# What I did last weekend



## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

GOOD TIME.










I went racing a Spec Racer Ford at VIR for the Double Regional weekend. I rented the car through Hagerman Race Engineering, who is one of the Spec Racer Customer Service Reps. It basically ends up working like you are a paid driver with a great team. You show up, the car is there, prepped and ready to go. You climb in adjust the belts and mirrors and go racing. They fix anything wrong, put gas in the car, check tire pressures and set them, and keep cold drinks and snacks around.

The very first time I drove one of these was up to the grid for the first qualifying session.  So my goal was to just learn the car and finish the two races over the weekend to maintain my SCCA competition license. First qualifying session I was about 13 seconds off the pole, but NOT LAST. The second session I was 2 seconds quicker, but the pole (and almost every one else) was 1 second slower. There was a third session that I ran and managed to have my head totally up my you know what. I spun on the out lap, I couldn't find gears, overall pretty bad.

But the good news is in the race I managed to do pretty well. My fastest race lap was about 3 seconds faster than my previous faster lap. :thumbup: I started 44th out of 45 cars, and managed to finish 33rd out of 40 finishers. :banana: I passed a couple of cars on track then passed a bunch while they were off the track and htey never caught me. Overall a very nice performance. I had a very nice dice with the 29 car for most of hte race, but couldn't quite pull the pass on him.




























Second race was UGLY.  GREAT start, I picked up some 5 - 7 cars on the start. Dicing nicely in pack, and manged to pass a car or two, then get passed, then pass. Then going into turn one a guy was passing me, and I was SO engrossed in what he was doing, that I didn't get enough of a blip for the 4 - 3 downshift and locked up the rear wheels, leading to an immediate 180. 

After that, it was a lapping day, I couldn't catch the pack in front of me, and nobody came from behind, so I just went around. Until I managed to spin in turn 1 AGAIN, all on my own. But I figured out, I was going faster on the straight, but trying to use the same braking point. :yikes: But I did finish on the lead lap, 35th out of 41 finishers. So it could have been worse.

The Spec Racer Ford is a spec class of a purpose built sports racers. Fully inboard suspension, disk brakes, etc. The cars run a 1.9 liter Ford engine and drivetrain (Escort). The engines are prepped by Roush Racing and are sealed. The tires are spec Yokohama tires, currently A008, changing to A048s this year. The rains are Yokohama A021 tires. The only suspension adjustments are alignment, ride height, and shock damping.

The cars are not overly powerful and fast, top speed at VIR is about 120 for a fast car. For reference, my E46 M3 is doing around 140 on street tires there. But the overal lap speeds are in the mid 80MPH range. So they do corner very well. Large fields mean having someone to race most of the time. And you can rent to try it out first.

The SRF community is a great bunch of people. Very helpful, fun to be around. Makes for a very pleasant weekend. Overall a fun time, and I will do it again.


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Wow ! Looks like real fun ! 

How much did you pay, if I may ask ?


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

:thumbup:

So did you get accustomed to the trailing-throttle oversteer? 

Those cars are indeed fun to drive. Big-time momentum machines.

I drove one before I had my Fiero Formula, which is kind of unfortunate. I learned a *lot* about mid-engine dynamics with the Fiero, and I would've been a lot more accustomed the SRF's handling characteristics and gone faster had it been after my learning experience.

The one I drove was actually Renault powered... should tell you how long ago that was!  I was slightly quicker than the owner of the car, who had raced them for about 2-3 years. He wasn't smiling as much after my practice-day stint, and in the subsequent race, he went a little quicker. Seems I pushed him a bit. 

But I was still 4 seconds off the top folks at Blackhawk in IL. But it wasn't all bad for my first 10 laps in the car.

They are definitely fun. 

Keep us posted if you do it again!


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## JonW (Jan 6, 2002)

Sounds like tons o' fun. Thanks for the writeup. :thumbup:


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## TGray5 (Jan 22, 2002)

Very cool...good job on first time out. Do you plan to do more SRF races or to buy one?


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## WILLIA///M (Apr 15, 2002)

That looks like so much fun. Thanks for sharing. :thumbup:


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## TeamM3 (Dec 24, 2002)

don't forget to tell them what it costs if you have impact incident  :eeps:


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## The Roadstergal (Sep 7, 2002)

Whoa, NICE.


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## Geo31 (Aug 2, 2003)

Outstanding!

Sounds like you accomplished your goals, had a blast, and didn't incurr additional (read repair) expenses.

SRF is a tough class. Lots and lots of competition and very hard fought.

Cool pix too!

Beats what I did this weekend (putting the cage in my 944).


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## berford (Sep 10, 2002)

Very cool!!! :thumbup:


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

Will I do it again? Absolutely.

Will I buy one? Probably 

How much for the weekend, a 3 day event was $2550. Adding a 4th day of practice would only have added $400. But the price includes everything except your gear, entry and lodging costs.

I used to autocross a Fiat 850 Spider so TTO is a way of life.  Not a big deal for me. Not hard to deal with. In fact I LIKE TTO. 

And if you ran one as a Sports Renault, it was a while ago.

As for collision costs, if you rent, you pay for parts and major repairs. Repairs at the track are labor free. And you get 10% off on parts. But these cars are STOUT. Once guy in our group went off between 10 and 11 (downhill to uphill leading into OakTree) and put it HARD into the tire wall to the left of the track. He was running the next day, and took at least 4th because he was in post race tech. He had to replace a few rear suspension pieces, some tape and pop riveted body repairs, and a radiator. He will probably end up replacing the rear body section, maybe the front depending on how much money he wants to spend.

Overall, much less damage than about anything else on the track that weekend.

But if you owned a car yourself, you would be facing the same costs.

Also several car to car contacts, again nothing major. One rear suspension arm and some body damage, not really much, so cracked fiberglass. And most of the cars I was around had the older body work which is mainly mat, rather than fiberglass fabric.


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## BahnBaum (Feb 25, 2004)

Nice write up and pics Terry. Looks like you had a blast!

Alex


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## scottn2retro (Mar 20, 2002)

Nice write up. I remember when we went to see Alex race my car at Laguna Seca and they had the Touring 2, some Showroom Stock classes and the SRFs all in the same run group  


Who took the pics for you - some nice shots :thumbup:


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## Randy Forbes (Apr 1, 2002)

Wow Terry! Glad you're having so much fun :thumbup:


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

It was GREAT fun. 

The pics are by two groups at the track shooting pics. Shoot to Thrill and F&S Enterprises. I got one made into a 12x18 poster for the garage, but bought all the shots of me on CDs.

Randy, get the Healy together and you can do it too. 

BTW Sam Strano remembers the two of you from a Challenge School in Peru.  HC should be INTERESTING.


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