Dicing
it in Vegas with
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| Finally, the team is complete. For the first time both Team
GB400R race cars would be
competing together and Vegas would be the playground. A tribute to Abarth brought out some sensational cars that made
history back in the late 60's and early 70's and HSR-West was the host
for the weekend.
Murphy's law had been with most of us on Friday prior to race
weekend. Rushing all day and not quite
ready to go until 10:30pm we finally made it to Vegas at 3:00 am on Saturday.
Nick, Doug and John (our crew) had been working on the cars all week
spending very long hours to make the cars look perfect for this first
race weekend. It all had to be done, paint the interior in car #87 and
finish the fender flares in car #88.
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One of the pre-race
weekend jobs was to re-paint the interior of car #87. As seen here we
removed the roof and completely gutted the interior in order to paint. It
looks great! |
Las Vegas sports car
course is a very tight 1.3 mile road course that has been modified a
number of times. This particular configuration favors low horsepower
cars, GT cars don't really get a chance to get up to speed and by the
time they are up to speed, it's time to get really hard on the binders.
Then, off the binders and hard on the gas and again hard on the brakes
again! Car #88 driven by
Michael Noval would be our main focus
for the weekend. This car has not been run since it was completed,
therefore we had many unanswered questions. Well, the
weakest part of the car will usually give way and it did. Michael's car
lost 2nd, 3rd,& 4th gears during the first practice session.
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Camp Team GB400R |
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Now all we had was car #87 that would be driven by
Edward Inclan. The team decided that Michael would qualify the car for
Sunday's race.
Michael did a great job as he started from the back and
was able to finish the qualifying race in 5th overall. This left an
easier job for Edward who would be driving the trophy race on Sunday. |
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| Both
GB400R's first parade lap together! |
Car
#87 out-braking #88 |
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| After a fun night in town with the crew in Vegas, we all
rolled out of bed on Sunday and prepped for the race. Nick and Edward
decided to make some last minute changes to the rear suspension. We
needed a little less rear rotation to make the car more neutral. By
lowering the rear pan hard rod we attained this result. |
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| While
the rest of the crew waits for the next race session, Nick Burr makes
some last minute changes to car #87. |
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| Edward
Inclan and Sam Gladney waiting for the next race session. |
Our
hotel and casino, as you can see there is a little
something for everyone's interest in Vegas....we love the car
theme! |
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| Sunday's race and Edward started 5th, ahead were an Alfa
Romeo, Lotus, an ex World Challenge Corvette and a very nimble 911
Porsche.
The green flag drops and as usual the first corner becomes havoc. The
powerful GB400R moves to 3rd causing the Lotus and Alfa to swap paint
behind. By the 3rd lap Edward was all over the very fast Corvette and
chased him to the hairpin corner leading to the back straight. There,
Edward pulled a text book out-brake and took 2nd position.
Hard on the gas to gain on the leader and just that quickly....the
fabulous T5 transmission grenaded! 3rd & 4th gear were gone!
In trying to find the gears Edward managed to over rev the engine and
guess what... it grenaded as well!
What a way to go, we could have taken the checkered flag but ended up
being towed into the garage. The good news is that we were still the
3rd fastest car in the group posting a best lap pf 1:30:1 during the
race. The winner car ran a 1:29.2, not bad for us considering that
during practice we clocked a 1:29.4. |
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| The
start of Sunday's Race |
The
last lap of our Sunday's race. Passing the ex-world challenge
Corvette |
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