Race Report

Yes, I packed light, one pair of jeans for the whole week. I forgot how dirty one gets working on cars the whole day, I look a sight for sore eyes.

Mark Allan's family joined us yesterday at Willows, this morning Connie treats us all to a home cooked breakfast of scramble eggs, bacon, toast, cereal, fresh strawberries and cantaloupe, yummmm. Off to the track by 7:45.

Today we are slated to run the Derek Daily track backwards, recall that we had been knocked out of the American Le Mans Series course next door by the Richard Petty experience. At the Driver's meeting it is announced that for safety considerations we will be running clockwise instead, as the course was designed. I think they made a good call here, back to the pits to prep the car. While we are slapping on the shaved tires and resetting the suspension to race height, Trevor is out on the track and he turns a 1:25. This is three seconds faster than earlier in the week and good enough to take second place ahead of Wayne and the S2000 that had been giving them fits all week. Besides the fact that Trevor turned a really good time is the fact that Wayne has been running the same set of tires now for the last two days and these are about spent. OTC is definitely about making your resources last for the entire week.

Andrie and Tom show up in Andrie's car. It doesn't appear that they could get Tom's car running and they decided to return and finish out in Andrie's car. They won't be scored as per the Challenge rules so you must admire their wanting to finish out the event. Recall Tom's journey this week; it has been a bit more than for the rest of us, follow this drive if you can : Start - San Fran - Pahrump - San Fran to see baby born - Buttonwillow - car back to SF for repairs - Buttonwillow - San Fran to visit with baby and Mom - Thunderhill - San Fran - Las Vegas for the wrap up. Now that's a lot of driving! Mark loans Tom and Andrie a spare set of kuhmos so they can run r-compound instead of their street tires. Faster but still off the pace of racing slicks the other Unlimited guys are using.

In our battle with the Porsche we have won the class for the week if we stay within on car of them, we'd like to finish ahead of them for Overall points but we won't risk breaking the car to do so. In the first session we grid 1-2 right behind the Porsche. Each lap sees the lead change as each driver is radioed the times and they press harder. I'm at the timing table shouting times standing right next to the other Porsche driver who is doing the same. We are each trying to find a way to help our cars go a little faster; scouting for flags, traffic and what the other guys are doing. Back and forth, lap by lap. The session finishes with the Porsche 0.3 seconds ahead with 1:29.4 to our 1:29.7. All week we have been within three seconds of the other NSXs running slicks; so on the day today we should do about 1:28 judging by Trevor's morning times. But we just don't seem to have the tire for it. Our set up seems to do best in the medium speed corners where you can carry a lot of speed in, we are loosing the rear end, I wish we had taken the time to try and fit in wider rear tires.

In the second session we get don't get it much lower with optimal tire temps so Todd comes in and I finish out the session. We are still second by 0.3 sec but ahead of third by three. The BMW in third tried to catch us by removing his exhaust to gain HP, only problem was that his bumper caught all the hot exhaust gas and they melted the rear bumper right off the car. We look good now. I have to pack up early and fly to Japan to meet with the Honda reps regarding mounting an assault on T1 next year so I'll have to pass the last session and banquet. At the airport I get a report that the Porsche didn't go out after lunch so Todd tries to sneak in a few laps to catch them. He gets a 1:29.7 just as Jack and Tyson return from a late lunch. They see the time closing and rush to their car to go out and protect. Tyson get's a 1:29.3 putting it out of reach for us as the tires go off. Trevor Allan's second place holds for the day also.

That's it; second today; first in class, forth overall in touring, pretty darn good for the week. The NSX crews ran strong all week, congratulations to Mark and Trevor; Andrie and Tom; Doug and Eric.