119 replies to this topic

[Tom OPM]

First off what a great event, big fields, great weather, seeing old friends and meeting new ones. If you have not been to the ARRC you really need to try next year. I have been to everyone of them as a competitor and service provider and every year has been great.

Thanks to all the volunteer workers to helped make it great and the Atlanta region for putting it on.

Congrats to all the OPM drivers, we had a lot of fun and you all should be proud. I know I was

Congrats to Danny Steyn for the pole and win in SM. No one knows how hard you have worked for this and after restarting in 12th place that was a great drive for the win. Also Congrats to Buras and Kopp who showed it can be done in a 1.6 but its the tough way.

Congrats to Jason Sellers for second in SM-2. Way to bounce back after a couple of tough outings.

Congrats to Chris Topping on your drive in the ECR, you drove the wheels off that thing and never put a wheel wrong. Tough break but you will be back.

Congrats to Roger Burdette and Randy Pobst on 2nd in the ECR. Nice score on the co-driver Roger and Steve DeVinney and Palacio for their 3rd place in SM. Steve had not been in a SM in over a year and Palacio never had been in one.

And now the not so good. Yes Danny and Mike had contact, they both feel bad and wished it had not happened, but it did. Sure Mike could have been in another group but he wasn't. Sure Danny could have lifted but he didn't. Danny apologized, and Mike withdrew the protest. Meathead and OPM have worked together in the past and we will continue to work together in the future. We all hate that it happened. End of story.

Very Special Thanks Mike at Rossini, we almost did it at the Run-offs and we got it done at the ARRC. Hoosier Tire and Bruce and Rodney, you guys are great. Traqmate, every session, every driver, you need it to get it done. Tracy the food was unreal and you were there when we needed you. OPM crew, 15 cars, 4 classes, 13 pit stops and all without a problem. Not sure what I did ?

[Butch Kummer]

How much prize money/contingency is on the line at ARRC?

Does that matter when deciding whether or not it's acceptable to cheat?

[Caveman-kwebb99]

First off what a great event, big fields, great weather, seeing old friends and meeting new ones. If you have not been to the ARRC you really need to try next year. I have been to everyone of them as a competitor and service provider and every year has been great.

Thanks to all the volunteer workers to helped make it great and the Atlanta region for putting it on.

Congrats to all the OPM drivers, we had a lot of fun and you all should be proud. I know I was

Congrats to Danny Steyn for the pole and win in SM. No one knows how hard you have worked for this and after restarting in 12th place that was a great drive for the win. Also Congrats to Buras and Kopp who showed it can be done in a 1.6 but its the tough way.

Congrats to Jason Sellers for second in SM-2. Way to bounce back after a couple of tough outings.

Congrats to Chris Topping on your drive in the ECR, you drove the wheels off that thing and never put a wheel wrong. Tough break but you will be back.

Congrats to Roger Burdette and Randy Pobst on 2nd in the ECR. Nice score on the co-driver Roger and Steve DeVinney and Palacio for their 3rd place in SM. Steve had not been in a SM in over a year and Palacio never had been in one.

And now the not so good. Yes Danny and Mike had contact, they both feel bad and wished it had not happened, but it did. Sure Mike could have been in another group but he wasn't. Sure Danny could have lifted but he didn't. Danny apologized, and Mike withdrew the protest. Meathead and OPM have worked together in the past and we will continue to work together in the future. We all hate that it happened. End of story.

Very Special Thanks Mike at Rossini, we almost did it at the Run-offs and we got it done at the ARRC. Hoosier Tire and Bruce and Rodney, you guys are great. Traqmate, every session, every driver, you need it to get it done. Tracy the food was unreal and you were there when we needed you. OPM crew, 15 cars, 4 classes, 13 pit stops and all without a problem. Not sure what I did ?

I am just sorry I wasn't there to eat all your food again! LOL. Great showing for OPM regardless of all that happened!!!!!!!

[LarryKing]

Does that matter when deciding whether or not it's acceptable to cheat?

Did someone say it was acceptable to cheat?

What I asked is if there was prize money.

Not that I would ever have to face a teardown myself, but if it's a regional event, with only a trophy on the line, I would prefer to accept a DQ then to have to tear my motor down to the degree of Mr. Steyn's. 1. I don't have a crew, it would be just me, 2. Gasket sets aren't cheap, 3. I have limited time, I would want to be on the road after the race, and 4. If someone feels they have to cheat to win a trophy, they can have it - they're the one that has to live with the knowledge that they had to cheat to win.

Again, not a problem I ever envision facing. But I really am curious - is there money on the line?

[suck fumes]

Last I checked u get $300 from Mazda. U get a Whole lot more from pro IT

[William Keeling]

refusing a tech teardown is an automatic suspension I believe

[redline9000]

I think the point was, the officials were going to let the 4 to 9 lbs slide, but were going to be a hard nosed about 2 seconds. From what I saw, Topping was only DQ'd on weight after Philla went ballistic. If 2 seconds is non-compliant, then so is 4 lbs.

[FTodaro]

Did someone say it was acceptable to cheat?

What I asked is if there was prize money.

Not that I would ever have to face a teardown myself, but if it's a regional event, with only a trophy on the line, I would prefer to accept a DQ then to have to tear my motor down to the degree of Mr. Steyn's. 1. I don't have a crew, it would be just me, 2. Gasket sets aren't cheap, 3. I have limited time, I would want to be on the road after the race, and 4. If someone feels they have to cheat to win a trophy, they can have it - they're the one that has to live with the knowledge that they had to cheat to win.

Again, not a problem I ever envision facing. But I really am curious - is there money on the line?

It kind of brings us back to the discussion Danny started about the off season ideas. We talked allot about stopping cheating and doing more tech. However, I like you am a one man band and it would be difficult on me to withstand the the work and cost just to prove I am legal. It seams like they should at least cover your costs to put it back together. Not that I have to worry about it for some time.

[JRHille]

Lets see some in car video!!

[granracing]

If you sign-up to attend the ARRC, you know going in that if you do well there should be a tear down. Don't like it? Either suck or don't go. To many of us, the compliance checks are a bit part of the allure for the ARRC especially to those who don't attend the Ruboffs.

Listen, I suck as a mechanic, don't have a crew but can at least take stuff off, put it in a box and worry about it when I get back home. I've also never found a lack of fellow competitors who'd be willing to take my car apart! lol Fortunately they're also the same people who would help me put it together again.

In 2010, the ARRC compliance checks were lacking and that took away from the credibility of the event. Same deal would be true of the Runoffs if compliance checks did not happen. Just a regional? For regional racers especially in the IT world, this is one of the highly regarded events since IT can't participate in the Runoffs.

Hopefully no other cars besides the first and second place ones were collected in the "impressive" first lap incident.

[Mr.Pink]

http://youtu.be/qTRh8ozA3Pw

Here's the first lap following Mark Pombo.

[granracing]

Nice job not making that much worse. Damn.

[Andrew Charbonneau]

Congrats - the 2011 ARRC was a great success – great turnout, especially in SM with over 50 cars, and a very deep field. Registration and tech were great this year.

Qualifying
All our prior data showed that it was a toss-up with tires, Hoosiers were quicker T1-T7 and Toyos were quicker T10-T1. We ran both on the test days and in the cool conditions I was able to go 3/10ths faster on Hoosiers than Toyos when no draft was in play, so I went out on Hoosiers. It paid off and I got the pole.

Pro-IT
Great run by Cliffy Brown and Todd Buras. I had nothing for them, and if Todd’s clutch hadn’t quit I would have finished 3^rd, but I got lucky and finished 2^nd way behind Cliffy.

ECR
Fowler and I shared the car, I did the opening stint, and after a 2^nd lap push by Topping, I managed to get past Ryan Pilla, and pulled away. We had a decent 14 second lead at around the 1hour mark when the sub-frame broke on the car and we retired. I got to watch the battle with Topping, Pila, Bender/Burdzy, and Pobst from the pit wall. Epic battle. Ryan’s pass down the grass on the left hand side of the main straight from T12 to T1 past a lapper was one of the craziest things I have seen in SM for a long time. I believe Topping won but was light, not sure about what happened with Pila.

It was really great to have Randy Pobst under the OPM tent sharing the car with Roger Burdette, and I can tell you Randy’s enthusiasm for motor racing is incredibly infectious. It was also great to get his track analysis as it relates to Spec Miata. He experimented with multiple lines throughout his stint and ended up with some unique perspectives.

ARRC
I know many you have seen the pictures, the Fleming video and the Ryan Pilla video, both of which look very damning, and while the view from my car is somewhat different it does not absolve me of any responsibility in the crash in T10 where Collins and I got together. I accept my full responsibility in the events as they unfolded and I apologize to the entire SM community for the way it played out. I cannot get a do-over, but if I could I would do it very differently.

If anyone cares, here is the back-story

The grid was Steyn, Clements, Collins, Pilla, etc.

On the grid, Blake, myself and Ryan had agreed that we would work together on lap 1, fall in line behind whoever had the nose ahead, and push so that we would not be two-wide on the track on that first lap ,and hopefully we could break the draft on the guys behind. At Road Atlanta it is critical to work together to break to draft in the early laps

Collins in the lone SM5 (with 165HP according to Collins) had passed word via Fowler to me that he would come by us on the back straight and drive away from us at a rate of 3-4 seconds per lap and would be out of our race, but truthfully we were a bit concerned that it might not be as simple as he stated.

We knew he should make huge time on us in the straights but we were not sure he would hold the gap through the infield. As Drago mentioned there were several that expressed concerns that he was even starting on the grid with us at all as his car had been classed in Group 7 and yet for some reason it was later moved to Group 5 to join our race. The ARRC SM race is a big deal and many felt that he should not interfere with the SM race at all, and with 54 Spec Miatas it was bound to be crazy anyway.

On the start, Collins easily pushed Blake ahead of me into T1 and I slid in behind Blake and ahead of Collins. Through the infield we opened a big gap on Collins. Blake and I came through T7 with a good lead on Collins and I proceeded to push Blake to T10. As Blake made the shift to 5^th gear by the black flag stand, his car appeared to stop and I popped out to pass him and heard him go back to fourth. I did not know at the time that he had lost 5^th gear.

By now I was alongside Blake and Collins was coming. I felt it was too late for Collins to make the pass as he would slow us through T10A so I drove a defensive line into T10 to send the message to him to wait, since with 165 HP he could come by anytime he chose. When it became apparent that he was going for the pass anyway, I moved over to give him more room to make the pass.

At Road Atlanta I have been through T10A/T10B many times side by side with many drivers and we always give each other room.

As we entered T10B Collins caught me off-guard as he cut right across my nose and before I could react I had turned him sideways in front of me. In that split second realized I would be stuck with a car across my nose with nowhere to go as the field would pass us by, so I kept my foot in it to push Collins out of my way and hopefully I could resume. Unfortunately I gassed it so hard that not only did I push him out of my way but his car came all the way around and hit my rear spinning me out into the gravel trap.

Unfortunately Chris Haldeman had nowhere to go and drove into Mike.

My sincere apologies to Mike Collins. As I said to you after the race Mike, I did not want to ruin your race and did not want to put myself out of contention. My sincere apologies to Chris Haldeman and several others who were caught up in this incident. In retrospect it is so easy to see so many ways that this all could have been avoided. But I cannot undo what is done.

After the FCY which took way too long, I was able to work my way back from 12^th to third behind Buras and Brown and we were checking out. I felt it would be a good three way dice to the finish. Todd went in too deep into T3 and slid out, and then in T6 Cliffy’s throttle cable came off and I was in the lead with a large gap.

Initially the field behind me raced amongst themselves allowing me to increase the gap, but then Kopp and Buras worked together and started closing the gap. It was only 1.5 seconds at the finish.

Winning the ARRC should be a wonderful moment for me to celebrate, but I take no joy in my victory at all. Mike thanks for usolicitedly withdrawing your protest, and for the gentlemanly way you interviewed me on GoRacingTV. I knew how upset you were and how much it was taking to contain yourself. Thank you.

Thanks to Mike at Rossini Racing Engines for his great engine program, Fowler and the entire team at OPM for the amazing trackside support, Tracy for what is now becoming the legendary catering (and in a good way) and to Traqmate for the great data system that has been so instrumental in my success.

To the entire SM and racing community, I apologize for my actions

do care I am sorry again oboy three years im sorry
ARRC
I know many you have seen the pictures, the Fleming video and the Ryan Pilla video, both of which look very damning, and while the view from my car is somewhat different it does not absolve me of any responsibility in the crash in T10 where Collins and I got together. I accept my full responsibility in the events as they unfolded and I apologize to the entire SM community for the way it played out. I cannot get a do-over, but if I could I would do it very differently.

If anyone cares, here is the back-story
ARRC
I know many you have seen the pictures, the Fleming video and the Ryan Pilla video, both of which look very damning, and while the view from my car is somewhat different it does not absolve me of any responsibility in the crash in T10 where Collins and I got together. I accept my full responsibility in the events as they unfolded and I apologize to the entire SM community for the way it played out. I cannot get a do-over, but if I could I would do it very differently.

If anyone cares, here is the back-story
ARRC
I know many you have seen the pictures, the Fleming video and the Ryan Pilla video, both of which look very damning, and while the view from my car is somewhat different it does not absolve me of any responsibility in the crash in T10 where Collins and I got together. I accept my full responsibility in the events as they unfolded and I apologize to the entire SM community for the way it played out. I cannot get a do-over, but if I could I would do it very differently.

If anyone cares, here is the back-story

[Andrew Charbonneau]

ARRC
I know many you have seen the pictures, the Fleming video and the Ryan Pilla video, both of which look very damning, and while the view from my car is somewhat different it does not absolve me of any responsibility in the crash in T10 where Collins and I got together. I accept my full responsibility in the events as they unfolded and I apologize to the entire SM community for the way it played out. I cannot get a do-over, but if I could I would do it very differently.

If anyone cares, here is the back-story

[Andrew Charbonneau]

[Andrew Charbonneau]

Im pissed

[Andrew Charbonneau]

[pitbull113]

http://youtu.be/Qw9oX-kZ_9k

[suck fumes]

Man that car has a high rev limiter in that video!

[Mr.Pink]

It wasn't reving high but all the data showed that the shift points were later than previous times at the track.I asked a few people what would cause slower reving,the most common answer was something dragging like a caliper. The car didn''t seem to pull down the straights well considering I had Toyos and Pombo had Hoosiers.I do have the same caliperson the car that were on there when I made it a racecar(146,000).Might be time to call Drago for some of those fancy ones he sells.