183 replies to this topic

[Todd Lamb]

I found some of Elder's in-car from the Saturday race....

 

[Craig Berry]

Todd, I learned quickly that running away or showing any sign of fear just made things worse!

[Tom Sager]

Todd, I learned quickly that running away or showing any sign of fear just made things worse!

 

Those are some good instincts right there.  

[pat slattery]

Kid Karts.  cool

[LarryKing]

Kid Karts. cool

 

Naaa, that was Vettel practicing last week.

[Justin Elder]

[quote name="Todd Lamb" post="48151" timestamp="1371576974"]I found some of Elder's in-car from the Saturday race....
 
I showed my real in-car footage to some folks yesterday and one of them asked if I felt like Derrike Cope. Not funny.

[Danny Steyn]

One of my best race weekends, and one of the most frustrating!!

 

To Tom Fowler and the entire team at OPM, a HUGE THUMBS UP for a car that was on rails all weekend. Same too for Mike Rossini for supplying great engines. It was really exciting to contend for the podium the whole weekend.

 

Despite the above, when we rolled the car off the trailer for test day, I honestly thought we were in deep trouble and should just turn around and head home. I wasn’t even getting to the shift lights heading to the
kink and was doing the kink in 4^th gear! I had never done that ever before. Turned out the track was just really green and slow from the rains, and as it rubbered in it picked up speed. By the afternoon we were back making decent times. 

 

Qualifying

 

In both qualifying sessions I was able to get the draft from the East Street gang, and I was able to nail down the pole in both sessions, something that was immensely satisfying.

 

Race 1 – the June Sprints

In Race 1 I had a good push from Drago behind me, and was able to enter Turn 1 cleanly and the field ran two wide, giving me a gap onto the back straight where I opened up a decent lead into T5. Behind me they were still two wide and I pulled out a huge lead, something almost unheard of in Spec Miata at Road America. I was even able to increase the lead on lap two to around 2 seconds, but at Road America it is impossible to drive away from a group that works together, so I knew they were coming and I drove very conservatively to preserve my tires for the inevitable battle that was on its

way.

By lap 4, Berry and Drago passed me, and I slotted into 3rd with Eric Stearns, Voytek and Tom Brown behind me. We circulated this way for a few laps and I was content to bide my time. Berry was struggling in several turns but especially in T5 and this kept allowing the rest of the field behind us to close in on us. A few laps later Voytek went for the pass down into T12, and Berry blocked, and we went through T12 side by side with Stearns overtaking me on the inside. Stearns and I had contact and I got pushed me off track and I was lucky not to get into the wall. I resumed in 6th place and set about trying to gain as much time back, but I thought it would be impossible to get back to the front, but sure enough, they were all driving very aggressively with lots of side by side racing/defending/blocking and that slowed them and allowed me to start closing in on the leading group.

I started the last lap in 4th place a long way back from Berry and Voytek who were battling at the front, with Stearns in 3rd also quite a way behind the front two. Voytek drove the defensive line into T1 slowing him and Berry, and Stearns caught them both. They went really slow into T3 and I was able to squeeze inside of Voytek into 3rd place as we exited T3 onto the long back straight. In the draft I got to Stearns bumper and pushed him for the pass on Berry. Berry dived to the inside to block, and Stearns went wide for the outside pass. I somehow got it slowed down and managed to pass both  of them on the very inside of T5, brushed wheel to wheel with Berry and got into the lead by T6, which I held and drove the defensive line down to T8. I stayed to the inside of the carousel and had more tires left than Berry and got a reasonable lead from him and Stearns on the run to the kink.

Unfortunately the first back marker that we were to catch was running towards the kink in the middle of the track, slowly, and then hit the brakes in the kink! I was lucky not to collect him in the kink with a huge

slide that slowed me down, and Stearns, Berry and Voytek had a massive run coming to Canada corner. I stayed left, they went right and we had the standard out-braking standoff that often happens in T12. But I knew, judging from when I heard them come off the gas, that there was no way they were going to make the corner, so I slowed up and waited for them to slide passed me down the inside into the kitty litter. What I could not see was that there were both already spinning and they both passed me going backwards, and Berry’s car collected me and put me in the Kitty litter where I stayed. They were both able to get out and resume.

It’s a good thing that I was stuck there for those 15 minutes otherwise I might have behaved really badly. 

 

As I say, a very rewarding race, but incredibly frustrating.I will post the video for all to see – it’s an interesting one for sure.

 

Great to see Matt Reynolds, Chris Haldeman, Michael Ross, and to meet many new drivers. Great to see new drivers on the podium as well. Pat Sandlin was not his usual self this weekend, and will be back strong, Drago had car troubles, Berry and Stearns were super strong as were Burdzy, Elder and Brown.  When you add in the Autotechnic guys that were not there, Bolanos and Charbonneau, plus the north easterners Goulart, Gorriaran and Ferris as well as some other sleepers, its gonna be a HUGE 50th running of the SCCA Runoffs in September. 

[Danny Steyn]

Several spectator videos online right now, but this one is pretty fun to see - first 9:40 secs is the Spec Miata June Sprints Race. The last lap pass to get back into the lead happens at around 8:40, and gets some crowd approval. Great to see so many spectators in the stands.

 

[suck fumes]

Lets see some front runner videos!

[Bench Racer]

  somewhat, BUT explains the hard left-right after the Carousel that the bikes use. Ths friends is BIG cojones and NO fear. 

 

[Jim Drago]

Unfortunately the first back marker that we were to catch was running towards the kink in the middle of the track, slowly, and then hit the brakes in the kink! I was lucky not to collect him in the kink with a huge
slide that slowed me down, and Stearns, Berry and Voytek had a massive run coming to Canada corner. I stayed left, they went right and we had the standard out-braking standoff that often happens in T12. But I knew, judging from when I heard them come off the gas, that there was no way they were going to make the corner, so I slowed up and waited for them to slide passed me down the inside into the kitty litter. What I could not see was that there were both already spinning and they both passed me going backwards, and Berry’s car collected me and put me in the Kitty litter where I stayed. They were both able to get out and resume.

It’s a good thing that I was stuck there for those 15 minutes otherwise I might have behaved really badly.

Danny
I can't help but wonder why you would go down the left side of the track in this situation? It is the last real passing opportunity to win the Sprints. You would have to assume anyone close is coming 10/10ths. By leaving the door so wide open, you are encouraging such a move. Had you taken the inside, they would have been forced to beat you around the outside. If the same set of circumstances occurred ( Voytek had kickback, which has happened to all of us at some point) He would have got into Craig, they both would have spun off the track to the outside, been parked in the kitty litter and you would have cruised the last few corners alone in route to your second Sprints win. I could live with them beating me around the outside, but the way this went down will be harder to swallow as you could have eliminated that option IMO. That is not blocking and not dirty, just smart racing IMO. Hell, I did it to Craig on the last lap of the Runoffs last year. Granted, Hindsight is 20/20, but I bet you never have it happen again and I certainly can understand your frustration.
Jim

[Kyle Freiheit]

Devil's advocate- I have never raced there but maybe he was thinking he didn't want to get beat at the line because he took the tight line leading to the straight? In the heat of the moment maybe he thought the outside line was the lesser of 2 evils?

 

Just an idea. 

[MPR22]

 

The last 3 laps from Chris Haldeman's car.

[Jim Drago]

 
The last 3 laps from Chris Haldeman's car.

Chris thanks for the pushes.. I think we had a shot if my car didnt die You really almost won, you were .5 seconds too close to the lead Nice drive!
Jim

[Danny Steyn]

 

The last 3 laps from Chris Haldeman's car.

 

Michael, thanks for the kind words earlier, and thanks for posting Chris's in-car video. Always good to see another perspective. Chris was a contender all weekend and its great to see him standing on the podium. Really enjoy hanging out with both of you! Video makes interesting watching, doesn't it. Hope to have mine up later today or tomorrow. 

[Caveman-kwebb99]

Dont take this coment wrong Danny, but "THAT IS SOME MOTOR YOU HAVE THERE"...  to borrow a line from you. 

 

You can go off the track drive extra distance, and the Holderman car cannot even inch up on you at all!?!?  Right after we watch him push Drago all around the track for at least one lap.  After all the work you have done in the engine department i think that one is a Keeper!!!!!!!!

 

The driving wasnt to aweful either by the way

[Danny Steyn]

Thanks Kyle - yup its a keeper - not the strongest out there by a long shot, but very competitive. Both Drago's and Chris's were a bit off from their historic peaks.

[MPR22]

Dont take this coment wrong Danny, but "THAT IS SOME MOTOR YOU HAVE THERE"...  to borrow a line from you. 

 

You can go off the track drive extra distance, and the Holderman car cannot even inch up on you at all!?!?  Right after we watch him push Drago all around the track for at least one lap.  After all the work you have done in the engine department i think that one is a Keeper!!!!!!!!

 

The driving wasnt to aweful either by the way

 

 

The funny thing about the race was it wasn't decided by who had the fastest car, as my dad pointed out to me, the slowest car on the track had more to do with who won than the fastest.  That's racin.  

[Jim Drago]

Thanks Kyle - Both Drago's and Chris's were a bit off from their historic peaks.

I can't speak for Chris, but there was nothing wrong with my power, I dynoed Tuesday and will be running the same engine at the Runoffs, it made the same power as my primary engine and it is still on break in oil.

I may be the only SM driver that doesn't blame the engine when they don't win.   My issue was handling which can often can be confused with power, especially at Road America. Most corners where Chris and Danny were coming out flat, I was still working the throttle. That looks like HP down the straight, but it is driver and/or handling. The "historic peaks" are made when you can apply full throttle early, keep it there, make no changes in the steering input and keep it on the track and your competitors can't. This weekend I was the one who couldn't, nothing more, nothing less.    

[dbednarz]

I was driving the yellow #68 car when I did that. (Seriously dude, you had the nerve to bring that to a national?!)

 

Yes – I have a lot of nerve to do what it takes to compete
in 6 Majors Races in 23 days, doing all the work on my own. The Northern Conference
schedule is overloaded at this time of year. The 3 double events over 4 weeks
puts a priority on essential items only, for which there is barely enough time,
 and not cosmetics.  The nose was re-painted before the start of
the season and already shows the battle scars of Spec Miata racing. The RH side
took a big hit in Saturday’s race. The goal is to “Make it happen, don’t make
excuses”, so don’t insult me for doing what it takes to support the SCCA
Northern Conference and Spec Miata racing.

 

David Bednarz

Spec Miata #68