MRW

Mike, please.....

So here's the story, and by the way, the telling of it will assure all that I am totally without ego (and pride), and that, my 39 year relationship with Big T notwithstanding, no one more closely resembles the quintessential HWFMer than me, especially now that HWFMers are regularly winning and stuff.

But I digress. This started as a bad weekend for me. I arrived sick as a dog and a day late due to snow in Chicago. I went out to do the night practice, and the car would not downshift into second. That, coupled with the fact that a.) it was dark as hades and you couldn't see your makrs or apexes, and b.) I was sick and not at all sharp, caused me to pull in and park. I missed all day Friday while Matt Hartsfeld of Midwest Eurosport rebuilt my transmission in the field. My first meaningful seat time was Saturday in the warmup, and I did 2:38.7, which I thought was okay for me. The Orange sprint was a diaster- bad start, multiple full course yellows, big parade, but I finished.

So I'm standing in the paddock, and I look across at the Orbit Racing guys and I see a guy who looks familiar talking to Roger Hawley. When they were finished, I went up to him and said "Jack, I met you in 2004 at PDE at Barber, we had a lot of fun there, and you're partly responsible for my being here", along with, of course, Big T, or Beelzebub, as my wife likes to call him. We had a nice chat- he's a great guy, wanted to know all about what I was driving and how I was doing. I showed him my car, told him I sucked, but I liked it and was geting better. He told me he was there with a car that he had built up which was being driven by a young man whose name I don't recall, a 944 turbo with, of course, the Hot Wheels logo all over it. Unfortunately, their weekend was done, as their brand new motor threw a rod. He had been planning on co-driving the enduro, and said he'd already done 2:30 in the new car in the Thursday day T&T. Now his weekend was done, he said, unless I was looking for a co-driver on Sunday. At first, I thought he was kidding. Then, I hesitated, only because I love driving the whole enduro, but it suddenly occurred to me that I'd been dying to having somebody good (duh!) drive my car, give me their impressions and critique the setup, plus I could capture his data on my TraqMate and compare it to my own miserable work. So we went over to the big tent, found the registrar, and added Jack as a co-drover. Sure enough, Sunday morning, he showed up in his nice custom-made suit from the Rolex 24 a couple weeks earlier, where he drove one of the TRG Cup Cars, and hopped in the car to do the warm-up. My car is a nice 944S2 with a fresh motor, is an ex-Karl Poeltl car, so it has most of the Racers Edge goodies and Leda shocks. Jack went out pretty much mid pack, and passed just about everyone in the 20 minute session. I can't find the sheet from the warm-up, but I know he had the best time, which I think was 2:32.1. He then came into the pits and explained to me and Matt from Eurosport exactly, and I mean exactly, what the car lacked in terms of set up and balance in order for him to drive it faster. It was fascinating, and he was quick to say that just because these changes would let him go faster didn't mean we should make them, because it was my comfort level that was important. All the guys in our paddock drifted over, and he answered questions and shared knowledge of the track, lines in corners, and general racecraft. All the guys that were on track with him marveled at his smoothness as well as his speed. We eneded up putting a it more rebound into the rear shocks, which he said helped him a lot. I, of course, didn't even know what to look for.

The race itself was fun- I started and lapped consistently at 2:40-2:39; I came in after about 35 minutes, and he went out and lapped consistently at 2:32-2:33. We screwed up our pit stop at little, probably lost 30 seconds there, but he was carving through the field at the end; I just dug him too deep a hole.

Afterward, he hung around for a long time, chatting with guys, meeting people, answering questions, taking pictures, and just hanging out. It was a really cool experience- the sort of insight and knowledge that's invaluable. I can't wait until I can get into the datafrom the TraqMate and start to learn from it. Think about hitting ***** on the range at your local golf club, and a well known touring pro shows up next to you and asks you if you want a game. If you've got a brain, you say yes, park your ego, and soak up the knowledge.

Finally, I asked him why he'd co-drive a PCA Enduro with some schlump that he barely knew. He said that he'd been making a living driving for over 30 years, had won some major stuff (2 Rolex 24s and 2 Sebring 12's , among others), and now he wanted to do it for fun, since he was still good at it. Okay, I said, but why this? He said that he just loved to drive, and was bummed that his own car had broken.

So that's the story- probably couln't happen anywhere except PCA. Wouldn't have missed it for anything. Thanks to Big T for egging me on to do it, and for taking pictures- stupidly, I didn't even bring my own camera. And yes, though I put in a fresh tape at the pit stop, my video of Jack's stint ended two corners into it. The damned camera just won't work in the environment.

jester911

Great story.

Robert Henriksen

That is just wonderful!

Food Angel

Wow--that's a cool story!

rsa

Oh my gosh, Mike, that is an awesome story...and a great experience. You should post it in the Racing board as well. Will you be in Atl?

Sounds like everyone had fun and congratulatons to Jeff, Chris and Doug for demonstrating mad Illinois skillz.

MRW

Hi Jeff-

No Atl this year- have a schedule conflict. Planning Watkins Glen, Gingerman, Road America, and Daytona for the balance of the year. Hope you have better luck at RA this year- I've seen your car at Eurosport, looks great!

Bull

She would be perfect....remember, the Basset Hound is a dog bred by the French specifically so they could stay up with them while hunting rabbits on foot.....slow, and hates rabbits! But, if she gets wind of those cookies, you're done!

Mike in Chi

The clincher was when I said to Mike in front of Jack "If you don't take him as a co-driver, I will!" -- We've been very competitive for those 39 years.

Here's two shots of the car owner and his co-driver (and Matt from Eurosport):

Team944S2

BTW Mike, the new graphics look great on your car! I didn't recognize it on the grid unitl I read the company name. Very cool!

Mike in Chi

More of MRW's new graphics

paradisenb

Ship to my house. I'll bring whatever is left to Mike.

Food Angel

Chipster

Big T,

It was a pleasure hanging out with you guys at Sebring. The commraderie is one of the reasons I really enjoy this sport.

It was a long haul from Ohio but worth the trip - much thanks to John Haas

You mentioned that I should petition to join the HWFM team and after reading your posts, I think I more than qualify. It seems I was passed by every one of these guys - very quickly, and some more than once. These are some very fast turtles.

But wow, I had a great time. I'm looking forward to the next one. I hope to see you there.

Chip


By the way, I was actually passed by a guy with 3 wheels on his car.

Eric in Chicago

Damm MRW, the car looks fast (cant wait to race it at Gman!) Jeff brought me back so much Sebring swag from the race, I now have to attend next year. Great job by Doug, Chris and Jeff!

Mike in Chi

(That Location line still cracks me up)

to the Dreamers of the world