Kakashi Racing Sneaks into NHIS, and...
DRATS! Our dastardly subterfuge was foiled yet again!
Richie Hunter and I had been talking about getting me in his car for a while: he, to get some setup and tuning advice; me, to see what I think of the car. We agreed to our ruse at LRP the week before: he was going to race Saturday, and I was to show up Sunday morning to run that day. We even had Terry Roberts in cahoots with us, working to keep my name completely out of the picture until the regs required it.
So, after we finished up at the pro event at LRP Saturday afternoon Matt Kessler, Joe DiMinno, and I jumped into the rental car of Lee Grimes (Koni Motorsports manager, a close friend of mine) and headed out to NHIS, stopping by the Concord NH Wal-Mart SuperCenter at midnight-thirty to buy 75 pounds of free weights so Richie's car wouldn't be underweight again (much to the amusement of a handful of residents of Concord, NH who, for whatever reason, chose to do their grocery shopping on a Saturday night at midnight-thirty at their local Wal-Mart SuperCenter...)
The plot was for me to show up at the track, install the data aq equipment (and weights), and then hide until the first session; jump into the car all dressed but "late to grid", thus being forced to start at the back of the pack for the qualifying race; work my way up as far as reasonably and safely possible while getting used to the car; and then drink in all the surprised expressions in the post-race impound. Hell, I think Crazy Joe even bought a new digital camera just for the occasion! To make matters even more interesting, Richie got DQ'd Saturday for being underweight (9 pounds - for some reason he thought his minimum weight was supposed to be 2580 instead of 2595) so everyone knew he would have to "start at the back of the pack" on Sunday any way.
The plan was really looking to come together well!
Unfortunately, "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley". Our ploy worked exceedingly well right up to the middle of the second lap. I had managed to avoid being spotted by anyone (except for Victor Gangi and shortly afterwards Rob's Dad during an 'emergency' trip to the infield restroom), and we were able to get me reasonably comfortable in the strange-to-me car with judicious use of seat padding and "driver adjustment in the lower harness area", if-you-know-what-I-mean. I got a nice start and found the car surprisingly easy to drive at the 9/10s I was doing with it.
But, coming down the hill through T9 and turning into T10 using my regular turn-in points I found myself 1-1/2 to 2 feet closer into the T10 apex than I'm used to with the egg. I drove the right-front corner of the Integra right into that sharp apex berm and bottomed out the suspension corner fairly dramatically. I thought at first I had damaged a wheel and/or tire, but the attitude of the car going down the straights - and the smoke from the right front corner in the T1/T2 oval - told us it was something a bit more than that. I brought it in after one more lap.
We were quite surprised to find I had literally shattered the damper: it had bottomed and the end cap was driven into the body of that lightweight ADS aluminum part (maybe 1/16" wall?) and split it back. Unfortunately, the replacement shock that Richie had on-hand was not correct for his car, so we were done for the day.
Hey, I can at least tell you with mucho confidencioso that the car turns in REALLY nicely... ;)
There are a lot of little amusing details of the weekend that Crazy Joe could help out with, but while it was disappointing and tiring, it was also a fun adventure and we learned a lot in just three simple laps. Hey, at least it's better than sitting around in the backyard drinking beer and swimming in the pool...right...?
We will be trying again some day soon, as we both have goals for this project we'd like to meet. Except now, since I'm buying the repairs, we're bringing it to my buddy Matt Kessler for installation and prep work...be scared, be very scared... ;)
But still: DRAT! Drat, drat, drat, drat!
Greg
P.S. All was not lost, though: We saw Andy and Steve later in the morning, and Steve related how after the qualifying results were posted they actually went to T&S to get "Richie's" name corrected, only to find I was a late entry in Richie's car. Oh, to be a fly on the wall... ;) Andy's expression was priceless, kinda a combination of confusion, amusement, and maybe even a touch of dread and fear... ;)
Results
http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=508551&highlight=2
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11576
Video
In-Car Video from Joe Diminno’s in-car:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEWKshx-TcI
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlxiX_m1VBw
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fdI_4VXBfU
In-Car Video from Greg's car (yaaaawn....): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=853923697791917490&hl=en