Nationals updat

[Al F.]

Most people are here and taking advantage of cheating bastard practice. Temps were cool yesterday and everyone I talked to that had dynoed had needed to detune. Temps are a little warmer today and at least one driver has redynoed and gone up in restrictor. Everyone is sand bagging in the paddock!

[Al F.]

1st qualifying session is done...

Liebbe set a scorching pole time in CMC: 2:16.9...just a bit over a second better than the track record. Its nice and cool this morning, so that will likely slip during the race session later.

 

In CMC2, Nick Steel is on pole with a 2:14.205. Kellam is right behind him with a 2:14.223, and Dave Brown is next with a 2:14.474!

[Al F.]

Steel and brown at the top in the duece. Liebbe and Ginsberg in 1.

[Al F.]

Grid is set for this afternoon's qual race!!!

CMC

Liebbe

Owens

Ginsberg

 

CMC2

Burnett

Ray

Plum

 

Nothing like a little drama...looks like a CMC style inverted start for this afternoon's qual race in the duece!

 

Jeremiah's qual time was thrown out due to a technical infraction. His subframe connectors are connected to each other by a tube spanning the center of the car. This tube also has a piece of steel strip going around the driveshaft, so it is a valid driveshaft loop...unfortunately it violates the rule stipulating subframe connectors may not span across the floor from side to side. It really bums me out because I am pretty sure that car has been like that for a long time and it was not caught before. I know we specifically did subframe connectors as a tech item in Tx recently because we had some discussions around Mosty's car having seat reinforcements tied into the subframes on both passenger and driver side. That really sucks.

 

A short while later, both Nick Steel and Dave Brown showed up late to the driver meeting...so both of their qualifying times were thrown out as well. That makes three drivers so far this weekend that have lost a qual time for missing or being late to a meeting.

 

Liebbe is scorching the track, but Ginsberg and Balingit are right there too. Should make for another great race if Adam can figure out how to not botch the start.

[Sidney]

Looks like Kent's got the time...just needs to watch the yellow flags!

 

Burnett will be tough to pass! Been there...done that.

 

Sidney

[FBody383]

Friday Qual Race Results:

 

CMC

Rob Liebbe

Dave Balingit

Adam Ginsberg

 

The Duece

Jeremiah Kellam

Nick Steel

Dave Brown

[Al F.]

Man it killed me to crawl under Jermiah's car and look at what Tech (none other than Alan Blaine) was pointing out. Jeremiah and Wayne made repairs so he was able to run the last qual race...and run he did! Maybe it was all the anger, but he drove a hell of a race taking the win by a substantial margin. Nick Steel came in 2nd, and Dave Brown 3rd.

 

Liebbe and Balingit battled for several laps with Dave up front until Rob made a clean pass. Dave never fell back more than a couple of car lengths though, and a few times he was right on Rob's tail. Adam came in 3rd just ahead of Kent. Those two guys ran a great race. In post race tech James Ray got DQd for a similar infraction to Kellam: illegal chassis stiffening. In this case the door bar was welded to the door jamb.

 

Grid for the big show in CMC:

CMC1

Liebbe

Balingit

Ginsberg

Sjoblom

Owens

Incidental Contact

Lariviere

 

CMC2:

Steel

Brown

Kellam

Burnett

Plum

Ray

 

AI preliminary top 5:

Schlender

Macmillan

Winkler

Murray

Patterson

 

We have a special treat...the boys did F1 style interviews for GoRacingTV. GoRacingTV is doing some coverage of the championships. They just showed up today, but are planning to do some cool things. The interviews are allegedly going to air tonight at 9pm central time:

 

http://www.goracingtv.com/09/16/2010/goracingtv-to-broadcast-daily-news-show-from-the-5th-annual-nasa-championships-news-coverage-is-courtesy-of-honda-hpd/

[jon dawes]

WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!! Wish I were there.

 

Wait a minute; so what is George Winkler driving in AI? Did he modify his Mustang Challenge car, or something else? Holy Crap he qualified way up there! I started HPDEs about the same time he did...man I've got some catching up to do.

[jon dawes]

Jeesh how rude of me...GOOD LUCK ALL YOU GUYS!!!!

[Al F.]

Wow, what a rollercoaster ride today. First of all, hats off to all of the drivers, friends, and family that made it out here and battled on and off track. The race was just spectacular.

 

CMC2:

 

Steel got out front early followed by Kellam and Brown. Kellam was throwing everything at Steel to get by. It looked like Brown was just hanging, waiting for the right time. The right time came and he passed both guys to get into the lead. Nick was fighting a worsening push and started to drop. Kellam got into 2nd and then slowly but surely inched his way to Brown's back bumper. 2nd to last lap Jeremiah made a great run out of the last turn and the cars passed the line side by side under the white flag. The entire control room was standing and cheering. It was awesome. They went side by side for three turns before Brown finally edged up. Kellam threw everything at him, but just couldnt make it happen.

 

In post race tech Alan Blain started pouring over the cars. One tech item was air dams and air deflectors and validating their height. Brown's air deflector was found to be too low. The car was pushed from the impound area to the garage with a polished and level floor, and it was still. Measurements were taken with and without driver, it made no difference. Brown was therefore DQd, making the top three Jeremiah Kellam, Nick Steel, and James Ray.

[Al F.]

CMC1:

Liebbe got in front early and in back just about everyone lined up after the first lap. Balingit was giving chase, never falling more than a few car lengths behind Rob through some pretty damn fast laps. Ginsberg drove off driver's left at turn one and parked the car in a safe location allowing green racing to continue. Thanks for that Adam!! Safety crews radioed in that Adam told them the shifter had broken. No one got a chance to talk to him because he packed and left before we were out of tech. Kent Owens was running a good race but felt a vibration that made him think his tire was going down, so he pulled through hot pits to verify, which is a bummer because his tires were fine and as it turns out he would've been on the podium if he'd just stayed out.

 

In post race tech Balingit was DQd for having illegal chassis stiffening under rule 7.6.2. His strut tower connector has tubes running to the firewall well under the minimum distance of 18" from a roll cage attachment point. Liebbe was sent to the dyno and DQd for making too much power. He broke out of the CMC maximum allowable of 237hp.

 

I was absolutely crushed at having to DQ any of the drivers, much less three of them. Everyone was good about it, the rules in all of these cases are cut and dry.

 

Thats it for CMC...results are done, pictures are taken...lets start drinking!!!

 

CMC2:

Kellam

Steel

Ray

Burnett

Plum

Brown DQ

 

CMC1

Sjoblom

Lariviere

Incidental Contact

Owens

Ginsberg

Balingit DQ

Liebbe DQ

[KiMifan]

What kind of strut tower brace does Balingit have? If it's a stock or aftermarket bolt-on type, I think that's a pretty chickenshit interpretation of the rule, not to mention that if you are going to check for rulebook-Nazi "gotchas" like that it should be early enough in the event to allow time to fix it. Save the post-championship tech for things that really might have had an effect on the outcome of the race.

[koserv]

Thanks to Al for a fantastic job keeping us raceheads on course. One thing he didn't mention is we ran all week long with no contact. Even with the small field, the racing was damn close, and everyone pulled it off without a hitch. Personally, I'm really disapointed, in that Adam, Anders (Eic), and I had been running very close times all week and I expected we'd be bumper to door all race for CMC P3. As it turned out, Adam broke, my "tire" turned out to be a front left wheel hub (finished the race with the hub completely separated from the bearing cap), and we ended up running solo behind the great race between Rob and Dave. Everyone is bummed the DQ's went down as they did, but as you all know, you gotta be there at the end, and you gotta read the rulebook. Congratulations to Anders for bringing it back to the MW/GL region.

 

Hat's off to Al, Todd, all the NASA staff here, and most of all, the CMC and CMCK2 drivers who made the commitment to be here to race.

 

You all get ready for Mid-O next year. MW/GL is going to have 8-10 drivers there, and we're going to do our best to get the MA and TX reigons to kiss and make up. Think about it....If the normal cast of characters make it, we have 8-10 in the GL/MW, Lydic and Landrum bring 5-6 of their finest, 3-4 from RM make it, a couple of the CA gang decide to hump out, a handfull from the SE and NE...Do the math, we could be looking at a 30 car CMC/2 field next year. Start saving your lunch money and make it happen!

[jon dawes]

Wow. Major let down. Very lame. What a great way to get PR for the series: DQ the winners for stuff that should have been dealt with before the race. L.A.M.E.

[mitchntx1548534714]

Wow. Major let down. Very lame. What a great way to get PR for the series: DQ the winners for stuff that should have been dealt with before the race. L.A.M.E.

 

So you are blaming Tech for doing their job?

 

What's lame is racing an illegal car, regardless of the severity ... illegal is illegal. And whose fault is that?

 

Everyone there and competing had access to a copy of the rule book.

 

No excuses ...

[KiMifan]

If you look hard enough you can find something "illegal" on just about any car in the paddock. But if the process is the same as its been since the first NASA Nationals, the items that will be teched after each session are determined prior to the start of the event and the inspectors just go by what the sheet says to check on the cars in impound. They shouldn't be crawling around under every car looking for stuff that's not on the list. So my beef is that strut tower attachments are not the kind of thing that should have been on the list for the championship race. If you want to check that kind of stuff, do it after qualifying or qualifying races.

[nasa-rm]

Thanks to Al for a fantastic job keeping us raceheads on course. One thing he didn't mention is we ran all week long with no contact. Even with the small field, the racing was damn close, and everyone pulled it off without a hitch.

 

YES!!!! Very close racing, but very clean at the same time. Tooth and nail, but no bite marks or scratches (that statment is copywright Dave Balingit 2010).

[Glenn]

If you look hard enough you can find something "illegal" on just about any car in the paddock. But if the process is the same as its been since the first NASA Nationals, the items that will be teched after each session are determined prior to the start of the event and the inspectors just go by what the sheet says to check on the cars in impound. They shouldn't be crawling around under every car looking for stuff that's not on the list. So my beef is that strut tower attachments are not the kind of thing that should have been on the list for the championship race. If you want to check that kind of stuff, do it after qualifying or qualifying races.

 

You are forgetting that not all cars get tech'ed after a qual or qual race. So assuming all cars are in compliance w/ the strut brace rule prior to the Champ race is a very poor assumption. There should not be any rule unworthy of post Champ Race tech. I completely disagree w/ your POV.

 

As for finding "illegal" stuff on all cars..... I think not. My car have been run thru the ringer for 4 years straight at Nats. Never been dinged for anything best I can recall. I will agree w/ more cars than not have some issue of legality. But that goes at every level of racing.

 

The requirement is on the racer to be compliant and tech to catch them (or fellow racers). Each racer has the responsibility to be in compliance and cannot use "its been that way all along" as an out.

 

 

Alan Blaine did an awsome job as NASA Tech this year. Well from what I can tell from home anyways.

Edited September 19, 2010 by Guest

[Glenn]

Wow. Major let down. Very lame. What a great way to get PR for the series: DQ the winners for stuff that should have been dealt with before the race. L.A.M.E.

 

So what your saying is we Tech prior to going out on track?

 

In a perfect world we would do all the Tech on Wed. But that would add another day your required to be at the event. In addition to that, it would be an impound weekend. You would not be able to pit at your trailer, but rather in impound. Forget about working on the car post race, unless you want to go thru tech again.

 

Kudo's to those who were crowned Official Podium finishers for having legal cars.

 

 

And for a bit of a history lesson......

The very first Nats, the car that won the CMC Champ race from like 23rd place was not teched post race like you think should it happen. In fact he was not teched once all weekend cause he never finished a qual of qual race. Post race everyone knew he was not legal, but there was no plan set to tech any cars post race. Even the dyno had packed up and left by that time. 6 months later the car was caught 30+ hp over. We all knew that it was BS he was the Champ, but there was not a thing that could be done. In my mind, I finished 2nd that year and Jeff B finished 1st.

[Glenn]

Thanks to Al for a fantastic job keeping us raceheads on course. One thing he didn't mention is we ran all week long with no contact. Even with the small field, the racing was damn close, and everyone pulled it off without a hitch. Personally, I'm really disapointed, in that Adam, Anders (Eic), and I had been running very close times all week and I expected we'd be bumper to door all race for CMC P3. As it turned out, Adam broke, my "tire" turned out to be a front left wheel hub (finished the race with the hub completely separated from the bearing cap), and we ended up running solo behind the great race between Rob and Dave. Everyone is bummed the DQ's went down as they did, but as you all know, you gotta be there at the end, and you gotta read the rulebook. Congratulations to Anders for bringing it back to the MW/GL region.

 

Hat's off to Al, Todd, all the NASA staff here, and most of all, the CMC and CMCK2 drivers who made the commitment to be here to race.

 

You all get ready for Mid-O next year. MW/GL is going to have 8-10 drivers there, and we're going to do our best to get the MA and TX reigons to kiss and make up. Think about it....If the normal cast of characters make it, we have 8-10 in the GL/MW, Lydic and Landrum bring 5-6 of their finest, 3-4 from RM make it, a couple of the CA gang decide to hump out, a handfull from the SE and NE...Do the math, we could be looking at a 30 car CMC/2 field next year. Start saving your lunch money and make it happen!

 

And w/ that, I'll be putting in some time on the new CMC2 car tomorrow.

The wife said I should have been there to win it again this year and I'm going for sure in 2011.

[KiMifan]

You know Glenn, holding to your standard of black and white rules enforcement, you should have been DQ'd in 2008 for multiple contact incidents and rough driving at the Nationals.

[GT4Point6]

Not a fan of DQ's but I have to say that there simply is not enough time to tech every car for everything. Period.

 

Last year, and the first two years I went, tech was different after every qual/race. Mixed it up, looked at different things. Very fair given the amount of time allowed to tech the cars and we usually got pushed out of tech to make room for the next race group coming in.

 

Todd and Al (and others who tech) do a great job. Fair, unbiased and by the book. It's simple because we all have a copy of the same rules right?

 

All that aside,

CONGRATS to the podium finishers!!!

 

Just my $0.02

[Glenn]

You know Glenn, holding to your standard of black and white rules enforcement, you should have been DQ'd in 2008 for multiple contact incidents and rough driving at the Nationals.

 

Your opinion.

I hit a 944 that I totally owned up to, and John Lindsay was witness to, but I was not DQ'ed from based upon his recommendation. Mostly due to him not responding to a passing flag shown to him for multiple corners and being a lap or more down to the nearest car in his own class. I'll defer to his judgment over yours.

I hit you. Honest mistake and I told you that. You said you were OK w/ it. Is that not the case 2 years later? I surely don’t think it violated the 50/50 rule. Nor did a position change result from it.

If you are referring to contact w/ Schotz, please, he owned up to all fault after the race as well as post race video backing me up. I was 100% on the receiving end of that. Since Schotz didn’t feel strongly enough about my being at fault that not only did he not file contact paperwork (required by rule), but he flat out refused to do so when requested to do so by the race director.

 

Given these examples, where would my DQ have come from? Not that any of the above are post race tech type infractions.

 

Interesting how quickly you sling mud over a simple POV disagreement.

 

But since we are bringing up old shit and single sided POV's, lets talk about you not willing to stand on the podium w/ me for podium pics. 2nd and 3rd celebrated w/out me while I was in impound for well over an hour completing my required post race tech and paperwork.

[jon dawes]

Not a fan of DQ's but ...All that aside,

CONGRATS to the podium finishers!!!

 

Just my $0.02

 

Yes, exactly.

[Glenn]

You know Glenn, holding to your standard of black and white rules enforcement, you should have been DQ'd in 2008 for multiple contact incidents and rough driving at the Nationals.

 

And your original argument was about the point in time an infraction was found, but now w/ this comment it seems its w/ black and white rules enforcement that you feel is a major issue.

Moving target Matt. Pick one.