Cheap Date

[dominojd]

I figured I would be the topic starter this time. :D

[Andy Bettencourt]

Nice job Joe! I will be out and about at soccer games today but should be getting updates via cell...I will post what I can.

[Tkczecheredflag]

Stopped at the garage yesterday to see Shane. Bought him a sawzal to split a 88# piece of lead (forgot that a piece can't be more that 50#)- he needed ballast from the old weights of three years ago - he wasn't making much progress with the hacksaw. We needed to call Kansas and check the belt/harness rule (weren't sure if it was 2 or 5 years. He had a new swet of belts used twice that were out dates since he last races - I hooked him up with a set of Impacts that I had. Best I could tell he was ready to go - letting him use a trailer - I guess I am there in spirit.

[Greg Amy]

I can relate to the "coming back to racing blues". I felt like a total newbie when I showed up at the track in '02 after 10 years away. He'll get back in the groove soon enough.

BTW, it's 2 years for non-FIA belts, 5 for FIA. PITA, I know. If he's got non-FIA and he's showing up to get an annual with three-year-old belts, he *might* be able to get the Tech Steward to waive him for one race. Hopefully.

Watching for updates...

[Tkczecheredflag]

I can relate to the "coming back to racing blues". I felt like a total newbie when I showed up at the track in '02 after 10 years away. He'll get back in the groove soon enough.

BTW, it's 2 years for non-FIA belts, 5 for FIA. PITA, I know. If he's got non-FIA and he's showing up to get an annual with three-year-old belts, he *might* be able to get the Tech Steward to waive him for one race. Hopefully.

Watching for updates...
[/b]
I gave him a set of Impacts SFI dated 4-06. I couldn't remember if it was 2 years or 5 years on SFI, the FIA text was much clearer in the GCR - thus the phone call to John in Kansas. I dug out the Impacts on Tuesday just in case, so they were readily available if need be. Not sure if he will run into other issues - I beleive his cage was up to date - we made sure the washer fluid bottle was installed corresctly :unsure: , so hopefully he will be good to go. Best I could tell he was pretty psyched to be coming back.

[Greg Amy]

ITA Qualifying

1- Jeff Lawton!!! Kakashi Racing Rulez... +0.2 s
2- Geoff Branscome
3- Victor Gangi

[Andy Bettencourt]

Nice job Jeff!!!

[cpm motorsports]

Greg- Remind me, are they running Nascar 1 and 2, or are they running the south chicane?

[Andy Bettencourt]

South Chicane today, NASCAR 1-2 tomorow.

[Greg Amy]

AWESOME LAWTON WINS ITA!!! This is Jeff's first-ever SCCA win!

I don't have any further info yet, as they *just* took the checkered and Jeff's not even off the track yet, but when I have further details I'll pass them along.

[lateapex911]

I knew he would when I saw he had the pole! Good job Jeff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eclipsee_steering: :026: :OLA:

[Greg Amy]

ITA Results, as qualified:

1-Jeff Lawton
2-Geoff Branscombe
3-Victor Gangi

Notable: Shane Hawthorne 4th after starting dead last.

'Nother day tomorrow!

[gran racing]

So cool!!! Very nice Jeff. I always thought it was simply a matter of you having the confidence that you could win. Now that you've done it once.... :D Awesome!!! Congrats Jeff. I'm really happy for you.

Was your son there? If he was, you know there's no way you'll ever be able to race without him attending the race weekend, right?

Hey, maybe you need one of Melissa's created checkered flag holders now?

[Greg Amy]

Dave, his son *is* there. In fact, he told me he's gotta bring him from now on, for good luck... :)

Hey, Melissa makes checkered flag holders...??? ;)

[Tkczecheredflag]

Jeff - Nicely done - CONGRATS!
Geoff - Tomorrow's another day -good luck.
Victor - Phil Gott's wife Ellen (aka Jean) is visitng for the weekend and is delighted by the podium finish.

Shane - Keep peddlin' brother - sounds like you're right there.

[dominojd]

Dave, his son *is* there. In fact, he told me he's gotta bring him from now on, for good luck... :)


[/b]

Both of his son's are there Jake and Jeremy. :D

Talked to Jeff on the Phone he was physched. Wasn't an easy win though he battled with Branscome from green to checker. Awesome job Jeffery first W feels great doesn't it. :happy204:

[gran racing]

I remember thinking how I thought that once a person won a race, what would be their motivation to win more? No seriously, that's what I thought when watching some of the top dog ITA drivers in my class (back when I was in ITA). Tonight, I sit staring into a fire thinking about just how hungry I am to win another. Jeff, somehow I think this is just the beginning for you as long as your son keeps coming to races.

[jpvonoy]

Awesome job Jeff, that's exciting! I wish I was there to see it.

Congrats to Geoff and Victor as well.

[dominojd]

I think this is just the beginning for you as long as your "sons" keeps coming to races.
[/b]
Fixed that for ya missed a son. :D

[JLawton]

yahoo!!

(About all I can post from my Treo...)

Geoff gave me a hell time. it could have easily gone the other way.

[benspeed]

Way to go Jeff! Gotta feel great to be a winner - hard fought and well earned! :smilie_pokal:

[Andy Bettencourt]

Saturday Chicane/Chicane

ITA: Lawton :023:
Branscome
Gangi
Vigliotti
Martins

SM: Gorriaran
Brandon Bogart
Brett Bogart
Payson

ITS:
Harding
Ulfelder
Jones
Maynard
Brown

ITB:Lugar
B. Peter
Carlson
Mcabbe
Baldoni

SSM:
Gorriaran
Brett Bogart
Whitney
LaPoint
Siff

BRING ON SUNDAY!!!!! Good luck guys!

[benspeed]

Big props to Steve Ulfelder for a hard fought second - way to get on the podium!!! Way to go Russ.

Jeff - running down a NARRC podium. Looks like a great ITS race.

[RSTPerformance]

All classes had some great races...

In the ITA/ITC The best was watching Jeff hold off Branscome for a first win!!! Tomorrow though I have my bet on Vigliotti (?) in the CRX... he was consistantly fast!!! In ITC it was sad to see Fred crash out, although we did love o see the Funks back out at it again!!!

In the ITS/ITB race we sawa good batle at the front in ITS, certainly those Flat Out RX-7's are back at it!!! In ITB Lugar was bak again from the north to show us NER folks where speed comes from in an old A2 VW!!! Take that A3's ;) lol Actually it wasn't a run away with Mr. Peter right in the mirror the entire race :)

I should be interesting come morning!!!!

Raymond "Yes the party's just ended for the lame already in bed :birra: " Blethen

[BobsAuto]

Watched from NASCAR 3 and turn 6 today as I had my granddaughter and a young handicapped lady with me and didn't arrive til the crash in race group one. My "CUP" credentials are not good for the infield til the official start of the workweek on Monday. Quite a hit in race one. Glad to hear that all are ok. Group 3 was a great race and got greasy at the end from the looks of it when the rain started. Nice job to all for keeping their heads on straight when the lightening started at the end. Hope to see you all tomorrow as I intend on getting up there before registration closes to watch a few races.

[cpm motorsports]

Congratulations Jeff! Tell your son sorry we weren't there to give him a ride in the golf cart.
Next time - since it sounds like he will now be coming to all your races. ;)

[Tkczecheredflag]

All classes had some great races...

In the ITA/ITC The best was watching Jeff hold off Branscome for a first win!!! Tomorrow though I have my bet on Vigliotti (?) in the CRX... he was consistantly fast!!! In ITC it was sad to see Fred crash out, although we did love o see the Funks back out at it again!!!

In the ITS/ITB race we sawa good batle at the front in ITS, certainly those Flat Out RX-7's are back at it!!! In ITB Lugar was bak again from the north to show us NER folks where speed comes from in an old A2 VW!!! Take that A3's ;) lol Actually it wasn't a run away with Mr. Peter right in the mirror the entire race :)

I should be interesting come morning!!!!

Raymond "Yes the party's just ended for the lame already in bed :birra: " Blethen
[/b]
What happend to Fred? How did Steph and Ed make out?

[Andy Bettencourt]

Sun Qual: Wet

ITS: Maynard
Harding
Brown
Gregory
Jones

ITA: Martins
Milton-Hall
Lawton
Kogan
Masters

ITB: Mccabe
Lugar
Carlson
Current
B. Peter

SM: Leverone
Brzezinski
Stevens

SSM: LaPoint
Brzezinski
Fail
Martin
Bogart

[dominojd]

Sun Qual: Wet


ITA: Martins
Milton-Hall
Lawton
Kogan
Masters

[/b]

Dammit I knew I should have drove up last night. ;)

Jeff you suck out qualified by 2 RWD Miata's in your FWD Saturn. :bash_1_:

[Greg Amy]

"Hero to zero" in just about 18 hours... ;)

Ah, but there's still this sticky issue about "a race to run". We'll see how Boy Wonder does then...

[Andy Bettencourt]

Current status:

ITS: Harding easy

ITA: (on track) Lawton big

ITB: B. Peter

SM: Brzezinski

[Greg Amy]

ITA: (on track) Lawton big[/b]

...and back to hero six hours later.

Good job, all!

[Jeremy Billiel]

It's true Lawton with the sweep!!!

Rain the entire time. By lap 3 Jeff was leading and was not further challenged.

Sorry to Geoff B as we were geared up for a hard battle!

More to follow. On way home on blackberry.

Oh and coming to the track when you want to sell your car is bad.....

[jlucas]

Congrats Jeff!

[dominojd]

YEAH JEFFERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :026: :026: :026:

[Tkczecheredflag]

Nice going Jeff :happy204:

75% hydrogen and 25% helium with traces of water, methane, ammonia and "rock",
Saturn - Smokin' !!!!!

[dazzlesa]

congrats jeff!

[RSTPerformance]

What happend to Fred? How did Steph and Ed make out?
[/b]

Fred had no place to go in Turn 2 (exit of chicane) and ran nose in to a spun Miata... All were ok but both cars are in bad shape. This incident was exactly the same as earlier in the day when Shelby had the same problem. I am happy to say that the region is looking into trying to make things a bit safer for next season to try an avoid similar accidents.


Today we saw some great races despite the slippery conditions!!! The best race of the day by far was the ITB race with B. Peter, Carlson, Mcabbe, and Lugar nose to tail switching spots the entire race... Jeff does however win ITA and is our newest hero on the forum and with his son, congrats!!!

Raymond "looking forward to working on the 944S ;)" Blethen

[Doc Bro]

Hate to rain on the parade all but it was BREAULT in P4 yesterday from a P12 qual in class and P18 on grid. Today was Lawton Martins, and Breault (from P8 in class) to round out the top three in A.

I would say a VERY big congrats to Jeff.....not for back to back wins, but, for having his son by his side. There were TWO very proud Lawtons at the track. Good Job Jeff, and the wins were cool too!


R

[dominojd]

YEAH ROB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :026: :026: :026:

[Andy Bettencourt]

There IS a doctor in the house!!!!

[Ed Funk]

We haven't raced this year for a variety of reasons, foremost was our daughters wedding in June, which took about 2 years racing budget out of the coffers. We did manage to get to cheap date and are going to WGI next weekend for the fun one.

In Saturdays SSM?ITC race Fred and I were side by side near the back of the field, Fred had beat me in qual by .3, I had plenty of old age but not enough treachery! At the start traffic was kinder to me so I got by Fred, coming out of the south chicane on the second lap there was a sideways SSM in midtrack. Enough room to go around on the normal exit line. Unfortunately, Fred had late apexed to make a move to my inside and was at my left quarter. The hit was LOUD, I knew it was Fred and that we were going to be at FCY, sure enough at three were double yellows, I slowed and got passed by 3 SSM's between 3 and 5! I finally started pointing out the FCY condition to the boys and girls! The 3 didn't give back their position, but oh well, I was effectively OCIC at that point.

First time by the "incident" Fred was still in the car, 2nd time by he was out so I figured he was probably OK, he was! A little sore yesterday, he was wearing a HANS the hit was head on (did I mention HARD!?) and the HANS probably saved more serious soreness if not injury.

I as well as others were approached by Ray Blethen (AKA safety steward) about suggestions to improve that corners flagging recognition, the spin happened 13 seconds before Fred and I got there! Neither of us saw the waving yellow, tho on video it was there. Suggestions have been an out post flashing yellow at the wall in line of sight as you go for the apex, and having turn 1 station double up the flag condition. I'm sure the "powers" would listen to other suggestions.

More on Sunday later.

[ERIC THOMPSON]

just want to say that i had a blast at "cheap date"!!! flatout are a real class act!!!
rented for both days(00 sm miata). very tentative on track the first day especially
considering i was getting rubbed up near the wall on the first lap of quali on the first
day(red #23 i think). my goal was to finish both days and not ball the car. mission
accomplished. second day had much more confidence, and actually lapped a full second
faster in the wet on rains than on sat in the dry(??). can't thank flatout enough.
looking forward to next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

later dudes

[JLawton]

[attachmentid=1116]I appreciate everyone's words.

Some might think it was a cheap win cause Andy wasn't there.............See the picture above..........You think I care??? :D


Props go to Geoff B in Saturday's race. He must have been very frustrated knowing he was faster and couldn't get around me yet he ran me very clean. No taps in the corner no crazy dive bomb moves. He was no more than a car length off my bumper from the second lap to the checkered and several times was up to my door but couldn't make it stick. Thanks Geoff!! (I may sound like a broken record, but this is an example of why I enjoy racing with the Northeast guys. They'll race you hard but keep the heads on straight!)

Sunday qualifying was interesting. The rain had stopped about a 1/2 hour before we went to grid and the line was almost dry. Even though we knew the rain was coming we gambled and went out on drys hoping to bang out a couple of fast laps early. I "think" almost everyone else was on rains. But as we sat on grid it started to sprinkle........... I was second on grid and came out hot. No scrubbing, no heating up the tires. My first flying lap was the fastest which was good for P3 on the starting grid. Chris "Rain Man" Milton-Hall was second and Will was first.

There was no doubt the rain was coming for the race so Jeremy and I had time to think about how to set the car up........And we hit it right on the nose!!!

By turn three I was by Chris and right on Will's bumper. I stayed patient and passed him coming out of T3. I was in the ZONE after that and just pulled away from Will (gotta love FWD in the rain). At about the half way point I put it in "Don't Be Stupid" gear and was all by my self for the rest of the time. I LOOOOOOVE the rain!!

Rob Bro also had a hell of a race!! Nice job Rob!! :023:

Hard luck awards: Geoff B for not being able to make it out on Sunday due to the old "hood pin" nightmare. If Sunday was in the dry, it would have been his race!

Steve Miller: Had just gotten his engine back from being rebuilt, messed up his new truck getting loaded coming to the track, had some oil sending unit problems during the test day, lost a water pump in the first qualifying then lost first and third gear during the race and had to go home. On top of that, he more than willingly let me share his racing suit (ewwwww) when I went to get dressed for the first qualifying and realized mine was still in the basement drying out from the last race. Anybody who will loan someone their suit on a 90 degree plus day is a TRUE friend. Thanks Steve!! (although, it may have been your suit that was good luck so you're not getting it back!! :lol:


Can't wait until the NARRC Offs!!

[Jeremy Billiel]

Jeff's Quote of the Weekend came about half way through the race on Sunday with a 10 second lead on the radio to me.

"Damn it, my video camcorder stopped working!"

Funny moment of the weekend (Sorry Jeff I had to) - He gives his son, Jake, 50 cents to play a video game while we were at Walmart and I look over to see him riding one of those cheesy bull thingys. Man I wanted a picture for black mail 5 years from now. Jeff was mortified!!!

:D :D :D

All in all an awesome weekend. Thanks Jeff for letting me come along!

On a side note, Jake is hilarious!!! It kinda fun to hang out with kids when you know you can go home and they are not yours!

[WillM]

Jeff,

Once again, congratulations! Two excellent wins well deserved. For anyone that wasn't there, you missed seeing an excited little boy running around the north garages. The little boy's son was pretty excited too. :lol:

As I mentioned on Saturday and Sunday, I was hoping for rain too. Love to drive/race in the rain! I had a great time running with C Wall and L Kogan on Saturday.

Was too bad that attendance was so light this weekend, especially on Sunday. Bummer to see Geoff come in with his hood wrapped around his windshield during qualifying. Just cracking the SCCA egg, I find myself more interested in the racing part than finishing position (at least that is what I keep telling myself), but I have to admit that taking P2 on Sunday and 2nd in the race was pretty cool.

That said, special thanks to GA, AB, TK, RH, JD, and the other ITA front runners for missing this event! You were missed, but not sorely! :lol:

Had a great time and am looking forward to running a few events with the NER ITA pack next season.

Thanks guys,

Will

[Andy Bettencourt]

[attachmentid=1116]I appreciate everyone's words.

Some might think it was a cheap win cause Andy wasn't there.............See the picture above..........You think I care??? :D

[/b]

Don't even think it. You can only beat who was there - and you beat them all!!!!!!!

:smilie_pokal:

[gran racing]

You can only beat who was there [/b]

I've given thought to that before and began thinking that if this car showed up, or this driver did, but it would never end. The Runoffs champion gets an IT car, Andretti Green shows up with their car, then Penske. Andy is exactly right.

[RSTPerformance]

I've given thought to that before and began thinking that if this car showed up, or this driver did, but it would never end. The Runoffs champion gets an IT car, Andretti Green shows up with their car, then Penske. Andy is exactly right.
[/b]

And then their are those of us on the sidelines wishing we were in the race... If I was was only at this event I could have beaten my dad!!! lol

Raymond "Sorry Dad, had to!!! Can't wait to run with you next year!!!" Blethen