NERC 2000 Time Trial

Also see NERC 2000, Part 2, my article about the on-track Time Trial at Loudon, posted in the Cobra Forum.

Thanks to John Bachhuber for the first three photos, which came out far better than anything we took ourselves!

You can tell that Nate is enjoying himself hugely, despite the sunburn!

Here I am, rumbling through the pits.

The mighty FFR Coupe prototype waits, with Gary Cheney's Sweet 16 lurking just behind.

Dale Ryba gets ready to roll his "Fake Snake" out of the garage.

We shared the garage bay with Dale for the two days at the track. He was not only a very nice stable mate, he helped us work out our problems with our brakes.

The cockpit awaits the brave warriors.

Another view of the "office".

To the left you can see the Fiero-based Ford GT replica that occupied the next bay in the garage.

That's Wayne Presley in Gary Cheney's car behind me in the Hine Cobra. I don't know why we didn't get any photos of Gary himself in his own car!

It's hard to believe, but here we are at NHIS in Loudon, a great international raceway, and we're driving past the stands in the Cobra we built ourselves!

Sweet 16 roars through turn 2A, part of the South Chicane.

Here Sweet 16 rips up some pavement exiting 2A, transitioning onto the banking in NASCAR 2.

And here's the Hine Cobra in just about the same place. Very different line, eh?

Roaring out of 2B and into the short straight which leads into turn 3.

The gorgeous ERA replica of a Ford GT. This car had the most distinctive exhaust sound of any of the cars there. Despite having a small block Ford similar to our Cobra (and many others) it had a much higher-pitched sound, almost a scream, probably due to the configuration of its exhaust system.

Anyway, it was mighty impressive!

Nate splashes down the pit lane, just ahead of the Cheney Sweet 16. I think maybe Gary was in his own car this time!

Nate turns left out of the pits into the garage area after a terrific run in the practice session on the morning of the timed runs.

Here I'm coming out of turn 2B. This is a later practice session, and the track has pretty much dried out.

Here I am going into turn 3 during my timed run.

And coming back through the infield after completing my timed laps.