RUSSOM

iTrader: (4)

Hey guys, I had an opportunity to run a couple of legs of this legendary haul and it was a blast, but the icing on the cake was definitely the autocross sponsored by Ridetech when the tour stopped in Birmingham. Although the GS is my DD, it was my plan B car for the tour, but when the attraction for the day was an autocross I had to jump at the opp. to see how all of my new suspension upgrades would do against the over 200 cars that were competing.

My first run in the Lexus had me positioned only 1/2 sec off the current FTD (fastest time of the day) at the time. An older man that saw me make the run, stepped over to ask a few questions and then said, "Hey, you wanna drive my car and I'll ride with you so I can see what you're talking about?" He was driving a new C6 ZO6, I didn't turn him down. With one quick pass we were in 2nd place behind the Ridetech Camaro, called Velocity.

Here's a link to details about the Camaro:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...AcP78Aarl_WMCg

Well feeling pretty good about things and especially after we learned that Ridetech was throwing money at the first 3 positions, not including their "company cars", we decided to go for it in the Z and split whatever we made if we made it. A little while later they were trying to position a winner in a musclecar and ruled that "race" tires were out and expanded this to say anything under a 200 treadwear rating. So the brand new 2010 Porsche GT3 was out, even on his OE tires (treadwear 60). I said oh crap what's on the Z? I ran back and luckily the new Michelins the guy installed just before the trip were 220 so we were good there, everything was in place for a solid run at the thing and when we stopped for lunch we finally had a chance to walk the course. After finding some places to drop time during our course walk we went out on our next run, with a passenger, and ripped off the FTD...period, faster than the Ridetech Camaro, GT3, everything. It was all in place for us to win the thing and then as they continued their positioning they asked if I owned the Vette, I said no and they said "it was not in the spirit of the event to drive someone else's car to victory" so I was DQ'd in the Z, but I could still run my own car so I ran over to grab the Lexus. I figured I'd give it a shot since my one run that morning was pretty competitive at that time, but a lot more fast cars had arrived since (they continued to accept registrations almost all day) so with my run next in the GS I secured a spot in the 10 car shootout they announced towards the end. After everything shook out I ended up 5th or 6th in the GS. Even though my position in the Lexus didn't put anything in my pocket the experience was awesome and knowing that even though I got DQ'd in the Z that I actually won in that car and money or not, that was a pretty neat deal. The more I thought about why they DQ'd me in the Z the more I really think they're just so used to winning in their Camaro and bowing out of the competition to award the first car that is not their own, that having a bone stock ZO6 on street tires beat their trophy cars wouldn't look so good so I backed off, I didn't argue it. We were having fun and we started the event not even realizing there was money it in anyway.

At the end of the day they gave the prize to the Scwartz Performance Tempest, here's a link to that car:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...O4L68AalkeCBCg

I actually had the Tempest beat leading into the shootout with the Lexus, but he came around me setting a time that put him behind the now DQ'd GT3, the Ridetech company cars, and the ZO6. I guess it was a similar feeling to the one that the Pitcher for Detroit had a couple of weeks ago. At least me and those that were watching when I ran the Z know who won. lol

Here's a pic of my car in the staging lanes:
http://doemasters.smugmug.com/Airpla...548_ZnfPe-A-LB

LEXUS_KID

iTrader: (4)

So cool