Roebling Recap

#1

For the two official races you’ll want to post your comments here.Skeen was your winner for both days. Great driving Mike!

I don’t have the race results…When Sundays are posted you have to ding Rob Summers from second "cause his pit crew forgot to add weight" and he came in too light.

I’m really proud of Laura Patton as she held off some goober in the 8 car for a fourth place finish on Saturday. I think she was 6th on Sunday. In a field of 23 that’s some great racing girl!
Post away…

Regards, Robert Patton

PS, did Kieth Smith or Brandon drive in Sundays race? Regardless I’m hoping my draft tap was taken in a "let’s get away from the car in back of me" manner.

#2

Brandon drove the Smith mobile.

#3

I came down as a spectator this weekend and had a great time at my first spece30 race.

This weekend was very motivational to say the least. I can’t wait to finish my car. I convinced three of my friends to come with me and they now too sing the praises of spec e30.

As a college student at Georgia Tech, I am always looking for a place to work on my project. Any volunteering of time or garage space is much appreciated.

Take a look at my project so far…
http://s233.photobucket.com/albums/ee207/Cory1970/BMW325i/?start=all

#4

This morning I am in Myrtle Beach recovering. I got to see a bunch of yankee refugee’s picking up dog turds this morning on my walk…glad I have a cat.

I had a small case of the new car blues, first practise session the hood would not stay down so I got no time, was able to qualify mid pack, I think I finished 13th…my cooling system bleeder valve fell out and if not for the full course yellow the last 3 laps I would not have finished, I was able to coast and pull in the back gate after the checker. My race was uneventful as I was in between packs, but with a new car that was fine. Sunday qualifying Travis tried to help me get a lap but I ended up 12th. I could not see the starter stand so decided to go when I saw Skeen’s car squat…seems I went a little early…was up to 6th by turn 4…I had just gone inside Geiger in turn 3 when Damion went sideways in the braking zone for 4…Smith and Daniels looked like they were going right, so I went left…they both changed up and I went for a wild dirt/sand ride…luckily the car did not flip and I did not get stuck, but went back to last. There was so much sand and grass in the beads of the right side tires I decided to pull it in, it was vibrating like hell. I then got to watch Travis run in 2nd…kind of hoping to see Skeen pull off so Travis could get his first win.

Al

#5

This morning I am in Myrtle Beach recovering. I got to see a bunch of yankee refugee’s picking up dog turds this morning on my walk…glad I have a cat.

I had a small case of the new car blues, first practise session the hood would not stay down so I got no time, was able to qualify mid pack, I think I finished 13th…my cooling system bleeder valve fell out and if not for the full course yellow the last 3 laps I would not have finished, I was able to coast and pull in the back gate after the checker. My race was uneventful as I was in between packs, but with a new car that was fine. Sunday qualifying Travis tried to help me get a lap but I ended up 12th. I could not see the starter stand so decided to go when I saw Skeen’s car squat…seems I went a little early…was up to 6th by turn 4…I had just gone inside Geiger in turn 3 when Damion went sideways in the braking zone for 4…Smith and Daniels looked like they were going right, so I went left…they both changed up and I went for a wild dirt/sand ride…luckily the car did not flip and I did not get stuck, but went back to last. There was so much sand and grass in the beads of the right side tires I decided to pull it in, it was vibrating like hell. I then got to watch Travis run in 2nd…kind of hoping to see Skeen pull off so Travis could get his first win.

Al

#6

Al, in the closing laps of the race, I watched Travis sail thru the dirt in turn 2 and Smith dirt track turn 5. Thankfully they threw the checkered flag before those two guys could catch me. It was a lucky finish for me. Travis will get that first win soon. Tell him not to sell the car as youse guys are great to race with…Congratulations to everyone for no car-to-car contact.

Regards, Robert Patton

#7

The best part about the weekend for me was the weather and the Low Country Boil (thanks Laura). My performance was very disappointing in all of the races. I had a respectable mid-pack qualifying time for Saturday’s race and was holding my position for most of the race until I hit an oil patch in turn 4 and spun loosing several positions. Sundays qualifying was a second slower than Saturday as I was a bit rattled from spinning twice the day before. More about the second spin in the IFU update thread. The race was pretty exciting with close racing with Foushee, Hall, and McMennamy but I still dropped a bunch of positions during the race to finish worse than I qualified…again. I think 5 months off will be a good thing to convince me not to hang up my racing shoes for good and to get my nerve back to race closer to the limit.

#8

The weekend was great. First thanks to Laura Patton for feeding me Friday night.

Sat. I qualified 3 but went to second before turn 1. After a lap or two Skeen and opened up pretty good lead and I started planning how I was going to get around him. The problem with Mike is that he doesn’t make many errors which is what I needed since our lap times were almost dead even. He drove great and we finished 1, 2 under double yellows.

You can read about the IFU race on the other thread.

Sunday I qualified 2nd and got a pretty good start. I was once again right on Skeen’s bumper when I went into turn to hot on cold tires. The car started to come around and I could not catch it. When I knew I wan’t going to get it back I went to "In a spin, both feet in". I was came to rest right in the middle of track sideways with my drivers as big bullseye to 20 very fast BMWs. The good thing is that where I had the car come to rest gave people enough room to go to the left or right. Everyone did a great job of avoiding me. Thanks guys as my wife and kids appreciate it, as that could have been a bad one. I was able to getting going again and proceeded to work my way back up through the field. On the next lap after the spin I flat spotted the left front and continued the rest of the race with my teeth about to vibtrate out of my head. I think I was able to work my way back up to sixth or so since Rob Summers Dqed. I haven’t seen Sun. results yet though.

#9

Rev. Alonzo Graham Taylor III Esq.etc… wrote:

That about sums up the conversation I had with him, Travis and Skeen after the awards ceremony Saturday night. But it doesn’t quite tell the story about the "Free Candy (with arrow pointing towards door)" of his rented van Sunday morning that IndyJim warned a little kid about when asking where Travis was…

Saturday
Highlight: qualified well. Got lucky. Laura Patton qualified even better and stuck it to "The Man." Witnessed the Patton Family Feud (see http://brandnewengine.com/bmw/patton_feud.jpg for evidence).
Lowlight: Some one-tenth scale NASCAR money shifts going into turn 4 and dumps the motor on the racing surface. Brandon Smith spins in the oil, causing me to take the Travis racing line into the sand dunes (to avoid hitting him) and losing a few spots to lucky idiots like JP.

Sunday
Highlight: qualified 5th Sunday. In front of Robert Patton (is there a trend here?). I think this was when T-Bone spins in Turn 3 on the opening lap, I regain my "rightful" position over Robert who took it from me through T1. Karma or something, who knows.
Lowlight: Only to lose it when some jacka$$ Thunder Roadster out of nowhere cuts in front of Brandon Smith who then is forced to hit his brakes in front of me in the middle of Turn 3…I end up spinning, watching the entire pack go by, 180 degrees at a time. Man, he jinxed me this weekend or something. It’s Savannah and all… Take the voodoo doll out of the glovebox, whoever you are. I was going to give Robert a little taste of his own "racing" but that will have to wait until next season.

Highlight: Seeing that the spread between positions 3-23 is like 1 second. No free trophies here.
Lowlight: Seeing that the spread between positions 3-23 is like 1 second. No free trophies here.

Highlight: ended up racing and swapping positions with Ken, Scott, Foushee and Cullen. Perhaps the most fun racing all year… Very tight, door to door, crafty fun. Rivaling that of Chuck, Cullen, Al and Laura at the previous Roebling event.
Lowlight: Had to go home and realize that was the last event I will smack talk… I mean race… until 08. :frowning:

#10

As many have already pointed out, this was one of the greatest weekends ever. Sorry that you Mid-A guys didn’t make the trip.

The Saturday race for me was not bad (by my standards). I started 20th and finished 18th. I was going fast enough to discover my car had a 153 ECU. I was getting left on the straight and the revs would drop once I got over 125. It took me a couple of laps to figure out what was going on, it was like I was bouncing of the rev-limiter while in 5th.

Then came the IFU (please see IFU Recap thread for details)

Saturday night BBQ and awards were great. The Gee-gerr awards seem to be a big hit. Although someone other than Al and Travis needs to win one, other wise it’s gonna become a Malt Liquor Tech award. Speaking of… the Malt Liquor Tech/BeerTech "this ain’t no high school beer party" was a much more toned down affair. We arrived prepared with cold beer, Jägermeister and ant spray.

Sunday morning qualifying came early and I wasn’t mentally set. After turning in a poor performance with 2 seconds added to my Saturday time, I was going to be starting 21st… not where I was hoping to start after feeling so good after the IFU. Then came the race. It was a long 40 minute race and a battle every second of the way. Between the mélange in turn 3, some mechanical attrition and a few lessons learned, I was able to work my way to a respectable finish at 13th.

It was a great weekend filled with great racing, good times and cold beer.

Looking forward to next year.

#11

Scott McMennamy wrote:

You had the 525, quit selling yourself short all the time :wink: The 153 is not top-speed governed. I think you replaced with the 153 right?

#12

Craig Geiger wrote:

[quote]Scott McMennamy wrote:

You had the 525, quit selling yourself short all the time :wink: The 153 is not top-speed governed. I think you replaced with the 153 right?[/quote]

I guess :dry: I can’t keep numbers straight… what ever it was it was crap’n out at 125. What I forgot to mention, was AL was kind enough to loan me another brain :dry: and it made a big difference in how I was able to keep up with cars on the front straight and not loss anything going into 1.

#13

As everyone knew, my goal for the weekend was not to have more than two wheels off at the same time. Unfortunately I have to say I was unable to do so in either points race. However two of my three agricultural experiences were completely voluntary (and necessary) to avoid traffic so they don’t count. I did get squirrelly going into turn two on Sundays race and went for another ride at track out for two. Here’s the recap from my vantage point:

Saturday I was thrilled with a 4th place qualifying but after what probably will go down as the worst start in Spec E30 history I found myself in 9th place by turn 1. It was almost too embarrassing to post, but if want to laugh at me, the video clip for the race is posted in the video thread. After dealing with that I was able to finish in 5th place having fun chasing the front runners.

I didn’t have nearly as good of a qualifying lap on Sunday and ended up in 10th place on the grid. Not a problem as I had new tires for the race and every intention of using the race craft I had picked up during the IFU race to go to the front. However what I thought was a fuel pick up issue from low gas at the end of qualifying turned out to be a serious miss in the motor as the motor started missing badly during the race. I did, however, get a good view of T-Bones spin and the ensuing melee to fine space in the grass and keep moving.

Great weekend… hopefully I’ll have the car sorted by Barber!!!

#14

Does anyone have the Sunday results?

#15

I have the same question – at least for the top 6 so I can calculate the office pool winner.

#16

Skeen
Smith
Patton
Daniels
Coates
Moses?

This is after Rob’s DQ and from memory.

#17

JP Coates wrote:

[quote]Skeen
Smith
Patton
Daniels
Coates
Moses?

This is after Rob’s DQ and from memory.[/quote]

Chuck, I think you’ll have to wait 'cause JP doesn’t have it 100% correct. Smith went off in turn 5 allowing the dastardly Patton guy to slip into second.

Regards, Robert

#18

Just posted on my laps the RRR…

#19

here’s the Sunday results

#20

It is interesting to compare the race stats from last year to those of this year. Last year we had 8 cars in the Saturday race and 7 Sunday.