Well..... we ran good in both morning sessions..... top 10 finishes in both for sure.... but then got the bad news that we would do a ET drag competition after the 2nd session was over.... because no problem has a 1/4th mile track also..... knowing we were hurting on power.. this defiantly will not help.. but it was nice to see what some of the other cars had on the straights... and now that i do see.. i feel pretty good about how we are doing.. because we defiantly have power issues... somethings not right...

we ran a 13.2 at 105mph... which is a pretty good match for mph and ET..

the black 996 GT3 that has been giving us trouble ran a 12.5 at 114.. but was going back for another pass when we left. so maby he improved....

Davia ran a 11.5......


most every decent car was faster then us.. so its very possible we will finish 30 something... in this event.. which will KILL our overall score....


we have 2 tracks i know very well coming up so that will help for sure.....

well today really went well for us.... It was supposed to be a road corse then drag day... BUT.. its Dumped on us all day.... so the drag strip got canceled and both road course events at TWS were in the rain...

we got decent sleep last night and woke up to a down poor..... we were lucky to get one of the last garage spots at TWS that wasn't flooded.... we unpacked and disconnected the swaybars.. THANKS DONNIE... he is gettin pretty good at the swaybar disconnects and reconnects...... profeshen-ALE....

it stopped raining about 30min before we were supposed to go out.... and the track conditions were good.... wet.. but good.... BUT.. the ambulance hadn't shown up yet.. so we waited.. and waited.. and finaly they came.. juuuust in time to let the first run group run and let it start raining for our group.... but whatever.. thats onelap.... we went and it was pretty wild.... lotsa big moments.... I ended up 7th for the session....


the 2nd session... was better for us.. as the track conditions were consistent for everyone... RAIN.. and lots of it... i hit a water puddle on the warm up lap and it bogged the car down!...... i went out in the 2nd group again.... the Viper cleaned up everyone.. but it was a good battle for 2nd...... Me.. Davia.. and Stewart all were within 2 sec of each other.. over a 4minute 30 sec run..... we were 4th overall this session... right behind davia.. and Stewart..... this was a craaazy drive.. and we were all just happy to be alive.... Popp did horrible.. and the black leingenfelter vette did bad also....

So what coulda been pretty bad... a track ive never been to in the dry.. and a drag race... turned into pretty dang good....

we are now 2nd overall.... and pretty happy about that... knowing that Davia is having some ECU troubles and a DNF for him is possible in the future....

The viper will most likely pass us after tomorrow in the overall standings.... but now we really hafta try hard to hold off some of the other cars coming up.... like the GT3 of ian... and im sure Popp is gona come storming back...... we have No problem tom.. and this shoulnt hurt us to bad because its not much of a HP track......

another BIG plus..... because the drag was canceled.. we got to head to the hotels early... so plenty of sleep tonight...!!!!! also had a Filet at OUTBACK...

today went pretty dang good.... we got a buncha sleep last night and woke up to a chilly morning...... the whole car was frosted over.... we hit the continental at the SUPER 8.... i made a waffle... it was pretty good.. Donnie doesnt like waffles.. or Subway.... im still not to sure about him yet....


We got to the track and about half the guys were there..... we unloaded and walked it... the 1st session went pretty good... we were 8th and that put us 4th overall.... the car is getting better.. we did a pretty big setup change since yesterday... and will do more to it tom morning.. i think....

the 2nd session felt good.. but im not to sure what the results were yet..... i would guess probably about the same.....

Davia is having ECU issues and is struggling. the Viper is very fast.. along with the Yellow mongoos. (thats almost crashed a couple times already)... there is a Black GT3 with Ian Stewart driving it and its going really fast as well.. he raced the car all last year.. its very well set up and he is really familiar with it.... he was scca champion and driver of the year or something... there is a blue Z06 thats fast also... and a couple other cars... Jon in the other mongoose seems to be running about the same times as us...

again.. we were the first out of the paddock and hopefully one of the first to get to bed.... right now we runnin outa fuel and cant find a gas station with atleast 89oct..... we have 850 miles to go to Texas from Iowa..... after a double session day.... i think today will be the longest.....


the sunrise... over the fields of Iowa...







frosty headlight






GTR and GTR...... we kikd its but in the mornin session... duno bout afternoon.... i think we did again...







starting out this looong drive.... and getting ready to make this blog post....

some stuff in the pic...

the thing right under the mirror is a GPS sensor.... for the Garmin thats in the passenger side floorbord... we use this GPS the most...
the Screen in the middle is the Pioneer headunit.. DVD player/GPS/XM radio/CD/... yesterday we watched PULP FICTION
the black box on the dash is a wireless router that uses cellphone towers to pik up internet.. then sends it wirelessly out..
the round tan thing on dash is XM radio antenna.
the Valentine 1 is right out of the picture mounted as high as possible..
the dash is setup with AIM data

Road America...

well we got like 13th there...... that SHOULD be our worst track... thats over.... we moved on to Mi America...

here is us leaving Tirerack with the 'rig'








the cayman front at Road America ... you would sware its a GT3 huh....









A very Enthusiastic Donnie bravo..... midnight gasfill before SLEEP... we were 60 miles from mid america but coulndt find a room..... We were in the first run group at Road America so we got out early... there was a crash in the 2nd group on their 3rd lap.... so they got to redo their run.. wich helped a bunch for them.. and was another reason we did so poorly at Road America..... they got 3 times the number of warmup laps.... we were in bed right after midnight.. and most of the guys we talked too wernt until 4am... and thats IF they found a hotel room......










my new favorite onelap food.... also fav for race weekends too....

Today went real good so far....... we woke up had a big breakfast.... got to Tirerack around 8..... and Tony Swan wanted me to show him how to work some the Display screen in the new GTR... so i showed him... and cranked it up and revved it up a little..... then he asked me to drive it to tech... so i actually got to drive the new GTR!...... it felt awsome... very solid.. he said later in the week i can take it out and womp on it a little.. so cant wait for that... it also feels really big when your driving it.. and looks really big when next to a normal sized sports car.... but all alone.. its really awsome looking....


we unloaded the car and set all the shocks to full soft.... also both swaybars were already disconnected..... we got inline for the wet skid pad and were 5th to start...... i didnt really know what to expect from the car... i know its a good handling car.. but usually a big heavy car or a dodge neon or something like that wins the wet skidpad... none of the faster of the group usually win....

well.. we won.... we pulled .921 Gs average over 4 laps.. 2 clockwise and 2 the other...... we are pretty stoked about this.. we couldn't have started better.... the car was awsome... had a nice neutral feel to it... and i was just as smooth as i possibly could be.....

Davia finished 5th... Popp did 7th... and the Viper was waaaay back in 30 something i think.. maby 40.....

so then we hit the road to Road America... we went though horrible construction work on horrible roads.... then horrible construction work on horrible roads in terrible Chicago traffic.... Then we did horrible roads in crapy construction in terrible Chicago traffic in a little bit of rain.....

so pulling up to Road America finaly around 2pm was nice... ive never been there and the facility is very cool.. and u could tell it was a heck of a track just by pulling into the paddock...i watched some vids the night before and i played it on Forza2..... the warmup lap i took in as much of the 4+ mile track that i could.... for us. this track we will do the worst at.. because ive never been there.. plus it has HUGE straights that dont help us at all compared to the 600+hp cars...... I did my best and i hope its a top 5.... we wont know till later tonight.....

we heading to Iowa now.. and i will try to post up some pics i took later tonight.....


scroll down for pics and texts on yesterday and testing.....

today we arrived at Tirerack...... Donnie picked me up at the hotel in his hauler.... its a HONKER.. as my dad would say....

Not a whole lot going on at Tirerack at first.. but the onelap guys slowly came in through the day..... and we got to see some of our competition.... some of the fast guys backed out last minute.. but we definatly have some serious competitors... like Davia of corse.. going for his 5th win in a row... Dodge factory entry with a Viper ACR and engine tuned by Hennessy..... Also Jon and Danny POPP in the Mongooses.. the car is a mid engine tube frame car.. its a racecar basicaly....

The car i wanted to see the most was the new Nissan GTR..... im a huge nissan fan.. esp Skylines...... So.. finaly.. after 4 years.. i get to see it... they were washing it inside tirerack getting it ready for a photoshoot in their HUGE photo studio...... Tony Swan the guy that works for Car&Driver is driving the car for the magazine for the week.. me and him were talking and he said to come in and take pics..... under the light of the photo stuff you can really see the awsome lines of the car..... its sick....

we stickerd up our GTR.. the FarnbacherLoles GTR.... not from Japan........ and teched it....... then hung out and took some pics..... Donnie knows one of the guys at Tirerack so he took us on a little tour... that turned out to be a complete tour of everything Tirerack you can imagine... it was cool.. but we were tired of walking after that.... so we packed up our stuff and headed out to the hotel....



freshly unloaded

Today we tested the car at CMP in Kershaw SC.... This is the first time ive drivin the car and was very happy how it went...... The GTR is alot of fun on the track..... unlike last year.. i didnt have anything to worry about while on the track... and could drive as hard as i wanted... the car has a nice feel on entry and mid corner.. the mid engine really helps here.... and then i was real easy to do a nice fun 2nd or 3rd gear slide exiting the corner... the brakes are ceramic so they work very well too... while they heat up they are kinda weird.. but once up to temp... they are also alot like the rest of the car.... 'verrryyyy niiiice.... yessssss...... i like.'

We managed some pretty good times at CMP on a very green track... as we were really the only thing on it the whole day and it had rained the 2 days before..... we did a 1:45.5 in full onelap trim while setting up the suspension...... we will get new tires for the event.. as the tires we were on started to get pretty bad...... i finished them off on the skip pad right nice....

The car ran flawless all day with no major problems... we got more then enough testing time and are looking froward to the event...

here are some pics....