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Made the trip up to Arnold Nebraska (read: 780 miles from home!) for the 2012 Sandhills Open Road Challenge. We've done the last couple of BBORR's and had a blast so we decided to add this event to our yearly "must do" events.
The course is different than what we are used to. About 29 miles to the north, then turn around and come back 26 miles south. The road is crazy twisty, winding through the elevation changes of the Nebraska Sandhills. LOTS of blind turns and best of all...only two lanes wide whereas the BBORR is 4 lanes wide.
After teching the car we were told that since it was our first time we'd only be allowed to run the 105 mph class with a tech (max allowed) speed of 140mph. I was bummed. We ran the 140 class at the last BBORR with a tech speed of 168mph. So 105 seems WAAAAAY too slow for a couple of Texans that just showed up with dreams of glory and fame! LOL
So for the next day and a half my navigator and I set out to make some course notes. We ran the course (with some spirited driving inserted) a few times and honed in our notes. There's one turn in particular, a long 90 deg, that is well known for jumping out and biting you if you're not careful. On the north leg this long turn opens up for ya but on the southbound return trip the turn has a very, very late apex as the radius decreases significantly almost all at once. The turn is denoted and screamed at me during the race as the "F***ING WHOA!" corner. It worked.
Just before the race began on Saturday morning, we were told by the gentlemen in the Viper behind us in line (who would leave exactly one minute behind us as that's how the cars are staged) that they felt the 105 mph class might be a little much for us as "rookies". It seems this was not their first event and they were just working their way up to the 105mph level. They politely told me what to do when they came up to pass us. No pressure. The next words out of my mouth were to my navigator and sounded something a little like "there's no f***ing way those guys are getting within eye sight of us". And they didn't.
Lights were dropped, we were off. The first 10 miles into the 29 mile long north leg...we had a 115mph average. Ooops. The remainder of that trip was spent hovering the 85mph mark on the gps with a couple of quick bursts up to speed just for fun. Mostly suck. Boring. Literally talked to eachvother the entire rest of that trip. Crossed the line 12 seconds too fast.
Factored in our gross miscalculation of time for the southbound trip. Left the line soft, 3 miles in we were dead on at 103.6 mph average which was our target if figuring in our 12 second early finish on the north leg. Literally took almost every corner at or near our target speed...aside from the f***ing whoa corner. That got a cautious 80 mile an hour entry. Crossed the finish, "we think", within about a second of our time target. GPS read 103.6.
All in all, lotsa fun. Great little town. The local owner of the gas station put us up for the weekend as there aren't any hotels. Average temp during the day was 80 degrees with 50's at night...that was wonderful.
After doing this in the Supra a few times we kinda decided to do a purpose built car. I've had an LT1 '94 firehawk sitting in the garage for quite some time that sees absolutely no use whatsoever. So we are making plans for an LS3 with C6 Z06 brakes on that car with all the Spano handling stuff and beat the crap out of that piece of junk rather than the Supra.
Entry deadline for this race is in October. Some of you guys need to go with us next year. Definitely a must do.
Pics:
The famed Arnold NE water tower:
Supra with the go-pro on the side ready near the start (I'll have video soon):
My favorite car there:
Starting lineup:
'49 Cadillac with a 454 LSX, runs the famed La Carrera race in Mexico, very cool guys:
View of the cornfields from the house we stayed in:
Beautiful pro touring camaro:
2005 Noble with 4000 miles and lotsa go fast parts:
The course is different than what we are used to. About 29 miles to the north, then turn around and come back 26 miles south. The road is crazy twisty, winding through the elevation changes of the Nebraska Sandhills. LOTS of blind turns and best of all...only two lanes wide whereas the BBORR is 4 lanes wide.
After teching the car we were told that since it was our first time we'd only be allowed to run the 105 mph class with a tech (max allowed) speed of 140mph. I was bummed. We ran the 140 class at the last BBORR with a tech speed of 168mph. So 105 seems WAAAAAY too slow for a couple of Texans that just showed up with dreams of glory and fame! LOL
So for the next day and a half my navigator and I set out to make some course notes. We ran the course (with some spirited driving inserted) a few times and honed in our notes. There's one turn in particular, a long 90 deg, that is well known for jumping out and biting you if you're not careful. On the north leg this long turn opens up for ya but on the southbound return trip the turn has a very, very late apex as the radius decreases significantly almost all at once. The turn is denoted and screamed at me during the race as the "F***ING WHOA!" corner. It worked.
Just before the race began on Saturday morning, we were told by the gentlemen in the Viper behind us in line (who would leave exactly one minute behind us as that's how the cars are staged) that they felt the 105 mph class might be a little much for us as "rookies". It seems this was not their first event and they were just working their way up to the 105mph level. They politely told me what to do when they came up to pass us. No pressure. The next words out of my mouth were to my navigator and sounded something a little like "there's no f***ing way those guys are getting within eye sight of us". And they didn't.
Lights were dropped, we were off. The first 10 miles into the 29 mile long north leg...we had a 115mph average. Ooops. The remainder of that trip was spent hovering the 85mph mark on the gps with a couple of quick bursts up to speed just for fun. Mostly suck. Boring. Literally talked to eachvother the entire rest of that trip. Crossed the line 12 seconds too fast.
Factored in our gross miscalculation of time for the southbound trip. Left the line soft, 3 miles in we were dead on at 103.6 mph average which was our target if figuring in our 12 second early finish on the north leg. Literally took almost every corner at or near our target speed...aside from the f***ing whoa corner. That got a cautious 80 mile an hour entry. Crossed the finish, "we think", within about a second of our time target. GPS read 103.6.
All in all, lotsa fun. Great little town. The local owner of the gas station put us up for the weekend as there aren't any hotels. Average temp during the day was 80 degrees with 50's at night...that was wonderful.
After doing this in the Supra a few times we kinda decided to do a purpose built car. I've had an LT1 '94 firehawk sitting in the garage for quite some time that sees absolutely no use whatsoever. So we are making plans for an LS3 with C6 Z06 brakes on that car with all the Spano handling stuff and beat the crap out of that piece of junk rather than the Supra.
Entry deadline for this race is in October. Some of you guys need to go with us next year. Definitely a must do.
Pics:
The famed Arnold NE water tower:
Supra with the go-pro on the side ready near the start (I'll have video soon):
My favorite car there:
Starting lineup:
'49 Cadillac with a 454 LSX, runs the famed La Carrera race in Mexico, very cool guys:
View of the cornfields from the house we stayed in:
Beautiful pro touring camaro:
2005 Noble with 4000 miles and lotsa go fast parts:
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