Majors at Blackhawk Farms May 2-3
- Thread starter Smyczek
- Start date
Peter Olivola
Well-known member
Those aren't conventional practice sessions, they're warm up sessions and haven't been an issue in Majors.
msturminator
Well-known member
"Warm up sessions" you have to be kidding. First race weekend of the season for Cen Div. I can see the red mist already.
FP Mike
FP Mike
Dayle Frame
Well-known member
We did this last year too. It was just a smaller field. After it was over, I asked a few of the T4 and BSpec guys if they minded being inhaled by the GT, T1 and AS cars. No big deal they said. So the CS and SCS need to make sure that everyone knows its a practice session only.....no times collected. As long as we're all on the same page, it's OK.
See ya tomorrow fellas.
Dayle
See ya tomorrow fellas.
Dayle
Dayle Frame
Well-known member
I watched the race from the T4 flag station (nice view). Great weather today as it was low 70's and sunny.
For a field of 29 cars, it had 6 past national champions among the entrants....a couple of them in multiple classes. Sargis, Dentici, Zekert, Prather, Brakke, Gauper. Truly impressive.
EP: Brakke ran away and hid with Breton Williams second and El Ciete himself finishing third.
FP: Wowzer what a near race. Lamb, Prather and Strum were nose to tail lap after lap. The traffic held up Sturm a bit which allowed Lamb and Prather to break away. Prather never passed Lamb (at least at our station) but was always right there ready to pounce if Lamb dropped a wheel. But it was not to be. Lamb, Prather and Sturm.
HP: Gauper ran away with it as he had 30s on Brakke with trainer in third.
GTL: Another pretty good race as Sargis was all over Dentici's bumper for several laps. But Steve's shifter broke and he dropped out. This allowed Dentici to run to the checkered unpressed. terry Orr (old school Mini) in second followed Zekert in third.
The only downside was Jacob Clark smashing Scott Lunder's old car on both ends. It'll take a lot of work to get her back on track. I heard he was OK but he did get transported by ambulance from the scene. Whether he was taken to a hospital, I don't know. I'll try an update later.
Dayle
For a field of 29 cars, it had 6 past national champions among the entrants....a couple of them in multiple classes. Sargis, Dentici, Zekert, Prather, Brakke, Gauper. Truly impressive.
EP: Brakke ran away and hid with Breton Williams second and El Ciete himself finishing third.
FP: Wowzer what a near race. Lamb, Prather and Strum were nose to tail lap after lap. The traffic held up Sturm a bit which allowed Lamb and Prather to break away. Prather never passed Lamb (at least at our station) but was always right there ready to pounce if Lamb dropped a wheel. But it was not to be. Lamb, Prather and Sturm.
HP: Gauper ran away with it as he had 30s on Brakke with trainer in third.
GTL: Another pretty good race as Sargis was all over Dentici's bumper for several laps. But Steve's shifter broke and he dropped out. This allowed Dentici to run to the checkered unpressed. terry Orr (old school Mini) in second followed Zekert in third.
The only downside was Jacob Clark smashing Scott Lunder's old car on both ends. It'll take a lot of work to get her back on track. I heard he was OK but he did get transported by ambulance from the scene. Whether he was taken to a hospital, I don't know. I'll try an update later.
Dayle
JessePrather
Well-known member
Great weekend! Great facility!
Never been to Blackhawk Farms before and I'll tell you the owner and local region put on one great event. I really love an older club track in the woods. I got the opportunity to run one session and really liked the intensity of the track. We had a good weekend with Breton, the guy who bought my MX5, able to out qualify Jon Brakke on Saturday and turn the only 16 of the weekend. Progress is being made with this guy. He still has a lot to learn about racing but has figured out how to lay down a lap. Good race Saturday, he just couldn't hang with Brakke in a longer race where a small mistake costs big. Sunday came around and here came the rain. Just spitting before the race and I was watching the radar closely. Looked like it would rain for sure in about 15 minutes so we went with rain tires. Dad did the same and had to start dead last on the field. The first few laps where pretty much dry and then here came the rain. Believe me we were doing the rain dance on pit lane. Lap 10 came and it really started to rain and you could see the times coming around. Not sure what was happening around the track but with about 10 to go it was really pouring. The poor guys on slicks, who had a huge lead by this time, were really slow and the guys on rain tires were coming on like a freight train. For what I figured was a car in a bad spot they had to go full course caution. YES!! The field bunched up and we were in the catbird seat with 8 laps to go. The pace car picks up the field and a lap later I see the F'n checker flag. REALLY! I couldn't believe it at the time and was pretty upset about the whole situation but now a few days later I can understand that the operating steward must have thought conditions were pretty treacharous I'm sure. That's why we started the race on rain tires!
Anyway, I had flashbacks of the runoffs in '09 when I should have put the rains on the car on the grid and didn't and lost and thought we had em beat this time. I'm sure someone else can chime in on how it really went down.
Breton also runs an STL RX7 so we put the rains on it for the next race and he won so that helped our mood considerably!
Final thoughts for the weeked.
My old man can still wheel that MGA. I think it suits him better than the Miata.
Great Saturday night party. Since I wasn't driving I definitely stayed longer than normal!!
Blackhawk Farms needs to be on everyone's list as a must visit track.
Thanks to Dayle and the crew for putting on a great weekend!
Never been to Blackhawk Farms before and I'll tell you the owner and local region put on one great event. I really love an older club track in the woods. I got the opportunity to run one session and really liked the intensity of the track. We had a good weekend with Breton, the guy who bought my MX5, able to out qualify Jon Brakke on Saturday and turn the only 16 of the weekend. Progress is being made with this guy. He still has a lot to learn about racing but has figured out how to lay down a lap. Good race Saturday, he just couldn't hang with Brakke in a longer race where a small mistake costs big. Sunday came around and here came the rain. Just spitting before the race and I was watching the radar closely. Looked like it would rain for sure in about 15 minutes so we went with rain tires. Dad did the same and had to start dead last on the field. The first few laps where pretty much dry and then here came the rain. Believe me we were doing the rain dance on pit lane. Lap 10 came and it really started to rain and you could see the times coming around. Not sure what was happening around the track but with about 10 to go it was really pouring. The poor guys on slicks, who had a huge lead by this time, were really slow and the guys on rain tires were coming on like a freight train. For what I figured was a car in a bad spot they had to go full course caution. YES!! The field bunched up and we were in the catbird seat with 8 laps to go. The pace car picks up the field and a lap later I see the F'n checker flag. REALLY! I couldn't believe it at the time and was pretty upset about the whole situation but now a few days later I can understand that the operating steward must have thought conditions were pretty treacharous I'm sure. That's why we started the race on rain tires!
Anyway, I had flashbacks of the runoffs in '09 when I should have put the rains on the car on the grid and didn't and lost and thought we had em beat this time. I'm sure someone else can chime in on how it really went down.
Breton also runs an STL RX7 so we put the rains on it for the next race and he won so that helped our mood considerably!
Final thoughts for the weeked.
My old man can still wheel that MGA. I think it suits him better than the Miata.
Great Saturday night party. Since I wasn't driving I definitely stayed longer than normal!!
Blackhawk Farms needs to be on everyone's list as a must visit track.
Thanks to Dayle and the crew for putting on a great weekend!
Ron Bartell
Well-known member
Great report, Jesse. I would LOVE to get on that track. It is made for my car. Does anyone have any recent footage?
hoffman900
Well-known member
Greg Gauper
Well-known member
Kind of an uneventful weekend for us.
Trainer's regular ride wasn't ready so he ran his ITB car in HP trim.
M. Brakke continues to develop his new Mazda 2 but fought fuel issues all weekend and ran both races running on three cylinders.
Meller hurt the engine in his new build (Datsun 1200) in the Friday test day and cancelled.
As a result we ran very conservatively and used the weekend as a test session for the radials.
Bad deal for Clark on Saturday, apparently a brake line failed to cause his wreck. That was a very hard impact.
For Sunday's race, I knew from experience what to expect if it rained and figured I could deal with the track conditions so I elected to stay on drys.
It wasn't too bad for the first 10 minutes but then got progressively worse.
While there wasn't any standing water, the number of cars spinning off track began to increase towards the end and they elected to shorten the race.
Tough call on the stewards part...they erred on the side of caution. Probably was the right call given that the very next race got red flagged after the start for a big wreck on the front straight....and they were on rains.
Jesse, glad you and your dad enjoyed yourself at the Farm.
In car from Sunday's race with me being uber cautious at the start and also with lapping or lapped traffic:
http://youtu.be/dS-QVPEo5AQ
Trainer's regular ride wasn't ready so he ran his ITB car in HP trim.
M. Brakke continues to develop his new Mazda 2 but fought fuel issues all weekend and ran both races running on three cylinders.
Meller hurt the engine in his new build (Datsun 1200) in the Friday test day and cancelled.
As a result we ran very conservatively and used the weekend as a test session for the radials.
Bad deal for Clark on Saturday, apparently a brake line failed to cause his wreck. That was a very hard impact.
For Sunday's race, I knew from experience what to expect if it rained and figured I could deal with the track conditions so I elected to stay on drys.
It wasn't too bad for the first 10 minutes but then got progressively worse.
While there wasn't any standing water, the number of cars spinning off track began to increase towards the end and they elected to shorten the race.
Tough call on the stewards part...they erred on the side of caution. Probably was the right call given that the very next race got red flagged after the start for a big wreck on the front straight....and they were on rains.
Jesse, glad you and your dad enjoyed yourself at the Farm.
In car from Sunday's race with me being uber cautious at the start and also with lapping or lapped traffic:
http://youtu.be/dS-QVPEo5AQ
JessePrather
Well-known member
Good observataion Greg. Breton was in the next race starting 6th overall in his STL car and the guy who wrecked on the start in that race was on dry tires. Bad call on his part. That's what caused the red flag in that race, FYI.
Good to see the Northern guys. Always a good time hanging out with Mr. Smyczek and Bunt at night!
Next stop Mid Ohio!
Good to see the Northern guys. Always a good time hanging out with Mr. Smyczek and Bunt at night!
Next stop Mid Ohio!
Dayle Frame
Well-known member
Jesse Prather":1wwezga6 said:
Jesse,
Thanks for the kind words but the MIL and BVR folks deserve the credit. They has 40 more cars than last year and things went pretty smoothly as far as winners circle, impound, tech, etc. goes. We were there helping break in the new NorCon Majors Admin (Tony Brown and his wife Dawn). They got the gist of things just fine.
There was a HUGE SM crash on Sunday morning race at T1. I suspect he lost his brakes as he only made part of the turn, flew off track and impacted the tire wall/berm at 60mph. His car was 6' in the air over the berm and landed well back into the tree and scrub brush back there. I was standing there and damn near shit myself. It was a gigantic hit. Fortunately a first lap incident (its what they do) left another driver (Mike Novak) over there and he was just watching the race. He was able to run to the incident and confirm the driver was OK. If he wasn't over there we may well have gone red for that as the car wasn't visible from the turn station.
So the steward corps may have been a bit skittish that day. They'd seen the #12FP car crunch both ends and three hard impacts with SMs. Throw in a FA who blew past the safety car and it's a recipe for erring on the side of caution. My only fault was the stewards knew rain was coming. But they waited about 5 minutes too late to call the prod race a "rain" race. This would have given the field 15 minutes to swap tires should they choose to do so. instead they made the announcement that all remaining races (group 5, 6, 7) were rain races as the prod field was on the false grid and UNDER the 5 minute warning. Oh well....its their first race this season too.
Dayle
David Dewhurst
Well-known member
Jesse, pleasant/kind words from a first timer/out of town guy about the "older club track" (best description I've heard) and folks that ran the event are fantastic. Your new study has upped his game a bunch. Great job coaching. :applause: Had paddocked next door to Brenton several times at Regional events. Enjoyed seeing you early in the race season.
msturminator
Well-known member
This will be my first race post. Others have been doing a good job reporting, but thought I will add to it.
FP Qualifying on Saturday had Prather, Lamb, Sturm within .05 sec. shaping up for a great race. Had a good start for the Sprint race, led for almost 2 laps when Lamb in the MGB went by me on the front straight like a freight train. WOW talk about horsepower. Coming into turn 4, EP Loughman looped it in front of me, and I had to take evassive action to avoid him. To add insult to injury he did it again on the next lap, by now Prather and Lamb pulled away and I had to settle for 3rd.
Sunday's race. The skies where getting darker and we knew it was going to rain during our race. The question was when. We opted for the slicks and took a big gamble hoping to get a big enough lead before the rain, knowing that many will be on rains. It was already sprinkling on the pace lap so I knew I had to go like hell to get a big enough lead. Rains came at about 10-12 minutes into the race, started to do some skating and on lap 17 the checker came out while still in the lead. Was told later there where numerous cars off track and that's why the checker came earlier.
Moral of the story...with strategy there is always luck involved, sometime you lose sometimes you win.
FP#48
Michael Sturm
FP Qualifying on Saturday had Prather, Lamb, Sturm within .05 sec. shaping up for a great race. Had a good start for the Sprint race, led for almost 2 laps when Lamb in the MGB went by me on the front straight like a freight train. WOW talk about horsepower. Coming into turn 4, EP Loughman looped it in front of me, and I had to take evassive action to avoid him. To add insult to injury he did it again on the next lap, by now Prather and Lamb pulled away and I had to settle for 3rd.
Sunday's race. The skies where getting darker and we knew it was going to rain during our race. The question was when. We opted for the slicks and took a big gamble hoping to get a big enough lead before the rain, knowing that many will be on rains. It was already sprinkling on the pace lap so I knew I had to go like hell to get a big enough lead. Rains came at about 10-12 minutes into the race, started to do some skating and on lap 17 the checker came out while still in the lead. Was told later there where numerous cars off track and that's why the checker came earlier.
Moral of the story...with strategy there is always luck involved, sometime you lose sometimes you win.
FP#48
Michael Sturm
David Dewhurst
Well-known member
^ Horsepower or corner speed???
JessePrather
Well-known member
I'll answer that one David since I build Mike's engine.
Mike has a top notch engine with top notch FP Miata horsepower. No one has more.
As limited prep cars we can't add more compression or get a new head ported like the full prep guys can so sometimes we get beat down the straights. The Miata is a great overall car for FP with good handling, brakes, and power. It doesn't do one thing exceptionally well but does everything very good. Make sense?
We've seen it especially at the runoffs with one off full prep engines. Sometimes they last, most times they break. It's the game we play and I love it!
One more thing to add to Dayle's post. Right before the prod race they announced that we had to choose our tire before the race as they weren't claiming a rain or dry race. That's the straw that chapped my ass about the ending of that race.
Oh well, life goes on.
Yes Breton is getting faster, you don't out qualify Brakke if your not at least putting one lap together. Thanks.
Mike has a top notch engine with top notch FP Miata horsepower. No one has more.
As limited prep cars we can't add more compression or get a new head ported like the full prep guys can so sometimes we get beat down the straights. The Miata is a great overall car for FP with good handling, brakes, and power. It doesn't do one thing exceptionally well but does everything very good. Make sense?
We've seen it especially at the runoffs with one off full prep engines. Sometimes they last, most times they break. It's the game we play and I love it!
One more thing to add to Dayle's post. Right before the prod race they announced that we had to choose our tire before the race as they weren't claiming a rain or dry race. That's the straw that chapped my ass about the ending of that race.
Oh well, life goes on.
Yes Breton is getting faster, you don't out qualify Brakke if your not at least putting one lap together. Thanks.
Dayle Frame
Well-known member
Jesse Prather":3g0cr6s4 said:
You're absolutely right....if the CS had made the decision just a few minutes earlier (we were under the five minute warning), then the clock would have stopped, tire changes could have been made and the race had a MUCH better chance of going full distance. We were the first group after lunch.....they had all lunch break to figure out what's what. They had access to the same radar trace the rest of us did. I saw plenty of yellow and red on my iPhone and arched an eyebrow at the timing when I heard the announcement. But, again, it's their first race too so we'll hope for better stewarding at MidO.
Dayle
It was almost a no brainer for me…I was there alone, and forgot my cordless impact in the new shop…The rains were set to pressure and laid out, and Dave Wheeler and Advanced Autosports said I could use one of their impacts (thanks guys!). First call, dry. Second call, just starting to drizzle but now too late to do anything about it.
I knew it was going to rain so I went as hard as I could trying to get out in front of the rain tire guys as far as possible. After 8 or 10 laps, I was just trying to hold on. I could not see any other EP car in my mirrors so I was still firmly in second. When I saw the full course yellow I was thinking that I'm cooked, those guys would go by me on the restart like I was standing still. I have to admit that I was not terribly upset when they brought out the yellow/checker.
The only bad thing was that my go pro quit half way through the race…I had a great save coming into 3 "the sharp" then waved to the corner worker as I went through the corner one handed
I knew it was going to rain so I went as hard as I could trying to get out in front of the rain tire guys as far as possible. After 8 or 10 laps, I was just trying to hold on. I could not see any other EP car in my mirrors so I was still firmly in second. When I saw the full course yellow I was thinking that I'm cooked, those guys would go by me on the restart like I was standing still. I have to admit that I was not terribly upset when they brought out the yellow/checker.
The only bad thing was that my go pro quit half way through the race…I had a great save coming into 3 "the sharp" then waved to the corner worker as I went through the corner one handed