Special thanks...from a noob!

[Maddog]

Wow, what a fun season it turned out to be. Met a bunch of new motorheads, and had a great time breaking things.

As a rookie, I was always looking for guidance so not to look like a complete noob (and I hope I succeeded), and everyone was always accomodating. Special thanks to Peter Lines for the support, guidance, and information (and some parts :) ) this season.

Thanks to all the CASC, organizers, volunteers, & sponsors that fund & put these events together so that I can enjoy this hobby.

Back in 2006 I attended a Autoslalom school put on by HADA. Back then I had my 86 Camaro Z28 which was putting out about 375 HP. John Paczynski was one of my instructors, and after a couple of the different exercises he kept nagging me; "You should be in SoloSprint with this car." Then at a Regional Solo2 event later that year, again I hear; "You should be in SoloSprint with that car.". Fast forward 3 years, here I am. Thanks John for making sure I'm never out of debt again. ;)

Goals for next year:
->Read the rule book every week over the winter to gather every edge I can find
->Maximize, maximize, maximize
->Lose another 50 lbs off the car
->Lose another 50 lbs off my fat ass :rolleyes:
->Never get prepositioned by GT1 again :p
->Make every event
->Avoid a divorce

Thanks again everyone for a great season. I'll be attending the banquet so I'll probably be seeing some of you again shortly.

Looking forward to 2010....with bigger tires. :D

[SmokeScreen]

Just like Ray (aka Maddog) my thanks and appreciation list as a noob is very similar. This is my first and by no means last year in legal, organized motorsports, and the amount of stuff I have learned is amazing. A year ago I did not know all the things I didn't know. Now I know just how ignorant I really am, but encouraged to keep at it. So a special thanks is in order to all the series sponsors, event organizers and volunteers who make it possible for people like us to go out and have what has turned out to be more fun than I ever imagined. I would also like to thank my club, OMSC for welcoming me and making me feel at home and the advise, guidance, support and encouragement from everyone but in particular to Rick Arbour, Bruce Gray, Dr Dave Barker, and of course Peter Lines.
To all the class winners and overall champions and to my fellow competitors in SoloSprint who I met this year thanks and congratulations on a great season. To all of you whom I spun out in front of I owe you a thanks and a sorry. Thanks for not hitting me, and sorry for spinning and possibly ruining what could have been a great lap for you weather it was in practice or competition:o.
Looking forward to next year.

[bsclywilly]

Thanks for a great first season also.

It was an exciting weekend for me after breaking a hub on Saturday and having to drive back to TO for a replacement steering knuckle and axle. Thanks especially to David Mark for the spare parts and Riann, Bram, and Krispy for helping with the install, oh and Jay for the supervising :D edit:And Paul for all the tools and Shane for the tow!

Also thanks to Wes for loaning his R888 for some CCC tire testing purposes. More on that in another thread... but basically the difference on SMP Long was 1.0s for my best time or about 1.2s taking the average of my 3 best times.

[RRRex]

^^ Great season Will! Nice comeback. Think the pit support and strategies shared really brings the competitiveness up for everyone and are really what makes this sport great.

[sti_schumacher]

i second all the good stuff thats been said :D big thanks to SoloSprint sponsors, organizers, volunteers, and instructors that make it all possible. i also want to thank fellow competitors for all the help, insight, and challenge. special thanks to Paul McFadden for letting us destroy his tires yesterday :o and Brad Merkel who helped me get a non-corded set of rubber on the car, making my last session worthwile :D

its been a great year, the car performed surprisingly well considering the double-duty factor. really impressed. definitely coming back next year (hopefully to a class where Crispy isn't ;)).

really interested to see what happens if the tire rule isn't changed :p

-alexei m.

[Dave Barker]

Glad you guys had a good time and are thoroughly hooked. Feel free to tell your friends to come and join us. Given the way things worked out on the long track at SMP, we could have handled another 15 drivers easily and still got 4 runs in. Once the grid order is set , we could have run 12 cars per run group no problem. (I had forgotton how BUSY a track the full track at SMP is.)

Did you guys notice all the very nice machinery that showed up for evening alligator lapping after us on Sunday?

What would we need to do to attract a few of them over to our series?

A number of them were on R compounds and some were wearing helmuts.:eek:

Are we too "hard core" for those guys? Obviously budget is not an issue for many of them.

[Venom]

Thanks for a great first season also.

It was an exciting weekend for me after breaking a hub on Saturday and having to drive back to TO for a replacement steering knuckle and axle. Thanks especially to David Mark for the spare parts and Riann, Bram, and Krispy for helping with the install, oh and Jay for the supervising :D edit:And Paul for all the tools and Shane for the tow!

Also thanks to Wes for loaning his R888 for some CCC tire testing purposes. More on that in another thread... but basically the difference on SMP Long was 1.0s for my best time or about 1.2s taking the average of my 3 best times.

You are welcome, glad eveything worked out for you;)

[Chris P]

....special thanks to Paul McFadden for letting us destroy his tires yesterday :o....

Considering what he thinks of R888's I would bet he got joy from the death of those tires :D

[DT Racer]

Re Maddog goals list - LoL - you should be writing for Lettermans top 10 :D

Ditto thanks for all the hard work and support from the clubs and individuals who work hard to put the season on and all the racers that make it so enjoyable and fun to be out playing. Special thanks again to Scott Murfin for lending me the 'Scottmobile' so many times this year. Now I have the winter to get ready so we can get the twins out together in 2010 :rolleyes:

See everyone at the banquet :)

Ford

[Cap'n Pete]

Patrick (SmokeScreen) - BIG THANK YOU for letting me run your car yesterday! That was very cool of you. It's frustrating to put so much work into putting a car onto the track, just to have a stupid part fail (fuel pump) and almost ruin the season (points). Now I got the opportunity to see why it's so hard to compete against the 'Vettes, and you got the opportunity to see the potential your car has! :)

Ray (Maddog) - excellent job this year, leading your class in points in your novice year!!! :eek: Glad to see another F-body out there holding its own. Now that you've had the season to see what the car will/not do, and what does/not last, you know how to prepare for next year ;). Thank you as well for offering to let me use your car yesterday after mine died.

To everyone else this year, thanks for making my first year as Registrar "not too painful"!! :D Good news is, I intend to stay on for at least another season, UNLESS somebody else would like to have all the glory???????? ;) It certainly is quite a bit of work (way moreso behind the scenes than on the day of) but it feels good to help out.

Looking forward to next season already!!!!!!

[Ytzman]

Thanks for a great first season also.

It was an exciting weekend for me after breaking a hub on Saturday and having to drive back to TO for a replacement steering knuckle and axle. Thanks especially to David Mark for the spare parts and Riann, Bram, and Krispy for helping with the install, oh and Jay for the supervising :D edit:And Paul for all the tools and Shane for the tow!



I still can't believe you guys let me use a grinder on a critical part like that while I was 5 or 6 deep and in the dark to boot!:D
although, I do tend to do some of my best work after a few:rolleyes:

Glad I could help you kick my ass!:o

[sti_schumacher]

Are we too "hard core" for those guys? Obviously budget is not an issue for many of them.

i'm pretty sure most of them think so. i've been to those lapping days, and most of it is pure show and "my car is faster than yours" bull$hit IMO... but if more competitors will help the series, who cares ;)

the best way to get people hooked is information - they hear the word "competition" and suddenly its a whole different ball game. for them to join they need to know that they dont have to have a built race car to come out to the events. the best place to start informing is car make-specific forums.

[nissannx]

i'm pretty sure most of them think so. i've been to those lapping days, and most of it is pure show and "my car is faster than yours" bull$hit IMO... but if more competitors will help the series, who cares ;)

the best way to get people hooked is information - they hear the word "competition" and suddenly its a whole different ball game. for them to join they need to know that they dont have to have a built race car to come out to the events. the best place to start informing is car make-specific forums.

An informal advertising campaign. I post up about the competition on a few boards - but most have never heard of it.
Grassroots promotion is key.

[SmokeScreen]

Pete, it was neat to see my car dance with a partner who knows the moves. After all the effort you put into things and to see something go sour right at the end of the season really bothered me. Glad you liked it, besides, now I get to tell folks my car was third fastest Sunday. That likely won't happen again for a while unless only two other cars show. When I tell people about it they look at me funny and say "you let someone beat you in your own car? What's wrong with you?" Answer is simple, Chris P's time vs my time already set my points, anything in between makes no difference to me, unless Pete was going beat his time, then I would be toast and maybe the car too:eek:.

I think sti_shumacher is right about the gang that showed up afterwards, I know some people like that that think they and their car is awesome, but do not want the stopwatch to say otherwise. I am trying to convince those I know to come out and participate, even my wife I took for a few laps at Mosport GPT and she loved it, offered to take her out during competition Saturday on Fabi but she chickened out at the last second. She understands now why I do it though, which makes life easier for me :D.

My goal for next year is do better than I did at each track over this year, that's it, oh and to be able to drive the car home.

[Cap'n Pete]

Pete, it was neat to see my car dance with a partner who knows the moves. After all the effort you put into things and to see something go sour right at the end of the season really bothered me. Glad you liked it, besides, now I get to tell folks my car was third fastest Sunday.
It was ALMOST second!!! :eek: I had Brad by 2 tenths!! ..... but then he went and pulled a rabbit from a hat, and got me by ~3 hundredths! :o

..... if only I had one more session myself ;) .....

..... ah, next year .....

:D

At the end of the day though, I'm still pretty impressed. Considering I only had ~3 b.s. laps in my car in practise (with no brakes, a failed front hub, and a pooched fuel pump) on the Long track that I'd never run before, then went and jumped into your car and only did 8 laps with it ..... I could have done much worse than 3rd! :)

[Salmaan]

It was a great season and definitely blew away all my expectations. It's rare to find such a good mix of competition and co-operation!

A big thanks to the event organizers and volunteers for bustin their butts and missing some seat time just to keep this thing running.

Also want to put out a special thanks to all the people who so freely shared their track wisdom, especially when some of them were competing with me. It really does say a lot about the spirit of competition here, everyone wants to see each other grow and that forces the bar to be constantly raised!

Looking forward to being back next year, less heat in the brakes, less grass in the chassis, oh and I plan to keep the same airbags for the whole season too! :D

[Cap'n Pete]

Great work out there this year, Salmaan! :) Did you hang onto the class win for the season? That'll make for, I believe, THREE class winners that are all novices!! :eek: (yourself, Ray, and Will). Good job boys!!

Also, I think congrat's are in order to ChrisP, for taking the overall championship (yet again?!?) in his Z06 :cool:. Go team Chevy!!! :D

[IanO]

Great work out there this year, Salmaan! :) Did you hang onto the class win for the season? That'll make for, I believe, THREE class winners that are all novices!! :eek: (yourself, Ray, and Will). Good job boys!!

We'd know the answer to this if the results were posted :D (Hey, someone had to say it.)

[ADAM]

lS6 POWAHHH for the win....

[thgear]

lS6 POWAHHH for the win....

you didnt win anything :rolleyes:

[Cap'n Pete]

you didnt win anything :rolleyes:
He also doesn't have an LS6 ;).

[thgear]

He also doesn't have an LS6 ;).

you dont know that ;)

[Cap'n Pete]

you dont know that ;)
Chris was A LOT further ahead of me than Adam ever was ... I'm pretty sure he's just got the measely ol' LS1 :p.

[ADAM]

you will know when I upconvert the Ls1 to a LS6..it will be posting FTD's all the time

[a_ahmed]

LS7 :cool:

[jonweir]

LS7 :cool:

Who's gonna bring the 1st LSX?

[a_ahmed]

Don't forget a rear mounted twin turbo setup :rolleyes: :D

[Cap'n Pete]

Who's gonna bring the 1st LSX?
You mean the LSX block? Typically, LS"X" refers to any form of LS_ engine, but there is an "LSX" block available, upon which you can build pretty much ANYTHING you want! :D

While we're on the LSX subject, how about an LS9? ;) ... ~640HP, supercharged ... and has a 160k warranty :).

[ADAM]

that might be a bit overkill :)

I think 405-500rwhp would be enough

[jonweir]

http://www.gmperformanceparts.com/EngineShowcase/index.jsp?engId=LSX&engine=LSX&sku=19166454&engCat=ls

Built to handle 2500 HP....

You mean the LSX block? Typically, LS"X" refers to any form of LS_ engine, but there is an "LSX" block available, upon which you can build pretty much ANYTHING you want! :D

While we're on the LSX subject, how about an LS9? ;) ... ~640HP, supercharged ... and has a 160k warranty :).

[ADAM]

wow they list the Ls7 at $19,000

thats nuts....

5k in a Ls1 can outpower that Ls7 easy

[Venom]

that might be a bit overkill :)

I think 405-500rwhp would be enough

I ran 450RWHP/460RWTQ (500 at the drag strip) on the track for a bit and a tq curve as flat as a plateau peaking at under 3000rpm...

Trust me THAT was not enough, we need atleast 600 to the wheels...:D

[a_ahmed]

Rear mounted twin turbo, do it.

[Cap'n Pete]

Rear mounted twin turbo, do it.
Don't tempt Adam ... he doesn't need any more motivation to do crazy stuff than he's already got!!! :rolleyes: :p Next thing you know, he'll be mounting the turbos to the roof of the car!!! :D

[a_ahmed]

Well he DOES own 'www.turbo240sx.ca' it's only a natural predicament of the future ;)

The man went from KA to KA-T to the awesomeness of the NA LS V8, now there is only one thing left to do ;) Rear mounted twin turbo, good weight distribution, unlimited POWAAH, happy out of control racing!

:cool: