45 replies to this topic

[Ron Alan]

I will add David Dodge and Craig Evans to the top 5!

[john mueller]

I see a sort of Drennan, Dodge, Jordan, Varco at top

 

Meanwhile I get to run with several SoCal regulars I trust very much (Jeppesen, Steele, Lerner) and SM noob R. Mathias.  I'm beginning to get very excited.

[Ryan Wellman]

I'm sad, I had to cancel my registration for this race a few days ago.  Have to go to Asia for business trip.  Work always gets in the way....

[Ron Alan]

Hmmm.....will we see any new cars?? I know Mark has got to test his other options at some point maybe others??

[Charlie Hayes]

The tried and true old thing will be there, no shiny stuff yet. 

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

We have gone to the dark side, and debuted our 01 NB this weekend.  It was finished in the paddock on Friday night!   The first laps on track was Saturday warm up.  We were lucky enough to qualify third on Saturday (behind Droenen and Brian G) and first in Teen Mazda Challenge.  In the race  we were able to finish second overall( Drennen won again!) and first in Teen Mazda Challenge.  We worked on the setup overnight and stuck it on the pole on Sunday just.003 faster than Drennen.  We lead early but got caught out on the restart.  and finished 2nd, but swept the Teen Mazda Challenge race which now puts us in a tie with David Dodge with 3 wins a piece with 4 races to go.

 

Congrats to Drennen and TFB on the sweep!

 

We are very thankful for many that helped us.  Chris Haldeman at XFactor for a Monstor Motor!  Ron Allen for last minute parts sources! My family who built the car Jim Jordan, Joey Jordan Jahna Jordan, Janice Jordan and I all worked our buts off to make it happen and we had amazing results.  Tom Fowler, Jim Drago, AWR all also contributed with advice parts and help.

 

Excited to get it dialed in in the next few months before the runoffs!

 

We also debuted a 19 year old Will Rodgers in our 1.6 that we have nicknamed "the trainer" as it will be the car that we help develop new drivers with.  It was his first race weekend, he races in the LUCAS OFF ROAD regional series in a UTV and also has a motorcross background, we met by chance at Buttonwillow 6 weeks ago and it was awesome to see him finish 12th both days and qualify 8th on Sunday.  He is a hot young talent to watch over the next 18 months!

[Johnny D]

I had a great time. I hadn't raced there since my SCCA days in 2011.

Met some nice people.

Great competition thoughout the field.

Clean and close for me, the way I like it.

 

Anybody going the share a video?

J~

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

I had a great time. I hadn't raced there since my SCCA days in 2011.

Met some nice people.

Great competition thoughout the field.

Clean and close for me, the way I like it.

 

Anybody going the share a video?

J~

 

I was nervous for a while as our yellow 1.6 always seems to find you for some contact!  I was relieved our new guy didn't come in contact to you, unlike Joey has a couple of times!

[Johnny D]

Nope, it's all good.

Raced with different people each race.

 

Have to look at the sheet but..

Qual 10/11th 149.87 ?? dropped a few spots, made them back for 10th.

Sun 150.3 I think and started 22nd, (geez), finished 17th.

J~

[Johnny D]

Sun qual, great field of competition, check out those times.

https://www.mylaps.c...ication/3194766

 

J~

[Johnny D]

Get your photos !!!

http://headonphotos..../NASA/NASA14-6/

J~

[Jamz14]

As always, racing is a very humbling sport for me.

 

I was very hopeful going into this particular weekend that I had solved some mechanical issues with the car and that we could be pretty fast by Saturday afternoon. We weren't. With times in the 1:51s , I was discouraged to be 3 seconds off of a good time for us here and a 4 seconds off the pace of Jordon and Drennan.

 

With us being completely out of contention for any championship, I thought Sunday morning would be a good time to teach the kid driver some good lessons that I felt I couldn't afford to teach him on other weekends. He always asks me when the next session is, is the car ready, what changes are you going to make, ETC ETC ETC. So Saturday night when those questions started coming I said I don't know, you tell me. That got us not talking to each other after Sat night. So when we woke up to a wet track on Sunday with Squalls coming in and absolutely no changes to the car being made (med rear bar setting still in place from Sat) , the kid takes the track with anger in his stomache and drove a 1:49:7 on a slick track. Which was competitive for the first 3rd of morning practice. However, as the track dried, all the usual suspects got much faster and we stayed at that time. But I was excited that we were making good forward progress. After he came off practice, we were able to talk and get back on the same page and begin communicating with each other again. So I was excited to watch the video and make some changes to the car (car was oversteering on lefts and pushing on rights with a general fade to understeer as the session progressed. Added some wedge and went to full soft in the rear). So with some changes to loosen up the car for qualy I was hoping for another second. But no, ran a bit faster at 1:49:5 , but still way off the pace of 1:46 of Drennan and Jordon.  Nova said the car was handling weird with oversteer happening sometimes and then on the same corner another lap the car was pushing. WTF???? What I found was that the rear hub nut had come completely off on the RR and had loosened up quite a bit on the LR (I don't dimple the nuts because I take the uprights off so often, I think I will begin too). Damn, as a stupid mechanic, I thought this made review of the video useless because the car was misbehaving so any adjustments made by that review would be erroneous. I was also disappointed because I wasn't going to know how the adjustments really worked from Saturday until the race. And sure enough, once I fixed the back of the car, it tightened up everywhere. But watching Joey Jordons and Drennans car just blow away most of the rest of the field, and us still being 2.5 seconds off of them, I felt pretty discouraged that we could ever compete with them. Their cars were just too strong for this small team. Then I watched the video yesterday and looked at the AIM data and used some of the tools Roger Cadell has taught in his seminars. Now maybe the car is still not as fast as Drennan's , but there is certainly 2 seconds to be had by us on this track. T6 is a very strong corner for Nova. Did it perfect with a pushing car lap after lap and was able to pull up the hill on just about everyone that was around us. But every other corner on the track it was a crap shoot whether or not he was able to hit his marks. His theoretical times were competive though. MRLS isn't a track where there is a lot of sacrificng in one area to get more in another. So seeing those theoreticals is a great indication that he didn't get the maximum out of himself and the car. There were large deviations in split times. I also noticed some extreme movement of the shift lever on the video and suspecting a broken motor mount.

 

After being completely dejected on whether we are ever going to be able to compete with guys like drennan, I came away optimistic that we have lots to improve on with driving and car prep. And that is the good part of being able to say to yourself; we are not the best driver in the field yet, or the best car. Saying that gives us the ability to someday be the fastest driver and the best car. But if you don't believe you are the problem, there is no hope you will ever not be the problem.

 

So again humbled by you guys, I head back to the garage to work on the car and will certainly find myself in another lesson building fight with a typical primadonna driver . And I say that with great respect for what you guys are able to do with a car and proud of my son as a driver to be able to even see you guys on the straights.

 

So thank you to you all for knocking us down a few more pegs,,,,,,,, again.

 

Next up, a repaved Buttonwillow.

[RazerX]

Drennan is one of best measuring sticks you can have, a favorite for both the NASA and SCCA championship/runofffs.  Fantastically nice guy.  Excellent car prep and unbelievably talented, likely pro material if had chosen that direction earlier.  

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

Jamz14 I can send you some data from both Joey's car and from Will in  our old 1.6 if you think it will help you.  Did you scale the car before the weekend?  

 

Let me know...  Also Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is an ever changing track.... so handling changes.   The rain or sprinkles we got made it challenging as well. 

[Johnny D]

It may be helpful to compare prep lists before an event between Joe and James and what level the car started out at, at the beginning of the year.

 

Could also be good if you(james) could tag along with Joe and just watch, what happens over the weekend.

 

Of you can go stright to the top with Drennan, TFB preps the car. Everything is perfect. (You can rent a car from TFB too)

 

I'm not sending out invites, just suggestions.

 

J~

[Jamz14]

Joe,

 

It would be wonderful of you to share data with us!!! Thank you so much.

 

Did I scale the car before coming? A simple question with a story behind the answer. I didn't. Which is not usual for us. We typically scale the car before every weekend. But I was very focused on making driver improvements this weekend and working with Nova to better understand the car and to provide concise feedback and direction when in a misbehaving car. So I know after scaling our car every weekend that with a perfectly level car and him in it, we end up at about 48.7 cross . So I added a turn from level on the LR/RF, thinking we would end up still dewedged at probably around 49.3 or so. But I would be able to see it on Saturdays practice video, solicite feedback from the driver, make some changes, and allow him to feel and see the differences in how the car was handling. Basically to try and train the driver to determine what was happening with the car and be able to give good advice of where to go when we don't have the luxury of scales at the track to reset the car after repairing damage or having to adjust toe and camber. I was then going to put the car on the scaleswhen we got home after dialing it in with his feedback and see where we ended up at. Well things got away from me on this plan. Even though in the end I think we still learned from it. I have yet to get the car on the scales to know where we ended up but I suspect we are still dewedged significantly. And though first appearances may give the impression that a dewedged car is the way to go at MRLS, we suspect a totaly neutral car or maybe even .1 or .2 of wedge in the car is the better choice. T3, T4 & T10 are some pretty important corners and Nova has always struggled more on the rights at this track.

 

In hindsight I should have still scaled the car even if I didn't set it at 50% just to know where we started and where we ended up with what feedback. Another lesson learned.

 

It was good to see joey to be what seemed like him completely comfortable in his car. It really showed. I hope we will see him more outside of the race track this coming year with him being in SB. And you too! There is always a bottle of wine or a beer in the fridge for you and your family should you be in the area visiting him.

 

James

[Jamz14]

Thanks Johnny!

 

As far as just going straight to the top with TFB. A great suggestion. But knowing that Nova isn't going to F1, I feel it is important for us to learn how to do this. Ultimately thinking that this will make him a much better driver and more valuable to a team if he can dial in a car better than his competitors. And for the immediate future, I have to face the fact that we will not have the best gear.

 

I would also be giving up my role in the team as the mechanic. I started racing with my son to do something together. I don't want to give that up until I have to and he advances to a level that I can no longer support with my limited mechanical ability. I have a 3 year education in Mazda mechanics given to me by all of you guys that have patiently dealt with my crap. I'd like to see a few more dividends come form that before fading away into the sunset as a mechanic and beginging my new life as a back of the pack HPDE driver in Oct when I plan to take the lotus out for a spin at button willow.

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

It was good to see joey to be what seemed like him completely comfortable in his car. It really showed. I hope we will see him more outside of the race track this coming year with him being in SB. And you too! There is always a bottle of wine or a beer in the fridge for you and your family should you be in the area visiting him.

 

James

 

He moved up there today and is job hunting!  He is very close to you guys now.  He was comfortable in the new car, but he usually is,  He has gotten used to driving a bunch of different cars.  In the last year he has driven all variations of spec miata... Our 1.6  Ron Allens NA 1.8, OPM's 01  Bruce Pendletons 99 and now our new 01.  He does say it is the NB is much easier to drive, he cant get over the torque!!!    Anyway I'll get you the data when I unload the cars this weekend.

[ECOBRAP]

Thanks for a great weekend everyone, met some new people and hope to catch up with them again at Thunderhill. This was my first race after completing my rookie license so I pushed a little harder (it showed, went offroading a good few times  ). Went into the weekend with the car reading 100psi compression on all cylinders, but it ran well and kept up on the straights so I believe it may be an issue with the starter? Hope so... (already jumped the battery and swapped compression gauges, same 100psi reading)

 

Anyways, I qualified 7th on both days and am extremely happy with that result. I ended up starting 22nd or 23rd in the first race because I forgot to fill up with gas (facepalm) but I made up eleven positions and finished 11th. Finished 9th on Sunday. Lots to learn still, but running with the top dogs for the first time was good motivation to compete in TMC next year.

 

 

Here is my video from Saturday. Sunday felt far better and that video will be up soon. Any tips or comments appreciated!

 

 

Hope to see more crossover events in the future.

 

-Matt

[Johnny D]

Thanks for a great weekend everyone, met some new people and hope to catch up with them again at Thunderhill. This was my first race after completing my rookie license so I pushed a little harder (it showed, went offroading a good few times  ). Went into the weekend with the car reading 100psi compression on all cylinders, but it ran well and kept up on the straights so I believe it may be an issue with the starter? Hope so... (already jumped the battery and swapped compression gauges, same 100psi reading)

 

Anyways, I qualified 7th on both days and am extremely happy with that result. I ended up starting 22nd or 23rd in the first race because I forgot to fill up with gas (facepalm) but I made up eleven positions and finished 11th. Finished 9th on Sunday. Lots to learn still, but running with the top dogs for the first time was good motivation to compete in TMC next year.

 

 

Here is my video from Saturday. Sunday felt far better and that video will be up soon. Any tips or comments appreciated!

 

 

Hope to see more crossover events in the future.

 

-Matt

 

I'm dying to hear how well it went when your Dad told your Mom he crashed the Volkswagan (street car) in HPDE.

Maybe at TH. See you there.

J~