422 replies to this topic

[Steve Scheifler]

Rock’n first lap Toby!! Nice job of staying aggressive without adding to the carnage, in contrast to a few others.

[FTodaro]

The 1.6 has more RPM, less TQ.  He needed to run the torquier 1.8's out of the band, and force them to shift first.  then he could have potentially slotted in front of one the cars for when he shifted and enjoyed a push up the hill.  With the super slow second gear start he was doomed from the drop of the flag.... the cars with more grunt just drove right around him.

Agree with Mike on this one he needed to roll more speed to the green those those VVT's are beasts at that RPM range. Not sure what the officials wanted, they normally tell us up here to keep the pace car pace, Lol but when they pull off we roll on the gas, even in the VVT's as there is always someone starting before the green drops and its safer IMO to roll on the throttle.

[DDirks]

Agree with Mike on this one he needed to roll more speed to the green those those VVT's are beasts at that RPM range. Not sure what the officials wanted, they normally tell us up here to keep the pace car pace, Lol but when they pull off we roll on the gas, even in the VVT's as there is always someone starting before the green drops and its safer IMO to roll on the throttle.

 

I agree with you all that his RPM was too low.  I told him to do his best to bring the RPM's up to 6k+ if he could, as we roll up to the starts pretty fast here in the Rocky Mountain region as well.  But- he said the Race Director specifically told him to maintain the pace of the pace car up to the drop of the flag, which is exactly what he did.  I know I wouldn't have been able to contain myself in that situation!

 

With regard to his seating position- I also agree that the wheel is a little too far away from him, but he does not like it close.  I'm still working on that one with him...

 

Thanks all.

 

-David Dirks      

[OrangeCrush86]

Race director can say whatever. I always believed P1 sets pace (within reason) as long as it's held consistent for the field. Good job regardless. We might not see a 1.6L on pole for quite some time going forward.

[Ron Alan]

https://youtu.be/H8PMbupKbZk

 

What the heck, here's the another view.  Started P31, finished P15. Start is worth watching.  Something that resembles racing ~20:45 (17 Downey, 7 Newmark, 29 Berry, 14 Porter) until I get collected on the front-straight ~25:20 mark.

Between your video and Jim's rear view mirror that incident on the front straight was wild. Was the other driver as surprised as you? 

Assuming nothing intentional on either of you, when your tires touch his wheel has to get yanked from his hands as his car is sucked into you. The rate at which you both move left, collect Nick and stay stuck together for what seemed like forever is a head shaker. Then again we have all seen what happens when tires touch with an overlap. Luckily for you the track was really wide!  Any official review?

[tLinder]

Between your video and Jim's rear view mirror that incident on the front straight was wild. Was the other driver as surprised as you? 

Assuming nothing intentional on either of you, when your tires touch his wheel has to get yanked from his hands as his car is sucked into you. The rate at which you both move left, collect Nick and stay stuck together for what seemed like forever is a head shaker. Then again we have all seen what happens when tires touch with an overlap. Luckily for you the track was really wide!  Any official review?

It would appear the track wasn't wide enough

 

I did file a (half-arse) contact form (mostly to CYA),but I didn't have quick video access at the time (long ways from impound to paddock).  14 moved slightly left, causing the chain reaction.  I've moved on, replacement fenders were picked up today.  (Feel the worst for Nick [83] after starting P2, he got collected at the start too. His new car, which isn't now ).

[Vinnieb]

Busy, fun, humbling weekend.

 

Didn't practice. Didn't test.  Just kinda rolled out to have fun and experience a national event.

  Go out for practice and... yeah we're slow.  Right on the cusp for making the show.  For Qually just figured I'd go drive what I had since I was expecting it to be the only dry session of the day and... yeah, we'll make the race but not in the first 45.  Holding out for a dry second qually session and it looks like we're gonna get it... in between sessions I look over video with Andrew Carbonell, who put me at some ease that at least on video my driving didn't suck horribly.  After talking to SM people by us we learned that ride height is adjustable (told you we're new to this) and we decide to try to settle the rear end some.  First lap of second qually feels good.  Get ready for flyer aaaaaand car dies.  Fortunately, just a fuel return line and not the expensive stuff I was fearing.  

 

So, Saturday morning, we can't decide what tires to run since it's track is wet but seems to be drying.  We go slicks.  It starts raining on grid.  Sweet.  Qually session of about 30 cars, top 15 will make the show.  I go out and put it 2nd fastest in the field in the first lap.  Wet track seems to like me.  Except that now every lap is 2 second faster than the previous one.  Every lap has to count. Every lap I go from P3 to the cusp of not making it based off of who has put in a recent dryer lap. Obnoxiously, I'm now in a group of 3 cars.  Fortunately we all play nice and as expected, the last lap is the one for the whole field.  I had blown T1 but thankfully still solidly in the field at P5.

 

I go in for tech... had never had techs look at the car.  Turns out my car is uh... a bit sub optimal.  Random missing parts, Non existent bump stops etc.  Hey, we're new to this.  Can't thank Xavier enough for his help and patience as we tried to figure things out.  I also learn that apparently everyone had dropped fuel pressure with the C9 race fuel for more power.  You can adjust fuel pressure?  Yeah, that's how well prepped we were.  Either way, I'm happy to be in the big show.  Like everyone else we spend the next few hours mulling tire choices.  Finally decide to go with Slicks, as did the rest of the field.

 

So I probably don't need to tell anyone here how the start of the race went.  In T1 I got sandwiched and took some contact on my right front fender which had that tire rubbing on fender the rest of the race (I couldn't tell.  Miracle it didnt blow).  At T3 I went off track left to avoid the mess in the middle of the track.  All good!  Settled into a race with some familiar faces from TX.  Learned alot more about how to brake into these 2nd gear corners without ABS.  Had my first experience with pedal knockback.  I was dog slow in that field, but I felt like we had learned alot on the weekend and I figured some stuff out at COTA (for the record, not my favorite place in any car, but I consistently suck super hard there in my spec miata).  So despite having the slowest best lap in the field... The car survived the weekend, we learned a bunch, and I got better.  Can't ask for a ton more.  

 

Great meeting some of you out of region folks.  I'll see you locals at NOLA.

[Bench Racer]

Vinnieb,  I enjoyed your writeup. I post this because of your comments of unknowns/random missing parts. Both SCCA and NASA have rule specifications which the different year Spec Miata must meet. You will find rules about bump stops fuel pressure regulators and many other items. Between reading the rules and asking questions from other Spec Miata folks knowledge will be gained in a hurry. Spec Miata folks are mostly all willing to support all racers. 

[SpecMiataManDrama]

It has been almost a week, and there are still no official results?

 

Drama Drama Drama !

[Tom Hampton]

It has been almost a week, and there are still no official results?
 
Drama Drama Drama !

 

 

 

[Johnny D]

Are we asking for a shock co that we have left to test and give the results

J~

[Johnny D]

 

jerry@drivenasa.com <jerry@drivenasa.com

 

[P.McCammon]

Here's a video from DFL. I arrived to grid a couple minutes late so they started me last.  First 2 laps are fun, then a little action starting at 11:00.  Video shuts off with 4 to go. I was having a hard time rev matching and down shifting because my loud pedal fell off and I had a new transmission for the weekend. Unofficial hard charger according to race hero but I didnt get the paycheck. Supper fun race. Looks like I have a ton of work to do after watching Steyns and Dragos videos. I think full data and coaching are in my near future.

 

https://youtu.be/Y0qq4rlii7k

[tLinder]

Decent highlight video produced by Toyo Tires https://youtu.be/5K5Z-VmjuyU

Guess there is hope of official SM results!?

[Bench Racer]

Great job by all at the Toyo NASA Nationals.     

 

Stepping back to identifying tires when we get around to specifying how may tires may be used. I don't know what was being branded on the tires at the Nationals, but branding tires at the race track ends the arguing that branding can't be done successfully.

[Danny Steyn]

Decent highlight video produced by Toyo Tires https://youtu.be/5K5Z-VmjuyU

 

 

That was a really great video - exceptional editing

[Steve Scheifler]

Decent highlight video produced by Toyo Tires
Guess there is hope of official SM results!?

I guess I missed the highlights part. Meh. Strikes me as pointless and boring despite the overly dramatic sound track, particularly to anyone not already familiar with the event.

[powerss]

Anybody else receive this today?

Thank you for joining us at the 2018 NASA Championships and Toyo Tires Classic race.

As you know, the results have been held as provisional because of the post-race inspection process. The NASA technical team worked very hard to ensure compliance with the rules and found certain parts on competitors’ cars to be non-compliant. The technical team spent additional time after the event to consult with independent experts and submit the parts for evaluation.

NASA has confirmed their findings in the linked white paper below and has notified competitors who are subject to penalties. Competitors have the right to an Executive Appeal and some of the drivers, in this case, have requested that hearing. With that in mind, we ask that you remain patient so work can be done to give everyone the rights and fairness afforded to them. We will release the official results as soon as this final hearing is concluded.

We appreciate your support and hope you had a good experience at Circuit of The Americas. As you have seen in the past, controversy in racing often creates a political backlash or efforts to damage the reputation of one side or another. It is our hope that everyone can look at this as NASA's desire to do the best possible job to enforce the rules and nothing else. As a competitor, you expect a sanctioning body to ensure fairness and remain objective. We want each and every one of you to know that principle is paramount in this entire process.

Sincerely-

National Auto Sport Association

[Johnny D]

Did you want to disclose the linked white paper?

 

J~

[powerss]

https://nasaspeed.ne...championships/#