POC Tribute to LeMans

[lowyder993s]

Missed the podium by 3.91 seconds.
Qualified 14th on grid and finished 9th overall, second in class. The reason for the high placement was the exceptional support during the race. First and formost Mike and I have to thank Jae and David from Mirage International. Their determination and attention to detail was outstanding. Jae had completely rebuilt our motor, got it broken in, and had us back to the track in less than a month. They worked tirelessly on suspension and oil issues. By Saturday noon, they had the car dialed. Our loss was to a 3.8 993 RS...not bad considering we're a lowly 3.4. A natural choice for our spotter was Mike Gagen. He was calm and cool on the radio and SPOT ON calling out bogeys I guess 20 yrs in the control tower will do that. Our 2 mandatory 5 minute pit stops went off without a hitch. We caught a lucky break during our second stop when a full course yellow was issued, that allowed us to catch up to the 993. At the restart Mirage power came through, quickly putting the car ahead of the class leader. The car was fully hooked up in the last stint, where I got the car down to a 1:4905. I held the 993 off for a few laps, but couldn't match his braking. A few laps later, one of the front runners thumped the 993 in the driver's rear quarter. I was hoping he would pit but no such luck. Afterwards in impound, the 993's rear rim was heavily damaged and it was lucky the rim didn't cut through his tire Also had an overtaking cup car suffer a passenger rear tire blowout on the oval, nearly collecting me as the car slid down into the infield.
A great last race with the car, I'll be bringing back a new TTOD car from the midwest next week(look out Dawson)

[kary]

Well done Jim! Sounds like there was a little bit of a battle field going on out there. Are you going to Buttonwillow and/or the POC clinic event the following week? I plan to be at both of those.

Hope to see ya out there.

[lowyder993s]

Yes, plan on being at both w/ new car. Jae already has time set aside to give it the once over twice. I'll see you out there. Good Luck in the clinic!

[Mike]

Hey Jim,
You and Mike did a great job driving.
What a race, full of complexities.
In the first 2 hours you had two separate races plus you 4 hours guys made a driver/tire change and add 25 gallons of fuel.
Then the 2 hour race is over but you two always seemed to be racing somebody.
You guys nailed the second pit stop right at the start of the full course caution.
Then your timing exiting the pit was perfect, right in the middle of the pace car re start pack just in time to take the green again.
You chase, pass and get passed by your class leader.
With 15 minutes to go you watch 50 feet ahead as your class leader get lightly shunted in T3 by an over taking car.
You were positioned perfectly to snatch the win if your competitor made a mistake.
All that and after 4 hours you finish 3.9 seconds behind the guy that out qualified you by 3 seconds a lap.
Heck of a race to watch, kept me out of my chair the whole time.

The team clicked for sure.
Dave and Jae and the Copp brothers were perfect.
Jae’s new engine ran great.
Perfect pit stops, kept under the 30mph hot pit speed limit, no black flags, from my view point you guys went 4 hours error free.
Thanks for the radio work compliments.
Agree, one of the more intense moments was when that front runner passed you doing 150+mph in the middle of T1 then seconds later in the middle of T2 cut a tire and spun right in front of you.
As you and your car became safely visible through the tire smoke all I could add on the radio was “I want to see the video of that”!

Thanks for the entertainment; I really enjoyed that afternoon at the track!
Let’s do that again with your new rocket!

[jrgordonsenior]

Congratulations to the Copp brothers for a job well done. It was a great finish to watch with the leading RSR's 3.5 seconds apart, and you and Meggs equally close. Jim was so excited he forgot to break my hand when I congratulated him....

FWIW, the front runner who spun exiting 2 broke a half-shaft in almost the exact same position he broke one last year though in a different car. Then he crashed hard, this year he got lucky and missed the walls and barriers.

Can't wait to see the new RSR....

[lowyder993s]

Thx Gordy...hopefully that was the LAST time you step away like that. You were flingin' that car around pretty good. How'd your Sunday race go? See you at Willow?

BTW...where are the 944 spec guys? They need to chime in here...any of them retire? Seemed like there was a gaggle of 'em on the track.

[MVZ944T]

Jim,

Sorry I missed the show, but I twisted my knee badly last week at work. Sounds like you had a good run. Good job. Did you do the entire 4 hours? If you bought Pastorini's RSR I am going to be pretty jealous. I came within a hair of buying it myself. The engine in that car is just about worth what he is asking for it.

Mike

[lowyder993s]

Not DP's...but this one:


Saw the fun Dawson was having w/ the cup cars...need some of that too!
Course the graphics are a little tame for my taste, but I DO have two bird dogs
Yeah Mike, we did the full four hours...LOTS and LOTS of seat time! Saw your sled at Jae's...VERY NICE!!! people at the track were talking about it...don't let them down

[Tim Comeau]

Jim, Thanks for asking about us 944 spec guys!

There were around 8 944 spec cars there, but only 3 were entered in the Tribute to Le Mans. The others were entered in the TT or cup races. My team was looking forward to a great challenge in the 4-hour race. Unfortunately, my Zebra 924S was crashed and destroyed during qualifying on Friday. It will be dismantled and have it's parts live on in other 944/924S's. My co-driver, Chris O'Connor, was driving at the time of the crash and he's fine. Chris is a solid driver with a lot of experience. We co-drove my car to a 944 spec class win at this same event last year. Anyway, we towed the hulk back down to San Diego and got some sleep. Saturday morning, Chris shows up at 9:30 or so and says, "We can still do this thing. We'll take my track 993 back up there." So after a barrage of questions from me followed by many satisfactory answers from Chris, we started re-packing everything we needed. I'm not kidding here, we got his car to the grid about 2 minutes before the roll off! ( Thank you to John Rickard of Black Forest and my new buddy, Jim Hicks). We finished the race and gained even more endurance racing experience. That was a much more satisfactory ending to the race weekend than just sitting at home looking at my wrecked car. Not to worry. I know exactly how to build a winning 944 spec car and I have 3 more chassis here. Anybody want to buy a 944 spec car? LOL!

[lowyder993s]

That's the spirit!!! We all know if anyone can build one better, faster...it's you! Such a drag about the car, but the ending makes for a classic weekend. There is so much love in that class...competitors sharing a pit so all could benefit from 1 racers fueling rig, not to mention the combined wisdom. Good luck on the next project, we'll see you out there soon.

[MVZ944T]

Tim,

Bummer about your car, but glad the driver did not get hurt. Off the subject, let me know if you need any seats. I have some for sale.

Mike

Jim,

Nice looking car. I assume it is a turbo. Twin or single? After I saw Dawson performance, kind of wanted to make the 930 into a race car. Thought about it for about 30 seconds.

Mike

[jrgordonsenior]

Thx Gordy...hopefully that was the LAST time you step away like that. You were flingin' that car around pretty good. How'd your Sunday race go? See you at Willow?

Sunday's race went well, I won the GTC class for the first time. Of course that was only because Bobby Faita blew a tire at 165 in front of me touching the wall but escaping unharmed. I managed to get it down to a 1:43.5 in the race battling almost the entire race with a GT3RS. Looking forward to having it out with your new RSR at Willow.....

[lowyder993s]

WTG John!!! Take your wins anyway you can. 43xx is smokin in race conditions, maybe that WON'T be the last time you step away

MVZ...you might assume its a turbo, that's what Chris O'Donnell (blue/white ex-Alex Job car) said when he was on the track w/ it back east. It's a N/A 3.8l w/ wacky cams and high butterfly stacks. We'll see what it can do in a couple weeks!

[JHPGT3]

The results from The Tribute are up now on Mylaps.com:
Here's the Time Trial:
http://mylaps.com/results/newResults.js ... PerClass=0

I thought I'd set a new track record for VO with my 1:45 until I saw Dawson (will have to have a little discussion with him about his classification!)But, I'm pretty happy with the Bee's performance considering wheel bearing, brakes, tire cording, oil breather, clutch pedal assembly and other problems.
Here's the Sunday Cup Race results:

http://mylaps.com/results/newResults.js ... PerClass=1

Again, the Bee did well, even if the driver screwed up quite a bit.Driver spun twice in laps #12 and #14 with lap times of around 2:15 each time --somehow managed to hold off the rest of the VO Class for the win.Without the dumb mistakes, who knows ?--woulda, coulda, shoulda!!

Bring that yellow dog back from Chicago and let's get it on!!!!

[mfoley]

Sounds like everyone had a good time.

Jim Marks and I ran my 944 Spec car in the 4-hr race and won our class. Man that trophy is big! I ran the first two hours and the last 20 minutes, and we ran our fastest lap in the third to last lap of the race.

Thanks to our crew Ray Dicius and David Hirsch, and thanks to my co-driver Jim Marks.

I got up the next morning, checked my oil, changed my tires and qualified first of the 944 Spec group.

What a blast!