123 replies to this topic

[dp35]

^^ Good point about watering. I nominate Tim Barber for the job .

If anyone cares, I'm now thinking of going to watch Saturdays race instead of Sunday.

[Rob Burgoon]

Also, you might need compacting to make it hard enough for road racing cars to work well on.

[Sacslider]

Guess my whining about the schedule has really helped. Now we are the last race on BOTH DAYS?!?!?!

[Johnny D]

Could warm up be in the qual time slot and race for 50 so we're not here all day or some combo like that?
J~

[john mueller]

I will probably just run PTE if things go off course. Like I said before, you can do anything under the sun thats safe and fun on the blacktop. 3 wide, nose to tail, in the dirt on a STEEP up hill grade is just screaming disaster.

I can understand not wanting to do this and even agree to some point. HOWEVER I'm with Rob, if I could make it I'd be there big time! If this works I'll be looking for venues in SoCal where we might be able to give this a whirl. Willow Springs has a 3/8 banked dirt oval I think !!!

If I wasn't waiting on parts to repair my front sway bar mount, I'd be cancelling my buttonwillow races and be headed up there right now for the opportunity to get my dirt on.

[Johnny D]

Jerry Kunzman has finished a preliminary test of the race track for this weekend’s event at Infineon Raceway and the test was unsatisfactory. Therefore, we will resume with one of the “regular” configurations for this weekend’s event.
J~

[Johnny D]

From Dean...
The deep 7 transition is too abrupt and the cars go airborne. The dirt is totally awesome and I want to race it. Visibility is enough of a problem that we decided that because of the risk of car to car contact, we don't want to force people into running. We're still exploring the possibility of an optional exhibition race using the dirt config at the end of the day.
There were probably 30 or 40 spectators all cheering while we were testing!

[dp35]

From Dean...
There were probably 30 or 40 spectators all cheering while we were testing!

Noteworthy.

Exhibition race at the end of the day? I love it, but Isn't the SM/SE30 race already at the end of the day?

[RazerX]

yeah, fuel up and go back out..

I like the option/practice aspect and great way to warm people up to it, in a lower pressue situation.

[Johnny D]

yeah, fuel up and go back out..

I like the option/practice aspect and great way to warm people up to it, in a lower pressue situation.

Since we're looking at the off road part how about turn left at 7 and repeat. Short track.
J~

[Elliott Skeer]

At this point throw a Mega Jump in and have cars go under the ramp X-Games style! Fans will love that even more!

[dtfastbear]

*sigh* It's really too bad we can't do this, because that dirt section was FUN FUN FUN! Video will be ready in about 30 minutes and I'll post it. The visibility was terrible, as Burgoon predicted. We have access to a water truck, but as others mentioned, a little too much and we would have had a mud problem. Laura got sideways and slid to a stop in the middle and it was clear that with a full field, she probably would have been a pinball. But, Bennett and Tim Barber were heads up and drove around her. Jim Bucha, Bennett, Kyle, Tyler, Laura, Jaime and I (and a couple other E30's) went out and tested both the Deep T7 and the dirt section. The Infineon folks were super accomodating and honestly, seemed disappointed that we decided not to race it.

The grass section really wasn't bumpy nor rocky, the visibility was the only real issue. Well, that and that it was clear that if you weren't careful, there could be carnage.

After the testing, we all gathered in the pit lane for a meeting to decide what to do. Judgment was the better part of valor and while we'll change up the configurations both days this weekend, the grass section and the Deep T7 won't be part of the track.

I am still going to encourage Jerry to run a short exhibition race with the grass section, as getting a dozen or so cars to run an "oval" through the dirt, around the carousel, left onto the chute and back into the dirt would be GREAT. I guarantee we'd get 100 spectators on the hill right by the chute who would go CRAZY for it! We'll see...

Dean

[dtfastbear]

Laura playing in the dirt.



(will be finished converting by 10pm pacific)

[Ron Alan]

good decision to run the same old boring world class track! But for sure this would have been a fan favorite...not so much a driver

Rumor has it Elliot was fast today! Should be a good race weekend!

[Charlie Hayes]

I never doubted driving in the dirt would be fun, it can just yield unwanted damage. I am very exited to see what config they pull out of the hat tomorrow. I would like to see the chute with the Russell chicane used for one of them. Maybe just the regular config with the Russell turn in it.

[Sean Allen]

Wow, NASA usually pulls some crazy track configs (like swapping directions mid race awhile back at thill), but running a dirt section... that's wild! More for a Chump/Lemons race though, I don't know how I would feel about doing that in a spec miata.

[Brian Ghidinelli]

You guys must be running cheap stocker radiators! Funny, you hear the first SE30 go by with light throttle when Laura spins but TFB is bouncing off the rev limiter.

[dtfastbear]

Kyle, Skeer and Craig Evans put on a great show this afternoon with Skeer and Evans pulling away in the second half of the race. Craig got by Skeer in some E30 traffic exiting the carousel on the next to last lap and held on the for win with Skeer peeking his nose in on the final turn, but wisely keeping the Teen Challenge points as his priority and not forcing the issue. Great, clean racing! Congrats to Craig who dramatically increased his chances of winning the NorCal championship with a commanding win over the other drivers in the points chase.

Great racing, guys and gals!

Wonder what Sunday hold for surprises?

Cheers,

Dean

[Charlie Hayes]

Sucks I wanted to bring a p1 car and had a p6 car. There is always tomorrow but after getting freight trained by a ssm multiple times I realized there is nothing to do.

Great job Craig. Wish I had more to give.

[Phillip Holifield]

I missed today's race.. what happened?