NASA Road Atlanta Sunday Thunder Race
03-18-2008, 04:10 PM
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St. Jude Donor '09
Video - NASA Road Atlanta Sunday Thunder Race
From my car, video is up here.
As mentioned in the other post, weather was nutty, but I sure as hell had a great time running my first (and second) ever real races. Saturday was wet and uneventful, Sunday was
!!
I ran a 1:38.566, I see the fast T1 guys are running 1:33's.
I ran faster laps as the race went on, my fastest being the very last one. I'm
for obvious places I can make up more time.
Thanks a ton to Jody (Falcon), Ed (FastEddie), and Ed (Eogel) for all your help and support over the weekend, was awesome to get to hang out and race with you guys!
Long writeup to follow...
As mentioned in the other post, weather was nutty, but I sure as hell had a great time running my first (and second) ever real races. Saturday was wet and uneventful, Sunday was
!!I ran a 1:38.566, I see the fast T1 guys are running 1:33's.
I ran faster laps as the race went on, my fastest being the very last one. I'm
for obvious places I can make up more time.Thanks a ton to Jody (Falcon), Ed (FastEddie), and Ed (Eogel) for all your help and support over the weekend, was awesome to get to hang out and race with you guys!
Long writeup to follow...
Last edited by mikahb; 03-18-2008 at 08:58 PM.
03-18-2008, 04:34 PM
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CI 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12 Vet
St. Jude Donor '07-'08
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Very cool! I am just north of you in Franklin, KY......if you need anyhelp prepping or anything let me know...I would love to help when I can...
Adam
Adam
03-18-2008, 08:24 PM
#4
Congrats on your finish and great video. I was watching the race from the seating area at corner 10. It is great to see the video of the race. It looks like you put up a great fight and came close to over taking the viper.
The red Mustang at the end of the race seemed focused on keeping you behind him. Another white one had no sense of traffic and almost hit the C4 Corvette. Looks like a lot of excitement.
Awesome video and thanks for sharing.
José
The red Mustang at the end of the race seemed focused on keeping you behind him. Another white one had no sense of traffic and almost hit the C4 Corvette. Looks like a lot of excitement.
Awesome video and thanks for sharing.
José
03-18-2008, 08:59 PM
#5
Burning Brakes
Adam,
Mikahb does not need any help! He is doing FINE on his own.
Mikah,
Congratulations on your second place finish! Really enjoyed racing with you this weekend.
Ed Gelston
Mikahb does not need any help! He is doing FINE on his own.
Mikah,
Congratulations on your second place finish! Really enjoyed racing with you this weekend.
Ed Gelston
03-18-2008, 10:00 PM
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Mikah,
Lost the pics I took of your race Sunday when my cam/phone/gps unit crashed as I was preparing to leave Sunday afternoon.
I even think I actually managed to get your car in some of them. 
Was hard to snap fast enough from the bridge to be sure of what you would get. 
Lost the pics I took of your race Sunday when my cam/phone/gps unit crashed as I was preparing to leave Sunday afternoon.
I even think I actually managed to get your car in some of them. Was hard to snap fast enough from the bridge to be sure of what you would get.
03-19-2008, 09:21 AM
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St. Jude Donor '09
Thanks for the nice comments fellas. Adam - I appreciate your offer of help, and I may take you up on it if I find myself in a bind! I know you've come down to some of the TRSCCA autoX events, maybe I'll meet you at one this year. 
Jason - we'll get some pics headed your way as soon as we get everything downloaded and sorted. Glad you made it back safe and sound!
MB
Jason - we'll get some pics headed your way as soon as we get everything downloaded and sorted. Glad you made it back safe and sound!
MB
03-19-2008, 09:22 AM
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St. Jude Donor '09
First off, let me say WOW!! What a weekend! There were tornados, crashes, torrential rain, mud, and some great racing to finish off the weekend.
This was my first (and sadly, probably only this year) event with NASA. As such, and since I had not yet run any "real" races even though I completed the SCCA school, they recommended strongly that I attend their Friday Competition School. This seemed like as good a way as any to get some track orientation, and I know I have a lot to learn, so I signed up.
Comp. School was actually quite a bit of fun, even though the 2nd half of the day was pretty rainy. NASA has a good curriculum that focuses on putting drivers in race situations. We did drills driving the whole track at 8/10ths side-by-side all the way around, swapping passes each turn, and driving the car offline. By the end of Friday, I was pretty comfortable driving in close proximity to other cars, and even though I didn't know the line - I at least knew my way around the track.
We awoke Saturday morning to news reports that a tornado had hit downtown Atlanta, and that we were in for extremely severe weather all day long. Greeeeaaaaat. But, we were determined to get out on track and make the most of our first race weekend. We got to the track, got tech'd and registered and got the car all ready to go. For practice, the track was wet but starting to dry on the race line, and I felt like I was starting to hone in on what could be a decent line around the track. Saturday qualifying was exciting because it wasn't raining as we got to grid, but by the time they turned us loose, it was coming down pretty hard. Lots of standing/flowing water made for... uhhh... "unpredictable" traction in many areas and kept me on my toes the whole session. I ended up qualifying first in ST2, and in fact on the pole for the whole race since the only car that outran me (by 0.1 seconds) on raw time was a Miller Cup car, and they were starting in the 2nd group behind us Super Touring guys. BUT, it was all for naught because when you're a rookie, you start your first race at the back of the pack, no matter where you qualify. So, that's where I started the race.
The weather was wild - we had large (windshield-breaking) hail, tornado sirens, torrential rain, and some pretty nasty wind. But, it would come and go, and Jim did a great job of keeping cars on track whenever there was not a tornado on track.
Saturday's race was really pretty uneventful. I passed one Porsche on the start, and then basically rode around behind Dave Pintaric and Craig Gelston for the rest of the shortened race. We didn't get any rain to speak of, and the rain tires were howling as we pushed a little bit through the dry parts. I was happy when the race was over, me still in 2nd place, and the car all in one piece! This was really officially my very first road race ever, and I survived!
Sunday was the day we'd all been hoping for. High of about 68 degrees, blue skies and sunshine all day. Thunder was the very first group out for our 15-minute practice/qualifying session at 8:30 and there was still some standing water in the esses, but the track was mostly dry. I was definitely feeling a little more pressure and nerves on Sunday than I had Saturday - mostly because there were a lot more cars, and I expected that even though I could putter around in the wet okay, when everybody with experience got out there in the dry, they were gonna drive off and leave me! So, the session starts with me gridded I think 19th of about 40 cars - mistake #1. We all blasted off and me, barely breathing and all nerves and adrenaline, started to go backwards through the field. I had slow cars in front of me, fast cars in front and behind me - there was SO MUCH going on and I was overloaded. I tried chasing around and passing slower cars, but I was overly aware that I was never going to get a good, clean, fast lap if I was picking my way through traffic. So, I decided that the right thing to do would be to drop back on the back straight, make a gap and then drive up on the pack again. Well, that didn't work either. There were still faster cars behind me, we were catching traffic even going slow, it just didn't work out. So, finally, when a particular red Viper went by me, I decided that I was just going to have to be aggressive and go pass some people and MAKE a good lap happen. Then they checkered our session and we were done. :-) I will put the video up soon.
I was frustrated and disappointed with myself, and my obvious display of rookie bad-decision making. I learned a lot, I think, about the art of qualifying well. I later found out I'd ended up qualifying 2nd in ST2, not nearly as bad as I thought. So, then it was time to chill out, clean the car, bleed the brakes, eat some delicious lunch (thanks so much to Holly!), and wait for the 1:35 race.
And then it was time, and there I was sitting in grid, at Road Atlanta, ready to go out and race with about 45 other cars. Holy crap! The video tells most of the story, so just a few notes:
Video, pics, and writeup are all on http://www.VetteRacer.net
Until next time...
This was my first (and sadly, probably only this year) event with NASA. As such, and since I had not yet run any "real" races even though I completed the SCCA school, they recommended strongly that I attend their Friday Competition School. This seemed like as good a way as any to get some track orientation, and I know I have a lot to learn, so I signed up.
Comp. School was actually quite a bit of fun, even though the 2nd half of the day was pretty rainy. NASA has a good curriculum that focuses on putting drivers in race situations. We did drills driving the whole track at 8/10ths side-by-side all the way around, swapping passes each turn, and driving the car offline. By the end of Friday, I was pretty comfortable driving in close proximity to other cars, and even though I didn't know the line - I at least knew my way around the track.
We awoke Saturday morning to news reports that a tornado had hit downtown Atlanta, and that we were in for extremely severe weather all day long. Greeeeaaaaat. But, we were determined to get out on track and make the most of our first race weekend. We got to the track, got tech'd and registered and got the car all ready to go. For practice, the track was wet but starting to dry on the race line, and I felt like I was starting to hone in on what could be a decent line around the track. Saturday qualifying was exciting because it wasn't raining as we got to grid, but by the time they turned us loose, it was coming down pretty hard. Lots of standing/flowing water made for... uhhh... "unpredictable" traction in many areas and kept me on my toes the whole session. I ended up qualifying first in ST2, and in fact on the pole for the whole race since the only car that outran me (by 0.1 seconds) on raw time was a Miller Cup car, and they were starting in the 2nd group behind us Super Touring guys. BUT, it was all for naught because when you're a rookie, you start your first race at the back of the pack, no matter where you qualify. So, that's where I started the race.
The weather was wild - we had large (windshield-breaking) hail, tornado sirens, torrential rain, and some pretty nasty wind. But, it would come and go, and Jim did a great job of keeping cars on track whenever there was not a tornado on track.
Saturday's race was really pretty uneventful. I passed one Porsche on the start, and then basically rode around behind Dave Pintaric and Craig Gelston for the rest of the shortened race. We didn't get any rain to speak of, and the rain tires were howling as we pushed a little bit through the dry parts. I was happy when the race was over, me still in 2nd place, and the car all in one piece! This was really officially my very first road race ever, and I survived!
Sunday was the day we'd all been hoping for. High of about 68 degrees, blue skies and sunshine all day. Thunder was the very first group out for our 15-minute practice/qualifying session at 8:30 and there was still some standing water in the esses, but the track was mostly dry. I was definitely feeling a little more pressure and nerves on Sunday than I had Saturday - mostly because there were a lot more cars, and I expected that even though I could putter around in the wet okay, when everybody with experience got out there in the dry, they were gonna drive off and leave me! So, the session starts with me gridded I think 19th of about 40 cars - mistake #1. We all blasted off and me, barely breathing and all nerves and adrenaline, started to go backwards through the field. I had slow cars in front of me, fast cars in front and behind me - there was SO MUCH going on and I was overloaded. I tried chasing around and passing slower cars, but I was overly aware that I was never going to get a good, clean, fast lap if I was picking my way through traffic. So, I decided that the right thing to do would be to drop back on the back straight, make a gap and then drive up on the pack again. Well, that didn't work either. There were still faster cars behind me, we were catching traffic even going slow, it just didn't work out. So, finally, when a particular red Viper went by me, I decided that I was just going to have to be aggressive and go pass some people and MAKE a good lap happen. Then they checkered our session and we were done. :-) I will put the video up soon.
I was frustrated and disappointed with myself, and my obvious display of rookie bad-decision making. I learned a lot, I think, about the art of qualifying well. I later found out I'd ended up qualifying 2nd in ST2, not nearly as bad as I thought. So, then it was time to chill out, clean the car, bleed the brakes, eat some delicious lunch (thanks so much to Holly!), and wait for the 1:35 race.
And then it was time, and there I was sitting in grid, at Road Atlanta, ready to go out and race with about 45 other cars. Holy crap! The video tells most of the story, so just a few notes:
- I was so wigged out at the start that I practically BEGGED 2 cars to go by me. It took me 3 or 4 laps to calm down and get my brain working again.
- Once settled, I started working on trying to pass Ed Gelston in the ST2 C4 (maroon) Corvette. He raced me hard and fair and I really enjoyed chasing him down.
- Once I caught Dave Pintaric in the red Viper, I got lots of lessons about driving the defensive line and how to make your car wider than it is. Dave kept me behind him by putting his car right where he knew I wanted to be, but made it clean the whole way. I learned a lot from this, and enjoyed the heck out of it.
- Once I got by Dave, I overcooked it into turn 10A... AGAIN... and gave the lead right back. Stupid rookie mistake - and one I hope I don't make again.
Video, pics, and writeup are all on http://www.VetteRacer.net
Until next time...
03-19-2008, 06:11 PM
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St. Jude Donor '09
Oh, and btw - I think those Miller Mustangs CAN be pretty quick. There were certainly some slow ones out there, but the red 554 car that you see in front of me had Dean Martin at the wheel, and he ran a 1:38.84 which ain't shabby at all in that big ol' beast. On the straights, I think their aero package makes some drag and slows them down, but through the turns and under braking, I was impressed.
On one lap coming down into 10A behind Dave in the Viper and Dean in the Miller, I thought I was going to end up buying both!!
Thanks Carbotech for stopping me about 1 foot short of that happening!
On one lap coming down into 10A behind Dave in the Viper and Dean in the Miller, I thought I was going to end up buying both!!
Thanks Carbotech for stopping me about 1 foot short of that happening!
