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Post Info TOPIC: The Monte Hunters at the races!!


Moderator - Monte Hunter Lead Investigator

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Date: Jul 6, 2013
The Monte Hunters at the races!!
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Last Sunday we went back to Watkins Glen for the Rolex Series Race. The last Grand Am race to be held there. As of next year Grand Am and the American LeMans Series will merge. Anyways, the weather was great, about 15 minutes of rain to make the track slick and cool us off, but still a great race!!!

And you know we have to walk around.

We started out on pit row for the fan walk.

Boris Said and Eric Curran hangung with the fans

Had a short coversation with Wayne Nonemaker of the Sahlen's #42 car. Even tried to sell us a Mazda X-8, LOL!

Sometimes it worth just hanging out in the Midway....

You can never tell what you will find in the Paddock.

Mean as Hell!

Blown up GX Porshe

Spare parts???

We did get to watch the race

And Acros the line!!

The Monte Hunters were on hand in the Paddock to greet the winners, plus second and third place teams.

The winners were the Action Express Corvette, but they were mobbed in Victory lane, so no pics.

2nd place DP Class, 8Star Motorsports Corvette

3rd place DP Class, Starworks Ford

Winners in the GT Class, the Stevenson Camaro.

2nd Place GT Class, the FXDD Ferrari

Winners of the GX Class, The Mazda Speed/Speedsorce Mazda 6. The only team to finish in this class.

 

We had all access! And even got to hang with some Celebs! Although I think they might have refered to us a stalkers, LOL!

Justin Bell.

Darren Law

These cars get as dirty as ours do on road trips. LOL!

We have to thank the guys of Effort Racing for giving us a tour of the set up. Sorry, we were not allowed to take pics of the inside of the trailer. But we did learn quite a bit about the series.

Cam posing in front of the Stevenson Trailer

 

Can't wait till next year! With the merger, there is talk of up to 6 classes and over 50 cars!!!



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Date: Jul 7, 2013
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nice.. i know the people that transport the patron car... well lol some rumor has it he's part owner of the car.

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Date: Jul 7, 2013
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Thats awesome! looks like you had a great time!

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Date: Jul 7, 2013
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Very nice!!!

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Moderator - Monte Hunter Lead Investigator

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Date: Jul 7, 2013
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Thanks guys, Been going for 3 years now and each year we learn or find new things. Tim figures the way we keep bringing used parts home, we might have our own car in about 5 years, LOL!

Rob, I wish I knew that last month. They were the reason we were not allowed on the track at VIR. We could have introduced ourselves to the driver, LOL!

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Date: Jul 8, 2013
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great pics Dave

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Date: Jul 9, 2013
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Thanks Jim. It's one of my favorite things to do every year. And next year will be even more exciting with the merge.

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Date: Jul 9, 2013
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so did u guys get chance to give them pointers where to go fast with our past experince lol....u should be able to say hey man ive been on the track myself so u can trust me and take ur car for half the race..

i was watching some of the LeMans on espn other day... theres so many types of classes...(amazing how u see the proto 1 and 2's just fly by normal super cars like nothing...) can u explain to me which class is what?

u know what would be sweet if they had stock or any race car driver that would ever had driven at watkins to have booths for fans to meet and stuff with the cost of the tickets.. like we aggred before 25 for 3 laps 35 for couple pics 60 dollars for basically little fun and nothng really to show for it.. would be cool if they had stuff there for the "fans" i mean yea we see people on track in non sports cars but they only there anyways cause they are a fan enough to know watkins glenn .. so therefore all those "fans" that are paying 25 or 60 heck or those paying extra laps.. would be cool if they had race cars there and drivers and driver's fan stuff to buy.. i mean all everyone does is go pay drive leave.. would be sweet to actually make a day event where they had bar b que's and meet and greets.. heck looks like u guys had tons of more fun and even get to see cars and drivers.. im guessing cost u each less then 60 bucks? since u guys did indeed get up close to cars where u able to get any driver signatures?

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Moderator - Monte Hunter Lead Investigator

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Date: Jul 10, 2013
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Jon, I was not about to tell any professional driver about our track time. Don't need to embarrass ourselves.

In LeMans, LMP1 is enclosed ****pit prototypes, LMP2 is open ****pit, GT is production performance cars and GX is alternative fuels and Hybrids.

As for meeting drivers, They are everywhere! In the Paddock, on pit road, where ever we were they were. Matt even got his poster signed by Scott Pruett. And They do have a "driving school" over the weekend. You can pay to drive a BMW 3 series with a driver trainer. They were doing laps and drift expos while we were there.

There was tons of venders there to buy stuff, But the best things are what we found. Like the Porsche bumper, the F2000 spoiler plate, Brake rotors of another Porsche. And of course used tires! And they didn't cost us anything.

Tickets are cheap for this race, $40 for the Weekend.

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Date: Jul 10, 2013
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sounds better than the 60 i spent lolol

40 is real good deal for all that exposure ( now whats including for a "weekend")....heck i would to drive a bmw'r on the track.... u know the price for that?

u got some real neat goodie bag there of stuff.....

so would like the GX class be possible future engines for us normal folk? kinda like a experimental engine class...

so the drivers that cool and easy to aproach and get autographs thats cool.... i think i might have started being a fan already lol...

now when i watched it on tv other day.. seemed little crowded... or is it just cause raod coarses ur gonna get bottlenecks now and then even with nascar?

is there a lesser fan base for LeMans races? that why fans can get so much more exposure? i cant imagine for 40 u can even get decent seats for watkins.. i went there with family eons ago and was to young to know what tickets go for but gotta not be close to that deal of 40 for a weekend..

now ive seen camaro along with vette which i knew always had done very well .. i guess since ford has their Gt and mustang chevy has 2 of their own vette and camaro but can u really call them in same "class" of production sports car?its like when i see the BMW racing .. seems maybe they should be a a seperate class then the "super sport cars"?

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Moderator - Monte Hunter Lead Investigator

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Date: Jul 11, 2013
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$40 get you in for the race, What you do from there is up to you. We move all over so were never in the same spot for long. We have sat in almost every grand stand, leaned on just about every fence surrounding the track and anywhere else you can imagine. There is no perfect seats, you just find a place and enjoy the race.

Never looked into the driving school, so I don't know.

GX is for Alternate fuels, Like Diesel, Hybrids and Hydrogen powered vehicles. Experimental engines are in the prototypes. Those a really cool motors, but they won't tell us much about them.

Driver's and crew members will talk all day if they can. None of them have ever rushed us away and they took the time to explain stuff and sign things for anyone who asked.

Sports car Road courses are nothing like NASCAR, These races are timed, not set by laps. It's an endurance race, pit stops are not done in seconds but how ever long it takes to get it right. We have seen cars go in after being totally wrecked and come back out an hour later and finish the race. It's all about points. Also, all the cars are pretty well even in HP, it's more of a driver's race.

And the fan base isn't as large due to the fact it isn't as popular or known about. I just started getting into it 5 years ago. LeMans races are huge in Europe, The American LeMans version isn't as popular, thus the Merge with Grand Am next year.

Vettes, Camaros, Vipers, Ferraris, BMWs, Aston Martins, Audis, Jaguars and Porsches make up the GT class. They are all production based cars.

The Mustangs run in the Continental Tire Challenge along with Kia Forte, Honda Civic, Chevy Camaros and Subaru Impreza. Different series, Same weekend.

Prototypes are the full on race cars that look like batmobiles on steroids. They have 800 to 1200 HP and experimental engines.

Hard to explain everything, Best thing to do is check out the Grand Am and LeMans websites for information.

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Date: Jul 17, 2013
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The Mustangs run in the Continental Tire Challenge along with Kia Forte, Honda Civic, Chevy Camaros and Subaru Impreza yuk..lol kia's do have nice looking cars but to see their brand on a race track and civic's yuk lol.. and subaru's on a race track i would only expect to see them on a dirt course... now the LeMans in europe those also city streets as well right like their indy car races? if we started to allow that here would be big help with fans.. they where gonna have a city course in syracuse one summer but fell apart.. im sure it will bring alot of cash flow to cities..

thanks for all that info thats alot info and sounds like alot of fun to go to...yea the race i had saw o tv while back now there was a driver change and the guy getting out somehow dragged the seatbelt as he got out so when other guy got in he automaticly sat on the seatbelt and they lost alot of distance between the car in the class ahead of them all because of a bad driver exchange...

but yea i would love to go to one there next time sounds u guys had alot of fun for the real good price of the event.. if whenever u spend more money on the gas for the trip than u do at the event then it was a good event

specially now i hear gas prices are flying upwards now

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Date: Jul 17, 2013
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Nice Pics!! it looks like you guys had a good time!

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Date: Jul 19, 2013
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Glad you guys had a great time!

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