The forecast as late as Thursday night called for partly cloudy skies with a 20% chance of rain, high of 56 degrees. What we got was steady light rain all day on Saturday and a high of 48. Excellent.

First, my personal report.
I was group 1, meaning we were on track for practice at 8:15am. The temperature was about 40 degrees and there was a light mist of rain. I was driving the new car and planned to be tentative, but the conditions made me far beyond tentative. I never managed to get any heat in the tires and just plain slid all over the place. Still being unfamilar with the car I was about as uncomfortable as I have ever been on a racetrack. "Slow" doesn't even begin to describe the session. I learned pretty much nothing about the car beyond it slides around pretty good.
Qualifying... Not any better. Raining a bit harder, still cold. Some people went out on rain tires, some on drys. Another competitor offered to let me use his rains (dirt stockers), but I chose to go out on drys since the line still looked pretty good and reports from drivers coming in were that it was still too dry to run dirt stockers without overheating them. This wasn't a good choice on my part.
On drys, I was still sliding around everywhere, still uncomfortable in the car, and not learning anything about its handling or its limits. I was still very reserved (read: slow). Still somehow managed to qualify 4th in class (of 8) and 27th overall (of 37). Not too terrible and much better than expected, but still a full 8 seconds off the class pole sitter.
Then, at some point during the afternoon things got even worse. It started raining harder, the temperature dropped, but at least a formula car dropped oil all the way from turn 1 to turn 5. Someone quipped that the only thing we were missing were ice and banana peels all over the track. It was so bad at one point that cars were going into turn 1 in 2nd gear at about 30 mph and STILL spinning. One GT1 car spun exiting the pits on his out lap. Craptastic!!!
My race was quickly approaching and conditions weren't improving. My car was still completely foreign to me and many people were describing track conditions as "the worst I've ever seen." I made the decision to pack it up and try again in 2 weeks at Barbers. The race went OK with only a few incidents, but everyone was basically tiptoeing around out there. I felt very comfortable with my decision given that I had little chance of finishing well, wouldn't learn anything about the car, and therefore didn't really need to take the risks.
Theres always next time.

On another note. Big fat thumbs up to both Alex (Hracer) and Adam (phatty). Alex qualified on the ITA pole for the Pro-IT race on Sunday and Adam qualified on the ITA pole for the SARRC race and then finished 2nd in said race. Fantastic job by both of those guys. Especially Adam, who overcame a clutch problem and then an encounter with a concrete barrier to get those results.
Pay no attention to this guy in the future when he says things like "its just my opinion" and "I may be totally wrong, but..." This guy is a "racer" and he knows what he's doing.

 

nice write up!
i think on track at RA would be bottom on my list of places to be yesterday.

-jeff, who can't wait to hear some 1sthand stuff about the new barber track

 

I was there as a spectator today. It never really did warm up the way it was supposed to. I'm looking forward to seeing Barber up close in a couple weeks.

 

good review and prob. a wise move to pack it up if you were not comfortable, there's always another day...
great run Adam...can't wait for some details!

 

Adam and Alex won the ECR in Adam's car and I'm pretty sure Alex won the Pro IT in his car.
Great weekend for both of those guys.

 

haha, a bit battered but definately not beaten down It was a fun weekend all the way around, had a blast in the wet, which was a new experience for me at RA and got to find out that its quite a different track wet vs. dry. It was sort of like attending the Fred Astaire dance school on a slip and slide Yeah, Alex kicked **** in both the second stint in my car and in the Pro IT. I think TB and I signed up for the "thrill ride" in the Saturday afternoon race - just watched the video I have (cuts out at around the 10 lap mark) and I had already forgotten how much I locked up, slid, held breath I definately learned a few lessons this weekend, which are always good and I'd rather learn them in the wet (slow) than in the dry (faster). And that dagone wall fuggit, the phatty was never pretty to start with and now I got the perfect excuse to get me a jazzy paint job (with lots o' blank space for sponsors )

On a serious note, I ran the Isaac device this weekend and let me tell all, I fuggin' LOVED it. With the lowered mounting points and the angle change (curteously Gregg Baker) I could get into it by myself in a matter of seconds, out of it in the same sub-second snap as before and I absolutely had no clue it was on. I was originally going to run it for the Sprints and Qualifying stuff and without it for the Enduro but ran it in the enduro also and just pulled it off the belts for the driver change (less than a few seconds). I don't know how much my impact was or was not the type that its designed to help but fwiw, I had ZERO soreness this morning. Ironic, I was actually thinking as the wall was coming up - "damn! glad I got this on!!! .... crunch" Irrespective of that, this is a product I would gladly put my dad in if he were a driver - I was super impressed. One thing I tell anyone, take it off (release the pins) when you get in the paddock - its much easier to not cut someone off that way Super great stuff from the guys at Isaac(www.IsaacDirect.com) - too many thumbs up to print here.

 

Lots of fun this weekend and a lot of that has to do with driving in the ECR with Adam. Thanks man.

Plus with just a handful of laps around Road Atlanta, this Adam guy put his car on pole for the SARRC sprint race and finished second behind one of the local road atlanta veterans. All on a rainy and cold day. Good stuff.

The bad luck struck again this weekend, and ironically just like last year, in the sunday sunny and dry afternoon's pro it race. I paid my bad luck dues last year I guess, since this year's incident happened literally just a couple of feet behind me. (It's also never a bad idea to start from the second row, or as far up as possible.) This incident put a few seconds in between me and the other A guys, so it was quite a straight forward race to the finish. But after the race, looking at one of the cars involved in the incident, it was clear why you absolutely NEED to have a well thought out and built cage. One door bar just does NOT cut it. The driver had nothing and was more angry than anything else, which is very good considering how that car looked. I'm not a cage expert, but that cage literally broke in multiple places from the hard and direct T bone hit on the passenger side. That guy is really lucky he got hit on the "right" side with that kind of cage. And this was not even some low buck bolt-it. It was a custom welded cage (although apparently not so good) job.

On a positive note, the Toyos RA1s are great. They were great in the enduro and also in the pro it sprint. The balance of the car did not change, or at least is not any worse than on hoosiers. I'm really glad that with a significantly lower tire budget, it is still enough to "cut it", well at least for this weekend. We'll see later on, but the Toyos only get better as they wear, right?

Fun weekend, and a great start for the year.

 

You are so full of **** Alex. Everyone around here knows Toyos are 3 days per lap slower than Hoosiers. Stop your nonsense.
The fact that you guys keep winning races on them, and I was actually faster on them at Roebling than I was on Hoosiers (Same track, same car, same day, same driver, same conditions) is all meaningless. "Rich" guys with Hoosiers will dominate unless you mandate Toyos. Why won't you learn this?

 

Its actually not the tires, its the brakes shush, its our leeetle secret

 

"Operation Optimum Nuggets?"

 

I can't believe you saw through my false propaganda...

Still, I thought the ECR and pro IT mandated toyos this year. Is this not correct? Cause if it's not, someone please let me know soon. I don't want to be at such a disadvantage if I don't have to!

 

Glad to hear you guys had a great weekend. I heard that an "freshly re-built" RX7 got hit pretty badly. Now that my car is getting painted and having a new motor, makes me wonder if....

Also, I haven't heard anything about ECR's mandating Toyo's only. Please, let me know too!

 

Sorry ITACRX, I was kidding about the toyo thing. There is no required tire for either pro it or ecr.

Two RX7s got hit: one T boned the other (and it all happened just a couple of feet behind me.) I saw the one that was hit on the passenger side after the race and it was a scary sight. That guy was really lucky that he was hit on the passenger side and not on the driver's side with that cage.

 

It just reassures (spelling?) me that one thing you should not go cheap on is on safety. Nascar style door bars are simply a must!

....Now, I'm really considering head retraints Isaac, Hans, ??????

 

Dude,
grow a ********, racing in the rain is fun. :D

 

Your opinion. Not mine.

On another note, if phatty kicks you out of the seat to make room for that new young hot-shoe, I'll let you drive mine every now and then.

 

Dude,
grow a ********, racing in the rain is fun. :D

yehhhhhhhhhh

 

Again. Opinion.
See, Scott races for fun. Scott also doesn't think racing in the rain is fun, but he'll do it anyway if conditions aren't terrible. Now, racing in rain AND oil is not only not fun in Scott's opinion, but also excessively dangerous.
So, in Scott's opinion there is no justification to do something dangerous that isn't even fun. In Scott's opinion, to do so would be just plain stupid.

If you think its fun to slide around in oil and water, then there is your justification for taking the added risk. So... have at it. I'll be cheering you on from the paddock.

 

Hey Metalworker I heard that you lost your ride for good, the hot-shoe is faster than you ???? your service is terminated is this true???

As for Scott's opinion about people racing in the rain are stupid !!! well maybe you are correct they are stupid but at least they have the ***** to do it

Hey Scott I heard that your car was really loose but don't let that bug you just soften the shocks, disconnect the sway bar, add couple of ***** and you should be fine next time. I recall last year half of the season at Road Atlanta was in the rain

who said that race driver are sane anyway, we are stupid to do all this for a stupid trophy !!!! I should go and start circle track racing or dirt track racing at least if I win I may get a young 18 year old Kiss me and .... these guys get more glory for less money. YES WE ARE STUPID

Louis

 

OK Louis, I'll cut you some slack because you're a furriner and all. But I never said guys who like to drive in the rain are stupid. What I said was (basically), if you don't like to drive in rain and oil but do it anyway ... that's stupid.

If you enjoy sliding around and stuff (and I know you do ), more power to you.

Scott, who has big enough ********* to publicly state that he doesn't like driving in oily water. So kiss his *** .

 

I just can't let this one go by so I'll just say that the person in question still has a LONG way to go before such a comparison is anything more than just plain funny. lol

About the rain and oil thing. Guess we all have slightly differing opinions on the subject. In this particular case, in the couple of sessions where this was the case (water+oil), you could clearly see the lane (not line!) of oil on the track. It really was fun (in a sick way) to just glide the car through there at 30 mph. Plus it was so slow, you really couldn't hit anything. And since I didn't see any carnage in the races I assume (since I didn't race the sarrcs) that the oil was gone by then. And just like last year, it's ironic that the carnage came in the *sunny and dry* race, the pro it. Last year oil in T1 was the cause. The difference was that I (and 5-6 other cars) didn't know about it, as I did know about last weekend's oil (which was very clearly visible). Had I been McRae I would have drove through it, but since I'm not I ate a chunk of the T1 wall! I got over it, the car was fixed, and so the world turns. (Oh and remember guys, this is all just talk!) hehe

 

Not worried, experience and trickery will overcome youth and enthusiasm every time.

 

I thought that quote was actually "Old age and treachery..."

 

Old Age - not quite yet, Treachery - not that mean YET

 

lol I think it's time for the little enthusiastic punk to go run and hide now.