231 replies to this topic

[Danny Steyn]

LADY LUCK plays such an important part in this sport, and it is even more meaningful at the Runoffs. One or two swings in LUCK can have a phenomenal impact on the final results.

In the Tuesday Q1 session, in absolutely perfect track and cool air conditions, more than 10 drivers went under the previous qualifying lap record, and Drago set a blistering time in the 2:41’s. Unfortunately my 3rd gear quit on lap 2 and I was relegated to 42nd on the grid. Not where I expected to be.

Wednesday’s Q2 session was in wet to drying conditions, and while I handily won the session it had no impact on my grid position. Thursday’s Q3 session was dry but it was 30 degrees warmer, almost 100% humidity and the track was very green. And fortunately several people offered to help move my up the field, one of them my good friend Chris Haldeman who helped me move up to 26th place on the final grid.

No-one starting in 26th has any aspirations of a podium, I was hoping for a top 10 at best.

But then one of the most BIZARRE and OBSCURE strokes of LUCK intervened. Unbeknown to me, 20 minutes before the race, Stu at BSI sold Andrew Carbonnel’s car, leaving the 25th spot on the grid open, moving me from the left lane to the right lane. And on the start, for whatever reason, the left hand lane was parked and the right hand lane was FLYING. I think I had made up close to 8 spots before Turn 1 before I outbraked Joey Jordan for the outside pass in T1.LADY LUCK finally gave me a break!!!

Thereafter the race was a total war. The leaders were fighting every corner, ultimately keeping the top 15 very tightly bunched. Up front ahead of me it looked like war, everyone trying to get track position before the inevitable FCY which came on lap 2.

The restart looked orderly but I didn’t have a good view of the front guys. Upfront Steve, Andrew and Craig seemed to be holding the lead pattern for a while with Drago and Stearns in contention. Back where I was there was a lot of jostling between Bender, Voytek, Reynolds myself and Elivan. Then ahead it looked like Drago and Charbs and contact and as Charbs came back on the track, Reynolds and Elvan rubbed wheels and the ensuing snatch knocked Charbs off track into the wall before the T6 bridge. Sad to see him not in the race at the end.

Round about lap 9, directly behind me, Daniel Bender was pushing Tom Brown as they came to the kink and they both ran wide, sliding backwards along to wall on drivers left. Miraculously they never crossed over to drivers right otherwise it would have been the end to the race. Very surprised that they were both able to drive away. My rear view camera feed is just nuts, as is Brown's in car video.

At one point, I ran in too close to the guys ahead, outbraked myself and screwed up T14 dropping into no man’s land and I thought my race to front might be over, but the fighting at the front allowed me to work my way back into their draft. Then Steve’s car began to miss and pop like crazy and you could see his power start falling off dramatically, yet he was still able to hang with help from Elivan, and at one time we went through the kink two wide! As this was happening Berry was pulling off with a miss.

With about three laps to go it was Stearns, Drago, Reynolds, Voytek, Steyn, Steve, and Elivan. Elivan got past me going into T6. Behind me, coming up the main straight I got a great push by Jason Knuteson who was suddenly on our tail, but he had a wild slide though T1 and crossed over hitting the wall on drivers’ right.

With a lap to go the order out of T14 was Voytek, Matt, Drago, Elivan, Steyn, Leverone and Jordan. By the time we crossed the start finish line with one to go, Voytek had been freight trained and was back in 4th just ahead of me. I tried to pass Voytek on the exit of T1 on drivers right only to see the safety vehicle blocking Knuteson at the last moment. (VERY CLOSE)

Voytek got under Reynolds for 3rd place into T3 on the run to T5. Going into T5 I got under Matt and a great 2-3 shift, and a bump from Nick behind me put me into 4th spot going through T6 behind Viytek, and Nick also got under Matt with Joey in close contention.

Drago led into T8 but behind him Elivan went wide and Voytek was able to clear him on the outside leading into the carousel. I committed to the outside pass around the carousel but was getting close to running out of track so I breathed and let Elivan have it and we went through the kink Drago, Voytek, Elivan, Steyn, Leverone, Reynolds and Jordan.

Heading down to Canada corner for the last time, Drago and Voytek hugged the right side of the track defending the passing line. At the last moment Elivan went to the left to try the outside momentum pass through T12, but ran wide and bounced over the rumble strips but managed to come back on heading straight for me as I had a great run out of 12. I passed Elivan on the outside of T13, our mirrors touched, but I had the inside line for T14, and held the 3rd place to the finish. Really thrilled to be there as it exceeded my wildest expectations. Finally some LUCK went my way.

Behind me Joey Jordan, running Tom’s rental ’01 car, made the inside pass in T14 on Matt and ended up finishing just behind Nick in 6th place. What a great young driver. Joey has great skills in his hands and feet, but an even better racing brain. Everytime we went over data he saw it immediately and got faster and faster each session. No telling what he could have done if we had been able to run together in dry sessions before the race. Nick in Flat Out’s rental car, and Joey in OPM’s rental car set the fastest race laps. Pretty amazing.

Huge shout-out to Tom, Tracy and Jonathon at the track and to Ryan Chris and all the other techs back at OPM for building me a great car and for their tremendous support and assistance. Thanks to Traqmate for the invaluable data.

And finally my second apology of the weekend. To Mike Rossini, my great friend and supporter. I am so sorry. I completely forgot to call him after we all cleared post-race tech inspection. And finally at 10pm he called me and asked me if he could have dinner and a drink, he hadn’t wanted to celebrate until he knew we had passed tech. Mike so sorry for that. Dumb mistake on my part.

Mike is one of the true gentlemen of the sport and I owe so much of my success and enjoyment in motor racing to my association to Mike. Thanks Mike, finally a Runoffs podium. What a season.

And despite my loyalty to Mike Rossini as my engine builder, I have to also make a point of congratulating Chris Haldeman, who lent Voytek one of his own engines when Voytek’s other engine was a bit down on power. Congrats Chris, not only for the podium for your engine, but also for passing a rigorous tear down in tech. Hope this brings you lots of business. You deserve it.

[suck fumes]

That really sucks for Chris. He's worked so hard on his motor program and car and to have two bad champ events back to back is frustrating!

[Danny Steyn]

One more apology. I forgot to thank my wonderful gearbox / diff builder, Joe Vabrles, who has been with Tom and I from the start, and who has been cheeering for me for several seasons now. Joe, really happy to finally put your great work on show for the class to see. Joe is a huge fan of Spec Miata and his work is exceptional. Thanks for being in my corner Joe!

[MPR22]

First a big thank you to my sponsors and family, X-Factor Racing.com, TPR Consulting, Phillips Race Prep and Cordray Schneller. 

Thank you to my wife and family for letting me go play with the big boys this week

 

Super big thank you to my friend Bill Agha for allowing me to use his car for this crazy event. 

 

As was reported early in the week, I put her into the wall out of turn 14 on the last lap of practice.  Was following a large group and wanted to get a run out of the last turn, did exactly that until they all checked up and I lifted, dropped the outside rear which hooked the curb and the ride was short and crooked from there.  

 

Got into Bill's car for qualifying on Tuesday without turning a lap in it before.  Car was fast and turned well, what a relief.  Brian Wisler was to be my wingman for the qual but he developed the dreaded electrical miss on the out lap and I was about 8 car lengths off of Bickham and Haldeman.  With Luke pushing  Chris and nobody willing to push me from behind I was in dreaded no-mans land.  I would almost be able to catch Chris in Luke while we were in traffic early but they would pull away on the straights.  Chris' car had a wicked push early and he went wide through 14,1 and 3 eventually pointing me and Luke by while he fell back in line further back.  I caught Luke but he went wide in 5 and then I was truly alone.  Matt Reynolds came up to me and I tried to follow him but he was too fast for me late in the session as my car was getting loose in the carousel.  I was really thrilled with my driving but had not lap timer and thought for sure i was in the top 20.  Got back to the pits and I see I am 30th.  OMG, with no pusher i was dead and it showed. As everyone predicted before the run-offs the only real qualifying day was going to be Tuesday and once that had come and gone there was not much to do but pray for rain race.  I felt really bad for Brian as he was really hosed when he wasn't able to get a hot lap in on Tuesday and he was 66th of DFL until he was able to move to 59th in Thursdays practice.  Really bad break for him as he was in the mid 43s in Sunday afternoon on the test day. 

 

I got to see the race unfold from mid-pack and I wasn't willing to sacrifice a friends car to move forward.  The amount of people who were hitting each other on the first lap was down right scary.  I lost place after place checking up as people in front of me collided.  Very sad to see two team mates collected in the turn 7 debacle.  

 

After the double yellow, Brian Wisler was within 3 cars of me and we hooked up and made our charge forward.  We made it all the way up to 18th from 35th and 38th when my car started missing out too badly to compete with one lap to go, Brian i think finished 19th for the hard charger award.  

 

X-Factor power in all the team cars which handled very well on the straights.  Burdzy finished P2 with his X-Factor Racing engine, not bad for the spare engine Chris brought for us in case something happened.  

 

Thank you John Phillips for helping me get Bill's car prepped for me to drive.  Couldn't have done it without you.  

 

My first run-offs was quite and eye opener, stunned at how aggressively EVERYONE was driving on race day.  Not sure if I want to play that game as writing off cars and risking serious injury for a mid-pack finish seems silly. 

 

 

Congratulations to the entire podium, you all deserve cudos for great drives. 

[DrDomm]

I just wanna share my experiences here...with a little different perspective than the front runners.  All in all, it was a great experience.  But going to Road America for the first time, it was difficult to have rain affect some of the sessions. 

 

The test day on Sunday was difficult for me because it rained.  I went out in the morning (wet), skipped the 2nd session (wet), and finally got some dry time in the afternoon.  It was awesome to drive Road America in the wet and the dry!

 

Monday AM was beautiful, and had a good session.  Too bad it wasn't qualifying, as that's when I turned my fastest time.  Tuesday, I struggled on new tires (like always), so I spent the whole afternoon setting up scales and changing the setup completely.  I looked forward to trying things out Wednesday, but decided not to venture out in the rain. 

 

Thursday it rained in the morning, but dried out for our session in the afternoon.  I had no clue it was going to be 14 minutes.  I believe it was the first one shortened, and mostly because of clean-up from the prior session.  We sat on the false grid for too long.  It was not right to shorten those sessions, no matter how much the helicoptor cost.  The photo session was cool, but it took 2 hours out of the day before our race.  And it got pretty warm standing around in drivers suits. 

 

Friday started out with heavy rain, but fortunately dried out for us.  I started 58th (grrr), but had a mostly clean race.  I was a bit cautious on the start and restart, because of the potential mayhem.  Obviously, there was some serious carnage and that helped me improve my position, but I also passed a few cars and had some "racing".  I regained a position at the finish line.  I wasn't thrilled with my lap times, but I finished 36th.  I'm happy about that, and that I have no damage.  It was sad to see all the cars at the side of the track with major damage.  Glad that everyone was uninjured. 

 

Some thoughts...the draft is so important, not all motors are created equally, patience is a virtue, Road America is amazing, rescue workers are crazy and awesome, the kink is fun if you don't hit the wall on the exit, I'm slow in the carousel, there is not a hill up the front straight...there is a mountain, those damn exit curbs suck, happy that Randy Pobst pronounced my name correctly, Road America has the best track food, rain sucks, 10 days away from home is a long time, 67 cars is a lot even if the track is 4 miles, etc.

Anyway, it was a great experience.

[Sphinx]

Congrats to all!  Watched the replay last night (if you can't find it, it is here:  http://speedcasttv.c...cca/#/races/362 1st race is SM).  My wife cracked me up when she complained at how rude it was for Drago to be so close to whoever he was drafting.  LOL!

 

 

Wow.  We knew it would be exciting, and it sure was.  Especially Drago seriously sideways in T5.  Fun to keep track of Danny's progress as he moved up.

 

I think we all held our collective breaths when Drago locked up.  And amazing that he recovered.  Truly a racing incident if I've ever seen one.

 

Exciting race.

It looks like a very expensive race.

 

The SCCA workers should get the "Humungous Balls of Steel" award

 

What was that all about?!  Same thing in the T4/SpecB race.  That put the workers and racers in tremendous danger for no good reason.

[Sphinx]

My first run-offs was quite and eye opener, stunned at how aggressively EVERYONE was driving on race day.  Not sure if I want to play that game as writing off cars and risking serious injury for a mid-pack finish seems silly. 

 

And that's the rub.  So, as much as I want to get more seat time, get faster, etc., etc., watching this race makes me question whether balling it up is worth it.  Yes, I can afford to drive it off a cliff and walk away from the investment, but I'm not sure that I could afford to rebuild repeatedly, mentally or financially.

[Bench Racer]

Runoffs Stuff:

 

Joey 1st time at track, great young man / talented driver / data driven / very fun interesting father/ there are racing back stories about father and uncle that snuck out a bit at the Mazda dinner.

Danny, 41st, 26th, podium. That friends is keeping your head up and down at the same time.

Mark Drennan 1st time at track, 40th to 11th.

Met some out of state drivers and crew, didn't meet enough.

Viewed an interesting first time on track safety deal. At on track issues there were safety vehicles placed between issue cars and on coming traffic protecting the workers and drivers.  Nice improvement SCCA/Road America.

Congrats to all folks that took part in the 50th running of the Runoffs.

Tracy, the food was your usual fantastic.

Way to much bent tin, kind of created by drivers driven a bit far by their expectations.

Great race to watch live from the T5 stands coming into T5, through T5 and up the hill entering T6 also viewing T13, T14 and up the front straight HILL.

[DrDomm]

I heard that early in the week, SCCA had posted trap speeds on their website.  I can't find them.  Anyone see them?

[pat slattery]

I heard that early in the week, SCCA had posted trap speeds on their website.  I can't find them.  Anyone see them?

They are usually published several weeks after the races

[mvzante]

I heard that early in the week, SCCA had posted trap speeds on their website.  I can't find them.  Anyone see them?

 

Pretty sure this is what you are looking for:

 

http://www.scca.com/...ts.cfm?eid=5680 scroll down and find the class you want to view.  It has qualifying and race results, speeds, position each lap, etc.

 

or direct link to SM http://scca.cdn.race...e lap times.pdf

[Danny Steyn]

Hi all

 

here is my full video from the Runoffs, in-car camera and bumper-mount rear camera. Not a perfect drive but still pretty chuffed with the drive through the field. 

 

[Ron Alan]

Some interesting data in those numbers!! 2 cars in the 120mph+ range...little above the norm maybe?

[Waterboy]

 

Hi all
 
here is my full video from the Runoffs, in-car camera and bumper-mount rear camera. Not a perfect drive but still pretty chuffed with the drive through the field. 
 

 
Maybe deceiving but I can't believe the red car didn't get penalized for that move in 1 with the yellow out. You lifted he didn't, and passed the gray car and damn near hit the safety truck.

Nice drive by the way.

[Serge]

I made it to turn 5 before ping ponging between Voytek and Steyn in the brake zone. Broken diff resulted and race was over before it began. It was fun to watch, but what a mess. Some sloppy and aggressive driving up front.

Now that the race is over, let the games begin. DDG started with the games yesterday with me and Drago and got his wrist slapped. Some people never learn.

It sound like the games have turned ugly. Gorriaran getting his rental car tire slashed in the paddock and personal mail package photographed and posted on line?

Todd, now that you've opened a can of worms, would you like to expand on your insinuations? Someone out there is lucky that criminal charges were not filled. 

 

Congratulations to Jim for a well deserved win.

[suck fumes]

Man Danny that new exhaust setup you got must make you deaf! Did you totally delete the muffler altogether? Your car was hooked up though. When Voytek was in front towards the end coming around turn 1 I thought for sure he was going to hit that safety truck! That was close!

[Rob Burgoon]

Bazillion passes under caution on the start?

[makus0025]

Some interesting data in those numbers!! 2 cars in the 120mph+ range...little above the norm maybe?

Does anyone have info on where the sectors and trap speeds were set up?

 

Is S3 the same as the speed that shows up on the billboard in T5?

[JRHille]

Great video, Danny! I'm a huge fan, would love to be under the same tent some day. 

Like the idea of using the bumper cam for the audio, sounds great!

[Todd Green]

Some interesting data in those numbers!! 2 cars in the 120mph+ range...little above the norm maybe?

Without knowing exit speeds can't really say much.  What I thought was interesting was how slow Jim's first trap speed (and sector) was on his fast lap in qualifying.  Had he had a perfect sector his time would have been even more impressive.