21 replies to this topic

[pat slattery]

Just looked at the entrance list and we are the only 1.6 registered. WTF

Pat

[dmathias]

I find that hard to believe - after all, any year can win.

Tell me Pat - have you achieved top-level prep?

[pat slattery]

Pat

[Bench Racer]

Just looked at the entrance list and we are the only 1.6 registered. WTF
Pat

Pat & Shawn, when you have a poorly setup 1.6 with a so-so driver you can only win one out of two races for a national double weekend. But, you did finish second in the other race. IIRC that makes 3 races at the Farm for you guys with two wins & a second.

Great job guys.

[Jim Drago]

Congrats to Shawn and Gerber on the wins in very competitive fields and adverse conditions! Sounds like an "interesting" weekend. From delays to rain and who knows what else. Anyone want to elaborate or give some race reports?



If there was only one 1.6 entered and he finished first and second in a very competitive field, is it OK to say that car may actually have an advantage at that track or is that not PC?

[pat slattery]

We, (Shawn) had a good weekend. Weather sucked and kept everyone guessing but some you guess right other times, you miss it.

Saturday, we qualified on the pole, in the dry conditions, but by the race, the track was damp and spitting a very light rain, most went out with slicks we did also, but those that had more tread on there tires seemed to handle a little better, Shawn was able to hold on but did manage to finish right behind Gerber for a 2nd with Gerber getting his first National win. Gerber did a good job, hitting a good setup and was glad to see him get a win, if we couldn't pull it off.

Sunday, more of the same with the weather, but we did get to qualify in a mostly dry condition, there was a slight drizzle, but the track was essentially dry and for some reason, fast, with Anderson setting the pole time only .1 second off the track record and Shawn, was .005 behind.

The feature was in the best conditions of the weekend with cool and dry conditions, but the race was marred by a flipped Cobalt, and cut the race short. Shawn won, with Anderson 2nd, Brown 3rd and Coello 4th.

Good start of the season for us, hopefully it will continue.

Pat

[Jim Drago]

Pasted from Specmiataclassified.com from Dave Bednarz

Saturday – 10 cars qualified within 1 second of the pole. Field was only 16, so a very tight pack. The chief steward agreed to a split start for SM (w/ SSC) – Thanks Tom Sager for initiating.

Saturday race – The track was damp to wet, and much more slick than it appeared – at least to me.

Congratulations to first time? SM national winner Jarret Gerber.

2nd place Shawn Slattery, 3rd Tom Sager. (from memory – hope this is right?)

Sunday – The weather actually dried out for the afternoon. The race started at maybe 5:45PM – the “benefit” of being in group 8. There were several oil incidents plus a red flag in the prior groups that slowed down the afternoon. The SM race also went red on lap 2 due to an SSC rollover. The restart gave us maybe 6 or 7 green flag laps until the checker. I believe the track closes at 6PM due to their noise agreement with the local area? It seemed like it was extended slightly, but still a short race that was scheduled for 24 laps or 30 minutes.

Winner was Shawn Slattery, 2nd Bruce Anderson, 3rd Tony Coello. – This is also from memory - I didn’t stay to get final results.

[davew]

One of the worst race weekends I can remember and it had nothing to do with the Miatas ;-))))

Thursday test day saw a big oil down by a Formula car

Friday saw another big oil down by a Formula car

Saturday had another big oil down by an STU Volkwagon plus a couple wrecks in the rain by Formula and Sports Racers

Sunday had a CSR try to fly after being hit by another car and in a seperate incedent, a driver had to be transported from the track via the track owned ambulance. This left the track short on emergency personel and equipment. Causing about a 30 minute delay.

The SM race started a 5:27, I saw the official log. Split start, t1, t2, t3, ssb in front, SM and SSC in back. On the tail end of lap 1 an SSC Cobalt rolled in T7 causing a red flag. This guy had driven at least 3 Miatas off the track and had tried to crash several times during the weekend. This time he succedded. After sitting on the track for about 8 minutes, we did 3 laps behind the pace car. 2 laps too many in my opinion. Then 6 laps of green.

Local ordinances require racing to end at 6pm on weekends. The track owner was on the premises and allowed us to get the minimum 50% race distance. Checkered flag was a 6:05 with a clear track by 6:10 as per track owner. Thanks Paul

The SM group raced hard, fast and in control. I hope that more of you will talk to the Stewards about taking T1 and Maybe T2 out of our race group.

Dave

[Bench Racer]

One of the worst race weekends I can remember and it had nothing to do with the Miatas ;-))))

Sunday had a CSR try to fly after being hit by another car and in a seperate incedent,
Dave

Dave, is this the French incedent you talk of? If so who/where was the other car involved?

I was in T1 & viewed the French car at the brake markers all alone with the front brakes LOCKED & what sounded like a full throttle. Straight off the end of the T1 into the barrels, hit the earth hill behind the barrels & the car went as vertical as possible, then floped down forward. No driver movement untill well after the safety crew arrived. Then French got out & walked to the E vehicle to the roar/hand claping of the crowd.

This would be the race where Loshak went from DFL (maybe 20 cars) to first before this incident. He was at VIR the day before.

Was told by steward that the car that rolled in T7 hit the inside guard rail to get the deal going.

[Tom Sager]

For shyt sakes our division doesn't start the season until Mid-May and the best weather we can get is 50 degrees, wind and rain for much of Friday and Saturday? I have to thank my terrific crew Mike Tesch who brought his ugly early 80's vintage motorhome to the track which was an oasis in the paddock. While I have made fun of this vehicle a few times, it's a gem to have at the track. Thanks to Dave Wheeler also whose endless supply of at-the-track parts and friendly service bailed me out a couple times.

Shawn Slattery was the class of the weekend with a 1st and a a 2nd and did the best job of navigating the conditions, traffic, scheduling changes, yellow flags, blue flags and red flags. Jerret Gerber had another great rain performance on Saturday moving up several positions and led most of the race. I think everyone lined up Saturday with a dry setup anticipating a drying track only to have the rain restart on about lap 2. Several of us tried the grass and found out it was not better than the pavement. Sunday the track surface was dry but a late start and red flag limited us to about 8 laps, Good racing though.

Few other notes.....

Bruce Andersen is going really fast and had the pole Sunday and was 2nd in qualifying Saturday. Tom Brown finished 3rd Sunday in a recently acquired '99, great job. David Palfenier drove Sunday without the hardtop. Some feedback on that would be interesting. I'll bet he planned to run that way Saturday too but the weather said otherwise.

[davew]

David, you are correct. I am refering to the "French incedent". NOOOO, that is not code for anything. The drivers name is really French. get your collective minds out of the gutter

My understanding is that Dave P. was having a fuel pickup problem that forced him to fill the fuel tank to the top. he removed the top in an effort to get closer to minimum weight.. It confused the grid/tech workers. But they did get it right in the long run.

dave

[pat slattery]

David, you are correct. I am refering to the "French incedent". NOOOO, that is not code for anything. The drivers name is really French. get your collective minds out of the gutter

My understanding is that Dave P. was having a fuel pickup problem that forced him to fill the fuel tank to the top. he removed the top in an effort to get closer to minimum weight.. It confused the grid/tech workers. But they did get it right in the long run.

dave

I would guess that the 8lbs that he saved on removing the top, he lost double the time or more without running with the roof.

Pat

[O-Dog Racing]

The weekend was very interesting. What a great field of miatas at this Nat. Very competitve with great driving by everyone. Field was tight for qual, which is the way it should be. Racing was just dont make a mistake because it is going to be hard to get it back. As everyone well knows now that i love rain racing it was a great race with cars that i was lapping giving plenty of room, so i give a shout out to those who were paying attention and being respectful at the national level. Also i thought sundays race was really fun. I raced with Sager and Manning the whole way and was very close racing with no bumping rubbing or dissrespect for each other. Thanks for the great race guys. Saturday was my first national win and I want to thank everyone for the congratulations. We have benn trying to get it right and finally my rain dance paid off. We went out with dry setup with 2/32 shave and when it started spitting more i just was patient and didnt panic, smooth on the throttle didnt jerk wheel and stayed out of the grass. Towards the end the track was getting real slick and Shawn was making a run as i did have 5 secs at one time. MOV was .3. Great job Shawn for giving me a scare. All in all great weekend. See you all at the next race.

[James York]

I would guess that the 8lbs that he saved on removing the top, he lost double the time or more without running with the roof.

Pat

Eight pounds, what kind of top are you guys running? Hmmm, mine seems to weigh more.

[pat slattery]

Eight pounds, what kind of top are you guys running? Hmmm, mine seems to weigh more.

That was a guess, James, I thought that was what it weighed when I first got it, but I could be way off. That was six years ago. Anyone have any real numbers on what they really weigh. You raised my curiosity

Pat

[davew]

About 45 pounds

[pat slattery]

I guess I missed the mark a little.

[D Palfenier]

Hey guys, new member here.

Yep Dave W. had it right, we were having fuel cut-out issues so decided to try filling 'er to the neck with fuel, drown the damn thing, and then took off the roof to compensate for the weight.

Didn't work.

Would offer my apologies to anyone I held up coming out of 5, that's where I was cutting out (high-g left-hander in 4th).

So two questions for some help on this.

First, regarding the fuel cut-out: this only happens in high-g left-handers, by that I mean well into 4th gear and above 5500rpms. The only two places it happens for me are Turn 5 exit at BHF, and coming through the link at Autobahn on the full track, also a left-hand 4th gear exit. Interestingly, it doesn't happen till the car unloads, then it just cuts out. At BHF, was coughing till the 3 marker, then back on.

We chased it all weekend, including taking the fuel tank apart, and working from there all the way up. Anyone else who's experienced this? If so, any suggestions? We still don't know how to fix this...

Second, I think the roof idea turned out to be a really bad idea. Felt like I was dragging a boat anchor while moving aside for everyone else to just blow on by me. Ugly. Has anyone else tried this? sounds like from some of the comments here that some of you know that was a big mistake...

Thanks in advance for any tips...

[dbednarz]

There have been a few topics before where fuel issues were really ignition, and ignition issues were really fuel. It may be worth a quick look through battery tie downs, cut out switch, and associated wiring. I personally have experienced cut-out issues in corners that were electrical shorts, but I thought I ran out of gas.

Good Luck,
David Bednarz
GLDiv #68

[D Palfenier]

There have been a few topics before where fuel issues were really ignition, and ignition issues were really fuel. It may be worth a quick look through battery tie downs, cut out switch, and associated wiring. I personally have experienced cut-out issues in corners that were electrical shorts, but I thought I ran out of gas.

Good Luck,
David Bednarz
GLDiv #68

Thanks man. We were out testing Saturday and must've tried to isolate 15 variables before we finally figured it out. Fuel line was constricted. She's apart now, we're replacing.