Parallax Racing Report
1st Stint - Kasemets- Tonis starts the race and gains 150 car lengths
in the first lap. The p-2 and p-3 cars were force to start at the back
of the grid due to rules infractions during qualifying. With little
drama during this stint Kasemets opens a commanding lead lapping the
entire field 2 times.
2nd Stint - Knapp - Steve takes over and continues the march
opening the teams lead to about 4 laps. With 75 cars in the field on a
three mile track it feels like driving the Pacific Coast Highway at
150mph during rush hour. The cars dashboard data display becomes
intermittent during this stint......a problem that continuous thru the
remainder of the race.
3rd Stint - Bartuska - Rick takes over after some minor repairs. He spins in his fifth lap. With the dash display out, Rick thought he dad selected 3rd gear at the entry of turn ten when, in fact, he had selected 2nd gear. When he applied the throttle at the exit of the turn, the car instantly spun and stopped just off course perpendicular to the track. No damage to the car and no other incidents during this stint but Rick ended up 1 lap down by the end of this stint.
4th Stint - Kohli - Steve ran his first stint with little drama. He was the first driver to run in complete darkness. Steve noted that as he passed a car going up the hill into turn eight the car flashed his lights at him,,,,then spun. Steve's lap times were almost as quick in the dark as in the day. By the end of this stint the team had fallen to 2 laps behind the Marma MK20 second place car.
5th Stint- Lojkovic - Again, little drama during Bob's stint. The lead car had problems and pitted several times during Bob's stint allowing Bob to improve our position during his stint. At this point we were one lap behind the leader.
6th & 7th Stints - Kasemets - Team manager Augie Pabst made the call to have Tonis double Stint in order to get the team back in front by a good margin. That strategy worked as we finished Tonis's double stint 13 laps ahead of the nearest competitor. The second place car helped us widen the lead by pitting several times while we only pitted twice, once for fuel and once to repair a flat tire caused by a side swipe going thru turn fourteen onto the front straight. That impact was hard enough to go thru the side body work and into the crush box along with damaging a wheel and flattening the left front tire. Kasemets was really pushing to get the team ahead. He was a little too aggressive overtaking a Honda civic going into the fast kink, turn seven, and allowed the splitter on the front of our car to scoop up the rear tires of the front drive Honda and plant them on the hood of our car...no worries as Kasemets let him down and then completed the pass. A solid whack into the yellow Grand Am Corvette put the topping on Kasemets double stint.
8th Stint - Knapp - Steve took over the, "beginning to look raced", car at around midnight. Steve did well during his time in the car opening the teams lead to 16 laps including a hard hit and spin on the final lap of his stint. It seems a Porvette turned in on Steve taking both cars into the gravel along side the track. That hit, among other things, broke the right rear suspension pushrod which had to be repaired before the car could continue. Steve Knapp limped the car back to the pit.
9th Stint - Bartuska -Rick strapped in while the Pabst crew frantically made repairs to the rear suspension and cleaned the accumulated debris out of the car. One of many full course yellows came out during the pit allowing the repairs to be completed while only losing seven laps of our lead. Rick left the pit and was held at pit out until the field had passed. Having forgotten that he had turned the pit speed limiter off while being held, Rick made a rather exciting departure from the hold point. He was more impressed than the officials standing next to the car. After several laps of green flag racing another full course yellow brought the pace car out. Rick promptly passed the pace car by mistake precipitating a radio call from Race Control to Augie Pabst asking, "What the @#$%^ are you doing?", and another radio call from Augie to Rick asking, "what the @#$%^& are you doing?" Rick cut his session short when the helmet cooling unit failed and his glasses fogged over. Driving 150mph, in the dark, with one eye, is not a good practice.
10th Stint -Kohli - Steve was pressed into service early due to Rick's fogging problem and he got right on pace. He started his stint about nine laps ahead and maintained that lead. The darkness caused the team and most of the field to be surprised when light rain began to fall on and off around the middle of Steve's Stint. Steve did well on slicks, slowing the pace to keep the car on the track and reading the track conditions. Late in his session Steve came into turn eleven a little hot, went wide, and got off track onto some painted runoff surface. The runoff was wet and the car immediately spun coming to rest against the tire wall facing down track. Steve fired up and came directly into the pit to have the car looked at. After some minor repairs, Steve was sent back out, and at that point Augie made the call that due to the track conditions we needed to skip Bob in the running order and put Kasemets in the car early.
11th, 12th, 13th & 14th stints - Kasemets - It's 4:00 am Kasemets, awakened out of a restless sleep, cold, and tired, straps into the car not knowing that he'll be there for the next 5 � hours. It rains, he comes in for rain tires, it stops raining, he comes in for slicks, the alternator fails, the battery is running down, the right rear suspension push rod breaks again, he comes in for repairs and a fresh battery. Do we replace the alternator or do we keep changing batteries? It rains, in for rain tires and a battery. Augie makes the call, we will just keep changing batteries...too long to change the alternator and a battery will run the car for almost an hour. As the sun comes up Tonis cuts off the lights, the cooling blower, and then finally the power steering unit, all to save the battery. Pabst, anticipating a possible problem weeks ahead of time, had installed a second battery with a throw over switch to be used if a driver spun, killed the engine and then ran the main battery down trying to restart. This battery allowed us to run the main down to nothing and still enable the car to make it back to the pit for a recharged battery. Tonis finishes this massive stint with the car more than 20 laps ahead of the nearest competitor.
15th Stint - Knapp - Steve Knapp steps in after an extended pit stop for minor repairs and fresh battery. He continues to extend our lead over the competition. Steve runs close to two hours clinching the win. With forty minutes to go, even if our car is sidelined, there is not enough time remaining for any competitor to complete more laps than us. Cheers and tears break out in the pit. Steve's stint closes with 30 minutes remaining.
16th Stint - Lojkovic - Bob buckles in to take the win after 25:00:02 nearly 30 laps ahead of the Marma MK20.
There are dozens of side stories between the crew, drivers, hottie, etc that occurred during the race weekend. These are just the memories I have from the race. Many great memories for all.
THE TEAM
Augie Pabst (whatever/driver change)
Bob Lojkovic (Driver)
Carl Dean (DINO)(Mechanic/Tire change)
Charles Vogel (Roush Yates/engine doctor/Lollypop)
Christi Sadiq (Team Hottie/ boss of Steve Knapp)
Gary McDermott (Truckie/Fuel Rig/Driver change)
Hunter Whitt (Motec/fuel strategy/dead man valve)
Jerome Guimont (Mechanic/Tire changer)
Lee Hagen (Mechanic/Fueler)
Norm Hornitschek (Mechanic/Tire changer)
Randy Engels (Tire management/Airjack)
Rick Bartuska (Driver)
Rob Ernst (Mechanic/Firebottle/tires)
Steve Knapp (Driver)(slave to Christi)
Steve Kohli (Driver)
Steve Levinsohn (Mechanic/ Tire changer)
Tonis Kasemets
3rd Stint - Bartuska - Rick takes over after some minor repairs. He spins in his fifth lap. With the dash display out, Rick thought he dad selected 3rd gear at the entry of turn ten when, in fact, he had selected 2nd gear. When he applied the throttle at the exit of the turn, the car instantly spun and stopped just off course perpendicular to the track. No damage to the car and no other incidents during this stint but Rick ended up 1 lap down by the end of this stint.
4th Stint - Kohli - Steve ran his first stint with little drama. He was the first driver to run in complete darkness. Steve noted that as he passed a car going up the hill into turn eight the car flashed his lights at him,,,,then spun. Steve's lap times were almost as quick in the dark as in the day. By the end of this stint the team had fallen to 2 laps behind the Marma MK20 second place car.
5th Stint- Lojkovic - Again, little drama during Bob's stint. The lead car had problems and pitted several times during Bob's stint allowing Bob to improve our position during his stint. At this point we were one lap behind the leader.
6th & 7th Stints - Kasemets - Team manager Augie Pabst made the call to have Tonis double Stint in order to get the team back in front by a good margin. That strategy worked as we finished Tonis's double stint 13 laps ahead of the nearest competitor. The second place car helped us widen the lead by pitting several times while we only pitted twice, once for fuel and once to repair a flat tire caused by a side swipe going thru turn fourteen onto the front straight. That impact was hard enough to go thru the side body work and into the crush box along with damaging a wheel and flattening the left front tire. Kasemets was really pushing to get the team ahead. He was a little too aggressive overtaking a Honda civic going into the fast kink, turn seven, and allowed the splitter on the front of our car to scoop up the rear tires of the front drive Honda and plant them on the hood of our car...no worries as Kasemets let him down and then completed the pass. A solid whack into the yellow Grand Am Corvette put the topping on Kasemets double stint.
8th Stint - Knapp - Steve took over the, "beginning to look raced", car at around midnight. Steve did well during his time in the car opening the teams lead to 16 laps including a hard hit and spin on the final lap of his stint. It seems a Porvette turned in on Steve taking both cars into the gravel along side the track. That hit, among other things, broke the right rear suspension pushrod which had to be repaired before the car could continue. Steve Knapp limped the car back to the pit.
9th Stint - Bartuska -Rick strapped in while the Pabst crew frantically made repairs to the rear suspension and cleaned the accumulated debris out of the car. One of many full course yellows came out during the pit allowing the repairs to be completed while only losing seven laps of our lead. Rick left the pit and was held at pit out until the field had passed. Having forgotten that he had turned the pit speed limiter off while being held, Rick made a rather exciting departure from the hold point. He was more impressed than the officials standing next to the car. After several laps of green flag racing another full course yellow brought the pace car out. Rick promptly passed the pace car by mistake precipitating a radio call from Race Control to Augie Pabst asking, "What the @#$%^ are you doing?", and another radio call from Augie to Rick asking, "what the @#$%^& are you doing?" Rick cut his session short when the helmet cooling unit failed and his glasses fogged over. Driving 150mph, in the dark, with one eye, is not a good practice.
10th Stint -Kohli - Steve was pressed into service early due to Rick's fogging problem and he got right on pace. He started his stint about nine laps ahead and maintained that lead. The darkness caused the team and most of the field to be surprised when light rain began to fall on and off around the middle of Steve's Stint. Steve did well on slicks, slowing the pace to keep the car on the track and reading the track conditions. Late in his session Steve came into turn eleven a little hot, went wide, and got off track onto some painted runoff surface. The runoff was wet and the car immediately spun coming to rest against the tire wall facing down track. Steve fired up and came directly into the pit to have the car looked at. After some minor repairs, Steve was sent back out, and at that point Augie made the call that due to the track conditions we needed to skip Bob in the running order and put Kasemets in the car early.
11th, 12th, 13th & 14th stints - Kasemets - It's 4:00 am Kasemets, awakened out of a restless sleep, cold, and tired, straps into the car not knowing that he'll be there for the next 5 � hours. It rains, he comes in for rain tires, it stops raining, he comes in for slicks, the alternator fails, the battery is running down, the right rear suspension push rod breaks again, he comes in for repairs and a fresh battery. Do we replace the alternator or do we keep changing batteries? It rains, in for rain tires and a battery. Augie makes the call, we will just keep changing batteries...too long to change the alternator and a battery will run the car for almost an hour. As the sun comes up Tonis cuts off the lights, the cooling blower, and then finally the power steering unit, all to save the battery. Pabst, anticipating a possible problem weeks ahead of time, had installed a second battery with a throw over switch to be used if a driver spun, killed the engine and then ran the main battery down trying to restart. This battery allowed us to run the main down to nothing and still enable the car to make it back to the pit for a recharged battery. Tonis finishes this massive stint with the car more than 20 laps ahead of the nearest competitor.
15th Stint - Knapp - Steve Knapp steps in after an extended pit stop for minor repairs and fresh battery. He continues to extend our lead over the competition. Steve runs close to two hours clinching the win. With forty minutes to go, even if our car is sidelined, there is not enough time remaining for any competitor to complete more laps than us. Cheers and tears break out in the pit. Steve's stint closes with 30 minutes remaining.
16th Stint - Lojkovic - Bob buckles in to take the win after 25:00:02 nearly 30 laps ahead of the Marma MK20.
There are dozens of side stories between the crew, drivers, hottie, etc that occurred during the race weekend. These are just the memories I have from the race. Many great memories for all.
THE TEAM
Augie Pabst (whatever/driver change)
Bob Lojkovic (Driver)
Carl Dean (DINO)(Mechanic/Tire change)
Charles Vogel (Roush Yates/engine doctor/Lollypop)
Christi Sadiq (Team Hottie/ boss of Steve Knapp)
Gary McDermott (Truckie/Fuel Rig/Driver change)
Hunter Whitt (Motec/fuel strategy/dead man valve)
Jerome Guimont (Mechanic/Tire changer)
Lee Hagen (Mechanic/Fueler)
Norm Hornitschek (Mechanic/Tire changer)
Randy Engels (Tire management/Airjack)
Rick Bartuska (Driver)
Rob Ernst (Mechanic/Firebottle/tires)
Steve Knapp (Driver)(slave to Christi)
Steve Kohli (Driver)
Steve Levinsohn (Mechanic/ Tire changer)
Tonis Kasemets
