Well racing fans here it is, the latest and greatest racing news from your favorite racers. September 20th and 21st we visited one of our favorite tracks for some great racing for possibly the last time, more on that a little later.
The weather was perfect all weekend and we had a great time on and off the track. JP and I made the trip down to Rockingham NC to hand out some beat downs to MLT. Unfortunately, Scott was unable to attend due to the man keeping him down.
Lets get right to the racing! BeerTech took two first place in class finishes in both Roll the Rock races this weekend. JP won on Saturday and I won on Sunday. This was my first victory and it was all I hoped it could be. What’s that you say? You heard that not all of the Spec E30 racers started the race I won? Hey, shut it! They could have …but didn’t. ;) I had some tough competition out there but was able to hold them off for the victory! Ill take it.
This was my second time at The Rock and first time racing there.When we run Rockingham we get four races in the weekend, I know pretty sweet. Each day there is one points race and one fun race. The points races are split as usual between two classes, Thunder (high horsepower cars) and Lightning (momentum cars) Spec E30 runs in the Lightning races for points. The Fun races, called Roll the Rock are both classes mixed together for one big race. Speed differentials are substantial and make for interesting racing. It’s an absolute blast!
Here is a quick rundown of the races and how I did. Yeah, this is all about me in case you are wondering.
Points race #1 Qualified 8th, finished 9th RACE ONE VIDEO
Roll The Rock Race #1 Finished 11th in class. ROLL THE ROCK #1 VIDEO
Watch for the punt I get from MLT’s Travis Wilson at 5:53 in the video.
Points Race #2 Qualified 2nd, finished 7th
Q2 Due to a few people disqualified for passing under yellow in qualifying. I didn’t get video of this race due to my car not starting on grid and barely getting it running before going out. I forgot to hit the record button, dagger!
Roll The Rock Race #2, finished 1st in class! ROLL THE ROCK #2 VIDEO
On the track the racing was fast and clean. No incidents this weekend except for M3 Bill losing a motor in Qualifying on Saturday. The competition is getting better and better all the time in our series also. I am obviously a fantastic driver with superhuman driving ability and I'm not even running up front! I know what you're thinking, they are all cheaters! I agree.
The competition is so close in fact that in qualifying for race #1 Laura Patton, JP Coates, Me and Al Taylor all ran our fast lap of 1:11.1x. All four of us within the same 1oth of a second.
Rockingham is a great track to race on. It used to be on the NASCAR circuit years ago but is now used for testing, ARCA and other track days like ours. We use NASCAR turns one and two and the infield road course making this into what we call a roval. See track map.
I have a new found respect for circle track drivers for sure. The concentration and stamina needed for driving thru the banking is amazing. In our cars we go thru flat out at the top of fourth gear with the car on the limit at around 105- 115 MPH or so. I can’t imagine doing it at 200 MPH, 3 wide for 4+ hours. Amazing.
The nice thing about Rockingham is that we can use the NASCAR garages. These are a nice break from the sandy, grassy paddock spots we usually have and we are also allowed to camp in them, which is nice, so I got that going for me.
Now the off track "activity."
Normally we throw a pretty good party at the racetrack everywhere we go. This event got a little out of hand Saturday night and we (the entire NASA group) were almost asked to leave the track for breach of contract Sunday morning. Ooops, sorry again Jim.
I can’t go into too many details here but when track management came in Sunday morning, they found a car parked on the start finish line on track…NOT happy about it. The Shenanigans were pinned on Spec E30 as a group, namely BeerTech and Malt Liquor Tech. Can you believe that???
We were certainly making memories and it was a blast! Sometimes these things happen but we will try to take it easy in the future.
HIGHLIGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS:
1. Travis is a dirty driving Ba*#@&d. ;)
2. Look out for the man in Red.
3. Riding Lawnmowers make great pit vehicles.
4. Vic Hall is rotten on the inside. (You need to have that looked at.)
5. Spec E30 throws kick @ss parties.
6. Track management is lame.
Ill post a few pics as I get them but until next time, try to keep the noise down all right?
Oh yeah, don’t forget to look for me soon in Columbia, SC. I got a promotion and will be moving there at the end of October…right in the middle of all the Southeast tracks! Perfect!
-BeerTech Racing Car #380, Brian Jones
