Otc

[kevin]

the one nite where we stayed at the track. steve grilled ribs and we shared with shugg, hidley, and ron. lew set up his tv outside and we ate while watching in car videos. this was the nite we (steve and lew) did major maintainence on the car.

[kevin]

since our car is 40 year old technology, we can still use a sawsall for minor repairs. this was to enlarge the hole in the frame where the half-shaft was hitting it.

[kevin]

we did have some time to relax. this is the crew at buttonwillow at lunch.

[kevin]

this is jack, bryan, steve, and ron

[kevin]

all was improbable if not impossible, if not for this great crew. i again thank them

[johnbasf]

Great pics!!! It's always amazed me how we go to these car events and post pics of the PEOPLE we know or meet. That's what it's all about.

[97whitevert]

Originally posted by johnbasf
Great pics!!! It's always amazed me how we go to these car events and post pics of the PEOPLE we know or meet. That's what it's all about.

you said it John!! we've made some great friends here!!!

[2KWhiteSnake]

Originally posted by johnbasf
Great pics!!! It's always amazed me how we go to these car events and post pics of the PEOPLE we know or meet. That's what it's all about.

Spoken like a champ. Amazing how many great people are out there.

Craig

[COBRA #17]

Thanks Kev, and THANK GOODNESS HE HAD ON JEANS !!!

Hope you get to join us for a couple events this year!!


AI EAST Asst Director
COBRA #17

[johnbasf]

Originally posted by COBRA #17
Thanks Kev, and THANK GOODNESS HE HAD ON JEANS !!!

Hope you get to join us for a couple events this year!!


AI EAST Asst Director
COBRA #17

[kevin]

FYI NOTICE

the otc organizers are evaluating the classes they run.

the AGT class (where most mustangs end up) may very well go away due to lack of entrants.

if you are seriously considering entering this event next year with a mustang, let them know www.opentrackchallenge.com

use their email address to send them an email of your seriousness and car type. they will be making decisions on classes by july.

if the agt class goes away, then mustangs will be lumped in with other classes.

[98banana]

Originally posted by kevin
FYI NOTICE

the otc organizers are evaluating the classes they run.

the AGT class (where most mustangs end up) may very well go away due to lack of entrants.

if you are seriously considering entering this event next year with a mustang, let them know www.opentrackchallenge.com

use their email address to send them an email of your seriousness and car type. they will be making decisions on classes by july.

if the agt class goes away, then mustangs will be lumped in with other classes.

I'll send an e-mail today.

By the way, congrats on the free entry for '04. You lucky dog!

[svt_coupe]

Hello all!! I'm finally making my way back onto this website. I returned from the west coast on Thursday. Since then, I've had the opportunity to hop in every so often and check out some posts but haven't had time to reply. Thus, I've been watching my esteemed friends on the board pick on my articles of clothing. The corduroys are where it's at you fools!!! They are more aerodynamic. I have lots to catch up on!!!

Thank you all for following Kevin, Steve, Jack, and my OTC adventures. I was amazed to see people actually following it on this website when I got back!! You are too kind.

Where to begin... WOW what an event! I thought I was prepared for how much work the OTC takes. I was fooling myself. It is a very tiring event - it exhausts you physically and mentally. But daym it's a lot of fun!!

I arrived in Las Vegas Sunday evening and met up with Steve and Kevin. As soon as we hooked up with them, they started thrashing on Kevin's UAGT Shelby Cobra preparing it for Round 2 (Monday) at the Derek Daly track in Vegas. Kevin had some issues with the Cobra motor to solve and I had to go meet up with Jack Hidley (our team's manager/owner/driver). So I left Steve and Kevin and met up with Jack and Ron Horowitz (our chief mechanic/support vehicle driver) for dinner. This was 9PM on Sunday. We had a quick dinner and bolted back to the hotel for a good night sleep (it was to be our last). 5AM the alarm went off and we were started thrashing on the Maximum Motorsports equipped 87 Mustang GT.

The car was finished being put together on Sunday April 6. As in... it was a new motor, new suspension, new EVERYTHING as of OTC Day 1. Jack and Ron drove the car to Pahrump (Round 1) just in time for the last run session. Jack managed to turn a few laps and posted some competitive lap times considering he had only 1 run session.

You're probably asking why the car was just finished being built? Well it's the little things that slow a guy's progress. Like the trip to Far East (China) Jack had to make 1 week prior to the event. Small things like that!! Jack hoped to have the car done 1 month prior to the OTC, but it seemed every obstacle that could have got in his way... did. I'll keep it at that, as the non-car related obstacles are far too many to list. It was clear that Jack wasn't happy with the lack of prep time and noted several times that this wasn't his typical style... But alas, "that's racing!"

Thus, the car had some teething problems as Jack eluded to in his previous post. Most of the issues were completely bizarre things - i.e. an ignition wire came loose causing the engine to fall flat on it's face at about 5k, clutch cable broke, master cylinder stuck while engaged (causing the brakes to remained LOCKED heading into corners... nice), a fuel pump relay had an intermittent problem where it would cut off electricity to the fuel pump in high-G left-hand corners... but only sometimes!! How do you diagnose THAT problem?!? This one had us dropping the fuel tank and checking the entire fuel system in Round 3, Buttonwillow.

The bizarre issues kept us on our toes until sometime on Wednesday... just in time for me to run the car out of gas 2 laps into our last run session. I seem to have a problem with that lately (did that in the enduro at VIR in a Thunder Roadster). I guess I need to leave the fuel mileage calculations to the Chief Mechanic/Crew Chief. However, we had started to turn some good lap times, nearly besting the 2003 Kenne Bell, big braked, big wheeled/tired, awesome-paint-schemed (worth 2+ seconds I'm sure ) Cobra with 560 rumored (by the owner) rwhp on Wednesday. Ahh... the importance of having enough fossil fuel!! Ahh... the importance of staying on track. (yes, I went off twice earlier in the day)

By Thursday, the car was setup beautifully. The motor had a fresh tune. The Stoptech/Cobalt brakes were hauling our car down with force time after time. The MM suspension was tweaked nicely for the topography of Thunderhill - "Thunderhill" must mean "It's a really big arse hill" cause this place was HILLY (MM's suspension does very well on hills... and everywhere else, for that matter). And most importantly, we had gas.

We posted some pretty solid lap times and set our sights on victory in the last run session... then the alternator blew. Nice. Real nice. It was underdriven like my Red Ferrari F360 Modena is (I don't have one, hence it's underdriven) and it still blew. A bum alternator. Sweet. Thus, we had to withdraw the car from the last run session, ensuring victory to the 2003 Cobra. We needed to win on Thursday to have a chance at taking the lead. Murphy's Law - who is Murphy anyway and where does that @#$% live??

Thursday night "on battery alone", we limped the car 90 miles south to Sacramento to our nearest alternator, stopping every 25 minutes to charge the battery for 30-35 minutes. Joy. Good news was, Thursday's trip was our longest and the delays didn't really pose a problem. We enjoyed pulling into our Willow Springs hotel with enough time for 2 hours of shut-eye. (no sarcasm there )

Friday morning on our drive into Willow Springs, we got a call from the guys in the '03 Cobra. They suffered some damage to the chassis and flattened a camshaft on the last run session. We were disappointed to hear of their demise. However, their lead was solid enough to place them in 1st place by a margin of 5 pts, despite missing the last 2 days. Well done and congrats to the drivers of the '03 Cobra, Ray Newton (of PTeazer - www.pteazer.com) and Pete Morley (of Kaminari - www.kaminari.com/homepage.htm).

Friday we ran without problems. This was the first day we got to run the alloted 4 run sessions.

The final 2 days didn't find us coasting to our 2nd place podium position. The well driven (Bryan Sheldon and Chris Peterson) 98 Cobra kept us hammering hard into the last day of the event. In our class, we were able to win the last 2 days (despite toasting an ignition wire and running on 7 cylinders for part of the day).

I want to thank Jack Hidley for allowing me to drive the West coast tracks behind the wheel of his car. This is an experience I would not have been able to have if it wasn't for your generosity. Jack - thank you, thank you, thank you. Your rapid car control/correction skills still amaze me. Ron Horowitz - thanks for your experienced wrench as our crew chief/support vehicle driver/comic relief artist. Sorry for my lack of scintillating conversation on the trip to Willow Springs... Andie Lin of Cobalt brakes - your brake compounds performed flawlessly (we got through the entire 7-day event on 1 set of pads) behind the large, Stoptech calipers (those are some serious calipers - they are structurally amazing and can be safely called artwork. My PBR's can't hold a candle to those bad boys...). Fade free braking is a good thing - call me a fan. Finally, a full MM suspsension is a marvelous thing - it's unbelievably easy to tune and unbelievably FAST.

Again - thanks to all who supported Jack and my OTC efforts. Here's looking to the 2004 OTC. Cheers.

Bryan

[svt_coupe]

Originally posted by COBRA #17
Thanks Kev, and THANK GOODNESS HE HAD ON JEANS

Those were denim corduroys, my brutha.

I've been trying to think of an appropriate response to the San Fran comments. When I do, it will be a good one...

Pearson - I picked up a special bag of chewing tobacco for you while on Route 5. I got it at a place called the Harris Ranch. You'll like it.

[Mystic_Cobra]

Bryan,
Glad you made it back, glad you had a blast, and thanks for the summary. Now we all know what to look forward to next year. Or at least everyone will know to have a spare alternator. Hopefully more of us will be out there with you in the next year or two.

As for your corduroy's, let me defend you a little. I think these guys don't realize that they are back "in". The problem is that they only good on skinny guys like you (and my brother), not well-fed fellas like Pearson and myself.

As for Murphy, who it seems you spent some time with out west .... here's a little text for those who've never heard the original story...

The Origin of Murphy's Law
"If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it."

So who was Murphy anyway?
Born in 1917, Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of the engineers on the rocket-sled experiments that were done by the United States Air Force in 1949 to test human acceleration tolerances (USAF project MX981).

One experiment involved a set of 16 accelerometers mounted to different parts of the subject's body. There were two ways each sensor could be glued to its mount. Of course, somebody managed to install all 16 the wrong way around.

Murphy then made the original form of his pronouncement, which the test subject (Major John Paul Stapp) quoted at a news conference a few days later.

Within months, "Murphy's Law" had spread to various technical cultures connected to aerospace engineering, and finally reached the Webster's dictionary in 1958.

Tragically (and perhaps typically), the popular cliche we call "Murphy's Law" was never uttered by Edward Murphy.