Championship race start.
2008 Nationals Reports
allenr
#83
I have another sad story from mid o. 
Thurs:
Unloaded the car with same pressures/ bar setting as august but it was scary loose. I have never driven such a loose car. The rear end was kicking out all over the track. It was so bad that I thought it had been pulled out of alignment on the trailer. Thanks to shane for his help persuading the ireland bar 
.
I broke into the 44’s with the new setup, but there wasn’t enough track time to really get comfortable.
Fri:
Rain. I have very little experience in the rain so I just poked around trying to survive… often without the help of the wipers :ohmy: .
Sat:
I was excited to have dry track. Unfortunately quali went badly. D Herrington and I sort of raced for most of the session. I was hoping he would back off and he was hoping I would let him by. I was defending and he was trying to pass. Both of us wanted that open track in front! In the end we qualified 13th and 14th (I think). If we had been .5 sec. faster we would have been ~7th and 8th . We were both unhappy about that. The race wasn’t much better. It’s really tough to recover from a bad qualifying.
Sun:
I planned to get a run and jump the start from 13th. Unfortunately the flag flew before I jumped
:pinch: . I lost a few spots but got them back by madness. I think I was up to around 10th when I had to check up for the mess with carlton. Almost everybody except the pink car got by 
. I survived to march back up and finish 7th. I may have had a shot at the top 6 but I got behind the PTF car from hell at the restart. He couldnt keep up with the pace car. They eventually came close to stopping the pace car to allow him to catch up. Once he caught up, he wouldnt get with in 5 carlengths of michael O. in front of him. I ended up passing him on the straight after T1 when they dropped the yellow. This put me ~5 secs. behind michael at the green:angry: . I also had some bad understeer as a result of softening the bar. I can’t figure out why it worked so well on thursday but was so pushy on sunday.
A very disappointing week for me. It looked good on thursday, but when the rain came I was screwed. When it dried up, I made some bad decisions and never got up to speed. I’m not disappointed about 7th, although if I were really on my game, qualified well, and if the car were perfect, I think I had a shot at top 5. I’m just frustrated to have been off the pace since thursday.
Good luck to all the SE30s doing some fixing (edavidson, kappy, lucas, sean, etc.)
Congrats to mike but especially to simon and carter for the great finishes!
I’ll be interested to hear some rumors confirmed about our fastest drivers’ plans for next year.
MikeD
#84
shannon your an awesome photographer!
FWIW the officials ruled in my favor regarding the incident between me and carlton. I am going to post my video but the photos pretty much tell the tale. I hope there are no hard feelings but if I could give any advice to my fellow racers it would be “you can’t win the race in the first turn but you can sure lose it.” Three wide into madness is…madness! I had a good race after the incident even though my driver’s side rear tire was significantly toed out. I had a great battle with harrington and johhny and did what I could to keep simon behind me. For some reason the car felt down on power as I couldn’t get a draft off anyone it could have been the rear tire fighting me because of the toe issue. So with my car weighing 2815lbs (minimum) and the old motor (making 149lb/ft of torque) and being hit in turn 4 i’m pleased with a 5th place finish.
The video is very interesting i’ll try and post it tomorrow.
Gasman
#85
Mike, awfully nice of you to yield to Cobetto in turn two. I’m sure he didn’t know you were there.
Carter
#91
First of all, I want to thank all the Spec E30 drivers for their participation at the National Championship event. While we had some on-track issues, most (not all, unfortunately) were minor and the general mood from the weekend is very good.
Some comments about the weekend…
-We surprise-dyno’d several cars from several regions and the numbers looked very clean.
-Cobetto drove an incredible race on Friday. I have never seen someone drive that close to the limit in the wet, and keep the car on the track.
-I was very pleased to finish 5th in both qualifying races, because of the huge talent that extended deep into the field.
-In the Championship race, the broadcast group put a camera on the top of my car and on Skeen’s. The DVD should be very good.
-At the start and on the inside of the third row, I got a good run on the second row and slipped inside Mike Davidson by the first turn. Mike and Carlton stayed beside each other and as can be seen in the photos, we went three-wide as we approached the left hander. I was concentrating on Cobetto’s car and I’m glad to see that I actually did not turn down to the apex, as we approached the upcoming left hander. After the race, Mike felt that I had turned-in (to the left and chopped him - my words, not his) and he had to move left to avoid me and got into Carlton. I was so focused on Cobetto’s car, and trying to stay with him and Skeen, that I didn’t know if I had chopped Mike or not. The photos show that while I certainly didn’t give Mike a lot of room, I didn’t pinch him as much as I had thought, based on comments after the race. Mike and I never touched and I want to thank him for it.
-After that, I was able to keep Skeen and Cobetto fairly close, which actually surprised me. I was not an immediate threat to them but they weren’t checking-out, as I had thought would happen. And I was also surprised that Simon and John Allen didn’t come rolling past, by the second lap. Both had been quicker than me in each dry session. My tire pressure change must have worked because the car was just about perfect. Plus, running with Osborne in the morning warmup helped me find a little last-minute speed.
-After a couple of “dances” through turn one and the fast left just before the carousel, due to Cobetto’s fuel on the track, I was really hoping there wouldn’t be a full course yellow. I might be able to keep the field behind because I wasn’t falling back from Skeen. The car and the R888’s were doing great and I was feeling good. Plus, I never expected to be in second place at the National Championship!
:woohoo:
-Thankfully, there was a Civic between and John Allen and me at the restart and I just concentrated on keeping Skeen fairly close. After another lap or two, Simon (quickest in the dry all weekend?) was coming up and I knew we were fairly close to the finish. I made my car a little wide a couple of times, but didn’t all-out block him. Plus, he wasn’t that much faster. On the next lap, we got the white flag. “Just keep him back there for one more lap…”
-As we approached the keyhole (basically turn two, a 180 degree right hander), I decided to go around the Miata on the outside (a mistake), because he was slowing and tured-in a little early. I thought he would hug the inside and Simon would follow me around the outside. About half-way around, the Miata started drifting out and I had to lift, to avoid contact. This opened the inside for Simon and he drove right past. I followed him and Skeen to the checker.
-While that was very frustrating, the Miata driver really didn’t do anything wrong. It just went Simon’s way and he was able to take advantage of it. Good for him.
-The podium ceremony was a lot of fun, and again, I never expected to be there.
Many thanks to our drivers, to NASA, and to Mike Mills for cofounding Spec E30 with me.
And congratulations to Mike Skeen for an outstanding performance in the Championship race.
Carter Hunt
Spec E30 National Series Director
MikeD
#93
I just wanted to add that I had an awesome time regardless of what happened and congratulations to Simon, Carter, and Mike!
Simon/Shannon thanks for the pics!
Elephant4
#94
MikeD wrote:
[quote]I just wanted to add that I had an awesome time regardless of what happened and congratulations to Simon, Carter, and Mike!
Simon/Shannon thanks for the pics![/quote]
Definitely thank Shannon! She gets a kick out of reading everyone’s race reports on this board and getting inside the driver’s minds as she likes to say. Always good to see you and your Dad and everyone else that I haven’t mentioned, I pretty much know the whole field now. Can’t wait to do it again.
Steve_D
#96
Great photos, Shannon. Sorry for the unintentional snubbing at our first meeting! :ohmy:
Simon - The photos and your video clarified that it was you I hit in Madness on the first lap. When you slowed to avoid Carlton coming across your bow, I tried to get on the brakes without spinning off track and just couldn’t get whoa’ed up. If there is any damage to your bumper, please let me know so I can make it right. I tried to find you after the race (after I found all the other grey cars:huh: ), but I think you loaded up and hit the road pretty quickly.
Obviously, my race didn’t end as I had hoped. But I had a great time on track and enjoyed meeting many of the fine gentlemen in this class.
All in all, I am very satisfied given that this was my first time driving an E30 on track and the car was just a caged tub 3 weeks before the event. Big shout out to Ryan, Mike and Kevin at OPM Autosports. Fantastic build, great trackside service. I suppose Tom Fowler deserves some of the credit for putting a great crew together. And a big thanks to Robert Patton for all his advice and guidance (and letting the guys go to his shop to “figure out where the hell THIS goes”)).
The car came off the trailer in great shape and Wednesday test day went flawlessly. No other E30s showed up, so I didn’t get any indication of how my times stacked up. Thursday practice started with me 3 seconds off in the first session and 1.5 seconds off in the second session. But an electrical gremlin reared it’s head (see 8:45 in my video from the championship race - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCProYs-Jc8 ).
I was getting a lot of wheelspin in the dry and thanks to Jon Allen for recommending a full-soft rear bar setup. After that one change, I dropped 1.1 seconds from my lap time. Jon said that’s the last advice I get from him.:laugh:
Friday practice brought rain and I was 14 seconds off the pace (but 11th of 18). The E30 is way more fun in the rain than a Miata, but I hadn’t figured that out by then. In Friday qualifying I was only 10 seconds off the pace and gridded 9th of 19. In the race I was 12+ seconds off Cobetto (who was absolutely storming through the field) but managed a 7th place finish. I was very satisfied with the position - not to mention the fact that the car was still in one piece.
Saturday warm-up was still wet and I tried to “win practice.” Luckily I kept the car on track and was 4th in lap time. Which is worth zero. Still 6 seconds off Skeen. Qualifying was dry and I was only 2.5 seconds off Simon and Skeen, but in this tight field that put me P12 for the race. The race was relatively uneventful, but had a lot of great close racing. Everyone in the midpack who kept it on track basically finished in the order they started. I finished 9th.
With a 7th and a 9th, I gridded 9th for the big show. I got lucky with the pre-flag accordion effect and had a tremendous run past Jon and Carter, who eased to driver’s right to prevent me from getting alongside. His was a brilliant move and I backed off (probably a bit too much). I got through the right hander cleanly, but was on the outside for Madness. Carlton took an unconventional line from the grass on driver’s left to the grass on driver’s right which made Simon check up and set up the aforementioned clobber.
Everything sorted itself out pretty well (except I was quite sure that Carlton would come skitttering out of the grass into my door in the right hander at the bottom of Madness, but I stayed in the gas and he slotted in nicely behind me).
I had a few good laps of racing, but then the gremlin was back and the car lost all power on the front straight. I waved everyone past in Turn 1. Power came back but I pulled onto the grass near the Keyhole to watch the rest of the race. I didn’t want the car to die during close racing and cost me and a competitor a car. It was completely unpredictable and only happened when the car was fully loaded in a hard left-hander. Puzzling.
My car was dyno’d at 153/144, which puts me somewhere in the mix. I guess a few better than some, a few worse than others? Not bad for an unknonw motor I bought in an $800 package of a rolled '87 325is and a roller '84 318 chassis!! New plugs, wires and oil, and we were on track!!
Thanks to all of you who welcomed me to the class this weekend. I didn’t plan on going to Miller, but I can’t stand having a DFL as my last championship result. I’ll hopefully make the trip out there and finish mid-pack where I belong.
Steve D.
Patton
#97
Steve D, it sounds like the classic e30 fuel pump problem. Time to replace it and remove weight so that you have to start the race with a full tank of fuel. Just don’t forget to close the fuel cap before going to grid. I’ve been there.
Interesting pictures and race reports. It is always advisable to keep a mental inventory of who you’re racing with.
Regards, Robert Patton
Elephant4
#98
Steve D wrote:
[quote]Great photos, Shannon. Sorry for the unintentional snubbing at our first meeting! :ohmy:
Simon - The photos and your video clarified that it was you I hit in Madness on the first lap. When you slowed to avoid Carlton coming across your bow, I tried to get on the brakes without spinning off track and just couldn’t get whoa’ed up. If there is any damage to your bumper, please let me know so I can make it right. I tried to find you after the race (after I found all the other grey cars:huh: ), but I think you loaded up and hit the road pretty quickly.[/quote]
No damage at all, in fact I should be thanking you for the push :), I lost all momentum trying to avoid Carlton.
nasaregistrar
#99
Patton wrote:
[quote] Just don’t forget to close the fuel cap before going to grid. I’ve been there.
[/quote]or make sure it is on squarely. Chris was polite in his post when he said “we didn’t have the cap on squarely” but it wasn’t we, it was me…
I can’t tell you how long the ride home with myself was on Sunday replaying that last refueling in my head. Attention to detail, preparation, and good driving wins races. Little details can cost bigtime.
It was great to have been there, and I want to congratulate the whole spec E30 field for another awesome show. You guys are all fantastic competitors and genuinely nice people to be around.
Patton
#100
Sean, I’ve been there, you’ve been there and others will have a lapse or an interruption to cause a mistake.Respect is earned in admitting one’s error.
I can’t count the numbers of times that I’ve been to grid and wondered about wheel torque. I guess the pro’s have multiple checklist for this stuff…and still stuff happens.
Regards, Robert Patton