Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story.
02-20-2005, 09:21 PM
#1
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Back in the 626, CA, USA
Posts: 493
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story.
Forgive me. I'm bored and it's a rare rainy day here in Los Angeles. I wrote this very long report late last summer and I thought it might be entertaining to some people. It's basically just a recap of my trip to the race last year. I'm not sure if it's really suitable to post something like this on this message board. It would probably be more appropriate to put it on a website somewhere and fill it with pictures but I'm not gifted like that yet. So here you go, file it under shizzle.
My Mid Ohio HC Nationals Race Report:
December 2003:
It was really Joe Alaniz’ idea. He was like, “We can beat those east coast guys.” I replied, “OK lets do it” and that was that, it was on. We decided that he would build a motor for my CRX and we’d tow across the country to take on the ECHC.
We had to find a good event. For Joe it was important for the trip to be high profile. It was going to be expensive and he'd need to get some good publicity in order to justify spending the money. For me, I really wanted to race at a good track. At first I was looking at VIR but John Teece told me that the north course was lame. The next best thing was the Hyperfest at Summit. But that landed on the same weekend as the WCHC event at Willow Springs. With the 2 best ECHC events looking doubtful I started to worry. But then I thought maybe the ECHC guys would be willing to do an out of region race if a lot of cars would be there. There were no ECHC or WCHC races in August and there were HC races at Mid Ohio, Road Atlanta, and Texas Motor Speedway scheduled that month. It looked doable so I started this thread https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=709174 to see what everyone thought. The response was awesome. Within a day or so, the date and place were set, August 20th – 22nd at Mid Ohio.
May 2004:
Things are going well. I'm driving the RO_JA Motorsports RSX in the WCHC races which lets the CRX get all freshened up for the big trip back east. I start hammering on my friends at Sport Compact Car and Honda Tuning to verify that they are coming. But now they're sounding a little unsure. So I start another thread https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=860041 to make sure the racers are still in, and they're sounding flaky too. That was a little frustrating but there wasn't much I could do about it.
July:
The event is getting close. John Thawley stops by the shop to see what we’re up to. He tells me that Honda Tuning wants to go but they need to make sure that a lot of cars are going to be there. I tell him that there are some really nice cars out on the east coast. I tell him about Evans who wins every race he finishes, and Chad who's secretly building a new car, and I give him the Team Toilet web address. He buys it but says he needs more to sell it to the editor. He asks me to start a roll call thread. I thought about the one from a month back and figured that the response to another one might be even worse. But I really wanted the mag to go so I told him I’d do it. But then I got to thinking. What’s up with those east coast guys? Do they want to do this or what? What’s it take to get a response out of the damned cousins anyway? https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=938060 Ah, instant E Thug.
As it turns out a lot of people had been busy getting things put together for the event. Honda Tuning worked things out with a couple of the WCHC guys. And the MWHC guys worked out a deal between G Sport and the guys at Effect to film the race. I'm still not sure how they managed to pull that one off. Mansier (The Bro) was planning a keg party for us. Chris B had a personal keg party. And basically things were looking really good. Now all I had to do was get out there.
August:
Joe overhauled the old Suburban that he picked up for $1500. I worked out a deal with my friend Ryan Flaherty to use his brand new enclosed trailer. It worked out well since he was having his car transported out and I could bring his spares for him. Tom Liang, Marco Arias, Daniel Chavez, and countless others all got The Rex into perfect running order. Finally Shawn Church (yes I know him) tuned the Hondata and we were all set.
Sunday, August 15th:
The crew plus Tsuyoshi Inoye from 5Zigen USA, Sam Higashi, and Charleston Ong (A-Spec Racing) helped us load everything into the giant 24’ trailer, and at 4PM we rolled out. Traffic was hell. It didn't open up till we got to West Covina. Once we hit about 60MPH the trailer and truck started whipping back and forth. It was seriously scary. I kept my hand on the brake controller and Joe kept both hands on the wheel. It was everything we could do to get off the freeway and then limp back to the shop at 45 MPH. We decided that we’d throw The Rex on the open trailer and put what we needed in the back of the Suburban. Ryan's stuff went in first since it wasn't going to be cool to leave his stuff behind. His car had already left for Ohio and it wasn't his fault that the Suburban couldn't handle it/ we had way to much ****/ we didn't distribute the load right/ whatever, that thing wasn't going to make it 5000 miles that's for sure. Next my B16 went in, the small toolbox, a case of Valvoline SynPower, our gear, and our collection of about 200 gangsta rap CDs. I'm not sure what time we finally got out of there.
Monday, August 16th:
At 1AM we pull into the Best Western in Needles. We are still in CA.
Tuesday, August 17th:
This was the big tow day. We woke up in New Mexico and charged through Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. It was close to 1200 miles that day. Joe drove about 85 of them. It’s all pretty blurry. A little after midnight we were approaching St. Louis. I decided that we needed to get through the city that night so we wouldn't hit traffic in the morning. I was trying to see where the arch was when I was distracted by this sign above the road to tell you what lane to get in. There were 5 or 6 lanes and each had it’s own arrow with 4 lines of text. I woke up Joe so he could help me but it was too late. We had to get over 4 lanes to catch the right bridge. Joe yells “we’re gonna crash!” I swear we almost went right into the Mississippi. Instead somehow we ended up driving around on some little side street on the Missouri side. It was a shady place. I think we would have gotten robbed if not for the intimidating oddness of seeing the Mexican and the Whitey towing the Blingmobile while bumpin $horty the Pimp. Anyway, we made it across the river and about 50 miles into Illinois, where we found a motel next to a prison.
Wednesday, August 18th:
We passed through Indianapolis. I saw a pair of chrome Penske transporters going the other way. I'm sure they were jocking our rig. Finally we crossed into Ohio. We got to the Motel in the late afternoon. Thawley, Kiwi, and the Special Projects crew, Ruben and Glen were in the parking lot with a case of beer. It was really good to see familiar faces, with a case of beer. I tried to get a good night’s sleep but it was tough with the thunder, lightning, and downpours that were bombarding the Super 8. All I could think of was my rain tires that didn't make it into the Suburban because there wasn't enough room.
Thursday, August 19th:
This was our bonus day. We figured we should have an extra day in case the Suburban broke down on the tow out. But luckily we stayed ahead of schedule so we got this day to kick back and relax. We pulled up to the track around noon. Reginald Legaspi, aka Outrun, was there waiting for us with a bag of white castle. I thought they were pretty good. But I don't really crave them. Now Waffle House is another story. Those are the best waffles. We need a Waffle House in San Pedro. But I digress. Sorry, oh, you probably wanted to read about the race weekend itself, OK. I'm getting there. We set up our garage. Reginald and I went out and walked the track. The track is bad *** by the way. We got back to the pits and met up with Marco and Charleston who had flown in that afternoon. Back at the motel I ran into Tom Lepper. He’s a cool cat and a good driver. H1 was lucky that his K20 nuked itself because he was really going to be the driver to beat out there.
Friday, August 20th:
There was a huge line of trailers waiting to get in. I recognized Lionel Kent's car. I remembered seeing it featured in a magazine before there was a WCHC. I had a good conversation with Lionel and his wife (sorry, can’t remember her name because I'm lame, but she seemed like the coolest racer wife ever, next to Lepper’s wife Robyn.) Finally Mansier showed up to open registration and we all got checked in. Inside I found my old nemesis Chad Slagg. Somehow the subject of bump drafting came up. Coming from the stunna side of HC I’ve never been into that primitive style of racing. But, Chad assured me that they do it all the time. I figured I should clarify what was cool and what wasn't so I wouldn't get kicked out for incidental contact. I asked about bump drafting in the general drivers meeting and everyone laughed at me. Oh well, enough socializing, time to get down to business.
The first couple of laps I got stomped on pretty hard. Chad & Evans took off never to be seen again. Then Scot Burner in the red S2000 blew by me. I think he was trying to taunt me when he set a drift and slid off the track. That made me feel better because I'm evil like that. But then in less than a lap he blew by me again. The track was awesome to drive. It wasn't like some courses where one corner is to tight and then you waste three more getting back up to speed. The corners were all challenging and they flowed together really well. I was starting to get a feel for it but there was a lot of traffic and there were more and more standing yellows every lap. Finally it went full course black. Back in the pits my crew adjusted my tire pressures. After a short break they let everyone back out. I was surprised to see everyone go out together so I waited close to a full minute and then tore back out there. The track was even better without traffic. I got a good five clear laps in, pushing a little harder each time. By the end of the session I was pretty comfortable. Afterwords I found WCHC H4 driver John Teece. He was on the phone with our coach Bernardo Martinez back in LA, making excuses about tires and brakes. He also had the printout with the lap times and my name was at the top! I was stoked. With my fresh ammunition for e-thuggery I decided to wander the paddock and taunt everyone.
The first person I found was Scot. But he didn't believe who I was. He told me “No, Andy Hope is Oriental.” I snapped back “It’s ASIAN!!!” He looked bewildered but I continued “I'm not that either though. I'm just an old school S.J. from the S.G.V. That's why my plate frame rocks the H.I.C.” He seemed to relate after that somehow. We got along for the rest of the weekend. After all he is the undisputed MWHC H-T smack talking champion of 2004. No offense Mr. Stiffler. Scot pointed me toward the JE Import camp. I wanted to meet James more than anyone. I found his black CRX. It was cool to get to see it in person. It’s scary how similar it is to mine. It was parked next to his black 240 drift car in front of his black enclosed trailer. I peeped inside and saw the oddest thing. There were four guys in there wearing black with different sections of bleached facial hair watching television. I can only assume they were studying something from West Coast Choppers. I tried to get their attention but they all stared at me really hard. So I ran off like MC Pooh in Friday after Deebo stole his gold chain. Next I ran into Matt Dudek, who introduced me to the infamous RJ. I had to give him some ****, “What do I have to say to lower that damned 100% user rating anyway?” He had some pathetic reasoning. I didn't really listen though. If I don't see a 0% before he comes out to JGTC I'm going to run his *** over out there.
The rain came back just before the second practice session. I wasn't sure if I should go out or not. First and foremost I didn't want to ball up the car on the practice day. It’s not that I don't like driving in the rain. I love it, especially on dry tires. It really separates the drivers from the people that just steer. I'm really not good at running at 8or 9 10ths though. I always end up just going for it. But at the same time I wanted some more seat time on that track. So I decided to go out and run at 5 10ths. I gridded up behind Keith Edwards and stayed there. I think we were over 20 seconds off the H1 pace. You really learn a lot about a track by driving it slow. You can take your time and look around off line to see what’s paved and even what’s not but still usable. By the end of the session The Rex and I were thoroughly soaked. My arms were also out of blood from all the point bys. I pulled it into the garage just in time. It rained harder than I’ve ever seen. The third H5 car floated by, never to be seen again. That's when I decided to park the car for the rest of the day. Marco and I got out of there to go find some hot food. There was a meeting for all the Honda Challenge drivers while I was gone. I would have liked to have been there to meet everybody. I got back and watched the School Race with Keith. We were all invited to run in the race but it was still raining. It felt so wrong to be at the best track I’ve ever been to with the best car I’ve ever had and not race for fear of crashing. *****. It just wasn't worth the risk. The real race was scheduled for Saturday.
Saturday, August 21st:
I woke up early and immediately turned on the weather channel. The news was good. No more rain for Mansfield OH. We only got two sessions that day. One for qualifying and one to race. The guys from Effect put a camera in my car facing me AKA the Ego Cam. I also had my camera in there facing forward and Joe's camera looking out the back window. I had the rock star thing going so I went with it and rolled up to grid with my headphones on blasting my Baby Anne DJ Mixed Live@ Las Vegas CD. Sick break beats if you're into that, but anyway. Colin Botha came up to say hi. He said something like “Oh sorry, I guess you're in the zone” and wandered off thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” You see Bernardo had told me to have Colin tow me around because he would be the best driver there. I figured I’d talk with him later that weekend but I never saw him again. So much for that. Time to go out.
We were the second group on track. The AI guys had dried off the line itself but everything else was wet. Why is it that whenever there's a camera in the car… First my clutch pedal started sticking on the floor. That happened to me at three starts last year and probably cost me a couple of wins. This time it wasn't so bad. Only I looked like an amped up noob out there, bouncing off the rev limiter between shifts. That went away though. I just had to be extra careful not to push the pedal too hard. Then on about the third lap my shift **** came off on the back straight. I fought through traffic as best I could. We were out with a Taurus, an old RWD 200SX, a Rabbit, and all the USTCC guys (some which were even slower than the Taurus.) I shouldn't complain though. Others had it worse. There was a yellow Teg parked on the left just after the Keyhole. Chad was broken off to the right at Madness. Teece was in the gravel by Thunder Valley. Yellow flags were everywhere. It got really hard to find places where it was legal to pass. It was the same for everybody though. Kiwi, Evans, Ryan, and I all ended up running the same lap time within a couple tenths. Chad was barely off our time and he couldn't have gotten more than a lap or two before it let go. I returned the Ego Cam to Mike Pendola(H1 S2000 driver/ MIA HC Nationals Video Editor.) I tried to explain about the sticky clutch and that I didn't suck, but he just gave me a look like “yeah, sure you don't.”
Qualifying was followed by the HC group meeting. There I met Jeremy Lucas and Brian Shanfeld (the blue TL) from Honda. Brian and I had a few laughs. We each had the gas tank fall out and drag behind the car at last year’s 25hour race. His was in the Team Honda Research Integra and mine was in the Endless Civic. I also finally got to meet Jon Kofod. In person he is much friendlier than the WCHC hating, H1 insulting, gambling junkie that we know from H-T. Mansier got the meeting started. He and Ryan attempted to explain to us that this was not an Official National Championship weekend. It was just a fun run, get together type of race weekend of little historical significance. I then asked which day was being filmed for Speed Channel. I don't think they picked up on what I was really saying. Anyway, everyone pretty much agreed that it was best to switch the big day to Sunday. After all most of us were first timers at the track and nobody got much practice due to Friday’s rain.
I got back to the garage where the crew was entertaining spectators. Marco had already fixed the clutch pedal and reinstalled the shift ****. I asked him what was wrong with the pedal since it had been acting up for over a year and nobody could fix it. He just told me not to worry about it and that it would never be a problem again. Did I mention that Marco is an awesome mechanic? I spent the next few hours hanging out and meeting people. That was interrupted by the occasional interview with Bob Hernandez from Honda Tuning or the Effect video crew. It really was incredible to be racing at Mid Ohio with Honda racers from all over the country that weekend. I hope all the drivers got the chance to soak it in.
Saturday’s race was thoroughly enjoyable even if uneventful. I started on pole and led from flag to flag for the first time ever. I really stood on it for the first couple of laps. I wasn't sure how fast everyone else was going to be due to the chaos in qualifying. By the end of the second lap I had a significant lead over Ryan in second. That's when I realized just how fast my car was. Everything worked perfectly. It was like nothing I’ve ever driven before. I decided to save the car and gradually dropped the revs down to about a 7800RPM shift point. I also backed up the braking zones a little more each lap. By the time I hit the back markers, the car was being so under driven, I could put it anywhere. I kept an eye out for Ryan to make sure he stayed half a straight back, but it was pretty clear he couldn't catch up. If not for the steak dinner bet with Jon I probably would have gotten complacent and gone farming. But I had a quest. The search for Kofod. I worked my way through the field. It was tricky since he had the two clones out there. I ran down one then the other. But neither had any Kofod. Finally just when I was convinced he had actually driven into the pits to void the bet, I saw the third car. I passed him on the front straight as we took the white flag. I did my best to pretend to be eating with a fork and a knife. But it didn't work right since I don't actually know how to eat with a fork and knife. Jon just waved back thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” The last lap I ran into a serious traffic jam in Madness. That let Ryan catch up but it was hard enough to pass lappers in that section let alone pass for position. Ryan tapped my rear bumper on the back straight on the cool down lap. I'm not sure if he was happy or just not cooled down yet. I asked him about it at impound and he told me “I was just letting you know I was there.” No matter, the chrome H.I.C. was unharmed so everything was cool. I was stoked. That was my only official victory of the year.
We had a good time at the trophy ceremony. I was there with my crew along with Derek Stevens and Doug MacMillan of Hondata and Joe McCarthy of Prototype Racing. Joe was getting his mac on with the trophy girl. Outrun was getting his mac on with Pendola’s girl (candid voyeur shots count as virtual mac.) Chad was there even though he had to sit the race out with the blown motor. I offered to let him borrow the B16 so he could race the next day. But after I gave him the dyno #s he didn't want it. He said he wanted to win and that he'd build a real motor that night. At first I thought he was crazy but then I remembered he was Chad. Jon Marhefka and Chris Stiffler presented the (temporary) trophies (still haven't gotten the actual trophies.) Chris had a good time sticking sponsor stickers on the trophy girl’s parts. But that's OK. It was his birthday. Outrun and I did our usual routine (we have this down) when I went up to get my trophy. Outrun was there with the camera yelling ”kiss him!” I'm not sure what went wrong. I guess I needed one of McCarthy's Hawaiian shirts for that one.
Next was the HC Keg Party at the Honda Pavilion. I didn't want to drink too much with the big race and all. Everyone looked like they were having a good time though. The drifting competition was going on at the same time. I'm not sure how many drivers there were but they announced James Evans every twenty seconds or so. Marco created the James Evans drinking game. We drank every time his name was called out. Needless to say we got faded pretty quick. My two beers were gone like that. I ended up kicking it with Jon Marhefka, Thawley, Lionel, Chad, and a bunch of others. I wish it could have been some other party where we all could have gotten trashed. There were a lot of cool people out there but we had to put racing first. Next time you guys are all calling in sick Monday so we can do things right on Sunday Night.
Sunday, August 22nd:
The worst day at the track is better than the best day off the track. That's what they say right? I guess I still agree with that but this day was borderline. We were the first group up that day with qualifying at 8AM. Like an idiot I forgot to gas up The Rex after Saturday’s race. Now it’s 7AM, I'm parked by the gas pumps and of course nobodies there. My only fuel jug with any gas is in Ryan's garage. And it’s got his gas in it. I ran around bugging everyone with a track radio. But, nobody seemed to share my urgency. Thankfully Ryan showed up with a radio but he couldn't get anyone over there either. He was also almost out of gas. We decided to split the five gallons. He said all he needed was a splash. I gave him almost two gallons then ran off with the rest. On my second hot lap my VTEC cut out. I spent the rest of the session pulling in and out of the pits while my crew played with things under the hood. Evans’ crew was right next to mine. They spent most of the session under his hood as well. After about five minutes Ryan came into the pits with fuel starvation. We weren't able to get VTEC working so we pulled it into the garage. I think that's when I heard the rumor that the race had been bumped from 2PM to 10:30AM. Yikes! I had to go to the driver’s meeting. My crew promised me the car would be working when I got back.
On my way to the meeting I decided to stop by and chat with Kofod. We had planned on having our steak dinner that night. But with the new schedule I thought I’d let him buy me a steak burger at the track after the race so he could get out of there. (Truth be told I’ll take a good burger over a steak any day.) But I couldn't find him. I ended up at the Curpier camp with Kevin Helms. I wanted to give them props for their clean cars. They also seem to have done a lot for HC so I wanted to thank them for that. We were interrupted by Evans who walked up and casually asked if anyone had a spare short block. Somebody had one. Everybody scattered and went to work. There couldn't have been much more than an hour before we were supposed to be on grid.
After the meeting I headed back to check on The Rex. Joe and Marco had directly wired the VTEC solenoid. Derek instructed me to keep the RPMs above 3000 because the VTEC would rob oil pressure from the head. You should have heard it as Joe and I drove through the paddock over to grid. The big lobes on the Skunk 2 stage 2 cams (that I borrowed from Ryan) combined with the open header sounded vicious. It was sputtering and backfiring. It was straight mean. Everyone was staring like WTF! I was loving it. Evans pulled up to the grid seconds before they let us out. I have to give James and his crew mad respect for pulling that off. No wonder why half the ECHC guys had JE Import Performance on the side of their cars. I saw his crew making their way up to the pit wall as we headed out, some limping, others bleeding, all bad ***.
The NASA people staged us up on the front straight for the standing start. I stopped short but they instructed me to pull up within about 6 feet of the TL in front of me. Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for tight racing but, um, anyway.
The green flag drops and…
My original report went on from here. But, I think I’ll edit that out for now. If you want to know what happened in the race you can bug the Effect and G-Sport people. They made a video and I think they need to know if people want to see it.
Anyways... To those that were there, What did you think of the event?
For me it was by far the coolest thing I've gotten to do. Going across the country to race with a bunch of people I've never met was awesome. Unfortunately there were some incidents during the main race that overshadowed the good parts. When I got home I didn't have anything nice to say for a while. I think some others may have felt the same way. But I feel bad about that. I know I and a lot of my friends worked hard for me to get to go there, and I'm sure the other drivers have their stories too. Now on this rainy day in my extended off season I can't stop thinking about how good it was to go racing out on the east coast, and how bad I want to go back.
My Mid Ohio HC Nationals Race Report:
December 2003:
It was really Joe Alaniz’ idea. He was like, “We can beat those east coast guys.” I replied, “OK lets do it” and that was that, it was on. We decided that he would build a motor for my CRX and we’d tow across the country to take on the ECHC.
We had to find a good event. For Joe it was important for the trip to be high profile. It was going to be expensive and he'd need to get some good publicity in order to justify spending the money. For me, I really wanted to race at a good track. At first I was looking at VIR but John Teece told me that the north course was lame. The next best thing was the Hyperfest at Summit. But that landed on the same weekend as the WCHC event at Willow Springs. With the 2 best ECHC events looking doubtful I started to worry. But then I thought maybe the ECHC guys would be willing to do an out of region race if a lot of cars would be there. There were no ECHC or WCHC races in August and there were HC races at Mid Ohio, Road Atlanta, and Texas Motor Speedway scheduled that month. It looked doable so I started this thread https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=709174 to see what everyone thought. The response was awesome. Within a day or so, the date and place were set, August 20th – 22nd at Mid Ohio.
May 2004:
Things are going well. I'm driving the RO_JA Motorsports RSX in the WCHC races which lets the CRX get all freshened up for the big trip back east. I start hammering on my friends at Sport Compact Car and Honda Tuning to verify that they are coming. But now they're sounding a little unsure. So I start another thread https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=860041 to make sure the racers are still in, and they're sounding flaky too. That was a little frustrating but there wasn't much I could do about it.
July:
The event is getting close. John Thawley stops by the shop to see what we’re up to. He tells me that Honda Tuning wants to go but they need to make sure that a lot of cars are going to be there. I tell him that there are some really nice cars out on the east coast. I tell him about Evans who wins every race he finishes, and Chad who's secretly building a new car, and I give him the Team Toilet web address. He buys it but says he needs more to sell it to the editor. He asks me to start a roll call thread. I thought about the one from a month back and figured that the response to another one might be even worse. But I really wanted the mag to go so I told him I’d do it. But then I got to thinking. What’s up with those east coast guys? Do they want to do this or what? What’s it take to get a response out of the damned cousins anyway? https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=938060 Ah, instant E Thug.
As it turns out a lot of people had been busy getting things put together for the event. Honda Tuning worked things out with a couple of the WCHC guys. And the MWHC guys worked out a deal between G Sport and the guys at Effect to film the race. I'm still not sure how they managed to pull that one off. Mansier (The Bro) was planning a keg party for us. Chris B had a personal keg party. And basically things were looking really good. Now all I had to do was get out there.
August:
Joe overhauled the old Suburban that he picked up for $1500. I worked out a deal with my friend Ryan Flaherty to use his brand new enclosed trailer. It worked out well since he was having his car transported out and I could bring his spares for him. Tom Liang, Marco Arias, Daniel Chavez, and countless others all got The Rex into perfect running order. Finally Shawn Church (yes I know him) tuned the Hondata and we were all set.
Sunday, August 15th:
The crew plus Tsuyoshi Inoye from 5Zigen USA, Sam Higashi, and Charleston Ong (A-Spec Racing) helped us load everything into the giant 24’ trailer, and at 4PM we rolled out. Traffic was hell. It didn't open up till we got to West Covina. Once we hit about 60MPH the trailer and truck started whipping back and forth. It was seriously scary. I kept my hand on the brake controller and Joe kept both hands on the wheel. It was everything we could do to get off the freeway and then limp back to the shop at 45 MPH. We decided that we’d throw The Rex on the open trailer and put what we needed in the back of the Suburban. Ryan's stuff went in first since it wasn't going to be cool to leave his stuff behind. His car had already left for Ohio and it wasn't his fault that the Suburban couldn't handle it/ we had way to much ****/ we didn't distribute the load right/ whatever, that thing wasn't going to make it 5000 miles that's for sure. Next my B16 went in, the small toolbox, a case of Valvoline SynPower, our gear, and our collection of about 200 gangsta rap CDs. I'm not sure what time we finally got out of there.
Monday, August 16th:
At 1AM we pull into the Best Western in Needles. We are still in CA.
Tuesday, August 17th:
This was the big tow day. We woke up in New Mexico and charged through Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. It was close to 1200 miles that day. Joe drove about 85 of them. It’s all pretty blurry. A little after midnight we were approaching St. Louis. I decided that we needed to get through the city that night so we wouldn't hit traffic in the morning. I was trying to see where the arch was when I was distracted by this sign above the road to tell you what lane to get in. There were 5 or 6 lanes and each had it’s own arrow with 4 lines of text. I woke up Joe so he could help me but it was too late. We had to get over 4 lanes to catch the right bridge. Joe yells “we’re gonna crash!” I swear we almost went right into the Mississippi. Instead somehow we ended up driving around on some little side street on the Missouri side. It was a shady place. I think we would have gotten robbed if not for the intimidating oddness of seeing the Mexican and the Whitey towing the Blingmobile while bumpin $horty the Pimp. Anyway, we made it across the river and about 50 miles into Illinois, where we found a motel next to a prison.
Wednesday, August 18th:
We passed through Indianapolis. I saw a pair of chrome Penske transporters going the other way. I'm sure they were jocking our rig. Finally we crossed into Ohio. We got to the Motel in the late afternoon. Thawley, Kiwi, and the Special Projects crew, Ruben and Glen were in the parking lot with a case of beer. It was really good to see familiar faces, with a case of beer. I tried to get a good night’s sleep but it was tough with the thunder, lightning, and downpours that were bombarding the Super 8. All I could think of was my rain tires that didn't make it into the Suburban because there wasn't enough room.
Thursday, August 19th:
This was our bonus day. We figured we should have an extra day in case the Suburban broke down on the tow out. But luckily we stayed ahead of schedule so we got this day to kick back and relax. We pulled up to the track around noon. Reginald Legaspi, aka Outrun, was there waiting for us with a bag of white castle. I thought they were pretty good. But I don't really crave them. Now Waffle House is another story. Those are the best waffles. We need a Waffle House in San Pedro. But I digress. Sorry, oh, you probably wanted to read about the race weekend itself, OK. I'm getting there. We set up our garage. Reginald and I went out and walked the track. The track is bad *** by the way. We got back to the pits and met up with Marco and Charleston who had flown in that afternoon. Back at the motel I ran into Tom Lepper. He’s a cool cat and a good driver. H1 was lucky that his K20 nuked itself because he was really going to be the driver to beat out there.
Friday, August 20th:
There was a huge line of trailers waiting to get in. I recognized Lionel Kent's car. I remembered seeing it featured in a magazine before there was a WCHC. I had a good conversation with Lionel and his wife (sorry, can’t remember her name because I'm lame, but she seemed like the coolest racer wife ever, next to Lepper’s wife Robyn.) Finally Mansier showed up to open registration and we all got checked in. Inside I found my old nemesis Chad Slagg. Somehow the subject of bump drafting came up. Coming from the stunna side of HC I’ve never been into that primitive style of racing. But, Chad assured me that they do it all the time. I figured I should clarify what was cool and what wasn't so I wouldn't get kicked out for incidental contact. I asked about bump drafting in the general drivers meeting and everyone laughed at me. Oh well, enough socializing, time to get down to business.
The first couple of laps I got stomped on pretty hard. Chad & Evans took off never to be seen again. Then Scot Burner in the red S2000 blew by me. I think he was trying to taunt me when he set a drift and slid off the track. That made me feel better because I'm evil like that. But then in less than a lap he blew by me again. The track was awesome to drive. It wasn't like some courses where one corner is to tight and then you waste three more getting back up to speed. The corners were all challenging and they flowed together really well. I was starting to get a feel for it but there was a lot of traffic and there were more and more standing yellows every lap. Finally it went full course black. Back in the pits my crew adjusted my tire pressures. After a short break they let everyone back out. I was surprised to see everyone go out together so I waited close to a full minute and then tore back out there. The track was even better without traffic. I got a good five clear laps in, pushing a little harder each time. By the end of the session I was pretty comfortable. Afterwords I found WCHC H4 driver John Teece. He was on the phone with our coach Bernardo Martinez back in LA, making excuses about tires and brakes. He also had the printout with the lap times and my name was at the top! I was stoked. With my fresh ammunition for e-thuggery I decided to wander the paddock and taunt everyone.
The first person I found was Scot. But he didn't believe who I was. He told me “No, Andy Hope is Oriental.” I snapped back “It’s ASIAN!!!” He looked bewildered but I continued “I'm not that either though. I'm just an old school S.J. from the S.G.V. That's why my plate frame rocks the H.I.C.” He seemed to relate after that somehow. We got along for the rest of the weekend. After all he is the undisputed MWHC H-T smack talking champion of 2004. No offense Mr. Stiffler. Scot pointed me toward the JE Import camp. I wanted to meet James more than anyone. I found his black CRX. It was cool to get to see it in person. It’s scary how similar it is to mine. It was parked next to his black 240 drift car in front of his black enclosed trailer. I peeped inside and saw the oddest thing. There were four guys in there wearing black with different sections of bleached facial hair watching television. I can only assume they were studying something from West Coast Choppers. I tried to get their attention but they all stared at me really hard. So I ran off like MC Pooh in Friday after Deebo stole his gold chain. Next I ran into Matt Dudek, who introduced me to the infamous RJ. I had to give him some ****, “What do I have to say to lower that damned 100% user rating anyway?” He had some pathetic reasoning. I didn't really listen though. If I don't see a 0% before he comes out to JGTC I'm going to run his *** over out there.
The rain came back just before the second practice session. I wasn't sure if I should go out or not. First and foremost I didn't want to ball up the car on the practice day. It’s not that I don't like driving in the rain. I love it, especially on dry tires. It really separates the drivers from the people that just steer. I'm really not good at running at 8or 9 10ths though. I always end up just going for it. But at the same time I wanted some more seat time on that track. So I decided to go out and run at 5 10ths. I gridded up behind Keith Edwards and stayed there. I think we were over 20 seconds off the H1 pace. You really learn a lot about a track by driving it slow. You can take your time and look around off line to see what’s paved and even what’s not but still usable. By the end of the session The Rex and I were thoroughly soaked. My arms were also out of blood from all the point bys. I pulled it into the garage just in time. It rained harder than I’ve ever seen. The third H5 car floated by, never to be seen again. That's when I decided to park the car for the rest of the day. Marco and I got out of there to go find some hot food. There was a meeting for all the Honda Challenge drivers while I was gone. I would have liked to have been there to meet everybody. I got back and watched the School Race with Keith. We were all invited to run in the race but it was still raining. It felt so wrong to be at the best track I’ve ever been to with the best car I’ve ever had and not race for fear of crashing. *****. It just wasn't worth the risk. The real race was scheduled for Saturday.
Saturday, August 21st:
I woke up early and immediately turned on the weather channel. The news was good. No more rain for Mansfield OH. We only got two sessions that day. One for qualifying and one to race. The guys from Effect put a camera in my car facing me AKA the Ego Cam. I also had my camera in there facing forward and Joe's camera looking out the back window. I had the rock star thing going so I went with it and rolled up to grid with my headphones on blasting my Baby Anne DJ Mixed Live@ Las Vegas CD. Sick break beats if you're into that, but anyway. Colin Botha came up to say hi. He said something like “Oh sorry, I guess you're in the zone” and wandered off thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” You see Bernardo had told me to have Colin tow me around because he would be the best driver there. I figured I’d talk with him later that weekend but I never saw him again. So much for that. Time to go out.
We were the second group on track. The AI guys had dried off the line itself but everything else was wet. Why is it that whenever there's a camera in the car… First my clutch pedal started sticking on the floor. That happened to me at three starts last year and probably cost me a couple of wins. This time it wasn't so bad. Only I looked like an amped up noob out there, bouncing off the rev limiter between shifts. That went away though. I just had to be extra careful not to push the pedal too hard. Then on about the third lap my shift **** came off on the back straight. I fought through traffic as best I could. We were out with a Taurus, an old RWD 200SX, a Rabbit, and all the USTCC guys (some which were even slower than the Taurus.) I shouldn't complain though. Others had it worse. There was a yellow Teg parked on the left just after the Keyhole. Chad was broken off to the right at Madness. Teece was in the gravel by Thunder Valley. Yellow flags were everywhere. It got really hard to find places where it was legal to pass. It was the same for everybody though. Kiwi, Evans, Ryan, and I all ended up running the same lap time within a couple tenths. Chad was barely off our time and he couldn't have gotten more than a lap or two before it let go. I returned the Ego Cam to Mike Pendola(H1 S2000 driver/ MIA HC Nationals Video Editor.) I tried to explain about the sticky clutch and that I didn't suck, but he just gave me a look like “yeah, sure you don't.”
Qualifying was followed by the HC group meeting. There I met Jeremy Lucas and Brian Shanfeld (the blue TL) from Honda. Brian and I had a few laughs. We each had the gas tank fall out and drag behind the car at last year’s 25hour race. His was in the Team Honda Research Integra and mine was in the Endless Civic. I also finally got to meet Jon Kofod. In person he is much friendlier than the WCHC hating, H1 insulting, gambling junkie that we know from H-T. Mansier got the meeting started. He and Ryan attempted to explain to us that this was not an Official National Championship weekend. It was just a fun run, get together type of race weekend of little historical significance. I then asked which day was being filmed for Speed Channel. I don't think they picked up on what I was really saying. Anyway, everyone pretty much agreed that it was best to switch the big day to Sunday. After all most of us were first timers at the track and nobody got much practice due to Friday’s rain.
I got back to the garage where the crew was entertaining spectators. Marco had already fixed the clutch pedal and reinstalled the shift ****. I asked him what was wrong with the pedal since it had been acting up for over a year and nobody could fix it. He just told me not to worry about it and that it would never be a problem again. Did I mention that Marco is an awesome mechanic? I spent the next few hours hanging out and meeting people. That was interrupted by the occasional interview with Bob Hernandez from Honda Tuning or the Effect video crew. It really was incredible to be racing at Mid Ohio with Honda racers from all over the country that weekend. I hope all the drivers got the chance to soak it in.
Saturday’s race was thoroughly enjoyable even if uneventful. I started on pole and led from flag to flag for the first time ever. I really stood on it for the first couple of laps. I wasn't sure how fast everyone else was going to be due to the chaos in qualifying. By the end of the second lap I had a significant lead over Ryan in second. That's when I realized just how fast my car was. Everything worked perfectly. It was like nothing I’ve ever driven before. I decided to save the car and gradually dropped the revs down to about a 7800RPM shift point. I also backed up the braking zones a little more each lap. By the time I hit the back markers, the car was being so under driven, I could put it anywhere. I kept an eye out for Ryan to make sure he stayed half a straight back, but it was pretty clear he couldn't catch up. If not for the steak dinner bet with Jon I probably would have gotten complacent and gone farming. But I had a quest. The search for Kofod. I worked my way through the field. It was tricky since he had the two clones out there. I ran down one then the other. But neither had any Kofod. Finally just when I was convinced he had actually driven into the pits to void the bet, I saw the third car. I passed him on the front straight as we took the white flag. I did my best to pretend to be eating with a fork and a knife. But it didn't work right since I don't actually know how to eat with a fork and knife. Jon just waved back thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” The last lap I ran into a serious traffic jam in Madness. That let Ryan catch up but it was hard enough to pass lappers in that section let alone pass for position. Ryan tapped my rear bumper on the back straight on the cool down lap. I'm not sure if he was happy or just not cooled down yet. I asked him about it at impound and he told me “I was just letting you know I was there.” No matter, the chrome H.I.C. was unharmed so everything was cool. I was stoked. That was my only official victory of the year.
We had a good time at the trophy ceremony. I was there with my crew along with Derek Stevens and Doug MacMillan of Hondata and Joe McCarthy of Prototype Racing. Joe was getting his mac on with the trophy girl. Outrun was getting his mac on with Pendola’s girl (candid voyeur shots count as virtual mac.) Chad was there even though he had to sit the race out with the blown motor. I offered to let him borrow the B16 so he could race the next day. But after I gave him the dyno #s he didn't want it. He said he wanted to win and that he'd build a real motor that night. At first I thought he was crazy but then I remembered he was Chad. Jon Marhefka and Chris Stiffler presented the (temporary) trophies (still haven't gotten the actual trophies.) Chris had a good time sticking sponsor stickers on the trophy girl’s parts. But that's OK. It was his birthday. Outrun and I did our usual routine (we have this down) when I went up to get my trophy. Outrun was there with the camera yelling ”kiss him!” I'm not sure what went wrong. I guess I needed one of McCarthy's Hawaiian shirts for that one.
Next was the HC Keg Party at the Honda Pavilion. I didn't want to drink too much with the big race and all. Everyone looked like they were having a good time though. The drifting competition was going on at the same time. I'm not sure how many drivers there were but they announced James Evans every twenty seconds or so. Marco created the James Evans drinking game. We drank every time his name was called out. Needless to say we got faded pretty quick. My two beers were gone like that. I ended up kicking it with Jon Marhefka, Thawley, Lionel, Chad, and a bunch of others. I wish it could have been some other party where we all could have gotten trashed. There were a lot of cool people out there but we had to put racing first. Next time you guys are all calling in sick Monday so we can do things right on Sunday Night.
Sunday, August 22nd:
The worst day at the track is better than the best day off the track. That's what they say right? I guess I still agree with that but this day was borderline. We were the first group up that day with qualifying at 8AM. Like an idiot I forgot to gas up The Rex after Saturday’s race. Now it’s 7AM, I'm parked by the gas pumps and of course nobodies there. My only fuel jug with any gas is in Ryan's garage. And it’s got his gas in it. I ran around bugging everyone with a track radio. But, nobody seemed to share my urgency. Thankfully Ryan showed up with a radio but he couldn't get anyone over there either. He was also almost out of gas. We decided to split the five gallons. He said all he needed was a splash. I gave him almost two gallons then ran off with the rest. On my second hot lap my VTEC cut out. I spent the rest of the session pulling in and out of the pits while my crew played with things under the hood. Evans’ crew was right next to mine. They spent most of the session under his hood as well. After about five minutes Ryan came into the pits with fuel starvation. We weren't able to get VTEC working so we pulled it into the garage. I think that's when I heard the rumor that the race had been bumped from 2PM to 10:30AM. Yikes! I had to go to the driver’s meeting. My crew promised me the car would be working when I got back.
On my way to the meeting I decided to stop by and chat with Kofod. We had planned on having our steak dinner that night. But with the new schedule I thought I’d let him buy me a steak burger at the track after the race so he could get out of there. (Truth be told I’ll take a good burger over a steak any day.) But I couldn't find him. I ended up at the Curpier camp with Kevin Helms. I wanted to give them props for their clean cars. They also seem to have done a lot for HC so I wanted to thank them for that. We were interrupted by Evans who walked up and casually asked if anyone had a spare short block. Somebody had one. Everybody scattered and went to work. There couldn't have been much more than an hour before we were supposed to be on grid.
After the meeting I headed back to check on The Rex. Joe and Marco had directly wired the VTEC solenoid. Derek instructed me to keep the RPMs above 3000 because the VTEC would rob oil pressure from the head. You should have heard it as Joe and I drove through the paddock over to grid. The big lobes on the Skunk 2 stage 2 cams (that I borrowed from Ryan) combined with the open header sounded vicious. It was sputtering and backfiring. It was straight mean. Everyone was staring like WTF! I was loving it. Evans pulled up to the grid seconds before they let us out. I have to give James and his crew mad respect for pulling that off. No wonder why half the ECHC guys had JE Import Performance on the side of their cars. I saw his crew making their way up to the pit wall as we headed out, some limping, others bleeding, all bad ***.
The NASA people staged us up on the front straight for the standing start. I stopped short but they instructed me to pull up within about 6 feet of the TL in front of me. Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for tight racing but, um, anyway.
The green flag drops and…
My original report went on from here. But, I think I’ll edit that out for now. If you want to know what happened in the race you can bug the Effect and G-Sport people. They made a video and I think they need to know if people want to see it.
Anyways... To those that were there, What did you think of the event?
For me it was by far the coolest thing I've gotten to do. Going across the country to race with a bunch of people I've never met was awesome. Unfortunately there were some incidents during the main race that overshadowed the good parts. When I got home I didn't have anything nice to say for a while. I think some others may have felt the same way. But I feel bad about that. I know I and a lot of my friends worked hard for me to get to go there, and I'm sure the other drivers have their stories too. Now on this rainy day in my extended off season I can't stop thinking about how good it was to go racing out on the east coast, and how bad I want to go back.
02-20-2005, 09:49 PM
#2
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Between Willow, and Button Willow, CA, USA
Posts: 4,596
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (AndyHope)
Nice write up Andy! I hope to see you out there this year in something! Hell, I hope to be out there this year as well! 
Hopefully something like this event will happen again in the future! Sounds like it was a really good time had by most!
Hopefully something like this event will happen again in the future! Sounds like it was a really good time had by most!
02-21-2005, 07:44 AM
#4
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Pacific Northwest, USA
Posts: 3,402
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (Fastom)
Good read Andy. I wish I could've been there. I remember reading about Sunday's events, but you should finish your story.
If videos are available, I'll take one.
If videos are available, I'll take one.
02-21-2005, 08:38 AM
#6
Moderator
Best Weekend EVER
yeah good weekend cept for my engine blowing....but having a guy drive 12 hours with the spare b20 piston worked....
qualified pretty bad on sunday cause i forgot to hook pcv into the catch can and was smoking like a blonde on crack....
finished 3rd overall for the day....
seeing keving helms beautiful car wrecked sucked ***.....watching people blow flags....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....not a good thing
<U>WHERE'S THE VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!</U>
and i will lay claim to being the first person the HIT the TEAM HONDA TL!!!!
qualified pretty bad on sunday cause i forgot to hook pcv into the catch can and was smoking like a blonde on crack....
finished 3rd overall for the day....
seeing keving helms beautiful car wrecked sucked ***.....watching people blow flags....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....not a good thing
<U>WHERE'S THE VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!</U>
and i will lay claim to being the first person the HIT the TEAM HONDA TL!!!!
Trending Topics
02-21-2005, 09:01 AM
#8
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Snowwhitepillowformybigfathead
Posts: 4,049
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (civicrr)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by civicrr »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Mike
who has met Andy & didn't think he was an *** </TD></TR></TABLE>
<Shruggs>
"I heard he was an ***."
Scott, who doesn't think Andy's an *** either...but don't go by what I say - I'm an ***.
Mike
who has met Andy & didn't think he was an *** </TD></TR></TABLE>
<Shruggs>
"I heard he was an ***."
Scott, who doesn't think Andy's an *** either...but don't go by what I say - I'm an ***.
02-21-2005, 10:50 AM
#11
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Orange County, CA
Posts: 1,349
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story.
Seriously good work on the keyboard, Andy. Magazine quality ****. You use both fingers for that?
It was indeed a great weekend with lots of good times in the garage area. I was sorry not to meet more of the EC guys, but the ones I did meet were every bit as much the fun, cool, racers I like to hang with out here.
My only sour point of the event shall be discussed elsewhere: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1156820
But overall, it WAS a historical event regaurdless of what it was intended to be.
Let's do it again.
It was indeed a great weekend with lots of good times in the garage area. I was sorry not to meet more of the EC guys, but the ones I did meet were every bit as much the fun, cool, racers I like to hang with out here.
My only sour point of the event shall be discussed elsewhere: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1156820
But overall, it WAS a historical event regaurdless of what it was intended to be.
Let's do it again.
02-21-2005, 10:54 AM
#12
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Snowwhitepillowformybigfathead
Posts: 4,049
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (thawley)
Uh-hem - Thawley...you left something out of your post.
"Andy is an ***" - your opinion?
Scott, who just using this as an excuse to bump Andy's story...I'm just trying to be helpful.
"Andy is an ***" - your opinion?
Scott, who just using this as an excuse to bump Andy's story...I'm just trying to be helpful.
02-21-2005, 11:01 AM
#13
Honda-Tech Member
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (Tyson)
If Andy doesn't do the occasional treadmill workout, the every Friday night Las Grisas, err.. Las Brisas Mexican food sessions will surely add to his ***. And then he'll need an Evo 4 seat. Butt, I don't think he will then be an "***", but I may be wrong.
02-21-2005, 11:01 AM
#14
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Orange County, CA
Posts: 1,349
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (RR98ITR)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Uh-hem - Thawley...you left something out of your post.
"Andy is an ***" - your opinion?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Not at all. He is a credit to racing, as we like to say...
"Andy is an ***" - your opinion?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Not at all. He is a credit to racing, as we like to say...
02-21-2005, 11:05 AM
#15
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Snowwhitepillowformybigfathead
Posts: 4,049
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (thawley)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thawley »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Not at all. He is a credit to racing, as we like to say...</TD></TR></TABLE>
"Riiiiigght - sounds like he's an *** alright."
Scott, who sooner or later must run out of excuses for "Andy is an ***" posts...
Not at all. He is a credit to racing, as we like to say...</TD></TR></TABLE>
"Riiiiigght - sounds like he's an *** alright."
Scott, who sooner or later must run out of excuses for "Andy is an ***" posts...
02-21-2005, 11:21 AM
#18
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Snowwhitepillowformybigfathead
Posts: 4,049
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (Johnny Mac)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Johnny Mac »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Damn, Andy does a nice write up and all we end up doing is voting on whether Andy's an ***.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I know - it's SO like Honda-Tech for something like this to happen.
Let's investigate this thing!
First: WHO is the perpetrator?
Hmmmmm....<looks around>.....AH-HA!
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AndyHope »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Forgive me.....here you go, file it under shizzle.
... He said something like “Oh sorry, I guess you're in the zone” and wandered off thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” ...
... Jon just waved back thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” ..
..The green flag drops and…how bad I want to go back.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
Hmmm. Well, *** or not, I definitely think Andy should head east again!
Scott, who never "said" Andy was an ***....but I defend his right to be one if he wants to.
I know - it's SO like Honda-Tech for something like this to happen.
Let's investigate this thing!
First: WHO is the perpetrator?
Hmmmmm....<looks around>.....AH-HA!
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AndyHope »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Forgive me.....here you go, file it under shizzle.
... He said something like “Oh sorry, I guess you're in the zone” and wandered off thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” ...
... Jon just waved back thinking “It’s true, he is an ***.” ..
..The green flag drops and…how bad I want to go back.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
Hmmm. Well, *** or not, I definitely think Andy should head east again!
Scott, who never "said" Andy was an ***....but I defend his right to be one if he wants to.
02-21-2005, 11:42 AM
#19
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Orange, CALIFORNIA, USA
Posts: 1,642
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (AndyHope)
Nice write up andy I can't wait for the Movie??? although I doubt that we will ever see the Video coverage? Pity a lot of original video footage was given to the G-SPORT people, so the real story may never be told?
Sorry to hear you're selling all your ****. But I think I can safely say...(Arnold's Voice)..."You'll be Back!" If Special Projects has anything to do with it??
Good Job.
Kiwi
I can't wait for the Movie??? although I doubt that we will ever see the Video coverage? Pity a lot of original video footage was given to the G-SPORT people, so the real story may never be told?Sorry to hear you're selling all your ****. But I think I can safely say...(Arnold's Voice)..."You'll be Back!" If Special Projects has anything to do with it??
Good Job.
Kiwi
02-21-2005, 11:46 AM
#20
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Snowwhitepillowformybigfathead
Posts: 4,049
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (KIWI)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KIWI »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...Sorry to hear you're selling all your ****. But I think I can safely say...(Arnold's Voice)..."You'll be Back!" If Special Projects has anything to do with it??
Good Job.
Kiwi</TD></TR></TABLE>
Now THAT is something I didn't want to hear.
I hope you can find a way back into a kaa Andy - maybe even one of Jeff's.
Scott, who want's Andy's story to have a happy ending...
Good Job.
Kiwi</TD></TR></TABLE>
Now THAT is something I didn't want to hear.
I hope you can find a way back into a kaa Andy - maybe even one of Jeff's.
Scott, who want's Andy's story to have a happy ending...
02-21-2005, 12:03 PM
#22
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: harrisburg, PA, USA
Posts: 1,002
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (jpl95si)
ya... i wanted to come out and drive like a ***** again. 
nice story Andy. The west coast guys are all cheaters!
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jpl95si »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Good write up Andy!
Too bad there's no big "National" event this year.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
nice story Andy. The west coast guys are all cheaters!
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jpl95si »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Good write up Andy!
Too bad there's no big "National" event this year.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
02-21-2005, 03:41 PM
#23
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Rancho Relacso, CA, USA
Posts: 9,648
Likes: 0
Received 88 Likes
on
75 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (AndyHope)
When Andy wins again I'll just yell at the trophy girl "Kiss him on the cheek and grab his a$$!"
Or maybe Andy should just grab the trophy girl's a$$. Then all you guys in this thread could ask the trophy girl, "Is Andy an a$$?"
Or maybe Andy should just grab the trophy girl's a$$. Then all you guys in this thread could ask the trophy girl, "Is Andy an a$$?"
02-21-2005, 05:24 PM
#24
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Fairfax, Va, Fairfax
Posts: 635
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (AndyHope)
It was an honor to share the track with Mr. Hope
I went over to congratulate Andy after the race and when he got out of the car he had his nomex and helmet still on.
I could have sworn he was wearing a bib when he passed me with the steak knife and fork waving out the window
Only thing missing from Andy's story is that he said he wasn't cashing the check ($35).....he said he was gonna frame it !!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, all the smack talk aside, Andy is a true class act as are most of the other WCHC racers I met.
Regards,
Jon P. Kofod
I went over to congratulate Andy after the race and when he got out of the car he had his nomex and helmet still on.
I could have sworn he was wearing a bib when he passed me with the steak knife and fork waving out the window
Only thing missing from Andy's story is that he said he wasn't cashing the check ($35).....he said he was gonna frame it !!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, all the smack talk aside, Andy is a true class act as are most of the other WCHC racers I met.
Regards,
Jon P. Kofod
02-21-2005, 06:21 PM
#25
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 3,657
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Mid-Ohio '04 based on a true story. (Outrun)
I'll start this....BEST THREAD OF 2005 RIGHT HERE!!!!
"Marco created the James Evans drinking game. We drank every time his name was called out. Needless to say we got faded pretty quick. My two beers were gone like that."
Yup sounds about like us...
Great story Andy, wish you would have made it to the WS event a couple weeks ago, I was looking forward to meeting you.
I'm jealous that you ran what I consider my home track at Mid-Ohio, I grew up going to races at that track in the early 90's and one day I will go back and actually drive it, that much I SWEAR.
Justin
"Marco created the James Evans drinking game. We drank every time his name was called out. Needless to say we got faded pretty quick. My two beers were gone like that."
Yup sounds about like us...
Great story Andy, wish you would have made it to the WS event a couple weeks ago, I was looking forward to meeting you.
I'm jealous that you ran what I consider my home track at Mid-Ohio, I grew up going to races at that track in the early 90's and one day I will go back and actually drive it, that much I SWEAR.
Justin
