33rd Annual 12 Hours of the Cascades

[john@johnhudakracing]

A few pictures to share from the ICSCC 12 hour enduro race at Portland International Raceway this past Saturday. Myself and Eddie were co-driving the #22 Bockman @ Son Nissan Datsun 240Z in P2 Class for team owner Terry Mcbride.


We completed all 12 hours and finished 3rd in class with 472 laps, narrowly conceding 2nd to Strictly BMW by 2 laps. We began in 17th, closed to 13th, and wittled away to 6th place overall.


For our first enduro and given the length, we could not be more pleased! Over half of the teams that began the race never even finished. Many thanks to Terry for entrusting us to driving his fine vintage JDM machine, our co-drivers Joe, Joe, Mike, Terry, pit crew, ICSCC, competitors, and everyone else that was crazy enough to put their machines through 12 hours of abuse!! Maybe next year we will return with an NSX!



The vehicle: Dedicated enduro car. Bockman & Son Nissan 240Z. This vehicle was a raw brute to drive for two plus hour stints. Heavy steering, non assisted brakes, loud, and finicky with a very narrow optimal driving envelope... Fast lap: 1:22's

Spare Motor & Transmission. "Just in case". A swap could be done in less than an hour by our pit crew:

9:45AM. The start of the enduro. A "Le Mans" style start. Each car has one driver helper. With a lot of practice- I am standing by to help Eddie get belted in and off. We were first out of the gate:

Green flag is out:

Afternoon:

Late Afternoon:

Evening: The day wears on to dusk, doing our best to track fuel consumption, keep the car on-track, and minimizing driver changes / pit times:

Last pit stop. Laptime results on the laptop tell us that this is shaping up to be a sprint race to the finish! Joe straps in for a hard charge:

Driving blind: The lights from some near-by construction caused us glare problems on our anti-fog strip. Laptimes fell off when we needed them the most. Tip to all future competitors: remove your fog strip for night time enduros.

Checker is out! Everyone runs up to the pit wall. A few close finishes. Next stop trophies! First time, no incidents, and a strong runner... we can be very happy with 3rd today! By this point we are all ready to just go home. This is 12 hours. Can you imagine 24-25 hours? This is like practice. Next stop: 24 hours of lemons!

A few misc. shots around the paddock and a sliver of the competition:

This RX7 is ungodly quick! 8 seconds a lap faster than us. Unfortunately many of the rotaries had the speed but not the endurance with things melting to bits, leading to time lost in the pits...

Sadly, the paddock was littered with non-finishers due to mechanicals. Teams helping fellow teams everywhere.

Friends from the local Pro Mazda team:

 

[Edo]

Congratulations John!
Looks like you are finally a "legit" racer.

But now that you are a "racer" what are you going to do with all that "street cred" you've accumulated while boulevard pimpin in downtown Bellevue?

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

Congratulations John!
Looks like you are finally a "legit" racer.

But now that you are a "racer" what are you going to do with all that "street cred" you've accumulated while boulevard pimpin in downtown Bellevue?

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Ha ha. Well, hopefully I can find some place where I can cash it all in (street creds for USD).... because now that I have earned my national license I am probably going to need every last bit of it next season at the going "pro weekend rate" !!

 

[4mulacar]

Congrats John, I have not met you yet, I'm an IRDC member and conference driver dating back to 1989. I just joined the NSX ranks in June of this year when I decided to get back in the saddle again after a six year hiatus to adopt my grandchild, who may become a racer also. The enduro is a tough competition for man and machine so my hat is off to your effort and finish! My wife and I have had a great time with the group and look forward to more good times. We are trying to get my car ready after blowing a ring and pinion at the last Pacific raceways regular event, Again great effort you guys should be proud!

 

[NSXDreamer2]

I know, now that Racer John became a "legit" racer... LOL:biggrin:

Eddie, don't worry about John, as long as he had to commute to work in various type of his street-illegal car. He'll still cash in his "street cred"; getting pulled over by police from time to time.

To be honest, very happy that John had the courage and determine to reach his dream. (I still remember the "John" who lift at T1 at 90mph, and look at him now.) I'm still sitting in the side line and only could day dream about racing.

Go John!!! Sky's the limit.

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

He'll still cash in his "street cred";

Hey, if I could get a 1:1 exchange rate on my street creds, maybe cash in a few carbon fiber consoles and JDM exhausts.... crap I'd be a multi-millionaire by now. While definitely a great loss to the community; let's be honest: NSXes are now 18 grand and their are more than enough street posers around on the forums to fill the void. :biggrin:

Sky's the limit.

You know Ferrand, it's not so much the sky I am after... :wink:

 

[92 white 0650]

Re: Nicely done.

Good on ya. That's quite an accomplishment. Takes a different mind set, skill set and wallet to keep grinding like that lap after lap. Maybe in my next lifetime I'll give it a try. :wink:

 

[C-speed]

WTF! We were pitted in stall #2, way down at the end of the hot pits.

You told me you were going to be there, but never saw you! We got 3rd in class, 12th overall in our P3 car also. I didn't drive this year, I was appointed Crew Chief.

The original motor I built specifically for this enduro (fully built B16A) expired at last weeks track day at PIR. So much money, time and effort went into that build, we basically had around 10 days to put it together, had it on the dyno the night before till 4:30am, drove straight to PIR, and it melted a piston around 2pm. Bad fuel pump! AAARGH! We were turning low 1:20.xx too!!! Could have ran into the 19's. We would have gave you P2 guys a run for your money tee hee

Put the original stock D16A6 ITA/H4 winning motor back in it. Then that motor blew up at Friday practice during the last session, and we were up till 4am putting a new one in it. Basically, we had a brand new spare short block that we had brought down to us. Had to transfer everything over and assemble the new long block. Got up at 7am and went over all the nuts/bolts. New motor went the full distance! However, we had a brand new axle fail around 3hr mark - DOH!.... we probalby would have had a good fight for 2nd if that didn't happen. We set fastest lap in P3 at 1:24.802.

argh!

We're planning to do the season opener in April though. You down?

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

WTF! We were pitted in stall #2, way down at the end of the hot pits.

Sorry. We honestly walked around and looked for you a couple of times, couldn't find you! I even asked Julie and know one knew where to point me. I figured you were with one of the CRX's. Oh well, next time!

We're planning to do the season opener in April though. You down?

This was a great end to a great year; I'm definitely down for the 4 hour enduro and a strong start next season! We will all have to work to dial-out more speed over the winter! Drink more concentrated talent juice! :biggrin:

 

[4mulacar]

John Do you have a listing of parts, I see in your footer NSX garage sale?

 

[C-speed]

Do you have a listing of parts?

Parts for?

 

[C-speed]

Sorry. We honestly walked around and looked for you a couple of times, couldn't find you! I even asked Julie and know one knew where to point me. I figured you were with one of the CRX's. Oh well, next time!

Doh! Probably cause i was running around like a chicken with its' head cut off.

This was a great end to a great year; I'm definitely down for the 4 hour enduro and a strong start next season! We will all have to work to dial-out more speed over the winter! Drink more concentrated talent juice! :biggrin:

Ya, it was definately a good time. Need more sleep though We're building another dedicated enduro car during the winter, so it'll be pretty sweet come April. We'll definately give you P2 guys a run (Our goal is to beat P2 with a P3 car ) Do I smell a challenge? hehe :biggrin:

 

[Edo]

That lap time chart is absolute epic comedy. Probably the best thing I've seen in a long time.

Also...John is chasing his dream..but dont let him forget to mention that I was on the radio for 45 minutes essentially telling John to quit driving like a slug.

Radio chatter went like this:

Eddie: "John WTF are you doing?"
John : "I dont know how you guys were running 1:24's, my lap times are slow as Sh*t."

At this point, John comes around and busts out a furious 1:35 lap time. Something that might pass muster for a world championship qualifying lap if we were racing motorized Razor scooters.

But...John eventually got his lap times down where they needed to be a settled into a groove. Thank goodness. I was worried that I was going to be "That Assclown" that invited the slowpoke to the go-fast party.

 

[C-speed]

Radio chatter went like this:

Eddie: "John WTF are you doing?"
John : "I dont know how you guys were running 1:24's, my lap times are slow as Sh*t."

haha... and truth comes out j/k

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

But...John eventually got his lap times down where they needed to be a settled into a groove. Thank goodness. I was worried that I was going to be "That Assclown" that invited the slowpoke to the go-fast party.

Dope! The smack talk has begun!

Ok. Eddie. I will admit it did take me initially longer to get this vintage machine up to speed than it did for some of the other veteran drivers. Fact in point: In traffic I averaged 1:26-1:27-1:28's and my butt feelers found it increasingly precarious to drive significantly faster on the setup; so instead I observed mistakes and made little tiny corrections (like NASA did with the Mars Lander Phoenix space craft). Remember, this is 10 seconds a lap under my NSX qualifying last weekend on the same course configuration so it clearly wasn't a "can-think-fast" issue... my talent juice had to last long time in this can.

Further, this wasn't my race car. I signed a contract and was legally on the hook for every penny of it- so that perhaps weighing in of the back of my mind. This wasn't an interview; I had to bring this classic machine in one piece and respect another racers dream [despite getting dive bombed my sports racers two wide and landing in a sprint race going triple wide with P3 cars].

I had the right mindset. I started off slow and steadily worked the times down lap by lap as directed before I went out. Top gear style. It was an enduro, not a sprint race- so consistancy was far more important than trying to qualify and making a costly mistake in a car I wasn't familiar with.

It's not like I haven't been there before. 1 brief spin cost me 1st place and landed me in 3rd the prior weekend by a few seconds... so I kept 2-3-4 wheels on for all 2 hours and just focused on hitting my marks so I could save the equipment. I didn't have anyone to impress. Speaking of- what was your fast lap again? 1:24:X? You are going to convince me that you were out their driving for two hours and didn't try and run one ubber fast lap to gloat about? Right. Right.

So.... I'll take the hassle for the slightly slower times this day. I knew the team owner won't remember a second or two a lap at a 12 hour Enduro. He would remember his car getting a flat tow in. I settled in and did ok, and I have all next year doing HPDE instruction to work on finding more speed in unfamiliar cars.

The little red and blue lines WILL eventually intersect prior to the expiration of hydrogen in our sun's core. Watch out! :biggrin::wink:

(Our goal is to beat P2 with a P3 car ) Do I smell a challenge? hehe

It seems like the next logical step. Now that I've beat all the P3 cars with a P2 car, trying the complete opposite.... couldn't hurt.

 

[Edo]

I think the main thing that was trying to be illustrated in the long excuse post above by John is that John needs a larger "Talent tank".

But, God willing, he will be faster than Me...just before the Sun implodes.

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

I think the main thing that was trying to be illustrated in the long excuse post above by John is that John needs a larger "Talent tank".

But, God willing, he will be faster than Me...just before the Sun implodes.

Well, I see the glass as half full. I don't need a larger talent tank- I just need yours to eventually run empty. :biggrin:

 

[4mulacar]

Parts for?

C-Speed, NSX parts unless you have Toyota Atlantic parts laying around I usually get those from Arnie Loyning but I'm open? I have a boatload of Reynard parts my crew chief Mike Demski bought out all of the parts from Reynard North America (Carl Haas) back in the days he was the dealer and I now have most of those parts.

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

C-Speed, NSX parts unless you have Toyota Atlantic parts laying around I usually get those from Arnie Loyning but I'm open? I have a boatload of Reynard parts my crew chief Mike Demski bought out all of the parts from Reynard North America (Carl Haas) back in the days he was the dealer and I now have most of those parts.

You know to be honest- I am so lazy, I can't even bring myself to create a list of things to sell.

SIGH.

Maybe next week, if the DOW drops to 0 and it rains and their are no new episodes of ICarley on Nick... I'll find the motivation.

In the meantime, sure drop me a PM with what you are looking for and I'll try and dig it out. :smile:

 

[C-speed]

C-Speed, NSX parts unless you have Toyota Atlantic parts laying around I usually get those from Arnie Loyning but I'm open? I have a boatload of Reynard parts my crew chief Mike Demski bought out all of the parts from Reynard North America (Carl Haas) back in the days he was the dealer and I now have most of those parts.

Lemme know if you're looking for anything in particular. A few my buddies know the Realtime guys, and have a stash of old RT parts from their NSX's. Guess where I got my new axles from? Haha