O'Fest Race Results

#1

Temped to drive over…

How is the racing at Barber?

Results? Field size? Don’t those mod guys have some more straightaway talent?

Keep us posted here. Thanks, RP

#2

7 cars. Perfect weather. Track conditions - Slick

Levie
Gress
Switzer
N. Black
W. Garner / A. Garner
Galapatti
Dravecky/Stevens

Friday Sprint:

Levie wins from the pole (1:52:157) despite being horrendously balked by a stock class E46 328i. Levie and Switzer checked out at the start but the balking allowed Galappatti and Dravecky to catch up which created a good 4 car battle at 3/4 distance. Sadly this battle ended in tears with hard contact between Galappatti and Switzer at the corkscrew with about 3 laps to go. Both cars retired with Switzer having a broken wheel and Galappatti a bent control arm. Dravecky challenged Levie for the win with 3 turns to go but the old sly fox out witted the rookie in turn 13 to regain the lead and take the win.

Final results:

Levie
Dravecky
W. Garner
Black
Gress
Galappatti
Switzer

Saturday Sprint:

Allen Garner took the pole (1:52:161). Mayhem at the start including front to rear contact between Glappatti and Levie allowed Switzer to take an early lead followed by Stevens, A. Garner, Levie, Galappatti, Gress and Black. Within a couple of laps the quicker cars moved to the front with little drama and the rest of the race was clean. Finishing order:

Garner
Switzer
Levie
Galappatti
Stevens
Gress
Black

There was a late afternoon fun race for which I don’t have the details. It was uneventful though with finishing order:

Unknown Driver in Galappatti’s car
Switzer
Black
Gress
Stevens/Dravecky

Enduro today.

Don

#3

Congrats to Allen Garner for his first win!!! Chuck

#4

I second that. He got his second win in the enduro too. Great Job Allen!

Report:

Switzer qualified on the pole with a 1:51:077 followed by Garner, Levie, Stevens, Black, Jeff Caldwell (the unknown driver mentioned in the previous report co-driving with Kish) and Gress. I started our car so I could really only see what was going on ahead and directly behind me for the first 20 minutes or so. Once the typical mayhem at the start sorted out, I think the order was Garner, Switzer, Stevens, Caldwell, Levie, Gress and Black in the early going. As happened on Friday, an out of class (in more ways than one) I-Stock E36 who had qualified slowest in his class but between Switzer and Garner, balked our entire group by racing us ridiculously hard. As Robert Patton would say he had decent “straight away talent” which was just enough to annoy the hell out Garner, Switzer, and me. This allowed Caldwell to join our scrum and we had a five car nose to tail train for three or four laps. To be honest, while the E36 was annoying, he at least raced us clean and allowed me to hang with and run amongst the quicker drivers in our class which was the most fun I have had in a race car in years. Garner was skillful enough to dispose of the E36 and he slowly crept away from our pack.

Pit stops soon ensued and Dravecky got in our car, James Clay got in Garner’s car, and Kish took over for Caldwell. All others went solo. After everyone got back on track it was pretty well spread out with Kish and Switzer the only close racing going on in class. They had a spirited battle for several laps with Switzer eventually claiming the last spot on the podium. Finishing order was:

Garner/Clay
Stevens/Dravecky
Switzer
Caldwell/Galappatti
Levie
Black
Gress

Also worth noting, Anthony Magagnoli from Great Lakes region ran in the our enduro in a Spec E36 with Nathanial C. whom Anthony had been coaching all weekend. They finished third in class behind Chris Wadle who shared his car with ringer Seth Thomas, and Jason Briedis. The fastest Spec E36 time of the day was Breidis with a 1:45:501

Thanks to all for a great weekend.

Don

#5

Don thank you for the excellent race reports!

Congratulations to the new race winners

Were BMWCCA rules about contact enforced?

Question to all, is Yo-Yo racing fun?

(Yo-Yo racing: Fast car passes on straightaway, talented driver passes in corner, fast car passes on straightaway, talented driver passes in corner.

RP

#6

[quote=“Patton” post=60365]Don thank you for the excellent race reports!

Congratulations to the new race winners[/quote]

+1, thanks Don and congrats to the winners!

#7

[quote=“donstevens” post=60364]

Also worth noting, Anthony Magagnoli from Great Lakes region ran in the our enduro in a Spec E36 with Than Orens, whom Anthony had been coaching all weekend. They finished third in class behind Chris Wadle who shared his car with ringer Seth Thomas, and Jason Briedis. The fastest Spec E36 time of the day was Breidis with a 1:45:501

Thanks to all for a great weekend.

Don[/quote]
Yeah Briedis got the pole by 0.026 sec, on 1 heat cycle tires, to the 9 that I had on Than’s car…
I touched Briedis on the start as he started moving over on me (just a friendly “hello” was all I intended). On lap 3, I tried to pass on the inside of the hairpin, but he pulled in front as we went into the right hander before the corkscrew. Next lap I went outside in the hairpin and then I had the inside line for the right hander. From there, I pulled out an 8 second lead before settling into tire conservation mode.
I pulled into the pits at the 30 min mark, right behind a SpecE30 (Switzer?). Whoever it was was driving considerably below the pit lane speed, searching for their pit stall. When they finally found it and checked up to turn in at the last second, I tried to dodge and clipped the right end of their rear bumper. I was frustrated, as this delay lost us the lead I had built, plus the entire front straight.10 seconds makes a huge difference in track position… Not a huge deal, as Than wasn’t lapping quickly enough to have held the lead (although his laptimes had dropped considerably through the weekend). The stewards “didn’t see” any contact :wink:
It was cool to watch Thomas chase down Briedis and make the pass on the last lap. He also bestest my best race lap by 0.18 sec. Damn pros! Lol.

It was good to see a bunch of SpecE30 guys this weekend. And for once I got to watch work being performed on a car (replacing control ARM on Kish’s car) while sitting back and drinking a beer!

Great weekend!

#8

A) Yeah, it was me. B)I checked my speedometer I was actually going about 32 (pit lane speed was 30). C) I did have to slow down because my pit box was directly between 2 occupied pit boxes.

#9

I had never been to Barber before and I’d been hoping for a couple yrs to find a 5 day event where I could get some track familiarization before racing. On the other hand I was determined to not buy tires. My race tires didn’t really make it thru Roebling and they still have to make the Saturday race at RA in Dec. So although it was a lot of fun to learn a new track, my tires should have been thrown away in 2010.

My trip started with Google maps sending me to the wrong place. After spending 45min late Tue night driving around heavily forested mountain roads, my phone told me I’d arrived at my destination when I’d arrived at a certain dirt road. Thinking, “this can’t be right”, I drove on for 10min thru the inky darkness until I could find a place to safely pull off. I was far enough out that I had no data coverage so I couldn’t get new map info, but I had just enough phone signal that I was able to call Jim. He gave me a new address and gave me a general idea of where I needed to be…

“No, Scott, Barber is not 70miles into the forested hills SE of Birmingham. It’s 3min from I-20 about 10miles due E of Birmingham.”

I got oriented with the N Star (no, really) and worked my way W so I could intercept a freeway that I figured was out there. When I got there I had data coverage and using the address that Jim gave me I got to Barber.

I’d read that if you show up after 7PM on Tuesday you don’t get in but I figured that I had a 50-50 chance of sweet talking the guard into letting me in so I could find a place to sleep. To my surprise and dismay the guard turned out to be large, polite, entirely humorless paramilitary type that did not seem at all susceptable to sweet talking. So I slept in the museum parking lot.

Another issue on the trip to Barber is that noise from the rear end of the truck that had seemed pretty innocuous was becoming less so. It was becoming a howl. A consensus would emerge at the track that it was my diff. This made me worry about getting stranded in the middle of the night 100’s of miles from home. I was also unhappy about replacing another truck rear end, having done so just before I sold my old POS Dodge Ram 2yrs ago.

The DE went fine, although I took it hard that my B student totaled his 2002 M3. A couple yrs ago a student of mine dinged up his fender at RA and I’ll always feel really bad about that. But this time the guy totaled his car. I do take some solice, however, in the fact that when my student hit a wall at ~80mph that it was not I in the passenger seat but the chief instructor. So I feel bad abou it, but surely it’s less my fault if I wasn’t in the car, right?

Racing. I didn’t really so much race as just have open track time with Natalie. For the first 6-7laps of each race I’d be able to give her a run for her money and we’d have a good fight. But then my tires would go away, I’d have a few scares where I’d almost lose it and I’d have to back off and let her go. I just couldn’t get the tires to stick. In the slow speed turns when my car just would not turn for love or money I’d just laugh as I sawed the wheel. In the high speed turns when the car just would not turn for love or money and it looked like I was going to die I’d feather the throttle and my hair would stand on end as slid into the grass at turn exit.

At the halfway point of the enduro I waved at Natalie to go into the pits for a 5min break together. Call it a first date. But as generally happened in the past,my prospective date demurred and drove on without me. Once I got out of the pits 5min later I couldn’t find her again. I putt putted around for lap after lap just keeping out of people’s way. Finally I see her in my rear view mirror, let her by and charged off in pursuit. “Now we’re going to have some fun”, I exclaimed. Which is when we took the checker.

I harassed Fred and the Blacks to paddock with Jim and I. That was a great success.

Thanks to Kish and his buddies for feeding me Friday. Kish’s driver buddy is a nice guy and fast.

Hooters at Birmingham has no redeeming qualities. Lousy menu, weak beer selection, and no pretty girls to admire.

If you diff is howling, turn up the volume on the “book on tape” and hope for the best.

Re. Google maps. Trust, but verify.

#10

Sounds like a great time. I hope to be there next year.

#11

Speaking of, where is next year? They usually announce at banquet

#12

[quote=“Fred42” post=60368]
A) Yeah, it was me. B)I checked my speedometer I was actually going about 32 (pit lane speed was 30). C) I did have to slow down because my pit box was directly between 2 occupied pit boxes.[/quote]
Sorry about the contact, Fred. Regardless of the speed issue, I was too close to you and bear responsibility for the contact.

#13

O’Fest was a wonderful experience for me. I instructed in the Club Race School on Wednesday and Thursday before the races. Great group of instructors and a great group of students. I must have done a pretty decent job because I now have an open invitation to instruct at any Club Race School that I’d care to attend. in Scott Hughe’s words, “Send me an email to tell me you are coming and show up”. I take that as a compliment.

For most of the Race School the car was down on power at high rpm and load. It felt exactly like a fuel delivery issue, but a new pump and filter Thursday morning made no difference. I still don’t know what it was, but it magically went away Friday morning and both practice sessions were good. Needless to say, I didn’t have high confidence that it wouldn’t come back, but it never did. I really hate mysteries like this!

Fred Switzer and I intended to run qual nose to tail and nail down the first two spots. I’d already found two seconds in practice (thanks Eric P.) and was hoping for a bit more while chasing Fred. We got blocked by a Spec E36 for the first few laps and Fred finally found a way around the car. I was tucked in tight on Fred’s bumper to keep from being split and we then we were looking at open track. For some reason I wound up in front and we got in one good lap before a car on it’s side after the carousel black flagged the course. I wound up with a slightly faster time and was P1 in the SE30 field. Fred had P2.

Fred and I checked out on the start and had opened a decent gap when we ran up on a slow JS car toward the end of the race. Up to that point Fred and I had had a nice close race with a big gap on the rest of the field. The slower car allowed the rest of the SE30’s to catch up. Coming out of the hair pin I could see something going on with Fred and Kish in my mirror and after the corkscrew I couldn’t see either of them anymore. I found out later what had happened, but I’ll let Fred tell that story.

On the last lap Rick Dravecky used the JS car as pick and got overlap in the tunnel turn, As soon as that happened I came up with a plan. We ran side by side to T14A and I kept him pinned on the inside, giving him exactly one car’s width (and not one inch more). As soon as he committed to the turn I went a bit further out, trail braked hard to rotate the car, and shot down the hill, taking the position back. I was pretty pleased with myself for the plan and the ability to execute it.

On Saturday Fred & I didn’t get to the grid early enough and were boxed in by slow cars. I got a reasonable time that I thought would be no worse than 3rd. I made a pass through the pits for open track, but that didn’t work. So I came in. Fred and Allen Garner stayed out and got some pretty decent times. Sometimes you win, and some times you lose…

About a second before the green Kish rear ended me (hard). I had all I could do to avoid contact with the car in front and was still on the brakes when the green fell. That totally screwed up my start and I lost two positions right away. But it turned out okay. By the third lap I’d recovered the positions and passed two out of class cars that were in my way and had open track in front of me. The only problem was that Allen and Fred were about a quarter mile in front. Nothing to do for that but to see if I could chase them down. I found another 1.5 seconds and ran a bunch of laps in the low to mid 1:51’s (thanks Eric) and caught them just as we went one lap to go.

I could have tried an act of desperation move to get around Fred on the last lap. But I refuse to put another racer (and friend) at that risk. So I settled for third.

The win on Friday was great, but I got more personal satisfaction from Saturday’s race and what it took to get to the leaders. In the end I ran 3.5 seconds faster than my previous best at Barber. Barber is my home track, but I actually have more days at Road Atlanta, so I don’t think that the break through is going to be limited to Barber. After four years I think I have finally learned how to drive fast (okay, so I’m slow learner). What I was doing at Barber (and where the speed came from) should be more or less independent of the track. I’ll find out if that is the case at CMP.

The Sunday enduro was the pits. I qualified third in class and in the process I discovered that I had no tires left (and I mean zip, nada, nothing). And it just got worse from there. No matter what I did I could see the loss of a tenth or two every lap. I have never worked so hard for so little apparent result and finished fifth. I had a spin in the hairpin, almost spins several other times, and more two offs that I could count. I’m pretty sure I was getting everything the tires could give me, which was pretty much nothing. I guess it made a great show for anyone behind me, but it was terror in the car from the driver’s seat. I’m convinced that I could have gone faster (and safer) on all season street tires.

I have heard it said that after 10-12 heat cycles you lose a second on the current RA1’s. I had 21 heat cycles on my tires at the start of Saturday’s race and 24 at the start of the enduro. I don’t know what that translates into in terms of lost time, but I can say positively that 24 heat cycles is “right out”. I’m not ever going to do that again.

As I said, it was a great week. My favorite quote from the weekend came from Eric Nissen on Sunday morning when he said, “Jim has been out of control all weekend and has just been silly fast”. I like that!

#14

Hey all, just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Jeff Caldwell and I was co-driving with Kish this past weekend at Ofest. I met most of you in the paddock. Those I didn’t find I apologize. It was a lot of fun out there with some great battles, especially the first 30 minutes of the enduro. As someone mentioned the IS car was a blessing and a curse. It allowed me to catch the SE30 pack after being held up at the start by a disabled M3T. That was the blessing. The curse was that I could NOT get by him and this allowed Allen Garner to walk away with the lead. Every time I would try to out brake the IS guy going in to the hairpin and take the inside he would close the door on me. I finally got overly frustrated when the blue E46 (JS?) spun and parked in front of me for two laps. Gave up and pitted a lap early as there was nowhere to go and Garner had already built a sizable lead. Kish got in and put down some great laps, but our fuel strategy backfired as we did not take on gas at the stop and we ended up with fuel starvation on the last lap and a half. Kish battled Switzer hard, but in the end we came fourth which was not a bad result. My only wish was that I could have gotten around the IS guy and at least attempted to challenge Garner a bit. He was fast though. Thanks again to everyone for some fun and clean racing out there. I am finishing my car this winter and plan to be out there next season. I am from the northeast region but plan to at least race once with you all at RA next season. Cheers guys it was a ball.

#15

They apparently didn’t announce it officially, but I heard from the Pacific region VP that Mid Ohio is the leading candidate right now. LRP would seem to still be in the mix but the word was it was too expensive to rent and make any money.

#16

Any video from the event? I don’t think I have ever seen a video of a SpecE30 around Barber.

#17

Chris,

We have some video from our car. My buddy is editing now and I’ll send you a link as soon as I have it.

In the mean time there are several older videos posted at the Spec E30 video gallery. I watched them all last week trying to get a feel for the track before I showed up. It is a very fun track that is well suited to our cars. There are no long straights where a fast car (like Natalie’s :whistle:) can drive away from the rest of us.

Don

#18

[quote=“King Tut” post=60392]Any video from the event? I don’t think I have ever seen a video of a SpecE30 around Barber.[/quote]There’s a group set up in Vimeo that will help locate a lot of good content. The URL is http://vimeo.com/groups/SpecE30

NASA-SE hasn’t raced at Barber since I think May or June 2010 and also spring the year before, so have to hunt backwards through the clips to find something, most likely.

#19

Had a great time at O’fest. Loved the track, close racing, the area, and most of all the people. Fred/Jim, sorry about the contact. Still not sure who hit me on the passenger side going down into the corkscrew on friday. It was hard enough to pretzel my control arm but we fixed it the same night and raced on so no harm done. I’ll post up my videos sometime soon.

#20

They apparently didn’t announce it officially, but I heard from the Pacific region VP that Mid Ohio is the leading candidate right now. LRP would seem to still be in the mix but the word was it was too expensive to rent and make any money.[/quote]Serious? It was “100% Connecticut” and MidOhio is a long way from LRP…

I’m not used to knowing where these things are until the Spring before… BTW we don’t need West Coast O’Fests more than every 9-11 years - keep that in mind :wink: