Am I the only ZR1 at the BBORR this year?

[threestar40]

Headed to Ft. Stockton on Tuesday.

I Hope to see a comrade there?

Anyone?

www.bborr.com (http://www.bborr.com)

Rick =)

[Kevin]

tell us more Rick. what class are you going to be in?

[threestar40]

tell us more Rick. what class are you going to be in?

I think It's called Grand Touring.

My tech speed is 140 and target speed is 125. Due to my lack of experience, they won't allow me to achieve the potential of my car and I respect them for looking out for me.

I believe I have the safety equipment to do 168.

The other thing is, in fifth, I'm bumping the rev limiter at 170 due to my 4:10's...

I know this from the texas mile.

So it's probably a good thing.

I don't know if sixth is up to it.

I have had a lot of fun getting the trailer ready.

Rick =)

[Kevin]

make sure you talk to curtis about BB

[bobbyhi]

Where the heck is Ft. Stockton:confused:

[Kevin]

texas. The same place that the world record run was done

[cward]

I feel sure Ted will be there in his Z. Probably several others too. I believe you are correct about class: 125 is in Grand Touring. And I think the 145 tech is correct, too. 4.10 gears are just fine in that class with that tech speed. I ran Super Sport one year with 4.10 gears 160 class and 180 tech. Not the correct gears for that speed. I ran 180 in 5th but I was turning lots of rpms. Just make sure you have very good tires and you should be OK. The rules have changed since I started ORR racing. My first time in 1999, I ran in Grand Sport 145 class, 160 tech. Next time you can move up some in class. However, 145 and 150 classes at BBORR at the Spring race are a fairly interesting classes (hard). Remember, the course record is only about 169. 130 up to 140 are more fun without have to try so hard. Tech for Grand Sport is now 165 I believe. Have fun and drive safe.

Curtis

[cward]

texas. The same place that the world record run was done

Same town, not same track.

Curtis

[Kevin]

Same town, not same track.

Curtis
That's what I meant, I should have been more clear in my post. I was hoping you'd pop into this post Curtis.

[Peaven]

Good luck Rick!:thumbsup: ...if things go well this year, I may try orr at Sandhills next year....just gotta make sure I budget for and obtain all of the proper equipment.:cheers:

[threestar40]

I am posting from my hotel room in Ft. Stockton, TX.

We had an exciting day today with the race. I felt like I almost killed myself and my instructor going through a sweeper a little too fast, I was able to drive through it, as I was taught, but, I take full credit for the screw up, the car would have stuck if I would have turned a little sharper.

The straights are a piece of cake at 140...I have to let off to avoid exceeding my tech speed...my car performs so well at speed...this is what it was built to do. Mary and I got in two 9 mile practice runs and I did four with the instructor as I basically failed the second return run. The lesson is if your in 5th and you let off, the car slows down a lot faster than when your in 6th...I like the control of 5th but the instructor advised me to watch my temps if I run the race in that gear. If there is an excuse, the first run was done in fifth and I had a feel for the car and didn't screw up, on the return run I put it in 6th on his advise and I had a lot less control and it showed... I think my mechanical stuff will be fine, so 5th is the gear I am choosing to run in. I know my motor can handle the RPM, 6th is fine for gas mileage and taking it easy, but it didn't feel right to me with less control. Also the car will stick a lot harder than I think it can or, in other words, the car can handle better than I think it will. For all those interested, I have the Rippie coil-overs, that I installed myself, and they felt awesome.

The road between Ft. Stockton and Sanderson is very challenging and beautiful. I'm eating at all the dive mexican restaurants in Ft. Stockton and Sanderson just like home...today I had the Mexican Plate at the No Name Cafe in Sanderson...it was better than Flores ;)
Only because it was different. Mary didn't like the the salsa, she said it tasted like all it had in it was tomatoes and black pepper...but that was fine with me of course, I loved it. All my prep on my trailer worked out well for us as we had no mishaps. One guy that came from Dallas told us a story that his caravan high centered a 'vette on the back of his trailer during loading and had two flats on the way here. I bought new tires and practiced a lot before taking my car on and off the trailer to avoid that very situation, but I still gotta Race and get home, I felt for the guy, he seemed nice.

Just finishing this race will be a pretty big accomplishment for me...I'll try to keep ya'll updated.

This was a paste from an e-mail to some of my "other friends" ;)

You could achieve the potential of your car at this race in the straights, but 140 with 4:10's and my experience level is about all I can handle.

The ZR1 feels awesome in everyway doing what it was built to do...even at 16 years of age.
It's not every day you get to do something like this. I highly recommend it if you have the means.

Curtis is always right on this one and I am still learning. I always appreciate his words and I hope I can help you all in the future with the experience I gain here should you decide to embark on this seriously dangerous and exhilarating form of racing.

Full Report to come.

Rick =)

[yellowz]

kevin
hope you payed better attebtion in college than ya do here or you aint never
going to grad e ate








:sign10:
peter

[Peaven]

Sounds like things went pretty well for you Rick, looking forward to your next report....good luck, keep the shiny side up.

[Z Factor]

Sounds like fun:thumbsup:

:cheers:

[cward]

Hi Rick,
Glad you are having fun. I always enjoyed my time at BB very much. You should be able to run in 5th gear with no worries about temps. You are not running that many rpms at 140. Are they holding practice on Hwy 285 or on Hwy 90 this year? I was interested in your description of your corner you attempted a little too fast. There is another pedal just to the left of the gas pedal called the brake pedal. It is not illegal to use it every once in a while. Just set your car up tight and it works just fine, even part way thru a corner. :-D I am just teasing you. If it felt like the rearend of the car wanted to come around when you let off in the corner, either raise the air pressure in your front tires or lower the pressure in your rear tires to tighten up your Z. You could have as much as 2 lbs difference front to rear. On the other hand, if you were turning and the car wanted to go straight, then the car is too tight and you do just the opposite on the tire pressures. That is what the practice is for, to adjust your car to get it where it feels good. Don't go too far though. You should be close to the recommended pressure for your tires. If recommended pressure is 33 lbs, then 31 to 35 is OK, depending on what you need. By the way, your instructor did you no good service telling you to run in 6th gear. You were way too low in rpm and had no power to make the car do what you needed. You can change the tightness of the car thru the gas pedal. Applying power in a corner tightens up the the car by putting more weight in the rearend and conversely, letting off applies weight to the front end and loosens the car up. I am sure you know all this, I am just reminding you. Remember to relax. Tell your navigator to remind you every few miles to relax. At those speeds, BB is a blast. Remember to have fun. If you are trying to win a trophy, remember to save a few seconds so you can get the car up to tech speed in the last 7 mile straight going north back to Ft. Stockton. If you are too far ahead on the clock, you can't do that. The last left hand corner at the end of the 7 mile straight is a fast corner and then a .9 mile straight to the finish. I have taken that last corner over 160 so you should be OK at any speed up to your tech. If you are not interested in winning a trophy, then it becomes much easier to just go out and have fun.

Please do me a favor, tell Don Preston (Red 90 ZR-1), Ted Zeleski (Black 90 ZR-1), Dabney Crump, and Mike Powers I said Hello.

Curtis Ward

[threestar40]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement Curtis,

I've already met Mike Powers and I'll try to catchup with the other guys tomorrow.

Survived another day in the beautiful Big Bend, Did the McDonald Observatory today and it was pretty awesome. If you don't do the tour there, it would suck. I saw the third largest telescope in the world today!

Unbelievable...80 tons steel on an air bearing with only 25 psi to lift it.
It's an amazing place.

Rick =)

[Jeffvette]

Thanks for the updates Rick. This is one of the events I've been meaning to do. I may not do it in the Z, but the race car. It's more prepared for the higher speeds.

[threestar40]

Well, I just got back from the car show.

All I have to say is, man alive, the c6 Z06's seemed like a dime a dozen here. A couple of snakes keeping a low profile and I was the only ZR1.

1 ferrari (sp. ?)
:sign10: I crack myself up.

There were a few 911's One very cool saturn sky (turbo ecotec) a couple of very cool blown cobras and enough vettes to drown in.

This c5 and c6 vette central here. I saw 2 c3's, a chartreus superbird, a corvair, a few z28's, and a v10 powered late model dodge truck.

I didn't bring candy for the parade, because I didn't know...I felt really bad...I could have at least helped out my fellow dentists in town. A lot of little kids and I mean a lot yelling for candy.

Back to these c6 Z06's.

Man these dudes were just sticking stickers all over them and one already had nitrous hooked up!!!!! One already had a hacked up exhaust, one dude was a plastic surgeon...They were just abusing these babies and I loved it. I respect the guys for buying such a fine machine like that and using it and enjoying the heck out of it. It was, to say the least, refreshing and impressive. They already had roll bars welded in, harnesses, the whole nine yards...all kinds of aftermarket gauges and GPS stuff on the dash. Now, we all know what these guys paid for these things...I wish I had that kind of money and could live life with such a zest. Very cool.

That's all for now, gotta go and check tire pressures and try out my sfi 3-2A/5 flame suit not because I'm gonna get flamed by this post, but for real this time. ;)

It's gonna probably be quite a day for waiting tomorrow. We will show up at 6 a.m. probably not be done racing until 5 p.m. and during that 11 hours we will only be on the road for 57 minutes and 4 seconds if we are perfect. We are just going to attempt to finish this time.

Rick =)

[Kevin]

great post Rick. Now where are the pics?

[cward]

I remember my first ORR. I could not sleep the night before the race. Might have dozed a couple of hours. At the course at 6 am and then waited until after 10 am to finally start the 1st leg. And it was really cold. I was sure glad I had that hot fire suit. Still would go start up the Z and turn on the heater. Then proceeded to go out and get DQ for running 179 on a 160 tech. I learned in later races. I would show up about 7:15 or so. That worked OK because I was running in Super Sport so was sent to the starting line with the Unlimited cars as we went off first. Big Bend is a really fun course with lots of turns. It is a blast. I think I did the 118 miles in around 45 minutes in 2001. The ZR-1 is made for this type of racing.

Good luck, Rick. Drive safe.

Curtis

[GrayZ]

I am green with envy, Rick, here's hoping you win a trophy.
i really enjoyed this post and all the great info (curtis)
=D> :mrgreen: :thumbsup:

[threestar40]

I remember my first ORR. I could not sleep the night before the race. Might have dozed a couple of hours. At the course at 6 am and then waited until after 10 am to finally start the 1st leg. And it was really cold. I was sure glad I had that hot fire suit. Still would go start up the Z and turn on the heater. Then proceeded to go out and get DQ for running 179 on a 160 tech. I learned in later races. I would show up about 7:15 or so. That worked OK because I was running in Super Sport so was sent to the starting line with the Unlimited cars as we went off first. Big Bend is a really fun course with lots of turns. It is a blast. I think I did the 118 miles in around 45 minutes in 2001. The ZR-1 is made for this type of racing.

Good luck, Rick. Drive safe.

Curtis

This is about it. I had a very similar experience, although I didn't get DQ'ed. ;) I could have very easily though. They enforce the rules very strictly i.e. A 140 tech speed means 140. If they catch you doing 143, your done, they won't let you do the return run...This happened to 3 people. The other thing is, that if your target speed is 125 your not supposed to go 30 mph below that speed in any straight. (They don't shoot radar in the turns.) It would be pretty embarrasing to get DQ'ed for going too slow here, but it has happened, I suspect from people trying to win a trophy and having too much time "in the bank" so to speak.

I showed up at 6 with all the other rookies :???: but the wait wasn't too bad...next time I'll know. Curtis, I dropped your name to Ted, the only other ZR1 I saw and also Mike Powers...they both smiled and said to say Hello.

I'll give ya'll my best account of the event:

There is much more too it than I will write here, but these are the highlights out of my mind.

First, race workers go out very early in the morning and clean up all the roadkill from the night before as obviously, that would be very dangerous on the road because of the roadkill itself and also the buzzards.

After the course sweep, You go and park at a pre-designated spot in the park and then at about 7:45 everyone drives out to the road and "grids"...It's actually all very organized...the hardest part is the wait. For example, I was grid #67 and went sometime between 10 and 11.

All the fastest cars go first...the unlimited's start about 3 minutes apart and the rest of us go either a minute or thirty seconds apart...the faster guys maybe 2 minutes, but you get the idea.

So I go. Heart pounding, sort scared out of my mind but very excited and trying to relax, My wife was my navigator and she felt the same way, she did an awesome job and I was so happy to have her there, thanks H.

On that note, if you have kids, one of you at least should probably stay at home and make sure the other one has good insurance! We have no kids, so it wasn't an issue.

So back to the race, I get it up to my tech speed very quickly which is 140...This is the fastest they will let you go as a rookie open road racer, and let me tell you, it was all I could handle as a first timer, especially in the twisties. I could have gone faster and had to back off in the straights for sure but this was absolutley fine for me especially since I have the 4:10's and I was running in fifth. Next time I can tech 168, but it's only that much more dangerous. I have to tell all of you people, I was not my first choice as driver, I'm not too good at it, I wanted to navigate, but my driver was in Europe, so I did it with my wife.

So I'm hauling *** down the road as fast as I wanted to go...the back half of the course has a lot of turns a lot of them blind, some doubles, up hill exits, downhill exits, Lot's of blind crests which is unsettling to say the least going 140, some you need to power through and sometimes there are turns on the other side...your course notes help you through this if you have a navigator. If you don't have a navigator, I guess you just have to memorize all 59 miles of it although one half of the course is very straight. The bottom line is that it is a fairly challenging course.

I survived the first leg and don't feel like I did too bad but didn't drive my car to near it's potential...in other words, the car had a lot more balls than I did. Sure, I stayed right at 140 through the straights and sweepers, but the turns is where I lost it all, it can be very nervewracking when you can't see around a corner, don't know how sharp it is and don't know if there is another corner or bend on the other side. I had two girls in front of me, one of them very knowledgable and fast, they were in a C5 and the guy behind me had a blown svt cobra David Mizler...he was also a rookie for this event, but this guy is an awesome driver. On the first leg, he passed me. I felt humiliated, but this guy had a ton of track experience and has been around car's practically his whole life driving, wrenching, selling parts, the best friend I met there. I knew he would pass me on the way back as well as he was not trying to achieve his target speed, he was out to have fun and drive his car as fast as he could...that's what I was doing as well. He gave me a lot of advice and help along the way...so at the end of the first leg, I was extremely humbled. but I think I came in about right on time for my target speed, that is, I averaged about 125 over the whole course, that's 59 miles in about 28 minutes and change.

For the second leg, I started to feel much better in the car, but still not driving it to it's potential in the corners...it just takes experience that I didn't have. David passed me fairly early as all the corners are fairly early in the 2nd leg. Then I passed the girls in front of me as they were trying to win a trophy, and they did! I finished the second leg about 1 minute early, so I improved and felt really happy to be alive and safe.

So I finished my first 118 miles in open road racing in about 55 minutes.

It was the experience of a lifetime. I feel it's a really rare thing to get to do something like this on an open road and I'm so happy I took the time to experience it myself. The ZR1 is absolutely awesome in this event, I believe, this truly IS what it was built for. It feels so good to use the car in this way. We all finished up about 5 p.m. and it all went off without anyone being killed except one buzzard by the first unlimited car and a few birds in grills. Can you imagine hitting a buzzard at 175?!!!!

It hit right on the a-pillar on the navigators side...she had to clean blood and guts off of her helmet and out of the car when she got to the other end and it peeled a little metal off the top of the car, but they fixed it and went back! The lady was very cool about the whole thing and was glad the safety guys told her to put her helmet visor down before she left!!!!!

Her husband said she never cusses, but when they slowed down at the other end and the birds head fell in the window, she said, and I quote, "GET ME THE F### OUT OF THIS CAR!" She looked like a very nice fiftiesh lady, I could only imagine how she felt. I'm glad they were ok, it might have been worse.

You would hate to break your car out there on the course as if you do, you have to pull off the road and can't pull back on until the entire race is over...if you do, according to the race director, he will personally burn your car to the ground as that is one of the most dangerous things you can do in an event like this. It would be a long day in the desert if that happened, so make sure everything is as perfect as you can make it before you attempt something like this.

Rick =)

[91King]

Rick

Great post! Sounds like you had a great time. I am planning to do BBORR one of these days.

[4DSZR1]

Great Post about your first ORR, and very enjoyable to read. Makes me want to give it a try myself.

Thanks for posting it