THE RED BEAST BLOGS:

Day 4 - Auto who? Autocross...

Sun, 3 May 2009 16:57:48 -0600

Turfway Park
The autocross event was a wake-up call for the Team TDC. After a slow first run, the beast came to life in the third run and scored a 00:47:237 seconds time good enough to raise us from the dead! Running 46th and moving up in the overall standings..

Day 3 - Round and Round we go where we end up nobody knows!

Sat, 2 May 2009 14:43:35 -0600

Tire Rack SB, IN
The wet skid pad at Tire rack’s HQ comprised of going around an 200-foot diameter circle twice in counter clockwise direction and turning around and doing the same thing in the clockwise direction. The objective is to go around the circles (which the surface is by the way kept wet by a constant stream of water sprayed onto the road) as fast as you can without spinning or loosing control of the car. The G-load is what gets calculated from the speed. I had no clue what I was doing!

Nick’s G-load: 0.649 - Third from the Bottom! AWFUL start....

Day 2 - The Prep

Fri, 1 May 2009 19:21:35 -0600

After 4 hours of sleep we are at the Tire Rack HQ in South Bend. Registration at 8:30 AM followed by mingling with other drivers and gawking at the race machines.

Day 1 - On the road that seems it will never end!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:37:18 -0600

The alarm rang at 4:15 AM and a sense of panic took over. I am going to be late for work! But wait a minute, I am not going to work. Its time to get up and do the last minute scramble to get it all packed in the M3 and hit the road. After three shots of Espresso and a 30 minute shower (fell asleep !) I was barely awake and alert to get in the car and refuel at the Evergreen Sinclair gas station. But wait the damn pump did not shut off and a gallon of gas spilled out of the tank! Off to the car wash and its now 7:30 AM. The jounrey begins....

8:30 AM - I call Rick and Loy and they are starting thier second leg (left yesterday afternoon) from Lincoln Nebraska.
Its 8:30, Tony and Sebastien don’t pick up their cells!

9:00 AM - Finally at 9 AM Tony picks up and informs me that team Lotus is getting ready to hit the road.

Mile 302 and we are in Nebraska. Its 11 AM...

Lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant at Lincoln Nebraska
Stopped for Coffee at Starbucks in Iowa City and drove till 4:30 AM and arrived at our destination in South Bend. God awful long ride....

To be continued...

Where it all Begins: Trip to South Bend Indiana

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:09:24 -0600

Ok, 16 hours of driving ahead of us. This is just to get to South Bend Indiana where the rest of the crazies will be hanging out at the Quality Inn University bar smoozing. We finally get to meet Brock! He is a legend..:-)

We plan to leave at 4:30 AM and drive our $%$^@ off to get there in 14 hours. According to Yahoo maps it should take 16 hours and 35 min if we don’t break the LAW! But what fun is that and hell I want to test that expensive V1 radar detector...

BTW, I should segway here and tell you about a local bet that three teams from Evergreen, CO have made in relation to this event. The teams of Tony/Sebastien (Lotus Elilise) and Ric/Loy (Boxter S) suffice it to say will be at the bar by the time we get there. The topic of discussion will no doubt be the bet made between us that the winner among the three teams will get to pose in a picture of their choosing and have the loosers (in this case teams Lotus and Boxter) hang up that pic in their living room / most visible place in their homes for a whole year! Now that hurts...