VIR 13 Hour

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:26 pm

Any other THSCC'ers doing it again this year? We'll be making yet another bid with the RSX. Taking it to the 10/10ths track day tomorrow for some shake down. My driving team is me, Brian Smith, and Leh Keen. Brian's got a good bit of time in FWD stuff AND this particular car (plus being a pretty stellar driver). Leh is leading the Rolex GT points right now, but has never *raced* anything with the engine in front of him, let alone anything with FWD. He has a bunch of track time in his M3 and other front-engined cars, though, and he's just plain got an amazing amount of talent (and endurance racing skills), so I'm getting kind of stoked.

We think we can do the race on just four pit stops if nothing goes wrong, so that's five stints. Perfect number for me to do the one in the middle and the pros to do the other two. Of course, they're loooooong stints at 2.5 hours each, but it's just driving, right?

So who else is in and what's your story?

--Donnie

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:39 pm

I will be there but only crewing for an ITA car for the second year in a row.

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

Donnie Barnes wrote:

... Leh is leading the Rolex GT points right now, but has never *raced* anything with the engine in front of him ...

I beg to differ

Good luck!

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:52 am

Hahaha, I guess he wasn't counting the lemons car as racing when he said that!

--Donnie

steve remchak · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:30 pm

and after they crushed his cheater car the engine was all that was left.

Good Luck.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:53 pm

It wasn't his car, he just got roped into driving with those guys. And yeah, it was a cheater car and it sounds like they were completely obnoxious to boot. But I think getting the car crushed is a reasonable penance, too. Deserved, but reasonable.

Anyway, did the 10/10ths day today in the RSX for some testing. Got into the high 13's and there's a lot more in the car. We got rid of the bad bump steer we had with a custom steering rack mod that moves the tie-rod ends out to get the length similar to that of the LCA. Much improvement was had. Now if we can figure out the correct rear spring package the thing might just get stupid good. I was doing the uphill esses at 117MPH, which is damn near what a Spec Miata maxes out at on the back straight! :shock:

10/10ths did something interesting in the advanced group...right after lunch we started our group with a mock race start. It was kind of funny since there was like one Camaro (highly modded) and a bunch of Z06's, and then me and another dude in a 250HP Civic with a cage (and he weighed 200 pounds less than us with 13 more HP, but he had also never been to the track, so 21's were his best times). Me and the Civic lined up in the rear of the field and everyone else lined up sort of in order of how they "would" have qualified. Danny Popp was on the poll (he had been running 03's on this day!). Happily, everyone stayed very clean on the start. Even more happily, after two laps I had passed all but probably three of the vettes. The Civic guy didn't have a great start and after a couple laps he fried his clutch or something, so I never saw him after we took off. Man, that was fun, but I can't think their insurance would have cared for it.

--Donnie

steve remchak · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:25 pm

Donnie, i don't doubt that Leh wasn't the worst perpetrator on that team. they were tools from the onset and unfortunately he got lumped in with the rest of them.

the guy has talent without a doubt. the link Kendt posted shows that much for sure.

i spoke with him briefly about his M3. i never got the "I'm a pro" attitude from him. i had never even heard of him before they crushed that car and the YouTube stuff came out.

my bravado was ill advised. still, we as a team were more disciplined than they were. folly of youth on their part maybe, i don't know.

sorry to hijack your thread, i wish i had a seat for this event. and i do wish you and your team the best of fortunes for this race.

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

Donnie Barnes wrote:

10/10ths did something interesting in the advanced group...right after lunch we started our group with a mock race start. It was kind of funny since there was like one Camaro (highly modded) and a bunch of Z06's, and then me and another dude in a 250HP Civic with a cage (and he weighed 200 pounds less than us with 13 more HP, but he had also never been to the track, so 21's were his best times). Me and the Civic lined up in the rear of the field and everyone else lined up sort of in order of how they "would" have qualified. Danny Popp was on the poll (he had been running 03's on this day!). Happily, everyone stayed very clean on the start. Even more happily, after two laps I had passed all but probably three of the vettes. The Civic guy didn't have a great start and after a couple laps he fried his clutch or something, so I never saw him after we took off. Man, that was fun, but I can't think their insurance would have cared for it.

--Donnie

this month's GRM has an article about the UTCC, daddy popp turned a 1:54 in his c5 z06. zoinks!

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 5:54 am

On the second lap, after the rolling start Popp was 20 seconds ahead of the field. The three ZO6's that were ahead of the RSX were turning times below 10's. So you do the the math, yeah sub 2:00 min laps.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:40 am

steve remchak wrote:

Donnie, i don't doubt that Leh wasn't the worst perpetrator on that team. they were tools from the onset and unfortunately he got lumped in with the rest of them.

Oh, he might have been just as bad as the rest of his team for all I know. He's definitely still very young and hangs out with guys that are pretty, uh, insane. I'm not making any excuses for him!

Quote:

the guy has talent without a doubt. the link Kendt posted shows that much for sure.

i spoke with him briefly about his M3. i never got the "I'm a pro" attitude from him. i had never even heard of him before they crushed that car and the YouTube stuff came out.

Oh, he's generally a great guy who definitely has talent. He's definitely still young, but it seems like when he's in true "endurance" mode he's one of the best around behind a wheel. But if you give him the opportunity to do a big smokey burnout or some donuts in front of a crowd, well, it's on.

Quote:

my bravado was ill advised. still, we as a team were more disciplined than they were. folly of youth on their part maybe, i don't know.

I very much get the impression that his team didn't take this race seriously AT ALL. Now, nobody takes it incredibly seriously, but my impression is that the teams from THSCC *do* take it a good bit more seriously than he and his buddies. Sounds like they got serious when they had to start pulling parts off that car before the crusher fired up, though!

Quote:

sorry to hijack your thread, i wish i had a seat for this event. and i do wish you and your team the best of fortunes for this race.

No need for apologies, I hijacked my own thread!

Bernie, you're right, he was far sub-2:00. My :03 comment was off bad...stuck in my head that I think some buddy of his was doing :03's or something.

How far sub 2:10 were the other fast Z06's? Just curious. It was fun having several of those guys come up to me in the paddock wanting to know "what that thing is." Some guy even speculated it was some sort of "Chevy econobox with a big motor." I guess when you're in a mostly Corvette crowd and you're moving pretty good that's to be expected.

--Donnie

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:53 am

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Now, nobody takes it incredibly seriously, but my impression is that the teams from THSCC *do* take it a good bit more seriously than he and his buddies.

You would be surprised at just how serious some of the teams are. Our level of seriousness is based on how much time and money we have invested in our car. We are serious enough not to want to play demoltion derby or piss off enough people so we would get crushed. This maybe a $500 car race, but I have yet to find anyone with a $500 investment in their car.

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

I'll be there in the Conover pits again. Should be a great time!

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