HyperFest is the premiere event of the NASA Mid-Atlantic region, and it was the talk of the forums for several weeks prior. It was so popular, in fact, that the Thunder race group filled up not long after registration opened, and with H1 and H2 slated to run in Thunder, it shut out a few Honda Challenge competitors, including me! Thankfully all Honda Challenge classes were moved to the Stinger group, putting all the Hondas together and opening up a few more spots. With barely a week to go before the event I got signed up, and got to work going over the car and getting it set up. And as usual, leaving things to the last minute led to problems.
With just a couple days to go I was setting the camber on the car, when suddenly in the middle of a series of adjustments the bolt refused to turn. The threads had seized, but with the bolt loose and the ball joint able to slide back and forth. The harder I turned the less it wanted to move, and finally the slotted piece that was pressed in to the upper control arm started to turn, instead of the bolt. Things were looking bad, and that night I went to bed wondering if I was going to make it at all. The next day I tried an impact gun on it, hoping to pop it loose, but to no avail. I was moments away from sending an email that I wouldn’t be able to make it to HyperFest when I remembered something: I don’t take shit from bolts. I dug into my inventory of parts and found a stock upper control arm. I fit it to the car as fast as I could and checked the camber: it was a little more than I wanted, but not unreasonable. I immediately started packing the van, as there wasn’t much time to get everything ready for the long trip to Summit Point.
After a 7 hour drive, which was thankfully uneventful, I got to the track right on time. Inexplicably, racers were being let in to the track early, despite many warnings that no one would be allowed in before 5:30 pm. So at around 4 pm I pulled up to the Honda Challenge section of the paddock. John Oldt had some method to his usual madness, and before long we had arranged about 15 Honda Challenge competitors into an amazingly small area. John Whittaker had conspired with Oldt to arrange food for everyone for the whole weekend for the low low price of about 20 bucks, which I gladly turned over, along with offering my grill up for service. It’s a good thing I brought it too, because the food was piled high. Lasagna, chicken with spinach sauce, pizza, garlic knots, burgers, hot dogs, everything went on to the grills and we ate great the whole weekend. Breakfast was french toast and pancakes in Eric Olson’s RV. It was great for the Honda Challenge guys to get together and hang out, as the series has received a boost with Honda Performance Development becoming the title sponsor. HPD was in attendance with their Acura TL, a gorgeous car that was build with all the knowledge of Honda behind it, as well as their parts suppliers. Everyone was having a blast, and ready for a weekend of fun.
I had the task of re-learning the track as I hadn’t driven it in a few years, and had never driven it in the race car. I remembered the layout very well, and the line too, but had to find all new brake markers and speeds in each turn. The Saturday practice session was mostly a scouting mission as I tried not to get in the way of the guys that were fast off the bat. A few laps in, I saw Kevin Helms’ #04 Civic off to the left in turn 9. He was way out by the tires, and while I hoped it wasn’t an engine issue again, I also hoped it wasn’t something worse. I came back to the paddock after the session and Kevin wasn’t there. Everyone was wondering where he was, and I told them that I saw him outside turn 9. After a few minutes the tow truck arrived with Kevin’s Civic on the back, and it didn’t look good. The drivers side was crushed in, and the outline of the Nascar bars of the roll cage were visible in the door skin. Kevin was walking around and ok, but sore and obviously not happy with what had happened. A trip to the medical center revealed that the soreness was due to fractured ribs, which will cause him to miss the World Challenge race at Waktins Glen. Get well soon, Kevin!
Despite the rough start to the morning, the rest of us had to push on, as the weekend had just begun. I went out for qualifying for the full session, as every lap was an opportunity to find more time on the track. The track time paid off, as my qualifying lap was almost 3 seconds faster than my fastest lap from practice, and I knew there was even more out there. My time was still a bit behind the others, so I started the race towards the back of the Honda Challenge field. With a few rows of cars ahead of me at the start, I couldn’t see the starter stand for the green flag. The car fanned out as everyone tried to get a view of the flag stand, and just as I tried to find a spot to see I heard the engine note erupt from the front of the field. Having to react to everyone else meant I was behind the 8 ball from the start. The field of cars crept away down the long straight, and spread out four wide in the braking zone. I gave them plenty of room in case things got ugly, but luckily everyone kept it clean and lined up single file, streaming through turns 2 and 3. I tucked in close behind Michael Fries in his #23 Honda S2000 as the group swept through the high speed turn 4. Up ahead a cloud of white smoke erupted and I saw the side of Brian Casella’s Acura Integra as he spun sideways coming down the chute towards turn 5. Jonathan Baker was right behind him in his #32 Honda CRX, and was first to dodge the spinning Acura as the rest of us slipped past in line behind. I stuck to the back of Michael’s S2000 through the tight turns, almost able to slip the nose of my CRX underneath but not wanting to risk disaster for both of us. I had a run on him coming on to the front straight, but he had the slight advantage of over twice the horsepower of me and began to pull away. But before we could finish the first lap a double yellow flag was shown at the starter stand and the pace car was out for a full course caution. It seems another S2000 running in PTE got out of shape coming through turn 3, tried to save the slide, and wound up spinning back on track and collected a few other cars along the way, including Matt Bookler’s Civic running in PTC. It took a few laps to clean up the “fun”, and finally the pace car was in and we went back to green flag racing. Brian Casella edged inside of me coming into turn 3 and we both had to play nice to make sure everyone made it out intact. Also close behind was David Rhodes in his CRX, who was having a great race and leading the PTE group. He was a little too close to comfort in the spinning S2000 incident, and managed to avoid being caught up in the mix by just a few inches. I gave David plenty of room, as CRX on CRX crime is a terrible offense. We raced on for another couple laps, but once again the pace car popped out. The race ended under full course caution, with as many caution laps as green flag laps, and the general feeling in the paddock was one of unrest. The race was choppy and left everyone with a bit of a bad taste in their mouths, but Sunday had a 40 minute race that we all hoped would be more satisfying. After an awesome dinner with the whole Honda Challenge group, David Rhodes and I went over to the esses to watch the drifting competition, and it didn’t disappoint! There were some really skilled drivers in some crazy cars, like a turbo BMW M3, a Pontiac Solstice with a big screaming V8, and a twin turbo Mustang that was a symphony of push rods, turbines and tire smoke. There was plenty going on that evening, with a Daisy Dukes contest, fireworks, and hundreds of people ready to party all night. But with the long hot day we just had, and the all-hands meeting so early the next morning, bed time came soon for us.
We were the first group on track Sunday morning for qualifying, and once again my time improved. David took pole in PTE by over a second, which boded well for his race. My time was still a bit off the pace, but David suggested that there was at least 1.5 seconds still on the table if I was up to the task of driving that well. With the longer race, I hoped to be able to push even more and find that time. The race came early in the day, which was welcome considering the long drive home. The Honda Challenge crowd came around for the start, although like Saturday it was impossible to see the starter stand. I saw Shane Lovely’s Civic cut across to the middle of the group, and took that as the green flag being out. Somewhere up ahead, someone checked up and started a small pile-up. Zephyr Belski tapped the brakes to avoid the back of Jonathan Baker’s CRX, which caused me to have to let up as well. With everyone slowing in the middle of the straight, Erik Langelius made a very slick move in his H5 Civic hatchback, slipping behind Brian Casella’s Integra and cutting across the front of my car to take the spot ahead with inches to spare. We dragged down into turn 1 as I slipped past Brian, Sander Marques, and Spencer Anderson. I was able to brake a couple car lengths later than Erik, which let me shoot ahead of him and get up beside Zephyr’s Civic as we entered the first turn. Zephyr had a little more motor than me, and crept ahead through turn 2. He had a few car lengths by turn 3 but I was able to close the gap to within 1 car coming through turn 3, and was deep under his bumper as we got on the brakes for turn 5. I considered putting my nose in for turn 6, but Zephyr closed the door quickly. I had to jump on the brakes a little more than I wanted to avoid him, and got a poor exit into the esses. He was able to pull ahead, and by the front straight was a couple seconds ahead. I was able to reel him in significantly in the braking zone to turn 1, and by the time we reached turn 5 I was all over his bumper again. I stayed out of the way for turn 6, to avoid getting chopped off again, and didn’t lose as much ground as the lap before. This time into turn 1 Brian Casella got inside of me after running me down on the straight, and again I didn’t get a good exit from the turn. I had some clear track ahead, and was able to work on finding more speed in a few spots. A few laps later Chad Slagg was heading through turn 10 onto the front straight behind John Oldt when John went wide and put 2 wheels off in the gravel on the left. Chad had even more speed coming up behind him and went 4 off through the gravel trap. He got sideways and when he got back on the track was pointed all wrong and spun across, hitting the inside wall. He fared better than Kevin, and wasn’t injured, but the rescue crew took him off and left the car there to fetch later. I got up close behind Zephyr again, and noticed that he was still spilling fuel from the left rear. It had been coming out from the start of the race, and I thought it was just overflow from the fuel cell being so full. But after several laps it was still coming out as fast as before, and the stewards decided to black flag him because of it. He took to the pits as we came up to turn 10 and got past Kieth Edwards’ H5 CRX, going 3 wide before things settled down. The next lap I had clear track ahead and began pushing again. I came to turn 10 and used a little less brake than before, which turned out to be a mistake. As soon as I turned in, the back of the car slid out and I popped the wheel to the left to catch it. And catch it I did, which unfortunately pointed me right towards the gravel trap. I struggled to get the car turned as much as I could, and a brief conversation that David and I had earlier popped into my head. Just as I got to the edge of the pavement, I snapped the wheel straight and drove the car off under control. The gravel trap had several bumps in it and the car bounded over them as I kept my foot planted to the floor and worked to keep pointed down the track. Towards the end of the gravel trap there was a large bump, and the car jumped sideways, pointed directly at Chad’s Civic parked on the opposite side of the track. It was all too clear how his incident happened, and I refused to find my way over there to join him. I hustled the wheel back and forth to straighten out the car, and got it back under control just as I hit the pavement. The shifter had popped out of gear so I shoved it into 3rd, nailed the throttle, and shot down the track triumphant over the chaos of the gravel trap. Brian Casella got past coming through turn 1 as I had lost speed on the straightaway, and David Rhodes had slipped up behind me as well. I played with him a bit through turns 2 and 3 before letting him slip by into 4 so he could get on with his race. A couple laps later Brian suddenly slowed and I was able to get past him again. There was still many laps left in the race, and with no one around me I settled into a comfortable rhythm. The laps clicked away, and although I was still driving the car at over 9/10ths for many many laps it still felt perfect. The water temp was good, the brake pedal was perfect, and the tires felt great. It was a relief to not have to worry and pamper the car. Finally the checkered flag flew, which came as a relief after so many laps in the heat and humidity of the day. With all the on-track craziness I was unsure who actually finished the race, and what position I wound up in. As it turns out, 4th wasn’t a bad result out of the 9 H2 cars! And as promised, there was more time than before, almost 2 seconds in fact.
Hyperfest was a terrific weekend, and a great gathering of Honda Challenge racers. Given the recent invigoration of the series by Honda Performance Development claiming the title sponsorship, it was good to rally the troops and build some comradery. Huge thanks to Chris and Laura Cobetto, who work so hard to plan such a huge event every year, which never disappoints and is always growing in entertainment and attendance. It was great to meet all the other racers from other regions as well, putting a face to a name. The long drive home gave plenty of time to reflect on the weekend of fun, although towards the end it definitely seemed like way too much time! Stay tuned for the race report from the NASA Southeast event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
