Thanks for asking Ted... It was a wonderful hard fought weekend with two groups of RT's and one group of MX-5's. We ran the 2.25 mile North Course that is a very technical circuit offering only one clear passing opportunity into turn 1.
Kerry reports new scoring software may delay posting of results to the SBRS website until the end of the week, so I've attached the overall and Masters RT points files I received from Kerry. Perhaps someone from the MX-5 contingent (Jim Craige) could post their MX-5 points xls file as well.
As much of the East and South endured severe weather we dodged every bullet. Overcast much of the time and a few brief rain drops but the track never got wet the entire week and we were truly blessed considering the intense bad weather all around us.
The original group running order was RT, MX-5, RT but they decided to run the RT groups back to back which made it intense for those of us doubling in RT's.
Sunday the original order was restored and we had time to catch our breath between runs.
The fast kids in the RT's were Spencer Pigot, Nick Andries and Kevin Title with first time Skippy racer but experienced Brazilian karter Marconi Abreu showing impressive pace right out of the box though he struggled with clean runs.
In G-1 R-1 Spencer Pigot and Kevin Title took P1 & 2 while Jim Craige snagged the final step on the podium with his usual strong run. I grabbed 4th, Al Carter was 5th after an early 4-off with Marconi taking 6th. Dom Bastien had a 4-off that dropped him down the charts and Brian Skinner had a stuck throttle going into turn 7 causing contact 3 laps from the end that, due to VIR's slow hook crew, caused the race to end under yellow.
Jim Craige did the masters proud by setting fastest lap and new track record in G-1 R-2 but unfortunately had a 4-off that pushed him down the final charts. Spencer Pigot won with Kevin Title and Al Carter standing beside him on the podium. I was 4th again, Jim Norman 5th and Justin Lafever, who had impressive lap times all weekend, was 6th. Dom, Harsha and Brian Skinner all had misfortunes that hurt their finishing positions.
G-2 R-1 Nick Andries had a walkaway as he finished with almost a 12 second lead. Al Carter was next across the line with stormin' Jim Norman taking 3rd. Brian Skinner then handed me a gift by pushing Dom off track at turn 14 on the final lap. Brian was penalized back to 6th for his indiscretion and I passed Dom for 4th as he finished in the pits on the last lap. During the race young Ben Jopling and I had continuous battles for position the last half of the race with both of us running side by side on multiple laps from turn 1 thru 3.
We were told we provided good entertainment for spectators and instructors alike, and if we'd had the presence of mind to run together we'd have run down the cars in front of us but testosterone flavored red mist guaranteed that never happened. Ben eventually slid off in turn 4 and I again finished P4 after Brian and Dom had their pod meeting.
G-3 R-2 (G-2 reverted to G-3 on Sunday) Nick Andries, Al Carter and Jim Norman ran together from the start and Dom got around me on lap 2 which allowed the lead pack to slowly pull away from us. Al had an off that put him to the back but Spencer Pigot starting DFL was most progressive passing everyone but Nick to finish 2nd. Smokin' Jim Norman finished 3rd and after our a side by side battle from turn 1 thru 3 I squeezed by Dom to grab 4th place for the fourth time of the weekend. Dom was 5th, David Cheng 6th, Brian Skinner 7th and Al Carter fought his way back to 8th.
Lee Carpentier was the dominant gene in the MX-5 pool as I know he won R-1 and I think he took R-2 as well. Jim Craige had the lead for a while in R-2 but had a 4-off that ended that bid. Lots of good racing action and lots of smiles at the end of the MX-5 battles.
Others will have to fill in more detail about all the races as this is just one mans opinion.
Everything ran like clockwork as Kelly, Kerry, Keith, Nick Nick and all the usual suspects from the instructor core made this another memorable Skippy weekend. RB, Jason and Murph tested the cars. Lead-follows with Rob and Keith, computer car with Jonatan Jorge and Phil Lombardi. The mechanics, who were exhausted from the tropical heat and stress of wrenching the National event the week before rose to the occasion and kept the RT's and MX-5's easily in their performance windows and despite our best efforts at crunching fenders and tearing off corners there were plenty of cars for everyone.
I came back on Monday and was truly sad leaving The Lodge monday morning as turn 5 & 6 of the track we'd had so much fun racing around the previous day and week now sat dormant shrouded in fog. Ahh well, the chirping birds were a nice touch.
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Originally Posted by WatertownNewbie
So far ... no results ... no photos ... no reports on the Skippy site. (What's up with that? They usually at least post the results fairly quickly.) Anybody with news on how the Summer Series began?
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