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CIR-Reed
01-12-2007, 11:38 PM
So here we are in sunny Florida racing at Homestead Miami speedway:

http://www.homesteadmiamispeedway.com/

On this track configuration (the modified road course):

http://www.homesteadmiamispeedway.com/track_info/track_rental/

There is a big national karting event across the street as well. I think I will go see what that is all about tomorrow. Is anybody we know there?

Clueless Racing:

Sebring: 1/7/2007
The guys (Rick and Art) both raced last weekend in Sebring. Rick qualfied second out of 71 cars and Art was moved to the back for passing under double yellow during the qualy. He says it came up after he initiated the pass but was given the ultimatum of stop argueing and start at the back or argue and don't start. He selected from his two great options to start at the back. He finished in 34th position which means he passed over 30 cars during the race and ran his fast lap of the weekend so great job to him. Rick started in second where he was supposed to and finished 12th. At some point he spun and wasn't sure if he had help or did it on his own. Either way finished 12th out of 71 is a good result.

Homestead: 1/13/2007
They packed all of their stuff up and headed for homestead. I think a brief drunken interlude in the keys was in there somewhere. So far we tested yesterday (thursday) and from timing my two drivers and others it seemed as though we were looking good to be on top 5 pace. We had a full test day today and timing the fastest drivers compared to Rick it looks like he needs to find about a half second to be in the front couple of rows. Using Nascar turns 3 and 4 drafting is HUGE at this track. We tried to concentrate today on driving on his own and not screwing around with the drafting. Some of the quicker drivers where utilizing the draft to run their fast laps. We will be putting brand new tires on for the qualy tomorrow morning and hope to place in the front. The track is extremely cool with a couple of tight banked corners on the infield and then a hairpin leading onto the reeeeeaaaallllllyyyyyy long straight including about 2/3rds of the nascar track. The turn off of the main straight is flat out going about 130 mph and the super hard braking and down 2 gears for a semi tight (blackhawk turn 1 ish). I drove last year and it was a blast.

I will update tomorrow on qualifying result and then the race. Goodnight guys!

Martin Lenick
01-13-2007, 02:47 AM
Thanks for the update.
How many Spec Racers are there?
Is Joe Turner there?

Rick
01-13-2007, 03:08 AM
Thanks for the update Reed. Keep us posted!

PS. Reed can you find a way to take a high resolution picture of the front of your SRF at ground level and preferrably with a white background?

CIR-Reed
01-13-2007, 07:07 PM
Martin:
There are 48 spec wreckers here.
Joe Turner is not one of them.

Rick:
Absolutely I will take a good picture of the car. I would also be honored if it appeared at some point on this website!

Update:
We are group 3 for the weekend so first Qualifying was at about 10:30 a.m. We decided in the first session to not worry about drafting and just run as fast as we possibly could on our own. Rick ended up with the seventh fastest lap of the day and Art with the 36th fastest lap of the day. Most of the drivers in the top ten were in 2 or 3 car drafting pairs. The data system shows that in a really good draft you can shorten the segment from the hairpin, around nascar turns 2 and 3, down the front straight, and into the next corner by a full second! The fastest lap in the morning session was a gentleman named Brian Schofield with a 1:36:820 and car 15 (rick) was seventh with a 1:37:246. Brian had a great drafting partner and rick stayed away from other drivers. Art went a half a second faster in the second qualifying than in the first which kept him in the same spot because so did most everyone else. The top ten shuffled around a bit but car 15 stayed 7th.

For the race tomorrow we are putting sticker tires on both cars which seem to be worth a little bit and then we are going to challenge as hard as we can. Art generally does not qualify nearly as well as he races so we expect him to move up several spots. If history repeats itself he will most likely improve his position by 12 spots or more!

I wandered over to the kart track today and watched a little bit of racing. I think it was a Tag heavyweight race or something. It was guys that looked to be about my size. I will have a lot more time to check it out tomorrow and report in about that.

Dinner time!:clap:

D. Harrington
01-13-2007, 07:37 PM
Reed,

They are running the Florida Winter Tour at Homestead this weekend....ICC, ICA, TAG, JICA, & Cadet. This is a popular winter series that draws a lot of the top drivers. Last weekend they were running all of the Rotax classes. Good luck to you guys tomorrow!!

Dave

CIR-Reed
01-14-2007, 12:02 AM
Thanks for the luck Dave and I will definitely get over there tomorrow and check that out.

Rick there is a Lotus Elise running in the Touring 1 class this weekend. He looks to be very competitive with the Z06's, Viper's, and Mustangs. Should be a fun race to watch.

Rick
01-14-2007, 03:38 PM
Rick there is a Lotus Elise running in the Touring 1 class this weekend. He looks to be very competitive with the Z06's, Viper's, and Mustangs. Should be a fun race to watch.

:clap: :gotpics: That's good to know! I can't wait to track my car.

Martin Lenick
01-15-2007, 09:08 PM
???????
An 8525 and no update???
:hmm:

CIR-Reed
01-16-2007, 08:30 PM
The race was kind of a bummer. Art got punted and spun so the 10 people that he had worked hard to pass for like 20 laps all passed him back plus some. My dad worked his way up to fourth and then got screwed on a restart. The pace car pulled off at the last second and the lead 4 where all still warming tires. The guys behind them all started to accelerate as the flagger leaned down to put his yellow down and then the lead 4 accelerated when the green came up. 6 cars passed my dad and the guy in 3rd place by the time they got to the first corner. Then a guys engine blew up in front of my dad and my dad clobbered him. So that ended the race. We are going to go back next year and bring home some national points. With my dad qualfying 2nd and then 7th I am very optimistic about next year and we did learn some good things about car setup. We also received a mysterious delivery of this strange bright green oil that made the car go 1.5 mph faster on the straights. So we ordered a couple cases of it.

On a seperate note I think we should get a ton of people up at the june sprints this year and have a good time! I beleive we have the room reserved that you can crawl from the bar to our room and we don't mind crashers.

Rick
01-16-2007, 09:37 PM
It sounds like you guys really had a good shot at the podium. It's unfortunate that you had such bad luck. I hope you guys do better next year.

Count me in for the June Sprints party! :)