[benspeeder]

Here's a link to my in-car video of the race. Finally improved the quality of video and have some good rear-view in the video also.

Qualified 5th overall and missed a shift on the start and fall to 8th. Ran 2nd fastest lap at a 2:14.5 against a brand new, pro built Honda S2000 ($75K build to Grand Am quality) pro driver Nick Leverone ran a 2:13.5. 66 cars in the field.

These guys get way ahead of me on the start - either the car or the driver is taking too long to come up to speed! Methinks it's the driver needing to much warmup to get in the groove.

Started raining and cars were stuffed into the fence all around the track. Glad I hit the gravel.

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/7960563/21083482

Cheers!

PS - was running a new chip from RS Barn - car felt like it had better torque off the corners in the mid-range. These guys keep making it faster.

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[94SilverCab]

Excellent news to keep hearing about 968s, their drivers and RS Barn who keeps dialing them in them better and better.

Regards,

Jay

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[RS Barn]

Ben,
Same chip as Pablo winning at UTCC Challenge, but you have 20 less HP and 300 more pounds. Go on a diet dude. Actually petition SCCA for less weight now....
Pete

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[pmcrespo]

Still a good race Ben. WG is treacherous dry... cannot imagine the SCCA ITR crazies there in the WET! Good job in bringing the car safely through the checkers after a long race. Top 10 is still great with all the competition and the tough conditions.

The shift missing sounds familiar... Exactly what I did in my first weekend this year. Took me an extra second to throw it in 4th... and it cost me 3 positions.... which at the end... resulted in some contact unfortunately as it put me at the wrong place in the wrong time... oh well...

Cheers!

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[benspeeder]

Pablo - got to hear about the UTCC! Way to go bro! Any in-car??? Give us the story!

Pete - My letter to the competition review board at the SCCA got laughed out of town. Supposedly they don't take on track performance into consideration but after my request to be dropped from 3055 to 2900 lbs was summarily rejected I heard that the board thought I had a lot more performance left in the car and I've already got several wins.....

The BMW's I'm racing are 2765 lbs. and make the same HP and maybe 20 less tq.

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[pmcrespo]

Benny! Finally got to watch your video.... Great footage... too bad about that shift... u got stuck behind that train even though you were faster... Great lines you were running.... I may have to try some of those earlier entries in a few of them places... seemed to work for you

Anyway, God permitting I will be there end of September racing with NASA. Hopefully I'll remember how to drive the track after a few years not being there. Only been there twice actually... Once in my first Tiptronic 968 and 2nd when Pete was trying to instruct me in my first ever ride on Hoosiers never having heeled and toed in my life before...... LOL.... I still remember him on the passenger side going into the boot: "brake, BrAke, BRAAAKE!!!!!!!!!!" LOL....

Have some Session 1 UTCC Video put together but the darn Corel VideoStudio 12 keeps crashing every time I try to render it for publication... Finally had to drop it after spending waaaay too many hours messing with it... I am going to try to call Corel tomorrow....

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[333pg333]

Nice driving Ben. Really clean and consistent. Interesting to me how those BMs walked you a bit in the beginning but you worked back through really nice driving lap after lap and wore them down. I thought at first they seemed to have a better power to weight perhaps, but your corner speed / braking came to the fore.
Only saw the first 14 mins, was there a 2nd video clip? I also liked the Part II at WG. Good dice with that black BM. He was doing his best to block you within the bounds of fair play...ish...nice pass.

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[benspeeder]

Just got back from Italy - me want Ferrari :-)

Thanks for the nice remarks. I think I need to get warmed up on the wheel a little faster in the first few laps. These guys are balls out the moment the checker drops and I'm perhaps too slow to get 'er going. I do tend to run very consistent laps withing a couple tenths every lap and once I warm up and the tires get sticky I can start to rip off solid, fast laps.

The BMWs are the car to have in my class but whole wants to run with to crowd when you can rise above in a 968!

I need to start posting on Vimeo where you can put huge files up and not have a time limitation. I think my video got chopped after 10 minutes or so before the best racing started. I get up to 4th before the rain.

Pablo - I need another editor that will do .MOV video - converting to a windows format and then posting takes down the quality.

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[pmcrespo]

what are you using now? I use Corel VideoStudio X2. Version 13 is out now as well which has some improvements and added stability. May be worth it. I have also heard that the Adobe product is good but may be geared to the more video pro out there....

Download a free trial of VideoStudio. Fully functional and good for a month.

Italy... I am jealous.. My mom's family is from Florencia... Neither she nor me have ever been. Hoping to go next year.

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