32 replies to this topic

[Jim Drago]

What a long day today, In the group three race, two cars got together and went through the guard rail and out of the track. They took down the catch fence after T11. We were set to go out at 10:30 and didn't go out until 4:00. The race was shortened and all second day qualifying was cancelled. The repair was a comedy of errors. What should have taken about 90 minutes ended up taking 5 1/2 hours.

The race was a great one... Unfortunately I got to watch it. By the time I was able to watch it was Knuteson leading the pack with Stearns and Bednarz in close tow, followed by Bruce Anderson and Shawn Slattery. From the outside of the key hole it looked like a hell of a race. With about 3-4 to go Stearns got around Knuteson and Knuteson dropped to third. The last laps at the keyhole was Stearns, Bednarz, Knuteson, anderson Jr and Slattery. AT the flag it ended up Stearns, Knuteson, Bednarz. INot sure of order after that. I'm not sure if Shawn or Bruce got 4th, Sager got sixth

I would like to congratulate one of my best friends in and out of Motorsports in Erik Stearns for his first win after returning to SM after a 4-5 year hiatus. It will be the first of many. Jason Knuteson also drove a hell of a race, has been fast all weekend. Many dont know these two, but they are both fast. Erik ran the original Sm pro series and Mx5 cup. Jason is a two time National champion in F500. Both guys are in my camp, so while I watched, I was happy to see those guys finish 1-2. Bednarz was right there as well after two wins last week.

We get to do it again tomorrow, but looks like rain for sure. Did I mention I really don't like this place

[dbednarz]

Congratulations to Erik Stearns on the Saturday win!  and to Jason for a strong 2nd place in a strong 33 car field! Jason will be a strong addition to the Spec Miata community. Good, CLEAN racing between us all, including Bruce Jr and Shawn.  It was VERY close at the end.  I was on Erik's bumper down the backstraight and tried to pass for the lead on the outside of turn 7. Put two wheels in the grass and lost 2nd place and nearly lost 3rd place.

 

Jim Drago would have had us all covered if it wasn't for an engine issue - he will be strong on Sunday.

 

Top 15:

 

1. Erik Stearns

2. Jason Knuteson

3. David Bednarz

4. Bruce Andersen

5. Shawn Slattery

6. Tom Sager

7. Tom Brown

8. Mike Novak

9. Lucas Catania

10. Josh Bilicki

11. Greg Blaser

12. Frank Todaro

13. Charlie Campbell

14. Keith Mellen

15 Patrick Gallagher

[FTodaro]

This was a fun event and with the forecast showing 80% chance of rain you would have thought that it would be a soaker. Well it was dry and pleasant all weekend. My weekend was fun, had a hard time getting up to speed but finally got here on Sunday. Racing on Saturday was a little aggressive after a 6 hr delay for track repairs. There was some misfortune, Justin Hillie was punted into the wall at the exit of the carousel on sat.

Erik Steans lead the field again on Sunday, followed by Mike Novak and Bruce Anderson II
4.Slattery
5 Bednarz
6 Todaro
7 L Catanis
8 P Galliagher
9 J Bilcki
10 K Mellen

btw nice P 10 Mellen on your first trip.

Drago spent much of the weekend playing with his wiring harness, chasing a gremlin.

It was good to see Dave Wheeler and some of his crew. Tom Brown was fast and clean all weekend. Plus he brought me beer, "that is always as good move".

caveman spent much of the weekend, being the victim of others missteps, ending his weekend after the STL race with a busted Diff.

Lastly I want to thank Bednarz for racing me clean. We had some close racing with not so much as a scratch. It was fun.

[38bfast]

Great racing up front by all. It was amassing the the rain gods gave all run groups dry track all week. 

 

One of the highlights of my weekend was Drago telling racing tales at the Saturday night dinner. I am still Laughing. The Spec Miata group is such a great bunch. 

[mellen]

First time at Mid-Ohio and had a blast. great track,great people, great event. Drago and Webb had nothing but bad luck the whole weekend. Frank thanks for the vids ahead of time helped me out alot. see you all at the sprints

[Jim Drago]

Dave thanks for the vote of confidence.. Not fair to say that I had anyone covered, that is why they run the races ( I think we can agree I had Webb covered, that is all that really mattered anyway )

Long long drive.. Still a little tired. Why is it when you have bad weekends it is almost always coupled with the longest drives so you have plenty of time to reflect just how silly we all are

On track a frustrating weekend, not finishing a race after such a long trip was not much fun. My consolation was seeing my friend Erik Stearns come back have his best weekend in SM racing and to see Jason Knuteson starting to come to grips with his SM. Both drove really well all weekend and deserved to be there, I don't think it mattered who came as they were on their game. Erik has always been fast and looks like after a few year hiatus he has shaken of the rust and will be a threat from here on out wherever we go. I knew Jason would be fast after winning the Runoffs twice in F500. It took awhile to get that shifting thing down and we didn't help not catching a bent shifter lever after the ARRC. He seems to have it down not and seems like everything really starting clicking for him. It looks like two more guys added to the mix at the front. Not much to say other than I felt like I turned a page at that track and feel that I finally have the track down. Still not in one of my top 10 favorites. I think the Hoosiers have made the track much easier to drive, but my opinion is based on 5 year old memories in a 46 year old mind.

As far as my weekend goes, off track was far better than on track. Lots of fun with all of the guys up there. Nice to see many of the people again, put faces with names etc. I'm not coming back until they move the Runoffs back there, Otherwise, that was my last trip.

[Craig Berry]

Congrats to Erik!!! You are gonna be right there from now on....waaaaay fast! Jim, sorry about your new car gremlins, but on the bright side, at least the spare car had speed.....does not hurt who was driving it!

[screaming monkey]

Congrats to all the guys at the front! It was my first time there and the learning curve was steep. I followed Charlie Campbell for a few laps during the race on Sunday and gained a second and a half a lap after 2 days of frustration. Thank you, CC. Respect to the guys that have it figured out.  Can't wait for the sprints. My sponsor is providing beer for the parties so don't miss out!! 

http://aleasylum.com/

[Tom Sager]

Dave thanks for the vote of confidence.. Not fair to say that I had anyone covered, that is why they run the races ( I think we can agree I had Webb covered, that is all that really mattered anyway )

Long long drive.. Still a little tired. Why is it when you have bad weekends it is almost always coupled with the longest drives so you have plenty of time to reflect just how silly we all are

On track a frustrating weekend, not finishing a race after such a long trip was not much fun. My consolation was seeing my friend Erik Stearns come back have his best weekend in SM racing and to see Jason Knuteson starting to come to grips with his SM. Both drove really well all weekend and deserved to be there, I don't think it mattered who came as they were on their game. Erik has always been fast and looks like after a few year hiatus he has shaken of the rust and will be a threat from here on out wherever we go. I knew Jason would be fast after winning the Runoffs twice in F500. It took awhile to get that shifting thing down and we didn't help not catching a bent shifter lever after the ARRC. He seems to have it down not and seems like everything really starting clicking for him. It looks like two more guys added to the mix at the front. Not much to say other than I felt like I turned a page at that track and feel that I finally have the track down. Still not in one of my top 10 favorites. I think the Hoosiers have made the track much easier to drive, but my opinion is based on 5 year old memories in a 46 year old mind.

As far as my weekend goes, off track was far better than on track. Lots of fun with all of the guys up there. Nice to see many of the people again, put faces with names etc. I'm not coming back until they move the Runoffs back there, Otherwise, that was my last trip.

I don't know why you're picking on Kyle or why he gets the cave man rap.  After meeting him my first instinct would be to cast him as Dave "The Hammer" Schultz in a documentary about the Broad Street Bullies AKA Philadelphia Flyers 

 

http://legendssports...daveschultz.jpg

 

Great meeting you Kyle.  

[Tom Sager]

This event was the first (and possibly last) Luckritz, Nelson, Sager team effort.  Not because we didn't enjoy the weekend but because the likelihood of us all being at the same event again is a little slim.  Mr. Nelson was running his first national and traveled from North Carolina after trading his Army helicopter and years of dodging bullets in Irag and Afganistan for SM racing. The Army didn't train him to avoid a Miata torpedo and he took one to the port side on lap 1 of Q1.   Luckritz took one to the starboard side in the same incident.  For a short time I thought that they had done it to one another but I was very relieved after we figured out they were simply victims.  For most of the rest of the day, we could have filmed a 3 stooges episode as we managed our way through broken cars, a visit to the hospital, getting our crap rained on and my usual obsessions about what was going on at the office, car setup and "where the hell are the keys".  I heard the Army guy tell his wife that I had been a "brutal task master" for most of the day.  

 

Fortunately we were saved by Drago and crew with an assist from Dave Wheeler too.    After nearly screwing up Jim's dinner party he was even gracious enough to invite us to join him.  Thanks Jim.  I really enjoyed sharing Watkins Glen bog stories from the '70's and '80's with Tom Todaro.  Frank, the beer I brought you ended up going home with the Army guy.  He earned it but if you send me your address via PM I'll get some Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale to you. 

 

On the track was mostly fun.  Unfortunately my camera turned itself off (or was never turned on) so I can't show my exciting airborne off road trip in the grass exiting turn one during Sunday's race while trying to avoid a spinning car.  We don't realize how fast we're going until we leave the racing surface and in this case don't be fooled by what looks like smooth grass out there.  Joie Chitwood could probably have a daredevil show out there.  IT'S ROUGH.

[Caveman-kwebb99]

I don't know why you're picking on Kyle or why he gets the cave man rap.  After meeting him my first instinct would be to cast him as Dave "The Hammer" Schultz in a documentary about the Broad Street Bullies AKA Philadelphia Flyers 

 

http://legendssports...daveschultz.jpg

 

Great meeting you Kyle.  

 

Like wise LOL...

[FTodaro]

This event was the first (and possibly last) Luckritz, Nelson, Sager team effort.  Not because we didn't enjoy the weekend but because the likelihood of us all being at the same event again is a little slim.  Mr. Nelson was running his first national and traveled from North Carolina after trading his Army helicopter and years of dodging bullets in Irag and Afganistan for SM racing. The Army didn't train him to avoid a Miata torpedo and he took one to the port side on lap 1 of Q1.   Luckritz took one to the starboard side in the same incident.  For a short time I thought that they had done it to one another but I was very relieved after we figured out they were simply victims.  For most of the rest of the day, we could have filmed a 3 stooges episode as we managed our way through broken cars, a visit to the hospital, getting our crap rained on and my usual obsessions about what was going on at the office, car setup and "where the hell are the keys".  I heard the Army guy tell his wife that I had been a "brutal task master" for most of the day.  

 

Fortunately we were saved by Drago and crew with an assist from Dave Wheeler too.    After nearly screwing up Jim's dinner party he was even gracious enough to invite us to join him.  Thanks Jim.  I really enjoyed sharing Watkins Glen bog stories from the '70's and '80's with Tom Todaro.  Frank, the beer I brought you ended up going home with the Army guy.  He earned it but if you send me your address via PM I'll get some Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale to you. 

 

On the track was mostly fun.  Unfortunately my camera turned itself off (or was never turned on) so I can't show my exciting airborne off road trip in the grass exiting turn one during Sunday's race while trying to avoid a spinning car.  We don't realize how fast we're going until we leave the racing surface and in this case don't be fooled by what looks like smooth grass out there.  Joie Chitwood could probably have a daredevil show out there.  IT'S ROUGH.

 

 

Tom as aways its fun to race you, always some level of unexpected exitement. We wil swap the beer on the next one, as you said the Army guy earned it.

[LarryKing]

I really enjoyed sharing Watkins Glen bog stories from the '70's and '80's with Tom Todaro 

 

Ohh, I gotta talk with Tom about that. I was at the US GP in '78, '79, and '80. Ya had to be there to believe the scene at the bog.

[mellen]

On the track was mostly fun.  Unfortunately my camera turned itself off (or was never turned on) so I can't show my exciting airborne off road trip in the grass exiting turn one during Sunday's race while trying to avoid a spinning car.  We don't realize how fast we're going until we leave the racing surface and in this case don't be fooled by what looks like smooth grass out there.  Joie Chitwood could probably have a daredevil show out there.  IT'S ROUGH.

 

 

 

 

Tom, i believe i have you on my video flying through the infield and getting the car airborne. will check and post if its there.

[Michael Novak]

Does anyone know where the Orange and Black car came from. I dont believe he qualified up front but was in the front pack a few laps into the race?

 

 

Tom, I have a video of me doing the same thing a few years back.  I cleared the crossover road....

[Jim Drago]

Does anyone know where the Orange and Black car came from. I dont believe he qualified up front but was in the front pack a few laps into the race?
 
 
Tom, I have a video of me doing the same thing a few years back.  I cleared the crossover road....

I think he had an early mishap and we caught him coming around to lap him.

[davew]

The orange and black car was involved in an incident on lap 1 at the end of the back straight, lost the front bumper, then when he pack caught him he stayed and played with the leaders for a while.

 

Dave

[Michael Novak]

The orange and black car was involved in an incident on lap 1 at the end of the back straight, lost the front bumper, then when he pack caught him he stayed and played with the leaders for a while.

 

Dave

 

ALL I saw was he let the leaders get away as he slowed down the rest of the group. There were alot of people who just didnt get it over the weekend.

[mellen]

Tom's off

 

[LarryKing]

Where?