*MY* convention writeup (part 1 - you *KNOW* it's long)

[KIERAN A. LAVIN]

My apologies to those that receive this multiple times.

Well, another year, another convention... another year, another writeup.

First, let me address the drinking issue.  We did do a lot of
drinking.  Because of the nature of some of the events, I will not address
*EVERYTHING* in this writeup.  However, there should be absolutely no
problem with anything that occurred on Saturday night.  We were all
there for a convention; we went on a tour at the Arizona Test Facility, we
did the track event on Saturday, and we did the car show/picnic on
Sunday.  As usual, Saturday night was left open to do as we individually
chose.  A lot of us chose to stay at the hotel and drink and have fun.
What I and the rest of the others decided to do on our personal time
should not concern anyone else.  Unless, we actually disturbed another of
you staying at the hotel.  What I do on my personal time is my business.

Now, on to the SE-R related stuff.  I started off on Thursday evening
driving up to Ray Kawski's house.  I met up with Ray and Joe DiMinno and
we went out drinking.  We were out later than I had hoped (we had a very
early flight) but managed a few hours of sleep.  We left Ray's house
somewhere around 4:30AM for the airport in Philadelphia.  The three of us
got to the airport early and got through check-in and security relatively
fast.  Our flight took off a bit late but we hoped to make time in the air
(the busses left for the test facility from Brown & Brown Nissan - a 5
minute
drive from the airport - at noon and our flight was scheduled to land at
11:45)  Our flight wound up landing at 12:15 so we started out at a
disadvantage.  Ray and Joe ran for the luggage while I ran for the car
rental counter.  Kia Sephia?  No!  Hyundai Sonata?  No!!!  I asked what
else they had and they went to the larger class.  Taurus, Sable, Camry,
Maxima.... whoa!  Maxima?!?!  We did wind up with a 2002 Maxima SE.  The
race was on to catch the busses at the Test Facility.

We wound up way behind the busses.  They had been inside a while by the
time we arrived.  Kyle Davis arranged for the engineers at the Test
Facility to give those of us that were late a private tour
afterward.  Man, did it pay to be late!  I don't want to make everyone
jealous so I'll cut it short.  The two coolest things we drove on were the
water emersion test and the frame twist test.  We really did get a
customized tour that I really wish the rest of the guys got to see as
well.

The few of us that were left behind caught up with the rest of the group
at Brown & Brown Nissan.  Inside, we met up with old friends and made new
ones as well.  The Arizona guys handled registration for the bulk of us at
B&B.  We hung out, ate, talked, and they gave some quick talks about the
next day's track event.  Ray, Joe, and I left to go back to the airport to
scope out rentals (for the track) for Joe and Ray.  We wound up heading
back to the hotel with another Maxima SE and a Camaro Z28.  After *JUST*
catching the tail end of the free drinks at the Embassy Suites.  Joe,
David Evans, and I headed out to pick up some more beer at the local
supermarket.  A small group of us wound up drinking out by the pool out on
the patio for a while that night.

After finishing off about a case of beer, a group of us headed over to the
Denny's across the street.  I don't really remember but I do recall Ray
Kawski, Joe DiMinno, Matt Ostlund, Brad Woodworth, Dave Smith (?), and
maybe a few others.  Toward the end of dinner, another rather large group
of SE-R guys came in.  They sat in another room and we somehow started an
ice cube fight.  We kind of terrorized the rest of the patrons in the
place.  But then, somehow Matt Ostlund was challenged to drink an entire
bottle of Tabasco sauce.  We all started putting money up on the
table.  It amounted to somewhere around $15.  Matt took the cap off and
turned the bottle upside-down.  He finished it all in one quick
shot.  That really cleared the table!  As we were crossing the street, I
saw a street sign on a pedestal for no right turn out of the Denny's
parking lot.  I couldn't let an opportunity to have some fun get away so I
egged Matt on to steal the sign.  Matt very non-chalantly threw the sign
over his shoulder and strolled across the street toward the hotel.  Matt
walked right through the parking lot and plopped the sign down in the
hotel lobby.  He then came back out into the parking lot where we were
kicking a rock around.  I kicked the rock to Matt and he just leaned over
and started to puke.  He puked this nuclear orange stuff out.  It was
aweful!

Saturday was the track day.  Ray, Joe, and I got there relatively early
and brought our cars immediately to tech (hey, they were rentals and ready
to go!)  After the driver's meeting and much anticipation, we were ready
to go.  I mooched a ride off of Joe in the Z28 mostly so I could see the
track before actually getting on it.  Joe learned fast after having been
the first car let on the track with a race-prepped Porsche 911 (with what
we found out later was a 923? motor) behind him.  Later in the session Joe
learned the car a bit more and started learning trail braking and throttle
steering that boat around the track.  We went into the carousel at one
point and he had the car fishtailing the entire way through it.  I
couldn't believe he saved it!

I got out there for my first session of the day in Group 3 (next up from
beginner) and pretty much terrorized the field)  The whole group seemed to
be a bit slow and I didn't feel comfortable at times.  It seemed like I
was breathing down people's necks way too much and making people
nervous.  It was a good opportunity to learn the car though.  Before going
out, Kyle had asked me to help instruct.  While not quite being qualified
to instruct, I told Kyle that if he was in a bind, I'd do it.

After my session, I came over to see if anyone needed instructors and
wound up hopping in the car with a guy named Dave from Washington.  For
the first few laps, I asked to drive.  I wanted to show Dave the line a
bit better but also wanted to drive an SE-R!!!  Dave had a really nice
classic.  There were two cars in front of me and, after the first lap, I
was able to get by them and get some clean track to show Dave the line
with a clean track.  I took a lap and was about to pull in to swap drivers
when I saw a train way over in the carousel.  I decided to do another lap
so that we didn't get caught up behind the train.  I must say that I liked
his Carbotech Panther brakepads.  I didn't really push them much but they
gripped like crazy!  Dave came out of his seat as I applied them and I
wound up braking *WAY* too early.  We swapped and, for the most part, Dave
picked right up.  I didn't really have to tell him much aside from keeping
his hands from getting crossed up in the turns, braking in a straight
line, keeping from fixating on the car in front of you while going through
a turn, and shifting smoothly while turning in.  None of the problems were
a really big problem with Dave.  He seemed to be aware of all of the
problems and when he made mistakes  I was very comfortable riding with him
and thought he was great.  He passed just about everyone else out there
without a problem..........

kieran
kieranlavin.com