NOLA Race Report

[vern smith]

The trip has begun, left Naples mid afternoon and I'm currently in the back seat of my truck in a rest stop some 20 miles east of Tallahassee. This is about half way which should put me in Avondale around one PM tomorrow. Heard from B J Holly that he and Jim Matheson will not be coming which is disappointing, we had a lot of fun at Sebring.

[moespeeds]

Have fun Vern and good luck! Btw thank you for the lead BJ Holley bought my shifter. Make sure you take pictures!

[Butch Kummer]

Currently 31 cars entered in the Big Noise group - 2 in AS, 9 in GT1, 11 in GT2, 2 in GT3, 5 in T1, 2 in T2. At least 8 will be running for V8RRS points and Vern & I will be "preaching the gospel" to others in attendance.

Current V8RRS entries -
. GT1
   - Paige Monette Alexander, 2010 OPTECH Corvette
   - Bob Monette, 2010 OPTECH Jaguar XKR
   - Zach Monette, 2010 OPTECH Jaguar XKR

. GTA (entered in GT2 since it's a Majors event):
   - Butch Kummer, 2002 BK Racing / Flowtech Engines Monte Cuervo
   - Bobby Reuse, 2011 WCIParts.com / Hamner Racing Engines Camaro
   - Roger Reuse, 2011 WCIParts.com / Hamner Racing Engines Camaro
   - Vern Smith, 2004 White Rose Engineering Monte Carlo (although I think it's now a 2010 Impala, right?)
   - Randy Walker, 2012 Walker Properties Camaro

As I said, we're hoping to sign up other drivers at the track.

For those following along from home, Live Timing and Live Audio should be available at www.SCCA.com.

And the "time suggested" schedule (remember all times are CST).

Saturday:
. 9:20 - 15-min Practice
. 12:10 - 20-minute Qualifying #1
. 4:25 - 25-minute Race #1

Sunday:
. 10:35 - 20-minute Qualifying #2
. 4:00 - 18-lap Race #2

More later as the weekend progresses...

[vern smith]

I've never driven RT 10 across the Florida pan handle and on into Louisiana before. Believe me there is not much to be seen but pine trees. A pleasantly uneventful 7 hours today and I pulled into the track at two EST but NOLA is CST. The usual lines and details registering and getting a spot with shore power.

This is a very nice facility, less than seven years old I understand and includes acres and acres of asphalt. Below are some pictures of the garages and the kart track. For some reason the forum is not posting my images tonight, I know
they are there so hopefully it will correct itself later.

[millstreet]

looks like a good GT2 group, 7 or so GTAs, some TA2 stuff, and a badass looking Sunbeam 

http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/event.status/uidEvent/5B00E46E-D36B-631C-19287B8308950746#.Vs_DHDYrKV4

enjoy & good luck

Andy

[Butch Kummer]

Left Atlanta at 0600 EST and arrived at the track around 1430 CST, so about 9.5 hours total road time (including four pit stops and lunch). Spent some time seeing some friends from my former life as Major Majors, then started getting Cuervo ready for tomorrow. I'll need to get Vern to show me how to post pictures here on the forum, but right now it's almost 10:00 PM EST so I'm sure he's already in bed! 

And the Sunbeam Tiger belongs to Tom Patton from Ohio. Former National Champion in GT2 and always in the top five at the Runoffs, plus a really nice guy. I'll preach the V8RRS gospel to him tomorrow, but since his focus is on the Runoffs I doubt I'll be successful in signing him up.

More tomorrow...

[vern smith]

In bed my ass, I busy thinking up neat demon tweaks for tomorrow 

[vern smith]

Today was a good day for V8RRS at NOLA. We have nine members participating in the big bore run group which is over  25% of the entire group. We also signed up three new members on the spot. Our race was not scheduled to run until 4:35 and did not get off until 5:20. Since I had a monster push in qualifying I was close to the back of the starting pack. For unknown reasons there was a big pileup on the start that looked to me like to literally took place at the start finish line. I know I drove through a lot of debris and saw three very badly damaged cars as I picked my way through.

It took thirty plus minutes to clean up the mess so now it's almost six. The restart was single file so those in front were way in front when the flag dropped. Butch Kummer started the race but retired during the thirty minutes we waited for the restart. I have not had a chance to find out what happened to his car. He had a bad qualifying time as well because his shifter stuck in second gear on the first or second lap of qualifying. I imagine he will fill in details tonight.

I got past a couple cars and was running second in the V8RRS GTA race when my car went from two wheel drive to left rear wheel drive. At best I broke an axle but much more likely tore up the locker which will put me in the trailer. I'll have all this worked out by eight or so tomorrow morning and at that point will probably convert to chief V8RRS reporter and photographer   

[Butch Kummer]

Nothing wrong with the car, I just couldn't see because of the low sun and a dirty windshield and felt it would only get worse after the delayed start.

David Kagan of Texas was running for V8 points in GT2 but got taken out in the original mess. As Vern stated, I was well back due to shifter problems in qualifying so when I saw a big cloud of dust around the start line I too tip-toed through the carnage, then decided not to continue after the BFA.

Series Admininstrator Jim Creighton got the official results and will be figuring points, but (off the top of my head) here's how our members finished in each V8RRS class:

GT1
. Zach Monette - 1st

SPO
. Bob Monette - 1st
. Paige Monette - 2nd

GT2
. David Kagan - DNF

GTA
. Roger Reuse - 1st
. Bobby Reuse - 2nd
. Randy Walker - 3rd
. Vern Smith - 4th
. Butch Kummer - DNF

[vern smith]

We are very happy with the way things are developing for the V8RRS opening season. Ten members showed up for the NOLA race, nine of which are in the picture below. The tenth member was unfortunate enough to be involved in yesterdays starting line carnage and was already on his way home. I don't have an entry list handy and must admit to not remembering some of their names let alone how to spell them. I'm putting this up tonight because I know you guys are dying to get the latest news.

Series Administrator Jim Creighton gave a nice introduction talk at the picture taking party which he arranged and explained to all the members that they will not have to mess around with the normal long line tech portion of the normal SCCA registration process. Jim will come around to each members paddock site and do the tech there, and this includes annuals when needed.

Dinah Thompson, our web site and Facebook guru will be sending out welcome packages to all our members in the next week. These are a little late but she is also intimately involved in Willie Mullins' ARCA effort and they were balls to the wall busy in the run up to Daytona where they did very very well.

I took pictures of all the V8RRS cars I could find and will put them up tomorrow as well as a group picture with names class and finishing position. Our season point's standings will be here as well as the web site tomorrow evening.
A little personal note, as I approached the RT10 / RT 75 intersection in north Florida for some reason I looked down at the gas gauge and it read empty. Since I started with 136 gallons on board this was unexpected to say the least. I dropped to 45 mph and nursed the truck eight miles to the next exit, maneuvered it into the closest gas station that was not laid out to handle the set up and breathed a sigh of relief. The only explanation was my electrically actuated valve at the bottom of the transfer tank had failed. As it turned out the damn fuel gauge in the truck had for some reason decided to register empty. After I shut the truck down and fired it back up it read full. Aint racing fun.

This epistle was created in the back seat of my truck in a rest stop so please excuse the unusual amount of poor grammar and phrasing. If you are wondering about the Siberian white tiger on the back of Jim Creighton's motor home you will have to contact him directly 

[Butch Kummer]

Drove straight thru from NOLA to Woodstock and got in around 3:30 this morning. Other than needing to fire my Lead Mechanic (me) that STILL couldn't get the shifter adjusted correctly, it was a good weekend for V8RRS. And you can tell Vern was tired when he made his post because there are eight people in the photo, not nine! 

Left to right, with V8 class and finishing position each day:
. Randy Walker, GTA - 3rd, 2nd
. Roger Reuse, GTA - 1st, DNF (broken axle)
. Butch Kummer, GTA - DNF, DNF (shifter issues)
. Bobby Reuse, GTA - 2nd, 1st
. Vern Smith, GTA - 4th, DNS (broken differential)
. Bob Monette, SPO - 1st, 2nd
. Paige Monette Alexander, SPO - 2nd, 1st
. Zach Monette, GT1 - 1st, 1st

Not pictured:
. Dave Kagan, GT2 - DNF, DNS (crash)

Obviously they list SCCA Majors class rather than our V8RRS classes, but here's the links to the Official event results for the entire weekend (the V8RRS cars ran in Group 6):

http://www.scca.com/events/1981188-majors-nola-motorsports-park

More later after I get caught up (somewhat) with my day job...

[vern smith]

Some pictures of the cars that belong to the drivers pictured above;



Bobby Reuse's LMC Camaro



Rodger Reuse's LMC Camaro



The three Monette cars, Paige, Zach and Bob



Randy Walker's LMC Camaro



Butch Kummer's narrow track GTA car






Here is the reason I could not race on Sunday and why I fell out on Saturday. I thought the locker failed because hitting the gas brought on an instant turn to the right. As you can see, I had steering inputs coming from both ends of the car, one somewhat under control the other one on it's own   

[Allan K]

Great job guys, good pictures and insight for those not in attendance!