JC Meynet/Harmanmotive win again
07-01-2008, 05:02 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Cali
Posts: 38
Car Info: 2006 STI
JC Meynet/Harmanmotive win again
The JC Meynet/Harman motive crew enjoyed another successful and failure free weekend at Redline Time Attack's GT Live event at Utah's Miller Motorsport's Park.
Straight to the good stuff:
JC Meynet continued the winning streak by winning Street awd, Street overall, Street Super-Session, and 2nd in modified awd with just a tire/wheel change. We believe this is a street class record as well.
Dan Harman in his first true time-attack competition achieved 4th place in awd Street with the still developing HM2008STI.
Steven Ruiz held down 5th in awd street in his inaugural street awd race as well in his HM2008EVOX
My 2200 mile trip started out with a 4 day stop at Mammoth Mountain for the my 14yr old son to race in the mini-nationals held there every June. He raced in the 85 expert division and the Super-Mini division earning a 16th and 21st respectively out of a field of over 80 entries. If you dont count the factory level kids (yes, there are factory 14-16 yr olds....) then he got a 5th and 10th overall. Not bad for my little buddy who's main racing weakness is that he is too courteous to other racers, (where did he get that?). He is a previous CA state champion for BMX when he was younger.
Then, we trekked to Park City Utah where my 16 yr old son was to race in their yearly mountain bike national. He races in the Expert class (for 18 and under) in Dual slalom, four-cross, and downhill. He is generally a favored to win. Unfortunately, his youthful exuberance got the best of him and he had two heavy crashes in practice, one involving cart-wheeling with his bike between his legs while clipped in at 35mph. After a medical checkout/release, he was able to race but was in lots of pain and got eliminated by just a few thousands of a second by the eventual winner whom he usually beats. It really hurt me to see him suffer through so much pain but his character and resolve are stronger than ever now.
I arrived at Miller on Friday mid-day hoping to get some ride-along's so I can start to learn the track. I got one lap with 'Drew the drifter' in one of the the monster Miatas and was supposed to get some time with the generous COBB guys. Unfortunately, the track operators were playing a "favorites" game and we got skunked. Oh well.
Sat morning, 4am, after a 15hr drive, the Harman Motive crew shows up with my 2006 car and the 2 Harman Motive shop cars (2008 STI and EVO). They report seeing a hideous monster/creature screeching at them in the pits but it turns out to be Robie (Robiespec) emerging with nothing on but a towel on while trying desperately to get much needed beauty sleep. The Harman crew are now seeking counseling to try and get that image erased from their minds......
After a few modest line learning sessions to learn the track (and solve our boost issues), we picked the pace up to about 90% which should have been enough to secure pole position as the competition has been a little weak so far this year. Much to my surprise, I was the 2nd qualifier and had several cars right behind me!
Hooray! finally a challenge worthy of the time/money/efforts we have been putting out!
I stepped up my game for the race session and won both the Street awd and Modified awd classes for Saturday while keeping a safe margin for safety and for the intense heat issues we and every team were facing. We were confident in our position but knew other teams would be up late honing their cars with me and my times being their target.
Sunday, I made some changes for cooling benefits and did just one warm up session to get loosened up. Evidently, some of my competition stayed up most of the night buying new tires, making setup changes, and buying dyno time on the trackside COBB dyno.
I managed to step up my times in both the Street class and the Modified class. While I won the overall street, awd street classes, and the street super-session, I was beat in Modified by just a few tenths of a second by the afore mentioned screeching creature encountered in the middle of the night (Robie....) who had lost even more precious beauty sleep by staying up all night dialing in the car he was driving.
Although I really wanted to get the elusive double win, I was still happy with our continued streak of street class wins and zero mechanical issues. Also, the modified awd winning EVO was completely stripped/lightened per the mod rules, ran unlimited class tires (somehow wavered in...), had high end suspension with professional setup, had insane aero mods, was worked on all night, and was driven by a hired hot-shoe, not the car's actual owner.
On the other hand, my car (that I own myself since new) has 30k miles, is fully street class legal (with full interior, stereo, power windows, locks, seating for 5, catalytic convertor, unleaded fuel, etc), stock wing, very basic suspension that I setup myself, and weighs a lot, even by street class standards. I also do most of my own maintenance and setup while Harmanmotive does the tuning.
Winning street is my goal, simply making the modified podium in my car is a great bonus, actually challenging for the lead against truly professionally built cars taken near the mod class limits and driven by a hired gun while in my street class car is awesome! I cant wait to see what I/we/my car will do when we take the next step and build a true mod class car!
In the end, I found another track that I love, met some great new friends, and strengthened the friendships/relationships I already had. Knowing that I get under the skin of my competitors enough to make them step it up like they did is extremely flattering and I love the competitive challenge! I truly respect those of you who react to my successes by working harder on your entire race craft instead of simply complaining (and you all know who fits into what category...)
I want to sincerely thank the following:
The Harman Motive crew (Dan, Adan, Ian, Erik, Steven, Brett, etc)
My family
Harmanmotive http://harmanmotive.com/catalog/
Yokohama tires
Cosworth USA http://www.cosworthusa.com/news/article.asp?idpage=28
Stop Tech
Motul oil
AEM
Kognition Design
ACT clutches
Whiteline
Cusco
Westend Alignment
...and also the Redline Crew of Chris, Nik, and their families for their efforts, hospitality, and sacrifices they make so all of us can have such a great organization to race with.
JC Meynet
Straight to the good stuff:
JC Meynet continued the winning streak by winning Street awd, Street overall, Street Super-Session, and 2nd in modified awd with just a tire/wheel change. We believe this is a street class record as well.
Dan Harman in his first true time-attack competition achieved 4th place in awd Street with the still developing HM2008STI.
Steven Ruiz held down 5th in awd street in his inaugural street awd race as well in his HM2008EVOX
My 2200 mile trip started out with a 4 day stop at Mammoth Mountain for the my 14yr old son to race in the mini-nationals held there every June. He raced in the 85 expert division and the Super-Mini division earning a 16th and 21st respectively out of a field of over 80 entries. If you dont count the factory level kids (yes, there are factory 14-16 yr olds....) then he got a 5th and 10th overall. Not bad for my little buddy who's main racing weakness is that he is too courteous to other racers, (where did he get that?). He is a previous CA state champion for BMX when he was younger.
Then, we trekked to Park City Utah where my 16 yr old son was to race in their yearly mountain bike national. He races in the Expert class (for 18 and under) in Dual slalom, four-cross, and downhill. He is generally a favored to win. Unfortunately, his youthful exuberance got the best of him and he had two heavy crashes in practice, one involving cart-wheeling with his bike between his legs while clipped in at 35mph. After a medical checkout/release, he was able to race but was in lots of pain and got eliminated by just a few thousands of a second by the eventual winner whom he usually beats. It really hurt me to see him suffer through so much pain but his character and resolve are stronger than ever now.
I arrived at Miller on Friday mid-day hoping to get some ride-along's so I can start to learn the track. I got one lap with 'Drew the drifter' in one of the the monster Miatas and was supposed to get some time with the generous COBB guys. Unfortunately, the track operators were playing a "favorites" game and we got skunked. Oh well.
Sat morning, 4am, after a 15hr drive, the Harman Motive crew shows up with my 2006 car and the 2 Harman Motive shop cars (2008 STI and EVO). They report seeing a hideous monster/creature screeching at them in the pits but it turns out to be Robie (Robiespec) emerging with nothing on but a towel on while trying desperately to get much needed beauty sleep. The Harman crew are now seeking counseling to try and get that image erased from their minds......
After a few modest line learning sessions to learn the track (and solve our boost issues), we picked the pace up to about 90% which should have been enough to secure pole position as the competition has been a little weak so far this year. Much to my surprise, I was the 2nd qualifier and had several cars right behind me!
Hooray! finally a challenge worthy of the time/money/efforts we have been putting out!
I stepped up my game for the race session and won both the Street awd and Modified awd classes for Saturday while keeping a safe margin for safety and for the intense heat issues we and every team were facing. We were confident in our position but knew other teams would be up late honing their cars with me and my times being their target.
Sunday, I made some changes for cooling benefits and did just one warm up session to get loosened up. Evidently, some of my competition stayed up most of the night buying new tires, making setup changes, and buying dyno time on the trackside COBB dyno.
I managed to step up my times in both the Street class and the Modified class. While I won the overall street, awd street classes, and the street super-session, I was beat in Modified by just a few tenths of a second by the afore mentioned screeching creature encountered in the middle of the night (Robie....) who had lost even more precious beauty sleep by staying up all night dialing in the car he was driving.
Although I really wanted to get the elusive double win, I was still happy with our continued streak of street class wins and zero mechanical issues. Also, the modified awd winning EVO was completely stripped/lightened per the mod rules, ran unlimited class tires (somehow wavered in...), had high end suspension with professional setup, had insane aero mods, was worked on all night, and was driven by a hired hot-shoe, not the car's actual owner.
On the other hand, my car (that I own myself since new) has 30k miles, is fully street class legal (with full interior, stereo, power windows, locks, seating for 5, catalytic convertor, unleaded fuel, etc), stock wing, very basic suspension that I setup myself, and weighs a lot, even by street class standards. I also do most of my own maintenance and setup while Harmanmotive does the tuning.
Winning street is my goal, simply making the modified podium in my car is a great bonus, actually challenging for the lead against truly professionally built cars taken near the mod class limits and driven by a hired gun while in my street class car is awesome! I cant wait to see what I/we/my car will do when we take the next step and build a true mod class car!
In the end, I found another track that I love, met some great new friends, and strengthened the friendships/relationships I already had. Knowing that I get under the skin of my competitors enough to make them step it up like they did is extremely flattering and I love the competitive challenge! I truly respect those of you who react to my successes by working harder on your entire race craft instead of simply complaining (and you all know who fits into what category...)
I want to sincerely thank the following:
The Harman Motive crew (Dan, Adan, Ian, Erik, Steven, Brett, etc)
My family
Harmanmotive http://harmanmotive.com/catalog/
Yokohama tires
Cosworth USA http://www.cosworthusa.com/news/article.asp?idpage=28
Stop Tech
Motul oil
AEM
Kognition Design
ACT clutches
Whiteline
Cusco
Westend Alignment
...and also the Redline Crew of Chris, Nik, and their families for their efforts, hospitality, and sacrifices they make so all of us can have such a great organization to race with.
JC Meynet
07-08-2008, 12:15 AM
#5
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Cali
Posts: 38
Car Info: 2006 STI
Thanks.
My car was part of the Redline Time Attack booth, not Harman's as you probably saw. Any pics? I didnt get to go so I was wondering how the display looked.
We'll be at CaL Speedway in a few weeks, trying not to melt.....
My car was part of the Redline Time Attack booth, not Harman's as you probably saw. Any pics? I didnt get to go so I was wondering how the display looked.
We'll be at CaL Speedway in a few weeks, trying not to melt.....
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