 |
|
Got any stories to tell for the 38 SE racers that did not attend the Road Atlanta weekend?
Congratulations to our race wiiner, Eric Palacio.(saturday and Sunday)
SE regional champ, DeVinney
And Geno’s Cup winner, Eric Palacio.
(I made up the 38 number, but I bet if I counted from 1/2004 there have probably been more than 38 folks through the se30 SE turnstile.)
RP
I have been itching for some racing videos to watch since I haven’t been on track in almost 2 months now. Let’s see em.
Here is the entire Toy Race from the 401. First few laps were insane!
On next to last lap, a Mustang was passing me at 10A and I elected to tuck in rather than go 2-wide. Bad decision it turned out, he cranked in a second helping of braking after I pulled behind and I couldn’t slow up enough. Hit him pretty hard and messed up my RF corner. Bumper is shot, grill/headlights gone, minor tweak to hood/fender. Rats.
But up until then, the Toy Race seemed to me to be the best one so far.
Seems to be a lot of cars out there with plenty of HP but not much talent…not talking about the spec e30 class of course…
Al
no there were several MA spec e30 guys there too. i kid, i kid.
seriously, props to the MA contingent for hauling all that way and putting in multiple strong performances at a track most of them had never driven. btw what is the geno’s cup?
[quote=“jtower” post=61493]btw what is the geno’s cup?[/quote]The Geno’s Cup is an award Patton provides, sponsored by his company (get all your Dodge Cummins goodies here) that goes to the driver to beat, not necessarily the season champ (a/k/a attendance award winner). Past winners include Skeen in 2007 & 2008, Johan in 2009 & 2010, and now Eric. Congrats on being included in that talented group, Eric!
Geno’s Cup: used to be there was a 944 cup and a race series within a series.
Sadly 944 interest has long-since faded.We wanted to do something like that for SE se30. Your cup sponsor (my business), Geno’s Garage, spent a little over $200 for a nice cup on a piece of wood. (Maybe Eric can post pictures.)
It started as a race series within the SE region series of races.Somewhere along the line it just changed it to a vote within a select comittee.
Instesd of the yearly points thingee, where in many years, I would show up at more races and get more points that others, we changed the cup award to mean “the racer that you have to beat when they attend” (cause you can’t make it to all races) in that particular year.
See if you agree with these selections…
2007-Mike Skeen
2008-Skeen
2009-Schwartz
2010-Schwartz
2011- Placio; our # 2 guy at nationals.
RP
This was a crazy year filled with lots of hard fought battles in the SE and at Nationals. It’s an honor to win the Geno’s Garage Cup this year and have my name next to Skeen and Johan. Looking forward to next year already! We definitely need to get more representation from the SE to Nationals next year, so start the planning! Thanks again for everyone putting on a great season along with our series directors to keep us all in check.
[attachment=1690]photo2.JPG[/attachment]
Congrats Eric!
The Toy Race looked like a ton of fun watching from the sidelines. So many cars strung out that the lead cars caught up to the tail end in about a lap. What amazed me the most is 90 cars and not a single yellow that I’m aware of. Maybe a local yellow, but certainly never full course. That was a welcome change from the carnage of the previous day.
[quote=“D Walsh” post=61509]Interesting video from my left front suspension during Saturdays race.
http://vimeo.com/33175111[/quote]
that’s pretty neat, thanks for posting
Just wondering…looking at the results from the Sunday race, Werner and 2 other cars completed 1 lap only…is there a story there? Just like to keep tabs on my friends.
Al
Hey Guys,
All in all I’d say my first trip to Road Atlanta was a success! Turning my first laps at RA in a 100+ car practice was certainly not ideal but at least it gave me a chance to see which way the track went before quali. Managed a 1:45 and change in quali which was good enough for P3. The start went well and seemed clean throughout the field, the top 3 were single file by the time we got to T3. I was able to stay pretty close to Eric and after a couple of laps we had gapped the field by enough to settle the race on our own. We were fairly close the entire race other than when I botched T3 part way through the race and one other lap when some GTS guys came through (nothing wrong on their part, they were in the middle of their own race for a GTS win). I was bummed that the race was cut short because I felt I might have had something for the Eric but it sure would have been tough, Palacio drove a great race and our pace was very even. We were turning 44’s lap after lap and I was able to snag the fastest lap with a 1:44.38.
The toy run was a total soup sandwich. It was fun working traffic but after the first two or so laps (which we did in 2nd gear) I found myself between a bunch of cars that were fast in a straight line and wicked slow in the corners…a frustrating place to be in an E30.
Thanks for havin’ us MA guys - Great time meeting, racing, and hanging out with all the SE crew.
Saturdays Video: http://vimeo.com/33196399
Enduro: Congrats to Olivier finishing his first race with our team. Fun to run an 8 hour race.
Saturday: Started P2 but fell to P3 in turn 1. Impressive race by Grace especially for his first time to RA.
Congrats to Devinney on the Championship and Eric for the win this weekend as well as winning Geno’s Cup.
Thanks to Scott and the rest of our crew for helping to prepare the cars and add entertainment.
This video is from behind the left front wheel as Chuck and I trade places during the Toy Run. Is crazy to watch the tire movement, and the wheel seems to stop and back up from time to time. The new car took its first dents and the camera was knocked off at about the 6:50 mark, but it made for some cool video.
Great weekend all around starting out with a 3rd place finish in the 8 hr with co-drivers Julio and Bill. The last hour was pretty interesting due to a flat tire I pitted too early. Had to balance lap times with saving fuel which had me slow down 5 secs a lap short shifting and coasting into corners. Steve D was driving the hell out of that Acura and unlapped himself while closing in the gap at the 5 sec per lap gap. Jonny on the radio telling me to Conserve Conserve fuel for 5 laps then pick up the pace for a lap. Very fun but tiring. Special thanks goes out to the Drive-Gear guys! They had an awesome car, were great to work with, and also hang out with during and after the race. Would gladly rent from them anytime. So thanks again guys for coming down, wish you guys could have stayed to race the rest of the weekend.
Saturday race qualed with a 1.43.9 to put me on pole. Start to the race Grace and got a good jump a lined up nose to tail for the rest of the race. Awesome job on his part to pick up the track so quickly and probably helped having someone to follow through. We were ripping off low 44s, with Lako right behind in tow until the red flag went out. He actually got a decent run into 12 after I hit traffic at the wrong place, but think I would have made it hard for a pass into 1 
All in all a great weekend of competition on and off the track and enjoyed getting to hang out and know the MA and NE guys more. There are talks of a East Coast Championship in the works which I think will be very exciting and also give people more reason to hit up some of the further marque tracks while getting to race others outside the region.
Here is a video of the Saturday Sprint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H--yR2cgTsI&feature=channel_video_title
[quote=“jtower” post=61529][quote=“D Walsh” post=61509]Interesting video from my left front suspension during Saturdays race.
http://vimeo.com/33175111[/quote]
that’s pretty neat, thanks for posting[/quote]
Ditto. Both that and the Toy Run videos are very cool. Sorry about your camera!
Here’s my short video of Saturday’s race. As always, it was great fun!! Eric and Robert were in a league of their own, Lako was driving great, and Harness… Let’s just say you guys are lucky he’s having a kid in the Spring or there’d be another young gun whipping you (us!!!) old farts!
Speaking of Harness, he gets big style points through 5 at about the 6:30 mark (not long after a clueless 944 almost took him out).
Sorry I missed the Sunday race. My dad was in town and I wanted to hang with the family.
