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NASA Arizona joined forces with NASA-Socal this first weekend in May for a crossover event at the sprawling Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV (http://www.springmountainmotorsports.com/).    The event drew a wide variety of high performance cars for this first return to Spring Mountain for NASA-AZ in many years. 

 

The “Hunt Configuration” was approximately 3 miles of truly exceptional pavement with large and clearly marked curbs and an extremely smooth racing surface.  Just off track however the dirt is quite rocky and several parts of the track remained littered with rocks ranging from ½” to 1” in diameter… little ball bearings!    Track officials worked constantly to keep the track clear and did an exceptional job.  Most of the attendees had never been to this track before so everyone was learning.

NASA SOCAL, under the leadership of Ryan Flaherty, was the host for this event and conducted all the management and operational duties.  It was a nice glimpse to see how other NASA regions work and a reminder to how well our Arizona staff, volunteers and corner workers treat us.  We are lucky to have such a great team in Arizona.

Pahrump is situated at about 3000’ elevation just Northwest of Las Vegas.  Approximately 350 miles from Phoenix the drive took anywhere from 5.5 to 7 hours depending on the vehicle and traffic.  It was downright warm all weekend.  Temperatures hovered in the 100f range and many found their cooling systems inadequate.  Luckily there was plenty of cold beverages in the paddock and evening temperatures were just about perfect.

 Just a reminder, the next Arizona event is a “DawnPatrol” at Bondurant’s west track early in the morning on May 31.  It’s a good time to do some test-n-tune or just get some additional seat time. 

–       Details: https://www.drivenasa.com/event/1808

 HPDE

The HPDE group at Spring Mountain was predominately populated with SOCAL drivers but some of our own local celebrities like Tim Weber and Canaan O’connell who tricked the timing system into a 2:22.578 on Saturday afternoon.

Tim Weber moved up from HPDE into Time Trial this weekend and shaved nearly 20 seconds from his lap times over the course of the weekend while learning a new car and course.  Make sure you checkout a nice write-up on one of NASAs newest up and coming racers in this latest issue of Speed News (Page 64 & 65): http://www.speednewsmag.com/May2014.html

For more HPDE action please note that the timing can be found here for the HPDE events:  http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/1012864

Race Group- Saturday

NASA-Socal runs their race groups slightly differently than we are used to in Arizona so there was a lot to pay attention to in the Drivers meeting each day.    Socal uses A, B and C run groups with Group A including USTCC, Honda Challenge and MotolQ.  Group B consisted of the Spec classes for 944, e30 and Miata plus Performance Touring.  Group C is similar to our “Big Bore” with ST, SU, GTS and American Iron classes.

The show starts a little late on this Spring Mountain Saturday morning awaiting those people driving over from Vegas and the “ambo” to arrive and render the course safe to drive.   Race group Warm-up was done in 3 groups and all were finished around 10am as they day began to warm up.    All three run groups had completed Qualification by noon and we convened in the large clubhouse building for Race Group Meeting.

 

Grid lineup with SOCAL was different than AZ where we lineup purely according to lap times.  SOCAL grids the cars in class and then by time.  So the various groups like HC, PT and SpecE all lined up next to each other in grid spots in order of lap times.   All the starts and races went well enough and a few glitches would be ironed out the next day.  A bit of “contact” stopped the C-Group early with some unfortunate damage to a few cars, but all participants were home safe at the end of the weekend which is the primary goal.

For a more detailed look into the A-Group Honda Challenge competition see the following recap from Gabe Ortega:  https://nasaaz.com/blog/event-recap/hc-spring-mountain-recap/

Saturdays overall winners-

A Group: Daniel Akhrometsey, Andy Hope and Ken Adelberg

B Group: John Magnuson, Jim Hicks and Mike Rose

C Group: Greg Dalgarn, Ron Ballard and Tim Rollins

Saturday Official Results: http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/1012864

Race Group- Sunday

At Sundays race group meeting we ironed out a few logistics of the starts and the entire day progressed smoothly.  For most of us driving by now the track was feeling familiar and the slippery rocks were seeming to be reliably placed in certain designated corners.

For many the weather was a factor in the race with daytime temperatures nearing 100f and lots of talk the evening before about cooling concerns, timing pulls and sensor location and tricks.  As coolant temperatures increase most cars will begin to pull timing and limit power to help save the engine.  There are tricks to managing and avoiding this loss, but there are also risks of overheating and perforated head gaskets.  With a few events still planned for many of us over the summer this was a good indicator of what items to upgrade in the following weeks.

Congratulations to the overall winners in each group below.  For detailed breakdown of victors by class please see the Results link below-

A Group: Daniel Akhrometsey, Brad McClure and Andrie Hartanto

B Group: John Magnuson, DJ Quint and Shawn Sampson

C Group: Michael von Quilich, Ed Chamock and Ron Ballard

Sunday’s Official Results: http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/1012864
Season Points: https://nasaaz.com/results/race-results/race-group-results/

Saturday Time Trial

Time Trial was scheduled for 4 sessions Saturday but an upset in the schedule prevented the final run group late in the afternoon. Over 40 competitors participated in the runs on Saturday laying down some impressive times.

Overall leaders for all of Saturday included Steve Nagel (2:19.416), Thorpe Logeman and Herve Bezard.

Broken out by class:

TT3: Steve Nagel, Thorpe Logeman and Herve Bezard

TT1: Dan Rose, Gary Felton and Russ Whalen

TTC: Andrew McKelvey, Team Greenbaum and Kam Urquhart

TT2: Derrin Griffin and Arthur Weber

TTU: Team Alfaleh, Doug Makishima and John Atkinson

TTB: Kelly Soske

TTD: John Magnuson, Robert Rose and Robert Strohmeyer

TTE: R&R Racing1

TTF: Need Speed Orozco, Ed Poss and Pramesh Ruparelia

Full results of Saturday’s TT race:  http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/3051896

 

Sunday Time Trial

 Sunday ran a full complement of 4 sessions again with over 40 competitors late into the hot afternoon.  Russ Whalen worked tirelessly in his “camp” to fabricate new brake pads for his Skyline and get back into the action on Sunday-Nice work!

 

Overall leaders for Sunday were Thorpe Logeman (2:16.426), Steve Nagel and Herve Bezard.

 

Broken out by class:

TT3: Thorpe Logeman, Steve Nagel and Herve Bezard

TT1: John Bianchi, Dan Rose and Gary Felton

TT2: Derrin Griffin and Arthur Weber

TTC: Team Greenbaum, Team Schotz Racing and Jeff Abrams

TTU: John Atkinson, Team Alfaleh and Jim “Coz” Cozzolino

TTB: Kelly Soske

TTD: John Magnuson, Robert Rose and Robert Strohmeyer

TTE: R&R Racing 1

TTF: Need Speed Orozco, Ed Poss and Praamesh Ruparelia

 

Full results of Sunday’s TT race:  http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/3051895

Join us at Wild Horse Pass- Bondurant West track in just a few weeks May:  https://www.drivenasa.com/event/1808

Details of Bondurant West event:  http://forums.nasaaz.com/showthread.php?t=6509

NASAAZ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/NASAAZ

 

Author:  Tom Johnson (tomjohnson@cox.net / 602-628-2701)

Pictures and content courtesy of

• White Rice Photography:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/White-Rice-Photography/1416113401983166?fref=photo
• Gabe Ortega and Honda Challenge
• Zachariah Woods:  https://drive.google.com/folderview?…EE&usp=sharing

Many thanks to Tage Evanson for spending most of the weekend changing tires and to Chris Dowers for jumping in an helping. 

Please send corrections, half-truths and legal notices to the author:  tomjohnson@cox.net

Here is the rest of the story…  Getting to the tracks is half the fun, especially when you can sleep in the back of the RV enroute and watch friends climbing the hills behind you: http://youtu.be/fMPhfBadJHw

 

 

 

 

 

NASA Arizona returned to the Wild Horse Pass East Track (WHP) for an end of winter warm up.  The weather was perfect, if a bit warm, but more on that later!  Rumors continue to flow about the future of this great local facility (http://www.racewildhorse.com/) and we can only hope that most of them come true resulting in a world class facility right in our own back yard.

The East track is a small, short knife shaped track with one long straight away and several short straight sections.  There is a small amount of elevation change in a few spots (talking a few feet…) but for the most part it is a flat track.  There are enough good passing zones and wider sections to fit several cars side by side and keep the action rolling.

For this event the NASA-AZ (www.nasaaz.com) participants were paddocked outside of the track in a large parking area.  This made for much better access by visitors and a safer event without the need to pass through the track for guests.  Visibility to the track was just fine as spectators lined up along the northern edge of the track on the “The Hill” and were treated to some fine driving and a little rock throwing.

The April Event is right around the corner!  Get your cars turned and ready because we have another event coming up quickly back here at the Wild Horse Pass West track.  This next event is the weekend of April 5 and 6, 2014 and registration and details can be found here:  https://www.drivenasa.com/event/1807. We hope to see another giant crowd from many different locations at the next event.  The Wast track is also hard on equipment so bleed those brakes and change those engines often!!

Saturday Small Bore Race Group

The Small Bore Qualifying run on Saturday set the tone with the first four cars of Valentin Ivanitski, Team Kit driven by Robert Rose, Leland Forbes the number 469 car of Team LBR all qualifying within a half second of each other!

The Sprint race began with 16 cars on grid and was full of passing and good action including Leland Forbes falling back to 3^rd after the start and patiently clawing back a spot to finish 2^nd behind Robert Rose in Team Kit.  Pete Dimuzio was the victor of the 5 Spec944 cars, David Snyder’s Mazda took first in PTC, and Jorge Diaz was the lone Spec Miata car.  Uncontested in GTS2 was Valentin Ivanitski and similarly in David James in PTE rounded out the various class winners.

Official Results: http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/2990599

 

Saturday Big Bore Race Group

Big Bore Qualification put Michael Pinholster in the Radical on Pole followed by Austin Newmark, Erik Davis and Brian Turner in their Porsche 911s.  The field was well represented with Super Unlimited, Super Touring 3, Super Touring 1, GTS3 and GTS4 cars.

16 cars departed grid for the warm-up lap and after a clean start the field ran for nearly 30 minutes but Michael Pinholster held the front spot with a fast lap of 59.223 and Erik Davis’ freshly repainted 911 just a hair behind with a fast lap of 59.975, then Greg Dalgarn rounding out the podium.   The ultra competitive Super Touring 3 field was won by Erik Davis with Jeremy Renshaw’s BMW second, Brian Turners Porsche in third, another Porsche of Jim Richard and last in class.. a dusty old Datsun.

Ricky Johnson ran his PTB Mini in Big Bore finishing 6^th overall and the lone PTB in class.  GTS3 field victor David Leyvas beat the BMW of Jim Fluckey with Marty Saltzman taking the third spot and Justin Stevenson left sprinkling the flowers on the side of the track with an unfortunate water leak but no resulting damage.  Michael Papworth’s thundering blue Corvette represented ST2.

Official Results: http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/2990600

 

Sunday Combined Race Group

The Sunday Race Group was combined classes which made for fantastic action throughout the race.  The start was a normal running Green Flag after 2 warm-up laps and the field formed up perfectly as the Green Flag dropped on anxious throttle pedals, a pile of iron pooling at Turn 1.  A flurry of passing throughout the field in the first few laps preceded the faster cars eventually catching up to the small bore cars and then the action heated up.  The inclusion of traffic intensifies the opportunities as racers use timing and strategy to move ahead, but hopefully keep their own class competitors tied up in traffic behind them.

The race ended early on a Red Flag due to a 3” hole in the side of the authors (new) engine.  Many thanks to Tage and Ramin and all the others who descended on my smoking car just seconds after stopping in the dirt.  Go away Monkey!!

Congrats to podium finishers Michael Pinholster, Erik Davis and Jeremy Renshaw, to all the Class winners and thanks for the great competition from all the combined groups.

Official Results: http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/2990604

Season Points: https://nasaaz.com/results/race-results/race-group-results/

Saturday Time Trial

Some seriously fast action on the Saturday Time Trial as both the Small Bore and Big Bore classes ran 4 sessions throughout the day with a bunch of track records taken over including David Leyvas’ 56.896 on Saturday and Tony Szirka in the UMS Tuning Mitsubishi running 57.864 on Sunday.  Ricky Johnson took a 3 year old record down in TTB class at 1:01.669, Dave Schotz and Hal Dunn each beat down their own records in TTC and TTD to 1:02.647 and 1:04.193 respectively.

Here is where to find some great pics of all classes:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanitski/sets/72157642474912094/

Lots of close finishes including Gary Felton just .076 seconds ahead of Hunter Bennett in TT1.  Even closer on Sunday, Hal Dunn finished barely a whisker ahead of Robert Rose separated by merely .005 seconds.  TTE finishers Team Beer:30 and Team Hashtag Racing also had a close finish with just .078 seconds spacing.

Full results of Saturdays TT race:  http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/2990621

Sunday Time Trial

Sunday Time Trial was slightly different with split groups for the first 3 sessions and a combined afternoon session.    As mentioned above Tony Szirka would have had a track record with this time of 57.864 but for David’s impressive Saturday run in the Porsche.  The close finishes continued with Team Beer:30 finishing just .013 seconds ahead of Team Hashtag.

Congrats to the other class victors on Sunday including Russ Whelan, Erik Davis, Ricky Johnson, Team Schotz, Robert Rose, Team Beer:30 and Tony Szirka.

Results:  http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/2990620

 

UMS Tuning Time Attack

The Time Attack series (http://www.umstuningtimeattackseries.com/) was held on Sunday with 3 total sessions and 14 cars spread throughout the day.  Tony Szirka posted his fastest time of the day in the first session in 58.161 seconds but ending with an injured car.  Phil Robles and Russ Whelan were within a fraction of a second of each other to complete the top 3 positions.

In class competition Aaron Hiar took top spot in TA-A with Phil Robles first in TA-B and Tony Szirka top in TA-C

Official Results: http://www.mylaps.com/en/classification/2990625

 

US Drift

The drift group returned once again to NASA-AZ on Sunday running a total of 4 sessions.  The drift event probably draws one of the biggest spectator crowds of any class.  There was some serious horsepower on display and some roasted tires by late Sunday afternoon.

HPDE

As always HPDE is the “first hit” of road racing and we would like to congratulate the March 2014 HPDE1 class of: Agustin Carcoba, Brent Carver, Kayleigh Casto,  Trevor Girdner, Gabe Hansen,  Dorian Hollingworth, William Janssen, Kevin Kavanagh, David Kweder, Perry Lehman, Quintin Maley,  Rene Mousseux,  Karol Owczarski,  Lee Rateike, Kirk Vidinghoff, Robert Warman and Michael Pearce (who drove his first DE1 at East and now coming back for DE2 in April in the green Acura  below )

Under the expert tutelage of instructor Dave Riddle this gang will hopefully be seen on a race-track near us soon!

 

 

There was great “training action” in all the HPDE sessions with a wide variety of cars from Ferrari and Mercedes to Jeff Meade’s 1973 Mini.    Congrats to Jake Castro for moving up into Time Trial and turning some of his best lap times.

Mechanical Issues:

An unusually high amount of mechanical damage (read carnage) plagued this 3^rd event in the NASA 2014 season including at least two head gasket perforations,  a bunch of  transmissions killed, a thrown rod, another blown motor and a fire in a DE4 car.  The fact is stuff breaks and it can become a safety hazard.

Take that extra time you have on grid (because you arrived a few minutes early) to practice your emergency egress, shut off and fire extinguisher procedure.  Create your escape path first by opening the door, removing nets, wheel and then releasing your belts last.  Consider if you were upside down-you want to remain in the seat until you have a way out as it could be difficult to do the other things after getting dropped on your head when you fall out of the seat.

This should be a logical “flow” of your hands that sweeps around the cockpit completing the tasks in an efficient order, ending up at your belts release point and you getting out of the car.  Oh, and practice with your eyes closed and a friend poking you with a stick.

So that’s it!  Hope to see everyone all repaired and ready for NASA-AZ’s first return to the West track in 2014 which is just a few short weeks away.  Get signed up ASAP for both days and enjoy some great tacos, racing and Arizona sunshine.

 

Join us at Wild Horse Pass in April:  https://www.drivenasa.com/event/1807

Details of Wild Horse Pass event:  http://forums.nasaaz.com/showthread.php?t=6468

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/NASAAZ

 

Pictures courtesy of

• Tage Evanson
• Ben Kiningham

 

Please send corrections, half-truths and legal notices to the author:  tomjohnson@cox.net

PS…