Summit Race reports?

[RKramden]

Where are they?

[zracre]

http://roadrace-autox.com/bbs/forums/threa...posts=13#M15591

I saw this on rrax

[Gregg]

Here's a nice writeup from one of the local papers...

http://www.journal-news.net/sports/story/0...ro_062506_s.asp

Gregg "The Torch" Ginsberg

[Tom Blaney]

Because I saw the smart ass remark from Catch 22, regarding our failure let me make it perfectly clear, I ran consistant 29's & 30's for two 1.25 sessions with no mechanical failure, or failures because of the weight change, we were knocked out at 8PM because we had a short in the light bar wire harness that blew the alternator, and we ran out of batteries to replace. We had to replace an upright because we dropped the car down from a tire change without the lugs tight on one side and we snapped two wheel studs.

But I want to thank all the workers and thanks to all of the drivers out there who were gentlemen and gave room to me and other faster cars in the race. The miata guys were much less aggressive to us faster cars and in return many got good tows and passing opportunities.

Thanks again to the group and we had quite a few laughs and great teamwork.

Tom Blaney

[Catch22]

Because I saw the smart ass remark from Catch 22, regarding our failure let me make it perfectly clear...
[/b]

Gee Tom, I am a smartass, so that explains that.

As to why I'd be a smartass to you...
Well, I could answer your post above with something like "You should have let me wire the car, I have been wiring ITA cars for years and have never ever had any issues. My wiring is proven to be perfect and lasts longer than granite."
and then I could add...
"You are having problems because you just did it wrong."

Thats the type of answer I've watched YOU give to people on various web boards (including this one) for years. Any time someone has an issue or a failure its because they are doing something wrong or more often because they aren't using your parts.
I'm simply tossing your own stuff back at you. Feels great doesn't it?

Sorry for the detour, and yes, I know it was a waste of time.
Carry on...

[theracinglawyer]

]
Because I saw the smart ass remark from Catch 22, regarding our failure let me make it perfectly clear, I ran consistant 29's & 30's for two 1.25 sessions with no mechanical failure, or failures because of the weight change, we were knocked out at 8PM because we had a short in the light bar wire harness that blew the alternator, and we ran out of batteries to replace. We had to replace an upright because we dropped the car down from a tire change without the lugs tight on one side and we snapped two wheel studs.

But I want to thank all the workers and thanks to all of the drivers out there who were gentlemen and gave room to me and other faster cars in the race. The miata guys were much less aggressive to us faster cars and in return many got good tows and passing opportunities.

Thanks again to the group and we had quite a few laughs and great teamwork.

Tom Blaney

Tom why do you bow down to them, we all tried our best, luck in life as in racing plays a part, heck a team mate of ours took our other car out of the race with 55 minutes to go and we may have been able to win in ITA, we were only a few seconds back. We did the same thing at the Pocono Enduro. Some of the guys were disappointed, but then it may not have been meant to be.

[MMiskoe]

I'd like to see a full set of results too, we went home early.

This was the 6th trip we'd made there and the first one we didn't finish. Overheated at about 7 hours in. W/ a 3 lap lead for the overall no less. Grump.

Looked pretty rough for the first 2 hours while I stood in the pit, after that it seemed to settle down. Had a great race w/ the RC Import guys after the caution that happened at about 3 hours. (thanks Rick, that was a lot of fun!)

I was glad to see that the RX7 that won it did so by good driving and planning, rather than just outspending everyone else as it has been for most of the past several years. Don't know who they were but it sure looked like they were having to work hard to get to the front and stay there. Its much more fun to watch someone get rewarded for hard work than just being lucky enough to bring a better car.

Hope I gave everyone room, if I didn't let me know so I don't do it again. The goal is to win, but to so by racing the same way we want to be raced.

Matt
#23 ITE Miata

[RKramden]

I read the story in the local paper.

Too bad about Brian Mushnick's car. I am glad he is OK.

I guess it is time for him to build a Gen 2 RX7.

Is there something about racing a Rabbit (nee Golf) on the track? My better half's Rabbit was rolled into a ball at the runoffs one year, and the only thing worth stripping from the car was the motor. (But she did get a real nice story with pictures in Autoweek that year....)

[Gregg]

You should see the photo that was published in the paper (not online). It's got the car completely inverted, windshield half hanging out, w/ two Miatae seemingly driving directly under it. Stellar photo that I'd scan in but having once been in the photog & paper biz I'm loathe to do w/out permission.

BTW, results are up:

http://offtotheraces.net/12HourFinal2006.pdf

[16v]

it was definately not pretty

[gsbaker]

Good grief! We want you to buy the safety equipment, not use it!!

[67ITB]

Sorry to hear about Mayor Mushnick's ride !! That sucks.
Glad he is OK

Matt Bal

[JLawton]

I wish I could echo Tom's comments about the aggressiveness of "certain" cars....... Maybe we had a different perspective being in one of the slower classes........

We saw a lot of poor decisions when it came to passing (this was not the case with the faster cars) It made no sense to me why these drivers were hammering each other like it was the last lap of a sprint race!! I'm sure you'll be hearing more on our "little incident"...........In lap 8!!!!

Hope we gave people plenty of room. But figuring we probably got passed about 600 times (from my rough calculations)............... The few times I ran door handle to door handle with the cars in our class, they did a great job. Made it fun!! Hope the feeling is the same!

But I also had a blast. The Phil Phillips/Conover Engines Golf was flawless. In fact, it was handling and braking just as good at 11:00 pm as it was in my first session!! Besides fixing crash damage, we only had to tighten the front hub nut, add a teaspoon of oil and that was it!! It was an incredible car!! Nice job Kirk and Cameron.

Great job by the workers, thank you!! Thanks to the the rest of the team for a great time!!

Yea, bummer about Brian and his VW. Glad he was OK. It looked pretty scarey!! Too bad for Matt Miskoe and his team.

Very tired, very sore......But can't wait till next year!!

[OG Racing]

Deleted - wrong user

[Knestis]

On reflection - and with a good night's sleep in me - we have to be pretty damned happy with our result. I was telling Cameron that generally, when someone talks up the positives of a race they didn't win, it sounds like excuses but I'm very pleased.

I'd first like to apologize for being part of the problem when I charged into the five-foot long 'straight' between T5 and the Carousel, and into the quarter panel of a slow Miata - the white York entry, maybe? I was doing exactly what we're were being so critical of for the 11.5 hours up to that point, being a selfish bahstahd. The more I thought about it, the more pissed off I was at myself for being sucked into the vortex of stupidity. I will not however apologize to the four who, over the course of my stints, dived inside of me at T1, only to come to a grinding halt in front of me. They got a push for their trouble and should be thanking ME for giving them back a couple of the tenths that they threw away.

Cameron, Bill Miller, Phil Phillips, and Lee 'Yoda' Grimes did a great job getting a new tie rod - and 74 tie wraps - on the car after we got clobbered. Jeff is absolutely right that the car was literally easier to drive when I got in at 11:00pm than it had been in practice.

I'll let Greg fill in all of the details of the actual snub but will add in advance that we were talking just a lap before he came in about how impressed we were that he was hanging back, giving the particularly dumbass group of Miati plenty of room to beat on each other. He took his new fender home with him, autographed by the entire crew.

We've now completed 37 hours of long races with this group and spent a total of about 45 minutes doing unplanned repairs. We still haven't changed any brakes during a race and averaged about 11 mpg this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing mylaps to get a better picture of how long we were actually delayed.

A huge thanks also to Collins Conover (head geek, who needs a Patrick Head-spec glass box next to the pit wall for his toys), Evan and Kathy Webb (for dumping fuel, taking great care of the whole crew, and shooting pictures), Spencer Conover (our equivalent of the enthusiastic, do-everything intern who got my ass out of a half dozen cracks), Jeff Lawton and Phil (for taking such good care of the car), and Greg 'Captain Panties' Amy for continuing to help the 'gentleman' car owner to go faster.

(PS to GA - Laurene says she forgives you, as long as you "weren't doing anything stupid when Pablo got hurt.")

K

[mgyip]

I wish I could echo Tom's comments about the aggressiveness of "certain" cars....... [/b]

Hmm - let me guess what makes/models of cars he's referring to...

I didn't arrive until 2200h on Sat due to a previous committment that went by the wayside after an incident on Friday afternoon. However I rec'd a blow-by-blow report from my ace race reporter Richard, son of the RC Imports team owner, Rick. He filled me in on all the "incidents", most of whom involved friends and acquaintances which pained me deeply since I don't care to see anyone's day ruined by an incident of any sort, even though s**t happens in racing.

[Caution - ranting below]
The question that begs to be asked and answered is "What is being done about these overagressive drivers who insist on crashing and banging at will?" The DC Region Stewards have instituted a "get tough on body work" policy in order to make such behaviour become expensive. However a good number of the DC Region have very deep pockets which makes this approach only marginally effective. IMHO, Stewards need to become PROACTIVE - when they receive numerous calls about a car (or cars) banging or bump drafting, pull them in ASAP and give them a stop and go. If the driver can't pull his/her head out of their butt, provide them with a nice probationary letter and so forth.

I'm not suggesting anything as non-competitive as a 13/13 rule but there clearly can be a happy medium. I've been working for a Grand Am Cup team this year and have been more involved than in previous years. As a result, I've been listening to the Net religiously and am impressed that Grand Am Cup proactively is telling drivers to "cease and desist" or in the case of a certain CTS-V driver, to go home and never disgrace VIR again.
[Rant off]

[DanElam]

...Grand Am Cup proactively is telling drivers to "cease and desist" or in the case of a certain CTS-V driver, to go home and never disgrace VIR again.
[/b]

I'm usually just a lurker, but I thought I would weigh in on this one. The VIR CTS-V driver happens to be a multiple National championship winner and a guy I have raced against before. I was crewing for a different team at the VIR Cup race when the CTS and BMW came together. While the Caddy certainly got hung out to dry to Speed, it wasn't quite that clear cut. The Caddy driver had gotten caught by the pace car for the full course yellow and ended up as the first car behind the pace car - but ahead of the leader. He made his jump trying to avoid going a lap down and was in front of the BMW when the cars made contact. Obviously no one likes contact or wants to take out the leader, but the BMW could have *easily* backed out of a turn he didn't have and (moreover) didn't need to win when the VIR straight is just seconds away. Part of winning races is knowing when to push and when not to. With all the rain and the cautions it was important to try to not go a lap down because you might easily get caught back up. He didn't drive into the BMW - he kept coming across the track on his line through the corner. Beat him up for driving a car a bit bigger than he might have been used to, but the guy has a long track record of beating professional drivers and racing clean. As an FYI, he was back at Lime Rock and Mid Ohio running the car.

Switching gears, what happened with the ITE 'inspection' that was supposed to happen. Did any of the ITE cars get inspected or DQ'd? What happened to the Porsche?

[jjjanos]

Switching gears, what happened with the ITE 'inspection' that was supposed to happen. Did any of the ITE cars get inspected or DQ'd? What happened to the Porsche?
[/b]

I believe that officials made it be known to certain entries that cars would be checked to ensure that they were legal ITE cars under the DC Region rules.

re: carnage -
After the motor died on the Smurf Honda, we packed up and watched at T8 around the 6PM mark. We noticed that there were very few "special mes" and "super special mes" that did not have another car's paint on them. We also saw alot of questionable driving.

After the rabbit-induced FCY, a car pulled off at driver's left going up the hill towards the bridge. If I'd have been flagging at 8 or 9, I'd have asked for a FCY because the field was overdriving the incident. Most cars were going through the incident as fast as before the local yellow.

[JamesB]

I believe that officials made it be known to certain entries that cars would be checked to ensure that they were legal ITE cars under the DC Region rules.

re: carnage -
After the motor died on the Smurf Honda, we packed up and watched at T8 around the 6PM mark. We noticed that there were very few "special mes" and "super special mes" that did not have another car's paint on them. We also saw alot of questionable driving.

After the rabbit-induced FCY, a car pulled off at driver's left going up the hill towards the bridge. If I'd have been flagging at 8 or 9, I'd have asked for a FCY because the field was overdriving the incident. Most cars were going through the incident as fast as before the local yellow.
[/b]

When I asked about ITE at the end (I heard the same thing you did, I was told send them home with the rest of the pack.) This was after we pulled all the cars for impound from the field.

The FCY for the car off drivers left for station 9 was a car fire and they wanted everyone slowed down for the amount of equipment that was going out there to handle the situation. I think it was a proper call given that the corner workers extinquisher was not enough to put it out and the fire truck was on the way.

[JoelG]

The FCY for the car off drivers left for station 9 was a car fire and they wanted everyone slowed down for the amount of equipment that was going out there to handle the situation. I think it was a proper call given that the corner workers extinquisher was not enough to put it out and the fire truck was on the way.
[/b]

IIRC there was a wreck between station 8 and 9 after it got dark that there was no FCY for. IMO many drivers were overdriving the situation there. I was PUY at least twice there. How anyone could miss the caution is beyond me, what with the yellow light at 8 and all the flashing lights at the incident itself