Scothew

Great Finish!!!

Yeah i'll be glad to take the car out for a lap or two... granted not while other cars are out there! These drivers are awesome IMO, defintely talented.

Rara

hey guys, just to give a bit of follow up on what happened during the race . . .

We started at the back of the pack due to the missed qualifying. (Brake issues due to the heat and nature of the track plauged most teams all weekend, and was also a major factor in Romeo getting friendly with the tire wall in practice)

Anyway, we started from the back of the pack, and Adam moved up quickly making it to P9 or so before pitting. We stopped about 40 minutes into the race for fuel, 2 tires and a driver change. Romeo got into the car, and continued the climb up through the pack that Adam had been doing before. Romeo got up to P4 and held there for awhile in order to conserve the brakes for some hard driving at the end of the race.

And now, here's the kicker; some sort of small debris on the track got kicked up in front of the car, and managed to damage the oil filter, causing the smoke that Brad mentioned before. I'm sure a lot of you that are familiar with the layout of the mustang engine compartment know how unlikely it is for something to hit the oil filter . . . Anyway, the filter got banged up, and a small hole was created (think something like a small squirt gun). We brought the car in to check out the smoke, and figured out the problem and replaced the filter on pit lane. The car went back out, but we had lost enough time to keep us from finishing any higher than 16th.

There was some fantastic racing by nearly all the competitors this weekend, be sure to catch the race on Speed Channel, it will be a lot of fun to watch . . .

And thanks for all the support for the TheMustangSource.com/KoRn/SpeedQuest/Rehagen Racing #58 Mustang Cobra you guys are great.

Rara

I dunno about letting you jump behind the wheel, I think I'm first in line for that

But, I've got to agree with you, our driver talent pool is really top notch. Adam Pecorari and Romeo Kapudija are both great drivers. Adam is very young (he's only 20) and has a bunch of open wheel experience; he is very aggressive but smooth and can work wonders with our Mustangs and Romeo is no different, he can muscle that car around the track like its a walk in the park.
And that's just the two for the #58 We have two more cars, lol.

TMSBrad

You can see the car with the new red and white paint scheme in the background:

Scothew

I like the red and white!

I got to meet Romeo and Alex at Barbers and both were really cool guys. I had no idea Alex was 20 though! Wish the best of luck to both of them and the whole Rehagan Racing team!

PS: Sure I cant get behind the wheel for a lap or two??

TMSBrad

Gunnar Jeanette (#55 Mustang) is only 17. Of course, a Porsche driver nearly beat the crap outta Gunnar at Barber.

Scothew

Man I feel old compared to these guys! I have to say though, at Barbers, it looked like alot of the crowd was defintely cheering for the Mustangs of any team. They seemed to be the favorite overall and that brought a smile to my face.

Rara

It's Adam, not Alex, but yeah, sometimes even I forget he's so young, he's a great guy and really mature for 20. btw, he loved racing in Canada, because it meant he could go drink legally after the race

PS, Scott, anything is possible, for the right amount of $$


oh, and the fan support in Trois Rivieres was absolutely phenominal. There were a lot of mustang lovers in the crowd, that is for sure. The paddock was so crowded most of the time it was difficult to get equipment to and from pit lane, lol.

Rara

oh, and on the red and white, maybe we can hope it will go down as one of the famous "accidental" racing paint schemes, like the green Lotus/Ford w/ the yellow nose

Scothew

I dont know why in the world I was thinking Alex when you said his name above

Yeah thats money I dont have so I guess I wont be driving :P

I think it looks cool, especially maybe a fading paint job from red to white.

Evil_Capri

Looking forward to seeing you guys again at Mid-Ohio. Much closer of a drive than Barbers!

DanS.02GT

Are you sure about that? That would have made him 14 when he drove the factory Panoz at Sebring in '02. Maybe there's a Jr and Sr?

Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to the Mid-O weekend coming up. It'll probably be the only Cup race I see this year without knowing who won in advance. At least I don't think they can tell me in advance if I'm there in person.

Also looking forward to seeing the Mont Tremblant round on TV. It wasn't listed on Speed's web site. Maybe by the time they get around to showing it, I'll have forgotten who won.

One thing I like about the Mont Tremblant, as well as the Phoenix races, Is that they split up the classes. With the 60+ car fields Cup has been having lately, perhaps it's time they thought about doing this for all the events.... Maybe Rara has an opinion on this?

TMSBrad

You're right Dan. He was born in '82. He's 23 now.

Rara

Don't confuse the Mont Tremblant and Trois Rivieres races, Mont Tremblant was Rolex only this year IIRC.

As far as splitting the classes, I really think the Cup series is approaching critical mass for most tracks (and stepping over it for some) with both GS and ST running at the same time. The 60+ car fields are great to watch, but because of the speed differentials between the two classes, and how they are both faster and slower in different places, it causes a lot more cross class incidents than there are same class incidents. The long yellows to clean up these incidents are very frustrating when you've pitted and are trying to get back through the pack. I have a lot of respect for Grand Am where they realize from the outset that certain tracks just can't handle that many at once; Trois Rivieres being a perfect example. If TR had been a mixed race, there wouldn't have been a car in the field left undamaged.

Now, I'm heavily biased, because we run GS and often get held up by the slower ST field, but I for one would love to see all the races split. I suppose it is really going to matter how that affects the logistics for the race weekends over all for Grand Am though.

DanS.02GT

My bad. I meant TR. I was just sneaking back here to edit the post, but you beat me to it.

I've definitely witnessed the frustrations that can be caused by running multiple classes in the same race. I've been doing a little bit of crewing on my boss's GT-3 car in SCCA club racing, and this spring at Grattan they lumped GT-1, 2, and 3, T-1 and 2, and A sedan into one group. The results were not pretty for anyone, except maybe body shop owners.

Of course in club racing, other than the Runoffs, it really wouldn't be practical to run a separate race for each of the 23 classes, with only a few cars in each class, but in GA cup, it may be just about time. For that matter, I'm starting to wonder if the Rolex will be down to a single class soon.