Cheer Him On!!! Matt Diehl - Fellow Racer / Go-Kart Champ

[d_mob]

How cool is this??? http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=48395

I'll be with Matt on Friday during the afternoon to get some pics for everyone (and will be hitting on Elena from the sidelines). Hopefully he can step it up and represent for the MRA!

Matt, if you win you better throw out a comment that you learned your "craft" in the club. :)

[rybo]

Matt -

Congratulations! I've had the great honor of working with Mr. Bostrom in the past and can say that on top of being a world class racer, he's also a super nice guy who is incredibly fast.

You are going to have a great time - and you better win!

Scott

[Young Luke]

Too cool! Have fun Matt! And WIN!!

[KFinn]

That is sick! Congrats punk! Checa, biaggi, sykes, rea, bostrom..... wow....

It looked like there were several people from CO going.

[T Baggins]

Try not to embarrass us Diehl... :lol: :shock:

[d_mob]

I'll get him prepped on the way to the track. I rented out that facility for a "work" event a year ago.

Also, when not hitting on Elena, which may not leave much time, I plan to sabotage the other teams with false information and sugar in their gas tanks!

In return, I want that Tissot Matt!

No seriously, that is what I'm getting myself in July for my bday, so if you win it I'll take/buy it off your hands.

[mkdiehl]

Always encouraging me Tony......

Me: "hi Ben, nice meeting you but I am not here for that so don't f this up for me....".

Too much?

[dave.gallant]

Always encouraging me Tony......

Me: "hi Ben, nice meeting you but I am not here for that so don't f this up for me....".

Too much?

PERFECT!

[mkdiehl]

Some peole have been asking me how the event went so I thought I would discuss it here.....

It was pretty awesome.
We were arranged in the kart tent by team for the orientation. So, I was next to Bostrom and a couple people away from Roger Hayden and a few more down the row from Elena Myers. I mention Elena since she was making googlie eyes at Mobley the whole time (ask him for the whole story).

We then went out for 45 minutes of team practice. I went out and did about 6 laps to try to learn the track quickly. On the final couple of laps, Checa went by me in a section of the track that was giving me problems....I studied what he did and it helped a lot. Ben went out after me and when he came in he performed an entire analysis of the cart, "it's pushing in the RH turns and drifting wide in the LH turns". It was pretty classic. He was sure that the cart's frame was bent and went about discussing it with his crew chief (who was with him the whole time). We all went back in the tent again for more instructions, meanwhile his crew chief pulled out another cart for us to use. It was a good thing, at that time we had the 3rd slowest lap time!

The race was starting: Each of the 4 of us on the team would get 10 laps to post our best time, then each of those best times were added together for a total team time. We let the media announcer and our Military guest go first to warm up the tires. I went third. In my stint was Checa and Camier. They got a bit of a jump on me at the start since i was gridded towards the back (single file start). I picked my way though traffic until it was just Camier and Checa in front of me. I could see Camier coming back to me and was thrilled with the opportunity to race with him.....I tucked in as best I could down the straightaways and eventually got a good drive on him down the front straight and passed him. I looked up and saw Checa with a pretty good lead on me but I wanted to get to him badly. Slowly I caught up to him and was right on his tail going into the first turn. I followed him and got a good drive down the back straight. I pulled up beside him and, according to Mobley, he looked over then did a double take...I don't think he was expecting to see a rental helmet coming by. We were side by side going into a pretty fast (no lift), single line "S" chicane. All I thought was, "he has a lot more to lose than I do..." and never thought about letting up. Not sure if he checked up or if I ran him a little wide....all I know is that I got by him. What a thrill to say the least.

I got back and everone was excited in my pits. I had no idea what my time was but it turned out it was pretty competitive with most of the professional racers and by far the quickest of the "regular guys"....so I was pretty happy with the performance. Apparently as I was catching those two the crowd noticed and the announcer asked Mobley who I was etc.....they were chearing me on to pass them. ONCE IN A LIFETIME.

Good news is that we ended up with 2nd as a team....so we got an interesting "trophy"....it is a large belt buckle.

Bad news is that we were less than .5 second from first for the combined team time. First gets a Tissot watch and invited back next year to do it all again.

Read the story at: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=48417

In case you are interested, here are the times of the racers, and myself. These guys (and gal) had done this last year.....I would hope that if I did it again I could shave off the .2 from the top (at least that's what i tell myself). Pissed I didn't beat Biaggi (not a big fan of his). Times are pretty tight at the top.

Elena Myers 1:14:200
Ben Bostrom 1:14:244
Danny Eslick 1:14:285
S. Guintolli 1:14:304
Kyle Wyman 1:14:304
Josh Hayes 1:14:369
Max Biaggi 1:14:402
Matt Diehl 1:14:408
Leon Haslam 1:14:551
H Aoyama 1:14:967
Carlos Checa 1:15:003
L Camier 1:15:440
Scott Russell 1:15:496
Roger Hayden 1:15:515
R Pietri 1:17:430
Tom Sykes 1:18:038

[dave.gallant]

How awesome; Checa has nothing on the MRA! :D

Great job Matt.

[Chadwick929]

I started going through my pictures last night, when you were passing Camier, he looked very confused. I'll try and get some up tonight for you.

[mkdiehl]

One for my scrapbook.....

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l584/mkdiehl/036.jpg

[d_mob]

I mention Elena since she was making googlie eyes at Mobley the whole time (ask him for the whole story).

So, I'm next to Matt and every time I turn left I see Elena looking at me and grinning. It took about 15 mins for me to realize that I was actually in between her and Kyle Wyman (he was to my right), who I'm pretty sure is her boyfriend. It was hysterical, like the scene out of Swingers in the diner when he is making tiger claws and kissing faces at the lady across the way - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqO6vJTUOkM - I'm still fairly convinced that a few of those "googlie" eyes were reserved for me. :)

Anyway, on to more important items... You FREAKING KILLED that go-kart race man! Bostrom was asking YOU for tips around the track. The funniest was when Checa looked over and like you said, took a serious double take. He certainly wasn't expecting to see a beat up rental helmet fly by and stuff him on the last lap.

Tom Sykes getting the black flag for going off track on the straight and ramming Guinters and Haslam had to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. When Haslam ripped off his neck protector and threw it at Sykes to try and get him off his arse, everyone almost pissed themselves laughing so hard. Tom later said in the post race interview, "I was stuck in what we call in England, a $hitbox".

You can see a bunch of photos and video at the first half of this vid from the weekend: --> https://vimeo.com/43160794 <--

[Slo]

This thread is full of awesome.... enjoyed the reading and thanks for sharing!!! Congrats on a once in a lifetime opportunity and results as well.

[Chadwick929]

Who the...
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/s720x720/564311_10151014535780928_231661807_n.jpg

What the...
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/s720x720/248077_10151014536105928_967163005_n.jpg

Just got past Checa...
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/545113_10151014536825928_2114306811_n.jpg

That's right bitch!
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/544698_10151014537250928_1794940769_n.jpg

Matt giving Ben some pointers...
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/319882_10151014538305928_831090780_n.jpg

Interview after.
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s720x720/598424_10151014538620928_98243716_n.jpg