The ORECA-Matmut team has officially unveiled their Peugeot 908 car to be raced in the Le Mans Series this season and for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It was unveiled one day before its first public test at the Paul Ricard Circuit in La Castellet, France. The inspiration for the livery was taken from the works of Dutch abstract artist, Piet Mondrian. “The team has retained its own visual identity in the spirit of the Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian, a pioneer in the field of abstract art,” said an ORECA statement.
“While the overall concept is in keeping with the visual identity, Hugues de Chaunac’s men wanted to innovate by modernising [sic] it, and came up with a graphic evolution based around the chrome roof for this livery, which provides an interpretation of Mondrian’s work worthy of the 21st century.”
Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre will drive the car during the Le Mans Series season in the LMP1 class and will be joined by Loic Duval during the Paul Ricard test at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Barbaro, was considered a great contender for the Triple Crown. Barbaro broke his leg in several places on the next race in the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. After several surgeries the veterinarians decided that he could not be saved and he was euthanized January 27, 2007. This statue sits outside the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville.
A quick glance at the start list yesterday morning and I knew that I was in for a good race at the Avalanche Peak Challenge (APC). Looking the list over I figured I could finish any were from 1st-5th, depending on what kind of day we were all having. The woman’s race started 1st, so it was nice to see Jane start and cheer her on before they ducked onto the Avalanche Peak track. Jane’s race would be similar, with a pretty strong field, including Lara Prince, who has won title after title at the APC.
Our race started off surprisingly slow, as every one seemed to hold back a little, before Jacob Roberts not surprisingly took the lead. By the time we hit the steep single track I slotted right in behind him, with Tane Cambridge close behind. By the time we got to the tree line gear check Jacob and I were out of sight of the case pack and moving at a good pace. I was feeling really good at this point and it was probably the easiest I have moved up Avalanche Peak. We run the flat sections, but power walked any inclines. I guess we were both feeling pretty relaxed too, as we chatted a little on the climb about a few different things. I always enjoy running with other people and was having fun hammering the climb together. I got a few looks back and spotted Tane way out by him self, still in 3rd. There was $100 up for the King of the Mountain- the first person to the summit of Avalanche and as we reached the final ridge Jacob speed up, but I was able to stay with him, but I didn’t bother challenging him, after all he had really done all the work leading the climb, while I just hang off the back. I clocked our split from the start of the track to the summit at about 50min30sec! We then got directed on a slightly different route off the summit, that evolved Jacob and I climbing over an older lady that had stopped in the middle of a 2m down climb. We hit the down hill and I was offered the lead, which I gladly took, hammering the section down to the ridge (were I had to back tracked for a dropped Gu). It was decision time in the race for me as I knew hanging around with Jacob until the river bed would be no good, as that is my weakness and a strength of Jacob’s. I run conservatively until the scree and then put the hammer down, opening up a descent gap. It would have been at least 1min by the bottom of the scree slope and about 2mins when I passed Jane (who was in 2nd place!!) deep in the Crow Valley. The single track down the Crow is so fun to run and I know it pretty well now, so I pretty much gave it all down this. I was told after the race by Sia Svendsen that I looked crazy when I went past her and I am not surprised, I felt it. I knew I was being hunted by the winner of the last 3 APC’s and the Wamik river bed running section was fast approaching. My goal was to be as far away from Jacob as possible by the time I hit the river. I looked back across the grass flats and see a tiny speck coming out of the trees, at least a couple of minutes back, which I feel wasn’t far enough. I was able to take a good line as I followed Lara who now had a HUGE lead over the rest of the woman’s field. I past Lara and explained that she could probably walk it in and still win at this stage.
I started to fade a little at this point. I had now past Lara, a guy biking (??) up the river and a lady walking up, so it was hard to tell which dot was which when I looked back. Around the Klondyke road end I looked back and it was pretty clear that there was a dot gaining fast. I wasn’t sure who, as I said earlier there were a few fast guys in the field, but I knew it was going to be close. Just as I got to the Bealey Bridge I tripped, falling pretty hard, hitting my knee on a big flat stone. This was of course in front of a small crowed that was watching. I laughed a little as I got up, the knee sore, but still working. Who ever it was behind me was really gaining now and only when I got off the river bed and onto the last steep climb to the finish was I sure I had the win. I was reduced to a walk, looking back every few meters, before jogging in the last 20 or so meters. I then lay in a heap before jumping up to congratulate Jacob who finished just 12secs back. I run 2hrs28min58sec, a time that is almost hard for me to believe I did. Apparently the course record is 2hr27 something, held by Keith Murry (who also holds the C2C longest day record), so we managed to run a pretty honest time. Looking over the results listed on the APC website, it is the fasted time since at least 2003, which is how far back they have results listed.
In a heap and hurting, at least I wasn’t puking this time.
About 10mins later Matt Scott, Lara’s partner, come in for 3rd place. Jane was the 3rd woman, just getting past at the Bealey Bridge. Good mates Tim and Rich, who also work in the same office, had a good battle, with Tim coming out on top in his 1st running race, place 11th over all. Hat’s off to Rich who had a great little puking session post race (yeah, sounds familiar!)
Over all it was a great day, with awesome weather, a good, strong turn out and it was great to run the full course. A big thanks to Chris and hi steam for a great event, as well as the race sponsors.
Next race up is the 9km a Lyford. I am opting for the short race to give the body a little rest before the NZ Mt running champs in mid April. Before that is a day or 2 of easy running and then some more serious running again.
The American Le Mans Series has received a new title sponsor, spirits company Patron, or to be more specific, their tequila subdivision, Tequila Patron.
The company came into the series as a sponsor and advertiser in 2008, mainly with the Highcroft team. They will continue backing Highcroft, but now they will also be the title sponsor, as well as a sponsor for the Extreme Speed Ferrari GT2 team (Which happens to have Patron chief Ed Brown among its drivers) and the GT Challenge Porsches run by Alex Job Racing and Velox Motorsports. With this title sponsorship, the ALMS will now be called the American Le Mans Series by Tequila Patron.
That’s right, I’m going with mah boy Jeff. From the stats, Jeff has been the best at Hotlanta since the introduction of the COT. Jimmie Johnson, in fact, has been a tad off in the COT races there, and Jeff is the only driver to score top-10 finishes in all four of those races. Plus, he was dominant last week at Vegas, another 1.5-mile racetrack. The only reason Jeff didn’t win Vegas was because his dumbass crew chief called for two tires late in the race instead of four, and Jimmie hunted him down and passed him for the win.
Others to look for include Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, and Mark Martin.
I’ll admit it; I fell behind a bit in training. I lost motivation to get out and cross country ski. I have been staying up late (well, until 11pm or so) and waking up late (7am), and haven’t been hitting the gym like I want to. My hours are lower than I want them to be because of that, and because of the whole bout of lung irritation I have been dealing with for over two weeks.
But this week, I got back in the game. I did some threshold repeats with my buddy, Erik (although I didn’t do them too aggressively, thanks to the aforementioned asthma). I got in the pool. More than once. And I will even matched my planned training volume (well, so long as I make sure to get a long run in tomorrow).
I credit getting back on track with something that lit the fire: a new pair of shoes. Lucky for me (because maybe I needed a bigger flame under my butt), I got two pairs. I bought a pair of Saucony ProGrid Omni 8’s and a flashy pair of racing flats, last year’s Saucony Fastwitch 3’s.
There’s supposed to be two holes, but this was an easy problem to fix, thanks to Baberaham’s toolbox!
Both shoes are sweet. The Omni’s have glitter on them (bonus) and are a comfortable, stabilizing, and responsive pair of shoes. The only downside: the pair I got was missing one of the lace holes, but that was an easy remedy with a spade bit. So far, the shoes are so good.
Look fast, think fast. Fastwitch 3s
I’m really geeked about the awesome deal I got on the Fastwitch 3s on Saucony’s online store. The new Fastwitch (the Fastwitch 4) shoes have been released, so the old Fastwitchers that are still in stock are on closeout for $64. Since I was ordering the Omnis anyway, I got free shipping on my order to boot (free shipping on orders over $75 bucks). Talk about a steal.Nothing could get better for a poor graduate student like me.
check out the mesh liner on the inside of the shoe. No sopping wet shoes for me this year!
the soles of the Fastwitch 3s
I’m super excited to race triathlon in these racers. The Fastwitch 4s are the perfect color, too (Trakkers green, anyone?!). Underneath the shoe insert, a water-drainage system of bright yellow mesh lays between my foot and the sole. The lining of the shoe is smooth and frictionless. Plus, the shoe has a roll post to prevent my foot from overpronating. All wrapped up in 6.2 ounces. Awesome. What’s more awesome? The Fastwitch 4s are even lighter and have an even smoother and softer fabric upper. I think I found my new speedwork shoe.
And my new training tricks are rolling out. This week, I’m starting Motivation Mornings, which means I go to bed early so I can get up early and get my butt to the SDC. I think that if I can get through one week of 6am arrivals at the gym, I can easily continue to do so for the rest of the spring (routines are awesome).
I’m also planning a Swim Week (although not nearly as badass as Charisa’s) to get me grooving into swim-shape. More tricks for swim training? Using TriSwim makes swimming completely manageable. I think part of my hatred of chlorine-ridden pool time was the way I smelled for the rest of the day. Now that I have a supply of TriSwim, I think my hair will actually be in better shape than it was before I started spending so much time in the pool. Plus, it removes the stinky stench of pool that would otherwise ruin my day. Trust me, chlori-melon is not a scent-of-the-week at Bath and Body Works. I’m also geeked about getting a new swimsuit or two, because nothing says “get yer ass in the pool” like a new suit.
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My headache has been gone for about 2 days now, thank god! Thanks to my friend Dan Albright going to school down in Chicago for his Chiropractic degree he diagnosed my problem and pain due to a tight muscle in my neck…the splenius capitis muscle. I had Lindsey give me a deep muscle massage in that area and boom! headache was gone! So I must thank Lindsey and Dan for their help.
So I’m back on the bike and feeling pretty good. I gained back a little weight but that’ll be easily lost soon enough…especially with 40 deg temps coming soon!!! Rides outside! I am sad though that I cannot join the UW cycling team at the first collegiate race weekend of the season this weekend in Murray, KY. I miss the collegiate scene. I’m thinking about going back to grad school soon….probably next year….maybe even this Fall if that is at all possible. We’ll see what happens. I guess for now I’ll just stay back and train. I definitely can tell my base is huge! But I could use some work on the upper end of things. My sustained efforts are going well, but I definitely do not have that snap yet. Power isn’t quite there yet, but my cadence efficiency is huge right now. I’m able to put out more power with a higher cadence than in a big gear with a low cadence. Thats a great thing! Once I’m able to get outside and ride more things will come together. Its just the end of February and I still have all of March and Spring Break to get stronger.
Other than that….not much. Good luck to the UW Cycling Team this weekend down in Murray! I hope to hear lots of podiums!
A pocket bike is a miniature motorcycle. Often referred to as MiniGPX or “mini-moto” and first made popular as ‘pit-bikes’ for drag racers to travel around in the pits during races in the late ‘50s.
These days pocket bikes are available in both gasoline and electric versions with engine’s ranging from 40cc to 50cc. A typical mini-moto is about ¼ the size of a standard racing motorcycle and there are Pocketbike races across the country on tracks used for kart racing. There is the Northwest YSR-50 enthusiast HERE or YSR Racing HERE.
Now we have the world’s smallest electric pocket bike. Apparently the builder felt that the current generation of electric pocket bikes were just too big so they recently introduced Santosh pocket bike is literally quite small. The bike is just 12 inches high and 18 inches long. The way Santosh pulled off this compressed miracle was to make the battery pack wearable, rather than mounted on the bike which is capable of running at speeds of almost 10mph.
Talk about a little guy speed junkie! Check out the video if you want to know more.
I was really looking forward to this event, for a multitude of reasons. First, it marked the end of the off-season. Second, zMAX is one of my favorite sites. It’s a really large lot (on par with Michelin), and has really good grip. The bad part is that it’s really expensive to rent. On the plus side, they have real strict noise restrictions, meaning that we have to hold the events there on Saturday in order to get all our runs in before we lose light.
I arrived somewhere around 7:30, which normally would’ve given me plenty of time to get registered, teched and walk the course multiple times before the first run group. Unfortunately, they were still making changes to the course, even after I had gone through the registration and tech lines. I think I walked the course twice, and they made changes between my walkthroughs. Normally, I’m not very fond of being in the first run group, but given the length of the course and the fact that I didn’t get a very good look at it in the first place, I was actually somewhat happy about running first. My lack of knowledge of the course showed itself on my very first run. Towards the end of the lap, I was supposed to turn right and go back down the hill into the slalom leading to the finish. Instead, I went straight, which lead me back to another section of the course where a Saturn was currently racing. Fortunately, I noticed him in time and turned well before we made contact. That, naturally, red flagged the course. Not a great start to the day. My second run started off great until I noticed a very irritating scraping noise coming from behind me. It proceeded to distract me which slowed me down, but at least I stayed on course and didn’t hit any cones.
When I got to the finish line, Dave informed me that the scraping noise I’d noticed was my exhaust, which had fallen off and was dragging behind the car. I pulled the car into the paddock, and after taking a look, we figured out that the exhaust hangers had broken their welds , allowing the exhaust to drag along on the ground. I talked to several people, and finally found someone with some wire that we could use to rehang the exhaust, at least temporarily. Once the exhaust was wired in place, I found some duct tape to hold the wire. So effectively, my exhaust was held on by bailing wire and duct tape.
Having patched up the exhaust, I got back into grid and lined up for my third run. Everything was going great until I got back to the point where I’d gone off course on my first run. I came around that corner and the back end started to slide on me. I kept my foot in the throttle and counter-steered to correct the slide, but apparently I over-corrected as the back end snapped around, causing me to spin off course. In the process, I stalled the car and couldn’t get it to start again. Another red flag for me. Maybe I should start a collection. After a good 15-20 seconds, I finally got the car fired again and proceeded back to grid. My fourth run was actually quite uneventful, although not very fast. By this point, I had so many distractions that my head wasn’t really in the game.
When third run group came around, I went up to get a work assignment and happened to have my helmet with me, having just finished riding along with a friend to help him find where he was going off course. The worker chief assumed I was there to serve as an instructor, so I got to train a novice as my work assignment for the day. There were only two novices in third run group: one driving a Subaru and the other driving a Civic. I talked with the other instructor and it turned out she was more familiar with front drive cars, while I was more familiar with Subaru all wheel drive, so the assignments were obvious. The novice I was instructing started off very rough, but was a quick learner. By his fourth run, he was in first place in the novice class. He ended the day 4th out of 20 novices, which is absolutely amazing. I was proud of him, and to be honest, that really saved the day for me.
Results and videos below:
Final
RAW
PAX
Note that the video for run 3 isn’t posted because I forgot to turn off the camera.
