ThunderHill 5/19-20/2012

#21

A very rough weekend for all…A weekend that started out with the best intentions, had the makings for an epic weekend. All that prerace hype went up in flames & that is no joke. One of our newest guys with a beautiful car burned to the ground…Andre, what can we do to help you get back running again?
I for one believe that our Saturday morning/reprimanding/belittling meeting & the new rule changes, effectively immediately got a little in every ones head, maybe even taking away a little race focus from everyone running.
I for one & am more than willing to stand behind our spec E30 leaders, Scott & Jim to have our voice heard as a group.

Yesterday’s huge incident aside, isn’t COST CONTAINMENT one of the cornerstones our our series & know everyone is told that they have to repair all the dents in their cars by the next event or you cant race…And why? The voice I heard was because they want to have nice looking cars at 5’ away? So what happened to the 50/50 rule? Have we just been imposed with the 13/13 rule? After talking to many, I think we will see part of our group not attending as they may not be able to afford car repair & to race…The rational makes little/no sense.

I gotta get back to work but there is more I want to chime in on the weekend…

So very sad to see all of the carnage over the weekend.

#22

Can we get more details as to what you guys were told and who’s idea it was? Obviously if the idea came down from National it’s going to affect all of us eventually.

Subject change. Sorry as hell to hear that there was so much damage. That always sucks.

#23

[quote=“Ranger” post=65947][quote=“Steve Ferrario” post=65945]
everyone is told that they have to repair all the dents in their cars by the next event or you cant race…And why? The voice I heard was because they want to have nice looking cars at 5’ away? So what happened to the 50/50 rule? Have we just been imposed with the 13/13 rule? After talking to many, I think we will see part of our group not attending as they may not be able to afford car repair & to race…The rational makes little/no sense.
[/quote]
Can we get more details as to what you guys were told and who’s idea it was? Obviously if the idea came down from National it’s going to affect all of us eventually.

Subject change. Sorry as hell to hear that there was so much damage. That always sucks.[/quote]

This was a NorCal only rule set designed to reduce the frequency of body contact we are having in the group. NASA assigned a new race director to the Group (Group A - Spec Miatas/SpecE30s) and this was his new approach. The Spec Maitas had a big crash in Turn 1 of Thunderhill last month which totaled several cars and the E30s have had thier share of carnage the previous two season events. This is a region specific attempt at getting the racing cleaned up and settled down.

BTW…my car is the blue #44 in the photo…I was the last to the party :pinch:

#24

Scott, sorry to read about the crash and now the aftermath.

Help us understand the fire problem, too. We had a fuel pressure regulator that was mistakenly not installed and the fuel caused a fire on one of our cars this weekend. Any insight on your fire.

RP

PS I’ll drop the flywheel chek tool to you in the mail tomorrow. (I forgot to send it.)

#25

Fire

Something broke on Andre’s car in turn 8. He hooked to the inside and was forced to drive up through the dry (read very dry) grass. Once stopped he waited to be towed,… but a fire began under his car. by the time fire and safety could get there, it done burned up. Very sad…

Andre and his son have recently joined us. Great guys. Love to see father-son teams. Hopefully they will join the ranks again soon!

#26

On a positive note, Congrats to Brad for his win on Saturday and to Jim “Jimmy Nuetron” Bucha for his FIRST Spec E30 win on Sunday!!!

Also Congrats to Bennett (one of the early founding (read: old guy)Spec E30 members) for moving up another step on the podium two days in a row. A true success story of Gentleman Rancher turned successful race car driver!

Spec E30 has a truly great group of guys that I have been proud to know and honored to race with!!!

(more to come)

Shoe out

#27

[quote=“Patton” post=65949]Scott, sorry to read about the crash and now the aftermath.

Help us understand the fire problem, too. We had a fuel pressure regulator that was mistakenly not installed and the fuel caused a fire on one of our cars this weekend. Any insight on your fire.

RP

PS I’ll drop the flywheel chek tool to you in the mail tomorrow. (I forgot to send it.)[/quote]

Thanks Robert. The fire occurred in Saturday’s race. The #45 car had a front tire go down going into or exiting Turn 8, which is a 95 mph or so turn. He spun and went flying off into the grass on the inside of the turn. The car’s rear suspension was damaged in the slide rendering the car immovable. The hot exhaust quickly caught the underlying dry grass on fire. Not sure if the gas tank got damaged or perhaps the saddle tank connecting hose got busted, but somehow gasoline got ignited and the car was quickly engulfed in flames. The GoPro camera survived…we may have video to share in the near future.

#28

[quote=“Steve Ferrario” post=65945]A very rough weekend for all…A weekend that started out with the best intentions, had the makings for an epic weekend. All that prerace hype went up in flames & that is no joke. One of our newest guys with a beautiful car burned to the ground…Andre, what can we do to help you get back running again?
I for one believe that our Saturday morning/reprimanding/belittling meeting & the new rule changes, effectively immediately got a little in every ones head, maybe even taking away a little race focus from everyone running.
I for one & am more than willing to stand behind our spec E30 leaders, Scott & Jim to have our voice heard as a group.

Yesterday’s huge incident aside, isn’t COST CONTAINMENT one of the cornerstones our our series & know everyone is told that they have to repair all the dents in their cars by the next event or you cant race…And why? The voice I heard was because they want to have nice looking cars at 5’ away? So what happened to the 50/50 rule? Have we just been imposed with the 13/13 rule? After talking to many, I think we will see part of our group not attending as they may not be able to afford car repair & to race…The rational makes little/no sense.

I gotta get back to work but there is more I want to chime in on the weekend…

So very sad to see all of the carnage over the weekend.[/quote]

Very interesting events Steve.

From what I am reading, it appears that the NASA officail(s) implimented a local ruling that says you must either fix/repair any damage or you will not allowed to race; is that correct? If so, does that apply to ANY damage or just damage that is a result of car to car contact? Furthermore, did they define “repaired?”

The new rule seems pretty drastic and clearly is meant to be a strong message to the field. I am wondering what has taken place that they felt such a swift and severe ruling needed to be made? Can anyone shed some light on that?

#29

[quote=“Fooshe” post=65956]

The new rule seems pretty drastic and clearly is meant to be a strong message to the field. I am wondering what has taken place that they felt such a swift and severe ruling needed to be made? Can anyone shed some light on that?[/quote]

[quote=“laz” post=65925]Wow
[/quote]

#30

Yeah, I know Mikeski…you got me on that one. However, that wreck could be any race, on any day, on any track, anywhere in the Country. One wreck would not cause that kind of ruling. Now if every event looks that way, that’s a whole other discussion. Since I have not raced in NorCal, I am not aware of what goes on in their races.

Forgive me if the question seems remedial, but I am trying to understand the circumstances that surrounded the situation. Clearly the rule was put in place for a reason and one wreck hardly seems to be rational reasoning for such a rule being handed down.

Are you trying to say that this is common and that the rule is actually necessary?

#31

There has been a lot of contact in group A this season and the officials are trying to get it under control. i am not a fan of making everyone fix their cars, but i do like the intent to clean up the group. Also there have been a lot of yellow flag violations and two people have already been suspended for the season to my knowledge.

#32

My in-car video from Sunday:

https://vimeo.com/42594173

#33

Great job goes out to all who built and installed the safey gear.

IMO, this kind of wreck is just gunna happen, it was not a result of over aggresive driving. Whether or not the guy that spun first got helped or just lost it should not be our concern. With 30 cars running as close in lap times as you guys do, some “what to do after you’ve lost it” training may mitigate the collateral damage. The king pin in this wreck should have applied the “two feet in” technique and slid harmlessly off track. A car with all 4 locked up will slide in a straight line, drivers behind can predict its path and avoid. A car spinning with spinning tires is like a floundering football.

Sorry about your cars guys, that is a bummer.

#34

Thats great advice except cars with ABS wont lock all 4 wheels up and they wont slide in a straight line. The ABS wont allow it.

This looks like wrong place, wrong time incident. Damn sorry to see it happen and im very glad nobody was hurt.

#35

you run your factory ABS?

#36

[quote=“SurferShawn” post=65974]Thats great advice except cars with ABS wont lock all 4 wheels up and they wont slide in a straight line. The ABS wont allow it.

[/quote]
+1
Last year I hooked it into a tire wall at CMP. I resolved after that to decide earlier if this was one of those “you’re in real trouble here, lock up the brakes” situations. The idea being to get on the brakes before the car hooked.

A couple months later at Road Atlanta when I slipped in coolant I executed that plan perfectly because I decided that the safest course was to slide down the center of the track instead of risking a hook into the nearby wall. With brakes locked up I then hooked right into a wall.

Altho ABS will reduce how many tires you flat-spot, that doesn’t make it always your friend.

#37

I dont see where in the rules that you can remove it.

#38

Dang yall have a big field…totally unavoidable wreck, hopefully the photo makes it look worse than the damage actually is.

Al Taylor
SE

#39

Glad nobody was hurt. Looks to me like over driving on first lap out, however, I wasn’t there.

I’ll be back in the field later this year … neck deep in house remodel.

Dan G

#40