DeTomaso Mailing List: January 98, Message #246
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Ed, You PCNC guys are so squared away...WANTED: PCNC Member willing to move to Chicago for six months a year (Nov-Apr). Will provide house, wife, kids, bills and snow and ice. Call 1-800-I'M-COLD if interested. Will Race for Food! Frank Z Chicago >snip-snip-snip > one article a year so this is it! First let me say what we have > planned for 1998: > > Three autocrosses at Sears Point. Our first one is to be held on > February 19th. > > A drivers school. The class will be limited to six people who will > have Thunderhill all to themselves. It will be taught by a > professional race car driver. The class will include 8 hours of track > time and 4 hours of classroom instruction. The cost is $550 per > person. This class filled up last year. We already have 4 names for > this year. > > One drag race at Sears Point. We will once again have our own lane > for competition. The CFRA recordis 12.8, the PCNC record is 13.5. > > Two Test Days. We will be having our traditional Fall Test Day in > September or October. But for the first time, we will be adding a > Spring Test Day to our schedule. The event will be held in March or > April. The format will be the same as the Fall Test Day. As usual, > we will be using Thunderhill. > > We will also participate in the Thunderhill driver's school at some > point during the summer. This year the track is offering they're own > drivers school. > > We will also be holding for the 1st time what we have named the CFRA > 200. This will be a road trip for sports cars to a Bed & Breakfast > over looking the ocean. It should be fun and romantic! > > If you are interested in any of these activities, Please contact Ed > Kornegay at 707-792-2492 or Email him at ed_kornegay@hp.com > > > The year in Review 1997: > > Our first performance event in 1997 was an autocross. The 1972 > Pantera of Joel Gust not only beat Peter Beckham's Pantera record of > 47.34 set in 1996, but set a record for the whole club with a 43.41. > To set this record Joel beat a Porsche 911 RSA, a 1996 Corvette > Grandsport and a BMW Z3. He even beat my Miata (43.63) which had > previously been undefeated at our clubs autocrosses! This was Joel's > first time on his new R1 tires and boy did they make a difference. > Our other Pantera pilot was Larry Laino. His time was 47.66, witch > put him in 10th place for the event. This is the 4th fastest time > ever for a Pantera on this course. Third place is held by Ellis > Woumnm with a 47.63. Larry was really impressed by Joel's tires. > When we left, Larry was on his way over to the tire shop. > > Our second performance event was our CFRA driver's school. We only > had one Pantera participate. Nancy Haney was the driver and she did a > great job. She reduced her lap times by 7 seconds during the class. > Her best Thunderhill lap is now 1:46. This makes Nancy the 4th > fastest Pantera in the club. Eric Belter is still number one with a > 1:34, followed by Pete Beckham with a 1:40 (street tires) and Joel > Gust 1:42. > > Our drag race was another success story for Joel. He came in second > over all but set a new Pantera record with a 13.5 for the * mile. You > may say that you would expect a Pantera to be quicker, but it's not > easy to launch a Pantera. Only one other Pantera his tried to beat > Joel and he blew his clutch on the first pass! But if you think you > actually have a Pantera that can beat a 13.5 bring it to our 1998 drag > race. Joel will be happy to defend his record against you! > > Our next event was in June with NASA at Thunderhill. Charlie Puckett > was there to do some testing. He ran only 2 sessions due to a missing > header bolt. Eric Belter was there practicing with the RX7 that he > has made into a race car. NASA was running the track in the reverse > direction so we didn't keep any lap times. > > In August we participated in the Ferrari Club event at Laguna Seca. > Pete Beckham and Ellis Woumnm represented our club. No official times > were taken. > > October was our Fall Test Day. Our biggest event of the year. The > event held only one bright spot for Pantera owners. Charlie Puckett > set a new club record with a 1:25 lap time! That's five seconds > faster than the club record he established last year. Charlie is > currently the only member running in the unlimited class in our club. > We had four Panteras sign up for the street class. Nancy Haney > dropped out two days prior to the event because her new rims and tires > had not arrived in time. Joel was the next to drop out of the > competition because he was unable to get his steering rack repaired. > Joel had already set Pantera records in Autocross and Drag racing. I > was waiting to see if he could win the track event and hold the Triple > Crown. I guess it just wasn't to be. Joel did show up with a rental > Neon and set a new rental car record with a 1:38. This is faster than > any Pantera on street tires has ever gone accept for Eric Belter. > Pete Beckham and Eric Belter did show up with their Panteras to the > event. I was predicting a 1:30 for both of them. Eric had been on > the track more in 1997 than Pete (3 days vs. 2 days) but Pete had > rebuilt his motor to put out 580 hp to Eric's 375 hp. It was going to > be a close match for fastest street Pantera. Records where going to > fall! When qualifying time came around, Pete had already blown the > clutch in his car. Eric took to the track but was unable to beat his > old record (1:34) due to fuel contamination problems. So out of the > four street Panteras signed up for the event. Three didn't even make > it to qualification and one was having problems that prevented it from > qualifying well. Yes, it was a sad day for street Panteras. Fastest > street time was set by a Porsche 911 RSA with a 1:29. Second place > went to me and my Miata with a 1:30. > > I would also like to mention that I picked Dennis Antenucci To receive > the PCNC Motorsports award for 1997. He was been very proactive in > giving the Pantera a positive performance image by winning his class > in the May 1997 Silver State Challenge. > > In the May 97 race Dennis averaged 139.73 mph and finished 1st in his > class (140 class). In the Sept 97 race, he averaged 142.06 mph and > came in 3rd place in the "145 class". This makes Dennis the 3rd > fastest PCNC Pantera to run in the Silver State. Jr. Wilson is still > the King, followed by Charlie Puckett (153 MPH avg.). Pete Beckham > drops to 4th with a best run of 139 MPH. Dennis will try and average > 160 or 165 mph in next race. He will run a taller 5th gear or a > taller ring gear. > > Dennis, I salute you! > > Thunderhill's President has agreed to accept our CFRA race licenses at > most of their Friday test days. This means that our top drivers will > be able to go to Thunderhill and test along with all the other > racecars for a small fee. Pete Beckham took advantage of this a few > months ago. For $75 he received about four hours of track time and > only had to share the track with three other cars. Not a bad deal. > We will be awarding our first race licenses at our CFRA banquet on > January 31st. The recipients will be Ed Kornegay, Charlie Puckett, > Peter Beckham, Joel Gust and Erik Belter. Please note that the only > members of CFRA to earn a race license at this point are all PCNC > members as well. > > 1998 is a New Year and I hope to see more Panteras on the track. We > even have a nice safe slow class for the beginners. It's very safe > (as long as you're not on the track at the same time as Charlie). You > can start off with the February autocross to build your confidence and > then head for Thunderhill which has no guardrails. Please note the NO > Pantera has ever been damaged at Thunderhill. > > See you on the Starting Line > > Ed Kornegay > Motorsports Director PCNC/CFRA > Ed_kornegay@hp.com > 707-792-2492 > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com