Hoosier Tire US Fomula First Rounds 7-8 - Road America

[jsteeb]

Whew! I think I finally caught my breath.

Having never done an entire lap of Road America in anything other than a computer car, God certainly helped me out with a bucket full of beginner's luck this weekend! I think I learned most of the shifting points from watching Rob's videos and following the guys around in the first Quali. Even got a few pointers from my dad and a friend who has plenty of iRacing laps at this place (not to mention years and years of race engineering). All of which turned out to be spot on!

I have to admit. I had a lot more fun than I was expecting. I thought the long straights would make RA pretty boring, but with all of the drafting, passing and weaving... boring is not the word I would ever use. Not mention how much fun the entire track is. Most of the corners are similar, but have there own personality. 14 was giving me fits all day Saturday, but following that yellow car through there so much finally helped it click (I think).

After watching Rob's video, I can't believe all of the moving around and drafting! There was more 3-wide racing than I thought. All of it was good clean racing though, and it sounds like that was the case throughout the entire field.

There were a couple of moments Sunday I feel kind of bad about tho... I almost take Bill and myself out following Doug to closely into T1 and over reacting on the brakes. I might have chopped Rob pretty hard going into T6 too (after Dave passed me). Sorry about that guys.

Since Rob had technical trouble, here is my view of Sunday's race. Sorry for the picture quality near the end of the vid. I thought I was in a James Bond movie dodging oil slicks!

http://vimeo.com/27763777

Can't wait for Mid-Ohio!!!!

Jason

[Doug FST 5]

My bad! Sorry about the valve cover gasket! It looked great when I adjusted the valves Sunday morning. All was good in qual.... Stuff happens....

Doug FST 5

[stvstb]

Doug, I was in the bleachers at 5 and there were people up there dressed in your shirts warning me that if the oil slick / smokescreen didn't work - the ROCKET LAUNCHERS were probably hooked up for this race! So when Jason got by - I was frightened... GOOD TIMES! And fun racing in the Spectator area as well! What a show.

[jsteeb]

LOL... I was thinking to myself... "Doug's getting me back for my Blue Angels impression at Mid-O last year."

I'm just glad you didn't run out of smoke. We were having too much fun! Plus, it's really expensive to put the smoke back in the motor!

No worrries dude.

PS....where do you guys mount the rockets? I was trying to find a place for them, but I couldn't get them to package.

[Doug FST 5]

In the frame tubes - fit great.

The cool thing is the button that flips the roll bar number.

Watched the vid again - anyone catch the species of the bird that flew out of Rob's car?

Doug FST 5

[teamclark]

It was a Kiwi of course!!!

(reminder to self.... edit all wildlife out of future video's....oh damn that leaves two minutes of footage per race...)

[Doug FST 5]

"The brown head studs circulating around us aren't too good"....

The FST community has solved this one but the engine we ran at RA had the soft studs in it. One popped and that's what killed all the 'skeeters. Only bright side? The last two races were in Michigan so I could have been arrested for killing the state bird.....

..apologies to Wavy Gravy For the quote...

Doug FST 5

[rgu]

With all the symbolism and allegory floating around what Doug is really saying here is he broke a head stud. Valve cover gaskets were doing their job.

Buy the good head studs or you'll be unpopular!