OK, first off, here is the disclaimer. I am really bad @ this stuff. I am not going to try to write a great story. I will just type in some bullet points.

We (Team RNR Derek & I) got to the track Sat. morning @ 7:05. Holy crap! There ain't no spots. Luckily, the other HC guys saved us a spot. Most of us were able to pit together except for John Morrison & Chris Lock who are both working on getting their license to join us. Unfortunately, Greg Umbay (ITACivic) didn't make it. Neither did Tyson who is still in China, I think. We also didn't have the Fantasy Junction guys or the Metric Motorsports guys there. It probably didn't help that it was the opening weekend for the SF region of SCCA @ Sears Point (Infinion Raceway).

Tom Lepper showed up with his H1 ITR & his H1 Accord. Both are USTCC cars. They decided @ the track to run one in PCTCC & one in HC as not to compete against each other for points/prizes. On Sat. Tom would drive the ITR in HC & Anthony Vanni the Accord in PCTCC. On Sun. Tom would drive the Accord with Phil Malgren racing the ITR in HC.

Neal Vanni showed up in his H1 5th Gen Civic Coupe. 1st HC race for Neal.

Clyde Flewellian showed up with his H1 ITR.

Jim Shen drove his H1 Civic 'hatch to the track! Jim's friend drove on Sat. with Jim driving on Sun.

I brought out the lone H4 car, my Civic EX coupe.

Sat. morning practice & qualifying went off without any real hitches. The racers did do some tweaking. Clyde had a bad tire that needed to be changed. He had some tire rubbing issues that had to be taken care of. He also reported that the VTEC wasn't quite working right. Tom was playing with shock settings on the ITR.

Sat. race kicked butt, mostly. There were 56 cars on track. We raced with the Sports Racers, Legends, Thunder Roadsters, Factory Five, SM, SE-R cup cars up from SoCal & the regular Pro Sedan cars. The group was split in two with the Legends & Thunder Roadsters in the second group. Flying start with two seperate flags. The problem is that the SM guys wanted to leave a gap. This left Jim's car & mine stuck behind them. The H1 guys put on a great show. Close racing with a few lead changes. The Accord (racing in PCTCC) came across first (2nd overall) with Tom & Neil right behind. Clyde took third in H1 & Jim's car (can't remember the drivers name) came in fourth. Derek had an uneventful race except for getting passed by the same car @ the same spot under yellow two laps in a row. Gotta love the borrowed video camera.

Sun saw the same large group size. I drove my car on this day. I spun off in T2 on the first lap of practice. I get back on disgusted with myself. The car feels loose but I chalked it up to dirt & cold tires. I am having trouble controling the car on lefts & spin off on T7 on the second lap. I limp in realizing that I have a flat on the right rear. There goes that session. Get back to the paddock & find a 1/4" diameter puncture from what looks like a screw. Everyone else is doing fine. Jim is driving his car today. Tom is in the Accord & Anthony is in the ITR.

During qualifying, it also sucks to be me. Since I am such a bad driver, I come in way too hot, off line, etc & spin off track. I come in because I am dragging the front bumper. By the time I get it fixed, the session is flagged. Yeah, I get to start 30th which is the back of our group.

Sun race. I get to grid back of our group behind a Factory Five car. On the pace lap, the pole sitter never slows down to form us up. We are flying around the track. I never wiggle the car to warm up the tires 'cuz we are going too fast. We get the green when we are on the backside. I pass the car in front of me catching him unaware between T14 & T15. From then on, it is a slow march forward for me. I finish thirteenth overall moving up seventeen places in the process. Along the way, I get is a few decent battles with a SM & a couple of RX-7's. I tell you what, I needed a decent run after the morning. Talk about not having any confidence left. Since I was in the car, I didn't see much of the other cars racing. Neil won H1. Clyde took second. Jim got third. Anthony, in the Lepper ITR, lost the engine on lap two or three.

Even though Team RNR won both days, the victory is hollow. No one else was in our class. We were also both a second slower per lap than last round. We need more seat time.

I am proud that we all raced clean. There wasn't any contact. There was a problem with some people passing on yellow but not our group! Sorry, no pics. Some idiot (me) left his camera three hours away!

added in edit: corrected for driver accuracy


[Modified by civicrr, 9:27 PM 4/8/2003]

 

Nice writeup Mike, thanks.

Why would Tom not drive his car on Sunday? I thought the points followed the driver, not the car.

 

Nice job, Mike!

Hopefully the H4 fields will get bigger as the race weather improves!

 

Wow...you guys have more H1 CRXs than H4 CRXs?

Good stuff. Glad its spreading.

 

Just to let you WCHC members know...I spoke with the GM of Mackin Industries and suggested that he look into the series to possibly sponsor a car, or just give discounts for advertising space, he honestly sounded intersted in the competitive market. Mackin Industries imports Volk, and a few other brands.

Austin

 

I got to em a few months ago

rayswheels.co.jp looked cooler than mackinindustries.com tho

and yes, they are very nice people; I think they should look into sponsoring the series somehow too.

 

Have you guys brought that info to Ryan? I think he will be really busy until after OTC, though.

 

Had dinner with him last Tuesday after the Super 2NR thing, but I didn't get a chance (didn't really think about it either).

I remember talking with him about this sort of thing back in February since he was so new to Hondas. With all the wrenching and racing since then, I haven't followed up on it. I guess I should.

 

uh oh, them Foss-Tech B18C6 engines aint easy to come by.... yeah greg was having fun dicing it with a rabbit at sears. im still stuck here in SARS infested china.

 

Tom Lepper here. In NASA when you have a teamate, if both race the lower finisher gets the points. Soo, on Sat I raced my type R for H-1 points while Anthony raced the Accord in Pro Compact ( sort of HC for non-Honda guys). That way we both won and I didn't risk losing points if something happened to the Accord.

Now on Sunday I wanted to see how fast the Accord was on the same weekend so I drove it. Anthony had little league picture day so he went home. My teammate in H-1, Phil Malgren ran the Integra in H-1 for our Team points. Unfortunately the engine blew the number four rod on the Nineth lap resulting on our first loss this year, a recorded fourth place finish.

 

Whoops. Sorry Tom. I got confused between Phil & Anthony.

 

civicrr,
Nice write-up maybe Jerry will add to NASA Speednews and publish in GRM.
Clyde