NARRC Run Offs

[moto62]

I just got off the phone with Richie H. He is ok. Just a massive headache and some soreness. He said he was knocked out for a few seconds and actually considered continuing with the race after he came to. The car was still driveable Wayyy to go Joe. Congrats on the NARRC and congrats to all the class winners. Now let's get some videos going so I can see what I missed.

[JaxonMotorsports44]

Congratulations to all the participants and winners of the races yesterday. It was fun for me to be gridded right behind AB... My new motor for my HP car is very fast, and I was looking forward to seeing how well I could keep up with Andy as the race progressed.

I got a front row seat for Jeff L's off-on-off-on-off-on again in the left hander... that was wild... Having an open top car is a problem when huge puddles of water are hitting you in the face... Holy water Batman. Nice job collecting it several times and not getting hit by anything or anyone. I would love to see in-car of that. Unfortunately my water temp was showing 240+ so I brought it in during the full course caution. Luckily it turns out the sending unit lead melted to the header and was giving false readings. Phew...

Nice work Shane!!!! We met at Tech on Thursday evening and it was good to see that the hard work from Tuesday to Thursday paid off.

[RSTPerformance]

After reading the other thread about the cage it got me to thinking.... How/why did richie get hit (t-boned) in the door??? From what was said ,he was off line, stopped and it was a direct hit in the door... Did the driver even attempt to go around the car?

More importantly can we learn from this??? If any of us are given no choice but to "t-bone" a car, where do we aim??? This certainly shows us to do everything possible to avoid a direct hit on the drivers door...

Raymond "something doesn't seem right about this..." Blethen

[lateapex911]

Yes, the hit on Richie certainly seems avoidable from his description of his location, and from the responding flaggers comments as well.

perhaps the driver came around West Bend, and jumped off the throttle, started to spin and just locked them up and "Boom", that's all she wrote.

According to the flagger i spoke with, the car was all locked down before the contact.

It seems that just driving normally would have been better.

[benspeed]

Hey guys - how about an ITS update? It was eating at me all weekend that I didn't go.

Cheers

[NATW]

First of all I want to thanks Dave Zaslow for letting me use his car, as said earlier a very classy gesture. I blew the motor in my Volvo on the 2nd lap of qualifying in the morning session. Dave got to the track in the early afternoon found out about my situation (I was in 2nd place in the NARRC championship ,50 points behind Ken Hubbard and was going to be watching the race) and offered me his car. I can't thank him enough. I manged to qualify 3rd behind Rick Benazic and Richard Gleason. I didn't get the greatest start but I was lucky that I was gridded in an even position which left me on the inside of the lefthander on the 1st lap (if you study the results 1st, 2nd and 3rd were all in even grid spots and benefitted from it, my condolences to Rick who was otherwise in a great position to win the race, and the other guys who had the same bad luck) , at that point an ITR BMW spun and stopped broadside in front of everyone on the outside of that turn. I checked up a little and Ken Hubbard got by me on the inside, I was close behind going up the hill and into west bend, but he made a slight mistake and went wide at the down hill and I was able to drive by. The rest of the race was pretty routine until I got caught up behind some cars I was lapping, suddenly Ken was on my bumper and we went though the left hander 3 wide with me coming out ahead. I was able to put some good distance on him at that point because he got caught up in traffic too.

Raymond, to answer your question Dave's car was AWESOME!!, it was very easy to drive, it was on rails the whole race and I didn't have the slightest slip or wiggle until the last couple of laps when it got pretty wet, and then only minor crabbing of the front wheels in big bend, I don't think I would have won in my own car. Its going to be hard to get back in my tank after this ride,

Dave, thanks again and again, I'm going to owe you forever.

Nat Wentworth
2008 NARRC ITB Champion

[lateapex911]

You know, Nat, that says buckets about your skills as a driver, in that you:
- Had the confidence to race another guys car in the "NARCC Crash-offs" as they have been called occasionally, and-
- WON the darn thing in a car that has to be way different than your normal car. Heck, they are what, 20 years apart, and RWD vs FWD!?

And as you pointed out, wow, Dave sacrificed his own race to loan you the car. That's huge. Nice job Dave.

Congrats!

[kjh6576]

Congratulations Nat !!
Nice way to end a great season of racing. Dave Z without question, deserves the White Knight of the Year award.
I must say that was the hardest/craziest race I had ever run. While Nat was Cruzin in his luxury VW, I was 11/10ths, makin a whole bunch lappers mad trying to catch back up to Nat. After passing lapped cars 3 wide in the grass on NoName , the left hander should have been no problem. LOL At least both our cars are white. oopps<Sorry Dave>
Glad to hear Ritch is OK.
If you had asked me in the begining of the season, if I thought ,I'd have a chance competing for a championship. I would have said you were a crazy person. I feel priviledged and honored to have participated in all these events with all of you guys and girls. This was a great season with a whole bunch of first class racers and first class people !!
Nat, are you going to re-fit the tank for NJ ?
Ken

[Andy Bettencourt]

After reading the other thread about the cage it got me to thinking.... How/why did richie get hit (t-boned) in the door??? From what was said ,he was off line, stopped and it was a direct hit in the door... Did the driver even attempt to go around the car?

More importantly can we learn from this??? If any of us are given no choice but to "t-bone" a car, where do we aim??? This certainly shows us to do everything possible to avoid a direct hit on the drivers door...

Raymond "something doesn't seem right about this..." Blethen

It's pretty clear now...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDpUjcQe92c[/ame]

[lateapex911]

Uh, yea. It appears that Richies car was not as far to the right as I had understood it to be. That red car in front JUST got by.....

[JLawton]

Yeah, the Miata had nowhere to go. in fact, it looks like Richie was still rolling forward? Maybe trying to get out of the way??

[lateapex911]

Well, I think if he had just backed off a tad, and maintained a normal line, it would have been fine, but hindsight is 20-20. I can certainly see how it was a racing deal. I imagine I might have ended up in the same place.

(It DOES serve to show that our perceptions aren't always accurate. Richie, was sure he only had his rear tires on the track when it happened, but the video shows that's not exactly the case. I imagine that makes the jobs of accident reconstruction people and SCCA Stewards difficult when people are SURE they know what happened, yet the physics don't add up)

[vwzx7]

Yeah, the Miata had nowhere to go. in fact, it looks like Richie was still rolling forward? Maybe trying to get out of the way??

Or let off the brakes and continued forward to get off the racing line...Jason had nowhere to go - tried to go away from the smoke with the other car. And he did let off, you can hear it and see his leg move up a bit. That's a critical corner and no time (in this instance) to make a second attempt at a correction.