oregon – Page 3 – Brian Towey

Supercars for the Proletariat

When I was in my early 20’s I benefited from some advice that was passed to me, as it had been passed to him, by a fellow that I thought had led a pretty interesting life given his relatively young age. It was “there are two leisure classes, one at the top of the socio-economic scale and one at the bottom. Be in one of them”. My friends name was “Minki” and this is my mission.

I moved to Hood River mostly so that I could live my daily life in the same way that many wealthy working people live their vacations. Understand, I very much admire the accomplishments of those that dream up and produce the things we often take for granted. I want their holidays to be as fabulous as possible – they’ve earned it. And, they should be fresh when they return to work so they can make more neat stuff for the rest of us . When possible, I enjoy my chance join in their fun.

I fell in love with great cars the day my uncle Don showed up at our house with one of the very first Porsche 911’s – I was 5 years old. He let me drive it during my visit to Southern California to see the 1978 US Grand Prix at Long Beach when I was 17. At that time it was one of the greatest days of my life. The current Porsche Turbo (supercar) is still based on the same basic configuration.

I saw my first Ferrari Daytona(s) scattered all around the parking areas that week at Long Beach – like Priuses at a Greenpeace rally. The Daytona was the last front engine Ferrari at the beginning of the modern “supercar” era – in my view, the Daytona was a supercar. Oh, for a chance to ride in a Ferrari Daytona…

Recently I did some dent work on a very nice 1999 Mazda Miata. When I was finished the owner asked if I would be interested in having a look at some dings on his Aston Martin V8 Vantage… I’ll always have a look, especially as the V8 is considered to be the grandfather of British supercars. This is, for all practical purposes, the same car that 007 drove in the 80’s Bond film “The Living Daylights”, and clearly a very close relative of 007’s car (a DBS) in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. I mean, Diana Rigg (the only Mrs. Bond AND Emma Peel) rode in that car – sweet…

I could go on and on about Diana Rigg, as it could be argued that 60’s spy film actresses are the genesis of what we now refer to as a “supermodel” – alluring, self reliant, a little bit vulnerable, and with a sting in the tail (so to speak). Staying with the “super” theme – she set the standard.

Anyway, It was an interesting experience working on the Vantage because it is hand fabricated from “aluminium”, done in the old style of coach building (heat and english wheel). The thickness and strength of the panels

varies throughout the vehicle (even adjacent areas of the same part). We had some success (the owner helped with dismantling trim, etc.), and I got to spend some time learning (stumbling about ) an interesting piece of automotive history.

So now about Tuesday and the inspiration for this story. I was working at the Pro Drive racing school and one of my two students had brought his new Ferrari 430 Scuderia. Normally, I prefer students with more “regular” cars. The problem is that highly strung, big horsepower machines are difficult to drive well – and I, despite my time spent as a Pro-Rally co-driver, sometimes get car sick. But, I was feeling pretty good and I thought this would be a good tune-up in preparation for the upcoming race weekend – get me “in the game”, so to speak. And, how often do you see one the truly great modern supercars? I should probably ride around in it for a while…

The driver, Rich, was a serious student, which is a dream come true for an in-car instructor at a high performance driving school.

What I mean is that he came with the intent of leaving with something and had decided the way to do that was to listen and do (not as common as you would think). Listen and do is what a Rally driver does – pace notes are delivered and regardless of what the “common sense’ side of the brain tells him, he does what he is told. This is how to go fast.

And things happen pretty darn fast in the Scuderia (0-60 in 3.1 seconds, as a reference point) – it’s easy to not get it right. Now, everybody doesn’t teach the same way and I’ve been having a discussion about this with one of my co-driver / instructor friends. The short version is that I like to pick only two major things to concentrate on for each session. Some instructors want to make sure that every corner is negotiated “on-line” from the start, for example. I like simple, achievable, objective targets.

Positive input is the key to success – don’t tell me what not to do, tell me what to do. This is why the “listen and do” bit is so important – it’s simple. Invariably, if I feed information (as pace notes) to a student and they simply do what I ask, the car stays on line, the driver gains confidence, the throttle pedal goes down earlier, stays on longer and we go fast. Of course, faster cars require more precisely delivered information, which is why I usually prefer students in the Subaru’s and Toyota’s…

Tuesday was a great day because I had two willing students that each got into a rhythm and allowed me to help them learn to go fast. I love that. In particular, the sounds coming from that Ferrari were fabulous.

By the end of the day I was hearing the popping (a la F1) sound during the 60 millisecond downshifts and whooping from Rich as he pinned the throttle on the blind curved “back straight” for the first time!!! What a fun day.

In line with the advice I had received 25 years ago, I have once again successfully experienced that which is usually reserved for a privileged few. Minki was right – a poor boy can have the good things in life.

Roadies vs. Fixies

Joey Atterbury - still cooler than all the fixie pilots

I had a conversation with my friend Joey, (a very fast, young, hipster, VW Jetta Cup driver) at the race track Saturday, about bicycles – he was sitting on his retro beach cruiser / pit bike while giving me the business about riding a real bike. Whatever.

He wants a fixie – while he is cooler than roughly 100 percent of the guys I’ve met that do ride them, I told him that I still hadn’t seen the guy that is genuinely cool enough to do so…

The thing is (using simple observation as our guide) that it’s just too tough to ride a fixie without looking like a complete tool. Not only do you need just the right amount of “hip” you need the right kind. Here’s an analogy – Wayne Newton. Wayne Newton is the only guy that doesn’t look like an idiot when singing Danke Shoene – fixies are the Danke Shoene of bicycles.

This video pretty well encapsulates that discussion…

Rose Cup – Race 2

First, thanks to Sean Hedrick at Miatacage.com for providing me with a really good car to drive and some excellent frosty cold beverages, last week. I would not be racing without his support.

The race – I had qualified well (5th) for race 2, and I had a very simple plan – maintain contact. The easiest way to botch up a simple plan is to make a simple mistake – this is where I come in…

I was driving conservatively and pretty well, I thought. The single most common problem I’ve ever had with the Spec Miata is making a clean 2nd to 3rd gear shift in anger. So, as part of my preparation for the race, I went through the 2-3 shift in my head a dozen times – there is a way to do it and get it right every time.

What often happens is that a driver will grasp the shift nob and force it to where they think 3rd gear should be. Invariably 3rd gear isn’t there causing the dreaded 2-5 shift and ensuing feeling that the car has a sea anchor chained to the rear bumper. I didn’t do that… I quickly pushed the gear lever to where nothing is. The good news is that I got it right on the second try. WTF!?!?!?!!!!!

Too late, however, as my “brilliant” qualifying effort had been erased by those behind me that successfully found 3rd gear – everybody, in fact. All of the sudden I found myself in need of a new plan. Maybe I should try to make it through the chicane first, though..?

I’m pretty sure I thought it was cool that David deRegt, who had started just behind me in seventh, had a good start and was in front of me going into turn one. David is a relatively new guy that I haven’t had a chance to race with yet and he seems to be going pretty fast. I’d had a similar experience with Eli Cuevas the day before in the Miatajaula.com car.

Eli Cuevas - "south of the border" Miatacage.com car

Eli was a student at the Driver’s School in March and was visible in my mirrors for the entire race – it’s the same kind of feeling I imagine a proud mother goose having…

But, I haven’t raced with David, and I don’t know if his qualifying was a fluke (probably not) or where and when he is reliably quick. This isn’t really the ideal time to panic, but contact with the leaders is nearly lost for good – I must attack him, NOW!!!

I had a better turn 7 than he did (entering the back straight) but still couldn’t draw up on him very quickly. The car did suck up a little bit and finally, as we entered the breaking markers, I was able to pull out. I was willing to go side by side through there with David from the inside of turn 10 – it would be a low risk move for me, and I slowed a little bit extra to make sure I could leave him some extra room at 11 if he decided to come along.

He didn’t and we were both slower through the 10-11-12 complex than necessary, but not too bad for me.

I was freight trained at the start of lap 2 by a blue car running one of the early Sunbelt Spec Miata motors and Toyo RA-1’s. The same RA-1’s that the front runners had agreed not to use this year (even though they are still technically legal). Frankly, I don’t really consider that car a Spec Miata – I am certain that it runs significantly afoul of both the spirit and the technical rules of the class.

Sean Hedrick - the Roger Penske of Northwest Spec Miata Racing

Enough sour grapes – looking at this objectively, overall I finished 5th on points for the two races, ended up about .5 of a second off the leaders pace and was very consistent. I can live with that (especially after 6 months out of the car), as it is a great confidence boost for the enduros the team plans to run in the fall.

I owe big thanks to Ken Sutherland who helped me get the car dialed in very quickly – and who traded wins and runner up positions with Will Schrader in both races. And, I do truly think that my time on the bicycle has helped to retain “the edge” needed to compete at this level.

Speaking of bicycles, it’s time to focus again. I’ll be riding the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend with my brother-in-law and his Simple Green team mates at the end of July. It’s 4 stages in a mixed Cat 3-4 field, and it could be kind of hard… Yikes.

I could quit car racing whenever I want – but, I could also come back…

Rose Cup Race Report

After 3 days of a 4 day race weekend everything is still proceeding as normal for me. The race yesterday morning was typical Spec Miata and my plan was to attempt to maintain contact without being so close as to be the guy that made the small mistake that took somebody else out.

That mistake was made, of course, and I would have video if I had set the camera up properly (these things usually involve a bit of trial and error – error being the key, in this case). As the 26 car field was sorting itself out during the first couple of laps two of the cars directly in front of me went side by side through turn one, and they didn’t quite get clear of each other before getting back into line for turn 2.

So, there was a tap, and a half spin, and some moderately heavy contact. Bruce Wilson’s car was damaged beyond repair (more on that in a moment) and Geoff Cochran’s car had a corner pretty well torn up.

This all left me 5th (after qualifying 7th) and quite alone. The Miatacage.com Spec Miata might be the best handling Spec Miata I’ve ever driven – I really like the new Toyo R888’s despite the complaints I’ve heard about them (this might be due to the data my team mate Ken Sutherland has collected, and the fact I can go straight to the proper tire pressures).

We do still have a horsepower deficit. The car seems to roll quite well, so I think it’s something we’ve attached to what we believe is a reasonably strong motor. There are things you can do at the race track to correct this type of issue, and most of them we’ve done – new proper exhaust system, check and re-check the timing, AFM calibration. The car needs some time on the dyno and I’ve decided to continue enjoying the opportunity to drive a good race car again.

My strategy for the second round of qualifying (for race 2, Sunday) was to stay close enough to the faster cars to gain some benefit from the draft. This, more or less, worked out and I have qualified 5th after having run my 5 fastest laps of the weekend in the same session (including my fastest by .4 of a second).

The funny thing about my drafting partner

The paddock "frame rack and body shop "doing magic

is that it was Bruce Wilson, in the what I believed 4 hours earlier, was a junk yard bound car. It still is probably, but a bunch of guys rigged up a frame rack in the pits and pulled the thing kind of straighter (in a twisted midnight body shop kind of way).

Anyhow, that car is still kind of quick and it suited my purposes

well, as it still pushes just as big a hole through the air as it always did.

One more race today and then back into “retirement” for me. I feel kind of like the smoker that keeps quiting and could quit again whenever he wants to…..

Back in the Saddle

We took the “new” number 11 Miatacage.com Spec Miata to Portland International Raceway yesterday for the pre-Rose Cup test. So far, so good.

This is, by the way, the first time back at PIR since I decided the Tuesday night bicycle racing there was getting a little bit sketchy, and the first time in a race car there since the Cascade 12 Hour victory last October. I have had a day teaching at the Pro-Drive school recently, but that doesn’t really count as I am usually just riding around in other peoples cars trying not to get motion sick…

The plan was simply

The 87 car driven this weekend by Cindi Lux

for team mates Ken Sutherland, Chuck Hall and I along with Miatacage.com owner, Sean Hedrick, to shakedown numerous cars, including the newly rebuilt 11 and the 87 (ex- #1) cars. I wouldn’t have been there if it hadn’t been for Jonny Davies lending me the tow rig and trailer of his A Sedan Mustang, which was still at the shop having an alignment before arriving at the track Thursday night (just after I returned the stuff) – thanks, Jonny.

I had one small situation at the very end of the day (there’s a hole inside of

the apex curbing in turn 7 – duuuh…) which then necessitated a set-up check and some extra work – thanks Ken.

It appears that I’m somewhere around one second off the pace, but the car feels really good. I’m a bit suspicious of the horsepower, but there is no reason it shouldn’t

The Jon Davies A-Sedan Mustang that belongs to the tow rig I borrowed

have plenty, so we’ll try a little bit of tweaking today.

Giddyup…

She’s a Runner

Finally, I’ve collected enough parts to make the car run – thanks Sean!!!

I was at the shop yesterday until 8 with breaks only for food and trips to the

hardware and auto parts stores for various bits. With luck, I may manage a couple of hours on the bike today – wishful thinking…

Now its down to detail stuff, an alignment and a thorough nut and bolt check. We may make it to Rose Cup, after all.

Mount Hood Cycling Classic

The saying on one of the t-shirts the volunteers were wearing said something like “It’s not about strategy, it’s about survival”. Fair enough, but in my book survival is a strategy, and success will be determined by the tactics you’ve chosen to get there.

The short version is that I believe I maximized my result through some pretty good tactical decision making. I made an error in the criterium that I’ll beat myself up over for a while, but I was in the sprint for the win (a rarity) and managed 10th, placing me 17th overall in the General Classification.

MHCC is a great race and the final stage happens literally down the street from my house (8 blocks to be exact – I couldn’t park much closer). I guess location is important for the same reasons that it’s a big deal for somebody from Indiana t0 compete in the Indy 500. It’s just part of our culture here and it is an immense privilege to participate.

There were a relatively large number of local riders participating. I had four Mountain View teammates in the Cat 4 Men field (Karl Mikkelson, Tony Dirks, Eric Moody and John Kenney). Lara signed up at the last minute with

a few of the other girls to ride in the Cat 3-4 Women race and there were a few locals in the Masters field, and my friend Albert Gonzales came up from Southern California and rode the Pro 1-2 field in the Mountain View kit and finishing 4th in the crit field sprint (44th on GC).

Highlights were Lara’s road race, on Saturday, which was 72 miles with 8,500 feet of climbing and she killed it – finishing 11th ahead of all but a few Cat 3’s, and our friend Andy Olsson (riding in a mountain biking costume) was fourth in the road race. We were well supported by the team members that weren’t riding the race for a variety of excuses that included only one good reason…

Anyhow, for Cat 4 Men this race is brutal. It’s close to 200 miles over 4 days

with about 18,000 feet of climbing, and an extremely “interesting” criterium course in downtown Hood River. Course Overview

I’ll write more about the race later, as I’m off to the race shop now to prepare the Miatacage.com Spec Miata for the Portland Rose Cup Races this weekend. If all goes well today and tomorrow I may register for the Elkhorn Classic Stage Race in Baker City, Oregon the next weekend. That would be 3 weekends of racing in a row… How often will an opportunity like that present itself?

First things first.

Mount Hood Cycling Classic Recon

I pushed for this to happen, so I’m not really going to blame the other guys for not talking me out of it. But, today against our collective better judgement, and because the race organizer said that the snow was rapidly melting, six of us drove up to Mount Hood Meadows and embarked on a mission.

There is almost always some comedy involved in a long bike ride. The perps today were Tony Dirks, John Kenney, Eric Sletmoe, Mike Jones, Jeff Lorenzen and me – on this day, AKA The Six Stooges.

It was a pretty simple idea, really – ride the Road Race course for the

upcoming (starts a week from Thursday) Mount Hood Cycling Classic stage race. What could go wrong? MHCC Race Website.

It’s a lot of climbing, and in this case hiking. This is a stage that belongs on a Grand Tour (it would be a hard day in The Tour of California, anyway), and I feel fortunate (usually after a couple of martinis) to have the opportunity to race a course like this – and in my own back yard!!!

It makes sense to have a look first, and a look we had. The race organizer (Chad, who is rapidly becoming one of the most prolific race organizers in the country) now knows the true situation (where the rubber doesn’t actually meet the road because there is 3 ft of snow between them), and there is still time to sort it out. The expedition, it turns out, was a brilliant idea.

Ride Map

Bicycle Law – Getting Along with Cars

A couple of weeks ago I was nearly run off the road by a motorist. It is a common occurrence to be crowded by fast moving vehicles, and while it sometimes really pisses me off, I understand the frustration of some drivers when they approach riders that haven’t a clue that anybody else might be using the road. In this case, however, I was a single bike traveling very close (6-12 inches) from the curb on a narrow road. There was no oncoming traffic and I could have easily been passed safely with lots of room to spare. But, it turned out, as I learned when we had the opportunity to discuss it 5 miles up the road, this guy simply hates cyclists – I mean, really hates cyclists, in a bulging vein, eyes popping out the head kind of way.

I must confess that I kind of enjoyed that part…

So anyway, I’ve been reading through Oregon and Washington bicycle law this week – I am searching for ways to communicate to both cyclists and motorists simple ways to improve how we get along. I’ve started (unsuccessfully) this project before, but then during this week I’ve heard two radio talk hosts (one in Portland and one in Seattle) do segments that were pretty aggressively negative regarding bicycles on the road. I think these incitements are potentially dangerous to, well, me, for example. So, maybe rather than just whine about it, I could do something sort of positive – hopeless, I know…

The bicycle laws are complicated (hard to read), and this is part of the problem. Washington State does have a pretty good “cheat sheet” on bicycle law.

Washington Bicycle Law

Oregon is a little bit tougher (but I’m still looking). There is a document that includes all of the laws that apply to pedestrians and bicycles . Part of the reason so few people understand these things becomes apparent – it’s long.

There is a good outline at the top that has links to different parts of the document. Some of it is good to know.

Oregon Bicycle Law

There is a bit about “Unsafe Passing of Person Operating Bicycle” 811.065, and the term “Due Care” pops up occasionally.

Too make it simple, as cyclists, we are required to do what we would in a car. Signalling continuously for 100 feet before stopping probably isn’t going to happen, for example, but it’s pretty clear these laws weren’t written by anybody with much time on a bike.

The same goes for rolling stop signs – in Oregon and Washington we’re supposed to stop. Personally, I want to spend as little time as possible in intersections (I believe in most cases it is safest and many experienced cyclists quickly process the information to do it safely and without disrupting the flow of traffic), so I always slow, and then come to a complete stop (foot down) only when traffic flow and safety require it. But, blowing through stop signs creates animosity and is not safest for anybody – so maybe we could use our heads a bit.

“Share the Road” means all of us.

Pain – or, Attitude Really is Everything

Bicycle racing is hard, but not just for me – that’s what I learned yesterday at the Silverton Road Race.

Most of the Cat 4 Men Mt View Cycles team that did the Cherry Blossom Stage Race in May will be doing the Mt Hood Cycling Classic at the beginning of June. Six of us went Silverton as a sort of reality check. Mt Hood is going to be hard – as hard as it gets for Cat 4 road racers, and we needed this opportunity to get our heads straight. Also, it is super cool for a small town like Hood River to be able to rally such a large group to race together – in all there were close to a dozen of us at Silverton and I wanted to support that.

The race went well for me, but wasn’t without some challenges. Masters races are usually open category, and category races are usually open age group. This was the first time that I recall seeing a race for Cat 3-5 Masters, and I saw it as a great opportunity to see what Cat 3 guys my age are doing – they usually race in the open category masters races.

It is helpful for me to relate issues in bicycle racing to something similar in car racing. I learned some very valuable tools several years ago when one of the guys racing a Spec Miata from the Seattle area, Garth Stein, arranged for 20 of us to do a two day racing “clinic” at Pacific Raceways. The primary instructors were Don Kitch who is one of the best communicators I’ve ever known, and Ross Bentley the author of the awesome “Speed Secrets” series of race driving books.

Ross made a point that for lack of a better term (or because he may have used it) that I still refer to as the rule about your “happy place”. The context, in that case, was that if you get into the race car to go out in the rain, for example, and you are fearful of the challenges presented by the adverse conditions – you are, as they say, doomed… Well, I always had liked racing in the rain – mostly because my results were often spectacular. Racing in the rain is my happy place, but others are often concerned, anxious or terrified and this helps to make my life inside a miserable, wet race car quite pleasant (no crisis wasted, you might say). Coincidentally (or maybe not so much), Garth is now a world renowned novelist for his book “The Art of Racing in the Rain”.

Yesterday, I consciously sought and found my happy place on the bicycle, allowing me to work my way through a challenge that could have ended my day. I had ridden the first two laps of the 17 mile course mid pack, conserving energy and focusing on the challenge of being mid pack and not getting caught up in a crash (Masters are much more comfortable to ride around than Cat 4 teenagers, by the way – go figure…). At the beginning of the 3^rd lap there was an attempt to bridge a recent attack and I found myself feeling quite good and at the front of the main field. The bridge attempt really wasn’t, and we settled back down only for me to realize that I was going to cramp.

My left leg, all of it, was starting to tighten up – and not just a little bit. I slid back, dropped a couple of gears and started spinning. More Hammer Gel, more Cytomax, spin, spin, spin. But, my legs did feel pretty good and I knew if I could work through this that I could be a factor at the finish – that made me happy and motivated me to keep going. Not to try, but to do.

There were some accelerations and riders in front of me continued to be gapped, but I always had enough to make the jump. This was new for me – I am usually functioning in survival mode. I was pushed off the road by a rider that had cramped and swerved as he lost the use of one side of his lower body – I was again able to accelerate back to the group. Another racer cramped on one of the last little bumps and I heard the sound of bike tipping over with its rider still clipped in, and still more racers faded.

The fact was, that as much as I was being challenged by my cramping (which had now moved to both calves, in addition to my left hamstring), everybody else was going through the same. I was in survival mode, but happy to be there. As the uphill sprint to the line started, I was poorly positioned but still able to accelerate past 3 or 4 riders. I had survived near the front with the Cat 3 guys – not such a bad day!!!

I do believe I can climb and my next happy place is as a sprinter.

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