VIR full w/ NASA-MA Mar 27-29 2009

[Jewels]

I had an awesome weekend. I worked turn 6 on saturday and watched 9 cars go off and hit the tire wall. none major. Sunday I worked 17 and the whole left side of my face/neck is RED. I took ~ 250 pics, but I dont think they came out nearly as good as goodspeeds

goody, did you touch up any of those pics in PS? Those are real nice shots.

Ok.. wtf is the impound??? I feel stupid for not knowing what that is.

Dragon, what is your name? Im sure I met/knew you this weekend, I just dont know your name on here.

We literally took every race car straight off qualifying right through the scales and then we had JJ, Jim, Matt, Kaan, and a little of Mark checking each car for proper shoes, gloves, head and neck. Also, proper NASA stickers per rules, and series classification on the car. Nobody ever impounds all race cars. Some of those guys were completely lost. It was soo much fun.

Dragon is Matt Leech, chief of Grid.

[Kaan]

I heard Goodspeed got a hit on that go fast crack pipe!

That I did....I'm definitely going to look in to doing at least a Hyperdrive in the fall. That was fun

Kyle...most of them just have a little contrast/saturation work due to the fact Saturday was so gray and overcast; made pics a bit dull.

I also saw this in the paddock and began snapping pics (probably with weird looks being given). The Magic MM box?

G's got a car for sale i'm sure we can get it swapped and running for you.

[Mike]

G's got a car for sale i'm sure we can get it swapped and running for you.

i do too. no swap necessary and half the price

[Kaan]

G's got a car for sale i'm sure we can get it swapped and running for you.

i do too. no swap necessary and half the price

do j000 has the Vtak?

[Mike]

G's got a car for sale i'm sure we can get it swapped and running for you.

i do too. no swap necessary and half the price

do j000 has the Vtak?

does his?

[Goodspeed]

You guys are too funny. If I ever build a dedicated track car....

[Jake]

You guys are too funny. If I ever build a dedicated track car....

I can has?

[Jake]

Oh, and PS. Here's some of my favorite shots from my gallery. Tried to capture one of each MMer driving!

[ScottyB]

LOL, gee i wonder who did some agricultural exploration?

[kcook]

We literally took every race car straight off qualifying right through the scales and then we had JJ, Jim, Matt, Kaan, and a little of Mark checking each car for proper shoes, gloves, head and neck. Also, proper NASA stickers per rules, and series classification on the car. Nobody ever impounds all race cars. Some of those guys were completely lost. It was soo much fun.

Dragon is Matt Leech, chief of Grid.

thanks julie. how often do you guys surprise them? I dont recall you guys doing this at any of the events I did last year although I prob didnt know it was going on, nor what it was. Were any not allowed to run in the race?

[Jewels]

We literally took every race car straight off qualifying right through the scales and then we had JJ, Jim, Matt, Kaan, and a little of Mark checking each car for proper shoes, gloves, head and neck. Also, proper NASA stickers per rules, and series classification on the car. Nobody ever impounds all race cars. Some of those guys were completely lost. It was soo much fun.

Dragon is Matt Leech, chief of Grid.

thanks julie. how often do you guys surprise them? I dont recall you guys doing this at any of the events I did last year although I prob didnt know it was going on, nor what it was. Were any not allowed to run in the race?

Not really that often, but that might change. At VIR we have gotten permission from the SCCA to use their drive on scales. Now that you don't have to have 4 people in tech just to do weights it frees up Kaan and Rex to start busting nuts. Rex and Matt nearly busted a guy on false grid for not having NASA stickers in the appropriate spots. But as Matt was calling up to JJ the guy ran and got some. Don't look for this to happen at Summit because DC region SCCA will NEVER let NASA use their drive on scales. And also there isn't really enough impound room. But it won't surprise me if this happens a little more often now at VIR.

[Apoc]

it won't surprise me if this happens a little more often now at VIR.

Yay, another reason to avoid VIR. :lol:

[Jewels]

it won't surprise me if this happens a little more often now at VIR.

Yay, another reason to avoid VIR. :lol:

Your dad impounds 944 cup anyway. Three of them on sunday started to get shitty until they saw Daddy Deracola coming at them on the tiny 4 wheeler. They shut up at that point.

[Apoc]

Your dad impounds 944 cup anyway.

Yeah... it's random... so I rarely go. :lol:

[Dave]

Delayed response, got home late last night. I had an awesome time this weekend and it was great getting to know some of the current students and seeing everybody else.

Dave-Is the NX the track slut? How's it doing? Is 5th gear okay?

Nah, I just NEEDED a hit on the GFCP and the NX was the only thing I had that could do it. That said, it was a phenomenal performer. Extremely neutral, decent power (by no means was it fast though) and it was a great car for knocking off the rust that had built up over the past two years.
If I was gonna continue tracking it, I'd just play with the suspension settings a little, since I was just running it as if it was on the street.

[Mike]

We literally took every race car straight off qualifying right through the scales and then we had JJ, Jim, Matt, Kaan, and a little of Mark checking each car for proper shoes, gloves, head and neck. Also, proper NASA stickers per rules, and series classification on the car. Nobody ever impounds all race cars. Some of those guys were completely lost. It was soo much fun.

Dragon is Matt Leech, chief of Grid.

thanks julie. how often do you guys surprise them? I dont recall you guys doing this at any of the events I did last year although I prob didnt know it was going on, nor what it was. Were any not allowed to run in the race?

Not really that often, but that might change. At VIR we have gotten permission from the SCCA to use their drive on scales. Now that you don't have to have 4 people in tech just to do weights it frees up Kaan and Rex to start busting nuts. Rex and Matt nearly busted a guy on false grid for not having NASA stickers in the appropriate spots. But as Matt was calling up to JJ the guy ran and got some. Don't look for this to happen at Summit because DC region SCCA will NEVER let NASA use their drive on scales. And also there isn't really enough impound room. But it won't surprise me if this happens a little more often now at VIR.

is this really a good idea given the economy/how much i'm certain it has already hurt the number of entrants? additionally, racers are a cranky bunch. if they're being hassled, they'll quickly jump ship and slam an organization to the ground... if i paid the money they pay for a weekend, i could see not wanting to deal with extra hassles... and i have a pretty long fuse ESPECIALLY compared to some of those guys. this isn't pro racing...

[CaptainHenreh]

is this really a good idea given the economy/how much i'm certain it has already hurt the number of entrants? additionally, racers are a cranky bunch. if they're being hassled, they'll quickly jump ship and slam an organization to the ground... if i paid the money they pay for a weekend, i could see not wanting to deal with extra hassles... and i have a pretty long fuse ESPECIALLY compared to some of those guys. this isn't pro racing...

If racers are butthurt about being impounded it's only because they aren't fast enough to be impounded on a regular basis anyway.

If you're whining about sitting in impound for 10 minutes after a race, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

As far as stickers, *everyone* was impounded and so *everyone* was told what identification their cars needed (Class designation + Nasa stickers)...I'm not sure where you're seeing the "hassles"?

[Mike]

is this really a good idea given the economy/how much i'm certain it has already hurt the number of entrants? additionally, racers are a cranky bunch. if they're being hassled, they'll quickly jump ship and slam an organization to the ground... if i paid the money they pay for a weekend, i could see not wanting to deal with extra hassles... and i have a pretty long fuse ESPECIALLY compared to some of those guys. this isn't pro racing...

If racers are butthurt about being impounded it's only because they aren't fast enough to be impounded on a regular basis anyway.

If you're whining about sitting in impound for 10 minutes after a race, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

As far as stickers, *everyone* was impounded and so *everyone* was told what identification their cars needed (Class designation + Nasa stickers)...I'm not sure where you're seeing the "hassles"?

if scca impounds after every race, my point is moot. i don't know what they do.

after i get off track i wanna go back to my paddock spot and relax. i don't want to sit around for another 10 minutes... that's a hassle.

the sticker thing. what's the point of having to have stickers on your car? i understand not having stickers of the competition, but these guys are your customers... you're going to dq them for not having your sticker on THEIR car? i see that as a bit of a hassle.

the "the guy ran to get his stickers as jj was coming" thing just struck me as a bit "haha, we almost got to piss on that guy's day! he didn't have his STICKERS!" i could see the driver being a bit agitated for having to run to get A STICKER so that he wasn't chastised profusely.

i don't see these as problems for an exploding business... i wasn't at the event and haven't been for a while. i'm just assuming car counts are down... if they are, i'd want to risk as few pissy customers as possible. again, racers are a bitchy bunch. are car counts down? if they aren't, again, my points are moot.

to be 100% clear, i'm not hating on nasa here.

[.RJ]

if scca impounds after every race

They do. It sucks sitting in impound for 30+ minutes after a 12/13/24 hr race too.

[CaptainHenreh]

after i get off track i wanna go back to my paddock spot and relax. i don't want to sit around for another 10 minutes... that's a hassle.

the sticker thing. what's the point of having to have stickers on your car? i understand not having stickers of the competition, but these guys are your customers... you're going to dq them for not having your sticker on THEIR car? i see that as a bit of a hassle.

Hey, I didn't put it (stickers) in the CCR...but if you're going to race with NASA rules are rules. And as far as "going to my paddock spot and relaxing" well, tough? I mean, again, I'm sorry you're slow and never get impounded (theoretical racer you) but it happens sometimes. We didn't just check stickers, we checked safety equipment also and got baseline weights for every car. It's not going to happen every time, not by a long shot, but every time you exit the track from a qualifying or race session, you should be prepared to go to impound and wait 10 or 15 minutes, because your race isn't over until you've gone over those scales (if you're required to).