Jim Stark Memorial Race report- Roebling Road

[aged racer]

A challenging weekend at Roebling Road- historically I’ve not run well down there, in particular crashing out the last two times. The place is in my head, so the only solution is to mount up and ride that horse again.

We had a big field in Spec Miata, (40) cars on Saturday and (38) on Sunday. It was also unseasonably hot, with Sat temps around 90 degrees. The good news is that I was able to run a little bit faster in Sat qualifying than last year. The bad news was that put me 18th on the grid- in the middle of the occasional madness. I was just less than 2 seconds off the pole time, and 3 seconds covered most of the field!

For Saturday’s race, I benefited from a good start and got as high as 15th or so before spinning near the end and giving back most of them to finish 17th. It was good to see the checker from behind the wheel, though (as opposed to the roll back truck), but a mediocre run at best.

Sunday was a little happier story. Qualifying was terrible (21st…), but my start was even better and I benefited as well from a little first lap tango a few cars ahead (see video- that’s me at the end slipping by on the inside).

http://vimeo.com/4388384

Got as high as 12th or so but slipped back to 16th while dueling with a couple of faster cars playing catch-up. A better run, even if the results don’t show it. More importantly, drove the car on the trailer under its own power, and I’m starting to feel a more comfortable on track. RR is all about handling, and the fast guys do lots of testing and data analysis. When I go back in October for another try at the SARRC Invitational I’ll have the use of a Traqmate and an extra track day, and a goal of a top ten finish.

As far as I know, no one else from the Region was there. That will not be the case at the upcoming MARRS/ SARRC at VIR next weekend (May 9-10)- look for a pretty good turnout among the local racers. We can only run Saturday, so I will drive the Miata in SM and Drew will run it in ITS without the restrictor plate. Report to follow!

Steve