Arrived at Columbus and headed up the 71 North to Mid-Ohio. I exited 131 to go to White Castle and found Ohio stoplights to be different from California.




My hire car, a Mitsubishi Lancer.


Outrun goes to White Castle.


The burgers are kiddie sized, but the fries are very good. I should've tried the chicken sandwich.


Ohio gas was typically a quarter cheaper than Cali gas.




Mid-Ohio's security fleet.


Andy "Great White" Hope and Joe Alaniz munching on the White Castles I brought them.


View from inside garage #27 before unloading.


The Mid-Ohio officials get to ride around in luxurious comfort.


A Mid-Ohio School session was in progress as we unloaded on Thursday afternoon.


The Mid-Ohio School uses Acura RSX Type-S cars.


Ryan Flaherty's Acura Integra H1 "Tomato" and the #19 H4 CRX driven by John Tecce arrived Thursday from California.


Joe working his magic.


Garage #27 after being setup Thursday.


The bridge by Turn 1.


ITR


Joe and Andy




Andy posing for the "immature little wEs SiDe chump wanna be gangster *****" photo shoot.




I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. Is this where T.Rex comes out?


rubber chicken and KIWI in garage #28.


Thursday evening Andy Hope and his entourage of westsiders ate at Bob Evans, a nice restaurant in Mansfield across the street from the Super8 we were staying at. Bob Evans is a chain of restaurants in the east. For you California people, Bob Evans also owns and operates Mimi's Cafe. I also heard James Evans is related to Bob Evans.


Andy Hope always rolls deep. Fo' sho'.


Ohio seems to have a lot of cute white chicks. This is our waitress, Aleah (pronounced just like Aaliyah). She looks better in person than in the picture due to my flash being on the 'high' setting.


I think these are some of those Spec Miatas that couldn't hang with The Rex (Andy's car).




TL




Nice S2000 at turn 11.


Turn 11 action


KIWI


Ryan Flaherty doglegging the Tomato




Unfortunately, rubber chicken's engine broke and he was unable to take part for the rest of the weekend.


Turn 10 hottie.


Time trial action.














I think this guy was gonna go pee but he saw me. Anyways, remember that yellow is the good color. So wear yellow before wandering in the woods.




The turn 9 squat.








Inside the Honda bridge


My hire car


Mr. Kent


Toilet's striking livery






The chad


RSX at the Mid-Ohio School booth.


Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe this is John Lindsay.






These are the ex-Nonnamaker cars right?
















Armed with my good looks and killer smile, all I had to do was point at my camera and give this corner worker a wink before she allowed me to shoot pics from her location. What can I say? I can't help it if I was born with a perfect bone structure.


Keith Edwards. I met him at the Honda Challenge BBQ at the Honda Pavilion on Saturday. He has a bear strapped to the rollcage. If the bear can give Keith good directions, the bear will be let free. If you look closely at the right B-pillar, you will see that the bear is still there.


John Tecce


Did you guys enjoy the view?








It started raining more towards the end of Friday.




Drink my dust


For some reason, the turn 8 Ricart.com safety truck made multiple passes in a FUTILE effort to dissipate water. For 10 minutes or so the truck went back and forth between turns 10 and 11 and I saw no difference. Waste of time IMO but I wasn't driving the track so I could be wrong and ignorant.








Driver's meeting in garage #26


#65 Special Projects Motorsport Integra driven by Tom Lepper (unfortunately, he never got to race it)


I forget this guy's H-T name but I remember he posted pics of his RealTime scheme.


KIWI's B-powered RHD Integra




No hay los "Homiez" en Ohio.


Modified by Outrun at 4:02 AM 8/29/2004


Modified by Outrun at 11:17 PM 8/29/2004


Modified by Outrun at 11:17 PM 8/29/2004

 

a red x! wow! and there is another red x! in fact they are all over the place! At least I'm not the only one awake right now

 

<----this must be a pic of the contact between Andy Hope and that other car, right?


Modified by Sean O'Gorman at 12:48 PM 8/29/2004

 

This one is the best one in your album.

 

Is that an X1 or an X4? I couldn't tell if it was a hybrid X or not.

 

Hopefully the pics work. Anyways, I'm tired and I'll post the Sat and Sun pics after school.

 

they work, they look awsome

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Outrun &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I forget this guy's H-T name but I remember he posted pics of his RealTime scheme.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's Jim, "batoutahell". Did you get any pics of me? I blew a head gasket in qualifying on Sunday, but should have been in all the sessions before. I'm #24, white H4 hatch with black hood and red taped headlights. Can you send me the imagestation gallery link, or post some pics? thx!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Outrun &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Andy "Great White" Hope and Joe Alaniz munching on the White Castles I brought them.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

If Andy and Joe were White Castle novices, it is a good thing that they were eating them within 10 ft. of the portable toilet. They don't call White Castles "sliders" for nothing. Any symbolism behind the propane gas tank behind Andy? White Castles as a gastronimic challenge that have some strange effect of making you yearn for them stronger and stronger until you actually get them and then realize how bad they are. I'd trade living near White Castle for an In and Out any day.

Sorry I didn't get to meet Andy or most of the West Coast contingent. I talked to Joe briefly but didn't know his name, just knew he was crew. Congrats to Andy for very good driving and his crew for putting together such a strong car. From watching the Saturday morning practice/qualifying session, it was immediately apparent that Andy and Ryan had some STRONG engines.

 

nice work

Even if my car is not in them

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Outrun &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Keith Edwards. I met him at the Honda Challenge BBQ at the Honda Pavilion on Saturday. He has a bear strapped to the rollcage. If the bear can give Keith good directions, the bear will be let free. If you look closely at the right B-pillar, you will see that the bear is still there.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think we strapped the Teddy Bear to the roll cage for Lowes Motor Speedway in 2002. I think the bear may never be set free...

CRXlee offered better advice for cornering lines (thanks, Lee). The bear has been very quiet.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 577HondaPrelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice work

Even if my car is not in them </TD></TR></TABLE>

You're in the second set of pics that I will post after school.

 

nice pics of the red S2000.... too bad the driver sucked so bad!!!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Scot &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice pics of the red S2000.... too bad the driver sucked so bad!!!!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah well.......the pictures were nice....and scotT you aren't slow!!!

 

great story

who are all the people sitting at the table eating dinner?

 

not only nice pics..but many many pics

 

A comment about the stop lights being different. I live near the first stop light ever at 105th and Euclid in Cleveland, Ohio. Its a question in trival pursuit. You should see when those things blow in the wind. They are slower changing them over to the style you west coaster are familar with.

Good pics by the way.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rex_boy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A comment about the stop lights being different. I live near the first stop light ever at 105th and Euclid in Cleveland, Ohio. Its a question in trival pursuit. You should see when those things blow in the wind. They are slower changing them over to the style you west coaster are familar with.

Good pics by the way.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not to mention those wierd lights on the east side with the red Xs and the green arrows or Os or whatever they are. I've lived in Cleveland my whole life and been a licensed driver for five years now and I still can't quite figure out what those are about...

EDIT: Come to think of it, rex_boy, we live in the same town, attend most of the same autocrosses, and were both at Mid-Ohio for the NASA event. How have I never met you?

 

Nice pics

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sean O'Gorman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not to mention those wierd lights on the east side with the red Xs and the green arrows or Os or whatever they are.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sean, I'm a west-sider too and I know what they are!! They're reversible lanes - for rush hour. Cedar and Carneige are the two major roads that do this... In the morning, all but one lane goes westbound, towards downtown - then in the afternoon, it switches to bias the eastbound side. You'll notice the broken-double-yellow lane painting too. Those aren't the hard part of getting around the east side - but the Chester/Carneige/Cedar/MLK intersection in University Circle is horrid.

Sorry for hijacking. Awesome pics, Outrun. It's funny to read an "outsider's" perspective on the stuff us Ohioans find so familiar.

 

I guess that makes sense, thanks. The farthest east I go in Cleveland is the E. 18th parking garage for Cleveland State. Would be nice if I still had a reason to go to Euclid Square Mall for autocross but obviously thats no longer an option.

 

Oh yeah, queston for Outrun. They had no problem with you wandering the track like that on Friday? Every time I've been to Mid-Ohio on a day not normally open to the public (twice for SCCA, once for karting), they don't let you cross the drive-over bridge or go past the carousel. I'd heard that NASA allows full access, but wasn't sure.

 

Cool pics. I take it the part about the spec Miata's was a joke?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 96 SOHC VTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cool pics. I take it the part about the spec Miata's was a joke? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah...if you read Andy's smack talk thread before we came out to Ohio, the S2000s were referred to as Spec Miatas.

Seriously though, I like those S2000s. I also like the Toilet livery. WCHC doesn't have any regular S2000 competitors. There was one at the last event at Willow Springs but I think that was his first appearance of the season.

As for wandering around the track, I had a Hot Pass (the orange passcard). Also, the only people out there were the corner workers and the occasional Mid-Ohio security on the ATVs. Only one security worker asked me if I was with the media. This was on Sunday at turn 11. I told her yes and continued to take pics.

The pics of the turn 7-8 chute in the rain was from a covered tower just above Madness. I opened the gate at the spectator fence and went up the tower. No one said anything. I assumed it was because of my orange card that was in full view hanging from my hip. Every other spectator just had the Cold Pass blue passcards.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Outrun &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"></TD></TR></TABLE>

w000000t! Im famous!