EDK's Real Life Racing Exploits

[01GTP]

👍 👍

 

[EDK]

Live ustream of my race. Stream name is rentthisracecar.

Ustream app or ustream.com.

I drive 4th and 8th, probably 1:15 & 8:15 pm local est.

Black suit, white helmet, blue gloves.

 

[billyjoebobx]

Go Kev Go!!
May all the skills you've learned in WRS serve you well.

 

[EDK]

Good News/Bads News/Good News/Bad News/Good News.

• Good News - I raced Daytona, for 2 stints, and had a blast. Was hitting 150 MPH+ (240+ kp/H) on the oval in the Camaro.
• Bad News - Due to a series of issues, I don't have any video of my driving.
  
• Good News - A Car I drove Finished 21st in a 120 car field
• Bad News - It was not the Camaro. We exploded (!) a clutch plate about 2 hours in, had to repair that. And had some other various issues that limited the running time of that car to about half of the 14 hour race.
• Good News - I got to drive 2 different cars at Daytona. And drive at Night, and in the Rain, at Night. The second car I drove in my second stint was a Miata. Which, amazingly, I've never driven one of before. I found it very similar to the MR2 in handling.

I will make a proper writeup soon. I had a 7 am flight back home today, following a 10 pm race finish. That means I am on 4 hours of sleep, and was awake at 1 am West Coast time.

 

[AspecBob]

Wow, the bad news are pretty bad, but the good news are very good!

 

[EDK]

Wow, the bad news are pretty bad, but the good news are very good!

Right. And, the good outweighs the bad.

I had a lot of fun. It's not the first race I missed having video of my best driving. I'll always remember it, with or without video. Driving on the banking is not particularly difficult, or even impressive, but it's not describable, and not like anything you will experience anywhere else.

I was amazed at the awe inspiring size of the speedway. I read over the weekend that 15 football stadiums would fit inside of it. When I first drove by the outside, I could not help but smile, from ear to ear. It's truly awe inspiring.

 

[EDK]

Picture of the racing clutch that came out of the Camaro. Apparently, it also committed suicide on the street replacement with 20 minutes left in the race.

 

[EDK]

And.............

This is what ME getting out of a Miata looks like. Looks pretty normal until the legs appear, eh?

 

[Bleached]

Glad to hear you had fun! Till next time

 

[Jump_Ace]

And.............

This is what ME getting out of a Miata looks like. Looks pretty normal until the legs appear, eh?

I lol'd hard when I saw he was struggling to move the seat up. This world ain't made for guys like us Kev

Can't wait for the write up buddy and to catch up next month at the beerfest


Jerome

 

[millross]

And.............

This is what ME getting out of a Miata looks like. Looks pretty normal until the legs appear, eh?

If you lay down next to the car....which is longer?

 

[Gravitron]

Guess who. Having a blast at The Ridge in Shelton, WA with Clutch on Fire.

I'll try to get some better ones in a bit.

 

[Gravitron]

What an epic weekend.

This was my first real-life racing event, and it definitely won't be my last! Our fearless Dictator @EDK was participating in the latest Chumpcar series race at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, WA this weekend. He and his Clutch On Fire team had a crazy rainy-day race on Saturday, and afterward he drove 110 miles round-trip to come pick me up so I could be there for the Sunday and Monday races. We stopped and had dinner at Fish Tale Brewing in Olympia, followed by some shenanigans that are best left untold.

We got to the racetrack early on Sunday and found overcast skies and dry tarmac. I could sense that the team were eager to throw the race-prepped MR2 at the amazing undulating paradise of The Ridge, with much more gusto now that it was dry.

They only allow spectators at the corkscrew at the lower left, and along the long straight that follows...but hey, it was free. This explains why most of the pics are from the same vantage point. Watching the racing from the twisty bits would be beyond amazing, but only Kev can tell us what *that* was like. We walked the track late Sunday night so that I could get a feeling for what they were dealing with, and my calves are still sore from the hike.

The 9hr Sunday race was relatively incident-free for us until the car-owner/team-leader had his stint late in the day. A white mid-2000's Mustang let him pass without much of a fight, as it wanted to learn the lines from the faster, lighter car. Somehow the Mustang's brakes then immediately failed and dealt the MR2 a huge passenger-side blow.



They sent our driver to the medic for safety, and we were able to keep the car running to finish in the top half. 👍

The "fun run" on Monday was just a 4hr race, and at this point we were just trying to get the car-owner an incident-free stint. Kev put in an awesome 90min stint and was barely sweating when we pulled him into the pits.

Here's some pics I got on my s-l-o-w dumbphone:



















This car won on Sunday and was really something else. 👍

 

[Gravitron]

It's probably not even worth watching this unless you have the sound on. It makes everything seem much s-l-o-wwwwwwer than it was in real-time, but it captures the amazing sounds that were on display:

 

[mr_lab_rat]

Great stuff.

 

[RoeszaGT]

That looks and sounds like an epic race weekend for you @Gravitron and @EDK coming down that crest is awasome I assume.

 

[EDK]

That looks and sounds like an epic race weekend for you @Gravitron and @EDK coming down that crest is awasome I assume.

Well, it's interesting. The turn in is blind and you don't want to be late, as the risk is much greater than the reward. A lot of gravel and dirt ends up on the track there, and it's hard to see it since, like I said, it's blind. I think people spin due to trail braking in or going in hot and end up picking up gravel from the inside and pitching it onto the track.

This is my fast lap from the same track last year, no time to upload vid yet from this year. This is a 2:05.5, I had a couple of 2:06.0xx laps this weekend, one Sunday and one Monday.



The hardest and most interesting part of the track from a driver's perspective is really turn 2/3, and everything after that through turn 8.

My favorite part of the downhill is actually turn 14, the right hander, you can goose the car to rotate and set up for the next turn. And we're a lot faster there than most other cars.

Entering the downhill is kind of like the corkscrew, I hate to say it, but it's just a turn. Those blind uphills with a lot more speed are something else entirely, though.

 

[roamer2629]

Let's start pushing to get kevin's chump car in the game guys
Vision chump car!!
Congrats on the real life racing experience guys 👍

PS: Is the barley wine really that good?

 

[RoeszaGT]

Thank's for sharing it with us @EDK I will watch this thread. You looked very relaxed behing the wheel in the video but ofcourse we can't see the fear in your eyes. Too bad your teammate got hit by A mustang but luckily you could end the race.

 

[EDK]

PS: Is the barley wine really that good?

Barley Wine is good, but not sure where you are picking up on that from?

Are you calling beer "Barley Wine"? Or are you specifically referring to that beer style, which is typically 12%+ ABV and a very specific style.

 

[roamer2629]

Barley Wine is good, but not sure where you are picking up on that from?

Are you calling beer "Barley Wine"? Or are you specifically referring to that beer style, which is typically 12%+ ABV and a very specific style.

I was a bartender for some years, Kev. Barley wine is one thing, your everyday Lager or Pilsen is another. I almost don't drink any beer (I'm a single malt sort of fella') but I do drink barley wine if I have the chance. The link to the brewery you and Lucas went to says it has the best barley wine in the world, and it sounded a bit bold, you know? So that's where this is coming from...

 

[EDK]

The link to the brewery you and Lucas went to says it has the best barley wine in the world, and it sounded a bit bold, you know? So that's where this is coming from...

It almost certainly isn't. But we did not have any that night, and I'm not sure that I've ever tried it.

These guys have one of the best I've tried. It's 17% ABV. http://mikkeller.dk/

This is also one of my favorites, but it strays from the classic style with 110 IBU. http://www.rogue.com/roguebeers/

This one is also very good. http://widmerbrothers.com/2013/10/11/old-embalmer-is-back-this-time-with-a-friend/

And the first I ever tried, an old favorite. http://www.bridgeportbrew.com/drink/big-brews#?cb=old-knucklehead

 

[GTP_Nail]

Well, it's interesting. The turn in is blind and you don't want to be late, as the risk is much greater than the reward. A lot of gravel and dirt ends up on the track there, and it's hard to see it since, like I said, it's blind. I think people spin due to trail braking in or going in hot and end up picking up gravel from the inside and pitching it onto the track.

This is my fast lap from the same track last year, no time to upload vid yet from this year. This is a 2:05.5, I had a couple of 2:06.0xx laps this weekend, one Sunday and one Monday.



The hardest and most interesting part of the track from a driver's perspective is really turn 2/3, and everything after that through turn 8.

My favorite part of the downhill is actually turn 14, the right hander, you can goose the car to rotate and set up for the next turn. And we're a lot faster there than most other cars.

Entering the downhill is kind of like the corkscrew, I hate to say it, but it's just a turn. Those blind uphills with a lot more speed are something else entirely, though.

Very much like the Old Bryar Motorsport park in NH (now Louden) where you have a similar two level track with great up ontos and downfroms. Damn but I wish we had Chump Car in my days....I could not even fold into a car today.

Thanks to Lucas for leaving a bread crumb trail to this thread for the old fhart. I have been wanting you guys to see my "Baby" but there was never a "place" to post it. And it would appear that this is "the" place.

In a previous life I was young and stupid, full of testosterone, so full in fact , that Military Aviation after the war was cancelled was very boring....sooo... I persuaded my wife of one year to let me spend my own money and do a little road racing while we were in England. The car below is road legal and ran in what they called Prod Sports (Production Sport Cars). It WAS NOT a road car...even though we went camping in Cornwall in it once...my piss poor attempt to show SWMBO that "it" was a "real car".

Lotus Europa Twin Cam Big Valve...blindingly fast....oversteering son of a bitch. Ended up in a ball on the outside of Paddock Hill Bend one rainy day. Very very flimsy. Two cracked ribs...large bill....pissed off wife who disliked riding home in the rollback which carried the sad remains back to Vegantune for a "rebuild"..... yes we had driven to the meeting in "the Lotus".

The pix were taken at my favorite pub in Leighton Bromswold (only in the UK would you find a name like that ), The Green Man.

The color was not what I wanted...I wanted BRG...I got the color that the chassis # originally had to make it legal...you have seen it in GT5...Pistachio.

 

[EDK]

I ran a track day at Sonoma/Sears Point in my Challenger this past Saturday.

The suction cup mounted GoPro on the passenger side rear window does not give as good a perspective as the roll cage mount in the MR2, and the sound is an issue due to wind buffeting. But you can see a little more of the driving perspective.

I upgraded the brakes, which helped quite a bit. I was running stock rotors with EBC Yellow pads, stainless lines, and racing fluid. I upgraded to SRT front and Police Package rear rotors, that are EBC Sport Slotted and Drilled. And upgraded to EBC Blue Pads as well.

Next up will be a camber kit, as I can only get negative 1 degree front camber with the current setup.

My fast laps here are the first couple on this video, in the 2:02.5 range. I was mistakenly off by a lap on the start time, so the final lap here is slowed by a yellow flag, but you get to see me reel in and pass the Miata.

Will try to get some video from my final stint up here later in the week, I made more passes on cars I had no business being faster than in that stint.

 

[PASM]

Nice driving. Sounds like the tires were used to good effect. You only used 3rd and 4th it seems, so 2nd is probably too short for the hairpins and the torque from that V8 must come in lumps anyway

How was the balance? Could you make the car rotate more by (partly) lifting off the throttle?

 

[EDK]

Nice driving. Sounds like the tires were used to good effect. You only used 3rd and 4th it seems, so 2nd is probably too short for the hairpins and the torque from that V8 must come in lumps anyway

How was the balance? Could you make the car rotate more by (partly) lifting off the throttle?

Actually trying to use throttle on to rotate the car, but that’s kind of instinctive. Ultimately, the pressures were coming up more on the rear tires than the front, but I think it was just from getting the car in a bind from the lack of negative front camber and continuing to push. Adjustable control arms are in the near future, and at least 2 degrees of negative front camber.

Gears – I could theoretically use 2nd of the final hairpin, but the shift point up to 3rd is right at the exit of the corner. Same with the carousel, where I could use 3rd, but again, would be grabbing 4th right at exit. I have a feeling that once I put more camber in the car, I’ll be using those gears in those corners to get better in corner speed and launch, but it’s pretty much pointless when I’m limited by the front of the car and the lack of rotation. And to your point, the car has so much torque (400 ft. lbs.) that it really does not matter. It still has plenty of grunt in the lower RPM’s and taking away a couple of shifts probably helps the times more than it hurts.

 

[EDK]

I am racing at Road America in a BMW E30 this weekend (Chumpcar).

Wish me luck.

 

[roamer2629]

We are expecting a full report here Kevin
Have fun

 

[JoostBaksteen]

I am racing at Road America in a BMW E30 this weekend (Chumpcar).

Wish me luck.

Great track and car! Enjoy and good luck

 

[steven]

We will have to wait for a matching WRS combo until GT7 arrives I guess