Was it the #88?
If so, David Daniels of BMCCCA. #600, would be Kieth/Brandon Smith.
Alex, congratulations on the new arrival.
RP
Road Atlanta race results
M3Bill
#23
Congratulations, Alex!
I have nothing to report from this weekend. It generally sucked, except for the lap and a half at the beginning of Sunday’s in which the car ran perfectly. Otherwise, the car sucked, the weather sucked, and the people…oh wait, the people were fun!
Steve_D
#24
Gasman wrote:
I started watching from around 4:30 in Evan’s second Saturday video. Not trying to be argumentative, but I don’t see a power disparity. When the 88 gets past Evan and next to Walsh on the back straight, Walsh didn’t get a clean exit out of 7. When Walsh was slow exiting Evan went side-by-side, making a nice big hole in the air for the 88 to draft through. On the run down 12 onto the front straight, it looks like the 88 motors away but if you listen closely you can hear Evan pedaling at turn in. I assume the 88 was on the power the whole way.
The PUY was a bit of a cluster. The 88 was at fault, but his view of the flags was blocked in 6 and 7. The best thing for the passee in that situationis to drop back and let the pass happen right in front of the worker. You’ll get that position back in the tech shed.
That Miata was lost out there. If the 88 hadn’t lapped him several times through the weekend I would be surprised. Should have know the guy was challenged on situational awareness. And if you look to the exit of the corner and see 2 cars, there’s a decent chance you are under yellow even if you missed the flags.
Oh, yeah. Congrats Alex!!!
Ranger
#25
Steve, I love ya man, but I don’t agree at all. It’s easy enough to see the power disparity, and there were a number of passes under yellow in various places. Once is an oops. Twice isn’t. Three times especially isn’t.
Steve_D
#26
Ranger wrote:
On the passes under yellow, I completely agree. I wasn’t trying to excuse that behavior or his 100% responsibility regardless of his view of the flags. My only point is that the other driver can back out, not lose a position in the results, AND prevent a dangerous situation (which, I believe, is the ultimate goal, right?)
There is a clear SPEED difference. Admittedly, I haven’t watched the whole video and haven’t seen other clips of that car but I had a hunch the 4:30 back straight “out-motoring” was one of the “clear” examples that was being cited.
In that example, I don’t see a disparity at all. Without being able to watch from behind the 88 starting at the entry to T6, his run down the back straight might be the result of a lot of factors only one of which is motor.
shaunatl
#27
Patton wrote:
[quote]Was it the #88?
If so, David Daniels of BMCCCA. #600, would be Kieth/Brandon Smith.
RP[/quote]
Smith got by me right at the start - it was the #88 that went by at the end of the back stretch.
evanlevine3233
#28
It’s hard to judge power disparity from my videos… my car is a 130k mile junkyard motor, 50 lbs over weight, and my driving isn’t particularly consistent as this was my 2nd time at Road Atlanta and 2nd race. With all those things combined, someone pulling hard on me might mean they have a great motor, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they have an illegal motor. The #88 car definitely did pull harder than Walsh did on me though, I can say that with confidence.
Either way it worked out in the end as far as I’m concerned!
Steve_D
#29
evanlevine3233 wrote:
That is a “brand new” motor to 90% of the guys in the Southeast.:laugh:
Your driving? You’ve got nothing to apologize for. You are up in the mix already. Buy Robinson’s spare motor and you will really hack off some old timers. :silly:
Gasman
#30
So Steve…let me just ask you straight up. Do you think anyone has a motor that is a little more than…shall we say spec?
evanlevine3233
#32
I know I’ve only run a few races, but I will say this. I have not been in a situation yet where I felt like I missed out on a position due to motor. I had plenty of chances to get past Walsh regardless of the power difference on Saturday, I just didn’t make good on them. On top of that, the other people I’ve been battling with (Damn you Patton) have not had any real difference, and I don’t think it would have mattered anyways. I can’t imagine it would have affected the outcome at CMP, and I lost to Patton last weekend because I suck at traffic management and he doesn’t.
Maybe between two equal drivers, alone on the track, battling only each other for an extended period of time, it would come down to a few horsepower… but ultimately I don’t see the big deal. In the majority of circumstances it seems like there are far more important factors.
And you know what… if someone wants to drop $6,000 on a motor for Spec E30… let them have the damn win.
Steve_D
#33
Gasman wrote:
What a loaded question. Do I think anyone at the Road Atlanta race this weekend intentionally ran an illegal motor? Not that I saw. The differences in straight line speed could be explained by running 1 quart high, 1/4" toe and 2 mph less exit speed. Do I think anyone in the nation is running an illegal motor? I’d wager “yes”.
Sure there are some stout cars out there. But I know of only 1 car in the Mid Atlantic/Southeast that is rumored to even be close to exploiting all the grey area in our ruleset. And from what I have seen, the dude has a lot of seat time in a car that is so wicked fast driving a Spec E30 probably feels like slow motion. Think that doesn’t help? Puleeeeez.
Think there isn’t a lot to help you improve your acceleration out of a slow corner? Do you turn your rotors to minimum thickness before installing them? Have you weighed a 2/32 shave vs a 4/32 shave?
Quick quiz: If I put your wheel without tire on a scale that reads in tenths of a pound, what’s the minimum legal weight?
PS - “I got outmotored” is the #1 crutch of the mid-pack driver who would rather sit around and BS between sessions than work on tweaking the car and mining data for tenths. How do I know? I am that guy. On weekends when I am serious and spend time racing, I find tenths. When I spend time hanging out and talking with friends, I have a great time, but not great lap times. I’m not good enough to do both in any given weekend.
Steve_D
#35
Gasman wrote:
No guess for the wheel weight quiz? 
Mid-pack answer: 13.0 lbs. Podium answer: 12.5 lbs (or maybe even 12.4 lbs clean since tire boogers are almost assured to push you over).
You might be interested for enduros. Tire Rack’s test of wheel & tire weights showed a 7% drop in fuel mileage for a 16% increase in wheel/tire weight alone. Granted, turning the wheels down by 1/2 lb is only ~4%, but every little bit helps…
DWalsh
#36
It was an incredibly busy and fun weekend for us. I had just finished a new car (literally at 8 am Friday morning before Tech) for my wife to drive in HPDE1. I thought the Enduro would be a great opportunity to give it an initial shake down and make sure it would be ok for her. The Enduro was fun although both me and Steve gained an appreciation for the gravel traps.
Saturday was extremely busy setting up the new car for her, and the 3 for rain.
I am a little rain shy still from hitting the wall last year so I had a somewhat conservative Qualifying. After qualifying we took the cars over to the scales and found out they were both 50 lbs overweight, good to know!
Saturday’s race was fun except for the out of class Big Bird who decided to race me instead of letting me through in our obvious SE30 battle. In any case, the remainder of the race was exciting and fun with Levine and whoever had the black 88 car. I swear that was the hardest I have ever had to race to keep position!(Well at least until Sunday that is :)) Eric, I cant believe that’s only your second race! As for the earlier comments about the 88 car and his “trying to push Walsh”, well I doubt it was intentional, still I think it was potentially dangerous for him because he got a little sideways at a very high speed when he came over.
Also, I have to comment about his “straight away talent” A similar comment was made directly to me this weekend which both caught me off guard and infuriated me.
Remember in DE, maybe even in your first one, likely an instructor said “To be fast on a road course, you need to get off the turns well” and at Road Atlanta turn 7 is particularly important. You should also remember them saying what a difference it can make at the end of that long straightaway in terms of miles per hour.
I don’t know who was driving the 88 car, I agree they need to have a little more situational awareness on the flags and their proximity while racing close, but I seriously doubt he has any magic motor etc. I bet if you could check out his video, he’s getting out of turn 7 well, therefore carrying good momentum, RPM, and speed which is paying off towards the Porsche Bridge and straight away end.
Personally I watch other people’s videos and study my own which helps me improve.
I can clearly see where the mistakes are and try to be conscience of them the next time.
Watch my video from Sunday’s race with Johan and you can easily see my point. I got around him to start with because he had to check up going into turn 7 due to a waving yellow. I recognized this and was able to set up for it, carry decent momentum through 7 and make the pass shortly after clearing the incident. As you watch the rest of the video, notice my mistakes/lifts and how quickly he closes the gaps. At the end, notice where I bobbled through 10a/b which allowed him to get beside me. Again back to turn 7, I tried to make a move on the inside and it screwed up my momentum for the entire back straight. He left me not because he hit the Nitrous button, but because he played 7 right. If you pay close attention, everywhere I lift… I loose. Also notice that all of my regains happen in the corners, not on the straights.
Great weekend! Nice to meet the new guys, Congrats to Eric on Saturdays win, I continue to gain respect for Robert Patton both on and off the track, congrats to you on 2nd & 3rd and for laying in wait for me and or Johan to make a mistake in Sundays Race!
kgobey
#39
I’ve been accused of having a “built motor” before… laughable considering I’ve never had the money to even really own a motor, let a lone build one