Daytona Test Days 2008

In an effort to keep you up to date and informed, I'm going to try to stay on top of updates to my blog.

We recently went to Daytona for Test Days and it proved to be a very successful weekend. We went in with specific test plans for all of the cars to learn as much as we could.

The weekned went very well from teh time we unloaded to the time we left. I was fast right out of the box with a lap that was only 0.05 seconds off the fastest lap. The second session was pretty much the same except that now, my teammate Hugh plumb in the #60 car ran 0.31 seconds quicker than me. The third session was frustratng for me. I had a BMW asshole block me for 2 laps while he tried to show me how cool he was. I just got too frustrated to stay out and brought the car in for Jack to get some good laps. If it were the race, that particular BMW jackoff will be handled with the same amount of respect he exhibits... Anyways, my blood pressure is rising just thinking about him. The fourth session was car a copy of the 2nd. I was actually P1 for the entire session until Hugh again pimped my time with about 5 minutes to go in the session. I was happy that we were 1-2, but it would have been nice to be at the top of the chart. Jack took the entire session for practice 5. I think things were clicking for Jack as he was laying down very fast laps. His best lap was only 0.80 seconds off the fastest time. For the bulk of the session, he was the fastest car on track. I figured he was in a groove and gave him the entire hour of track time. (I figured I was fast enough that I didn't really need to get back in the car). Of note, our #52 car driven by our test drivers was P2 for the session, just over 0.30 seconds off the quick time. We rounded out the final practice with a 5th quick time. I wasn't pushing because the weekend went so well I didn't want to put the car at risk.

The #59 car left Daytona and went straight to North Carolina for additional testing at Roush/Fenway Racing and we will be doing a significant amount of testing between now and the race to find a little more speed.

I'm excited about this year. All five of our team cars spent time in the top 5 spots over the course of the weekend. Session 4 was our best with 3 of our cars in the top 5!

Latest News

It's been a while since my end of season update. Things have been busy inthe brief off season before Daytona. Along with moving into our new 14,000 square foot shop, it's been mostly putting budgets together, attending trade shows, prepping cars (not as much for me as it has been for Jesse), and getting drivers lined up for next season.

Here's the "for sure" latest:

Jack Roush Jr and I will again pilot the #59 Roush Performance Products Mustang in the GS class. We're going to be looking to win the championship.

Mike Canney has signed on with our team and brings his #60 Mustang FR500C along with his codriver Hugh Plumb. Mike has driven with the Rehagen team in the past with a best finish of 3rd at Watkins Glen with codriver Kenny Wilden. We look forward to many great performances from this team.

Jim Click Ford Racing will be back with Rehagen for the Daytona Test Days and the Daytona race. The remainder of the schedule is TBD. We hope that Jim Click will come back and campaign a full season with his codriver Mike McGovern (Bondurant School of High Performance Driving Chief Instructor).

Ray Mason will drive the #52 Mustang at the Daytona race, but has not committed to a full season.

With the announcement of the new Mustang Challenge Series, we are looking at expanding into this series and fielding upwards of 4 cars in the series which will run along side many of the Grand Am Koni Challenge race events. I am actually currently spending 4 days testing one of these cars at a trackin the west. It is a fantastic package and should promote great racing.

That's all for now. I hope to post more before the holiday, but my track record is not favorable so if not, Happy Holidays to all...

-Dean

Not Dead

But close...

:)

It has been quite a while since my last post. Many events have come and gone since my last post. Of note:

• Mosport 2nd place finish with Kenny Wilden in the Piloti #52.



• Mid Ohio WIN with Kenny Wilden in the Piloti #52.



• Big crash at Mid Ohio in the 59. Backed it into the wall hard at the end of the long straight. Video is on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rj9Rl80ZA



• I got wrecked out at Barber.



• BIG crash at Trois Rivieres. The car hit the wall, went airborn, and landed on its roof. This crash was the final demise of the #59 Mustang. We did race the car though. I finished 16th and never really go to even try to race. I just strolled around after Jack did an amazing job to start the race.

We've had to build a brand new car since we got back from Trois Rivieres. We were unable to purchase a body in white from Ford Racing so we had to locate a car/body to start from. We rolled a painted body into the shop just 2 weeks ago. After some VERY long days/nights, the car was finished and ready to leave for Miller late last night. Here are some pictures...

Maybe I'll get those pictures loaded later. 30 minutes, and I still haven't gotten one to import properly.

Comments...

Wes,
It smelled a lot like new vinyl shoes when it was done... :)

Jim,
No worries, I've been called worse..
Oh, I mean Joe.

Annonimous,
Oh, you don't know the inside joke. Well, it's actually not that funny, except when you say it as you're leaving the shop. One of the guys on the team always ends his conversations with his wife with "Love you, Bye." One of the other guys started doing the same thing. He actually may have always done it, nobody really noticed. Now, as we're leaving the shop early (like around 10pm) and there are guys staying later, it's funny to say "Love you, Bye" when you're walking out the door. It's even funnier when it's about 3:30am and someone is leaving and there are still 3-4 guys in the shop working. That's the storry. You kinda need to be there for it to be funny. Otherwise, it's gay. Jesse really started it, and he's suspect anyway.

Piloti Mustang #52

It has been a VERY LONG 2 weeks!

Here are a few pictures of the latest and greatest from Rehagen Racing. The first image is of the car on Sunday. It was actually a bare shell the Friday prior when it was painted. The car just has the engine set in it. The trans and driveline are not in the car yet as bothe were out being built.

The second picture is of the car this morning. After toiling for about 55 hours since Thursday (I got back from VIR at around 1:30pm) the new #52 was loaded into the trailer and is on its way to Laguna Seca for the Koni Challenge race next Sunday. I will drive the #52 car with Larry Rehagen. I will also still be driving the #59 Roush Mustang with Jack Roush Jr. Yes, it will be a busy weekend, but that's the good kinda busy. Not like busy driving all around the Detroit metro area picking up and dropping off parts for 2 days straight (last week).

A special thanks to Piloti for all their support. Modeled after the Piloti DTM Driving Shoe, the #52 car is absolutely stunning! I look forward to running some fast laps at Laguna Seca where we will debut the car.

I also want to thank all the guys for sticking around at the shop the last few nights. I wasn't the only guy in the shop. Larry, Jesse, Vince, Brian, and Sean all spent late nights/early mornings in the shop these last few days making sure the Piloti Mustang performed as well as it looks. Larry actually never made it home last night. At 5am, we decided to call it a day and take naps. Since Sean was going to be back at 7am, someone had to be there. Larry stepped up and slept in the hauler from 5am to 7 am. I managed to get home and get 3.5 hours of sleep before heading back to get the rigs loaded. Vince actually left the shop and headed home to Nashville for a few days. What a nut job! Wait! I should call him to make sure he's okay (physically I mean)....

If living the rockstar lifestyle means going until you fall asleep standing up, we've made it!

Love you, bye...

Iowa Race

The short version:

I was taken out by a very stupid move by Mikel Miller in the #83 BGB Porsche. We finished 25th I think.

The longer version:

We went out in the first practice with the same set up as Homestead. The setup was too loose and I put the car in the wall during the first practice. Of course it came on the lap just after I called in and told the crew I was coming in for an adjustment. The damage wasn't too bad, just a bent up quarter panel, rear fascia, and broken tail lamp.

We got the car working well and I was actually the fastest Mustang in the morning practice before the race.

The race was going well. Jack had done a great job keeping the car clear of damage and running quicker as the race progressed. I got in the car under caution, somewhere around lap 60. I came out behind a gaggle of Porsches with the #55 Mustang directly behind me. The #55 was fast all weekend so I knew we were going to have some fun. On the restart, I quickly started gaining positions. The #55 was not far behind. He was on my bumper as I sliced through traffic. I was behind the #83 for quite a while. Mikel Miller is a competent driver in a very capable Porsche. I followed him and pressured him for about 4 laps. He was running fast and not really holding me up so I didn't try to force my way by. We came up on about 4 BMWs that were all fighting and slowing each other up. Mikel got blocked up by one of them so I dove past both of them. Mikel got by the BMW pretty quickly and we managed to get past a few others. Well, on about lap 74, we were coming into the last corner that leads onto the front straight. This corner is critical and you want to make sure you get a good run through it. I know that Mikel is fast, but didn't realize he was not smart. For some reason, Mikel thought he was going to dive bomb me into turn 9 and try to pass me on the inside. Of course, I didn't realize he was not smart until I turned into the corner and saw a bit of blue before I saw stars. He hit me so hard we went spinning off the corner and cleared the track completely. I tried dropping the car into gear and continuing, but it had stalled and was having trouble starting. I managed to get it started and brought it to the pits. Jesse said it looked okay so I went back out. Something was definitely wrong with the rear end. The car was sliding around and I could hear something grinding as I went through the banking. I thought it best not to risk something breaking and wrecking the car (more than it already was), so we retired the car.

I think it is easy to know who I will give the "Asshole of The Race" award to. I think it needs to be renamed "Ass Hat Award" in this case because Mikel Miller clearly had his head up his ass in this instance.

Why was it a stupid move you may ask:

1) Turn 9 leads on to the front straight and the longest period of wide-open throttle on the track. It is by far, the most critical corner on the track. The fact that he thought he was going to dive under me and drag race off that corner was STUPID. A Mustang will kick the crap out of a Porsche EVERY time. It would also cause us both to lose time and the #55 would have easily drivin past both of us on the straight.

2) We were running nearly identical lap times. The Porsche was strong through the banking and into turn 4 (the other hard brake zone). If he was a smart driver, he should have tucked in behind me and waited for that opportunity.

I will take partial blame for the incident. Here's why: I thought the driver of the 83 car might have been Craig Stanton. Stanton is fast AND smart. He would have tucked back behind me and we would have got on with the race (since there was still about 1.5 hours to go in the race) If I had known it was a kid who still thought with is testicles, I would have blocked into the corner and not given him the opportuinity to be stupid. I just never expected it, and didn't see it coming until it was way too late.

-Dean

Homestead Race

On the way to Homestead, I was able to stop and stay at the Overlook Chateau in Tennessee (not Kentucky as previously reported). The Chateau features beautiful scenic views of the Rarity Valley, easy access from I75, sheltered parking for 3 cars, and more. The room features a queen bed with a loft that sleeps two more, full kitchen, intimate dining area. The room also features a spacious deck that is great for late night star gazing while enjoying a few frosties from the refrigerator. The deck seems to be begging for a hot tub however. My stay at the Overlook Chateau was brief as I had to be in Florida the following day.

The race weekend started out bad as four of our team members were delayed getting to Miami due to flight delays, and the tech inspectors had it in for us. I think each car had to go back to tech at least once. One car made four trips. One tech inspetor was such a bastard that he made Jesse push the car forward 15 feet (by himself) instead of walking his lazy ass to the car and reinspecting it. We made it through tech and the cars were on track for the test day. It was a rough first session as we had to knock the rust off since Daytona.

Qualifying went fairly well with Jack qualifying the car. Unfortunately, our qualifying time was disqualified as we failed a post qualifying tech inspection. One of our tires was just outside the bodywork so they bounced us. The issue likely stems from the fact that we've had to hang new quarters on the car since VIR and the bodywork just gets put on where it looks good, and we don't use a jig or template. I guess we need to step up and have fixtures for all body repairs...

The beginning of the race was caution filled. I got in the car just before the 1-hour mark. Our strategy had me going in at any point after 50-55 minutes and hope for a caution period or two so we could actually make the end on the fuel we had. There were no cautions, but with about 30 minutes to go, the rain started to come down. It was fairly light at first so I stayed out and just backed of slightly in case it got slick in the last lap. This was around lap 70, and I was running 6th. It started coming down well enough that it coated the surface of the track and appeared to be getting worse. I saw the #156 Hypersport Mustang (Charles Espelaub) peel off (I assumed for rains), but I decided to stick it out for a lap or so to see what it did. It get really slick. on lap 73, I called in for the rains and pitted from 4th. when I came back out on track, I was right back behind the 156 and in 13th. We had a really great battle going until I decided to turn my wipers on. For some reason, when I turned my wipers on, the windshield fogged up more. i thought it may have been that I was driving hard and breathing heavy. Of course, I tried holding my breath to see if that helped. Nope, just made me breath harder when I needed air. Then I tried to relax and just slow my breathing. That helped a little. When i turned the wipers off, it got slightly better. I had an area about 2"x10" at the base of the center of the window that I could see out of. However, My rear window was very clear. I could see the #55 of Scott Maxwell, and one of the Turner BMWs very clearly, and very large in my mirror. Since I couldn't see anything out of the front, I decided that it was better to just protect what I had and not push harder to move forward. I think Maxwell was busy fending off the Turner car because I managed to gain a little bit of breathing room on them and found myself back up on the rear of the 156 and 2 Porsches. Espenlaub and I were just about to drive over the Porsches when the final caution came out. Espenlaub actually passed one of the Porsches under yellow and got away with it (I tried to do the same, but the Porsche was having none of it. He drove back around me when we slowed.

We were again close to a top 5 finish, but ran out of laps. It was a tough drive for the last 10-15 minutes having to crouch down and lean into the center of the car just to see out the front. We're off to Iowa for another race this Saturday. We decided to stop in at home on the way rather than drive straight there.

Pictures to follow...

-Dean