NHIS Results

[67ITB]

So other than Steve Ostrovitz blowing a transmission, and having to sleep with it!!!
(Steve how many transmissions have you killed??)
How did the weekend go??
Looking for ITB results specifically!!!!

Thanks
Matt Bal

[ulfelder]

Mat - Steve O's tranny is actually a tow-vehicle deal, he didn't make it to the race.

ITS/ITB results:

Saturday (NASCAR 1 & 2):
ITS: Jeff Henderson (BMW) from the pole over Nick Leverone (Mazda). A great, clean battle all the way. Tim Estes (Mazda) third - fantastic weekend for Tim.
ITB: Derek Lugar (VW), also from the pole (1:19.2), over Scott Carlson (Volvo) over Stephen Blethen (Audi).

Sunday (South Chicane):
ITS: Henderson over Larry Moloney (outstanding drive in a BMW just purchased from Russ Jones - Larry started in 10th) over Ed Tisdale (BMW).
ITB: Carlson over Lugar over Blethen. Lugar set an ITB track record for this config: 1:24.001.

Random notes:
* With the 2 big wins, Hendo now has a commanding NARRC points lead.

* Like the Batmobile, Ben Phillips (Mazda) lost a wheel. Left rear, Turn 3, Saturday. Shattered hub. Ben got help from ITS competitor Ian Linscott, who lives nearby and has a parts car. Ben pulled a great thrash to make qualifying Sunday and finished 8th in the race.

* Meanwhile, Nick went nuts trying to solve a cooling problem. Never did find it, had to drop out on Sunday.

* In Sunday's race, I got spun in the first turn of the first lap another RX-7. Went in fighting for 7th, came out 32nd. The other driver didn't even realize it until after the race and apologized profusely when he saw the videotape. Just one a them racin' deals as far as I'm concerned -- forgiven, forgotten. (Well, almost forgiven: the hit knocked the Mark Martin bobblehead doll right off my dashboard, and some wounds don't heal.)

* There will be much chatter over on Spec Miata about Saturday's race. Apparently there was mucho contact throughout the field. The stewards quit writing it all down, there were just too many metal-on-metal reports coming in from corner workers. All SM/SSM drivers were called together for a group spanking.

* Perfect weather both days, excellent IT/SM racing -- terrific way to wrap up the 2004 NHIS season!

Steve U
05 ITS

[This message has been edited by ulfelder (edited September 13, 2004).]

[16v]

I have about a thousand images from the weekend to put online tonight. There was some great action

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Doug :)
NER.org (http://ner.org)
the16v.com (http://the16v.com)
briansgarage.com (http://www.briansgarage.com)

[benspeed]

Big thanks go out to Ian who let me pick over his parts car - never could have made it on track without his help. Also, big thanks goes out to Forrest at FlatOut Motorsports. He motivated me to bust knuckles and get the job done. The Gumpster showed just how to disassemble and reassemble all the components.

This is what makes the SCCA ITS class so fun - competitors willing to help each other.

Cheers,



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BenSpeed
#33 ITS RX7
BigSpeed Racing
[email protected]
NNJR

[tims90rx7]

Following up on Ben's comments about the helpfulness of other racers I just wanted to throw in my own thanks...

After a leaky injector threatened to shorten my weekend I went searching for help. Matt Miskoe gave me guidance about what I should be looking for (as he has countless times in the past). Mark Gregory comes by and we identify the problem. It wasn't much too much later that he's digging through his motorhome looking for parts. After that's it's on to Nick Leverone...'sure, look through these boses and see what you can find'. Finally, taking time from his own modest repair project, Ben leads me to his trailer and says look in here. Success! An old injector that has just the o-ring I need.

Thanks to all for the help to allow me to race again on Sunday. And kudos to all for good clean, tight racing.

Tim Estes
#73 ITS RX7

[RSTPerformance]

Matt-

Hope things are going well for you... Give us an update…

As far as the ITB race I will give you my rundown for your entertainment!!!

Saturday:

Qualifying:

The top 9 ITB cars were within about 1 second of each other (mid 19’s to mid 20’s). Certainly everyone has picked up the pace a lot since last year.

Race:

Derek led from start to finish. Typical ITS pile up in turn 3 that forced the ITB folks to feed through, then for the first few laps Paul Curran (In the last couple races he has really pulled everything together and picked up the pace!) and I battled it out for 2nd and 3rd place as Stephen and Scott battled it out right behind. Paul had some misfires and I was able to finally slip past. Scott and Stephen were able to slip by as well and sooner than I wanted Scott and Stephen were battling it out with me for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I was battling what later turned out to be a broken motor mount and missed a shift coming out of turn 3. Stephen and Scott split me going up the hill and it was all over for me. I battled it out with my bro for a bit, but missed a few more shifts. I slowly started falling back as I was also battling a blown rebound valve in the LF strut. As I slipped back I was forced to race with several ITS cars. I will refrain from further comment about that. A full course yellow brought the pack back together late in the race and Derek (who had a handsome lead) was forced to battle it out with Stephen and Scott. In the end of a great battle it was Derek Scott and then Stephen. I broke another CV joint (probably related to the broken motor mounts) as I continued to “play” with the ITS mid packers. I think Paul ended up third but everyone was so close I am not sure the whole order, and I don’t have the results in front of me.

Sunday:

Qualifying:

The top 3 ITB cars were within about .5 seconds of each other (low 23’s). The rest of the field was all within about a send of each other in the 25’s. (I only got 3 laps before I broke a stupid radiator hose)… errr After qualifying all car were impounded and inspected for damage. Damage was marked in log books to be fixed for next season.

Race:

The start again saw ITS cars spinning in the first real turn (turn 1 in this configuration) and I think everyone got through this time without damage. Derek Stephen and Scott took of from the field with me in quick pursuit. Back a little bit I think it was Paul Curran and Tim Mullen but I couldn’t quite tell as I was dealing again with the ITS cars. I was forced to run with half racing pads and half stock pads we found on a junker from our lot of used coupes out back (Stephen apparently hasn’t checked his brakes all year, and the metal ones probably wouldn’t have helped his battle for the championship, so I gave him my brakes, what brotherly love… sorry buddy, but you didn’t win with my brakes so you are going to get a little bit of a guilt trip). Anyway I was still able to run good in the beginning till things started going wrong… first sign was running once again with those pesky mid pack ITS cars… one of them hit me going into turn 6 and damaged the RF front tire, not enough to end my race, but enough to end a brand new tires life after 1 race. More will be discussed later as the driver feels it was my fault. I am trying to get in-car footage because if it was my error, I certainly would like to educate myself, and if it wasn’t my error, I hope the other driver will also take the educational experience. Anyway as I continued I struggled with the rear end of my car getting very loose so much that I had an (what felt like) outstanding slide going into turn 1 (end of pit wall) the put me backwards into the grass… (Twice) I used a bit of my ice racing techniques to spin the car back around and continue on my way. The first time I didn’t loose and didn’t gain anything (until the results showed me as taking a short cut and I was penalized a lap). The second time wasn’t as graceful but I never did come to a stop but not without falling to ummm… yeah about last place. After the second time (a bit of a hard hit on the curb) I looked at my gauges to see if all was ok. The water gauge read zero… humm what is that??? Did I break the gauge or it their no fluid? Must be the Guage I said so I continued for the last 5 or 6 laps, but lost a lot of momentum and power… I continued to think… I can feel the engine moving all over the place, the throttle keeps sticking, well it must be the linkage, the engine has moved so much that I can not get full throttle, I’ll keep going. Turns out their was not water left in the coolant system when I finished the race… oh and I was getting full throttle, it was the darn ignition coils that were holding the throttle cable as they were in a different spot in relation to the now moving motor. So anyway with all that I was unable to catch the fighting Tom Kelly (in your car) Tim Mullen and Canadian (Rob McCabe?). Stephen led the whole race fighting with Derek and Scott until a missed shift on the last lap allowed Scott to slip past then apparently a last ditch effort to get Scott in turn 12 allowed Derek also to slip past. Nice job bro http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/wink.gif!!!

My Summary:


On the broken motor mount… it was not discovered till after the race on Sunday, we thought that my massive pull under power was some sort of alignment or loose suspension issue so all of that was checked and rechecked. Bummer, probably could have avoided a few issues...

In the end, I ended up with 2 last place finishes, a damaged tire, 2 broken motor mounts, 2 broken radiator hoses, a junk motor, a junk strut, a junk CV joint, and yet another dent.


Hope things are well and we see you soon Matt!!!

oh you missed some great Canadian beer... thans Canadians!!! hope to see all of you at the ARRC and next year!!!

Raymond "coulda/shoulda skipped this one" Blethen

Congrats to Scott Carlson for winning the 2003 ITB New England Road Racing Championship!!!

[lateapex911]

I'll echo Tims thoughts...it's a tune that is sung often in SCCA racing, and isn't limited to NER or ITS.

My thanks go to my fellow ITA drivers, esp Dick Patullo, who, after his *new* engine expired in the first session of the weekend (ahem.......), was kind enough to let us vultures pick over his entire car and rig to keep ours racing.

By the end of the event, even if Dicks car was in good running condition, it wouldn't have turned over (battery went to Grant, nor would it have cooled, as I had the radiator in my car in an attempt to solve a mystery cooling problem that continued to get worse even as new part after new part was thrown at it.

Thanks Dick...you are one of the most generous guys around.

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Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]

[TimM ITB]

Hey Matt!

We had us a good ole' time at Loudon this weekend - excitement for the whole family! I saw a few "previews" from Doug at www.the16v.com (http://www.the16v.com), and they ought to give you an idea of the racing that went on!! Can you say "up on two wheels"???

I for one had a great time with Rob McCabe - one of the "dreaded Canadians"! We had two excellent door-to-door and nose-to-tail races. I got him on Saturday in turn 10 with a couple of laps to go, when he had to slow up considerably for a slow ITS Porsche, and he got me on Sunday when I went for a little "off road" fun exiting turn 3 - my tires were absolute junk and I was lucky just to end up 6th and not DNF! I hope that those pesky Canadians keep making the 11 hour trek to NHIS, as the racing is always clean and tough! Nice job, eh!!

Hey, one thing, I think that this was the first time that I ever saw Tommy Kelly in MY mirror at the end of a race!!!

Stay well, hope to see you home soon.

Tim M

[almracing]

My thanks go to my fellow ITA drivers, esp Dick Patullo, who, after his *new* engine expired in the first session of the weekend (ahem.......), was kind enough to let us vultures pick over his entire car and rig to keep ours racing.

--- That explains why Dick was wearing a headset at Grid and not a helmet.

Anthony R.
ITA #86 NER

[dickita15]

yea what a bunch of vultures http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif

my spare driveshaft was in the first rx7. my battery, dist cap and wires were in the second one, but my radiator and drivers shoes dnf'ed
dick

[nlevine]

On the subject of folks helping out, I'd like to thank ITS driver Bill Hatem's crew member James (whose last name I never got) for pulling an ABS sensor out of his street car for me to borrow that enabled my car to FINALLY run right (add this to the list of why I now hate OBD II and modern engine management). I also lent Bill a set of harnesses to use as his had expired - fortunately I had a spare set from running at a driver's school Friday.

It's all about helping each other out so we can all play!

-noam

[RSTPerformance]

lending a helping hand...

I have been going to races myself and with dad since the early 80's... I can't remember verymany times that a driver, crew, friend, family member, business, sponsor or even those mean officials not willing to lend a helping hand... even at Nationals (Although I hear from time to time, that they never do, I would have to disagree). The people who don't help don't seem to last long.

A big thank you goes out from me and all of the RST Performance Racing group for helping us achive everything we have been able to. We could have never achived what we have without our friends in "the racing world."

Raymond Blethen
RST Performance Racing
www.rstperformance.com (http://www.rstperformance.com)

[16v]

here's a peak at some images. I have to finish uploading them tonight

http://the16v.com/SCCA/04/nhis3/091204/images/DSC_2747.jpg

http://the16v.com/SCCA/04/nhis3/091104a/images/DSC_1773.jpg

http://the16v.com/SCCA/04/nhis3/091104a/images/DSC_1905.jpg

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Doug http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif
NER.org (http://ner.org)
the16v.com (http://the16v.com)
briansgarage.com (http://www.briansgarage.com)

[This message has been edited by 16v (edited September 14, 2004).]

[16v]

Race Results are now on ner.org


Thanks to Denise Patten for supplying them to me all season.

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Doug :)
NER.org (http://ner.org)
the16v.com (http://the16v.com)
briansgarage.com (http://www.briansgarage.com)

[almracing]

Off-topic -- Anyone know how to get in touch with ITS drivers, the Miskoes?

Just want to pass along a thanks for something.

Anthony R.
ITA #86 NER

[MMiskoe]

[email protected] gets you messages to Matt & Kathy, if its for my dad I can forward it along.

Matt