Wild West an unsanctioned event?

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stgallagher
If you make a " Cash Donation" to the local elected officials " Favorite Charity", they always green light your events.

Just sayin'.

Sean Gallagher
I used to live in New Jersey

Sean,
Be careful on this forum it has teeth and has been known to bite.
I wish there were TSD rallies here in Colorado.

Nick Leone

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Nick Leone
Former scca member

Nick there was just a big TSD in colorado http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22016

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nick leone

Quote
stgallagher
If you make a " Cash Donation" to the local elected officials " Favorite Charity", they always green light your events.

Just sayin'.

Sean Gallagher
I used to live in New Jersey

Sean,
Be careful on this forum it has teeth and has been known to bite.
I wish there were TSD rallies here in Colorado.

Nick Leone

Doesn't bother me. Sometimes the truth hurts.

How you doing Nick? Long time no see.

Sean

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john vanlandingham
I do have a friend who I helped build his car way back in 1991 who lives in the Bay Area who does Spec Miata---Christmas eve I watched the whole season's finale at Sears Point while on the phone with him....Looks frustrating as hell when much better lines and braking are completely negating by a slower car right in the way on the ONLY line, and zero power over anybody to use to finish a well set up approach and braking and zip by

It IS frustrating as hell. You get a better line through the turn and are on the gas and get a jump down the straight and then wait and wait and wait as you inch alongside and then run out of time and space and you were beating the guy but not enough to pull alongside so you have to back off and try to do the same thing all over again the next turn and just hope he makes a mistake. And HE can force the issue and run you off the road but you can't because HE'S a good ol' boy and you're a rookie and if'n you rub it's automatically your fault and you're out for the season. So you just play nice and back off and try to enjoy the day and wish you were back out in the woods sliding around in your Golf.

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hoche

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john vanlandingham
I do have a friend who I helped build his car way back in 1991 who lives in the Bay Area who does Spec Miata---Christmas eve I watched the whole season's finale at Sears Point while on the phone with him....Looks frustrating as hell when much better lines and braking are completely negating by a slower car right in the way on the ONLY line, and zero power over anybody to use to finish a well set up approach and braking and zip by

It IS frustrating as hell. You get a better line through the turn and are on the gas and get a jump down the straight and then wait and wait and wait as you inch alongside and then run out of time and space and you were beating the guy but not enough to pull alongside so you have to back off and try to do the same thing all over again the next turn and just hope he makes a mistake. And HE can force the issue and run you off the road but you can't because HE'S a good ol' boy and you're a rookie and if'n you rub it's automatically your fault and you're out for the season. So you just play nice and back off and try to enjoy the day and wish you were back out in the woods sliding around in your Golf.

That partially explains why Spec Miata is notorious for car-to-car contact. Being momentum cars, drivers tend to not give up position easily. Plus, body parts are cheap for these 10-21 year old Miatas. The really good drivers get in their opponents mirrors and try to get them to lose concentraion and make a mistake.

At the higher levels of Spec Miata competition, these cars can be pricey. Pro-built "parts-bin blueprinted" motors go for $6000-$7000 (about what most ITA cars go for - the whole car!). I sold my Spec Miata and bought an ITA Honda CRX Si with a winning history. It's cheaper than a Spec Miata and is faster than many SMs. ;-)

I will say that some of the best amateur road racers in the country came up through the Spec Miata ranks. The competition at the national level is fierce and these guys bring their "A" game to the races!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2011 09:37PM by MikeColangelo.

Well, I haven't done Spec Miata in a long time. It was pretty fun in some ways. I was out there dicing in my home-brew one, which really wasn't anything more than a street car that was stripped and caged and had the SM suspension package. So I didn't have one of the top-notch engines or a car that was stripped to the bone. The main problem was that I was always running midpack, and surrounded by people with better cars who were worse drivers. And my car would overheat if I tried to draft, so I was always having to dive for fresh air on the straights. There were a lot of really good drivers, but they all had better cars too. It was just frustrating to be blocked in by hacks and not get a chance to run free or seriously dice with someone.

Maybe I should've gotten a nice motor and a better radiator and spent a lot of time lightening the car, but then I got into rally and had a lot more fun with that, so I parked the SM.

I went back to the track a few years ago and did some enduros. Those were fun. I was basically a "hired" driver in someone else's car and my job was to shuttle the car around for a few hours and try to go reasonably fast but not burn up the tires or blow up the car. The fun thing about those is that they're run Le Mans style and there're a bunch of different cars in different classes out there. So you're shuttling your sedan around and have to keep a sharp eye out for a pack of open-wheeled cars or prototypes or so on. And then you come up on some spec cars and have to figure out how to get around them without losing ground to that other sedan in your class behind you.

I think it's a "different strokes" thing.