I just got home from the weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway running the last event of the year with the National Auto sport association in TTD.

MMZ-Timelord broke his cherry in HPDE 1 and decided to spend another night before driving all the way back up to San Francisco. So I'm just going to start this thread to tease you guys until MMZ gets home so we can both share our experiences / photos / video simultaneously.

All I can say at this point is STAY TUNED !!!

 

And a few home brew photos before the good ones get delivered from the track photographer.

 

Looking forward to the video, nice job on second! Who took 1st?

Just out of curiosity, is it really necessary to have window netting on a crossfire? It's not like your gonna go flying out the window, lol.

 

Race Spec., yes... And it's also there to keep your little arms inside the car incase of a catastrophic roll, so you don't end-up like a vietnam vet. and have to pick your nose with your toes !!! There are funny little safety things like fire suppressions systems, etc. that are there for a reason.

Thanks for the question, the LOL at the end of it was very un-necessary !!!

 

Finally got settled in at home and made it in to work after driving since 5:00 am PST.

Derek,

It was a blast to be there and run in the HPDE level 1 group! My wife and I enjoyed you and your wife's company greatly and your hospitality was and is VERY appreciated.

I have no pictures to post yet as this morning was all a blur.

Hopefully I'll have some good in car video to post later this evening.

Probably my favorite part of Saturday was when the head HPDE instructor took me out in my SRT6 with HPDE group 4 and the Time Trial group and really pushed it to the edge! WOW!... all I can say is WOW! That session really helped me see the line and understand the brake, entry, apex and exit of the corners on that track. WOW! (Really sorry I didn't get that session on video tape ).

Anyway... I'll be posting some pictures when mine are delivered like Derek's.

*Sigh*... no more track time for a few months...

 

Here's a bit of video from Buttonwillow during practice session. You'll love the Super 7 that passes me like I'm standing still at the beginning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UesITJixtsk

 

more video clips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnMEki_laS0

 

this link only takes you to youtubes home page, you must be missing the rest of the link? This video has been removed due to terms of use violation...haha what does that mean?

 

damn hddp your car is so much faster than when you started. i need to get some new tires and come out with you guys next time. how much does it cost to do the hdpe thing?

 

Sorry that one was too long for youtube they limit the upload to 10 minutes... Try this one !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnMEki_laS0

 

I don't know what the HPDE classes cost, here's the link for NASA Pro Racing, I'm sure you'll find the info there. http://www.nasaproracing.com

The 2007 season for the So. Cal. region of NASA begins next February at California Motor Speedway. Should be one heck of a good weekend, so start saving your pennies !!!

 

Derek,
That one doesn't work either, are you sure you're not loading the video of +fireamx driving around with no clothes on? They don't take those explicit videos on youtube.

Try it again, by the way, I just happen to come across this simulation the december MotorTrend...Viper/Vette/Shelby 'stang at Willow Spring short course.

www.motortrend.com/roadtests/virtual

I seem to know that course already.

 

Now how did you get that second place medal? from the videos you posted, it looks like you where passed twice?

 

Glad to know you had fun and to see another SRT in the track. Hopefully you got the bug and will be back for more. Would have loved to join you and Derek if my car was in working order.

Anyway, just heard from the dealer that my new s/c is somewhere in the East Coast and should be here this week and on my car by end of next week. Woohoo! only took almost two months. Haha.

I'm itching to go back too. Hopefully as soon as Dec. 9th at SOW. I could use some Xfire company. Hint hint.

Derek, i haven't forgotten. Looking forward to seeing your car supercharged!

 

All of the TT class cars run at the same time. That's what's so fun about the TT division, I'm on the track with 600 hp cars that weigh 2,500 lbs and turning lap times that are 20 seconds faster than mine and lapping me three or four times in an event. The difficult thing about running TT is that you are always running the race in front of you and the race behind you, so you don't **** block the faster cars.

In the morning we do one practice session (20 mins) which is also a qualifying session for grid position. Then we run three (20 minute) events during the rest of the day and each car has a transponder that times each lap. Usually the higher HP cars (TTU, TTR, TTA, TTB, TTC) have faster lap times, so they will grid ahead of me. But often I will have qualifying times that are faster than the upper class cars and end-up gridding ahead of them.

Here's how it breaks down: TTU, TTR, TTA, TTB, TTC, TTD, TTE, TTF.

Each car is classed based on many variables. The base (stock) Crossfire is classed in TTE and the (stock) SRT6 is classed in TTB. Then, each performance modification you add to the car is assigned points which moves you up toward the next class. You are allowed 39 modification points before you are bumped to the next higher class. Since I have so many mods. on my car I am classed in TTD with 36 additional modification points.

I hop this helps you understand why you will see cars passing me in the videos, but I am still winning (2nd) in my class...

I think I have a photo of the grid from last weekend which may give you a visual idea...

 

Sorry for the delay in getting any video up on my end. I've gotten the video off the camera, but have yet to bring it down to a reasonable level to upload somewhere as I caught the same bug that hit my wife so hard saturday night.

I'm over the fever and am just very weak right now. Hopefully I can get two of my better laps in HPDE 1 up tomorrow.

Cheers!

 

HDDP well done! I have watched your videos and they don't do you justice, but the audio is wicked, looking forward to see the rest of your pictures. Also can't wait to see MMZ_TimeLord video and pictures.

Thank you for sharing with the rest of us!

 

just out of curiosity what were each of your fastest lap times? interested to see how an experienced driver in a race prepped limited stacks up against a novice driver in an srt-6.

 

2:27.994 Saturday Practice (dry track)
2:29.150 Saturday Race 1 (wet track)
2:29.109 Saturday Race 2 (wet track)
2:31.466 Sunday Practice (dry track)
2:23.261 Sunday Race 1 (dry track)
2:20.682 Sunday Race 2 (dry track)

Unfortunately MMZ does not get to use a transponder in HPDE 1 so none of his track times were logged officially, but he did shoot some video that has timecode on it that he can figure out his times and post them. I'm interested to see them as well...

You'll get a kick out of the time differences between TTU and TTD that I run in... This is the best time for Cody Martin in his Radical SR1 1:56.939 in TTU class. And this is my best time in TTD 2:20.682... So now you can see why some cars passed me in the video...

All I can say is that my car is faster than I am right now !!!

We had a chance to run MMZ's SRT6 against my Limited during one event on Saturday with an instructor driving the SRT6 and by lap 2, I got my A S S handed to me on a silver platter... The SRT6 walked away from me... I think I have some video of it...

 

was it the driving or the car?