Back from Road Atlanta test at NASA event

D Walker · Postby **D Walker** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:14

We took the RX8 down to Road Atlanta for the NASA event this weekend with Chip Herr and Greg Shaffer doing the driving. This was the first real gathering of the Grid 1 World Challenge Touring Car team, and in my opinion it was a huge success.

A tire issue -they didnt show up!- caused us a stressful Thursday evening and Friday morning. We finally got tires (thanks to Tom Neal of The Parts Group!)and were able to run part of the enduro Friday afternoon but we were able to run the TT sessions and the Lightning group Saturday.

Chip got a bad break during qualifying drawing a black flag for scrubbing tires at pit out and could not get a good clear lap in in the shortened session which gave us 15min to qualify. He really on got 3 laps in, none of them clear. Qualified P2 in the 3rd group for the Saturday Lightning race, which put him starting in 28th position overall. On grid I gave him the green light to hold nothing back, run the car on a race pace. Despite a bad start which was completely my fault, he ran the car hard and made up the 28 positions for the overall win.

Since we were using the event as a test weekend, the decision was made to decline the win and allow it to pass on. We called it a day, loaded up and drove on back to Nashville, the cars temporary home, with me headed back to Denver.

Pics below-

ecam8000 · Postby **ecam8000** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:14

Started 28th and finished 1st! Hat's off! Like to see the pictures.....below where?

Colombia28 · Postby **Colombia28** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:14

Jealous as all hell! Lol. Can't see the pics

D Walker · Postby **D Walker** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:14

Apologies, but when I posted it said the thread had to be approved by the mods so no pics at that time. I would suspect since I am new thats the reason. Anywho, on to the pics!

Chip in front of the car

Car in its old livery, the sharper fellows will notice that the stickers on the car disappear over the weekend as we had time to remove them-

ecam8000 · Postby **ecam8000** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

Great pictures! What class is that? It looks like a "showroom" baised thing!?! What other cars (if any) are in your class? Is the ES sinilar to the SCCA's Solo classes?

D Walker · Postby **D Walker** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

The car is a World Challenge Touring Car classed car, which is an SCCA Pro Racing class. I have no idea what NASA class we are in, we just went with what they told us at the tower. Touring Car is very production based and there are very specific limits as to what we can and cannot do.

I also have no idea what else was in our class, but in our run group there were some E46 BMWobblys with the Motorsports wings etc. on them, a couple of Hondas one of which surprisingly, had more horsepower than us and and least one of the BMW's, and a couple of Pro MX-5 Miatas. Again, I really have no idea about how NASA does thier classing, we just went where they told us. Since we were using the event as a test anyway, it would not have mattered where they stuck us. We were between classes anyway, as we were at the sharp end of lap times for our group.

All in all, a great test for us and now its on for St Pete!

ecam8000 · Postby **ecam8000** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

Keep us posted. Sounds like you've got a good team. I like to hear how the year goes.

Back from Road Atlanta test at NASA event

Back from Road Atlanta test at NASA event

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