race video - Sonoma WERC enduro 02/10/13
 

Me and Andrew Kidd battling for the E3 lead just after the start of the WERC 2hr enduro. Race start was 8:25 and it was probably only 45° out. I had leftover 205 Toyo RR's from T25. He had fresh 225 NT01's. The RR's got better as the track warmed so I was able to reel him in. Then the motor let go. Hasn't been diagnosed yet but it sounded like spun bearing or maybe oil pump. :( It was Crushers motor from T25. Swapped in stock cams, heavier valve springs, new intake valves and detuned the crap out of if for PTE. In case anyone is wondering why I could rev it so high.

Both of us were pushing as hard as we could. Absolute sprint pace while trying to keep the sliding to a minimum. So closely matched that the task before us was riding that fine line between maximum pace and not overheating the tires. The .7s we would lose the next lap would be all it took to lose track position. Even once in front, I knew my tires would go off later while Andrews new NT01's would be stable, if .4s slower or so. Too bad we didn't get to finish that. Worked up to doing 10 with no brakes, just a quick lift and go. Spooky at first, then routine after a few dozen laps. With 225 A6's, no other changes, it would be done flat I think.

Andrew misjudged his fuel stop by a few laps and ran almost exactly one lap short of fuel. Gordon was maybe 10-14s back so he inherited the lead and went on to win. Gordon started at the back on fresh RR's and had to do some real battling to claw his way through traffic to get to Andrew. Great drive on his part. He's now officially one of the "fast guys". :party:

Oh yeah, killed the syncros in the race the day before with a mis-adjusted clutch. argh.

That is f**n awesomw. Great to see you guys going at it like that!

Fun to watch. Those were unhappy engine sounds. I take it did not dump fluids all over the track?

So, was that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear? Five speed gearbox? What diff ratio? Is the same combination used at Thunderhill?

The first time I watched this was from the facebook page, and the quality of the video is much better here for some reason.

Thanks for posting this,
Richard

Very nice. Except for some of those shifts. tehehe. Sorry to hear about the engine, but man did that biach rev.

Is the sun in your eyes as annoying in real life as it looks like it may be on camera?

Hey, it beats croquet.

2-3-4. 4.3 diff. Killed the syncros the day before by adjusting the pedal wrong.
As blinding as it looks going through T1 @ 100. You watch for yellows because if someone is spun in 2 you have scant milliseconds to react. Most fun and scary track I have ever driven or raced on.

The GoPro cameras do an excellent job of realistically showing what the driver can see, so the sun is every bit as bad in person as it is on the camera.

My video from the same race - you can see Emilio bouncing around behind me.



If you can't be fast, be wide :party:

talk about spec racing, your competition blows his motor; yours runs out of gas...

RE: Sun, wow, Props to you both. I'm a pansy; not sure I'd be able to handle that sun and those speeds.

Not being a racer at all...

Why was Emilio able to out brake Sav to get on the inside of that ~180° right turn.

He had a little more tire/grip than I did. I had to use the brakes to set the nose in 10, and he was able to do it sans brakes. My best minimum speeds were ~95-96mph. His were probably closer to 98-99. He would get that half car on exit, and I knew I could out-drag him exiting 11 (the tight 180) every lap, so I erred on the side of caution and just made sure I always had a clean run on exit so I could power back by him. I could have pushed harder on brakes there, but I run the risk of botching it, ruining the exit, and letting him by.

Strategy at 100mph :)

I see, thanks for that explanation.

Andew,
The other car going overtaking at that corner had nothing to do with it? I notced that you gave Emilio room everywhere and it seemed like a mutal thing. But when the BMW (?) went by I thought maybe he took your line.

Anyay, it was fun watching you two from the grandstand. Certainly the most entertaining part of the day.

Richard

I could never race there because I'd never make it. I'd get crunk at some estate and never make it. Jacuzzi is super-close, pick up a bottole of 2009 Nero D'Avola.

Ahh, yes. the VW. He wasn't someone I had raced with before, so I gave him a little more room than I would have given anyone else. Emilio used to to his advantage and slipped by.

I've watched the first 15 minutes of that video 3 times. That's some awesome racing. Much better than nearly anything you'd see on TV. It would be cool to do an overlay with both in car cameras side by side on the same video. :vash2:

Really entertaining to watch, and great driving from both.

Are you using a GoPro Emilio? If so, what setting is it on? I ask because your video is nicely cropped to not show too much of the inside of the hardtop or the floor of the car, so it fills the monitor screen nicely with just what you want to see. Mine always have too much top and bottom space, but our horizontal field of view is the same, so I'm thinking you're either using a wider setting, or you crop the vid in post editing?

-Ryan

it looks like r5 1080p if it's a hdhero 1 or 2. That's what I use in my car.

720/30 wide

More test, doesn't live with mom.