2020 SCCA Runoffs - Road America

Interesting FP race. Pole lotus was topped out from the kink to Canada corner - and then only dropped one gear at the apex. Heard he lost a tire in the race, Ruck lost an engine (I heard). Only one spridget in FP (gnadt), but it sounded Flippin awesome. He was a dnf as well.
 
Congrats to all Runoffs winners and podium finishers.

Sorry to see Chris crunch in the Kink, hope the damage is not too bad. But fun to see an LBC win once again. Typical strong field in H, good to see it doing well.
 
Kendal, are you saying the poll Lotus was topped out at 120+ from the kink to Canada corner ? 'Cause he was hitting 123 in qual
 
Sterling":2xmhxnop said:
Kendal, are you saying the poll Lotus was topped out at 120+ from the kink to Canada corner ? 'Cause he was hitting 123 in qual
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Yep, I stood at canada corner for most of the races / quals. It was the weirdest / coolest thing. You can hear the echo of the cars as they leave the carousel and go through the kink. All but one was accelerating. The lotus was at one rpm from the echo to canada corner. Most cars dropped 2 gears, the lotus dropped one. Even chima dropped 2 gears in a "similar" lotus.

Reminded me of those porsche 917 videos on the mulsanne straight .

Good times.
 
Kendall Jones":eghplgcu said:
Sterling":eghplgcu said:
Kendal, are you saying the poll Lotus was topped out at 120+ from the kink to Canada corner ? 'Cause he was hitting 123 in qual
Click to expand...

Yep, I stood at canada corner for most of the races / quals. It was the weirdest / coolest thing. You can hear the echo of the cars as they leave the carousel and go through the kink. All but one was accelerating. The lotus was at one rpm from the echo to canada corner. Most cars dropped 2 gears, the lotus dropped one. Even chima dropped 2 gears in a "similar" lotus.

Reminded me of those porsche 917 videos on the mulsanne straight .

Good times.
Click to expand...

yea i have a CMC locost with a 13b S4 13b and GSLSE rear end. So i can confirm that there is a "wall" you hit where it takes more power to overcome the drag. That was about 4/5th gear at Nashville Super Speedway for me.
 
For some reason I was wondering what records fell in Prod at Road America this year. Turns out no race lap records did, which is interesting. The best race lap times also fell off quite a lot versus the best qualifying lap times. At least for us in FP, the track was completely different between our race and our final qualifying session. I couldn't get within two seconds of my qualifying time, just 24 hours later; hadn't rained or anything. A whole lot of us are still chasing what two Spitfire's did 10 years ago. That HP CRX from 2009 that caused so much up roar, that got beat though.

Prior Road America Track Records:
EP Qual - Jon Brakke - Mazda Miata - 2:27.508 - 9/23/10
EP Race - Jesse Prather - BMW Z3 - 2:27.962 - 6/12/20
FP Qual - Steve Sargis - Triumph Spitfire - 2:30.789 - 9/22/10
FP Race - Steve Sargis - Triumph Spitfire - 2:31.590 - 9/26/10
HP Qual - Dan Meller - Honda CRX - 2:40.414 - 9/23/09
HP Race - Steve Sargis - Triumph Spitfire - 2:39.076 - 9/25/10

2020 Runoffs Best Times:
EP Qual - Jesse Prather - 1999 BMW Z3 2.5L - 2:27.322 ***New Record***
EP Race - Jesse Prather - 1999 BMW Z3 2.5L - 2:29.047
FP Qual - Ethan Shippert - Lotus Super Seven - 2:31.414
FP Race - Kevin Ruck - 1990 Acura Integra - 2:34.033
HP Qual - Daniel Meller - 1979 Nissan 210 - 2:39.695 ***New Record***
HP Race - Steve Sargis - 1975 Triumph Spitfire - 2:41.708
 
Yeah, I'm not that surprised. Cool air is definitely better for power - and Road America rewards power - but really cold air seriously affects track temperature and thus grip. And of course colder air is denser, affecting drag. I think it was just *too* cold this year. If anyone has data from both the Runoffs and the June Sprints I'd not be surprised to find significantly higher corner speeds in June (and similar straightline speeds).

Plus, of course, we've had top-end talent at Road America for a long time, so records won't fall willy-nilly. I remember the 2010 Runoffs, it was a fantastic week with beautiful weather, cool temperatures and big sun all week. Optimal conditions.
 
Except during the FP race, that was the warmest conditions we saw all week. It was around 78 or so at green flag time. It was also quite windy, blowing directly down the front-straight. I know that versus my best qualifying lap, during the race I'd routinely be "off" a full second by the time I got to Turn 3, between how much the wind was effecting speed from S/F to Turn 1, and then how little grip Turn 1 had versus the day before. Was kind of weird. The tail-wind down to Turn 5 though was the "Turbo Boost" button.
 
It's not always the full 15 minutes, but there are some good memories to go along with the motivation....

50878425453_1dfd98e389_k.jpg
 
Man, that Spitfire looks good. Raced against Steve at the January Palm Beach in the 90's. Had a rear trans seal leaking so bad that Toni volunteered to wash his drivers suit in between Palm Beach and Sebring. Neither of us remember if he took her up on the offer. And just for the record, he was in GP and I was in FP. Steve has always been one of the best prod guys in all aspects. Drivers like him make me miss driving. Great picture.
 
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