"Warning! May give away results for those who plan to watch the race on July 13th on TV"


Shortly after I get off work, I left NYC at 9pm Saturday night, driving non-stop to Lexington, Ohio to catch up with round 4 of the SVWC races. On the deserted highway of I-80West, traveling at times 110+ mph for periods of time (following a what I call lead car to avoid cops and easy driving following his lines). I reached the rest area closest to the Mid-Ohio course and took at short rest from 5am-8am and went straight to the course.

I was a bit late for the GT race which starts at around 8:30am, but I was able to catch a few laps of it and was a bit disappointed to see Cunninham's NSX falling behind due to a high oil temp problem:



After the GT race, I drag my half-asleep *** to the paddock entrance and waited for around 20 min to get $15 to enter the paddock. Later I found out the $15 is for the American Le Man car booths while the SVWC cars are accessible free at public parking lots But being so close to the RTR cars first time in my life, the troubles are will worthed it:



And what's more priceless are meeting Peter Cunninham in person and having him signed the posters/shirts I brought from the Civicsista of the ITR Expo
(Autographs were written on top of Pierre's #1 ITR.)




Mr. Cunningham is very warm-hearted and greets with a worry-free smile despite a day of hard racing. And here is a pic of Pierre K. giving a to his car:



After the autographs, I went back to the fields to see the anticipated Touring Class races. Lots of excitments and all 53 cars were furiously competing.



Roger's Mazda had a header problem and left the race early.
Taz Harvey led the race for a while and eventually gave in to the Tuner BMWs



ATTENTION R-SPEED members, please do not make fun of my past history. My former tailights are race proven!!!



Time for a JDM front end?



Mid-Ohio is pretty much the Honda home track, lots of investment by Honda here. You see Honda banners everywhere and Honda also provided lots of cars for the Mid-Ohio racing school, here are some of them:



PY OwNs, maybe we need one of this at the next expo:



There were lots of nice cars in the parking lot..vipers, mangustas(sp?), Ferraris. But here is my favorite one, my dream car as well:



Later that day, I stick arond fo the two-hours of American Le man, a great way to go deaf btw...and since it takes forever, I had the chance to walk around along the track on foot and take pics and vids of different angles of the track, I almost had a cramp and fall down to the floor from all those uphill climbings and downhill rollings



Finally, I also had the pleasure of asking Galati to sign his previous campaign car poster infront of his team of Audi crewmen... So now, I have both Galati and Cunningham on the same poster




Summary:

$100 for gas
$30+15 fo the show
10 hours of rest for the past 48 hours
16 hours of and 1200 miles of driving
Having discovered the hidden potential to be a long-distance truck driver....priceless!


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 12:02 AM 7/2/2002]

 

looks like you had a blast

 

Sweet pics. are you going to have the vid you took up so we can download it?

 

Ok, per request, I'll make one now. Please check back 1/2 hours later at this spot for the movie...anyone with place to host would be great as my bandwidth will run out shortly.

*EDIT*

HERE IS A VIDEO: Took place right after a yellow flag lap. Right after the S2000 pace car went off. Harvey's Civic Si were pressured by the Tuner BMWs and at the end, the front-bumperless PY ITR vs Altezza ITR.

http://www.integra-type-racing.com/SVWC4-T.wmv

[Modified by nEoMuGen, 12:00 AM 7/2/2002]


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 12:03 AM 7/2/2002]


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 12:04 AM 7/2/2002]

 

Damn, I am not far from there, I wish I had gone.

 

Wow, I wish I was there!

 

Ray,

Good job.

Sorry we couldn't join you. I had prior commitments.

 

I'm surprised I didn't run into you. I do remember seeing a PY ITR on Sunday but didn't get to meet the owner. There were also two other CW ITR's at Mid Ohio but I only met one of their owners. I had my CW Type R parked in amongst the RV's along the straight from turn 1 to turn 2. We had our RV parked there all weekend starting at 7:45 Friday morning! Can't beat it!

Hopefully I'll get my pics done sometime this week, we'll see.

 

Great job Ray
So glad you made the trip and had a lot of fun

I will go with you next time (at Lime Rock).

 

sweet pics

 

Ya, I saw you pull out and went home during the Le Man race right? I also saw another CW when driving down 314 to goto Lexington to get some cash.

 

Next time? Oh, you mean next year?
How about running down to VIR, VA for the final race this fall?

 

Heh i was there all day sunday and had an absolute blast. Saw another CW R, met the owner, and probably saw your yellow R neo.. if you were parked by the trailors that is. The lemans racing was incredible, especially being my first time at mid-ohio. Odd enough they had a panoz car with a mugen powered engine (which sounded unreal)... almost like an F1 car. The parking lot was sweet as well... porsches, bmws and even a few ferraris to drool over. Anyways just wanted to say what a good time it was. Anyone have a pit pass? I wandered down there later in the day and got to drool over a couple of GT cars.

Kevin

 

I think I am the only PY there...yup! I park along the trailors in the morning and moved to park nearer the RTR booth If that PY has a New York Statue of Liberty plate, it's mine!
being my first time at Mid-Ohio as well, I walked around the whole track on foot. Have you been to the infield with that crazy elevation? That was some scary turns!

You don't need that $15 pit pass to see the GT and Touring cars, they were at the inner side of the public parking. The $15 is for the Le Man cars...although some teams also had SVWC cars like the IS300s.


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 12:01 AM 7/3/2002]

 

Now that you've seen the layout you have to get on the track!!! I finally had a chance to drive on it last week and it is absolutely incredible. And there is really only one spot you have to wathc out for and that is the corner right before Thunder valley. Go wide and there is a big wall to meet you. Everywhere else is not too bad. Granted this is not flat out. Racing there would be a little more challenging to say the least. So far its my favorite track!!

 

Next time? Oh, you mean next year?
How about running down to VIR, VA for the final race this fall?[/QUOTE]

Yup...I mean next year in this case
I don't want to drive 9 hours down to to VIR just to watch......if I ever goto VIR, I will bring my car there and drive it on the track (I really want to try out VIR)

We missed this year SVWC at Lime Rock cuz we got ITREXpo to go, I will ask Dave to organize a R meeting at Lime Rock (next year) to go see ITR on track/race there.



[Modified by WhosITR, 6:50 PM 7/2/2002]

 

sigh, god knows what will happen to our cars next year, that's why I try to enjoy as much with the R as possible. I think my clutch is about to give up as I can't downshift to 4th any more.



My favorite track is acutally...Gingerman Raceway(Flame suit enabled). I havn't been to many tracks, just Pocono and Limerock. But Gingerman is hella fun and worry free since it's grass everywhere, I felt safe spinning out of control there as much as autoxing.
I spoke to the Mid-Ohio Racing school but I don't think they have lapping days. I wonder who does HPDE in Mid-Ohio, but driving another 1200mile just to go run in Mid-Ohio takes more than just determinations...


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 12:05 AM 7/3/2002]


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 12:05 AM 7/3/2002]

 

Nice narration