Run offs

[Steve Bamford]

I just watched the live streaming of the run offs & have to say it was as close a finish as there could be. I believe there were 4 cars within .13 seconds of one another. Exciting race, too bad about the long caution & that they didn't clean up the oil earlier.

[cooleyjb]

I just watched the live streaming of the run offs & have to say it was as close a finish as there could be. I believe there were 4 cars within .13 seconds of one another. Exciting race, too bad about the long caution & that they didn't clean up the oil earlier.

Yeah, they screwed up that call letting them run with such an obvious oil slick in turn 8. You knew that something was going to happen to the leaders when they got back to that spot.

Nice run by the top 4 at the end though. Extremely entertaining.

[RussMcB]

That was like he FA race finish, squared! :-).

[jim morgan]

Great Race

[dc]

Great race. Would have loved to have seen Michael around for the checkered flag, but it was fun watching his march back through the field after the SCCA dropped the ball on the oil-down in T8.

[Matt King]

Sorry to say, I was involved in the incident that caused the oil slick in Turn 8. I got a decent start and passed a few cars going into T1, then drove around an incident in T5, where at least one car was sideways in the middle of the track. There was a white nose cone in the middle of the track and the car that was missing it was going slowly up the hill. I passed him going up the hill but in the braking zone for T8 I saw the noseless car in my mirror coming down the inside. I gave him room, made my apex, and as I was straightening out the wheel, I see a blur of yellow and blue come streaking down from the left, hit my left rear and then proceed to drive over my left front. I know it was Dave Satterly because I read his name on the side of the cockpit as he was flying over my wheel! The oil came from Satterly's right valve cover getting ripped off as he went over. Oddly enough, I had a bit of a toe change after that and the car was really squirrely under braking. I got an awful restart after the yellow and lost all the positions I had made up on the start, so I just cruised to the finish, the last car running.

Big thanks go out to Bill Stycyznski for loaning me a front beam after I bent mine in Q3, Bruce Livermore for the use of a set of wheels and tires, and Tad, Ian, and Terry Lenhart for the crew help all week. I got a real rookie intro to the Runoffs, but it was overall a fun experience at the end.

[Speed Sport Engineering]

Thanks Doug -

I had fun coming back through the pack. I'm actually ok with the way things went, mostly because I didn't give up. Even under the yellow while looking at so many cars in front of me all I was thinking about was which ones were going to give me the hardest time and which ones would be easy to get buy. I actually was thinking I could still win it.

I just got a bit too greedy going into 12. I probably could have been a bit more patient once I got back up to about 5th or so, but I was on a mission.

Some kind of emotion from the corner workers in 8 when all the oil was down would have been nice though. I saw the stationary yellow but I was looking around the corner as I headed down the hill, and all the workers were in the station and looked bored. I figured the yellow was for a car off as the track looked clear. I had no idea there was a gallon of oil down. Let this be a reminder to the workers - drivers watch your emotions to judge how serious a situation is ahead.

I thought that lap was my break away lap - I had opened a bit of the gap I need in 5-7, and I was thinking if I could get 8 perfect I could check out. Oh well. It was more fun this way....

Michael

[mblanc]

Some kind of emotion from the corner workers in 8 when all the oil was down would have been nice though. I saw the stationary yellow ...............Michael

Really ??????

Stationary yellow only?
No Debris flag out ?

Too bad they had to crash the leader, THEN pull a FCY.

Great job anyway Michael, you know everybody was rooting for you on your run back to the front.

-not to only criticize the flagging, I thought overall flagging was good, especially during FF Q3, sudden sprinkles, lots of debris flags out quick, w/ workers pointing up-but somebody blew this one.

[Gary Michael]

As I entered turn 8 I saw the yellow and watched the Jennerjahns drive straight off in front of me, as it happened I thought WOW they sure are going wide as I slid off right behind them. I then saw Michael facing me as I entered the Carousel and following that three cars sitting in the trap on the outside .

I later got a really good look at Michaels nose as he spun in front of me in 12 , that one was too close.

[problemchild]

I looked for the oil in the carousel in subsequent laps and could not see it. As this video from a field-filler shows, there was definitely something there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5gT98tMp6E

PS .... video from the $25 camera discussed elsewhere.

[csatte02]

After watching the in-car and talking to my dad he said he hit some oil under braking in turn eight causing him to hit Matt. The in-car looked liked he started braking around the 250ft point. He spun around after getting a bit in the air and stalled it on the exit of turn eight. (inside) This caused the puddle in turn eight. Whatever was in the carousel was different oil because that was all ahead of the turn eight problem. Sorry Matt, Stu, and Mike who were so greatly affected by this event.
Chris Satterley

[FVRacer21]

Thanks Doug -

I had fun coming back through the pack. I'm actually ok with the way things went, mostly because I didn't give up. Even under the yellow while looking at so many cars in front of me all I was thinking about was which ones were going to give me the hardest time and which ones would be easy to get buy. I actually was thinking I could still win it.

........

Michael

Watching the live stream, you could see the oil before you hit it - ouch. With Vees, you know there should have been a .

After the yellow, you could see you were coming - too bad you were just off camera so we didn't see the start of your spin, just the end.

RA is just a "little" to fast for the FV championship. But then again the same could be said for Spec Racer probably.....

Hey, maybe they should start inverting the field

ChrisZ

[problemchild]

After watching the in-car and talking to my dad he said he hit some oil under braking in turn eight causing him to hit Matt. The in-car looked liked he started braking around the 250ft point. He spun around after getting a bit in the air and stalled it on the exit of turn eight. (inside) This caused the puddle in turn eight. Whatever was in the carousel was different oil because that was all ahead of the turn eight problem. Sorry Matt, Stu, and Mike who were so greatly affected by this event.
Chris Satterley

**** happens .... it does not matter whose oil it was .... but ... if Dave ended up parked in Corner 6, presumably he drove from 8 to 6 ..... and through the carousel in the process

[Bill Bonow]

Congratulations to Rick Shields for a well deserved Runoffs Championship! I think congratulations should also go to VSR and the VDF chassis. It is wonderful to see a trailing arm car return to the Runoffs winners circle.

[csatte02]

Originally Posted by problemchild**** happens .... it does not matter whose oil it was .... but ... if Dave ended up parked in Corner 6, presumably he drove from 8 to 6 ..... and through the carousel in the process


He did drive through there, but the three cars were already off in the carousel and it happened on the same lap. it seems like two people dropped oil.

[Bruce Livermore]

I thought at first that someone had oiled the track essentially from the beginning. I had to "pedal" the carousel on the first racing lap and struggled in 12 and 14 to keep up. But when I went all the way off at one starting the second lap and halfway off again at 3 (no rear grip at all), I just drove off the track at 5 so as not to be a moving chicane the rest of the race.

Upon reaching my paddock, I found that the hit I'd incurred at 5 on the first lap was more severe than I'd thought from inside the car. I had white marks on the outside of the LR as well as a large cut down the center of the tread of that tire (shock tower??) and some bodywork damage and tire marks on the top of the tail... I guess I should have gone 2 wide through 5 rather than making room for the dive bomber who just had to get by me late in the braking zone even though I was ahead and already well to the inside as we approached the braking zone. The white nose came from the poor guy behind who must have expected me to go two wide and ran over the top of me as I tried to make racing room for the bomber.

The final results indicate that Rick learned not to go two wide in every corner and won the race as a result. Congratulations to him on the win!

Post race tire pressure in the LR: 10 psi. No wonder it wouldn't turn right. It's still at 10psi today so I suspect it went down immediately upon impact on that first lap causing the loss of rear grip. So oil on the track wasn't my problem, at least not that early in the race.

The whole week was like that (the whole year for that matter...). Nothing worked, everything I tried failed or backfired. My goal for the race? "Survive Through 5". Even that didn't work.

As they say: there's always next year. And I've promised myself I won't waste any energy or enthusiasm fighting windmills next year. I'll arrive prepared or I won't arrive at all...

After my miserable performance this year, for sure I won't have the curse of the SportsCar podium pick working against me next year. I knew they had it wrong when they picked Brad, who hadn't turned a wheel all year, and me, who hadn't had my head screwed on right all year. But then even Mike didn't survive "the curse" this year. At least he put on a good show!

[Bill Johnson 42]

Bruce - I'm the "white nose" guy. We met at MAM in August.

First of all, I'm really, really sorry for hitting you. Didn't know it was you until your post. From a racing standpoint, not much went right for me all week. Seems like every new part on my car for the Runoffs had a problem and all the old ugly ones worked just fine.

Had a good start - I think you did too - everything seemed almost too good to be true. All I was trying to do was get through the first lap. Got down to 5 and was just going to stay on the outside and follow the 2 cars there, but the inside behind behind you was just so wide open that I couldn't not go there. At no point did I think it was risky move or would even be close, it was just so open. We started to turn in and I thought you would just pinch the corner a little bit, get on the gas and head up the hill and we'd be good thru the carousel. I was already back on the gas when we made contact. I told everyone after the race it was completely my fault, but I just couldn't figure out why the car in front of me didn't go - now I know why.

Hopefully you can make it back to MAM next year, I'll even return the slice of rubber from your tire, it was still on my car when we unloaded at home.

This was my first year in FV and my second time to Road America, it's been an educational experience. I learned that just because a part is new, doesn't mean it will work and that I need to buy some special tools like a really big hammer and a wheel nut whacker tool. Also learned it gets pretty chilly driving up the front straight at Road America with no nose on the car.

I've met a lot of great people in this class and I'm looking forward to racing next year.

[Diamond Level Motorsports]

It is wonderful to see a trailing arm car return to the Runoffs winners circle.

Boy, I couldn't agree more. If I had to hear "No trailing arm car has won the runoffs in 20 years" again I may have gone crazy. BH are you reading this?

Congrats to Rick and thanks for saving me from the "men in white"

[problemchild]

Scott,

Actually, I believe the number was 0 fer 24. Does 1 fer 25 make that much difference to you. I am sure some could say that he won despite having forward arms.

[Matt King]

Maybe next year sidepods will be back. Citation FTW!

[Bruce Livermore]

Hey Bill,
It was just one of those racing incidents that happen with more frequency at the Runoff's than other times because everyone is just a bit over the top. I can even understand the guy that went inside me so late. It was there so he took it. To defend I would have had to be very aggressive in blocking inside. It was only the first lap and I just didn't do it.

There is so much compression within a group of Vees under braking at 5 that you can pass a few cars every lap if you insist on it. But it usually puts you 2 or 3 wide at turn-in so it always slows down the group.

RA is as much a head game as anything and to go fast lap after lap as a group takes a lot of discipline to not slow yourself and the others down. It's more of a dance than a race until the last lap...

Of course I wish I'd had the opportunity run the whole race if only to see if I'd finally gotten the car working. Running all of a lap in the race at the end of a long week is just kind of a bummer to end the season on. I'm sure you feel the same. It's certainly not my first time going out early, sometimes due to my own over-aggression It happens.

But my car is in one piece and so am I. Better luck to both of us next year.

I'll look at the schedule and might head to MAM for the early race if it fits. Often it is in direct conflict with an early CenDiv race and I stay closer to home. I like the track, but the August weather there, not so much! But I'll come if I feel I need to like I did last summer.

[CenDiv4]

I have to say watching the FV race online was one of the best races I have seen in a long time! Really made me wish I was there but hindsight is always 20/20. Congrats to everyone for putting on a great show. Even the announcers were really into the race. If you listened to them in other race coverage they did not have as much excitement. They were even promoting the class, saying if you want to race on a low budget this is the class for you..........
Rick congrats on the win. Any of the cars in the front pack could have won the race after T12. It was exciting to watch it develop.
It sure was a bummer sitting at work all week and running to the computer to check timing and scoring.
Is it spring yet?
Jim Dziewior

[kea]

I would like to congratulate Chuck McCormick, who came to the Run-Offs with a new car he only started building in the middle of the summer, and finished 12th. Not something I would have recommended, but he did it and should be proud. As many of you know, so much can go wrong the first time a car turns a wheel in anger.

[VDF1]

Congrats to Rick Shields and others for a great race. Condolences to the racers and teams that worked so hard, but had disappointing results.

I was at sea at the time of the race. Does anyone know where I can look to see a replay of the race? Nice in-car, Greg.

I still believe in trailing arms! Next car will have 'em...

[SwanTechEnt]

I watched the race live on speedcasttv.com, and I believe they will have all the races on the site available to watch sometime soon. I know they still have last year's runoffs still available, so I can only imagine they will put up this year

[G.B.]

It states on the following link...

http://www.speedcasttv.com/scca/

10/1/10Coming Soon... 2010 SCCA Runoffs On-Demand

[VDF1]

Thanks guys!

[Tiago Santos]

Anyone know what happened to Tommy Boileau? I was excited to see him race, thought he had done a great job in qualifying (13th IIRC). From the results, I guess he got caught up in the oil slick? hehe

[problemchild]

I believe he was the 4th beached car at the carousel.

[VDF1]

It's a shame that Tommy went out so early. I heard that when he went off, rather than roll the car, he opted to hit (a barrier?) and ended up with a bent front beam and a bruised foot. Keep an eye on this kid, he's a rapidly rising star!

[Tiago Santos]

Ah, bummer.. I was hoping he'd score some points for all of us below average age Vee drivers!

[csatte02]

Pics and video of the first couple laps
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3764793...7625080765734/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIJU3mn56DE