Majors - RA 19-20 Mar

Post Reply
jferreira
Posts: 19
Joined: November 2nd, 2011, 1:12 pm

Majors - RA 19-20 Mar

Post by jferreira »

Saturday AM Qualifer

36 Dale Rader 01:44.6
80 Stevan Davis 01:44.7
52 Mitchell Ferguson 01:45.2
9 Stephen Saslow 01:45.4
30 Donnie Isley 01:45.4
10 Sherman Engler 01:45.7
99 Gregory Bruns 01:45.8

Saturday Race
Double Yellow Lap 5 with all 7 running nose to tail
Next to last lap - Davis goes from 4th to 1st from turn 8 to the Start Line
Last Lap and the FF are JUST behind the FV's. FV's go by and the FF then get the checkered.
FV's catch the tail end of the slowing FF's at turn 7 and it gets crazy ...

1st 80 Stevan Davis 01:45.4
2nd 30 Donnie Isley 01:44.9
3rd 52 Mitchell Ferguson 01:45.3
4th 36 Dale Rader 01:45.6
5th 10 Sherman Engler 01:45.5
6th 99 Gregory Bruns 01:46.2
7th 9 Stephen Saslow 01:45.1
The top 4 took turns leading. All 7 nose to tail at the finish.

Sunday Race
Lap 3, full course double yellow + black flag, everyone into the pits.
Took 20 minutes to pull the FF out of the gravel trap.
Turned into a 4 lap shootout.
unofficial results from SCCA scoring (as the announcers had a different finish)
80 Stevan Davis
30 Donnie Isley
36 Dale Rader
52 Mitchell Ferguson
10 Sherman Engler
99 Gregory Bruns
9 Stephen Saslow
FV80
Site Admin
Posts: 1195
Joined: June 27th, 2006, 9:07 am

Re: Majors - RA 19-20 Mar

Post by FV80 »

John,
Just some minor updates to your report. We qualified on Friday afternoon too and I got fastest lap there (44.2) .. which stood for the entire weekend.
There was a SNAFU at S/F on Saturday... as we were getting the last lap WHITE, the lead FF's were JUST behind the last FV.. and Start DIDN'T get the WHITE exchanged for CHECKER before the lead FF's got there. Although their race was OVER, the 2 leaders didn't think so .. so it was THEM that closed down on the lead FV pack at our finish. It WAS truly ugly - 5 FV and 3 FF. I thought the FF's closing on us were 'backmarkers' until I recognized the lead FF car and I KNEW he was at the front. So I got out of his way at 10A. Fortunately (for me), he and the FFs following him essentially blocked off any of my FV competitors from making a move on me. John Robinson "won" that last lap.. but his race was over the previous lap when the checker did not get displayed .. and Alex Barron (IRL/INDY Car fame - that started LAST) was in the lead.

Strangely, a similar thing happened on Sunday when the chair called to CHECKER the race due to a 3 car crash in T1 (2 of them ON THE TRACK SURFACE with only about 4 minutes left on the clock). They threw the checker on the NEXT CAR without waiting for the leader. It was ALMOST a RED FLAG situation, but they decided Checker was adequate. It took T&S some 20 minutes to get the winners properly listed since the immediate results defaulted back to the previously scored lap when the checker fell midpack. However, cooler heads eventually prevailed and it was decided that the last lap THIS TIME did actually count .. for the leaders anyway.

Strange weekend, but at least the weather was good - no rain despite the forecast for >50% chance on Saturday.
Steve, FV80
The Racer's Wedge and now a Vortech, FV80
jferreira
Posts: 19
Joined: November 2nd, 2011, 1:12 pm

Re: Majors - RA 19-20 Mar

Post by jferreira »

It was sorta obvious listening to the announcers that the finish was a bit confusing.
Do I have the results correct?
And congratulations on the double win. Am I to presume all the damage from Florida has been corrected?

John
FV80
Site Admin
Posts: 1195
Joined: June 27th, 2006, 9:07 am

Re: Majors - RA 19-20 Mar

Post by FV80 »

Yes, I believe those are the correct results. The SCCA website (http://www.scca.com/events/1981152-majors-road-atlanta) does NOT have the corrected finish order up for the Sunday race. Mitch broke his shifter in 10A/B on the last lap and Donnie and Dale both got by him. Also, in the Sunday race, John Pickle (F5) had some sort of problem and dumped oil for a full lap before he realized he was ON FIRE. Unfortunately, he pulled off the track just about as far from a corner station as he could get and his car became a crispy critter before they could get the fire under control. Please, everyone, remember if you ever sense FIRE in your car, pull off AT a corner station ... or at least someplace you can SEE an extinguisher beside the track.

As for my car... yes - I think I finally found the problem that plagued me at NOLA. Bullet felt great again this past weekend.
Steve, FV80
The Racer's Wedge and now a Vortech, FV80
jferreira
Posts: 19
Joined: November 2nd, 2011, 1:12 pm

Re: Majors - RA 19-20 Mar

Post by jferreira »

In my time 'before' SCCA, I was part of the track inspection and safety committee for a National organization. We decided for "every" event, there would be 2 golf carts, that were always manned, with radios and fire extinguishers. As luck would have it, first event we did this, Superkart, upside down, on fire, driver unconscious. Driver was injured, but not burned ...

John
Post Reply