35 replies to this topic

[Keith Novak]

Is Will running in SM or CSM?

I'm out. My motor comes tomorrow and I'm nursing a strained back from doing yardwork and plumbing waiting for the motor so I'm not going to race installing it. Talk about turning into an old fart. Turns out the motor came a week ago but UPS central didn't give my contact number to the local depot so they just let it sit there. They did deliver a box almost big enough for the whole engine with 4 gaskets in it though... No door tag or anything.

[William Bonsell]

Schrader is running SM (18 entries) with only 2 Miata's in CSM. Total entries over 160 with 38 in Group 2 (SM/CSM et al). Anyone know when Rose Cup info will be up on motorsportsreg.com.....Looks like 70 on Sunday.

[Bruce Wilson]

I'm just soooooo glad that all Oregon region SCCA SM races will be in our own run group this year. I just watched a couple of my National videos, both of which I lose places and contingency dollars as the result of sharing the group with other classes. It wasn't always slower cars that caused the problem. In last year's July national, a Viper passed about 5 Miatas out of T12 and then parked it in the chicane allowing Will and Gary to freight train me going into t4. I know it adds variety but to me it's just plain frustrating!

-bw

[William Bonsell]

I'm just soooooo glad that all Oregon region SCCA SM races will be in our own run group this year. I just watched a couple of my National videos, both of which I lose places and contingency dollars as the result of sharing the group with other classes. It wasn't always slower cars that caused the problem. In last year's July national, a Viper passed about 5 Miatas out of T12 and then parked it in the chicane allowing Will and Gary to freight train me going into t4. I know it adds variety but to me it's just plain frustrating!

-bw

For the average club racer striving to run solidly mid pack, there can be no doubt that large grids, be they dedicated or mixed, provide much more racing enjoyment. You look across the country and there are some regions with huge SM/SSM only run groups. I ran two Group 1 races last year at Portland and while I thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend (tremendous group of guys), my on track experience left a lot to be desired as I seldom had anyone to race with. Were I a championship contending driver with a more competitively built car, I would feel exactly as you feel Bruce, but I am glad I have options to maximize enjoyment for my racing dollar. I am SCCA and ICSCC and proud to represent both.

[Keith Novak]

Mixed class fields, large as they may be can be a major PITA even for the mid packer. You get a couple guys with much higher HP cars who qualify in back, then they blow by cars at the start and park it in the chicane separating the pack... They can be hard to pass after that and once you do, you're in no man's land just driving around by yourself with no real chance of catching back up. I'll take a one class field any day over twice the size with 8x the classes. It is fun to finally make that pass stick, but then what?

Some guys are cool about it. After the March submarine races, a 911 driver came up afterwards and told me he cleared out of the way after watching two of us race hard on his bumper. He wasn't going anywhere but we had a race going so he waved us by. Class act. Others will be in a one car class, mid pack, block like hell, and then pull off early and collect their "win" at the end. Not so cool.

[Mike Colangelo]

Man, I wish I could be racing this weekend. Boeing had other plans for me

It'd be fun to race against you guys in my CRX.

[Jim Drago]

Hoorah for the old guys...
Says the 44 yr old
Jim

[Terrell Garrett]

Keith, can you say limbo? 1:25.9 with no chicane. The bar has been lowered yet again. You better get some lead in your shoe buddy! (Thanks to Chris Heinrich for a great tow!)

Terrell

[Bruce Wilson]

Hoorah for the old guys...
Says the 44 yr old
Jim

Yeah, Puppy dog...

-bw

[Will Schrader]

An "Old Guy' won again today. Congrats to Ken for keeping the kids at bay and winning the National today.

[Ken SM94]

Damn kids!

[Ken SM94]

Nice win Robert, well done!

[Mark de Regt]

Nice win Robert, well done!

So, what happened? I was watching on the live feed, and Ken was leading, with Robert on his bumper; then Robert was leading, and Ken and Bruce were 600 yards behind.

[Bruce Wilson]

Hey Mark, we had two dry races. Amazing that it worked out that way. The qualifying sessions were sloppy wet but somehow we got to race on dry pavement! The rest is complicated. Bottom line is that we need to clean it up a bit. I'll start anohter thread on that later, but for now we'll just say that Robert had a clean race but youg guns don't rule the roost quite yet

-bw

[Kyle Keenan]

Thanks to Ken and "Mr. Linse" for the victory laps. Ken is much faster then "Mr. Linse" on his lap though

Hope Bruce's finger is okay, Seems to be the "most popular" post on facebook today, as anytime I log in I see a picture of the dang thing.

It's cool to see my "fellow youngsters" running up front, but Bruce is right, we gotta clean it up a bit guys.

Glad to see Spence was okay, a few friends watching on PIR live said he got a bit of air time after smacking the point.

Jim Graffy, thanks for racing Dani clean and hard. She says one more lap and she would of had you though

[Bruce Wilson]

Yeah, doc says finger is solid. It should be ready to show it to y'all during the next race

-bw