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Putnam Park


mikew968

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WOW...what a weekend!!!! I have never learned so much, been so dry, been so wet, gone so fast and saw T8 from a 360 degree view before. I was able to take some coaching I recieved from a Pro drive the week before and set a personal best as well as an un-official best time for GTS-2 of 1:17.64 in Q on Saturday only to have a wet track and go from hero to zero in a couple of laps. On Sunday I was P1 in class and sitting on the grid it started to rain but stopped quickly. The first 15 minutes or so was a GTS train running about 1:21's on a damp to drying track. Then the Heavens opened and we had a very wet very slick track. It was going well until I got tapped by my racing friend and saw T8 a couple of times around. I guess as we were 2 or 3 wide in 8 something was bound to happen. Oh well it was exhilarating and frightening all at the same time!!!!!

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This was one to remember! It's about 1AM and Im halfway home. Was SOOOO tired driving, but now that I am comfy in my hotel room, I cant goto sleep.

 

It was nice seeing many familiar faces from Nationals and some new faces as well. Thanks for welcoming a way out of region-er.

 

Spent Friday trying to learn the track and lucky for me Scott Berkowitz was hanging around to help Sat I made a last minute decision to go with Hoosier Wets which was awesome for the first few laps, but the track started to dry. My huge lead evaporated when I started trying to conserve tires and Jack Money beat me to the finish by about a car length! I also narrowly missed Chris Streit around lap two when he spun in front of me Then in my haste to get back on track, my car got loose and Kyle Burkhardt goes FLYING by inches from my car

 

Video:

(boring cept for my near miss with Streit and last 2 laps)

 

Sunday: Was hoping for the opposite of Sat. Where they called for a sunny day sat, sun forecast initially said rain. Well, it did end up becoming the exact opposite. Dry start w/ a wet finish Like Mike said, there was a train of GTS cars, though not because of any GTS cars. I believe the front of the train was a SU car, then a bunch of AI/ST2 cars. It bunched everyone up allowing for Korey to get by me when I goofed a pass attempt on a ST2 Vette. I tried to battle Korey for a while, but it was nearly impossible to find a way around. That and Amos in a GTS4 car was behind and really trying to get around. I knew I couldnt have him between me and Korey so I kept at it. Then RAIN. All of a sudden, that SU/ST train parted and I was clear! The Hoosier A6s I was running were pretty damn awesome when it first started spitting rain, but once it started downpouring, they were useless. I putted around until the finish just trying not to go off.

 

Video:

 

Was fun! Putnam was a neat track and hope to make it back out to some more GL events.

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I am too tired to write a nice summary like the other boys, but it was a great weekend even though I came in last place. Watching Sunday's big bore race from the tower was something else.

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For the record, Mike's 1:17.6, although not official because it wasn't in a race, is THE fastest GTS2 lap ever at Putnam. Brad Waite also had one in the 17s but slightly higher. Congrats to both of them!

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This was one to remember! It's about 1AM and Im halfway home. Was SOOOO tired driving, but now that I am comfy in my hotel room, I cant goto sleep.

 

It was nice seeing many familiar faces from Nationals and some new faces as well. Thanks for welcoming a way out of region-er.

 

Eric is right - what a memorable weekend it was. Great to meet you Eric. Many thanks to Scotty B and Kyle for helping me with my busted power steering hose ( I like driving without it - one less thing to go wrong ) also, it was great to know Korey better and really appreciated the help of Korey, Dave Connelly and Nic Georgieff for their help in configuring my "multi-degree" wing - left side 7.8 right side 6.9 or something like that.

 

Below are my unedited videos of both races. Pleased with my 3rd place in the first race and could have-should had 3rd in the second race if not for my spin in T7. Oh well, that's racing.

 

Once again, many thanks to those that helped get me setup. What a fun weekend.

 

Race # 1

 

Race # 2

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I'm working on some video today...

 

FWIW I messed up in that turn and added too much power then compounded the mistake by not holding my foot on the brakes hard enough when I started to spin so Eric had to do a little 'extra driving' to miss me. THANKS BUDDY!

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I was there for HPDE/TT for the whole weekend and wanted to comment on how awesome your guys races were!

 

Between the GTS and Spec classes there was never a dull moment on track on Saturday!

 

Watcing the GTS cars makes me rethink my ambitions for Spec Miata, GTS1 anybody?

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Here is the Sat race from my car.

 

 

Interesting highlights were basically the spin in turn 3 (or is that 4?) and working my way through the AI field... The race started with little grip and it got better and better, untill it started getting worse.

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Well all in all I had a fantastic weekend, it was a great return to racing after a too long hiatus. A couple minor suspension issues caught me out but silly stuff that is sorted....and probably as much my fault as anything. Stuff happens when you're too busy right before an event. ; )

 

Anyway, yeah, great racing. I would have liked to see a bit more dry time but racing in the rain is fun too. Course I missed the deluge on Sunday after I broke a shock mount...dumb. Then again, maybe that was the better outcome for me. ; ) Great racing while it lasted. The train was pretty cool and I had a ton of fun trying to sneak past Jamie while keeping the Porsche from sneaking by (sorry, don't recall which Porsche).

 

What can I say, the Saturday race was awesome. My tires were, uh, a little old so not as great in the wetter portion of the race but not horrid by any means, just had to be a little more diligent about power application. Fortunately for me, as it dried up they got quite a bit better without becoming toasted. That allowed me to catch up Eric and challenge for the lead. Roy was obviously right on me and, well, at one point a little too on me. ; ). No worries Roy, it's all good and stuff happens some times.

 

Even after that I was able to catch up Eric and push for the final run. Good racing, just enough room between cars, just the way close racing should be. I had all the confidence in the world that we could race that close and not mess each other up, tons of fun! Now I just have to finish the set up on the car....scales said 2973!! Oh no, 260lbs overweight....that hurts. :^/

 

I'm looking forward to more events, thanks to all the staff, crew, and drivers for a great weekend. Oh, and of course thanks to my family for coming on down to hang out with me and cheer me on.

 

EDIT: No, I'm an idiot for not getting the damn camera in my car...that would have been some good video. Grrrrrrr.......

 

Cheers.

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Watcing the GTS cars makes me rethink my ambitions for Spec Miata, GTS1 anybody?

I have great GTS1 video of the David vs. Goliath;) battle on Sunday. Just need to figure out how to edit MPEG-4 videos from my new Go Pro. Can anyone help?

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John - I use Windows Movie Maker to edit my GoPro footage and compress it to YouTube and/or Vimeo friendly sizes for posting. Its a free program and should already be on your computer.

 

If you've got a Mac there are plenty of options I'm told but I wouldn't know where to start

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Watcing the GTS cars makes me rethink my ambitions for Spec Miata, GTS1 anybody?

I have great GTS1 video of the David vs. Goliath;) battle on Sunday. Just need to figure out how to edit MPEG-4 videos from my new Go Pro. Can anyone help?

 

John, if you have the GoPro HD Motorsports Hero, I dont think Movie Maker can handle HD. I use Pinnacle to edit my high def videos, and it still chokes on the MP4 files (then again, I could probably use a new computer too....).

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Well all in all I had a fantastic weekend, it was a great return to racing after a too long hiatus. A couple minor suspension issues caught me out but silly stuff that is sorted....and probably as much my fault as anything. Stuff happens when you're too busy right before an event. ; )

 

Anyway, yeah, great racing. I would have liked to see a bit more dry time but racing in the rain is fun too. Course I missed the deluge on Sunday after I broke a shock mount...dumb. Then again, maybe that was the better outcome for me. ; ) Great racing while it lasted. The train was pretty cool and I had a ton of fun trying to sneak past Jamie while keeping the Porsche from sneaking by (sorry, don't recall which Porsche).

 

What can I say, the Saturday race was awesome. My tires were, uh, a little old so not as great in the wetter portion of the race but not horrid by any means, just had to be a little more diligent about power application. Fortunately for me, as it dried up they got quite a bit better without becoming toasted. That allowed me to catch up Eric and challenge for the lead. Roy was obviously right on me and, well, at one point a little too on me. ; ). No worries Roy, it's all good and stuff happens some times.

 

Even after that I was able to catch up Eric and push for the final run. Good racing, just enough room between cars, just the way close racing should be. I had all the confidence in the world that we could race that close and not mess each other up, tons of fun! Now I just have to finish the set up on the car....scales said 2973!! Oh no, 260lbs overweight....that hurts. :^/

 

I'm looking forward to more events, thanks to all the staff, crew, and drivers for a great weekend. Oh, and of course thanks to my family for coming on down to hang out with me and cheer me on.

 

EDIT: No, I'm an idiot for not getting the damn camera in my car...that would have been some good video. Grrrrrrr.......

 

Cheers.

 

 

Jack, what an incredible win for you in the first race. Apologies again for the tap at T7, but getting turned around by me and coming back to win the race has got to be especially sweet for you. Next time we bump into each other I hope its out of cars and we are just toasting each other after another hard race.

 

The book that is a must read after this past weekend is "The Art of Racing in the Rain" . You can buy the book in paperback for about $12. In short, it's the story of race car driver as told by his loyal K9 companion. From many angles its a great story and technically accurate to the book's title. Patrick Dempsey bought the screen play to the story. From all that have read it I think this will be a film that will not race car driver like but the public will adore.

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It's an awesome book. I'm not much of a book reader, but this one was recommended to me and I'm glad I took the time to read it. A couple of Enzo quotes:

 

 

There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.

 

The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles–preferably of his own making–in order to triumph.

 

 

 

Even though I wasn't racing this weekend I had a great time hanging out with everyone. I got to work on a few cars and hopefully helped a few others with questions about the track and set-up. I know when I was watching I was wishing I was out there mixing it up with everyone. I did get to make my first laps of the year on Fri. in Mr. Wongs car. It was only 3 or 4, but it was fun and thanks again to Eric for the much needed fix.

 

 

 

-Scott B.

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Watcing the GTS cars makes me rethink my ambitions for Spec Miata, GTS1 anybody?

I have great GTS1 video of the David vs. Goliath;) battle on Sunday. Just need to figure out how to edit MPEG-4 videos from my new Go Pro. Can anyone help?

 

You can download the codec from Microsoft's website to work with MPEG 4. It's somewhere on GoPros website..... here: http://www.goprocamera.com/FAQ_HD.php then scroll to the very bottom where it says "I use a PC..."

 

Hope that helps! And I'll be awaiting your video

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This was one to remember! It's about 1AM and Im halfway home. Was SOOOO tired driving, but now that I am comfy in my hotel room, I cant goto sleep.

 

It was nice seeing many familiar faces from Nationals and some new faces as well. Thanks for welcoming a way out of region-er.

 

Spent Friday trying to learn the track and lucky for me Scott Berkowitz was hanging around to help Sat I made a last minute decision to go with Hoosier Wets which was awesome for the first few laps, but the track started to dry. My huge lead evaporated when I started trying to conserve tires and Jack Money beat me to the finish by about a car length! I also narrowly missed Chris Streit around lap two when he spun in front of me Then in my haste to get back on track, my car got loose and Kyle Burkhardt goes FLYING by inches from my car

 

Video:

(boring cept for my near miss with Streit and last 2 laps)

 

Sunday: Was hoping for the opposite of Sat. Where they called for a sunny day sat, sun forecast initially said rain. Well, it did end up becoming the exact opposite. Dry start w/ a wet finish Like Mike said, there was a train of GTS cars, though not because of any GTS cars. I believe the front of the train was a SU car, then a bunch of AI/ST2 cars. It bunched everyone up allowing for Korey to get by me when I goofed a pass attempt on a ST2 Vette. I tried to battle Korey for a while, but it was nearly impossible to find a way around. That and Amos in a GTS4 car was behind and really trying to get around. I knew I couldnt have him between me and Korey so I kept at it. Then RAIN. All of a sudden, that SU/ST train parted and I was clear! The Hoosier A6s I was running were pretty damn awesome when it first started spitting rain, but once it started downpouring, they were useless. I putted around until the finish just trying not to go off.

 

Video:

 

Was fun! Putnam was a neat track and hope to make it back out to some more GL events.

 

I was there Sunday watching in the pouring rain by the end. That first pass on the Panoz going into turn 1 where it looked like the Panoz wasn't quite sure whether he wanted to let you by made me nervous! But, great driving in the rain at the end by everyone, surprisingly few offs overall.

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My race from Saturday...

 

The track was surprisingly slippery early even though it looks nearly dry. The last third of the race is the most fun, with lots of passing. By my count, the race included a net 28 cars passed. Late in the race I catch Paul Milligan in his BMW 318ish (inside joke) and we fight very hard for the remainder (at least until he gets punted by a Miata).

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My race from Saturday...

 

The track was surprisingly slippery early even though it looks nearly dry. The last third of the race is the most fun, with lots of passing. By my count, the race included a net 28 cars passed. Late in the race I catch Paul Milligan in his BMW 318ish (inside joke) and we fight very hard for the remainder (at least until he gets punted by a Miata).

 

Great video Scott. It looks like it was REALLY slick out there at the start. Too bad you and Paul couldn't have raced all the way to the checker. Thanks for posting!

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Watcing the GTS cars makes me rethink my ambitions for Spec Miata, GTS1 anybody?

I have great GTS1 video of the David vs. Goliath;) battle on Sunday. Just need to figure out how to edit MPEG-4 videos from my new Go Pro. Can anyone help?

 

 

Just wanted to elaborate on this a bit.

 

You can download the codec package from K-lite, just search K-lite codec package in google and you'll find it.

 

 

Install it and you can then use windows movie maker or windwos media player to view and edit HD GoPro footage.

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