C.J. Ichiban

yeah he just got some 2nd degree burns and smoke inhalation. it was really sad- I heard from someone that he was completely on fire when he got out of the car.





no here is a picture- we had the baja buggy lights! I was #36...I put us on a LONG fuel strategy and we had no unscheduled stops- and were within 5 minutes of our planned rotations and fuel windows each time! it was rad. we ended up beating the 5th place e1 (mx5 cup also) by 3 seconds, even though we couldn't match their average lap speed.

schwank

Yeah those lights were mega bright. Those MX-5's are quite fast. We were slow in our E30 eta but just tried to stay consistent and out of the way. Overall it seems everything went well for many of us here. Great time and I look froward to the next one!

Wreck Me Otter

Espenlaub is still in the hospital hoping to be released today or tomorrow. From what I hear, things are going well.

dp35

I survived the 25!

It was great to hang out & talk smack with CJ in person or via text message at all hours. Our cars ran near each other in the standings the whole time, until we suffered a hub failure with less than 2 hours remaining. Before that happened we were chasing down the class leader for a potential sprint race to the end.

Our class winner was the ironman, Steve "Gorilla" Gorarrian. I had a great battle with him around 6:30 AM, just after sunrise. At that time we both did our fastest laps of the race. Gorilla's best was a 2:03, done on (I think) his 542nd lap.

Another amazing Gorilla stat - I read on the Miata forum that he drove himself 1.5 hours to the airport after the race & took a red eye back to the east coast, so he could report to his day job this morning. Apparently Gorillas don't need sleep.

Around 5AM a UFO emerged from a cloud of dust around 2 BMW's in front of me going through T8. With no way to avoid it I only hoped it was soft. As you see below, it was not.

C.J. Ichiban

actually darren I sat next to the gorilla on the plane from sacto- LAX- we talked about the race the whole time, and yes he did red-eye to boston. the whole portapotty thing was true...he had an amazing and hyper efficient crew from the stories he was telling and I'm 100% impressed with his effort. he's a former grand am guy (finished 2nd at daytona 24h one year I guess?) with TONS of experience.

Talking to him gives me inspiration for how I will approach my team's 25 @ TH in 2010.

C.J. Ichiban

dp35- scoreboard biatch! haha

dp35

That's a great shot!

But you shouldn't start with me about scoreboard, unless you want to compare lap times Mr. 200hp MX-5 driver.

Eric_k

Ha, Chiti Chiti Bang Bang beat all you all...from 50th to 3rd overall!!!

Thumbs up to our 3D pit neighbors too.

C.J. Ichiban

my car has 200hp? says who? 165 tops! the thing our car has is waaay better suspension. and hubs that don't break off- on a serious note I was terrified watching the favre-mobile fly into the weeds at high speed with 3 wheels.

and despite none of us ever having driven the track, we did end up turning a bunch of 203s and 204s. only about a second off the fastest mx5s who were on sweet tires. short shifting around 6k rpms (as opposed to 6850 redline) for the first 17 hours of the race enabled us to actually save two pit stops and ensure we'd have something left for the morning run.

C.J. Ichiban

yeah the caterham crew are psychos. who the F runs a car with no roof/windshield/weather protection with us yahoos? we kept joking that they had to run heating blankets off the engine block to stay warm. I think it was 29*F at some point saturday night.

dp35

Major props to the Caterham team! Being an Ariel Atom owner, I was especially proud of you guys. I remember at some point in the middle of the night thinking "no way in hell would I want to be in the Atom out here", and that was before the windshield smashing incident. Congrats!

dp35

You guys did a great job, especially considering the equipment, support, & experience you had (or didn't have). I expect the Seattle Mariners car to contend for the E1 class win in 2010.

In consideration of the fact that neither one of us could keep our car pointed in the right direction when we got near each other on track, I'll suspend the smack talk until we meet at a track again. Which btw I hope will happen soon, before you get much faster.

C.J. Ichiban

darren- don't worry I'll get a SM program for my simulator when it arrives...then I'll start slicing into those lap times!

I'm already working on my team/strategy for 2010. I'm going to run two cars with 6-8 drivers total, use one pit crew, and get a few RVs for all the homies to hang out in. just not sure if we're going to do an MX5 cup in E1 or maybe an M3 in E0.

kgorman

I am still recovering... we supported Data/Video/Modas stuff for the #75 Mercer Motorsports car to it's win and record. Whew what a blast. I was completely humbled/amazed by the level of 'play' of the team. Just awe-inspiring and I (we) were so happy to be a part of it. Really impressive drives by all the drivers, especially Rich and Todd and Tommy. I have a new level of respect for them.

C.J. Ichiban

I don't remember which cup car it was out of the 3, but at one point I got passed by it and noticed the exhaust tips were glowing red @ about 2am. I wish I had a camera because it was gorgeous! glad to see you guys run so hard for so long. bravo!