33 replies to this topic

[Keith Andrews]

Thanks Blake, congrats to all. Great to see Michael Carter running up there.

[Scooby]

Really fun race to watch.  I watched from 3 different spots.  I could really tell how much more twitchy the NA cars are in some spots.  I enjoyed meeting and talking to several people including Michael Carter, his father and Brian Zellner from the ATLSpeedWerks team.  I didn't want to interfere with folks as they were preparing for a race, so I mostly just walked around checking things out.  I had a great day and Congrats to the podium guys.

PS.  Dan Tiley's Bandit themed car was my favorite race car ever!!!!!!

Joey

[Caveman-kwebb99]

The ARRC 2015 not sure where to start...

 

Arrived to the track after sitting on two different highways behind two different accidents turning a less then 8 hour trip into more then a 10 hour one.  Still got there in time to get in the big parking jam up to get in the gate at around 5pm.  AtL registration is always one of the best in the country and was out of there in seconds, one side of the track paddock was closed for repaving or some thing, never saw a single thing going on over there, so our side of the paddock was pretty full but we had our own little piece of the mountain.

 

Most know I have never been partial to the rain, although it does keep me in business!  Had many comment they were glad and supprised to see me showing up with a 90% rain forcast daily.  

 

Huge thanks to Todd Lamb for what he taught me at the June sprints about my rain driving, so as planned I started off very conservative in the rain and crept up on it till my last wet run resulted in only .3 slower on my fastest lap to Rain Man!  While I kidded him hard about being my long time idol, which we all know he is not, he was very congratulatory to my drive, while he and I are probably what you call polar opposites I have nothing but respect for his skills on the track!  And a huge congrats to you Danny on your 3rd SM win!  Congrats to Bake Clements who has had a very good year this year and didnt get to meet the Carter kid but very impressive for a p3 at his first ARRC.

 

Paul Holton, young gun who drove all weekend with the maturity of a 40 year old man, was a pleasure driving with and against you all weekend!  Keep up the good work!!!!!

 

To my mechanic Derrick Beckett, who helped me build this car in 5 working days starting with the cage, thank you so much for helping me make the ARRC!  Wouldnt have made it without all your work.  And man was the car fast, other then the car settling funny on the trip down the car was trouble free all weekend.

 

What can I even say about the OLD DoGs RaCiNg???  They were my crew for the weekend!  Jeff and Richard took care of everything I needed all weekend, and then the Twins John Watson and Mark Gibbons, and all the entertainment was worth the price of admission!  Seriously they had the scales set up day one we got most of my handling issues sorted out despite the rain, and I ran my best rain session on 5HC rains that shouldnt even be competitve, but I just am not a big budget guy when it comes to the rain, but I think thats gonna change now.  Thnaks so much Mark and John!  and cant stop there must say I never had met Jim BlaZdale before this weekend, what a serriously great guy, great attitude and just all around pleasure to hang with, Starting in p11 and he is encouraging me on the radio that we got a shot at a podium on a partially wet and dry track, while I didnt quite get to the podium I did get to that Highly Coveted finish of p5 just outside of the tech shed inspection lol.

 

Jim Drago, who has since 2011 pretty much been my track dad, always been there to chastise me and encourage me, couldnt ask for a better mentor.  You have outdone yourself this year in providing me with a 100% world beater engine and all the lessons in prep you have given me over the years!  

 

Mike Rosinni, what can I say not even sure if I spell your last name correctly but he parked with us and when I asked him to wistle my car before taking to the track, he got the machine right out of his rig and proclamed my engines CR legit in front of several of his customer.  many may find this very odd, but I have not been wistled despite winning two majors this year, so my greatest fear was I was rocking an engine over on CR, but he put my fears to rest, There was no way for Jim and I to know for sure if my engine was correct on CR, since he sent me a head and head gasket late in May so I could make the first Northern majors he did his best calculations but we just didnt know for sure.  Thanks Mike, and everything I have heard over the years about how great a guy you are it is 1000% true!  and congrats to you for building a motor to get Danny to the win!

 

And to Dan Tilley... I hope you had a very happy 40th birthday, you dont look a day over 39!  

 

The ARRC has been my long time favorite event of the year, big time competition always but such a low drama fun event year after year!  Wish I could have made it last year.

[Danny Steyn]

Great post Kyle, and great drive in the rain. Early Monday morning, already at the airport. Viideo of our epic battle at the ARRC is uploading and I will add a report and link this evening

 

Just want to say what a pleasure it was racing with Bake Clements, Ciiff Brown, Michael Carter and Dan Tiley at this years ARRC at Road Atlanta. 

[Danny Steyn]

Weather wise it was just miserable. It rained all day test day, and all the qually sessions were wet. I ran both the CCPS and ARRC events. For the ARRC Q1 session it wasn’t raining, the track was damp with rivers, no dry lines, but it was a tough call whether to mount rains, inters or dries. Went out on wets, put down a pole time of 1:53.0, came in and changed to dries and had a couple of faster laps going but car was on ice, sliding everywhere and I only nailed down a 1:53.4 on dries. Had a low 1:52 going but couldn’t hold the car. Both wet and dry times we good enough for ARRC pole.

 

For CCPS I qualified 2^nd behind Cliff Brown. Friday was the CCPS race, and unfortunately we were all held way too long in impound after SM Q2 and most of us were late to the CCPS race, including Cliff. When the majority of the field is late, there is a reason and the Atlanta Region SCCA need to understand this and allow for a slight delay. Not a good situation, and totally avoidable.

 

In Cliff’s absence I started from the pole, and drove away in the wet conditions to around a 20 second lead. I considered changing to dries in the mandatory 2 min pit stop toward the end of the race, and had my crew monitoring lap times, but no one changed so I stayed on rains and won comfortably. I heard from the corner workers that Cliff was sideways pretty much everywhere trying to chase me down, unfortunately he made a pass under yellow and they took away his 2^nd place finish. Kyle Webb finished 2^nd after a great battle with Paul Holton in 3^rd.

 

On to the ARRC main event on Saturday. We were the first race after lunch. The track had dried, but there were still storm clouds attached to the massive rain front passing just a few miles to the north of us, and several sprinkles a few minutes before the race had us all watching the radar very closely. Seriously – June Sprints, Runoffs, and now the ARRC! Three premium events and none of us knowing what tires to mount! In the end we were all on dry tires.

 

At the start Blake got a good push from 15 year old Michael Carter and they both went past me in T1 and led through T3 and the esses. In T5 Carter got sideways, came out of the gas and I had the run going into T6 and made it stick. Then for the next 6 laps myself, Clements, Brown, Carter and Tiley had an epic ding-dong race, hard on each other’s bumpers through every turn in a long snake, until Blake, Cliff and I opened up a small gap, swapping the lead several times. Then on lap 6, over the T10 rumble strips, Cliff lost the cam angle sensor and had to retire.

 

That left Blake and I to battle for the win. There was no quarter asked and none given. His Ti-Speed VVT and my Rossini 99 were almost identical in the ways you would expect. He would grunt out of the turns slightly better and I would run slightly better at the end of 5^th gear, but in the side draft he could still defend a pass, and we were both experimenting to see where we would need to make the pass. I was conserving tires and felt the best way for me was to go to the front with several laps to go, lay down some hot laps and see if I could get a small gap.

 

I made the pass on lap 16 with 4 laps to go, and started to pile on the pressure dropping our lap times considerably. But Blake wasn’t going anywhere. He was glued to my bumper and I knew that this was going to come down to a typical epic Road Atlanta last lap deep, deep passing attempt in T10 A/B. Then on the very next lap with 3 to go, going down through T4, I could see a pall of white smoke hanging over the downhill esses and suspected a car had dropped an engine. The esses in the wet, or with oil are pretty treacherous, so I had to straddle the oil line that I was barely to make out on the track surface. Instead of pulling off the track, the offending car drove around T5 dropping oil on the racing line before piling into the wall on drivers left. I got squirrely, Blake almost ended up in the T5 sand trap, but we both survived and continued, but they threw the FCY as the broken car was belching flames, and they unfortunately checkered the race that lap under FCY. Not what either Blake or I wanted as it would have been a blast to race to the checker on that last lap. All credit to Blake for an amazing drive. He now has the car to contend, and he is showing his talents after several frustrating years.

 

It is pretty awesome to have won my 3^rd Spec Miata ARRC title, as well as clinching the pole and fastest race lap (barely). Cliff and I were on a personal mission to settle the score. Both of us had two ARRC Spec Miata wins and now I can rest easily until next year! Cliff, I look forward to your new car being ready, and continuing our rivalry in 2016. You are one of the best damn guys in this class and I love every lap of my races with you and I just hate getting the decider this way.

 

I cannot say enough about the excellent setup and prep done by Tom, Tracy, Tim, Ryan, Mike and the entire crew at OPM Autosports. So many tires changed, so many setup changes. The car was on rails, both in the wet and in the dry.

 

Mike Rossini; thanks for the great support and so happy to give this to you. For those paying attention, Rossini engines won the June Sprints, the Runoffs and the ARRC. That is one pretty amazing year Mike – so happy for you and the entire Rossini racing family of very dysfunctional drivers who love what you do for us.

 

Thanks to Roger Burdette of Traqgear, Danny Puskar of Carbotech Brakes and Glenn Stephens of Traqmate. Honored to have so many top class supporters, and having my long time friends Dave Skinner and Riccardo Brizzi at the track cheering me on.

 

Turkey Trot is going to be a fun weekend – see you all there

[Dan Tiley]

What a great weekend!  Lots of rain session (which I enjoy), great racing from start to finish.  Congratulations to Danny Steyn, Blake Clements, and young gun Michael Carter.  All drove fantastic races.  I'll say congratulations to Cliff Brown as well, as he would have been there if his cam sensor didn't crap out.  What the heck.... congrats to Mike Rossini as well.   You're kicking our butts right now.  Don't get used to it buddy

 

We had a pretty significant tech inspection process issue this weekend with the CCC.  I don't want to dirty this thread with the details, so I started a new thread.  I encourage people to read it and write to the CRB if you have any feelings about it, positive or negative:

 

https://www.crbscca.com/

 

I'll also post my video of me whacking the hay bale out of T7 trying to catch the Carter boy!!!  Again.... really fun weekend!

[sentercut]

Wow, what a crazy weekend. My third race weekend ever and completion of my novice permit among so many quality individuals and epic drivers. it was awesome to meet many of you throughout the weekend that I have watched from afar (you tube) studying your driving styles, lines, braking points, etc... So many folks to thank for getting me on this journey of racing cars coming from dirt bike enduro racing. Andy Devoto, best friend, and the guy that pushed me into this ridiculously expensive addiction. Mark Gibbons and all the guys at Old Dogz racing that went above and beyond for me in my quest for a race car being incredibly encouraging and transparent. Mike Rossini for spending time with a rookie wanna be racer answering a lot of senseless questions and being 100% willing to do anything I asked. Todd Lamb for pointing out my repetitive idiotic mistakes, and convincing me to stop lifting and braking so early among many other excellent coaching nuggets that got my times down probably a 100 times faster than trying to just figure it out on my own; and to point out my totally bone head decisions and articulate explanations. The Atlanta SpeedWerks crew and their attention to detail and willingness to encourage me when I needed it. Chief Steward Rick Mitchell for taking the time to consider and approve a hack novice permit racer for a shot at racing with the big boys and Todd Lamb (again) for putting his neck out for me to race this weekend. 

 

The race was so much fun, and I finished with one off track excursion resulting from a bone head douche novice permit pass attempt in T7 that cost me a couple spots in the end. So much fun, I kept finding myself giggling during the race while being pushed down the back straight, or going in hotter than i ever had into most turns and feeling like I accomplished something even though I finished the race at the back of the pack. 

 

Good times, can't wait until the next one. 

[Danny Steyn]

For those of you who want to see a NO HOLDS BARRED contest to the final lap, here it is....

 

[Tom Scheifler]

Great race Danny. Congrats. Thanks for posting.
At 11:45 in the video it looks like you tap Clements in the T7 brake zone and then decide not to pass on the next straight (because the unintended tap is probably what made the pass possible). Respect.

[Danny Steyn]

Great race Danny. Congrats. Thanks for posting.
At 11:45 in the video it looks like you tap Clements in the T7 brake zone and then decide not to pass on the next straight (because the unintended tap is probably what made the pass possible). Respect.

Thanks Tom, appreciate the spot-on observation and kind words. 

[MPR22]

Danny is not a make mistake free driver, but he is honest to a fault and I have seen him retire before taking advantage of an unintentional contact that impairs his competitors progress.  Too bad the same thing didn't occur at the NASA Nationals or the 56 might have an East Coast Championship under his belt.

 

This in noway implies Danny had anything to do with that incident as he himself was wrecked out by silliness back in the field.  

 

Off Topic, sorry moderators please punish me by making me go race a 1.6.   

[Dan Tiley]

Agreed... he passed me in 10A-B in the rain in qualifying, then overshot T1 on the next lap.  Instead of immediately re-engaging, he let me complete the pass unimpeded on T1 and rode behind me for a lap, so as not to botch my lap.  Subtle thing, but much appreciated.

[Jim Drago]

Agreed... he passed me in 10A-B in the rain in qualifying, then overshot T1 on the next lap.  Instead of immediately re-engaging, he let me complete the pass unimpeded on T1 and rode behind me for a lap, so as not to botch my lap.  Subtle thing, but much appreciated.

I wish more people would do this.. nothing worse than someone blowing a lap in qualifying and then staying in your way when they have ruined there lap.

[Danny Steyn]

Drago did the exact same thing in a Qualifying session at Road Atlanta, - he was in the draft with his team mates, got a little sideways in a turn, and backed out of it to let me past. He could have stayed in it, it would have slowed my lap, but I know that would have been an issue between us and none of us want those feelings. 

 

The most important thing in racing is not winning the title or trophy, or even the contingency payout. It is earning the respect of the drivers that you compete with. So many of the guys I race with and have raced with, have raced me cleanly and respectfully, every time, and I never forget that. They all know who they are. There are some that have not earned our respect with selfish moves, blatant blocking and other moves, and of course we never forget that either. ANd I know that they know who they are.

 

I personally would never want to win a race with any on-track conduct that was considered dirty, blocking, or disrespectful. Would never be a win that I would cherish