Hey Mike;
Here’s the result from today! We were fastest in class in Qualifying and set a new AWD Time Attack Qualifying record!!!  Which means we beat ACP in his full house AMS NOS energy drink Evo. ACP is a good friend of mine, and it makes it sweeter.

Here are some nice pics of the car at speed. Thanks Mike, we are very happy, we just have to get through the big day on Sunday.

I asked Jeff about his suspension:

My suspension is Ohlins coilovers with my spec springs by Swift. We spent two days at a test center dialing the suspension in Australia, and then ran that at the Mt Buller Hillclimb event in Australia, which is the setting we are using now, so you could say we spent 4 days and many $1000s dialing the suspension and geometry in, and all focused on Pikes.Even sweeter of course is we are tormenting the AMS guys! All for RRE, of course, in the line of duty… ha ha.

Jeff

I think the ACP car (AMS) is running on a stock motor right now after all the motor problems this week. Tomorrow is a day off I think and they might have time to get some of their power back.

Mike W

Today we were at the very top of the hills, practicing on the last 3- 3.5 miles. Mostly very loose gravel, but very very fast! This is where we have to compromise with our lines, and hope there will be a good dusting on the race line on race day. The Kumhos are holding up, even on the gravel sections, at times, with the right dusting some of the gravel road has as much grip as tarmac. We shall see.

The yellow Mini is an all girl team that are fun to be around. They’re giving it a shot, and a good one as well. Rhys stopped half way through the practice stage with a problem, on the previous run his guys were trying to source a ‘glitch’ via data log, but I guess they didnt find it.

We also had a casualty today, the white ex-prodrive Sti (GC8) rolled on one of the fast down hill sections into a hairpin. Car looks worse than it is, but will be an easy fix! We’ve offered to go around and assist with hammers, which I think we will have to do. He is in our class, but we need the competition, if for nothing else, to justify us being here.

The speeds on the gravel were very fast! I never look at my speedo, EVER! But Merlin (Dave Hinde our Ecu guy) asked what speed we were pulling, now I hate speed so I never look at what the speedo is saying, but this time I decided to sneak a peak at speed, and it confirmed why I never want to look. Going around a left hander, sliding, setting the car up for the exit, I run down the next hill full throttle upshifting, the car is squirrily and moving around a fair bit on the Kumho V710s, I take a peak as I reach the very point I need to brake it the speedo is past 120mph (200kph+) I then have to slow the car down for a fast but treacherous right hander which I swing the car through with a small flick.

Then on the way back I found we were all going quite rapid back to the start to do another (of 4 total) timed run, 3 of us travelling together hitting 100mph switching between the tarmac and gravel.

Oh, almost forgot, I was standing there after the drivers meeting, which took place at 5am, keeping Cath warm, and chatting to the BMW boys, when this hooded figure walks up and walks into me, I knew someone was playing games and pulled the hood off to reveal my old buddy Andrew Comrie-Picard (ACP to the world), it was a great surprise seeing him again, and tonite we shall catch up on lots of missed drinks. Tomorrow’s Blog entry will n doubt be all about how I should stop drinking and how Im having trouble focusing because I’ll be hung over and that I promise to never drink again.

Andrew runs and evo 8 as well, but highly modded with carbon, well, everything. He’s a great competitor too, although he’s not in our class. It’s going to be fun having him around.

I love Pikes Peak, I can see now why it is such a drug for a lot of people!

One thing I can tell you is the Media is very thick on the ground at all Practice points. So much so they actually stand on the road with their video camera, even on the apexes, but it’s a little hard to say ‘apex off camera man’, it wont be good if he isnt there the next run.

As you can imagine being up the top of this huge mountain before sunrise gives an awesome view of the sun arriving for the day! The air is fresh and chilly, the head spins come and go when you get out of the car for a walk.

Videos will be loaded later today, all of which were taken by Cat’s mom, Michelle, who has been terrific to have around. Check out the cute navigator in the bottom pic!

The shot third from the bottom is Rhys Millen’s animal! This car will be taking the record! My fav shot is the first one (what, not the one with my car in it??) with the sunrise over the eastern US seaboard, and the trucks and guys standing on the edge of the road. ‘Majestic’ comes to mind.

Till next time

Well, the time had come to prove we are capable of reading, and we went into drivers’ registration, handed over all the docs, and copies of everything, and got signed off! Next it was over to scrutineering and tech inspection, which also went very smoothly. Right behind us was Monster Tajima’s car. What a machine that is! No photos give it justice.

Scrutineering done, Drivers briefing done, Rookie briefing done. Fuel canisters filled, evo filled, alignment (basic) done, Kumho tyres mounted and balanced and done.

Tomorrow we get up at 2:30 am and head off for first practice. Let me show you some of the cars that ran through tech today. Enjoy these pictures, and check out these evos that are running.

 

Well, we got out of bed, just, had waffles and coffee and headed out on the ‘road trip’ to our destination: Pikes Peak.

What a drive. Sometimes boring, sometimes incredibly spectacular! Check the shots in these photos, although these were done with a camera phone, they have come out quite good. From boring open deserts and fields to some beautifully rugged terrain.

The climb to our final altitude was a long and slow one, but all good, and at times we climbed to over 11,500 feet and finally, Colorado, which is actually on a very high plateau that sits about 6500-7000 feet. We did find ourselves gasping at times for deeper breaths of air.

We are now in Colorado springs which will be our home for the next 10 days. Tomorrow we clean the evo, confirm our order for our E85 race fuel, check out Pikes Peak for a pre-recce, and start to get things in order for the event.

More importantly, we are here, and time to finally relax, maybe sleep in, and get into the time zone and altitude. One thing that came to mind driving along looking up at the huge rock monoliths that skirt the highway that runs along parts of what seems to be the Grand Canyon are these beautiful and huge and majestic and imposing rock formations was ‘it’s bigger than you’, if you get that at all.

JD

Well, we’ve been to the top a few times now, writing our notes and then checking them. The bottom starts twisty and fast, with bumpy tarmac, then it goes to fast hard ‘dirt’ that will seem like tarmac when driving on it, then back to proper tarmac, then onto full gravel dirt, which may well have a line with most of the gravel brushed off by the time we run on it.

Our first recce when we got to the top of the hill, we got out and walked around and went inside the shop they have there, and Cath immediatley almost fainted from lack of oxygen. We ended up seeing the EMT’s service quite a few people, and even saw one rushed back down to the bottom, thrown into an ambulance and whisked away.

The road is forever changing, it was changing just between recces. Getting to the apexes is the #1 key for us, accuracy is tantamount. Speed will come.

Will add more images and details later. Keep safe.

We got our new Kumho tyres delivered, and put them in the room, once we put them in the corner I stood back, and suddenly I felt right at home, tools, helmets, tyres, all next to the bed – ahhhh, really is just like home.

And then the sticker guy showed up to install the numbers on the doors of the evo. We need these on to go through tech inspection tomorrow, and better if a pro installs them.