http://gdjenkins.com/images/TBurasSIC.wmv

right click and save as. bad. ***.

todd buras is the driver.

 

what the hell happened to him in qualifying? or did he just say, "let's see if i can win the race starting from the back row" ? clearly the fastest guy on the track, but ya gotta wonder why he was starting so far back...

nate

 

You take your life in your hands driving around that many spec miati...

K

 

Running in ITC I get the thrill (<-Sarcasm) of sharing a run group with Spec Miata. Trust me, pretty much every SM race here in SEDIV looks alot like that.

 

Wow, that was nice drive thru the field. I wonder how far he would have made it without hage jump start. Must have passed 4 rows before the first corner.

Rick

 

did anyone else notice the "punt"?

 

yes, he hit at least 1 car (I think I saw more than 1 he hit). If ya can't pass em, ram em?

How is that car soooo much faster than the rest of them? I thought in a "spec" class they would be as least some what the same.

 

Even though it is a "spec" class, there appears to be three distinct levels in the fields that I've seen.

1 - The fastest drivers in the fastest cars - Rarely will you find a great driver in a slow car, unless he's just doing some set-up work for a buddy. These guys get pretty darned close to top ITA lap times and are usually driving the $20K race shop prepped cars you keep hearing about. These guys are serious and if you can't hang with them you need to get out of their way. Buras is one of these guys.

2. Decent drivers with OK cars - Mid pack. Usually in the middle of the ITB fights. a good 2 seconds slower than the top 5 to 7 cars noted above but quite evenly matched with each other (this actually seems to be where most of the banging occurs and not where you want to be if you hate bodywork).

3. Slow - These guys are in the way of the ITC fight. They have minimal time and money invested and are "just out there to have fun." Not atypical for them to get beaten by the top 2 or 3 ITC cars and be a firm 5 to 6 seconds a lap off the SM leaders.

Now, keep in mind that this is what I see running with these guys in the S.E. where we usually have about 20ish SMs per race. There's usually about 5-7 cars in category 1, 10ish cars in category 2, and 5ish cars in category 3. So yes, there is a huge gap between the leaders and the back, even in a spec class. Don't get fooled by the "spec" in Spec Miata, the front to back gap is just as big there as any other class (often bigger).

 

Hey Catch,

Is that Roebling Road?... If so I did timing and scoring there a couple years ago. The track looks much cooler from an in car camera... like one big skid pad.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by emwavey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is that Roebling Road
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes.

 

good video!! great race, I agree the "pass" on the 2nd place guys was questionable but his runs through 1-2 are awesome!

 

other than that one incident the man straight steam-r0lled the field!

 

i agree- the bump is nothing if not questionable. but a fun video nonetheless.

 

RAD VID

 

Hi guys. The video you are watching is from my site. I noticed some activity coming from Honda-tech and thought I'd check out what you were saying. Funny how things get around on the web. :D

The video is from the SARRC Invitational Challenge. It is a defacto championship race for the SEDIV Sprint racing Series. The guys who were finishing 10th in this race are usually top 5 finishers in thier respective regions.

Todd started from the rear because he blew the engine in his car in the final practice session before the race. He had never driven a single lap in the car he raced. Makes the drive even more impressive.