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MSRH Houston Smack Talk

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#41
MazdaSteve

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Good cleaning racing by everyone from my vantage point on station 2 Saturday and station 10 on Sunday. The 73 & 19 cars put on an epic duel in Sunday's group 6 race, running nose-to-tail the entire 18 laps.  Both the 15 & 22 cars also ran hard, dicing it up lap after lap.

 

One interesting note on driving style: the top 5 finishing cars from Sundays race all consistently applied the brakes as they transitioned from the right (T10) to left on entry to the Keyhole. Only a few others in the field did the same. Granted they were carrying a lot of speed through T10, but the weight transfer gained thru slight braking seemed to help settle the nose and give their front ends more bite throughout the entire corner.


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#42
chris haldeman

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Left foot braking at entry while still on the gas.
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#43
Caesar Vielmas

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I agree with MazdaSteve. I have no dog in this fight but I hope this settles the drama with the 19 car. IMO Saturday's and definitely Sunday's race proves that both cars 19 & 73 were very equally matched in Power AND Talent. :twocents:

 

Congrats to both!  :clap:  :cheers:

 

P.S. I need a 99' seriously!  :banghead:


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#44
MPR22

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Caesar,

Go look at my 1.6 times in the group 4 STL race. I'm easy podium in the SM race. The 1.6 does not run the tires off at MSR. Next time I'm racing it if its not sold.
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#45
Caesar Vielmas

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I watched your race and I saw a lot of 49's, I found 49's on Saturday and a few on sunday but you guys made 48's look easy. Maybe my 1.6 just needs a better driver  :noidea:


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#46
Cnj

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I watched your race and I saw a lot of 49's, I found 49's on Saturday and a few on sunday but you guys made 48's look easy. Maybe my 1.6 just needs a better driver  :noidea:


What??? - are you nuts - never admit its the driver. Always the car!
Must have been written in a moment of weakness and humility.
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#47
mhiggins10

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What??? - are you nuts - never admit its the driver. Always the car!
Must have been written in a moment of weakness and humility.
CNJ

If Caesar needs some help, I'm happy to drive his car and show him it's totally capable of 53s as well! ;)


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#48
Ron Alan

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I see no man drama here??


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#49
Caesar Vielmas

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What??? - are you nuts - never admit its the driver. Always the car!
Must have been written in a moment of weakness and humility.
CNJ

 

:rotfl: I was drunk. What I meant to say is that all those who finished in front of me are a bunch of cheating bastards.  :wave:


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#50
MPR22

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Working on the update tonight, this damn work stuff is getting in the way.


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#51
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Working on the update tonight, this damn work stuff is getting in the way.

 

 

Forward all working noted to Jamz and he will write your autobiagraphy for you :) LOL


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#52
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The Houston Region changed the normal SOWDiv format and included Friday Qualifying sessions to the mix for the Hoedown.  I haven’t raced in 7 months and had lots of rust to knock off and decided to use the Friday 25 min qualifyingsessions to get a feel for the car again and practice passing off line. 

 

Fridays (Sat Qual 1)

Reger 1.48.5

Haldeman 1.48.9

Ross 1.49.4

Wisler 1.50.5

Friedman 1.51.0

(Never met Jody Friedman before,
but that is a solid time if he is new to the class.


Both Haldeman and I struggled with cars that were wicked loose but attributed that to the track being very green from the heavy rain the night before. Also lots of street rubber with the PDX class on the track several times on Friday. 
 

We decided to make small adjustments to the cars hoping the track would come back to our proven setups from the prior year.  We were run group 6 and lots of race rubber would get laid down before we had to go back out.  Also Haldeman’s cars first laps ever were on
Friday Q1 so it had some settling in to do.

 

Sat Qual 2


1.48.03 Reger

1.48.04 Ross

1.48.1 Haldeman

1.49.5 Vielmas

1.49.6 Bickham


My prediction of Reger on the pole was dead on, I tried to mess it up but was 13 hundredths off my first SM pole.  Haldeman had a great lap going later in the session but got loose when the tires gave up after following me around too long. 



 


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#53
MPR22

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Saturday Race:

Reger chose the inside for the pole which put Ross on the outside with Haldeman and Bickham in my 1.6 behind filling out row 2. Ross didn’t hit the start perfectly, Reger missed the second to third shift and Haldeman nutted the start, so going into turn 1 Haldeman already had a nose on me and was heading to the inside of turn 2. By the first brake zone it was Haldeman, Ross, Reger, Vielmas, Bickham, and Reynolds. At the end of lap 1 going into turn 16, I didn’t feel too much pressure from Reger and decided to take the normal line into the turn and was absolutely stunned when he stuffed inside me from wayyyyyy back. Excellent move, he pulled it off and I never saw it coming. Haldeman had a little gap because of the move but it didn’t last long. By the end of lap 2 Reger was on his bumper with Ross in tow, Vielmaswas about 2 seconds back from the lead three. Reger tried the same inside move on Haldeman and again took the lead car by complete surprise. However he didn’t hit it just right and had to lift and Reger and Haldeman came onto the front straight side by side with Haldeman with a slight lead heading to the S/F line. Haldeman moved Reger over towards the inside to make the turn a bit tighter and allow for a better exit into the Carousel for himself. Reger didn’t flinch and tried to go into the turn side by side which slowed them both down and allowedRoss to pounce. By the exit of theCarousel Ross passed Reger and was side by side with Haldeman. Haldeman had a little more grunt and was able to nose ahead going into Diamond’s Edger (turn 3/4). Haldeman started to pull a little gap on Rossand Reger over the next three laps. Mid lap 5 Reger got past Ross going into the sweeper. Now the chase was on to catch Haldeman. Reger reeled Haldeman in by lap 7 and started toput real pressure on. Haldeman’s car was getting looser each lap and going into the Launch his 4 wheel drift slipped past the inside curb and caught the pothole inside the curb. The misstep caused his immediate launch (hence the name) from the track. He kept his foot in it and reentered the race in 5th place. Reger started a steady slow increase of his lead as Ross struggled to keep the rear under the car. Reger stretched the lead to a little over 3 seconds with about 3 to go, when he experienced a moment as his rear let go coming onto the front straight out of turn 17. He lost about a second but Ross couldn’t make anything happen as he was holding on for dear life as well. Meanwhile Haldeman and Reynolds were having a battle for the last spot on the podium with Haldeman edging Reynolds for the bronze medal.

Congratulation to Tim Reger for his first National SM win.

Sundays qual 2 and race to follow soon.
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#54
MPR22

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Sunday's qual.

 

Reger

Haldeman

Ross

York

Reynolds

 

Sundays race

 

The green flag dropped and Haldeman went straight to the lead, followed by Reger, Ross, Reynolds and York.  Haldeman and Reger were on the wood early and managed a small gap to Ross by the end of lap 1, with Reger in the lead.  Reynolds got around York and fed him back to Stuart Robinson, Lap 2 finished with Reger and Haldeman clear of Ross by .5, who was clear of Reynolds by about 10 car lengths with another 5 car lengths to Robinson and York.  Ross felt the pressure to get back on the leaders going into lap 3 and decided to push hard in the carousel to make up some gap, near the apex the rear end washed out leaving Ross traveling near perpendicular to the path of travel.  Big save lead to big loss in time and which allowed Reynolds to close up half the gap.  With vying for the win out of the question as the gap to the leader grew by almost a second, Ross settled in for a battle with Reynolds, who does not make mistakes.  Coming out of Diamonds Edge Ross missed a shift and Reynolds sailed on by, putting about 6 car lengths on Ross while he was searching for a gear that was not 1st or 5th, preferably 3rd.  Once rolling again the leaders were long gone and Ross was now in no mans land between Reynolds and York as Robinson broke down and had to retire.  Meanwhile the leaders were driving away with clean lap after clean lap. Haldeman content to put pressure on Reger and hope to force a mistake later in the race as the tire wear took its toll.  Haldeman new he couldn't win early in the race as his car was not the equal of Reger's and he was forced to be patient and wait for his opportunity.  Reynolds was running smooth and clean  ahead of Ross who continued to punish his car by overdriving as he slowly drifted back to York.  Another missed shift by Ross on lap 9 allowed York around and the chance at the podium was gone for good.  Ross fell in behind York and over the next 7 or 8 laps developed Haldemans tactic of applying pressure from behind, pushing York when he could backing off where his car was weaker, every 2 to 3 shift was now an adventure, the car had to be completely unloaded to make the 3rd gear gate.   Haldeman kept probing to see where he could pass and got around Reger at lap 9 to give back the position by the end of lap 10.  As the laps wore down Haldeman's constant pressure were starting to pay divedends as Reger's car started to loose its handling.  Ross was having simliar results as York was working harder and harder to keep in front.  Ross tried several attacks coming out of the carousel as that is where he had the greatest advantage on York, however York did not break and ran steady and Ross was the one who made the mistake with his peekaboo tactics and overshot the brake zone into Diamonds Edge,  this allowed York to make 3 car lengths and forced Ross to hustle a shift at the exit, bad idea another 2 to 5 shift gave another 4 car lengths and the pressure was back on Ross.  Haldeman managed to muscle his way past Reger in the sweeper and took the lead with 3 laps to go.  Ross was back on York and applying pressure as the leaders started making their way through lapped traffic.  With lapped traffic starting to play a role in passing Ross saw an opportunity to pass York in turn 16 if only he could cary enough speed from turn 13 to 14 (where his car had a terrible push all weekend), Ross left the pedal floored and tried to steer his way through offline, as the 3-4 shift was coming up the car was still bound up and Ross again missed a shift.  York was gone and Ross just prayed all the money shifts don't pay him a visit at COTA.   The checkered flag saw Haldeman holding off Reger for the win and Reynolds had a solid drive for the final podium spot.

 

Congratulations to my team mate and a great friend Chris Haldeman. He drove one of the best races of his short SM carreer.  His car was not the equal of Regers' but through racecraft he managed to pull off the win.  Reger is a very talented young driver and at his home track he is very hard to equal. 

 

On a side note, I ran my 1.6 in STL on Sunday as I wasn't willing to risk my 99 in the chaos of the mixed class race. I don't know if its like that around the rest of the country but mixing drivers of different skill levels with cars that don't race well together lead to some of the scariest moments I have had in a car on Saturday.  Saturday I just tried to stay out of the way an circle the track working on lines, that didn't work out so well as the cars I was around were constantly making me give up my entry or exit.  In my 1.6 with no setup on the car I was able to run times that would have placed me 3rd in the SM race.  With a setup I have no doubt I might have been in the mix for the win in SM.  The 1.6 was a blast to drive and will definitely be my weapon of choice when we race MSRH again, provided I still own it.   


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#55
Cnj

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MPR,

Always fun to read your reports. Sundays was a nice self flagellation piece :)

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#56
Danny Steyn

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Thanks for the writeup Michael. Always good to get the race reports from the other side of the country.

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#57
Ron Alan

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Thanks for the writeup Michael. Always good to get the race reports from the other side of the country.

 

If Texas is the other side of the country, what is the west coast?? :wave:


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#58
LarryKing

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Moose enjoys Ross writing about himself in third person. :)


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#59
MPR22

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Moose enjoys Ross writing about himself in third person. :)


Helps me keep the objectivity in my reports. I need to start interviewing others so we can have a different perspective. I wasn't in the same race with Haldeman and Reger on Sunday so unfortunately my narrative is heavily weighted to my experience. Reporting the bad decisions made is a bit cathartic and will hopefully lead to better decisions in the future.
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Shattering - For those who cant drink tequila NASA Champs Winner - NASA Champs Winner Majors Winner - Novel Approach - When a paragraph simply won't do... We have a Winnah! - Won their 1st race... Congratulations! Bona fide - A bonafide Spec Miata driver Donor - Made PayPal donation

#60
Danny Steyn

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MR - that-1 like above is the result of my big thumbs on iPad, and cannot take it back - was supposed to be a +1 LIKE for the "cathartic" comment! Love the iPad, hate the iPad!!
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