SCCA Runoffs - Sonoma Smack Talk

2018 SCCA Runoffs 5k and Checkered Flag Dash.

Saturday Oct 20th at 6:00p

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J~

Congrats to Drennan!!  Tristan was awesome.  The whole pack behind them did an incredible job of racing Sonoma clean, which isn't always easy to do.  

Drennan

Haldeman

Casey

Woo-hoo!  My guys finished #1, #3 and #4!!  

Video is up:  https://www.useloom....2590284afc0edd3

Congrats to Drennan!!  Tristan was awesome.  The whole pack behind them did an incredible job of racing Sonoma *mostly* clean, which isn't always easy to do.  

Fixed it for ya!  ;-)

Congratulations Mark. Very well done and much deserved! 

I don't know Tristan, but he drove really well and had pace if he started up front. Chris battled with what looked to be a handful of a car to finish third.  

Justin Casey , Preston Pardus and Matt Reynolds.. All great racing!

Another race with no cautions! Enjoy it guys

Props to Ken Sutherland for giving it his all.  He ran a great race.  

Results are official. Congratulations guys

What happened to Danny Steyn?

Even with a lot of pre-race chatter with what might happen in the first few laps...one of the cleanest races I've seen with top level driving!

Ken quickly and wisely tucked in behind Mark at the exit of 2 which allowed them to run a normal first lap with the field sorting out behind them! From what I could tell, all the top 10 went out on stickers except Littlehale. My guess would be Tristan has the 2nd most laps at Sonoma this year behind Mark...he is rock solid at maintaining pace and it showed! Pretty obvious once he got to P2 the battled would be for 3rd!

After the first couple laps I thought for sure Michael Carter would find his way through the field. But it may have been him and Danny S who had a little contact in 11 ending Danny's week(not 100% sure). But he came to a stop around P10/9. Matt Reynolds was looking great until a missed shift out of 7 which cost him a few spots. 

Justin Casey had an incredible race after crossing the stripe on the first lap in P14. He finally made touch with the P3 pack with about 3 laps to go I believe. Between the contact that Ken and Preston had in 2 and the late pass attempt Preston made on Chris Justin managed to find his way to 4th...besides Mark and Tristan who did it drama free, Justin did it the hard way!

The contact between Ken and Preston was unfortunate. From my vantage point in 3 looking right at them it was 2 cars racing hard! 

Tech shed went as usual with seemingly no drama on what was checked! All passed and cars were released last night!

Huge congratulation to Mark, Tristan and Chris! Well deserved!

Congrats to Mark, Tristan and Chris for the podium and all the guys behind racing for third. It was fun to watch. Another class race for the SM community. And Congrats to SCCA for quick and competent process  in the tech shed.

Congrats to Mark, Tristan and Chris for the podium and all the guys behind racing for third. It was fun to watch. Another class race for the SM community. And Congrats to SCCA for quick and competent process  in the tech shed.

2nd that and Danny Steyn is the STL champ with Mazda 1-2!

2nd that and Danny Steyn is the STL champ with Mazda 1-2!

And Matt Reynolds won EP title number 3

A HUGE shoutout to Mark Drennan for putting on a clinic at Sonoma. Just a total machine! And I know how much he wanted it. REDEMPTION!

And a great race by Tristan too. 

Now the race for 3rd was epic and after being knocked out early I go to watch the TV coverage and I would say that has the be the best race for 3rd EVER!! To all those in the hunt at the end, congrats to you all for an amazing race. Loved every second of it, and very happy for my buddy Chris for getting onto the podium with a superb last lap and an amazing flat 2-3 shift exiting T11 on the last lap. Make or break!!!

With some help I found the marbles on the exit of T11 and sideswiped the wall, knocking the toe out and retired, but he upside was I got to watch the race for 3rd. 

With regard to Sonoma, what an amazing track to drive and spectate! So many great sections and you know it when you get it right, lovely flow and rhythm. But so nuanced. I was totally lost for the first two days but thanks to excellent coaching from Brian Ghidinelli and Nick Sommers, I slowly knocked my times down until I was under a second off their times but that still put me in 12th. I doubt that I have ever struggled with a track more than Sonoma, and we tried so many different setups to eventually arrive at something I could drive at speed.

Despite the crash and retirement, I loved racing SM there and I am sure I will be back

All credit to SCCA - I was so scared that after their amazing event at Indy that this one would be a let-down, but it wasn't at all - it was very well run and from my perspective as good if not better than Indy!

So from coming off the runoff we don't have any new "_______gate" that came out of tech and the parity issue seems to have been resolved. What will we all bitch about all winter now? 

NA vs NB parity.  Duh.

Also, and I say this in all seriousness (which is rare for me), the future of Spec Miatas in vintage racing.  But this would be best in a new topic.

Congrats to Drennan!!  Tristan was awesome.  The whole pack behind them did an incredible job of racing Sonoma clean, which isn't always easy to do.  

Hope all is well Mr. former racer! You ever get an itch just give me a call

This will be Marks race to lose. His track knowledge is key. But a lot can happen in 20 laps...I like the 1.6 cars in the last 1/2 of the race.

Top drivers who dont have a lot of laps here might do better the minute they can chase...right now, finding that last 1.5 sec on their own is tough. Hard for me to bet against anything but an all local top 5. And I put Ken Sutherland in that locals category. 

 

Top 5 in random order after Mark on top

 

Mark Drennan

Justin Casey

Ken Sutherland

Tristan Littlehale

Chris Haldeman(only outsider pick just because)

 

Wildcards...

 

Holifield

Newmark

Rawlings

Reynolds

Pardus

 

Any double yellows will potentially change a lot!

Granted...I had a little home field advantage/knowledge...but I will take 9/10 picks and 4 out of the top 5!