September 25th, 2004.

Preparation for this event started two months earlier for pretty much everyone who participated. Whether it was to do engine swaps and brake upgrades or simple oil changes. With temps averaging at 90 degrees for a majority of the day, the tents provided a much needed shelter from the sun inbetween sessions.

The day started like any other...wondering why we are up so early to go drive a car around a race track. Heading out to Pahrump, NV... almost everyone spent 45mins driving out there from their homes from around the Las Vegas valley.

Once there, unpacking and preparing the cars for the event began until the driver's meeting was called. After a short meeting, which explained that the 10 or so Radicals would run the advanced group, while the remaining production cars would run in Intermediate and Beginners.

After the Radicals had their fun, it was our turn. With majority of the ***** Challenge competitors running in the Intermediate group, we quickly learned who were the ones we would be chasing all day.

With the Porsches taking the top three spots in the very first session, it was going to be up to the remaining makes to try to catch them.

Jim in his 996 TT was very consistent all day, ending up with a VERY quick 1min 50sec lap times. Not far off his pace, Pete was turning 1min 54sec consistently and managed on his last session to bring his lap times down to 1min 51sec.

Some 7-8 seconds later, the rest of the pack filed in, with Tony leading for the first 3 sessions with a 1:58.4xx. Unable to improve due to climbing temps, he would stick with his best lap time from the first session. Following Tony was Kam in his CRX with a 1:58.5xx, until his last session where he barely inched out Tony with a 1:58.3xx.

Patrick in his 350z and Thom in his Mustang GT (recently converted from auto to manual) had their own little competition going as well. Patrick came out strong and showed Thom that cubic inches isn't always what makes a car fast. Thom, unable to catch Patrick, managed with a 1:59.9xx to Patrick's 1:59.0xx.

Fabrizio unable to get his Porsche 944 running properly, due to a fuel dampener issue, brought his other toy, a MR2 Spyder and managed to still turn very respectable times on street tyres, besting the rest of the pack with his 2:02.0xx.

Chris, Spencer and Victor make up the last three spots with a 2:07.4xx, 2:09.1xx and 2:09.9xx respectively. They were having as much fun as the rest of the guys and it showed inbetween the sessions during the conversations.

Overall, it was a successful event that was pretty relaxed and fun! The only casualty to mechanical failure was a Vegas local, Tyler in his blue Civic SI , who suffered a ball joint failure in turn 10. His ball joint took a hike and left his front left suspension making it's own geometry by collasping on itself. A new fender, drive axle and ball joint will be in Tyler's purchasing future, unfortunately. No one was hurt and Tyler was grinning upto that point...I'm sure we'll see him out agian.


Results can be found here:
http://thezam.org/*****/

Pictures of the event can be found here:
http://www.balzx.com/del/image...enge/

Thanks to TrackDay.net and LVRacingScene.com for their coverage and support of Las Vegas Racers and Racing Events!

See you guys next Friday at the drag strip!

 

VERY nice pics!


Thanks for coming out! It turned out to be a pretty good day!

 

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


Thanks for coming out! It turned out to be a pretty good day! </TD></TR></TABLE>
Thanks for taking a chance with running out here in Southern Nevada! I know the next couple of events will go much much smoother!

thanks Redline!