California Speedway Hoover's Wrap Up

Hi All,

We are back from the track and all trailers unloaded.

This is the first time I've been to California Speedway. I was extremely impressed with the facility and the track. The event was a Porsche Owner's Club (POC) and there were more Porsches than I could count. Full pit crews, big rigs and tire changers were everywhere. If you wanted to have rear wing envy, this was definitely the place. Rob told me that the bigger the wing, the slower the car. I saw an EXTREMELY modified 911 turbo that I found hard to believe was slow. If you stood in the Grand Stand, you could see 85% of the track and follow the cars through each turn.

During mid-morning, Mark V. stopped in with his Blue Noble M12 and we all had a chance to meet him. He stayed with us for a few hours. Great meeting you Mark. We hope to see you on the track soon!!!!

Jim and I were the pit crew in the 100 dg. weather. Most would consider that too HOT to track, but during these track days, we get to test our products and push the envelope on our developments. In the first session, I played Crew Chief and had direct contact to Robert's car. I kept an eye on his car and would contact him if I needed him to come in. I took a second to put my camera down and Jim tapped me on the shoulder telling me that Robert's car is smoking. I had him pit while running back to the paddock to get a fire extinguisher ready. Unfortunately, his day ended due to a worn ring.

I've watched Robert drive for a few track events now and he's incredibly fast at learning a track. Seeing him on his home turf really gave me an idea of his ability in a familiar environment. He took better lines than Rob and didn't scrub off too much speed into the turns. The car looked very balanced at each apex and he carried his speed with ease. Nine seconds faster is HUGE.
When he told me that, I half way believed him and the other half told me that he was a really slow driver in the past. However, he proved me wrong when he went back with DV on Sunday and once again beat his best Friday time by 3 more seconds with a passenger.

It was the weekend of my birthday and my wife asked what I wanted. I told her that I wanted to go to Fontana and bring a partial crew to see Robert's Noble and DV on this legendary track. She gave me the OK. Rob insisted that I go for a ride since the pit crew wasn't necessary anymore. I grabbed my helmet and off we went. In our run group were: Skyline GTR, GT3, Cup Car, 911TT, Lotus Exige, BMW m3 (Super fast) and a few others. We started at the end of the run group and into turn 2 he had already passed half the group. The Skyline must have started later in the session because he came out of nowhere. At turn 3 and 4 we duked it out with the 911tt and the Gt3. Those guys fought hard for position and tried to cut into our line, but the Noble made it by with very little effort. It almost seemed like slow motion when I saw their passengers face looking at us pass them by. We finally made our way back to turn one and there was the Skyline GT-R. Into turn one both of us were full on the throttle and we started to just walk past him almost as if he was going in reverse. I found that hard to believe and chalked it down to a slow driver. I've driven my share of cars at 160+, and even a few times on the back roads at 155mph on many Nobles. Carrying the speed on turns 1 and 2 is way more than I can handle. I did my best to look over at the speedo, but Rob's hand was blocking it and my helmet was stuck to the roll bar. I just kept monitoring oil temps. coolant temps. and oil pressure since I was a prisoner of G-Force. After the third lap, I had enough. It's really difficult to be a passenger at such high speeds.


Due to our busy schedule, we didn't do any work to DV. We tightened the lug nuts, torque the axle nuts and wiped the windows. We had to take some numbers from Roberts’s unused numbers and all we could come up with was ZERO, since we had to have them on the side doors, back and front. I had no idea or had forgotten that this is the same fluid we've used for the last 3-4 track events. Robert and Rob drove with old clutch/brake fluids that were quickly on the way out and that gave them a ton of trouble shifting. In addition, we didn't have a front lip for those high speeds, no belly pan and no diffuser. Top speed was 170mph with no passengers. Next time we go back, I'll have a better prepped car and try for 180mph.

The guys from GMG Porsche came over and complimented us on the performance of the Nobles. They couldn't believe that we could own the track with so little effort. After Robert learned to pilot DV, he bested almost the entire POC in every category and a few of the full race prepped Cup Cars. Not bad for a car with air conditioning and radio.

During our break, we decided to walk the paddock area where we saw the white Norma. If you have 10k, you can drive it for two days. Sorry, we were just 10k short and decided to buy yummy cheese burgers instead. During our time there, we saw one crash coming into turn 2, that shut the track down for 45 minutes for clean up. The driver is fine and the rear end of the Porsche looks to be repairable. While walking the paddock, we saw the garage for GMG Porsche Racing and I recognized one of their crew. It was a friend of mine that does all their data scraping. I couldn't believe that they hired him to print out all the telemetry and translate it. It was very impressive to see such an organized group. They even had air jacks to cool off the tires when sitting in the paddock area. Racing with this group definitely sets a standard.

Go Pro Hero- This is a pretty good camera, but it frustrated Jim and myself trying to figure out how simply it worked. I guess that's why we have Zack. At 160mph, the rear camera started to point downwards from the high speeds, then straighten itself up when we slowed down to 80mph. During the first session, we had it on the incorrect setting and didn't get any video. However, we did get more video later in the day and Zack will edit it Friday.

Afterwards- Robert's wife made us all dinner and surprised me with a birthday cheesecake. Unreal, the food was better than any restaurant. Jim and I left for our hotel and Rob decided that he wanted to get back home asap, so he took the 7 hour drive back to Northern California. Since we had a Noble on our trailer, we found that the hotel we booked wasn't very nice, so we decided to get on the freeway and drove the wrong way and had to back track 20 minutes to Embassy Suites near Disneyland.

It's great to be in such a competitive group of racers and we'd love to have more Nobles participate!!!! The look on their faces is absolutely priceless!!!! Come join the fun!!!!

Thanks to:

Robert G. - for being such a nice guy and looking forward to better his GreenMachine even more.
Robert's Wife (allison)- FOOD!!!!!
Jimbo- Pit crew and trailering.
Racer Rob- trailering and driving.
Zack- posting pics. to keep everyone entertained.
Wife- for letting me go.