Kick a$$ and good luck

 

We got a great 10 second clip of you at mile 11 watering hole with the car throwing a nice 4 wheel rooster tail. When we get home I'll try to email it to ya along with some pics we got. Great job and great effort considering the disasterous days before the race!!!

 

I was at the 11 mile mark too!

 

Sooooo.... how'd it go!?!

 

I saw some video, and based on the time it looks like the car wasn't running 100% on the stocker motor setup.

 

HAHA you're lucky I didn't know or I'd of been like a 12 year old asking why the grass is green!!! j/k

 

Lost the clutch pedal just before/after the Ski Area, so we were going pretty hard up to that point. Unsure how our time was up until then, as I'll try to compare our vid from last year to this year to see. Made the split second decision to shoot for the top using minimal gear changes. Rocked out in 2nd from ski area until Devils Playground, then one upshift to 3rd from there to Boulder Park, with a quick drop into 2nd, and then left it there until the summit. Not the fast way up, but we made it.

Jeff D. took the class win in his Evo, nabbing 1st by less than 2 seconds over Karl S in a STi. Dave C. took the class win in PPO with his Evo too.

I'll put together a full writeup in a few days, but for now, just trying to catch up on sleep.

Thanks for following along guys!

Dave

 

good luck

 

Here's a few pics I got of some of the Evos. From a spectators perspective, the Evos were on their game. Seriously from where we were watching ALL the Evos were very fast and appeared to be in good control with good lines. Compared to the other cars in the Rally America Class, Time Attack, and Pikes Peak Open Class, the Evos were by far the best even if that's not what the final times say. At Brown Bush Corner where we were watching, it was night and day. The Subaru guys should be embarrassed about how they handled that hairpin. Slow, out of boost, poor line, wrong gear. It was like watching seasoned pros in the Evos and kids who just got their licenses in the Subies.

DaveK, we could see you coming up from the bottom all the way through Brown Bush Corner and you were HAULING ***!!! Appeared much faster than anyone else we saw except for maybe the Unlimiteds. Sorry to hear about the clutch. I'm sure you'd have had a great time otherwise.











ACP didn't fare so well.....

 

This pic puts a huge smile on my face! Thanks for coming out, and thanks for snapping some great pics!!

LMK if it'd be ok to use that pic in a press release, its one of my favorites so far.

Dave

 

Few pics I got of some of the other competitors.....

Vintage Class






Electric Car- Exhibition Class


Unlimited Class

Monster Tojima


Paul Dallenbach


Rhys Millen


Open Wheel Class






Side Car


Various Bikes






Exhibition - Big Rig




Unsanctioned

 

We had a blast.

The medal for true grit and determination goes to Dave K in my book. He never gave up. 3 motors and a clutch problem he still hung in there. Dave kept going after most wouldve given up. A real super nice person (and Allison) and solid grit.

Thanks to Dave for the friendship and conversations. May we well have many more.

Jeff
(the aussie team in the 'other' evo)

 

Congrats to everyone that made summit. Hope to make it there myself one day.


Dave and Allison are awesome and my car wouldnt exist with out Daves help and a awesome Evo to learn from


Good job, glad i got to help a little!!!!!!

 

Thanks for coming thru on the steering shaft parts on short notice. We're very lucky the splines let go when loading on the trailer vs. out on the road like the GC8 which left the road and rolled in Boulder Park.

Dave

 

If you're going through hell, keep going. ~Winston Churchill

Where to begin? So many things happened this year at Pikes Peak. We were at tech about a week ago today, yet it feels like an eternity ago. But, I suppose technical inspection is as good a place to start as any.

Dave had arrived back from Chicago with a new engine, new rear diff and reinstalled wiring harness - all things that had been summarily destroyed in the unplanned CORE Evo BBQ (i.e. piston through the block resulting in fireball). We arrived for tech in Colorado Springs just in time. Passed with flying colors and headed in to the driver’s meeting. Excitement about the record breaking was already abuzz, particularly since another few miles of the road had been paved (from Boulder Park up to the summit); effectively resulting in a faster course.

Wednesday began the tireless practice schedule of getting up at 2:30 am to head up the hill. We got 2 runs in the middle section before the timing belt broke. Car went straight from the mountain to SCR Performance for a cylinder head replacement. It was an all-nighter and the crew then scurried from Loveland straight to Devil’s Playground for practice day 2. Just one run on practice day 2 … and low oil pressure reared its ugly head. Car went straight from the mountain to Tobz Performance for another all-nighter to, sadly, put the stock motor back in. We missed practice on Friday because we simply couldn’t get the new engine in place and onto the dyno for a new tune in time to make it. Hopes were raised a bit as Martin, Tobz & Mitch had their way with the Evo on the dyno. Horsepower was high and turbo lag wasn’t too bad with the stock Mitsu engine and Forced Performance turbo.

We headed up the mountain on Sunday morning still reeling. With one problem after another and things not going particularly smooth for us at any point this year, we were partially thinking “what next?” and partially thinking “who cares what’s next, it’s a miracle we’re taking the start line”. The green flag waved and we were off. Things were going exceedingly well, Dave was in the zone. We screamed through Picnic Grounds, we floated through 11 Mile, we were coming up on the Ski Area…

This video says it all and so I’ll let it do the talking. Go to 3:31 on the timer … we come around this tight right corner at the Ski Area quite aggressively and fast (a testament to the run up until that point I’m pleased to say) and then right as we pass the videographer you can hear the clutch go (… hear poor little Evo shudder as Dave tries to shift).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot0Sk2R0mfk

We stumbled and lost a lot of time immediately after; contemplating what we should do. Proper use of the car’s gearing and power is what allows you to pull out of the power-slide on dirt. Should we continue on, sliding through corners knowing we might slide right off the mountain without the ability to get the car into its powerband to pull out of a slide if we need it? As we discussed it (literally – still hauling up the Peak and taking corners we contemplated our fate between my navvie calls) we remained in 3rd until we came to a quite steep hairpin. The car nearly stalled, Dave shoved it into 2nd and we creeped out of the hairpin. This gave us a little hope. If we can RPM-match shift between 2nd and 3rd we may just be able to pilot it up to the summit. Dave started to get the hang of driving under the conditions we were faced with. And, call me twisted and addicted to a nice shot of adrenaline, but it was actually, well, kind of fun. We’d whip around a hairpin and the car would bog down terribly while we waited for the turbo to spool, but when it did, that feeling of g-force slamming you back into your seat was a thing of joy – life worth living. It only lasted about 4 seconds before the pinging of the rev limiter like nails on a chalkboard, but I giggled almost every time that turbo kicked in. After a week of awful thrashing, you’ve got to take solace in the little things.

I can't seem to get this pic to load, but check out the link: http://pikespeak.zenfolio.com/p72079...0801#h31140801

We ended up in third place with a 12:55. While not a terrible time in the grand scheme of things, pretty dismal compared to what we were hoping for and what the car, running optimally, is capable of. Our Time Attack record still stands at an 11:48. As usual - no boost, no clutch, no whatever - Dave drove the **** out of that Evo and I’m a proud navvie/wife. Live and learn, make it faster next time. Yet again, though I wanted to curl up in a ball and forget this ever happened a few days ago, I find myself planning for and excited about next year already. We want our shot at the mountain again…

We would like to thank our 2010 sponsors for their support, both in helping us in getting to the race, and in keeping us there! Special thanks to the guys from AMS Performance for coming out to lend a hand and to Aaron Searle for his awesome dedication throughout the week.

NOS Energy Drink
AMS Performance
CBRD Speedfactory
Built-by-Bones & SCR Performance
Forced Performance Turbochargers
Shepherd Transmissions
Tobz Performance
TiAL Sport

& thanks to Allison for doing the writeup...I'm still tired.

Dave