87 replies to this topic

[Danica Davison]

Jesus, you guys are lame.

[Michael Novak]

I didnt practice yesterday but did watch from the sidelines.  Not much to report because everyone I saw was on used or older tires. Times were 2:44-45 mainly 2:45+ as most complained about front end push or overall lack of grip. It looks like from the weather reports it may stay dry which would be great---but HOT---94 and 95 SAT-SUN.

[Danny Steyn]

Haldeman is going to be tough to beat - 2:43.5 on cords!!!!

[BNaumann]

Haldeman is going to be tough to beat - 2:43.5 on cords!!!!

I hear the secret to qualifying now is to shave a new tire down until there is just enough rubber left for four laps. 😁

[tylerbrown]

Was announced over the PA that the 2020 Runoffs will be at Road America.

[Danica Davison]

I hear the secret to qualifying now is to shave a new tire down until there is just enough rubber left for four laps.

Is this a false troll post or or a real troll post?

[Caveman-kwebb99]

Looks like from race monitor Dan goof is at least 2 seconds faster in a 99 then his old 1.6 but he is still in next to dfl...


I didn't pick sir Daniel because last time I picked him he felt so much pressure he took the Dremel to his control arms... Yet still that Yoda looking little gremlin can still drive the wheels off it! Go gettem Yoda Steyn!

[Tom Hampton]

NOT BY MUCH!!!

 

 

 

K. Webb
Powered by East Street Racing (Best engines in Spec Miata)
Driver coach, Spec Miata Prep shop, Spec Miata Setup
2016 Hard Charger award passing 12 cars runoffs 2016 Mid Ohio

2016 P3 RUNOFFS OVER 40 DIVISION LOL!
2015 First consolation prize Northern Conference Majors Title Pageant
2015 Winner Circus Cat Majors Road America
2015 Winner BlackHawk Majors crash fest
My Signature is still not as long as Danny boy's

------------------

Danny
Danny Steyn Racing | DSR YouTube Channel
Danny Steyn Photography | Adept Studios | Ocean Machinery | OPM Autosports | Rossini Racing Engines | G-Loc |
2016 June Sprints WInner, ARRC Winner, NASA Eastern States Championships Podium
2015 Eastern Conference Majors Champ, June Sprints Winner, ARRC Winner
2014 NASA Eastern States Championship Runner Up.
2013 SEDiv Driver of the Year, Eastern Conference Majors Champ, SEDiv National Champ, ARRC Winner, Runoffs Podium
2011 SEDiv Driver of the Year, SEDiv National Champ, ARRC Winner, Palm Tree Quad National Champ, SEDiv ECR Champ
2010 June Sprints Winner, ARRC Winner
2009 SARRC Champ, SEDiv ECR Champ, FES Champ
2008 SEDiv ECR Champ


 

[Johnny D]

Q1

https://www.scca.com...p-3-sm-qual-1-4

 

J~

[Jim Drago]

Race one is in the books. I had a great race with Michael Carter and Michael Gagliardo.  The first start was waived off apparently they felt someone or several people stepped out of line before the green flag stand.  I was p2 out of turn one. Start two, I kept the pace up to get some race in as we have only 25 min max and the track is 4 miles long here. I slowed out of kink and felt we were grouped up pretty well before the restart.. We had what at the front looked like another fair start, again I was p2 out of turn three with Michael Carter leading.  I was able to pass Michael up the front straight on the start of lap three with the help of Chris Haldeman and lead the rest of the way. It was not a pleasant site to see yet another pair of team mates behind while leading at Road America.  Fortunately I was able to stay ahead and hold them off at the line. Congratulations to them both. It is really becoming a young mans cllass. At 51, I have more years on the planet than both Michaels combined

 

I was called to tower as I was heading to dinner. Apparently the stewards were not happy at all with some of the people moving out of line on start one. That brought up the speed of my waved off start lap.  I think they moved Danny Bender from 5th to 8th. The plan is to move me to 4th and Michael Carter to 5th. They have yet to make their final decision and I have yet to file a appeal. This will take place in the morning.  IMO, this is coming down with a sledge hammer on an infraction where I did not gain an advantage.And why Carter? That make no sense.  It should be me, or the top 25 cars as we all had the same lap time within a few tenths, most in top 25 faster than mine.  I was the only car in top 10 that lost positions at the start other than Buras who went off. All are responsible to follow rules, not just the first two cars. And for the record, I can safely run my duallie around that track 47 seconds slower than SM speed  Been a pretty tough year, to pull a win for this and hit me with what amounts to an $1800 fine in loss of contingency seems par for the course.  To make matters worse, I was chosen as winner to pull my head and Preston was selected as the random. No other heads are coming off and we have two and a 12 hour ride.  They have seen this particular head of mine 4 times, this will make number 5. Been thinking about this  and still unsure what I and going to do, I need to think it through. As of right now, my feelings are If they take the win from me and and I don't podium today, I am not pulling my cylinder head. I lead almost wire to wire, made no mistakes and won the race today cleanly, fairly and  in a legal car and deserve the win.  I am thinking l may just take my that my 6 month suspension as a  protest of the decision and insurance that I don't spend another dollar with SCCA for 6 months..  Should be an interesting day for sure. .

[sentercut]

Interesting. I hope they reconsider the penalty, and leave it. Either way congratulations. Winning the June Sprints is a huge deal. I know you have done it like 4 times and is probably old hat by now (JK), but it is a big deal in my book (and most others) to win it, or even podium that event. Which is obviously the way most see it I think. 

 

If they do not leave it and want you to pull your head, I hope you let them. Everyone knows the car & owner is legit, but it is just the deal and I think you should respect it and do it. There are other ways to send them a protest for whatever you don't like, and whether you like it or not you are representative of the entire class to the rest of the SCCA, and SM racing as a whole.  Most everyone on this forum knows you and your character to some degree, but there are many others that would just see that the guy who won the JS in SM refused to pull his head, trunk slammed, got DQed, and went home. 

 

Either way I understand and would not fault you for the decision to refuse. I hope yall have a clean tight epic race today, and a great father's day to all! 

[BNaumann]

Great race Jim, I hope they drop the bullshit. Heard rumors of this last night, it didn't make sense to me then and it still doesn't now. Saw you scrubbing tires down the center straight on the second formation lap, and half the time it seems like the back of the field doesn't keep up on a normal start - trust me, I've been there. I bet some of those guys have never been in a wave-off before and had no idea what was going on.

[38bfast]

Jim it’s always good to have option going into the future. Pull the head and keep your options open.

[BNaumann]

At least make sure NASA won't reciprocate the suspension.

[Craig Berry]

A big CONGRATS to my friend and teammate! A sweep at The Sprints is an amazing accomplishment! Road America is Awesome, and is so difficult to be just a little better than others...Especially when you do not have a guaranteed partner, (Danny, always respected your finishes at Rd Am for this reason). Jim, really great weekend, and one you should remember.

[Richard Astacio]

Over a 100 years in experience at the podium today! Congrats Jim!

[Danny Steyn]

Hats off the Jon Bauer and the SCCA tech committee this weekend for doing the right thing. As a reward for finishing 2nd at the Sprints on Sunday, I was pulled into tech and one of the items that had to be inspected was the head. Fowler doesn't do engine work, and if we pulled the head, I would have to miss the HST at Watkins Glenn in 3 days as there is no way to get my engine back to Rossini and back to the Glen. So they checked all the other items (including rear control arms and Kyle I am sure you will be happy to know that no control arms were damaged by errant dremels!)  and sealed the engine, took pics of the seals, and said that if this car does not show up at the Glen I will be in deep you know what.

 

We will pull the head at the Glenn and then miss the Roebling Majors. Felt it was a good compromise. Thanks Jon

 

And congrats to Jim on winning his nth June Sprints title in Spec Miata. Jim has made a career of winning at Road America, and I am sure that the 2020 Runoffs  announcement will keep him in the sport for at least another 2 years. 

 

On Saturday my car which was a rocket on test day and in qually was way off the pace and I felt I was getting gang raped as I moved back from 5th to wherever I finished. 

 

But we figured out that we had a leaking injector and that made all the difference for Sundays race.

 

Early on I got onto the tail of Haldeman and Carter, and just before the Full Course Yellow I had fallen off their draft and was in no-mans land. Jim caught up to me and we caught right back up to the two leaders just as it went FCY. While under FCY, Jim's crew guy had Tom radio me to say that he was going to work with me. And guess what, at the restart, with Jim on my tail, I abandoned my Rossini teammate Michael Carter, and made the pass, only to watch Jim abandon me and go with Carter. Damn I was pissed. But laughing in my helmet as Kim had totally called the move!

 

So later in the race with one lap to go, when the only way I could advance my position was by pushing Jim ahead of Chris, it was such a bitter sweet move, as yes, I did move into 2nd, but I moved JD into first which he held on to the win. DAMN, got to listen to my wife!

 

PS we spent our 20th wedding anniversary at Elkhart Lake and the June Sprints and this weekend is just one of these special events. For those of you have not raced it, I highly recommend making the trip as it is a truly memorable weekend, every time.

[Jim Drago]

It turned out to be a very much needed successful weekend. There were rumors of an impending countdown clock from those *&#@ man drama queens! It was funny when it was Danny, but man I did not not one on me Today I started P9 after allowing me to keep my win yesterday with no points and took my fastest lap which had me at 9th..

Would have been a great race to watch, unfortunately my Polaroid cube went dead on lap one, Preston was on charging detail and we broke our Traqmate cable and we had no video

The start was just awful, two rows of 4-5 cars deep floored and twisting and making sounds like a ship sinking and ripping apart pushing against two line leaders firmly on the brakes.. luckily nothing happened. I managed to get to Todd Buras bumper early, we moved up to 6-7. Then the line left Jason knuteson out to dry, Buras passed him in one. Jason held strong on the inside of one.. he went for the brakes entering three and you could see he just headed for an opening with no brakes at all, he clipped Buras and spun him. That moved me to p5, with Chris, Carter and Danny rapidly leaving Voytek.. I decided it was best to draft pass Voytek and go it alone and try to catch the leaders. I used up a lot of tires doing so, was excited to see Danny falling off the lead pair of Chris and Michael as I got some draft help. I pushed Danny back to a four car pack, unfortunately I was starting to get dropped.. hard for the third car to hang, really hard for the fourth. Then the FCY

I can’t believe Danny fell for that fake radio message. In all serious, I would never do that to anyone intentionally. The message Danny was referring to was laps old and not entirely correct.. what was supposed to be relayed( remember Robert our radio guy was not here this weekend and radio transmissions were a challenge at best as we could barely hear each other except on front straight) my message was “tell Tom to tell Danny I will push them up to the pack, I’m not trying to pass, I’m popping out to cool my car as I was over 220 at that point. Your rear camera will show this. I apologize for the confusion, I would never do that, but I guess I owe you one as that was not cool at all if you popped only because your were expecting me to follow. 

So on that start, I actually initially popped with Danny thinking Carter must have missed a shift , it became apparent that we would both not clear Michael, so with carter being on the inside, I had to jump on his bumper. P3 .. Danny, Michael and Chris were all really good today.. I spent a few laps sizing up Michael and he wasn’t weak anywhere, I caught him off guard and nailed 5 and cleared him by six.. p2. Chris and I planned on working together all weekend and we were finally lined up..we drove around trying to lose the Rossini duo to no avail.. I popped on Chris going into Canada on the second to last lap, only to stop the Rossini duo from passing me, I didn’t make the move intentionally on Chris and allowed him to slot in cleanly to try and get away on the last lap.. all of our cars were sliding a bit at this point.. Chris and I headed into three in pretty good shape.. we had a good draft down the mid straight, Chris got a little wide at the exit and I figured this was my best shot.. I took the inside up the hill and had a nose on Chris entering six and Chris tried hanging the outside and my car slid and we either touched slightly or Chris moved to give me room. That put me to the lead.. I had Danny on me, but I believe Chris and Michael were battling so he had no pusher or I was a sitting duck just like last year. I was able to drive defensive into 12, over slow 14 for a good exit and get to the line first.. it was fun and nice to get another Sprints win, first in Sm since 2011.
Danny truly sorry for the miscommunication. Great racing with all mentioned above and the entire field.

I echo Danny’s opinions with tech. It was smooth.. my only suggestion is to spread the love.. once you get two engines from one builder, the next days random should have to go to another shop. We had to pull three heads, no one else but Danny chosen. That’s the problem with random, but I still support it. All cars passed but results will not be official until they pull apart Danny which I’m sure will be no issue.

[Danny Steyn]

No problem Jim, Like I said I as chucking in my helmet when it happened, remembering what Kim told me was going to happen! Should have listened. DOH

 

Racing when it is as close as this is always satisfying. No matter where you finish. Sure I would have loved to get the win, but so would have 10 or 15 other drivers who felt they had a shot. And there can only be one winner. I hated pushing you past Haldeman, but it was the only way I could improve my position but I knew it would give you the win. For some reason I was not able to flat the carousel, something I have done all weekend and every year before, but today i had to feather which meant I couldn't really challenge into T12.

 

You have been exceptional at this track and very difficult to beat. But I am banking on you staying in this class through to 2020, when it will be totally gratifying to kick your ass in the runoffs. You are officially on notice.   Training program just stepped up a notch!

[Bench Racer]

One thing we are all forgetting per the internet game plan, it was supposed to be Drago on Sat. and Haldeman on Sun. Danny, you sure screwed that up.  

 

Again, enjoyed the Spec Miata  camaraderie which is very special.