May 4, 2009
HINES GROUP MOTORSPORTS MAY RACING REPORT
After a long cold winter we were looking forward to our first race of the year at Virginia International Raceway, near Danville, Virginia. It’s a track that was built in the early 1950’s and lay dormant for about 40 years and then rebuilt as a world class road race track with facilities equal but more often better than any track in the United States. Its our favorite track followed closely by Roebling Road which is near Savanna, Georgia. VIR has 3 long straights and is a challenge for even the best of drivers. IT is basically a horsepower track and our Nissan 350Z is noted more for its good handling. The weekend started early on Friday as this was a Double National with a Trans-Am and drew over 250 entrants plus 20 more for the pro Trans-Am race.
We welcome back Speedcom Communications, Red Line Oil, Carbotech Brakes, JRZ Suspensions, Enkei Wheels and Torvec our differential manufacturer. We are also very happy to continue our association with Nissan. We lost Kumho Tires after a 12 year association when they closed down their amateur motorsports program. We will have an opportunity to try another brand of tires and hopefully they will be ever better than what we have been using. We had an opportunity, at VIR, to meet with a representative of a major tire manufacturer and look forward to forming a marketing partnership with them.
Our main competition was expected to be one of our neighbors in his Subaru EVO which has a turbo engine and this year was also given new springs and sway bars as well as wider wheels. In qualifying we were more than a second a lap faster than last year and the only difference in our car is that SCCA changed the rules that let us get our car down to its listed legal weight which is about 50 pounds less than last year. But the EVO was 4 seconds a lap faster than his best times last year and 2 seconds faster than us so we ended up second in our class. Our race group included GT1, GT2, GT3, American Sedan and T1 as well as our group, T2, so our first race had 41 cars in it. Several of the Trans-Am guys entered to get extra track time. Both races went pretty much the same for us with Rob getting a great start and then at the mid points having ABS problems causing him to go off track twice. The EVO finished first but we still earned lots of points with second place in both races and can brag about beating the best Cadillac in the United States and also one of Phoenix Racings Pontiac Solstices.
The next race will be mid May at Summit Point, West Virginia which is our home track, but we have work to do to find the ABS problem and make repairs. We are also going to enter a NASA race in June to see what their program is all about.
Sean Farrah - 350Z - NASA
Had some minor car contact during the last race of the first race weekend at MSR-H in Jan but it wasn't too bad. Won my first two races during the MSR-C weekend in PTA when some cars finally entered the class and was able to win 4 free Hoosiers. They bailed on PTA for sunday so I raced in Super Unlimited against a couple turbo miatas and an s2000. Placed 2nd of 4 in both of those races.
Just got back from TWS a couple weeks ago and had to race ST2 as no PTA entries other than me. Placed 3rd of 4 in 2 of the three races and 3 of 5 in the last race when another AC cobra entered. Bright note was I was catching the second place Ferrari 355 which is a first for me so the car is making progress. I can usually beat the blue Ferrari but have always been a few seconds a lap sloer than the silver one. TWS is also a track that favors high hp so I'm hoping to do even better at the next race in Hallett.
Every race so far we've had to deal with rain and I haven't had a practice day yet to really dial the motons in and play with the Aero nearly as much as I'd like. I've got a pro driving coach I'm talking with now to schedule some track time to help tweak the car setup and help with data analysis.
For comparison to last year when I ran without the Torvec diff, cage, new aero and motons, this season during time trials with the IsoTorque, I have shaved 2 second off at TWS running CW, 3 seconds at MSR-C and 2.5-3 second off from MSR-H. Diff is still working like a champ with no complaints at all. I changed the fluid at the start of the season and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in the old fluid. With a combination of the Torvec diff, Motons and added downforce the car is really coming off of and through the corners well. I'm still getting used to the added grip and there is without a doubt more time to be had in this setup.
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