107 replies to this topic

[Bench Racer]

I thought Saturdays start was picture perfect and text book.. Sunday I was afraid to do the same thing as people may have tried timing it, so I left a little earlier. 

As an agreement fact I heard the same ^ from a couple competitors.

 

My previous post was only a mention that SHE the starter waived off a couple starts.

[NPiekarski]

To change the subject from Bench's bantering. Aside from the usual mid-pack bumping and grinding the race was very entertaining to watch. No major hits and no FCY, that's a feat in itself as history has shown. It is truly amazing the speed these newer drivers are showing, Tyler Brown, Pecore, Nufer, and more. These kids jump in and really focused on getting up to speed and did well. Congrats to all the front runners, Drago is still the man to beat with that qualifying effort but it didn't come easy during the race. Great Job all of you. On a side note, I was gutted to see Tyler Brown get in to Tommy Brown at corner 5. Racing incident but none the less, setting your dad in the pea gravel on Fathers Day probably made for a long ride home.

[Caveman-kwebb99]

To change the subject from Bench's bantering. Aside from the usual mid-pack bumping and grinding the race was very entertaining to watch. No major hits and no FCY, that's a feat in itself as history has shown. It is truly amazing the speed these newer drivers are showing, Tyler Brown, Pecore, Nufer, and more. These kids jump in and really focused on getting up to speed and did well. Congrats to all the front runners, Drago is still the man to beat with that qualifying effort but it didn't come easy during the race. Great Job all of you. On a side note, I was gutted to see Tyler Brown get in to Tommy Brown at corner 5. Racing incident but none the less, setting your dad in the pea gravel on Fathers Day probably made for a long ride home.

 

This is the story of how the year is going the young guys are drving well and driving clean!  

[Jim Drago]

Voyteks interview

 

http://www.scca.com/videos/2028160

[Danny Steyn]

Big shout out to Craig Berry on behalf of all of us drivers for immediately pulling off when his engine let go, and getting zero oil on the racing line. This is so often not the case with drivers limping around the track, leaving at trail of oil online, with the inevitable shunt and FCY. Your quick action helped keep us caution free.

[Danica Davison]

Wow, surprised nobody stacked it up on the sunday start from Danny's video

[Jamz14]

To change the subject from Bench's bantering. Aside from the usual mid-pack bumping and grinding the race was very entertaining to watch. No major hits and no FCY, that's a feat in itself as history has shown. It is truly amazing the speed these newer drivers are showing, Tyler Brown, Pecore, Nufer, and more. These kids jump in and really focused on getting up to speed and did well. Congrats to all the front runners, Drago is still the man to beat with that qualifying effort but it didn't come easy during the race. Great Job all of you. On a side note, I was gutted to see Tyler Brown get in to Tommy Brown at corner 5. Racing incident but none the less, setting your dad in the pea gravel on Fathers Day probably made for a long ride home.

To have my son put my in the gravel would be the best father's day gift. I'm sure he enjoyed racing with his son and his pride is limitless.

[Bench Racer]

To me, this is to funny not to post.

 

Guy without hat is Bench Racer talking to Jim.

 

[sentercut]

This was my first time at RA, and my second majors race. I made the haul up from SC, and joined my best friend from Montana (Andy Devoto) for a bucket list weekend. We have been talking about this weekend for about 6 months and it did not disappoint. The weather was perfect and the SM people for the most part were wonderful. Congratulations to all of the winners and podium finishers, you guys are tremendous drivers. 

 

I wanted to say specifically congratulations to Tyler Brown for an amazing race and finish on Sunday, and a huge thank you to Tom as well for all of their hospitality and willingness to help two jackleg rookie want a be drivers in anything that we asked of them. Also thanks to Tom and Steve Scheifler for their willingness to stop and talk and  lend some friendly advice while in the middle of a tranny rebuild, and some great fun clean racing for many laps on Sunday until I lost it in the kink with a couple to go. 

 

Also, wanted to say congratulations to Andy Devoto for two great drives on Saturday and Sunday in his old beat up NA finishing 18th and 15th in his first Majors race and first time at RA. He is a great driver and friend that got me into this mayhem. 

 

Last, and most importantly I wanted to publicly extend my apologizes to Joe Tovo in the #131 car. I completely side swiped him in T5 and took him out of the race with a combination of a bone head move and a misplaced foot when braking catching some brake and gas pedal. I have never met Mr Tovo until I went looking for him after the race and found his car in the Advanced compound, and asked where i could find him explaining that i owed him an apology. They told me he was not around but was perturbed to put it mildly. I left my contact information and asked them to give it to Mr Tovo and have him call me asap. By the time i got back to our trailer he was waiting. He asked me what had happened and i explained profusely apologizing for ruining his race. This gentleman had his family with him and called his two boys over (maybe 5 or 6 years old) into our conversation explaining to me that his kids race karts and he wanted them to hear our conversation using it as a teachable moment for them. WOW. While I am sure he left RA very disappointed, it was a highlight of my weekend and filled many of my thoughts on the 13 hour drive home.  Mr Tovo was not only gracious and forgiving, but he displayed encouragement and wisdom making lemonade out of lemons. My hat is off to you sir, and I appreciate the grace you extended. 

[tylerbrown]

Not exactly how I wanted this weekend to go, but nonetheless I still had a lot of fun.

 

Thursdays test day the car felt great right out of the box and I was getting used to the grip of the Hoosiers compared to the toyos that I last ran at Road America a couple of weeks ago. I was hoping to find someone to try to work with on the test day but did not really find anyone, but still was able to run consistent 2.45s. 

 

Fridays qualifying I hooked up with Adam Roberts for both sessions and we ended up qualifying 20th and 21st with 2.45.4xx s. 

 

Saturdays race the field had a good checkup and brake and then they went, started in second gear at the bottom of the hill. I missed the 2-3 upshift which did not help my run down the straight. Coming into turn 5 there was a lot of cars all bunched up, and it got tight going through t6 and t7 but then single filed out again. While going into turn 12, Steve Scheifler had a good run on me and I saw that he was coming up for a pass. Knowing that he had an NA and would most likely be able to out brake me, I took the defensive inside line about mid track into turn 12, leaving room for him on the track. When I went to the brakes we came together and he almost spun in front of me. Evan Pecore thankfully saw this happening behind him and didnt turn in, because he wouldve been hit by Steve. I locked up my left front pretty bad trying to slow to avoid whatever was going to happen next, thankfully they both were able to get back on track right away. I talked to Steve after the race and he showed me his video, both of us had our hands straight going in to the brake zone, although my car was aimed parallel to the track whereas his was aimed more at an angle towards the apex, so when we both broke, we were on trajectories that were going to intersect.. and they did. The rest of the race I had to drive on a square left front tire giving some wicked vibrations as it was down to the chords. I had a great battle with Adam Roberts and Spencer Rutherford in that race, both raced me very clean and we had some fun going back and forth.

 

Link to saturdays video here (uploading as I write this so it may not be up for a bit) : https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be

 

Sundays races start had a much quicker pace, coming out of 14 there was no braking and I started in third gear because the pace was faster, I got a good start and passed a couple cars by the end of the straight. I was two wide with Evan Pecore going down into 5 right behind Josh Bilicki, thought we would make it through contact free but I got just enough of a bump from behind at the end of the brake zone that I just barely got into Evan, sorry Evan. He rejoined right behind me and after the race said it was cool with him and he understood I got bumped. From this point on I was able to hang with the pack that was presented in front of me which included Britt Casey Jr, Novak, Hille, Bilicki, Steyn, and Megenbier. For the first couple laps I was able to stay right on Novak and push him until he got around Britt Casey, I followed and pushed him for a while and we passed Hille, and then after that I was able to pass him. I then was able to get on Bilickis bumper for a few laps to stay with the group ahead of us that included Steyn, Megenbier, and my dad Tom Brown. (While behind Bilicki I got my personal best lap time at RA of a 2.43.7xx) Coming up to the second last lap the four guys ahead of me were getting racey going into turn 1, my dad with Megenbier behind him on the inside, with steyn and bilicki on the outside. I followed through and gave megenbier a push on the way out of turn 1 as bilicki and steyn ran a little wide. They went through turn 3 two wide again and I backed off a little on the entry to get a good run out. I got the run and gave Megenbier a good push out and then pushed us past Steyn down the straight, he pulled out to make an inside pass attempt on my dad who I then got in behind on the outside coming into turn 5. My dad told me that he saw megenbier coming for the inside pass and wanted to go for the over under move, so he went to 2nd gear and turned in to turn 5, his car got sideways and I decided to stay close to his bumper hoping he would straighten out and then I could give him a bump to get him back going up the hill to 6. Just as I thought he saved it the car snapped back around and I had nowhere to go but into him. (Watch from 30 min mark in video for this) Sadly it was a good enough hit that he got into the sand trap and got stuck, and now the car sustained enough damage that it needs the body shop. But after this Hille and Steyn were able to get back around me and they had about 10 car lengths so to the end of the race I could not get close enough to contend. I finished 8th out of 46 for my first June Sprints weekend, although it was very bittersweet as my Dad and I got together on track and it took him out of the race, and damaged the car that I have put so much time into building. 

 

Sunday's video here: https://www.youtube....h?v=XburkpjARs0

 

Cons of the weekend were definitely that my Dad got roughed up on track both races, being hit by three other cars on saturdays race, and then our get together on sunday. Both of our cars got damaged by that hit. I felt terrible after what had happened, even though my dad had said that it was his fault for getting sideways in the corner, but I still felt awful that I had hit my dad on track, really overshadowed how well my race went. The other part, which I was reminded about right after the race, was that it was fathers day, so of course that didnt help much.

 

Pros of the weekend were that the car that my dad was driving was showing great pace and that it could run up in the front with the best, truly awesome seeing that happen. My car we made some air/fuel adjustments which helped me gain a little bit of power, and I was able to do my personal best lap time, and do as well as I did in the race with a motor that has shown that it is clearly down on power. My first June Sprints I was able to finish 15th and 8th! I was really excited when I caught the group that my dad was in on track, as that was the first time in a race with a lot of competition that I was with my dad on track and it wasn't because he was pushing me! Even though it was short lived, it was great being close to him on track, maybe next time I could work together with him, I was getting excited too, because I thought it might have been possible for us if we worked together to have a 4/5 finish as were were in a 5 car pack battling for 4th! 

 

Thanks for the help from all who helped us in preparing for this weekend as well as at the track, it was great to see everyone again and the family and friends that came up to watch.

I wish more people can come to our video watching sessions outside of our RV in the future, its great fun watching everyone's videos laughing at mistakes as well as watching people's good racing. We normally watch after dark and get about 4-8 people, but I think more could be great, also helps some of the mid-pack guys watching these videos, especially if you have the drivers right there to talk to for feedback on your driving and to ask them why they do certain things on track that they do. 

 

All in all wish that less cars got banged up this weekend, we got it pretty bad but some others definitely got it worse, but overall too many cars getting hurt, I think 14/47 cars had some for of decent damage on their cars after this weekend. 

 

Looking forward to the CAT Nationals at Road America, lets see if my dad and I can come back and contend for win!!

 

Tyler

[Turbo]

Thanks for the shout out Nic. I made a mistake in front of Tyler which left him no where to go. With 2 to go the group behind, which included Tyler wisely pushing others instead of passing to utilize the draft, caught Danny and I. Bilicki got by in 3 and I got behind him to get past Danny as he went a bit wide. Tyler pushed Timmy M (yet another fast kid) past Danny as well. Timmy went for the inside pass in 5 so I went to 2nd to try the over under. A bit too aggressive on the throttle initiated oversteer and too fast hands over correcting snapped the car the other way which put my right quarter in front of Tyler who was on the throttle intending to help me regain momentum up the hill to 6. My fault, not his. Not knowing who hit me, I hear on the radio "Sorry Dad" as he heads to turn 6. A little solace there, but both of us are disappointed that we did not have 2 cars in the top ten at this intense weekend. Jamz14, you are correct that I am extremely proud of my son and what he has accomplished in a short amount of time. He has paid his dues over the years from observing and chaperoning, to apprenticing with Advanced, to building a very fast new car over the winter, and at track prepping as crew chief on 2 cars. He has earned the right to drive and is quickly showing skills of a seasoned driver. The weekends we spend at the track together are something I will always treasure. Having my daughter there as well added to an awesome father's day weekend. Having my wife, a couple brothers, and friends attend added to the support and camaraderie of the weekend. Congrats to Jim and Voytek on the wins and Danny Bender on a successful weekend. Justin Elder and I had cars to beat but it did not go our way. Justin Hille and Evan Pecore shared videos and laughs after the work was done. Paddock neighbors Evan, Senter, and Andrew kept the mood fun. And the booze cruise on Elkhart Lake with Caveman and Adam is worthy of a post of it's own.....   

 

Tom Brown

[MotoFusi]

Tom, you have done a hell of a job as a parent.

[Caveman-kwebb99]

Tom, you have done a hell of a job as a parent.

 

 

Yes he has!  And In all seriousness I think Tyler may have been a pretty good dad to Turbo also!  

[Jim Drago]

Congrats to Tyler and Tom.. It is really nice to see looking in from the outside.

 

 If it is any consolation Tyler, we all would have put your dad off in the same situation, or maybe even just for fun

[Danny Steyn]

 

Last, and most importantly I wanted to publicly extend my apologizes to Joe Tovo in the #131 car. I completely side swiped him in T5 and took him out of the race with a combination of a bone head move and a misplaced foot when braking catching some brake and gas pedal. I have never met Mr Tovo until I went looking for him after the race and found his car in the Advanced compound, and asked where i could find him explaining that i owed him an apology. They told me he was not around but was perturbed to put it mildly. I left my contact information and asked them to give it to Mr Tovo and have him call me asap. By the time i got back to our trailer he was waiting. He asked me what had happened and i explained profusely apologizing for ruining his race. This gentleman had his family with him and called his two boys over (maybe 5 or 6 years old) into our conversation explaining to me that his kids race karts and he wanted them to hear our conversation using it as a teachable moment for them. WOW. While I am sure he left RA very disappointed, it was a highlight of my weekend and filled many of my thoughts on the 13 hour drive home.  Mr Tovo was not only gracious and forgiving, but he displayed encouragement and wisdom making lemonade out of lemons. My hat is off to you sir, and I appreciate the grace you extended. 

 

BEST POST ON THIS THREAD and one of the best ever on MRF. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[Van B]

This was my first time at RA, and my second majors race. I made the haul up from SC, and joined my best friend from Montana (Andy Devoto) for a bucket list weekend. We have been talking about this weekend for about 6 months and it did not disappoint. The weather was perfect and the SM people for the most part were wonderful. Congratulations to all of the winners and podium finishers, you guys are tremendous drivers.

I wanted to say specifically congratulations to Tyler Brown for an amazing race and finish on Sunday, and a huge thank you to Tom as well for all of their hospitality and willingness to help two jackleg rookie want a be drivers in anything that we asked of them. Also thanks to Tom and Steve Scheifler for their willingness to stop and talk and lend some friendly advice while in the middle of a tranny rebuild, and some great fun clean racing for many laps on Sunday until I lost it in the kink with a couple to go.

Also, wanted to say congratulations to Andy Devoto for two great drives on Saturday and Sunday in his old beat up NA finishing 18th and 15th in his first Majors race and first time at RA. He is a great driver and friend that got me into this mayhem.

Last, and most importantly I wanted to publicly extend my apologizes to Joe Tovo in the #131 car. I completely side swiped him in T5 and took him out of the race with a combination of a bone head move and a misplaced foot when braking catching some brake and gas pedal. I have never met Mr Tovo until I went looking for him after the race and found his car in the Advanced compound, and asked where i could find him explaining that i owed him an apology. They told me he was not around but was perturbed to put it mildly. I left my contact information and asked them to give it to Mr Tovo and have him call me asap. By the time i got back to our trailer he was waiting. He asked me what had happened and i explained profusely apologizing for ruining his race. This gentleman had his family with him and called his two boys over (maybe 5 or 6 years old) into our conversation explaining to me that his kids race karts and he wanted them to hear our conversation using it as a teachable moment for them. WOW. While I am sure he left RA very disappointed, it was a highlight of my weekend and filled many of my thoughts on the 13 hour drive home. Mr Tovo was not only gracious and forgiving, but he displayed encouragement and wisdom making lemonade out of lemons. My hat is off to you sir, and I appreciate the grace you extended.

I was just a little behind you guys coming into turn 5 on Sunday morning and was more than a little annoyed after I braked to miss Tovo after he got into Schiessow (sp) and got rear ended hard enough to break my diff. After downloading my video I could see another car push him wide.

I was one of the few to make the podium ceremony on Saturday but was frankly too pissed after getting taken out in lap 2 on Sunday.

[Steve Scheifler]

Not exactly how I wanted this weekend to go, but nonetheless I still had a lot of fun.

Thursdays test day the car felt great right out of the box and I was getting used to the grip of the Hoosiers compared to the toyos that I last ran at Road America a couple of weeks ago. I was hoping to find someone to try to work with on the test day but did not really find anyone, but still was able to run consistent 2.45s.

Fridays qualifying I hooked up with Adam Roberts for both sessions and we ended up qualifying 20th and 21st with 2.45.4xx s.

Saturdays race the field had a good checkup and brake and then they went, started in second gear at the bottom of the hill. I missed the 2-3 upshift which did not help my run down the straight. Coming into turn 5 there was a lot of cars all bunched up, and it got tight going through t6 and t7 but then single filed out again. While going into turn 12, Steve Scheifler had a good run on me and I saw that he was coming up for a pass. Knowing that he had an NA and would most likely be able to out brake me, I took the defensive inside line about mid track into turn 12, leaving room for him on the track. When I went to the brakes we came together and he almost spun in front of me. Evan Pecore thankfully saw this happening behind him and didnt turn in, because he wouldve been hit by Steve. I locked up my left front pretty bad trying to slow to avoid whatever was going to happen next, thankfully they both were able to get back on track right away. I talked to Steve after the race and he showed me his video, both of us had our hands straight going in to the brake zone, although my car was aimed parallel to the track whereas his was aimed more at an angle towards the apex, so when we both broke, we were on trajectories that were going to intersect.. and they did. The rest of the race I had to drive on a square left front tire giving some wicked vibrations as it was down to the chords. I had a great battle with Adam Roberts and Spencer Rutherford in that race, both raced me very clean and we had some fun going back and forth.

Link to saturdays video here (uploading as I write this so it may not be up for a bit) :

...

Tyler

A missed shift at the start let me get by Tyler before T1, and unfortunately I returned the favor at T9 leaving me behind coming out of the kink but set up for a draft pass.

As Tyler mentioned, we compared videos at the track. I think we each expected to see clear evidence that the other had clipped us approaching T14. Getting a better look at it now I'm not sure I see my car angled in at all, and the scenery through the windshield shows I don't change direction to the right. We just came out of the last bend at 120 mph and were about to brake when contact happened. The impact sounds hard but based on his video I think there may be a very light touch first which starts me rotating just a bit then the harder hit that really kicks me sideways.

In any case, I managed to catch it but not before burning through the RF tire well into the steel belt. That made for a rough ride from there on and certainly didn't help me in lefts, but I don't think it mattered much in the end.

There was also a question about my pass into T8, suggesting perhaps there wasn't really room inside or at least that it was ill advised so early in the race. It didn't seem that way to me at the time but I'm curious about how others see it.

[Jim Drago]

wow.. A lot going on in those two videos 

 

I think it was addressed and I assume that was centercut coming on track after 5? Scary stuff. When anyone goes off you have to re enter safely, the on coming cars are not required to move to make a lane, but sometimes it saves body damage.  I spun at 14 in 2010 runoffs out of P4 and had to sit there and let 20-25 cars go by, it was not fun

 

 

On Steves video..  Lots going on there.

IMO, and there will be many.

Turn 8 Move was ok, but you are fortunate that Pecore was paying attention as I could not fault him if he turned in on you either? First lap and as stacked up as everyone was, completely acceptable pass IMO.

 

Canada corner... IMO, after the last bend to the left just before braking, the normal line is 1-3 ft off the curb under braking. It looked to me that you never really moved as far over to the left as most would have expected (look at the car ahead). You are certainly not required to do so. IMO, it looked like Tyler followed the bend of the track or tried to get as much room as he could to the left and you never moved left.  There were many similar incidents in that corner this weekend. People would take the inside to defend and then come back to the left to brake, but the passing car had overlap, so when the cars moved left they rotated off the nose of the cars in the left lane. Pretty heads up driving by Pecore (21) and probably why his car doesnt have much if any body damage on it as he avoided contact in two situations that most would have had contact IMO.  

 

(not related to this video) If you choose the inside line to defend, you have to stay there or can only take back what is given, the car you defended against is not required to give any more room than the lane you chose. If I were the outside car, I would not likely move back left at all unless early in the race. I would try and hold down to the inside and beat you out of the corner as you would be making a very tight corner.  If I am the inside car and the outside car moves all the way out for braking after I chose a defensive line, I will follow him out to maximize my corner speed, but you cant move until the outside car moves.  

[sentercut]

In Steve's Video I believe I am the first car through during the first half second of the video that pushed the #131 out wide. I was unaware of the collision afterwards when he reentered the track. Now I feel even worse. My apologies for contributing to this mess. I'd be irritated at best if the roles were reversed.

[Van B]

In Steve's Video I believe I am the first car through during the first half second of the video that pushed the #131 out wide. I was unaware of the collision afterwards when he reentered the track. Now I feel even worse. My apologies for contributing to this mess. I'd be irritated at best if the roles were reversed.

It was my video that showed the great view of the melee. I was in the orange and black #68. Ironically, Steve and the 92 car that was a victim in this incident tangled just a couple hundred feet up the hill from here on Saturday. I was irritated at first only because I thought guys were fighting that hard for 30th position. When I saw the video I calmed down, because I thought #131 just got out wide and lost it himself. Either way I'm thinking he should have been able to continue straight, not sure why it hooked left so hard.

I've made mistakes before, too. We all have. That is just part of racing.

Thanks for posting.

Jeff Van Buren