S.A.S.C.
Solo => Other Events => Topic started by: Reijo on September 05, 2016, 09:45:51 PM
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They begin tomorrow (Tuesday). As chance would have it, everyone from Calgary is running Tues-Wed.
Some others from Canada etc. such as the Swatzky's and Jeff Janzen from Winnipeg are also there ... as well as Neal Tovsen.
Introduction etc. here:
http://www.scca.com/articles/2002516-video-2016-tire-rack-solo-nationals-introduction
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General info, entries, run/work order etc. are here:
http://www.scca.com/events/1981888-2016-tire-rack-solo-national-championship-presented-by-garmin-virb
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Tom G. and Cam W. are running in the 3rd heat on the east course on Tues. and west course on Wed. in AS in Cam's 'vette.
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Stephen H. is in his Mini running in the heat after Cam/Tom on the same courses. There are two grids per course so he will be in the other grid. I chatted briefly with Stephen about the west course and how it is "different" but with lots of line choice ... lots of white space/distance between elements ... have to see how it works out ...
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Wayne D. and Ryan are in Ryan's Porsche Turbo in SS running same course, same heat as Cam/Tom ... only two classes in that heat.
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Again on the same courses and days, are Mark and Bridget Sawatsky of Winnipeg in their Ford 5.0 powered '69 MG in EML (1st heat) and EM (last heat).
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Jeff Janzen of Winnipeg is in an ES MR2 with Joe Premecz also from Winnipeg. They run 3rd heat on Thurs/East and Friday/West. Eric Peterson (another SoloPro instructor) and his wife, Christine are also in ES in another MR2.
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Robby Unser (yes, that one!) is running a 65 Nova SS in CAMT Tues./Wed. in the 3rd heat same as Cam/Tom but on the other course (west).
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Neal Tovsen who has taught many SoloPro Schools in Calgary and Ft. Macleod with Todd Cochrane of Minnesota, are running their blue CSP Miata Thurs/East and Fri/west in the 1st heat.
And Katie Lacey, Neal's wife, is in CSPL in the 3rd heat (they always separate ladies classes by a min. of 2 heats. 2 heats is good because you can leave the car in grid after you run for impound while the other grid runs ... and then they come back ... might only have to move to a different grid spot.
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Alan Rae of Calgary is in DM in his Caterham Super 7 (green/aluminium one that was at both YYC events) running in the last (5th) heat West/Tues. and East/Wed. FYI, he was at the first SCCA Nations back in 1972! :)
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Patrick Washburn (another SoloPro instructor who has been here many times) is running with Chris Delay (Wisconsin), are running the old '89 Honda Civic in the 2nd heat on Thurs/West and Fri./east.
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And Julie T (Calgary/Springbank) is running her silver 2003 Miata in ESL - Thurs/East and Friday /West.
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Dennis Healy of Portland is running his 2015 Mustang in ESP ... reason I mention him is because he grew up in the Toronto area somewhere and moved to Portland maybe 10 years ago???? Something like that. We always see him and speak with him at the Packwood Tour and Pro.
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Dean Chen and Nicolas Chu of Vancouver are in an S2000CR in STR ... a big class to watch ... Kevin Dietz found a bit more HP just before Nats for his S2k and Ron Bauer has been developing the new '16 Miata for STR (he won the Packwood Tour and Pro in it) for Mazdaspeed. James Yom of LA is incredibly fast, if he does not cone out, in his S2000CR.
STR runs 4th heat on Thurs/West and Fri./East .
Big class too ... 64 in open and class and 10 in women's.
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There may be some others from Ontario there but I don't recognize their names ... Bruno Lajoie and Carl Weiner from Montreal area don't seem to be there this year ... almost a fixture in Lincoln and Topeka before that!
There are some other friends I will be following out there whom I know mainly from the west coast - LA, San Diego, Seatlle, Portland etc.
How about you? Anyone you will be following? Most of the key people from the Packwood Tour etc will be there!
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Live Scoring and live streaming video (from both courses) will be available like usual. All the links can be found here:
http://sololive.scca.com/
Just scroll down the page for the video links. Now's a good time to have two computers beside each other .... might have to stay up late to do work! :)
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Just one other thing: Lincoln is on Central Time so they are one hour ahead of us ... Competition begins at 9 am Central Time (8 am Mountain Time).
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From Richard Arienzale from the west coast on FB: John and Daymon Krotez from Vancouver are running in STX, Darrin Linders is running in HS in his BMW i3, and Val Ball is running the car in HSL.
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From Toronto:
Dina O'Donnel in BSL (Jo and I drove her car the last 2 years in Lincoln).
Barry Greenaway in STR (he was my co-driver in Dina's car last year).
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thanks Murray! Can't believe I missed Dina ... thought about her and looking for her earlier!
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CS is running ... a number of national champions in there including Andy Hollis, Jason Saini, Bob Klingler .... anumber of CSP guys (Garfields), and S2000 people seem to have changed to the new Miata ... the ND. 86 competitors ... maybe only 83 with 3 no shows (DNF's)?
CS is the only class in the 2nd heat of the east course. Usually a heat is about 60 competitors.....so a big one.
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Oh yes, forgot ... 20 minute course walk after the 2nd heat like normal. This is an important walk to do to see where the marbles are and how much you have to change your "planned" attack on the course.
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Course walk is on the east course and then the 3rd heat begins ... AS and SS are running ... about 10-15 minutes from now.
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Oh yes, that new 2017 NSX will be running SS with Ryan/Wayne ... all "trial" runs .... times will not count.
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Cam jumps into 2nd behind Mark Daddio ("the" alien) and a tenth ahead of Glenn Hernandez on a rerun of his 1st run ... Jennifer Meridith spun out in front of him on his first run so a couple of re-runs in the AS group.
Good job Cam! Tom had coned ... as did Ryan (Ryan would also be in the trophies in SS on his 1st run otherwise).
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Cam is 0.5 behind the alien.
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Behind Cam 0.020 is Glenn H. and 0.020 behind him is Jeff Cashmore ... both National level drivers. Tom has now coned both runs unfortunately ... last run would've got him into 6th place ... a trophy! Just gotta clean it up but keep the pedal down!
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Cam is now in 4th .... 0.2 behind 2nd ... couple of guys got him by thousandths and a tenth ... Improved by 0.015 on the last run ... think the tires might be getting too hot ... might be time for double watering to cool them?
Ryan cleaned up his last run and is just outside the trophies time-wise .... provisional running so his runs will be dnf'd at the end.
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Excepting a cone, Stephen would've been in 2nd place ... gotta clean it up! Still in the trophies even with the cone though!
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Stephen cleaned up his 2nd run but was 0.5 sec. slower ... in last trophy spot - 9th.
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Top 9 places in AS are about 1 second apart in total. Some spots are thousandths apart ... Don't blink!
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Last heat, west course, Alan Rae is running in DM ... just started the class.
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SM: Jake Namer is leading the car owner by 0.0001 seconds! LOL .... close or what? and that is for the lead! :)
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Stephen is about 2/10ths out of the trophies (9 trophies)
http://sololive.scca.com/DS.php
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EM ... Jeff Kiesel and his mighty Sprite is running ... as well as the Sawatskys from Winnipeg on the east course .... last heat (5th).
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Mark S. in his EM MG is 0.045 out of a trophy ... whoops ... hit a cone ... drops him to 11th ... one little cone ...
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9-5:30 approx....to finish on the east course. West course was done earlier by maybe 45 min.
Weather held out ... sunny at the end ... see what happens on day 2 tomorrow.
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Looking wet this morning ... same run order and west course for our people today except Alan in the last heat on the east course in DM.
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West Course commentary: "Rooster tails behind the cars and it doesn't look like it (the rain) is going to stop any time soon" ... Still the 1st heat ... JA/JB (junior karts are running now) ... and they are looking for the heat 2 workers so probably better than 1/2 way through the heat ...
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Starting to get "less wet" ... drying tendencies ... forecast for more maybe 4-5 pm
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Drying tendencies ... 2nd heat, 1st runs on the west course for CS (they are the only class in this heat ... 86 entries with times!) ... I see some people are getting faster ... or so it seems ... getting brighter ...
The west course has more elevation change and dries more quickly than the east course ... can change quickly ... especially the next heat except for a few "streams" ... I think our guys in the 3rd heat will be dealing with drying conditions and it will become a "one run" effort with the last run being the driest ... so better make that one last run count! :)
Announcement: "Advance Auto Parts" have a stand/vehicle at the site where you can order parts and they will deliver to the site later in the day .... good idea!
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Andy Hollis (Texas ... CS - ND Miata) just changed to his "dry" tires .... probably shaved Bridgestones ...
Times are continuing to drop ...
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Actually on the video feed you can see the pavement is looking "darker" ... e.g. standing water is draining off and it is getting drier ... Times have dropped from 63's to Jason Saini's 61.3 sec. now ... Saini is in the lead ... he won BS some years ago in an S2000 ...
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Just noticed Saini is on BFG's ... as opposed to Bridgestones for the herd ... I wonder if the BFG's are better in the wet ... but Saini is also from the east which means more experience in the rain ...
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McCelvey in an ND Miata on Bridgestones just beat Saini's time ... so maybe it is the driver more so ...
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They just mentioned that Hsun Chen was on Kumho tires ... (Bridgestone listed on the results???) ... and he just went to 11th place ... (23 trophies) ... Maybe that Kumho tire is not all bad?
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Wow ... Jason Saini/CS/ND just ran a 59.9 ... no one has even run a 60 second run! Amazing ... there are guys who test tires for a living (Chris Harvey) in the field and no one is touching Jason. One difference I note is the BFG tires ... Perhaps they are much better in the wet than the Bridgestones?
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Think I just saw Tom on here ... advice: Never mind the "line" ... rather keep the tires on the high and dry instead ... and keep it smooth ... like usual ... a bigger slip angle in the wet is ok. Oh, and straighten your line across the "streams" ... and shortly thereafter: That is where you get major twitches that can cost you!
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Andy Hollis actually ran his Michelin rain tires on the first run ... as per info on the broadcast ... fellow interviewing him between runs and reporting back. Then he ran his "dry" tires with traction control on for his 2nd run ... (ND Miata). Andy does a LOT of tire testing and is from Texas ... including tire tests in the Grassroots magazine etc.
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Going into 3rd runs .... going to be a last run race ... with the slightly drying conditions I think ... and adjustments from the drivers for the conditions.
And, of course, 4 of our own will be running in the 3rd heat ... in a short while ... maybe just over 1/2 hour ... not sure if they will have a course walk or not ... thought I heard they were not earlier ... but that might have been speculation by the 1st announcer???? Odd....So it could be an hour before our people are running ... and Stephen in the heat after that.
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Times are dropping significantly .... obviously another stage of drying ... It is for sure a one run competition ... This will be the driest run for everyone and the 2nd drivers will be the last to run ... and therefore the biggest advantage ... and the later, the better. This is one reason to have as high a number as possible ... but that can work against you also .... if it starts raining during the runs.
Whoever cones this last run is going to be kicking themselves .... sounds like people are improving by about 1.5 seconds per run or there-abouts ... jumping from mid30's to mid-teens positions ... 15 or so spots ...
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Apparently there is going to be a 20 min. course walk.
2nd drivers on the 3rd and final runs .... some improving more than 2 sec ... Jason Saini just coned his last run ... would have been a 58.9 ... 1 second improvement ... door is open for McCelvey .... wow!
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Wow! Jason Saini cones the last run ... and ends up in 5th instead of 1st! Ouch!
That one cone cost him the National Championship! Double ouch!
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Just watching the course walkers ... recognized a few people ... think I saw Cam ... not sure tho' ... blurry.....some people from the NW - Karen Babb, Carol Leuty, etc. ...
However the conditions are changing rapidly ... it is looking brighter (almost sunny?), pavement has dry spots obviously and WINDY ... It is drying very, very quickly ... might be close to dry runs on the last runs of the next heat - AS and SS classes only. Includes Cam/Tom and Ryan/Wayne.
Stephen runs in DS in the next heat in his Mini ... should be dry by then.
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Wayne/Ryan could be in good shape with the AWD of the Porsche 911 Turbo ... in the wet conditions ...
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The scoring does not show any results today for Ryan/Wayne in SS ... since they are provisional ... too bad. Wayne's first run was 59.9 and Ryan's 1st run was 56.2 ... notably Ken Motonishi ran a 54.4 directly after him in Hi Ly's '07 GT3 ...
I guess the 911 Turbo is not an overdog in this class as Ryan commented ... makes sense. Even the announcer mentioned that he did not know how that car has never been classed ... and that it would probably go into SS ... which makes sense to me as well.
R
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Cam just ran the fastest time in the class on his 1st run in AS but he hit a cone ... drops to 7th ... whoops .. actually Mark Daddio ran a 54.582 but with 2 cones ... He is in 10th; the last trophy position.
And, Tom, unfortunately coned all his runs yesterday ... and got his first clean run on the 1st run ... 65.754 ...
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This will be a one run race again .... as the drying continues ... and the temps go up .... and tires get up to temp.
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Tom just ran a 58 for his 2nd run ... much better ...
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Just found the providential runs (Wayne/Ryan and the NSX):
http://sololive.scca.com/IDX1.php
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Cam just ran clean ... but the places are tight ... 5/10 between 4th and 7th ... and Cam is in 7th ... a trophy, with one run to go. Like I said, it is a one run race ... whoever does best on their last run ...
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You can look up all the results here:
http://sololive.scca.com/
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The course is dry now the announcer said; the report just came in from the pit reporter. However it is "dirty" ... e.g. cars are kicking up dust ... e.g. times are going to be faster by the run! Cam is running near the end of the class and that could be a huge advantage ... just gotta get a good and clean run! Go Cam go!
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Cam is still in the trophies with no one threatening ... 7th place for sure it looks like with one run to go.
Ryan just pulled up ....
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Ah, Cam only gained 1/10th ... but enough to move him up two positions ... think Cashmore might have just jumped ahead of him ... yes ... by 0.013 sec. So 6th place trophy for Cam ... It takes a lot to get a trophy out there ... goes to show you ... very stressful heat ... :)
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The alien, Mark Daddio, wins AS. Last year he actually pouched his best run and did not win in the same car ... so he is not infallible (I wrote the Sports Car Mag article on AS and SS last year - my job last year).
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Scott Fraser wins SS over Ken Motonishi ... both past multiple National Champions.
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Heat 3 next ... and Stephen in DS in his Mini.
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Stephen's back got loose in the 6 cone slalom .... and DNF'd his first run ... think it is still a bit dirty/slippery out there ...
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Congrats to Cam on the Trophy, very impressive!
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Stephen got back on-course and jumped into 8th (9 trophies) on his 2nd run ... Now he needs to put the hammer down and see how high up the ladder he can get on the last run.
I am sure the course is still cleaning up and rubbering up and thus is getting faster and faster ... so another one run race.
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Unfortunately Stephen did not improve on the last run and others did ... so he is out of the trophies now. :( If you look up the list a lot of the fastest runs for the heat are on the last run ... Needed that good last run to do well this morning.
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STX is running on the east course ... with Craig Wilcox leading the way also from day 1 ... and Alan Rae is coming in DM on the next heat on the east as well as Bryan Heitkotter in STU ... another big battle!
The Sawatskys are running next on the west course (5th and last heat). By the way they own the Speedworld indoor karting place in Winnipeg ... drop in there if you are ever there.
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72 cars in STX and Craig Wilcox takes home his 4th jacket (National Championship) ... Last heat with Steve Eckstrand (from LA) announcing .... Alan Rae in DM and Heitkotter is in STU.
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Jeff Kiesel in his Sprite wins EM for a total of 11 straight National Championships.
Bryan Heitkotter just won STU in his 350Z ... to add to his collection of championships.
Also, before I forget Jinx Jordan who came here and taught the SoloPro Schools a few times (co-founder but no longer with SoloPro) also won SMF ... coned his first two runs today and had to come up with a big result on his last run today and he did .... way to deal with pressure! :)
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Bryan Heitkotter just won STU in his 350Z ... to add to his collection of championships.
I just checked through the past results, and Bryan has 7 championships in 7 different classes, only 3 times did he go and not win. Now that is what an alien does here on Earth.
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Tomorrow (Thursday), Julie T. will be running her silver Miata in ES in the 2nd heat of the east course (west course on Friday).
CSP is running first heat on the east course with Neal Tovsen in his blue Miata with Todd Cochrane of Minneapolis ... Neal has, of course, been many times to Calgary/Fort Macleod to teach the SoloPro Schools.
Eric Peterson, who has not been here before, but taught with him in Florida a few years ago in a SoloPro School is running in ES in his MR2 with his wife, Christina (ESL).
STR is going to be a heck of a battle and will be interesting to see how Ron Bauer does with that new Miata. He broke a few parts ( 1/2 axle and the ring/pinion bolts came loose ... strange one that) during the Pro. Kevin Dietz and James Yom will be a couple of people to watch as well as Ricky Crow and a bunch of others ... fairly deep class.
Mr. Dennis Healy will be in ESP in his Mustang from Portland (originally S. Ontario).
Dean Chen and Nicola Chu from Vancouver have their S2000CR in there as well.
BSL - Dina O'Donnell (originally from Victoria .. now TO) is there.
AM and XP are always interesting classes to follow. AM runs first thing on the east tomorrow. Be interesting to see how well KJ does against Dan Washdahl (the old Phantom but highly modified since). KJ has done a LOT of work to that car and it is very much faster now and is regularly at the top of the PAX ladder in LA which should mean that it will be competitive. Marshall Grice has been co-driving with KJ and been beating him so maybe Marshall will take the AM title? But, Dan has won it every year he has shown up since he bought and modified the old Phantom.
Tonight there is the banquet at the Lincoln Center on the east side of town and where trophies will be presented and you will be able to buy event photos from Rupert Berrington there as well.
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Bryan Heitkotter just won STU in his 350Z ... to add to his collection of championships.
I just checked through the past results, and Bryan has 7 championships in 7 different classes, only 3 times did he go and not win. Now that is what an alien does here on Earth.
And more than once in a car that is not supposed to be competitive in the class! That's the really crazy part! hahahaha
R
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Exciting stuff!
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Big congrats to Cam!
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East course is broadcasting already:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/solo-nationals-east
People walking course, sun is out ... in the words of Jackie Stewart: "It is a fine day for a motor car race!"
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Both courses are broadcasting ... National Anthem ... courses closed for walking .... off to the races shortly!
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FM story this morning: Guy blew an engine earlier and a couple of FM competitors flew another engine out from Minnesota on a lear jet ... and the new engine is in this morning and he is ready to run ... cool story!
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Announcer on the west course is taking questions on the Grassroots Motorsports Mag FaceBook page ... live.
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East course - no audio ... and no sololive results .... AM is running on the east.
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Heat 1 is over on the west .... Julie is running in ESL in the 4th heat on the west course (correction on class) ... be up pretty quick.
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Jeff Janzen and his co-driver from Winnipeg are running in ES/east right now as well as Eric Petersen (SoloPro) in his MR2 ...
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Sololive is up again and you can see results ... or most of them .... think they are coming up little by little ... the timing ticker is still not working ... probably shortly. Sololive had not worked all morning for some reason.
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Dennis Healy blew his motor in his new Mustang ... not good ... :(
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ES after 1st runs, Jeff Janzen is in 2nd and Eric P. is in 9th ... 15 trophies out of 55 entries.
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I guess Jeff and co. blew a rear shock and hopped into other cars for their 2nd and 3rd runs ...
Also STR, Nicolas Chu of Vancouver in an S2000CR is leading after the 1st runs. Yom ran 1/10 quicker but hit 2 cones.
Would like to know what Thorne has done to that former BSP S2000 to be leading SSM! hmmmm.
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3rd heat just ended on the east course. Julie is up in ESL in the 4th heat ... worker change-over under way. She should be running in about 10 minutes or less I'm guessing.
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Pink Miata (no. 3) on the line ... must be ESL! :)
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James Yom pulls one out on his last run .. .only one into the 53's ... and pulls ahead of Nicolas Chu ... who stands on his first run in 2nd place. Dean Chen coned all his runs unfortunately ... seems to be a lot of that happening this Nationals ...
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Dina in BSl was 3rd after 1st runs .... 2nd runs underway ... still in 4th ... last trophy position!
Julie DNF'd the first run and then picked up the pace but a couple of seconds out of the last trophy position. Some fast gals in ESL.
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Dennis Healy picked up a seat in a STP (Street Pony car ... Mustangs etc. ... first time to run this class but not an official class this year).
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As a sidenote, Sam Strano just coned all his runs in SSR ... would've been in 2nd ... don't remember Strano ever doing that before!
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Dina did not improve from her 1st run and is now in 5th 0.065 out of the last trophy position (4th).
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Missed Barry Greenaway in STR ... from TO ... He is in 22nd ... out of the last 17th trophy place by 0.2 seconds ... 72 drivers I think ... 2nd largest class.
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So I think heard that Ron Bauer broke two axles ... in 6 launches ... good for 2 launches and then it blows on the 3rd one was the announcer's comment. Gee....that's worse than S2000's ... I am a little surprised ... especially when you think of how tough and "over-built' the Miatas have been earlier on.... This is more power but not more than a boosted Miata ... about which I have not heard horror stories of blown half-shafts ...
Also for Dennis, apparently the oil pressure dropped in his '15 Mustang and then after that there was a "knock" ... so obviously he did not drive that car today and hopped into another Mustang in the STP class (think he was in ESP originally).
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Here's some video recaps of the east course by the announcers:
http://www.scca.com/articles/2002576-video-2016-tire-rack-solo-nationals-east-course-recaps
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For the CSP video recap, you can see Neal Tovsen and Katey Lacey in the middle blue Miata with one side jacked up working on the car ...
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Here's a "list" of all the video interviews of champions from Tues/Wed and the current heats etc. ... Great idea these short videos/summaries.
http://www.scca.com/users/5343826/videos
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This is another video link that can be used ... might be more stable?
http://www.conechaser.com/sololive_watcher/
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How about an in-car video from E-Mod 2nd place (Jason Minehart from Texas) ... v8 Stalker west course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ye6p_NKTk
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Minehart's east course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ye6p_NKTk
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This east course (jet fuel side) video (CAM S, Bob Armstrong, Cinncinatti Region, in Adam Popp's '91 Corvette, No. 91) - I particularly like this video since it captures the "feeling" of what it is like to do a run at the SCCA Nationals. E.g., what it looks like; getting the "go ahead" from the grid people; to driving through the pits; lining up (note how few cars are lined up for instance); taking your run; finishing and picking up your "sticky" with the time written on it and back to your grid spot. Or if it is your last run, and you are in a class that has to be weighed, then you would proceed directly to the scales to get weighed "before" returning to your grid spot (you can see the scales tent to the left just about when he picks up the time slip). Your grid spot is also your impound for about 1/2 hour or so until the printed times are distributed and there are no protests.
Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaGYM7YRgYE
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They are talking rain starting around 1 pm today ... continuing to about 3 pm ... subject to change of course! :)
R
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Thanks for keeping us up to date Reijo with whats going on at the Nationals.
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You're welcome! Hope you are enjoying the experience from home ... :)
R
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Earlier start ... they are running already!
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Looks like Billy Davis will take CSP for a 3rd year in a row (2nd for sure) with Neal Tovsen in 2nd.
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Jeff Janzen and Patrick Washburn finish 2nd in their respective classes, ES and EP.
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After the 2nd heat there is the 20 minute course walk ... it is somewhat cloudy but not supposed to rain yet ... Julie runs in the 4th heat on the west course ... touch and go whether she sees rain or not.
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Julie coned the 1st run ... rain coming in 45 min. ... needs a clean run.
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Big drops on the announcer's windshield ... storm is upon them ... almost done this heat ...
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Julie about to do her last run ... lucky....
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A spin .. getting slippery.... Julie just left the line for her last run...
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Wow! Sam Strano coned all his runs ... both days! Unreal.
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Heat 4 west just finished ... lightening and the courses are shut down until it is over ... wet, wet, wet.
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It's all over ... thanks to the rain and slightly drying conditions, Dina jumped into the 3rd place trophy position! Good job!
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Dina's trophy is under protest, with massive amounts of drama.
From Dina's email:
So long story short the chief of our course threw out partial first runs once the storm hit. They should not have started the runs. So everyone started over with a clean slate in the rain. I came in third. The results are being protested then appealed and I think there is an appeal on the appeal. The real results won't be known for a few weeks - but provisionally I am now in 5th, but that is under protest. Feel sorry for the 2 ladies that could win our class - completely changes the results, and contingency etc. Sucked for everyone. All I know is I had a blast racing in the rain and really enjoyed my day :)
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This being my 3rd SCCA Solo Nationals attendance, I thought I'd share my take away experience...
1. This is the single largest annual participant Motorsport event in the world. The experience is one of a kind and should not be missed by any autocross enthusiast, no matter their experience level.
2. Competition at the pointy end of each class is fierce. But don't kid yourself, competition throughout each class is just as fierce. Everyone is looking to improve their placing, each and every run.
3. Weather can, and usually does, play a part in some classes outcome. Be prepared to run your best each run. You may only get one run that truly counts.
4. For me, being a non pointy end participant, there is comfort in car familiarity. Jumping in a car for a couple events prior is not conducive to best effort.
5. Camaraderie between fierce competitors is second to none in this sport.
Preliminary plans are underway for next year.
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Had a great time down there. Felt I drove pretty well on the east course but struggled with the west course, had lots of big sweepers that we generally don't get to practice here at home.
My videos,
East: https://youtu.be/7241lFc-STg
West: https://youtu.be/R2VJOC9HIkg
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Was great watching your videos everyone. Anyone know if Ryan and Wayne have some? Julie?
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Bryan Heitkotter, east course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkmwKhPl34
West Course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTtOXCJ8k9M
Not perfect but very smooth in general and really looks ahead.
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OK want a laugh?
Here's Marshall Grice at El Toro just before Nationals (Marshall had FTD on the west course and won A-Mod and FTD for Nats in KJ Christopher's ACME Special ... ex-Bowland Bros car ... that has won Nationals before ... which I ran in 2008 and got 3rd in ... and much modified since that time). Turbo'd motorcycle engine ... maybe Hayabusa or Kawasaki??? 280 hp, about 900 lbs WITH driver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z4cFLzlzMg
They will likely post Nationals videos here soon ... travelling back to LA now.
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Was great watching your videos everyone. Anyone know if Ryan and Wayne have some? Julie?
no video, but judging from the amount of other people's rubber on my tires, my line is not the one you want to see anyway! I agree with Wayne- great event to experience.
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Bryan Heitkotter, east course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkmwKhPl34
West Course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTtOXCJ8k9M
Not perfect but very smooth in general and really looks ahead.
Not that you can tell from the videos...
But Bryan Heitkotter was driving his newly refurbished blue '07 350Z HR motored car in place of his ex Brian Peters '03 350Z.
Prior to Packwood this '07 350Z car belonged to some old slow guy in Calgary 8)
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That A mod doesn't have a gas pedal anymore, now it is a fast forward pedal.
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That A mod doesn't have a gas pedal anymore, now it is a fast forward pedal.
One announcer a few years ago made the following statement
"if you see someone who looks like they are having a seizure, don't worry as it is probably just an A-Mod driver visualizing the course"
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That A mod doesn't have a gas pedal anymore, now it is a fast forward pedal.
One announcer a few years ago made the following statement
"if you see someone who looks like they are having a seizure, don't worry as it is probably just an A-Mod driver visualizing the course"
Haha ... might have been referring to Gary Milligan who used to stand there mimicing the direction changes with his hands held out as he visualized the course in his mind. :)
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Was great watching your videos everyone. Anyone know if Ryan and Wayne have some? Julie?
The event was not my finest hour. Day one I set my fastest scratch on my first run...can't remember the last time that was the case. The run looks a bit pedestrian and it felt that way too. Everything I tried to change afterwards didn't result in time.
Day 1 East Course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIx7XR3flxY
Day two, again had the same scratch time twice in a row and was determined to push like mad on the last run. I dropped about a second but plowed down the slalom as you'll see. I actually entered it so much faster that I over braked and then turned into one of the first couple cones cause I was going too slow...after that I just lost my rhythm. Garbage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baMEr4H0Lww
Wayne didn't always start the camera :) I can upload his videos if he would like to see them.
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Here's a good video from an F500/F440 in FM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd04QXfDkDc
:)
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My fastest runs both days (thanks Cam).
East: https://youtu.be/vSMO9_Vn9aA
West: https://youtu.be/o-FhnJCQ1FI
As you can see in both videos, especially day 2 (West) I'm simply under driving the car, don't know what happened but I got to the line and simply forgot how to drive, I was not looking ahead, not smooth with my inputs and driving nowhere near the limit of the car. A combination of unfamiliar surface (concrete) and an unfamiliar car on unfamiliar tires I'm sure had something to do with it but really it was just very poor driving on my part.
The experience as a whole is eye opening, the venue is so large and the level of vehicle prep that some people do is unbelievable. It was really cool to be a part of and big thanks to Cam for letting me co-drive his car.