Schaut Speed Racing Blog

After the great results at Hallet, we made our way over to Tulsa for the drags. This post will be quick since so was the drag! Ha!

Dan got the honors (uh, OK… neither of us wanted to do it. Too much buildup and prep/time for 13 seconds of just going straight… But since I did the drags the last 2 years, it was my turn to watch!).

In the Low E.T., with a bit of tire smoke off the line and in 2nd gear, the car crossed the ¼ mile in a not-quite-impressive 13.6ish. Official are not up yet, but judging from all the horsepower in the group and seemingly large number of cars in the 12’s and low 13’s, I’m guessing our placement isn’t in the top 10 overall. I do know that we were 2nd in class, as the other BMW ran in the 14s and the behemoth of the Porsche Panamara ran a blistering 12.08!!!!! I guess that AWD and launch control and whatever other gizmos Porsche stuffed in there work!  We are estimating that we will still hold onto 1st in class, but will drop to 10th overall.  But hey, its only Monday.  4 more tracks to go….

Top honors went to the 2010 Porsche Turbo of Hugh Bate in a blistering 10.9!!!! Followed by the remaining Nissan GTR of Catseby Jones; crossing the line in 11.48 seconds! Dang that’s fast, and absolutely amazing at how quickly those cars leave the line with the launch control engaged!

Best burn-out goes to the Charger. Man do I ever need to get the picture up-loader to work! I have a good shot, and I swear the car IS in there somewhere…. J

Bracket drags didn’t go much better, as Dan was knocked out in the first round. At least this one isn’t worth too many points.

With the 1st half of the 400 mile transit over to St. Louis done and the team fed, I have given up the driver seat and gladly jumped in the back seat. Update the blog, check. Watch some video of Gateway, up next. Catch some early Z’s, soon!

Goodnight!

We are currently chilling out with a bit of down-time at Tulsa Dragway waiting for the Low ET and Bracket Drag events to start.  So, what better opportunity to check results and update the blog???

After the great lunch (Thanks Kicker!) and some relaxing in the 77 degree sunshine, the second time trial session started at Hallet.  A few tweaks to the tire pressures and reviewing the data and the car (and driver) are set to go.  The changes paid some good dividends as Dan was able to shave off about 2.5 seconds in total time!  Good thing he did too, since the #39 E30 BMW that is right behind us in overall points managed to finish this session without spinning, and the VW GTI was able to run the full session at full speed (they had some fuel issues in the morning).  With a finishing time of 4:32.965, Dan finished 10th.  This has moved us to 9th overall as the #6 Subaru STi beat us and moved up a spot.

The #20 Porsche Panamara did well in the afternoon, finishing 17th with a 4:38.731, with the #23 M3 finishing in a time of 4:48.285 good for 29th.

This session wasn’t without some drama and excitement.  A battle of the un-expected ragged on track as the #54 Honda Civic (this car has a gorgeous supercharger/turbo combo, putting about 300 HP to the wheels… in a car about 2000 lbs.!) caught the Mazda 5 (er, Mazdaspeed 3 in a minivan body?) on track at one of the most difficult corners.  With neither driver wanting to lose any time, neither backed off.  The result was the 2 racers going side-by-side over the crest of a hill into a blind right turn - The Honda put 2 wheels off, kept his foot in it and made the pass going into the next left-hander…  woh!

Its going to be interesting and tough to stay in the top 10 for Schaut Speed Racing.  There are some seriously fast cars in this group, a few of which had less than desirable results at the wet skid-pad (primarily the #39 BMW and #6 STi) that are slowly cathing up to us.  But its a long week yet, and if we can keep up with these consistent top finishes, we should be OK.  This one will probably go down to the wire!!!!!

Well, the drag should be starting soon.  Results may not be so good here.  Its time for the high-horsepower Vettes, mustanges, GTR, Porsches, etc to shine!  Including our main competition - The Panamara with its AWD, 500+ HP and launch control are good for a blistering 3.5 second 0-60 and 12.xxx second quarter mile!  We will see shortly!

Another beautiful day with the sun shinning and not a cloud in the sky.  The whole One Lap crew made their way to a nice little track just off of Hwy 412 in the Oklahoma country side.  Hallet is our destination for today, where 2 more time trials will be run before heading out to Tulsa Dragway later tonight.

Hallet has a lot of character, and with the multiple blind corners, elevation changes and changing camber, it makes this track more suited to technical driving skill than pure horse power.  We arrived early enough to get a good spot in the shade and out to the track for a little research.  Dan took off on the scooter while Nick and I went for a nice run around this 1.9-ish mile track.  Its Dan’s turn again behind the wheel, hoping to improve on our overall position with a few more solid sessions.

With temps in the mid 50’s and lined up behind the Evo X, he takes to the track.  Nick and I make it over to one of the premier viewing stands to watch the action.  By the second hot lap, we can see that Dan has made up a lot of time to the Evo.  Certainly looked like he was flying out there!  With a few nice drifts around the turn right in front of us, we liked what we saw!!!!

Final time was a 4:35.741.  This was good for 9th overall in the session.  And has brought us up to 8th in the overall standings!!!!!  Wow!

When Dan came in, one of his first comments (after “Boy, was that a HOOT!”) was “These brakes are amazing!  I’m not using them enough!”  That’s what I like to hear; Props to Cobalt Friction!!!!!

We got to enjoy a free lunch courtesy of one of this years event sponsors - Kicker Car Audio!  It was delicious - Thanks!

The cars are lining up for the afternoon session.  Time to see what Dan can do!