LRP Updates

Yup, Andy was the man in ITA yesterday, no doubt!! Nice job!!
I hope nobody believes Andy's crying about LRP being the only track he can do well at. He has that carr hooked up and between his momentum from yesterday and Greg wanting to redeem himself, the next Sept race at NHIS should be GREAT!! I just hope I get to see some of it before they pull off into the sunset!!

I also want to thank Matt Kessler. Without his help it would have taken me a whole season to get where I am. 1:02's here I come!! :cavallo: :lol:

A month ago I didn't think the Saturn was capable of 1:02s. But now, hmmmmmmmmmm..................


Oh, and I want to thank Joe for not hitting me!! Although it was very close...................
 
and andy doesn't think the car is ready for the ARRC....c'mon bring it down! Congrats on the win it seemed like it was hard fought! :birra:
 
On an unrelated tangent:

Someone (other than Greg Meindl) had mentioned to me this weekend that they knew of a Nissan NX2000 sitting around, probably for sale. I cannot for the life of me remember who that was! Whoever you are, would you please contact me offline (grega -at- pobox -dot- com)?

Thanks!
 
Oh, and I want to thank Joe for not hitting me!! Although it was very close...................
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You are welcome Mr.Lawton but, like you said to Doug if the postion was for a 3 dollar plastic trophy it would have been a different story. :P
 
Hey all you ITA guys great racing...............I heard it first hand from Joe D today at Pocono. It's much better when he tells it with all his animation...thanks Joe....... :happy204:



Now for my two endurance teammates ....way to go Greg and Jeff.!!!.........now Kirk and I have two big heads to deal with come the 13hr at VIR...............sheesh !!!!
 
Couple other items of interest to me:

I hope the 240SX of Max Lingenheld is not broken too badly. He got 7 laps in before a mechanical forced him to park it on the inside of Big Bend...still my favorite car Max!!!

Also, nice to see a couple new ITA Neons. Both showed very promising straight away speed - hope the development continues strong!
 
wow, wow mom, relax!!! I will post, trust me!!! Also give out better information.. IE: pay a bit more attention when I talk!!! Yo made it sound like I had problems with the ITS cars, that was not the case for once!!!

Paul Curran qualified first in ITB, not Eric in 1st and 5th... lol had to. :dead_horse:

Huge cudo's go to Paul Curran for running a great weekend all together. I was very glad to see that new Volvo running strong!!!

As for my race, I did great finding the holes in turn 1 and through the S's. I would not say my start was strong but my first lap sure was!!! On the first lap I didn't pass any cars until we hit the braking zone for big bend, but thats when I passed about 5 or 6 cars!!! I ran quick for the first couple laps, was out in front with some VERY fast ITS cars, both great drivers. My car was handling great with the new Bilstiens (more to come on that later tomorrow sometime). I had to check up a couple times for an ITS car, and I only mention this cause I thought it was awsome that I was even playing with these cars/drivers as they generally would kick my butt anyday. I bumped him once in west bend (sorry, I owe ya a :birra: ) cause I couldn't slow anymore than I had, but it didn't upset either car, and I don't think it left a mark on either one as well. Anyway... on the 3rd or 4rth lap with a decent lead over Paul and Mike (who knows if I could have maintained it) I was feeling very comfortable and the car was gripping well considering the slippery conditions. I was braking for the downhill settling the car and driving through it (the track was slippery due to some drizzles). It seemed to work well however after reviewing the tape you can see the brakes come on (I have a brake light on my dash for the camera, can't get away with anything!!!). The car was fine, however the moment I release the brakes is when the rear end snapped around going down the hill. the car was instantly facing backwards and I was off to the wall... I had NEVER experienced this and what a wierd feeling it was. It took forever to hit the wall and the entire time I was wondering.. Ok how do I brace myself for a rear end hit... head down head back... hummm... well we eventually hit rear corner first and the front then whipped around and smacked the left front sideways. The hit cosmetically only messed up the rear bumper and the left front fender, however it was hard enough that it sheered off every motor mount in the car and wedged itself (the motor) cockied within the unibody. As a result the linkage and clutch was all &^%'ed up. I couldn't get reverse but drove the car forwards against the wall and back out onto the track. The car at first shifted ok, but as things got jossled around I found only 3rd gear... at one point I had no gears and went to park it with Mike in big bend and hang out with him, then realized that wasn't the safest place!!! Luckaly found 3rd again and went on to finish the long race keeping it in 3rd gear!!!

Well thats my story, I went from hero to zero in about 1 second or maybe less... I wanted a win to secure the championship, but that didn't happen... Now the season comes closer to an end and we have a 3 way battle for the points championship;

Raymond Blethen 83 Points - 5 Races with points (All remaining races count towards the total 8)
Stephen Blethen 77 Points - 6 races with points (worst finish w/points 4th, 2 more races and a better finish count)
Tim Mullen 75 Points - 6 races with points (worst finish w/points 4th, 2 more races and a better finish count)
Paul Curran 60 Points - 6 races with points (2 of those being 9th place finishes @ 1 point each, 2 more races and a better finish count)

As my girlfriend says... oh well, things just got interesting!!! we shall see. I don't think that Tim or Paul can make all of cheepdate, so it might be an outright battle between my bro and I... I can certainly tell you nether one wants to loose to the other!!! stay tuned...

Raymond

oh and PS:

Great way to win by Eric Purham in ITC... we were cheering like crazy from the hill.
Andy... you kick @$$ THAT WAS AWSOME!!!
Jeff Lawton, way to go :happy204: I am very impressed!!!
Ray Lee Man great to see you guys back at the track wondering around....
and to all the ITB guys, what a blast with interesting twists and turns yet again!!! :035:
 
Hey all you ITA guys great racing...............I heard it first hand from Joe D today at Pocono. It's much better when he tells it with all his animation...thanks Joe....... :happy204:
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Me ? I would never talk like that (flailing arms and typing at the same time is diffcult. ) Couldn't be me. Sorry I can't help it the italian side takes over some times. :D
 
************NEW UPDATE***********

Rumor has it that Richie just made it to the track. :lol:



(As Richie said, he's never gonna hear the end of this one.)
 
I had to check up a couple times for an ITS car, and I only mention this cause I thought it was awsome that I was even playing with these cars/drivers as they generally would kick my butt anyday. I bumped him once in west bend (sorry, I owe ya a :birra: ) cause I couldn't slow anymore than I had, but it didn't upset either car, and I don't think it left a mark on either one as well.

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No harm no foul - sorry I held you up, I was tentative in those first few damp laps. As you say, the bump didn't upset either car.

Steve
 
The only really bad thing to happen is that Chip VanSlyke ended up against the pit berm wall after the Downhill. Damage looks terminal, the car is pretty beaten up. I've got no details as to what happened, but I am glad to hear second-hand that he is OK.
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I went off drivers left in the downhill and slid across track and hit the inside tire wall. Single car incident -driver error. Still not sure why.

I was uninjured. Not even neck or head pain (as in previous hits) for which I have to give credit to the HANS.

The car is heavily damaged. Probably not worth fixing. Damage to the frame in the front and left rear. LR shock tower is pushed in 1.25 inches. Oh well, it wasn't that good of a car to begin with.

Good race everyone else. Looks like there were no other serious incidents and it was a clean race.

Chip VanSlyke

'93 ITA Integra #94
 
Highlights from LRP - being able to watch the ITS and downer, not being in the ITS race! Big bore was an awesome race and the stocker is starting to feel natural, but all the lines are a little different in that monster.

Other blood pressure moments - coming out of the trailer after a deep sleep and thinking my atv was stolen until crazy joe drove up with a wild look in his eye - as my son said, "he got you good, dad." B)

Robbed - Tim Mullen was robbed by the oil laid down in big bend. He must have spun big at least twice costing him a great finish.

Robbed - Eric King who spun in diff or trans fluid that got laid down by Jeff Hardings Mazda - huge props to Eric for not hitting the wall and running from 9th back the 4th. Jeff was also robbed of a nice finish by the driveline failure - had to park it, bummer.

Props - great race to watch was Jeff Lawton really kicking some ass out there in ITA with Crazy Joe looking for a bumper to tap loose. Watching Greg I thought he was sandbagging but after talking to him I learned it just wasn't a day where all the dots connected.

Props to Mark Greggory - a true gentleman who checked up for Mr. Ulfelder. I couldn't figure out what was wrong until he relayed that he thought he had passed under yellow and conceded the spot back.

BIG Props to the Autotechnic guys for getting those E46 cars running so well. 1st and 2nd - way to go! Well deserved after all that hard work and significant development dollars. Those things still handle at 3000 lbs and it was cool to watch them scream into big bend, tires smoking and realing in cars fast coming into the short chute before the left hander. Camandella drove a great race for third - this is a guy to watch - smooth and patient - faster than he looks cause the car is just flat on the track.

Biggest Props - Bettencourt - can you believe the margin of victory??? Made all who know him proud. A great competitor and advocate for the sport. He's been looking for that checker and I believe that was the first win in ITA??? 1:02 - damn. You are EMBARASSING the ITS guys!!!!

Great weekend. I blew my clutch - nary a smell before it failed. But my wife and kids came out for the whole weekend and now understands more why we love this sport so much. Other than the clutch, blowing sound at a 107, getting harassed by the officials for sound, the BigSpeed NASCAR machine ran great and I now feel ready to earn back my moniker BANZAI BEN.
 
Ok, Ok, I "Tried" to understand all. You were talking so fast, yet so soft at times.....so, I'm old, and my hearing leaves a lot to be desired. At least I got most of it right. And sorry about the typo. I was so intent on spelling Eric's name right, I typed it twice when I did the edit. (shame on me!)
Wow, sounds like it felt like slow motion there for a minute. Anyone behind you muxt have done some great driving to miss, yes?
 
i was away but congrats to andy.he was on it. at the start of the race i slotted in behind him. coming to the down hill a had a run. a defensive move by andy did not deter me from going inside into bigbend.a couple of wiggles and some blue paint and i have the lead.i lead for a short bit, but that is the end of the fun. i never cranked up the run like a maniac knob enough to keep the pace.i think the almost wrecking the car at the glen that cooled me off a bit. the car was awesome but the driver was so so. the miata is fast at lrp. i am glad to see that chip is allright. during the race it was up against the tire wall mangled and i am thinking i do not want to repeat. just wondering, are we losing too many A cars to wrecks this year? rick
 
Maybe I'm being dense, but I can't get any of your videos to play. All I get are photo snapshots...
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That's weird. I have to burn the video to disk I'll give you a copy.

That's Ok I can't open the zip file you sent me either. :)
 
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