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Old 08-08-2012, 05:53 PM   #26
Vorshlag
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Project Update for August 8, 2012: The last several days have been a blur and we're just digging out of the rubble here. We were thrashing and putting in some crazy hours the last couple of weeks, fueled by energy drinks and a looming deadline. We pushed past the original departure time by only 12 hours, but it was time well spent. This thread update will show the last the pre-Colorado updates and preparations done to Brianne's car before they hauled out of Texas to go to Pikes Peak.



Last of the Wrap + Decals

When I posted last we had begun wrapping the car in red. We had a lot left to do, and the wrap crew went from one person, to two, to four people in quick succession. We never remembered to call Costas, who can wrap any car, but we weren't really awake enough to remember that. Matt took care of the hood scoop, trunk, rear bumper, and trimmed the door and fender vinyl for Amy and McCall. JasonM handled some other bits, and Amy + McCall wrapped a big chunk of the car too including the rear quarter panels and roof.



Some of the panels came out great, but some of the curvy bits got a bit complicated. None of us were skilled in wrapping cars, and we were very tight on time, but I think it looks good from 20 feet at 20 mph, heh.



Once the red landscape was laid down, Amy and JasonM applied the cut vinyl decals that Jason had designed in Illustrator. These angled stripes each have the names of the bigger ($1000+) parts sponsors. There were also decals on the front and rear bumper covers, hood, hood scoop, and even more are being applied today at Pikes Peak.


Front Splitter & Air Dam Construction

Once the rear wing was installed, it was obvious in high speed corners at our short Mineral Ring test that we had an aero imbalance, with significantly more rear downforce (wing) than up front (none), even with the wing trimmed all the way out. I had been pushing for us to include a front splitter since day one, with as much of a front undertray as the rules allowed. Once we decided to hold the car another 12 hours, it was splitter makin' time!



Due to the time we had left, plus the rigors that Brianne was likely to put through the splitter, there was one material that made sense - plywood, with a tubular aluminum reinforcement structure. If we had more time maybe aluminum plate could have been used, or a carbon+aluminum composite splitter. I wasn't about to make something from sign shop material, because my "rule of thumb" is if a material can be crushed between my forefinger and thumb it doesn't belong in a splitter. Aero forces alone will tear it to shreds, and any road scrapes or rubs with FIA curbing will fold it up like paper. I've spoken up against using Alumilite and other plastic corrugated material on forums in the past, and stand by that statement. We got some grief for the plywood splitter on our GRM E30, but the unit we built works and can take a beating on the street or track. The driver of this Subaru can do swan dives off of this splitter as well. Haters are gonna hate, nothing we can do about it. Refer to it as a "carbon based composite" if you like.



As you know plywood is tough, abrasion resistant (F1 cars use a wooden wear plate material under their chassis), and has significant cost advantages over almost anything else you can dream up. It is an easy material to quickly fabricate with and because of the cost and ease, we made a full duplicate main plane for only a little extra scratch. They now have a back-up if this unit somehow gets broken in practice (it would take a big hit to break it).

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Old 08-08-2012, 05:54 PM   #27
Vorshlag
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(continued from above)

Using a plumb bob to trace the bumper cover outline, Ryan and Ed marked the splitter's main plane a full 5" beyond the front bumper cover's shape, per the PPIHC rules, and used massive 3/4" thick slab of plywood. I had voted for 3/8" or maybe 1/2" thick material, but JasonM wanted to make it Brianne Proof (TM), so he went Texas big.



Once the aluminum structure was added to the splitter, it became even more rigid and was ready for some paint. In case you are wondering, the entire thing weighed 38 pounds and if 1/2" thick material was used it would have been closer to 25 pounds. The splitter sits about 4" lower than the wrapped exhaust header and oil pan, with about 3" of front ground clearance. The main plane was painted with gloss black enamel and the aluminum was shot with some black spray enamel by Brianne herself. After the splitter dried overnight it was bolted on (via the four front brackets and two rear bolts into weld nuts added to the lower subframe), we had a big air gap to fill between the bumper cover and the splitter main plane.

We don't have many pictures showing the air dam construction, as they are still on the memory card in my Nikon, which is in Colorado. I will show it's construction in my post after Pikes Peak. The air dam is simple and functional. JasonM had picked up a 7' length roll of 3/16" thick ABS plastic sheeting from a local circle track supplier (Smiley's), which was a red that matched the wrap. I made a dozen or so brackets from 2" x 2" x 1/8" angle aluminum, bolted them to the splitter, with a drilled hole and a Rivet Nut (RivNut) pressed into place on each vertical portion - with the help of two of Brianne's volunteer Austin crew members. This series of lower brackets (see below, right) allowed us to bolt the lower edge of the ABS sheeting onto the brackets for easy removal of the splitter. The upper section was riveted onto the bumper cover with backing washers behind. This looks a little crude, but it keeps the high pressure air pressing against the splitter, directs some over the hood, and forces some of the air stream into the radiator or intercooler openings in the bumper cover. Two slots for brake ducts can be seen at the bottom edges.



In order to make sure we were on the right path, we did some "static testing" during construction. Ed stood on the plywood splitter without any aluminum structure in place... and it barely flexed at all. I was about to choke when he hopped up on the lip! Once it was beefed up with a few pounds of aluminum tubing, Brianne was hopping up on the thing like a kid on a trampoline. It doesn't flex an 1/8" with her on the thing, so I guess it's Brianne Proof after all.



Brianne was a good sport and posed for a couple of splitter pictures, above. You can see the finished air dam on the right picture, and the splitter structure is visible in the left picture. There is a front tow strap we added visible in the center, poking out of a slot between the splitter and air dam. This air damn was made very quickly and only completed an hour before they loaded the car into the trailer to head out.



More pictures above are of the completed car, right before it went into the Vorshlag trailer Sunday afternoon.




Cool desktop wallpaper, with a ghosted view from the hood open merged with a picture of the hood closed: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Vorshlag...428-copy-O.jpg


(continued below)
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Old 08-08-2012, 05:55 PM   #28
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(continued from above)

Arrival and Tech


Jason and Brianne led the caravan that drove through the night, along with two cars carrying support crew, and made it to Colorado Springs Monday around lunch time. They spent most of the day just acclimating to the altitude, and then went to tech with the car on Tuesday. As of now, half of the Vorshlag crew is on the mountain. The guys uploaded this picture last night, during tech and scrutineering. They had a small issue at tech that I will quote straight from the Brianne Corn Racing facebook page:

Quote:
Tech was odd in that our car which has had an SCCA Log book since like 2005, and was raced here last year (without issue), (but then) didn't pass tech (this year). It turns out that there were 2 incomplete welds in the (top of the) cage. I found the maintenance shop at PPIR and talked the guy into letting me loose with his welder. An hour or so later we passed tech and were out on the test course turning laps.
Good news, in that was the only wrinkle they've had so far in Colorado. Last year they were still building the car at this point, so they are way ahead this time around. There have been a number of cars that lost motors and/or overheated at a test earlier in the week at PPIR, a small oval track with an infield road course south of Colorado Springs. Brianne and Jeremy have made some test laps in the Subaru are very happy with it so far; they are making some slight tuning tweaks and are ready to attack the mountain.



The major sponsors are listed in the side stripes, such as Vorshlag, AWDTuning, Pirtek Plano South, AST-USA, Ignite, Swift and Amsoil. There's still a few more decals to go on, but it's 99.5% done and it is race ready. According to our folks at tech, the car was very well received by fans and competitors alike. People were constantly taking pictures of it, like this guy above.


Practice on the Mountain Wednesday

The team spent the morning at the very top of Pikes Peak (all the way up to 14K feet) doing some shakedown practice runs, shown below.



After these practice runs they adjusted camber (it had "way too much") and AWD Tuning was adjusting the tune. The crew is heading to PPIR with the car right now for some additional handling tweaks and more testing tonight. As I write this Brianne and Jeremy are driving up the mountain in a street car for some recon runs, then will blast down and meet the crew at PPIR to drive the STi. Tomorrow the rest of Vorshlag crew flies out of Dallas to Colorado Springs and we will all be there over the weekend (our shop will be closed Friday) to support her race efforts. We will post up more pictures on Facebook during the race weekend and will make a mega-post after we get back from Colorado next week. If you want to see more during the event go to the Brianne Corn Racing and Vorshlag facebook pages.

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Old 08-09-2012, 11:22 AM   #29
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WOW nice build up guys! hope you get the result you went for!

wish you best luck from quebec

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Old 08-10-2012, 12:57 PM   #30
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Old 08-10-2012, 05:35 PM   #31
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Cool pic of the car on autoblog:


AutoBlog coverage of Practice Day 2
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Old 08-16-2012, 05:21 PM   #32
Vorshlag
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Project Update for August 16, 2012: As in my other project race car forum threads, I would normally start off with a post-race report right about now. But not this time. The 90th running of the PPIHC was so out of control that I have talk about the event, the crashes, and the mistakes made by the race organizers first. I apologize in advance to the readers, as this is not all roses and snowflakes. I will follow up with a real post-race report from the perspective of Vorshlag, Brianne's car, our support crew, practice, qualifying, the race, and more. In short: Brianne finished 5th out of 23 in her class, starting after a long (90+ minute) crash delay, which put her running in the rain and hail. Not complaining about the conditions - we know that if she would have qualified better she would have run earlier, in the dry conditions like the first five cars in her class did. Again, I will expand more on Brianne's story in my next post.

I started writing about my thoughts of the event itself on Monday (the day after the race), but it took me until Thursday (today) to really get my thoughts together. All of our crew has finally gotten back and more facts are available now, so I am glad I waited. Jeremy Foley's crash video has 2+ million hits on YouTube in two days, with Paul Dallenbach's videos close behind. So many people have seen the multiple crash pictures and videos and want to know more, I have had dozens of people calling and texting me for "what happened?!", so here is my version of events. This is as seen through my own eyes, without rose colored glasses or my normal niceties. These are not the views of the rest of our crew, of the driver or co-driver from Brianne Corn Racing, or anyone else. Just my views, from my perspective.



Who am I to talk bad about the ninety year old, revered PPIHC event? I admit that I haven't even been to a Pikes Peak competition event before this one. However, in the past 24 years of my own racing experiences I have seen a good number of club and professional level races in several countries. From endurance events, circle track, sprint races, F1, NASCAR, drag races, road races, open road races, autocrosses, HPDEs, time trials, and more. It doesn't take too much experience to understand when things are FUBAR, like the 90th running of the PPIHC was.

From my point of view there was a lot of weirdness going on. I saw safety issues and race organizer decisions that would be unacceptable at any other race I've ever entered or attended, and I feel that I have to share them here. After talking to dozens of people at the event who said they followed our build thread for this car (which is on eight forums now), I don't want somebody to read a filtered version of the race from me, then think that Pikes Peak might be safer or more organized than it was, so I'm not holding anything back. The big problems at this event all stemmed from a few key mistakes made by the race organizers, which anyone involved with the event already know about.

Read This Bill Caswell Article: http://jalopnik.com/5934725/how-pike...ive-ever-raced

Please stop reading here for a moment and read Bill Caswell's article about this PPIHC event that he wrote for Jalopnik. It is aptly titled "How Pikes Peak Became The Most Dangerous Place I’ve Ever Raced". Caswell is a fixture in the rally scene, plus a party animal and a real character, but he has a sharp mind and has seen a lot of races across the globe. His comments about the lack of safety at the event are spot on. The organizers made too many mistakes and allowed too many entrants, including drivers and car builders without any race experience whatsoever. The abnormally high number of entrants (rookie or otherwise) made for compressed practice days with many fewer practice runs per team than normal. He withdrew from the event after qualifying, for the reasons he stated.

Brianne and her crew chief JasonM have competed in four PPIHC events, but as I have stated this was my first time to watch a Pikes Peak event up close. It was a very cool event, but also a big hot mess. I get why the event is attractive - it's an absolutely beautiful road to drive, especially now that it is completely paved. Some veteran PPIHC racers were peeved about the lack of dirt, and how that changes the history of this event, and I get that. I don't share that sentiment, as I'm a pavement kind of racer, so Pikes Peak was more attractive to me now than it ever was before.


$250K Dacia entry before and after running over a GoPro in the road. Click to enlarge

However, after seeing what I did in practice, qualifying and on race day, I can honestly say that this road and this event is the most dangerous sanctioned race in the world (on par or worse than the Isle of Man TT Race). It has 156 turns, almost all of them without guardrails, and if you screw up you are going into trees or over a cliff. If you make even a small mistake, or say if you drive over a freakin' GoPro camera that some d-bag spectator puts in the road "for a cool shot" and get a blow-out (which happened to the Dacia team this year! Picture above from practice), you are in for a potentially very bad crash that could end in death or severe injury for you and spectators. The 12.4 mile long race course also starts at 9390 feet and goes up to 14,110 feet of elevation, so there's barely any air to breathe for the drivers or to cool the cars.


Co-driver Jeremy Rowland showing the hail falling at the peak after their race run (take a close look at the wing, one racer was using it as cover from the hail!)

I will be the first to say that the event organizers had a LOT of things to deal with, from spectators wandering onto the road or falling off the mountain (one girl was on top of a rock that was hit by a car, at least one fell off a cliff, and there were two more spectator "incidents" that were reported on the radio), they had to manage too many entrants, and they had to deal with some seriously bad weather. But... these were all known issues and/or ones they created themselves. The organizers had nobody to blame for the event running long and the resulting weather issues/delays but themselves.


Racing finished so late the drivers drove down the mountain in the dark

Logistically I don't know how they pull it off, with so many crash crews, cops, ambulances, helicopters, media, spectators, and racers strewn across 12.4 miles of pavement. I have to give a huge shout out and thank you to the safety crew, helicopter pilot, and the various sheriffs and policemen that had to deal with a bunch of drunk spectators. There is virtually no cell coverage on the mountain, so I couldn't find out much from our folks located higher up or from the internet, so it was a bit frustrating as a spectator. It's a longer race course than the Nürburgring, and having driven both courses, Pikes Peak is infinitely more treacherous to drive on or to support.



As you can see in the class qualification listing above, it seemed to me, in my humble view, that they had a rather large number of rookies (11 of 23 qualifiers in Time Attack class alone). Some classes had 50% PPIHC rookies and other classes had as much as 75% PPIHC rookies. That's a big red flag to anyone that has raced wheel to wheel at even the club level. In order to race W2W in SCCA Club Racing, you have to go to a competition school (or two) and then compete on probation for two or more race weekends before you get a full competition license. Pikes Peak has none of that... they let people with only autocross experience or very little road racing experience enter. Some without even that, all the way up to the Unlimited class. This caused an unusual number of people on the mountain that had zero track experience, much less any actual previous rally or hill climb experience.

I feel that the normal dangers of this race combined with the huge number of racers (and compressed practice time) and the high percentage of rookies contributed to the abnormally high number of crashes, and many lengthy race delays. Then there was a big change in weather in the afternoon (which apparently happens like clockwork between 2 PM and 4 PM almost every day during this season) that was also a major factor in run times, crashes and delays. The event ran so long that they had to truncate the runs to finish at Glen Cove (about 1/2 race distance) for some of the Time Attack racers and all of the Open Wheel division cars. We drove up to the start line at 4 AM and didn't get off the mountain until 9:30 PM, and they were still piling down the mountain for an hour or more after us. Normally they are done with competition by 3 PM and can miss the predictably bad weather that this mountain sees.



The danger factor at this event is indescribable... it is simply off the scale compared to any sort of racing I have ever experienced or watched. I don't know how they can keep doing this race without some significant safety changes - better cage/seat/safety regulations, better spectator control (fences), and maybe even some added guardrails. I saw so many wrecked cars coming off that mountain it was staggering. Radio calls all day that included things like "we have lost three cars on the mountain", or "send Flight for Life", over and over again.

(continued below)
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Old 08-16-2012, 05:21 PM   #33
Vorshlag
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This one is now famous, so I have to include it. Here is a picture of the Evo going off near Boulder Park and the crash recovery on Monday.


Evo crash pictures (click to enlarge)

The cage rules, seat mounting and FIA date rules, and complete lack of window nets requirements put too many driver at risk. Sure, the more experienced folks had these items even though they weren't required to, but with the entire 12.4 miles of race course paved, it attracted a whole new crowd of teams and racers. Many of which came from Time Trial and Drift racing, groups that don't even have Rally cage requirements.

Pikes Peak Cage Rules Insufficient

Let's look at the post-crash cage structure from Foley's EVO. Nobody likes to do this, but it needs to happen so the PPIHC race organizers will improve the safety requirements before someone gets killed, or barring that, other racers will see this and take these matters into their own hands by building a rally-worthy cage for their own Pikes Peak entry. Jeremy and Yuri were both extremely lucky to not have suffered much worse injuries. The cage they had met the rules, and in fact exceeded them quite a bit, but that does not mean that the cage was sufficient for hill climb/rally use. It was not. Being lucky does not trump being properly prepared.

Cage pictures on Autoblog: http://www.autoblog.com/photos/jerem...#photo-5212775



Click to enlarge


At left you can see the main hoop buckled and B-pillar crushed inboard. Right: The A-pillar bar failed completely

As you can see, there were substantial cage structure failures in several key places. Places that would otherwise be reinforced in an FIA style rally cage. First, look at where the A-pillar on the passenger side was crushed and deflected downwards over a foot. Second, the main hoop was not tied to the car's B-pillar and both deflected (in different directions) over a foot each. The roof had one diagonal (as it was made for one occupant) and left the passenger's helmet very unprotected in a rollover (and seeing the damage to Yuri's helmet, it is obvious why).


Seat pictures. Click to enlarge

Now let's look at the passenger seat, which was bolted to the sheet metal floor and not tied to the cage at all. This is done in road race cages (but probably isn't a great idea there). When the B-pillar deflected inboard a foot, it knocked the seat and ripped it from the sheet metal floor, allowing Yuri to flop around in there. There was no window net to keep his arms inside the cabin, and that allowed his arm and hand to come completely out of the cage structure during the 10+ roll overs. His head came out of the car as well - it's visible in some of the high resolution pictures.


Helmet pictures - click to enlarge

The cage in the Mitsubishi Evo above buckled in many places, which would have been avoided if it had the an FIA spec'd cage - which has extra bars missing from lighter road racing cages. Some experienced PPIHC competitors pointed out the under-built cages to many of the new teams, including the Evo above that pancaked the A and B pillar bars, before the event (see comments by "DaveK" (Dave Kern, who finished 2nd behind Millen at the 2012 event) in this thread). Yes, this car had a huge off and smashed down a mountain against a bunch of big boulders, which you can see in the video, but it could have been better protected.

The cage experts on other forums are already over-analyzing the various failures, which need to happen. Foley was lucky to not sustain any injuries after this horrible crash. His co-driver Yuri was not so lucky, sustaining a dislocated shoulder and head trauma when his helmet cracked along four axis. His injuries were compounded by the obvious cage buckling and seat mounting failure (it ripped off the sheet metal floor). They life flighted Yuri off the mountain because of the very visible helmet damage. Looking at the passenger seat and cage area, it's a miracle he is not dead. That was a horrendous crash and apparently not uncommon for Pikes Peak, from what I hear. What would have made this crash safer? An FIA rally spec'd cage. I hope the organizers see this wreckage and make some much needed rules changes for participants safety.

The problem is not with the cage builder, it is with the origination of the cars and the PPIHC cage rules. Cars entering the Time Attack class at the PPIHC come from four main race groups: converted Rally cars, converted Time Trial cars, converted Club Level Road Race W2W cars, and converted Drift cars. These four racing venues have very different safety requirements and substantially different cage requirements. Rally has the most over-built cages, Time Trial/Club Racing W2W cages are in the middle, and drift cars (that might hit a water barrier at 20 mph) have the least strong cage requirements. The problem is, Hill Climbs like Pikes Peak see crashes that are nearly identical to Rally, but PPIHC doesn't require Rally style cages (that include A-pillar "FIA" bars, double diagonals in the roof, B-pillar integration with the main hoop, and more).

Should the competitors rely on the minimum cage standards set by a racing organization? Obviously not. But did anyone have an "illegal" cage for this event? I really don't think so. It was unfortunate for EvoD that their car crashed, as now everyone can analyze the roll cage failures and point out improvements. Again, they built a good road race cage, none of the welds tore, but it was not a rally or hill climb cage. I sincerely hope they take this criticism well, learn from this, and if they come back to another hill climb they bring a car with a rally-worthy cage. I hope the race organizers learn from this and require FIA legal rally cages for all cars entered in their extremely dangerous hill climb event. Their driver's will be safer for it.

After seeing this crash, Brianne's crew chief JasonM isn't happy with the cage in Brianne's car - he wants to add the front FIA bars to the A-pillar and a second roof diagonal, plus seat mounting tied into the cage itself. I personally have changed my own minimum standards for cages after seeing this - I used to be all about "the bare minimum cage" for weight savings, but not anymore. So at least there is one good thing from this: people are going to improve their cars after seeing this.

(continued below)
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Old 08-16-2012, 05:22 PM   #34
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(continued from above)


Click to enlarge

The cage in Millen's drift car, shown above. Those skinny bars are 1" tubes, the "big" ones are 1.5". This car had one of the weakest cages in a professionally built car I've ever seen - it wouldn't pass a NASA or SCCA tech inspection for a club level race, but it still met the minimum requirements for PPIHC (which are based on Drift cage rules). I crawled all over this car during Friday practice looking at the cage, but of course didn't have my camera. The tubing sizes and layout were staggering to me - I wish I could share that here, now. It uses 1.5" diameter tubing for the main structures and 1" tubing for large parts of the car. At PPIHC tech, this car weighed 2999 lbs with him in it. Sure, this minimalist cage is good enough for doing the driftoro thing in a parking lot, but if he had gone tumbling down the mountain or into the trees, Rhys would be one of the least protected driver's on the mountain. Well, maybe the 2nd least protected...


Click to enlarge

I was scrolling through Matt's pictures from FanFest, trying to find better pics of Millen's cage and stumbled upon this gem. This is another random competitor in Time Attack Class, above and below. This 5th gen Camaro had a supercharged engine, some blingy 20" wheels and a wrap, but was almost a totally stock street car. Remember: This car passed PIHC tech, checked off as "safe" to drive up the most dangerous hill climb in the world. This is the 2nd year it has entered and run PPIHC. What is wrong with this picture????



That wiggle in the down bar is bad enough, as is the bolt-in nature of the cage, but the front down bar doesn't even go to the floor! It also has little dune buggy seats. The PPIHC tech folks looked at this, two years in a row, and said, yes, this cage is good enough to withstand a potential crash like the EvoD car encountered. Riiiiiiight....

Even seasoned PPIHC veterans suffered big crashes, like Paul Dallenbach's huge off. What was noteworthy here was how close this car, traveling 130 mph off course, came to a pack of spectators standing on the outside of this turn. When I saw this on the video it made me think: "Was this a race in Mexico or the USA?!" How they get event insurance coverage is a complete mystery. Allowing people to stand on the outside of turns was ludicrous, and it stopped right after some of the key crashes happened that day - I know this first hand, because I had to move from where I was taking pictures near the start line. I don't care that it "has worked for 90 years", allowing spectators to wander willy-nilly around the race course under green flag conditions obviously wasn't working then. From what we heard, a little girl was injured after the boulder she was standing on top of was hit by a car, but she was released from the hospital the next day. Stuff happens here that doesn't happen elsewhere.


Dallenbach's crash was pretty massive. 1400 whp, going 130 mph in 5th gear, throttle stuck wide open, off into the trees, barely missing spectators

As many have reported there were too many crashes at this event; I've heard that this event had more than ever before. After driving up and down the mountain a couple of times, once in the rain, I can see why. Personally, I now have zero aspirations to ever drive this course in anger. You have to be a little nuts to race up this mountain. ZERO room for error - you go off, you are probably going to go tumbling down the mountain or blasting through the trees like Dallenbach.

While I have respect for anyone that races at Pikes Peak... I still think they are all bat **** crazy. Nice folks, but just a bit nuts. This event was by far the most dangerous thing I've ever seen. As harsh as I have been in my critique here, I do respect hill climbs, as this sport involves the short term intensity of autocross with the biggest dangers in all of motorsports, rally. It is a unique type of event and Pikes Peak is unique among hill climbs. Yes, mistakes were made, but they can be fixed. The number one issue still lies in the number of entrants they allowed to run the course on race day. 170 drivers (the entire amount left of the 211 that signed up) took to the mountain, which was about 50% too many. This was after qualifying had whittled the field down to 100 entrants. At the last minute the event organizers caved to political pressure from many entrants (possibly rightfully so) and changed their stance Saturday morning at 8am to allow all entrants to race, two hours before a protest hearing. This allowed too many entrants to fit in the allotted race period and allowed some entrants that honestly were not qualified to race on this mountain. One of the Unlimited class drivers had never done any sort of competition driving... not even an autocross. Nothing. Crashed twice in practice, banged up his co-driver a (edited), and was still allowed to race. These things don't need to happen.

In years past, the attendance from cars at this event had dropped so low that the organizers were bending over backwards to allow just about anything, creating new classes to attract Drift racers, rally racers, and more. They adopted their existing safety regulations, to try to entice them to come without having to modify their cars. Last year they had about 70 racers make it to race day. This year they had 170 racers and ran very late, with many racers running in the predictably bad late afternoon weather, causing more crashes and delays. Now that the mountain is fully paved and they have an over abundance of entrants, these safety concessions need to be readdressed. I know of several racers that are already sending letters to the PPIHC board to ask them to tighten up safety requirements, reinstate vetting of some kind to try to reduce the number of inexperienced racers (and car builders), and to make the event safer for both racers and spectators.

Come Watch before you Race

One thing that anyone contemplating running a PPIHC event should do is go and work crew for a team one year. If that is the only thing you take away from this post, then at least it was worth writing. Coming from a time trial, road racing or other W2W background, some things you see here will seem foreign, disorganized and very different to you - as they do me. But if you talk to enough experienced competitors you will likely get an understanding of why things are done differently, and how the minimum rules aren't always the best way to do things. I'm still processing all of the data I learned at this event, almost a week later, and at least I know more than I did before going to this event.

This event has been run for 90 years so the organizers might not be amiable to change anything. If the safety regulations do not get a big update next year, future PPIHC entrants will have a choice - do they built super light cars & cages and skimp on safety, just run the safety regulations from whatever racing series they are coming from, or do they follow rally safety regulations and build a car with a proper cage/nets/seats that can survive a crash on this mountain? I hope, after reading this and seeing these pictures, they give it a second thought.

I did meet a lot of really dedicated racers, great car builders, and saw lots of insanely cool machinery - which I will share and explore in a future post. Between me, Matt, and Brandon, we have tons of pictures that we will likely be cropping for days. Brianne's car arrived back at our shop early Tuesday morning so hopefully we can have the in-car video up later this week. Again, I am barely scratching the surface of the team's race experiences at PPIHC 2012. I just wanted to vent this insanity out first, then go back and talk about her car and experiences.

Thanks for reading.

Terry Fair @ Vorshlag
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Old 08-16-2012, 05:22 PM   #35
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This review of the event is even more harsh than my own, coming from Brianne's crew chief, JasonM. Jason works at Vorshlag but his views are his own.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason M
JHere's my take on what was right and wrong with this year's event:

Time for a Pikes Peak update. – Warning, this is my opinion and not from my driver or employer. I saw issues with the PPIHC organization, the drivers, and the on-site and virtual spectators. This was only my fourth year on the Peak, and many things I write about, particularly the past, were told to me by other, older competitors.

Short story, our run was in less than ideal conditions and did not end in a podium finish, but we took responsibility for our own safety before the PPIHC took responsibility for the competitors that ran after us.

Long story, this year will go down in recent Pikes Peak history as one of the most controversial years, the most dangerous years, and the most disappointing years. In the years before paving started on the Pikes Peak Highway (yes, it’s ironically called a highway), the race accepted applicants, vetted them to make sure only qualified, experienced drivers fielding decent equipment were invited to participate. Then, based on qualifying times, the slower drivers were eliminated so that only the fastest, best prepared teams participated in the limited time available on race day.

During the transition to pavement attendance fell and the event seemed to accept most applicants with little vetting and did not eliminate any competitors between practice and race days.

With the paving done I expected a huge number of competitor applicants (which happened) and a return to vetting and eliminating drivers without appropriate experience (which did not happen). This caused issue #1, lots of drivers with no rally or hillclimb experience and little time trial or roadracing experience. Some with no more than some autocross experience. And novices with little competition driving experience were allowed to enter a car in the Unlimited class.

Accepting all these entries swelled the competitor list and it was obvious that not all of them would be able to run on race day. Competitors quickly started asking what sort of solution the PPIHC board was planning and were told the Qualifying rule from the rulebook would be put into play. The rulebook actually has a number of methods for including and excluding competitors and many of the novice competitors and spectators whined about the fairness or politics surrounding these methods. Here’s a few that I found in a quick skim:
Quote:
Originally Posted by PPIHC Rules
Section II.
C. Any competitor who, in the opinion of the Stewards, shows insufficient skills, judgment, or ability may be disqualified from further participation in the event.

D. The Director of Competition shall have the right to require Competitors to demonstrate their ability to drive competitively on the Pikes Peak Race Course before they shall be permitted to practice or qualify.

Section III Part VII
7.2. Filing Entries-PPIHC will invite and receive entries only from selected competitors. PPIHC can set the number of entries in all divisions and classes, before the entry closing date.

8.2.4 Any race vehicle which does not make a qualification attempt may be added to the race program under the Race Director's option, subject to the approval of the Director of Competition and payment of all applicable fees.

8.2.5 The number of qualifiers for any division shall be established by the PPIHC. The PPIHC reserves the right to disqualify any competitor who qualifies outside a percentage (115%) of the fastest time. For spacing purposes the Director of Competition will notify all Stewards and Officials of those vehicles that fall outside of the 115% rule.

8.2.6 The race competitors shall be the stipulated number of fastest qualifiers, unless one or more of them fail to, or are not permitted to, line up for the race, in which case the Stewards may permit the next fastest qualifiers to complete the field. The PPIHC shall be allowed to add to the field at its discretion.


And this is all topped by:

Section III, Part I,

1.4. PPAHCEM Option-The PPAHCEM/PPIHC has the right to make and construe rules and to render decisions concerning them; to grant, refuse or withdraw licenses, sanctions and approvals; to assign and cancel dates for competitions; to appoint and rescind the appointment of officials; to impose and remove penalties for violation of its rules; to establish standards of eligibility for participation in competitions; to establish rules for its own procedures; and to do any and all things which, in its judgment, are consistent with the enhancement of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

1.6 Acceptance of Rules-Every person who participates in the event shall be deemed to be acquainted with the rules and shall agree to the acceptance of these rules as published, and as amended or supplemented, and agrees to be bound by same.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason M
In addition to these rules, the competitors were told at the initial driver’s meeting that any competitor causing two red flags during practice or qualifying, or any competitor driving off the course on purpose (ditch hooking) would be disqualified from competition.

Well, that should thin out the ranks.

Instead, what happened was that the PPIHC followed their own rules with two exceptions. They changed the 115% of the fastest driver to 120% of the second fastest driver (seems acceptable to me) and they included a few high profile competitors under the guise of “promoter’s option” (see Section II 8.2.4 and Section III 1.4). The only reason I can see for competitors being surprised or upset about this was that the whole qualification requirements were not clearly stated before Tech Inspection was over (as required in the rulebook) or that they did not make the cut. This caused some anguish among rookie drivers who started a negative PR campaign against the PPIHC during Fan Fest. The PPIHC organization quickly caved to their pressure and issued a bulletin the next morning stating that all competitors would be allowed to participate in the Hill Climb, including those that wrecked twice, those that ditch hooked on course and those that were so slow they should be entered in the exhibition class.

So now we have unvetted competitors entered. We have far too many competitors entered. And we have inexperienced and unprepared competitors entered.

As an aside, we also have seven cars entered in the Electric class.

Back up to the actual practice days. The PPIHC organization tried a few things to make things smoother during practice days. Runs were allowed from dawn to 9:30, which is 30 minutes longer than 2010. But instead of allowing competitors to go to the start line whenever they were able and then halting the runs so competitors could return to the paddock when the line was idle like in past years, they broke up the runs by classes and practice runs could only be competed when your class was running. I’d estimate that cost us two runs in the top section, two in the middle and one at the lower qualifying section. In my eyes that was one experiment that failed. Bill Caswell has written on Japolink about the safety of the event and the lack of practice runs. This is one thing we agree on. The lack of practice and qualifying runs due to the huge number of competitors and the mico-organization of the runs damaged the competition of race day.

Something else they tried with success (in my opinion) was that the competition vehicles had to be in the pits by 6:00 PM on Saturday before the event. This eliminated the hours of getting competitors situated in their pit spaces on the morning of the event. Good call! Though we found another car in our pit space and had to have it moved, it was not really clear where our pit space started and ended, and we found our pit space boxed in a few times. Luckily our fellow racers are mostly cooperative.

On to Race Day.

Frankly, worked just like most PPIHC race days. Semi organized chaos. But that was expected. Competitors are expected to keep track of what group is running and when to stage in the start line. As unorganized as it seems, it always seems to work just fine and with a smaller race-day group it would work even better.

The race day was expected to be long, which meant we WOULD see a shift in the weather at some point. With a smaller competitor field they can sometimes finish the runs before 3:00 PM and they –might- be able to get everyone done before the weather changes for the worse, but with the huge number of competitors we estimated the earliest we would run would be 2:00 PM assuming we ran before the Unlimited class and that there were no delays. Even then there were plenty of competitors that had to start behind us. But the delays started early. Competitors (new and old) had mechanical issues on course and a larger than normal number of off course events that caused red-flags and delays.

I heard second-hand that we experienced a long delay because a fire truck was tied up observing Monster’s car after it failed on course. With the larger number of electrical cars entering it may be prudent to review the handling of electrical car fires to see if they can be made more efficient so the event can continue.

The red flags continued through the day and I have no issues with the race-day handling of the events that caused them. Very minor delays were caused by communication issues with safety trucks and ambulances, and that might have caused longer delays, but it seemed backup methods prevented those delays from being longer. Kudos to the organization for handling so many incidents so efficiently.

The LONG delay caused by rookie Jeremy Foley’s crash caused a few things that rankled the competitors. This was a wreck that closed the course for 90+ minutes and four competitors were red flagged and had to return to the start line for another run. Instead of returning to the end of the line per the rules they were allowed to start in front of the remainder of their division, thereby having the best possible weather conditions as the conditions were becoming worse. The long delay also caused a significant weather change to the course relative to the first four Time Attack Division competitiors, but that is a part of hillclimbs. The first four cars (the top four qualifiers) got to make their run in relatively nice conditions while the next seven ran in difficult conditions (rain, hail, sleet, cold). After two offs in the bad conditions the PPIHC organizers shortened the course mid-Division which caused some competitors to cry foul. But it was the right thing to do both for safety and to allow the remaining competitors to make a run. It would have taken too long to extract the two cars that had gone off and resume running the entire Highway. So the course was shortened to Glen Cove, below the two off-course cars and below the bad weather. The remainder of the Time Attack Division and the entire Open Wheel Division ran the shortened course.

The event finished and I attended the most lightly attended and latest PPIHC award ceremony in four years.

So what went wrong?

The big issues were that the PPIHC didn’t restrict entries to competitors with experience that crosses over to hillclimbs. They did not set a maximum entry number per division or per event and choose from the applicants and they did not eliminate competitors during qualification and practice. They also had minor procedure and communication issues during the event that most likely did not change the flavor, competition results or safety of the event.

The drivers used peer pressure, social media and threats of bad press to get the PPIHC organization to allow potentially unsuitable competitors to be admitted at multiple times during the event from the entry period, the qualification period and the time between the initial competitor list being published on Friday and the reversal email on Saturday. This has continued after the event with cries of “politics” and “unfair competition” after the event from a few bad sports.

In addition to the handling of the event, I believe that the safety rules regarding the cages for production cars should be changed to fall in line with FIA Rally cookbook cages, FIA homologated cages or Rally America cages. The simple cages used in some of the Time Attack cars is not adequate. Only through luck have we escaped using the current cage rules.

Some things viewed as issues that I think were the responsible thing to do:

Shorten the course. Had that not been done the delay caused by the off course cars would have caused the Open Wheel class to not run at all. Doing it in the middle of a Division was a difficult call, but any other call would have denied some competitors a chance at any run.

Including high-profile competitors when they qualified slower than eliminated competitors. Some competitors can whine all they want. But if their programs are attractive enough and they can generate the public buzz or be allied with the event, then they might have been included also.

Changing the qualifications from 115% of the fastest to 120% of the second fastest.
Using the first qualifier would have decimated the divisions and left very few competitors for race day. Slightly relaxing them allowed for full slate of competitors. Though the eventual elimination of qualification hurt the competition and flavor of the event on race day.
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Old 08-17-2012, 05:09 PM   #36
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Good write up guys. I can't believe all the comments and news stories I am hearing about how "safe" that evo was.
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Old 08-19-2012, 02:05 AM   #37
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They need tougher cages. You cannot change acceptance criteria on the spot. A standard must be enforced. I have seen far too many accidents in this race. I do not see guardrails happening. The organizers need to limit the number of entries.

Accepting all comers is crazy.
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Old 08-19-2012, 03:55 AM   #38
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Personally I dont think the techs at PPIHC can even spell FIA, they are too busy worrying about the stupid ****ing pad they require on the steering wheel, but ingoring fire extinguishers taped or zip-tied to floors and cages. You can also thank Ryhs Millen for the TA rules, as he got the officials to go with adopting the drifting rule book for that class. Pretty much with all that happened in CO this year they needed the revenue and something to bring spectators and racers back the next year. That area thrives on tourisim, as the Major said, " Colordao Springs is open for business."


Good job keeping your cool and working through this cluster, I was glad to have helped you out the day we were eliminated..then re-enstated and I was looking for something to keep me busy., Josh
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Old 08-22-2012, 04:44 PM   #39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scby rex View Post
Personally I dont think the techs at PPIHC can even spell FIA, .......
I spent 4 days trying to convince them that my FIA approved Schroth Hybrid (2" HANS shoulder belts and 2" lap belts) belts should be allowed. First they failed them because they weren't less than 2 years old (FIA belts are certified for 5 years), then they went after me because they had 2" lap belts (which allow you to tighten your belts a bunch more than a 3" belt).

After submitting all sorts of paperwork with information about FIA certifications, they finally signed off on them Friday afternoon.

Dave
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Old 09-06-2012, 06:08 PM   #40
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Brianne and Jeremy's run up the hill and finishing in the rain, hail and fog.

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Old 09-20-2012, 03:48 PM   #41
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Project Update for September 18, 2012: Sorry for the month long delay in writing our "post-race report" update with the details of how the actual event went down for Brianne. We've been busy with other projects, preparing for and attending/competing in the 2012 SCCA Solo National Championships, buying some cars, and more.

Vorshlag Race Photo gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/PPIHC2012/

I was only at this event for a little over three days and in this post I cover the Friday practice and Sunday race day from my point of view as a spectator/sponsor/race day supporter for the Brianne Corn Racing entry at the 2012 PPIHC event. No more talking about the event, rules, crashes, or other distractions - this is what I saw that related to Brianne's event.

2009 PPIHC Interview with Brianne Corn

Before you read about our race write-up, you should watch the video interview linked below. I had never seen this until today and actually found it while searching for the race day video from 2012. This interview was made at Pikes Peak in 2009, when Brianne first raced a motorcycle up the mountain. Great stuff, as it let's you see the history of her racing and her passion from 2004 to 2009. She talks about the moment she knew she had to become a racing driver (an accidental mountain road drive in a rental Golf, following some caged rally cars in Italy). Her start in autocrossing, her move to land speed racing in 2007, then to an experience in the Baja 1000 (Class 3 truck), onto rally, then to Pikes Peak. Great stuff!



Click the image above to watch this 2009 interview with Brianne Corn.

Excellent interview. You must watch this if you follow Brianne in her racing endeavors. Also, make sure to follow Brianne Corn Racing on Facebook, where you can keep up with all of her racing efforts.

Friday: Practice

Amy, Matt, his girlfriend, and I all flew into Colorado Springs LATE on Thursday night (at our hotel by 1:30 am). Then Amy, Matt and I got up at 4 am Friday morning to meet the team that had been here all week (including Ryan and Jason from Vorshlag) up on the mountain. Friday was the last day of practice and it took place on the middle stage of the mountain (qualifying was on Thursday on the bottom stage). It was a total CF once we arrived in tow with the crew, as there was no room for us to park at the start area. We made a split second call and drove our rental Impala to the top of Devil's Playground at 12,780 feet elevation, which was the finish area for that days practice runs. We were going to help with taking tire pressures, getting IR temperatures of key components, and snapping pictures as they came into this section and finished each run.


Two excellent pictures of the Subaru during practice - click either for a larger view

We hopped out of the rental car at 5 am, which was wheezing and detonating like mad going up at this altitude, wearing our shorts and t-shirts (it was warm at the hotel!) and we were freezing our butts off. Oh DAMN it was cold!!! 40°F and a wicked breeze that went right through you. I had like three raincoats on and was barely able to stand it. Matt hiked down the mountain a bit and took pictures near the finish area and I stayed up top to talk to Brianne and Jeremy as they made each of their three runs up the mountain.

With air this thin, shivering, and working on no sleep I was a wreck. Can't.... breathe.... ack! I was in a daze all morning trying to acclimate to the altitude. Much of this has been relayed to me, as I was only semi-conscious during the practice runs. On her first Friday run up the the mountain she was feeling the car out and getting used to the road on this middle practice stage in this car. The suspension was sorted and had been tested at PPIR the previous afternoon. Brianne and Jeremy were getting their notes synced up and just taking it easy. The second run up showed some minor boost leaks that Keith at AWD Tuning fixed. These leaks were causing part throttle lag, that went away ones the leaks were fixed. With these issues sorted they made fast on their third run for Friday.


Click the image above for in-car video from Friday's practice (on dry weather 285 width Hoosier R6s).

The "roof cam" video shown above is from their third and final run up the mountain on Friday, which was also their best time for the day.


At right you can see Brianne's "race dog" Meadow - who was stealing water bottles and burying them in the woods all week! Cracked us up.

Now they had some other issues on Thursday, which was the practice day when final qualifying occurred (even though they had another day of practice on Friday). A pressurized turbo hose popped off on the only serious practice run that day and she lost power on the 2nd sector, limping the car to the finish. That made for a 10th place qualifying spot, which didn't really show the true performance of the car (other practice times were 4th or so). Brianne was confident she could finish much higher than 10th and hoped to get a clean, dry run on race day, even buried halfway down the starting order. She also knew that running less than a third of the mountain in practice runs is nothing compared to running the entire, grueling course length in anger on race day. She was well acclimated to the altitude, had trained for this for four years, and the "last minute thrash built" car was finally sorted and fast.

Friday: Fan Fest (Car Show)

FanFest is a big car show and meet-and-greet with the drivers, held on Friday night in downtown Colorado Springs. They shut down the roads from ~4 pm to 10 pm and the top qualifiers from each class are required to attend and a big chunk of the other racers volunteer to bring their race cars out to this event as well. If you ever go to the PPIHC, you have to make sure not to miss this thing!

There are SO many cool photos from FanFest that I can only show a few here. If you start here in the Vorshlag photo gallery you'll see a bunch of the pics from FanFest that Brandon took. There was some incredible machinery gathered here for everyone to see - in a more concentrated area and easier to view than on race day or during practice.


Left: The crazy LoveFab "NSX" which ran in Unlimited class. Right: Dave Kern's beautiful and FAST EVO, which placed 2nd in the Time Attack class.

This year's FanFest had a giant RedBull show with motorcycles doing jumps, interviews with drivers, crazy stunts on bikes, and a huge carnival-like atmosphere. Later in the night, they had two stunt parachuters drop out of a plane and fly down onto the motorcycle ramp. We had a ball and the entire Vorshlag crew ate at a great pizza joint right on the main drag, during a break in the meet-and-greet period.



Above you can see some of the Vorshlag folks and Brianne herself hanging around the car. She was talking to hundreds of fans, signing autographs on the free "team poster" she was handing out, and saying "Hi" to old friends and racers that stopped by. Excellent PR there and she made a lot of new fans that day. This is a good opportunity for people to get up close to the cars and teams even whether they do or don't attend the actual event on race day.

(continued below)
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Old 09-20-2012, 03:49 PM   #42
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(continued from above)

Saturday: Race Preparation

The entire crew spent most of Saturday doing a more through version of their normal check list. This includes going over every system in the car, including some repairs to the cooling system, removal of the splitter and front bumper to check all of the brake cooling and oil plumbing hoses underneath, verify the alignment and a complete "nut and bolt" of the suspension and drivetrain. The main radiator cap was bypassing at lower than normal pressures, allowing some water loss from the bypass line at the radiator. This bypass line was blocked off and the over-pressure bypass for the entire coolant system was then handled by the second radiator cap at the remote reservoir we added. This second cap worked fine and the car didn't lose a drop during race day.

]

This was all done in the motel parking lot, which is common for Pikes Peak teams during off days or outside of the designated practice times on Wednesday-Friday of race week. Lots of fans stopped by the makeshift "garage" to inquire about the car, the event and the teams' history.


An excellent pre-dawn picture of Brianne and Jeremy taking the finish line at the Peak, during practice runs.

Most teams bring two trailers to the event, just like our crew. The main enclosed trailer stays at the hotel and a small open trailer goes with the team up the mountain for each day of testing. Why? Navigating the switchbacks with a big enclosed trailer is a nightmare, and parking in the woods (aka: paddock) on race day is impossible with a big trailer. So plan on having two trailers for race week at PPIHC, if you ever go. The team was originally going to rent a trailer in Colorado Springs, but JasonM managed to borrow an open trailer from another driver who's car broke earlier during practice (thanks Dave C!), and the Vorshlag trailer was used as the home base with lots of spares and more tools at the motel (shown above).


Sunday: Race Day Weather Fiasco

Here's some external video from several of the Time Attack class cars on race day, taken from Gilly's Corner:



In order to avoid any of the brand new 285/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires getting a puncture while driving through the woods (paddock area) to the starting line, they left the R6s on that were used during practice. Once the car was on the paved road area at the back of the starting grid, we hand carried the A6s down with the help of Bill Caswell (1/4 mile away) and mounted them under Mike Ryan's tent, a fellow PPIHC racer who drove the crazy Freightliner (see below). These A6s were driven about 50 feet and then were pulled off...



The conditions in the hour or so before her run were terrible, with rain and hail covering most of the mountain. What is it with Brianne and hail? Much to my chagrin, the team switched to the skinny 245mm Hoosier rain tires moments before her run, right at the starting line. The team was prepared for potential bad weather and was ready for the switch. This was highly recommended by the race organizers, as the handful of competitors before her were sliding off the wet and hail covered mountain road left and right in the late afternoon. Seeing those skinny rains go on the car caused me physical PAIN, after the days of work Ryan and our crew put into making the steel wide body fenders clear the 10" wheels, but it was the only logical choice given the horrible weather conditions.



Brianne and co-driver Jeremy blasted up the hill with a vengeance, rain be damned. Without windshield wipers or a defroster/heater, she couldn't see squat, but she never let up!

(continued below)
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Old 09-20-2012, 03:51 PM   #43
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Amazingly, she was only five seconds off in these wet conditions than she was in her 2011 AWD Time Attack class winning run, which was run under dry conditions in the same car.

Click the image above to watch the Race Day run in the Brianne Corn Racing Subaru STi. She ended up 5th in class with a 12:01 run in the wet.

The time of 12:01 placed her 5th out of the original 25 entrants in the Time Attack class, with the first three in her class running in the dry hours earlier (the class was delayed several times for crashes). Oh well, can't complain - should have qualified better to run towards the front of the pack with Rhys Millen and the others. After the event, Brianne was given the "Queen of the Mountain" award (a massive custom trophy belt buckle) which was pretty cool.



Comments from Brianne about this run: "I think there were four life flights that day. One crash caused a 90 minute delay which caused us to run in the rain. In fact, it was our friends that crashed and when we left the line the rumors were flying around the start line as to the extent of their injuries. I think (co-driver) Jeremy was a little shaken up by the situation.

The weather turned at the last minute and we were told to swap to our rain tires by the race officials. We were sitting at the line and had no opportunity to scrub them in. It was a very interesting ride and one of the best times I have had in the drivers seat in a while.

That is until the windshield fogged up. This was also compounded by the fact that I was experiencing slightly blurred vision from an allergic reaction to something in the air below the tree line."




That was a hairy run towards the top and she was looking out the side window and going by the pace notes and road feel for much of that last quarter of the course. Yikes!

After our crew got back from Colorado Springs, they were all still recovering from a long week of 3 am mornings and late nights. The entire crew (both of our guys, the folks from AWD Tuning, and Brianne's other volunteers) put in one helluva effort, and Brianne had the best race car she's ever had at Pikes Peak. I'm very proud of their work and her driving, and it's a shame the weather played such a prominent role in the results for part of the Time Attack class and all of the Open Wheel and Super Stock Car classes. The weather conditions were so poor that the race organizers eventually had the racers run a shortened course that ended at Glen Cove (11,440 feet), which is about half way through the full course.



What's Next?

I don't know Brianne's plans for next year or the future of this particular car. We had planned to support this car and Brianne at the Global Time Attack this weekend at TMS, but she could not go for a number of reasons. There are no plans to race it again in 2012 and certain parts have to be removed and returned to their owners, as they were on loan. What a shame - this was a potent little package that was only driven once in anger, in the rain on skinny tires. Bummer! Who knows - she could be at Pikes Peak in it again in 2013. I hope so!

Brianne's Subaru was recently used in a photoshoot to help promote the Cupcake Meet's Cupcakin' For Cancer car meet.


Click the image to enlarge.

If and when this car runs again, and if Vorshlag has anything to do with future work on this car, I will post again in this thread.

Thanks for following our work,
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Old 09-20-2012, 04:19 PM   #44
DaveK
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Nice writeup guys - hope we all get a chance to race the whole road in the dry in 2013!

Thx for including a shot of my evo.

Dave
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Old 10-09-2012, 02:16 AM   #45
shoogshoog
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I'm just simply amazed that after all of these years, and all of these crashes they are still letting people race in cages designed for racing on a flat circuit surrounded by sand and tire barriers. How PPIHC does not require rally spec cages is beyond me. The fact that they can look at some of these cars and say "Yeah. That looks like it'll hold up should it go flying of the side of our mountain, possibly into trees and or boulders," just straight up blows my mind. Personally I would never enter an event of this nature in anything less than a RA or NASA spec cage and would prefer FIA and then some.
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Old 10-12-2012, 02:13 PM   #46
All4bSpinnin
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vorshlag View Post
Brianne and Jeremy's run up the hill and finishing in the rain, hail and fog.

http://youtu.be/OpDrBraoliI
That rain makes things a little scary... especially when there's a high drop off to the right

On a side note, are you guys allowed to run Anti-Lag? There were a few parts there when the car bogged down pretty bad and she was on the gas... mostly when coming out of slow turns. I kept saying "go go go go!" in my head

Good teamwork in the car
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Old 12-20-2012, 03:40 PM   #47
rallyracersti
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awesome build
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Old 01-10-2013, 07:51 PM   #48
Extreme Dimensions
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awesome machine thats been built and Brianne is awesome as well!
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Old 09-27-2013, 08:05 PM   #49
AK907TRE
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Just got done with a second read-through, read this a few months ago, one of the most info-packed and interesting threads on nasioc. Thank you! Awesome car, driver, team, and writeup regarding regulations at Pike's Peak!
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Old 09-30-2013, 03:35 PM   #50
Vorshlag
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Thanks. If you like this style of detail, you should also read our S197 Time Trial writeup. True, it's not a Subaru, but we show a lot of detail about the building and testing of it. We've done a lot of chassis and aero modifications to it. Skip to the end for the crazy stuff.

Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

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