Road Atlanta Majors Report

Road Atlanta Majors.

It was fun to be back in a Stohr WF-1 in P2 trim at Road Atlanta since leaving DSR for F1000 in 2012. My F1000 car is qualified for the Runoffs so I decided to double down and start my P2 qualifications for the Runoffs.

I drove a Young Racing prepared WF1 and Sherman Chao drove his WF-1 also prepared by Young Racing.

This was Sherman's first time to Road Atlanta. He did the rainy test day for all four sessions. "Brave man" for first time at RA but it was good practice for the rainy Sunday race.

I skipped test day to get fitted and to complete the P2 conversion. The Carbon Fiber Tunnel blocks that Young Racing makes to fit the WF1 are very nice high quality parts that made it easy and the restrictors were plug and play.

We had 46 cars on the track including 8 P2 cars for the weekend. It was very busy during the two Friday Qualifiers. Final qualifying was Crowe/Bryan Yates-West-Kawi/Chao for the top three P2's.

I skipped Saturday morning qualifying and we finally found what was making the Flatshifter not work properly during qualifying the day before.

Race 1 was very busy with a tight packed group as we were mixed with various classes of FA, P1's, P2's, FC, FM's and FE's. Final results were Crowe/Chao/Bailey Monette in a FM Sports Racer Mazda for top three in P2. Bryan Yates had crash damage from an off in T1 that they were repairing late Saturday. I was able to sneak in a track record on old tires.

Race 2 was a rain race. My goal was to be conservative and stay away from trouble. It was white out conditions some of the time. About mid race Sherman passed me with a Formula Mazda in tow. Luckily I was able to get back by Sherman before the end of the race. Top three were Crowe/Chao/Yates at the finish in P2.

Fun weekend in all. P2 has seen consistent high participation in the SE and I look forward to more P2 racing and the Runoffs.

Congrats on a great first weekend in P2 Michael. I think that P2 has a great future.

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Originally Posted by crowe motorsports

Road Atlanta Majors.

It was fun to be back in a Stohr WF-1 in P2 trim at Road Atlanta since leaving DSR for F1000 in 2012. My F1000 car is qualified for the Runoffs so I decided to double down and start my P2 qualifications for the Runoffs.

Welcome back to sports racer/prototype class, Michael. You only said you were considering a return when we were at NOLA, and then there you are back for Road Atlanta;)

I drove a Young Racing prepared WF1 and Sherman Chao drove his WF-1 also prepared by Young Racing.

This was Sherman's first time to Road Atlanta. He did the rainy test day for all four sessions. "Brave man" for first time at RA but it was good practice for the rainy Sunday race.

Is "brave man" just the Southern way of saying "crazy"?:rolleyes:

I skipped test day to get fitted and to complete the P2 conversion. The Carbon Fiber Tunnel blocks that Young Racing makes to fit the WF1 are very nice high quality parts that made it easy and the restrictors were plug and play.

We had 46 cars on the track including 8 P2 cars for the weekend. It was very busy during the two Friday Qualifiers. Final qualifying was Crowe/Bryan Yates-West-Kawi/Chao for the top three P2's.

I skipped Saturday morning qualifying and we finally found what was making the Flatshifter not work properly during qualifying the day before.

Race 1 was very busy with a tight packed group as we were mixed with various classes of FA, P1's, P2's, FC, FM's and FE's. Final results were Crowe/Chao/Bailey Monette in a FM Sports Racer Mazda for top three in P2. Bryan Yates had crash damage from an off in T1 that they were repairing late Saturday. I was able to sneak in a track record on old tires.

Race 2 was a rain race. My goal was to be conservative and stay away from trouble. It was white out conditions some of the time. About mid race Sherman passed me with a Formula Mazda in tow. Luckily I was able to get back by Sherman before the end of the race. Top three were Crowe/Chao/Yates at the finish in P2.

For the record, Michael mistakenly thought I was Bob Wheless and let me by in T7, then proceeded to repass me a lap or so later! Also, only bad luck for Bryan as he would have captured two 2nd place finishes except for the crash on Saturday and then his car stalling out while leaving false grid and having to start at end of pack, rather than ahead of me, for Sunday's race.

Fun weekend in all. P2 has seen consistent high participation in the SE and I look forward to more P2 racing and the Runoffs.

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I just wanted to respond to a few of Michael's comments. He is a true Southern gentleman (and fast!) and I think after two race weekends with him (NOLA and Road Atlanta) I have a sense of who he is and trust he will not be offended by my tease. My edits above are in red and the context of my reply is that, being new to living in the South, I feel an obligation to translate "southern hospitality" to more straightforward talk found out west, midwest and northeast, where I've also lived in my life. No offense, just the facts!:D

Congrats Michael! Also to Sherman - great guy, and to Chris Young Racing! Well done to the whole team! Add JP back into the paddock at VIR and Daytona and you guys take home a lot of bling.

AND congrats to Critter for prepping two quick cars! Sherman - you adapted to Atlanta very quickly and smoothly. Congrats to you both :checkered:

(Michael in 85, Sherman in 3

After several people commented the Young Racing Stohr WF1 prepared by Critter looked like the Bat Mobile we renamed it the Bat Crow Mobile for the weekend. That required some quick "crude" sharpie artistry for the new logo we will have printed for future events.;):trophy::trophy:

Tom Kaufman ran a P2 West that is owned by a buddy. His second time in car-first time was at runoffs last year and car broke on lap one of race (stuck into 5th gear) so no real chance to run right.

But he did pretty well at Road Atlanta. Still learning car and where it's limits are but did real well in Sunday race. Finish 2nd overall and 2nd in P2-and I believe he set a new P2 lap record at RA.

So congrats to my buddy Tom. Glad I was around a bit to watch/help a little.

Oh and by the way-Tom ran the race with a very seriously injured left leg. He broke it in about 10 places (no joking!) in Dec. Basically shattered just about every bone in his leg. Can barely walk right now.

Once car is sorted (no testing or sorting at all on car right now) and Tom gets his leg "fixed up" he should be somebody to watch. He can go pretty quick.

Congrats to Tony Bronco car owner and Tom for a great effort at Road Atlanta. Both great guys and I enjoyed talking with them at Road Atlanta. I have known both for a few years and Tom's experience with the car and his past experience with the Level 5/Tucker effort that won the DSR Runoffs will be someone that has the car prep experience and driving talent to get the job done.

John Paul was very quick all weekend and we had a great battle in race one and race two would have been the same until he broke. I had the track record last year and broke it Saturday. JP ended up with the final track record Sunday I hope because we ran a two car draft all the way down the back straight into 10. He is quick and he is the P1 National Champion.

A lot of P2 cars even from the left coast will be at MO Majors in June. It should be exciting to say the least.:checkered:

Thanks guys! It was really a great weekend for me. I had to peddle my butt off to keep up with Mike and JP. Thanks to Tony for providing the ride, it's a great car that will keep getting better. We learned a lot. Congrats to Mike for the wins, consistency and no mistakes is how it's done (and being really fast)! Congrats to JP for the new record, Some consolation after a weekend of bad luck, although after seeing that FA, I'd say he was very lucky to walk away from that one!

I did go under the existing record, but not by as much as those two. Fast crowd!

Looking forward to the next one!

TK

It was great fun to race with you guys. Really tough competition. Crowe and Tom are super fast and had me working. Critter built me a very fast P2 car. I had some really bad luck with some dumb mechanical issues (not to mention a super high speed wreck in my FA that trapped me under the tire wall for 15 minutes and completed destroyed the car) that could have been avoided but all in all it was good test weekend. I think I have at least another 3/4 of a second in the car if not more.

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Originally Posted by crowe motorsports

John Paul was very quick all weekend and we had a great battle in race one and race two would have been the same until he broke. I had the track record last year and broke it Saturday. JP ended up with the final track record Sunday I hope because we ran a two car draft all the way down the back straight into 10. He is quick and he is the P1 National Champion.

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lol, nice try! no draft, there wasn't anyone in front of me the entire race. lol