Runoffs HP field

Highlights, Lowlights and general Prod comments.

It was great meeting Will Perry, AJ, the Ogren’s and others whose names I’ve seen. Top notch production racing “hidden” in the south...

Our car ran great. Gas oil and water the whole time despite wringing its neck well past 9K all week. It's always a relief.

The weather was great, it was our first Runoffs in 10 years that wasn't 50 degrees and raining. Not a single rain session the entire week. And how convenient that parts, supplies and food were all within spitting distance, and crew were happy with an ocean to swim in.

The track and facilities were top notch, and very challenging. You can see from the live coverage that top 5 in each class were still muffing corners during the race that we had been working on all week.

We worked all year on aero and trying to master radials, and those improvements showed in straight line speeds. The Fiat had respectable trap speeds of ~128-131 all week, despite not getting a lot of consistent drafting. It was our best motor yet, but we’re clearly down on power compared to the modern big displacement cars. A.J, Linn and other cars had huge power. I was drooling with lust during tear downs over the sight of 40mm intake valves, 16V, 12:1 compression, crossflow, etc. etc.

Our best time during the week was a 20.3 but our data showed a target of 19.3. We had some potential, I just couldn’t put it together lap after lap or session after session. I could never get the car neutral. We made the unconventional choice of A7 DOT radials all week. Thought we had them dialed in after our run at Michigan, but the late-apex infield turns proved otherwise. Fortunately it was good in the bus-stop and allowed the car to be thrown around when needed. If we had kept the bias set-up we likely would have had another second of speed.

Tech during the week was curious to say the least. Several cars pulled to the garage during the week were subject to full anal-probe inspection including whistling, while others never had their hoods raised.

We and Kevin Ruck found out there is a rule about front air dam height (4 inches above hub centerline). My team spent 5 hours Weds night completely remaking our front dam and its mounting to meet the letter of the law. Ironically the dam was developed for a full-prep car and would have been legal on a full prep car, but the extra 1” of ride height on our LP suspension caused it to be non-compliant. Much ado about nothing and a big waste of time.

The restart of the H race was crazy. There should have been some smashed up P4-P10 cars in T1 (ours included) but we managed to squirt through the potential carnage.

Got a booger on the forward lens of the video system on the very first lap of the race, so lame footage.

Post-race impound was a cluster. It is our understanding that 2 of the top 3 did not roll across the scales prior to being torn down.

The Miata night sessions were just awesome to see in person, and hats off for such a clean race.

I determined the exact service life of 5 year old Cooper E-class trailer tires, losing one on the way down, and another on the way back. Lol.

I am a better racer for the experience.
 
Against my better judgement, I'm going to reply to some of the comments made about the finish.

On every day except Wed, my CRX had the fastest trap speed (wed was 2nd fast even though I only did 2 laps). Terminal velocity is not restricted by weight, it just takes longer to get there the heavier you are. The CRX has really good aero (drag coefficient) compared to the other cars and has pretty small frontal area. Top speed was my savior because I couldn't get through the infield as well as the others. I want to attribute some of that to the weight of the cars but some of it was probably superior driving by others. My CRX with current gears weighs 2301. The Yaris in current configuration weighs 282lbs less, the VW either 200lbs or 150 less depending on it gears (and I think it's a 1800, the 1600 weighs 500 less than the CRX) and the first gen CRX of Will Perry weighs either 400lbs or 353 less depending on gears. So the braking area for T1 is an issue for the heavier car as well as accelerating out of the tight stuff.

As we enter the last lap I miss the apex in T1, as Jason did a few laps earlier to give me the lead. As we go through T-2 we have contact. I thought he had enough room on the inside (just barely) but there was fairly significant contact and we were both lucky to keep it on track. I dropped to 3rd. As we went onto the banking from T-6, there was a pretty good gap between the three of us but I didn't give up hope. Jason had to go "four off" at the exit of the Bus Stop, perhaps due to damage from contact with me in T-2. Both AJ and I had decent exits and all three of us started to close up. The CRX really moved well between the exit of the NASCAR T-4 and S/F.

Jason pulls to the inside to try and break the draft, go the shortest distance and not get passed on the inside. AJ follows. I feel like I have enough momentum to roll on the outside. AJ pops out but initially stays close to Jason. You can see in AJ's video that he looks in his mirror to find the CRX. He makes another move to block my momentum, but I'm already alongside. AJ's RR and my LF have contact, and then he pivots across my front and all hell breaks loose. Once AJ's car was off my front I shot down towards Jason. I had counter-steered to avoid going into the wall once contact was initiated.

So those of you that think that "AJ and Jason got screwed" - if I have the most momentum, why would I want to scrub it off on a slower car? Would AJ have incentive to slow down a car that is going faster? From these three attached jpegs, can you see the direction that AJ is moving up the track? Can you see that the CRX is advancing relative to AJ's? There was NO contact on the rear of AJ's car, all side to side. I firmly believe that if there is no contact, I win easily.

Here are the two rules that seem pertinent to this:
C. Drivers must respect the right of other competitors to racing room. Abrupt changes in direction that impede or affect the path of another car attempting to overtake or pass may be interpreted as an effort to deprive a fellow competitor of the right to racing room.
D. The overtaking driver is responsible for the decision to pass another car and to accomplish it safely. The overtaken driver is responsible to be aware that he is being passed and not to impede or block the overtaking car. A driver who does not use his rear view mirror or who appears to be blocking another car attempting to pass may be black flagged and/or penalized, as specified in Section 7.

Unfortunately Steve Hussey, the owner of the CRX had to return to China on Sat and has the video. I was going to wait until I had all of the video, including the Speedcast but this was eating at me. My first championship and having to go through 26 hours of uncertainty then, calls of the others "getting screwed". I thought I had proven I could race cleanly at Topeka when I went up against Jesse Prather in FP and Tom Feller in HP for the wins. I realize that something that happened 8 years ago doesn't mean that I didn't cause that accident. I just don't see how you can make that judgement based on limited information.

I feel terrible that three cars were torn up, especially Jason since he was an innocent bystander at the S/F mess. I apologized to Jason for the contact, but at that point I was more of a passenger.

If someone can clearly say I caused that accident, and AJ didn't move up and squeeze me, well so be it. I will take my lumps, but for now I don't see it that way.

Brian Linn
 
I was there as an also ran, that should have been 5th except for driver error at the bus stop on the last lap. Our trap speed was 130 also, and one thing I noticed during qualifying was that, especially in the tri-oval, our car got moved around A LOT when passing another car. Is it possible that air buffeting from Jason's car moved AJ's car up into Brian?
 
so the overtaker needs to slam on his brakes or veer towards the wall instead of holding his line? I watched the race, i watched AJ's in car. everyone has the right to racing room. They both went for the same piece of ground.

A) I know Brian I know he didn't drive into AJ on purpose...he's never been like that...ever...period.
B) It looks to me like close racing, AJ moved up to block brian, he as already beside him and brian didn't yield or move closer to the wall. That being said, why did AJ continue to move up...to try and block brian from making the pass. he could have easily held his line next Jason
C) I wasn't in any of the 3 cars so I can't make any determination of what i would or wouldn't have done in any of the 3 seats after 14 laps of hard racing with a national championship 500 feet away.

I'm wouldn't blame any single person for what happened, take any one of the 3 out of of the mix and it doesn't happen at all, or any one of the 3 makes a different move on the oval and none of it happens.

Congrats to All 3 for an amazing race.

Congrats to Brian for his Runoffs Victory.
 
Aaron Johnson":ppa424bd said:
Congrats to All 3 for an amazing race.

Congrats to Brian for his Runoffs Victory.
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Agreed.
There is always more than one side to a story. Not surprisingly each new video or image that we see adds more context to the little bit that we have seen of this finish. Big thanks to AJ, Jason and Brian for taking the time to share what their race and their finish was like.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yxHQ-j ... e=youtu.be


The video shows everything, watch the steering wheel center white mark in reference to the Tach on the VW, AJ did not turn the wheel to the right to block the CRX, also the video shows clearly the white line on the track and shows that the CRX had plenty of room to pass, Nascar Cup cars can fit between that white line and the wall not sure why the CRX would not.

The CRX driver in his own words to the SCCA web site: " He threw the block and I kept my foot in it "

Also the sad part that if he just made his pass above the white line he would have won anyway without crashing 2 cars and his own.

Hopefully the CRX driver will post video from his car so we can see his angle.
 
The point made was that he was, and stayed till punted, below the white line leaving plenty of room for all.
 
Until you've seen all the videos, interviewed all the witnesses, and discussed it with all the drivers, then you don't have the whole story. That's why the stewards do exactly that, and take a lot of time in doing so, before rendering their opinion. And even then, the decision is often not an easy one to make.
 
What "problem" are we trying to solve here?? The Runoffs are over and Stewards already made the decisions and all official protests have been closed. The results are final and official. Time to enjoy the fall and get ready for next year.
 
zChris":ha4yif2t said:
The point made was that he was, and stayed till punted, below the white line leaving plenty of room for all.
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But he didn't. The pictures show that. The relative distance from the yellow line to the Yaris remains constant. The distance from the Yaris to the VW grows. A lot more than you can tell from the video.


RonInSD":ha4yif2t said:
What "problem" are we trying to solve here?? The Runoffs are over and Stewards already made the decisions and all official protests have been closed. The results are final and official. Time to enjoy the fall and get ready for next year.
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The problem Ron is the use of words like Screwed and Punted. It simply isn't the case. The incident is unfortunate, but from what I have seen. Brian Linn is National Champion, it is deserved and it was the right decision by the stewards to take no action. He should be celebrating a championship, not defending himself against desparaging statements.
 
ltblouis":jzsnsh9b said:
http://www.scca.com/pages/2015-scca-runoffs-ondemand



End of story.
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You are right it has been ruled on and end of story, congrats to Brian Linn the 2015 National Champion.
 
Agree on the end. One point.. Brian didn't screw Jason and AJ, the stewards did. Congratulations Brian!

Bob
 
what I want to know is where Louis fond that on demand video page and where are the rest of the races??
 
mlewis":2rwoogcl said:
what I want to know is where Louis fond that on demand video page and where are the rest of the races??
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I am friends with John Steflik on SCCA.COM and he posted the link on the Social part of scca.com.

You can find it if you go to www.scca.com/runoffs and then the On Demand link is on the upper right.

They are working to upload the rest of the races.
 
Great coverage..
Watched the entire thing. The stewards dropped the ball . I am sure that if my kid had spun the leader , he would not win the race.
Who are the stewards, and how do remove them?
 
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