Matt Blehm
Moderator
Saturday looked to be a pretty good day- weather was nice, 5 EP cars on grid, starting in the top 6 or 7 sports.
I was on 2-weekend old tires already, just hoping they would last the weekend. Got a good start from pole and got a decent lead, then stayed there for the rest of the race.
Aaron Hall ran second, with a gap between he and I, and another gap to Buskuhl and Jon Stautberg that battled for 3/4 most of the race. Mark broke an axle with a couple laps to go, giving Daddy Stautberg 3rd. David Stautberg had a tire issue just before the race and had to scramble to get to grid. the field had already left and he was able to get out there and catch the field just before the green flag. He wound up blowing a tire on lap 12 and wasn't running at the end. Times and consistency are improving for David, so keep watching.
Doc Smith in FP had a throttle stick on his FP Del Slo on lap 2 and wound up in the weeds at the back of the track. fortunately it was a minor repair and he was back out on Sunday.
Aaron Hall is new to the area (and country for that matter!), with his fresh-off-the-boat Caterham shipped over from the UK and still on ****** *****. He ran the Caterham series over there for some time, but will definitely be a force to be reckoned with once he gets the car fully SCCA-spec'd and slick-tired. on Saturday (his first time at MSRH and first race in the US), he qualified with a 1.51.2 and ran a 1:50.0 in the race. on Sunday, he improved for a 1.49.7 in qual and a 1.48.6 in the race while giving Mark and I a good fight.
I was able to make some calls on Saturday afternoon and found Mark a set of axles off a local parts car and he was back out on Sunday.
Unfortunately, Sunday was not so pleasant.
Jon Stautberg lost 5th gear during qual Sunday morning and didn't make the race.
I could tell my tires were about done since there just wasn't much left for grip during qualifying. I knew it would be a hard race to stay in front with the way Aaron was speeding up each session and I knew my tires would go off through the race. Mark also qualified a touch better and I never count him out.
I got another good start and got a decent distance ahead. I didn't run away and back off like Saturday, as I didn't want to kill my tires in the first 5 laps. (the fight's-a-coming!) I watched Mark and Aaron trade spots every turn or two in my mirror and after about 3 laps realized they had caught up to my bumper while I was watching them race. Mark and Aaron would both catch me in braking and through the carousel, but I had legs on both of 'em so would gap them on the straights again. unfortunately not enough tire to do anything and they would both catch me again under braking. about lap 3, I started smelling oil a couple places on track and it was getting worse. next lap I could see a bit of smoke off my left side on right turns and it smelled like gear oil.. looks like I lost the axle seal I replaced in March.
I kept going for another couple laps trying to determine just how bad it was.. by lap 5 the smoke was pretty bad and on lap 6, it was filling the cabin. better to pull off and not destroy the diff or oil down the track any more than I already have, especially while trying to fight off Mark and Aaron.
I went over the launch at 12, pulled off line and pointed Mark and Aaron by. they both charged into 16, and Aaron went REEEEAL deep in braking while I was pulling into the pits. Next thing I know, Mark is in the runoff area and I see smoke on the right side of the car. He then turns for the pit road and tries to make it across the gravel.. Didn't happen-- he beached it in the gravel and I pulled in to the pits.
Aaron went on to win the race, dropping his Sat (and qualifying) times by 1.5 sec.. I guess I gave him a rabbit to chase!
I didn't get to talk to Mark after the race, but I hear he broke a transmission.
As expected, I lost an axle seal as there was oil all over everything inside the left rear wheel. better to park it and have a rear end left for the Majors in a couple weeks.
Saturday was my first pole and I led flag-to-flag, Sunday was my first DNF! ya win some, ya lose some!
Sat:
EP:
Matt Blehm
Aaron Hall
Jon Stautbers
Mark Buskuhl
David Stautberg
FP:
Doc Smith, DNF
Sun:
EP:
Aaron Hall
David Stautberg
Matt Blehm, DNF
Mark Buskuhl, DNF
FP:
Doc Smith, only one in FP, 4th overall
I was on 2-weekend old tires already, just hoping they would last the weekend. Got a good start from pole and got a decent lead, then stayed there for the rest of the race.
Aaron Hall ran second, with a gap between he and I, and another gap to Buskuhl and Jon Stautberg that battled for 3/4 most of the race. Mark broke an axle with a couple laps to go, giving Daddy Stautberg 3rd. David Stautberg had a tire issue just before the race and had to scramble to get to grid. the field had already left and he was able to get out there and catch the field just before the green flag. He wound up blowing a tire on lap 12 and wasn't running at the end. Times and consistency are improving for David, so keep watching.
Doc Smith in FP had a throttle stick on his FP Del Slo on lap 2 and wound up in the weeds at the back of the track. fortunately it was a minor repair and he was back out on Sunday.
Aaron Hall is new to the area (and country for that matter!), with his fresh-off-the-boat Caterham shipped over from the UK and still on ****** *****. He ran the Caterham series over there for some time, but will definitely be a force to be reckoned with once he gets the car fully SCCA-spec'd and slick-tired. on Saturday (his first time at MSRH and first race in the US), he qualified with a 1.51.2 and ran a 1:50.0 in the race. on Sunday, he improved for a 1.49.7 in qual and a 1.48.6 in the race while giving Mark and I a good fight.
I was able to make some calls on Saturday afternoon and found Mark a set of axles off a local parts car and he was back out on Sunday.
Unfortunately, Sunday was not so pleasant.
Jon Stautberg lost 5th gear during qual Sunday morning and didn't make the race.
I could tell my tires were about done since there just wasn't much left for grip during qualifying. I knew it would be a hard race to stay in front with the way Aaron was speeding up each session and I knew my tires would go off through the race. Mark also qualified a touch better and I never count him out.
I got another good start and got a decent distance ahead. I didn't run away and back off like Saturday, as I didn't want to kill my tires in the first 5 laps. (the fight's-a-coming!) I watched Mark and Aaron trade spots every turn or two in my mirror and after about 3 laps realized they had caught up to my bumper while I was watching them race. Mark and Aaron would both catch me in braking and through the carousel, but I had legs on both of 'em so would gap them on the straights again. unfortunately not enough tire to do anything and they would both catch me again under braking. about lap 3, I started smelling oil a couple places on track and it was getting worse. next lap I could see a bit of smoke off my left side on right turns and it smelled like gear oil.. looks like I lost the axle seal I replaced in March.
I kept going for another couple laps trying to determine just how bad it was.. by lap 5 the smoke was pretty bad and on lap 6, it was filling the cabin. better to pull off and not destroy the diff or oil down the track any more than I already have, especially while trying to fight off Mark and Aaron.I went over the launch at 12, pulled off line and pointed Mark and Aaron by. they both charged into 16, and Aaron went REEEEAL deep in braking while I was pulling into the pits. Next thing I know, Mark is in the runoff area and I see smoke on the right side of the car. He then turns for the pit road and tries to make it across the gravel.. Didn't happen-- he beached it in the gravel and I pulled in to the pits.
Aaron went on to win the race, dropping his Sat (and qualifying) times by 1.5 sec.. I guess I gave him a rabbit to chase!
I didn't get to talk to Mark after the race, but I hear he broke a transmission.
As expected, I lost an axle seal as there was oil all over everything inside the left rear wheel. better to park it and have a rear end left for the Majors in a couple weeks.
Saturday was my first pole and I led flag-to-flag, Sunday was my first DNF! ya win some, ya lose some!
Sat:
EP:
Matt Blehm
Aaron Hall
Jon Stautbers
Mark Buskuhl
David Stautberg
FP:
Doc Smith, DNF
Sun:
EP:
Aaron Hall
David Stautberg
Matt Blehm, DNF
Mark Buskuhl, DNF
FP:
Doc Smith, only one in FP, 4th overall