The recent racing efforts of Kryderacing clients have been hot and heavy.  Wins and track records abound.  So do challenges. The month of June started out with four Kryderacing assisted vehicles headed for the body shops after major accidents at Nelson Ledges, Mid-Ohio and Lime Rock.  As this is being written all but one of them has made it back to the race track.  And it will be there shortly.  During one week, there were three different vehicles in the shop getting fresh engines installed.
 

MIKE SOLLEY: BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK NASA

A couple of years ago Kryderacing assisted Mike Solley with his Corvette during a Cleveland Grand Prix support race.  Mike ran very well and was pleased with the work provided by the Kryderacing crew of Matt Miller and Matt Carson.  Mike later acquired a Viper.  When his previous shop decided to close Mike was left without maintenance and trackside support,  Following a few calls, Mike brought his business to Kryderacing.  His Cleveland Grand Prix experience and word of our assistance with David Pintaric’s Viper were the two main factors in his decision.

His first races were June 7-8 at the NASA event down in Alabama.  Barber Motorsports Park was also a new venue for Kryderacing.  Reed had visited the track a few years ago and rode around it, but this was the first time we had raced there.  Matt Carson supplied the trackside assistance and Mike finished second in both of his races.  Mike was also impressed with the set-up of the car and adjustments made by Matt during the course of the weekend.  It was a good start to what hopefully will be a long relationship.  Mike’s next race is the August SCCA Double National at Pocono.  It could be a double-double for Mike if the groupings allow him to run his Viper in both the Touring 1 and Super Touring classes.
 

BILL PINTARIC’S GTL NISSAN

Bill has run only one race since previous reports.  After swapping his “big” engine for the “small” version he ventured to nearby BeaveRun.  A drying track, wrong tire choice, traffic, and waiting too long to go on track relegated Bill to the fourth qualifying spot.  The following day we expected a great race on a dry track, but a first lap incident dropped two of the fastest cars far behind Bill and the remaining fast GTL car.  Bill quickly passed for the lead and was slowly extending it with each lap.  Several laps later the second place car pitted.  Bill ended up coasting to an easy win with the other two fast cars running similar lap times, but too far behind to be a factor.  Bill has plenty of points and may still pursue his fifth consecutive NorthEast Division Championship.  But the most recent message from Bill suggests he is on his way to the doctor after one of his horses stepped on his foot.  This newsletter is about cars so you’ll have to contact Bill if you want to know about that subject.
 

DAVID PINTARIC’S T-1 VIPER

As mentioned in an earlier newsletter, David had started his SCCA season with a win at Summit Point.  He followed up with near  lap record times during early qualifying for the Memorial Day Dual Nationals at Nelson Ledges Road Course.  But an off-course excursion ended with the car damaged enough that early reports declared it “totaled”.  But after taking some measurements at a frame shop and making numerous phone calls in search of parts it was decided to attempt a rebuild.  This effort was enormous in many ways (people, hours, money, parts).  The car reappeared on the 4th of July weekend and recorded a second place finish at ORP in Indianapolis.  This was David’s first trip to ORP and driver and crew treated it like a test session.  A week later at Watkins Glen David recorded another second while driving in a heavy rainstorm.  Next up was Lime Rock Park where he qualified fourth, played a waiting game early in the race before moving up to second and challenging for the lead.  It was a perfect plan except for a blistered tire which relegated him to third at the finish.  He still has a outside chance to win the Northeast Division title with strong finishes during the Pocono Double National weekend.  Not bad considering many people had pronounced the car totaled during the Memorial Day weekend.
 

MID-OHIO KONI ST RACE

David’s Viper was the first of the four major accidents covered by an eight day time span.  Later, on the very same day as David’s accident, the Kryderacing assisted Mazda RX-8 entered by Team Sahlen in the Grand Am Koni ST Series was badly damaged during its race at Lime Rock Park.  The following weekend two other clients came together during a Mid-Ohio Regional race.

The Nonnamaker/Sahlen crew did a great job repairing the Koni Mazda RX-8 after the Lime Rock accident.  It was completed just in time for Mid-Ohio.  Reed, Sandi, Matt Miller, and several UNOH students made up the crew.  There were a few problems remaining from the Lime Rock accident, but they would only be found after some track sessions.  For instance, the transfer fuel pump had been knocked off its mount and we were not picking up all the fuel.  This really hurt our efforts when we sent Joe Sahlen out for qualifying believing we had about four gallons of gas in the car.  We did, but after only a lap we started experiencing pick-up problems which relegated Joe to the 41st position for the race.  We worked late into the night tracing down the problem (along with a couple of others found along the way) only to find the car still was not picking up all the fuel during warm-up.  More work and changes followed.

The first half of the race was run in the dry.  As the fuel tank level dropped below the four gallon level, we started wondering whether we had solved the earlier problem.  We never found out because a full course caution appeared at the same time.  This caution period allowed us to pit the car, do a driver change, and fill the gas tank.  It wasn’t too many laps later when the rains came.  Normal Kryderacing procedure is to tell the driver when we are ready to change tires and let the driver make the decision as to which lap.  A problem arose this time when only part of the track was wet and the rain looked as if it might stop.  All of the other teams must have been having similar thoughts because only one car pitted for rain tires as several laps passed.  The rain got worse and eventually an accident resulted in a full course caution.  This created a crowded pits as almost everyone pitted for badly needed wet tires.  We are proud to say our crew was one of the quickest at accomplishing this task.

The rain eventually quit and the track slowly started drying.  We had enough gas to go the distance and pitting for dry tires would have cost more time than we would have gained on the track.  In the end Joe Sahlen and Will Nonnamaker finished 17th.   Not bad after starting 41st.

It looks as if this car will be parked for the rest of the season.  Joe Sahlen has decided to put all his efforts into driving his Grand Am Rolex GT Corvette.  Even though we had a couple of drivers inquire about renting the car, we found out it would not be available as the Sahlen Team concentrates on the Rolex portion of their team.  And that may be paying off as both GT Corvettes finished in the top ten at the recent Barber event.  Kryderacing extends best wishes for the future to Joe Sahlen and the Nonnamaker’s.  Hopefully we can get together again for some future projects.
 

JOHN BUTTERMORE

What a season John is having.  As reported earlier, he lapped (almost twice) the field at Grattan and won at Mid-Ohio (while beating John Heinracy’s T-1 lap record).  He followed those with wins at Road America’s Elkhart Lake June Sprints and Watkins Glen.  At the Sprints he was under the lap record during qualifying, but missed it in the race by a tenth or two.  At the Glen he expected serious competition from last year’s national champ, but that evaporated when Andrew pitted early due to heavy rain.  Next race will probably be at Grattan.  Matt Carson has become a regular with this team and has been contributing to their success.
 

GARY MARTZ AND HIS E-PRODUCTION MAZDA RX-7

Gary also made the trip to the June Sprints but didn’t start the race due to mechanically problems.  He did record a win two weeks later at ORP.
 

REED RETURNS TO ROAD AMERICA FOR 44TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

Reed didn’t make it to the June Sprints this year.  But his visits to Road America started in 1965.  Over the years he has been a spectator, race driver, Goodyear tire engineer, and driving instructor.  This year he and Sandi attended the Brian Redman vintage races.  They could only attend on Thursday, but what an experience.  Can-Am, Formula 5000, Formula One, and other makes were more numerous than any individual race grid count from the past.  Have you ever seen the Audi which won LeMans.  We saw not one, but two winning (2000 and 2001) cars sharing a tent with a Bentley LeMans entry.

We also saw many friends.  John Morton was there with Sylvia.  He was driving one of the Scarabs.  The Scarabs and Road America are joined together enough in history for the car to be honored by placing its likeness on the event t-shirt.  We also visited with Tom Malloy.  We first met Tom at the 2007 Daytona Grand Am events.  We next saw his name when we read an article concerning his purchase of Ed Pink Engines (where long time friend Frank Honsowetz is running things).  We didn’t learn about his vintage endeavors until early this year.  He has a varied collection and at Road America we saw a McLaren Can-Am car, a Gurney Eagle, and a couple of older Indy cars along with several F5000 cars in his compound area.  Tom is a really nice guy and we enjoyed our visit with him.

Any trip to Road America must include partaking of the concession stands.  Sandi has even picked out which stand to go to for a specific item.  This one for the best brats, that one for great corn, and when it comes to pie there is only one choice.  They will even add some ice cream to your home made pie for no charge.  This year we experimented with Strawberry pie (made similar to a cherry pie style) topped with mint ice cream.  It was fantastic.

Not all the cars are old.  While sitting in the lower paddock concession area we saw the #43 Sahlen Rolex GT prepped Porsche motor by on its way to tech.  It still looked exactly like it did when Kryderacing helped crew for it during the 2007 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
 

MARLBORO REUNION AT MID-OHIO

We really wanted to stay at Road America for the races.  If you have never heard the sound of a full field of original Can-Am cars as they get the green flag we cannot explain it.  You don’t just hear it, you feel it through the ground and with every bone in your body.  But we had another very important appointment to attend.  The IRL and IMSA series were scheduled to be at Mid-Ohio on the same weekend as the Road America vintage.  A lot of friends from Reed’s days working as the lead stock car instructor at the Marlboro Racing School would be at Mid-Ohio and a reunion dinner was scheduled for Friday night in Columbus.  We enjoyed dinner and a few drinks Friday night and then attended the Mid-Ohio races on Saturday and Sunday where we visited with several additional friends from the past.  By the way, the races at Mid-Ohio were pretty good and the crowds for both days were gigantic.
 

ITS to EP

The original goal was to convert the rental Kryderacing Nissan 240SX from the ITS class to EP prior to the start of the 2008 season.  But since we appear to be the first in the country to attempt this with the S14 body style we have discovered several challenges.  Some are easy to solve while others fall under the category of things NO ONE has ever done before.  You cannot pick up the phone and order some of the required parts.  Nor can you call someone else for advice on how they solved a particular problem.  While the completion of the conversion has been moved to 2009, we have been making some progress.  As the car sets it has enough changes to make it legal for both EP and ITS.  The missing EP race engine and about 150 pounds extra weight are keeping it from being a nationally competitive car at this point in time, but it does okay in Regionals.

Reed ran the car to two Fourth Place ITS finishes at Nelson Ledges late in June.  Two weeks later Bill Schauer drove it during its maiden EP outing.  He took both wins at another Nelson Ledges event.  Additional changes were made to the car following the event and Reed lowered the lap times by two seconds on his way to Third and a Second place EP finishes at another Nelson Ledges event.  The car has been switched back to ITS trim for Bill’s entry at this weekend’s Mid-Ohio IT Spectacular event.
 

CHRIS DERCOLE

Chris has been running a couple of cars at the Nelson Ledges Fundays for several years.  Kryderacing has been assisting him with revisions made to his V6 Mustang.  For 2008 we helped legalize the car for SCCA competition and Chris attended and passed his schools early in the year.  Since then he has run the car several times at Nelson Ledges in the ITR class.  He took a couple of thirds in his first outing late in June.  The Saturday race during his second weekend of competition resulted in a run-away win in damp conditions.  Maybe this win was assisted by the recently applied Kryderacing hood decal.  On Sunday, in dry conditions,  Chris and an ITR Porsche 944 fought for the lead at every turn.  The Porsche lead for the first half of the race and was faster on the straights.  But Chris finally found a way around in a turn and kept the lead until the last lap when his transmission started to fail.  He hung on for second.
 
 

FATHER AND SON KEILLOR

As previously reported, longtime SSC class competitor Bruce Keillor has been joined on track this year by his son Jonathan.  Last fall Jonathan bought the Nissan NX2000 Kryderacing had been renting.  He had attended and passed the same drivers school as Chris Dercole.  Earlier races at Mid-Ohio saw him running mid-pack.  But at the MARRS Double Regional at Nelson Ledges early in July we all saw something else.  He ran well on Saturday, but on Sunday he was into the top three in the ITA class and beating some recognized fast drivers.  An off-course excursion cost him considerable time, but by then everyone had realized he was a talented new racer.  At the Neohio event two weeks later he recorded two fourth place finishes against some stiff competition.

Meanwhile Bruce has continued to rack up wins in his Mazda Protégé.  He was four-for-four at Nelson Ledges going into the last weekend in July.  His big concern that weekend was it would be the first time both he and son Jonathan would be in the same race group.  They actually qualified close together for Saturdays race and were making promises not to hit each other.  Unfortunately Bruce didn’t make such a promise with another competitor and he ended up pulling off track with front end damage.  Both Bruce and the competitor he tangled with felt it was just one of those racing incidents and there were no bad feelings.  But Bruce was done for the weekend.
 
MISC

* The next issue of the Kryderacing Newsletter will contain a continuation of “Tech Tips”, an update on the points standings for the Kryderacing Championship Series at Nelson Ledges Road Course, and the latest news concerning all our clients racing exploits.
* One items not mentioned in all the race reports was Sandi’s job as Race Chairman for both the Mahoning Valley Region National and Regional (MARRS) weekends at Nelson Ledges.  She did her normal excellent job and received compliments from many participants and volunteers.
* Have you heard the rumor that Nelson Ledges has been sold?  If you have been around road racing in this part of the country for a number of years you might be asking which rumor we are referring to.  This one seems to come as often as the ones about the track being closed.  But this rumor might be valid.  There are some time-consuming procedures required before the sale can be completed and a formal announcement made, but so far there appear to have been no problems.  The rumor mill is producing an incredible amount of speculation, the majority of which we find hard to believe (especially when some items are in direct conflict with other portions).  It does appear the facility will remain a race track.  We will all just have to wait and see what else happens.
* The Longest Day of Nelson Ledges is planned for the weekend before labor day.  This is the second year for this reborn classic 24-Hour race.  Reed is once again driving a Mazda MX5 and Kryderacing Shop Manager Matt Miller has entered his Mazda RX7.  We’ll have a full report in the next newsletter.
* The HANS Sport model is now available in the larger neck size.  Contact Kryderacing for your HANS needs.  Remember, we will install the posts for no charge if you bought your HANS from Kryderacing.
* A new car appeared at the shop last week.  It is an AIX class Mustang owned by Elliot Fisher.  Elliot came to Kryderacing several years ago when he was having problems getting an earlier Mustang to perform up to his expectations.  We helped with some suspension modifications and other items.  Elliot liked the changes but later sold the car and went on to other things in his life.  He still enjoyed racing so he acquired the current Mustang to run in selected NASA events.  The AIX class has few rules and the car is highly modified and very fast.  But Elliot thinks we can help this car like we did the previous one.  Work is under way.
 
 

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