SCCA Double Regional Race Sept 18-20, 2009
Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey CA
In case you haven’t been paying attention, these boys are going somewhere. And in a hurry. The D.A. team of Kip Olson (KO or the Kid) and Shad Huntley kind of shuffled into the very fast ITE and the really mega-fast Super Production (SP) class of SCCA this past spring with an “aw shucks, we’re just gonna have some fun” press statement. And some of us poor schmucks :redface: actually fell for it. Not any more…………no siree bob; not after this past weekend. They are on the campaign trail and running for high office. Hang on to your holly-hocks, the roller coaster has left the station. Stay tuned for an important announcement. :wink:
This past race weekend was gonna be a doozy; running 2 race classes on a doubles weekend with a bonus race on Sunday added up to ……………..lessee here…………11 sessions in 3 days. And, on top of that, they were signed up to be the “Meet the Team” show at the SCCA social hour !! And don’t even mention that Shad takes care of Rylan Hazelton’s blown S2000. Needless to say the DA paddock was in full tilt boogey from Thursday nite thru Sunday nite.
If you’re not a racer, you may not appreciate the phrase, “It’s always something”. The weekend’s first of several examples was a hurried Friday morning alignment. Ya see, they had been getting so fast and so dialed that the inside of the rear tires were showing cord in just a few laps. So Shad had to scrounge up parts and reduce camber for that little compromise. Of course, getting the parts a typical few days late meant doing a complete re-alignment Friday morning before the first practice. Fortunately, it came out all right according to that tractor driver, Kip. :smile:
ITE: Q session #1
As expected, the nemesis of the D.A. team, Darrell Anderson (the other D.A. or ODA) was on hand. A likeable guy, but when he disarmingly said he wouldn’t run stickers for this race and then magically showed up with some, well, let’s just say that qualifies as a “cheatin’ bastard” in the Doug Hayashi world . But never mind that, he was having his own problems; like he’s got no low end- off corner grunt; and he’s about 3 seconds slow. So, with that welcome news, KO strolls to the pole with a 1:31.4. Which is not bad for a greasy track on a hot day. T-11 is especially bad, which is the worst since it enters the straight and a slick T-2 ain’t no picnic as it threatens to throw you into a monster gravel trap. But the Kid keeps it clean on the black stuff.
Back to ODA who’s been dicking around with all sorts of FI and carbs. At the moment he’s got a big ass Weber on it and it ain’t workin’ too well. :frown: Shad, ever the nice guy, goes over to help out. (It’s always something.) Whispering to me :tongue: that he don’t really know $hit about carbs, he tinkers with this and wiggles that. Now if it was anyone but Shad, Darrell should be highly suspicious of any “help” from the opposition. And especially since Shad doesn’t really know squat about something as archaic as a 1885 invention. But he’s a loveable mechanic (“ain’t no Dilbert engineer, ya understand” :wink: as he says) and so he sprinkles a little mechanic’s magic dust around, gives ODA a big wink and says “yep, that’ll be much better now.” And by golly, it was too. Cut almost 2 seconds off his lap time. Helping the opposition, what’s up with that????
It’s always something……………
So, here it is, Friday night. While everyone’s down at the SCCA social, drinking beer with the corner workers, I drag my ass into the D.A. paddock with a cold beer or 2 and look around, wondering “Where’s the hired help?” Kip’s the only one in sight, bleeding brakes and inspecting pads, (Pagid Black) which hold pretty dang well; like for this entire race weekend!!! (Illustrating once again kids that it helps to use more “go” and less “whoa” pedal). Chris, the D.A. go-fer is gathering mundane parts and Shad’s back over at ODA’s paddock helping him with something else which makes it a little tough to complete his aggressive maintenance schedule. Which is absolutely necessary to keep the #49 at full song all weekend. Not knowing squat about cars with fenders, I pull out the laptop and commence to pound out some of this crap. :redface:
Did I mention an aggressive maintenance schedule? Well, after all the axle failures and Kip not backing off and cruising but whipping Sweet Pea for all she’s worth, now the axles get rebuilt every 3 or 4 sessions (every day in this busy weekend). Here’s what the little buggers look like. And here’s why Shad doesn’t mind doing them. Fun huh? Even the tractor driver gets involved. So, about 6 PM on Friday, Shad begins pulling the axles to swap out with a fresh pair and finds a leaky “jack shaft” boot. Uh-oh. Can’t just reinstall it and call it good, ‘cause Kip’s gonna wanna know why it happened and what if this and what if that ???????........etc. So, like Frodo on his quest, we all start wondering where a new seal is gonna be found on Friday nite? Shad’s never seen one that needed to be replaced, but then this is an 18 year old car never designed for such hard service. Shad gets ahold of Ryan back at the shop where they happen to have one out and available; so now the question is, how to get it down to Laguna, 3-4 hours away from the Gold River shop. (the D.A. helicopter has not been ordered yet, but I’m thinking it most likely will be as K.O. will make that decision by, oh, Sunday night on the drive home). I called the few racer friendly Sacto NSX guys I know for ideas. Everyone called back. Got to give a big shout out to these guys who either offered to help or wished they could help; Big Al Terpak, Calvin Douglas, Jeff Fong, Larry Cao. (Hope I didn't forget anyone) Thanks guys. In the end, Kip’s weekday job go-fer, drove the part down that night and Shad burned the midnight oil getting it in.
ITE RACE #1 Saturday PM
Well, not much to say; Kip walks, no, runs away from ODA. Watch this. Having dispensed with old Darrell, the Kid has some fun on his way to winning by 22 seconds. Unfortunately, ODA finishes 2nd so KO only picks up 2 points on Darrell who’s leading the ITE class because the #49 has had axle woes.
ITE RACE #2 Sunday AM
The Qually and race #2 were a carbon copy of Race #1. Like clockwork, the Kid pounded out 131.5 laptimes and ODA was 2.5 seconds/lap back and finished a full 22 seconds behind the #49. Ho hum. But again, the Kid only picked up 2 points on ODA. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
ITE Bonus Race Late Sunday PM
Well, by this time, after 11 sessions, the Kid was getting a bit tired and maybe the tires were too. Lap times fell off by a good couple of seconds, but no worries since Darrell was also off the pace an equal amount. And once again, after dodging all the wankers, KO finished 22 seconds ahead of Darrell and whittled the points lead by another whopping 2 points. Whoopee……….. The D.A. team was a little jaded by this point with this weekend’s triumphs. Not to say it was easy, but they got it done. Here’s a typical D.A. post race celebration: pretzels instead of champagne. All business.
Check back for part 2 when we’ll go over the SP races and the Meet the Team shindig. Oh man, they’re almost famous.
Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey CA
In case you haven’t been paying attention, these boys are going somewhere. And in a hurry. The D.A. team of Kip Olson (KO or the Kid) and Shad Huntley kind of shuffled into the very fast ITE and the really mega-fast Super Production (SP) class of SCCA this past spring with an “aw shucks, we’re just gonna have some fun” press statement. And some of us poor schmucks :redface: actually fell for it. Not any more…………no siree bob; not after this past weekend. They are on the campaign trail and running for high office. Hang on to your holly-hocks, the roller coaster has left the station. Stay tuned for an important announcement. :wink:
This past race weekend was gonna be a doozy; running 2 race classes on a doubles weekend with a bonus race on Sunday added up to ……………..lessee here…………11 sessions in 3 days. And, on top of that, they were signed up to be the “Meet the Team” show at the SCCA social hour !! And don’t even mention that Shad takes care of Rylan Hazelton’s blown S2000. Needless to say the DA paddock was in full tilt boogey from Thursday nite thru Sunday nite.
If you’re not a racer, you may not appreciate the phrase, “It’s always something”. The weekend’s first of several examples was a hurried Friday morning alignment. Ya see, they had been getting so fast and so dialed that the inside of the rear tires were showing cord in just a few laps. So Shad had to scrounge up parts and reduce camber for that little compromise. Of course, getting the parts a typical few days late meant doing a complete re-alignment Friday morning before the first practice. Fortunately, it came out all right according to that tractor driver, Kip. :smile:
ITE: Q session #1
As expected, the nemesis of the D.A. team, Darrell Anderson (the other D.A. or ODA) was on hand. A likeable guy, but when he disarmingly said he wouldn’t run stickers for this race and then magically showed up with some, well, let’s just say that qualifies as a “cheatin’ bastard” in the Doug Hayashi world . But never mind that, he was having his own problems; like he’s got no low end- off corner grunt; and he’s about 3 seconds slow. So, with that welcome news, KO strolls to the pole with a 1:31.4. Which is not bad for a greasy track on a hot day. T-11 is especially bad, which is the worst since it enters the straight and a slick T-2 ain’t no picnic as it threatens to throw you into a monster gravel trap. But the Kid keeps it clean on the black stuff.
Back to ODA who’s been dicking around with all sorts of FI and carbs. At the moment he’s got a big ass Weber on it and it ain’t workin’ too well. :frown: Shad, ever the nice guy, goes over to help out. (It’s always something.) Whispering to me :tongue: that he don’t really know $hit about carbs, he tinkers with this and wiggles that. Now if it was anyone but Shad, Darrell should be highly suspicious of any “help” from the opposition. And especially since Shad doesn’t really know squat about something as archaic as a 1885 invention. But he’s a loveable mechanic (“ain’t no Dilbert engineer, ya understand” :wink: as he says) and so he sprinkles a little mechanic’s magic dust around, gives ODA a big wink and says “yep, that’ll be much better now.” And by golly, it was too. Cut almost 2 seconds off his lap time. Helping the opposition, what’s up with that????
It’s always something……………
So, here it is, Friday night. While everyone’s down at the SCCA social, drinking beer with the corner workers, I drag my ass into the D.A. paddock with a cold beer or 2 and look around, wondering “Where’s the hired help?” Kip’s the only one in sight, bleeding brakes and inspecting pads, (Pagid Black) which hold pretty dang well; like for this entire race weekend!!! (Illustrating once again kids that it helps to use more “go” and less “whoa” pedal). Chris, the D.A. go-fer is gathering mundane parts and Shad’s back over at ODA’s paddock helping him with something else which makes it a little tough to complete his aggressive maintenance schedule. Which is absolutely necessary to keep the #49 at full song all weekend. Not knowing squat about cars with fenders, I pull out the laptop and commence to pound out some of this crap. :redface:
Did I mention an aggressive maintenance schedule? Well, after all the axle failures and Kip not backing off and cruising but whipping Sweet Pea for all she’s worth, now the axles get rebuilt every 3 or 4 sessions (every day in this busy weekend). Here’s what the little buggers look like. And here’s why Shad doesn’t mind doing them. Fun huh? Even the tractor driver gets involved. So, about 6 PM on Friday, Shad begins pulling the axles to swap out with a fresh pair and finds a leaky “jack shaft” boot. Uh-oh. Can’t just reinstall it and call it good, ‘cause Kip’s gonna wanna know why it happened and what if this and what if that ???????........etc. So, like Frodo on his quest, we all start wondering where a new seal is gonna be found on Friday nite? Shad’s never seen one that needed to be replaced, but then this is an 18 year old car never designed for such hard service. Shad gets ahold of Ryan back at the shop where they happen to have one out and available; so now the question is, how to get it down to Laguna, 3-4 hours away from the Gold River shop. (the D.A. helicopter has not been ordered yet, but I’m thinking it most likely will be as K.O. will make that decision by, oh, Sunday night on the drive home). I called the few racer friendly Sacto NSX guys I know for ideas. Everyone called back. Got to give a big shout out to these guys who either offered to help or wished they could help; Big Al Terpak, Calvin Douglas, Jeff Fong, Larry Cao. (Hope I didn't forget anyone) Thanks guys. In the end, Kip’s weekday job go-fer, drove the part down that night and Shad burned the midnight oil getting it in.
ITE RACE #1 Saturday PM
Well, not much to say; Kip walks, no, runs away from ODA. Watch this. Having dispensed with old Darrell, the Kid has some fun on his way to winning by 22 seconds. Unfortunately, ODA finishes 2nd so KO only picks up 2 points on Darrell who’s leading the ITE class because the #49 has had axle woes.
ITE RACE #2 Sunday AM
The Qually and race #2 were a carbon copy of Race #1. Like clockwork, the Kid pounded out 131.5 laptimes and ODA was 2.5 seconds/lap back and finished a full 22 seconds behind the #49. Ho hum. But again, the Kid only picked up 2 points on ODA. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
ITE Bonus Race Late Sunday PM
Well, by this time, after 11 sessions, the Kid was getting a bit tired and maybe the tires were too. Lap times fell off by a good couple of seconds, but no worries since Darrell was also off the pace an equal amount. And once again, after dodging all the wankers, KO finished 22 seconds ahead of Darrell and whittled the points lead by another whopping 2 points. Whoopee……….. The D.A. team was a little jaded by this point with this weekend’s triumphs. Not to say it was easy, but they got it done. Here’s a typical D.A. post race celebration: pretzels instead of champagne. All business.
Check back for part 2 when we’ll go over the SP races and the Meet the Team shindig. Oh man, they’re almost famous.