Well, after about 2 years of trying to get my Indy Fiero on a race track to pace some races (was supposed to pace a few last year but each time it was rained out) it will finally happen this Friday night at Twin State Speedway in Claremont NH. If it rains this Friday I swear I will....Well, it just won't rain right?
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Aug. 6th Ross Tire & Auto Night FULL CARD OF RACING Special Feature: 2004 is the 20th Anniversary of the ground breaking mid engine designed Pontiac Fiero made from 1984 to 1988. The Fiero also paced the 68th running of the Indianapolis 500 in May of 1984 and to help celebrate the Fieros 20th anniversary a beautiful example of an Indy Fiero pace car owned by Steve Kelley of Plainfield NH will help pace the races on Friday Aug 6th at Twin State Speedway.
I would like to welcome anyone who would like to make the trek to Claremont NH this Friday to watch my Indy Fiero pace the nights races. It isn't the 500 by any means but hey, it's going to pace some race cars on a track
You even have to mention it? I actually just got back from the car wash about a half hour ago from giving it a good wash, buff and wax. I will do it again Friday afternoon just before heading down to the track. I am going to now go over the interior and make sure it is looking just as good. I have at least one newspaper in Lebanon that called and wants to meet with me and get pics of me and the Indy and get some back ground history about the Fiero and all that. I also have a call back to another newspaper in Claremont that I am still trying to reach. I am assuming he heard about it as well and wants to do something similar.
I flew up to Claremont last weekend. Actually saw the racetrack. Too bad it wasn't last weekend.
summerjim, too bad we didn't know you were in the area as my Dad and I could have met up with you. BTW: what brought you up here to Claremont?
84fierotrevor, the green one won't be doing any pacing as it isn't a pace car
Iron_Mark_2003, yes we will be taking pics and video ourselves and the local papers and maybe one local TV station should be there as well from what I understand so far.
Here is the Indy after the wash and buff today:
It's pretty overcast today but thats ok as long as it is a nice Friday evening for the races
Originally posted by Fiero5: summerjim, too bad we didn't know you were in the area as my Dad and I could have met up with you. BTW: what brought you up here to Claremont?
My girlfriend and I went to Morningside (Charlestown) to try hang gliding. Claremont was the closest airport we could fly into. I'm not sure when we'll be up there next, but I'll give you a shout.
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04:37 PM
Fiero5 Member
Posts: 8882 From: Arecibo, PR Registered: Jun 2000
Yup morningside, I know exactly where that is. A lot of cars stop along that flat stretch of roadway to watch the hang gliders go off the cliff there. Oh well, if we get another chance to pace at this track later in the year maybe you and the GF can make it then
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04:40 PM
Cheever3000 Member
Posts: 12400 From: The Man from Tallahassee Registered: Aug 2001
Been cleaing and polishing the Indy and she is just about ready for tonight. The races start at 7pm and I have to be there at 5:30pm to get the Indy in place. The weather is looking great so it looks like this time it will finally happen. Hope I didn't jynx anything by saying that Too bad it isn't the Nascar cars like last year when we got rained out Oh well, maybe if this one goes well and is popular I can do it again a few times, including next time Nascar comes to the track again. That would be very cool Anyway, I am still excited about tonight no matter what kind of variety of cars are racing tonight
[This message has been edited by Fiero5 (edited 08-06-2004).]
Is your indyba stock 4 banger? auto? ( just wondering how fast a pace car needs to accelerate) Is there any chance of you going to the glen? that would rock...
[This message has been edited by NY_FIERO (edited 08-06-2004).]
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10:40 AM
Fiero5 Member
Posts: 8882 From: Arecibo, PR Registered: Jun 2000
It's a stock 4 cyl with a 4 speed tranny. During a test run last year at the track a week before the Nascar race I was going to pace I followed the speedways truck around th track at over 80mph and she handled it fine Here are some pics from the test run last year:
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10:55 AM
Fiero5 Member
Posts: 8882 From: Arecibo, PR Registered: Jun 2000
Thanks everyone. It has turned cloudy out at the moment though the weather forecast does not call for any rain. Why can't the sun just come out and stop this screwing around again right before the races
As for a 200hp duke, is that even possible? Though I think there is a thread on PFF somewhere about a turbo being put on one. Not sure what the HP is after that is installed. Oh well, my Indy should do just fine as it is just going to "pace" the cars around the track before each race and then during any possible cautions/crashes and stuff. There is a cross section in the middle of the track and when I am signaled I will pull off in there and sit until I am called out again for a caution or for the start of the next race. As was the rule for last year I will probably be behind the speedways pace car. So it will be their pace car, then my Indy pace car and then the race cars behind us.
No I did not pace during the 20th. My Indy was present at the 20th show and we had a blast, but we arrived late Friday afternoon and did not get to go to the races they had earlier during the day. I think another Indy owner paced the other Fieros for awhile at the track with his but then had to leave a bit early.
[This message has been edited by Fiero5 (edited 08-06-2004).]
And although they refer to a 'spoiler' I know it is really a wing
Arn
well it may look like a wing - but on a fiero it is a functional spoiler - it redirects the airflow back towards the rear window in an attempt to create a smooth tumble of the airflow and reduce drag don't know about the duke block hitting 200hp -never seen anybody do it without an SD block and crank
well it may look like a wing - but on a fiero it is a functional spoiler - it redirects the airflow back towards the rear window in an attempt to create a smooth tumble of the airflow and reduce drag don't know about the duke block hitting 200hp -never seen anybody do it without an SD block and crank
i want video feed of the pace today
Just to clarify, a spoiler, by definition has air moving over only 1 surface. A wing has air moving over 2 surfaces. In my case I moved the wing up to 5" to pull air out of and smooth the air flow out of my deck scoop. When used as a spoiler in the stock location, the wing has very little air movement under it.
Well, after about 2 years of trying to get my Indy Fiero on a race track to pace some races (was supposed to pace a few last year but each time it was rained out) it will finally happen this Friday night at Twin State Speedway in Claremont NH. If it rains this Friday I swear I will....Well, it just won't rain right?
Congratulations...I would be happy if my Indy just ran.
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04:13 PM
Fiero5 Member
Posts: 8882 From: Arecibo, PR Registered: Jun 2000
Well, I am now getting ready to head out to the speedway with my Indy Fiero. We should have at least two digital camcorders, one digital camera and a variety of regular 35mm cameras there to try and get some pics and footage. There may also be possibly two newspapers covering it and one TV station though I have not heard any confirmation from any of them. Either way this is going to be a blast The clouds are still a bit overcast but not as dark and threatening as they were earlier. Hopefully at least worst case it will stay that way. Wish me luck everyone and hopefully the next post from me in this thread will be late tonight or sometime tomorrow morning posting pics of my Indy pacing the races tonight
Talk to you all later
Steve
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04:27 PM
Boomtastic Member
Posts: 2359 From: Athens, Alabama Registered: May 2000
Hey... Ive disagreed with you allot fiero5, but putting that aside.
its pretty cool you have a good looking indy even cooler thats your taking it onto a track to use it as one hopefullywe can see it on a even bigger track someday
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08:51 PM
PFF
System Bot
doublec4 Member
Posts: 8289 From: Oakville, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2003
OK, were back. We would have been home earlier but the races started very late because during warm ups before they even did the heats one of the race cars hit someone that was wrongfully out on the track picking up a piece of debris they spotted. They were rushed to the hospital and all of that obviously delayed the start of the races.
I have a quicktime video I quickly made that I can e-mail to someone to host for others to see. Your e-mail/isp has to handle a good sized file. This is a short movie of the first feature race where they do introductions, the national anthem (which I shortened for time) with fireworks and they also announced the Indy Fiero as guest pace car.
There was something like 6 races and I got to pace all 6
I have a lot of footage from a few different cameras that at some point I am going to be editing and making a DVD from. Anyone interested in a copy of the DVD (or VHS) can purchase one which will be priced to pretty much just cover my costs to make and ship.
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01:19 AM
86GT3.4DOHC Member
Posts: 10007 From: Marion Ohio Registered: Apr 2004
Kool. Thats really neat that you could pace a race My 2c on the indy pace car. Im pretty sure it was a superduty, stroked to 2.7L, and who knows what was done to compression, and I imagine the heads were seriously worked over. I'd have to question the longevity of an engine putting out over twice its designed HP
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01:32 AM
Fiero5 Member
Posts: 8882 From: Arecibo, PR Registered: Jun 2000
I hope to have footage to have someone nicely post soon. Here are a few pics from my pacing the races:
I had a TV cameraman ask if he could ride in the Indy at some point to get some footage from in front of the pack. So I had him in the Fiero with me after the introductions during the first race as you can see in a few of the pics. Before the start of the race I had taken out the sun roof and stored it under the hood so he could lean out the sunroof with the camera to get some great shots of the race cars behind the Indy as we went around the track just like they did back in '84
More pics to come.
Edited as one pic wasn't working
[This message has been edited by Fiero5 (edited 09-02-2004).]
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02:32 AM
DRA Member
Posts: 4543 From: Martinez, Ga, USA Registered: Oct 1999
One of me going by taken from down at track level. We paced at speeds depending on the cars/race anywhere from 40mph to 80mph:
During the second race we were pacing at around 80mph. I was told that as soon as I saw the pace trucks pace lights turn off on the back straight away I had to get off the track to the right and into the pit area as the truck would turn to the left and go into the infield area of the track. As we sped thru the back straight away and the trucks lights went off I realized that his exit into the infield was sooner than my exit into the pit area. I had to speed up to get off the track quickly so when I hit the exit ramp into the pit area I had to be doing easily 100mph. The pit area is huge so I had plenty of room to slow back down. I had to get back over to the entrance area of the track so they could get the next class of race cars for the next race lined up behind me and ready.
These images do not do the whole night justice. You have to see the video full screen of the Indy pacing around the track with the pace lights blinking and all the cars following behind it
[This message has been edited by Fiero5 (edited 08-08-2004).]
I need to be able to send it to someone who can host the video.
Here are a few more shots I was able to get off the cameras:
These next few pics are of the Indy sitting waiting for the start of the next race. The race cars you can see in the pics near it will wait for the signal to me to turn on my pace lights and pull forward to the entrance to the track where they will then all fall in behind me in the order they won their qualifying heat earlier and follow me down the ramp and onto the track: This one was taken without the flash: And a few taken from track level with and without the flash:
[This message has been edited by Fiero5 (edited 08-08-2004).]
Please try and get alot of pics, you can never have enough!
Oh well, maybe if this one goes well and is popular I can do it again a few times, including next time Nascar comes to the track again. That would be very cool 
