69 replies to this topic

[Charlie Hayes]

NASA runs the bypass. Should be a good weekend, I may be driving some weird car in TT and helping the young Austin Thomas out in his Spec Miata. Better see some good stuff this weekend....

[dtfastbear]

Hey gang,

Sorry I've been absent here for a while. Dealing with all the curve balls that have been tossed my way in the last month!!

I'm going to be there this weekend, but will not have a car with me. So, I look forward to roaming the paddock, pitching in where I can (THERE BETTER NOT BE ANY BODY WORK TO DO!!!!) and socializing for once instead of running around crazed, trying to support a couple cars AND do a reasonable job of being the SM leader.

As noted above - definitely running the bypass. Any other questions, please post 'em and I'll try to answer 'em!

Happy to have Rick on board. Ron, I know you didn't mean it this way, but NASA being "for profit" has absolutely nothing to do with how eager we are to issue a race license. Rick and I spent a LOT of time on the phone and via correspondence. Experience in a race car in and of itself doesn't make you ready to race THE WAY WE RACE. Rick demonstrated both an understanding of how road and oval racing are different and a great willingness and eagerness to adapt to the group instead of expecting the group to adapt to him. It was after that careful consideration (and him passing the written license test) that we issued a provisional license straight off.

I'm very confident that Rick is going to make me NOT regret that decision by keeping that backup car in the trailer. NO NEED for it, right??

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple days. And FWIW, forecast looks to be a cool 98 both days.

Cheers,

Dean

[ryoung99]

I promise to be on my best behavior for this weekend and weekends to come.
I promise to not nerf anyone to make a pass or to put lappers in the wall (a promise I will not make for normal saturday night racing)

Looking forward to starting this new relaxed racing chapter of my life.

Dean is correct, we did spend a lot of time discussing the expectations. To be honest, if you have ever flipped a midget or sprint car, these rules of the road for them is not really different than what is expected with NASA. The only difference, if you get it wrong with NASA you get sanctions. If you get it wrong with a midget or sprint car you get a wrench upside the head. LOL

Since I have not picked up the "backup car" yet, I have no choice but to make this one last the weekend.

Dean,

Thank you so much for taking the time with me and giving me an opportunity to demonstrate to you that I am capable. I promise to not let you down, you have no idea how much it meant to me that you would put your name and repuatation on the line the way you did. As we discussed, winning does not mean nearly as much to me as it used to, racing is now about competition, friendship, the real victory is rolling the car into the trailer on Sunday and making it to work on Monday. We have a great group coming with me this weekend, including the wife and kids, they are all really excited about the weekend.

If anyone is interested, on Saturday night we are going to head over to Chico as the 410 sprint cars will be racing. If you follow that type of racing the newest racing Golden Boy in the US, Kyle Larson will be racing. Kyle was nominated for the Speed Channel driver of the year last year along side Sebastian Vettel, Tony Stewart, etc. He is a rare talent, much like Jeff Gordon was. If you have not seen him race you might want to. It will be your chance to say, "I saw Kyle race before he was Kyle Larson".... He is on a roll right now with wins in USAC Midgets, World of Outlaw Sprint Cars (prelim night at the Knoxville Nationals), and NASCAR K&N East Series. In his first Camping World truck race, he started dead last and drove up to 10th, it was an awesome run. I promise you would not be dissapointed.

Thanks again,
Rick
RAMS Racing #14s

[Todd Tagget]

Sounds like we may have quite a bunch of us in the "rookie pack" hanging back behaving ourselves.... Looking forward to it!!

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

Heading up from San Diego tonight . We will be at the track tommorrow night. I for one am looking forward to seeing the 14S passing on the outside in turn 2, by outside I expect you to be in the dirt, on the cushion and driving through the door!

[Todd Tagget]

Hey is 14s gonna have one of those big wings on his Miata ???? This is gonna be fun!!! I"ll see you Friday around noon J.J... I'll be next to Trekkor who will have his Ford Escort Lemons car ..

[mtm68]

I urge you all to take advantage of seeing Kyle Larson, I saw him run at Watsonville a couple years back; the kid can wheel it!
(hi Dean!)

Marcus (ex-NorCal-er, now in the PNW)

[Ron Alan]

Ron, I know you didn't mean it this way, but NASA being "for profit" has absolutely nothing to do with how eager we are to issue a race license. Rick and I spent a LOT of time on the phone and via correspondence.

Your right, nothing implied. Glad you spent the time and I'm sure Rick is to!

[Sean Allen]

I urge you all to take advantage of seeing Kyle Larson, I saw him run at Watsonville a couple years back; the kid can wheel it!
(hi Dean!)

Marcus (ex-NorCal-er, now in the PNW)

Nice to see you around Marcus, been awhile! I didn't know you had moved out of the Bay Area.

[dtfastbear]

Hey Rick,

I may want to tag along with you on Saturday night. Been a LONG time since I've been to local oval racing.

Cheers,

Dean

[Johnny D]

Hey Rick,

I may want to tag along with you on Saturday night. Been a LONG time since I've been to local oval racing.

Cheers,

Dean

Okay, we've seen him in a Mustang at Miller...
Who wants to see him in a 410 sprint car
And how about Charlie to make it interesting
J~

[ryoung99]

Okay, we've seen him in a Mustang at Miller...
Who wants to see him in a 410 sprint car
And how about Charlie to make it interesting
J~

Well I can't put him in a 410, but we could get him a midget ride for a race or two.

Just got home from a great weekend. First off, I hope Todd get's his Miata back together. Seeing him into the tires during PT qualifying and ending his weekend sucked for all of us.

My goal for the weekend was to get my provisional signed off, do 4 races, stay clean and get my hard card. Mission accomplished! Anything beyond that would be a bonus. We were no where near competitive and the car needs some set up work, but we got faster. On Saturday we averaged 2:18's, today we were in the 2:14 range and dipped into 2:11 for qualifying. Running the open diff was a real problem trying to get speed out of 5 and 15, with the Torsen I really think we would have been 2-3 seconds faster. Oh well next race.

The best part of the weekend was meeting Doug Clark and David and Daniel Gehringer, what great guys. Daniel helped this old dirt tracker a ton. Turns out he is a pretty good guy to learn from. He offered to come over and help us get the car scaled and set up properly which was a problem for the weekend, although we did get better I am sure there is more.

Anyways, everyone who came with us had a great time. The NASA officials were all great (IMHO), very helpful and polite. It was nice to see officials smiling. The racing was clean.

[Todd Tagget]

Thanks Rick, the car is already dropped off at Evil Genius and they will take it to "the russians" so it should be straightened out by the end of the week..
Thanks everyone for pitching in on offers of parts, to make it back into a roller!!..
I"ll be back in Sept!!

[Todd Tagget]

Ok here's the video boys, comments welcome
http://youtu.be/pYx24nWkyXs

[James York]

I have never been to that track, so I can't offer too much in terms of specific feedback for improvement, but a couple observations:

1) You did not seem comfortable behind the wheel. You ran off the same corner everytime (sorry I can't tell you the number) at one point on the track, and well off the apexes even with no traffic a bunch. Was this a first time visit to the track?
2) It appeared on the turn you went off, is that because it is somewhat blind, you were cheating with an early turn in,.... and it caught you out cresting the rise.

I am sure folks that run the track will give some specific and useful pointers. Sorry to see your mishap, and glad to read it is repairable.

[Todd Tagget]

James, , it's totally blind going up and over.. with regards to the corner I missed that's pretty much by design.. Often times there are barrels there but when there's not it's the shortcut.. I was actually feeling pretty good up until the off...

[James York]

I thought maybe it was totally blind, but couldn't be sure if it was from just the camera. The human tendency on blind corners is to turn early because we can't see and our anxious nature.

[dtfastbear]

Hey Todd,

Sorry again to see the accident and the damage. You've got a great attitude about it and am glad we'll see you out there again soon.

As for your line over the bypass, you've got the right idea - set up to the left, turn in slightly before the crest and come over the top slightly angled to the right. HOWEVER, you're exaggerating all of those things. You should set up not all the way to the left, but about half a car width to a full car width from the left side. And when you turn a little to the right, it should be just a LITTLE to the right. You turn too much and are angled too much as you crest the hill. That lands you in the absolute worst spot - right in the middle of the large divot on the far side of the hill. Landing there upsets the car so much that you had little to no hope of saving it. Once you get into the marbles on the outer 1/3rd of the track at the bottom of 5, you're done.

If it makes you feel any better, I did the EXACT same thing at the last thunderhill event, except I launched off that access road berm sideways and bent up my left side suspension. Very lucky I didn't flip, as are you.

Cheers,

Dean

[Charlie Hayes]

Great weekend watching.

Jaimie showed everyone how it is done. Pole Saturday by a second and a flag to flag win. Sunday pole by a tenth and a flag to flag win.

It was also the last Teen Mazda Challenge west race with some good battles Phillips had great pace, Alex was struggling a little and Dodge got both TMC wins.

Really wish I could have been out there but, oh well Jaime wanted to make it a hard championship.

[Todd Tagget]

Thanks Dean,, that actually means a lot to me...