ALMS at Mid-Ohio 2012 August 3-5

[alum04org]

Watching the ALMS race at Mosport (Ontario) right now. Anyone else planning to visit Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course August 3-5 to watch?

SCCA Pirelli World Challenge race Saturday along with ALMS race. The World Challenge races have become a favorite of mine - many brands of cars in two classes. P D Cunningham, Pilgrim, Esaian, Pobst, O'Connell, Skeen, Safronas, Figge, Aschenbach, etc. etc. Fun race to watch! :smile: Update: Double race weekend for World Challenge - Sat. last event and then Sun. morning!

Honda Indy 200 race on Sunday afternoon, too.

I know we've got a Michigan flagging/communications (from Waterford Hills) contingent headed down there...

 

[sca037]

We'll be there to flag, Friday and Saturday.
Remember too that this event will feature the premier of the new Vipers in ALMS

Brian

 

[SOURCE 1]

Man I miss the old days of a bunch of us up there and our car corral... I will not be coming this year as I will be in FL from Aug 1st - 9th.. Have fun!

 

[ThumperAC]

I plan to be there each day.

I hooked up with the Ohio S2000 group and am rolling billboard for the race...

I am most looking forward to the IndyCars, but I can't wait to see the new VIPER on track.

The best thing about this weekend is that there are cars on the track non-stop from Friday morning through Sunday.

 

[Axerjk]

We'll be there to flag, Friday and Saturday.
Remember too that this event will feature the premier of the new Vipers in ALMS

Brian

NO WAY!!! I can't wait to see that!!!

Chris

 

[alum04org]

Man I miss the old days of a bunch of us up there and our car corral... I will not be coming this year as I will be in FL from Aug 1st - 9th.. Have fun!

Brian, Ditto! We had so many great NSX owners present, and Acura cared. Have a very fine FL vacation - you have earned it!

I plan to be there each day.

I hooked up with the Ohio S2000 group and am rolling billboard for the race...

I am most looking forward to the IndyCars, but I can't wait to see the new VIPER on track.

The best thing about this weekend is that there are cars on the track non-stop from Friday morning through Sunday.

I'll be looking for you - your NSX looks SO good - makes us proud.

Freakin' Vipers, #'s 91 and 93 (?) are going to spice up the field for this contest. I'll be rolling in there (infield) Friday around 2 p. Should be a super weekend. :biggrin:

 

[alum04org]

O K I left out of Akron (OH) around noon today and the forecast for Mid-Ohio race weekend is Fri eighties, poss. shwr. Sat 88 F w/30% showers, Sun 90's w/50% showers.


Weather is gonna be cookin' and I cannot wait for the SCCA Pirelli World Challenge series twin - bill (Sat PM and Sun AM).

Axer (MI), Steve (new Primer and gonna-be NSX owner, Cleve Hts, OH), gonna be there. Park in/near the infield Vettes just to provide some raspberries. :wink:

 

[eddie_82]

Well, I guess I know whose Imola I saw parked in the infield today.

 

[Axerjk]

Neil, I saw your car pull in, but I was pretty far away and never did find you, bummer!

It was great running into Brian, Judy, and several other flaggers there!

I got great footage of the SRT Viper, which I was very excited to see.

Chris



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[sca037]

GREAT stuff Chris, and of course love the INTRO!
It was nice to see you when we were stationed at 9 on Friday :biggrin:

Neal swung by our station at turn 1 on Saturday, and around 9am on Sunday (between massive rain showers) we saw an early red NSX driving through the upper parking / paddock area.

Brian

 

[Axerjk]

Thanks Brian! It was great seeing you guys there!

This was the best sound I heard all day. Every time the 458s passed, it was almost like they were going through a tunnel.


Chris


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[eddie_82]

I saw that red one on the way out on Sunday as well. No idea who it was I guess?

 

[alum04org]

Well, I guess I know whose Imola I saw parked in the infield today.

Sorry for missing you..... Imola was dirty/dusty, especially after infield parking Sunday!

Neil, I saw your car pull in, but I was pretty far away and never did find you, bummer!

It was great running into Brian, Judy, and several other flaggers there!

I got great footage of the SRT Viper, which I was very excited to see.

Chris



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Yea, never saw you - so many sights to see there and so much activity all around. So many sweet places to view the races... Very nice job with the Viper SRT video.

I saw that red one on the way out on Sunday as well. No idea who it was I guess?

Nope.


But here are some things/people I did see :smile:

I had a good drive down there Friday, arriving ~ 1220 PM in time to watch the ALMS GT class qualifying. After that, I walked from the infield out to "the boonies" of the paddock in search of Peter Cunningham/Nick Esayian and the RealTime Acura's "outpost". (Any farther and they would have been on the south side of Steam Corners Road!) Once there, I found his crew to be most accomodating - answering all my dumb questions and offering repeated water bottle fill-ups. It was HOT and HUMID so getting under their tent awning was a pleasure.

Both drivers were in meetings and their crew was fairly casual, attending to minor maintenance things - they told how they acquire actual production TSX's and then strip them out, even removing all the factory rust inhibitor!
Their tire man (also the driver of their Volvo coupled to their 53' custom $375,000 race trailer) was preparing the Pirelli P-Zero on Enkeis -

Looking through the "trunk."

]


And they are now running NA 3.5 L V-6's just like you get in the TL-S and RL:

His crew showed me the interior of the race trailer (real nice!). After a while, Peter Cunningham returned (on a Honda mini-bike, of course) and I met him briefly as he was heading to another meeting. Nice guy.

 

[alum04org]

Spousal unit flagged at the Keyhole on Fri, turn 9 on Sat, and turn 4 (guards the broad expanse known as "China Beach"). And speaking of China Beach (runoff sand-gravel area at the end of very long straightaway), it saw plenty of action when racing began Sunday morning following heavy rain/T-storm with an hour delay).

 

[alum04org]

Upon parking Saturday morning in the infield, a fellow in a golf cart came by. He complimented me on the Imola and we talked cars. Following this, he said that if I get time, stop over at the TV/communications center compound and ask for "Al" and he would show me around. So later, I did.

Well it turned out that "Al" was the boss man of the entire portable audio/video/uplink production facility. He showed me through four semi-trailers (air conditioned!) containing generators, video, audio, and mixing/production centers. Showed me the console where 5/6 operators (think a video game) control remote video cameras located trackside - it was fun to see them point two adjacent video cameras at each other.... these guys could focus in on a fan picking a booger in HD!

Well, so I am not a "techie" and found this fascinating. One trailer had so many large HD monitors in it - could not decide which one to watch! :biggrin:

 

[Axerjk]

That is sooo cool! I would love to see how they use all the cameras in professional video. The A/C must have been nice too, it was blistering hot outside.

Chris

 

[alum04org]

Appears Nissan has also picked up on orange, for their Z-car:

Indy Cars very early in the Honda Indy 200 race. Note China Beach in the background:

ALMS race, both pics taken under yellow with first pic showing the green monster pulling an LMP sled out of the kitty litter:

So just a super weekend...... I really enjoy the Pirelli World Challenge series, maybe even more than the ALMS series now. :redface:

 

[pjr300]

Sigh.... one of these days..... in the mean time, just jealous! Thx for the pics Neal!

 

[luigib]

Appears Nissan has also picked up on orange, for their Z-car

I saw the imola parked next to the orange Z and I had to take a pic...

 

[ThumperAC]

thanks for sharing the pics, unfortunately something came up and had to be out of state the week before and after the race.

Pretty cool you got to get into the production facility, I caught the note about having AC in there, something always needed that weekend.