2008 Nationals Reports

#21

Give’em h3ll Skeen!

#22

I posted the link a few posts before yours.
http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=355893

Patton wrote:

[quote]The live NASA feed was not so good in my part of the universe.

Hey computer geeks, anywhere that a dinosaur can go to get inter web results for the race?

Regards, Robert Patton[/quote]

#23

Rain all day, my worst nightmare :slight_smile: . Qualified 10th right behind Steve D. At the start I couldn’t see much. 4 cars went off the edge of the track Skeen, Cobetto, Allen? maybe, I followed Carter and Skeen got back on in front of me. I was in 6th. Thinking great that worked out well. Then I come into the carasoel and spin like a donkey :laugh: . The whole field goes by and I did my best to get back up the field and not hit anything. Cobetto had the drive of the race as he had to come through the whole field after his off. Looks like more rain tomorrow.

By the way if you Cali guys are reading this they annouced tonight Nationals will be at Miller for 2 years and then back to Mid Ohio. Not sure what the tow is from Indianapolis, but I’m probably closer than most of you Mid Atlantic and South east guys.

#24

mskeen wrote:

I am soooooo rooting for you buddy, go get em. :slight_smile:

#25

I was on my way to the track and didn’t get there in time for the race today, you have any more of that awesome HD video to post?

#26

IndyJim wrote:

[quote]Class SpecE30
1 1 Chris Cobetto 4 10:24.087 2:06.857 3 62.433
2 29 Michael Davidson 4 10:26.958 2.871 2:12.492 3 59.777
3 33 Carlton Goldthwaite 4 10:27.791 3.704 2:12.744 3 59.664
4 143 Michael Skeen 4 10:28.295 4.208 2:12.639 3 59.711
5 58 Carter Hunt 4 10:28.627 4.540 2:11.818 3 60.083
6 53 Jeremy Lucas 4 10:57.571 33.484 2:16.678 3 57.946
7 808 Stephen DeVinney 4 10:58.537 34.450 2:19.151 3 56.917
8 114 David Herrington 4 10:59.081 34.994 2:15.064 4 58.639
9 36 Michael Osborne 4 11:17.609 53.522 2:21.581 2 55.940
10 19 Joe Woodward 4 11:19.172 55.085 2:20.132 3 56.518
11 6 Scott Lear 4 11:19.678 55.591 2:21.923 4 55.805
12 12 Robert Allen 4 11:20.967 56.880 2:21.491 3 55.975
13 116 Simon Hunter 4 11:21.302 57.215 2:19.575 3 56.744
14 188 Andrew Zimmermann 4 11:23.576 59.489 2:24.219 2 54.916
15 121 Stephen Kapuschansky 4 11:43.252 1:19.165 2:19.728 2 56.682
16 155 Thomas White 3 9:23.290 1 Lap 2:31.559 1 52.257
17 63 Jim Pantas 3 9:35.072 11.782 2:30.647 3 52.573
18 00 Jonathan Allen 2 10:16.950 2 Laps 2:15.258 2 58.555[/quote]

Jim:
Thanks for taking the time to post this info.

Group:
As we can see, the wet track made for some interesting racing and interesting lap times. I was pleased to see my times get more competitive and had a blast racing nose-to-tale with Mike Davidson leading our pack, Carlton just behind, Skeen on Carlton’s bumper and me right there with Skeen.

Interestingly, the pack of three in front of me was easing away slowly during the race. Cobetto drove past me and actually showed me that the car would stick better than I was thinking. I turned up the wick and caught back up to the pack, taking the checker with the group.

This shows that the car would do it…and that I could do it, but that I needed a little “encouragement.” As much as we want to think that another driver drives a faster lap time because of his car, it’s usually the driver, especially in a series like Spec E30. And that’s what we want.

Regarding tech inspections, we have swapped Skeen’s rear shock with the Southeast’s control Bilstein (Skeen is the fastest Southeast driver) and will swap one with a Great Lakes Region driver tomorrow. The NorCal control Bilstein is on Walter Ford’s truck, to be delivered to NorCal Spec E30 Regional Series Director Steve Krshul.

We will also dyno more cars tomorrow - Cobetto’s was dynoed and had a peak hp of 153. No driver appears to be able to drive away from the cars in his part of the field so it will be a big surprise if any car dynos above what we normally see.

I hope the Spec E30 drivers and fans not here, are enjoying reading about the event and I appreciate the posts.

More to come from Mid Ohio…

Carter

#27

Mixed bag so far at NASA Nationals, all in the rain for Friday. Had a dead battery on the Integra that we push started to get going, found out the car was in limp mode with a 4k redline on the out lap of qualifying. Turned a crappy lap with the 4k limit (80mph top speed in 5th gear!) to get a time then came into the pits to cycle the key (didn’t know if this would work or if the ECU power/kill switch would have to be cycled). Luckily it did work but then the session was black flagged for too many people off in the grave, so I ended up 6th of 7 in H4. Qualifying race moved up to 2nd so that was good, think I had a shot at first but then we ran into H2 traffic which limited the line options though corners.

SpecE30 qualified 6th without any drama, in the Q race (20 minutes) I was in first by the second corner due the the leaders (Skeen/Cobetto) driving off together in first turn with minor contact and other people checking up. I had a hole and went cleanly though to the front but then coming on the the front straight by the pit wall I hit the sealer a little more than normal and looped the car. I tagged the pit wall with the rear of the car. Continued on and worked my way back up to 6th.
I’m at a loss to explain how/why I looped it other than that jumping back and forth between the cars screws up your reflexes. Integra - super stiff, very little steering input & FWD, SpecE30 - very soft, more steering input & RWD. Car drove ok after the hit but the bumper is pushed in all the way & the LR quarter panel is buckled, it’s going to need a frame pull and some body work. Disappointed as this is my first hit to require body work in 7 years of racing. Wasn’t running a camera due to the rain so all I can surmise is that I did an Integra level steering correction when a SpecE30 level was called for. :frowning:

Maybe two drastically different cars in the same weekend is not such a good idea (especially in the rain).

#28

nasaregistrar wrote:

My laptop won’t process the HD, so the videos will have to wait until I get home.

#29

Keep up the on the scene reports - good stuff.

Sucks about Miller I had hoped to go to Nationals next year.

Towing to Utah, hmm not sure how exciting that is.

#30

Clean Skeen wrote:

Sounds like “Clean Skeen” is now morphing into “Mean Skeen” :wink:

Good luck Mike

(and everyone else that sacked up to run Nationals)

#31

mskeen wrote:

[quote]nasaregistrar wrote:

My laptop won’t process the HD, so the videos will have to wait until I get home.[/quote]Thanks Mike

#32

TheRedBaron wrote:

[quote]Clean Skeen wrote:

Sounds like “Clean Skeen” is now morphing into “Mean Skeen” :wink:

Good luck Mike

(and everyone else that sacked up to run Nationals)[/quote]

Should be a Great video, can’t wait to see it.

#33

Sounds like you guys are going to get the Skeen “racing” face and demeanor that we all remember seeing on Setup!

Lets go Skeen!

#34

mskeen wrote:

finish line productions got pics of that

#35

how the hell did cobetto recover from that and win? Damn…How is Jonny’s car, looks like he about buried it in the sand, I see he made 2 laps…

Give em hell Skeen!

Al

#36

Go Skeen go!

I know its mid-day, but any news from today?

#37

Quaili results from T&S

Simon Hunter…00:01:45.027
Michael Skeen…00:01:45.116
Chris Cobetto…00:01:45.581
Jonathan Allen…00:01:45.951
Carter Hunt…00:01:46.315
Michael Davidson…00:01:46.711
Jeremy Lucas…00:01:46.752
Michael Osborne…00:01:46.783
Carlton Goldthwaite.00:01:47.280
Stephen Kapuschansky00:01:47.327
Stephen DeVinney…00:01:47.656
Robert Allen…00:01:47.677
David Herrington…00:01:47.698
Scott Lear…00:01:48.797
Andrew Zimmermann…00:01:48.844
Thomas White…00:01:51.547
Jim Pantas…00:01:51.954

#38

The weather went from absolutely wet for our warm up session to absolutely dry for qualifying. My car was hooked up for the rain (I think I was trying to win practice:blink: , but I still got schooled by Skeen, Carter and Jeremy).

Qualifying was kinda screwy. They gridded us for quali (full dry) by our warm-up times (full wet) so all the classes were mixed up. With my car pushing like a tractor and me not managing traffic well, I sank back down to 11th for today’s race grid.

Weather forecast looks clear, so we should have a good dry race this afternoon!

Steve D.

PS - It’s great to finally meet some of the folks I’ve heard about on here.:slight_smile:

#39

In that series of pictures it looks like Skeen slid out into Cobetto. How did he force you to the mddle of track?

#40

Quick reply:

Cobetto didn’t do anything wrong by the book except side-to-side contact before the turn when he had plenty of room to the left (he was putting me in the middle of the track). I tried to play nice and take the inside, but next time I will take every inch I’m allotted. I thought it would be easonable for the two of us to cooperate in the first of two qualifying races, but I guess that’s not how we’re going to play.