Wow… I have to say that I’m overwhelmed and feel somewhat uncomfortable with the generous responses. (If you know me personally, not much shocks me anymore) nsx1164 has the right idea, were planning to put the 3.2 and 6-speed in the Red car. Our personal debate is who should drive. We have found that sponsor relationships are developed based on Hard Work, Luck (Sometimes who you know), and especially Wins. On one hand it seems to make sense to have veterans like Halsmer and Benoit drive, as they have a better chance of winning. On the other hand Vaughn and I are fast, but truly can’t compare to other equally fast drivers who know the tracks already. Seasons or time will make us faster as we get familiar with the tracks around the country… that’s the catch 22 if we don’t drive we don’t learn the tracks. So we have been debating what’s more important- Racing now or building a solid future? Our original plan incorporated both, unfortunately it took risky investments that compromise our financial security. My opinion is that I have to find a way to build that second car… without it I don’t drive.
While feeling sorry for my self I forgot to tell everyone about the track! Mid-Ohio, I know it better as the place where the Runoffs are held. The Runoffs are the finals for the SCCA, arguably the biggest event of a road course racers amateur career. I’ve seen Mid Ohio on Speed many times, and had the impression this place was a run down, mediocre excuse for a race course. I had some negative bias going in, as Road Atlanta was the place for the runoffs before Ohio took over… Oh, I live 5 minutes from Road Atlanta and would rather have the runoffs here. If any one knows the history of why they moved, I’m interested? I always figured it had something to do with Don Panoz becoming the new owner of RA at about the same time as the move. Anyway… Back to Mid-Ohio. My prejudice was miss founded! This is a great road course, especially for the NSX. 15ish turns with awesome variety. Its character is that it’s old, and has gone through many changes. The harsh cold winters, and hot summers have flexed and shifted this track over the years. It’s loaded with patches and abrupt dips and bumps. It’s a drivers road course and the most technical I have driven. Areas in natural breaking zones require hesitation before you can, as well as natural throttle areas that require coasting before you could get the grip to put the throttle down, a section of the track required short shifting to utilize torque instead of snappy power, or you would surely get loose. Yep this was a drivers track, Vaughn and I agreed that after walking the track with Benoit we accelerated our curve by weeks of driving days… that in our case would take years. Many of the speed secrets were not the logical or textbook solutions, and would have taken a lot of experimentation, if we found them at all. It was cool to see that our car was not surpassed by any other in the technical sections… not even the touring cars.
