new WGI Spec e30 track record

#1

congrats to sean curran for setting a new spec e30 track record of 2.24.119 at wgi!

#2

Way to go Sean!

What were the weekend race results?

#3

Nice work!

2:24? Good to know that I’d actually be semi-competive (on the same lap) when I finally get out there.

Too bad our cars fit into ITS for SCCA, looks like we’d be 8-10 seconds off the pace at best!

#4

rsott59 wrote:

[quote]Way to go Sean!

What were the weekend race results?[/quote]

Class SpecE30 Sunday
1–99–Sean Curran------------2:24.119
2–19–Joshua Hughes–0.296—2:24.732
3–67–Jason Mahoney–0.457 2:25.218
4–63–Jim Pantas-----26.746–2:26.427
5–105-R. Jadczak-----56.617–2:33.510

It was down to the wire at the end. The top three all led the race at one point. I worked traffic and got the lead and on the last lap traffic hurt me and Josh, Sean I went three wide through turn 9 (exciting if nothing else) and as seen above we all finished with less then .5 second spread from 1 - 3. I didn’t even have red and orange paint on both sides of my white car. Great driving by all in a tough turn. Too bad I went from 1 to 3 in three turns but thats racing. Great race.

Chris McIntyre unfortunately had a bad shift in practice or qualifying and did not make the Sunday Race. Sat. was not a race since it only lasted 8 minutes before being black flagged due to burning 944. Driver was OK, car was not.

#5

Awesome, awesome weekend. We had 6 cars signed up, the largest so far for the NE and further proof that the class is gaining momentum up here. Jason and Josh made their NE debuts and killed it, the race came down to the last lap and was super close and there was zero contact. I still don’t know how we went 3 wide in turn 9, with oil-dry on the track none the less. Pantas made the trek up from the South with a group of drivers and it was good getting the chance to meet him. I think he might be in a little bit of trouble though after the SE drivers saw what kind of food/drink gets put out there on Saturday nights. The amount of food and drink served up was enormous, even to NE standards, thanks to Greg Sobolewski (drives in GTS 3 I think) who sponsored the party and trophies.

Jason did a good job recapping the weekend so there isn’t much to add. It was a bummer that Saturday’s race didn’t count but more importantly Jeremy (Ray’s son, 2nd half of the Fly Navy/Go Army crew) )was OK after the his car caught on fire. I was right behind him when it happened and sliding in oil towards a car that is on fire produces a bit of a pucker factor. Also, a bummer about Christian missing the shift, but hopefully not much damage is done and he’ll be back soon. OK, enough typing, here’s the vid from Sunday EDIT: deleted video, vimeo is messing things up. I’ll repost when i get it running right.

See you guys at NJMP!

#6

secu wrote:

There’ll be one more next year. i won’t be at NJMP most likely but see you guys in 2010! Congrats on the win and the record again!

#7

here’s the vid http://vimeo.com/6930121. Vimeo is still messing up the audio and it won’t sync up no matter what settings I export the video with, but I’m sick of messing with it for now.

#8

Is there a mylaps link to the results?

#9

great, great time - nice meeting you all.

There is NO doubt we could have turned a few quite faster laps if not for all those darn 944’s :slight_smile:

mylaps link:
http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=1336109

my over-produced video link of the Sunday race… the coolest part is clearly at the end when we are 3 wide
http://vimeo.com/6940304

Sean, great work 3rd => 1st in 3 turns!

(I’ll load up video from Saturday’s “non-race” as well and post here- I end up going wheel-to-wheel with the “flaming car” at turn 9 track out…)

#10

Hi youse guys.

We sent the best ambassador we could find from the SE, Jim Pantas, 'cause we know that he is the definition of NY upstate redneck kind of guy. Really, he’s from Rochester (I think).

He gave me as story about his lack of results at the race, so there are no boring details to share with regards to racing.

However, do you have any good “Jim” stories to share, or did he maintain a low profile?

Come on down for our winter race at Road Atlanta, December 4,5,6.

Regards, Robert Patton

#11

Here is the link to the Saturday non-race:
http://www.vimeo.com/6947935

Robert, it was really nice meeting Jim, however All the SE30 folks kept a relatively low profile. There was much entertainment to be had with the drunk folks crashing their gas scooters into tires in the garage, getting into fights in the paddock, etc.

I’m considering the Road Atlanta event, then I could meet “all y’all”

cheers,
Josh

#12

Nice videos Josh…3 wide in turn 9 still makes me laugh.

Here’s my video from Saturday’s red flagged race. I was right behind Jeremy when oil leak/fire happened and for a second I thought I was going to lose it in the oil and just slide into him. http://vimeo.com/6957333

As of now, I’m planning on going down to RA in December as well, hopefully nothing gets in the way.

#13

secu wrote:

[quote]Nice videos Josh…3 wide in turn 9 still makes me laugh.
[/quote]

Three wide was my quick run backward from winner to looser. 1 - 3 in less than a quarter of a mile. Like a bad drag race with turns.

No good Jim stories. The most exciting thing was when he overfilled his tank and that’s not real exciting. His daughter was around doing DE so he may have been on his best behavior. It was nice meetings some SE guys and NE guys for that mater as this was my first non Mid Atlantic race.

RA sounds great but by December I hope to have my car in pieces refreshing all the details the previous owner overlooked that could put me into a wall when it fails. Wont make me any faster but I wont think about things breaking flat our through the esses at WGI five feet from the blue bushes at 100 mph.

#14

Hey Josh and Sean would you be willing to email me about a minute of the clip from your videos of my car on fire to jeremy at influentialdata dot com? I was in the Go Army! Porsche 944 and those two videos are stunning. I saw plenty of flames but I didn’t realize how bad this could have been until after I saw your videos.

I am OK but have a slight heat burn on my right lower leg, kinda like touching an iron. The car is repairable so your gonna continue to see me in the 944 (sorry guys). The fire was caused by the oil filter seal either breaking apart or something else that dumped about 8 quarts of oil on the header.

It did not take long for the fire to spread and I had a real bitch getting out of the car. I took for granted my emergency exit procedure (I didn’t have one) and I was trapped in there with my helmet on. I am a big boy and was thrashing to get out. All the time I was sucking in the smell of nasty burnt wires and a lot of smoke. It took me over two minutes to get out once I got the car stopped, oh and I could not even see the end of my hood from inside the smoke was so overwhelming.

On top of that, I had a hard time pulling the fire ext t-knob on my roll cage to activate the fire suppression system because the hard roll bar padding is too close to the t-bar and I was not able to get two fingers around it to yank on and it was taking too long for me to mess around with it. I will cut the padding back so I can get to it easier with the gloves on.

Racers: Please take your safety seriously. Please practice at home getting out of a race car and also attempt to get out of the passenger side too. Blindfold yourself and practice getting out. You need to be able to get out in less than 15 seconds WITH YOUR HELMET ON. Better yet have a crew member or a loved one video tape your exits and review it later to see where you can make improvements.

Jeremy Jadczak
#141 Porsche 944
944 Cup NE Chapter

#15

Jeremy,

I was relieved to hear you were OK… Chris came over right after we drove back to the paddock, and relayed the story.

I definitely “slid” through some of the oil, but not as bad as it sounds like Sean did.

It was a bit tense sitting there on the back straight under the red flag, but it was fortunate to see the ambulance driving slow without its lights on, and no helicopter!

I’ll cut you a copy of the clip between turn 8-10 and mail it now,

Hey, good luck getting your car pulled back together - I’m glad to hear it’s not trashed!

Cheers,
Josh

#16

You guys actually had a fast track to work with. I was there the weekend before and records were being shattered!

I didn’t know Jim Pantas was from Rochester. So am I! I’m planning on coming to Road Atlanta, so I hope to meet a bunch more of you there!