This is the place where you will find quick reports directly from my race weekends, plus a lot of other fun stuff going on, not always about racing.
Cheers! /Carl
Pic of the week
Me in the Karousel, Nordschleife 2007.
Songs to check out
1. Foo Fighters - Let it die
2. Foo Fighters - The Pretender
3. Adam Tensta - My Cool
4. Outkast - Take Off Your Cool
5. Sia - Breathe Me
Food and Drinks
1. Vino Pasta, Gothenburg, SWE
2. The Standard, Hollywood, CA
3. Barney's Beanery, Santa Monica, CA
4. Le Clafoutis, Sunset Strip, CA
5. Heaven 23, Gothenburg, SWE
So after a really hard race to get back to the top, our last misfortune came during the last hour. Some damage, stone shot or other, to the front right cooler caused a leak and Peter had to shut down and park the car in Adenau to save the engine. We were then back up on 25th, which was a good bit from what we were aiming for anyway. The race is tough. I had 4 great fast stints which did not really get rewarded seen to results, but they were a personal display at least. The team has made an amazing job throughout the race and they really deserved a good result. A fuller report and pics will come in the next day or two! Carl
Rain started coming in during the night and the team timed driver change and tire change perfectly. I got out and it was pretty damp to start, and totally pouring down on the long straight. I could not even see the sides of the track when catching up on other cars. And there was a whole lot of catching up going on, even one of the front running 997 RSR's was left in my spray. Our car was so perfect, the tires and pressures too, and since I felt really good with the track, the darkness and the wet conditions, I could just pass every car in sight. After 6-7 laps the ideal line started to dry up and I went in so Martin could continue on slicks. During that stint we jumped up appr 20-25 spots to 51. Getting closer... Stay tuned.
Physical challenge! Doing the first night stint for us was good, kept times at 9.30 to 9.55 in a drizzle that came and went over parts of the track. Also some long oil trails here and there making it trickier in the dark. Most teams above top 20 run at high tens or elevens so I got back 16 mins on most of the teams, from what the team spent fixing the car after the incident. Pulled away from the blue and yellow Z4 GTR and Frentzen's Apollo. The car feels great and super solid. Now I have to rest my neck that is taking the hardest beating on this fast and bumpy track. Later!
Due to the engine change the dash display had to be changed too and although that is a 2000 Euro piece the support from Stack did not come until just before the line-up, so we had to start on 70th place at the end of our run group. I got out on the formation lap and it was amazing to see the crowds out there! Got some temp in the brakes and tires and suddenly lost the ABS system. No time to fix, the start lights were on and the car ran really good anyway, very easy to drive and very good grip. Took 35 spots in the first two laps and had 9.20 in loads of traffic. Came in on 31st spot after a short first stint of 6 laps to hand over to Martin. Now I hear he has just spun the car and the team is replacing the rear bumper.... Hopefully a very quick job. Both Manthey and Land Motorsport has been in as well for flat tire and something else so it shows how hard and unpredictable this race can be. Not the end of the world but we can't have this happen if we are to be in the top 10 by tomorrow morning, now we have no margins for unwanted extra stops. Later, Carl
After the morning practice yesterday the team got busy with changing the engine. Some amazing work and a couple of hours later, the car was race ready again. Peter drove out during night practice to check that all was good and after a couple of outings everything still looked perfect. We got no chance though to improve on our very first lap from the morning session so we will start from 21st pos (next to HH Frentzen), or better if any of the teams in front got a penalty or have withdrawn due to tech problems.
The team is now really charged and eager to start the race, we have a very good package. Race starts at 15.00. I am doing the very first stint today which will be very fun. I will keep in mind that it is a 24 hour race to be gentle on the car. Make sure to follow the action on the 24 Hour website! Cheers, Carl
This has been a busy day for the team. The engine didn't make it through the day, so the team had to get another one. Amazing work got done by the mechanics and we had some nice support from Manthey Racing's Porsche engineer to get a great ECU (Engine Control Unit) program in the car for this new engine. Peter drove out during the night practice to shake down the drivetrain, and all is now good fortomorrow.
Unfortunately we couldn't go out to defend our top 20 position, but with the 9.13 from the morning session we still got 21 which is perfectly ok to start the race from.
Now we've been having a few hours of hanging out in the team bus with the team, the whole team is really charged and ready to do a great race. Tomorrow we will get to sleep in before the activities start and we'll be rolling out the car for the grid show.
Hello racerfans, after the driver's meeting this morning I started out with just warming up the tires on the GP-loop before going for a timed lap on the whole Nordschleife. All fast teams did this, since there was a 3 minute delay until the slower categories were let out.
I posted a 9.13 on the first lap, felt good!(video to show later) Two cars held me up a bit for some time, but the car is crazy fast so the time was quite good after all. The car didn't need any setup changes, the team did great setup work before the start.
On the second lap there were just too many slow cars in the way to do anything useful, same on the third although a little bit better.
After those laps, I went into the pits to hand over to Anders who had a lot of traffic. The 9.13 had put us just behind top 10 at the beginning of the session, but as the session went on we were eventually pushed down to 17th. There were a few cars that squeezed in on 9min 12s, but that we can easily beat on a free lap - or even just by getting to know the combination of tires and engine - after all this was the first lap of the whole weekend.
Within the top 20 is just what we want and we hope we can stay there until the race starts tomorrow.
Today's second practice starts at 19.30! Keep your fingers crossed! Carl
Decal work! That sort of sums it up... It is a cool livery that had to be mounted in place at the track. Luckily I have great team-mates who have helped a lot and once on the car, it looks great. A LOT of people who come by our pitbox take notice and ask questions. Will be fun to see the car out on the track tomorrow! (but even better driving it)
It wasn't all work... Borrowed a GT3 and spent half the day touristing, Jennifer and I went through the German villages and countryside to Cochem in the Mosel valley.
I don't have to mention that the car ran well on Autobahn as well, do I?
Car is ready, team is ready! Trying to find internet or some solution to update here during the weekend. Practice starts 9.25 tomorrow morning after the driver meeting. Report to come! Cheers, Carl
Just before the start last year, rain started POURING down. A speedboat would have done the lap faster than a car. Anyway, no matter what conditions there will be, we are prepared.
The ADAC 24 Hours of Nurburgring is something really special at night. The whole area is alive with people watching the and/or partying and with more than 200 teams racing there's always someone coming in for a pitstop. If you've never experienced racing at night before this is where you go (since you'll get full access all the way into the pits, which can be trickier at Le Mans if you're not with a team). The pitbox complex seen across the main straight. In the suites above the actual action, teams and sponsors have their parties and the VIP party in the Mercedes tribune is known to be 2nd best place to be if not actually taking part in the race. Photo: J. Christensen
This is from the passage over at the little town Adenau, the opposite part of the Nordschleife seen from the pits. Just where this safety car is passing by in the picture, we drivers get to relax for a second after a challenging downhill section. As you can see, they didn't care too much about run-off areas.
Just to the right out of the pic, there is a right-hander steep uphill (Exmuhle) and cars go into 2nd or 3rd to start accelerate hard all the way up to 5th before the Bergwerk-turn (another 3rd gear right-hander). One week until the race starts.
I'd like to post a note to welcome Kemostal Process Technology as my new feature sponsor! After no less than five(!) very successful years together with Champion, Kemostal has moved in to take their place. I can't relly explain in a brief manner how thankful I am to have had the support of Champion and how happy I am to have delivered some really good races and nice headlines while representing Champion. It has simply been a huge thing for me and my career.Champion was a Nurburgring sponsor 2006-2007. Photo: N. Huss
Now looking forward, I am really stoked over my business relation with Kemostal Process Technology, which has grown mature over the last couple of years. Kemostal is an industrial process design engineering company serving a global market, which suits very well with my international racing ventures.
Next weekend you will get to see first hand how this new busines partnership will show on the promotional side (car design etc).
I am also happy to introduce Endless USA as a new business supporter to my racing venues. Endless carries really serious brake hardware, brake pads and suspension kits. Check them out at Endless USA. More about Endless and their products during the summer.
With one week to go until the 2008 24 Hours of Nurburgring starts: This picture is from the 24 Hours of Nurburgring last year. This is an evening shot, the car in perfect pre-race condition. At this point of the race weekend, it is an incredible atmosphere around the whole paddock, all teams are charged and ready to go. Photo: N. Huss
Other than a nice enginge swap for this year's race, the car has a new rear wing to cohere with some new regulations, it has wider tires and the car has been painted to carry a completely new livery, to be revealed just before the race.
Stop by tomorrow for the next "inside" pic (there will be a new one posted every day up until the race).
Just got back from 10 days at the east coast, doing testing for Volvo Cars R&D. Got to see NY, Boston, Philly, DC. Nice to take a jog in the park around the White House, many mighty buildings and interesting to see all the departments and associations coordinating from there to run the USA. But I like CA better. Now preparing for the 24 hours of Nurburgring next week, a lot of work and excercise.
Anyway, due to these busy times I haven't posted anything after the 2nd round of Just Drift Federal Cup, taking place at the Horse Thief Mile, so here goes: Practice with the new car (the City Tire 350Z) started out pretty well, I liked having the power and the diff and a lot of caster. I began with learning the HTM lines and felt I was starting to get the linking together. It's a pretty far distance and very steep down-hill from the top right-hander to the bottom left-hander so it has to be done perfectly, otherwise it looks bad.
Felt the car had too little grip and adjusted the swaybar and rear tire pressures, all I could do at that time. It got better but then I started to feel misfire and some drifts I just had to straighten out when power disappeared. We filled up the tank, thinking the low fuel level and the big elevation changes made it stop sucking up fuel.Riding the edge while learning the line. Photo: P. Lopez
Qualifying for top 16 went well, the car ran ok, but knowing what I know know, it actually was pretty weak on boost and high revs. I just did some safe runs and I got into the top 16 - which I am actually really happy with considering a new car.
Heading into top 8 I felt I had the feeling for the lines and that I could just adjust for a perfect linking, plus I was also aiming to be extremely smooth and not do one single big adjustment on the throttle. I would just hit the line and slide through on one big throttle feed with good speed.
At that point, the so far everlasting Nexen N3000 rears that I had used the whole day - and actually ran on the day before too(!!) - had gradually decreased the their grip so I got very little forward traction and a lot of sideways sliding... so I was surprised to just slide sideways like in slow motion, and dip the left rear in the gravel and then I was basically thrown off the track a bit on the other side. I just brought it in from that 4x4 driving and rolled back to stage for my second run. Late clipping/apexing but no great angle. Photo: P. Lopez
This time I initiated really deep and made a really late apex to help the rear tires go forward instead of only sideways, kept it composed and connected, but I couldn't make it look good enough against the competition. Anyway, it wasn't tooo bad, my points were around the mid 240's and that was about 10-15 points short from catching 8th place.
Had a fun time though, learned a lot and the week after we spent some time changing the rear shocks, alignment, ride height, offset and tire choice, so I could get it to behave like I want to.
Tested the changes during one morning session at a Speed Ventures event, and although the engine continued to develop severe boost issues and eventually lost all power above 5000 rpm, there was just enough time and speed to verify that the setup changes had done just what I wanted, a huge amount of extra grip yet with great control. With that, things look really promising for the future. Also, the engine is scheduled for rebuild.
Thanks to City Tire Online for having me test their car at HTM and a special thanks to Miguel at RMJ Motorsports for supporting preps on my own car (which I would´ve used if I hadn't been able to run the City Tire 350Z). Also creds to RMJ's driver Jason for awesome qualifying, plus JD for a nicely hosted event.
Next up is the 24 hours of Nurburgring, after that a visit to Sweden to see family and friends plus do some sailing with a Swedish Champion, followed by driving on a film job in Denmark. Looks like a good way to start the summer. /Carl
On Saturday afternoon I test drove a drift car for the first time, the City Tire 350Z. It was an amazing experience. On my first lap out on the Willow Springs balcony "three quarter-8" I noticed that it is a totally different world from drifting my stock 350Z. So much easier to control, the 100% lock differential made the rear stay out as well as provide some traction, the lower weight and the drift setup made it possible to do really aggressive transitions while still in full control, and the power lets you alter the lines almost any way. Really cool.
Photo: by Paul Lopez
The amount of runs were cut a bit short since the clutch had to be bled (thanks to Josh Guild for helping out), since it has recently been changed, but Just Drift Charlie set it up so I could squeeze in a few extra laps and get a bit more feel for the car - and it was all good.
I was running on Nexen N3000 tires from City Tire Online. These tires showed an incredible durability, lasting the afternoon (plus the day after - more about that later), at the same time allowing for an ok amount of smoke and they are not too slippery and they don't chunk either. Highly recommended for anyone who's starting out drifting - using old worn street tires are simply not worth it anymore since they often separate/chunk too early.
Photo: by Paul Lopez
Sunday I took the car to the Willow Springs Horse Thief Mile, which is a pretty challenging track, as opposed to the somewhat straight forward skidpad. This was really fun and I'll get back to you in a little bit with that story.
Thanks to Just Drift for another well organized drift day and the big one to City Tire Online for working hard to set it all up, arranging transportation etc and preparing the car. One word: awesome.
Name: Carl Rydquist Age: 31 Home: Redondo Beach Web:CarlRydquist.com Reel:Click to watch Highlights: Winner of Swedish Endurance GT Racing Championship (2001 & 2004). Winner of Zandvoort 500 (2005). Winner of Eurosport Super Racing Weekend Challenge (2001). 24 Hours of Nurburgring (2006, 2007, 2008). Memberships: FIA (international racing license), Performance Two Stunt & Precision Driving Team, Hollywood, CA (professional driver).
