HPT Double National

[Ted Johnson]

Just a few tidbits as I was not at the track today but got the report from Wheeler.

Qualifying

Bill Tucker. 1.46.xxx
Jim Wheeler 1.46.xxx
Shawn Gray 1.47.0xx

I know theres two more AS'ers there but this was Jims report over the phone and I believe he had martinis in him.


Report from Bill was he hurt his new motor and packed it up before the race. Oil pressure issue and motor felt like it lost power and shut off when he shifted into neutral.

Race.

Front GT2 car misses a shift and stacks up the front rows in an accordian affect and Jim and Shawn split the front rows and went threw the middle of the track and end up in front of the field nose to tail by turn 1. Jim leading for most of the race with Shawn all over him. Shawn locked up under braking and severely flat spotted his tires in several corners and had to back off with approximately 5 laps left. Supposedly a 4 inch corded tire all the way around the outside of the tire. Jim took the victory. I'll leave the gory details for Wheel when he gets back.

Other tidbits.

A big crash over the hump between an STO Viper and GT1 camaro in morning practice. Both drivers ok but reports say damage was very extensive. Sounded like something similar to the Wheeler/Shepergerdes incident at the runoffs with more drama after the contact. Word on the street says Andy Brown was crewing for the GT1 driver this weekend. We luv ya Andy but you have a serious case of bad ju ju right now. Don't worry we still like you. :thumbsup:

And they do it all again tomorrow.

[jimwheeler]

Great ASedan racing both days. Sorry Tuck couldn't have been in the mix. He left before I could talk to him about what happened with his engine. He was on the pole Saturday:
Tucker 1:46.798
Wheel 1:46.890
Shawn 1:47.088
Bret 1:51.501
Kim 1:59.632

Tucker and Wheeler (under 313, aluminum)
Shawn and Bret (under 313, iron)
Kim (over 313, iron)

Kim had never been on this track before and was just learning where the turns went. We had a red flag on lap 2 of practice, so qualifying was his first shot at the track.
The incident at the hump was almost exactly what happened with Shep and me at the runoffs. Only difference was the contact was a little bit earlier, coming up the hill, rather than at the top. Viper started to turn in and the GT1 car hit him on the right side. GT1 car went head on into the wall on the right. Both cars badly damaged.

The start was wild. Very late green. I hammered it in 2nd, shifted to 3rd and all the brake lights in front of me came on. I didn't have a chance to even lift. Fate gave me a space between two cars, or it would have been a disaster. I moved from 12th to 3rd overall. I was getting cocky until I looked in the mirror and saw Shawn about a foot from my bumper. F*ck.

We ran that way for the whole race. He got up next to me a couple of times, when we encountered a back marker and I went off line and picked up a bunch of crap on my tires. He had me at certain parts and I had him at others. Great race. He corded the right front as bad as any tire I have ever seen. That took him out of the picture with a couple of laps to go. One of my few error free races.

Race times:
wheel 1:46.857
shawn 1:46.583
Bret 1:50.959
Kim 1:58.082

I'll post Sunday's race in a bit.

[jimwheeler]

On Sunday, I got the pole, with Shawn a couple of rows behind me. He blew the center out of a spark plug on his 3rd Q lap. Metal part still screwed to the head, with the ceramic part blown out.
Qual times:
wheel 1:47.699
Shawn 1:48.443
Bret 1:53.178
Kim 1:57.054

Kim took several seconds off his Saturday times, getting familiar with the track. After Tucker's problems on Saturday, I woke up at 0310 in total paranoia. My low oil pressure light had come on a couple of times Saturday and thought I might have done some damage, too. By 0400 I had pulled the oil filter to check for any metal flakes and pulled the valve covers to make sure the rockers were all where they should be. I found I was about 3 quarts low on oil. Don't know why, unless I didn't fill it properly after the Hallett race. All was good.

I got a decent start, but once again Shawn moved past two rows of cars to be right on my bumper. F*ck, again.

On the 2nd lap an SP car passed us coming into turn 1 and then parked it, right in front of me. Shawn was all over me and got by while I tried to get the sand and rubber clag off of my tires. Now, it was a repeat of the Saturday race, except with the positions reversed. I spun with about three to go. A Porsche had sprung an oil leak and had oiled the track from the tunnel straight, all the way around to where he eventually blew up, near turn one. I spun at 10. In impound at least five of us thought we had lost a tire or had some other problem. I thought I had lost an axle oil seal and had spun in my own oil. Jesse Prather (EP) thought he had lost the right rear tire. McGinley (T1) thought something was wrong with his suspension, etc.
Anyway, it was great, close racing without a single car to car touch.
Most excellent.

Shawn 1:47.515
wheel 1:47.579
Bret 1:52.045
Kim 1:57.440

[Jerry Post]

What if anything do we now think about the aluminum heads on the 305 vs the iron heads. Looks pretty even based on these results but are the aluminum head guys running fast than last year?


Thanks.

[jimwheeler]

Here's what I know.
My best Qual time, last fall, at HPT was 1:47.338. That was iron head 3300#, weight after the race. Best race time was 1:48.592.

This weekend I did 1:46.890 in Qual and 1:46.857 in the race. I was 3406# on the scales at impound.

This weekend was the perfect conditions. Just under 70 degrees, light wind, high overcast for qual and partly cloudy for the race.
Shawn has the same car that I do, except a 305 with iron heads.
I won on Saturday and he won on Sunday. I set fast lap on Saturday, he set fast lap on Sunday. We were within a couple of tenths in every session.

At Hallett a few weeks ago, the results were about the same. He won the race. I set a track record on Saturday, he broke the record on Sunday. We were within a couple of hundredths of each other at every session. Also perfect conditions for records. In our group, alone, four or five classes set new records.

wheel

[Jerry Post]

Thanks Jim, good to know.