clubracer6

Friday I recieved final word that my appeal for my DQ has been denied. In two seasons with NASA, this was my 4th appeal on a DQ/Suspension, but unfortunately, the first one I lost.

2nd lap of the Championship race, coming into madness, I went to pass a Mustang, Sawtelle and Griswald in his AIX Mustang. I was on dry tires on a wet track, so just a tad busy behind the wheel. I get past the 1st Mustang in turn 9 and get along side Geff as we go under the bridge headed to 10. As I crest the hill, I see the waving yellow and I also think I am just about clear off Geff (which I can see now, i wasn't). I get off the gas, but can't get to the right as Geff it still there. I do stop racing and deaccclerate up to to the incident. If I wanted to pass Griswald before the incident, I could have, so clearly I acknowledged the flag. As soon as we clear I am back on it. Apparently on the same lap, there was also issue with how I came into the carousel , but as you can see, there is no yellow in 12 and I do not pass until I am on the pit straight and the track is once again green.

My official DQ is because of turn 11 and where the stranded Mustang was. Even though I was not passing, I should not have been along side Geff - we should have been single file. In the 5 seconds from seeing the yellow, to the incident, I still contend I did not have time. My car was handful in the wet and I was especially careful under braking. Which you can see in the Speedcast video when I come into China Beach, where I would lose 3 to 4 car lengths on people. I feel I could not have braked any more than I did and more importanly, feel I was in 110% control of my car and was being extremely safe. That said, NASA is following the letter of the law, which I have to respect.

What bothers me the most is that the corner workers called it in and I don't understand why I wasn't given a black flag (furled or waving) or spoken to in impound. It's a shame that I did the interviews, the podium celebration, guzzled the champagne, enjoyed the accolades from my peers over the course of the next 3 hours at the track, and not once did anyone come to me to tell me there might be an issue. John Grabber was nice enough to give me a heads up, when I was 2 hours into my trip home (about 6 hours after my race. He told me there was a pass under yellow that was under investigation. The following morning, I called the race director for the AI race, Todd Covini. Left him a message saying I would like to talk to someone about what happened and that I wanted to send my in car to someone to review. All day, I kept checking the results and finally around 5pm est, they posted them as final and that I was DQ'd. Nobody contacted me or asked to see my video before deciding. In my 20 years of racing I have never seen anything like this.

I e-mailed my appeal on Sunday night and as I mentioned, found out late Friday afternoon the outcome. The apparently have quite a few issues like this they are dealing with.

I do have to say, John Grabber has been nice and as helpful as always and I do have respect for Jerry Kunzman, even though I don't fully agree with his desicion. He is truly a professional and still a racer at heart.

Anyway, here is the Speedcast video

http://www.speedcasttv.com/#/races/294
Start at the 14:36 mark... at 14:42, I am cresting the hill and I should be seeing the yellow now or in the following 10ths of a second - I think I am clearly ahead of Sawtelle in the 222 car, by just a nose. 14:52, I can't move my car any more to the right... If I ignored the yellow, there is no question I would have been around Sawtelle and Griswald with no problem. I had no where to go and I had stopped raccing at that point. The rules state if your pass is not complete by the yellow, then you need to fall back. I just don't think I had that kind of time.

My in-car of the incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFdNW...2&feature=plcp

Anyway, it is what is is and my apologies for not providing any cheese with this whine! There is always next year and another championship to be had, although this time it will be at Road America for me. NASA has a lot to offer and I still feel is a great organization, but it's clear that over the past two years, we just are not the right fit for eachother.

More and most importanly, I want to congratulate James Forbis on his ST2 Championship! Over the whole event I really got to know him on track pretty well and as I told him after, I really developed a great sense of trust running mirror to mirror and nose to tail with him. He chose wets for the big race and when the track dried out, he did the very best he could with them. They were literally smoking coming off the corners - fun stuff to watch. A great driver and truly a flawless championship drive!

For those still actually reading all this, you might be interested in my entire race... Speedcast missed a few fun things. I haven't had time to watch it myself, but will and will add some minute marks to take a closer look at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mkN...1&feature=plcp

brkntrxn

Regardless of the outcome, it was one of the best races to watch as the two different strategies played out in the changing conditions. Congrats on a great race even though you did not prevail.

Kevin

fatbillybob

Sucks that they did not review your side of it. I did not watch your video but usually you can tell from in-car when a driver is off the gas no longer racing uch of satisfying the yellow flag requirement. Road conditions dictate the absoulte response and what the guy next to you does too. If he backs off the gas because of the yellow you might be limited by road conditions how much you can get on the brakes. I guess a funny strategy would be for him to hit the brakes let you shoot by him under yellow and collect the DQ. Anyway it's just too bad. You mentioned RA next year which implies SCCA. SCCA is agreat place to race but they have their own problems. T1 is going through some issues that is costing us money with no benefit to the class but we are told there is going to be. If you go to SCCA what class will you go? T1 and ST2 used to be resonably close. Now coming with an ST2 car you are going to spend money to go up to STO or down to T1. My guess is that my local SCCA T1 group of a dozen are going to ST2 because if it means spending money they want to go faster not slower. If you go to T1 there are plenty of SCCA guys like me who would consider working a deal to do a car trade +/-$ to swap into out of ST2/T1. That trade would make either driver's optimization job for either class way easier. Think about that if you make the switch.

seebobgo

But they can't take away that feeling you had when that checkered came down.

varkwso

I loved watching the race at Madness.

Cobra4B

So the DQ was for being along side the 222 car while under a caution? You clearly gave the position back and looked to be fighting to not go off track on the outside.

davidfarmer

You raced a great race, awesome come-from-behind "victory". I have lots of photos if you care to remember the event (might want to forget it).

It was a crazy, wet race.

clubracer6

Thanks David, it was a great and run race! Always love pictures...

Yes, it was for being side by side with the 222 car. I really didn't give the position back - Griswald was in my way, when I went to resume my charge...

Absolutely - it was one of the best days in my racing life!

I have spent many years with SCCA, they drove me to NASA in the first place, so very aware of the many issues there. Pro's and con's to both of these clubs, but it's clear where I need to be and it's not with NASA. I felt like that before National's... This just confirmed I was doing the right thing. My car is pretty much an STO car and I have a fresh Goodwin World Challenge LS7 sitting on the shelf. Just need to pop that in, add a stand alone system and change my's 2's to O's and I'll be good to go. Just need some car counts there!

Glad the rest of you enjoyed the race - thank you! It was an absolute blast and nothing can take that away.

Also, big thanks to Ed at Import Repair for the support, Bob Payton and SpeedLab Dyno services, Joel at CSI for helping us out at the dyno at the track, Stance and Togue Factory for the wicked coilovers and endless support, Hoosier for dry tires that are awesome in the wet too and most importantly, DTE Performance. They spent a whole Sunday labor day weekend, working with Ed to rebuild my differential. You don't find people who stand behind their products like that much.

jasonberkeley

Alex-

You should look into NARRA. You wont have to do anything to your car to run in GT-2 or GT-3, they have a real national points championship based around an actual series, and seem to run events that put you, the customer, as the focus. This is where I am going next year after finally getting tired of the SCCA's disconnect from reality and it's customers.

go to www.narraonline.com to check it out. They also produce very cool and professional 20-25 minute video summaries of every race weekend. Check them out.

Jason

clubracer6

Hey Jason,

Yep, NARRA is pretty cool indeed, but not interested in traveling that much for racing.... Well actually, that's not true, I would love to travel around and race, but I have my day job, plus a wife and 3 kids!

PushinTheLimit

That's my only gripe about NARRA. If you want to try and race at all their events, you really have to do some traveling. Other than that, I like what they are doing and they are growing year by year.

RX-Ben

Well, at least how the points system is currently setup, you only need 3 weekends and then their finals. You may want to avoid GT2 and up unless you have a bit of cash to throw at the situation.

John B

4th appeal in 2 years. Wow First you lost Wow.

clubracer6

Yep, first one, I was black flagged (no furled warnings) while leading (by a good margin) and ejected from the race. The corner workers called in that I had passed the safety truck unsafely and used it as a pick. After supplying my in car video, my DQ and suspension was overturned, but of course I lost the win and the free Hoosiers that would have come with it.

2nd - contact with a stock car. Based off my report and the other drivers (who was driving on rookie permit), but no video. They DQ'd and suspended me. Submitted my video - overturned.

3rd - contact with a sport racer, same situation as #2 above.

Like I said, we're just not a good fit!