Pocono

Fun weekend - melted my brakes down to the metal and had to pull off. The closing speeds on slower cars is scary. I came up on at GT3 car with an extra 50 mph closing speed and he popped out to try and pass a car - never saw me. I didn't think my car would stop and I was going to punt the guy a mile. Just bary slowed up. Wisely tapped the brakes with my left foot down the back straight - nothing. Motored around for one more lap and they never came back.

Went to the paddock and gave a look see. Piston was pushed out too far because the only thing left of the pad was some scraps glued to metal backing. Good thing stock car parts are cheap :-)

Picked up my best time of 1:38 - top speeds over 160 mph.

Best race of the day was a tie between the HRG Mustangs and the ITR cars of Dan Jones and Dave Maynard. I think Dave may have been quicker but Dan drove a solid line and held him at bay. Clean racing from what we could see - great patience on the part of Dave for not trying any "tap & go" games that appear to be standard fare for the SM Miata folks.
 
benspeed said:
Best race of the day was a tie between the HRG Mustangs and the ITR cars of Dan Jones and Dave Maynard.
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You obviously didn't watch the ITA race!!! ;)


One of the sweetests sounds known to man kind was your V8 screaming off the banking on to the main straight!!
 
It was a lot of fun racing against the Z3 and Andy in Saturday's Pro IT race. Now if I can just have Andy borrow a someone's car for every race :)It was interesting to see how the front splitter affected his top speed after it was off.

The afternoon didn't go as well for me. Something slick got put down as we went into devil's Elbow and I got real sideways and then the next lap the fuel pump let go. Wasn't staying for Sunday anyway but I was disappointed about not finishing.

I'll be back for the July race but this time with a splitter like the Honda had, that was really nice.
 
For the first Pro-IT we thought it went ok, what can we do to make it better? I'll get the photos on the website. Bob Z. is going to write an article and get that out in the publications.

The first NJRRS races went well also, again, what can we do better?

See you in July, think I'll have the GTL/SPU Datsun 510, but after seeing the IT races I really need to get out there, looked like a lot of fun!

We have THE BEST drivers in SCCA by a long shot.

Thanks,
Darrell
NNJR-RE
www.NJRRS.com
www.SCCA-NNJR.org
 
Hey Jeff - that was a damn good race with you and Joe - we gave a big cheer for ya when you were in the lead and then gave Joe a big cheer when he took it. Then another cheer, then it became a drinking game since my car was broken :-(

I say we give Darrell the best RE of the year award since he, Dave Hoffman and many others came up with one of the most innovative schedules to get maximum race time/track time to the participants. How you got that one through Topeka??? - well, that outta be part of the award too!
 
This is to whom it may concern in the Miata; it was either in the ProIT race or the Group 6 race on Sat., when you pointed by the leader, BMW #0, going into turn 1, you then proceeded to miss the turn and drove straight off course.:( Although I deepely appreciate the point by and I'm very sorry you drove off course, certaintly screwing up your lap, there is a lesson to be learned. For future reference, it is the responsibility of the over taking driver to make a clean and safe pass and it is up to the person only to provide enough racing room. No matter how fast I was closing on you, and it was fast, I must be in control at all times. Unless you felt I was not going to make the turn and you drove off for safety reasons, please don't mess your race up because a faster car in a different class is trying to pass you. :)
Good luck this year to whom ever you are.
BMW #0
 
Andy Bettencourt said:
Nice to meet you Dan! Hope to have a car you can't lap the next event we share.... :)
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The pleasure was mine also Andy. You have a nice bunch of people up there involved with Flatout! Sorry to hear about your engine parts situation. It will be my intentions to get my suspension sorted out so I WILL lap you again........ if I can.;)
 
John
It wasn't Joel. It was Will Butter(our long time crew member) in the Civic I drove in '05+'06. Thankfully everyone involved escaped without major injuries. I just talked to Will he is still sore. The car is banged up pretty good, but we will evaluate and decide whether or not to retub. It's been a tough start to the season for the entire team with car issues for each of us, but it seemed like things were starting to turn around until the accident.
Anyway, good show to all the great races!!!!
Thanks
JC
 
Tkczecheredflag said:
Let me be the first to congratulate Joe D and Jeff L on the their "1-2 punch" this weekend - You guys drove an awesome race - With three checkered flags to his credit, it would appear we are now all chasing Joe D in ITA- Word has it that Crazy Joe's new found speed can be attribuited to the wax hie is using on the new paint job - He say's it's real slippery. CPM Motorsports had a pretty good run going yesterday until the lower connector on my window net released. We strugged to hold off Joe for the lead while the window bar continued to slide out of the net, getting tangeled up in my pedals on the floor - Got the visual? - Me, Joe, and Jeff - drafting nose to tail - I'm holding the window net with one hand, trying to keep it from flapping out the window and not get black flagged - Needless to say we lost P-1 and P-2 to Joe and Jeff. The CPM Motorsports car ran pretty strong on Sunday - The race was great fun and Joe and Jeff are talented drivers - It's a pleasure to run with you guys. Special thanks to my crew Carol and Jerry Miller and Crew Cheif, Ken Schielke, who continue to pick the slack for me as I battle through some health issues - You guys are awsome - I couldn't do this without you.

Also, thanks to NNJR - Great weekend!!
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Thanks Timmy and Jeff it was probably the most fun racing I have ever had at Pocono. The draft has to be one of the most awsome things in racing, i wanna run Daytona with NASCAR. :) When I saw Timmy do the ole helmet tap on sunday a big smile came across my face. :D Can't wait till July's race.

Oh yeah sweet pass into one Timmy. Hangin out on the outside. :)
 
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dominojd said:
Thanks Timmy and Jeff it was probably the most fun racing I have ever had at Pocono. The draft has to be one of the most awsome things in racing, i wanna run Daytona with NASCAR. :) When I saw Timmy do the ole helmet tap on sunday a big smile came across my face. :D Can't wait till July's race.

Oh yeah sweet pass into one Timmy. Hangin out on the outside. :)
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A. It was a great race to watch!

B. Joe, you should hear the audio that goes with the 'ole helmet tap'.

C. BIG Kudos to Tim for keeping it together (at least while on the track), and taking third place even with a flapping net. :happy204:
 
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Man, talk about a frustrating weekend!

First the ECU decided it didn't want to run above 5200 rpm in top gear - NOT good for Pocono! I now know what the problem was, so that is something that can be fixed pretty easily. As for the rest of the car.................? We'll see.

First - big thanks to Dave Zaslow for letting me borrow a complete ECU from him. Only in the community of IT racers will one of your competitors work REAL hard at helping you out, just so that you can go and make it into the next race to compete with him!

Second - thanks to the corner workers, "Tim the Tow Guy" and his wrecker, the ambulance crew, the stewards...........and everybody who came by to make sure that I was OK after the big hit. My eyes were still a little "crossed" after it first happened and I really appreciated and was much impressed by how quickly the Pocono/NNJR folks got to me and the car. Everybody was great helping me get straightened away after the incident, and I really mean it when I say THANK YOU to my fellow club members.

As for the guy in the Honda that created the mess, there is an old saying about needing to finish the race if you want to win the race. And something about you don't win the race in THE FIRST TURN OF THE FIRST LAP!!! I had the opportunity to see Charlie Gerundo's bird's eye view video of the Honda going too fast and too wide into turn one, and the resulting tail happy over correcting shooting 90 degrees across the asphalt disaster. I know that we all make mistakes, and the red mist blah blah blah, but first turn of the first lap? Man. I hope that he learns from this mess.

Tim M.
 
Tim
I'm glad you are OK. Watching from the turn 2-3 area we didn't see the initial impact, but we did see the carnage up close and felt relief when we saw both of you guys walking around after the BIG impact. Unfortunately, Will's experience level came into play in his decision making. We saw video from a miata(not sure who's) just behind the incident and Joel and I had a long discussion with Will on what happened. He has expressed his distress with his decision making over and over, and I think he learned from it(not that that changes anything). Thank God you guys walked away from that mess because it could have been much worse.
JC
 
Tim,
I'm very happy you're both OK.
I did'nt realize you were involved in that untill I read the post. All I saw was SSC car . I had no idea. Man , I'm really sorry you were tangled in that mess. Most importiantly I'm glad you are OK.
Ken
 
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