2011 Runoffs - Updates

[Zambo]

While I understand we can get the live timing and the schedule from the SCCA site, what is going on out there in Elkhart Lake? What is the latest news?
Zambo

[Zach Rivard]

http://www.scca.com/assets/results/FEqual2.pdf

[Matthew Inge]

Here's whats happened so far:

RMS cars battling very loose race cars
Pro FE guys coming off of Mid Ohio straight through to Road America
Rain is in the forecast for the race on Friday
Tough with FM cars
A lot of cars very close in times.
Siebkins has yet to live to its full potential

All for now

[Keith Carter]

Congrats to Rettich, Wolfe, and Walsh! I was absolutely shocked to see how much time Wolfe found compared to last year. Was there a bit of contact between the Matthews causing the early retire of both? I know Inge can kind of get a little crazy sometimes in the sim, but to spin at T2 without a broken part causing it is going to get him severely hazed next sim racing league.

It looks like overall due to the new wizzy bits times dropped about 2 seconds at RA. Does that seem to be the case for everyone?

Video coverage was ok, but I absolutely hated the dual race coverage having two classes in the same session for a national championship race. Leaders poking their way though traffic in the closing laps of a big race like that looks like it would be bad. I hope the post race processing splits the races up so that when watching it again you get one complete FE race and one complete FM race without bouncing back and forth, but I think that's asking a bit much.

[Matthew Inge]

Matt Mair went wide in T1 causing him to catch air. Separate laps, I went into T1 (exited) and then had a left upper A-arm failure causing me to spin in T2 into the wall. The car was just coming in. Not too bad for us considering the amount of seat time the guys get with Pro Series and SCCA National.

[Keith Carter]

Definitely a good showing, Matthew. Going to give it another shot next year? We'll be there (hopefully). With us popping an engine at the Sprints and my family and I moving, it just wasn't in the cards for us this year.

[iamuwere]

had a left upper A-arm failure causing me to spin in T2 into the wall.

Matt---how did the a-arm fail. Was this the a failure in the arm, the rod end, or the chassis mount? Was it front or rear?

jim

--ps--good run up to that point

[Dennis Valet]

Took a few photos of the FM/FE race

[billwald]

Great photos in all classes. Well done and thanks for sharing. Awesome!

[Matthew Inge]

Still working on the video and not sure how to post a picture the easiest.

[Carl Przyborowski]

I am surprised to see so little chat on the subject of the FE Run-Off. I was expecting to see much more insight from the participants and others in the know. Initially, I was thinking that everyone needed to get back home and settled in before taking the time to check in and report. With this event being the culmination of a season, I expected more interest. Am I missing something?

[SStadel]

Everyone was simply too hung over from the party the night before and can't remember a thing!

[Tifosi]

No comment.

[Ray Rivard]

I'll try to post a summary tonight, but I'm sure that I'll be missing action from Steve's, Jay's and Mick's camps. It was a pretty hectic week for us. I will say that the One Formula party was really nice, especially the band and the Senna video (love that movie!). After foaming a keg and breaking the salad tongs, I felt like a walking disaster area and tried to minimize collateral damage, but for anyone who missed it, you missed a really nice time!

I'll try to give a rundown of the quals and the race (and a summary of tech).

[bwalsh]

the FE/FM runoffs race can now be seen on speed cast tv.

http://www.speedcasttv.com/#/races/257

race starts at min 175.00

[Ray Rivard]

OK, as promised, but very late, here are some of my observations for the Runoffs week....

The weekend before qualifying started, there were two pro races at Mid Ohio. For those running both series, that made for a hectic schedule. We got out of Mid Ohio on Sunday about 5:00 p.m. and were qualifying the SRF at noon Manoday the FE qualifying was later that afternoon. When we got to Road America, we heard that the guys who were testing over the weekend were putting up some impressive times. The quickest I heard was from Ethan Ringell around 2:13.7 and there were a few guys very close behind.

Every qual this week was dry, but there were a couple that saw the track dry in the session just before FE, so some were green track. In qual 1, we took it easy for the first part and just shook down the car then threw a few flyers in later. The session finished with Rettich fastest, followed by Inge, Walsh, Wolfe and McQueen. Matt Mair was in need of a new engine so that gave Mark Eaton something to do before Tuesday. Qual 2 showed mostly similar times to qual 1, but Mair and his new engine found P2 and broke into the 2:14's. He was P2 behind Rettich and the foursome from qual 1 were joined in the 2:15's by Brian Novak and Ethan Ringel. Qual 3 was a bit slower for most, but Matt Inge jumped to P2 with a 2:14 and Brian Novak jumped to the from of the 2:15 class (P4) with a 2:15.003. A couple guys slowed that session quite a bit, so if they had problems, perhaps they can add some to this story - I didn't hear what was up. The final qualifying session was the fast session for the week. Rettich lowered his fastest time and secured the pole by .9 seconds, Jason Wolfe decided to bypass the 2:14's and go straight to a 2:13.909 for P2 and Matt Inge moved into the same club with a 2:13.915 for P3. Mair, Walsh, McQueen and Novak were 2:14's and Patrick Gallagher, Sam Beasley, Ringel and Denny Marklein all qualified in the 2:15's. It was a very fast field!

In the race, Jason got by Scott going into turn 5 at the start and the two of them led the train for the first lap. The pace of the race got quicker each lap for the first 5 laps and Scott and Jason started building a gap to the field. Scott got by Jason on lap 4 and the two of them ran some very quick laps with Scott slowly drawing away to a 5.5 second win. Jason drove the best race I've seen him run this year and finished P2. There was quite a bit of movement and attrition in the field throughout the race. Ethan lost his front wing on lap 1, Matt Mair had an off-course excursion that forced him to retire to the pits and Matt Inge had suspension trouble that introduced him to the turn 2 wall. Tyler Walsh moved up to P3 and all through the race Patrick Gallagher was running down Tyler but came up short by a second and a half. Brian Novak ran in the pack throughout the race and finished P5 in a warmup for his FB National Championship (congrats Brian!)!

Impound throughout the week checked pretty much everything..... ECU's, intake manifolds, weights, gearbox, wing angles, wheel bearings, sta-bars...I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but if I remember right, everything checked during the pro season was checked again and there were some new one's too. Thankfully, we didn't have to tear the car apart as much as we did in the sun at the June Sprints, but there were many more checks than the Sprints weekend. I am continually impressed with the work that Mike Davies does. With all the work we do on our cars, I think Mike works harder than all of us. We are very lucky to have him watching over our class.

This has been a great year for us, and I think the PRO series is setting up to be really great in the future (just needs more cars)! You guys are a great bunch of people to race with. I've seen none better in all racing. We're enjoying the Runoffs results, but everyone should be looking to the ARRC/Pro series finale at Atlanta. If you're on the fence, GO!!! It's going to be a fantastic time!

[bwalsh]

does anyone know where you can get a copy of the "official results" from the runoffs fe race to print off.

thanks

[Tifosi]

Here you go Bryan

http://www.scca.com/assets/results/fe%20final.pdf