37 replies to this topic

[hondaman]

Congratulations to Greg for a great drive in the rain!

[oldrexer]

+1

Not too bad by James either.

[RETROCRX]

AWESOME!!! Great Job Greg.......Rain the great equalizer!!!

Wish I was there....

Rob

[tom91ita]

congrats Greg!

i remember crewing for you in the rain at Grattan and you had a great drive then as well.

nice job!

tom

[Greg Gauper]

Wow!

Still hasn't sunk in yet. Thank you to all for the congrats.
That was the toughest race I have ever driven in my life.
My stomach was in knots this morning trying to guess on tires.
From what I learned on Monday, I thought that it would be too dry for full rains. Normally all I run is either a full wet or full dry setup.
Yesterday I decided to hedge my bets and get a set of hand grooved slicks for my fronts to act as intermediates.
Unfortunately all I have is six good rims for my slicks so I was not able to get a set of grooved tires mounted for my rears.

My plan was to alter my line and driving style to deal with the slicks on the rear. Instead of being able to charge the corners like I did in qualifying on Monday, I would have to drive with an egg under the brake pedal to keep the rears from locking up, and my plan was to tippy-toe thru the corners and then punch the throttle on corner exit.

On the start I lost 2 spots while I sorted things out and came under a lot of pressure from Rogerson and Isley early as I felt out the track.
Then I put my head down and drove my butt off. While my setup hurt me on the front half of the track, the car was on rails on the back half, especially the carousel. I gradually picked off cars one at a time until I got up to Mike and really put the pressure on and squeaked by in the carousel.
I was expecting a challenge from Mike, but he had transmission issues and lost it in 12 while trying to grab a gear. I could not relax as I still had Gagliardi keeping the pressure on me big time. Dick was also on grooved slicks but had them on all four wheels. He would nibble away at my lead on the front half but I was always able to open the gap on the back half, which allowed my to tippy-toe around to keep the car on track. My one close call was going into 12 with an oil flag and a yellow displayed, but I could not tell where in the line the oil was. I was coming up on Drum and took a conservative line under braking, still trying to figure out where the oil was. Unfortunately Drum found it for me and spun and tagged the wall under braking. For the rest of the race turn 12 was slicker than snail snot due to the combination of oil and water on the track.
The second half of the race was the hardest mentally. No mistakes...stay smooth...egg under the brake pedal...watch the gap to Gagliardi shrink & grow each lap. I was never so happy to see a checker.

My wife Tracey & I have been going thru about a million e-mails. Thank you everybody for all the congrats.
A big thank you to Jim Dentici, Bob Clark, Mark & Dan Meller for the help in impound with the tear down.
Working on getting my video posted up on You-tube. The first four laps are pretty entertaining.

Nice job by James to snag fourth. Would have been nice for a fellow RPR member to get on the podium, but he seemed pretty happy with his finish.
James, you had me worried all week. You improved so much since last year. Good Job!

Greg
(Still can't believe it)

Edit - Part 1 is up on You-tube:

Edited by Greg Gauper, 25 September 2011 - 09:07 PM.

[RETROCRX]

Believe it buddy!! You are the National Champ!

NOW GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND GO CELEBRATE!!!

You've done yourself proud......and us for that matter..............

Congrats again Greg.......good job, I can't say it enough......

Sincerely......

Rob

[1986civicsi]

Congrats Greg, great run. Got up at 6:15 to watch.
You were running hand grooved slicks up front and just slicks in rear ? What was Moser running? I was getting nervous for you seeing the VW closing on the front straight, but looked like you had him handled everywhere else.

Congrats again

Cory

[keithg]

Congratulations Greg!

[Madkore]

Congratulations Greg!

Now that you are famous, please remember the little people in the little cars.


MK

[Buford]

Way to go Greg!!!!
Great Drive in tricky conditions. Ya need to buy some more rims now.

I see those pot metal hubs held up!
FYI, I found out that Houseman was supplying OPM with custom hubs in the ol days. So much for IT cars.

Congrats again.

[Mark L]

Great job Greg! Thanks for the Video. Loved it.

[EPcivic]

Way to go Greg!

Looked like some pretty tricky conditions.

-Chris

[Greg Gauper]

I see those pot metal hubs held up!
FYI, I found out that Houseman was supplying OPM with custom hubs in the ol days. So much for IT cars.

FYI - I have been running the custom hubs that Richard from ICP built for the group buy since the begining of the season.

[jsgprod]

Congratulations Greg! You deserve it. I really wanted to watch that race live but was kind of pre-occupied that morning. You know you just showed the whole world wide web a good wet line around there don't you?

Just curious, but what are you using to keep the inside of your windshield that clear in those situations? I'm still trying to figure out what will work in my car. the dish detergent trick didn't do squat for me.

Nice Job, FWIW I picked you over the rest last week.

Jay

[Greg Gauper]

Thanks Jay!
I noticed Terry from down your way crossed over to the dark side with a 2nd gen CRX to replace his 4th gen Civic.
He wasn't as fast with the new car, but it might not be developed enough yet.
It's a pretty car though!

I actually went back to using dish soap.
I used that years ago but it was a pain to apply properly.
I tried rain-X anti-fog but that didn't seem to work well in cold weather.

So I went back to soap. The trick for me was to apply it on a warm, dry windshield and buff it in.
I did this the day before the race. If you wait to apply it when you need it i.e. when the window is cold & damp, I don't think it works well.

Not sure if your problem is due to your Lexan window or not. I still run a stock glass windshield.
Maybe experiment with a scrap of Lexan and a tea kettle to see what works for you?