sebring..cabin fever event

[flaboy]

can you believe the car count for rhe feb.24th weekend at sebring.as of today 2/13 a total of 312 entries have been registered on line.

22 itb cars

14 itc cars

looks like i'll be in the back half of the itc cars...but i can't wait.


Tim

[Conover]

Wow, that looks like fun, 22 ITB's huh? coolio!

[its66]

Speaking of car counts... this is from DLBracing's online registration

Online Registration is now closed. Due to field sizes and course restrictions, acceptance of late entries at the track will not be considered until 9 am Saturday morning. At that time, competitor no-shows and withdrawals will be assessed to determine what the actual car count per group is. If car counts are below a maximum of 48 cars per group, late entries will be accepted up to the limit of 48 cars, on a group by group basis.

entrants
27----- Group 1 Vintage
49----- Group 2 DP, EP, FP, GP, GTL, HP, LEG, SPU
49----- Group 3 SM
49----- Group 4 F500, FV, SRF
51----- Group 5 ITB, ITC, SSB, SSC, T3
43----- Group 6 CF, CSR, DSR, F1000, FA, FC, FF, FM, FS, FSCCA, S2, SRSCCA
55----- Group 7 AS, ASR, BP, GT1, GT2, GT3, GTA, SPO, ST, T1, T2
50----- Group 8 IT7, ITA, ITR, ITS

:eclipsee_steering:

[R2 Racing]

Cabin fever? In the southwest? Isn&#39;t the longest period of time you guys ever go between events like three weeks? I&#39;m smack in the middle of a seven month off season. So depressing. <_<


Those numbers look awesome. Wish I was there!

[gsbaker]

Isn&#39;t the longest period of time you guys ever go between events like three weeks?[/b]
Yeah man, but it&#39;s a tough three weeks. :duck:

[titanium]

So, if I read between the lines, this means the groups that have 49 or more cars will be reduced to 48 for racing?
I don&#39;t see anything in the supps for how the field will be reduced.
Has anyone else had an experience with over-subscribed fields like this?
(I did see elsewhere the recommended maximum is 25 cars per mile. The Sebring club course is 1.7 miles)

[CaptainWho]

Speaking of car counts... this is from DLBracing&#39;s online registration

[color=#3333FF]
49----- Group 2 DP, EP, FP, GP, GTL, HP, LEG, SPU
[/b]

What class is LEG?

[camop]

Hi Rodney:

My understanding is that the Stewards can make an exception to the number of cars on the track for a given group. In the three years I have been racing in Florida I can&#39;t remember seeing any cars turned away even when we were over the track limit. My first race was at the Sebring full course (3.7mi) and it had 100 cars on the track.

Maybe a year before I got my license I read on the web (I think the SM board) that the ruling for qualifying times had been enforced and a few unhappy drivers had been sent home without racing - but that may have been hypothetical and I am suffering from poor memory of the posts.

[StephenB]

What class is LEG?
[/b]


Legends probably. Originally designed for Dirt track oval racing and recently (Last 5 or so years) several of them have shown interest from time to time to crossover to Road racing. I beleive it is a Regional only class in some regions... like here in NER.

Stephen

[charrbq]

Yep, LEG is Legends Cars. Personally, I think they are neat, but have no more business on a road course with other classes anymore than Baby Grands.

As to over subscribed groups, usually the stewards will shuffle classes around to eliminate sending someone home. It&#39;s a lot easier to do than with Regional racing than National racing.

[titanium]

The only groups that arn&#39;t over-subscribed are Vintage and Open Wheel.
Well, if they move you to run with Vintage, at least you dont have to worry about being hit! :D
Just watch out for the oil put down by the British cars. :P

[CaptainWho]

Yep, LEG is Legends Cars. Personally, I think they are neat, but have no more business on a road course with other classes anymore than Baby Grands.
[/b]

I&#39;d rather be in my Baby Grand with the IT cars than in my IT car with SRFs like in the CCPS run group. :-)

[NutDriverRighty]

This is getting of the topic of this thread a bit, but watching Kirk Riddle in his Baby Grand at Road Atlanta approaches poetry in motion. If it weren&#39;t for Jim Kellogg&#39;s SPU car, no one would get near him. Wonder if that&#39;s why Jim hired Kirk to be his mechanic?

Scott "Righty" Franklin
www.NutDriver.org
IT7 and SPU Baby Grand[i][u] :D

[loperdw]

Luckily, they didn&#39;t have to cut anyone. Fields were thick but no one was forced to watch from the sideline. However on the test day the caterer decided not to serve any food! He said there were more people at the test day than he had ever seen and he didn’t bring enough. So he decided not to feed anyone rather than take the risk of running out. Man I missed that awesome grilled chicken sandwich.

[manny]

how was the racing ? i sure do miss racing with such large groups. any one know how the ITB class was? thanks :023:

[titanium]

OK, I take back my quip about British cars putting down oil.
They ain&#39;t go nuthin&#39; on the amount of oil a GT1 car puts down when it blow!!!
I dont have much info on the IT races, since I spent a lot of time between sessions cleaning all the oil of my car!
But here&#39;s something you should know:
After racing IT7 for five years and moving to B Prepared, I can tell you that the quality of drivers in the IT groups is far superior to that in the Big-Bore classes.
In all my years of racing, I never had a special drivers meeting for the IT class where the SOM told us he was going to void the results of all the classes in group if the drivers continued to drive as poorly as they had been.
Well, that&#39;s what he told &#39;us&#39; on Sunday before our last race.

Before I get to the last race of the weekend, let&#39;s back up to practice.
15 minute session on the Sebring short course. About half way through the session, a GT1 Camaro passed me coming out of the carousel. Just before the walk-over bridge, he puts out a big plume of smoke and starts to slow. As I come up behind him, my car gets totally covered with oil from his car. (I think he blew an oil line).
Other than the oil-down, practice was ok.

Qualifying:
What a joke.
I go out on my out lap. The SAME GT1 CAMARO passes me in the same place and blows up again!!!!!!
He puts down GALLONS of oil on the straight and more in the safety pin, where he spins out.
I pass his stalled car and go to start my first lap. As I enter turn 7, the caution flag is being franticly waved. A GT1 Monte Carlo has hit the oil and has gone head-first into the tires/guardrail on drivers-right at the walk-over bridge. The GT1 Camaro is still sideways in the the safety pin, and the session is black-flagged before I finish a lap. I was the first car to take the black flag and pulled into pit lane. (the entrance to pit lane is just past start-finish) They kept us on pit lane for 5 minutes, then told us the session was over.

SAARC race: (30 minutes)
They put me in 30th place on the grid (out of 40).
How they could of determined where to grid the cars, I don&#39;t know. The field was really jumbled up. Lots of fast cars were at the back of the field. The did see fit to put another BP car directly in-front of me. A &#39;93 Mustang coupe owned and driven by Al Wicht. Neat car. BIG wing on the back! :eclipsee_steering:
Al also has a 98 Camaro that he is going to run at the World-Challange race at Sebring. He says it is fast enough to get the pole. (for the year 2001 :D ) Look for him on Speed TV. He&#39;s a nice guy.

The race. A lot of fast cars behind me made the first few laps well, intense. I got by Al at turn two. A C5 Corvette blew on the first lap in the braking zone for the safety pin and oiled down the track pretty good.
Al passed me back after a couple of laps and a AS Mustang got between us. However, I don&#39;t think a lap went by were there wasn&#39;t a local yellow somewhere on the track.
I think about the middle 10 minutes of the race were under full course caution. Several cars were parked in &#39;impact&#39; areas and needed to be removed. Also, while under caution, Al was given a mechanical black-flag because his tailpipe came loose and was dragging on the ground.
It was all the "local&#39; yellow&#39;s that cause problems for the &#39;faster&#39; drivers apparently.
The SOM said so many cars were passing under the yellow that he was going to penalize the whole group. (if I recall correctly, he gave a estimate of 13 to 15 passes under the yellow)
And yes, at least one GT1 or SPO car did pass me under one of the yellow&#39;s.
I ended up in second in BP. (there were only 3 BP cars) The only time I saw the lead BP car. (A C5 vette) was when he lapped me!

It was before the afternoon race, while on the grid, the SOM pulled all the drivers from their cars and read them the riot act.

I didn&#39;t witness any passing under the yellow during the 8 lap regional race. However, the GT1/SPO cars still weren&#39;t well behaved. On the forth lap a GT1 Vette and a Monte Carlo got together in the carousel. The Corvette was able to continue and the Monte Carlo was sideways in the middle of the track and could not re-fire.

THEY LEFT HIM THERE FOR THE REST OF THE RACE!!

The just put out a local yellow and everyone had to squeeze by him for the final 3 laps!!!
My guess is they were trying to send all the drivers a message by leaving him there.


You guys were a lot better to race with.

[CaptainWho]

... the Monte Carlo was sideways in the middle of the track and could not re-fire.

THEY LEFT HIM THERE FOR THE REST OF THE RACE!!

The just put out a local yellow and everyone had to squeeze by him for the final 3 laps!!!
[/b]

If I&#39;d have been working that corner, race control and/or the stewards would have had one highly PO&#39;d corner worker in their faces about ten milliseconds after the final "last car" ... maybe sooner. I just can&#39;t even imagine that happening.

[NutDriverRighty]

Did the steward&#39;s first name start with an "S" and his last name sound alot like the name of a famous jelly?

As someone who works F&C (often with Captain Who), I have to agree with what he said. If I were a participant, I would be tempted to take this issue to someone "on high". As the situation is described, it seems to be (more than) bordering on gross negligence and wreckless endangerment.

Scott "Righty" Franklin
IT7 and SPU (yes, in a Baby Grand! :P )

[charrbq]

Well, this maybe explains why the results of the races aren&#39;t on MyLaps yet. With all that many bozos, oil leaks, and peeoed stewards, I&#39;m surprised someone didn&#39;t decide to call in the Men In Black with their shiny pens and bright lights to erase the weekend from everyone&#39;s memory banks.

I&#39;ve seen Chief Stewards have a drivers meeting on a grid before, and it was anything but pretty. What was said (threatened) was extreme and probably needed to be said, but no one went away happy.

As for shortening qualifying and practice, that, too is usually a stewards call under recommendation from his corner workers, wrecker operators, EMT&#39;s, or whatever, as the practice and qualifying sessions are under a fairly strict clock.

Same for leaving the car in the middle of the track. Ususally, the SOM or Chairman, SOM will leave a situation of a local yellow for a corner when the race is running short in order to get the race complete. If the driver and the corner workers were out of harm&#39;s way, and there was no garbage on the track, and it was covered by a yellow flag, then it was considered a safe situation. The alternative would be to black flag all, red flag, and then through the checker. You would&#39;ve lost three laps of racing, and to have restarted the race would&#39;ve meant that all the others would have to be shortened to accommodate the loss of time in the day.

The grid, after such a disasterous qualifying, is decided in timing and scoring and is subject to their limitations. Only cars with times have grid spots, after that, it&#39;s first to the grid is first to the position. Grid can not control anything beyond that. If you&#39;ve got a weenie car that gets to the grid ahead of a ground pounder, then the position is yours.

I&#39;m not trying to defend anything done by officials or workers, just expain a little. IMHO, sounds like there would be cause, from what&#39;s written here, to complain, in written form, to the divisional race steward. Not that anything would change the weekend&#39;s outcome or events, but it would beat screaming in an event chairman&#39;s or race steward&#39;s face...neither of which would result in a favorable outcome. There is a process that can either validify actions taken during events, or clarify limitations and responsibilities of stewards at future events if such is needed. Again, no one will really go away happy...it&#39;s sorta like divorce court.

[loperdw]

manny - Great racing, everybody was fighting!! Here was the breakdown in B

SARRC race (pos 1-10)
Keane, Horn, Loper, Weber, Alander, Kalfas, M McCormick, Radhay, Fuller, G. McCormick

Regional race (pos 1-10)
Loper, Horn, Alander, Freund, M McCormick, Fuller, Radhay, G. McCormick, P. McCormick, Reichard

[p.keane]

Result are on Mylaps.