74 replies to this topic

[Caveman-kwebb99]

The paddock was fun this weekend. The drama was low and the BS was deep. From Todd "the Goat" Lamb, to restart Tommy Todaro, to 8 quart Kyle, we all had a good time.
 
Congrats to all
 
dave, 48mm, wheeler

Love your new Nick name good seeing you again 48mm

[Michael Novak]

Fun-low drama weekend as described by others.  Good to see T. Lamb show up to drive the Goatman car....  Sad to see Frank T. have another tough weekend---2016 cant come fast enough for him racing wise. Caveman as always in the center of the action---sorry about the bump--no foul was meant. Brown and the rest of the Advanced crew---good to see you and another great weekend of racing. Kicera crew---  Met Tyler one time for a second before last weekend and now two weekends in a row---great family and fun to race with...  Glad he wasn't paying attention for the one to go like I wasn't Saturday... Beyer,Provitz,Bannister,Piku,T. TODARO---Fun racing and hanging out as always.

 

 

 My Roush Teammate Justin Hille--sorry it didn't work out either day, but I think we are going to be in good shape for Daytona-Congrats on the Northern Conference title.

 

Video from Sunday..  Tyler and I taking turns leading to control temps.

 

[JRHille]

Congrats Mike on your first win.  It was a long time coming for sure. This season wouldn't have been nearly as successful without the help of you and Chuck at the shop.  Also congrats to Tyler Kicera for your win and the national points title!

 

It was a great weekend with zero drama and a lot of fun when the track went cold. All competitors hung out like best friends and raced with a lot of respect.  

 

Todd-sorry we didn't work well on Sunday, definitely a learning experience for me on how to be faster as a team. Made a lot of mistakes coming through the chicane and wasn't using the draft to its full potential when the car got hot and had to pull out. 

[Speedycrw]

Congrats Mike!

[Danny Steyn]

Congrats to all the winners and to Tyler for the National Points title! And to Justin Hille for keeping him chasing till the last weekend

[Todd Lamb]

Really fun weekend in my home state of MI.

 

Some very exciting and close racing all weekend, but especially Saturday.

 

Huge thanks to Kyle and Derek for letting me run the Caveman/AtoZ Lawn backup car to get my third Majors weekend in so I could qualify for the Runoffs. Especially liked the custom "Cavelamb" and goat (Lamb-ish according to Kyle) decals.

 

Congrats to Hille, Kicera, Novak for their respective accomplishments - good to see good people doing good things.

 

I appreciate the Majors staff and the event staff for listening to our concerns over the track layout and making suitable changes overnight for the official SCCA sessions.

 

Saturday tech consisted of fuel and restrictor plates.

 

Sunday tech consisted of...well we don't really know. I have a huge issue with this. The head of tech David Kettler was extremely uncooperative during the tech process. Novak (1st) and myself (3rd) were asked to bring our cars into the garage and put them up on jack stands. The overall attitude was offputting and accusatory. I asked what was being teched and was told the exhaust and "other stuff". I asked what the other stuff was and was told it was on a list and that I could not see the list. This felt a little wrong to me, so I approached the series chief steward Costa Dunias who gave me the runaround, at which point Kettler denied telling me I was not allowed to see the list (I never did see it, BTW).

 

So I deferred to the actual tech process, at which point I was under the impression we were allowed as driver/entrant to observe. When Kettler crawled out from underneath the car I again asked what was being teched. He again was very uncooperative and refused to give any specific information. He then proceeded to look under the hood and again I asked what he was teching and he said he was just "looking things over". So again I approached Dunias and was again given the runaround about the "list". I had a lengthy discussion with Kettler about what was being teched (he gave very vague answers like "suspension" and "exhaust" but no specifics). I asked why we weren't whistling engines or pulling heads to do any meaningful tech (not that anyone was suspected of being out of compliance), and he said he didn't have the authority to request such things. WHAT? I've been through a lot of tech over the years, and this was by far the biggest farce I've witnessed. Extremely disappointed in the attitude and lack of transparency.

 

Aside from that, it was a lot of fun and although not a race I would have otherwise participated in, I may just have to add this to the 2016 schedule.

[Alex Piku]

Not a very good weekend overall for me unfortunately.  Had a tough lesson on attention to detail and cutting corners, when I had my steering wheel quick release come apart going onto the oval 1st lap of Saturday's race.

 

 

Aside from that it was fun hanging out with everyone.  Congrats to Mike and Tyler on the wins.  Big congrats to my buddy Justin, conference champ, one day I hope to be as fast and cool as you!
 
Looking forward to getting the car  back together and next year's season.

[Michael Novak]

Just like NASCAR. But in slow motion.

[Tom Hampton]

Not a very good weekend overall for me unfortunately.  Had a tough lesson on attention to detail and cutting corners, when I had my steering wheel quick release come apart going onto the oval 1st lap of Saturday's race.

 

That sucks.  What was the failure mode of the QR?

[Jim Drago]

Congrats Tyler and Mike on the wins! 

Congrats Justin and Tyler on Points titles!

 

That steering wheel deal looks very ugly!

[Craig Berry]

Congrats to Michael! Awesome win, you earned it, we knew it was only a matter of time. Great job Tyler and Justin!, hope to see you both at the runoffs. Tyler, the live camera action is way too cool! Also, hope all you guys appreciate how hard it is to beat Lamb, that guy is tough down 10hp.

[38bfast]

adaptor failure was screws worked loose. No loctite.

[Tom Sager]

Fun-low drama weekend as described by others.  Good to see T. Lamb show up to drive the Goatman car....  Sad to see Frank T. have another tough weekend---2016 cant come fast enough for him racing wise. Caveman as always in the center of the action---sorry about the bump--no foul was meant. Brown and the rest of the Advanced crew---good to see you and another great weekend of racing. Kicera crew---  Met Tyler one time for a second before last weekend and now two weekends in a row---great family and fun to race with...  Glad he wasn't paying attention for the one to go like I wasn't Saturday... Beyer,Provitz,Bannister,Piku,T. TODARO---Fun racing and hanging out as always.

 

 

 My Roush Teammate Justin Hille--sorry it didn't work out either day, but I think we are going to be in good shape for Daytona-Congrats on the Northern Conference title.

 

Video from Sunday..  Tyler and I taking turns leading to control temps.

 

Congrats on a big win Mike and thanks for sharing the video.  

[JRHille]

Here are my views from the awesome clean races. 

 

 

[Tyler Kicera]

Thanks to everyone for the congratulations and kind words.  Congrats to Justin Hille on the conference championship and Novak for his first Majors win...if only I knew it was the last lap  .  Thanks to Todd Lamb for working with me on Saturday in qualifying (we had the front row until the final minutes of the session) and in the races.  Without him I'm not sure things would have worked out quite like they did.  

 

Coming into the weekend I had to win at least one race and Justin had to stay out of the top spot for me to win the National Points championship.  I led most of the Saturday race trading the top spot a few times until I took a defensive line for the first time into turn one.  I made a stupid mistake, didn't back up my brake point, and blew it.  I went from 1st to 6th with less than two laps to go.  I drove hard from there and made up about half of what I lost in the infield.  I got a good suck off of Bilicki and sling shot around him at start finish.  Heading into turn one I went in deep and made an aggressive move on Webb and crossed over on Novak in turn two.  Lots of respect for those guys racing me clean and leaving sufficient room.  It was the last lap and I was on a mission.  Coming onto the NASCAR track it was Justin, Lamb, and me.  I pushed Lamb past Justin and used the side draft to propel myself ahead of Lamb at the line.

 

I met a bunch of new people this weekend and we had a blast playing corn hole at our hauler both nights.  No drama at all and despite the intense battle on track and in the points, there was a lot of mutual respect between everyone.  I only intended on coming to grab the championship but left having had one of the best all around weekends of the season.  Thanks everyone for a relatively clean, intense, fun weekend of SM racing!

 

The last two laps of Saturday's Race

[Erik Hardy]

^^ That was fudging cool to watch, awesome comeback Tyler.

[wheel]

Excellent.  If those guys had stayed in line going into 1 you would have never made it.  

[Ron Alan]

Great drive Tyler! PM'd you if you have a minute...

[Bench Racer]

Thanks for the rides guys. Congrats to everyone who raced Majors events. Tyler, Michael, Justin

 

Walter, do you or is there anyone driving a 1.6 (I understand per some there were no 100% 1.6's, I'll take what's available for video) with video of the second gear corners at MIS? Only want to remind myself and those against throwing a bone to the 1.6 of the results when 99 plus and 1.6's all use second gear.

[LarryKing]

There is in-car video of the lone 1.6 in the MIS Majors field available on youtube. This particular 1.6 is at 57.3%, maybe 58.6% on a good day.