First SCCA Race at NJMP

[JLawton]

ITA Results

Branscombe
DiMinno
Bettencourt
Brault

But Andy blew up his engine in qualifying
Lawton wasted the tranny (after turning the fastest lap of the day in practice with a 1:17.6..... )

[Tkczecheredflag]

How did the weekend finish up?

[dazzlesa]

Itb
Rick
Ken
Nat


Itc
Beth Burkhard
Michael Shellenberger
Meg Meyer

[Greg Amy]

ITR
-Dave Maynard (and overall)
-Robert Thiele
-John Alexandropoulas

ITS
-Matt Rooke
-Jeff Harding
-Greg Amy (5th overall!)

ITA
-Geoff Branscombe, by a mile
-Joe DiMinno, on a flat tire for three laps (They don't call him "crazy" for nuttin'...)
-John Branscombe, who did a "Dave Gran" and didn't report to impound, thus was DQ'd (ALWAYS report to impound if you're not sure. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS!!!)
-Doc Breault for the third!

Quick notes:
- HOT, HOT, HOT, HOT, HOT weekend. Broiling hot.
- Neat track, seriously rewards bravery, trust in the race car, and consistent momentum. It's also a power track.
- DIRT AND DUST!!! I know it's new, and I know they're trying to grow grass in that sandy soil (we called that place the "Hair Club for Men" because of the planted grasses). But, it's this very fine dust that gets everywhere, and ANY dropping of wheels, even the slightest, causes a massive seriously opaque dust cloud to drift across the track. This is EXTREMELY dangerous: several times I went into a blind cloud at speed and could not - literally - see the front of my car. Unless dust control is addressed pronto I expect we're going to see a pretty serious accident there.
- ROCKS!!! Where there wasn't dust, there was gravel across the track. Dropping off a wheel (guilty!), even the slightest, shot handfulls of these marble-sized round rocks onto the surface.

More importantly, the event ran silky smooth. SNJR and all stewards, volunteers, etc should pat themselves on the back for an event well-run. If you had landed here from another planet, not knowing this was a new track, you'd never know they were working with a new-to-them facility. Terry did a great job keeping it all together and even, upon recognizing our laps were faster than expected, increased our race length by 20%.

In summary, a neat track, a "Mecca" in terms of value-priced hotels, food, stores, fuel costs, friendly townsfolk. A PITA to get to from CT (NJ roads SUCK!!!) though well worth the drive.

Big thumbs-up to all! - GA

[gran racing]

LOL! At least with me, the announcer on the PA system said I finished 6th. Top 5 to impound? Live and learn.

Did any get a chance to look at the Thunderbolt track while there?

Nice job with the win Rick.

[JamesB]

It was interesting to say the least. It's a nice facility, and I am sure they will work out the little kinks over time. But man was it HOT. I must have drank 3 cases of water while on station that weekend. I was convinced by the WDCR EV chiefs to come up and work with the local EV crew. They are really willing to learn and they are doing well. I hope to see that program continue to grow and finally get to turn a wheel on the courses.

[andrew240z]

Hats off to the SJ crew, they did a great job putting this event together. It was really run very well. The track is fun and GA is right about the dust, I almost came to a complete stop at one point because I couldnt see through the dust. It was great so see a lot of familiar faces and meet some new people. Cant wait for the next one! Their was no access that I could find to the other track. It will be open the first week of August so the wait isnt long.

[Doc Bro]

Good weekend. HOT is the understatement of the year!! Qualified 3rd with a gift from AB. Had a great start and was in 10th by turn 2- started 16th, with only 2 cars separating Joe and I. Then it happened....I got absolutely punted by an ITS car in the left hander after the bridge on the first lap!! Reentered the track in 22nd.....finished 11th, 4th in ITA. John was DQ'd for being light by 150# (not for not showing), so net result was 3rd. However if I hadn't gotten punted would have easily been 2nd....(sorry Joe there was no way you'd hold me off for 3 laps with only 3 tires and a 2-3 sec differential)

Good track but 8+ hours to get home, makes this a tough decision to return. How do people in NY elect to sit in that traffic daily????


R

[Z3_GoCar]

Good weekend. HOT is the understatement of the year!! Qualified 3rd with a gift from AB. Had a great start and was in 10th by turn 2- started 16th, with only 2 cars separating Joe and I. Then it happened....I got absolutely punted by an ITS car in the left hander after the bridge on the first lap!! Reentered the track in 22nd.....finished 11th, 4th in ITA. John was DQ'd for being light by 150# (not for not showing), so net result was 3rd. However if I hadn't gotten punted would have easily been 2nd....(sorry Joe there was no way you'd hold me off for 3 laps with only 3 tires and a 2-3 sec differential)

Good track but 8+ hours to get home, makes this a tough decision to return. How do people in NY elect to sit in that traffic daily????


R

Hey Rob,

Congratulations on the third place. Oh BTW, I'm in East Hartford for the next couple of days. PM/email/or phone me if you're up for me buying you a beer.

James

[kevin22]

Great weekend, but I was wondering why they waive the yellow flag every time a car put a wheel off and kicked up a dust cloud. I could see the dust cloud from a half mile away so I didn't the flag for that, But would have been nice to know, was the flag waiving beacuse of dust? or was their a car on the otherside of the dust?
In the future I would only like to see a waiving yellow if a car is there, we can see the dust for ourselves.
oh-yeah, how about the checkered flag umbrella over the starters.

Great weekend and loved the fast results, they had the time sheets on the board before we were out of the car.

[sccaflagger74]

Just as you can't see if a car is still in the dust cloud neither can those of us standing at the flag station, hence the flag. When the dust dissipates enough that we can confirm the track is clear we drop the flag.

Before the gravel trap and curbing went in at 3 at Summit we had this problem all the time. Dust clouds would envelop the entire the track there. I hope NJMP will see the dust problem from this weekend (and presumably other events) and put in some larger curbing. I worked the entrance to the lightbulb and I heard from several drivers that the bottom 2 or 3 feet of the track were covered with sand but we had no way of seeing it from our station. Wider and slighly higher curbing to keep cars on the asphalt should fix the the problem in the Lightbulb.

Bob
back to F&C thanks to NJMP after a 4 year break

[Greg Amy]

I hope NJMP will see the dust problem from this weekend (and presumably other events) and put in some larger curbing.

Which brings to mind a couple of track-related issues (and I know I owe these to Daryl via email):

1) Is it just me, or was pretty much almost all of the curbing - entrance, apex, and exit - in the wrong place? I consistently found myself at the leading or trailing edge of almost every curb out there! I honestly don't think I was in the middle of an apex or turn-in/exit curb more than a handful of times...

2) The "entrance to the track" thing has gotta change. It flat-ass doesn't work.

For reference to those that weren't there, there's a long entrance road to get to the track "gate", a tall chain-link fence. Track security was there to get folks to sign their waiver and get a track wristband. So far, so good. However, the registration shack was about 50 feet inside that chain link fence, and track security was not letting folks go past them to get there! EVERYONE HAD TO WAIT ON THE ACCESS ROAD, with their rigs, waiting for the folks at registration to have a window open, so that the next 2-3 rigs could be let in to sign the track waiver and THEN proceed to SCCA registration. And, no one was allowed to leave their rigs to walk in to register

Then, to make matters worse, all the folks that had already gone through track security the day before (having run the test day) were coming out from the paddock to register, and track security wouldn't allow anyone in the access road to get in until they finished! We sat out on the access road for damn near an hour waiting to get in; again, they wouldn't even let us walk in, sign the track waiver, then walk the 100 feet to SCCA reg! Not too long after there was a minor mutiny where folks simply left their rigs, walked past security, and got the SCCA wristbands, driving the track folks into a tizzy...

Greg's suggestion: the track's main concern is ensuring everyone signs the track waiver and gets a wristband; fine, I gots'a no prob with that. So, once we've done that, how about letting us proceed past the SCCA registration and on into the paddock (remember, we're all liablity-waived and all that) and then we can work our way back to SCCA reg? That'll clear the access road and registration will filter itself in as available.

Suggestion, alternate: how about letting everyone sign the waiver and get the track band (see above) and let everybondy park their rigs INSIDE in the nice, large parking space inside the fence, behind the tollgates? That'll clear the access road and registration will filter itself in as available. If you're worried about someone getting into the paddock with registering with SCCA (can't imagine why you care) then you can station another guard there looking for SCCA wristbands.

Suggestion, alternate #2: let the folks sitting on their butts on the access road walk up, sign your waiver and get the wristband, and walk the 50 feet to the SCCA registration, and get the process all done? That'll clear the access road MUCH faster than making them sit there...

And for wristbands, a minor nit: once we have the SCCA one, no need to make us wear the track one. Recall that we can't get the SCCA one unless we previously got the track one (reg is inside the track) so they're redundant...

Other than that? No other major issues.

[jjjanos]

Great weekend, but I was wondering why they waive the yellow flag every time a car put a wheel off and kicked up a dust cloud. I could see the dust cloud from a half mile away so I didn't the flag for that, But would have been nice to know, was the flag waiving beacuse of dust? or was their a car on the otherside of the dust?

General rule for flaggers is that, if you, the flagger, cannot see through the dust, you assume a car is there until either you can see clear traffic or the downstream station tells you that you are clear. As a flagger, I prefer this because it eliminates the recriminations of "if I had only put up a flag for that dust cloud" and as a driver, I like it too because it tells me that if I see dust, no flag and have no visibility... the course is clear.

My beef is that I saw a yellow for 3 laps during my race for a car pulled off by the barrier in the light bulb. Hanging a yellow that long for a car I have ALREADY seen will make me ignore your flag vis-a-vis displaying caution. Get the driver out ASAP or, given the location this car was sitting, if the driver stays in the car - one lap then green.

I give SJR two thumbs up for the event. I hope NJMP moves the 20+ green rooms from the one (far) corner of the paddock into the rest of the paddock.

[sccaflagger74]

My beef is that I saw a yellow for 3 laps during my race for a car pulled off by the barrier in the light bulb. Hanging a yellow that long for a car I have ALREADY seen will make me ignore your flag vis-a-vis displaying caution. Get the driver out ASAP or, given the location this car was sitting, if the driver stays in the car - one lap then green.

I only worked the light bulb on Saturday so I take no blame for that car pulled off!

[jimalley]

Great facility, well run event as others have stated. I really enjoyed myself, even in the extreme heat.

I had problems with the shift points. It was either over revving the engine on the front straight or shifting to fifth just befor the braking zone and messing up the downshift I weny from fifth to second once on Saturday and figured my weekend was over. I don't want to start another discussion but the M----'s are very forgiving in the stock configuration.

Great racing and I hope I was aware enough that everyone had plenty of room to get by. I felt very comfortable with the side by side racing as this group is very predictable.

Anyone who has a "final Race Sheet" that would be willing to scan it and PM it to me would be appreciated. We left soon after the race, as it was a long journey back to New Hampshire.

I will go back again if they build onother bridge over the Hudson! The GW is something else. How do people live this everyday?

[lateapex911]

I will go back again if they build on other bridge over the Hudson! The GW is something else. How do people live this everyday?

Tappan Zee. It's longer, but it avoids the Cross Bronx, (Hell on Trailers) and the general NY gridlock mess. and with no tolls going west, it generally moves along. Coming back on Sunday can be rough, but if you are a mid to late race group, I imagine you'd miss the bad stuff and sail through.

[mowog]

oh-yeah, how about the checkered flag umbrella over the starters.

Brief note about that....the permanent starter stand wasn't up yet, so no roof or shade (did anyone mention it was sunny and HOT? ) I happened to be on pit lane and noticed them putting up the umbrella, immediately worried that some might notice and momentarily be distracted. I mentioned this to them, and they did consider the possibility, but at that point they didn't have anything else. All agreed something was necessary (we really don't want a started to fall off the stand due to heat stroke, do we). I talked to three people in that run group, not one took notice of the checkered umbrella. However later, Beth and John Burkhard loaned them a blue and white umbrella because it was a potentially better choice, and they did make the change.

[lateapex911]

is the concern that someone might get the umbrella and a checkered flag confused, and stop on lap one?

Boy, if we have racers that dumb, we need to re-examine our requirements for a license!

[dominojd]

itb
Rick
Ken
Nat

Nice! :d