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NASA NATIONALS and italian_stang

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364
sfo
Cool to see the 10spd do so well. Do you think your mods will let you run for a 20min sprint?

Yeah no problem doing 40min scca sprint races but my body has an 85F ambient temp limit even when running my coolsuit.

Once I was racing at Homestead with a new crew chief. I came off the track and he ran up to me in a panic in the hotpit asking what broke on the car. I said the car is fine. My coolsuit stopped working! Yes I'm that wimpy and Florida is that hot.

For my 10speed I did have the advantage of Alex experience and did not go through his learning curve. I don't spray water to cool. I use a giant cooler up front. I still have one trick to move the cooler off the OEM cooler circuit but I have not needed to play that card. My motor is also restricted for the race class. So I'm not full power. That may also have something to do with it. Alex is running more than OEM HP I think so more HP makes more heat.
 

Ludachris

Chris
Staff member
Moderator
1,658
1,962
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Newcastle, CA
Yeah no problem doing 40min scca sprint races but my body has an 85F ambient temp limit even when running my coolsuit.

Once I was racing at Homestead with a new crew chief. I came off the track and he ran up to me in a panic in the hotpit asking what broke on the car. I said the car is fine. My coolsuit stopped working! Yes I'm that wimpy and Florida is that hot.

For my 10speed I did have the advantage of Alex experience and did not go through his learning curve. I don't spray water to cool. I use a giant cooler up front. I still have one trick to move the cooler off the OEM cooler circuit but I have not needed to play that card. My motor is also restricted for the race class. So I'm not full power. That may also have something to do with it. Alex is running more than OEM HP I think so more HP makes more heat.
😆 hey, dealing that kind of heat is no joke. It wears on you mentally, more than some people realize.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,519
8,156
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
😆 hey, dealing that kind of heat is no joke. It wears on you mentally, more than some people realize.
I raced all over the country in all kinds of weather, in a stock car with a sheet metal interior with the exhaust running right next to your leg. Even got 3rd degree burns on my ankle one time.
First time I put a cool shirt on I was like....boy, am I a moron.
Now as soon as it gets warm out I'm all about "wheres the ice?"

218886614_191645759597549_5252770832483224477_n.jpg
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,519
8,156
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
Ome of the sacrifice i made was loosing 15 lbs. But also improved by cardio for 4 months before. And also workout outside wlvs indoor. A good body condition is more important than a engine with 20whp more.
But with 20 hp more I can still have my fries....
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,519
8,156
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
My coolsuit stopped working! Yes I'm that wimpy and Florida is that hot.
At my age and weight I seriously worry about having a heart attack or stroke in the car.
I love my Ultra Chiller system. Inexpensive and light weight....unlike me, over priced and over weight.

 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
I flew back yesterday - it was an event for sure. I had wanted to race it but just not financially possible (or possible from a time perspective in my career), but I was able to serve as the Series Director for Super Touring 1-3 (and Super Unlimited). Incredible effort it takes to put this on, between the difficulties and policies that come with working with the Daytona International Raceway staff and facilities and then the racers and various NASA regions themselves. I probably knew about 50 names at the event, I was able to say hi to about 8 of them, every day was working before the sun came up and long after it went down, rain or shine (or lightning warning).

Just getting all the compliance forms in (good god folk, is it that hard to do they require even at the regional level), dyno sheets and ensuring everyone had numbers, weights, decals and knowing when/where to meet before cars ever hit track was quite the feat. Then once cars hit track getting people grid'ed, answering 14,597,388,903 questions several times, dealing with all the complaints (yet no one wanted to formallly protest anything), difficult racers, a couple fights and some unfortunate compliance and unsportsmanlike issues. Its a pretty thankless gig despite the focus being "ensuring everyone feels like they have a level playing feel and a fair competition" vs "looking for some reason to disqualify people". Thankfully, for the most part all my cars were compliant, and even the dyno and GPS work (which was really the game changer) showed a good competitive field and the only position changes were for on-course conduct. I still have about 300 pages of compliance paperwork for 51 racers and we spent about 18 hours days, though I had an awesome crew to work with to get through this effort, our regional director was the race director for ST/Group B and his experience definitely shown through in how those races were run. Unfortunately, no decision would make everyone happy, and even some TMO members were pretty unhappy about how things were ran - a real shame as this was a volunteer effort by most to put on this show. Even the broadcast, which was the best I've ever seen for a NASA event, was lackluster in the eyes of many. I still feel pretty proud of the work we did. Was very awesome to meet @flyhalf and see him and his team show TT2 what's up and a great battle between some very fast cars.

Would I do it again? Hopefully I'll be too busy racing it myself to have to answer that question.

(post whine tidbit: seeing race control in Daytona was a super exciting experience, and listening to the morse code of timing and scoring's beeps as the 68 miatas crossed the loop was a real hoot)
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Some times people forget what the word volunteer means!! You guys are at a whole different level compared to us down at this end of the world. Looks like it was quite the event.

About the heat, sometimes regret taking out the A/C... seems odd to add back in the same weight and then some for a cool suit. But I guess its got to be done.

About the Dyno sheets... Do they dyno the cars at the track? We thought about doing that, but too many cars have haltech setups with duel tunes. flick a switch and drop a 100 hp. Amazing how people come up with ways to get by the rules.
 
I'm
I flew back yesterday - it was an event for sure. I had wanted to race it but just not financially possible (or possible from a time perspective in my career), but I was able to serve as the Series Director for Super Touring 1-3 (and Super Unlimited). Incredible effort it takes to put this on, between the difficulties and policies that come with working with the Daytona International Raceway staff and facilities and then the racers and various NASA regions themselves. I probably knew about 50 names at the event, I was able to say hi to about 8 of them, every day was working before the sun came up and long after it went down, rain or shine (or lightning warning).

Just getting all the compliance forms in (good god folk, is it that hard to do they require even at the regional level), dyno sheets and ensuring everyone had numbers, weights, decals and knowing when/where to meet before cars ever hit track was quite the feat. Then once cars hit track getting people grid'ed, answering 14,597,388,903 questions several times, dealing with all the complaints (yet no one wanted to formallly protest anything), difficult racers, a couple fights and some unfortunate compliance and unsportsmanlike issues. Its a pretty thankless gig despite the focus being "ensuring everyone feels like they have a level playing feel and a fair competition" vs "looking for some reason to disqualify people". Thankfully, for the most part all my cars were compliant, and even the dyno and GPS work (which was really the game changer) showed a good competitive field and the only position changes were for on-course conduct. I still have about 300 pages of compliance paperwork for 51 racers and we spent about 18 hours days, though I had an awesome crew to work with to get through this effort, our regional director was the race director for ST/Group B and his experience definitely shown through in how those races were run. Unfortunately, no decision would make everyone happy, and even some TMO members were pretty unhappy about how things were ran - a real shame as this was a volunteer effort by most to put on this show. Even the broadcast, which was the best I've ever seen for a NASA event, was lackluster in the eyes of many. I still feel pretty proud of the work we did. Was very awesome to meet @flyhalf and see him and his team show TT2 what's up and a great battle between some very fast cars.

Would I do it again? Hopefully I'll be too busy racing it myself to have to answer that question.

(post whine tidbit: seeing race control in Daytona was a super exciting experience, and listening to the morse code of timing and scoring's beeps as the 68 miatas crossed the loop was a real hoot)
I have no idea how u did it. But it was awesome. Definetely great giving a face to a name on facebook or TMO.for time trials (i just know that)
the pre grid was excellent. (Except for the sess1 where they decided to pre grid based on...decrescent car numbers ....but it went ok after sess 2 )
The only bad thing was indeed Streaming for us. All the best run weren't live for us. I basically never appear on that and my italian friends still mess around with me saying it was all fake hahahaha.
But
It was a gigantic step forward. And probably the first of many. It felt NASA is moving in the 21st century technologies to reach as many people as possible. Gridlife is doing it and so GTA. this is what the people want. Nasa gave them.
Good job guys.
And yes u better come next year in west coast.....
 
Some times people forget what the word volunteer means!! You guys are at a whole different level compared to us down at this end of the world. Looks like it was quite the event.

About the heat, sometimes regret taking out the A/C... seems odd to add back in the same weight and then some for a cool suit. But I guess its got to be done.

About the Dyno sheets... Do they dyno the cars at the track? We thought about doing that, but too many cars have haltech setups with duel tunes. flick a switch and drop a 100 hp. Amazing how people come up with ways to get by the rules.
yes nthey had 2 dyno.
And 2 scales. Infact. For my knowledge one car has be found cheating. And disqualified.

For AC. On top of the weight(the added weight is in a better location. Is more for Airflow and engine power loss
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
:hellyeah: I used to say that the A/C condenser was my rad protector.

just griping, lucky for me we race in winter.

Getting in shape really helps. Its about 3kg per HP.... So being 30kg over means a 10 hp hit!

too bad I love BBQs
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
oh, while I was in the media center going through compliance sheets (or authoring many "please calm down" emails) I saw lots of good shots of you on track.

I know you guys didn't like it but I thought the commentary was great. It set up and built up some good drama for your big win! As racers, we often understand what's unfolding during competition, but I thought those guys did an awesome job of making it exciting for the people at home or casual fans. I think the weather scared off much of the crowd, but there were lots of people there to see the show and more than a few said it was some of the best racing they saw.

I did dyno many cars over the weekend, some to protect from their competitors, and some to validate. For those with flip switch tunes or other sneaky tricks that's where my friend Mr Aim-solo-box came into play. We had dozens of these available that we threw on at grid "randomly" and that's my way of daring those guys who can dial up the boost on their steering wheels to do so. in ST3, the top 3 cars were indistinguishable in the data (minus one had roughed up his Tremec Magnum's 4th gear and you could see the instability - and he was the winner) 4th and 5th ended the race just 7s behind. I don't want to be the race police, but keeping a close eye and having multiple ways of watching the cars helped maintain what I felt was a fair playing field. Some of the calls we had to make I didn't necessarily personally agree with, but we took a very objective approach to rules and did what we could to minimize subjective calls, unless we felt the applications of some of the defined penalties created an unfair playing field.

I did lean into one Porsche cup car that had full blown AC in there. I asked the driver if I could just hang out in there for the qual race as it was cooler than anywhere else on track, LOL.
 

Ludachris

Chris
Staff member
Moderator
1,658
1,962
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Newcastle, CA
Not sure it will result in anything, but I wrote to Grassroots Motorsports and invited them to come read this thread.
David S. Wallens, Editorial director of the magazine said he'd come check it out.

How cool would it be to see the TMO members interviewed in a GRM article. I think it would make for a great story. And of course I love that it showcases how little forums like this still have the ability to make big impacts in the automotive/amateur racing world. This is one of the big reasons I enjoy working on forums. Seeing people coming together like this.

:hellyeah:
 
Ive always been a sport guy. Played pro in soccer and rugby in italy so met tons of people. But
The bond you create in this sport is..insane.
Social media definitely helps (it seems u already know that person) but it is special. This pic is the podium of tt2. We had champagne together. We had dinner that night together with one of the 2.
Dan and Frank that I met at the track..flew from west to daytona to come help me.
@blacksheep-1 broke is back to be sure my tires were at the best.
Isn't this special??
Maybe I'm too sentimental (i mean I'm italian right) but I think this is one of the reason i still risking my life and my money to be around.
Honestly.

IMG_20210920_141414_936.jpg

IMG_20210920_141414_948.jpg
 
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@captdistraction I thought the event was very well run, I only had issue with the one statement made by the announcer, when Alessandro didn't run a session. I know the team I worked the race for probably caused more than a few ulcers as we started with 1 car, then actually sold it, the car was run in 2 classes where it was wrecked, repaired and raced again, then a GT4 car was brought in and run in 2 classes later in the event. I can imagine that times about 100 for the race promoters. Also there was some confusion on the pit space which your staff dealt with in a very reasonable and common sense method, they simply called the owner of the other spot that hadn't moved in yet and we traded places, quite a remarkable response in this day and age. Good move on using the most attractive staff in registration as no one would even consider arguing with any of them. The fact that they knew what they were doing was icing on the cake.
The disciplinary actions taken were, IMO right on target, I found extremely little to complain about at this event.
If there are any zoomy pics of the 19 on track, I'd like to see them, since I'm not on FB.
 

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