44 replies to this topic

[JRHille]

We ran great all weekend. Ran a personal best lap of 1:42.8 in the qualifying session friday, and the car made the most HP 1.6 at the event ( for a short time..) . So cool to see everyone so nice when the competition is so close with 18 people being within 1 second of eachothers lap times. Good to meet some of the guys on the forums, and charbonneau its amazing how much different one can seem behind a computer screen ( in a good way!). I will post fridays qualifying race with the incident when it is uploaded. Udell made a mistake, yes, but the problem was not admitting the mistake. People do make mistakes, but usually they own up to them.

[trimless]

Tough luck Justin, you had a good run going and had a shot at podium. Thanks for posting the video.

[Keith Andrews]

Hey, Justin that just sucks. You were right there, sorry the motor let go. It looked like you had the car stabilty you were hoping for. I know you'll be back fighting for the National Championship again, great drive!

[Juan Pineda]

Hey Justin, Awesome drive! Sorry about the engine. Thanks for sharing that awesome view from the front of the pack! -Juan

[Danny Steyn]

Great drive Justin
thanks for sharing the video.

[JRHille]

thanks all, there's always next year! Well, and the next year, and the next year....

[Chris Adams]

Oops.... posted in the wrong thread... Will upload some more video soon, heres Thursday's race:

[JRHille]

ouch chris...that looked like it hurt.

heres fridays qualifying race.

[James York]

Justin,

Never had the opportunity to meet or race you. But I saw quality and smart driving. I would race with you any day.

Great videos

[Danny Steyn]

Ernie Jr got punted pretty hard in T4/7, knocking you off through China Beach.

[JRHille]

Yeah, was not too happy about that. Jr drove a good race only to have that happen.

[SpecAngelo]

Guess i'll throw up my highlights as my first post here......



Weekend was full of highs and lows. We were quite off pace on test day and had some work to do. Thursday we picked up some good time leading into qualifying. Following my teamate on my last lap I got a decent draft and put down a 43.3 putting us 5th on the grid. I got a good start but got sqeezed down low and got a really crappy run through madness as you can see in the video. I was running 8th or 9th when I made my only mistake of the weekend and went off in T11. C. Williams and I got really loose in the carousel two laps in a row.......someone had put water or something down center track and it felt like the car slipped on something when I went off at T11.

Friday's qualifying left me without a drafting buddy as my teamate's car still wasn't right from being collected at the start the day before. Put down a 43.7 which put me 16th! Looking at the timesheets, if I had found a draft and was 0.5 seconds quicker I would have been 5th again. wow that's tight racing. 5 of us had run a 43.7! During Friday's race someone went off right away at China beach, as you can see in the video, and had an extremely dangerous re-entry right at the crest of madness. How there was no penalty dealt here is shocking to me. Two cars saw him coming and bailed out, Adam in the yellow 50, going off track right. If they had collected him there was no doubt that the entire field would have piled up there in spectacular fashion so big kudos to those guys for seeing that coming. As a result, the field stacked up and the guy behind me gave me a pretty big shot. As he went around me in 9 and turned into me where there wasn't room, I became the meat in the sandwhich and got crushed in he middle, taking out both my fenders and cutting a front left tire. Somehow the thing held up until the end of the race but I fell way back in the field just trying to limp it across the checker.

Saturday we started 21st and made up some good spots right away. Kyle Webb went around in the keyhole on lap 1 and David Spencer gave me an innocent bump from behind that nearly put my car into Kyle's firewall. I was lucky to clear him there as the front tires still hadn't come all the way up to temp and I didn't have the front end grip. We made it up to the top 15 and I was chasing down the next pack of cars when it became apparantly obvious our tire choice for the front was not a good one. It felt like the front end fell off a damn cliff and I just had no front end bite in right handers. The FCY's helped me cool down the tires a little and I was able to make up some spots but fell back in the pack toward the end of the race. Finished 22nd.

I only drive Spec Miatas once a year........the last time was at the 2011 Championships where we were running in the top 5 before Valafar hip checked me in the carousel. I thought this year a podium or the win was doable but it was just one of those weekends where things get away from you. Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield right?

Anyway, I enjoyed racing with such a fast group. It was a good learning experience if nothing else. HUGE congratulations to Yiannis, Alex, and Greg and an honorable mention to Justin H.

-Angelo

[Danny Steyn]

Angelo

thanks for the great write up and video. Not trying to stir anything up but just curious, how did you qualify to run the Champs if you weren't in a Spec Miata since the 2011 Championship?

[Steve D]

Danny -

Once you qualify in one class, you can enter as many others as you want.

[Danny Steyn]

Steve - did not know that - good to know for future

[LarryKing]

You can also make a donation, err, sponsorship to NASA

[SpecAngelo]

Angelo

thanks for the great write up and video. Not trying to stir anything up but just curious, how did you qualify to run the Champs if you weren't in a Spec Miata since the 2011 Championship?

cuz i'm good like that : )

As Steve mentioned I did a few weekends this year in other classes.

[john mueller]

I will post fridays qualifying race with the incident when it is uploaded. Udell made a mistake, yes, but the problem was not admitting the mistake. People do make mistakes, but usually they own up to them.

I'd like to see some vid of this incident from behind.. Anyone who has some please PM the link(s) to me. I just want to understand more of what happened and if the process failed or got it right.

[Ron Alan]

Thanks Angelo...good stuff! That could have been a ugly head-on! If you are using a gopro you can change the light setting so it will adjust to the outside light vs the inside(if you haven't done this before). The inside of the car darkens up but it makes watching the outside action way easier on the eyes!...not so washed out.

[Matt Montes]

The view from DFL.

This was my first year in spec miata with my home built car. I had a great time at nationals and picked up time throughout the weekend.

In the race I got a puncture somewhere between thunder valley an carousel. The deflation was immediate and made carousel very interesting. I was glad that I got the car off track and didn't cause a FCY and disrupt the race at the front.

http://youtu.be/yG2YjrCU4VI