Ron Earp Wins first SARRC race!!

[seckerich]

Congratulations to Ron Earp for winning his first ITS SARRC race at VIR. Way to go.

[spawpoet]

Congrats Ron! You don't even have your Neave motor done yet do you?

[pballance]

Way to go RON!! Can't wait to here the stories. GOOD JOB!!

[JeffYoung]

A short appetizer, Ron can tell the whole story later.

We went up Saturday a.m. with a brand new motor, and a brand new trailer that the car would not fit on. Yay! On the motor, it's a Ron built homebrew with a bit of help from me, Sam's motor is still being built.

Car ran great from the start. I ran a 2:17.1 in ECR qual, Ron either got the pole or 2nd for the SARRC (mix up of some sort on the times). S field was small but fast -- Hennecy, Ron, McCandless, Guy Marvin.

Track was significantly faster than last fall, as they have ground the track in 1 and 4/5/6, and I think Oak Tree. No more wheelspin exiting 1, or Oak Tree, and flat out through 4/5/6 is pretty easy now.

On the start, Hennecy got a great jump and he and Marvin ran nose to tail the entire race, swapping the lead sometimes a couple of times a lap. Ron ran 3rd with Jeff M. on his bumper the whole race. Hennecy and Marvin ran mid 17s, Ron and Jeff mid 18s.

Last lap, Hennecy and Marvin got together, Ron had to check up, Jeff got around him in Hog's Pen and took the win.....(and spun on turn 1 on the cool down lap!)....but came in 30 lbs under weight.

Ron drove a great race, kept the car in a position to win, missed the last wreck and nursed the car home with dead brakes. GREAT DRIVE.....

260zs can win in ITS boys. Yes they can.

[iambhooper]

Congrats! Sorry I missed an exciting race.

hoop

[seckerich]

Just talked to Jeff M on his way home. He didn't realize how quick it was after CCPS session and forgot to fuel the car before the SARRC race. He was laughing when I already had the information. Had an ignition breakup in the CCPS race and decided to pull in and not risk the new motor. Hate I had to miss all the fun, sounds like a good time. A win is a win and Ron should be proud of his hard work. Vicki is sitting here picking out icons!!

[dspillrat]

Congrats!!!! ron,
Sounds like a awesome drive....Wish I could have been there, will see you guys soon.....


david

[lateapex911]

Whhhooo hooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Congrats RON!!!!

[Mazmarc63]

Oh yeah baby. Congrats Ron. That is fantastic. Now you are ready for a Mazda at Daytona.

[Ron Earp]

Thanks for the congratulations guys, much appreciated! But there is more circumstance than skill involved in this story.

Marvin and Hennecy checked out from Jeff M and I in the first 1/2 lap. I fouled T4/5/6 & esses and took Jeff M with me. But after that Jeff M and I went at it nose to tail for the first eight laps. In turn one I might pull him a bit, we'd be even in 2/3, but from four through the esses he'd out drive me and gain ground. I'd gain a bit of ground back in the esses and down the chute, but then he'd pick it back up with a better drive into and out of Oak Tree. He'd gain some ground at the end of the back straight with top end and under braking. Roller coaster and Hogs Pen seemed a wash and we were about the same on the front stretch.

So for eight laps we drove hard and had a good time. In lap eight we about ran over a Miata in the uphill esses and we were both starting even at that point. Come around again for lap nine and I see the One Lap sign and think "ok, you've got a third, a podium, you've got to get this one". But Jeff McCandless saw that too. And he thought he didn't like fourth so much, so he drove his ass off and drove better than I did.

Jeff M was on me all the way over to Oak Tree and he does a better job there than I do. He had a good launch and down the back straight we come and he just gets a nose in front of me as we enter the breaking zone for the end of the back straight. He completes the pass and I don't have a chance to make it up with 1/2 mile to go. He's got third and did really nice job to get it.

And then we find Marvin and Hennecy took each other out which is really unforunate because those guys were going at it and going fast. Jeff M comes in light and that puts me with the win. Not how I wanted to win a race.

But even so, this was the first time I've ever run a 2:18s at VIR and that is a big personal improvement over previous 2:21s. The motor was freshened afterit blew a head gasket in Oct 2008. The old motor had around 45 hours on it and was a bit tired. And, the bigger improvement is we have some real camber plates in the rear that let us run up to -5 degrees if we wanted. The old plates would allow like -1.5 on one side and -1.75 on the other and that was about it. Around -3 or so in the rear REALLY helps the car out, huge difference.

Great weekend and lot of fun. I've got the video here, sort of poor quality but I'll upload it to YouTube. I'm looking forward to CMP and seeing more S cars come out!

Link:

[racingralph]

way to go ron !! a win is a WIN !! ralph

[pablo]

Great job Ron!! Congratulation on a great weekend

[RexRacer19]

Congrats on a good weekend, Ron! Nice to meet you in person.

[RedMisted]

Way to go, Ron! Now you have to go after them in a Mustang!

[dickita15]

[Parrish57]

Nice job Ron!!!!! I wish I was there to see it! Long live the Z!

[Andy Bettencourt]

Link???

[abq_redeye]

Congrats...Robert

[seckerich]

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showru...152&perclass=1

[Ron Earp]

Here's a link to the video. It is crappy and the sound sync is off in places. Hard to describe but when I watched it I found it a bit weird. And the quality definitely got worse with the upload.

[ame]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3510388793630771646[/ame]