SHO entry at 24 Hours of LeMONS

[shopartsnw]

Here is a front looking in car video (not so good a view) from the 65 Rustang at the event. If you look close, you will see Kerry blow by pretty fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwFoBASLgd0

Here is the rear view camera from the same car (much better view). YOu can see an RX7 dogging the Mustang, when out of the blue here comes Kerry, and there he goes....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VRiV5RqXd0

Yes, we can (and probably will) run next year with it.

ANd there were some really fast ex-race cars there along with the steaming piles of other cars.

I was very surprized at how fast the old gold Firebird "The Rockford Pile" was.

More posting after a nights sleep (just finished the 11 hr drive back). A good time was had by all, and the car survived.

Again many thanks to all who donated and helped. I am still taking any donations I can, as my credit card will probably knock me out of the chair when it comes.

Mike

 

[GeneSHO]

That's kool ... great to see everything and everyone survived. The Rustang looks like he is on a Sunday drive and whoooose ... there goes GI SHO car #71. Way to go

 

[shopartsnw]

OK

One more post link that mentions our car.

http://jalopnik.com/cars/thunderhill-lemons/the-top-50-lemons-of-24-hours-of-lemons-339088.php

Big to Jalopnik.

Mike

 

[adidas_kn]

Man that sux ranked almost dead last on Jalopnicks top 50. No love for the GI-SHO. You should've showed them the pix of you guys pulling it outta the yard by it missing rear bumper that would've convinced em. A pic of the interior would've really put em in their place too.
I'm curious how well the SHO was doing in the competition. Were you able to pass most of the competition? The car they shouldn'tbelieve would be the Miatas' and neons with nice rims, or even the Old Mercedes.

BTW, how did you guys like the RT-615's. Was the grip good and how long did each set last? I got a set of 235-40-18's given to me due to their bad cold weather street grip and rain grip My buddy needed something better for DD out here.

 

[BaySHO Performance]

Many thanks, Mike, for including me on the team. :woohoo: I had an absolute blast!.

Good to see that you are planning to participate next year with yet more added to the car in the GI SHO theme: can't wait to see it, and even more incentive for the BaySHO owner's group to field their own entry!!!

Best Regards

Nick Chrimes
Owner, BaySHO Performance

 

[shopartsnw]

Nick,

You should go ahead and build your track car with a theme and take it to the convention in Seattle. A fun car to play with at the track, and then you would have photos to send in with an application package.

Mike

 

[gosho89]

Here is a link to my photo's of the event.
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z62/roush0736/Thunderhill_07/

adidas_kn, the RT615's worked great, only one set was need for the event. We cross rotated them before the race got back underway on Sunday morning. They are still good enough to use a few Open Track events.

Mike, Thanks for the video links, see I was REAL careful with your car

Thanks again for the invite and all the help from the Bay SHO guys, I like the sound of at least a 2 car team next year

----------------------

 

[Shoaz]

Looks like most if not all of the cars were on street tires?

And kudos to everybody and to the drivers for keeping out of trouble. It looks like it still wasn't that hard to get hit/tagged, and getting to the end without subtantial damage seems to be pretty key in endurance races. Bummer about the penalties and it sounds like except for that it would have placed pretty well.

 

[shopartsnw]

Man that sux ranked almost dead last on Jalopnicks top 50. No love for the GI-SHO.

They posted the pictures in finishing order, and we placed 46th. I talked with them a bit, and they thought the car was cool - heck, they called it "hoontastic"

Correction on the penalties. I just recalculated the laps from Mylaps.com, and we had a 30 lap penalty (not a 50 lap as Kurt earlier reported).

We did sit in impound for about 2-2.5 hours for a little "driver instruction" for our black flag crew members.

As for the tire question, we had to run on 190 treadwear tires or higher, so the tire of choice I saw was the RT615 on most cars.

Mike

 

[adidas_kn]

Nice pix GoSHO89. The car survived very well it appears. I wounder how you all would've placed had the penalties not been brought down on you. There's always next year and other events to compete in with that car. Good job guys!

 

[drivinhard]

Well done! And good to see that car number live on in SHO race history :

 

[gosho89]

We may not have a final placing that shows just how well we ran, but for a first time effort everything went really well. The car was well prepared and proved to be plenty fast. Handling, brakes and the tires were great. All that is needed is a little freshing up on the car and polishing of the race stragity.

Some experiance also was learned on how the politics in this series works, look for better results next year. :sun:

 

[GeneSHO]

We did sit in impound for about 2-2.5 hours for a little "driver instruction" for our black flag crew members.

Mike

Why the black flag on the crew members :cry:
Did you guys change drivers too quickly ?
Should be double the fun next year with two SHO's in the running

 

[JEM]

Why the black flag on the crew members :cry:
Did you guys change drivers too quickly ?
Should be double the fun next year with two SHO's in the running

Basically, there's driver penalties and team penalties. One of the team's rustier drivers went out early on a wet track and had a couple minor familiarization incidents (nothing bent) but those go on the team's cumulative record (as it were.) Another driver got punted by an MR2 a little later in the day, which may or may not have contributed. Then on the second day the team's hottest shoe (who was absolutely eating everyone up, it was a beautiful thing to watch) turned up the wick maybe 5% too far and did a little bit of too-visible fender rubbing, so the end result was a mandatory driver change and a bit of enforced cool-down time.

 

[shopartsnw]

Why the black flag on the crew members :cry:
Did you guys change drivers too quickly ?
Should be double the fun next year with two SHO's in the running

Of our 6 driver team, 5 had open track experience and one had race (wheel to wheel) experience. There is a huge learning curve when you step from open track to racing; most of the black flags for everyone were for passing under yellow or contact with another car. One comment from one of the new racers was that his 1-2 hours of track time taught him more than 10-12 open track days. You really need to work to watch your spacing, braking, traction, shifting, mirrors, and flags.

To our Black Flags:

1) First lap for a driver, glasses fogged up and car went off a corner. (4 wheels off is a black flag at this race - driver change)

2) Driver passed cars under yellow flag (passing under yellow - second offence in the same day - driver done for the day & 30 minute penalty)

3) Driver went 4 wheels off when the car he was overtaking moved over and pushed him into the dirt. (4 wheels off - flower *** of eggs on the hood)

4) While trying to pass, driver hit another car in a corner as he got pinched in the corner. (un-necessary contact - 2 hours of impound and driver done for the day)

5) Driver passed one car under yellow before slowing down (passing under yellow first offense- driver change)

6) Next driver after offence 5 got immediately black flagged (miscommunication at race control, so not our fault, but it did take up about 30 minutes)

My comment on driver changes did not generate any penalties. We tried to get everyone time in the car during daylight on the first day, so we had many 30-45 minute driving sessions, rather than the 2-3 hours that comepetive teams were rotating on. We probably spent 2-3 total hours on driver changes, but it was well worth it to get everyone time in the seat. They are all better drivers for it, and our only real goal was to have fun and race a SHO. A win would have been a huge bonus, but pretty unrealistic with many experienced competition drivers and race prepped cars that were able to fly under the $500 radar.

No complaints. It was fun, we came home safe, and we did not get any of the spectacular penalties like rolling a car, totalling a car, driving for 15 laps in the dark with a fuel leak (while missing every black flag at the turn stations). At least 3 cars were trailered (DQ'd) for agressive driving, and we really were trying to play by the rules. Most of our issues were from making the jump from open track to racing.

Sorry for the long answer, but it might help others if they make the jump to racing. BIggest words to the wise - 1) Watch the flag stations at each turn all the time. 2) Plan your passes with the idea that the other guy does not know you are there.

Mike

 

[shopartsnw]

John,

With my long winded response, I did not notice you had posted. You put it much better.

Thanks again for all the pit crew help from you, Sean (GeekSHO) and Lance. I was pretty wiped out from the build and drive, so you really kept me from totally wearing out.

Mike

 

[JEM]

Thanks again for all the pit crew help from you, Sean (GeekSHO) and Lance. I was pretty wiped out from the build and drive, so you really kept me from totally wearing out.

I think for the first time out with a car and team of unknown ability things went off very well. The car was competitive enough, the drivers had a good learning experience, and it got back in one piece and usable (unlike a Datsun B-210, a Neon, a 280Z, and the People's Curse Mazda, to name the ones I can think of right now.)

There's probably 300lb to be taken out of the car (maybe more depending on how much inside body structure you're willing to cut, given the amount of fender-rubbing that goes on in this series and the lack of door bars on the cage removing the side-intrusion beams from the driver's door is probably not a good place to go), clearing some of the deprecated detritus from under the hood would also make the car easier to wrench on if and when necessary, some potentially-beneficial $10 suspension tweaks to be tried (the standard rule of thumb when racing open-diff FWD is more spring, less front sway bar), and if you're truly desperate you can leave the hood off to take weight off the front end like the Saab guys.

Lance and I had a look at the prep work on that totalled black Neon as it lay in repose on its trailer, that cage installation wasn't anything we'd want to trust our worthless little lives to...

 

[K-Dawg]

So 65 Mustangs and race cars are now cheaper than a beat-up 89 Taurus. Nice to know.

Good job guys!

 

[GeneSHO]

Sorry for the long answer, but it might help others if they make the jump to racing. BIggest words to the wise - 1) Watch the flag stations at each turn all the time. 2) Plan your passes with the idea that the other guy does not know you are there.

Mike

Thanks Mike for the explaination. Guess the next time around we'll all be prepared. Great job in crew chiefing the team and building GI SHO in such limited time

Gene

 

[JEM]

So 65 Mustangs and race cars are now cheaper than a beat-up 89 Taurus. Nice to know.

That '65 Mustang didn't have a straight, unrusted panel on it; it looked like it was made up of the scraps left over from four or five other early-Mustang restorations; it was constantly overheating. And, ****, I've got a '65 Mustang convertible that I got for free, complete with a usable rear axle and most of a '90 5.0 engine, that'd have made a perfectly decent basis for a LeMons racer.

There were a few cars out there that were a bit on the cheatin' side, I'm not sure where one scrounges a set of double-adjustable Koni coilovers for an early RWD Corolla within the $500 budget, and the car that got crushed was wearing headers and coilovers (the motor also sounded suspiciously healthy, but it wasn't lapping a whole lot faster than the SHO so...)

It still surprised me though that, with wheels, tires, and brakes being unrestricted (except for the treadwear-rating requirement) how few cars really took advantage of that.