We have started to write this newsletter several times, but something always seemed wrong. Perhaps "wrong" is the incorrect word. "Different" seems a better choice. Something at Kryderacing is different. Actually a lot of things at Kryderacing are different. And a lot remains the same. If you're confused, hopefully the following newsletter will bring you up to speed.
 

KRYDERACING NEWSLETTER: TIME FOR CHANGE?

Like everything else in this world, Kryderacing has been evolving. Sometimes old formats, such as this newsletter, endure over long periods of time and seem immune to change. But time and change eventually catch up. In the case of this newsletter the pressure for change is coming from the Internet. One of the first items included in our www.Kryderacing.com website was a copy of our latest newsletter. The idea was to make it available to more people. And the idea worked.

But, another item added to the website was up-to-date reports on Kryderacing activities such as race results and Kryderacing Series point standings. The need to repeat these items in a newsletter became dubious and any sense of urgency lost its impact. So many of the bits and pieces of Kryderacing activities that were the standard fare in the newsletters are now included in weekly updates to www.Kryderacing.com.

Recently, every time we sat down to write a newsletter it seemed as if we were struggling to come up with fresh material. Rewriting stories from the past month or two didn't flow well from the mind to the word processor. Quite often work on a new newsletter was set aside due to frustrations of this type.

What are we going to do about it? We aren't sure yet. It would be easy to simply drop the newsletter and ask everyone to go to our website for information. But we don't think that is a good solution. And simply sending out fewer editions (such is the direction we have taken in the last few years) is not our desire. Perhaps we can try sending out more frequent, but shorter newsletters, which highlight our activities. Whether we actually do this of not remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
 
 

SSB

The Kryderacing owned SSB class Nissan 240SX has been very busy this year. Bill Schauer continues to do well in the car whenever he enters races at Mid-Ohio or Nelson Ledges. At a Mid-Ohio race back in September Bill added a pole position start to his resume. During the race he led, spun, and charged back to almost win on a damp track. He competed at Nelson Ledges in October and wound up third, again after a spin. While the spins may seem to be a problem, anyone who has ever watched Bill race has seen his determination and understands the spins occur not so much from lack of skill, but edging the car beyond its limits while engaged in intense battles.

For its last 2000 appearance, Jim Tibor drove the car at the Great Pumpkin Regional at Nelson Ledges Road Course. Jim is a rookie racer who had gone to driver's school earlier this year and also entered the car at a Regional race during the summer. Jim finished the weekend with a fourth place finish.
 

NX2000

The Great Pumpkin race also saw a first for Kryderacing. We have acquired Bill Pintaric's Nissan NX2000 for rental purposes. The car was modified from SSB specs to ITS by Kryderacing before the 1999 season. Bill raced it a few times, but has since acquired another racer. Jon Marhefka, another rookie driver, was its first renter. He started far in the back of the field but improved as the race went on. The car is not competitive in its current class (are any rules makers from SCCA reading this?) but Jon did extremely well and actually turned its best race lap to date. Jon and Jim Tibor (see SSB above) completed the Great Pumpkin weekend competing in the enduro event late Sunday afternoon.
 
 

510

The car Bill Pintaric bought was a Datsun 510 originally built by Larry Ritz. Larry and Marge Ritz were our pit crew when we started racing in 1975. Larry raced the car during the 1980's and then sold it to Mike Witt. Mike competed up until about two years ago before other activities started to take up too much of his time. The car is probably on of the best built and maintained Datsun 510s in the world. Bill has a lot to learn about driving on race tires, but he has gotten off to a good start. At the Mahoning Valley Double Regional he recorded a Second on Saturday and then won on Sunday. A week later at the Great Pumpkin Regional he won again. Next year should be interesting as Bill runs both Regionals and possibly a few Nationals. While he doesn't plan on concentrating on Nationals, he might still qualify for the Run-Offs with a little luck.
 
 
 

CORVETTE Z06

Reed had a chance to drive a new Corvette Z06 back in August. John Bender had brought his new Vette to Virginia International Raceway. He and wife Lynn are regular participants at Track Time Performance Schools and had their ZR-1 (John) and C5 (Lynn) at this recently re-opened facility. The majority of the miles on John's new Z06 were put on during the drive from their Michigan home. Reed felt the car was fantastic. The low-end torque was especially impressive. One surprise came as Reed started to enter a turn on his third lap. As he eased onto the brake the brake pedal actually moved under his foot. It seems the handling computer didn't trust his driving style and, based on the steering input it sensed, wanted more braking than Reed was providing. Fortunately the Z06 engineers recognized there are conditions ("racing") when drivers want to use vehicle weight transfer to rotate their cars. Maintaining directional control is compromised in order to reduce lap times. The handling programming in the car is very good and can keep a driver out of trouble while they hone their skills. When its time to make the car do "tricks" you can turn the system off. Reed ran several additional laps with the system turned off.

Also impressive were the lap times John turned in the car. John's ZR-1 is nowhere near stock. It is a 500 HP track-prepped racer with competition suspension, big brakes, and soft tires. And John is a skillful driver. His best lap in the stock Z06 was within two seconds off his best in the ZR-1.
 
 

"CORVETTE FEVER" MAGAZINE

Reed and John Bender teamed in John's ZR-1 for this year's One Lap of America. Their Fifth Place finish was very respectable in a large, competitive field. The October issue of "Corvette Fever" includes a feature on the event and a photo of Reed and the car. The caption with the photo was very complimentary. Good comments were also found in the latest edition of "Corvette Quarterly".
 
 

KRYDERACING CHANGES

Evolution is occurring everywhere at Kryderacing. Some of the changes were planned. Others came unexpected. And one was the result of a tragedy.

We previously reported Matt's taking over of shop management. His responsibilities are expanding as we acquire new rental vehicles such as the NX2000. We recently received a request to run a team at the 2001 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Matt had as much input on the decision to proceed as Reed and Sandi. As Reed travels more frequently with his commitments, and Sandi spends a larger percentage of her time handling paperwork and the phone, Matt's running of the shop will become more independent.

Our professional racing activities have been limited during the past couple of years. As our Kryderacing designed and built tube-frame IMSA GTU Nissan aged and became less competitive we found it more and more difficult to compete at the level we once did. The problems with various, and changing, sanctioning organizations didn't help. But looking back on the last few years, perhaps the biggest reason we were cutting back was our increased involvement with other racing clients and their activities. (In other words, other activities were more profitable.) But now we are actually considering a return to racing our own car in a pro series. We don't plan on running a series, but we do see potential benefit to Kryderacing in running selected races. In some ways this sounds similar to past efforts, but there is one large difference. In the past our efforts started with us owning a car and looking for clients (usually co-drivers) to help fund our racing. The new effort is client driven and we are looking for the proper car and venue.

We have doubled our shop size. There have been several times over the last couple of years when we were faced with a serious shortage of shop space. We looked into other locations, expanded floor space arrangements within our current location, and most recently were waiting for a storage garage to become available. Simply storing a lot of parts and equipment in a storage facility would have been a major help.

We ended up acquiring the complete building we had been sharing. We didn't expect it. And we certainly would prefer it to have happened under different circumstances. Kim Moore, who shared the facility with us, was killed in an automobile accident about a month ago. Another driver, believed drunk, crossed over the center of the road and hit Kim's car as he was driving home from work. Everyone who knew Kim liked him. He had offered valuable assistance to Kryderacing many times over the years we knew him. Not only was he available at the shop for problem solving, but he occasionally assisted us at our races and Track Time events. He is missed by all who knew him.
 
 

UPCOMING KRYDERACING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

* SEMA Show - October 31st thru November 3rd.

* Buttonwillow TrackTime - November 8th and 9th.

* Laguna Seca TrackTime - November 11th and 12th.

* Kryderacing Regional Championship Series Banquet - November 18th.

* Thanksgiving (It's not one of our activities, but the break is extremely welcome).

* Performance Racing Industry Show - December 7th.

* Sebring TrackTime - December 9th and 10th.