School's Out Regional - LRP

[lateapex911]

Good thing you've read a lot of books on it!!



Are they short of instructors for tomorrow? :eek:

Jeff, please send your remittance for a new wireless keyboard after I spewed lemonaide on mine after reading that.


See you at the track.

[Andy Bettencourt]

I will be there instructing...

Is it April Fools Day? Huh? What? HA!

[Jeremy Billiel]

Is it April Fools Day? Huh? What? HA!

Don't blame me, blame Patullo who talked me into helping...

[rthiele]

Forecast for Lime Rock, CT:

Wednesday in Lime Rock, CT: Rain. Heavy at times. Followed by periods of precipitation.

Thursday: Lingering showers throughout the day. Chance of rain 800 percent.

Friday: Moist. Damp. Sodden.

Saturday: Rainish. Showery. Precipitacious.

Sunday: Light rain followed by heavy rain followed by pouring.

Monday: Unseasonably rainy in the morning. Uncharitably rainy in the afternoon. Unconscionably rainy in the evening.

Tuesday: Endless showers broken up by occasional flooding.

Wednesday: Remember ''Waterworld''? Like that, only with more rain.

Thursday: Not sunny. The opposite of sunny. Just forget about sunny, O.K.?

Friday: Clearing just long enough for you to make weekend plans. Followed by obscene amounts of rain.

Saturday: Take a wild guess.

Sunday: Incessant, spirit-crushing rain. The kind of rain that makes it futile to get out of bed in the morning. The kind of rain that seems as if it will never end. And guess what? It never will. Ever. Do you understand?

Monday: Please go away.

Tuesday: Ample, brilliant sunshine throughout the day. Wait -- did I say sunshine? I meant rain. Really hard rain.

[lateapex911]

Don't blame me, blame Patullo who talked me into helping...

PAtullo's always the scapegoat...c'mon, you can do better Jeremy!

[raffaelli]

Been here at LRP all day. The place under friggin water. But I got my stuff all sorted out.

I like driving in the rain.

By the way, $240 bought me 2 hours of track time today with the CT Autocross club. They were undersubscribed so for the most part, the track was clear.

[Greg Amy]

Wow, no race reports?

It was a good day. The rain stayed away through qualifying, lunch and early afternoon, allowing the ITS/B/R group to drive dry (grrrr.....) I was hip-deep in Tech during this group, so I'll need someone else to comment on the race...

However, the sprinkles started 15 minutes before ITA/7 and the choice for tires was a tough one. The track was actually a "dry tire" race right up until the cars were released from the grid, when the sprinkles got a tad heavier and the track wetness switched to rains. So, the right choice came from those that read the Tarot cards correctly and chose rain tires.

There were two correct card readers here of note. First was the polesitter, Andy Bettencourt. He pulled away at the start and let the group flag-to-flag, making no mistakes and nearly lapping the whole field. However, it wasn't a total blowout: there was a Golf GTi - I apologize, I don't know who that was - that made a hell of a run, and stayed not too far back, a 240SX driver who made a good run to stay on the same lap, and Stephen Frederick in a Miata that wasn't too far back.

Big loser in ITA was Jeff Lawton who, instead of reading Tarot cards (and checking the weather himself) relied on Joe DiMinno to make the weather call. Joe chose dries. Jeff got lapped.

The other "good chooser" was Lou Iannaccone: Lou chose wet tires to polesitter Jake Gulick's dries. Jake did a helluva job trying to hold off Lou's charge, but Lou was not to be denied: he soon passed Jake to a popular IT7 victory.

Other notes:

- The LRP wrecker team did a big oopsie. A FV got stuck deep in Lake Lime Rock. Don't know why, but the wrecked team hooked up the top of the rollbar with a tow rope and instead of pulling straight out, they pulled the car sideways - and over. The car ended up on its rollbar with the driver underneath, fortunately out of the water. I didn't see it, I got this second-hand, but I saw the results afterward and no one was pleased...

- Tech had the new tools to measure bore, stroke, and compression ratio without pulling the head. I spent some time looking through the documentation to learn how to use it. We pulled the top-6 SM cars to do a Whistler check on all of them, but we had some problems likely related to calibration procedures, so we didn't do all six. However, once we get these bugs worked out it will be a nice tool for vehicle compliance. I'm hoping we'll have these bugs worked out and have it available late summer.

- The driver's school went very well, with pretty much all drivers that had prior experience getting signed off. There were no real serious incidents, save for one Prod car that lost a hood and caused a melee in T1. Several drivers found the lake on the outside of the left-hander, and soon learned that their cars don't float...

Good weekend, overall. - GA

[dominojd]

Big loser in ITA was Jeff Lawton who, instead of reading Tarot cards (and checking the weather himself) relied on Joe DiMinno to make the weather call. Joe chose dries. Jeff got lapped.


- GA

Hey you can't blame that all on me. Where was Kakashi Racing's weather guru when he was needed? Diddiling around with the whistler at tech?

It was a crap shoot, by the time it started raining hard enough to goto rains it was to late they already gave the 5 minute waring on grid.

Jeff wasn't the only one who guessed wrong half of the field was on dries hoping the rain would hold off.

Hey lifes a bitch, ya win some and ya loose some, this time we lost.

One thing I must say (it kills me to do it ) but Andy drove a great race, very smooth in the wet. Oh how I wish was out there on rains to make him work a little.

[BruceG]

Many thanks to all the great IT7 guys, other drivers and SCCA workers for making my opening debut a great experience. we learned alot along the way(like not arriving with a freshly repainted car, having to put on all numbers,stickers,etc and still having to go thru tech inspection!!).

Unfortunately, I drove all but 2 laps of qualifying and all the race with no clutch!!!! got into third and had to drive both events that way. Hope I didn't hold anyone up too much(I watched my mirrors constantly) and tried to let people thru. I had a spin past turn 2 to the outside and it took several minutes to restart the engine).

I don't know about anyone else but my spin wasn't caused by lack of traction. I had no heater core or defroster vents and no vision. Coming down the front straight with the spray from cars in front, turn one was just a mystery in front of me!

We'll be back shortly with a new master and slave clutch cyl and a better prepared car...but again, THANKS TO A GREAT GROUP OF FELLOW RACERS AND WORKERS!!

ps....STARTED AT EQUIPMENT INSPECTION WITH YOU, DICK P.

[dickita15]

The school was interesting as the closed wheel group had more diversity in both driver experience and car speed than most recent schools. There was enough going on that most of the flag drills did not have to be staged.
When the hood blew off the HP car it hit the pedestrian bridge on the front straight. While I was asking one student about the school she said when she saw the hood her first thought was “wow, they dropped something from the bridge to see how we would react.” We do work hard to expose students to all kind of situations but we never thought of trying that.

[Seabee]

Tire choice was difficult as stated. For me it was the first time on the Hoosier wets so I was on a learning curve as they work far better than I was.

My other issue was traffic in terms of catching them at the bad spots and losing time.

Max and I split a Ford Fiesta on No Name and he won the drag race to the uphill.

Overall no on-track issues that I noticed and it has been a pleasure running with IT.

[Andy Bettencourt]

Happy to have gotten the win for sure. Not much of a gamble in my mind for the wets. With the 8-car FV run-group in front of us and a fairly constant drizzle at the 7-laps to go mark, I was confident that my R6's would not be heating up enough to generate grip because there was really no dry line...even the track announcer was watching the conditions deteriorate. I can't remember the last time I went out on wets thinking that dries were better but I can remember a ton of times going out on dries thinking wets would have been the choice.

Brian Blizzard in the Golf did a great job - Steve in the Miata and Max L. in the 240 (all on rains) drove well. Goal - don't get stuck!!!

Give Jeff and Jake some rains, add Joe and Timmah and it would have been an awesome nose to tail race.

Finally figuiring out the new set-up for the new pavement...happy to qualify a tenth under the record. Cool air, some better driving and some Goodyears could have a 1:00.9xx in ITA soon. Heck - if a 1:02.xx is possible in an ITB Volvo...........

Thanks to all. Sorry to see Dave Gran has some gremlins hit.

[JLawton]

Hey lifes a bitch, ya win some and ya loose some, this time we lost.

.

We??? WE????? "We" did not lose, I lost!! As I'm about to go to grid, it's really starting to rain and Joe is giving me the "no guts, no glory" speach.... and I believe the term "pussy" was was mixed in there a few times as well!!

I'll never pay you for crewing for me again!!!






I have to say, I was impressed with the way the whole group ran. I don't think there was any major issues. I didn't see any silly moves. I just hope I stayed out of everyone's way!! I don't think I've been passed in the chute between Big Bend and the left hander on both sides of me since my ITB days!!

At least the car is in one piece.......



.

[Andy Bettencourt]

at Least The Car Is In One Piece...


.

Amen.

[jimalley]

It was well worth the price of admissionI guessed right for a change.

It may and probibly will be my one and only chance in an underpowered car and my limited skill to pass the likes of Jeff, pass people on the uphill, pass on the downhill and on the outside of bid bend. It felt like I was unbeatable until I got lapped by Andy with a lap to go. Bummer, I hate that.

It was a little challenging at times with limited visability as I had no wipers, but the car was predicable and fun to drive.

[moto62]

....Oh how I wish was out there on rains to make him work a little.

What would you have done? Be another moving schicane for Andy to lap!


Nice job to the A and IT7 group. I am always thrilled to be a spectator when the racing is exciting. IT7 was a blast. Congrats to Lou I on a spectacular win. Mike B gets the hard Charger award for starting the race in pit lane and piloting his ride to second place. That was a stellar run on Yokohama A008R's from 1994. No Kidding. Very nice meeting some new folks, Bruce G and Chris R. We will see you all at the Pig Roast next where we will probably be glorified spectators again.

Ray Lee Chee

[raffaelli]

I had a great time this week. I had 2 hours of seat time in the pouring rain, sorted out the issues with the car, qualified in the dry setting my best lap time yet, experienced rain on slicks.

I felt great in the race. I was near the back so I thought I would let the first turn sort itself out. I was able to make some passes, until the rain got heavy and my slicks gave up on me and lost all the spots I gained. So I put it in cruise control and kept the car from twisting.

Saw a black miata slap the tire wall at the end of no name a few times. Was in the final lap or two. I was behind him as he was trying to get back to the pit...car was bent.

Nice meeting you Ray, hopeful to see you at the Glen.

In the end, I gained a ton of experience, and was signed off.

[lateapex911]

Wow. That was spoooky. Congrats to those who romped in the rain, and Lou I, especially. I slipped to 4th from 9th in a rather ugly manor. When the rain picked up, it was too late, I can't change tires that quickly because of stupid lug centric to hub centric mismatches, and slicks were NOT the way to go. If the raiuns had come 15 minutes earlier or later, I wouldn't have been a moving chicane. Thanks to all who passed me for giving me room...if I came over on you, I'm, sorry, the car would lose traction without warning and drift sideways 3 feet in an instant. After 3 laps, I just wanted it to be over.

I was thankful for the heads up driving by those around me, that I have no bodywork to do, and that the car has no mud to clean off of it. That in itself is a miracle.

Nice job to Andy B and Lou I. And props to Brian B too.

[Dave Zaslow]

The ITB race was quite thrilling and quite a lot of fun.

Let me correct that, there were actually two ITB races, the Wentworth and Curran Volvo's along with the Hubbard 2002. Nat outqualified Paul by a 1:03.807 to a .856. Then there was Richard Gleason's Rabbit GTI, my Golf 3 and Charlie Gerundo's Golf 2. Both groups formed tight packs and spent the entire race hammering on each other. Nat lost his leadwith an oops and fell behind Ken. Somehow he managed to get Paul right at the line. While i heard all of this from the three of them, it really shows how good these drivers are.

My group traded places for a few laps and I managed to get a tiny amount of space only to come all the way out of Big Bend to see an ITS Mazda off to the left and driving back on. No problem, he's coming back on the edge; now he's coming one lane in; now he's driving across the track to the left. Major brakes to just avoid the accident in front of me, but the two VW's on my ass also managed to avoid getting involved in this not-so-slo-mo clusterf**k. Of course the RX7 went off into the distance and the three of us just started doing anything we could to keep life interesting. At some point Richard ran outside me through Bg Bend and passed me out of the lefthander. Unfortunatly I missed spotting Charlies ORANGE car following him through and so I pulled over to set up for the right onto No-Name. Charlie tried to avoid but I did put him off onto the grass. Sorry Charlie, please let me ransom the incriminating video from you. At the end I settled down to make the last lap pass out of the downhill only to come up about a foot short. Lots of grins and slapping ourselves silly after this one.

Thanks also to Bill Umstead who qualified in the middle of the B field with his S car. He let us all play together with a gentelmanly start.

Congrats to all.

DZ

[gran racing]

Congrats Andy - that was a hell of a drive. Nice job! See, racing in the rain can be fun too. lol

save for one Prod car that lost a hood and caused a melee in T1.

Ummm, yeah. I thought about setting my video up for that session, wish I had. I was behing the prod car, before I knew it the hood flapped up and it watched the driver put one arm up. It almost looked like he was trying to catch the hood but probably trying to protect his head. I wasn't sure whether to brake or accelerate - glad I choose the later as the hood went flying over my car.

With the 8-car FV run-group in front of us and a fairly constant drizzle at the 7-laps to go mark

Jeff went to false grid too early; Jake's rain tire change waaaay too difficult (requires different studs or something else which prevented us to change the car to rains when wanted to). The FV cars had no spray coming off their slicks so rains were the way to go. At the same point, the rain could have let up and Jake was on a softer dry tire. Good job keeping it off the tire wall guys. After this event I did end up getting a much better radar program - the stuff we were using just didn't give us the info. to make a better decision. Now I just need Greg to explain what some of this reflectivity tilt and other stuff means.