Any race reports ....... videos ?????

Its next weekend.

Dave we are both losing our minds - I thought it was this weekend.

As tempting as it is to let this stand -- the SRF Sprints race was yesterday afternoon. Results are available at http://www.scca.com/events/results.cfm?eid=5407 . The "Bonus" race is this afternoon around 4 or 4:30 eastern. Write up at http://www.scca.com/events/news.cfm?eid=5407&cid=51437 . Beyond that, I'll defer to those actually at Road America yesterday.

Thanks, Lee I,ll let you beat up on John and Clay ......

Just to get ahead of the curve and also not beat around the bush. There was a major screw up with the June Sprints race (Saturday), which caused a complete disaster for the front of the field.
After 2 months of proactive and extremely helpful discussions with the event Chief Steward (not the Series Chief Steward) we had a plan, Mike did his part exactly on cue...he was 100 yards in front of the 2x2 field and took off to get the heck out of the way BEFORE the green. Mike Never saw the green and the yellow lights were still on when he was nearing the end of pit lane. HOWEVER, BEFORE THE LEADERS COULD SEE THE STAND, THE GREEN FLEW...maybe for Mike, maybe??? Those with radios went...once green is out penalties are hard to asses. I believe a car qualified in the mid-teens was P2 in turn one and all hell broke loose for the entire first lap as wrong positions were righted. Caught in the scuffle, much much to my personal dismay, was Brian Schofield, the pole sitter, and HUGE ally and supporter of Mike Davies and myself...not to mention our biggest non-CSR customer by far. I am sorry Brian!!! This DID happen because the GEN3 was on track, but the VP of Club Racing and Series Chief Steward both agreed Mike Davies did exactly as planned. We need to get a handle of how this is done; the other GEN3 R&D cars are now listed in the GCR as legal to race for no points (the second one is alive in Portland). The rest of the event was great, they would delete the GEN3 first lap and another lap to make sure Mike was "laps down" etc. Mike ran a ton of 37's in the races; being careful...GEN3 in a gravel trap, causing a yellow would be... ummm...bad press! In Practice and Qualifying, he did a high 34 rolling, a bunch of 35's to 36's and had theoreticals in the 33's. Gap was never a full 5 seconds, and as little as 3...remember he was missing ANY draft help (0.5 seconds per straight estimate) and was about 12 years out of practice at Road America (he mentioned this often). The kink is NOT flat out in a GEN3. The car is grossly faster from slow speed accelerations; up front straight and out of T5 notably.

Congrats to June Sprints winner: Scott Rettich
Congrats to Majors (Bonus Race) winner: Brian Schofield

Erik,

Dave Karling had a very good idea for future Gen 3 lead outs like this:

Run it as a 2 pace car split start. That way, Gen 3 gets green flag, main pack still behind pace car, pack gets green flag.

As I understand it (and this is 2nd hand) the starter hung (not waived) the green for the Gen 3, but everyone on the wall with a radio saw the green flag and radio'd "green green green".

Awesome car, btw. Sounds great.

Thanks Scott,
I do hate any second guessing, and especially criticism of event officials actions. Of course workers too!! This one was likely such a minor action / misscommunication, but it had a giant effect on a race. I like the two pace car option, we heard that one a few times. As there will be multiple R&D cars from now through 2015 (when two classes will begin) it is something we need to support setting a reliable process for!

Suggest that you also recommend that T&S enter Gen3 cars as SRF3 (or something) to avoid all of the manual futzing with times (dropping laps and such to avoid affecting results) - that way the grid works out right without people having to guess what's a Gen3 and what's not. And it's kind of weird to have a split start with only one class (though I like the idea if you let us old guys go first and make the kids go second) . Also - in multi-class regional races, suggest that the car just start in its grid position.

Not to throw cold water on this, but not all Chiefs are willing (or able) to deploy two pace cars, particularly at Regionals, which be short of workers or qualified pace car teams. The alternative to this would be a separated start where the Gen 3s would take off two hundred yards or so ahead of the Gen 2 field.

To avoid confusion on the radios, race control calls some thing like, "Gen 3 cars released" instead of anything that sounds like a green flag, while the starter remains frozen waiting to officially green flag the main field. If the starter anticipates aborting starting the Gen 2 cars before the Gen 3 cars cross S/F, then double yellows are displayed to Gen 3 drivers at start/finish, indicating one more pace lap.

If there are other classes, like SPU, starting split/separated ahead of the SRFs, then the Gen 3 cars start ahead of them, too.

There are probably a few flaws here. Anyway, it's a start toward covering all eventualities. I suggest getting back in touch with Club Racing, the CRB, whomever, to develop an "R&D" car procedural standard that can eventually be incorporated into the GCR.