28 replies to this topic

[Keith Andrews]

Good luck!  I hope you all have a drama free weekend.

[Ron Alan]

Good luck!  I hope you all have a drama free weekend.

It is SM don't forget...50/50!

[john mueller]

Everyone participating got this email, I'll put it here in case someone deleted it and didn't print it out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It’s only a day or so now until you'll be participating in the 2014 NASA Eastern National Championships! Most have run one of these big events so much of this will be familiar, but there are some important points and times in this email so please read it carefully.

For those who don't know me, I'm the SM National Director for NASA, I'm the jackwagon who writes the rules and works with Jim Drago to attempt to keep the two organizations as close the same as we can.  Unfortunately, due to some family business I will not be able to attend this championship event.  In my stead John Adamczyk will serve as Series director.

John is a seasoned racer, he is the owner of 5X Racing.com and has served as SM Regional Director in the Florida region for several years.  As Series Director for the event, John will be in charge of car/class questions, impound and tech. John will not be racing at this event so his availability should be pretty good.

Event Format:

• Thursday - Open testing (7:30am drivers meeting)
• Friday - Qualifying and Qualifying race #1 gridded by the morning qualifying
• Saturday – Warm-up & Qualifying Race #2 gridded by Friday's finishing position
• Sunday 31st – Championship Race (2:55pm) gridded by points from Qualifying Race #1 plus #2

ON-TRACK SCHEDULE:
https://docs.google..../htmlview?pli=1
(SM is running in Group D)


MEETING SCHEDULE:

• MANDATORY Race Drivers Meeting will take place on Thursday, August 4th at the outdoor Pavilion @ 6:30pm.
• The entire class will meet as soon as the Race Drivers Mtg concludes John Adamczyk and the SM Race Director for the event.  This as well is a mandatory meeting.
• NOTE: There will be an automatic penalty of being moved to last starting position for the first qualifying race for missing either of these meetings without giving prior notice to John Adamczyk. So, print this email off and keep it with you for his contact info in case you have travel delays.

RACE DIRECTOR:
We are very fortunate to have Ken Kurtz as our race steward. Ken is an accomplished racer with many championships including a NorCal NASA Spec Miata regional championship...  So he understands all issues from all angles, including in the SM world.

Ken will handle all issues and questions regarding on-track conduct and race results (not John Adamczyk).  Ken will be conducting meetings at the event.  These meetings will be the key vehicle for distributing information to you, attendance will be mandatory unless you make other special arrangements with Ken or John Adamczyk.

Let's make Ken's job easy by making high percentage moves while on-track.  If you collectively keep the red-mist at bay and make good decisions everyone will be able to drive your cars up on your trailers.

RANDOM ITEMS: (some are repeats, sorry)
I’m not going to go really far into what is expected from you guys because all of you should know already how to conduct yourselves on a race weekend.

• Event Regs (read them and check back often for updates): http://www.nasaprora..._Champs2014.pdf

• Parking Map & Traffic Plan: http://www.nasaprora...arking_plan.pdf

• SPEC FUEL:  Use the 93 track fuel only.

• SM is great because we race really close and hard but good sportsmanship is a requirement throughout this entire event.  If you stray from this there will be consequences ranging from grid penalties to expulsion from the event or worse.  So, keep your cool, be reasonable with everyone and you’ll be okay.  No BS will be tolerated.

• Be on time to meetings or designate a proxy to attend for you.  If you can let me (txt) or our Race Director know if someone is standing in for you.

• Mind the flag stations and don’t pass under yellow, for if you do you’ll be DQed for that session.

• Say no to stupid dive-bomb passes!  Reckless and dumb-low-percentage moves that result in body contact will be dealt with swiftly and you’re not gonna like what happens to you if you caused it.  Read the CCR section on passing, know it and follow it.  See section 25.4 of the NASA CCR (http://www.nasaprora...m/rules/ccr.pdf)

• If you have the ability to record video please do so every session.  It may keep you from getting DQed when you did not pass under yellow (when indeed you didn't) or may exonerate you from an avoidable contact situation.

• Be on grid with at least 15 minutes early for our sessions and know your starting position.  If you don’t where you start you may end-up starting DFL.

TECH:

• All technical questions should be directed to John Adamczyk at this event, not the guys working in the tech area and not Ken Kurtz.

• Don't monkey around with the rules, it's just not worth it.  Please bring a clean car, earn your finishing position and have fun.

• If you are concerned about someone else not having a compliant car then read up on the protest process and move forward as you see fit.  Refer to Section 17.5 of the NASA CCR (http://www.nasaprora...m/rules/ccr.pdf)

• We will be sending cars to the Dyno - if you are sent you probably won't be allowed anywhere near your car during that process.

• Don't be surprised if at sometime your ECU is requested by tech.

• Don't be surprised if a NASA official puts a self contained Traqmate unit in your car.  If it is tampered in anyway you'll be DQ'd from that session.

• If you are sent to the tech shed bring tools, a jack and jack stands.  Be ready for anything.

• If you finish in the top four for the Championship Race send some folks to go get A BUNCH TOOLS.
  • This includes a way to remove valves from your cylinder head (1.8 only)

Please feel free to reply with any questions (if you have my number please don't call, txt or email and I'll reply).
Have a fun and safe Championships guys!

--
John Mueller
NASA National Spec Miata Director
Weekend-Racer, LLC Operations Manager
818.439.7436 (mobile & txt)
Weekend-Racer.com
 

[Ken SM94]

 John Mueller said:

• If you finish in the top four in the Championship Race send some folks to go get a BUNCH OF TOOLS.
  • This includes a way to remove valves from the cylinder head (1.8 only)

 

 

And a small mirror to inspect the short side radius!   

[john mueller]

And a small mirror to inspect the short side radius!   

 

Heads will be on the bench - Valves will just be the beginning.

[Chad Martin]

Congratulations to the Mazda Winners:

Spec Miata: Alex Bolanos

PTE: Ben Anderson

 

The Dyno debacle seemed to cause a lot of competitors to have a hemhorage and scramble to make a bunch of changes.  All I did to the RX-7 was add weight and take back our wt reduction point to give us another 2 HP buffer. I had dynoed the car the previous week and it was between 170 and 171 HP five pulls in a row.  They didn't compliance dyno us until Sat before the 2nd qual race.  The 3 pulls were 170-172-174.  Which either means redline gear oils free up a lot of horsepower when they get hot or that dyno was still doing weird stuff....either way, Max at our weight was 174 so we passed.  The races were clean and well driven by lots.  Having the 944 spec class start in front of us worked to our favor against the miatas because we had an easier time working through traffic with the higher HP.  We were an average of 400lbs heavier than the miatas.   The SM7s were good but really at or even over the limit on a 2800lb car.  Ben Anderson is a real talent and managed the tires very well.  The car was so wicked loose all weekend but he kept it under him like nobody else could.  I felt bad because i knew the changes that were needed to make the car handle better but in PTE trim I can't change the sway bars from stock so we were stuck with a oversteering pig all weekend.  

 

In the tech shed they had me pull the intake manifolds off and the scoped all 6 ports to make sure we were running a stock port engineas the car is classed on points.  Since the housings and plates are exactly as they come from Mazda including all the nasty casting marks, we passed tech without issue.  Got the car assembled after dark and headed home.

 

Congrats to Ben on such an awesome drive, managing a very hard to drive pig of a car against those well mannered chassis miatas was no small feat.

[Chad Martin]

Ben's video clips from the various sessions.

 

[Bench Racer]

Did this Ben Anderson you speak of come to Blackhawk Farm a few years (2002 ish) ago on a regular basis drive a 1st gen RX7 in ITA. 

[Chad Martin]

Nope.  He wasn't racing back then.