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MARRS 5
Posted by
davecarama
,
07-11-2011
·
2,209 views
REVISED
What I originally wrote was admittedly pretty unclear... The lessons learned this season are vast as compared to the many years that I have been driving on track. My newest lesson is not to write a blog passage after a long hot race weekend while still tired and dehydrated. Live and learn, unfortunately, sometimes I tend to learn the hard way. Sorry if I came across in a poor way, it was certainly unintentional, and certainly easy to be misinterpreted (but based on my poor communication skills, completely understandable). So I made an attempt to revise my passage to better depict what has actually happened. I will be more careful in the future.
Thanks for understanding!
Dave
Qualifying was one of the weirdest experiences I have had on track in ages. For some reason I was staged #27 out of 27. I was under the impression that the first qualifying session of the year (MARRS1) was at random, and the following events would be based on your fastest lap times. Obviously I don't understand the process. Someone described another possibility, that they base qually on the last RACE. In this case it would have been MARRS 4, which I didn't attend, so that would explain my starting position. I think my frustration is mainly not understanding the process... It is also not knowing where to FIND the process. Would be nice if it were posted somewhere. The supps maybe? In all seriousness, I don't really care where I stage for qualification. I will end up with the times I end up with, and will be in a fine position for the race. In fact, I learned later in the weekend that being in the back is quite fun! You get to learn a lot more about passing!
So my strategy for qualifying was to try to hang back to get space, but no luck, I feel like I was bobbing and weaving through traffic the entire session. I went to pass 2 CRXs approaching the bridge after turn 9, and one of them pulled out while I was right next to him approaching 10 under the bridge. It was very weird. Like he didn't see me, or like he did and wanted to put me off track. Then there was a yellow flag in turn 5 for almost the entire session... My initial thought was "Hmm... Maybe I should just pit. This looks like it will be out for a long time". But then I remembered that I had been doing my faster times later in the sessions, and that perhaps it would clear up and I could get some clean laps. Later in the session, I found a neon that I was trying to get by for most of the track. Finally I found a hole in and took it. I remember the pass like it just happened. I didn't recall seeing a flag at the time, and I didn't recall seeing the emergency vehicles on the track any longer. I recall the track being clear for the pass. I did get called out in class to hang behind and we (me the neon and the chief) talked about it. I let the steward know how the pass happened to my recollection, and that was when he told me the flag WAS out and that I was wrong to take the pass. I let him know that "by all means, if I passed under yellow, I should be penalized". Then the steward asked the gentleman in the Neon to recall the situation. He stated that "was putzing around and was letting everyone pass" so he let me pass too. Surprising to me, the steward pointed at me and said "That was what I wanted to hear" and "Had he said anything else, you would have had your times stripped from you and started the race at the back of the pack". And to "Please be more careful on track, that could have been a very dangerous situation". Wow! Being new to "Racing" but having been driving on track for many years, I was shocked with the final ruling. Had the steward not been so understanding and lenient, I would have lost my qualification! As it turns out later in that session, in the last lap actually (lap 9) I got a time of 1:29;88, my fastest time to date!!!
The race later that afternoon was equally strange. The heat was getting to me, and I was feeling woozy. I qualified in 7th and made up a spot in the start. I was looking HARD for lapped traffic, because the guy that I took 6th from was gaining on me. We had added a pound of pressure to my tires, and I think that caused them to be greasy by mid session. He got me back and I was so bummed by it. We stuck close, but lapped traffic came about, and I got caught up behind a car just before a yellow flag... my tangle with my nemissis of the race was over. He was way to far ahead for me to catch up
In that race before the #6 guy got back in front of me, I was catching onto an integra that took a position on a bunch of us. I was nose to tail with him coming out of 9, getting ready to pass, when he all of a sudden got squirly! It kind of freaked me out since I was so close to him, he came right across my front bumper, but we never made contact. It turns out he LOST HIS WHEEL!!! the sucker popped right off, he broke his hub and the whole hub/wheel assembly flew into the woods sending him spinning. Talk about exciting!!!
For the Sunday race, I feel like I am getting quite good at the starts. I passed the guy in P6 again, and I think 2 other cars passed both of us (the white ITA Integra that lost the wheel in qualifying, and the green MR2). I am faster than both when it comes to lapping, but not off the line for a start. That integra got great starts every time.
I felt good, and I mean REAL good. I kept trying to set up the MR2, with no luck, Coming out of 10, I kept timing it wrong, so that I would be in his bumper coming out, it was just not right for either of us. Then I saw my hole when he started braking in turn one about 2 lines earlier than me, so I pulled out, accelerated by and broke hard. This pass would put me into 5th and I started in 7th. I slowed enough, made the turn and unintentionally hit the apex curbing too hard which pitched my car into a tank slapper.
Right when I was calmed down, thinking I had it all in control, I went back in a spin and slid off track.
I was facing the wrong direction, so I looped back around and (admittedly stupidly) watched about 8 cars pass by. I was about back down to 15-18th! I never should have stopped and watched, I should have entered the track and took off. This isn't HPDE after all...
The rest of the race I felt like a ninja though. Passing both in class and lapped cars. It was one of the most fun races I have ever had. Turned out the MR2 that I tangled with blew up his motor, and Alex too (he was in the lead unfortunately when his motor went). I ended up right where I started, 7th place.
So I caught back up with the MR2 guy after the race. Understandably upset since his car caught fire, he wasn't particularly chatty. I introduced myself, let him know I had a BLAST racing with him. I wanted to see if he was upset because I did bump him while I was following. He told me that as long as he was in a straight line, he was fine with it, but that it is not really something you are supposed to/aloud to do.
Then he said "oh, you were the one who did the tank slapper in front of me" motioned me to the front of his car, and pointed at the big black streak on the nose of his car. "That is you". I was shocked. I never felt it and had no clue it happened. He said that when I was catching my car, he wasn't sure where I was going to go, so he committed to go a certain direction in order to avoid me... and he ended up bumping me. THAT would explain why I thought I caught it and then all of a sudden went back into the spin!
Well, I suppose I deserved it
I need to replace the stickers on my bumper, and maybe do a little touch up paint. I would have finished in 5th, but my weekend nemesis that started in P6 got it instead. I was SO looking forward to racing with him for the long race, but I made a bonehead mistake. The race though, was maybe one of the most relaxed and fun races I have had in ages!Afterward, a friend of mine came to me and said he was watching me in turn ten. He said I was braking later, less and for a shorter period of time, and getting back on the gas sooner and harder, than anyone on the track. He said he was quite impressed. Wow! That made me feel good!
We take passes under yellow very seriously for a reason. It's a good way to get people hurt.
Fooled me once. Shame on me.
Don't expect it to happen again. This dialogue will be copied to all of the Summit Point stewards.
If, in the future, you are not taken at your word, you will know why. And the same goes for your Neon "friend."
Dennis Dean
Operating Steward
Group 6, MARRS 5