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Sep
05

2024 NASA Championships @ Utah Motorsports Campus

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Disappointing to hear you guys won't make it this year.

For the 2024 NASA Champs, I will be the Group A Race Director - that covers GT, ST2, ST3, ST4, although GT could change back to AIX, still up in the air.

Our own Chris Wynne (@captdistraction) will be the Series Director for Group A. Yes, you should pity him, as he's got to work with me. :p
 
Disappointing to hear you guys won't make it this year.

For the 2024 NASA Champs, I will be the Group A Race Director - that covers GT, ST2, ST3, ST4, although GT could change back to AIX, still up in the air.

Our own Chris Wynne (@captdistraction) will be the Series Director for Group A. Yes, you should pity him, as he's got to work with me. :p
1724362544905.jpeg
 
Disappointing to hear you guys won't make it this year.

For the 2024 NASA Champs, I will be the Group A Race Director - that covers GT, ST2, ST3, ST4, although GT could change back to AIX, still up in the air.

Our own Chris Wynne (@captdistraction) will be the Series Director for Group A. Yes, you should pity him, as he's got to work with me. :p
I'll be sure to reach out to you to get an idea of what the championship winners list looks like (as far as Mustangs go). This will help me with my plans for the TMO Challenge 2025 project I'm working on for next season.
 
What a weekend. Lots to unpack but the busiest I've been between dynos, protests, forms and more - though not as late nights as Daytona (was able to get to bed while it still said PM all nights). @Adam Ginsberg ran a tight ship and overall there was little drama outside some clear-cut race incidents. Compared to years past, this was surprisingly gentle.

Mustangs were all over the podium:

Brian Faessler took TTGT and GT classes
Jimmy Ford runner up TTGT
@flyhalf took TT2 with an absolutely bonkers gap to 2nd place
Derric Carter took AIX
Christopher Lemp took 2nd in AIX
Dallas Brown took 3rd place in AIX, 5th in ST2 (though put the field filled with expensive machinery on notice with an incredible charge from last to 3rd on the start and held it for 15 minutes!)
and there's likely more I'm missing.

While BMW's, Audi's and spendy tube-frame cars dominated the paddock, some good ole' murican muscle showed up and put down some solid results!
 
What a weekend. Lots to unpack but the busiest I've been between dynos, protests, forms and more - though not as late nights as Daytona (was able to get to bed while it still said PM all nights). @Adam Ginsberg ran a tight ship and overall there was little drama outside some clear-cut race incidents. Compared to years past, this was surprisingly gentle.

Mustangs were all over the podium:

Brian Faessler took TTGT and GT classes
Jimmy Ford runner up TTGT
@flyhalf took TT2 with an absolutely bonkers gap to 2nd place
Derric Carter took AIX
Christopher Lemp took 2nd in AIX
Dallas Brown took 3rd place in AIX, 5th in ST2 (though put the field filled with expensive machinery on notice with an incredible charge from last to 3rd on the start and held it for 15 minutes!)
and there's likely more I'm missing.

While BMW's, Audi's and spendy tube-frame cars dominated the paddock, some good ole' murican muscle showed up and put down some solid results!
Perfect summary!!!!
 
We just got home from UMC about an hour ago - it was indeed one hell of a weekend!!

Simply put, Group A would not have been successful without the excellent Series Leader stewardship of Chris. I put a lot on his shoulders, and he handled it like PRO. As is my usual MO, ALL series compliance items are the responsibility of the Series Leader(s) and the Tech folks. If/when there is a compliance issue, I will then look everything over, verify the data, talk to the SL /Tech and the driver, then make a decision.

All track related issues are the responsibility of the Race Director.

As per the NASA CCRs, only the Race Director can penalize a competitor. As Chris is keenly aware, in nearly all cases, I follow the black and white of the CCRs, doing my best to avoid the "gray". Now, I have doled out some unique penalties over the years, in an effort to keep the track and paddock safe, keep our racers racing, and, have FUN!

Can't thank Chris enough for his diligence, hard work, and attention to detail. He really made the weekend successful.

Our great nephew, Finley, didn't have such a stellar weekend at his very first Champs - while he started P20 (in a field of 34 SM cars), he worked his way to P12, then had overheating issues and dropped out of the Sat qual race early. They worked on the car all evening, thought it was good to go for the Champ race, but he suffered engine failure on the formation lap, not able to take the green. He was disappointed, as was his Dad, but in true racing spirit (or stupidity, take your pick :p), they are undeterred and will have the car running again as soon as possible.
 
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We just got home from UMC about an hour ago - it was indeed one hell of a weekend!!

Simply put, Group A would not have been successful without the excellent Series Leader stewardship of Chris. I put a lot on his shoulders, and he handled it like PRO. As is my usual MO, ALL series compliance items are the responsibility of the Series Leader(s) and the Tech folks. If/when there is a compliance issue, I will then everything over, verify the data, talk to the SL /Tech and the driver, then make a decision.

All track related issues are the responsibility of the Race Director.

As per the NASA CCRs, only the Race Director can penalize a competitor. As Chris is keenly aware, in nearly all cases, I follow the black and white of the CCRs, doing my best to avoid the "gray". Now, I have doled out some unique penalties over the years, in an effort to keep the track and paddock safe, keep our racers racing, and, have FUN!

Can't thank Chris enough for his diligence, hard work, and attention to detail. He really made the weekend successful.

Our great nephew, Finley, didn't have such a stellar weekend at his very first Champs - while he started P20 (in a field of 34 SM cars), he worked his way to P12, then had overheating issues and dropped out of the Sat qual race early. They worked on the car all evening, thought it was good to go for the Champ race, but he suffered engine failure on the formation lap, not able to take the green. He was disappointed, as was his Dad, but in true racing spirit (or stupidity, take your pick :p), they are undeterred and will have the car running again as soon as possible.
I know this is more NASA-oriented commentary than TMO-oriented (or mustang oriented in general): but what you outline is the KEY aspect to a successful Championship event. Clear delineation of duties and responsibilities, following the rules as written - avoiding the gray at ALL costs. I also enjoyed the balance of that with the customer-first approach: Give the customer/racer every chance to prove compliance and explain the process to provide as much transparency. Given that, I was very happy to help and all my griping about your requesting my participation were just the snark I include as a value-added service.

I believe all the racers appreciated that approach, and certainly made my life easier. Every year I learn and improve. This year's improvements were focused between integrating much of what the late Jim Cozzolino did for form organization and better integrating with the technical/impound teams. Still work to do there, but miles better - I irritated them only 50% of the time. Far more effective at keeping ST inline than my stints at Daytona and Laguna Seca.

From a compliance perspective, my biggest challenges were a bug in an automated process (that gets validated anyways by a manual one per the rules) and tracking down competitors. Next time I get roped into this mess (oh god please have mercy) I'll get where they're paddocked as part of my excel sheet. I'll also bring a scooter or bike.
 
I know this is more NASA-oriented commentary than TMO-oriented (or mustang oriented in general): but what you outline is the KEY aspect to a successful Championship event. Clear delineation of duties and responsibilities, following the rules as written - avoiding the gray at ALL costs. I also enjoyed the balance of that with the customer-first approach: Give the customer/racer every chance to prove compliance and explain the process to provide as much transparency. Given that, I was very happy to help and all my griping about your requesting my participation were just the snark I include as a value-added service.

I believe all the racers appreciated that approach, and certainly made my life easier. Every year I learn and improve. This year's improvements were focused between integrating much of what the late Jim Cozzolino did for form organization and better integrating with the technical/impound teams. Still work to do there, but miles better - I irritated them only 50% of the time. Far more effective at keeping ST inline than my stints at Daytona and Laguna Seca.

From a compliance perspective, my biggest challenges were a bug in an automated process (that gets validated anyways by a manual one per the rules) and tracking down competitors. Next time I get roped into this mess (oh god please have mercy) I'll get where they're paddocked as part of my excel sheet. I'll also bring a scooter or bike.
UMC paddock is so large you might need a chopper or friendly request for a site-to-site beam-out/in
 
UMC paddock is so large you might need a chopper or friendly request for a site-to-site beam-out/in
Indeed. Since we drove up from SoCal in our RV, I brought my bicycle, knowing how large that place is. I must have ridden a solid ~15+ miles from Wednesday when we arrived, to Sunday evening when I finished packing up and did a final ride around the complex.

My wife got pretty annoyed at the long walk from our RV (which was directly across from the tower) to Driver Info, so I rented her a golf cart.

Happy wife, happy life. :p
 

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