2017 ARRC at Road Atlanta

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joe henslee
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun May 09, 2004 11:03 am
Location: Knoxville

2017 ARRC at Road Atlanta

Post by joe henslee »

Well, Rob Garrison and myself were the sole ETR entries at the ARRC. Really nice turnout overall. Rob pulled a win in FProd in his 2nd Gen RX7. Congrats Rob!!!! :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:
I had a great race weekend. 1st time back at RA in 28 years, and first time with wings in the Reynard FC (last time was 89' in the Z10 FF). Originally had 7 FC's entered, 5 actually showed up in a 30+ car field of winged open wheel and prototypes. As I learned the new track(to me) config, I made steady improvements, wing adjustments, mostly confidence building... trusting the down force. Was consistently faster than 2 other FC's, and one Ralt FB during Thursday testing P1-P4, and Friday Q1 & Q2. Third on the FC grid. Saturday's afternoon Grp 7 race, got a great start and put the 4th place FC a good distance back. I held third ~ 2/3 of 20 laps until faster than stink P1's & P2's and a F1000 and a $hit load of FE's started lapping, unfortunately pulling the slower 4th P FC's into my 30 year old aero draft. This 10 year newer Van Diemen had significantly lower drag and probably a little motor on me and he drove around on the back straight. I caught him in 10a & 10b, dogged him for two laps filling his mirrors and sticking my nose under at every braking turn-in and had to check up many times to prevent bump draft. 1-1/2 laps from the end, the Reynard developed a horrible wiggle from the rear where I was quickly loosing the LR hub bearing...now with unpredictable articulated rear steer at 130+, I managed to stabilize and drive up the out side of T1, passing the apex turn in and lost enough speed to drive off safely across from T3 corner flag station. Watched the last lap from there and then finished on a rollback. :cry: . Still had 1/2 second faster laps than the now 3rd place FC that got around. Always good to bring home a reusable car and driver. Next year :wink:
Joe Henslee
Henslee Scorpion 2.0L Ford BSR-U2 CanAm (vintage) / Prototype 2 (SCCA) / BM(Solo)
Zink Z10 FF / CF (SCCA &vintage) / CM(Solo)
Reynard SF-84 2.0L Ford, Formula Continental FC / CFC (SCCA) / Formula Libre' (vintage)
USDRRT on eBay ....
flier129
Posts: 1839
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:50 pm
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: 2017 ARRC at Road Atlanta

Post by flier129 »

I couldn't imagine driving RA in it's old config.

Are bump-drafts not permitted in your class because of aero or other reasons? I can never seem to find regional results on scca's website, do you know where to find them?

Congrats to you both!
Marcus Luttrell - 99' Miata - GLTC/Max3/ST5 #92
Nine Lives Racing - Sales/spell-checker/IT
TedV
Posts: 6217
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2003 5:55 pm

Re: 2017 ARRC at Road Atlanta

Post by TedV »

Old road Altanta was Glorious!! Every lap "what mayhem lies on the other side of the bridge?"

Formula cars usually don't have strong enough nose or protective cover on back of trans to survive bump draft. Also, I think Fred Schmucker in race control black flagged the entire Spec Miata group at Rd At once because too many were bump drafting. Upwards of 4-6 cars in a line all bumping if the stories were true.
Ted V.
don't make me list all my VW's
joe henslee
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun May 09, 2004 11:03 am
Location: Knoxville

Re: 2017 ARRC at Road Atlanta

Post by joe henslee »

Thanks for the kind words. The "bump draft" comment was tongue in cheek ......unintentional contact. Open wheel contact usually results in poor outcomes. I have had a few open wheel "launches" resulting 20+ feet of air, loss of corners, frame pickups points ripped out...... The only significant in line contact that was recoverable was drafting very close on a FC with me in my FF at Charlotte coming out of NASCAR 4 when the FC driver lifted to "allow me to pass". So why would a faster car lift at 120-130 on a straight to allow a slower FF to pass...no hand signals...NOTHING. My chisel nose Zink drove under his gearbox/diffuser and lifted his rear wheels and my front bulkhead hit the ground. I hit the brakes, he slid off and as I recovered control he HIT HIS BRAKES. Yep, back underneath and I had to hit my brakes again(lap sequence photos show no damage on nose and suddenly two big gouges up the nose :roll: ). Post race, marshals had to keep me away from him. Worst part was watching 3 or 4 other FF's I had passed during the race go by during this activity. Got a few positions back, but not all.
Regarding results, SPEEDHIVE(MyLaps-AMB), Racemonitor, regions hosting usually a few weeks post event on their regions web.
Regards, Joe
Joe Henslee
Henslee Scorpion 2.0L Ford BSR-U2 CanAm (vintage) / Prototype 2 (SCCA) / BM(Solo)
Zink Z10 FF / CF (SCCA &vintage) / CM(Solo)
Reynard SF-84 2.0L Ford, Formula Continental FC / CFC (SCCA) / Formula Libre' (vintage)
USDRRT on eBay ....
whenry
Posts: 1620
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2003 11:57 am
Location: Loudon Tn

Re: 2017 ARRC at Road Atlanta

Post by whenry »

Old RA was orgasmic. Point the nose of the car at the third garage door(as I recall) in the maintenance building on the next ridge and stand on it. Trust physics to pull you thru the corner. Hit turn 3 flat in 4th gear. Get bored down the back straight at full throttle knowing that the Bridge was next. Let's dig that chicane back up and go back to the old days.
Wayne Henry
East Tenn Region, SCCA
2006 MX-5 Limited
the rest of the garage:
1984 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE
1996 Toyota 4runner
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