Pocono Results

[Greg Amy]

Well, if you weren't there, you missed a very eventful event...

- I was involved in a mechanical protest of a fellow ITA competitor. I'll provide the details in a separate thread.
- The IT session was one big group. Lots of cars, lots of traffic.

Saturday ITA qualifying had Andy Bettencourt on the ITA pole, about 0.8 sec faster than second place Greg Amy. Tim Klvana was in third, and Joe DiMinno and Windell Holmes rounded the top 5.

Saturday IT race had Andy leading the first lap, and Greg Amy leading the second, with Andy nipping at his heels. Then it began to drizzle on the third lap. The track was wet/dry for the remainder of the race; not enough rain to warrant anything but dry tires, but wet enough to make the place slick as snot. An unfortunate infield incident between Andy and Greg had them fighting to get back on the track, while Tim Klvana kept his nose clean and slipped through for a WELL-DESERVED first-ITA win!

Kip Van Steenburg won both pole and the race in ITS in his Miata; Dave Zaslow and Jeff Haines won ITB and ITC, respectively.

My Sunday information is second-hand; I was not there today (neither was Tim). Joe DiMinno was on the pole, but the session was black-flagged after the first lap due to an on-track incident (I'll let the participants elaborate). I've gotten word that Andy Bettencourt won the race hands-down going away (with a best lap within 1/10th of the track lap record, set by Tim Blaney in a CRX Si) with Rick Benazic in second and Joe DiMinno in a visual third.

As of this moment I have no results for ITS/B/C. - GA

[Andy Bettencourt]

Track was VERY fast today (Sunday). Track records fell hard in ITS and ITB as well as SM and SSM.

ITS:

VanSteenburg (New record 1:49.154 - 3 cars under the record)
Harding
Driscoll
Maynard
Henderson

ITA:

Bettencourt (1:52.758)
Benazic
Diminno
Sjolund
LItz

ITB:

Zaslow
Fohs
Hubbard (New record 1:59.358)
Tinis
Fratisi

ITR:

Tisdale
Reighard

New record in SM goes to Forrest Stevens (a Flatout crew guy in one of our rental cars(!) with a 1:55.379 and the SSM record goes to Darryl LaPoint with a 1:59.266.

[RSTPerformance]

Track was VERY fast today (Sunday). Track records fell hard in ITS and ITB as well as SM and SSM.
[/b]

(Edited post to include other classes)

Sorry for the hijack, but I just have to correct this

The record in "B" is at least a 1:58.198 by Stephen Blethen
The record in "SM" is at least a 1:55.300 by Marc Cefalo
The record in "SSM" is at least a 1:57.978 by Doug Fambrough

Everyyone above should contact whomever to get that fixed... proof:
http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=315470

Congrats to Dave Z in ITB!!! Will he be this years NARRC champion??? I think he has a chance. If you look at last years results in many races he was not first place, but was the fastest car on the track in ITB Fohs also is fast this year... hummm, maybe he will have a chance...

Raymond "Yeah I was shocked at my brothers time last year, he beat my track record by over 1.5 seconds for that record..." Blethen

[Andy Bettencourt]

Chief of T&S: Linda Louie

07-RS-159-P Sanction

[Doc Bro]

Breault 6th. Zaslow and I had a great battle through most of the race. He is quite fast and a real gentleman. I held him up on the second to last lap, I didn't realize he was the ITB leader, and I thought it was the last lap. Sorry Dave.

1 qualifying lap was a real dissappointment; I hold opinions until later. Suffice it to say whoever made the call could have handled it a bit better.

Race was fast and clean. Great passby Forrest for 4th in SM...best move of the day.

R

[kjh6576]

When Rob Driscoll told me I had beat the record, I new It must be to good to be true.
Hehe.
I think I got a killer tow from 2 Miatas on that lap and the wind was blowing exceptionaly hard .
Will one of you from RST let them know about the discrepency. If you need assistance,please drop me a line. I'm new here and just figured you guys would better know whom to contact.
It was kinda close, but obviously this is something that RST righfully owns.
Another kinda funny thing happened today. I started in the last row. I never made a full lap before the controversal unseen black flag was unfurled."But thats another thread"
At the end of the race. I had no idea were I had finished. Well come to find out ,I finished 3rd and never went to the impound. I thought they would pull you asside if you were a top 3 finisher. Apparantly not!!
My bad. Do you guys" Top 5 guys" go to the impound after every race? How do you guys deal with that ?
This was my best finish ever in SCCA and I think I messed that up pretty well.

Thanks, Ken

[Andy Bettencourt]

Maybe another topic for debate but I am not a fan of records being set at enduros. WAY too much potential for running out of spec, than being able to 'legally' make changes while in pit lane before you have to go to impound. That link is to an endurance race...maybe they keep seperate records because the track record was supposudly broken at the double National last year by Andy Boxer.

I was wondering if Marc had run faster if he would have been credited with the track record as well...he was running Goodyears while the NARRC competitors were running Toyos. Can they really seperate the records in such a fine way? The non-Toyos were legal for one series and not for another...at what point is it clear who has records?

Either way, great job by all.

[RSTPerformance]

Ken, We generally go to impound whenever they have an impound for anyone, even if it is just for top 3 and we know we finished 10th... If for nothing else to congradulate those that finished at the top. Secondly they (tech) generally gives out water oh and third cause the crew doesn't have to walk as far to either give you a pat on the back or a whipping for doing something stupid

Nice run though, you are the second fastest car ever!!! I wasn't able to go that fast, only my bro after being in the car for 45 minutes streight and having one goal in the race... to kick the @$$ out of my time in the sprint race earlier that weekend.

Also, Andy, I do agree with you to a point... It is questionable to allow or not allow. However some people only run enduro's and take them very seriosly... some don't. I think that we need to allow people a fare shake at the goal of a track record weather in an enduro or not. I can say that last year Stephens car was not touched after the sprint race other than for new rubber in the enduro. If he had changed ANYTHING I would have been much happier to at least have an excuse to getting my @$$ handed to me so badly.

Raymond "Didn't want to steal anyones thunder, nice job to all " Blethen

[Dave Zaslow]

Saturday's Results

Not enough rain to be 'wet', but enough to bring the oil out of the track ;-)

ITR

Tisdale 1:55.108 13th OA

ITS

VanSteenburg 1:50.496 1st OA
Driscoll
King
Harding
Henderson
Maynard
Stein
Kekelsen
Weaver
Bagnall
Zimmerman
Sumida
Devillers
Gregory

ITA

Klvana 1:55.141 8th OA
Bettencourt
Amy
DiMinno
Lawton
Litz
Sjolund
Chandler
Breault
Hanifan
Wilbern
Stellar Jr.
Brooks
Hutchinson

ITB

Zaslow 21st OA 2:01.749
Fohs
Tinis
Wentworth
Fratesi

ITC

Haines 2:22.568 36th OA

[JLawton]

I want to apologize for screwing up everyone's qualifying Sunday. Wish I had a good explination on what happened, I guess I had a moment of brain fade......I wasn't being aggressive (although it will look like I was in the video). I'm sure I'll analyze it over and over and never come to a satisifactory answer.

I think part of the issue with the black flag was the trouble I had communicating with the corner workers. I don't think the corner realized how hard of an impact it was (having plastic body panals makes it look like there wasn't a lot of damage....I understood better when I asked the corner worker how bad the damage was..."oh, just a little body damage....". Dude, if a Saturn has body damage, everything else underneath is damaged as well!!)) and it took me some time to shake the cobwebs out after the impact and start thinking again. I waved to the corner to let them know i was OK but had shut the car down (my fire bottle came loose in the trunk and was spraying everywhere. It took me a minute to realize it was that and not the engine steaming) The corner workers were expecting me to re-enter the track when there was a break. So by time they figured out I wasn't going anywhere, a lot of time had passed.

Again, I can't apologize enough for screwing that up and to my buddy Joe for almost taking him out as well!!


I could tell it was going to be a great day for power. On the first lap I was pulling 200-300 more RPMs on the front straight than anytime on Saturday..........(More speed than I was expecting could also have been a factor in my "mis-step")

Congrats to Tim K on his first place. Well deserved. The only one of us that ran clean the whole race.

Um, and Greg, I qualified 4th on Saturday, Joe was 5th. They had screwed up and had me classed in ITS.......

Oh, and not that I like to have my mistakes shown to the world, but maybe someone can post the video for me?

[andrew240z]

I want to apologize for screwing up everyone's qualifying Sunday. Wish I had a good explination on what happened, I guess I had a moment of brain fade......I wasn't being aggressive (although it will look like I was in the video). I'm sure I'll analyze it over and over and never come to a satisifactory answer.

I think part of the issue with the black flag was the trouble I had communicating with the corner workers. I don't think the corner realized how hard of an impact it was (having plastic body panals makes it look like there wan't a lot of damage....I understood better when I asked the corner worker how bad the damage was..."oh, just a little body damage....". Dude, if a Saturn has body damge, everything else underneith is damaged as well!!)) and it took me some time to shake the cobb webs out after the impact and start thinking again. I waved to the corner to let them know i was OK but had shut the car down (my fire bottle came loose in the trunk and was spraying everywhere. It took me a minute to realize it was that and not the engine steaming) The corner workers were expecting me to re-enter the track when there was a break. So by time they figured out I wasn't going anywhere, a lot of time had passed.

Again, I can't apologize enough for screwing that up and to my buddy Joe for almost taking him out as well!!
I could tell it was going to be a great day for power. On the first lap I was pulling 200-300 more RPMs on the front straight than anytime on Saturday..........(More speed than I was expecting could also have been a factor in my "mis-step")

Congrates to Tim K on his first place. Well deserved. The only one of us that ran clean the whole race.

Um, and Greg, I qualified 4th on Saturday, Joe was 5th. They had screwed up and had me classed in ITS.......

Oh, and not that I like to have my mistakes shown to the world, but maybe someone can post the video for me?
[/b]

I dont believe it was your fault for the short session. I got the black flag at the chicane and passed two more black flags before coming in. Seriously a ton of cars behind me just kept going (20-25 cars), I dont know if they took the black flags down or these guys just missed them. The stewards were not pleased and ended our session because of it.

[Tkczecheredflag]

I just want to take a moment to say thanks to everyone for the kind words and accolades. Truth be told Greg A and Andy B were faster than me. I had settled in at third place after racing a bit with Joe D and Jeff L and it would appear that’s were I would finish. No one was more surprised than me to see Greg and Andy on the infield with two to go. A friend told me a while back – you don’t have to be the fastest car, you just have to cross the finish first to win. I had tagged these guys Birthday Boy and The Ambassador – I guess that leaves me with Mr. Opportunity.

I was sorry to hear Jeff bundled up his car on Sunday. Joe – I have great video of me bump drafting you down the back straight. Congrats to Greg – He picked up an MBA Sheepskin (no Jeff it’s not a new condom), at Quinnepac – nicely done – heard Andy cried when you left - NOT. Andy - Nice win yesterday. Rick B come out and play some more. See everyone at LRP.

[PAFR7]

Please go back and look at these Pocono Track Records that I'm reading about, and whether a Class Record from the Enduro shold be allowed. Remember that the Pocono Twi-light Enduro ran without the Chicane - so even with the wet conditions times were a lot faster. Whether a record set in an Enduro is not at issue as far as this past weekend is concerned since the course we ran was different.

On an equally serious note, thanks to everyone that came to Pocono this weekend. A great turn-out on a difficult (Mothers Day) weekend. Given how huge Group 5 turned out to be - driving the Pace Car in front of you guys felt like the start of a NASCAR event! - but the quality of racing and lack of carnage was FANTASTIC.

Please give some thought and then post your suggestions on how we can make Pocono an even better event next year. We're working on arrangements with the track to improve the Registration process for starters. I'm also hoping to offer an Enduro again, but need to get a real solid feel from as many drivers as possible of whether it is worth the effort.

So again - thanks very much. As for me, a new hood and windshield and the CRX will be set to go. I will never again forget that last check of Hood Pins!

Dave Hofmann
Pocono Race Chair
ITA #7 - Poison Arrow Frog Racing

[R2 Racing]

All I want to know is...

No one was more surprised than me to see Greg and Andy on the infield with two to go.[/b]

...who hit who? :fire:

Congrats on the first win, Tim. My first ever win (back in the ITC days) came in a very similar fasion. It might not have been the most "ideal" win, but I learned that I liked it, and I wanted to do it some more.

[lateapex911]

yea, good job Tim. Winning isn't about just being fast...otherwise we'd never race...jwe'd ust do time trials!

And, I'm sure you've had one snatched away from you as well!

[dominojd]

I just want to take a moment to say thanks to everyone for the kind words and accolades. Truth be told Greg A and Andy B were faster than me. I had settled in at third place after racing a bit with Joe D and Jeff L and it would appear that’s were I would finish. No one was more surprised than me to see Greg and Andy on the infield with two to go. A friend told me a while back – you don’t have to be the fastest car, you just have to cross the finish first to win. I had tagged these guys Birthday Boy and The Ambassador – I guess that leaves me with Mr. Opportunity.

I was sorry to hear Jeff bundled up his car on Sunday. Joe – I have great video of me bump drafting you down the back straight. Congrats to Greg – He picked up an MBA Sheepskin (no Jeff it’s not a new condom), at Quinnepac – nicely done – heard Andy cried when you left - NOT. Andy - Nice win yesterday. Rick B come out and play some more. See everyone at LRP.
[/b]

Good Job Tim. Like Jeff said the only guy to keep it on the black stuuf all race. I wouldn't call it much of a race that we had More like you catching me giving me a little help down the back straight and driving away.

That was very gentleman like waiting for permission before giving me a push, I'll take the help anytime I can get it

I would of had my first ITA at the glen last year if it weren't for the #24 car but, that is another thread.

[Tkczecheredflag]

All I want to know is...

...who hit who? :fire:

Congrats on the first win, Tim. My first ever win (back in the ITC days) came in a very similar fasion. It might not have been the most "ideal" win, but I learned that I liked it, and I wanted to do it some more.
[/b]

I'll let the boys chime in but I believe Greg got a bit sideways in T-4 - Andy got underneath him as best I could tell - I believe a real racing incident.

[Andy Bettencourt]

I'll let the boys chime in but I believe Greg got a bit sideways in T-4 - Andy got underneath him as best I could tell - I believe a real racing incident. [/b]

I still don't know exactly what happend except that I hit Greg REAL hard in the back. He was under braking and I was under braking so I went under his bumper and launched him in the air. We both ended up on wet grass. I tried to get unstuck while he waited for traffic to clear.

Greg may or may not chime in but his data showed him significantly slower at that point on track than during previous laps. It was the unexpected change in speed that caught me by surprise. We were nose to tail and I had no place to go. I feel sorry in that whatever the cause, it probably cost Greg a victory. I was chasing as usual, was better under braking in some key spots and maybe 1 corner but was a sitting duck on the big stuff.

I am very excited for Tim. This is the springboard into the teeth of ITA.

[Greg Amy]

Nothing significant to add to Andy's description.

I, also, cannot adequately explain the large difference in speed (roughly 15+ mph, according to each of our DL-1 data files), other than a combination of a slick track, stiffly spring McPherson FWD car, and a driver trying like hell to keep a mosquito behind him while holding on to an evil-handling car. Neither of us had video, so best I can tell I had slowed significantly to gather up what I felt was a sliding car, caught Andy by surprise, and took a HELL of a shot to the rear.

Witnesses (we, of course, had to do it right in front of a major spectator area) say the rear of my car was a good 3 feet off the ground, and I came down to Earth 90 degrees to the normal direction of travel. The car pogo'd (literally, bounced like a pouncing cat) sideways 3 times, then thankfully hit the grass and slid to a stop. Somewhere in there I recall seeing a flash of blue and fluorescent orange, but the insect slipped by without collecting me.

I got the NX gathered up, pointed it in the right direction, and got back on the track just behind Andy, who had driven off the track to avoid me the second time. We both chased down Joe DiMinno, who had just slipped by, but neither of us were aware that Tim had snuck by until impound.

At the end of the session we were both talked to by a steward in pit lane individually and released. We both indicated to her we were friends and would work it out, which is what we did in impound and afterwards.

If you were to take a casual look at the back of my car, you'd never know the hit it took. But, both cars most certainly took a hit. The ass-end of the NX is shifted over about 1/2 inch (possibly caused by the sideways pogo'ing), and one of the tie-down/tow hooks underneath and forward of the rear bumper is bent. For the hit it took, it's pretty impressive how little visual damage there was; I was convinced the whole back of the car was stove in.

Andy's car wasn't so lucky: he got some pretty significant nose, hood, and probably front clip damage. Fortunately, his near-lap-record times of Sunday indicate it's mostly cosmetic.

Live and learn...no one's pleased, but AFAIK there's no hard feelings from either side. - GA

[R2 Racing]

I wasn't trying to drill you guys; just giving you a hard time. :P Race long enough and things like that happen, for unknown reasons. I'm just glad that neither one of you balled your cars up......really, I am.

Andy's car wasn't so lucky: he got some pretty significant nose, hood, and probably front clip damage. Fortunately, his near-lap-record times of Sunday indicate it's mostly cosmetic.[/b]

Further proof that speed dimples aren't just a myth.