rasrboy

Well, I tried my hand last weekend at the Nelson's DBL Regional. I started Saturday in T1 as a one car class and qualified 4th overall running with a large 33 car field. GT1,TCC,ITE,ITR,ETC.

I went to false grid for race and when I backed in my spot, the power steering rack crapped on me and blew fluid all over. Got a tow back to trailer after the grid cleared to track. Jacked it up and found that the passenger side rack seal blew out and into the boot.

I waited till the race was over and saw Danny Kellermeyer (#37 TCC yellow Corvette) He had a brand new rack in his rig and said get to work boy! Not knowing squat about the C5's yet, Jerry Waltenberger from our local Corvette club stayed to get this thing ready for Sunday.

We worked till 10:00 PM using our truck headlights and then got home at midnight. Woke up at 4:30 Sunday and had Angie take me to Kumho to pick up the Motosports semi and take to Nelson's so I could leave straight from there after the race for the ALMS at LimeRock for work

Danny K. set the toe for me and had me on grid in time to qualify Sunday. It must have been one hell of a rack and good toe setting, cause we went out and did a 1:09.821 lap time. The record is held by Freddy Baker with his Porsche GT3 with a 1:10.016 but has to be beaten during the race. DARN! I also somehow managed to qualify 1st Overall in the 32 car field, but I now had a new competiter in T1 on Sunday. Ron Hutter who had a beautiful C5 Z (Black too) and ran a great lap time of 1:10.696.

We managed to pull off a win and 4th overall, but I could not find that 1:09.821 lap time again with all that traffic, so Freddy's record still stands.

Here's where the story gets interesting! I leave Nelson's in the Kumho semi and start driving to Limerock for the ALMS tire test Tuesday. Meanwhile,my dad is taking my truck,trailer and car back to his house for me As I am driving late Sunday night, I am glancing at the schedule for Limerock & I see that it says there is a SCCA regional event wed July 4th there. I said to myself, crap!!! If I would have known that ahead of time I would have thrown the Corvette in the semi and ran there since I had a DNS on sat and was sitting at 3 regionals and I need 4 to get my national licence.

So I called my dad Monday and asked what he was doing and if he wanted to make a sales call in Limerock and bring my truck,trailer and car up. He said he could not break free so I figured I was out of luck at this point. Just then, my good buddy called to see what I was doing and told him the whole story and how I wish I had somebody to bring the car up here. He said he was off all week and said where is the car at so he can get rolling? He went to my dads where the car was still all hooked up and covered in dirt from Nelson's and headed to Limerock.

I hung up with him and called Angie back home and asked if she could bale out of work to come up. She said yes, but had to be back for work thursday by noon for work. SO, I cashed in 50,000 air miles to fly her up Late Tues night and back Thursday morning wearing her scrubbs so she could get of the plane and go right to work from there. Now that is some crazy last minute planning and how we pulled it off I don't know.

He pulled in the hotel in Waterbury,CT at 10:30 Tuesday night & I pulled into the parking lot 2 minutes later from picking Angie up at the airport. We got to the track wed,did a late registration and unloaded the car and had till noon before we qualified. There was no practice and I have never been to this course before and was sweating it. We had really old cycled tires and no time to change all the fluids like I normally do. So! JEFF MEYERS who crews for Phil Croyle in the SE region was there with us helping with the ALMS stuff and he said he would be my crew chief and radio me lap times and spot.

I had a gentelman by the name of James Barrett in my class with his very nice C6 coupe T1 car. (It was black too ) He was from the area and this was his home track. I had the chief steward put me out last for qualifying and figured I would just learn the track and try to pick it up and lay down a semi good laps after that. Well, It started with some 1:04's,1:03's,1:02's,1:01's,1:00's and then a 59.846 and then the session ended early due to a broken car in the middle of the jump. I was just getting dialed in and was ready to get up to 100%.

I qualified on the pole and was 7th overall in a 29 car field. We were the last race of the day at 4:30PM and the rain was coming on radar. By the time our race came up it was already raining and stirring things up on track with the other groups. I went to grid with my BALD Kumho V710 race tires since I had no rains and said this should be interesting. I figured the other guy in T1 would have rains and I would be screwed, but he never showed up to grid in the rain,so I told Jeff I was just going to putt around and let anyone and everyone by and just complete this race so I could get my national licence and thats what I did. Easy win but we will take it!

My buddy went to dinner that night with us and got a good nights sleep, then headed back to Ohio Thursday moring with my truck and trailer. I then went back to work at Limerock mounting ALMS tires for our 3 teams for the Saturdays Race. I left the track at a 8:00 PM Saturday after the race and started heading back with the Kumho rig and pulled in today at 4:00PM. How I am awake enough to write this I have no clue!

Thank you to my sponsors: Kumho Tires, RSIG Security,Rapid 2 Way Radios and Fallsway Equipment.

Here are some pics from both events,

Aaron Quine
Kumho Tire (Motorsports)
#21 T1 Corvette Z06

STEVEN13

mrc24x

Nice job Aaron! Thanks for the write up. I'm guessing you don't miss the C4...

rasrboy

Thanks Matt! I love these C5 cars. C4 is still forsale and ready to go!

wallyman424

that kumho semi is no joke.


if you ever got any tires that "fall" off the truck, just let me know...

rasrboy

Good one Wally!

RogueVette

So you ride to Limerock from Hiram in the Kumho truck and you have no rain tires?

rasrboy

Just ALMS rains, but they are 18" and we have to run 17".

I just ordered my Kumho rains today so I will be prepared next time.

racetex

That sure is a good looking car. Wally that is the sister car 2 yours. It's pretty cool looking at the 2 avitars.

"Way To Go" Bro. C U guys at Mid-Ohio in a few weeks.

wallyman424

these former RSIG cars are workhorses.

i'm gonna be at mid-o this weekend with NASA. When are you heading there?

Olitho

I just ordered my "rains" last week! I hope I don't need them for the run-offs, but if I do I will be ready. I will likely never ever use them here in So. California.

Carolina C4 Racer

Hey Aaron,
Are you going to be able to make it to the NCCC event at CMP. It is the Sat. & Sun of Labor Day weekend. You could leave Sun. afternoon & make it to Nelsons on Mon. The flyer should be out tomorrow.
I hope to see you & a bunch of the Tire Town people there.
Anthony

Pumba

Aaron,

I was part of the Cauley TCC Team and took some pictures of your car from my spotter's location in Turn 13:

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See you at other tracks in the future.


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rasrboy

Thanks Jeff! See you in a couple weeks. Hopefully we can get dinner and some drinks one evening with everybody.

Aaron

rasrboy

Jim,
Pleasure meeting you and getting to chat with you. Thanks for posting the pics and see you down the road.

racetex

Wally

I will be at Mid-Ohio for Speed WC race on the following weekend. Dave Roush is expecting you so make sure you hook up with him.

Caterpillar

Thats a great story, congratulations Aaron! That Fallsway sticker looks pretty good on your car. By the way, feel free to send the bill for that anytime!

Next time your in a bind like that let me know, I would have brought your car up to you.

Amazing how Black cars just seem to be faster huh?

L98Terror

Nice running, those are the weeks that make memories. Lime rock in the rain can be scary, especially without rains, been there done that.

rasrboy

Thanks Greg! Had a great time and yes that FALLSWAY sticker does look good! Thanks for the support!

I will keep you in mind the next time I decide to do something crazy like that again.

Love the black, it just seems to cut right through the air.

Talk to you soon,

Aaron

Locke

Aaron
Thanks for keeping us posted as many of us enjoy hearing about you living our dreams!

I'm amazed how well some people can turn fast laps on a strange track. My inability to do that is the reason I don't like the format of High Speeds in NCCC, especially at Convention!

Good luck for the rest of the year. Play safe, have fun and keep us posted!

Oh, and thank you to Danny and the Cauley Crew for taking care of our friend.