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I'll bet you didn't hear it either. Those cars were annoyingly quiet. Very little engine sound, except for an occasional farting noise (I'm not kidding), and almost no tire squeal. What's next, a Tesla GT Challenge?

I was invited to park in the Mustang club corral Saturday, which forced me to wash the car Friday night. Almost all late model Mustangs. Star of that show was a 2008 Shelby GT-500KR.

Bill Gratton and I went back Sunday to see the Mustang Challenge race. These are Ford Racing FR500S Mustangs http://www.fordracingparts.com/mustang/herocard2.asp - which use sealed 4.6L 3V motors, so they're down on power to the 5.0 4V FR500C/Boss 302R Mustangs in the Continental Tire GS class, and they run 245/40-18 BFG R1s vs 275/30-18 Hoosi...err...Continental slicks, but they are allowed a big air dam+splitter and a tall rear wing, so their fastest qualifying lap of 2:08 compared favorably with Jack Roush Jr's 2:03 in a FR500C . Anyway, the race wasn't that exciting... one big crash by a local (Md) driver up at South Bend - - he was running 4th or 5th at the time, and the polesitter went off somewhere and gave up a solid lead late in the race. Personally, I was cheering for the "Save the Sharks" entry - and why wouldn't I? - but he wasn't competitive at all.

Did I mention that the track PA was awful? I thought it was the speakers on the hill over turns 4/5, but later I tuned into the local radio broadcast, and it was muddy and distorted too.

On lap one of the Miata race Sunday afternoon, one car had braking problems at the top of the roller coaster, shot through the pack and T-boned his teammate. He got to wait for a wrecker, while his teammate's car limped off but was not seen again. The rest of the race appeared to be run pretty cleanly until a last-lap desperation pass (attempt) in the roller-coaster.

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

It was a great time, my wife's broken foot kept us mostly at the pagoda. It was cool watching the action 1,2,3,&4 and then checking the progress on the rest of the course on the big screen. That deal cost an extra $50 a person and for that we got free bbq sandwiches, bbq chicken, cola's, and hot pretzels. A cash bar with swill beer and Vodka. Oh yeah, the Grid Girls ate lunch there, so guess that made it worth it.

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

Believe it or not, that was simply due to an ABS failure. They had trouble with the ABS in that car, thought they had it fixed, but sent him out under the instructions that it might not be fixed and if not he wouldn't have full brakes. He ignored all that and tried to brake where everyone else did for that turn, and that's what happens.

The ABS system in that car is REALLY sensitive and will shut down with the slightest of issues. When it does, it takes a LOT of your braking power with it for some reason. I had it happen to me at 3 Rivers in an MX-5 Cup car a couple years ago. Really painful to have to race that way.

Oh, and that teammate he took out? That was the OWNER of Alara Racing, Ara Malkhassian. It only takes one boneheaded move like that and your championship possibility in that series is all but toast, too.


--Donnie

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My Blog

I was wondering where the "bulldog" cars went. I knew they were saying over the loud speaker that they had went off but they were several positions apart from our perspective in turn 5 when they went by.

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[color=#FFFFFF][/color]http://www.usedmiatapartsonline.com for all your used miata parts needs
http://www.wagnersauto.com for your salvage needs
2000 miata se Estreet,going to rally
2004 mazdaspeed miata bsp #77
shifter kart also(someone buy this $1500)

this weekend i crewed for freedom autosports, which was handled by long road racing here in raleigh. glenn long explained this issue, according to him the brake bias on the mx-5 isn't 80/20 or so like many cars but 50/50, relying on abs to proportion the force properly during threshold braking. lose abs and braking goes to hell.