Pig Roast Results

More like a high-paid escort...only discriminating drivers may apply... ;)

So call her Ashley...
ashley-dupre.jpg
 
Had a great race. Improved my best lap time by 5 secs. Thanks to Jason Daoust, a Miata driver who I am in debt to for his timely advice. It worked great!!!!!
Was able to stay on lead lap with the middle pack just up ahead.
Thanks to S. Funk who I was able to follow around the track for many laps, that was fun actually racing another driver instead of just trying to catch up to someone.
Learned to check and insure all ignition wires are firmly secured. Loose coil wire shut down 1st race after 3 laps. Thought engine went again but just an oops!!!
Thanks to Matt Kessler, after a re timing effort engine ran great.
We are coming for Buddy!!!!!!
 
Had a very cool side by side victory lap with Steph on Sun. Apparently the stewards in the tower were talking about us getting together in the corners---they were going to call it a "cluster Funk"---thanks Kathy B!!
Congrats to Steph and Ed - Hope to see pictures of the victory lap - nice one.
 
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Here are two videos from Sunday of the Pig Roast event.
The first is just a few snippets of the event. Very cool
powered beer cooler... with tandem trailers !! :)

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5514794/14501112

The other is just the start and the restart and a couple
of in car laps...otherwise the in car video was boring.
I did manage to synch the second camera, and flip the image
horizontally, so it appears as a rearview mirror.

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5515005/14502202

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Dan, congrats on your second place finish in ITC!!
Thanks, It was a lot of work but the results were gratifying. :D I will now attempt to actually place in my class or at least beat Buddy. We are however feeling like real progress is being made. A lot of time is coming off our lap times and the car is handling much better. The help we receive ( not including the good natured ribbing we hear from time to time ) is invaluable and more importantly working.
 
So.. thought I would share a bit of the start and the last lap of the Sunday race.

Have fun...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbyvVn9MWi8[/ame]

best,
Brad
 
Congrats to the ITA racers (and IT7 - ITC) for podium finishes. I had visions of a great weekend, but a broken transmission put me out after 1.5 qualifying laps on Saturday. Pretty funny... I could not get into 4th... then it got stuck between gears in 5th. So I looked for a safe spot going into Turn 3. I ducked behind the tires and looked up... there were the stands! I did get to hang out at the fence and talk to my family for a while.

Plan "E" was to rent a ride on Sunday and try to salvage the weekend. The Flatout guys had a Miata available so I hopped in. In typical fashion the RX7 "boyz" gave me quite the hard time back at the paddock. I told them it was not easy deciding whether to drink still or sparkling water as an "arrive and drive" customer. :D

The car felt great in qualifying with only the driver to blame for slow laps times... trying to get used to the car. The Sunday race started well and I was having a blast with plans to move my way up the field. But a broken throttle body shaft ended my drive after about 2-1/2 laps. I have never seen a throttle body shaft break and certainly cannot fault the car prep. Just one of those days. (BTW - the Miata had one of the nicest cages I have seen. Take a peak in one and look at the Nascar door cages)

Needless to say, the weekend was challenging but it was still fun. I'll be back in August to try again.
 
Anthony, have you driven a Miata before? I'm curious as to how you found the change from your car, both from a drivers perspective and from a handling perspective.
 
Hey Jeff... yes, I rented one of the Flatout cars a few years ago for a double. From a driver's perspective it is a blast to drive. Visibility took me a bit to get used to with the pillars, cage etc. The side mirrors are set back a bit on the doors so they are not in my peripheral vision. This time I was more comfortable in the car and was able concentrate on braking points and the getting thru the oval quickly.

As for handling - the SM set-up is soft, so a bit of body roll and bounce over bumps. But I am not a fan of a tightly sprung car, so I don't mind the roll/set into a corner. The car brakes really well (I was still trying to shorten my braking point into 3); it turns in very quickly; oversteer is minimal unless you hammer the throttle. And even then, some modulation gets the car back in line pretty quickly.

The power in the Miata SM set-up is lower so it forced me to concentrate on keeping momentum in the corners. (helps for the CRX too) The rear wheel drive is fine and the Miata does not have the throttle understeer we get in the front wheel drive cars when we try to go too fast in a corner.

Overall the Miata is great handling. In an ITA prep, it must be even more fun. But I will let Andy be the expert on that.
 
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