SIK02SS

Thanks to CMS and everyone that helped me put this one together: AP Racing, Hardbar USA, Carbotech, and Essex!!!

Cliffs at the bottom

I made the journey out to Miller Motorsports Park on Thursday night to do testing on Friday. Friday turned out to be a brutal day: lot's of little issues and debugging to do, but after a long day at the track (left at 8pm) we thought we were in good shape for Saturday. Saturday started good, but had more tire issues with the crappy R888's. Unfortunately I kept finding ice mode with my new brakes in Turn 1 and pushing the limit on the Toyo R888's; I pushed the limit a few times and did some off road excursions as well as a few spins (oops) Fri and early Sat. Qualifying wasn't as I hoped because I wanted a couple more laps, but when I looked down at my display the coolant temp read: XXX and the gauge was pegged at max. I later found out it was a sensor wire that arced out and some tape and clearing of code and all was well.

I qualified 12th on the R888's for Saturdays race and Kyle Kelley qualified 5th iirc. Our 1st go around for the green flag was waved off, but our 2nd time around was game on! Kyle said it was a terrible start up front, but it couldn't have been anymore perfect for me. I passed 3 cars right off the bat and quickly made up ground on a 4th and overtook him. About 3 laps later, the R888's were greased and I had no corner speed/traction. 3 cars formed a train behind me, a T2 BMW, an STO BMW, and an STO-E S2000 and they were making up a lot of ground on me in the brake zones and corners. The STO bimmer finally went under me in a corner so I just took a little wider/later corner entry and passed him right back on the corner exit. I spaced them out a little bit and a couple laps later the T2 bimmer had a good run going and made a pass under me where I did the same thing and had him right back behind me. Unfortunately a couple laps later (about lap 13) my HOT TRANSMISSION indicator came on; so I shifted to 4th and just started cruising around (while my mechanic/spotter checked that I completed the necessary laps to get the "finish"). After about 4-5 corners I saw the train catching back up again and I moved out of the way where the T2 driver decided to flip me off out the window

So I went to impound 1st once the trans temp cooled back to a reasonable temp where the indicator turned off. When everyone came in I had a quick chat with that T2 bimmer..apparently he was "racing" those 2 other cars who were not in his class but they were all buddies so it's okay; so apparently it was okay for them to race being in different classes but not me, in which I never blocked or took a defensive line, just drove. Oh, he also gave me the and "if I had 100 more HP I wouldn't have to worry about you" line People like to talk without thinking, bc surely it slipped his mind that I was on R888's while he was on Hoosier A6's..I think Kyle finished 3rd overall.

Friday was another long night (long for Kyle and crew as well); I think we were all there until about midnight helping each other and finishing our own stuff.

Saturday practice resulted in we were too tired in the dark working on the car Sat night and some of the trans fittings were not tight enough and worked loose. I skipped qualifying because the car was too hot to get that work finished w/out coming out with lots of burns (no thanks).

So I start the race dead last, perfect, I get to have some fun now Oh, ya, and I put my 4 lap old Hoosier A6's on for this one I believe Kyle started 5th again.

I was dead last when the green flag dropped and I was by 3 people up the middle and moving wide to get a good run off T1, but the cars ahead of me had a different plan and they all locked up their brakes, so i dove for the now empty middle lane until that lane closed and I moved to the bottom passing 2 more cars exiting T1, and then around the outside of another car in T2. Already up to 12th I was quickly picking cars off 1 at a time (even got a real point by from the middle finger guy) until I finally had Kyle in my sights (only a straightaway ahead ). I put my head down and I closed the 9 second gap he had on me lap by lap and before I knew it I was all over him. I put the pressure on Kyle for ~2.5 laps before I got a really good run onto the straight, pulled into and out of his draft, and out-braked him into T1. Now it was Kyles turn to pressure me a bit! I kept my cool a gapped him a couple seconds until I felt something funny on my front left and thought my tire was going down so I tried maintaining the gap...ya, that didn't work, Kyle was back on me in no time. As it had when I made up a lot of time on Kyle, lap traffic was going my way!! I put my nose in at a couple corners and had Kyle stuck behind them. After 2 groups of lap traffic (and my car felt good again), it was all over and I took the checkered flag for the win!

Cliffs: I took home my 1st National victory on Sunday and I had to work my butt off to get it! But I wouldn't want it any other way

Hopefully next time I see Kyle out there both of our cars will be more trouble free and we have another good clean race


Quick video: http://contour.com/video/mmp-east-track-sun-race-start

VetteDrmr

Congrats on your first win! Great writeup, too.

Ever figure out what happened with your left front corner?

Have a good one (seems like this qualifies!),
Mike

L98Terror

Nice job, congrats on the win, that is awesome!!!!!!!!


BTW what course were you guys running?

stano

Congrats! Gotta feel good facing those hurdles and coming out with the win!

Stan

drivinhard

Adam@Amp'dAutosport.com

Congrats What compound were you on?

SIK02SS

Thank you! No idea. I discovered one of those small 7mm body bolts was rubbing the shoulder of my front left tire and I thought maybe I was shredding the tire based on the vibration and feedback in corners, but it was inconsistent. Then all of a sudden I heard and felt a big clunk and it was gone. Looking under the car after I couldn't find anything, and I didn't see anything fly out from under? The track was nasty though, people were dropping wheels everywhere and rocks/debris were all over, so I could have picked up something that just got lodged in there

Thanks Ken! We were on East course...a terrible track imo. I only got out of 3rd gear twice, but only really needed to once.

SIK02SS

Thank you Stan! And Yes it does! I told Kyle and them I was "over" the weekend with everything that had happened and just wanted to have fun coming from the back, guess I had my fun

SIK02SS

XP16/12

Give Mike Jr a big thanks from me please!

Kubs

Good job!! Very cool!

Olitho

Congrats Chris! Good job, running down Kyle Kelly is not an easy task. For those of you who don't know him he is new to T1 and out of SoCal. He is racing a T1 C6 that got wrecked at the Long Beach Grand Prix World Challenge GTS race and is not yet fixed and a 2001 T1 C5 race car. Those two cars are in addition to his two GT1 cars and two NASCAR Nationwide cars he races. You might have seen him recently at the Road America Nationwide race where he got taken out at Turn 6 in a pile-up and. A week ago he fared much better and Watkins Glen.

My point is that Chris ran down a very experienced and fast driver. He should be proud of that.

Who set the track record for the new Miller configuration?


Oli

0Randy@DRM

Congrats

RX7 KLR

Nice work.

I qualified P1 both days for HP... But the Toyota had a hard time keeping the front tires in check with the heat, finished 2nd both days. Had some great racing.

I wish we could have ran the big track, that east loop was just a bit slow for my gearing - and lack of power.

p.s. a little more duct tape on the front and your car will be Oli's twin.

Short-Throw

Congrats, sounds like the adrenaline is still pumping. I started a race dead last earlier this year when my shift rod broke (jumped into a friends T1 BMW) and it was my favorite race this year, although I did not have success like you taking 1st.

Crazy how often the start of a race can really dictate how you finish. Picking up spots on the green is like a get out of jail free card. Nice work!

Curious as to why you were running triple 8s? Using up old tires, budget? Nothing like fresh scrubbed rubber for a race but it hurts the wallet too much!


Mike

WNeal

Congrats

Adam@Amp'dAutosport.com

Everett Ogilvie

Congratulations, and how were the brakes? Must have been pretty good.....?

ghoffman

Congrats on the National win!

SIK02SS

Thank you

Thanks again for the good words Oli!

I'll be calling you soon

I agree, the track sucked!!! I was very disappointed we were running East Course and they triple booked the weekend between us, the motorcycles, and go-karts! I was going to swing by and say hi, but didn't have any time :o And don't worry, after this coming weekend I have lot's of body work, paint, and vinyl in the works so I don't look as much like Oli out there!

Thanks Mike! This is actually the 2nd time I've done this from the back, but 1st time in T-1 (the other was racing an unlimited group with a vintage race club in the vette). It's one of the greatest feelings there is

The 888's was for testing for a big race in October I didn't want to go out and race on them blind with no prior testing/knowledge. And they just happen to fit on my 2002 Camaro for the street (it needed new tires too!)

SIK02SS

I believe I had a pre-existing ABS issue that was never an "issue" with stock brakes, that with the AP's I was going into Ice mode quite often going into turn 1, and it was actually rather scary a couple times bc I was pretty close to the wall.

After a 1 minute fix for mine and others safety on track with me, they worked absolutely flawless and I even had the confidence to out-brake Kyle into Turn 1. Kyle has StopTechs front AND rear, I'm on stocker rears until the AP rears are ready

Thank you Gary! Is this AP's 1st or 2nd win with these?