Anybody got results, rumors, conjecture, flat out lies?!

 

Yeah, let's hear about it. Last minute events made it so I was not able to go at all this weekend. Hope everyone did well.

 

Musta been great weather up there!

 

Notable Honda success was Ivan O's now-ITB CRX, turning a fast lap of 3.22.1 - just 2 seconds off of the winning ITB car's times. Ivan did let me beat him on Saturday, by wandering off of the track long enough for me to mosey by, but GOOD JOB, Ivan...

I have to say that the Grande Course was not as groovy as I expected. The fiddly bits just didn't add much value to the exercise, even if the run up the hill was pretty fun now that I have some traction.

K

 

Sorry I missed it, but we did have a blast at Daytona.
Highly recommended, even in an ITC car.

Way to go Ivan!!!
Who won B? Sam?

 

how did you guys do at Daytona. Rice didn't hit another RE did he

 

This was a Rice-Free adventure. We had Turkish Italian (but no meatballs).

 

TRUE or FALSE:

1. On Saturday I spun on the 1st lap fighting for class lead (again).....
2. On Sunday I started 39th on the grid due to transponder issues, passed 10+ cars before T2, and then motor cut out on me (w/ 1 lap to go)in the middle of a complex where I really need it to pull through safely.

For me...suckage. My performance (or actually my lack of consistency) has me really looking deep within for some answers. For Sage Marie... He's one fast **** on a track he's never run. This is a course that the fast ITA cars really put the screws to the ITS boys (and girls). The GC additions really favor nimble cars like the CRX and Miata but unfortunately add about a mile of follow-the-leader racing as it's really too tight to pass safely until you're heading back up to the rollercoaster.

I'll try to have some video up (much) later tonight of a practice session w/ little traffic for those that want to learn the course, my entire race on Saturday which was another exercise in how to fight through the pack, and some from Sunday's race (my recorder's battery dropped dead about 10min in).

 

Greg - are the results posted anywhere? Most interested in ITA, SM, and SRX7.

 

Looks like Saturday's races been posted to mylaps.com

http://www.mylaps.com/results/...70341

ITA/IT7/ITS was Group 7, ITB/ITC/SRX7 was Group 4.

 

what happened to the engine?

 

We're gonna look at it tonight or tomorrow. I don't think it's so bad. Got a check engine light when I tried refiring and flipped the kill switch in the paddock by mistake before pulling the codes (DUH!!!). My guess is I just whacked something loose while popping curbs all over the place. It ran...just not well. I still had oil pressure and there weren't any nice portholes in the side of the block w/ pistons peering out at me.

Wouldn't be surprised if I need a few lower control arms either.

 

I got the solution for the check engine light: don't connect the dash board. Mine's not connected, I suppose I should add that to my list (having a gas gauge would be nice )

 

Take my word for it...missing the fuel gage on an EF is no big deal. You could have 7gal. in the tank and after you take the 1st high-G right-hander the gauge would read empty FOR THE ENTIRE RACE.

 

No kidding. Mine had nearly 3/4 of a tank and fuel starved on the last lap at Daytona in turn 1.

 

did Dave Hess make it down? and how did he do?

 

Yup. Dave (emwavey) came down and paddocked with us. He did very well, definitely picking up a ton of speed over the course of the practice day and the event. Very predictable and showing a lot more smarts than a lot of others out there (me incl.).

According to the info at mylaps.com he ran pretty much the same times as most of the other MARRS ITA guys did on Saturday. Not sure about Sunday. I'll let him chime in but he seemed very happy to experience VIR.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Balled S2K &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yup. Dave (emwavey) came down and paddocked with us. He did very well, definitely picking up a ton of speed over the course of the practice day and the event. Very predictable and showing a lot more smarts than a lot of others out there (me incl.).

According to the info at mylaps.com he ran pretty much the same times as most of the other MARRS ITA guys did on Saturday. Not sure about Sunday. I'll let him chime in but he seemed very happy to experience VIR.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Seemed I made some pretty, seemingly inconsequential, rookie mistakes. Friday I figured I would have enough gas in the car for both qualifying sessions, and neglected to get more fuel. There was almost a full tank in the car. First session was fine and felt I had a good idea where I could continue to improve my lap times for the second qualifying session. However I found out during the second session that the 1/2 tank of gas is not enough for this particular track. Just over a 1/4 tank, after 2-3 laps, shows empty while cornering. I wound up pitting early since the fuel starvation was getting worse and didn't want it to cut out during a faster corner and upset the car... it's a safety thing.

So for the second race, Sunday, I started pretty far back in the pack, and got a pretty crappy start. Then I watched Gregg blow by me on the start... more to learn on starts I guess. This race is kind of a blur and unfortunately the help I received with turning on the camera didn't pan out. I have no footage of this race. I was hoping to review one particular incident with an ITS car that broke a little harder for the last turn before the front straight. I wound up having to straighten the wheel when I slowed to both catch my car and avoid "his". So after one lap I was dead last... but the grass at VIR is really nice.

Being a little further back in the pack was a result of an oversight on fuel, and the off was, again, a rookie mistake in not correctly sizing up the guy in front of me.

Race results aside, I had a great time... a major part of this was the fact that I paddocked with Gregg and his buds who welcomed a new "stray". The course was a blast to drive and I learned a ton. And a few errors in judgment, I didn't list them all, I have a novice permit with two logged races.

I may attempt a more thorough write up later, but right now I'm junk. I got home this morning at 3:00am, after lots of traffic out of Richmond (95 N). This was the first time I actually had to pull over and take a nap.

 

Nice to meet you, by the way, Dave!

K

 

As promised, here's some video of the course and the event.

I'm having some DSL router issues that are making my 768K line worse than usual. So pretty-please RIGHT-CLICK / Save As.....

1. One lap of the VIR Grand Course (13mb)

http://www.ginsberg.org/video/...p.wmv

2. Saturday Race (30mb). Started 7th overall, spun @ "The Bitch" on 1st lap, and had to fight back from 38th place. Finished 18th overall (4th in class by about two feet)

http://www.ginsberg.org/video/...5.wmv

3. Sunday Race (incomplete, 20mb). Started 38th after transponder issues in qualifying. Passed nine(!!) cars on 1st lap before Nascar (T3).

http://www.ginsberg.org/video/...5.wmv

 

wow you really drive that car, moved back up the feild nicely,


WTF! was that yellow crx thinking? and that black rx7 (i think) made a pretty bone headed move also

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...WTF! was that yellow crx thinking? and that black rx7 (i think) made a pretty bone headed move also</TD></TR></TABLE>

Be more specific... which race and which yellow CRX? There were at least 2.

 

Don't worry, Dave.

It was the Barbados Yellow #80...Mr. Card from good ol' Raleigh, NC who ran me off the front straight early in Saturday's race.

As I was in impound on congratulating some very fast and consistent drivers he apparently came by our paddock spot looking for me. After telling our paddock mate that "Just because he spins off track doesn't mean he can hit everybody on his way back to the front," he headed back to his paddock spot.

When I decided to confront him on Sunday AM about the event and explained that he was more than welcome to look at the video, he refused. He explained that 1) because he didn't see me until I was beside him and 2) his family was on the pit wall and there was an IT7 between them and him that I must have come over on him.

He also mentioned something about him not wanting to be treated as a rolling chicane.

After shaking my head in disbelief I again offered him the opportunity to watch a part of his race from my camera's perspective and left.

Some people are sooo clueless.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice to meet you, by the way, Dave!
K</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nice to meet you too Kirk. How'd you're race go?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Balled S2K &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Don't worry, Dave. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks... I feel better.

 

I ended up 11th on Saturday (of 15, I think?) and 9th on Sunday (of 16)?. Not awful considering the license plate thingie on the back of the car.

I put 1.5* of camber into the rear wheels in anticipation of keeping the Hosers happy at the Summit 12 - and made the rear end stick enough better that we ended up with the kind of push we had back in SSC trim. Bah.

The new FD seemed to get us onto and down the straights a little quicker and the diff SEEMS like an improvement. Hard to tell when it wants to go straight, even on-throttle. It might also be that the more agressive package is aggravating the less-than-agressive driver's natural tendency to sneak the car into some corners, rather than chucking it.

I got one donut on the door - a stupidity tax for assuming that I could run into Oak Tree on the outside of a Spec 7 without having him move out into me, after taking a slow but defensive line out of my favorite turn on the full course - South Bend.

K