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Road America 4/8-4/10


Micks 41

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Weekend weather was great, 65 to 70 degrees for highs with lots of sunshine. We had 9 AI cars and 3 AIX but a few mechanical difficulties kept the start numbers one or two lower. (I don't have the qualifying/race sheets with me so this is from memory). Saturday's race had Bob Denton #67 Firebird on the pole with a 2:38 but brake failure ended his lead and race around lap 8. Dave Algonzine was 1st, Erickson 2nd, Groth 3rd (from the back of the start due to Comp School first race!), Franklin (me) 4th, Henderson 5th, and White 6th.

 

Sunday had Groth on the pole with another 2:38 something, Erickson, Algonzine, Henderson, Franklin, & White. Denton broke a rear gear during practice. Cranston had a bad weekend and was unable to race after making repairs in the motel parking lot Saturday night.

 

The start of Sundays race was a little more fun. The AIX Cobra R must have missed a gear or something as he didn't take off. Algozine got a good run and went to the inside of Groth going into One for the lead under heavy braking. Franklin (me) followed Dave and pulled to the inside of Erickson and took 3rd going into 3. Dave and Groth changed spots a few times and put on a good race. In the end Groth was able to hold off Dave for 1st. I couldn't stay with them and faded and was caught by Erickson going into One and he finished 3rd with me taking 4th.

 

Lots of great weather and plenty of track time between the Comp school race, fun race and points races. No contact between any AI-AIX cars and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Rumors have NASA possibly going back to Road America in the fall. Hopefully they'll make this a points race for both groups and we can have lots of fun!

 

Sidney Franklin

AI #64

Yellow/White Firebird

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Very good description of the race, Sidney. (Hope you didn't mind me using you to draft down the front straight away on saturday )

 

I would like to thank NASA and all the fellow racers for making this rookie feel welcome. It's intimidating stepping into the racing world, but you all made it worth it. I had a ton of fun!!!

 

I had a blast racing with Dave Sunday, good clean racing. I couldn't believe the move he made in turn 1 at the start, how he made it thru that corner is still a mystry to me.

 

I would also like to thank Dean Smeltzer for making the trip over to run the enduro with us.

 

Thanks everyone!!!!!!

 

Brian Groth

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Brian, can you send me a short summary of your races, I will be working on the race report on Wednesday and would appreciate more perspectives. It is kind of hard to see what's going on with AI when I'm on the other side of the track.

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It is kind of hard to see what's going on with AI when I'm on the other side of the track.

 

If you ever want to see the race in slow motion, we'll switch cars.

 

Brian Groth

 

PS: You have a PM.

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A win for David Algozine and his new IRS! Then for Brian Groth after completing his comp school. Well done gents!

 

Of course the HOLY COW award goes to Chris Griswold for his ground pounding laps and double AIX award.

 

LM

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And the spectacular off course excursion of the weekend races goes to Jeremy Behrendt. Edmund (RA's track photographer) got a series of 9 action shots as he entered the gravel pit at 8. Pretty awesome pics. He's going to put them on a disc so hopefully we'll be able to post them on the site sometime. Unfortunately Jeremy's stuck throttle knocked him out of Saturday's race, then his tranny went bad which kept him from running Sunday. Without him it was a pair of easy walkover wins for Chris. I may be in AIX, but my car isn't in the same league as those boys.

 

As Brian said, it was a great welcome for us rookies. And I was real proud of Brian for his Sunday win. Seems like just two months ago I remember him saying he was going to enter AI but "didn't expect to be very competitive"! I'm also looking forward to Ted Schwartz getting his car done so he can enter the AI fray.

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It was some great, clean racing.

 

Brian, congrats on Sunday's win. I had some shifter problems at first, you may have noticed me wondering at the exit of a couple of turns. I was running ball's out to run you back down, and it was a lot of fun to swap postions a couple of times. I reserve the right to re-engage that battle at a later date. Great job, I look forward to the next event.

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It was some great, clean racing.

 

Brian, congrats on Sunday's win. I had some shifter problems at first, you may have noticed me wondering at the exit of a couple of turns. I was running ball's out to run you back down, and it was a lot of fun to swap postions a couple of times. I reserve the right to re-engage that battle at a later date. Great job, I look forward to the next event.

 

Dave,

I wrote my account of the race for Chris and mentioned in that, that I figured you had missed a gear or were having some sort of shifting problem. Thanks for adding to the fun this weekend and I will race side by side with you anytime.

 

Brian

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It was some great, clean racing.

 

Brian, congrats on Sunday's win. I had some shifter problems at first, you may have noticed me wondering at the exit of a couple of turns. I was running ball's out to run you back down, and it was a lot of fun to swap postions a couple of times. I reserve the right to re-engage that battle at a later date. Great job, I look forward to the next event.

Dave/Brian:

I heard from several spectators that you guys had one heck of a battle going. Since I can't keep up with the likes of Grizzy (and Jeremy if he stays on track), I may run behind you guys next race so I can watch the battle first hand. Hmmm... could even run my video cam to catch all the action for others. Now THAT would be fun to replay at the motel Saturday night!

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A win for David Algozine and his new IRS! Then for Brian Groth after completing his comp school. Well done gents!

 

Of course the HOLY COW award goes to Chris Griswold for his ground pounding laps and double AIX award.

 

LM

 

Was there any measurement of the IRS to ensure that it was legal? With the opportunity for an aftermarket carrier to be used with OEM control arms what was done to determine if the car was legal?

 

I am not insinuating anything here but it's like a dyno graph before you race. If the part used is contraversial and a specific rule was written concerning that part time should have been take to ensure legality.

 

What was the procedure to determine if the OEM pick up points were used and was it measeured on the car?

 

Also was a dyno available?

 

bpt

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Tech inspector Kurt Borton and I poured over the car both when David was around (impound and annual tech), and when he wasn't around (top secret inspection). We had measurements from the stock IRS in the Mid Coast Performance shop. The car checked out.

 

LM

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Tech inspector Kurt Borton and I poured over the car both when David was around (impound and annual tech), and when he wasn't around (top secret inspection). We had measurements from the stock IRS in the Mid Coast Performance shop. The car checked out.

 

LM

 

Hey, wait a minute. Whats this about a " top secret inspection". You guys better not post all my performance enhancing secrets.

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