MMcGuirk Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hi, I had the pleasure this past weekend of being John Keller's guest at the Shelby 427. John's KR was selected as one of the pace cars for the Nationwide Sam' Town 300 race on Saturday. We arrived Thursday afternoon at SAI. The first task was to install the Whalen low profile highway patrol light-bar (programmed to NASCAR specs). With help from a LVMS employee, the install went off with out a hitch, The KR looked like it was ready to be put in service as a Colorado State Patrol pursuit vehicle! Friday was decal install day. The SAI crew worked tirelessly for 8.5 hrs to get the four actual pace cars for NASCAR and the one display vehicle done. At dusk we headed over to the track for a photo session. As you can see, this was really cool. The At the end of the photo session, we were given the green light to do a couple of laps! That banking doesn't look like much on TV, but believe me, it adds whole new dimension to drive a Shelby fast. The cars were then turned over to Buster Auston of NASCAR for their duties in both races. Buster is absolutely one of the nicest people on earth. Saturday we headed out to the track. John was able to get in the car for the Nationwide pace laps. The NASCAR drivers had to be warned sternly not to do their usual practice of bumping the pace cars. These were privately owned. The first time NASCAR has ever allowed privately owned cars to pace a race! One of the other benefits of this involvement was that we had Hot passes for the entire weekend. We were allowed pretty much everywhere in the pits and got to meet a lot of really cool people. Brett Bodine, former driver and current NASCAR VP of R+D, took John, myself, Stuart Nichols and Bob Horne for some fairly hot laps early Sunday morning. I was most impressed with the KR on the flats at 100MPH+ between turns 1 and 2 prior to getting on the banking. This pretty much a constant radius turn, Brett got on the pipe, got the KR to edge of adhesion and hit the back stretch at about 120MPH. Exhilarating! What a great experience! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahmann Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Wow what an awesome experience! Thanks for sharing the pics and story! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CobraCrazy Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Very cool! Thanks for sharing this. :happy feet: CC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfarmdog Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Michael that is soooooo cool! Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMcGuirk Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 more pictures Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMcGuirk Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 another cool shot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MY500SS Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Oh man, that is so cool. Congrats to John. Thanks for sharing Michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert OHara Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Great pics, looks like a good time for the lucky people attending Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherpa Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 nice! btw did they let u keep the lights? and do u have to take off the graphics or they let u keep it like that going home? be nice to have the pace car graphics forever. for sure to stand out. thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherri Leicht Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 very cool, thanks for letting us see the pics Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekheavy Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Wow, that is so cool.....I'm soooooo jealous!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shlbylvr Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Wow, what a totally amazing experience.. thank you so much for sharing it and the pics with us. Heidi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shel-b001 Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Wow What great time you must have had. Thanks for sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SC5.4 Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Nice pics! Thanks for posting them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XLR8 Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Cool pics. and story! Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewheelman Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Sweet! Thanks for sharing the story & pics! Great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandros Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 :happy feet: Very nice experience...nice pics too...thanks for sharing.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HARALD KELLEY Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Very Cool Michael. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torch40 Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 That, was awesome. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twitch43 Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Awesome......Thanks for sharing your experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShelbyTom Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 That sounds amazing. Johns car looks AWSOME. By the way we noticed that you were in the winners circle on Sunday. Must have been a great time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedRacer Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Hi, I had the pleasure this past weekend of being John Keller's guest at the Shelby 427. John's KR was selected as one of the pace cars for the Nationwide Sam' Town 300 race on Saturday. We arrived Thursday afternoon at SAI. The first task was to install the Whalen low profile highway patrol light-bar (programmed to NASCAR specs). With help from a LVMS employee, the install went off with out a hitch, The KR looked like it was ready to be put in service as a Colorado State Patrol pursuit vehicle! Friday was decal install day. The SAI crew worked tirelessly for 8.5 hrs to get the four actual pace cars for NASCAR and the one display vehicle done. At dusk we headed over to the track for a photo session. As you can see, this was really cool. The At the end of the photo session, we were given the green light to do a couple of laps! That banking doesn't look like much on TV, but believe me, it adds whole new dimension to drive a Shelby fast. The cars were then turned over to Buster Auston of NASCAR for their duties in both races. Buster is absolutely one of the nicest people on earth. Saturday we headed out to the track. John was able to get in the car for the Nationwide pace laps. The NASCAR drivers had to be warned sternly not to do their usual practice of bumping the pace cars. These were privately owned. The first time NASCAR has ever allowed privately owned cars to pace a race! One of the other benefits of this involvement was that we had Hot passes for the entire weekend. We were allowed pretty much everywhere in the pits and got to meet a lot of really cool people. Brett Bodine, former driver and current NASCAR VP of R+D, took John, myself, Stuart Nichols and Bob Horne for some fairly hot laps early Sunday morning. I was most impressed with the KR on the flats at 100MPH+ between turns 1 and 2 prior to getting on the banking. This pretty much a constant radius turn, Brett got on the pipe, got the KR to edge of adhesion and hit the back stretch at about 120MPH. Exhilarating! What a great experience! Michael, Great shots, I had a blast hanging out with you guys... I was happy that I could get Bret Bodine to agree to take us around the track in John's car, that was a blast! Having connections does pay off. Best of regards and I can't wait for the next event! Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goakley1 Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 That was a once in a lifetime experience... Thanks for sharing some pics with us. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMcGuirk Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 nice! btw did they let u keep the lights? and do u have to take off the graphics or they let u keep it like that going home? be nice to have the pace car graphics forever. for sure to stand out. thanks for sharing. John bought the light bar and the graphics stay on. Talk about a one off car! There are numerous offers to buy this car already. It's not going anywhere!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMcGuirk Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 That sounds amazing.Johns car looks AWSOME. By the way we noticed that you were in the winners circle on Sunday. Must have been a great time. I hope i wasn't picking my nose or something.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HARALD KELLEY Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Michael, you are a lucky one. Very cool experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywickedshelby Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Very very cool Mike, congrats on your experience and thanks for sharing. Very cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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