You going to make it to the B100 this year? Should be BIG FUN this time around. Jeff and I are looking to make up for not even getting to the start line last weekend at the NORC.

and for anyone that might be on the fence about doing an ORR event this is a good one to hit. Great host hotel and the start line is only 2 miles away. Lots of fast cars and good people.

Hey Boyce,

What happened at NORC?

As far as the B100, probably not. I just dropped a bundle on the car upgrading the suspension and I have committed to several more events.

Nashville Speedway in July with the other FRRAX diehards

SORC in August

RRORR in October

Just to put it in perspective, fuel costs to Northern NV and back would be $1500 give or take a C.

Our tow rig blew the coolant crossover line in the McDonalds parking lot on the way to the start line sunday morning. No way to get to the start line so no racey for us. We managed a ride to the start line to watch the big dogs run but no dice for us. Its better to be stuck in Ely with options than out in the desert with no options.

Richard Hille lost a oil line 5 miles in and if we would have run, we would have been the fastest car on the course, hands down. Glad we have a friend in Ely because we had to put a band aid on the tow rig and leave the race car and trailer in Ely. It wouldnt have made it home hauling the race car.

Probably running 160 or 170 at the B100.

Boyce,

You shoulda rolled that bad bitch out of the trailer at McD's, changed the tires and driven it to the start.

Speaking of the Bonneville 100, you Left Coasters should really check it out......

A haul ass course that is not too technical, it really gives you the chance to stretch out your beast. It is a typical well run MKM event and I don't think you will be disappointed.


Here is our highlight vid from 2006 --it is "R" rated for language so use caution at work, it has direct Ricky Bobby quotes, loud cars and scintillating in car dialog. What else do you need?

B100 2006

I threw that idea on the table and said I could put a 5 gallon jug of race gas in my lap. But since its 50 miles to the start line from Ely and cops are out and about on race day it wasnt a good idea to put the corvette on the road. Even if we made it to the start line and finished the race, its 150 miles back to Ely and there is no race gas at the truck stop. I tried to think of anything to get us to the line. But better judgement prevailed and we watched everyone else have fun.

Watched your video and laughed my ass off about "Olive Oil". Jane Barker DOES look like her!

Thanks for posting the video Andy. I'll be bringing another f-body to the B100. (red 2000 TA with a s/c'd 402) I'll be in the GT2 class so your video is very useful for us. And now I don't have to go over to Boyce's house to watch his. See you there....

Mark

Boyce,

That was my son Michael driving and cutting up. He is Security Force, Tech Sgt., at Keesler AFB right now. One of my nightmares is driving all the way to one of these events and having the car go down. I lost an Opti in RROR last year, got a new one air freighted in and managed a 1st in 145. Was it worth all that expense and hassle? Probably not. But if you put a pencil to this, it doesn't make sense anyway.

I hate to miss the B100 but now that Gamblers is a go, I am sorely tempted. I really want to run that course.

you all be safe!

[edit] Kevin, the board changes [you all] to "you all" . That is Yankee talk dude. Wait, you are a Yankee! [/edit]

Frick! It changes it regardless of how I bracket it. Here is a bit of trivia. Vicksburg,MS does not celebrate July 4th. That is the day they surrendered to the Union forces that had laid siege to the city for months.

Mark,

Good to see you here at F Body Nirvana. LS1Tech is cool and all but there is too much noise. I think I have more video posted on the website in my sig. I will not be at B100 but if you need *anything* just let me know. I don't give Boyce enough credit for recruiting new folks into ORR. Good to see you are gonna give it a shot and I will guarantee you the experience is going to be unique!

Too bad you won't be at Bonneville Andy. My nav (Ellis) was looking forward to meeting you & seeing your car. He's quite the LT1 guru. We will probably make it to more of these events, but the B 100 looks like a good one to get our feet wet with.

If we like it we're talking about building a dedicated car for this, since both of our cars are drag race oriented. Ellis has most of an 18* motor sitting in his garage that would work well for road racing. Thought about snagging an old cup car to drop it into. We'll see what we think after this one.....

Mark

The fun really starts at 130mph +. Are you going to any events besides the B100? There should be some good ORR advice in some older threads here.

Maybe we can work around it with "yawl" to cover for "you all".....

We are gonna have to make do looks like John. Kevin is ignoring us.

Whats wrong with ya'all?

Definitely make a Gamblers Run some day - great road. Just for y'alls amusement, here's some pics and my race report from the June 2000 GR - this is the event where we started calling the car Aeromaro:




Crest a rise and catch a wisp of something moving fast way ahead, over the next rise I see it clearly, yessss.. it's that Porsche, about 1/2 mile ahead.. but I'm getting ahead of myself here. ;-)

Joe and I have been working 4-6hrs/nite for a couple weeks on the airdam, most of which is spent cutting and ducting theradiator air intake thru the bumper. I wrapped up the dam, a 5" swath of 6061 with 5" of rubber, Thurs AM as the birds woke up, grabbed a few winks, packed and headed for Elko along with the rest of the residents of NoCal, met up with the Gervais caravan at Donner Summit, picked up Nick at the Reno airport and cruised to Elko.

Fri AM had us under the car installing the dam and race muffler, getting thru reg and tech and out to the practice course about 1pm. Swap to the race tires and blast down the practice road to find the car jumping all over the place. Comparing notes with others, the ridges in the road are the likely culprit, but I'm concerned that the airdam on the front (absolutely no other chassis or suspension changes since the stable ride in May on NV318) has upset the aerodynamic balance of the car. A couple more passes on the practice road at 155mph and i'm sure of it - front tire pressure rise is 4psi more than rear, and front tire temp is a full +25 degrees over the rear (this SmartTire gizmo is great - $210 and highly recommended). I got too much front downforce... cut the airdam or add rear downforce are the choices, and since the oil/water temps are high too, I decide adding rear downforce is my best option. Did the final bedding of the Carbotech SS-F pads I put on before leaving home - the Panthers had not lasted long and the SS-F are working well for street/ax on the C5, so figured they'd be fine for the Camaro for street/ORR. Well, fine for street, but the first time I finished the return practice pass, I passed the red flags about 130mph, crested a rise, and had to really stand on the brakes to get it stopped, downhill, before the lineup of cars waiting to do another lap. Jonathan Gervais was watching me as I finished that run, said the front rotors were glowing red, and this was in full desert midday sunlight. Gonna get some more Panthers for the next race, easy to change on the Baer/PBR calipers.

Sat 8AM we are on the lift at the local Dodge dealer, the owner of which has gratiously opened his service bays to us racers. At least 7 of his lifts had race cars on at one time. Nick, Joe and I did a oil, plug, tranny mount change, added about 1/32" toe in to calm the front end, and then headed to the local builders emporium for some sheet aluminum and foam. Nick and I cut up some carboard baffles to finish the side ducting on the rad air inlet area, foamed the heck out of the interior space behind the baffles, pulled the rear spoiler off the deck lid and retired to the hotel room with al sheet, snips, drill and
pop rivets. Joe joined us after the drivers meeting and we complete a rear winglet, ala NASCAR, 4" high kickup and bolt it back onto the decklid about midnite.

Sun AM I am up at 6, doing the usual prerace checks, and find that my dipstick has a slight bend in the end, and depending on how it's inserted, will read 1.5 qts different! And yup, I had 1.5 qts too much oil in it, and yup, we all know how the LT1 runs hot when overfilled... drained the extra oil (lucky it was cold) and swapped race tires and Joe added a 1" lip on the top of the rad air inlet, and we are off to the grid.

Start is delayed cause a course worker on the way to her gate hit a deer, finally get off about 10AM into a mild headwind. The first couple miles of the NB leg is twisty, downhill, posted 45mph, I have the whole road and Hoosiers, so go about 110 and feel conservative. The fella gridded behind me didn't, got his new Vortech Mustang Cobra airborne and wadded it, stopping the starts behind me. I was oblivious to this, cause my car was rock stable ;-). NV225 is a deceptively fast road, ups and downs concealing rather long straights and shallow sweepers. The key is knowing which blind rises go straight and which turn. I lift about 8-10 times in the 50 miles NB, top out at 177 indicated, and finish the north end curves much more aggressively, do 158.231mph avg.

Oil temp rises very gradually to 290, water 204, so the fixes definitely worked, never had to lift or up shift to control temp. Tire pressure and temps are extremely balanced front to rear, and the car was stable, but down 5-10mph on top, so I cut about 3/4" off the rear winglet and take a nap during the break.

After some further delays, the return leg is started about 3pm - I run thru 1st, 2nd, go for 3rd, and nothing but revs.. sh!t!, crash around a bit, find 5th, then 4th, then 5th again and leave it there. Whew! the tranny was scheduled for a rebuild immediately after the race, all it had to do now was stay in 5th for 50 miles. There is a strong crosswind, but no slow section, and good pavement and I'm pumped - every time I lifted on the NB leg I had lots of margin on exit, so I told myself no lift, no lift, no lift, except for the obvious 5 or 6 150-160 mph sweepers. I'm blasting along, and hey, did I mention that Porsche? Lots of up/downhill thru road cuts here, as I gain ground on the Porsche I use it as a turn marker as it crests the rises, gain steadly to about 30 miles in, we're approaching Tuscarora Junction, where there is a spectator area and radar trap. I close to within 50yds of the Porsche and catch its draft, slingshot past at close to 180mph, right at the junction and bend into a shallow left kink without lifting. Yeehaw! Only one more lift at the stonehouse, otherwise flat out for the last 20 miles, up and down hills, thru shallow turns to the finish. Air temp had risen +15 since the first leg, and so did oil/water, but took till mid course to peak, and cooled very rapidly at idle after the finish. Topped out at an indicated 182mph SB, and officially 165.250mph avg, for an official combined avg speed of 161.303mph, 4th fastest Unlimited. No trophy for me, but a personal best, fastest solo car, fastest non trailered car. My SB leg was only 11mph slower than Doria's, and he has 30mph topend on me, so I'm on the right track with the chassis, just need a 200mph motor to be a contender.

The car made the 600mi drive home without 1/3/R, and 5th was tough to find, it is happily parked waiting for T-56 surgery, long tubes, a clutch, side skirts, MSD, LT1Edit tweaking, more trimming of the winglet, 3.08 rear and a few more cage reinforcements, then Pony Express and Silver State races on back to back weekends in Sept. Goal is 175mph avg at both.

Huge thanks to Joe and Nick for the untiring support, we got a winning team, guys! Just gotta finish building the winning car.

Regards,
Alan

Good stuff Alan -- I love those blasts from the past!

You guys keep telling me that....I guess I'll find out soon enough. I've only had my car going 140+ a couple times. Once rolling thru a sweeper for Boyce's video, and once passing Dave Lomas' Porsche just before we went thru a radar trap on I 80.

But it's had a few mods added since that time. Most noteably 250rwhp, a bunch of safety gear & a killer front end alignment. So I am really looking forward to letting her do some breathing next week. I think the 100* heat will be the big question for the car.

But to answer your question, this will probably be the only open road race we go to this year. Ellis & I are both officers for the local Car Club Challenge and we have drag races every other weekend that we are supposed to support. Plus I work on the new airplane program at Boeing so I'm putting in a fair amount of OT for the next few months.

This year they finally brought the Gamblers run back on the schedule after a couple year hiatus. I am really looking forward to that event. Its the only road I havent run on.

Mark,

We ran 140 class I think last year at B100 and put in a full day of practice. It was 104 on race day and even at that altitude the car (LT1 car) did fine. I made sure my air dam was in good shape, the passages to the radiator were all sealed and the radiator was clear of debris.

For driver comfort, some of those cold therapy throw away packs work wonders. The are about 10"x6" and you pop 'em and stuff 'em down the front of your suit. Inching up to the start line is MURDER- esp if there is a delay.

I was taking another look at my "fan shroud" yesterday. It has some openings at the top that I'm thinking might be sucking in hot engine air. Maybe I should block them off after all. And I'm starting to worry about you guys & all this talk about those cold packs.

Mark,

I sealed the entire airway with duct tape. Every molecule needs to go through the radiator.

The rectangular openings on the back of the shroud are there to allow air to be forced thru, presumably at high speed, after the fans have shut off. The early 4th gens had a rubber flap on them that would close at low speeds when the fans were pulling air off the back of the radiator. I don't think I've seen a flap for years, tho so either they fall off or GM quit putting them on. I mount the PS cooler in the lower opening.

I reworked the top of the shroud so now it sits tight on the radiator. It made about a 15* dif driving around town in the 85* heat we're having. That should help....

Mark,

If it made that much difference around town, you will see a huge difference at speed. Are you going to be able to amke it to the practice sessions before the race?

Being a rookie, I have to go to the practice session. Not sure if they will let me & Ellis make a run after that, but I'd like all the seat time I can get. I'm also doing the shootout. Tho with the open dif I installed to keep it cooler, I don't figure I'll do that well (it smokes the right tire if I drop the hammer at 60 mph). But at least I can find out before the race how the tune I have loaded works at that altitude.

Mark,

I don't know how they work it with rookies out there but I would expect once you get the checkride over with, you can run the practice course to your hearts content. The lugs on my FRONT wheels always loosen just a bit the first day of practice. After that, they seem to hold just fine. Take advantage of practice to get comfortable in the car, make sure everything falls easily to hand and that you and Ellis can see everything like gauges and GPS' like you are supposed to. I found an intercom to be invaluable and those battery powered NADY motorcycle intercoms are cheap and work real well.

FWIW, I was worried about the heat and altitude as well and it was groundless. That is one reason I will never run a car that doesn't have EFI again. Just make sure your tune is not running lean at the higher speeds and you will be fine.

My A4 car ran 157 in the standing mile; Roy Mendles' M6 Lingenfelter SS ran 170 as a benchmark.

Thanks for the pointers Andy! I plan to check lug nuts & tire temps after my practice session. When I talked to Mike B, he said I would probably only get to run the 1/2 mile shootout since I'm a rookie. Since my car will tech for the 168 class, and going straight is my fortee, I'm hoping I can talk them into letting us run the mile. I'd like to see how close to 170 I could get. And we looked at the Nady but bought the Chatterbox intercom for about the same price.

Good! Communication is essential for safety and a good finish. Good luck with Mike Borders, I have found him to be a generally reasonable person. There is a certain phenomena they tell the rookies about at the TX events that involves tunnel vision and difficulty comprehending speech when the speeds go over 120mph for lengthy periods. They relate it mostly to drivers and warn the navi's to be on the lookout for it. I don't know where they got the info or if it is based on 10 years of running the event. I have never experienced it until THIS year and it wasn't me, it was my rookie navi and it was really weird. It lasted for the first 25 miles of the first leg.

Enjoy the event- you are doing what tons of people talk about but few actually realize. The ORR segment of the racing population is very,very small so enjoy being part of a unique group -- and BE SAFE!

Again, thanks for your help Andy. I hope to see you at a future event. I'd like to check out your car & from your video you seem like quite a character.

I have spent a lot of time & money on the safety side of things. Like I said, my car should pass tech for 168 even tho I'm only running the 120 class. As will our safety gear. Some things are better not to skimp on. And my nav & I took some rides recently to make sure he can see the gauges, we could both reach the fire bottle handle, how his seat felt etc. I won't be able to go fast & have fun if I'm worried about not making it back in 1 piece.

Go for it Mark and keep an eye on Boyce

Ok, ok, ok, I'll fix it..... Geez.

Good thing! I am glad I wasn't like on fire or something waiting on you.

You'd have called.

...in the wee hours of the morning.

Oh don't worry, he'll be looking me up as soon as he gets into town (since we are towing Jeff's Vette in from Ely for them)