XR4Ti Wins SCCA DSP National Championship! (Updated 10/31)

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Grayson
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XR4Ti Wins SCCA DSP National Championship! (Updated 10/31)

Post by Grayson »

I'm sitting in my car at the SCCA National Championships using mobile broadband on a laptop that's running out of charge, so I'll fill in the details later, but Ben Martinez just won the D Street Prepared National Championship with his '85 XR4Ti. I can't stress enough how much effort it takes to win at this level, both from a car preparation and driver preparation standpoint. Going back to the mid-1990's a few people have tried their hand at a DSP championship with their XR4Ti, including Roland Zuk. It's great to finally see an XR4Ti at the top of the standings. Congratulations Ben!

Event results are here:

http://www.scca.com/eventresults.aspx?event=13555&hub=3


Pictures of Grayson in action:
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Pictures of Ben in action:
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Ben strapped into the car, with Grayson standing alongside:
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Below are pictures of the competition.

2nd & 12th place:
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3rd & 10th place:
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4th & 31st place:
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5th & 6th place:
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7th & 15th place:
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8th place:
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9th & 30th place:
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11th & 16th place:
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13th & 23rd place:
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14th & 20th place:
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17th place:
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19th place:
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21st place:
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22nd place:
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24th place:
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25th place:
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26th place:
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27th place:
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28th place:
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29th place. George Schweikle is a "100 percenter" - one of only a handful of people that have raced at every SCCA Solo Nationals.
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Last edited by Grayson on Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
anglin
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Re: XR4Ti Wins SCCA DSP National Championship!

Post by anglin »

Grayson wrote:Event results will eventually end up here:

http://www.scca.com/eventresults.aspx?event=13555&hub=3
The results are posted officially. Congrats to Ben! It's great to see our 20+ year old cars winning at the National level.
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Post by Freejack »

Looks like he beat out a crap load of 325i(s?)

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DPDISXR4Ti
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Post by DPDISXR4Ti »

Nicely done Ben! :notworthy

Looks like a pretty damn competitive field - 31 cars separated by a couple seconds. To put it into pepective, at the Carlisle AutoX, there was a bigger gap between 1st and 2nd place than there was between 1st and 31st here. :shock:
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Post by Mike McCreight »

Congratulations, Ben!
:o :D
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Post by xrian »

Well done lad!

Great to see another XR going at it in competition.
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Post by John Brennan »

I couldn't help but notice that a certain Mr. Grayson placed a very respectable 18th... and that in typical gentlemanly fashion, failed to mention it. :wink:

I also couldn't help but notice, especially in the East, how many Miatas were in this thing. I guess it is the most raced production car in history.
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Post by merkurdriver »

Well done Ben!
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Post by hEaT »

Awesome, congrats!
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Post by BeefFajitas »

Nice guys!! Representin'
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Post by Grayson »

Alright, here's an update with some pictures from the event. It's all non-action stuff for now, but we'll have that later.

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I couldn't help but notice that a certain Mr. Grayson placed a very respectable 18th... and that in typical gentlemanly fashion, failed to mention it. Wink
I'm not exactly ecstatic about my results, though I do place the bar quite high for myself. Co-driving at Nationals is very difficult. You strap yourself into a car that you don't ever drive, and as the co-driver (i.e., tire warmer) it's your duty to go out for the first run...on cold tires. So, the first run is a throwaway. Since there are only three runs at Nationals, that means you effectively get two runs to learn the car and somehow compete with a bunch of National-level drivers that have warm tires and plenty of familiarity with their own car. The fact that I'm right in the middle of the pack is very good, but when you're accustomed to absolutely destroying your competitors it can be tough to stomach. I also had a terrible 3rd run on the second day, so I feel that I left a boatload of time on course.

Anglin and I would probably make a lethal two-driver pair since we're able to race with each other throughout the season, making us both familiar and effective with the car. Since Ben is in the San Francisco bay area and I'm in Ohio, I don't get that opportunity. Fortunately Ben is a really great guy to hang out with, so even if he drops a beatdown on me at Nationals it's still a good time. :lol:
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Post by Ed Lijewski »

Ben's car looks great!

It may be that his coolant is pale in color, but the reservoir looks empty :?:

YMMV 8)
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Post by Grayson »

It may be that his coolant is pale in color, but the reservoir looks empty
Nice observation Ed. I forgot to turn on the engine fans before heading out for my second run during the second day, and we had a bit of a steam shower when the car was sitting in grid after the run. The car was definitely low on coolant for the last three of our runs, but the engine temperatures were fine and obviously the car ran very well.

We run very small batteries to keep weight down, so we put the fans on switches so that we can shut them off whenever possible regardless of temperature. Alas, that leaves the door open for the co-driver to screw things up!
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Post by Ed Lijewski »

Is Ben Martinez the B and M in BTM Motorworks? If so, what is BTM Motorworks?

YMMV 8)
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Post by whitelx »

Things I'd like more info on...

alternator
power steering pump pulley
seat brackets
air box
VAM?
reservoir in the battery tray


Is the heat exchanger behind the seat for the intercooler? I like the idea of running the short upper intake with a phenolic spacer to get back to the stock height.

How is the seating position with the fixed back seats on the stock sliders? Does he have any kind of roll bar/harness bar for the upper belts?

i sure do like those fender flares.
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