Page 1 of 1

Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 9:50 am
by joe henslee
So we had 5 ETR members racing in Savannah a few weeks ago. Incredible weekend. Dick Hancock in his ITA Miata with John Payne crewing / his brother-in-law who just moved to Knoxville a few months ago(John has race SCCA for 30++yrs and now Vintage in Datsun's), Lee Graser in his ITA Miata with Will Curtain crewing, Stan and Shawn Hinds co drove the ECR.....Stan w/ Lee, Shawn w/ Dick each splitting the ECR and driver change at the mandatory 5 min pitstop, and I ran my Z3 ITA with my son Chris crewing for us. (running as STU with rear wing and front splitter, otherwise ITA legal) in both SARRC & ECR. At the ECR race start Saturday afternoon, Shawn, Stan, and I were qualified within a car or two of each other, filling mirrors, and really intense "close" racing. I believe this is the first time Stan and Shawn(father/son) had occupied the track together and certainly all three of us :mrgreen: , .........AWESOME!!!! We all brought home reusable cars and drivers and a bunch of podiums :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
We also had some open wheels racing friends we met last year at the SARRC Invitational Runoffs here again, right across the driveway in the paddock. They were in Club Ford/Formula Ford, Formula Mazda's and Formula E(Van Diemen spec SCCA Formula). My "special" thanks to these guys, Chris Bryant, Court Dowis, and lastly but not least Dennis Ferrara(past pro F Atlantic driver) for turning the screws down on me to revive my FF from the deep recesses of my shop. Last time wheels on track was 1990, the end of a 3 year active campaign. Man, I have missed open wheel racing 8) . So within a few days of retuning, I have dusted off the Zink chassis, located all the previously removed hardware, Butler motor, and am actively working restoration and updating intrusion protection to current GCR requirements. Old fuel cell pretty much has turned to dust, so a new one already picked out.
My son and I spent the nite inside the track in the rig, and spent the evening and entire trip home Monday discussing our future racing plans. Chris now has marked his calendar for the double school at Roebling with Buccaneer Region in FEB 2015 in either the IT7 or the Z3. He did a PDX in the Mazda IT7 at VIR a few years back, but hasn't been in a position to proceed until now. We also began to discuss revival of the Ford and the Scorpion sports racer, and also shared my idea of an SCCA FE somewhere down the road :eating:...........hmmmmmm!!!. We'll to my astonishment :shock: , yesterday walking into shop, I discovered a new to me FE has appeared :wink: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Daytona......three weeks.... :wink: maybe...
There is plenty of room and we would love to have other ETR members join us. We are looking at Daytona...DBL SARRC and SARRC Invitational, Charlotte, Barber, and VIR before the season is over. Sebring, West Palm, Kershaw, ???? are also past and future venues.
Best regards, Joe

Re: Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 10:48 am
by TedV
:rockon: :rockon: :rockon:

Awesome about the FE. As of now that is my favorite spec series.
Court Dowis is definitely good people. Give me a heads up if and when you need crew folks. I've missed being at the track. Labor day I most likely will be doing tire work at Summit or Barber tho.

Re: Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 12:15 pm
by joe henslee
Image

Image

Thanks Ted,
cleaning up old graphics including "Mazda", as support has changed to "Ford Racing / Motorsports" (?), better aligns with Spec Racer Ford current gen and new Gen 3 cars. Chassis new was west coast ~ 3yrs, then came to SEDIV with Mick Robinson at RMS. Has run, pro, NATL, and club. This chassis, I have been told, holds current lap record at VIR & Roebling. Doubt the "new driver" will be able to improve that :roll:

Re: Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 2:07 pm
by TedV
I know Mick and RMS. They always took good care of equipment. Any chance it was Mark Eaton that drove yours?

Re: Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:36 pm
by joe henslee
Mark primarily drove the red/black/silver #92 that Dennis Ferrara purchased and was along side this car, also out of Micks shop, but Mark may have done some time in this chassis. Mark stayed with the new owners of Prism Motorsports, Tilden and Maggie that bought out Mick when he retired over the winter as the CSR. Operating out of the same facility and Micks still around during the transition.

Re: Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:58 pm
by MARKP
Good to hear you guys had a good weekend and good to see some activity from the road race side on the board. Be sure to update us on here with future stuff.

Re: Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 7:42 pm
by thrdeye
If my schedule ever lines up, I'd love to crew sometime. Keep us posted with the upcoming races.

Re: Great DBL SARRC and ECR at Roebling a few weeks ago

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 11:27 pm
by TedV
joe henslee wrote:Mark primarily drove the red/black/silver #92 that Dennis Ferrara purchased and was along side this car,
I thought he mostly drove the red/silver one, but wasn't sure if the one you got had been repainted. Figured it was a long shot since they had a few cars in the stable.

wow, Mick is retiring. But then he has been at it for what? 30 some years? Hope he enjoys retirement and doesn't go stir crazy.