News:

The current V8RRS points standings are posted.

Weekend Report

Started by Butch Kummer, June 04, 2016, 06:46:58 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Butch Kummer

Ends up there are ten V8RRS racers amongst the 414 that took to the track on Friday, and (as I remind anyone from Ohio Valley Region when I see them) five of them would not have been here if this had not been a V8RRS event. Results from the 52(!) cars in Friday afternoon's Big Bore qualifying:

5th overall, 1st in V8GT2 (4th in GT2) - Pete Peterson, 1:28.631
11. 1st in V8GT1 (4th in GT1) - Mark Mercurio, 1:30.637
18. 2nd in V8GT1 (5th in GT1) - Zach Monette, 1:32.086
23. 1st in GTA (15th in GT2) - Randy Walker, 1:33.726
25. 1st in SPO ((6th in GT1) - Paige Monette Alexander, 1:34.032
27. 2nd in GTA (17th in GT2) - Tyler Wilson, 1:34.265
34. 2nd in SPO (7th in GT1) - Bob Monette, 1:35.667
36. 3rd in GTA (19th in GT2) - Roger Reuse, 1:35.979
37. 4th in GTA (20th in GT2) - Bobby Reuse, 1:36.003
39. 5th in GTA (21st in GT2) - Chris Gill, 1:36.910

As you can expect with that many cars on the track, getting a clean lap was pretty much a crap shoot. It should be better during this (Sat) morning's qualifying session because cars will be gridded based on their Q1 times, so the chances of catching traffic will be lessened.

Notes from Friday:
. Mark was held up slightly by traffic on his best (of four) laps, then came in.
. Tyler was pleased with his best lap and is shooting for the 1:33's today (I suggested he skip the 33's and go directly to the 32's  :) ).
. This is the first trip ever to Mid-Ohio by the Monette Racing Group and all three have qualified for the Runoffs, so they're treating the whole weekend as an extended test session. Expect them to move up as the weekend progresses.
. The Reuse Brothers were geared WAY too tall (3.18's) so neither of them ever got out of third gear. That situation has been rectified for today.
. Chris Gill's rebuild Jerico is working well with the minor problem that third and fourth gears are reversed!  :o  He's learning a new shift pattern and his last lap on Friday was two seconds better than his next best one.

Assuming the wet weather stays away, should be an excellent weekend of racing (and I'll do a better job of reporting before I start partying!).

Oh - and since it's an SCCA Majors weekend (thanks to OVR for inviting us), links to Live Timing and Audio are available on www.SCCA.com.

Stay tuned V8RRS fans...
Butch Kummer
V8RRS Director of Competition, 2016-2021
Associate Pastor, First Church of GTA

Butch Kummer

Sat morning qualifying session is over, and while is was not actually raining the track was still damp from showers earlier today. Among our V8 racers only Zach Monette and Chris Gill went out, and both were about a second slower than their Friday afternoon times. It is overcast but not raining right now, so hopefully things will stay dry for this afternoon's race.

Assuming everything stays on schedule, the Big Bore group should be rolling off the grid around 4:00 this afternoon.
Butch Kummer
V8RRS Director of Competition, 2016-2021
Associate Pastor, First Church of GTA

Butch Kummer

It's going to take a while to sort this one out. It started sprinkling rain as the Group 6 cars took the green and never let up, so most of our Group 7 cars (at least those that had them) came to the grid on rain tires. A number of cars were late to the grid and that jumbled the order, then apparently a number of cars spun on the pace lap further messing things up. After two laps behind the Pace Car (and the race clock started) they called a Black Flag All to bring everyone into the pits, then after maybe ten minutes sent everyone back out (still behind the Pace Car). After two laps of green flag "racing" (if you can call it that) two cars got together on the exit of Turn One with 50% track blockage, plus there were multiple other incidents around the track. The race clock had passed the halfway point (12.5 minutes), so the race officials threw an early checker.

I'll have a list of finishing positions once everything gets sorted out, but I know Pete Peterson took first in (V8)GT2, Randy Walker won GTA, and neither Mark Mercurio nor Tyler Wilson made a lap (they didn't have rain tires and chose to remain on pit road after the BFA).

I'll post some more later (along with some of Moe's pictures) after I get a copy of the official results...
Butch Kummer
V8RRS Director of Competition, 2016-2021
Associate Pastor, First Church of GTA

Butch Kummer

So apparently here's what happened:

The cars went out on the pace lap and a car near the front of the field stopped on course before Turn 2. There was no damage so the stewards thought it would be a quick clean-up, so they instructed the Pace Car to stay out as normal to take the field to the green on the back straight the second time around. The car was still stuck, however, so they issued the BFA while still hoping for a quick clean-up. It ends up, however, that the car on course was stuck in two gears AND the clutch wasn't working, so the "quick clean-up" required getting a rollback to winch the car up (with it locked in gear, of course). All the time, per the Supps, the race clock continued.

Once they finally got the car off the course and restarted the "race" there were multiple incidents, two of which had 50% course blockage, that would have taken more time to clean up than was left in the race, so they threw the checker after four total laps (two of which were behind the Pace Car). And since it's still raining as I write this at 6:45, waiting for it to stop raining was not feasible. Effed up situation for all involved.

Here are the unofficial V8RRS finishing positions:

5th overall, 1st in (V8)GT2 - Pete Peterson
24. 1st in GTA - Randy Walker
27. 1st in SPO - Paige Monette Alexander
37. 1st in (V8)GT1 - Zach Monette
39. 2nd in GTA - Chris Gill
42. 3rd in GTA - Bobby Reuse
43. 4th in GTA - Roger Reuse
dns. (V8)GT1 - Mark Mercurio
dns. SPO - Bob Monette
dns. GTA - Tyler Wilson

I'm going to go start drinking now...
Butch Kummer
V8RRS Director of Competition, 2016-2021
Associate Pastor, First Church of GTA

vern smith

Thanks Butch, keep up the good work. It looks like you did not get your engine back? Find out from Moe where our "T" shirts are   ;)
The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference but in practice there is.

vern smith

Jim Creighton sent me the points a couple of minutes ago so here they are. As Butch has previously posted, the race was somewhat screwed up by the weather but Randy Walker qualified first in GTA in good weather and won the race in bad so things cannot be too far out of whack. V8RRS members in the other classes appeared to be seriously messed up by the weather.

The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference but in practice there is.

Butch Kummer

#6
Started raining pretty heavily with about 15 minutes to go in the Group 6 race, but it now appears to be stopping and a dry line is emerging again.  Once again it look like our Big Bore racers will have to make a decision on what tires to use.

Monette Racing Group and Reuse Racing have already gone home, so we're down to no more than five V8 racers today:

. Pete Peterson - GT2
. Mark Mercurio - GT1
. Randy Walker - GTA
. Tyler Wilson - GTA
. Chris Gill - GTA

Hopefully I'll have more results in about an hour...
Butch Kummer
V8RRS Director of Competition, 2016-2021
Associate Pastor, First Church of GTA

Butch Kummer

Dry race, but Pete did not take the green so we're down to four V8 racers. Field is now on pit road after completing 8 laps due to an oil-down (don't know by whom) or the track in the Esses. Should restart the race with a bit more than five minutes to go.
Butch Kummer
V8RRS Director of Competition, 2016-2021
Associate Pastor, First Church of GTA

Butch Kummer

Restarted the race after the BFA for an ASedan that oiled down the Esses and it ended up being a time-limited race. Our V8RRS results:

8 overall. 1st (V8)GT1, Mark Mercurio, 1:30.305
12. 1st GTA, Randy Walker, 1:32.439
18. 2nd GTA, Tyler Wilson, 1:34.108
38. 3rd GTA, Chris Gill, 1:40.622
dns. (V8)GT2, Pete Peterson
dns. (V8)GT1, Zach Monette
dns. SPO, Paige Monette Alexander
dns. SPO, Bob Monette
dns. GTA, Bobby Reuse
dns. GTA, Roger Reuse
Butch Kummer
V8RRS Director of Competition, 2016-2021
Associate Pastor, First Church of GTA

vern smith

Here are the current points at the end of the Mid Ohio weekend.

The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference but in practice there is.

moespeeds

#10
Ok so I know I promised to take pictures, but with the rain and all I barely took any. Here's my crappy contribution. Vern I promise to do better next time!

I'm afraid I spent more time drinking Mark's beer than keeping track of what was going on.









I was surprised to see there was a girl driving this thing:








Andrew Aquilante had the move of the race when he shoved the Fall Line BMW to the inside of 4, right into the oil dry and took the lead.


Mark's new trailer is friggin' awesome!


The one lousy video I took. Second lap of the Sunday Race.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbDphog6LaM