Time for some CMP/IFU Recaps

#1

Alright, lets hear what it looked like from where you were…

Saturday - I had what I thought was a good qualifying time. Apparently not. Robinson out qualified me and put me 4th on grid. Not bad out of 28 cars, but getting beat by Robinson is unacceptable. Especially if Clay’s not driving the car.

I had a decent start, but not enough to get by Jim. To make it even worse, I had Dr. Herrington breathing down my neck. About 3/4 in to the race I get a great run out of 9 while Jim is fighting his rear end(Craig’s normal job). I move to the outside and then back in. Jim is making a bee line for the apex and I go four wheels off on the inside of T1 and by some miracle maintain control of the car and make the pass without any serious drama. Fortunately Damion is giving Skeen hell up front and they haven’t gotten too far away. Thanks to some great traffic, I catch up to them on the next lap. Damion feeling the heat and intimidation of a BTR car behind him :silly: gets loose in T4, tank slaps and I get by. Then the best move of the race happens, a Spec Pinata goes off in T1, gets out of the car and they double yellow us for the rest of the race. Thus robbing Damion of his attempt at a repass.

Sunday - I got caught sleeping a little getting to grid and was behind the Thunder Roadsters. I was a little upset when I came in as one guy held me up the entire session, even after I laid up for half a lap. The car and track felt great as evidenced by my personal best RRR laptime. Sadly, it was great for everyone else as well putting me all the way back in 8th.

I had a decent start passing a couple of guys and then bumped Carlton past Jim and Patton into T1 on the next lap. Carlton ran wide a few laps later and before I knew it I was in 3rd place. I spent the rest of the race fighting off challenges from Carlton, Herrington, and Patton while trying not to screw it up myself. I almost did in T5 on the last lap getting REALLY loose at turn in. I held the drift and managed to slam to door on Carlton when the tail swung back in. Patton snuck by Carlton when Carlton checked up and crossed the finish line at my rear wheel. Patton is back in stride and is serving notice.

Cliff notes - Poor qualies, and great clean racing. Thanks guys. Videos to come.

Jim - too bad they don’t give out trophies for qualifying…(CMP smack talk begins)

#2

155MPH wrote:

[quote]
Jim - too bad they don’t give out trophies for qualifying…(CMP smack talk begins)[/quote]

Actually they do, its just called Time Trials. cymbal crash!

Pantas - for an extra $30 can I apply a qualifying lap to a TT group (maybe TTZ)? I feel left out when literally everyone else in the room gets a trophy except for the other 20 best drivers in the SE…

Backing up a little of my pre RRR smack talk with some good qualifying felt nice. As JP mentions I managed to start 3rd. I was having a h3ll of a time keeping he and Dave behind me. The competition at this point - not only can you not make a mistake, you have to be perfect. I had a slight hicupp while the rear end and I discussed not hitting the wall at 100mph in turn 9 and JP is in my trunk (where q____rtech likes it). I tried the obligatory left foot brake taps and the apex squeeze into the dirt but once he went 2 or 4 off and kept at it someone had to blink and that someone was me. If looking like you’re going to wreck at any moment and taking the car next to you down too is a skill JP has it mastered. Travis is probably a close second. Carlton is probably the champ (in the IFU I think he did 2 or 3 laps at speed in the dirt).

IFU wasn’t very eventful for me until the restart. I went from 20 something to passing Geegar through 9 even after spotting him probably 10+ spots. Abbra Cadbra Homles. That restart would have made Nascar and Setup proud as I think we were 3 wide for every lap and after the start once I got through turn 1 I couldn’t really see the track from all the dust.

Sunday, and the early bird gets the worm (or so I thought). I hook up with D-Mo and Carlton, Geegar and we freight train our way through 20 or so cars. I look at my traqmate which read 1.24.2 and figure I put in a solid days work. 3 laps and I’m high fiving everyone. The qualifying sheets come out and I couldn’t be more shocked then if someone told me JP was straight. My awesome best time ever is good for 5th. Ugh. My arm is too sore from patting myself on the back and I can’t muster up the mental energy to dog fight with everyone in the race. Back end is still trying to catch the front and I putz around to 6th or 7th.

Thankfully its Monday and I get to unpack the truck tonight and work today! YES.

#3

I thought we were racing at RRR?

Saturday: After wrapping up some paperwork I was talking w/David Wallens of GRM when I realized “Hey, that looks like the Lightning Race on track?!?! %@$!#@* IT IS THE LIGHTNING RACE?!?!” I ran back to my car, got dressed, buckled in just in time to get a few laps in before the double yellows, it was enough to qualify me for Pole in the IFU-2! :silly:

IFU-2: messed up the start and Scott Lear got by me in T1, literally drove nose-to-tail w/Scott until the restart, including the both of us suffering from the classic E30 “fuel starvation problem” about the same lap(s) or so. Had the outside for the restart and couldn’t keep the car on track in the marbles, rear was loose, went off, reentered just past T2 - and still managed a 5th place… I guess the only way I’ll end up in the Top 5 will be with a lap head start! :frowning:

Sunday: Started the race on time this time! Went off in T6 on the inside when I had to check up to avoid hitting someone, managed to get back on and catch JoeTV and played with him a while until I went off in T1 (outside in the marbles again), I was suffering from Fuel Starvation again so I called it a day and came in.

I need to fix the Fuel Starvation and find a way to get the rear to stick better, it’s tail happy under braking/trail braking. :frowning:

#4

JP, you may have done better if you would have known which track you were at…

CMP?

#5

JP thanks for getting us started.

No bent sheet metal= good feelings throughout the paddock area.

No race report from me, as my typing is too slow.

But I did want to acknowledge and thank these new (to the Southeast) racers that helped make this the biggest Spec E30 field to date:

Robert Allen
Jeff Hall
Scott Lear
Don Stevens
Joe Tripp

Okay, guys you made it thruough the IFU2. What is it like out there?

Regards, Robert Patton

#6

I think my finest hour was Wednesday night finishing the IFU2 trophy… It was definitely not anytime Friday --> Sunday.

Saturday sucked. I qualified decent (6th of 28?), but something must have been wrong with the transponders since Robinson is 3rd. The start didn’t work out in my favor and after watching the video, I know why. I lost two spots before turn 2. Didn’t race much better the rest of the time either, ended up 10th. Kept missing shifts into 4th (hopefully it’s the operator error and not the tranny going bad). I couldn’t find enough sack to hold it flat coming through T3 all weekend… Sigh. Travis wins the 6th place trophy. Again.

IFU2: That race was nuts! The staggered start was pretty cool. For those not there, basically, they would group people into packs of 4 and let them go green from the blend line based on inverse fastest lap race times. I think Skeen started one lap + behind the slowest people. Half way through, red flag, standing start. I personally had a 30 minute brawl with a few people (my group of four was Robert, Carlton, myself and someone else… maybe some boat anchor like Travis) while negotiating slower traffic to then take a 2 min break (red flag) before a standing start. I think that’s when the knife fight with Travis started. I had to change out my diaper and put my big boy pants on during the red flag and they seemed to fit pretty good. Yeehaw. Loads of fun. Ran out of gas on the last lap (stupid early car problem of half tank starvation), studdering to the finish line while Jim passes me thinking he’s tough.

Sunday qualifying was a crazy train ride. Damion, Jim on his bumper, Carlton trying to get around Jim, me hanging onto Carlton’s bumper. All in a single file train weaving through the 50 car field trying to get the “flyer”. That was some fun. Jim’s traqmate and Damion’s ego had me thinking that I was on the second row in 4th spot, except I ended up 10th somehow. I think traffic skewed the thinking. I remember a rookie Spec Miata driver that browned his suit when we went by… Much like a trailer, I think his car started swaying from the wind. Damion just bullied his way through and the rest of us cashed in. I really wish I had video of that… Glory days until the damn results sheet came out and chumps like Jones out qualified me.

Sunday’s race went well until the end. I qualified poorly (10th) but grabbed two spots on the start (karma). Travis, Chuck Taylor and myself fought hard trading spots for about 30 mins straight again. Chuck and I ended up two wide from leaving T2 all the way to T9 on one lap. Neither one of us wanted to give an inch. Until the coolant light came on in my car and the temp gauge started slowly rising. Turns out that a coolant hose started to rub into the alternator belt causing a pinhole leak. Had to pit in on the lap before the white flag. Luckily, I had had my fun. Would’ve finished 6th? One spot in front of Chuck and Travis, whatever that would have been.

I love Roebling. Long live IFU.

#7

Saturday my clutch turned to dust on the second lap of the sprint race. Thanks to all (particularly Chuck) for the help replacing my non-existent clutch plate with a used one from JP. Thanks to JP for the part, even though I don’t think it was fair that you made me pay you half of a new one AND feel you up.

I got the clutch fixed with the aid of Jim’s lift (and the aforementioned help) and qualified ninth, which I was proud of. But now Craig says that his 10th place was disappointing, making me feel bad about myself. I was in the thick of things for the first couple of laps, just about to make Chuck really sorry for helping fix my car, when I drove off the track for the first of several times. In the end I had a good back-and-forth with Scott McMenamy, but most importantly made Jones my bitch! Beating 2/3 Beertech members ain’t bad.

Thanks for the fun. The tow home sucked, I almost fell asleep, missed the interstate to Raleigh, almost got to Rocky Mount, and ended up driving an extra 60 miles. I resisted the urge to stop for dinner at Cafe Risque, which advertises “Topless, Topless, Topless” and “Good food.” A winning, if not strange, combination.

Sasha

#8

It was great weekend at Roebling. We had good hard clean racing. No damaged cars and everyone is still friends.

Sat. I qualified 2nd and proceeded to give give Skeen all that I had. it wasn’t enough. I got in the throttle a little too soon coming out of turn 4 and had a tank slapper that put me four wheels off. It was brief but long for Skeen to get away and for JP to slip into 2nd. We would finish under caution with no chamce for to redeem myself.

IFU: A blast as always! I sarted in the second to last group over a lap down. I started working my way through field and I must say I was truly impressed by some of the driving I encountered on my way through the field. The SE have really upped their game. I had a really good time battling with Robert. I think he has gotten his mojo back. I was fortunate enough to win and I thank Chuck for making this thing happen. I think some of the other gruops are starting to get a little jealous:P

Sun. As Jim and craig stated we thought we had a plan and I was sure we executed it to perfection. Wrong! it wasn’t even close to what I was expecting. I ended up qualifying 4th but got a great start and was in the lead by turn 1:woohoo: For the 1t half of the race I lead with Skeen hot on my bumper, until we caught traffic. I got slowed by the legends car after exiting turn 9, I went left, Skeen went right after getting a really good run. He took the lead going into turn 1. I stayed on his bumper until more traffic got into the mix and ended the race in 2nd place. It was a really good battle and I hope to put some video up. We raced each other hard but clean, the way it should be.

#9

Indyjim, you should have slowed down, then, if you are the slowest, you may get 6th (go figure???).

Robert, it was all great fun. Not sure what happened to me on Sunday (tired, old age, scared shitless, bad tires, take your pick) but ran a 1.28 on Sat and then fastest on Sunday was 1.37.

Still had a ball, hope I stayed out of everyone way (especially Sunday) and will be back for more (better rested, age will be the same, I’ll empty first and run NEW tires)!

Still not sure about sixth in IFU2, but I will take it.

Oh, and for the record, the $50 prize from Chuck and Factory 3 is returned to him to apply to the future of these races (or company success).

Thanks Chuck!

#10

I found that I’d convinced myself that much of the reason my Roebling times were 2 secs off of the front runners was my Ebay tires. This weekend I learned, among other things, that the real reason that I’m 2 secs behind the front runners is that they are fast as shit.

I put on my first pair of brand spanking new R888’s and if anything, I was slower. I went off the track 2X in 3 laps on Saturday because (I think) I hadn’t let them get warm enough. That kinda spooked me. I went ahead and ran Sunday with the R888’s but I was still low on trust.

My lap times weren’t that good when the tires were in the zone and the times only got worse as they got hotter.

My Sunday qual time wasn’t so bad, but everyone else is so damn fast that I still ended up around 18th or something. Then at race start I fudging got forced off the outside of turn1-2. I tried damn hard to stay on the track, but as we went thru 8 wide there just wasn’t room. I ended up in the dirt backwards.

If I had to do it over again, I’d probably fight for my 6’ of track harder and let the other guy give way. As a Rookie, I’m easily intimidated. Which is particularly grating when there is nothing on god green’s earth I hate more then being an easily intimidated wuss.

So it took me only seconds to go from a reasonable qual position to dead fudging last. Which is exactly how CMP went for me last month, lol.

Once I got going again I worked hard to catch back up. I passed a couple of folks, but then I found something new to screw up. I was working hard to catch Fred Switzer. When the faster HC and Pinata’s started coming thru, I tried to be the good little Rookie and let them past me just as soon as possible. But I wasn’t paying enough attention to how the pass was going to affect me vs. Fred. So I kept setting the conditions for them to pass me under far worse conditions then they’d have to pass Fred up ahead.

So I learned that not only is slow bad. But being stupid is bad too.

I also learned that when tires get hot, I need 3rd gear. I don’t hit 3rd gear at Roebling. Instead I try hard to conserve momentum such that I’m always >4k rpm at turn exit. So far I’ve (arguably) gotten away with it, but I found Sunday that when the tires start going off and turn exit speeds go down, 4th gear isn’t gonna cut it. But I figured that a race wasn’t the place to try something new, so I didn’t go down to 3rd.

My last memorable note was re. Mike. On the last lap he was coming into turn 1 behind me. I’d a given him an easy inside pass, but he didn’t get close enough to me to take it before turn entry. So I hauled ass into the turn and took the school line just as fast as my hot tires would take. I saw Mike take an inside line behind me, but I knew that he’d have to slow down. He was working a much tighter radius turn then I was. Not to mention his tires were likely hotter.

Which is when he passed me.

I looked at that car going by me on a much tighter line and thought “How the f**k can that be possible”?

And as I exited turn 2 Damon and JP roared by in hot pursuit.

Video at ftp://FileSharing.BrasselerUSA.com It’s a big file of the entire race, so has to be downloaded before viewing. The dual picture-in-picture set up worked well, as did the dashboard. Since I didn’t spend much time battling in a pack, the video will be of limited interest.

#11

Sunday’s race:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2492719620196080275&hl=en

#12

Grass is a racing surface and so is sand apparently…

:stuck_out_tongue:

#13

Another great SpecE30 weekend! Saturday I lost the motor during qualifying in the Grey 13 car but fortunately Julie made changing to another car easy and I was able to run the race in the new car.

The sprint race was eventful for me since the brakes absolutely suck in that car. Very Very Spongy pedal, but on the bright side I did learn to drive in deeper! The only problem is I had to brake much earlier than everyone else and got passed into turn 1 seemingly every lap.

The IFU race was awesome. I had a few offs and lost position but then gained several back as others went off. On the restart, I was not sure if we were stopped in position order or not but I hoped that we were. I got a good run down to turn one and stayed close with the top 4 for the next few laps. A couple of errors were made which sent at least one guy off course and put me in 3rd, which is where I took the checkered several laps later.
I was hoping that was the final result but in the end I was further down the list, still in the top 10 though.

Sunday’s race was also great. I was schooled by Laura Patton on race craft. JP, it was probably me that you were referring to “Holding you up” if so, Sorry but I was determined to get by Laura and was racing as hard for that position as possible.
The only opportunity I had to pass her was either to late brake into T1 (which I absolutely could not do with no pedal) or try to get a run out of 9 which I had no problem doing but could never get by because of I’m told “planned traffic”. That was the longest and most fun battle I have had so far. Looking forward to the next race!

#14

dpjr wrote:

[quote] JP, it was probably me that you were referring to “Holding you up” if so, Sorry but I was determined to get by Laura and was racing as hard for that position as possible.
[/quote]

Nope, I was referring to the Thunder Roadster. To his credit he did come over and apologize in front of a whole group of us. I wonder if he could hear me cussing all the way across the paddock? :laugh:

#15

RRR? Yeah…I was there. IFU2?..done.

I hated this track 4 years ago. I was there once for a DE during my first or second year of chasing the coveted HPDE championship. I was in my E36 M3 and this was before the track was resurfaced. I never did get comfortable on track and being new to HP driving didn’t like the various amounts of grip or lack thereof provided by the different surfaces.

I was excited to get back and try the new surface in my raze car. I kept hearing about what a great track it was to race on and after missing last years IFU I was chomping at the bit to try it out again.

I felt great once on track and after taking almost all of 2007 off from driving/racing, I felt like I was getting back to the level of confidence and comfort that I was used to.

Saturday- Practice was great, took it easy learning the line again and feeling out the track. Thanks to Mike Skeen for lots of good tips while we were walking the track on Friday, I was paying attention and able to remember what he said and apply it. That really sped up the process for me. I also learned quite a bit following R Patton around, nice work Robert, we had a lot of very close racing that was a hell of a lot of fun.

Qualifying was good, I qualified 9th and finished 9th in the sprint race. I was extremely happy with that performance. Had some great racing with Al Taylor and was able to hold him off at the end.

IFU. I started in the last spot of the 4th group and was moving up pretty quick, I caught lots of people and was running great until the restart. At the start stand it was Pantas, Lear, Skeen, Damion and I at the front. I had a good start and was holding my own coming out of 2 when Skeen and I had to quickly split Scott Lear, me to the inside Skeen to the outside.

Having successfully negotiated that situation, I promptly went wide in 4 and off track trying to keep the fast guys behind me. Oops. Oh well, I had good racing with Foushee for several laps and had great runs on him out of 9 but the car was starting to starve. I was getting starvation after turns 2 and 9 consistently with about ½ tank of fuel. I had a great run on Steve coming out of 9 on the last lap and would have passed him for the position but the car fell on its face and he was able to hold me off for 19th place.

Sunday: Wow, I thought I was feeling good during qualifying and my suspicions were confirmed when the times came out. 7th place. Uh oh, this means someone will be coming up quick! JP was right behind me as well as Travis and Geegar. I knew this was going to mean no mistakes to keep my hard earned spot. Oh yeah, Sasha was back there too but he was my whipping boy all weekend so he was more of a chicane for the others. Thanks for the help buddy.

I was holding my own for most of the race up front. I think I was up there until lap 2 or 3 when I went off for the first of my 3 offs. (Turns 6,7 and a good one in 9) I managed to turn my 7th position start into a solid 18th spot finish. Get some. I was bummed about not keeping it on track but I was still happy overall. I knew my comfort level was going to be pushed a little further and I needed that. Don’t worry, I’m coming. Give me some time to work on my race craft and consistency and chumps like Geiger and Wilson will be back where they belong…with Jim Robinson behind Beertech. That’s right, you just read that. :stuck_out_tongue:

Unfortunately I screwed up the AV portion of my weekend pretty good. I have no IFU footage, bummer, ½ of Sundays race and I think all of Saturdays race. I also didn’t have the image stabilizer on so the videos aren’t very good. Ill post what I have, hopefully some of it is good.

I would like to give a big thanks to all Spec E30 racers this weekend. We had lots of cars and everyone raced with respect to each other and kept it clean and controlled. Lots of close, hard racing hopefully put on a good show for everyone else also.

See everyone at CMP hopefully! Good luck at Barber.

#16

Brian, I checked your lap times on MyLap. Jesus Christ. You haven’t been doing this any longer then me, you come to my home track that you hardly know, and you beat the shit out of me.

Makes it really hard for me to be cocky and talk shit. But you still have a potbelly and shoulders like a school girl.

#17

Ranger wrote:

[quote]Brian, I checked your lap times on MyLap. Jesus Christ. You haven’t been doing this any longer then me, you come to my home track that you hardly know, and you beat the shit out of me.

Makes it really hard for me to be cocky and talk shit. But you still have a potbelly and shoulders like a school girl.[/quote]

Might be a good time to consider a new windshield banner…huh Scott? :lol:

#18

Gasman wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

[quote]Brian, I checked your lap times on MyLap. Jesus Christ. You haven’t been doing this any longer then me, you come to my home track that you hardly know, and you beat the shit out of me.

Makes it really hard for me to be cocky and talk shit. But you still have a potbelly and shoulders like a school girl.[/quote]

Might be a good time to consider a new windshield banner…huh Scott? :lol:[/quote]

What, I have to explain the word “Irony”? When the day comes that I’ve actually acheived some competency at this, I’ll put on a windshield banner that says “I suck”, or something like that.

Someone mentioned a windshield banner that says “Flyby” in honor of me blasting by the RR tower. That’s got appeal.

#19

Write-up:
http://mikeskeen.com/raceblog/

#20

Jones wrote:

Wasn’t me, Robert and I did the standing resart from the back of the pack