Lime Rock National and Pro-IT

[Greg Amy]

All of you should stop by!
I'll be there tomorrow morning. Arm/shoulder is still not fully healed but I need the finish, so I'm starting from the back of the 40-car Group 1 (thanks for the motivation, Miskoe)...should be..."interesting"...

Here's a fun note: was at Kessler's yesterday to borrow Dave Gran's open trailer. As I watching backing I heard a "pop" and the brake pedal went to the floor. Truck was rolling in drive but pumping didn't do much. Slammed it into P and got out...to brake fluid pouring out onto the ground mid-chassis. I shudder at the thought of what would have happened had this been a day or so later with the race car on the trailer...check your steel brake lines for rust, Nor'Easters!

Fortunately, Jeff Lawton to the rescue: he's letting me borrow his brandy-new 2000-mile truck. I'll be standing next to it in the paddock with a baseball bat for anyone that comes close...

See you tomorrow.

GA

[CRallo]

Good luck Greg!

wowsers, that coulda been an issue... the Excursion I ASSume? I've seen that on a number of Fords especially :/ was it next to the gas tank?


good luck to everyone else too!!!

[MMiskoe]

If you do well, I'll take credit for providing you the motivation to get there.

If you do badly and re-injure your arm or prang the car, well, it was free advice and only worth what you paid for it, you should have looked at the source. And you can complain about it publicly. But I'm not worried, you'll do fine. I suspect the 5 minute warning will be a decent pain blocker.


Give 'em hell out there!

[JLawton]

If you do badly and re-injure your arm or prang the car or truck, well, it was free advice and only worth what you paid for it, you should have looked at the source. And you can complain about it publicly. But I'm not worried, you'll do fine. I suspect the 5 minute warning will be a decent pain blocker.






fixed



.

[Greg Amy]

fixed
:happy204:

It's raining pretty hard here in downtown Hartford....wondering if that stuff went through the hills of Litchfield County earlier in the afternoon...?

On edit: Uh, yeah. See that ugly spot? It means "LRP right here".

[Tkczecheredflag]

Wanted to come watch tomorrow -I does anyone have any crew spots? Need two for ken schielke and me.

[Greg Amy]

Wanted to come watch tomorrow -I does anyone have any crew spots? Need two for ken schielke and me.
Yup. I'll add you in, #33 STL. If I forget call/text me.

[BruceG]

:happy204:

It's raining pretty hard here in downtown Hartford....wondering if that stuff went through the hills of Litchfield County earlier in the afternoon...?

On edit: Uh, yeah. See that ugly spot? It means "LRP right here".

Greg...around 3 pm they shut LRP down and brought all the corner workers, etc in. Wall to wall lightning from horizon to horizon!! Shut down for at least an hour.see you tomorrow.

[Drew M]

Wanted to come watch tomorrow -I does anyone have any crew spots? Need two for ken schielke and me.

Ask him to bring chris!

[Tkczecheredflag]

only two seat drew - i'm bringin' the me otter

[Tkczecheredflag]

thanks tGa

[Greg Amy]

If you do well, I'll take credit for providing you the motivation to get there.
Miskoe wins.

I got the finish I needed in STL. In fact, I actually made it up to P2; half from passes, half from attrition. STL winner was Ryan Pilla in a Spec Miata, doing consistent low 102s; Yiannis Tsionis ran a 101.8 before he tossed himself off the island.

Eric Heinrich held off a chasing Lotus Elise(?) for the STU win.

We had a nice incident in Group 1 where an STL Miata tangled with a Prod Lotus in the downhill and the Miata ended up over the wall at the bottom of the hill. No injuries, but car is "adjusted". Took a while to get that out.

Group 2 had a GT-1 car end up against the wall at the top of the Uphill, on driver's side. Took a while to get that one down, too. then G2 had another GT1 incident on the front straight...the morning's schedule was a bit of a mess.

The "SM and Friends" race was fun to watch, with Ken Quartuccio having a very smooth run from the pole. He put his head down, did his laps, and led flag-to-flag. IT7 was interesting with Grant getting wheel hop in T1 and spinning off. Lou worked hard to get some laps in but Grant managed to catch him. It was nice to see Christian Chandler back on the horse, the car looks great!

Unfortunately, I didn't catch the Pro-IT race at the end of the day, need some updates from someone else on that one.

Greg

[Drew M]

Unfortunately, I didn't catch the Pro-IT race at the end of the day, need some updates from someone else on that one.



A usual, it was an exciting race. We made it the full 45 without a single caution. I had an awful qual session so I can't really comment on what was happening up front, but I had a few good battles with the folks around me.

[mossaidis]

Unfortunately, I didn't catch the Pro-IT race at the end of the day, need some updates from someone else on that one.

Greg

It was fun, exciting, frustrating, lots of grip then no grip, tooth grinding 3 wheeling, bumper-to-bumper, had to lift in traffic, "kissed Chandler" action, almost won but lost it at the last corner and got beat by Chandler by 1 car length hell of a good time. Video forthcoming. I just signed up for the ProIT at NJMP-L next weekend.

Mickey

[JS154]

I was not a fan of the split start At. All.

It only made for more traffic to deal with for everyone and there was not one compelling reason i heard justifying it.

Many of the slower Prod cars were not just frighteningly slow, but alos oblivious and/or indifferent to significantly faster traffic coming up on them *said faster traffic being a battle for the overall lead in ST*.

I may not be the most experienced guy out there, but let me offer a simple piece of advice...
e
if you are at the back of your field, and running alone, and Four seconds off the pace (at Lime Rock no less!)...you need to be paying attention to your mirrors, and not shutting the door on the leaders, (or any faster car for that matter, that is not in your class) coming through.

Also it's harder for spectators to watch and keep track of who is where.

[Greg Amy]

I was not a fan of the split start At. All.
Prod guys seem to have a burr under their saddles with racing with DOT-tired cars. Something about warm-up times on bias play tires or whatever. They requested a split start at the Summit Point National as well...with only five total DOT-tired cars. And yet, they subsequently bitch about how quickly they come up on the rear of the pack of DOT-tired cars.

Well, duh.

Funny part is, aren't pretty much all of them going to radial tires anyway? That means, pretty much, they're running on the same tires we are, 'cept they don't have those two grooves running down the middle.

Whatever. If it makes them not bitch.... :shrug:

GA

[JS154]

Prod guys seem to have a burr under their saddles with racing with DOT-tired cars. Something about warm-up times on bias play tires or whatever. They requested a split start at the Summit Point National as well...with only five total DOT-tired cars. And yet, they subsequently bitch about how quickly they come up on the rear of the pack of DOT-tired cars.

Well, duh.

Funny part is, aren't pretty much all of them going to radial tires anyway? That means, pretty much, they're running on the same tires we are, 'cept they don't have those two grooves running down the middle.

Whatever. If it makes them not bitch.... :shrug:

GA

That happened at NJMP-T last year. After Q1 during the drivers meeting a bunch of the Prod guys starting complaining about the "BMW's with a lot of motor, but are really holding you up in the corners". So it was agreed that split start would be done, first group based on the fasest qualifier.

And then some punk rookie in a 4 cylinder BMW, at that track for the first time, promptly went out and outqulaifed the etire field by almost a full second in Q2. I heard there were a few chuckles following that one. Just for good meaure, that rookie went on to lap the entire field except for I think three cars, including the Prod cars.

notice this time the "split filed" isssue was raised after Q2...

[BruceG]

Prod guys seem to have a burr under their saddles with racing with DOT-tired cars. Something about warm-up times on bias play tires or whatever. They requested a split start at the Summit Point National as well...with only five total DOT-tired cars. And yet, they subsequently bitch about how quickly they come up on the rear of the pack of DOT-tired cars.

Well, duh.

Funny part is, aren't pretty much all of them going to radial tires anyway? That means, pretty much, they're running on the same tires we are, 'cept they don't have those two grooves running down the middle.

Whatever. If it makes them not bitch.... :shrug:

GA

Greg...I saw 2 HP cars on the registration sheet at LRP friday.....a sirocco(sp) and a spitfire...good luck to them passing a well prepped Bimma.....LOL

[BruceG]

Greg...I saw 2 HP cars on the registration sheet at LRP friday.....a sirocco(sp) and a spitfire...good luck to them passing a well prepped Bimma.....LOL

I rechecked...there were 3 HP cars last weekend. The 3rd was an MG midget.

[Greg Amy]

It's mostly the GTL and FP cars that whine...they're small-motored (I'm sure there's no double-entendre intended...hi, Kyle! :)) and even I in STL can nearly pull them on the straight. But they can be wicked fast in the corners. So they're just concerned about conflicts first few laps until they get up to speed.

HP cars? Noooo problem.

[T Broring]

HP cars? Noooo problem.

Thanks for giving credit Greg. I was in the Prod Spitfire. I never ask for the split starts but do vote for them since my car is very low and hard to see in traffic. You have to wonder if that was the issue with the Lotus and Miata in the downhill. The vote FOR the split start had to include alot of ST cars since there were only 2-3 voting against. Glad your race went well.

[StephenB]

what is this lotus and miata incident that you speak of?

[StephF]

I heard they went boogity-boogity-BOING.

[Greg Amy]

Yup. I don't know the details, didn't see the incident, but the Miata ended upside down on the outside of the wall at the bottom of the downhill. Both drivers were called to the tower numerous times of the rest of the morning and early afternoon; rumor was the Miata driver protested the Lotus driver. Never heard what resulted. - GA

[mossaidis]

I have some details... 3rd, maybe 4th hand, so please don't quote me.

From what I understand, the Lotus went into the downhill 2 wide on the inside (though I thought is the uphill orginally). They made contact, the Miata being thrown over the wall just past the flag station, the Lotus making the APEX with ease now goes about his business. The Miata was now over the wall, upside down and slide some feet towards the river. ? The corner worker's story as well as another driver's story as viewed from behind the incident corroborated with the Miata's driver view of the what happened - Lotus drive into the side of the Maita. The Lotus driver obviously disagreed. Penalities ensued issued to the Lotus driver for contact as well as an unsportsmanlike conduct penality for one or another reason.

[raffaelli]

I have some details... 3rd, maybe 4th hand, so please don't quote me.

From what I understand, the Lotus went into the downhill 2 wide on the inside (though I thought is the uphill orginally). They made contact, the Miata being thrown over the wall just past the flag station, the Lotus making the APEX with ease now goes about his business. The Miata was now over the wall, upside down and slide some feet towards the river. ? The corner worker's story as well as another driver's story as viewed from behind the incident corroborated with the Miata's driver view of the what happened - Lotus drive into the side of the Maita. The Lotus driver obviously disagreed. Penalities ensued issued to the Lotus driver for contact as well as an unsportsmanlike conduct penality for one or another reason.

When did you start driving a Lotus? LOL.:cavallo:


(kidding)

[mossaidis]

LOL - I know I know... "did someone else get a double reprimand in one day or was that just Mickey?" Unlike my reprimands, these inoccured 2 penalty points on his license.

[StephF]

Funny how the hittor always disagrees with the hittee. I had a SRF drive into the back side of me at the apex on the downhill earlier this month, punting us both. He copped the attitude of, "Well, I GUESS I'm sorry, IF you say that's what happened." followed by, "Well, if I lifted, I would have had three guys pass me on the straightaway."

The video and the corner workers corroborated that he just plain stuffed it into me, taking us both out (and allowing those three guys to pass him too... :shrug:). It also, um, rearranged the front end of his car pretty significantly. All in all, he got the worst of it.

What truly blows is if he had only come over the hill and stayed to my inside, I would have stayed wide, turned in late and let him through. Instead he dive bombed me out of nowhere and lifted the ass end of the car completely off the ground, stuffing the nose under the rear bumper/back corner as I was on the apex. Instant backwards.

To get enough force to go OVER the tirewall took some talent. :blink: Without seeing the incident, I wonder what/how the Miata acted when the Lotus was inside? Was he held out too wide and had to turn or die? Or did they play chicken into the apex?

[Greg Amy]

To get enough force to go OVER the tirewall took some talent. :blink:
All I saw was waving yellow at the bridge, then nothing down the hill, then the bottom side of some kinda car over the wall caught my eye...I asked Billiel over the radio if there was actually a car OVER the wall in the Downhill and he replied, "huh...?" :)

[Greg Amy]

When did you start driving a Lotus? LOL.
Man, you guys are mean...but since we've already "gone there", shall we change Mickey's name to "Martin"...?

;)


http://blog.axisofoversteer.com/2012/06/crash-man-martin-schanche.html

[mossaidis]

I know busting my balls has become a National sport (not regional anymore mind you... I have MOVED to the big leagues) yet uf... geez guys. :)

I LOVE that blog... favorite quote " a Norwegian Chuck Norris who produces turds larger than Tanner Foust" . I am half danish... hmmm... LOL!

[Ed Funk]

What kinda Lotus? 7? There was a clueless Prod Lotus 7 driver at the LRP regional who on tape caused a lot of problems including causing a gaggle of SRF's to wreck in the down hill.

[disquek]

Hi Greg!
Don't worry, my manhood is not diminished by your vTek! :D

Re split starts:
I'm one of the folks who asks for split starts, and I'm happy to share my thoughts.

I agree that there are some CRAZY slow prod cars. The Healey at LRP, although beautiful, was 15 seconds off the pace!! 15 seconds!! I lapped him about 8 times (no joke). But this has nothing to do with split starts. Every group has slow pokes, it's part of the deal.

Small bore has always required the fast folks in lower HP cars to deal with the less fast folks in the high HP cars. It's part of the game. But that doesn't make it fun.

Most small bore races have the outcome of GTL, FP, and HP heavily influenced or even outright determined by the EP and STU folks that hold us up. I accept this when it's unavoidable. This is not the case for the slow GTL, HP, and FP folks. We can pass them on the straights. Passing a car with 50+hp on you is, to say the least, a challenge. Even when you're apex speeds are 10mph higher.

The number one thing that split starts add is:

It minimizes the pig pile in L1 T1. In every grid there are cars with tons of motor behind cars with faster lap times and less motor. Drop the green on this mix and they all tend to try to occupy the same place at the same time. Crunch!!!

Let's face it, split starts or not, the fast guys are likely going to lap the slow guys, race tires or DOT tires. So it's not like the split start results in any more lapping than a combined start, and it provides for a safer start.

No one likes bodywork. That's all we're asking for when we ask for a split start.

It's worth saying that in every case, when we've asked for a split start, the DOT tired folks have been understanding and super helpful. Folks have asked questions and objected, but when we had a chance to talk it out, they understood the reasoning and we're accomodating. HUGE thanks to you folks for your help.

-Kyle
GTL #92

PS: Here is my LRP video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjY8Pa6P0Qo

Click around and you'll find the SP and NJMP videos too.

[disquek]

The Lotus was a Series 4 Super Seven in FP. The Lotus driver was Jerry Hinkel.

Jerry was either leading or 2nd overall when this happened. I think the Miata was going two or more laps down at the time. I seem to recall lapping that miata more than once and I was in 3rd overall.

I didn't see the incident either. I do know that the Lotus was heavily damaged and did not continue.

-Kyle

[Ed Funk]

Different Lotus...thanks.