2007 NHIS 2

Joe DiMinno Wins at NHIS!!

With team lead Greg Amy in Guatemala on vacation, the gavel passed to Kakashi team ITA drivers Joe DiMinno, Jeff Lawton, and ITS driver Jeremy Billiel. The result? Joe DiMinno chalks up his first pair of ITA wins, in convincing fashion!

#01 - Joe DiMinno

Well since our fearless leader was on vacation somewhere in South America this weekend [well, actually, Central America, but close enough geography for a Pennsylvania boy, I guess...Ed.], I decided that the weekend at NHIS was going to be all about ME. I guess in some ways that came true...

The weekend started out great. I left earlier than planned and headed up to CT to meet up with Jeff, and stopped off at the World headquarters of famous Kesslar Engineering. We grabbed some lunch and waited for Jeff to get ready to leave. The drive up to NHIS was pretty uneventful - we hit some traffic, but still made pretty good time. We got to the track, unloaded, did some final car set up, and waited for Jeremy and his wife, Stephanie, to show up. When they arrived, Jeff and I helped them unload and then it was time to head back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. (Yeah, like that was gonna happen: Jeff and I are the two nuts that get up at retarded times...)

Saturday morning came quickly, and as expected, Jeff and I were up at the crack of dawn just waiting to get to the track. It was a beautiful day - sunny and not too hot - so we figured the track would be fast and we’d be putting up some good lap times. We lined up early in pre-pre-grid just behind Andy Bettencourt (who we think left his car there from the night before). Jeff and I were right at the front for qualifying.

On the warm-up lap I thought I saw my hood coming up on the left side but thought I was just seeing things. When we got up to speed – yep, the hood was coming up. Ah crap, here I go again, starting in the back because of a crappy qually session. I pulled into the pits and asked Andy’s crew guy Steve to check it out. The hood pin had come out of the driver’s side, but the other one was still in, so (in Crazy Joe fashion) I went back out to try and salvage the session. I ran out the rest of the session and the hood - thankfully - stayed down. I ended up qualifying 5^th overall and 4^th in class - just behind Andy on pole, our own Jeff Lawton on outside pole, Richie Hunter third, and then little ol’ me. Not bad! I was very happy with the outcome.

Soon, though, it was race time. We went out for the pace lap which had to have been the slowest ever. I mean, my speedo may not be super accurate, but it was showing 15 mph. It was so slow that the DL-1 never turned itself on (set to auto-start at 35 mph). Anyhow, the pace car pulled off and we all accelerated slightly. The green flew, and immediately I went left and drove around Jeff. By the entry of Turn 3, I was 2^nd overall from 5^th starting spot. Unfortunately, I went into Turn 3 a little hot and got re-passed by both Mark Megliola (in his FP VW) and Richie.

All was good until Turn 9. I followed Hunter in; he got sideways, then I got sideways right behind him. Richie saved it, I corrected and saved it, but over-corrected a little too much. I ended up slapping the turn 10 wall on drivers left right in front of Jeff. Once again (in Crazy Joe fashion) it never even slowed me down. Why should something as little as a ‘wall’ slow me down? I ran a little wide out of Ten and mashed the gas, never even losing the position. Jeff later deemed my new tactic, of keeping people behind me, “Shock and Awe”.

The next few laps were pretty wild. Richie and I swapped positions, it seemed almost every lap, with Tim Klavana (Acura Integra) and Jeff nipping at our heels. On Lap 7, I was leading coming out of the bowl, and saw Andy had slowed; we found out later he grabbed a box full o’ neutrals. As I passed by, I thought to myself “Holy crap, I’ve got the lead!” A few laps later, I drove down into the bowl with Richie close behind. As I exited, I glanced in the rear view to see that he and Timmy made slight contact, which got Richie sideways. This was my chance to open up a lead. My next thought was “Don’t be stupid you a@#hole; drive your own race.” The next 10 or so laps felt like an eternity! It seemed like the checkered flag would never come out. Finally, with no drama and my not being stupid, I came out of Eleven and saw it waving . I DID IT! I finally won my first ITA race. What a cool feeling ...

Sunday continued my good luck for the weekend (remember, it was all about ME). We qualified in the dry with my grabbing 5^th on the grid with Andy on pole, Richie 2^nd, Timmy 3^rd, Geoff B 4^th and Jeff L, just behind me in 6^th.

As we were waiting between qualifying and race time, it was starting to get cloudy with the occasional rain shower. When I saw the weather turning to my favor, I curried favor with the Rain Gods by doing my official “raindance” (Matt K. has it on video, but I am not sure that anyone will ever see it.) In the hours before race time, we contemplated what the track conditions would be for the race: it went from sunny to rainy and back to sunny and all variations in between right up until it was time to grid. At 10 minutes before grid, it started to rain hard enough to require going to rain set-up. And that is how the entire race would turn out to be. WET!

The green flag flew! I started 5^th on grid, got a good jump and by Turn 1 I was in 2^nd behind Timmy, who started 3^rd on grid. We had just swamped Andy on the start! For the next few laps or so, I just patiently followed Timmy, waiting for him to make a mistake. That mistake came at one point while going into Turn 3: Timmy braked a little late and went wide, and I snuck in on the inside. From that point, now that I was in the lead, it was MY race to win or lose.

I reverted back to my HPDE days and just drove “clean, smart and smooth” for the rest of the race. Not much drama except for a ‘slight altercation’ with a lapped car on the last lap. No contact, but I ended up a little off-line and jumped a curb going into turn 9. Who worries about curbs? [Not Crazy Joe, that's for sure! - Ed.] Two more turns and I had the win. Clean, smart and smooth. Focused on the finish. And it was there: I had won again!

Even though our fearless leader was away in a foreign country, I feel I represented Kakashi Racing with the highest of standards and excellence by posting back to back wins for the team. Note that team includes the letters “ME”! It’s all about ME! "Ta ta" for now...

Joe

#34 - Jeff Lawton

Saturday Qualifying

I seemed like it was going to be a great morning, not too hot, sunny skies and the car was running well. Got out on the track and things felt great. I was convinced that I had finally made it into the 1:15s!! I had one little off-track excursion coming out of 6 but I still felt good about the session. The only problem was the car was running hot. I kept having to turn on the heater and fan to keep the temps down.

Came in and looked at the DL-1 data……….A 1:17!!! Man, do I suck!! Fortunately, it seems the track was very greasy and everyone (but Andy) did worse than me!! I ended up 2^nd on the grid but a full two seconds behind Andy!! But with Richie, Joe, Tim, Geoff and Victor all within a few tenths it was going to be interesting.

Saturday Race

On the warm up lap for the race, the pace car was CRAWLING!! I heard someone say it was doing 35 mph. I actually had to go into 1^st to keep the RPMs up. Mark Megliola, the lone FP car (who had the overall pole) picked up the speed when the pace car pulled off and I managed to get in the sweet spot (or so I thought) in second gear just as the green dropped. But, Joe went around me on the inside like I was standing still, Richie got me on the outside going into Turn 1 and Tim was right on my tail. We were still in a tight group coming out of 3, but Andy and Mark pulled a small gap and at some point Richie got by Joe. Going into 9, someone must have dumped fluid because Richie and Joe had the tails hanging out (and I’m thinking to myself “they’re both going off and I’ll get by them!”) They both make spectacular saves and headed down the chute towards 10. But Joe wasn’t done correcting from his near spin, over-correcting right into the wall!!! HARD!!! I back off thinking he’s going to bounce back right in front of me!! (I’m again thinking, “Joe’s done, I’m going to get by him!!”) But no, Joe takes off like nothing happened!! And was amazed when Joe went into Turn One the next time with his usual abandon...

At this point, Andy has pulled away, and it’s Richie in second, then Joe, then me and Timmy. My car was running VERY hot and I had to keep the heater and fan on... Whenever I was coming on to the front straight, I would turn it all off, hoping it would help me with a little extra power (I doubt it, but any little bit helps!!). A few laps later Tim gets enough of a run and takes me on the inside of One. Joe, Richie and Tim proceed to swap positions several times... Then I see Andy slowing and we all go by him, and the next lap he’s parked just off of Turn 9!!!! Holy crap, we’re fighting for first now!!! Multiple times I saw Richie and Joe with the tail hanging out or going off on the outside and thinking, “this is it, they’re going to lose it and I’m going to get by!!” To my amazement they kept pulling off the miracle saves!!

Richie and Tim battling let Joe pull out a small gap for the lead. On the last lap I was working Tim and Richie very hard and Tim over cooked it into Three and I managed to duck inside him for third place. We all finished within 3.8 seconds of each other. As Joe was taking his well deserved victory lap, Richie and I were slapping each other on the back and saying what a great race it was!! They rolled me across the scales but I didn’t have to worry because the car had always been 50 lbs overweight...or so I thought. They rolled the car off and back on again...oh crap, this can’t be good. We turned the car around and tried it again. Then they had me roll it out to the impound area. Wow, I dodged that bullet!! After a few minutes, Laurie Shepard came up and gave me the bad news: I was TWO pounds light!!! And they bounced me back to last place!! I was a little disappointed (OK, I felt sick to my stomach after, I was really disappointed!!) But as I got thinking about it, I felt better and better about it. I didn’t lose out on any prize money, I’m not in the hunt for the championship, the only thing I lost out on was an engraved mug!! And I got to be in the mix of arguably not only the best race of the weekend, but one of the best of the season. And, Joe got his first ITA win, a win that will forever enhance the Crazy Joe mystique!! So it’s hard to be upset about that!! Plus I drove a mistake-free race. Every time I was passed, it was due to a great move by the other driver.

That night, we must have had half the ITA field (plus many others that heard the laughing and stopped by) come to our garage to watch my video of Joe hitting the wall and then driving to victory!! And we watched it over and over and over. Believe it or not, I had to keep nagging Joe the next day to check his alignment after hitting the wall. He said, “It felt fine, why should I check it?”. Crazy Joe...

Sunday Qualifying and Race

Sunday was warm and partly cloudy for qualifying with the chicane/chicane configuration on the track. I truly sucked this time. I tried to dial in a little more over steer and it seemed to make it worse. My guess is I was over driving the car and the results showed it. Ended up qualifying 6^th, behind Joe, Geoff, Tim, Richie and Andy. Then the weather got iffy... It would rain, then stop for a long time, rain, no rain. We could see on my Treo (on a ½” x ½” radar map on weather.com) that a big red blob was headed our way...or was it??? With what I though was about 7 minutes to go before our race, it was sprinkling so I disconnected my rear sway bar but decided to stay on slicks. Joe had made the decision to go on rains. I pulled onto grid...just as the skies opened up. I quickly went back to the garage where Jeremy and Matt helped me put on the rains, went back to grid and proceeded to sit for another 10 minutes...getting soaked!! Matt and Jeremy came out and adjusted my shocks on the grid. Unfortunately the engine got very wet in the 30 seconds Matt had the hood open. Every time I tried to turn the fan on, the engine would die. It kept crackling and popping when ever I lifted and wouldn’t idle...but it kept running!!

They took us on two pace laps so we could see where the standing water was on the track. Unfortunately, because of the starting from NASCAR 3 and 4, we missed seeing the three biggest “lakes”!!

I managed to get a great start, got by Geoff Branscombe and got beside Richie going into One but tucked behind him to go through the South Chicane. As we went into Turn Three, I must have locked up the front tires and thought I had missed the down shift and it took me a few tries to realize I did have it in gear. Rob Breault managed not to run into the back of me but that allowed Joe, Andy, Tim and Richie to get away from me. As I came down the chute into Ten, I could see some huge splashes as the leaders hit the first big puddle. I hit it and realized I had no control and was just along for the ride!! Fortunately I got some grip just before going off the track. I then look up and see the leaders again splashing in the braking zone for 12. The one that really caught me off guard was the transition onto the main straight: THAT was scary because it was shooting the cars off towards the outside wall!! Glad I had the rains on!!

I was all by myself for most of the first half of the race. I picked a leisurely pace, not making any mistakes knowing that I couldn’t catch the lead pack and not seeing anyone gaining on me...Then I got the sound board!! Crap!! I now had to tip toe past sound control which is right where the big puddle coming out of 10 was. So not only couldn’t I get on the power to get through the puddle, I had to keep it under 5000 RPMs all the way until the braking for 12!!

With few laps to go, I started to reel in Richie (who was taking his usual line through the grass, dirt and over curbs!) On the last lap, I got a run on him down into Three and managed to get inside him. But as I started to turn in, Richie went straight!! When I looked in my mirror, I could see him up on the tires right in front of the stands!! Uh oh, that didn’t look good!! But believe it or not, he managed to drive the car back to the paddock after the race and after they pulled him down off the tires with a wrecker. I finished the race in fourth (with another great win by Joe!)

As a nice addition to the team, we had Jeremy’s wife join us for the weekend! She fit right in and didn’t seem fazed in the least by Jeremy’s death defying incidents!! Hmmmm, thank God for good life insurance policies!!

some quotes of the weekend:

- Joe “it’s all about” DiMEno (a take off on the, Greg “it’s all about” aME)

- “We spooned, we watched Steel Magnolias, I cried”.

- “I’ve never seen Richie that mad before!!”

Results

http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=508551&highlight=2

Video

Video from Jeff Lawton's car, of Joe DiMinno illustrating the concept of "never give up!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2ZkVQs-TYo

Joe Diminno

Day 1

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/v/opfXaZZyOcs