As unfortunate as SuperCricket’s Big Bend experience was this year....mine was fantastic.

We ran the 125 class last year, but sought more of a challenge. So we added a Diff Cooler, a roll bar, a Corbeau seat and headed for the 140 Class. We ran on Kumho 710s because I was worried I was nearing the performance limit of my car and didn't want to be forced to push it on street tires. This was a good decision, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t really versed in how R-compounds feel.

The south run was a joy...only issues were the strong gusty headwind, autox toe-out, and race tires combined to make the car a bit of a handful at 150+. Otherwise it was just pure fun. The speeds really surprised me. I had to recalibrate my brain to move my turn-in point way earlier, and I had to pay special attention in the braking zones as they were earlier and longer then felt natural. It took some getting used too, but I never felt uncomfortable, and there were zero pucker factor moments.

Diff cooler is a must have for the 140 class, mine worked exceptionally.

The north run was a voyage of agony and ecstasy. Early in the course is beautiful combination… a slow blind right into a short, steep downhill straight with a fast downhill right hander. I wanted to really air the Camaro out here. I saw my line and just let’er rip. The GPS caught the corner of my eye as the speed jumped. 157…160…164...168. *bam* I was hard on the brakes, not wanting to get caught speeding (168 is my tech speed, and two of my competitors got clocked over here, and DQed)

Soon after that heat became a real problem, water temp was WAY HOT. I got off the pace and spent a minute or two diagnosing the problem. With the higher ambient temp, I just couldn’t keep cool at 6000rpm in 5th gear. It was fine at about 120, but not past 140. My last possible solution was to run it up to 140 and try 6th.

Thank god, It was news to me, but the Camaro pulls ever so slowly in 6th gear. This brought the revs down and my temp into line, but speed came at a snail’s pace. My dad (navigator) informs me “you are 130mph average, over a minute behind, 30 miles to go” (thank god it’s the fast end of the course)

Shit…oh well, time to get r done. Kicked it up a couple notches and was determined to maintain speed everywhere possible and really let it run on the straights. I tried to hold 140+ through the fast corners and 130+ through the “slow” ones. …then endured the slow climb to 165.

As the miles counted down, my dad was counting up. “134mph average,” he says. A minute or so later, “137mph, almost there.” With 3 miles to go, He hits his stopwatch “you are right on, hold here to the finish.” (our GPS doesn’t give us a decimal place for avg mph, so once we are close, it’s mostly useless)

Our strategy to finish is my dad counts the stopwatch down from 10, and then it’s my job to hit the lights when he hits zero….Felt like we nailed it, and mostly did. I was a little early: 0.564 ahead of perfect time, for an average speed of 140.026 over the 2 legs. The credit really goes to my father though. He has a much more difficult job then I do and he kept us on track for the entire race.

This remains my favorite event of the year. It’s a perfect combination of extreme speed, precision and teamwork. The fact that I can share my love of motorsports with my father really seals the deal.

I think we’ll try the 145mph class next year, but to do that I definitely need a Trans cooler, an oil cooler and a better radiator….and a speedo that doesn’t end at 155. Otherwise, I think the camaro can do it as she sits in F-stock trim.

I can’t recommend the BBORR enough. It rocks.

pic: making up time at 165 in the final miles...
(IMG:http://www.aww-kittah-aww.com/up/files/41/139small_thumb.jpg)

This post has been edited by FrankFS57: Apr 24 2006, 03:41 PM