Bill Ball

For those of you who want to get a very good feel for this race, take a look at these Youtube videos by Tom King. Tom is running a supercharged Acura NSX in the same 150 class as us. Note that we took most (but not all) of the turns at 5 MPH above his speeds, but that may just mean that he was pacing better. Tom's commentary (which starts about 30 seconds in) with his turn descriptions is superb. He runs alone and you can tell he has it down pat. Outstanding.



This second video by Tom from the same race is a real treat. It shows the start line and some significant "events" - the same bird strike, but some other interesting happenings. Watch for the spotter plane flying over the road ahead before Tom spots some "smoke".

S4ordie

Awesome video. Having never done any sort of ORR it is interesting how technical the pace is monitored and maintained. The bird strike at 1:42 into the video looked like a bug hitting the windshield at those speeds. Does this happen often?

Bill Ball

We had a bird hit on the bumper this year. At the finish pits we could see a lot of cars with hits, some on the windshield. These were small birds and no one seemed to suffer any damage. We had two more bird hits on the way home. This particular bird species seemed to make the wrong choices as to flying direction as we approached.

I hit a jackrabbit at 150 a few years back and that tore up some of the grill uprights and a good chunk out of my plastic bellypan.

I just added a second Tom King video. It shows a couple of other events from last year. Yesterday there were no crashes or even breakdowns as far as I know except in unlimited class where one of the cars rolled after hitting debris left from a tire blowout on another unlimited car. Unlimited is risky, but for much of the ride yesterday with George at 152 average, it felt like one of our funrides.

928autobahndreamer

It is interesting that when he slowed to 115 mph entering the narrows it seemed like he was crawling. It wasn't until he started the corners that you realized how fast he was still going.

Great job on the race, I always love hearing about the 928 doing what it excells at.

Bill Ball

Yes, you can hear Tom calling out certain landmarks he uses for timing his run, such as the guard rail and some road signs. Many people use mile markers, but running alone at 150 it is next to impossible to read which mile it is on these little signs. So, Tom smartly uses other landmarks and establishes their location himself prior to the race.

You can see he is banking time for the the Narrows, a slow, twisty section near the end of the race. So he banks 30 seconds before that as he loses 28 seconds in the Narrows. He takes that section slower than I think he needs to be safe or maybe I have the wrong impression about NSX handling.

jorj7

We hit one on our run Sunday. Luckily it hit the bumper then bounce over the top of the
car.

IcemanG17

Ya only 118 IN A CORNER.......

I get scared at Thunderhill taking 1-8 at over 90mph....

AO

You guys rock!

Simply amazing to take a 20 year old car, get it outfitted and tuned in a couple of days and run it at 150+ MPH! This is why I love these cars!

(Red Wings score! 1-1)

S4ordie

Sure - that's what the bird thought too just before it's a$$ passed through it's brain on Bills bumper at 150mph

Tahoe Shark

I re read this and it is really long (sorry and feel free to skip it)

Well here is my account of the NORC from the back. I did not get to drive last year because my wonderful wife decided that she should share in the fun of ORR. She deserves it so what the heck.
I wanted to get my legs back in a slower class so I signed up for the NORC in the 160 mph class with an unlimited tech (top) speed. Everything went pretty well all weekend as we had completed all of the car prep in November before I put the car into storage for its winter nap. The trip to Ely is about 7 1/2 hours pulling the trailer so Cheryl and I settled in with a good audio book. About 2 hours into the trip Matt calls and wonders where we are and can we stop for lunch in Austin with him. I say sure and where are you Matt. I'm just coming into Reno and not to far behind you. I gently let Matt know that I am several hours ahead but we will stop in Austin and if he gets there we will have lunch with him. Matt was a no show which we both knew would happen so we motored on to Ely and arrived at 3:30 on Thursday afternoon. We parked the car and cleaned up for our traditional Wine party with some of the racers at the Jail House. After dinner we walked over to the old Post Office and joined the welcome party in full swing. George & Bill were there so we joined them at the table. A little while later Matt & Eric walked in. I asked Matt why so late and he had a very good explanation of why he was late for lunch which I will let him tell. Hit the sack around 10pm on the first night.
Friday morning we got up early and booked down to registration and were first in line. George, Bill, Matt and Eric showed up minutes later and it's an all 928 front row in line. After signing in and collecting our decals and #'s we went back to the motel and unloaded the beast. When the beast starts we tend to attract a crowd and this time was no different. Some of the rookies staying at the hotel came over and asked if it was a Chevy small block to which I said no it was all Porsche. No one believed me as usual so I opened the hood and showed the disbelievers the beautiful 6.4L Devek built motor on its 4th year of Open Road Competitions.
Tech inspection was a no brainer and since I needed to scrub off the silicon release off of my new PS2's, Matt & I prepared to pre run the course. I was adament that I was NOT going to speed down the public highway and get disqualified for getting a ticket. Matt concurred and off we went. A good thing because there were a lot of NHP's & Sheriff's lurking about. We kept our word and set the cars on 70 - 75 mph and cruised on down to the finish line 90 miles away. Uneventful I say until after just crossing the finish line and turning around, a very dark blue NHP cruiser pulls up behind me, lights flashing and gets out of the car. Uh Oh! Visions of "street legal" dance in my head. He walks up to me and asks if we have any problems. No sir officer just pre running the course for the Sunday race. He looks the car over pretty good. Lets see, full cage, fire suppression system, fuel cell, about as low as you can get without beheading ants, decals all over the car and an open cooler (for the cool suits) stuffed with drinks. Fortunately no adult beverages were in the the cooler so he just kind of stood around surveying the situation. He asked how long we were going to be there and we all agreed that we would mount up and leave to go back to Ely. He really turned out to be a nice guy and Eric has the photo to prove it. Both cars left the finish line to go home @70 mph exactly. Less than 15 miles up the road he had some poor soul pulled over giving him a ticket. We saw 3 other police cars the rest of the way home all were not interested in a couple of 928's cruising down the road behaving themselves. When we got back to the motel I filled up the beast with fresh 104 unleaded and after calculating my mpg I got 21.2 mpg.
Saturday was the car show at the park and the racers meeting in the evening and I have bored you enough with the prelim's.
For those that do not know, ORR's start the fastest cars (called Super Sports) at the end of all of the racers. Cheryl & I arrived fashionably late and started to get the car prepped for the race. Ice in the cool suit cooler, all safety equipment laid out neatly, visors clean, candy bars and gatorade stowed in the car. Complete check of the intercom and all of the controls, pull the pins on the fire system, etc. We are ready to go.
At 11:15 they call the SS cars up to the start and give us the 10 minute warning. I start putting Cheryl in the Navigators seat and get her belted up. Opps, where is your arm restraint, honey. Well it was here honey, you laid it out didn't you. (hint, never argue with your navigator just before a 200+ mph run). Yes dear, so I run back (300 yards) to the trailer to see if it got dropped. I check the car trailer and half of the desert, no strap. I run back to see if they found it lurking in the car somewhere and no it was not there. Cheryl tells me to go ahead and run the race myself because she will not be able to start without the strap. She says, I'm sure I brought the spare set in the truck did you find those. Opps again, run back to the truck and sure enough the spare set is in the little zipper compartment in the race bag. I am so tired by this time running around looking for things, that I have to run/jog back to the car with only 8 minutes before our car is scheduled to go off the line. Fortunately some friends watching this comedy unfold throw Cheryl into the car and tell me to just get in the car and shut up and they is belt us in and get us ready. We make it with 1 minute to spare and I fire up the cool shirts and try to cool down.
The flag drops at 11:50 and we are off. After about 4 miles we have settled into our 160 mph average and we both start laughing at our ineptness at the season opener. I get comfortable and tell Cheryl we are going to step it up a little for a few miles because I want 18 seconds in the bank before hitting the Narrows 40 miles up course. We play around with the car for a while and it is really handling beautifully. I start slowing down on the straights and blasting around some of the sweepers. The turns I usually take at 165-170 I was taking at 180- 185 the car was on rails. On some of the tighter turns the would get slightly get unsettled then calm right down at mid turn. (note to self, turn the Penske's up 10 more clicks on the rebound). We see the warning for the speed trap and I floor the car. This year they only gave you 1 1/2 miles to get up to speed so it was a bit more difficult but the beast pulled out a 203.5 mph GPS run through the trap. Not bad for a 21 year old car. We run at 135 for 9 miles to get rid of the time we gained in the speed trap and enter the Narrows with exactly 18 seconds in the bank. We plodded through the Narrows and exit 2.9 miles later 5 seconds early, exactly where we wanted to be. There is only 18 miles or so left in the course so all we have to do is stabilize the car on the mile posts and cruise in on time. About 7 miles down the course I come around a turn and on my left I see a course worker running out to the road madly waiving a RED flag. NOOOOOO. I am going 160 and cannot stop so we acknowledge that we saw the flag and I come off the gas and coast to the next flag station about a mile away. We stop the car off the road and foul things fly out of my mouth. I get over my childish tantram, climb out of the car and ask the course worker what happened. He did not know other than there was a problem a mile or two up the road. We sit there for an hour and finally get called to report to the finish line at legal speeds.
Into the car and less than 2 miles later we enter a debris field like I have never seen before. It was worse than two semi's loosing 2 tires each. There were car parts, plastic, fiberglass, metal shards, you name it, it was there. I slow to about 15 miles per hour and picked my way though about 2 miles of crap. There would be no way a car at racing speed would have made it through in one piece. We exit the field and make our way into the finish but about 3 miles later we see the cup car of a very good friend of our's covered in dust and sitting out in the desert. The car is destroyed, very little sheet metal is not bent or torn. This is really very sobering so we are quiet until the finish. We are sitting at the finish waiting for our trailer when our friend with the smashed car drives up and says hi, how did you guys do? I smack him and he give a groan, he has just been in an off at 160 plus. He had been checked out by the medial team and he is ok but a little beat up. Thanks god for the safety equipment and shame on anyone who races anything if you bitch and complain about having to buy & install the stuff. It will save your life.
Overall we had a great time and we are glad that George had the opportunity to qualify at 150 so that he is SS ready for the fall. I think another member of the 200 mph club is about to be inducted.

Your humble correspondant

IcemanG17

Tim
Great write up!!!!!!!!!!!!! Long but worth the read!!

I wonder how many miles the beast has covered at 200+.....it has to be a bunch!

Richard S

Proof that Diamond Blue Metallic is the fastest color of all 928's...

Rich.

Bill Ball

For those of you who want to get some idea of a sustained 200+ MPH feels like, Mike Borders just posted a stunning in-car clip from his ill-fated run - he's the guy Tim mentioned who lost a tire after going through the debris field left by another car and went off and flipped only a turn or two from the end. ARGH! This video is just prior to the accident and, MAN, was Mike flying! He was AVERAGING over 200!



The car a few hours later, after the unfortunate incident, being dragged back to the road from the desert...

SharkSkin

Wow... that really drives home Tim's point about safety equipment.

Great stories all, glad every one had fun and stayed safe.

The_Remora

Wow! Thanks for sharing, I love reading the ORR stories!!!