Most liked posts in thread: RSR @ Trois Rivieres Aug 14-16 2009

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  1. Steve

    Steve Administrator
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    #2 Steve, Aug 4, 2009
    Good luck guys! I wish it was going to be televised, but I'll get the play by play from Grand Am.....not the same thing, but it'll have to do.
     
  2. rsstopper

    rsstopper New Member

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    #3 rsstopper, Aug 9, 2009
    GP3R

    Heading to Canada for the 'Gran Prix Trois Rivieres' on Wednesday morning.

    This will be the first race with the new engine package that Grand Am approved recently. They have allowed us to change the CAM and to add a modified RMW head.

    GP3R is a tight street course that is very tough on brakes. The cars should perform well there in the shorten event . . . only 90 minutes.

    NO TV COVERAGE.

    Randy
     
  3. Steve

    Steve Administrator
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    #4 Steve, Aug 9, 2009
    I remember wondering what might happen when I heard the Speed announcers say Grand-Am was thinking about giving something back to the MINIs. Here's hoping it helps you guys move up. Good luck!
     
  4. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #5 Nathan, Aug 9, 2009
    Can you tell us anything about the cam or head?

    Are these custom to the race car or an an off the shelf aftermarket part?
     
  5. Mike

    Mike New Member

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    #6 Mike, Aug 9, 2009
    Yes, inquiring minds want to know.

    BTW my daughter and I cheer for the RSR MINIs whenever we catch them on TV - congrats on the power bump! You guys will be on the podium very soon.
     
  6. rsstopper

    rsstopper New Member

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    #7 rsstopper, Aug 9, 2009
    Engine Mods

    They are off the shelf.

    Here is the reasoning . . . .The engine is lacking in high end horsepower. As many have noted . . . we are the best in the turns but get killed on the straights . . . as much as 15 mph slower. At Lime Rock we went from 1st to 6th in the last 20 minutes as we got picked off on the main straight. Same problem at Barber. We could have won at Barber with a little top speed. If you watched the TV coverage, we won the corners.

    Grand Am is allowing us to add HP to help the high speed disadvantage. The CAM we will use pushes the power up the RPM curve.
    However . . . take note, they added 100lbs of weight!!

    The idea (hope it works!) is to hurt us where we are good and help us where we are bad. We lobbied for this plan because YOU CAN"T PASS IN THE TURNS. We are checked up in the tight stuff where we can't take advatage.

    We will see at Miller in September. This change will make little difference at GP3R.

    Randy
     
  7. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #8 Nathan, Aug 9, 2009
    Interesting, add a little speed down the straight but have to work a litle harder in the corner.

    Hope it pays off....

    Looking forward to the results.
     
  8. goaljnky

    goaljnky New Member

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    #9 goaljnky, Aug 9, 2009
    Just got my copy of Roundel from BMWCCA. Great pick of you guys running with the back hatch open for a few laps at Lime Rock. :ihih: The down force must've been great.
     
  9. rsstopper

    rsstopper New Member

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    #10 rsstopper, Aug 9, 2009

    One of the Honda's tagged us in the back pretty hard, popping the hatch open. It was funny to see but they called us to the pit for repair. Cost us quite a few positions . . .

    I'll check my copy of Roundel for the Picture . . . Thanks!
     
  10. goaljnky

    goaljnky New Member

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    #11 goaljnky, Aug 9, 2009
    No prob. Good to see you guys out there duke it out. Wish there was a little more TV coverage then there is.
     
  11. mini_racer

    mini_racer Well-Known Member

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    #12 mini_racer, Aug 10, 2009
    No coverage at all, come on. How about on-line streaming coverage, doesn't have to be high res, SD is fine. We'll take it.

    Oh, and what cam did you say you are going to run?
     
  12. Steve

    Steve Administrator
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    #13 Steve, Aug 14, 2009
    Out of 20 runners, results were good during the first practice session (P3, P7 & P10) but even better in the second - practice 2 results:

    #198 - Burrows/Hopwood - P3
    #196 - Buford/Trinkler - P4
    #197 - Smalley/Trinkler - P6

    Quali is tomorrow morning (8:20 EST) and the race is in the afternoon (1:30 EST).

    Go RSR!!!
     
  13. Steve

    Steve Administrator
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    #14 Steve, Aug 15, 2009
    Quali results:

    P1 - #196 - Buford/Trinkler
    P5 - #198 - Burrows/Hopwood
    P14 - #197 - Smalley/Trinkler

    That's right, 196 is on pole!
     
  14. rsstopper

    rsstopper New Member

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    #15 rsstopper, Aug 17, 2009
    GP3R Wrap up

    Bad luck continues to haunt the team.

    8th place for the #198. Trevor had a catastrophic tire failure on the last lap sending him into the wall at turn 8. The car suffered extensive damage. He was less than 1/2 a mile from the checkered flag. He and Adam both had inspired drives only to be trashed by a blow out. Hoosier has the tire and wheel to find out what happened.

    11th place for the #196. This was a real heartbreaker. Owen put the car on the pole and started from position one. He led the race for 39 laps. At the driver change, when Jade took the seat, the seat track jammed. Jade could not get the seat to move forward. After a minute of battling the seat slider, he strapped in and drove the car with his toes. After the race we found the lower right seat buckle had twisted on the mount and jammed into the right side track. This has never happened ever! We are still puzzled as to how and why it twisted. The 1.5 minute stop took the car out of the battle for the lead.

    19th place for the #197. The 197 was designated as the sprint car. The plan was for Owen to start the 196 with a quick driver change and then take over the 197. The 197 has all the new RMW engine modifications and was a rocket ship. The car suffered with shifting problems all weekend putting it 14th on the grid but it started the race with a new transmission, clutch and complete shift linkage. We were feeling good!

    Unfortunately, I only completed a single lap. A rookie Canadian driver over cooked turn one and tagged me on the right rear corner. I was spun into turn two where the car was struck hard by the Turner BMW. Both cars were were retired with extensive damage. Our car is bad . . . Turner's car is worse. No comment about the driver who caused this . . . but, he took out two season regulars causing thousands of $$ of damages. This was their 1st Koni race with no plans to enter any more. Grand Am missed the incident and no penalties were assessed . . . they ended up 15th, three laps down and were never in contention.:mad5::mad5:

    We did leave the race on a high note in spite of the unlucky results. The new engine package was encouraging. All three cars were fast. The handling problems from Mid Ohio are behind us. We are looking forward to Miller in September.

    Randy
     
  15. Steve

    Steve Administrator
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    #16 Steve, Aug 17, 2009
    Thanks for the report Randy. I thought about posting some raw results info but couldn't explain a few very odd looking things I saw while watching live timing.....now I know why.

    I was so interested in what Owen could do starting from pole that for a while I missed the 197 dropping out. I saw the Turner car going nowhere like you were and knew there had to be a connection, but of course had no way of knowing there was another car involved (though I suspected as much).

    I'm surprised to read the 197 was the upgraded car. With only quali results to go by I assumed it was the 196, and then when Owen managed to keep the lead for 39 laps (!!!!) I was sure of it! Then later all I could tell was that the driver change must have taken a long time and then Jade was so oddly off the pace. Could have been any number of issues.

    The other mystery was what happened to Trevor on the last lap. Based on the rapidly closing gap to the car behind him I figured he was in danger of being passed, but that couldn't possibly explain the way he ended up classified a lap down.

    Lady luck really hasn't been friendly lately, eh?
     
  16. minispeedrcr

    minispeedrcr New Member

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    #17 minispeedrcr, Aug 17, 2009
    I was watching on live timing and scoring, so hard to figure out what's going on. Sorry you had such bad luck. Sucks to get punted in the first corner. Hope you guys can get the damage fixed easily.
    See you at Miller for NASA
    Vince
     
  17. Steve

    Steve Administrator
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    #18 Steve, Aug 17, 2009
    Hey Vince. I've been trying to find more info on the USTCC series but much of the official website isn't as useful as it could be. The schedule says there should have been a race at Mid Ohio this weekend. Can't find any results info though. Did you run?

    Also, I see you talking about meeting up with Randy at Miller but the USTCC schedule says Miller 10-13 Sep (as does the NASA schedule) while the Grand-Am schedule says 18-20 Sep. Is there an overlap I'm missing? Sorry to quiz you.....just trying to keep up.:Thumbsup:
     
  18. rsstopper

    rsstopper New Member

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    #19 rsstopper, Aug 17, 2009
    I am bringing my R56 Factory Challenge car to The NASA Championships. I will race USTCC, GTS and PTC. Our plan was to race two of the GA R53's in the USTCC as well but that's in doubt because of the two damaged cars at GP3R.:(

    Randy
     
  19. Steve

    Steve Administrator
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    #20 Steve, Aug 17, 2009
    Now I get it.

    Very sorry to hear about the carnage. Newton's laws (etc) trip us all up from time to time, but Newton never said anything about the affects of rookies tempting fate.

    Not to get too far ahead of you, but it looks like you run the full course at VIR. I've been on the south course which is a lot of fun in a MINI, but the full course seems like it would be a bit less MINI friendly. I suppose that's one of the tracks where you have high hopes for the new power bump, yes?
     
  20. minispeedrcr

    minispeedrcr New Member

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    #21 minispeedrcr, Aug 17, 2009
    Hey Steve, yeah the USTCC site is a little lacking on updates. They are trying to have an east coast series to match the west coast with a meet up at miller for both. I just run the west coast races. I'll be at miller and run in the USTCC and I'm going to run GTS3 and get clobbered but I'll get a lot more track time.
     
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