'86 502+2 updates for 2017 SORC and Race Report

[UNGN]

Well the racing is done for another year...still great weather but big storms are supposed to pop up and head this way so everyone is busy packing up. When farmers are putting stuff in their sheds, you probably should be packing up, too.

Awards dinner is in a few hours. Likely no trophy, but we didn't embarass ourselves.

In the loup2loup, global warming made for a record low high temp for august and our tire factor was off the charts. We have taken for granted it will be 85 degrees and sunny and not 58 degrees at 1 in the afternoon.

A C6 Z06 made it 1.5 miles in the 95 mph class before ending up on its roof. That made my son a little nervous since we were in the 100 mph class.

A cold tire is also a small tire and our rally computer was off nearly .2 miles in 12 miles, which was too far off to correct for before finishing, since the race is only 7 minutes for each leg.

We were 8 seconds slow going north. No problem. I reset everything for 8 seconds faster going south.

About a mile out of the leg 2 start it started pouring rain and we were flying over the hills at 130. My son asks me to turn on the wipers because he couldn"t see. I told him we"ll drive out of it and it will blow off... just then, it did.

Coming into the finish, the rookie navigatot misread a card or something because said finish -2 seconds, but we were again 8 seconds fast (16 seconds faster than northbound leg 1) Better fast than slow. Probably way out of the trophies but we had a great first race and nothing broke.

 

[UNGN]

In Saturday's SORC we started 11th out of 16 cars in the 100mph class gridded between a 1,000 hp 1990 300ZX and the most badass 850HP "69 Z/28 I have seen... plus the typical corvettes, shelby"s with a Ford GT and GTR thown into the mix, too.

We normally run the 115mph class, and some of these guys are in the 100mph class because they have to be (like us, because my son is a rookie driver) and some run the 100 mph because they like it.

My son drove the first leg north. I told him where to wail on it and within 2 miles we"re averaging 100 mph and I"m like "here comes the snoozefest". He's going into corners at 100 and coming out at 120 and I tell him he has to back way off to get back down to 100mph average.

At the first check point we see there is a problem with the rally computer. Its reading way high. This was too much and the wrong directio to be a tire size issue. It had to be in the wheel sensor itself, so we gave up on the rally computer and went "old school" with a 90"s garmin III gps we have as a backup.

On the GPS we are 3 mph slow, so I give my son the green ligh to have fun. I tell him where to set up for the blind corners and where to fly over the blind hills and we are averaging 104 mph on the GPS in no time. At the top of the course, we slowly bleed off speed and he finishes within a second on my stopwatch. The official time might be further off, but I started hoping for a rainout of the second leg, because first runs usually don"t get much closer than that.

 

[Z48LT1]

Anxiously awaiting final results. In the meantime, congratulations for a successful, apparently, event (nothing broken, mechanical or personal), and a good time was had by all?

Your adventure is a much bigger deal imho than the attention it gets. The preparation is undoubtedly a major time and resources drain for the larger part of the year and the event itself is a huge deal for the entire extended family. I'm sure it would be a ripping yarn on the Discovery Network with the right producer and editor, although I'm sure those guys would be a huge pain in the *ss.

Anyway,welcome home

Best - Gary

 

[UNGN]

Big Storms rolled in Saturday night so everyone scattered before/after the awards. Though the neighboring town was flooded, hailed on and lost power for hours, Arnold was unscathed, which was good for those who stayed. I didn't and Drove to Omaha then woke up and drove back to Texas.

I'll post pictures/details and eventually videos, but in the Loup2Loup 100 mph class I was having too much fun and went 104 mph avg on my south run, so we were out of the trophies.

My son's North run in the SORC was within .3 seconds of perfect 100 mph, but I was .8 seconds off in my south run and the combined 1.1 seconds of error after 56 miles was only good for 6th place. Close, but no cigar.

The root caused of our issues at the SORC looks like dirt on the rally computer wheel sensor that might have come from the off course slide during the track day. My son and dad are replacing the magnets and cleaning the sensors this week.

My son had a great time and we get to average 110mph next year, so it will get a new clutch, new tires and other mods for 2018.

 

[UNGN]

For 2017, Speedway became a major sponsor of the SORC, brought in a big truck and one of the coolest cars in the race:

850 hp, 155 mph in the 1/2 mile, 14:1 540 BBC, 14" motor setback, Rack&Pinion steering, Tremec 6060, Speedways top of their line suspension/brakes, Carbon Fibre everywhere, Full frame, Cage certified to 8.50, 335 Rivals in rear, 295's in front, adjustable aero, Floater rear with truck arms AND full exhaust (the floors were raise 4" so the bottom of the car is completely flat), Mystic paint and just enough rust bubbles and scratches to look like its a "driver"... and it is until it runs out of gas and the support 3500 duramax with 50 gallons of 110 in the bed shows up.

Driver was SORC rookie (like my son) so he was in the 100 mph class, too, staged right behind us. My kid drove the 2+2 North and it was everything I could do to keep him from going over 100 MPH and as I said he was .3 seconds from a perfect 100 mph run.

At the turnaround, I asked the Z28's navigator how they did - "Not good. We are 71 seconds slow, averaging 92 mph".

"A wha? - what's the matter" I asked, "was it bottoming, was it scraping?". The road is pretty rough, so that's all I could think of.

"No", The navigator says, "he just didn't want to go fast".

What I would give to set my rally computer on 125mph and go up the road in that car.

 

[Z48LT1]

If the driver and navigator were both new to OR racing, at least they didn't roll six figures up into a ball and possibly kill themselves...

 

[UNGN]

G-body's were representing:

This 383 '86 Monte from North Dakota was running in the 90 mph class and finished 7 seconds fast averaging 90.3 mph (only 1.7 mph slower than the 850 HP Z28 ran north):

Mods include 1" lowering springs, drilled stock sized brake rotors. I told him about the Blazer brake mods and tall ball joints during the short north turn around so he'll be needing a roll bar soon.

Driver is a 60 year old North Dakota Deputy Sheriff, so 90 mph on a chip sealed gravel road is 2nd gear to him.

 

[UNGN]

If the driver and navigator were both new to OR racing, at least they didn't roll six figures up into a ball and possibly kill themselves...

I told the navigator that was probably the safest car in the race and he agreed. I told them to watch my video full screen on a on a loop before they come back next year:

 

[UNGN]

I said they had Record low high temps on the Thursday. Cold tires probably led to this crash only about 1.5 miles past the start of the first race (the Loup 2 Loup). 2008 Z06 running in the 95 mph class had less than 1 minute of racing fun for the week before balling it up on the second corner.

Backed into a sand dune and did a 180 with a 1/2 twist. Car was ended up turtled with 4 wheels spinning. Windshield was laid back 4" and all glass was broken, but surprisingly the hood stayed latched and undamaged (gotta love 50/50 weight distribution):

Mark on the door is from one of those steel fence posts they use with barbed wire fences. It smacked the door, then tore the front fender off.

For me, this was the money shot:

They had no neck protection but taped the stopwatch to the airbag. Car hit in the rear and the though the front bumper cover was torn off there was no frontal impact (the foam under the cover and hood were still good) so no airbag detonation. If there actually is an airbag in there (car was a salvage title rebuilder), who tapes anything to the airbag?

The "Alfa" in between the spokes of wheel is the drivers display for an $800 Rally computer, so it appears they were all about winning. The first rule of winning is not crashing 1.5 miles into a race. Driver was a 15 year dirt track racer which might explain things.

 

[UNGN]

Another extremely cool car this year was my buddy John Huff's 1970 AAR 'Cuda tribute:

700 Hp 408 Small block, all mopar suspension, his own design, bolt in, Mopar 5 speed, Beautiful Chromoly Cage, Racing seats with vintage style covers. Grille, Hood, Rear spoiler, exhaust tips, Pistol Grip were all AAR. The Ken Block approved hydraulic hooning brake is not.

Even though this was the cars debut, the car got a race trophy, too, in the 100 mph class in the L2L so its not all show and no go.

He painted it Silver because Silver is faster (and they never made a Silver AAR)

He's working on a '69 Daytona ORR car, next.