Open wheelers

[BobDixon]

I thought I would go ahead and start a new thread instead of hi-jacking someone elses.

I'm curious what the current thoughts are of why open wheel and closed wheel cars cannot be on the track at the same time. Since DSR/CSRs etc. are around the same size is it just because of the risk of contact of a door to a wheel ? I can see that in a regular race, but time trials have fairly strict passing rules.

Just wondering.
Bob

[jhadler]

Bob,

One significant factor is that while a CSR and an FA car may have similar track and wheelbase. The visibility of an openwheeler is considerably less as it presents a much smaller cross section of body to a viewer ahead or behind. There's simply more of a CSR/DSR car to see than an open wheeler.

-Josh2

[Built-By-Bones]

Bob

IF we got a large enough entry of open wheelers and sports racers I would have no problem running a wing's n things CTT run group. Not very likely to happen given past history.

The reason we allow Sports Racers to run with the saloon cars and not open wheelers to do the same, is pretty much as Josh expressed.

With your experience with RMVR, I am fairly sure you would be waived for the schools, and accepted to go straight to road racing. I can talk to Guy Ruse on your behalf if you would like. Then you could run with similar cars to yours, the older cars run regionally as Club Fords

Grant

[arniecoleman]

How large is large enough?

[Built-By-Bones]

How large is large enough?

Minimum of 10 cars that actually show up, not just enter.

The entry needs to be large enough for me to justify asking the road racers for additional sessions, which would likely mean they would need to combine some of their run groups.

In reality, I have had less than 5 open wheel drivers inquire about running cars in Time Trials in the last 4 years. Come on guys, the road racers are really a nice bunch of guys, and you would be very welcome at the drivers school and the small bore formula run groups. Just skip CTT and go straight to the big league's.

Geremy K was a fine example of ex-CTT driver "done good" at Pueblo this weekend. He was really impressive in Danny's Rocket.

[BoulderG]

Thank you, Grant. I had a great time this weekend. The step up to wheel-to-wheel racing with unrestricted passing is significant.

SCCA Club Trials and Time Trials were great preparation. They helped me manage my driving and be aware of other traffic without focusing on my mirrors.

A few cars were 3-4 seconds per lap faster - no point in blocking on lap 3 of a 15-lap race, so I pointed them by. I got to see how they took the corners. After the race, they thanked me.

Road Racing was even more thrilling (and lots less scary) than I expected!

G-Man

[mjmauro]

Congrats Geremy, it was fun to see the excitement you had after Saturday's race. Good to see you again.

[BobDixon]

Thanks for all the discussion. I can see (no pun intended) that my little Vee would be really hard to see from a larger car. The top of the roll hoop is only 33" off the ground and it's frontal area is almost nothing.

The progression from auto-x to time trials to wheel-to-wheel is awesome. Each complement each other very well.

PS. I got to race with RMVR this weekend at PPIR. It was my third race weekend with the Vee. There were 17 Vee's !!! so we got our run group. The margin between qualifying times between second through 4th position was less than 7/100 of a second. I qual'd 4th and got 2nd, 4th, and 3rd in my races. Going 3 and 4 wide from the start flag all the way around to the hard braking zone of turn 5 is a thrill I will never forget. The fastest lap times of the first 10 or so cars was usually about a .5 seconds spread.

[Built-By-Bones]

awesome job Bob, and great results.

with those races under your belt, you will have no problem being waived straight into regional racing in the SCCA next season. Lots of similar cars in Club Ford, and Club Vee.

Did RMVR run the oval through 1 and 2 or did you use the pit out lane?

[BobDixon]

We ran pit-out which made for some real puckering going flat out through there. With a Vee it would have been really boring to run the oval. Probably could have done some knitting, or texting, or something as you go around.

It was a little un-nerving, at the hairiest part of the turn, to see skid marks going up through the little dirt/grass, up the bank, and straight into the wall. I guess it happened a few weeks ago and the guy had to be airlifted out. As my tires wore I drifted further and further out which made for great fun :p

[jhadler]

It was a little un-nerving, at the hairiest part of the turn, to see skid marks going up through the little dirt/grass, up the bank, and straight into the wall. I guess it happened a few weeks ago and the guy had to be airlifted out.

It could have been from the MRA event last weekend. A friend of mine at work was there and told me about it. Guy's in a bad way... Spooky.

-Josh2

[BoulderG]

The skid marks might have been from over Labor Day, when a Camaro went up into the wall in that area. Left big skid marks and a hell of a mark on the wall near the 2 PPIR 2 painted sign.

The driver was not injured. I saw the car afterwards and the front right corner looked pretty bashed up. The car was definitely not totaled. It was not an SCCA event.

[Built-By-Bones]

<thread hijack>

I ran the Mini on the roval at Gateway in St Louis only a few weeks after the Busch series had been there.

It was very intimidating running through 3/4 (really one turn) and seeing all the tire marks heading straight from the wall. Running the shortest distance around the track meant hugging the bottom line, just hoping your right front stays intact for the race.

<end hijack>

I know of the incident over Labor Day, and I believe there was another 2 weeks ago at a privately run event. No one said racing was easy, we all assume that risk every single time we drive on track. Some organizations strive to reduce that risk as much as possible, some others are not able to do that.