262 replies to this topic

[Sean - MiataCage]

Wow..... What a weekend!

 

First off.... Congratulations to Matt on the win!  You drove a hell of a race.  You've worked really hard for this and deserve it.  Team MiataCage I think represented pretty well.  We won all 3 races and it was an all MiataCage front row at the start of the big race.

 

Several Thank You's on my behalf need to go out.  

 

Larry Carpenter at Carpenter Motorsports, you built me an amazing car!

Ken, Matt, Will, Dan, Tyler, Mike, Steve - you guys made this weekend fun for me and I enjoyed racing and hanging out with you guys.

John Mueller and Jeremy at NASA - Thanks for everything you guys did to make a fun weekend and validate the podium.

 

As far as my race went, I had a great little hot rod, but I made some very big tactical mistakes that overall hurt me.  

 

Now on to the man drama........

 

I am on the one who filed a protest against Kyle.  Kyle and I have talked about my protest and it is between the two of us and I have no intention of talking any more about it.  I heard from NASA about the results of the protest this morning and both Kyle and I are satisfied with the result.  Kyle drove a good race and he seems like a really nice guy.  It is/was nothing personal and I am happy to race with him again any time.

 

As far as the Will and Haldeman drama goes, I think a lot of this has gotten overblown.  I have know both guys for a while now and both guys are very good drivers, mechanics and overall great people.  As racers sometimes we get excited and things get mis-interpreted in the heat of the moment.  I know Chris wanted nothing more than to have Will in the race and that was the extent of it.  

 

Some of you know that I am not a mechanical individual when it comes to these cars.  Will and Ken don't allow me to work on them because I don't know what I am doing and they take care of the cars for me and allow me to just show up and drive.  After our win at the 25 last year in December I told them I wanted us all to go take a shot at the NASA title.  Since it was so close to us and I feel like the West Coast never gets any respect from a drivers talent perspective and I wanted to prove that wrong.  We did not have NASA in the NW until this year and we typically only race SCCA, so me asking those guys to commit to this a year out with a different sanctioning body and tire was something that I wanted to do and they all supported me on it 100%.

 

Will has spent countless hours prepping his car and my car as well as the rest of my rental fleet prior to this race.  Once his car got hit in qualifying race # 2 he decided to be a team player and support Ken, Matt and I instead of focusing on himself and his car.  He had his Father and Daughter with him the whole week and they were troopers..... At the track by 7 and home by 10 every night was tough already..... Putting them through an all nighter was not something he wanted to put them through so he decided to put his family first and support his team instead.  That is the type of guy Will is..... I did not turn 1 wrench the entire weekend, I think I put gas in the car once or twice and that was it.  He did everything else for me and made me look great and have a really good time.  Will is not a quitter, he is a giver.

 

It was great to finally put some faces to some names.  There was quite a few younger drivers there with some very promising futures.  Tyler, Adam, Justin, Joey, Kyle the list goes on and on.

 

 

Tons of fun.... Congratulations to all who competed and those who made the podium!

 

Sean

[Jim Drago]

John
Can you shed some light as to why the engines didnt come apart again this year? It sounded like there were some plans in place to do so?

Also, any truth to the rumor that NASA will be adopting the HP limit that was implemeneted in Spec E 30 and using it in SM as well? I heard that a few times this weekend?

Jim

[john mueller]

M

JohnCan you shed some light as to why the engines didnt come apart again this year? It sounded like there were some plans in place to do so?Also, any truth to the rumor that NASA will be adopting the HP limit that was implemeneted in Spec E 30 and using it in SM as well? I heard that a few times this weekend?Jim

No WiFi at the track today so sorry for the poor grammar and spelling... Stupid smartphone keyboard.

Plans were in place to tear motors down if deemed necessary, which based on post-main dyno pulls and what we were seeing all week told me it was unnecessary. I'm not going to have someone teardown just to do it... I had a plan, reviewed it with much smarter folks than I and we followed it. I'll post more info on what we did when i have a real keyboard.

SM is such a sewing circle... SE30 has implemented a HP & TQ cap and it's perfect for that class. Hopefully this move will spare them the mess our rules rules became. Honesty, I'm going to watch how it shakes out. I think they are missing something by not mandating a dyno curve (ecu mappings). But no, I'm not instituting a cap.

I did tell everyone who al be replacing a windshield to write the BOD if they'd like to see a change there.

[Ron Alan]

A lot of crickets here? Top 2 and 4 out of the top 7 were 1.6 cars. Why no 99 parity complainers?

I've spoken to a couple of the 1.6 drivers and they said the 99 cars had them covered on speed down the long straights. The 1.6 cars were better in other parts of the track...be it drivers or the car.

Looking forward to weekend video and some more write ups. Maybe some driver perspectives on good and bad things of the weekend and how things were run.

[Ron Alan]

Oh...another thing...so much for a tire you don't need to shave! Pretty sure most were starting with 1 or 2/32 tires!!

[Tyler Dahl]

You didn't need a shaved tire, I was running in the 19's on 6-10 hear cycle non shaved tires and the 1.6 is faster if it has clean air, if your behind a 99 your just holding on because of the slight difference in corner speed. Congrats to everyone it was a great race to watch and Matt drove clean every lap and that's what made the difference.

Also I mentioned to John that for the championship race you should be required to run a new set of tires to eliminate the shaved tire scenario.

[Todd Green]

Oh...another thing...so much for a tire you don't need to shave! Pretty sure most were starting with 1 or 2/32 tires!!

I ran the entire event on a single set of new, non-shaved tires.  Ran my first lap of the weekend on Thu (didn't do Weds test-n-tune) at a 2.20.4 without a drafting partner.  Then my car started to act up.  Put it on the dyno and it was making 99HP (top cars that I know about were 117-118).  Still was able to start in 12th place in the Championship race.  Got taken for a wild ride in the attitudes on the first lap by an over-eager young driver.  Never did figure out what was wrong with my car.  Lots of others were having electrical issues as well.  Never seen so many at a single event.  Even my data acq which has been solid as a rock decided to not work for the race.  Sucked not having shift-lights (and stock tach covered by data-acq display), lap times, time left in the race etc.  It also has all my alarms for over temps, oil pressure etc.  Grrr.  On the bright side my brakes were awesome for the entire weekend.  1st time in 2 years.  I'd guess that shaved tires are worth tenths.  Not the seconds that RA1's were.

 

FWIW

[Jim Drago]

I've spoken to a couple of the 1.6 drivers and they said the 99 cars had them covered on speed down the long straights. The 1.6 cars were better in other parts of the track...be it drivers or the car.

Wait, let me make sure I understand.. Your saying that a SM driver told you that they were better in the corners, but another car was better in a straight line? That might just be the first time I have ever heard that!

[Todd Green]

Wow.....

 

It was great to finally put some faces to some names.  There was quite a few younger drivers there with some very promising futures.  Tyler, Adam, Justin, Joey, Kyle the list goes on and on.

 

For me this was the best part of the weekend.  It was great to meet and talk to so many from the forums.  It was also great to see the SM community do its best to help competitors stay on track.  Tyler Vance lost his rear window and both Tyler Dahl and Will offered their hard tops to him.  Tyler gave me his cam angle sensor to try to fix my issues.  We've already talked about how Chris Haldeman was practically rebuilding entire race cars.  He also gave me a ton of technical help with my issues.  I'm sure there was plenty of other camaraderie that I didn't see.

 

I also thought that Jeremy and John did a great job of "policing" us.  I was very thankful to have them as our directors compared to what I saw with the other classes.

 

I was going to type more...but have to run...hope everyone had a great time.  If there is anything we can do better (from a region standpoint...) please let me know.  We're always psyched to have racers make the long tows to race here since we are a small region still trying to grow.

[Mike Ferrara]

What a great week racing and hanging out with so many who share my crack habit!!!! Even though I lost my alternator in the championship race....it was still a Great experience. I got meet and get to know so many new people. Many thanks to John M and Jeremy for their service to us. I am sure both of them would have rather been racing. Thanks to Tyler, Bill Agha, Chris Haldeman(Batshit Crazy), Sean, Larry, Austin, And everyone else I gotta hang with. I have never seen so much help and information shared within competitors. Special thanks to Chris H for the Makers Mark alignment !

[Brian Ghidinelli]

The problem apparently is the same one we complain about all the time... nasa has made it worse by instructing the pace car to drive so slowly ( 25-30 mph is what I have heard) so in typical fashion, the pole sitter and the guys at the front get hosed, each row jumps the start just a bit more than the one in front of them and before you know it, the guys on the front row are gobbled up by the guys in the 5th and 6th row.  

Say what you like about the guys in the SE, the starts we have had and that at the runoffs usually go offwithout a hitch. While they may not be by the 'book' they are fair to all. NASA needs give the pole sitter a litle latitude in order to set the pace of the start on this championship race or the same thing is going to happen today. If we are all being honest with ourselves, most would agree if the start is that slow and you find yourself in row 6, most are guessing at the green and not waiting on the green to fly. The guys on the front row don't have that luxury. 

 

Good luck to all. 

 

Jim

 

Are we saying that racers can't follow the rules?  We know that's not true, because we follow plenty of them as closely as we are required to.  There is next to zero enforcement of starting violations and therefore we don't follow them very accurately.

 

A couple of synchronized cameras along the straight and starter stand with 5-spot finishing position penalty for anyone who jumps the start* will be more than enough to keep people in line. It's like a go/no-go gauge for the start.  We don't see many motors failing that test any longer, do we?

[Brian Ghidinelli]

A lot of crickets here? Top 2 and 4 out of the top 7 were 1.6 cars. Why no 99 parity complainers?

I've spoken to a couple of the 1.6 drivers and they said the 99 cars had them covered on speed down the long straights. The 1.6 cars were better in other parts of the track...be it drivers or the car.

Looking forward to weekend video and some more write ups. Maybe some driver perspectives on good and bad things of the weekend and how things were run.

 

The SpeedcastTV coverage (which was excellent) didn't show the 99s pulling out and passing 1.6 cars at will down the front straight.  Maybe as racers we should just admit that parity is the default choice on our excuse generator even though we know the 1.6, 1.8 and 99s are very well balanced?

 

I also thought the Oregonians could have worked together for the first 35 minutes so kudos to Matt who made some bold moves and drove away.  I was surprised when Sean pulled out on Ken early but it made it a much more interesting race for TV.    It made me want to revisit the team racing thread and note that it hasn't made its way to Utah yet! 

 

Also a shout out to Tony Colicchio and TC Design who have built probably more than 100 spec miata cages in the NorCal area (hell, I think they have built 4 for Kyle L alone!).  Their GTS3 E36 M3 BMW passed 11 cars on a damp track on the first lap to lead the race this morning *overall* for several laps ahead of 997/996 GT3s before ultimately finishing 5th overall and 40-something seconds up on P2 in his class.  Those guys can do awesome fab work but they can wheel too!

 

 

ps - why is h-e-l-l printing as "hale"?

[Ron Alan]

Wait, let me make sure I understand.. Your saying that a SM driver told you that they were better in the corners, but another car was better in a straight line? That might just be the first time I have ever heard that!

Ahmmm...just my attempt to keep the torque debate alive Come on DD?

Was there a NA 1.8 car?

And thanks for the feedback on the need to shave or not. But as Todd said...if its worth a few tenths...those who feel they have the game to win are going to be keeping up with the Jones. My 2 cents

[Bruce Wilson]

Flat track + long straights should have favored the 1.6s.  Road America and Laguna are still to come...  Not many 1.6s registered for the Runoffs this year!

 

Next year Runoffs should be a better mix of both models with top prep and top drivers at a track with elevation.

[Todd Green]

And thanks for the feedback on the need to shave or not. But as Todd said...if its worth a few tenths...

Just a clarification.  I didn't say few tenths.  Simply tenths.  Someone would have to do A-B-A testing under the same conditions to really know.  I can tell you that I went out on new tires and ran a 19.2.  The very next session (hour+ later) on ~14 cycle tires and ran a 18.8 a few events ago.  But again, not a super valid comparison, but my experiences were pretty consistent.  It's the desert and the wind can shift and the temps can climb quickly.  Obviously both will affect lap times, hence the need for A-B-A testing if you really want to know. 

 

If I had to throw out a WAG, I'd say .3-.5.  It's ~2+ lbs a corner depending on how much you shave.  Given the compound is the same from start to finish according to the Toyo engineers, how could it not make you faster?  That is a ton of unsprung weight at the worst part of a rotating mass that our anemic engines (at altitude) have to spin up.

 

That being said, I honestly believe either Tyler or McKeever could have won it and neither were using shaved tires.  Had I figured out my power issues, I'm pretty sure I would have been top 10.  These tires are nothing like the RA1s where you had to shave it you wanted a chance of finishing in the top half of the field.

[LarryKing]

Put it on the dyno and it was making 99HP

On the bright side my brakes were awesome for the entire weekend

 

Do you still have the parking brake adjusters on your rear calipers?

[Jim Drago]

These tires are nothing like the RA1s where you had to shave it you wanted a chance of finishing in the top half of the field.

I havent run the RR, I know it is molded. the RA1 was same compound all the way through and the rr is the same compound all the way through, not sure why one would gain for or less in the shave? I think I amswered my own question ;0 the ra1 starts full tread and the rr likely starts at like 5-6/32

[trimless]

RR starts at 4/32".  I can see shaving the tire to reduce mass, the tire is heavy at almost 2 pounds over a new Hoosier.  

[Todd Green]

RR starts at 4/32".  I can see shaving the tire to reduce mass, the tire is heavy at almost 2 pounds over a new Hoosier.  

Ding, ding, ding.  A new RR is 20 lbs.  My RA1s (shaved) were 17.  You also had the issue of tread squirm with RA1s if they had too much depth.

 

On a side note, I asked one of the Toyo engineers why they didn't just offer up a 2/32" option.  Apparently the legal minimum depth for a DOT tire is 4/32", hence the reason why all molded "DOT-R's" are that depth.  (Edit: And they'd probably have to make separate molds, and estimate stock of both, etc.., but the legal limit was interesting.)

[Todd Green]

Do you still have the parking brake adjusters on your rear calipers?

Currently yes.  I've tried with and without.