Cheap Date at NH

[Greg Amy]

Greg, I thought getting the crew guys in on the victory lap (and the victory lap itself) was pretty much an SCCA trademark?

Greg, you mentioned no unharnessed passengers on victory laps, is that something new?

What Stephen said (thanks for your responses). I'm not saying we should disallow passengers on victory laps; on the contrary, I do that myself (and got in trouble for the way I did it at Road Atlanta*). What I am saying is that if we're going to allow/ignore "donuts" during victory laps, then we simply cannot allow unharnessed passengers inside the car for them.

- GA


* After the 2006 ARRC victory we piled a bunch of people in the car; I'm guessing at least 4-5, some of which were sitting inside the open hatch. I got "talked to" about having people inside the car with access doors open. I was told that had I closed the hatch I would have been fine, but they took umbrage at people hanging outside the car. They were actually discussing taking action against me...fortunately, we worked it out and I promised to stuff everyone inside the car in the future.

(click for larger image; see how many you can count...)
​

 

[lateapex911]

What Stephen said (thanks for your responses). I'm not saying we should disallow passengers on victory laps; on the contrary, I do that myself (and got in trouble for the way I did it at Road Atlanta*). What I am saying is that if we're going to allow/ignore "donuts" during victory laps, then we simply cannot allow unharnessed passengers inside the car for them.

- GA


* After the 2006 ARRC victory we piled a bunch of people in the car; I'm guessing at least 4-5, some of which were sitting inside the open hatch. I got "talked to" about having people inside the car with access doors open. I was told that had I closed the hatch I would have been fine, but they took umbrage at people hanging outside the car. They were actually discussing taking action against me...fortunately, we worked it out and I promised to stuff everyone inside the car in the future.

(click for larger image; see how many you can count...)
​

meh...no checkerd flag confiscated?? No suspension? Probation? Log book note? Red book entry?? Loss of win?
Then you didn't get in trouble.

In your case, it's a good thing that was a FWD car, and had rather stiff springs in back!

I remember winning (As the crew chief) the Longest Day back in 83 (?) and cramming 6 people in a 1st gen RX-7. Rule was you lose the win if you return with less than you started with. (Same as yachting)

 

[Greg Amy]

meh...no checkerd flag confiscated?? No suspension? Probation? Log book note? Red book entry?? Loss of win?
Then you didn't get in trouble.

The discussion seemed (to me) to be leaning toward some kind of race-changing result...I was in a bit of a panic and did a lot of head nodding and "yesser'ing"...

My photo above is a Tom Hoppe photo, and is one of my all-time favorites. But after we put that on the web, someone sent the below to me.

Eerie.

 

[Greg Amy]

So now that we've all talked about the party-pooper stuff, how about the good stuff? JB Swan collects the championship with solid drives this year, RT Performance takes a couple wins and pops gaskets over it , we had a good entry list for most groups (wing 'n things started 4 on Sunday, I think), only 1 protest the whole weekend, and everyone had a good time!

What else happened out there?

- GA

 

[Dano77]

The NER IT7 Dinosaur Super Series had a great weekend and Party on Saturday night. Lots of people from different teams showed up, including the LTD Miata guys. They never leave the safety of thier compound.

JB Swan and Ray Lee Chee tied for points, with GCR tiebreaker JB pulls it out.

There was also the heated battle for 3rd this season. Mike Bucella was picked to be untouchable due to the 77 car's race history so far this season. After Race 1 the tide was turning in favor of the 77. Sorry I messed up your carb Mike. With the 3 wins this weekend it appears that Dan Sheppard has moved to 3rd in points with a very slim margin.

Checkout the grid for Sunday am

Dave Patten in the Swamp Water Express #7 1:20:510
Ray Lee Chee 1:20:742
Dick Patullo 1:20:751
Dan Sheppard 1:20:772
Drew Young 1:20:775
JB Swan 1:20:779
Mike Bucella 1:25:889
Dosent get closer than that.

Great Weekend for all of us

 

[StephenB]

Tim and I tried the street tire thing but I couldn't stay up. 17.3 was my fastest but it just wasn't quick enough. I switched to old Hoosiers and had a lot of fun passing lots of cars, then missed a shift going up the hill... 1st instead of 3rd causing Matt a wild off course to avoid rear ending me! Thrilled that he was heads up and I can't thank him enough. I can't wait to see his video, I watched him all 4 wheels in the air passing me on the outside up the hill. After that I put my head down and passed all those cars again getting back to p2 overall. Not the overall I was looking for but fun non the less!

Ed drove my car in ITR and had some good runs and a scary spin in 3 but everyone escaped without any damage!

I got to watch some IT7 racing which was also a highlight as it always is at NHMS!

Everyone just seemed to be in great moods with lots of great racing and not many wrecked cars which was nice to see!

Stephen
Lots of kids creating great memories! Can't wait to start them all go carting! Thinking we should create an infield go cart autocross course for these youngsters!

 

[dickita15]

Checkout the grid for Sunday am

Dave Patten in the Swamp Water Express #7 1:20:510
Ray Lee Chee 1:20:742
Dick Patullo 1:20:751
Dan Sheppard 1:20:772
Drew Young 1:20:775
JB Swan 1:20:779
Mike Bucella 1:25:889
Dosent get closer than that.

I am just amazed that these old s**tboxes with their no talent drivers are so damn close.

 

[Dano77]

I am just amazed that these old s**tboxes with their no talent drivers are so damn close.

Its going to be a hell of a winter with all of us lyeing to each other about how fast we will be. " Just wait till next season, I am gonna do a 1:11:00 with my new un-obtanium shocks and better grabby Brakes."

Dan, Starting to compile my list of excuses now, Sheppard

 

[RSTPerformance]

For me, I had a great race Sunday AM with long time competitor and friend Tim Mullan, we both had our cars in places they shouldn't be on the track and raced side by side without contact, it can be done! Zack Kelly also proved to be a good challenger with lots of good side by side racing with no contact, watch for him in the coming years as he develops himself as front running a driver!

As for the families at the track, one of my favorite weekends ever. We learned out at Watkins Glenn earlier this year to just park away from the garages where you can spread out and give the kids the room they NEED to do there thing. You will never be able to keep them in one place, let them (and mom) have fun without the stress of cars zipping past (even the ones at 5mph). It would be nice to have an official "family" paddock area where everyone knows that kids will be running around getting to know one another. NER was/is where my family has always been away from reality of boring daily life!

Raymond

 

[MMiskoe]

First weekend I had been out since April, and it was some of the tightest racing I have seen in a while. Back in the day, I can remember 35 car fields for ITS/ITB and the top 15 spots would be separated by about 1.5 seconds. This weekend there was a grid for either ITS or STL that the top 8 places were less than 1 second. I lost out on a 2nd place finish in STL by 0.013 seconds. At the speed we were going, it was about 21". Another grid spot for me was picked up by being 0.004 seconds faster.

Yes, the ride up the berm at turn 5 was not on my bucket list, but it all worked out. No harm, no foul.

As for the kids, well, long ago I saw a sticker on a truck that said "families that race together stay together". I was glad to hear Bob Introne beat it into the driver's heads that there are a lot of kids around, pay attention. As it should be. My 2 sentence rant is this - when the folks wearing white give up their golf carts, it will be acceptable to ask the kids to give up their scooters and bikes. Until then, there will be all manners of people driving all manners of vehicles, some better than others, you must pay attention. Personally I don't see that kids on bikes are the root of the problem, I've watched plenty of adults walk out in front of oncoming cars.

 

[Tim Dugan]

OK i will say this is a race weekend to go down in the history books for me!! My first win and my second oh and a third! But there were not easy wins that is for sure. I fought tooth and nail for all of them the only way i wanna win is with a battle to remember. Matt and i battle lap after after lap and i couldnt seem to get that MIATA off my bumper. Thanks matt for making this one of the best race weekends! As fare as kids being at the track which seems like a major topic my kids will always be with me and my RST Performance crew! With out them the sport will die a slow death. They are the future of the club and they are the best cheering section a DAD could ask for! We all watch each others kids i want them to remember the track as a fun place to play and be on weekend. My kids in my eyes are a little to young to ride there bikes during racing hours but there are other kids that are older and are a little more observent as to what is going on around them. I hope the parents of the future of the club will make it there responsibility to choose when there kids are ready to be "alone" at the track. Hope to see everybody at Lime Rock.