143 replies to this topic

[Adax]

Isn't this the same place they threw the checker a lap early (or late) a few years ago? Sounds like its time for a refresher course.

 

Congrats to all, sorry I wasn't there.

[Danica Davison]

Danica, your story has several important lessons. First, you took the time to go speak with T & S. When not satisfied, you went to the Chief Steward. And when not satisfied with their actions, you sought out an experienced person to assist you. Granted, no where in the GCR does it say "seek out an experienced person" but the reality of SCCA is that the most experienced person is not always the one in charge. A few years ago, a driver was penalized post event for an action at the Runoffs. That driver sought out some very experienced members to help and as a result, his penalty was reduced. He went on to become a National Champion.
 
Lesson is if you think something is wrong, take action.
 
BTW, your 4th place finish at Sebring in that field was a win just about any other time. Good job.

 

Thank you, Jim. It was definitely a tough field and I was happy with both results, even though I possible handed away a win on Sunday, I did not even think I would have been there at the line for the win. So that is a win for me.

 

Also, there were what seemed to be many errors this weekend in the control room.  The second race we had ... we had two full laps of double yellow with no pace car which was good for us up front.  But, I heard like 8th and back got held up by a lapped car that couldn't hold a good pace, so that sucked for everyone else.  Also, might I add ... there was a ambulance randomly parked near a corner station for two laps with no race cars in sight. Have no idea what that was about, but that is why we were under FCY.

 

Leland Miller is definitely one of the more level headed stewards we have down here that never has a power trip and just wants everything to go by smoothly and done the right way. Definitely need more stewards like him.

[Danica Davison]

Interesting to look at the difference in time between the SM5 car and the SM cars in the Sprint race. Only a 2.3 second gap between  the SM 5 car and P1 for the SM (Buras). I don't know the SM5 driver and this is not implying anything about his skills but I'm thinking that it must take a lot of skill to drive a 122-128 hp car to about the same as a 145 hp car.

 

First time we met or even heard of the SM5 driver.  Real cool dude. We go up to him to ask how he wants to do the start because he was the only SM5 and he just did whatever we asked him to do.  He picked the outside row so we could all be in our exact positions for SM and then we gave him like a 5 seconds start and the stewards and starter were on board with the plan.  Worked out just fine.

 

He seemed to pick up some speed on Sunday as he started running 2:34s and broke the track record.

[Spencer Rutherford]

Florida really does have the best competition around, i wish it wasn't such a haul to get down there. kyle helped keep me awake on the 14hr drive, i also dragged my girlfiend down so she could remind me every hour to put gas in the car, but i still ended up leaving the kill switch on and had to get a jump right before the last race. I even got the honor of pushing the peoples champ around for a few laps on Saturday until his teammate caught up. I again had the race won both days but i realized when i got home that i was missing half of my brake pads so that must have been what was slowing me up. congrats to the podium guys! john really surprised me with his speed too but being in the underdog 99 he just didn't have the power out of 17 to win.

[John Wilding]

First time we met or even heard of the SM5 driver.  Real cool dude. We go up to him to ask how he wants to do the start because he was the only SM5 and he just did whatever we asked him to do.  He picked the outside row so we could all be in our exact positions for SM and then we gave him like a 5 seconds start and the stewards and starter were on board with the plan.  Worked out just fine.

 

He seemed to pick up some speed on Sunday as he started running 2:34s and broke the track record.

 

Do SM5 cars have restrictor plates, and any idea what the class weight is?

[Danica Davison]

Florida really does have the best competition around, i wish it wasn't such a haul to get down there. kyle helped keep me awake on the 14hr drive, i also dragged my girlfiend down so she could remind me every hour to put gas in the car, but i still ended up leaving the kill switch on and had to get a jump right before the last race. I even got the honor of pushing the peoples champ around for a few laps on Saturday until his teammate caught up. I again had the race won both days but i realized when i got home that i was missing half of my brake pads so that must have been what was slowing me up. congrats to the podium guys! john really surprised me with his speed too but being in the underdog 99 he just didn't have the power out of 17 to win.

 

hahaha that is some funny shit. Glad to have you, your lady, and your girlfriend down here any time! 

[Danica Davison]

Florida really does have the best competition around, i wish it wasn't such a haul to get down there.

 

And also just think of the FL guys who weren't racing: Alex Bolanos, Cory Collum, Danny Steyn, Nick Malatesta, Selin Rollan, Andrew Charbonneau, Paul Holton, and a couple others.  Right there could have been top 7 as well easily! 

[Danica Davison]

Do SM5 cars have restrictor plates, and any idea what the class weight is?

 

According to GCR, SM5 has to weigh 2600 lbs.  No need for restrictor plate as they are in MX-5 Cup (06-15) trim.

[Jim Drago]

And also just think of the FL guys who weren't racing: Alex Bolanos, Cory Collum, Danny Steyn, Nick Malatesta, Selin Rollan, Andrew Charbonneau, Paul Holton, and a couple others.  Right there could have been top 7 as well easily! 

You could have just said there are 7 other guys who beat me regularly and we would have gotten the point

[Danica Davison]

You could have just said there are 7 other guys who beat me regularly and we would have gotten the point

 

Fake News 

 

Nick's slow ass never beats me.

Holton always crashes out

Beat Charbs a lot this year and last year

Beat Selin a few times this year and last year

I beat Danny Steyn in both championship races this year

I passed and beat Alex at the Runoffs this year

 

It is really just that Cory guy that always kicks my ass unfortunately. Must be cheating. (I mean, he did get tossed twice in the same runoffs event). Cheater.

[Preston Pardus]

Race 2 video is up! 

[Jim Drago]

Fake News 

 

Nick's slow ass never beats me.

Holton always crashes out

Beat Charbs a lot this year and last year

Beat Selin a few times this year and last year

I beat Danny Steyn in both championship races this year

I passed and beat Alex at the Runoffs this year

 

It is really just that Cory guy that always kicks my ass unfortunately. Must be cheating. (I mean, he did get tossed twice in the same runoffs event). Cheater.

faker news

 

Nick's slow ass never beats me.  yes he does , read his signature

Holton always crashes out he beat you at the runoffs, that's all that counts

Beat Charbs a lot this year and last year  Not when he has more than 3 hrs sleep and blood alcohol is under .06

Beat Selin a few times this year and last year  when he breaks doesn't count and you have 10 hp on him

I beat Danny Steyn in both championship races this year  Charity!!  only desperate claim wins when people crash or get Dq'ed I would say "finished ahead "

I passed and beat Alex at the Runoffs this year 1 in 1000 is an anomaly

[Danica Davison]

Hey Jim, just so we are clear. I kicked your ass in the NASA champs too biatch  

[Jim Drago]

Hey Jim, just so we are clear. I kicked your ass in the NASA champs too biatch

@#$%^&*()

[Alex]

😃 Do I mix in? 🤔😁 just saying!

[Danica Davison]

Do I mix in? just saying!

 

 

oh great. Look who joined the party

[Alex]

you know!!!

[JRagaglia]

Long weekend write up incoming (I got carried away):

 

Man, that was one of the best weekends I have had personally as well as one of the hardest races I have ever had to drive.  Ran my fastest time ever with Jamie and I hooked up in qualifying to put it front row with a 2.36.6xx out of 70 cars so that was pretty cool. Didn't have a great start in race 1 as I got trained and was in 5th already in Turn 1.  I got back around Spencer in the carousel, but by that time ... Jamie, Preston, and Buras already had like a 1.5 second lead and they were rollin out.  I could never real in that gap, so I finished 5th behind Leverone who had a great race as well coming up from 11th I think!

 

 But race 2 was very difficult. With the 3rd gear syncro going bad, I had to baby the 2-3 shift coming out of hairpin every lap ,which was not fun, and I missed the shift twice. One of those times was on the first lap which gave me some catching up to do.  Once I got back up to Jeffy, we pushed our way up to Preston, Jamie, and Todd quickly, as Jamie split them up very well.  Once we got up there, Jamie started racing Todd and we shuffled Preston back to 5th.

 

Halfway through the race there was a weird double yellow where we didn't have a pace car. So Todd was in first and he kept about a 90% pace for about 2 whole laps once he knew there wasn't going to be a pace car and a green flag at the start ... so this helped us keep the second pack further behind us which was nice.  They went green flag right as we were in the middle of the hairpin!  Jeffy had the car to beat as his was on rails and none of ours were, but a lap after we went green ... we moved into Jamie, Jeffy, Me, Buras and Preston and his car shut off for some reason, so he was out.  That turned into an intense 2 on 2 battle with lots of passing, side by side racing, and just really fun battling out the last two or three laps to get into the right positions.  With one lap of side by side racing with Buras, I got around him and got up to Jamie and pushed him around for a lap.  When we got the white flag, Buras sent it on me big time in Turn 1 and somehow made it stick and didn't lose a tenth (very impressive)! 

 

That led to an interesting final lap:  Jamie was trying to help me get me my first win (thanks Jamie) and coming out of T16, he moved over to the inside, side by side with Todd, to get me to come up and push us two by.  This was my plan as well and thought it was going to work perfectly.  Only issue was, Preston and I had a good run out of T16 and he gave me a push and I thought I was going too fast to push Jamie and thought I would break his diff.  Didn't want to slow down as I thought Preston was still right on my bumper (he wasn't actually) and so I went on inside and almost cleared them both but we went three wide into T17. This pushed Todd out wider and Jamie and I were side by side in T17, but I hit the bump pretty hard and got on gas a little too early and had to save a big slide ... which allowed Jamie to go on and win, Buras to get 2nd, and Preston to drag race me to line and beat me by 0.005 for third. Not upset about it, but a little bummer I could have gotten the win if I pushed Jamie instead.  Thought I did the right thing in the moment, so that's all I can really look back on and learn from.

 

All in all, It was a fun weekend with no drama, the way it should be! Great racing with Jamie, Todd, Preston, Jeffy, Leverone, Spencer and others and was happy to have some of the Northern guys like Joey G, Geraci, Kyle Webb, the Novaks, and the Flatout gang to come hangout with us crazies in the South.  I am really looking forward to doing it all again in January and hope to have my video up soon!

 

Sorry for the essay.  Michael Ross wasn't here so somebody had to do it!

I just want to comment that I am very pleased with Danica's performance on Sunday. sure I am disappointed he didn't pull off his first win with the talent and experience he was racing with, but I am proud of him. I was monitoring the radio and he had his hands full and did a great job but just came up a tad short.

 

But what I am most proud about is that he didn't create any more body work for "Happy Jack" (He needs a break), and  nobody else did either. That's probably attributed to the fact that the usual Larrys that try to win the race on the first lap, or have the mentality that "I have to be in the front, I belong there" were not there this weekend. Nice clean starts all weekend!!!

 

That is all, you can go back to giving him $hit again cuz he surely deserves it.

 

Jack (Happy" for now)

[Danica Davison]

Happy Jack wont be very happy when we need to swap that transmission before Sebring Majors ... but I am also cool with just being lazy and paying Cory to do it at the track on test day.

 

I am glad I don't have to give you more body work to do ... just as long as you promise to not lose your form for when it is needed again 

[JRagaglia]

Happy Jack wont be very happy when we need to swap that transmission before Sebring Majors ... but I am also cool with just being lazy and paying Cory to do it at the track on test day.

 

I am glad I don't have to give you more body work to do ... just as long as you promise to not lose your form for when it is needed again 

yeah well if you want that tranny job, you need to get your butt plug back from Cory!