Summit Point Raceway - MARRS 5 - 7/10/05

Ran my second Spec Miata race this weekend at Summit Point. We had a 31 car run group. I started my first qualifying session in last since I am a novice with no points / history. In my first session, I did a 1:36:044 at an average speed of 74.965 mph, moving me up to 26th for the second qualifying session. In that session, I did not run as well and was gridded in 28th for the race on Sunday.

In the race I surprised even myself, by progressively going faster and faster. I passed 7 other cars to come in 20th! I had a great battle trying (but failing) to catch car #39 for 19th place. I ran a 1:33:919 - my best lap ever - at an average speed of 76.6618 mph. :-)

I also go signed off with my regional license - one race early!

See results here and the time card here.

Lime Rock Park Race - May 7th, 2005

Results from the regional race at Lime Rock Park are here.



I qualified at the back, in 23rd position. Tire inflation was way too high (+6 lbs. over desired hot temp) and I was sliding all over the place. I still wanted to be near the back, however, since it was my first race so that was fine. My goal was to finish safely and get credit for the race in my novice permit logbook.

All of the Spec Miatas were impounded after qualifying. They seemed to be looking for issues with cage construction and design.



I worked up 5 positions to finish in the 17th spot out of 25 cars by the end of the race, which was a hell of a lot of fun! My best lap time was a 1.06.958, at an average speed of 82.261 mph.

Here are two GREAT pictures posted by the NER SCCA:





On the qualifying grid.


Looking nervous before the race. ;-)

Lime Rock Park - May 6th Driver's School

Yosh and I attended the New England Region SCCA's Lime Rock Park Driver's School. Yosh drove our #77 car and I rented a car from the guys at Flatout Motorsports since this is the last school in our area until October. The guys at Flatout were great and I highly recommend them if you need a Spec Miata rental in the Northeast. They were highly professional, friendly and down-to-earth, and had prepared all of the cars meticulously. The car I rented, #59, did great and performed flawlessly. After each session, they met me trackside and checked tire pressures, while tossing me a cold drink to keep my hydrated. The experience sure makes renting a race car an attractive option for times like this.





Yosh did exceedingly well in his first school and adjusted to rear wheel drive marvelously. Here is some video he shot of his practice starts (high bandwidth).





Once again, we headed to school with Andrew Ball and his father, Bill Ball of Ball & Ball Reproductions. Both Andrew and I were doing our second school, and we were both signed off with a Novice Permit for our first race the day after the school, on May 7th, 2005. I raced our #77 Spec Miata and Andrew raced Jack Banha's E30 BMW M3.







The NER's school was great. It was not as long or as structured as the Washington D.C. Region's school, but the instructors were great and gave lots of detailed coaching and advice. My instructor, Rick Pocock, is an experienced racer and driving instructor, and was simply fantastic.





Rick shown on left. Main group 1 instructor shown right.


And, finally, the moose from the cabin we all rented near Lime Rock...

Summit Point DS Movie

Just finished encoding some in car footage from the Summit Point Driver's School. We experimented with different camera positions so please bear with me if you view it. It is a QuickTime stream off of my MacOSX server. The QuickTime client is required. View it HERE.

New Trailer

We bought a new 18 foot long, open steel trailer made by Bri-Mar. It is pretty darned nice, powder coated and with all of the accessories we needed.



After checking out the trailer, we did some maintenance after the Summit Point school. Basically, we just had to bleed the brakes and change the oil! Tires and brake pads are fine. We also washed the car...