Memorial Day Monster Double SARRC- Recap

[aged racer]

The Memorial Day Double SARRC at CMP/ Kershaw was a weekend of mixed results.

I was taken out by an over anxious driver in Saturday's race while running in a tight pack in the top ten. He hammered me in the RR hard enough to break the PPF (Powerplant Frame) at the diff end (talk about "loose" after that happened- had to park it). So, a DNF for Saturday.

It didn't look good for Sunday's race. However, Steve Bertok (Panic Motorsports) had a parts car at the track, and provided me another PPF. Scott Malbon, a fellow BRR member and SM competitor from Blacksburg, helped with tools and an extra jack. Tom Fowler (OPM Motorsports, the big dawgs of SM racing) realigned the rear for me gratis. After a five hour thrash swapping broken parts, I was ready to try again on Sunday. (Big thanks to all these folks, great examples of competitors coming together to help each other.)

Sadly, the driver that punted me off made no attempt to find me in the paddock. I had to find him on the grid the next day to "discuss" the incident. Bad manners, dude. Things happen on the track, and mea culpa's are in order if you take out a competitor. (Karma will deal with those who don't fess up...)

Sunday's run was much better. On the first lap, the first, second, and third place cars had big troubles (check out these videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3247&hl=en) and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfJ__LuPp2k). The aftermath left a pack of four of us at the front, wherein we ran nose to tail and diced the entire race. I ran third for awhile, and was happy to finish 4th given the problems of the previous day.

I enjoyed meeting Scott, who had two solid runs for the weekend. He built his own car, an immaculate NA model with a lot of nifty construction details. I also noticed a couple of other Spec Miata competitors listing our region. I met Steve Layfield, from Abingdon, but missed talking with Greg Seigart, from Bristol, TN. Hope to see you guys again later this season.

That's it for the next several months for me, plan to pick things up again starting in September at the SARRC Invitational Challenge. By my rough count, we're up to about a dozen plus racers from the area (most but not all in our region), plenty of folks to root for as the season winds on.

Steve

[RexRacer]

Great report, Steve. Glad you were able to stick it out and get a good finish on Sunday! Those vids were entertaining...good to see spec pinata living up to its name.

As long as the planets don't go out of alignment, I will be out there with you guys next year.

[glenthompson]

The YouTube video was amazing - I would never expect a car spinning to take out the car in front of them.

How did you like the new layout of the back section? It looked to be a lot smoother drive.

I'd like to get back there sometime. Some friends just moved about 10 miles down the road.

[aged racer]

The new section is a big improvement, takes all the artificially slow turns out and opens up some passing room. You'll like it.

Jeff- looking forward to you getting out there. We need some more tin-tops in the region.

Did you notice that the CRB reclassified the '99-'00 Protege from ITA to ITB? I'm going to talk to the co-owner of my old SSC car about converting it. The weight is killer (2,645!), but we'd have some cars to run with.

Steve

[RexRacer]

Yes, I did see where the Protege got moved...and thought of you. I think it would be a fine car to run. Do it!