NHMS TeamDI Pro IT Race - April 10th

[l8tbreakr]

Just a quick note, I drove up on Sat to watch with my son and had a great time walking around and meeting a few of you there. A little surprised by the low car count, but was told a few times about conflicts this weekend with SRF down south and a typical low count National weekend. Either way it was a good trip up and great to watch the PRO-IT race on Saturday afternoon. Should be seeing y'all soon in an SM race.

Regards,
AJ Goldsmith

[lawtonglenn]

In car video in 4 parts from my car:

http://video.yahoo.com/mypage/video?s=5915974

tomorrow we should have video from Bob Blake's car posted

best!
Glenn

[benspeed]

Awesome video Glen - super cool to watch the race.

Dan - Rob and Rob both made contact with one another after avoiding another car's spinout during qualifying. Thiele emergency braked to avoid and Nimkoff was behind and rear ended Thiele - both cars had damage. Thiele was able to soldier on with some major damage and race, but Nimkoff's car was too hurt and sidelined for the race.

[dj10]

Ouch! I'm glad they are OK.
Bummer about your DQ Ben, points and $ :~(

[Doc Bro]

As I said at the end of the race, Ben that little piece is not why you beat me....bummer dude, but next one should be good....look out boys that Pcar is stout.


Great vid Glen and Bob, fun to watch. It's a shame that the ITS Honda was involved in wrecking so many good cars last weekend, if there is a silver lining he finally wrecked himself so maybe now he'll understand discretion.

Does anyone have an official revised race result sheet they can email or fax?
Thanks

Looking forward to LRP.

R

[Greg Amy]

It's a shame that the ITS Honda was involved in wrecking so many good cars last weekend, if there is a silver lining he finally wrecked himself so maybe now he'll understand discretion.

I apparently don't know the whole story, but I'd be careful with the blanket statements like that, Rob. The entered driver (I don't know for a fact who was driving) is a long-time driver/entrant, with a lot of significant experience and numerous successes in both SCCA Club and Pro, and IMSA/Grand Am racing. The guy's been racing probably as long as I have, if not longer...I think Bill and I were racing against each other in SSB back in the early 90's!

Again, I don't know the details, so I hesitate to comment on the specific incident(s). But I don't think the gentlemen in question needs any "schooling" from any of us...

GA

P.S. I was pretty surprised to see him entered in ITS...can't imagine why, with SSB and Grand Am efforts in the works, he finds IT attractive...maybe we have a good thing going on here...!

[lawtonglenn]

...
Great vid Glen and Bob, fun to watch....

I want lessons on that threading the needle maneuver at the start!....

Did you have to inhale to get through between me and Driscoll?

[Doc Bro]

I apparently don't know the whole story, but I'd be careful with the blanket statements like that, Rob. The entered driver (I don't know for a fact who was driving) is a long-time driver/entrant, with a lot of significant experience and numerous successes in both SCCA Club and Pro, and IMSA/Grand Am racing. The guy's been racing probably as long as I have, if not longer...I think Bill and I were racing against each other in SSB back in the early 90's!

Again, I don't know the details, so I hesitate to comment on the specific incident(s). But I don't think the gentlemen in question needs any "schooling" from any of us...

GA

P.S. I was pretty surprised to see him entered in ITS...can't imagine why, with SSB and Grand Am efforts in the works, he finds IT attractive...maybe we have a good thing going on here...!

Greg,
Rumor was it was his son.....dunno.

Either way, he got caught mirror driving going into 3 causing him to spin by himself in front of me, taking out Nimkoff and Thiele in the process, experience or not -rookie move.....you wouldn't do that. I know that for a fact.

Glen, I was in full pucker, and at one point tucked my elbows in as if it would help!!

R

[almracing]

I too had an up front seat. The red ITS Honda was coming inside (drivers left) of me out of Turn 2, so I pointed him left and gave him the line into Turn 3. I took the inside line. As we got to the turn in, the Honda rotated across the track. I kept my foot on the brake a bit longer to see where the Honda went and that let Rob get thru. I then mashed the gas as I saw the people around me starting to pile up and followed Rob up the hill. I was glad I had a cup of coffee before early qualifying.

Seemed to me to be a combination of overtaking cars and cold tires. It sucked to see so much carnage in a qualifying session.

[lateapex911]

what kind of Honda? Any video of the incident? In QUALIFYING? how lame.

[gran racing]

In QUALIFYING? how lame.

Seriously - what idiot would get involved in anything that foolish during qualifying Jake?

With your story and this one, I honestly think it's pretty silly.

[FastM3]

OK guys. Lets all take a deep breath.

I had a whole story written last night but it did not update for some reason. Probably a good thing as I have had a chance to settle down a bit.

The Red Car. OK all of us that were driving in qualifing and in the race that came upon the situation(s) have our own thoughts about it. About 5 cars were damaged due to (or by coincidence of being near the situation of) this car / driver.

The same car (not sure of the driver) crashed twice during the Watkins Glen Enduro last fall and the car hit me (after it recovered from spin in the Laces of the Boot) as I was turning in for turn 11. The driver was quite indignant about it by his hand gesture afterward.

I would love for the person driving to give his side of the NHMS situation. None of us knows this side of the story.

Phil # 38 Miata

I believe we may need to start a drivers group to discuss issues like this situation among ourselves at the track. Personally I will be giving this car a wide berth in the future. I do no want to get involved racing with it.

Greg, I understand your statement earlier, but if you were there I believe you may be of a different opinion. If this car were driven by Jackie Stewart I believe his behavior should be reviewed and be discussed.

I hope no drivers were hurt. I feel bad for Windell as he was at my right rear quarter panel as we rounded turn 9 where the Civic had spun. I went left and missed the Honda while Windell hit him head on and pushed the Civic into Yannis's door. The fact that the Civic then drove the racing line bakc to 11/12 while leaking all it's fluids and catching fire did not help make friends either.

[Greg Amy]

Phil, you're absolutely correct: I was not there, I'm only making a commentary on who I assumed was driving.

However, you also bring up another great point: how/whether to confront a driver that displays a consistent history of unacceptable driving. Why is it that we are pretty OK with beating the crap outta each other on the track (usually figuratively, sometimes literally) but we become such wussies when it comes to important face-to-face adult discussions? We have that same problem with protesting cars, too, a misplaced concern that we might "offend" someone? Or is it that we feel a lot safer when we're in the car, with a less chance of getting punched in the face?

Maybe I'm different, but I rarely have issue with walking up to someone, asking them to step aside and talk to me in private, and letting my feelings be known. I'm not always right - after all, there are different points of view to everything - but at least that conflict doesn't fester, possibly resulting in more conflict going forward. At worst the person tells you to go pound sand (and a $25 visit to the Stewards can address that); at best they respond with "sorry, I didn't recognize that, I'll keep it in mind". But to ignore it and hope it goes away accomplishes nothing.

On the flip side, we need to be able to accept criticism as well. As you well know (), I've been involved in conflicts and I always do my best to keep an open mind to learn "why" and try not to let it happen again. And, whenever I do get into a conflict - my fault or not - I do my best to find that person and get it resolved ASAP (probably a lot due to my aviation experience; when you're flying formation within only a wingspan of 2-5 other airplanes cockiness is destructive in post-flight debriefs; if you can't take criticism others won't fly with you.) If I were to dig my heels into the sand and demand I'm always right, then things would never change...at that point those that have conflict with me have the right - the responsibility - to toss paper; an unresolved conflict will likely result in serious damage or injury in the future.

We don't need a driver's advocate to do our laundry for us, but should you feel the need you can always get a Steward involved to administrate a non-formal discussion. But the absolute WORST thing you can do is to hope it goes away on its own...

GA

[Andy Bettencourt]

Greg addresses an age-old issue. Maybe we can BREED the behavior we want. What if as part of the driver-advocates responsibilities, they moderate a manditory 'round table' with any drivers that have contact during a session (with an available Steward present if possible).

When it becomes manditory and 'easy' to voice your opinion in a structured and protected environment, I think people will become much more aware of each other.

[wepsbee]

In car video in 4 parts from my car:

http://video.yahoo.com/mypage/video?s=5915974

tomorrow we should have video from Bob Blake's car posted

best!
Glenn

Some day when I grow up I want to drive just like that. Thanks for the video I will watch it often.

[gran racing]

but we become such wussies when it comes to important face-to-face adult discussions? We have that same problem with protesting cars, too, a misplaced concern that we might "offend" someone? Or is it that we feel a lot safer when we're in the car, with a less chance of getting punched in the face?

Maybe I'm different, but I rarely have issue with walking up to someone, asking them to step aside and talk to me in private, and letting my feelings be known.

Keep in mind Greg that you're talking from a perspective of someone whose been in the game for a while, and with that comes more confidence in what's going on. Regardless, the face-to-face discussion is a key to ensuring stuff doesn't happen again or as a minimum give fare warning it won't be brushed off and just accepted. It's a tough walk when going over to a competitor and often times tensions are still high making it even more daunting for people. Sometimes the discussion isn't meant to happen that day either (aka Sam Moore and my talk which finally happened the next time we raced together a couple of years later). Again, not saying it shouldn't be done.

Protesting a car becomes even more intimidating since it also involves quite a bit of knowledge about the system, and it quite a bit of effort.

I believe we may need to start a drivers group to discuss issues like this situation among ourselves at the track.

If a driver is approached by a group, they'll automatically go into defense mode no matter what the situation. People should feel okay to speak with other more experienced drivers on suggestions how best to approach situations.

Drivers who participate in the MARRS series have a class driver's rep to work through various situations. Wonder how that works for them?

[FastM3]

Hey Anthony

Thanks for a fun race. I enjoyed the challenge. Linda will take over for the regionals, but maybe we can race again at another Team DI event. I really did want to get around you for a Miata win but I think we both had our issues. My tires were pretty tired and you had fuel deals going. Somehow I set my personal best at NHMS during that race. Keith H. did a nice job pressuring me for quite a while until being swallowed up by the leaders.

Sorry to Rob Breault for impeding your progress on the last lap, but all I could see was CRX and I was not going to let a BMW get in the way.

Phil # 38 Miata

[Doc Bro]

Sorry to Rob Breault for impeding your progress on the last lap, but all I could see was CRX and I was not going to let a BMW get in the way.

Phil # 38 Miata

Phil,

No apologies necessary. I was safe in second wth no chance of losing 2nd or catching first. I was more than content to hang behind you guys and watch a good race!
R

[Andy Bettencourt]

Phil,

No apologies necessary. I was safe in second wth no chance of losing 2nd or catching first. I was more than content to hang behind you guys and watch a good race!
R

Quoted for drivers. This is the right attitude IMHO.

[JLawton]

I rarely have issue with walking up to someone, asking them to step aside and talk to me in private, or scream at them in impound...........

GA

Fixed!