GreenGSX
DSM Wiseman
- 371
- 5
- May 13, 2002
-
Rochester,
New York
Today’s Talladega event is sponsored my Mitsumedia.com.
Yesterday I was disappointed in my performance in the autocross. It’s supposed to be my specialty and the best I could muster was 14th overall. Mike and Steve got together and decided to let me run Talladega so I could test the car out with the new control arms and get some more seat time before Sebring. It wasn’t my turn to drive so I know what a cool gesture those two guys had just made and I was thankful they were with me on this adventure.
We were rained out of the RIM and it looks like Talladega wasn’t going to be any different. But as we neared the track the clouds parted and sun shined on us. The track was still we but it had grip. Talladega is really a motorcycle course and slightly below average in length and technical difficulty. Top speeds on the track are just a touch over 100mph. We are in the third run group because of the great performance Mike had Autobahn. As I lined up the grid marshal came by the car and said that the ZO6 driver in the 15th starting spot wanted to switch places with me. I guess in the wet he knew the AWD One Lap VR4 was going to come out swinging.
The first lap you take is a recon lap and you come to stop at the start finish line afterwards to prepare for the start of your timing runs. It’s a standing start and the total time for three laps is your score. I walked the course before I started and it looked easy to drive but hard to drive fast and given the wet conditions it would take some balls to attack it.
In front of me was one of those fancy pants BMW M6’s dressed in a full car vinyl wrap job and behind me was the Vette. The flag man gets the M6 started and he takes off and disappears around the first turn. I move up to the line and get her on the stutter box and wait for my turn. I drop the hammer, bog the launch, and then take off. The first turn I attack and I have grip. I hug the line around the corner and take off for the next. Hit that with a late apex and then lift the throttle to rotate the car to finish the turn. All the while the car is bucking and sputtering from the MAF getting wet again. I don’t have full power for the next couple of turns but I do my best to peddle it as fast as I can. After each turn the car is sounding better and better as I suspect the MAF is drying out. On the back strait I look down to check the gauges and I only have 21psi of boost but its not knocking. As I set up for the turn I can see that I’ve caught the M6 before the end of my first lap.
Seeing him in front of me only makes me push harder and I suspect that seeing me in his rear view mirror gets him to scoot as well because he’s starting to lay the hammer down. Still with every turn I get closer and the idea of lapping a car this high in the pecking order is to tempting to miss. On the back strait we are only four or five cars apart and I am charging fast. A bit to fast as I locked up all four and started sliding for the grass. I lifted off the gas and the car turned but it was to late and I gave it up and went off. I kept it under control and got past the track out point to try to get back on track. I looked right at the corner worker and waited for the signal to get back on. Nothing…waited some more, nothing. WTF…give me the signal….give me the mother f’ing signal…come on..finally with a little girl wave he gets me back on as I head out I see the pit corner worker and he gives me the signal to pit. I pit in and as I do he comes over to me and says “why didn’t you stay out and finish your runs?†to which I say “because you waved me inâ€. He didn’t have much to say after that and although I was pissed I took the car back to the pits knowing that I had just cost the team a top ten finish.
As much as I would have liked to put the blame on somebody else and as much as I would have wanted a clean signal from the flagger the truth of the matter is I am 100 percent responsible. I over drove the course and went off and I miss-understood the rules and signals of the corner workers. That won’t happen again.
I put the car back in the pits and climbed out ready for a self pity party for what I had done but Rene, a 6’3†chain smoking, ball busting, Austrian, we call the Swede wasn’t going to let that happen. He brought over a little “girly†blanket he had bought at Wal-Mart and presented it as a cape to celebrate my little off road adventure. As he tied the cape around my neck I just smilled and raised my arms in victory. Victory because I was doing what I dreamed of doing and living life the way it should be and as I stood there arms reaching for the sky smiling from ear to ear …Rene wacked me square in the balls….a little dose of reality. After recovering I turned the cape into a skirt which I called Nancy pants and wore them for the rest of the afternoon. If I can put a car in the weeds I can wear a skirt. Plus, this is Cannonball and if its not fun you aren’t doing it right.
The skies before lunchtime turned black and it rained hard for the next couple of hours. I used that time to relax, talk to the GVR4 and NABR guys who stopped out, and to just enjoy the moment. In less then a week this will be over and nothing but memories. In less then a week I’ll be back to work and a husband and a Father.
About 20 minutes before my afternoon session the skies cleared and the rain stopped. Almost as if it was all planned just for me. Steve helped me get ready for the session and he is always a calming force for me. He has big goofy grin he throws on that just seems to take the edge of the situation. I tell him that I’m not going to attack the course like I did earlier and he understood. He said just have fun.
The grid marshal came up to the car and said that they moved me to the front of my run group which means that I am the fastest in that group. It also means that after the recon lap I get to be first off. This time I held the stutter box until I got 5psi of boost and then eased the clutch out ripping all four and then banging second as I rocketed off to turn one. My bravado was gone for this session and I braked early and turned in smoothly. The fronts locked up a touch and she pushed a bit on entry. The course was not as grippy as the morning but it still had grip. I worked at being smooth as there was no way I was going off again. I felt fast but I knew I wasn’t nearly as fast as I wanted to be and I could see a white M5 gaining ground on me in the first two laps. I kept my pace and worked my lines and he could advance no more. Later Steve said he was attacking early on but couldn’t hold that pace.
Mike timed my runs and I did a 1:14 and a 1:15 which were not great but not bad either. Steve said that during the early morning session a member of another team clocked me in at 1:07 which put me right with the top run group. The results won’t be posted for a while but I know the first session was a DNF.
One of the good things about having a sense of humor about yourself is that its infectious. We had a blast today and the mood in the pits was awesome. MotorTrend got wind of what was going on and they came over and did a video interview of me. They wanted me to talk about going off course and they got some footage of the Nancy pants and the grass/mud crusted One Lap VR4.
We are headed right now down to Sebring. It’s a grueling 600 mile trek from Alabama to the South of Florida. We expect to hit the Hotel by midnight.
Yesterday I was disappointed in my performance in the autocross. It’s supposed to be my specialty and the best I could muster was 14th overall. Mike and Steve got together and decided to let me run Talladega so I could test the car out with the new control arms and get some more seat time before Sebring. It wasn’t my turn to drive so I know what a cool gesture those two guys had just made and I was thankful they were with me on this adventure.
We were rained out of the RIM and it looks like Talladega wasn’t going to be any different. But as we neared the track the clouds parted and sun shined on us. The track was still we but it had grip. Talladega is really a motorcycle course and slightly below average in length and technical difficulty. Top speeds on the track are just a touch over 100mph. We are in the third run group because of the great performance Mike had Autobahn. As I lined up the grid marshal came by the car and said that the ZO6 driver in the 15th starting spot wanted to switch places with me. I guess in the wet he knew the AWD One Lap VR4 was going to come out swinging.
The first lap you take is a recon lap and you come to stop at the start finish line afterwards to prepare for the start of your timing runs. It’s a standing start and the total time for three laps is your score. I walked the course before I started and it looked easy to drive but hard to drive fast and given the wet conditions it would take some balls to attack it.
In front of me was one of those fancy pants BMW M6’s dressed in a full car vinyl wrap job and behind me was the Vette. The flag man gets the M6 started and he takes off and disappears around the first turn. I move up to the line and get her on the stutter box and wait for my turn. I drop the hammer, bog the launch, and then take off. The first turn I attack and I have grip. I hug the line around the corner and take off for the next. Hit that with a late apex and then lift the throttle to rotate the car to finish the turn. All the while the car is bucking and sputtering from the MAF getting wet again. I don’t have full power for the next couple of turns but I do my best to peddle it as fast as I can. After each turn the car is sounding better and better as I suspect the MAF is drying out. On the back strait I look down to check the gauges and I only have 21psi of boost but its not knocking. As I set up for the turn I can see that I’ve caught the M6 before the end of my first lap.
Seeing him in front of me only makes me push harder and I suspect that seeing me in his rear view mirror gets him to scoot as well because he’s starting to lay the hammer down. Still with every turn I get closer and the idea of lapping a car this high in the pecking order is to tempting to miss. On the back strait we are only four or five cars apart and I am charging fast. A bit to fast as I locked up all four and started sliding for the grass. I lifted off the gas and the car turned but it was to late and I gave it up and went off. I kept it under control and got past the track out point to try to get back on track. I looked right at the corner worker and waited for the signal to get back on. Nothing…waited some more, nothing. WTF…give me the signal….give me the mother f’ing signal…come on..finally with a little girl wave he gets me back on as I head out I see the pit corner worker and he gives me the signal to pit. I pit in and as I do he comes over to me and says “why didn’t you stay out and finish your runs?†to which I say “because you waved me inâ€. He didn’t have much to say after that and although I was pissed I took the car back to the pits knowing that I had just cost the team a top ten finish.
As much as I would have liked to put the blame on somebody else and as much as I would have wanted a clean signal from the flagger the truth of the matter is I am 100 percent responsible. I over drove the course and went off and I miss-understood the rules and signals of the corner workers. That won’t happen again.
I put the car back in the pits and climbed out ready for a self pity party for what I had done but Rene, a 6’3†chain smoking, ball busting, Austrian, we call the Swede wasn’t going to let that happen. He brought over a little “girly†blanket he had bought at Wal-Mart and presented it as a cape to celebrate my little off road adventure. As he tied the cape around my neck I just smilled and raised my arms in victory. Victory because I was doing what I dreamed of doing and living life the way it should be and as I stood there arms reaching for the sky smiling from ear to ear …Rene wacked me square in the balls….a little dose of reality. After recovering I turned the cape into a skirt which I called Nancy pants and wore them for the rest of the afternoon. If I can put a car in the weeds I can wear a skirt. Plus, this is Cannonball and if its not fun you aren’t doing it right.
The skies before lunchtime turned black and it rained hard for the next couple of hours. I used that time to relax, talk to the GVR4 and NABR guys who stopped out, and to just enjoy the moment. In less then a week this will be over and nothing but memories. In less then a week I’ll be back to work and a husband and a Father.
About 20 minutes before my afternoon session the skies cleared and the rain stopped. Almost as if it was all planned just for me. Steve helped me get ready for the session and he is always a calming force for me. He has big goofy grin he throws on that just seems to take the edge of the situation. I tell him that I’m not going to attack the course like I did earlier and he understood. He said just have fun.
The grid marshal came up to the car and said that they moved me to the front of my run group which means that I am the fastest in that group. It also means that after the recon lap I get to be first off. This time I held the stutter box until I got 5psi of boost and then eased the clutch out ripping all four and then banging second as I rocketed off to turn one. My bravado was gone for this session and I braked early and turned in smoothly. The fronts locked up a touch and she pushed a bit on entry. The course was not as grippy as the morning but it still had grip. I worked at being smooth as there was no way I was going off again. I felt fast but I knew I wasn’t nearly as fast as I wanted to be and I could see a white M5 gaining ground on me in the first two laps. I kept my pace and worked my lines and he could advance no more. Later Steve said he was attacking early on but couldn’t hold that pace.
Mike timed my runs and I did a 1:14 and a 1:15 which were not great but not bad either. Steve said that during the early morning session a member of another team clocked me in at 1:07 which put me right with the top run group. The results won’t be posted for a while but I know the first session was a DNF.
One of the good things about having a sense of humor about yourself is that its infectious. We had a blast today and the mood in the pits was awesome. MotorTrend got wind of what was going on and they came over and did a video interview of me. They wanted me to talk about going off course and they got some footage of the Nancy pants and the grass/mud crusted One Lap VR4.
We are headed right now down to Sebring. It’s a grueling 600 mile trek from Alabama to the South of Florida. We expect to hit the Hotel by midnight.
