Turtle & Hare and the Enduro
11-04-2008, 12:52 AM
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Turtle & Hare and the Enduro
You folk should appreciate this...
I ran in my first enduro a week ago - 4 hours of fun in a NASA race at Infineon/Sears Point after our normal sprint race weekend concluded. My co-driver, Rich Walton, was the experienced portion of the Team Turtle driving crew. Rich manages Jerry Woods Enterprises (the shop that maintains my car) and has run the 25 Hours at Thunderhill a number of times (winning it too). I had Peter Smith, another 25 Hour vet and a mechanic at a local Porsche dealer for the crew chief with a cast of local reprobate Porsche drivers as the crew.
How, you may ask, with a crew like that were we so slow that we didn't win? Well take a look at the winner of the race in the photo - yep, a Daytona Prototype that had a real pit crew too. It was about 8 seconds per lap faster than any of the GT1 or GTA cars in our normal sprint races. I made sure my spotter radioed that it was coming so I didn't get surprised as it wooshed by me. While it was the only car that passed us in the entire race, it was an awesome sight to have its rear end tuck in in front of me while driving as fast as I could pedal the Turtle.
While we were the 2nd fastest car on track (by lap times) we finished 14th due to a 5 minute penalty for a fuel spill and a 17 minute pit stop to fix the driver's seat. The two left side seat bolts came loose after about an hour and after 3 hours had come completely out - it was no longer safe in case of a crash and it was damned hard to make a left turn as the seat is flexing and trying to fold to the right. Race results are here
So in HWFM tradition, we were fast but slow. None the less, we had a great time going slow. And Bonnie, those Miata's are a menace (waaaay too slow).
I ran in my first enduro a week ago - 4 hours of fun in a NASA race at Infineon/Sears Point after our normal sprint race weekend concluded. My co-driver, Rich Walton, was the experienced portion of the Team Turtle driving crew. Rich manages Jerry Woods Enterprises (the shop that maintains my car) and has run the 25 Hours at Thunderhill a number of times (winning it too). I had Peter Smith, another 25 Hour vet and a mechanic at a local Porsche dealer for the crew chief with a cast of local reprobate Porsche drivers as the crew.
How, you may ask, with a crew like that were we so slow that we didn't win? Well take a look at the winner of the race in the photo - yep, a Daytona Prototype that had a real pit crew too. It was about 8 seconds per lap faster than any of the GT1 or GTA cars in our normal sprint races. I made sure my spotter radioed that it was coming so I didn't get surprised as it wooshed by me. While it was the only car that passed us in the entire race, it was an awesome sight to have its rear end tuck in in front of me while driving as fast as I could pedal the Turtle.
While we were the 2nd fastest car on track (by lap times) we finished 14th due to a 5 minute penalty for a fuel spill and a 17 minute pit stop to fix the driver's seat. The two left side seat bolts came loose after about an hour and after 3 hours had come completely out - it was no longer safe in case of a crash and it was damned hard to make a left turn as the seat is flexing and trying to fold to the right. Race results are here
So in HWFM tradition, we were fast but slow. None the less, we had a great time going slow. And Bonnie, those Miata's are a menace (waaaay too slow).
11-04-2008, 10:06 AM
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Sorry Tom, about those pesky Miatas. Jerry K actually hires us just to **** you off. 
11-04-2008, 06:28 PM
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Bonnie, some how I believe you. I did enjoy watching the Miatas trade paint with the Hondas in turn 7 on a couple occasions. I tried to ensure they would not try the same with me. I do think I surprised a couple of them when passing them at the entry to turn 5, the esses, or turn 8 as I didn't want to sit behind them for too long (even Turtles can get impatient with snails or slugs).
11-05-2008, 08:50 AM
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Dayum . . . turn seven?!? That's not a place I like to gamble much. Sears is my absolute favorite track, but I still know to respect it. I'm sure they are rubbed off by now, but I had an impressive set of elevens and a nice swirly between ten and eleven near the flag station (the peek-a-boo door that's part of that huge wall) a couple years ago. Flat-spotted a tire but finished the race in near last place. It was such a pain to try and turn back around there, in the DIRT. Lol. Ahhh, Sears. No track quite like it in the country that I know of. Taught me all I don't know. 
