All posts by ARP Trish

Louise Cook

Cookie’s Getting Attention

PRESS RELEASE For Immediate release 10/06/2011
Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship

Jim Clark International Rally 27/28 May 2011

IRDC – BRC Driver Improvement Scheme positions after round four

It’s surprising how a four
week gap between rounds three and four of the Dulux Trade MSA British
Rally Championship sees a big change in the top ten positions of this
year’s keenly contested IRDC Driver Improvement Scheme.

Eight new names have now
appeared in the top ten after the first asphalt rally on this year’s
calendar, The Jim Clark International Rally which was round four of the
2011 Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship.

First place is now held by
19 year old Daniel O’Brien, the St Albans based Northern Irishman and
2008/9 Irish Rallycross Junior Champion, driving an independently run
Ford Fiesta in the closely fought R2 category.

Proving that Ireland is
well represented in this year’s championship is Martin McCormack from
Draperstown, currently holding second place in another independent R2
entry, this time a charismatic Citroën S3, displaying allegiance to
Citroën Racing France and the family run directional drilling company.

Currently a worthy third
and representing the female presence in this year’s championship is 24
year old Louise Cook from Maidstone who has striven hard to raise the
necessary money to compete in this year’s series and whose R2 Ford
Fiesta displays a plethora of small companies who Louise has persuaded
to support her and advertise on her independently run car.

The IRDC Driver
Improvement scheme is calculated after each round of the championship
and shows the greatest percentage improvement in driver’s stage times.
The results are worked out and facilitated by Tim Hobbs, international
co-driver and an acknowledged authority on international rally driver
seeding for many years.

Competitors now have more
than enough time to catch their breath before round five of the
championship, which is held on 19/20 August when the second asphalt
rally of the 2011 series; the 120 stage mile Toddsleap International
Rally runs out of Antrim Northern Ireland.

Race Winners

Race Results Week Ending 6/5/11

Nascar
Nationwide Series- Chicagoland Speedway- STP 300- Justin Allgaier
Camping World Truck Series- Kansas Speedway- O’Reilly Auto Parts 250- Clint Bowyer
Sprint Cup- Kansas Speedway STP 400- Brad Keselowski

Grand-Am
Watkins Glen- Angelilli/Taylor

NHRA

Spencer Massey Top Fuel
Mike Neff Funny Car
Allen Johnson Pro Stock
Matt Smith Pro Stock Motorcycle
Danny Rowe Pro Mod
Duane Shields Top Alcohol Dragster
Frank Manzo Top Alcohol Funny Car
David Rampy Comp Eliminator
David Rampy Super Stock
Joe Santangelo Stock
Dave Heuwetter Super Comp
Mike Sawyer Super Gas
Eric Reiff Super Street

1320 Racing

1320 News

st a quick update on our 2011 progress..

As I mentioned in the last email we were having some traction problems, it appears the majority of that problem was the 28″ tire we were running had a 1″ smaller tread patch than the 26″ tire we ran last year.  We switched back to that 26″ tire for the NSCRA race on May 22nd at Palm Beach Raceway.

Fixed all the ignition issues with a set of Super Spark coil packs and rewired all of the coil wiring on the engine harness.  Unfortunately we had a lot of rain here and did not have a clear day to test the car before we headed to Florida for the race.  We headed down to Florida on Friday, the evening of the 20th, arrived at Palm Beach Raceway around 8:30pm on Saturday the 21st to make a few test passes and see how the 26″ tires were behaving.  Only had time to make 2 runs, and only captured 1 useful data log from the 2 runs.

The first run was just a quick test to feel out the track on low boost.  The second run left soft out of the hole and feathered the throttle a bit due to track conditions, put down a 9.4@151 with only a 1.6 60ft and boost still not turned up all the way (had to adjust the controller for the weather differences).  The datalog from the second run revealed that the car had shifted into overdrive right at the end of the pass.

Sunday morning we were the first ones in the gate, began unloading the car around 7:30am.  When backing the car off the trailer we noticed the reverse gear was almost completely gone, this gear uses the over drive clutch in the transmission.  Quickly identified the problem as a burnt overdrive clutch from the test pass the night before.  Overdrive is the smallest clutch in the transmission and this is exactly why it should not be used on a high HP, wide open throttle 1/4 mile pass.

Attempted a quick fix by flushing a few fresh quarts of fluid through the transmission and planned to baby the car until the finals.  Unfortunately on the first pass Sunday, 1st gear let go right around the 60ft mark, backed off the throttle to make the car drop into 2nd, and ran a 12.8@149mph.   The 1/8th mile on this pass was a 9.3@96mph, thats picking up an astounding 53mph in the 2nd half of the 1/4.  While this number must be skewed, it still shows the car is pulling stronger than ever.

We made the best out of our time in Florida, stopped and talked with every sponsor in Florida, and at Goodridge on the way back up to NC.  We met all of the Florida media groups and have them paying close attention to the car now.  We also met with the guys who run NSCRA for an entire day, they took photos of the car and will be publishing an article on the NSCRA website about it (this site gets over 100,000 indivual views a month).

The problems in the ECU with regards to shift points have been resolved, the car will not shift to overdrive again.  A new transmission -and- a spare are on the way.  And we are aiming to have the car ready within the next few weeks.

The next race on the Schedule is NSCRA Round 3 back at PBIR on July 16th, however there is another race before that, June 25th at Englishtown Raceway, Sport Compact Summer Slam that we will be aiming for.

Mike Edwards

Edwards Plans To Continue Recent Fortunes At Fabled Englishtown

During the first 11 trips to Englishtown and Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Mike Edwards did not have any good fortunes on his side, scoring only three round wins, and those all coming in 1998 when he was runner-up.
 
But those misfortunes have swung the opposite direction the last three trips to New Jersey as the Penhall/K&N/Interstate Batteries-backed squad has compiled nine round wins. In 2008, Edwards reached the semifinals, to do it one better in 2009, and then topped that in 2010 with his first victory at the fabled facility.
 
“When you lay it out like that, this place did not like me for a long time, and then all of sudden it changed and I have been on its good side,” Edwards said. “That the track has been around for nearly as long as drag racing, maybe it forces all of us to pay our dues before it begins rewarding us with trophies. I just hope that since we opened that portion last year, the hardware keeps flowing our direction.”
 
Edwards and his Pontiac have started to build the momentum they have been hoping for heading into the summer months of the NHRA Full Throttle season. In the recent events, he has qualified No. 1 at a couple stops and reached the semifinals at a couple others. He knows now is the time to turn that consistency into something more – victories.
 
“It is all well and good to be fast in qualifying and then come Sunday be consistent, but not strong enough to get over the hump into the final and have a shot at the Wally,” Edwards said. “Since Topeka, that is what we have focused on, being faster when it comes to eliminations. We think we have fixed a few things and straightened out a couple other things that will allow us to reach that goal. Now we just need it to translate into a summer run.”
 
Edwards comes into the event in fourth place in the Pro Stock standing, trailing leader Jason Line by 105 points with nine races remaining in the regular season points battle.
 

Subaru Road Racing Team

SRRT Looks Toward Watkins Glen

After qualifying on the front row and racing lock-step with the fastest cars on the track at Lime Rock Park last weekend, Subaru’s factory road race team looks forward to this Saturday’s race at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York.
 
“We finished 11th at Lime Rock, just like we did two weeks earlier at V.I.R.,” noted Joe Aquilante, owner of Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa., where the team’s cars are prepped and tuned. “but the big difference is we were able to run up front and challenge for the lead.  At Lime Rock we were a front row team.”
 
“Our ‘crunch work’ this time between races is mostly in the body shop. The car was back home in our shops Sunday and work started immediately. We’ll recover from this just fine. We have every reason to remain optimistic!”

Performance by Fisher

Performance By Fisher

Our team competed in our first ever big money bracket race last week. The K&N Spring Fling 20’s at Bristol Dragway. While Kevin “bracket races”, I don’t and haven’t for many years. The event was great and we are very glad that we chose to participate… J
 
We learned some interesting things on Kevin’s car, suspension-wise that only reared its ugly head after the converter change at Norwalk.  My car ran great and I was even able to get the bracket tree down pretty quick.
 
While we didn’t come home with any “Big Checks”, we were able to be a part of the TV coverage of the event. Masters Entertainment Group covered it and it the 30 min dedicated show will air on Fox Sports Net June 8th and June 15th. We filmed a total of three pieces and Ted Jones also did a stand up in our pit where he mentioned our “Married With Dragsters” video series. JJJ
 

Subaru Road Racing Team

SRRT Looks toward Lime Rock

After a promising race weekend at VIRginia International Raceway, Subaru’s factory road race team looks forward to competing on one of its “home tracks” this Memorial Day weekend – the bucolic Lime Rock Park circuit in northwestern Connecticut.
 
Following a solid 11th place finish in the most recent race –at VIRginia International Raceway – the team looks forward to racing on the rolling 1.53-mile Lime Rock Park configuration in this, the fifth round of the 2011 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series.
 
The Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) prepares and races a 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4-door model in the series for Subaru of America, Inc.
 
At Lime Rock, John Heinricy, the team’s technical director, is filling in for regular driver Andrew Aquilante, who is sitting out this race while recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in an off-course excursion the previous weekend at Summit Point, West Virginia.  Andrew is expected to return and at full strength for the Watkins Glen round. Co-driving with Heinricy is Bret Spaude, Bushnell, Fla., who is the team’s regular teammate to Andrew.

“I’ve had the opportunity to help develop this Subaru race car from the technical standpoint for the last couple years, so being asked to be one of its drivers in actual competition is a real treat. Driving cars in competition is something that’s always given me a lot of satisfaction, and ‘feeling the car myself will help me better work with Brett,” Heinricy said.
 
“The comparative short and winding Lime Rock Park can be an advantageous track for our Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive capabilities, which in turn helps us improve even more on our promising finish from VIR,” said Joe Aquilante, owner of Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa., where the team’s cars are prepped and tuned.

Uncategorized

Congratulations to HPD!

ARP congratulates HPD and their engineers James Goodloe, Roger
Griffiths, Marcelo Martinelli and Robert Bell on winning the BorgWarner
Schwitzer Award.  The Louis Schwitzer award is presented by engineers to
engineers, and is intended to recognize individuals for innovation and
engineering excellence in the field of race car design, specially
related to the Indianapolis 500. Presented by the Indiana Section of SAE
International, BorgWarner sponsors the prestigious $10,000 awards. The
winners are honored at an awards banquet, and their names are
immortalized on the trophy, which is on permanent display in the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.
The system is designed to prevent a race car from leaving the pits with
the refueling hose still attached. It is intended to help prevent fuel
spills and injuries to drivers and crew members and has been adopted for
use for the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.
Click here for Motorsports.com story

Showtime Funny Car

Showtime Funny Car Has Rough Start

I am sorry to have to report the Showtime FC will not be racing at the FIA Main Event this coming weekend. Unfortunately we had some further issues with shipping the new car over and it will not now arrive in the UK until after the event.
 
Our revised plans are now to run the new car at Santa Pod on at least one of the Test Days in June or July before we go to the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim in August ( The current car features heavily on the website www.dragster.de and on publicity material for this years event)
 

Uncategorized

Jules Reicher checks in.

Well we just completed Race 2 on the Pro Pulling League Series, Friday Night’s Race got Cancelled
do to rain, but the weather held out for Saturday, we were the second class to pull that night and
I was the last puller in our class, I did pretty good, there were 5 trucks that had a pull off which I missed
by 8 inches so my pull was 319.33 and the pull off was 320 feet not bad for my second race which I
got 6th place so I am improving every time which is great. I am having a great time and as always I want
to thank each one of you for your continue support as I am doing my best for you, Mikey didn’t come
to Texas so I don’t have any video of my pull, well that is it for now, our next race is in Salem, Indiana on
June 4 hope to see you out there soon, talk to you all later and have a wonderful day and again thank
you for everything you do I am trying to make you all proud.

Subaru Road Racing Team

SRRT Takes 11th at VIR

Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) co-drivers Andrew Aquilante and Bret Spaude finished 11th in the 58-car field the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series on the 3.27-mile road course of Virginia International Raceway, near Danville, Va.  This outing served as only the team’s fourth competitive race event to date in the all-new 4-door model of the 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
 
“We had it pretty well sorted for this race” said SRRT owner Joe Aquilante. “Our Subaru Impreza ran strong during the race, like it has so many times with our previous generation race-prepared Imprezas. We are still early in our car development program, but the car, crew and drivers all performed well.
 
Spaude, of Bushnell, Fla., qualified the Subaru in a career-best fourth place in the 25-car Grand Sports class, with a lap average speed of 95.257 miles per hour on the winding 3.27-mile circuit, giving the team its best starting position all season.
 
“Bret found a magical place on the track to run interference relatively clean lap, but at the drop of the green flag, we were necessarily careful to avoid any of the potential accidents, and that caution dropped him back to between ninth and 15th place for the first part of the race,” Joe Aquilante said.
 
The Subaru Road racing team performed two flawless refueling and tire change stops on the car, but the yellow flags just kept coming. By the end of the race, more of the race had been un-contested behind the safety car, instead of at racing speed.
 
“There’s an old saying in racing that ‘Cautions breed more cautions’,” said Andrew Aquilante. “Too many times today we’d come out of a caution period of four or five laps behind the safety car, and on the first or second green flag lap, somebody else would cause a problem. You always pray they happen behind you and not ahead of you, which could easily involve you as an innocent bystander.  Unfortunately, I had some contact myself late in the race and that cost us a finish in the top ten”
 
“We placed 11th today against a large field of solid competitors,’ said, James Han, who manages the program for Subaru of America, Inc., “and we didn’t experience any mechanical challenges on a relatively new car. The development of our STI is on-course, and I’m confident that we can find ourselves a fixture in the top ten in future races.”

Race Winners

Race Results Week Ending 5/22

NASCAR
Iowa Speedway- John Deere Dealers 250- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Charlotte Motor Speedway- All Star Race- Carl Edwards
NHRA
Top Fuel: Spencer Massey
Funny Car: Robert Hight
Pro Stock: Shane Gray
Top Alcohol Dragster: Cody Perkins
Top Alcohol Funny Car: Frank Manzo
Competition Eliminator: Lou Ficco Jr.


Super Stock: Chris Chaney
Stock: Daryl Bureski
Super Comp: William Swann
Super Gas: Mike Wiblishouser
Super Street: Steve Domingues
Top Dragster: Keith McCullar

1320 Racing

Matt Lennen Update

Hello again – just another quick update, we literally just got back in from testing at Maryland International Raceway.  Ran tonight from 8pm-1am, track condition was excellent.
 
Our second track appearance drew the attention of everyone at the track.  Made a handful of passes tonight, just about all of them on the lowest boost setting – when I tried upping the boost the car started misfiring pretty bad.  I’ll address that this week with some new coil packs and replacing old questionable wires on the harness.  No crazy times yet, as I was fighting traction issues all evening.  The powerband on this car is absolutely outrageous.  Again the track condition/prep was excellent, the power just kicks on so fast its overpowering the tires, this is NOT a bad thing, in fact the problem for most factory automatic cars is just the opposite – we just need to figure out how to get that power to stick to the pavement.
 
Ran a handful of 9.4-9.6 passes, all with weak 60fts – 2 of these passes are notable:
9.45x@149.xx – 1.56 60ft – 28psi boost (lowest setting, ~800whp)– feathering the throttle
9.55x@150.86 – 1.57 60ft – 28psi boost until the 1/8th mile, 38psi after (manually operated switch to turn on boost controller) – 50% throttle until the 1/8th mile, 100% throttle after, breaking up bad/horribly misfiring the last 1/8th.
 
The previous best was 9.308@146.94mph with a 1.45 60ft, at 36-37psi boost (when the car dyno’d 762whp) – the 9.45 run would have been ~9.25 with last years 60ft, and probably into the 9.1x range without the feathering of the throttle.  The 9.5 run is pretty crazy considering the 50% throttle, breaking up, and weak 60ft.  We’re up 4mph with much lower boost.  I was able to get some good log data from these passes to look over this weekend.
 
The next day at the track will be in one week, a private rental at MIR.  The rental runs 9am-5pm, and followed by an open test and tune 6pm-1am – we will be there until we find the right combo for the launch.   I will be taking care of the misfiring issues this week and testing a few different sets of tires.  The factory automatic transmission record for the Supra is 8.9, that is about to be crushed.

Follow A Dream Racing

Permatex/Follow A Dream Team Back in the Semifinals

At the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team reached the semifinals for the second time in three national event appearances this season. Driver Todd Veney, who qualified a career-high No. 2 last month at the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, was No. 4 in Houston, ahead of some of the biggest names in the business, including 2010 championship runner-up and defending champ Mickey Ferro and current points leader and eventual winner Tony Bartone.

Veney eliminated one of the most prolific drivers in Top Alcohol Funny Car history, veteran Vern Moats, in round one and Texan Bryan Brown in the quarterfinals before crossing the centerline in the semifinals for an automatic disqualification against Steve Burck, who reached his first career final with the round-win. It was the only shut-off run all weekend for the Follow A Dream team, the only Top Alcohol Funny Car team all weekend to get down the track with a five-second pass in all three qualifying sessions.

“The track wasn’t the Houston we’ve come to know in years past,” Veney said. “Last year, everybody was in the 5.50s or low 5.60s, but this year, everybody had trouble figuring it out all weekend, even Bartone’s team. “We had a pretty consistent string of runs going for a while [5.70-5.69-5.70], but when we tried to step it up a notch for the semifinals, the track wouldn’t take it.”

After a three-week layoff, the team heads for historic Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., for the first race of the five-race Division 1 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, May 27-29. With the semifinal finish, Veney is just outside the top 10 in the NHRA national points standings.

Kasey Kahne Racing

Kasey Kahne Racing Update

Kasey Kahne Racing Eldora Recap
 It was another solid night for Kasey Kahne Racing on Friday night at Eldora Speedway. Joey Saldana picked up his third win of the season while Paul McMahan and Cody Darrah scored top-10 finishes.
-Joey Saldana, driver of the #9 Red Bull/Sage Fruit/ASE Maxim

Joey Saldana entered Eldora Speedway looking for revenge against the track that cost him a shot at winning his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series title last season.

He couldn’t have had a bigger night. Not only did Saldana put the Kasey Kahne Racing Red Bull Maxim in victory lane, he also increased his lead in the 2011 championship battle to 51 points. It was a complete turnaround from last fall, when Saldana was leading the title hunt before he wrecked hard at Eldora and wound up suffering a concussion that prevented him from racing the next night, thereby costing him any chance of contending.

Saldana qualified second, won his heat and won the dash. He led 23 of the 30 scheduled laps in the A main to go on to win his third Outlaws race of the 2011 season.

“I’ve got a huge smile on my face because last year I didn’t know where I was for a few days, that last show I left in a helicopter. This is a lot more fun and gratifying. Definitely coming back from that and winning here, because this is such a tough track, it’s a huge accomplishment for me so I’m very happy for this entire Red Bull Team.”

Louise Cook

COOKIE HOLDS TOP 10

Kent’s female rally driver, Louise Cook, contested her fifth ever gravel rally this weekend, The Pirelli International Rally, based in Carlisle. The event was the third round of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship. Louise was looking forward to the rally with her car engine management faults behind her.
The rally kicked off Friday night with a ceremonial start at Carlisle Racecourse and then straight off into the 1st stage. With only one pass of the stage in reconnaissance, some dodgy pace notes and what appeared to be a lot of wheel spin due to the extra power, Louise took no chances and got off to a steady start bedding herself in with the car. Then it was off to the rally party, where teams signed autographs and mingled with the fans before heading back into the forest in darkness. With no night driving experience, except the odd late night shopping trips to Bluewater, Cookie knew it was going to be a difficult stage. Despite the lack of experience in the dark, Louise held her position in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy for the overnight halt.
It was an early start on Saturday with the crew setting off at 7am for the first loop of stages.
“The morning went okay, it took me a while to get into it as I struggled with believing in my own pace notes. Nearly every corner in Kielder is over a blind crest, so you really have to have a lot of confidence in your notes. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have that level of trust in my note writing yet, not after just 3 gravel rallies. So, I suffered.”
On the second run through the morning stages, Louise set some creditable times amongst the modern faster Fiesta R2’s, leaving 3 R2’s in her wake.
“Once I had been through the stages once, I knew that my notes weren’t massively off, and I started to trust them more and more. Once I’d had a few over excited moments and got the car back from various ditches, the Killer Kielder forest did not seem as bad as all its hype. It was pretty amazing to realise how far I have come after only 2 gravel rallies since Pirelli last year. There was one section where I was absolutely flat on the rev limiter and having 4 wheels off the ground over crests at over 100 mph, I would never have done that last year! It was a nice benchmark.”
With Cookie’s confidence on the up, the car was on the down. The forever hard working service crew found a gearbox leak in a 10 minute service
and it became evident on the road section that what was thought to be wheel spin, had been the clutch slipping from the start and Cook’s stage times suffered as a result “I have no idea how much time it cost me, I lost a lot of confidence. The diff was unlocking and I would start to under steer off the road, when I needed the front wheels to pull me round, the clutch was giving way and the car had no drive. It was a shame, but at least I wasn’t out of the rally, I kept it going, even though it was scary at times. I managed to keep her on though after about five or six moments where it could have all been over. I will keep positive and take what I have learnt from this rally and use it on the next one.”
Louise came home still holding her 5th place in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, top 10 in the F2 Championship and still leading the BRC Ladies Cup. It’s onto tarmac for the fourth round of the Championship, the Jim Clark Rally up in the Scottish Borders, a rally that Louise competed in last year. “I am really looking forward to the next one, I have more tarmac miles under my belt, so I hope to close the gap on the next round.”