Pro-IT at NJMP with Grand-Am

[LD71]

Is anybody racing at MIllville this weekend ;-) Was hoping for some updates. Wish I could be there, have fun!
LD71

[Terry Hanushek]

Larry

Is anybody racing at MIllville this weekend ;-) Was hoping for some updates. Wish I could be there, have fun!

Glad you asked. There is plenty of Pro IT racing at NJMP this weekend. At total 56 cars hit the track on a sunny, warm day.

TreadZone Pro IT Round 1 Qualifying

ITR

Rob Thiele - 1:36.009
Rob Nimkiff - 1:36.557
Dan Jones - 1:37.776

ITS

John Hainsworth 1:37.391
Will Turner - 1:39.052
Eric King - 1:39.176

ITA

Christian Chandler - 1:42.890
Doug Case - 1:59.298

ITB

Michael Tinis - 1:41.358
Kirk Knestis - 1:42.540
Steve Noake - 1:43.137

SM

Yiannis Tsionis - 1:39.414
Matt Fassnacht - 1:39.972
John Wechsler - 1:40.047

The event is being held on the NJMP Thunderbolt Pro Course (with chicane). Since this course has never been run by SCCA, the fastest lap in each in tomorrow's race will be a new lap record.

Round 1 is scheduled for Saturady at 12:55 PM.

Oh ... and some Grand-Am cars made some noise today.

Terry

[Terry Hanushek]

Larry

Later in the afternoon the same cars hit the track for Round 2 qualifying.

TreadZone Pro IT Round 2 Qualifying

ITR

Dan Jones - 1:35.985
Rob Thiele - 1:36.272
Rob Nimkiff - 1:36.662

ITS

John Hainsworth 1:36.296
Will Turner - 1:36.304
Mike Marsal - 1:36.507

ITA

Christian Chandler - 1:41.696

ITB

Michael Tinis - 1:40.727
Kirk Knestis - 1:43.280
Steve Noake - 1:43.600

SM

Yiannis Tsionis - 1:38.789
John Wechsler - 1:39.440
John Warren - 140.172

Round 2 is scheduled for Sunday at 9:40 AM.

Terry

[lateapex911]

Wow, times in the afternoon are much faster. Is it because guys are figuring out the track? Grand Am rubber being laid down? Greasy in the AM? At places like Atlanta, it's not even worth going out for the afternoon session, the track slows down so much.

[StephenB]

Eventhough my weekend isn't going well this is still own of the coolest events I have attended!

I am sure others will share some stories when they have time.

Stephen

[Knestis]

Got into the 1:41s during the race today, ending up 2nd behind Tinnis. I got mired in an ITS/ITR brawl for much of the race before clearing them, but just didn't get it done. Weather is great, lots of people wandering around, and we're (mostly) having a good time meeting new folks and hanging out...

K

[Drew M]

Eventhough my weekend isn't going well this is still own of the coolest events I have attended!

I am sure others will share some stories when they have time.

Stephen

I agree.

Im doing awful but am enjoying the weekend too.

[Terry Hanushek]

TreadZone Pro IT Round 1 Results
New Jersey Motorsports Park

ITR

Rob Nimkoff - 25 laps (overall winner)
Rob Thiele - 25 laps
Ben Phillips - 25 laps

ITS

John Hainsworth - 25 laps
Will Turner - 25 laps
Eric King - 25 laps

ITA

Doug Case - 23 laps
Christian Chandler - 21 laps

ITB

Michael Tinnis - 24 laps
Kirk Knestis - 24 laps
Steve Noake - 24 laps

SM

Yiannis Tsiounis - 24 laps
John Wechsler - 24 laps
Matt Fassnacht - 24 laps

Perfect weather conditions - sunny, slight breeze, low 70's

5 new course records (first time SCCA has run the Thunderbolt Pro Course)

ITR - Rob Nimkoff - 1:35.959
ITS - Will Turner - 1:37.082
ITA - Christan Chandler - 1:41.752
ITB - Michael Tinnis - 1:41.408
SM - John Wechsler - 1:39.699

One sad note - the #25 Autotechnic BMW, which has appeared in all Pro IT Series events to date and won several championships with Rob Driscoll, sustained heavy damage in the hands of rental driver Mike Marsal when it T-boned a spinning Miata.

Terry

[CRallo]

Wow, times in the afternoon are much faster. Is it because guys are figuring out the track? Grand Am rubber being laid down? Greasy in the AM? At places like Atlanta, it's not even worth going out for the afternoon session, the track slows down so much.

Cool day. Track was green Thursday morning. Was still getting rubbered up. Guys were learning the chicane too I think. Some guys out for the first time this year... Etc etc

[CRallo]

I was busy working on some Grand-Am cars but I heard this was a mess... heard a driver went to the hospital!?

[Terry Hanushek]

TreadZone Pro IT Round 2 Results
New Jersey Motorsports Park

ITR

Rob Thiele - 19 laps (overall winner)
Rob Nimkoff - 19 laps
Ben Phillips - 19 laps

ITS

John Hainsworth - 19 laps
Will Turner - 19 laps
Eric King - 19 laps

ITA

Christian Chandler - 18 laps
Doug Case - 17 laps

ITB

Michael Tinnis - 19 laps
Kirk Knestis - 18 laps
Tim Mullen - 18 laps

SM

Yiannis Tsiounis - 19 laps
Marc Cefalo - 18 laps
John Wechsler - 18 laps

Perfect weather conditions - sunny, slight breeze, high 70's

4 new course records - breaking the new records set yesterday

ITR - Rob Nimkoff - 1:35.795
ITA - Christan Chandler - 1:41.752
ITB - Michael Tinnis - 1:40.683
SM - Yiannis Tsiounis - 1:39.098

The race was a bit smoother and just as quick as yesterday. Today's race was a bit shorter due to a dynamic compression of the schedule to accommodate our Grand-Am support race.

Terry

[vicktorvolpe]

Saturday's race was a bit of a mess....the split start was a good idea, but I guess not enough of a gap was left between the IT cars and the meotters. We were into the back of the IT group by lap two. I made a bad move and got stuck behind an IT car and gave up a bunch of spots. Better to be safe and stay in my spot and lose spots than try to cut off the train.

Kudos to all the track workers......I was pretty surprised that they were doing hot pulls rather than going double yellow. At one point I think 6 tow trucks were on track at once.

Was a fun weekend, especially with all the other on track action. I didn't race particularly well, but I didn't have any real incidents so I'll take that with a smile.

[Drew M]

I love that chicane. I wish we could run it again in the next event.

[vicktorvolpe]

The chicane is fun, but it kills the momentum cars. If you get a good run out of one and two and don't have the chicane, you have a shot of passing into four. With the chicane it changes that up quite a bit.

I forgot to mention in my first post that the split start on Sunday worked much better than on Saturday. How much more of a gap was left? Just curious.

-Vick

[Drew M]

The chicane is fun, but it kills the momentum cars. If you get a good run out of one and two and don't have the chicane, you have a shot of passing into four. With the chicane it changes that up quite a bit.

I forgot to mention in my first post that the split start on Sunday worked much better than on Saturday. How much more of a gap was left? Just curious.

-Vick

I see. Do you feel the same way about the bus stop at WGI?

[vicktorvolpe]

I see. Do you feel the same way about the bus stop at WGI?

No. The reason being that you have the long straight at WGI to work the draft and advantage you can get in turns one, two, and the esses.

With the meotters, a good run in one and two at NJMP may get you close to making a pass into the chicane, but it's real tough to get close enough for a clean pass. Without the chicane, you have that straight (with the kink) to carry that momentum and the draft into turn four.

I'll have to learn to get more of an advantage in the chicane, that's all. I was really surprised they didn't put some tires or something at the apex of the left hand portion of the chicane...

[Knestis]

Loved the chicane. It actually created MORE passing opportunities for me, as people blew it and I carried more speed into the passing zone in the sharp left (T5?).
KK

[RSTPerformance]

I thought it was a great weekend! The "pro" guys were very helpful and seemed to mingle well with a lot of the IT guys including us! Best of all we got the RX-8 running well and in our "first" real session ever with the car (Sunday's race) without issues Stephen was able to get within 2 seconds of the leaders on very old used tires and no suspension setup dialed in (no sessions with real data). I will let Stephen say more but I think this car has some potential!

It was great meeting some new people even though we didn't have much hanging out time!

Raymond

[Knestis]

Glad to hear you got it worked out, guys. Did it involve a trip to Home Depot or a check to ATL...?

K

[RSTPerformance]

An elimination of all RX-8 parts and a simple Miata fuel pump... I said if it worked I was sold on a Miata as I would agree that it was the most reliable car to race... Not sure what to do now