mark kibort

We have a 3 race weekend at Thunderhill this weekend. Not too late for the NW racers to sign up!! A few of the LA guys are coming up as usual

Race time is early Am and late PM on both Saturday and Sunday, with the ITE festival race on Saturday at 4pm

This will be almost 100 race days on the Holbert car! actually after this weekend, it will be 98 race days. If it lasts 'til Laguna next month, it will hit the milestone of 100 race days!

mark kibort

Just saw the entry list. I think i should have been putting in that stroker engine this past month!
3 vipers, (2 competition Coupes), 500hp camaro, 450hp C5vet, 480hp STi subaru, 395hp SC S2000, and unknown STi, and a couple of 928s 35 car field with 17 ITE entrants.
I hope I can get in the top 10! It is a weekend of 3 full races, so survival might be a top attribute.
Ill report back on how it goes.

mk

mark kibort

whats worse than a rain race? a race that starts out dry and then ends up wet, especially if its a light rain!

Race 1 qualified well at a 2:01.7 on 1 lap right after i got there, having no practice, and on my old '04 commuter tires. It rains all night, clears, dries, and is dry at 7:30am, by 8:30 race time, its sprinkling. the 4x4x, light miatas and others dominate. however, the RX7 modified with a hot 13B motor won, and beat all the vipers, comp coupe vipers, Panos, vet, mustangs and of course 928s . rain is sure the great equalizer! I had a pretty good battle, with the track, just trying to keep it safe. ended up 10th in class. Times were in the 2:10s for all of us, unless you happened to have a 4x4 or "rains".

Race 2 started out a little drier, but then rained on the last part of the race. was up to 2nd place, but then as it got wet, i started dropping positions to the lighter cars, even that darn subaru 4x4. ended up 5th. times all in the 2:05 in the driest part of the wed day.

Race 3. Sunday starts out dry as a bone and stays that way. temps up to 85 and just a perfect race day. qual went ok, as i came in early feeling i had a best time. turns out, it wasnt all that great, ending up at 2:02.7. Race started at 3:15 and i got a great start, tucking in behind the RX7 and passing the vet, while holding off the Panos of Dan Moody. i dive into turn 1 and get door to door with the pole sitting Competition coupe, and the doore is shut, almost with some contact. i back out and the mist is flowing. the mazda gets by, and after about half the race of staying close, i pull off a pass going into turn 3 and complete it after some too close for comfort race into the "Hill". now, i can go after the Rx7 of Bob Bradfield, who was voted driver of the weekend for his back to back victories in Race1 and 2 in the wet conditions. as always, this little powerhouse, ends up falling off after 1/3 of the race due to a few factors, and was able to get around him. Now, I have the leaders in sight, but they are still faster, however the other Comp coupe has an "off" and is back on just in front of me, with 2 laps to go, and fending off the Panos and the hungry C5 Vet of Rob Wardlow, I squeak out a 2nd place ITE finish and 3rd overall.

The supercharged S2000 ends up winnning. the points race is getting interesting as the S2000 of Rylan Hazleton, was hit in Race 2 right in front of me by one of our own PRC guys in a spec 911, (great video that ill post) and got 0 points. Good news no real damage due to where the contact was made, they just went spinning, and right next to the Comp coupe viper that had spun a second or two before.

I got some great front and rear video, but the best front incar cam video was lost due to operator error. Race 3 has only rear videw as i forgot to charge the batteries for the best race of the day

Thats race day 96,97,and 98 for the holbert machine. as you will see from the video, it spent most of the day at redline! at Laguna, the milestone ,100 race days will be reached and broken!

Mk

928autobahndreamer

Great job Mark. Looking forward to the videos as always. So, after you reach the 100 race milestone with the Holbert engine does it get retired and replaced with the new motor? I'm looking forward to seeing you teach the vipers, vets, camaros, and hondas a lesson in Porsche's finest.

Black Sea RD

Fantastic job Mark! Truly amazing what you are doing with that 928. Says a lot about the driver and I can't wait to see what happens when you install the stroker and sort it out to the car.

Regards,
Constantine

Dennis K

Good job Mark! It must have been an adventure in the rain. Especially without windshield wipers.

mark kibort

Its was a white knuckle race, for at least the faster of the two rain races. Ever try RainX? the stuff is amazing. you dont even need wipers if you are moving at a moderate speed! the water just seems to evaporate off the windshield!

Scot did pretty well too, right up until he crashed into the mustang when it was being parked in the turns. It has near 420 rwhp now,but is still heavy, so scot got a little impatient. he wrecked just the fender on the driver side. (and he just got that thing looking good too!) anyway, we pulled it out to almost stock form, even got the headlight cover to fit . now, it just looks rough again.

Even though the Holbert car is running into the record books for consecutive races, most races ,etc and has all sorts of mystery behind the engine, as to why it has lasted this long, Scot's motor is on his 2nd full season now, and hasnt had any issues, until this weekend. I had oil temps near 280F this weekend as on Sunday, it went to near 85 degrees outside. who knows what scot's was at, as he doesnt even have a stock oil cooler. with 3 laps to go, he noticed a big drop in oil pressure, right to 3 bar, and the engine started sounding and runnning funny. so he hit the kill switch. however, in the pits when we started it up, it went right to 5 bar. later we found that his exhaust was breaking in half in the middle, and had a big hole. (reason for funny sound)
If he was loosing power, i wonder what was causing that. just super high temps? the exhaust leak? or was it imaginary, due to the odd sound caused by the leak? water still looked good, oil looked clean. Anyway, probably good that scot did shut her down, even while in a great battle with 2 other cars.

video and some pics to come if anyone is interested.

MK

Droplink

Wow! Sounds cool. I would love to see some pics and video of a 928 race car.

svp928

Good job, Mark and Scott!

mark kibort

I forgot to mention. Scot ran into the mustang in one of the races or qualifying. He crunched the driver side front of the fender pretty bad. Anyone got a driver side fender in gold??

By the way, the weekend highlight video will be up on youtube shortly.

mk

mark kibort

Here is the video clip from the weekend's racing

http://www.youtube.com/v/Qe2wzz_7-eg

Charley B

Thanks for the video's Mark. Fun watching you drop the Vet and the S2000 in the first race. Even better watching the RX7 bonzai past two for the lead. I bet his pulse hit 250 on that move.

The rear view is great when the field is right on your ***. Not so much once you have some distance.

Great job on you 3rd place run.

mark kibort

Thanks! (also for the feedback) I think the video out the front on that final race would have been real interesting, especially going nose to tail with the comp coupe for a bunch of laps. I know litium ion batteries are strong, but not 3 races strong. (should have dropped it in the charger when i had the chance!)

anyway, the footage turned out good and the ole holbert car is still running strong. did you hear the revs? Im beating the engine relentlessly and it is still running like a champ!

since the S2000 spun after that hit and got 0 point for that 1 race, the points race is real close between the first 4 cars now. I feel bad for the camaro. after his HUGE hit last year at laguna, he had broke a 10cent part that holds the clutch in position, and he was out for race 3.

Next race, Laguna in late June. This season we have near 15 races!

MK

mark kibort

Here is the video on Vimeo. The quality is much better.

http://www.vimeo.com/1089722

928autobahndreamer

What was the story on that move by the 911. Did he just come in too hot and end up in bad position? Or was he just making an incredibly aggressive move in poor conditions and end up taking out 2 other cars (almost more)?