SCCA @ MSRHouston 4/14-15
04-06-06, 02:08 AM
#1
Banned. I got OWNED!!!
Thread Starter
SCCA @ MSRHouston 4/14-15
Anybody goin' to the SCCA race at MSRH? I think I'll be there, probably Saturday only (no customers going with me, and none that are going themselves are staying for Sunday).
If anybody is in the area, I'll have the car in my avatar with me. Doesn't look like a very big RX7 crowd this weekend, which is unfortunate, but the vast quanitity of our drivers are in DFW and God forbid they drive more than 45 minutes to race anywhere.
Actually, I shouldn't make fun of those sissies too much... more points for me!
If anybody is in the area, I'll have the car in my avatar with me. Doesn't look like a very big RX7 crowd this weekend, which is unfortunate, but the vast quanitity of our drivers are in DFW and God forbid they drive more than 45 minutes to race anywhere.
Actually, I shouldn't make fun of those sissies too much... more points for me!
04-16-06, 10:54 PM
#4
Banned. I got OWNED!!!
Thread Starter
It was a good weekend!
A pole, 2 track records (Qual and Race) and a win! My first bonafide road-race win! I'm friggin' ecstatic!
Race report coming soon...
A pole, 2 track records (Qual and Race) and a win! My first bonafide road-race win! I'm friggin' ecstatic!
Race report coming soon...
04-16-06, 11:46 PM
#6
Banned. I got OWNED!!!
Thread Starter
Race Report (pretty long)
After the pleasant experience from the March race where I had the car ready to go a full week before the race, and having the added benefit of not breaking or wearing anything out, I took the time before the April 15th inaugural SCCA race at MSR-Houston to take some weight out of my car and start painting the interior. After shedding close to 5 pounds in miscellaneous crap and wires, and relocating the fire bottle to help with the ungodly corner weights I found on the scales, we headed to the rice paddy just after noon on Friday. We arrived roughly 3.5 hours later, after worrying about missing a turn (I’d done the trip twice before, but FM 1994 sounded more familiar even after I said FM 1462 a million times), and stopping to retain one of the trailer ramps that was making its way out of its holder (which makes the second time that particular ramp has lost its retainer). We picked a spot just off turns 16 & 17, which is a good spot for watching as you have good views of 14-1a when on top of a trailer/motorhome. And you’ve got a front-row seat if anybody goes into the pit straight tire wall!
Saturday morning:
Torqued the lugnuts first thing, having checked fluids and other obvious items the night before, and set about talking to folks. Most people I talked to, myself and pitmate Steven included, as well as most of the SRX7 field hadn’t been here, and if they had their experience was either limited or their lap times were slower than what I expected mine to be by the end of the day. The outcome was a surprise as much to me as it was to anybody…
Qualifying:
I headed to the grid early, figuring I would rather let cars by me and watch where they go than try to keep up or learn on my own. Rob Lay (former SRX7 Champ) gridded right behind me in his T3 RX8, as did the rest of the field comprised of ITA/B/C/SRX7, SP, GT1-3, and T1-3. Yes, the little 100HP RX7 was on track with 500+HP GT1 cars (fortunately there was only one such beast on track, and he passed me a total of 2 times the entire day). I got a few clean laps one right after the other, and I even hit a couple apexes right. I forget exactly who passed me, but other than Rob and a GT3 car, there wasn’t much traffic going by me. Then about 5 laps in I saw a black flag at start (no ALL) and again at 1A. ****, the car seems to be handling great, thanks to some tips from Barry, the gauges are all OK, and I haven’t spun too big or hit anybody… Then as I approach 3/4/5 I see a car upside down. ****! That doesn’t look pretty… ****! It’s Lowell! As I got closer I could see glass everywhere, Lowell walking around, and one of the struts sticking almost straight out the side of the car! Apparently Lowell went off before getting much or any breaking done, and hit the backside of the curb/track at full bore, launching the car into the air and spinning like a top. I heard after the fact that he had a concussion and was throwing up, which turned out to be half bullshit and half-truth. Lowell has motion sickness, and wears a patch to help with “normal” motion in the car… but it doesn’t help when the car starts spinning like a top, especially on its roof. After a lengthy stay in pit lane, we went out for a few more laps.
Afterwards, I headed over to the drivers lounge to pickup a grid sheet and was surprised to see I turned a 1:59.543…which was good enough for SRX7 pole. And good enough to outqualify a GT1 car, an AS car, and the ENTIRE SRX7/IT field. This is going to be a good weekend.
Race:
On the start, as is typical in these parts, the front of the pack accelerated to the start line. Not something I can complain too much about, especially if they do it in a manner so as to get me on the peak torque curve in 3rd gear, which is exactly what they did. Nothing quite prepares you for the day you pass 3 cars on the start, which include a GT2 Panoz, and can get alongside a BMW Factory Motorsports clone going into the first turn! And nothing, I mean nothing can prepare you for racing with a GT1 Corvette, an AS Camaro, and said GT2 Panoz, in a $3,000 100HP RX7. Worse yet, the Camaro and Panoz finished behind me…
It would be great if I had remembered to turn on the video camera on the grid, but my nerves were so great being in between two GT cars I didn’t even think about it until the end of the pace lap when I saw the camera in the mirror.
Some highlights that the video would’ve included legitimately passing the Panoz on a straight, due solely to greater exit speed (MUCH greater exit speed). But as much as I’m ragging on these guys, I really appreciate the way they raced my little crapmobile. The Camaro waved me by (albeit on the straight…) and the Panoz let me by. Twice. The Corvette driver even met me after the race and apologized for holding me up in the turns, which he didn’t do as by the time I caught him again at the end of the race my tires were used up to the point that all I could do was make up a little of the lead he got in a straight line. But it was still wildly enjoyable, and it’s fun standing next to the car and saying, “Yeah, I qualified two tenths of a second behind a tube-frame purpose built V8 powered Panoz… and three tenths ahead of a ‘72 race-prepped Corvette”. And best of all, I handily won my class, running a Race record (new track, so every session is a new record) 1:57.925.
And for anybody wondering about any inter-class racing, I didn’t have any. I never thought the day of my first win in SRX7 would come by beating #2 by half a lap, but it did. That’s not to say the SRX7 class has dropped off in participation any more, rather it’s a combination of it being a one day race in Houston (most of the class population is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area) and on a holiday weekend. But it won’t be the first time I’ve been accused of being a heathen by racing on Easter… and it’s not the first win I’ve had on Easter, in fact it isn’t even the second. In Quarter Midgets I won a fair share of Monza races (a 4 race championship, one in each participating region) on this holiday. So it seems I’ve come full circle, now a winner in every racing genre I’ve participated in, and now it’s time to win a championship -- something I’ve never done on an oval.
Saturday morning:
Torqued the lugnuts first thing, having checked fluids and other obvious items the night before, and set about talking to folks. Most people I talked to, myself and pitmate Steven included, as well as most of the SRX7 field hadn’t been here, and if they had their experience was either limited or their lap times were slower than what I expected mine to be by the end of the day. The outcome was a surprise as much to me as it was to anybody…
Qualifying:
I headed to the grid early, figuring I would rather let cars by me and watch where they go than try to keep up or learn on my own. Rob Lay (former SRX7 Champ) gridded right behind me in his T3 RX8, as did the rest of the field comprised of ITA/B/C/SRX7, SP, GT1-3, and T1-3. Yes, the little 100HP RX7 was on track with 500+HP GT1 cars (fortunately there was only one such beast on track, and he passed me a total of 2 times the entire day). I got a few clean laps one right after the other, and I even hit a couple apexes right. I forget exactly who passed me, but other than Rob and a GT3 car, there wasn’t much traffic going by me. Then about 5 laps in I saw a black flag at start (no ALL) and again at 1A. ****, the car seems to be handling great, thanks to some tips from Barry, the gauges are all OK, and I haven’t spun too big or hit anybody… Then as I approach 3/4/5 I see a car upside down. ****! That doesn’t look pretty… ****! It’s Lowell! As I got closer I could see glass everywhere, Lowell walking around, and one of the struts sticking almost straight out the side of the car! Apparently Lowell went off before getting much or any breaking done, and hit the backside of the curb/track at full bore, launching the car into the air and spinning like a top. I heard after the fact that he had a concussion and was throwing up, which turned out to be half bullshit and half-truth. Lowell has motion sickness, and wears a patch to help with “normal” motion in the car… but it doesn’t help when the car starts spinning like a top, especially on its roof. After a lengthy stay in pit lane, we went out for a few more laps.
Afterwards, I headed over to the drivers lounge to pickup a grid sheet and was surprised to see I turned a 1:59.543…which was good enough for SRX7 pole. And good enough to outqualify a GT1 car, an AS car, and the ENTIRE SRX7/IT field. This is going to be a good weekend.
Race:
On the start, as is typical in these parts, the front of the pack accelerated to the start line. Not something I can complain too much about, especially if they do it in a manner so as to get me on the peak torque curve in 3rd gear, which is exactly what they did. Nothing quite prepares you for the day you pass 3 cars on the start, which include a GT2 Panoz, and can get alongside a BMW Factory Motorsports clone going into the first turn! And nothing, I mean nothing can prepare you for racing with a GT1 Corvette, an AS Camaro, and said GT2 Panoz, in a $3,000 100HP RX7. Worse yet, the Camaro and Panoz finished behind me…
It would be great if I had remembered to turn on the video camera on the grid, but my nerves were so great being in between two GT cars I didn’t even think about it until the end of the pace lap when I saw the camera in the mirror.
Some highlights that the video would’ve included legitimately passing the Panoz on a straight, due solely to greater exit speed (MUCH greater exit speed). But as much as I’m ragging on these guys, I really appreciate the way they raced my little crapmobile. The Camaro waved me by (albeit on the straight…) and the Panoz let me by. Twice. The Corvette driver even met me after the race and apologized for holding me up in the turns, which he didn’t do as by the time I caught him again at the end of the race my tires were used up to the point that all I could do was make up a little of the lead he got in a straight line. But it was still wildly enjoyable, and it’s fun standing next to the car and saying, “Yeah, I qualified two tenths of a second behind a tube-frame purpose built V8 powered Panoz… and three tenths ahead of a ‘72 race-prepped Corvette”. And best of all, I handily won my class, running a Race record (new track, so every session is a new record) 1:57.925.
And for anybody wondering about any inter-class racing, I didn’t have any. I never thought the day of my first win in SRX7 would come by beating #2 by half a lap, but it did. That’s not to say the SRX7 class has dropped off in participation any more, rather it’s a combination of it being a one day race in Houston (most of the class population is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area) and on a holiday weekend. But it won’t be the first time I’ve been accused of being a heathen by racing on Easter… and it’s not the first win I’ve had on Easter, in fact it isn’t even the second. In Quarter Midgets I won a fair share of Monza races (a 4 race championship, one in each participating region) on this holiday. So it seems I’ve come full circle, now a winner in every racing genre I’ve participated in, and now it’s time to win a championship -- something I’ve never done on an oval.
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