445 replies to this topic

[Danny Steyn]

Thanks for the race report Alex

[Danny Steyn]

Loved the fact that so many different SM years were up near the front over this past week

I have a couple of questions for those that were there

• What's the word on Ernie Jr? Several say he ran well, has real talent and can drive a car. Would be nice to see some others chime in. Real pity he had to start so far back in the main show after the Udell incident.
• Mike Collins - not interested in names, what was the numbers range on the track dyno? Were there any that were really different than the rest?
• Mike Collins - not interested in names, were there any cars that were significantly non compliant in any areas?

from the track chatter it appeared like it was pretty drama free in the tech shed, or maybe I am getting the wrong info.

[Alex Bolanos]

Loved the fact that so many different SM years were up near the front over this past week

I have a couple of questions for those that were there

• What's the word on Ernie Jr? Several say he ran well, has real talent and can drive a car. Would be nice to see some others chime in. Real pity he had to start so far back in the main show after the Udell incident.
• Mike Collins - not interested in names, what was the numbers range on the track dyno? Were there any that were really different than the rest?
• Mike Collins - not interested in names, were there any cars that were significantly non compliant in any areas?

from the track chatter it appeared like it was pretty drama free in the tech shed, or maybe I am getting the wrong info.

1) He was a few seconds off on Wed and Thurs, on Fri he busted out of the gate running the same times or slightly faster as Charb and I. Word is they dynoed him and he was about the same as Yannis' car. The time gain overnight was a bit suspect but In the qual race on Fri the kid was running in the front pack and hanging right in there before he was taken out. Overall I'd say he did great for his first time there, not going to comment on their forum postings other than to say that they need a new PR guy...

2) I was never dynoed but my p/w is about the same as the 94 Charb was driving and he spun 114 I believe. I'd put my car at 116 on that dyno, I think Ernie and Yannis' cars were ~118 which sounds about right. The 1.8s from Texas made good power, probably 117? None of it made any real difference unless you had a clean track which was in short supply all week until the Sat race.

3) Tech was pretty much drama free from what we could tell.

[FTodaro]

• What's the word on Ernie Jr?

• Mike Collins - not interested in names, what was the numbers range on the track dyno? Were there any that were really different than the rest?
• Mike Collins - not interested in names, were there any cars that were significantly non compliant in any areas?

I thought the Kid did a pretty good job of driving and did well in the Q races. I think if he lets his driving do the talking and clear his reputation by passing tech from this point out. he will do well.

Tech, I did not hear anything of people failing tech. I do know the process of me having to pull my left rear shock after Fridays Q race was a cause of grief, as I had a significant bind in my suspension that I did not discover till the big event.

I saw no special grease ..

[Mike Collins]

Loved the fact that so many different SM years were up near the front over this past week

I have a couple of questions for those that were there

• Mike Collins - not interested in names, what was the numbers range on the track dyno? Were there any that were really different than the rest?
• Mike Collins - not interested in names, were there any cars that were significantly non compliant in any areas?

Dyno was where it should be. The worst car on the dyno finsihed 3rd. Mid-Ohio is a drivers track, not like RA wher eyou need HP to be up front.

• 99 - 119/108, 118/107
• 1.8 - 118.5/104, 114/101
• 1.6 - 116/101, 113/98

Dyno numbers seemed to be consistant with level of prep on the car and or age of the motor.

Compliance was excellent. Some consideration will need to be made to what rate we test shocks. ALL SHOCKS passed, all well within the testable limits. Two sets of shock would of failed with test limits at ranges outside if what is spec'd now. Neither of those were on the podium. The set of shocks that were on the podium tested EXACTLY the same as another competitors 8 year old set of shocks, which put them squarley in the middle of all the tested shocks.

We had more trouble with "casual" annual compliance items like roll cage padding and cages that meet the letter of the rule than we did with complaince infractions.

[trimless]

It was a very tough week for me with car troubles keeping me out of the 2 qualifying races. We finally found the problem on Friday and got the car ready to go Friday night before the big race on Saturday. Started at the back of the pack in position 41 and ended up in 18th place in a very competitive field this year.. It was lot's of fun running from the back but really would have like to seen where we finished had the car trouble not been a factor.

Props to NASA for a great event as usual, the officials and workers deserve a lot of credit for this event running very smoothly. Texas drivers had a good showing with Ferranti, Farrell, McSpadden, and Clements ending up with top10 spots.
Thanks to my wife keeping me positive though the negatives and to Mr. Ed at Gilfus Racing Enterprises for all the help this weekend in getting the car running Friday night!

[Ernie Jr.]

Hi all,

Before I start talking about how it went I would like to say that Nationals was a great. I also want to give thanks to Gilfus Race Engineering for the great motor, Justin Hille for the on track help, Alex Bolanos for bringing forward the pics of Alec punting me (by the way can I get that pic... lol), and Ed Gilfus for the suspension setup help.
Ok here we go...

Wednesday: We were learning the track and trying to figure it out. Best time 1.44's

Thursday: We got faster and we took 18th in the qualifying race with a best time of a 1.43.7

Friday (Oh boy, this is were some drama starts):
Warmup Session: I went to sleep thinking 'on the gas sooner, brakes later.' I guess it worked because that session we posted the fastest time that turned out to be a 1.42.7. After that session I was teched and found legal for that tech.
Qualifying:We tried to do the same as the first session and we got a 1.43.2 which put us in 3rd. After this session I was sent to the dyno. As I posted before, we made less power then Yannis's car.
Qualifying Race: We started 3rd and stayed there for a couple laps. We then decided to make our move on Justin, I moved to the inside going down the backstraight and got side by side with him. Alec then decided to make it 3 wide and he cut across the grass and slid into us spinning me into the gravel getting stuck and Justin flying through knocking off his bumper. Other then that it was a great race and it was clean. I will put up the video later.
(FYI Alec got no real punishment, NASA claimed it was a racing incident.)
Saturday:
Championship Race: We started 28th and had some positions to make up. We quickly made it to 15, maybe to quickly. I overheated my rear tires and went off where Charbs did. (As Blake told me 'I did a Charbonneau') When I got back on, we were in the back. Then the restart happened, as we tried to make a pass in the carrousel some guys were spinning in the last turn and forgot to put both feet in. He rolled down the track and collected us. A sad end to a great race.

Besides that, we came out and did what we set out to do. Prove we can be fast and run with the best. At least I hold the fastest time of Nationals.

[Danny Steyn]

Thanks Alex, Mike, Frank, Trimless, Ernie for the feedback.

There were many of us watching the week play out, wishing that we could have been there to mix it up. Sometimes we felt very much in the dark as to what was happening.... there is only so much insight you can get from Race Monitor, the odd text or message. SpeedCastTV on Saturday was great but also missed some of the important stuff. The one restart was classic. They showed the entire field coming up to the top turn, while the front of the field was getting the green. Great to get insiders views on what happened, and really happy for the class that it played out so well with car equalization and car compliance.

Thanks to all on the SMAC for getting our cars so equal that all had a shot at it, regardless of year.

[john mueller]

Thanks to all on the SMAC for getting our cars so equal that all had a shot at it, regardless of year.

Danny, SMAC did great but have you forgotten who started the movement to closer weight & smaller plates last year? Don't forget, I'm the guy who "runied SM" !!!

I don't need praise & props, but at least get it right man.

[suck fumes]

We had a fun week until this happened on the way home:

[suck fumes]

There was a utility van that was hit by a uhaul, then the minivan stopped behind it. Our motorhome couldn't stop quick enough with a trailer, and plus there were concrete walls funneling us into one lane so we couldn't swerve anywhere.

Luckily no one was killed or hurt. The little girl in the van just had a busted lip.

[trimless]

Danny, SMAC did great but have you forgotten who started the movement to closer weight & smaller plates last year? Don't forget, I'm the guy who "runied SM" !!!

I don't need praise & props, but at least get it right man.

I will give you props John! Cars were all equal at Mid Ohio at least, no clear "car to have" from my perspective which is all we can ask for.

[Blake Clements]

I am going to try to keep from being long-winded, but that rarely happens.

I started off the week on the right foot by putting the car in the concrete wall on lap 3 in the rain on the test day Tuesday. I just flat out made a mistake on pad selection and locked them up. It was a pretty light bounce and the car was ready to go again in about 4 hours.

We struggled in both qualifying sessions with front end grip and getting some clear track. Both of my starts in the qualifying races left something to be desired, and ended up both races fighting to get back to my starting position in the first half of the race. I struggled with pace in the Friday race and knew we had some work to do.

My race on Saturday was pretty uneventful as can be seen in the SpeedCast coverage. I got a decent start, moved up around 4 spots, and was just waiting for the end of the race. My car was consistently getting better as the fuel load went down and we had gone the right direction on setup and tires. Unfortunately, the yellows caught me out and I ended up running wide at the bottom of Madness (three wide doesn't work!) and losing many of the spots I had gained early in the race.

I would like to say that I've seen a lot of Alec Udell bashing on this thread and the guy raced me clean the entire race. He had multiple opportunities that he could have sent me in the weeds. He drove smart, just like he did in the American Iron race to move up from nearly dead last. People make mistakes.

Although I felt like I had a better finish in me, I ran a pretty good race until the last few laps where the angry mob behind me swarmed me!

It was nice to meet a lot of people from the forums that I had not met before (Ernie Jr, Todaro, Hille, etc) and to see some old friends (Von Charbonneau, Alex, Jeffy, etc).

It is obligatory to thank my sponsors SP Induction Systems, GRE, Carbotech, Bell Helmets, and MiataCage.com. Couldn't have been there without them.

[john mueller]

ATTN Those of you complaining about the two FCY's... Where you at the drivers meeting Saturday before the race? If you were, you’re either deaf, stupid, have a really crappy memory or any combination. Really? Dude. It was said if a car comes to stop there WILL be a FCY so the workers can get them safely. Stop being so f’ing selfish thinking only about how it affected your race. No one likes sitting still on a race track, it's scary.

The local yellow on the last lap in T1 would have gone FCY if the tow truck being dispatched was not struck by a car in the huge pile-up in the carousel. By the time another wrecker was dispatched most everyone had made it by.

Yeah, it prob could have been better, but it was acceptable and I agree with the decisions made in race control.

[Blake Clements]

ATTN Those of you complaining about the two FCY's... Where you at the drivers meeting Saturday before the race? If you were, you’re either deaf, stupid, have a really crappy memory or any combination. Really? Dude. It was said if a car comes to stop there WILL be a FCY so the workers can get them safely. Stop being so f’ing selfish thinking only about how it affected your race. No one likes sitting still on a race track, it's scary.

The local yellow on the last lap in T1 would have gone FCY if the tow truck being dispatched was not struck by a car in the huge pile-up in the carousel. By the time another wrecker was dispatched most everyone had made it by.

Yeah, it prob could have been better, but it was acceptable and I agree with the decisions made in race control.

I am going to be SELFISH and assume that you are ranting at me, and thats fine, but I am not complaining about the yellows being thrown. I hated to see them come then, but such is life. We did such a good job for half the race keeping everyone going the right direction.

The yellows allowed everyone to cool their heads and tires, which I was hoping a full green run could play to my advantage, as it was starting to get pretty scrappy for the 3-6 spots. Instead, I drove like a donkey post the yellow, opposite effect

And if people don't like sitting on a race track, I'd suggest not spinning out.

Back to lurk mode for me, good luck to all friends at Runoffs.

[DDG]

Driven Performance uses stock shocks. I do dyno them to make certian they are the same. Anything beyond that is pointless. All my time is spent on driver and tires.

NASA: For the first time in a number of years at a Championship I've had fun again. So Charb, Danny and all the rest of you I enjoy to race with, the compitition will be growing at NASA next year. David delGenio / Driven Performance

[Roger Caddell]

Driven Performance uses stock shocks. I do dyno them to make certian they are the same. Anything beyond that is pointless. All my time is spent on driver and tires.

NASA: For the first time in a number of years at a Championship I've had fun again. So Charb, Danny and all the rest of you I enjoy to race with, the compitition will be growing at NASA next year. David delGenio / Driven Performance

David, glad you were there and glad you had a great time!

[Bench Racer]

The local yellow on the last lap in T1 would have gone FCY if the tow truck being dispatched was not struck by a car in the huge pile-up in the carousel. By the time another wrecker was dispatched most everyone had made it by.

I was not bitching, only asking a question. When watching your video, I did not see a yellow or white at the two stations before the Carousel. Was there a course flag before the Carousel where the red truck was on the track side grass?

[john mueller]

Blake, I'm not targeting anyone. I heard about if many times after the race.

Dave, I was in that wreck (see the vid I posted Sat night). From my view wreck had not happened yet and the redcross flag was not out but the the truck is exposed. I'm not sure if it's been struck yet as I pass by. I took white flag at the finish line, waiving yellow at T1.

[Tyler Dahl]

It was good to see everyone and put some faces with the names. Felt good after the test day then it all went down from there, not the end result I was looking for but still happy with the times I was turning in the race until the end. Sorry for causing the 2nd FCY, it wasn't what I had planned. I tried to get out of there but with a broken front wheel it's hard to get out of the mud.