Congratulation to the whole team. I'm really looking forward to see what you guys do on a more Mini type track.

Keep up the good work

Longboard

 

I am pleased to announce that a new sponsor has signed on with RSR Motorsports.

Piloti Driving Shoes

Grand Am recently instituted a new safety rule requiring all 'over the wall' crew to wear Fire retardant shoes. Running shoes, sports shoes, etc., are no longer allowed. They will assess time penalties for a violation.

Piloti to the rescue!

All crew members are now equipped with 'DTM' or 'Corsa' Nomex lined shoes. Check out the entire lineup of Piloti shoes and apparel at www.piloti.com .

We appreciate their support. You can do the same by selecting Piloti products for your driving and casual needs. For the finest in quality, safety and function, choose Piloti. All the RSR drivers wear them, and now so does the crew.

A brief History . . .


Fangio, Moss, Gurney, Hill, Bondurant, McLaren: These names are synonymous with auto racing. They are winners and daring people who have a passion for cars and success. These are the drivers our founder, Kevin A. Beard, followed as he developed his own passion for racing. Yes, Kevin was a gear-head hot-rodder in his youth. Yet, he graduated from Art Center in Pasadena with a degree in Product Design - concentrating on the interior of cars. While searching for the perfect job, Kevin joined the Advanced Design Group at Adidas® in Germany, where he became a respected member of its revolutionary biomechanical team. He was instrumental in designing the first "Feet You Wear" concept. But that was only the start for Kevin.

Kevin A. Beard
Founder and CEO of Piloti Driving Shoes
After a few additional years of developing top selling products for Reebok® and K-Swiss®, Kevin wanted to get back to the cars and racing he loved. And he had an idea for a new line of shoes. So in 1999, he left his director's post at K-Swiss to pursue something he always wanted to do: Create a line of authentic driving shoes that would not only be innovative in how they perform in fierce racing conditions, but also stylish and comfortable enough for the street. His passion became known as Piloti.

Piloti is Italian for "racing drivers". No truer expression could be found for Kevin's shoes. Using his background in biomechanics and design, he created a shoe that uses an exclusive, patented Roll Control™ heel technology, Nomex® fire-resistant lining, reinforced heel-&-toe areas, tough double row stitching, and an outer sole reminiscent of the racing tread pattern used in the 50's.

His designs are icons to the glory days when he watched drivers streak around the tracks at Sebring and LeMans. By taking this racing legacy and adding Kevin's technological ideas, Piloti helped resolve comfort and performance issues for today's NASCAR, Sports Car and Rally drivers such as Robby Gordon, Scott Pruett and Colin McRae.

Now Piloti has a line of shoes designed especially for car enthusiasts, rally junkies, and street rodders. (Hint: You don't have to rip around a 32% banked turn at 200 mph to enjoy your Piloti Driving Shoes.) Piloti's Touring line of shoes uses all the performance features in our racing shoes-just sans the Nomex®. They're so comfortable your other sports shoes may collect dust. These shoes are enjoyed by the likes of Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and Chad McQueen-even the members of Aerosmith. And they're available through racing shops, the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, automotive specialty catalogs, select Ferrari dealers and other retail outlets and specialty stores.

 

Great shoes, I wear them every day.

 

From the RSR Crew .... thanks Piloti!

Minirab ... see you @ Mid-Ohio???

 

A few laps at Miami with Trevor Hopwood in the 198. Trevor and Adam finished 7th.

http://www.vholdr.com/node/18536

Video courtesy of Mark Lindsley, Fueler and 2 year team crew member.
Still Photos by Wes Duenkel, team photographer.

Randy

(Watch it in full screen!)

 

Nice video Mark!

 

Woo-hoo! Great video - looks like the handling is right on! Great job and keep it up this year - all points in all races!

Yeehaw!

 

great vid! thanks for posting. too bad you didn't run the same configuration that the mustang challenge cars ran. eliminating NASCAR 3/4 and adding a twisting, technical section would have been just the ticket for you and the MINI.

greg

 

Nice video. I like how the pit stop sequence was done.

Was in the in-car audio not clear? I, for one ,would prefer RSR MINI sounds to tunes.

 

Audio was messed up due to wind noise . . . sorry

 

gotcha, next time I will think before I type.

 

Steve, I plan on being there for sure.

 

Opening a new thread for the race at New Jersey Motorsports Park at the Thunderbolt Track.

All three cars will be there with the following drivers:

Adam Burrows
Trevor Hopwood
Jade Buford
Owen Trinkler
Randy Smalley
VJ Mirzayan

This will the first drive with the team for VJ. Many of you will know him from past Koni events where he drove for Turner in their ST BMW. VJ is very accomplished and a welcome addition to the team.

Schedule: http://www.grand-am.com/assets/2009N...elimsched4.pdf

Rolex, Mustang Challenge and both the World Challenge Touring and GT groups will be racing this weekend. It's a good event for the spectators as you get to see virtually every class of professional road racing in the USA.

Hope to see you there.

Randy

 

Good luck , is this course more suited to the Mini's?

I still haven't read the rules for the grand-am series but how come that Civic had such an advantage in qualifying and in the race ?

Dont they add weight to certain cars if they have a clear advantage ?

Look forward to keeping track off the race via the excellent grand am website.

 

http://vholdr.com/video/grand-am-kon...sr-motorsports

Courtesy of crew member Mark Lindsey

 

http://vholdr.com/video/grand-am-kon...sr-motorsports

Courtesy of crew member Mark Lindsey

 

cool little video

 

Cool video. Thanks for sharing.

It seems like time is lost by having to open and close the hatch and by working the fasteners. Do regulations require the fill holes to be behind the hatch?

 

The rules require that a double fill (separate fuel and vent hose) must be inside the trunk or rear hatch. As you saw, that is what we use.

A single fill can be used at the stock gas cap location but that requires a discriminator valve that vents the tank during filling, not allowing fuel to spill. They are typically slower than the double and subject to stoppage, vapor locking, etc.

So, the hatch is a trade off for a slower and more complicated system.

Randy

 

I have again confirmed virtually zero maintenance for the Cusco.

We had a transmission failure at Miami on the practice day. A shifting fork broke in the transmission in the # 197 which required a transmission change.

When we got back to the shop and tore down the busted tranny, an examination of the Cusco showed almost NO WEAR. This transmission was campaigned since last April and was 1st run at a Lime Rock test in April of '08.

One year and 10 races later confirms the reliability. One disclaimer . . . we change the fluid after every event . . . but more as a precautionary practice than a requirement to do so.

We reinstalled that Cusco in the new spare transmission.

I am more confident than ever that the addition of a CUSCO is one of the best things you can do to improve the performance of your R53 or R56.

Randy

 

Thanks for the explanation Randy.

 

http://www.grand-am.com/assets/Techn...tin_200905.pdf

Grand Am has given us two performance concessions that will be ready for New Jersey.

1) 18 Gallons of fuel . . . up from the prior limit of 17. This extra gallon will require only one stop in a 2.5 hour race where we needed two stops before. ALL three cars needed a late 'splash' at Miami hurting our finishes. We will be able to run over 1:15 for the 1st time ever!

2) RMW Header . . . Revolution Mini Works makes a custom header that improves the torque of the R53. The low torque of the Supercharged motor has been a handicap at tracks with very slow corners or elevation changes. This should help the cause considerably.

Thanks Grand Am !

Randy

 

Grand Am strives for parity. Some cars are naturally better than others. The Cobalt's have had a huge advantage for years because they start life with 260 horsepower on the showroom floor. The Honda's have an advantage with the 'Hondata' engine management system.

Eventually, Grand Am addresses these issues with weight adjustments or intake restrictors, among others.

They just made two positive rule changes for us to help level the field. It's difficult because the driver's play such a big role in the car's performance. It takes a while for them to be convinced it's the car and NOT the driver.

As an example . . . Randy Pobst was responsible for much of the Honda's success at Miami. Plus, the aero of the Honda is a big advantage at 'Rovals' like Daytona and Miami . . . lot's of high speed banking with a road course thrown in the middle.

We've had problems getting improvements because we set a few 'best laps' year and two poles. They now understand that we needed to drive the cars at 110% to attain those lofty results. You can't maintain 110% for 2.5 hours!

Things will change as the series moves to natural terrain tracks like NJ, Laguna, Lime Rock, etc.

Randy

 

We are all pulling for you in NJ. With a track more suited to the cars and the new equipment sounds like you'll be more competitive than ever.

 

Thanks for the explanation Randy, sounds like the rule changes will help you once you found the combo which suits you best.