2013 FE Runoffs

[Keith Carter]

Not a whole lot of time to qualify thanks to the weather. Looks like the grid is set.

[Dale Carter]

Don't they have one more shot today at noon?

[Dale Carter]

Just saw that they moved all of the start times up. Was Q3 a wet session?

[Keith Carter]

Yep... Looked like a big red blob on the radar from the post in the FF forum.

[Wswen842]

Hey Guys, What happened to the Central Division guys? Only 8 cars running at the end?
Thanks in Advance.

[dc]

Why did Denny miss the race, anyone know? P2 and a no-show for grid?

[Marshall Mauney]

Hey Guys, What happened to the Central Division guys? Only 8 cars running at the end?
Thanks in Advance.

Actually only 5 running - it turned into a race of attrition.

I was out due to a crash in practice.
Carl P. had a severe engine misfire that brought him into the pits, losing him a couple of laps.
Mat C. out by contact in T8 with Kinlaw.
Steve G. out by contact in T5 with Schneider, after the halfway point.
McDonald's car quit running on the last lap.

[Wswen842]

What happened to Denny?

[ste]

Denny was a little woozy, has been pushing himself pretty hard lately - the medical staff advised him to scratch. A real classy move by him to put everyone else's safety first. I know he wanted that front row start at his home track pretty bad.

I need to apologize to Paul Schneider. I drove the whole way home trying to figure out what happened.

Finally got to my video last night and discovered that while passing him I didn't get the last downshift fully engaged and instead of being in 2nd gear at turn in, I was freewheeling it towards the apex with my rear end passing me. I seriously thought it was going to be a harmless spin and I would just carry on trying to chase him down again. Unfortunately our rear wheels just touched as he went around and bent LR suspension for both.

The car was great and I was driving pretty conservatively trying to make it to the podium. Any thoughts of keeping Rettich in sight were over by T3 on the first lap. I think Paul and I would have continued to have a good battle throughout.

Great job by Scott in another dominant performance and congratulations to Reece and Brandon - they both drove very well.

Steve Grundahl #5

[Kilroy Kinloch]

Hello All,

Congrats to all that showed up! Extra to you guys in in-pound. (The "good" in-pound).

The only thing I can really think about right now is when can I race again? VIR for the Goblins Go anyone? I think Cruz is in.....

Anyway, Back to the Run-off's......

The rains came and the rains left, but mainly that left all of us with very little track time. Wish we would have had the reverse.

I also wish Denny was with us. I agree with Steve, noble move. We will play again.

The weather for the race was perfect. The start was clean, several changes in position from 1 thru 8. Matt and I had a small collision in 8. Two to the "Bone-yard", but not the last.

None of us wants to crash. Just one of many racing incidents. Tough TURN of events, pun intended. I have no problem with Matt and look forward to playing again soon. I hope you guys can come to our neck of the woods, some "Bucket List" for the racers resume.

After the clean-up and re-start, Steve and Paul went out. I missed the re-start. At the end, the best race was between Brandon and Reece. Someone who knows please give us a play by play or post video.

Eric Cruz did us old guys proud with fourth.

Again congrats to all who attended

TK

P.S. (from Maggie) Kudos to all who came to play and a big congrats to the podium. Scott had a great run, and the racing between the two rookies (Brandon and Reece) was impressive.

A strange week with little track time. It seemed to cause many problems in a variety of classes, ours included.

Very classy on Denny's part. That was tough to opt out after all the hard work that went into getting there and even tougher after his qualifying. Also a great post from Steve G. regarding his incident. A shame as we look forward to being on track with such a good driver.

Eric Cruz, loved seeing you in in-pound.

Y'all come south to the ARRC for a rematch! Give us a "heads up", and we will put on a real feed.

Take care.

Maggie

[mikey]

I was fortunate to have an in-car feed from Brandon Kennedy since I know his grandpa (Wally Osinga) from back home and he hooked me up. All the action was right in front of him and by keeping it clean he ended up on the podium. The last lap was fantastic. I'm not at liberty to post his in-car (it was on ustream and I don't have it recorded anyway), but the speedcasttv coverage was all over it so you'll definitely want to catch their replay coverage. It appears to be linked already on their site, but I can't get the replay to load yet.

Reece passed Brandon into 1 on the last lap, Brandon got him back in T5 under braking but Reece got the final say in Canada corner. Both of them drove extremely well and kept it clean, giving each other the room when the pass was inevitable. Brandon's quote to speedcast afterwards was an instant classic "I'm really a boat racer, I just do this occassionally as a hobby for fun." His grandpa Wally is a super nice guy and class act - it's his car and he handles all the setup. Wally races in the SEdiv but ensured Brandon got enough seat time in the car this year to make the runoffs.

Had Paul maneuvered wider when Steve spun he probably would have finished 2nd. He didn't make that big of move to try and get around in T5 and subsequently the wheels hit as Steve mentioned. Probably easier to armchair quarterback since I wasn't in his car, but I think I would have used all the apron to the right to steer way clear. Tough day.

Thanks all for the show. Gives me even more desire to get to a runoffs in the future!

[G.B.]

I like to pass on my congratulations to Reese. 2nd at the Run-Offs! Wow.
See you next year.
Guy.

[MAC Racing]

Well this had to be the toughest week of racing I have been through in a long time.

It started with a good practice session and me looking forward to a good week. Qualifying one started and a few laps in while passing before turn 12 Keith didn’t realize I was coming and moved over. We had contact and I tore the right side of the car up along the wall.

After a long night of wrenching One Formula had the car back together and ready to go for Q2. Unfortunately rain came and the next sessions were a wash. We did get enough laps in the rain to find a vibration in Q2 and more work to do.

Now it was finally time to race, the race started well, it wasn’t a stellar start, I was moved back but was able to repass back into 5. Now I was behind Tilden and Steve, I had a good run through 7 and in the brake zone of 8 Tilden and I had contact. He went around and we made a second contact tearing us both up and putting us out.

My race strategy was to finish and drive a safe race. After the wreck in Q1 I wanted to finish more than anything else. To this moment I still cant believe the race ended that way, its a terrible feeling. All I can do now is apologize, put the car back together and hope for a better season next year.

Congratulations to everyone who finished the race and Thank You to all who came out and raced this year it was a good group.

Mat

[Paul Schneider]

Here's my video. I really do wish I ran wider of Steve after his spin !

http://youtu.be/47Sr-qKK3n4

[iamuwere]

Sounds sick trying to run without second.


You always THINK you have gone wide enough around a spin until that noise comes...

[steve everard]

Was a really unbelievable week for Reece and I (his dad) starting with an off track experience at the carousel on lap 2 of Q1, all 4 off the ground........coming down to earth with some back pain. Reece came into pit lane asking me to look around the car for damage.....I informed him nose and front wing still at carousel.....Q1 done, just as well because the back pain was fairly intense at this point. We thought we were done for the week. Luckily Reece's back was better next day and we were lucky enough to borrow a wing from Denny (he had a spare) and get ready for q2, I read the schedule wrong and was still asleep in the trailer when Q2 was supposed to be on track, luckily it was heavy rain and we would not have run. So Q3 was our only hope of a qualy time. The rain came down again but we decided that Reece must go out whatever just to get some laps in...up to now he had only 2 laps practice.... He was out on wets with me in pit lane waiting with slicks but it was too wet to change. So starting from the back our strategy in his first runoffs was "nothing to lose" plenty of time to work the field, don't take unnecessary risks and see where we end up...The events that transpired helped Reece with much attrition and mid way through I could see from turn 5 that Brandon in second was losing grip and Reece in third was still strong, sure enough Reece started to close the gap. For the last couple of laps they were even and there was some great racing between these young drivers with each respecting each others space. (made me very proud). Reece luckily came out on top of that battle to finish 2nd but could easily have been reversed. Brandon was a great competitor and his racing background certainly shone through on the over under move he prevented Reece from making in the last lap.(not sure if that's a hydroplane tactic or not ???? Congrats to Scott who had finished and (showered) before the rest had come around....how does he do that ?????


This was our first chance to personally meet the other FE drivers and crew and I would like to thank you all for your support and look forward to many race weekends to come.
Steve

[Kilroy Kinloch]

Good to meet you both!

Congratulation's on a great podium finish! I look forward to racing with Reece soon.
The ARRC will be my last FE run this year. Hope you can come. Great track!!!

Later,

TK