2006 SCCA Runoffs

[MadMerv]

Lots and lots of Mazdas at Heartland Park this weekend for the National Championships, AND Mazda just announced it will give away a FREE 2007 MX-5 with all the parts, cage, tires, etc. to run the Pro MX-5 series next year. Any Mazda powered racecar driver that wins it's class, is eligible to win! Can you imagine? I would have hoped it was just for Spec Miata, but it's still fantastic that Mazda is doing this. In the 37 years of the Runoffs, this is the largest prize package ever to be awarded, by anyone.

Thank you MAZDA!

Now, back to the qualifying. So far, fifty-six Spec Miatas have qualified for the race on Sunday. Typically, SCCA only allows twenty cars per mile of race track, and since Heartland Park is a 2.5 mile course, that would only allow fifty to race. They have NEVER had a field this big, so it will be interesting to see what they do. Anyway, three days of qualifying are complete with one to go tomorrow. The top five quailifiers are less than 0.3 seconds apart. Top fourteen are within a second. It should be one awesome race on Sunday. Wish I were there.......

[channelmaniac]

Wish I were there.......

WHY AREN'T YOU?

Do we need to have a Prep Merv's Car day?

RJ

[MadMerv]

WHY AREN'T YOU?

Do we need to have a Prep Merv's Car day?

RJ

I need a good welder (person)!

[channelmaniac]

Damn... can't help with that one.

[IPRESS]

I will be there Friday morning.

I am going to watch and sell some T-shirts to raise money for prostate cancer research and the Heartland Park Foundation. I will try to downloads some pictures of the shirts so that if any of you guys want one or more you can contact me.

[MadMerv]

Update after final qualifying:

Three of the top six are from Texas! Top 12 within a second. Top 20 within 2 seconds. Race is at 10:55, Sunday. Live timing and scoring can be seen here:
http://216.58.238.35/events/pitboard...=Race&Class=sm

[MadMerv]

Well.......it's all over. Temperature was 53, track was damp, and misting at the start. The guy on the outside of row one, Andrew Caddell (eighteen years old!) got the jump at the green. Pole sitter Blake Clemments, from Kenedale, spun in turn two, causing a big crash behind him. Five cars couldn't continue, the other three were back to positions 36, 42, and 43. Those that cleared the maylee, gained up to 21 positions by the start-finish of lap one! It was now a totally different race than expected, except for Andrew, who cruised to his first National Championship. Blake began moving thru the field from position 42, picking off one to five cars per lap, all the way to 11th place, and posted the fastest lap.

Many other (smaller) incidents occured throughout the race, reducing the 56-car field to 38 at the checkered flag. Some were weather related, some mechanical failures, and the rest were just poor judgements. All in all, some very intense battles throughout the field for forty minutes.

The surprising thing is that everone that was impounded passed tech, especially with the history of Spec Miata. The tech crew tore down engines, transmissions, and rear ends for the top five. I think they have finally figured out how to keep people from cheating.....

[IPRESS]

Actually Blake got tapped and that started the melee. We were in the grandstands at T1 and with the track cold and wet we expected worse than the stuff that happened. Young Andrew can drive. He got a jump on Blake and was never challenged. Karl Zimmermann from Austin, Aaron McSpadden from Austin, Matt Reynolds in school at Austin, and Tony Rivera from MSR Houston all had strong drives to finish top ten. I spent all afternoon Sunday (after the EP race) with Eric Foss (5th) & Jason Saini (Team MER at MSR) tearing Eric's car apart in the Tech building. ALL passed with a question on Mark Rampelberg's (finished 2nd) head being under question but it looked like he was going to clear. SM race had the largest spectator group of all the races. It was nice to see SM cleared of the cheater label for a change.

Observations (or Mac's opinions):
Heartland Park is a great location and Topeka likes SCCA, but a bigtime track would be a better venue.
The Runoffs is way too long. I would think it would be better to cut a couple of days off of it.
Miata's have a lot of classes to run in.
Pontiac got a gift in SSB.
John Saucier (Mazda3 SSC 2nd place) should be every driver over 50's HERO.
Mazda should find more (REAL ponies in their motors , Hondas should not have that big an advantage)
The Kansas Turnpike is expensive.

[altiain]

The Kansas Turnpike is expensive.

It's even more expensive if you get a "souveneir" while you're up there.

(Sez the guy who mailed $150 to the Kansas Police Officers Benevolent Fund this afternoon...)

[Radio-Active]

IIRC $8.80 to ride the whole way up. Compared to the Dallas North tollway, it's a bargain. :)

[MadMerv]

Observations (or Mac's opinions):

John Saucier (Mazda3 SSC 2nd place) should be every driver over 50's HERO.

Over 50? More like over 70
Actually, John is a very nice guy. We raced together alot when I was running SSB.

[MadMerv]

FYI, here is the video of the incident. I've watched it many times, and I can't put the blame on any one driver. OK, so Blake is ahead by 2/3 of a car length, and is going left to the apex of turn 2. The black car (Pombo, I think), already has his nose inside a bit. Now comes the red car, who I will call Bozo, even farther inside with his nose under Pombo. They all wanted the same spot, which could not happen, obviously.

The rules state that you have to give the guy racing room, but it also says that if you're in front, you have control of the corner. I've been in this dilema before, and even the race stewarts don't agree on who is right and who is wrong. Very frustrating.

Each driver has a valid point:

Blake: I was in front and I was in control of the corner.
Pombo: I had my nose inside, had no where to go with Bozo's fender inside of me. No one gave me "racing room".
Bozo: I was inside Pombo and he didn't give me "racing room".

Poor Pombo was the meat between the bread! Blake was going for the apex. He could have given them more room, as there was nothing on his outside (driver's right). Bozo should have backed out, but he had more momentum than either of the other two. If I were Bozo, and I have been at times, I wouldn't have attempted it knowing they would "shut the door". Instead, he bullied his way through, not caring about the consequences. BUT, this is the Runoffs, and drivers tend to have big ego's at the most inopertune times........

Enjoy the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lolDLpcNHgI

[IPRESS]

OH I know he's over 70, He just proves we (you, me, and the rest of the young old guys) have a future!

[kverges]

This video is the precise reason I did not try the runoffs. Factor in that a front running car now needs a fresh pro built engine (probably at least $5K) that will be torn apart if you do well. So you have to budget at least $10K to run up front, probably more like $15K and to get punted in the second turn?

Besides, Blake kicked my ass pretty much all year, soI'd have been even worse off