Tomcat
Enthusiast
The V-TEN Racing Chronicles written by Tom Wilson
Viper Days Finals at Hallett Motor Speedway, October 22-24
V-TEN Racing, Two National Champions and Most Improved Drivers as a team, New Friends, and Great Memories.
This is the season ending event for Viper Days. This is when the best from the Western Region test their skills against the best from the Eastern Region. Due to family and business conflicts (got to pay for this lifestyle somehow), no Challenge drivers from the Western region were able to make the trip to OK. It would have been great to see Ray Moore be pushed by Terry Rossi. We all missed you guys at the finals. Maybe next year. The weekend weather was perfect with the exception of some passing thunderstorms on Friday afternoon. That gave us some time to relax and have some wine and a good smoke. We left the cars in TX at Newt’s, which made the 13-hour drive from Atlanta easy if you can call a 13-hour drive easy. Cars were left on the trailer, we hooked up to it and drove 6 hours to the track. Did I say we left Atlanta on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm and arrived at Newt’s about 7 am Thursday? That was the only way to get to the track and set up so we would be ready to rock and roll for the first session at 8 am on Friday.
The Track:
+ [******] is about a 2-mile track with ten turns of all types and great elevation changes. Top speeds for me were about 130 at the end of the front straight. The track is family owned which is apparent. By apparent I mean what nice people in the restaurant, Scott the son of the owner, and all of the corner workers. Every last person made the weekend enjoyable. Did I mention the food? Wow! is all I can say. Lunches were home cooked. Scott says the ladies did not want to buy prepared food so they made everything from scratch such as pies, brownies, lemonade, tuna salad (with and without onions) and the list goes on… After the Friday lunch I was not late for the others. The track is also very safe with no material damage to any Challenge car.
Car Prep (Team Secrets, don’t tell other Viper Days Participants):
This turned out to be the edge I would need to beat both Bill Lamb and Jim Garrett.
+ New tires with 315s and 335s on Forgeline wheels;
+ Ran the new set first thing on Friday (one heat cycle and then let them sit for 78 hours makes them last longer, but 24 will do) and put them away. I finished the morning with an old set of tires on stock rims. These things don’t stick.
+ How you doing Bill? Fine Tom. Say Tom, would you mind heat cycling my front tires for me? Sure, why not. Bill decided not to run on Friday.
The Weekend (ok, not the weekend):
Friday, at the track by 7am and get some home cooked breakfast. I look at the schedule for the day and there are two run groups and eight sessions each. Can you say track time? This is the first event we paid for all of Friday. In retrospect, if we did our usual Friday afternoon only we would have had little or no time to learn the track prior to the run for the roses. Man am I smart, I mean lucky? I like this track. These tires push very little. Now to get my breaking points deeper, no not that deep! Cool temps in the high 50’s and dry made learning the track fun. We set as our goal to match or beat the times from 2000 when this track was run last. However, this time the track was run clockwise versus counterclockwise which they did in 2000. Lunch and back on the track. What, rain. That’s ok, we like our chances. Friday reception at the hotel in Tulsa is a faint memory since I can’t remember it. I think it was fun.
Saturday. Weather was perfect and in the high 60s. I follow Newt out and tell myself to stay with him and I will have a fast time until he drops me like a rock half way through the session. I stay with Newt for most of the session until the inevitable happens. In retrospect, that session would be my fastest for the weekend. Session two, I am about fourth in line with Ray, Ed, Newt, and Scott ahead of me. Everything feels right. Ever get those feelings? We go out and I am flying. I have been carrying more and more speed through turn five which is a high speed left hand down hill turn. This time I stay in it and fly through the turn and all seems well. I drift a little wide and cross the crown of the track and the back of the car starts to rotate counterclockwise. I can save it. By that time I am going downhill backwards at 80 mph and decided I was a little slow in the save and now have both feet in. Across the curbing on the outside of the track. Where is that tire wall anyway? Man this grass sure is nice and smoothhhhhhhhhh. I come to rest 30 feet from the tires. Hey, there goes Ed. Hey Ed, how did that look? Do you think I had my camera on? Nooooooooooooooo. Ok, back in the pits to change clothes and back out after lunch. Did I say how good the food was at the track? The rest of the day is spent running with Scott Young who is a hair faster then me making it lots of fun. At the end of the day I have a good lead on the boys and can sleep well.
Reception on Saturday was great. Good food and lots of very nice trophies. Newt and Nancy finish tied (first time in Viper Days history to have a tie) and are Eastern Modified Co-champs. Nancy also received the Brian Angen Memorial Trophy for her love of the sport. Eyal received his Eastern Prepared second place trophy. I received my Eastern Super Stock championship trophy. Team V-TEN received the Eastern Most Improved Driver trophy. Thanks to Dodge for great trophies. I can’t remember who won the Eastern Prepared Championship trophy.
Sunday. A little warmer. Times were not as fast as yesterday. Both Bill and Jim needed more speed and at that point, with track conditions as they were, new tires would not make the difference. Eyal struggled all day to try to catch me and more importantly Scott. In the end, Saturday was the day for smack down times.
Our Results:
+ Newt, wins the national championship with his seventh straight win in Modified with a 1:26.002 (3 of 16 Challenge Series Drivers).
+ Eyal, third in Prepared with a 1:29.151 (7 of 16 Challenge Series Drivers) and 0.53 seconds behind second place finisher Scott Young. Ray Moore put down a 1:25.805, which was the fastest time on street tires. Ray, sorry for getting you wet for your drive home, smile. I think Newt might be gaining on you. Something to think about over the next five months. You will be at Sebring. You got to drive that track.
+ Tom, wins the national championship in Super Stock with a 1:28.861 (6 of 16 Challenge Series Drivers, 0.8 seconds ahead of Bill Lamb.
What a great year. I now have five months to recharge my bank account until I see you at Sebring April 29. I will be running in Prepared and will need to step up my driving skills to stay in the hunt.
We could not have the success this year without the help of JonB at PartsRack.com. We also want to thank Tom Sessions for his help at the track along with John Archer and Russ.
Last, but not least is a big thanks to Skip, Courtney, Tracy, Penny, Kevin, and *** for making Viper Days possible.
Take care, happy holidays, and God bless.
Tom, Eyal, and Newt
Viper Days Finals at Hallett Motor Speedway, October 22-24
V-TEN Racing, Two National Champions and Most Improved Drivers as a team, New Friends, and Great Memories.
This is the season ending event for Viper Days. This is when the best from the Western Region test their skills against the best from the Eastern Region. Due to family and business conflicts (got to pay for this lifestyle somehow), no Challenge drivers from the Western region were able to make the trip to OK. It would have been great to see Ray Moore be pushed by Terry Rossi. We all missed you guys at the finals. Maybe next year. The weekend weather was perfect with the exception of some passing thunderstorms on Friday afternoon. That gave us some time to relax and have some wine and a good smoke. We left the cars in TX at Newt’s, which made the 13-hour drive from Atlanta easy if you can call a 13-hour drive easy. Cars were left on the trailer, we hooked up to it and drove 6 hours to the track. Did I say we left Atlanta on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm and arrived at Newt’s about 7 am Thursday? That was the only way to get to the track and set up so we would be ready to rock and roll for the first session at 8 am on Friday.
The Track:
+ [******] is about a 2-mile track with ten turns of all types and great elevation changes. Top speeds for me were about 130 at the end of the front straight. The track is family owned which is apparent. By apparent I mean what nice people in the restaurant, Scott the son of the owner, and all of the corner workers. Every last person made the weekend enjoyable. Did I mention the food? Wow! is all I can say. Lunches were home cooked. Scott says the ladies did not want to buy prepared food so they made everything from scratch such as pies, brownies, lemonade, tuna salad (with and without onions) and the list goes on… After the Friday lunch I was not late for the others. The track is also very safe with no material damage to any Challenge car.
Car Prep (Team Secrets, don’t tell other Viper Days Participants):
This turned out to be the edge I would need to beat both Bill Lamb and Jim Garrett.
+ New tires with 315s and 335s on Forgeline wheels;
+ Ran the new set first thing on Friday (one heat cycle and then let them sit for 78 hours makes them last longer, but 24 will do) and put them away. I finished the morning with an old set of tires on stock rims. These things don’t stick.
+ How you doing Bill? Fine Tom. Say Tom, would you mind heat cycling my front tires for me? Sure, why not. Bill decided not to run on Friday.
The Weekend (ok, not the weekend):
Friday, at the track by 7am and get some home cooked breakfast. I look at the schedule for the day and there are two run groups and eight sessions each. Can you say track time? This is the first event we paid for all of Friday. In retrospect, if we did our usual Friday afternoon only we would have had little or no time to learn the track prior to the run for the roses. Man am I smart, I mean lucky? I like this track. These tires push very little. Now to get my breaking points deeper, no not that deep! Cool temps in the high 50’s and dry made learning the track fun. We set as our goal to match or beat the times from 2000 when this track was run last. However, this time the track was run clockwise versus counterclockwise which they did in 2000. Lunch and back on the track. What, rain. That’s ok, we like our chances. Friday reception at the hotel in Tulsa is a faint memory since I can’t remember it. I think it was fun.
Saturday. Weather was perfect and in the high 60s. I follow Newt out and tell myself to stay with him and I will have a fast time until he drops me like a rock half way through the session. I stay with Newt for most of the session until the inevitable happens. In retrospect, that session would be my fastest for the weekend. Session two, I am about fourth in line with Ray, Ed, Newt, and Scott ahead of me. Everything feels right. Ever get those feelings? We go out and I am flying. I have been carrying more and more speed through turn five which is a high speed left hand down hill turn. This time I stay in it and fly through the turn and all seems well. I drift a little wide and cross the crown of the track and the back of the car starts to rotate counterclockwise. I can save it. By that time I am going downhill backwards at 80 mph and decided I was a little slow in the save and now have both feet in. Across the curbing on the outside of the track. Where is that tire wall anyway? Man this grass sure is nice and smoothhhhhhhhhh. I come to rest 30 feet from the tires. Hey, there goes Ed. Hey Ed, how did that look? Do you think I had my camera on? Nooooooooooooooo. Ok, back in the pits to change clothes and back out after lunch. Did I say how good the food was at the track? The rest of the day is spent running with Scott Young who is a hair faster then me making it lots of fun. At the end of the day I have a good lead on the boys and can sleep well.
Reception on Saturday was great. Good food and lots of very nice trophies. Newt and Nancy finish tied (first time in Viper Days history to have a tie) and are Eastern Modified Co-champs. Nancy also received the Brian Angen Memorial Trophy for her love of the sport. Eyal received his Eastern Prepared second place trophy. I received my Eastern Super Stock championship trophy. Team V-TEN received the Eastern Most Improved Driver trophy. Thanks to Dodge for great trophies. I can’t remember who won the Eastern Prepared Championship trophy.
Sunday. A little warmer. Times were not as fast as yesterday. Both Bill and Jim needed more speed and at that point, with track conditions as they were, new tires would not make the difference. Eyal struggled all day to try to catch me and more importantly Scott. In the end, Saturday was the day for smack down times.
Our Results:
+ Newt, wins the national championship with his seventh straight win in Modified with a 1:26.002 (3 of 16 Challenge Series Drivers).
+ Eyal, third in Prepared with a 1:29.151 (7 of 16 Challenge Series Drivers) and 0.53 seconds behind second place finisher Scott Young. Ray Moore put down a 1:25.805, which was the fastest time on street tires. Ray, sorry for getting you wet for your drive home, smile. I think Newt might be gaining on you. Something to think about over the next five months. You will be at Sebring. You got to drive that track.
+ Tom, wins the national championship in Super Stock with a 1:28.861 (6 of 16 Challenge Series Drivers, 0.8 seconds ahead of Bill Lamb.
What a great year. I now have five months to recharge my bank account until I see you at Sebring April 29. I will be running in Prepared and will need to step up my driving skills to stay in the hunt.
We could not have the success this year without the help of JonB at PartsRack.com. We also want to thank Tom Sessions for his help at the track along with John Archer and Russ.
Last, but not least is a big thanks to Skip, Courtney, Tracy, Penny, Kevin, and *** for making Viper Days possible.
Take care, happy holidays, and God bless.
Tom, Eyal, and Newt
