MID
The third
H-production report of the season comes from an
SCCA national event at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course here in
A 2.25 mile, 13-turn track with a
This event included
two qualifying sessions Saturday
and a 25
lap race on Sunday. The weather was finally nice!
Mid 70's and sunny the whole weekend.
Overall,
the event had a great turn out of small-bore Production
and GT
cars, with over 40 total in the field, including:
12 GT4s
10 GT5s
11 GPs
9 HPs
We ran in a
group of just small-bore, no bigger EP or FP cars.
Lots of tight racing.
The
competion at this event was very stiff. Several top-shelf
drivers
from around the east coast came in and it was a great
preview
for the September championships, also held here at Mid
We got the
transmission/flywheel problems and most of the
strut/suspension problems sorted out from the
previous
events, and the car ran well the whole weekend.
The car did
run hot though, stabilizing at about 240 degrees on
water the
whole weekend, although oil was nice and stable at
210.
8^( Gotta work on that.
Saturday
morning practice was spent tied up behind traffic for
the first
few laps, but I got hooked up with a GT5 Mini in the
middle of
the session and found a new personal best lap at Mid
I had high
hopes for the afternoon practice, but after many laps
that felt
really good, I was .75 seconds slower than my morning
session...
8^( Rats. Funny how that happens.
On race
day, we were gridded 13th overall, 4th in class of a 38
car
field, ahead of all 11 higher-class GP cars.
The race
was in the morning before lunch (group 3) with nice cool
temperatures. At the start of the race, I got what I thought
was a
good quick start, split the field and made a position or
two, but
Marnie radioed a few seconds later to say that race
officials
reported that I jumped the start. DOH!
After the
pack sorted itself out, I ran nose to
tail with
the #1 qualifer G-Production car (Scirocco) and
a GT-4 (
Scirocco
completely blew a turn and ended up severely damaged
and
sitting in the middle of the track. I almost got caught up
in the
wreck, but managed to squeak through.
(almost got some good video of it...)
A double
yellow came out for 2 laps to extract the VW off the
track,
enough that allowed the field to bunch back up. I was
still running
4th in class. When we went to green again I got
a bit
better start, and the leader in H fell out with a
mechanical
problem. That left me 3rd in class. A few laps later,
my
nemisis, the #71 yellow Triumph Spitfire ducked into the pits,
which put
me to 2nd, but it was a stop and go for him to check a
cooling
issue, and he came out right on my tail, on the last lap!
I held him
off through the first 4 turns, but he managed to pass
me on the
back straight, and I finished about 2-3 seconds behind
him, 3rd
in class and 11th overall. Unfortunately I lost
>another<
.25 second in lap time, with a fast race lap of only
1:47.8... Phooey.
In impound
my jumping the green flag came back to cost me,
as I was
penalized a finishing position by the Chief Stewart.
No use
protesting it, my video clearly caught me red handed
(but it >was< a close call!)
So I ended
the race 3rd/class 11th/OA. After the penalty we
moved to
4th in class, 16th OA. Prior to the penalty, on the track, we
finished
the race ahead of all G-Production cars.
GP/HP/GT4/GT5
Results:
http://www.rollcageguy.com/misc/MidOhio060604Group3.pdf
Next race,
BeaveRun, north of
Respectfully
submitted,
Matt
Brannon
74 Fiat Bertone X1/9 HP
#22