cdbtx

Ahhh.. maybe I should make everyone wait..

Ok - First the bad news... Ken Osage's car did not survive the Endurance Practice. Ken Olson one of the drivers hit the wall in turn 5. Driver's fine - car will never make it to the track again.

We actually had our own problems - about 1/3 through the race we lost all the gears but 2nd and 4th. But we continued on - finishing 15th out of 56 cars and placed 6th in our class... so.. all in all .... successful... drove the car onto the trailer---- that was my mesaure of success... 115 laps.

Special Kudos to Mark Kibort... turning 1:45 lap times with 1 gear!!!!!!

More to follow!

Tom. M

Hey Chuck and gang...got the update from John Davis...bummer about Kens car..hope he can salvage the parts for one of his other 928's...he'll be back..stronger than ever...

Congrats on the strong finish..even without the 3rd gear ...biggest part is finishing the enduro...look forward to the pics and videos...

Awesome...

how did Scott do yesterday?...did he get the finish he needed?


later,
Tom
89GT
82 Trackster

cdbtx

Scott didn't get the finish he needed for the podium in the Sprints, Mark won the championship....

Ken's engine may be ok - it drove the power steering pump into the timing belt - hopefully that was enough to kill the engine....

Now it's time to start working on the car for next year..

Three Seattle teams finished in the top ten. Porsche Cup car, Greg Fordhal, and us... not a bad showing for Porsche's or Seattle....

We have about an hour of the endurance - High Definition... which will give you a great idea of what the Corkscreww is rally like...

For our first endurance = all in all it was a great finish. Mark Kibort came into the pits early because the temp gauge was showing 250 degrees +... turned out to simply be a bad sensor....

Next year - we'll have more time to prepare...

Hey - thanks for everyone's support and help!!!!!

cdbtx

More photos

atb

Sorry to hear about Ken's car, that hurts for sure.
Nice job on surviving the enduro Chuck, sounds like despite the tranny issues you are more than fired up for next year. That's awesome! Hopefully there'll be 4 PacNW race ready 928's by then.

115 laps, man that is a lot of track time, definitely tough on the equipment.

Tom. M

That is if the transport driver remembers to head on over to Dan Brindles to pick up a future Pac NW 928 track car hint hint

Later,
Tom
89GT
82 Trackster

Nicole

We told you guys that you should run Automatic transmissions - right Mark?

Congratulations! It was great to meet you and see the enthusiasm and dedication you have to the 928. PM me with your info, so I can send you the promised decals!

And thanks for the nice bag! It'll ride in waSAABi, once it's filled properly.

Black Sea RD

Hi Chuck,

Congratulations. Seems the roof panel survived tech and it does look pretty cool in the one photo above.

Now about the results, I can't discern what happened from the few postings above. Did Ken O. have an accident and you said Mark K. won the championship?! How did you do and how about your impressions on racing in this event. War stories appreciated!

Constantine

cdbtx

Constatine - Three days of racing. Day 1 was practice and qualifying for the sprints. Day 2 was the regional SCCA sprints (2 races) 4 of us raced in the sprints. Mark Kibort sealed the deal on the last race. I have to admit it was awesome seeing Mark Kibort, Scott in his 928 and Rob in his Corvette running inches from each other.

Day 3 was the Endurance Event - we let Mark Kibort run the practice session since he had never been in my car before. Ken Osage let Ken Olson run his car in practice. It was during the first Endurance practice session that Ken Olson hit the wall.

For the endurance race - Dick Pierson started in my car - and was turning upper 1:40's until we lost the gears 40 minutes into the race. We then put Mark Kibort in the car to see if Mark could figure out the issue - Mark started turning mid 1:40's in 4th gear.... and picked up alot of positions. I then jumped in.... according to my on board lap timer I was running laps over 2:00's.... so after about an hour in the car I pitted (For fuel and to get Kibort back into the car - that's why they call it team work). It turns out my lap timer was wrong and I was running the low 1:50's... but Mark did a great job finishing the race..

My impressions on this event - I'll be back next year.... Next time I'll ship the car down prior to the race... ok, next time I'll ship a well prepped car down.. new tranny... Mark recommended a few mods to the car... which will happen this winter...

Best lap times of the race were set by the Porsche cup car running in the low 1:30's... but that's what it's going to take to win this race.....

I was impressed by the pit stops - just over two minutes for driver changes and 15 gallons of fuel...

Anyway - back to being a normal person now.....

drnick

excellent!

SwayBar

Despite the mechanicals, it sounds like you guys had a great time; good job being out there and 'doing it'!

heinrich

That is almost unthinkable, 1:40's in a 1:30's race, with just 4th gear in a 2.2 rear end!!! Mark.

atb

Just got off the phone with Ken Osage a bit ago.

They are about 3.5 hours out of Monterey. For those of you who don't know Ken, he's got to be one of the coolest people I know. Always very upbeat and positive. No worries about the car, "that's racing" is how he sees it. He had mentioned that the driver of his car was out front and got sideways going into turn 4 or 5 on the first lap of practice (tires not warm), and then got hit by another car that was coming in a little too hot. Definitely a bummer, but Ken says he'll be back for the next season, just needs to get his car home, get it up on the air, and as he says "sit on a stool and stare at it a couple of days before he decides what to do" (rebuild or start anew).

It's inspiring to see how much Ken and Chuck go through in support of their racing efforts. It is definitely not easy being a one-man show and having to keep your day job afloat all while trying to be competitive.

These guys are truly awesome in being able to do what they do. Let's face it, racing a 928 is not easiest way to get around the track, I really admire what these guys do to carry the 928 banner in wheel to wheel competition.

IcemanG17

Major bummer about Kens car......but I'm sure he'll be back!

Congrats on a strong finish to the enduro...mid 1:40's with only 1 gear...is damm good in my book......Congrats to MK for winning the championship too!

mark kibort

Thanks all! Yes, it was an honor to run on the same team as these guys. Ken and Chuck were very gracious letting us co-drivers run their pride and joys. They were committed to the end, and you could see it with everyone they brought down. And, 21 hours to drive down is no small effort either!
they did real well, considering Laguna is a difficult track to pick up quickly with out a bunch of track time. However, they ran their cars in the group 1 and group 2 sessions for practice , qual and races.
Chucks car was a little down on power, but when i took it out for a quick few laps before the enduro, it did feel pretty strong for a euro 4.7 with a US intake! I was able to qualify it at 1:46.mid withonly a couple of laps with no traffic. And then in the race, Dick Pearson brought the car in withonly 4th gear. We knew the gear box was in pretty bad shape to begin with, but heck at least chuck was able to race with all gears for the previous 2 days). So, Chuck grabs me and says you take it! I was not really expecting too much, but actually it wasnt too bad. You know, not having to shift and race for an hour wasnt such a bad thing! however coming out of turns at 1500rpm was a little odd, while all the mitas would pass me, only to get repassed as the car in its 4th gear started to hit near redline at 125mph! I started figuring out where to use the advantage to not loose too much time. it was also nice coming out of the corkscrew and just flooring it and not worrying about wheels spin! after a little after an hour of racing, we were picking up places and gettting into a groove when i noticed the water temp at 260F. "Hmmm" , i thought. bad guage or a problem. it was running fine. But what if??? So, i came in to get chuck to look at it and run his last stint before the engine blew! fortunately, it was a false alarm, due to a bad sensor, and chuck too the 1 gear racer out for its last 1.7hour stint. chuck came in after doing a great consistant job racing, and grabbed me to finish the race. I wasnt expecting to go again, but heck, it was a lot of fun, so i jumped back in. started running the same 1:46s again, and then got in a heated battle with a mid pack ITE '07 mustang that usually runs in my races . driven by a different driver, as this guy was fighting me tough. 5 or 10 laps later i got a break through traffic, and ran a pretty decent lap of 1:45.2 I was pretty happy with that! I did figure out how to use 2nd gear out of turn 11 and 2 and then just redline and shift to 4th and use 4th for most of the track . I radioed into the pits to see if how much 2nd gear was helping, and i was able to click off a 1:45.4 with only using 4th gear. That kind of experimenting and all the traffic helped the time just fly by!

The car handled pretty well and used the same set of toyo RA1s the entire weekend!!!!!!!!! yes, one set of previously used RA1s, small sizes, 245s up front and 275s in the rear made it a little skatey around the turns i usually feel planted on. they ran practice, qualifying for two run groups, 2 races ,and 30mins of enduro practice before running these same tires in the race. we should have put my rims and tires on from the beginning, but we didnt know if they would rub in the rear. But, by the end of 3 hours the tires looked perfect at the time Chuck grabbed me to drive the final stint.

I have never done an enduro before, and it was a blast. Would have been pretty cool to take 2nd place though!. If the car had another gear, was lowered, the full euro intake, and my rims and tires i think the team could have done it! NEXT YEAR.

The best news is that with chuck's efforts, we were able to raise something like $3000 or more for the United Way!!!!!

By the way, the pit work was flawless. no mistakes, no fuel drops, and driver changes were very fast. next year!!!!!!! 6th place was pretty darn respectable.

The only reall bummer all weekend was Ken's car! Nicest guy, like someone said earlier, you would ever want to meet and wouldnt even take our condolences! He just said, "thats racing" and how do i help chuck with his pit stops! The entire two teams and support group were just a pleasure to be around, as welll as a lot of fun!

Thanks for letting me be apart of it!

Mark Kibort
Usually, driving the #19 Holbert WR machine

I have some pictures of how we were trying to straighten Kens car. I dont know if the want lift the blanket over the body just yet. Let me know and ill post a few