The entire last issue was devoted to a single subject, the Michelin One Lap of America. But a lot more has been happening with Kryderacing and our clients. Read on.

April 21-22 Mahoning Valley Region Driver’s School at Nelson Ledges

The initial 2001 SCCA event at Nelson Ledges Road Course was Mahoning Valley Region’s Driver School. Amongst the 40 plus students were two in Kryderacing vehicles and another in a Kryderacing prepped car. Nick Doinoff drove our SSB Class Nissan 240SX and Sandy Smith drove the ITS Class Nissan NX2000. Both had successful schools. Another vehicle was Pete Baumgartner’s G-Production Austin Healey Sprite. Pete had bought the car, which its previous owner had let set on its trailer for a good number of years. While it was in good shape in some ways, it was loaded with surprises as far as defective parts were concerned. Kryderacing helped Pete find and repair several of these problems. Some new problems surfaced during the school but he managed to complete most of the program.

April 28-29 Gingerman National

Gingerman Raceway was the first stop in a new endeavor for Kryderacing. As announced earlier, we are the official Bear Brake Systems representative for SCCA’a American Sedan class. The first National event for these Camaro and Mustang style cars was at Gingerman Raceway. Sandi visited all 17 entrants and explained our support program. She was well received. If you happen to race one of these cars and don‘t know what we offer, give us a call or visit our website.

May 3-12 One Lap of America Follow-Ups

It’s interesting to compare lap times between various vehicles Reed has driven during his six years of One Lap competition. From 1994 through 1997 he co-drove with car owner Russ Wilson in a highly modified (565 HP) Corvette ZR-1. Their highest finish was Third Overall in 1996. Last year he joined John Bender in a 500 HP 1990 Corvette ZR-1. They finished Fifth Overall. This year Reed and John entered a 395 HP 2001 Corvette Z06 and finished Seventh Overall. Direct comparisons between the cars are difficult but a few observations have been noticed.

The only drag race comparison is between the 565 HP ZR-1 (1996) and this year’s Z06. On different tracks and using only the 1/8 mile times the ZR-1 turned a 8.423 (4th place) second run compared to a 9.246 (23rd place) for the Z06. The Z06 time would have resulted in a 27th place finish in 1996. We don’t know the other 2001 1/8th mile times for this year so we cannot project where the ZR-1 might have finished. However, it is very obvious HORSEPOWER counts.

When we compare the two vehicles on the Heartland Park road course we also see faster times for the ZR-1. The Z06 was approximately 1.5 seconds per lap slower on average. But, when we compare the cars at Watkins Glen the Z06 is faster by close to a second a lap. What’s going on? We had noticed during this year’s One Lap our best finishes occurred on tracks where handling (especially on high speed turns) was important. Less impressive finishes occurred on tracks with tight turns leading to long straights. The handling superiority of the Z06 over previous Corvettes was very obvious, both in the opinions of the driver and on the stopwatch. Combine a Z06 with 565 HP and lap times could be very impressive.

Comparing this year(Z06) and last year (500 HP ZR-1) at VIR shows improvements on both the South and North courses. But last year was the first time Reed had seen the track. Road Atlanta might give a better comparison. The Z06 was almost three seconds a lap faster (on average) than the ZR-1. We said "might give a better comparison" because last year we were experiencing air intake problems with the ZR-1 while we were at Road Atlanta. The only other track the two cars had in common was Michigan International Speedway. But that comparison is worthless because it was wet last year and Reed spun this year.

May 5-6 Steel Cities Region Double Regional at Nelson Ledges

The first event in the 2001 Kryderacing Regional Championship Series at Nelson Ledges was a Double Regional sanctioned by Steel Cities Region. Everyone was happy to see an increase in attendance over last year. Amongst those entered were two Kryderacing prepped vehicles. Dick Leppla drove the NX2000 for the Saturday event only and did very good. Bill Pintaric had his GT4 class Datsun 510 out for its first race of 2001. Bill also only ran a single day due to engine problems. But he did take a first place in class before parking the car for a thorough inspection. Inspection back at the Kryderacing shop revealed the need for a couple of special valves - straight ones.

May 12-13 Neohio Driver’s School at Nelson Ledges

Nick Doinoff returned in the Kryderacing Nissan 240SX and completed his SCCA school requirements. Alex Fazekas was new to the NX2000. He had run a professional school earlier and needed this school to complete his requirements, which he did. But it wasn’t without incident. Along the way he discovered how forgiving the tire walls at Nelson Ledges are. They tire walls may look ugly, but the NX is only one of probably hundreds of cars which have hit them and managed to not only drive away, but continue racing the very same day.

May 13-21 Testing at Las Vegas

While on One Lap, Reed received a request from TrackTime to some comparison testing at Vas Vegas. He swapped clothes in his suitcase and packed some gambling money. The comparisons involved four full-size sedans and consisted of various acceleration runs, handling on a road course, and braking. The testing had actually started a couple of days prior to his arrival and lasted another day after he left. He would like to give everyone all the particulars, but distribution of that information is under someone else’s control. He did report long days (12 plus hours) and temperatures hovering around 100 degrees. There wasn’t much time for gambling, but he reportedly made a small profit on a little bit of poker.

May 15-16 TrackTime at Road America

The initial 2001 TrackTime Performance School event was at Elkhart Lake’s Road America. Sandi and Matt attended for Kryderacing. It was an uneventful weekend other than being very cold and windy.

May 19-20 National at Nelson Ledges

Nelson Ledges Road Course hosts two SCCA National’s each year, one by the Northeast Division and one by the Central Division. This Northeast event was run by Mahoning Valley and Steel Cities Regions. In addition to running our store at the track, Sandi was promoting the advantages of Baer Brake Systems to American Sedan drivers. Matt was busy with Bill Pintaric and his GT4 class Datsun 510. This was Bill’s first National and he finished a respectable third (podium). Gary Martz finished Third in the E-Production class driving his Kryderacing assisted Mazda RX-7.

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May 22-June 6 Stock Car Instructing at Homestead

Following the comparison test at Vas Vegas, Reed returned home, swapped clothing in his suitcase, and headed for Homestead, Florida. Most readers of this newsletter are aware of Reed’s stock car driving instruction activities during the last couple of years. What started as a few schools in 1999 has grown considerably. The schools are held at Homestead Speedway, California Speedway, and Pike’s Peak International Speedway. Reed is usually in charge of the stock car portion of the program. The cars used are the Dodge Avengers used in the IROC Series through 1995. The cars are still maintained by a Penske affiliated company and are simply beautiful to look at and drive.

June 2-3 National at Mid-Ohio

Mid-Ohio Road Course also holds two SCCA Nationals during the course of the year. Ohio Valley Region put on the first one. Mother Nature decided it was a good time for some cold weather combined with rain. Bill Pintaric finished sixth in his Datsun in a large GT4 field. Gary Martz finished fourth in E-Production. Sandi was once again talking with A-Sedan drivers about their brake systems.

June 6-7 TrackTime at Gingerman

Matt traveled to Gingerman Raceway with John Bender’s ZR-1 Corvette. Kryderacing had recently installed a brake cooling system due to recent overheating problems with the brakes. New brakes were on order, but not available yet. The problems continued, but was isolated to the left-front position only. Matt returned home with the car and installed the new front brakes (a Bear system) in preparation for the next TrackTime outing.

June 7-10 Grand-Am at Mid-Ohio

Reed and Sandi attended the Grand-Am races at Mid-Ohio. They visited with numerous old friends from their racing days in IMSA. They also had an important meeting with several Grand-Am officials regarding rules for next year. Kryderacing is working towards a return to professional level racing with our own vehicle, starting with the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Following this meeting with Grand-Am we sent several letters to people who have expressed an interest in driving with us. The replies we have received indicate serious driver interest in this project. But running a successful Daytona event requires a lot more than talented drivers. Various skills are required from crew personnel. Sponsors looking to use this high profile event for promotions are also needed. Call us if you want to be involved.

One follow-up note. We reported serious rain at the prior week’s Mid-Ohio National. One week later the weather was very pleasant, but the ground was still soaked to such a level that the infield portion of the track was closed to vehicles.

June 15-17 Double Regional at Nelson Ledges

Bill Schauer was in the Kryderacing SSB 240SX for the first time in 2001. Bill has driven this car for several years and has many victories in it. He is the quickest driver to have ever piloted the car and proved he still had it by adding two more race wins to his resume. Bill Pintaric had his Datsun 510 out in order to get more seat time and to check out some recent engine work. He easily won both his races. Reed also found his way into a car for the weekend. He originally intended to check out a couple of issues with the Nissan NX2000 during Friday’s tuning and testing sessions, but decided race conditions might be a better test (at least that’s the way he rationalized it). The car turned out to be down on power and by the end of Saturday it had a head gasket leak. The test was justified, but the outcome was not what was hoped.

June 21-24 Road America June Sprints

The Road America June Sprints are considered by many to be the biggest SCCA National during the course of the year. It‘s three days long and features an entry list rivaling that of the Run-Offs. Winning the "June Sprints" is a goal well above winning a regular National. The quality of the competition also rivals the Run-Offs. Kryderacing was in attendance for two reasons. Sandi was keeping in contact with the A-Sedan competitors regarding Baer Brakes and we also transported Gary Martz’s Mazda RX7 to the event. This was the first time Reed had been at a National this year and he noticed Sandi has established a good great relationship with many of the drivers. While she didn’t sell any Baer components at the event, she did answer numerous questions, supplied pricing, and sold some brake pads.

Gary Martz unfortunately had a frustrating weekend. In the initial practice session he was third in class and fourth overall in his race group. Not too bad, especially when you consider he had the wrong gear ratio in the differential and a couple of other small problems. The gearing was corrected and other changes were made prior to the first qualifying session. The gear change was correct, but a series of other problems combined with traffic to produce slower lap times than the previous session. Gary was frustrated, but another qualifying session was scheduled for Sunday morning. Unfortunately the gear shift linkage jammed early in the run and his best time was similar to the first session. What was irritating to Gary was that he had bought and installed what was promoted as the best set-up design to keep just this type of problem from occurring. The suspect components were analyzed, a minor modification made, and the car prepped for the race. Gary was moving through the field early in the race (up to fifth overall and third in class) when the shift linkage jammed again. He pulled off behind the tire wall system at turn five, thinking it was a safe location from which he could quickly fix the problem and get back into the race. The corner worker informed Gary he could not return to the track from that particular spot. If he had known that he would never have stopped there. Next time he is considering stopping on the track to do his repairs.

June 30-July 1 Road America TrackTime

Reed and Sandi spent the week between the June Sprints and this event visiting his mother and sister in Freeport, Illinois. They also spent a day at Six Flags Great America (north of Chicago). Sandi had been wanting to ride the big wooden roller coaster we had seen from the expressway for many years. It was worth it. The TrackTime event had around eighty students and kept us busy working on several student vehicle problems. Sometimes this job of helping students can be frustrating due to inability’s to solve their problems at the track. While we had a couple of them this time we also had a lot of solvable problems which makes the car owners feel good (they can continue the school) and their smiles and appreciation make us feel good.

We also delivered John Bender’s Corvette ZR-1 and its recently installed new front brakes. For seven sessions it seemed as if his brake problems had been solved, but in the eighth and final session he boiled the fluid in the left front. We found a problem with the air inlet to that brake, but it’s contribution to the problem is debatable. Both front brakes are still running very hot and Bob (who maintains John‘s cars) is planning on additional air ducting. The next event is at Watkins Glen and the new modifications will be evaluated. The Glen can also be tough on brakes, but Road America is the toughest test the brakes will face and TrackTime won’t return there until late in August.

June 30-July 1 Mid-Ohio Double Regional

While Reed and Sandi were enjoying the great food at Road America (we don’t go there just for the work), Matt was running a three-car Kryderacing program at Mid-Ohio. Duane Martin took some time off from working on a oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico to drive the Nissan NX2000. The engine had been repaired from its previous outing and Duane drove it well for a novice driver. Jim Tibor was back for another drive in the SSB class 240SX and had a good weekend other than a "metal-to-metal" incident on Saturday. Matt had his newly completed ITS class Mazda RX7 running and completed the weekend races. He says there is still a lot of work to be done (Duane beat him). Anyone wishing to buy his Merkur racecar should contact him. Or look at www.kryderacing.com for details on it and other cars belonging to Kryderacing clients.

-------------------------------------Time to go back to work - talk to you later.