the cool down laps after session 3 I heard a grinding noise...so I punted and put the car on the trailer for the day. Still haven't looked to see what it was, probably a wheel bearing or brake pad. Car was too damn hot to even touch, much less diagnose or repair.

Overall it was fun, can't wait to do it again. There are several of you reading this right now that I think would LOVE to go to an event like this. All the seat time you can shake a stick at, plus plenty of other watching to do between your runs...all for $500 entry (which can be half of that for first timers). You can't beat the deal...

[SSLance]

The autocross course we ran on was VERY similar to the course the KY Region used for the Match tour there two weeks prior. Brian Mason said this course was about a half second faster on both paper and in his car.

I ran a 50.432 for a best time.

Here are the results from the match tour

http://cdn.growassets.net/user_files/scca/downloads/000/004/168/Kentucky_Match_Tour_Saturday_Final_Class_Results3. pdf?1433104859

Some of you may have heard of the instructor I had in the car with me on the autocross and road course portions last weekend, Mr Tom O'Gorman, the SCCA Solo Driver of the year 2 years ago. He was awesome...

Jet Hot Coatings provides high quality instructors for all participants to use at all USCA events...free of charge. I always take advantage of them when I can.

Here I am enjoying a laugh with my friend Jeff before the road course portion Sunday morning.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZSev4OlMXASWB5Vnn6_AiTIGBav2J_4P2FWtpJRJiods=w1082-h731-no

[SSLance]

Coming out of chicago box on speed stop course

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/YJ-TSA7b85rT1pKNnRwxelDLgum442mxo7bRAy9-HRaa=w1530-h775-no

Which way do I go?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ToBUd1rGKEWUzKbqJRGAibi2VuT4zvuLun_bMLN9wUPf=w857-h512-no

79 Camaro that outscored Barney and Tully's Valient in the Engineering and Design portion. If you look closely, you can see the paint bubbling up all along the top of the door.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/j_MDEzlnV-rKrKiY4m_5oinDhLhE7Wc6afijvbLV_aPG=w1273-h521-no

Hard on the binders, pretty sure this was during my fastest run, Tom is in the right seat with me.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tKFNmz8PH7VBJ3lsPvnCJnqKIZB8IMpO0uOh1IttUnzQ=w1118-h775-no

Parked next to my new friend Keith and Velocity at the Holley plant. Took a pretty cool tour of the plant before the feast Holley put out for us.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/B8nEtfaWjVrUW0aT3wO8zc1dNOd80nsze4j-sNMeP4jE=w1034-h775-no

Beautiful Nova that was there with us

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0-822TiXmKSHT-w7PiWzO6Z7ynSgzNGBeeiD2MrXF1vj=w1034-h775-no

Best part was being able to take the wife and dogs with me...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ehq0Y6VkYh_qDGy0Bt6NuYQhNOFtE-dbXwkHA8YpWKfe=w533-h327-no

[SSLance]

Overall results for the event are here

http://clubregistration.net/clients/usca/results/overall.cfm?eventID=6454

I ran in the GTV class and finished 9th overall out of 13 cars that posted times.

http://clubregistration.net/clients/usca/results/overall.cfm?eventID=6454&class=GTV

I am pretty proud of my autocross time though, finished 6th out of 13 with names like Finch, Tucker, Woo and Porter just in front of me.

http://clubregistration.net/clients/usca/results/overallDetails.cfm?subEventType=AX

I think with a little more time and runs on the Speed Stop I could have done better there and with the Road course I need to work on getting my fast lap in on the early sessions. By the time I had the track down and was starting to press, it was so hot the grip had gone away. My road course sessions were also cut short due to a grinding noise that I still haven't diagnosed.

Overall still proud of how my little home built car did, the Ron Sutton tune on the suspension opened a few more eyes I believe...now I just have to figure out how to get the car show judges to recognize the true quality of the car. Obviously the carpeted trunk didn't do the trick...

[glassman]

Nice pics and write up Lance. Glad you had fun out there as i know i did. Funny how frustrating it can be yet still be one of the best/most rememberable times in our lives for us amateur's

[SSLance]

I never got frustrated with any of it...how can you when you are out beating on your car as much as you can... :D

The scoring deal is what it is, any changes still probably wouldn't have moved me much in the final tally. I just hope it shows just how well the car and driver did against the other mid-pack cars in the actual timed events, which people might miss if they just look at the grand totals.

Found a loose front wheel bearing, excessive backlash in the diff and one flat spotted tire...other than that it's all good. I'm thinking put that flat spotted tire on the back and finish off the diff rounding out the flat spot...what do you think? :D

[Beach Cruiser]

I'll be taking the trackmaro to the Charlotte event. I expect to fail miserably in the design/engineering portion even though my car was built at home and completely engineered by me, but it has minimum interior and very few amenities. No A/C, currently no stereo or carpet. From a pure engineering standpoint it's brilliant with the C5 front end, LS6, and IRS though.

Any tips you can share? Also, I was kinda surprised that the 3200lb min weight was without the driver. WTF? I'm going to have to add over 200lbs on top a full tank of gas to get over 3200#

I also heard there was a wreck on Sunday? what happened?

[SSLance]

Couldn't you just run in GTL? That is what Mike Dusold runs in with his Camaro.

Regarding tips, I don't know...I know I like to get there early enough on Friday to get my stickers and get all of that done so I can get into tech early Sat morning to get that out of the way. Be ready to run your car...a LOT... They'll split the groups up even numbered cars and odd numbers, evens start on the autox Sat morn while odds run the speed stop, after the lunch break they'll switch. Those sessions are 2 hours 15 minutes long I believe...plenty of time to get a LOT of runs in. Don't wear your stuff out early, while I like the speed stop, no sense killing your car and tires there if that is your first event of the weekend. You are well versed at track events so you know the stuff about keeping hydrated, keeping cool, and keeping safe, all of that applies here as well. Mostly, just have fun hanging with your car friends...you'll make many new ones at this event, they are all good people.

Regarding the wreck...it was a bad deal. Not much has been said publicly about it yet and I don't really want to be the first one sharing the details. I know this, I came around a corner and saw dust...then 10' tall flames...and a friend of mine climbing out and running from his burning car. It was a very sobering moment for me and I'm sure many others there.

Here's what I saw...

LUbzmW46mG4

I'm sure more will come out about it eventually once the dust settles so to speak.

[wiedemab]

Any idea who owns that Nova?

[SSLance]

Mark Turner... It's a beauty for sure. Nicely done...

[Flash68]

Wow... big flames... no bueno.

[wiedemab]

Mark Turner... It's a beauty for sure. Nicely done...

I wondered if it was. I haven't talked to him in a while, but I know Mark well.

[Beach Cruiser]

man I hate to see things like that. The worst is sitting in the paddock and the track comes to an all stop, then you see your buddies car coming back all wadded up and he's no where to be found. I put a lot of safety stuff in my car because I want to come back. I just put a full fire system in it this winter, with one nozzle on the gas tank and two in the engine compartment.

As far as wearing out my car, I'm pretty good at doing that! Almost everything on my car I can get at the local parts store to keep me running. Almost...

looks like it was a fun weekend, can't wait to go to Charlotte!

[SSLance]

I should talk about Advance Auto Parts a bit...I forgot all about this.

They are a new sponsor to the Optima Series...and frankly they do something so cool it needs to be talked about. They set up a little unassuming 10x10 pop up tent on site and have a couple people manning the tent. They give away some doo-dads thru raffle drawings and stuff out of the tent...but mainly...they help source needed parts so the participants can fix their junk and get it back out on the track.

Need some brake shoes? Tell the guys in the tent, they get on the horn find what you need and get it delivered to the track pronto like!! Need power steering fluid...they get it for you... At NCM they even sent an employee to a competitor's store to buy a part for a participant that they didn't have in stock at any of their locations... How freaking cool is that?!?!

I heard from several people over the weekend about how Advance saved their behinds and got them back out on the track ASAP. Had I had my wheel bearing failure earlier in the day, I'm certain I would have used them for the parts and got my junk back out on the track as well.

[Beach Cruiser]

that's really cool that they do that right on the track. I don't know how many times I've had to send "runner" into town to pick up something from the local parts store. In fact last time it was a wheel bearing.

[SSLance]

Jeff posted some pictures of his Corvette (or what's left of it) on facebook.

The interior pictures are horrible...

[chichirone]

Great write up Lance. Appreciate the pics and the video. Glad Jeff is okay. I met him at the Texas event in March. His car was one of my favorites from the event. Your write up brings back great memories of past USCA events for me and reinforce how awesome these events are, especially with the support of the vendors and fellow participants. Thx for sharing your experiences.