Whew. What a weekend. Where the hell do I start? I finished the car "early", which means with more than 24 hours to spare. The weekend before, we did a lot of work to the car at SGT's shop, which included swapping to another Type R tranny with a ATS final drive in it. Perfect for Beaverun! Alex Ratcliffe kindly let me use his scales and lift to check weight and corner balance, along with an impromptu alignment.

Saturday... A little dark, but the track was bone dry. Off we go into practice. Everything is going well, and I'm back into the swing of things at Beaver. An H4 car left a gap the size of an 18 wheeler at the top of the hill, so I dove in and was on the way downhill on the inside, 2 wheels on the new dotted rumble before the smooth curb w/ the yellow sticks, and he turned in on me. This was like full on side by side, not just a fender I had my lights on, my super loud exhaust and induction noise, along with my miscolored body panels. Dunno what else I need to do to make the car more visible. Here are the results of that exchange. Sorry, GRM, the sticker got assassinated. I think the roof is still hasn't been hit. Please, no one try that one.



Saturday qualifying was okay. I came in 2nd in class, and 6th overall. We got surprised after qualifying though, and we were told that the entire field would be inverted. Considering the speed differential, standing start, experience level, and the fact that there was money on the line, I think it was a bad idea, and so did others. We spoke to the event director and we decided to put it to a vote. We voted that down, and did agree to inverting the field by class. That is H1 cars up front in inverted order, followed by H2, etc.

Corey left this imprint on my rear bumper as a souvenir from Saturday qualifying:


I had a killer start. Must have been out by 20-25 car lengths on the next H2 car by lap 2. I went from 11 to 6 at the start, and just started to freight train with the 3 EG H1 hatchbacks. Unfortunately, a double yellow came out though, and I lost my lead. I didn't get my head screwed on straight til after Jason and Corey zipped by me, and I lost my lead. We started rolling pretty close together, and then Corey lost his shifter linkage. Whoops. I hate when I lose things on track. Like, oh, say, places...

So now it's just Jason and me in contention for the H2 lead. I pushed and prodded, and stuck my nose in a few times, only to have the door closed. Couldn't make a real attempt for what felt like an eternity. I finally made a dive on the inside for T1 and made it stick. I ran two flyer laps and put distance on Jason, and when I finally got past James Evans, I knew I had H2 cinched then, so I cruised on to the end. What I DIDN'T realize at the time was that I had also managed to take the overall win. I went from 11th place to 1st place overall. John Whitaker from Roadrace Gear awarded me with the Hard Charger trophy. Thanks John!

On the cooldown lap, I felt just a touch of vibration. "Ruhroh, Shaggy." Axle? No. Wheel bearing? Guess again. Ball joint? Too cheap and too easy. Steering rack? Yeah, that's the ticket. Close to 1/2" of play on the passenger's side through sunday qualifying. Believe me, you notice...

And speaking of Sunday, the wet track in the morning was a welcome event. I went easy and still pulled 2nd fastest overall in practice. Unfortunately, my rain dance didn't work, and there would be no more rain for the rest of the day. Corey lost 4th gear during the practice session. Drat. I wanna win H2 with a full field.

Well... it wasn't over yet. He only needs 4th gear in 2 spots on the track. We decided to try a little bump drafting to help out his qualifying.

Here's a homemade brush guard made of multiple layers of racer tape. I dunno why I even bothered since anything that my bumper hit would probably only make it look better...


A little something to aim for:


Our race director was amused, and shared this with us:


I couldn't get a clean lap in after we were done screwing around, and I only managed to just barely outqualify Corey. Whoops

Had a HORRID launch. I dunno if I bogged or spun, but it sucked mightily. Lost a few positions on the start and had to pick my way back. Jason gave me an easy pass as he went zipping into the grass Corey was just a matter of time since he had no 4th gear. Passed him on the 3rd or 4th lap, and then it was clear sailing. I ripped a few fast laps off to put distance on the other H2 cars, and kept going hard until Peter Curpier's H1 car disappeared in my rearview. Then I just went into cruise mode. It was a great race up in H1, and I had a good view for a while, til I decided to slow down. No one was pushing me, so there wasn't a reason to drive hard anymore, and I didn't wanna go screw up the H1 race by getting in the middle of them. Good race guys!

Saw the white flag fall, and Jason was just showing up in my mirrors on the long straights. I'm evil and I decided to slow down even more. Plus, I had a car near me that I could use as a pick if need be. Such a tease. Sorry Jason

HUGE thanks to Steve Sakai and Chris Dodge for coming out and supporting me all weekend long. I got to concentrate on driving, and not monkeying with the car. Steve, if you don't watch out, you could turn your shop into a full fledge race shop and not just for motors and tuning!

Warren


Modified by Warren at 4:27 PM 5/19/2003

 

Congrats Warren!

 

So that where Corey was this weekend.

 

Warren. Nice driving. Hmm that black hatch looks familiar.

 

Warren-
It was nice talking with you at the race, sorry we met over my customers car drilling you on saturday, nice pics though, never did get to see the damage to your car. He ended up breaking the left front hub in half, plus the bearing and the half shaft broke. God only knows where the axle nut went? that must have been shot into outer space...
What a weekend I had...I wish I had the in car video from Saturday's race where I went half in the grass to pass Phil Phillips Integra only to spin at 125 mph going into turn 10...what a ride, it is awesome on the video...
sunday was a complete disaster, got a bad start like you did, (never saw the green flag again), missed a shift into turn 1, watched the field take off. I caught up to Lionel in 5 laps and he was giving Todd Ried fits, but Todd had legs on the straight and Lionel had to be pullin his hair out...but thanks todd! lol
So I tried to get by Lionel only to get a run on him comming down the hill and then when I swung out to pass him there was a H5 yellow crx right where I needed to be and that pass got aborted. I never did get by Lionel to finish 4th. I was only a half second off the pole time in H4 and had the power, just not enough track to use it....
When the video gets posted at Dpr-racing.com I will let you know...
thanks for the chat we had, I look forward to racing with you and the others next month at Summit if my car hasn't sold.

 

Definately nice meeting you. You were hauling *** out there. I heard about your jack. That's pretty fuggin crummy Best of luck Chris, and I hope you come out to Summit. I'm sure there will be quite a few ITA cars showing up as the DC region has some crazy fast CRX's.

edit: Hey, I just noticed you said left front. Did he hit the guard rail after he spun off? If you're going to rub me, at least stay in it

Warren

 

Great to have you here on the list Chris! I look forward to lapping you at Summit.


Matt

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Roadracejunkie &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I caught up to Lionel in 5 laps and he was giving Todd Reid fits, but Todd had legs on the straight and Lionel had to be pullin his hair out...but thanks todd! lol
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Chris, it was a pleasure meeting/talking to you on Sat. and BTW, thats all i had on Lyonel; legs that is. he was driving like a madman in the brakezones and twisties to catch up. i saw him sideways multiple times in 1-2-3-4 turns in my rear view mirror....

that was the best i could do on my street tires after disintegrating my Kumhos on Sat. Lyonel definitely kept me driving hard so as not to be passed up by another H4 car! thank god for the LS powa!!!

 

Congrats again Warren!!

 

 

All I can say is Warren was on fire this weekend,Oh and sorry about not turning on your cam dude.

Things to remember: The 5 yr old "Daddy is this the car that hit the red one"

 

Warren rules! What other fellow competitor would actually agree to "push" me around the track for 3 laps?? Thanks man, I owe you! Just wish my tranny could have held out for the race, I was driving my ***** off in the first 4 laps, trying to put some kind of distance on you guys..

 

Make sure you put that washer on this time!!!