67 replies to this topic

[Johnny D]

The second announcer was a tab better than the first, hope both were doing as a volunteer experience.

 

The three cars I made reference to were Tilly, Kaiser and Jordan which all fell rearward during lap 15. Did Jordan have an issue that continued? 

 

If he was any good you'd know what happened, but hey, he was really good at telling the next group was up next.

J~

[Ron Alan]

Saturday race recap....

 

At the start going into turn 1, Charlie(Hayes) on the inside, Elliot (Skeer) outside...Elliots car stumbled(started to die)and Mark(Drennan)hit him hard causing the outside lane to brake and scatter! Amazingly all made it through that! The front group of Charlie, Ken(Sutherland), Kyle(Kaiser), Tyler(Vance), Brian (Ghidinelli), Joey (Jordan)and Will(Schrader) checked out. I think Barrett Tilley was there also for a little bit but had an off and was shuffled back. Not long after Will had an off coming over 5 which resulted in a front left with no camber and 7/8" toe out(he could turn left!!). Not long after that Kyle took him self off the track for the first time!. So with maybe 5 to go it was Charlie , Ken, Joey, Tyler and Brian. Brian got by Tyler at some point and then got by Joey when he missed a shift. With 1 or 2 to go, Ken made a late brake attempt into 9 and locked up...Charlie saw it coming and choose to drive straight rather than have contact. Both went off allowing Brian, Joey and Tyler to get around. Brian held Joey off for the final lap as did Tyler keeping Charlie off the podium. Great Job to Brian, Joey and Tyler for the podium!

 

Hopefully my description is more accurate than the announcers!(and accurate ). Please correct if my memory is fuzzy!

 

Side note...Elliots car basically died as he made it to the turn 5 bypass. Race stayed green. About halway through suddenly Elliot got out of his car with his fire extinguisher, opened his trunk and and but out his battery which had caught fire!!

[Ron Alan]

Sunday Race...

 

Drama in turn 1 again...this time it was the middle/back of the pack! 5 or 6 cars involved of which 2 had to retire...1 with a tow...1 lap double yellow. Restart was a train of about 12 cars which stayed that way for 5 or 6 laps. Ken led the field with Charlie, Kyle and Elliot the top 4. Slowly the the group faded 1 by 1 until it was still about a 8 car train. Kyle drove off in 10 and was followed by Joey who had help from behind from Brian(not sure if someone behind Brian also helped). Not sure if Brian went right in but he did retire early at some point(Not sure if it was because of that contact) Mark was still part of this front group...until he pulled off on the infield after he sprung a water leak that covered his windshield(overheat?)

 

At this point it was still Ken, Charlie, Elliot and Tyler. I think with 3 to go, Charlie and Elliot got by Ken and CHECKED out(not sure but I bet their fast laps was the last or 2nd to last)! It was a 2 car race to the finish. Elliot knew what he was going to do assuming Charlie made no mistakes. But in the end Charlie won the drag race to the finish. Charlie was the class off the field all weekend! Congrats on an outstanding win!! Sorry it wasnt a double win weekend...but that's racing.

 

Again, someone  please correct if my memory is fuzzy!

[Johnny D]

Can we get the report on the Sat night Shindig ??

J~

[Ron Alan]

Couple side notes on the weekend...

 

Over 300 entrants!!!  To all the SM'ers outside our region who came to play...THANK YOU!

 

Thanks to Terrall Garrett who smoked up some great pork and beef and all the Oregon crowd that came and visited/socialized with our paddock. Nice to put faces to the names on here! Red wine and beer do mix

 

Lastly, big thanks to Charlie who called me last minute about putting someone in my car. Larry Fraser turned out to be one hell of a driver and a nice guy! A local E30 NASA driver and go-carter, he jumped into a Miata for the 2nd time and proceeded to post 2 8th place finishes in one of the deepest fields ever...holy cow Batman!

[Charlie Hayes]

Well I will say that its awesome having such a great group of guys to be running with. Working with Jason Godfrey, Mark Drennan, Brian Ghidinelli, Larry Fraser, and Kyle Kaiser makes the weekend a lot more entertaining. Our crew was superb with getting all the cars dialed in. My car was fast straight out of the trailer. I did a quarter turn up in the front ride height on Friday and never did anymore than fuel and tires after that....

 

Qualifying was very ideal, early morning session with a nice cool track. I was about 10th in line during qualifying with Sutherland, Schultz, Schrader, and Rawlins leading the qualifying pack out on track. Powers and I ran together for a lap then I got by him, and had another car to pass before it was clear track to the Oregon guys. I had a great target to chase and it worked out for pole. I got my flyer on lap 3 which was a 2:06.1 which was good enough for the new Qualifying track record my teammate Drennan reset just a few weeks ago. Lap 4 was in tow with Rawlins but with a little wiggle here and there it was a tick slower.

 

For those that don't know about Thunderhill the asphalt gets extremely heat soaked when its hot out. Our 2:25 race on Saturday was subpar conditions for grip. The race started pretty nice got through turn 1 clean and led the pack with a bunch of pressure from Ken Sutherland and Kyle Kaiser. It was about lap 3 or 4 Ken tried a braking move on me into turns 14/15 and we came out onto the straight side by side. Kaiser pulled out and gave me some bumps and we both cleared Ken going into turn 1. Kaiser eventually fell off putting Ken back in p2. The draft was huge on the back stretch so Ken would have a decent amount of speed on me going into turn 9. He looked a few times and finally went for it with 2 to go. I was not expecting it because he was a little bit out of the striking zone. He had it locked up through the apex and we both went off in the dirt. Brian Ghidinelli, Joey Jordan, and Tyler Vance got by. Ken came off track further down the road and was side by side with Vance with Vance on the inside. I went with Vance by Ken in turn 10 and we came out on the straight away nose to tail Ghidinelli, Jordan, Vance, Myself, and Sutherland. It was tight as heck going through turns 1 thru 6. I gave a slight gap to work a draft into 9  I got side by side with Vance in turn 8 but he ran a very defensive line and drove me straight to the apex curb. I was slow out of it and Ken got by me. That was the deciding factor for that race. Very happy for Brian to take the win. I was obviously a little bummed on some of the outcomes earlier in the race but that happens, you need skill and luck. A TFB car still won though 

 

Now for Sundays race we had the same grid, but this time Elliott Skeer had a non explosive battery and plugged in the #4 injector wire. Started off really good Ken gave me a nice bump going towards 1 on the start and cleared me of Skeer for any side by side. I put my head down and started going I pulled a slight gap by turn 9 to see a FCY. I slowed up by turn 10 and we all regrouped. It was only 1 lap of FCY Ken and everyone else was extremely tight and it was going to be hard to shake them on the start. We went for it mid way through 14/15 onto the straight and Ken got a great start and was able to pull out and pass right into turn 1. Now Ken did say sorry about what happened the day before but, I said he owes me one. So I put the most pressure I have put on anyone. I ran nose to tail with him for 10 laps and really studied where I was stronger or he was. I knew a few places that I wanted to make a pass happen I just had to wait for the right time. With about 5 to go I had a huge run on him out of turn 1 and into turn 2. He went a little deep into turn 2 showing a lane on the inside in the long sweeper. I got in there and got it done by turn 3. This opened the door for Skeer who also passed Ken in turn 3. Skeer and I hooked up for the last few laps and clicked off some good laps. Skeer had a great car at the end and I thought it would be very tough to hold him off. I had to run a pretty defensive last lap, if it wasn't for lapped traffic in a few spots it could have been a different out come. Very excited for the win.

 

Not sure if the GoPro recorded the whole race. Red light wasn't blinking at the end....

 

All in all a pretty good weekend with a very stacked field. Can't wait for Buttonwillow in a few weeks to do it again.

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

Congrats to Charlie.  He dominated the weekend and controlled it from the front.

 

I have to add in the 2 races 4 of the 6 podium spots were taken by Teen Mazda Challenge West drivers or alumni!  This is a very strong group!  ( Hayes-22, Skeer-20, Vance-20 and Jordan-20 )

 

Here is what happened to Joey in the 2nd race.  I will let you make the call....I gave you the lead up so you can see from 5 turns ahead of the incident.

 

Also the Kaiser Skeer incident also happened in the same corner right ahead of them and may have contributed to what happenned.

 

http://youtu.be/2f2sle725yY

[Brian Ghidinelli]

I don't know how Ron writes such good recaps from the paddock... I know I need to talk to him next time a race is over before I tell anyone my version of what happened!  Saturday race was awesome - I earned the 3rd and was in the right place at the right time for the win.  I was really pulling for Charlie but I've been in his shoes before so I won't kick lady luck out of the right seat.

 

For Sunday - I apologized to Joey in impound and will do here again.  I don't know what happened going in to 10 - Joey broke early but I was expecting it and was on the brakes but the car didn't slow.  It was like braking on fluids or ice... I didn't get my cameras running due to the schedule moving up so I don't know if Tyler was pushing me too but it was definitely my bumper that pushed Joey off.  We raced hard and clean both Saturday and Sunday and I hope we can do it again in the future.  It's worth mentioning that Joey was driving with one badly burned hand making his performance that much more impressive.

 

I was going into T1 a couple of laps later and Clement got me slightly in the left rear... right after in T2 about mid corner something seemed to come loose and the car stepped out and then had a terrible vibration and it felt like maybe a flat tire or something in the suspension broke so I pulled in at the end of the lap.  Nothing was obviously wrong with it when we got to impound so we'll have to look back at the shop.

 

I'll be R&Ring while you're all at Buttonwillow but I'll be ready for more at Laguna in June!

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

Hey Brian....it happens in close quarters racing you definitely apologized, did not mean to infer anything at all, sorry if it came off that way.  I just got 400 (maybe an exageration) about it so it's easier to post here so all can see....  No big deal SXXT happens.  On to the next one...

[Jim Drago]

For Sunday - I apologized to Joey in impound and will do here again.  I don't know what happened going in to 10 - Joey broke early but I was expecting it and was on the brakes but the car didn't slow.  It was like braking on fluids or ice...

Looks just like when Stearns ran into my front bumper at the Runoffs! All you can do is apologize

[Kyle Keenan]

Really enjoyed the race on Sat...really makes me wish I would've brought my Miata down too. Great to see some friends again, hoping a lot of you California guys come north for the Majors up here!

 

A huge thanks to those also running in STL for being patient when getting around the B-Spec battle. Glad I was able to beat Derrick on Sat, but congrats to him on his win on Sunday.

 

Anyone know who had the photos booth by registration on Sat? They left before we got a chance to get in there

 

Note: MJ, who got disqualified, was on SM6's. Not that it matters, but heard somewhere someone said he was on BFG's and wanted to clear that up.

 

[Terrell Garrett]

And thanks to Juan and Ron for including us in their Saturday night feed. Lot's of fun and good people.

I hope some of you come to Portland. Rumor has it we are bringing the wood fired pizza oven.

Terrell

[Bench Racer]

 

Note: MJ, who got disqualified, was on SM6's. 

 

Sometimes back in the pack the budget dictates which tire gets used. 

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

The second announcer was a tab better than the first, hope both were doing as a volunteer experience.

 

The three cars I made reference to were Tilly, Kaiser and Jordan which all fell rearward during lap 15. Did Jordan have an issue that continued? 

 

Jordan's issue was square tires from the flat spots!

[Ron Alan]

Brian...hard to know if it was a tandem push of Joey unless Tyler posts up. Either way, because of his position, Joey had to check up early and did so just that fraction earlier. Once the tap unsettled the rear of his car in that downhill brake zone it was over. Would love to see Joeys front video as well as everyone else's! 

[Juan Pineda]

Full results are posted:

 

http://checkerlap.com/club/sfrscca

 

Enjoy!

[Jordan Wand]

Sunday Race...

 

Drama in turn 1 again...this time it was the middle/back of the pack! 5 or 6 cars involved of which 2 had to retire...1 with a tow...1 lap double yellow. Restart was a train of about 12 cars which stayed that way for 5 or 6 laps. Ken led the field with Charlie, Kyle and Elliot the top 4. Slowly the the group faded 1 by 1 until it was still about a 8 car train. Kyle drove off in 10 and was followed by Joey who had help from behind from Brian(not sure if someone behind Brian also helped). Not sure if Brian went right in but he did retire early at some point(Not sure if it was because of that contact) Mark was still part of this front group...until he pulled off on the infield after he sprung a water leak that covered his windshield(overheat?)

 

At this point it was still Ken, Charlie, Elliot and Tyler. I think with 3 to go, Charlie and Elliot got by Ken and CHECKED out(not sure but I bet their fast laps was the last or 2nd to last)! It was a 2 car race to the finish. Elliot knew what he was going to do assuming Charlie made no mistakes. But in the end Charlie won the drag race to the finish. Charlie was the class off the field all weekend! Congrats on an outstanding win!! Sorry it wasnt a double win weekend...but that's racing.

 

Again, someone  please correct if my memory is fuzzy!

Here was my view of the "drama" (to put it mildly) in Turn 1.

 

http://youtu.be/W1zvfbGgRXg

[Johnny D]

I wasn't there but it looks like from the results it was Nieble and swig. (2 cars retired on lap one from Ron's quote)

There's a video I could post that makes that look like a walk in the park.

But thanks for posting

J~

[Johnny D]

What happened to the 84 car Juan ?

J~

[Danny Steyn]

Joey - sorry to see you go out that way, but knowing Brian, there is one thing I can say for sure, he never meant it. Brian doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He just screwed up, like all of us do at some time or another. PS - he owes you a big push to the lead in the next race!!! ;-)