31 replies to this topic

[LarryKing]

A few notes from this past weekend:

 

The North Carolina Region of the SCCA is a great region. Registration and tech could not have been easier, the workers are awesome and the event is one of my favorites. I don't know why more carpetbaggers from the Great Lakes don't make the trip for this one. Picture perfect weather, 50 SMs entered, and at VIR for crying out load.

 

Chief steward announces during driver's meeting that bump drafting will now be permitted with the exception of braking zones and turns. Any bumpdraft that cause damage or loss of control will be considered avoidable contact as defined by the GCR. He is recommending that all SCCA regions adopt this ruling.

 

Major cluster-fooey on Saturday at the start. Not sure what happened - I was watching the flag stand to call the green for the missus and by the time I turned my head, little girly cars was a-goin every which-way. Wife avoids all contact and after 20 minutes to re-grid, race is timed-out at 5 laps. The re-start was an abortion and should have been waved-off but I imagine race control figured that would cause more carnage. Honest to God, why don't people form-up on re-starts? There was a pace car and still the back half of the field was strung-out. WTF?!

 

Mr. Ti-Speedy is the man, sweeping the weekend. Dan gave me a little coaching and I improved 2 full seconds over my previous personal best. Thanks Dan!

 

Weekend highlight: watching Machavern rocket down the pit straight in his old '63 Falcon. Holy moly, that never gets old.

 

 

[Glenn]

A few notes from this past weekend:

 

The North Carolina Region of the SCCA is a great region. Registration and tech could not have been easier, the workers are awesome and the event is one of my favorites. I don't know why more carpetbaggers from the Great Lakes don't make the trip for this one. Picture perfect weather, 50 SMs entered, and at VIR for crying out load.

 

Chief steward announces during driver's meeting that bump drafting will now be permitted with the exception of braking zones and turns. Any bumpdraft that cause damage or loss of control will be considered avoidable contact as defined by the GCR. He is recommending that all SCCA regions adopt this ruling.

 

Major cluster-fooey on Saturday at the start. Not sure what happened - I was watching the flag stand to call the green for the missus and by the time I turned my head, little girly cars was a-goin every which-way. Wife avoids all contact and after 20 minutes to re-grid, race is timed-out at 5 laps. The re-start was an abortion and should have been waved-off but I imagine race control figured that would cause more carnage. Honest to God, why don't people form-up on re-starts? There was a pace car and still the back half of the field was strung-out. WTF?!

 

Mr. Ti-Speedy is the man, sweeping the weekend. Dan gave me a little coaching and I improved 2 full seconds over my previous personal best. Thanks Dan!

 

Weekend highlight: watching Machavern rocket down the pit straight in his old '63 Falcon. Holy moly, that never gets old.

Someone,( I will not use his name here) decided to get "fancy" and LF brake, he locked the front wheels and caused the field to check up behind him.  At least thats the story I was told......We were at the wall watching T-1 to 5 and all made it thru good, came back to the pits and saw the carnage......dont ever remember seeing wrecked chick cars that far back  on the front straight.

[LarryKing]

 dont ever remember seeing wrecked chick cars that far back on the front straight.

 

Field was WOT long before the green.

[David L]

As far as cars being strung out did it seem like the pace car was going WAY to fast or was it just me.

[Todd Lamb]

The issue had nothing to do with the start, it had to do with major brain fade from a competitor mid pack that literally locked up the brakes when everyone behind was accelerating. The carnage came from the stack-up and avoidance afterwards.

 

It was a fun weekend - never raced Tiley or Machavern before and it was great to see them both racing very clean. Sunday was one of the most fun races I've had in a chick car - thanks to Ted Cahall for turning me loose in his East Street ride. How many times did we swap the lead? I lost count!

 

Congrats to all the SARRC/MARRS guys, and thanks to Meathead and Glenn Murphey for crewing our cars.

[Adax]

Here was my unfortunate perspective.

 

[Glenn]

Here was my unfortunate perspective.

 

Good job not collecting up the #51 car.....again.....Im guessing that Phil drilled him in the passenger door when he crossed in front of you

 

[LarryKing]

By the way, some drivers continued racing after passing several black flag stations.

[Adax]

Saw the black flag stuff as well.

 

Hart has video from another perspective allowing complete forensics.

 

AC

[Jim Drago]

Someone,( I will not use his name here) decided to get "fancy" and LF brake, he locked the front wheels and caused the field to check up behind him.  At least thats the story I was told......We were at the wall watching T-1 to 5 and all made it thru good, came back to the pits and saw the carnage......dont ever remember seeing wrecked chick cars that far back  on the front straight.

 

 

I don't know who that was in the black car.. Not sure what happened. I will share what I did once back in the day, like 04 or so at Memphis and almost killed myself and half the field.

I ride the brake with the left foot and hold the gas. When the green flies I would release brake and car really jumps out. Well, I guess your left foot gets a little confused because as I went back to clutch for the 3rd, I hit the brake ( like I would the clutch, HARD!)    That is what "looks" like happened here.  I was fortunate and all went flying by on either side, but it could have been ugly.

 

Jim

[Todd Lamb]

Yep that's exactly what happened here as well.

Re: Racing after black flag - no yellows so passing is allowed. Not the ideal situation but not forbidden.

[Mike Collins]

WOW....

[Glenn]

WOW....

Guess we shoulda beeen on the pit wall instead of watching at NASCAR...

[LarryKing]

per GCR:

OPEN BLACK, DISPLAYED AT ALL STATIONS – The session has been stopped; all cars must stop racing, and proceed directly and immediately to the pits, exercising extreme caution. This flag will be displayed with an ‘ALL’ sign at the Starter’s stand and the sign may also be shown at station(s) elsewhere on the course.

 

I suppose one could argue the difference between passing and racing. Watching my wife's in-car camera, some drivers were still racing after 3-4 black flag stations.

[Dan Tiley]

Yeah... the start on Saturday definitely sucked.  It was an honest mistake from a driver who was making a comeback after a long hiatus from an injury.  He's a real good guy and a great competitor (has won races at VIR in previous years).  I hope this one mistake that any of us could have made doesn't keep him from coming back.  I'll race with him any day.

 

That being said, we had a great weekend.  Ti-Speed engines filled 4 of the top 6 spots on Sunday, including a 1-2-3 finish in the SARRC.  3 of the top 6 were Ti-Speed built cars as well.   I couldn't be more proud of these guys.  

 

The race on Sunday was so entertaining, several corner workers bowed down to us during the cooldown lap.  No question, the allowance of bumpdrafting increased the number of lead changes, and the overall excitement for those watching.  Todd is one hell of a wheeler...  He pretty much had the race won on the last lap until he caught a slow lap car in Oak Tree right on exit.  He was forced to bind the car up hard right on exit, which gave Dillon and I enough of a run to squeak me past, although Dillon wasn't quite far enough along to get position going into the top of the roller coaster.  Nevertheless, Dillon, Todd and myself ran side by side through just about every one of VIR's 17 corners at some point during the race, with zero metal to metal.   Congrats to Keith Andrews as well for holding on to the lead draft for the whole race.  I think he was waiting for the inevitable opportunity to sneak his nose in there.  

 

Finally... HUGE THANK YOU to all those who donated to my 3 year old daughter's "Hop-A-Thon", benefiting kids with muscular dystrophy or as she said, "kids that can't walk".  She raised over $300, primarily through donations from competitors under the OPM and Panic Motorsports tents.  She actually grabbed onto Fowler's finger and wouldn't let go until he got his wallet out

 

See you at the next one!

[Strongbad]

My first trip to VIR and all I can say is why did it take me so long ? If you haven't been, make plans because you will not be disappointed. Awesome track!

 

Great fun meeting new faces from a different region, Ted Cahall, Neil O'Rourke, Tim Jacobs. Hope to see you guys at Road Atlanta soon (ARRC, maybe?)

 

Big shout out to the NC region for putting on one classy operation. Example, after Saturday's shortened race (start incident) the Chief Steward asked
the SM group if we wanted to have a 15 lap race instead of the scheduled 12 laps. Wow! Of course we said yes!

 

Thanks to Meathead Racing for the dinner hospitality Saturday night,  OPM for the great race prep and Todd Lamb for coaching me around the track and the beers.

 

Great Weekend!

 

Joseph

[PanicPadawan]

Here is an additional view of the Saturday start.  Still working with my novice permit, I learned that there is WAY less gription on grass than on pavement!
 



Jonathan

[Danny Steyn]

Watching these videos I am just so thankful that I am qualifying ahead of this.... WOW! Happens so fast, and no where to go.

 

And I agree, VIR is one of the best racing tracks that I have ever driven. This track promotes more lead changes than any other track I have driven. Come on SCCA - lets do the runoffs here soon.

[Dan Tiley]

Here is an additional view of the Saturday start.  Still working with my novice permit, I learned that there is WAY less gription on grass than on pavement!
 

Jonathan

 

Wow Jonathan.... you're going to whoop all of our butts in the next rain race!  Great car control in the grass!  For those who don't know Jonathan, I believe this was only his 2nd race.

[Keith Andrews]

Here is an additional view of the Saturday start.  Still working with my novice permit, I learned that there is WAY less gription on grass than on pavement!
 



Jonathan

Wow, mad off road skills