This is note to update you on the latest information from your SRCC Board.  I’m not sure where you guy’s stand, but, my TIGA’s a work in progress awaiting a few new parts before it can roll on all wheels.  So, with thoughts of the new season, the 2012 club schedule has been finalized.  We have tried to focus on fewer races where we believe we can attract larger S2 fields.  In this way we can work with the organizers to get dedicated races and preferred track times with 2011 Gold Cup as an example.   Success will ultimately depend on our ability to bring larger S2 fields to the events.  The schedule is as follows: 

We hope that our members will focus on the club events when possible.  The board has modified the point’s rules such that the maximum points can be gained by attending club events.  As in the past, points can be earned at non-club events that meet minimum field size requirement, but, at a lower point level.  The year-end championship criteria have changed from past practice.  In 2012, the prizes will be awarded based on the 1^st-2^nd-3^rd in each Sports 2000 class.  The awards will be cross regional.

We’re very happy to announce our two major club sponsors for 2012; SascoSports and Transatlantic Raceparts. 

• SascoSports, the Official Tire Sponsor of SRCC, has not only continued the support of the tire giveaway (2 sets of tires to be awarded during the year), but, has agree to sponsor our club T-shirts.  This will enable us to provide an attractive Shirt to each member (when you submit your completed membership form … hint, hint)

• Transatlantic Raceparts is again sponsoring the “Transatlantic Cup” awards for the top 3 drivers in each class at year end.  In addition, Transatlantic is sponsoring a “Best in Show” award that will also be awarded at year.  The Best in Show criteria will be announced in a future letter.

Please remember our sponsors as you make your equipment purchases.   The board is continuing to seek additional sponsors in order to provide additional giveaways and incentives at each race.  We’ve made some exciting progress in this area … details later. 

The schedule and details of the 2012 points rules will be posted to the website shortly.  If you have questions or comments, please contact a board member. 

I’ll close with a request to consider sending you membership renewal sooner rather than later.  Last year’s website rebuilding efforts have put some strains on the treasury and the club could use your support.  I’ve attached a membership application for your convenience.

Sincerely,

Tom Kane

SRCC President

Also, for the first time, Transatlantic will present Concours Awards for the best examples of HS2, S2 and SS2.

Many drivers focus on gaining “rights” to a corner, rather than controlling the other driver, and this often creates the circumstance that leads to incidents. To begin with, let’s look at a typical pass with the field of vision of the car being passed illustrated in blue. This illustration shows an average formula car; some cars provide better visibility, but all have similar limitations.

As the above illustration shows, the passing car (green) spends little or no time completely out of sight of the red car. This is a safe and properly executed pass, and the most effective pass for reasons that we’ll discuss later. Next, let’s look at a very common pass that, albeit legal, often causes problems… the Dive Bomb pass.

The most important thing illustrated above is that the green car spends the latter part of the braking zone and the early part of the corner completely out of sight of the red car. The Dive Bomb is common for a couple of reasons. First, the overtaking car stays much further away from the car being passed, and this makes the pass more comfortable, initially. Secondly, these drivers are under the misconception that diving for the apex will get them there quicker. This is false because as the green car approaches the apex on a shallow line he must brake much harder for the tighter radius he’s forced himself onto at the apex. Often, as shown above, the passing car will not be able to hold this tight radius and he will skate wide, at times into the car being passed. Compounding the problem is the fact that the green car may be at this point traveling much slower than the red car. Note also that the paths of these two cars intersect very soon after the green car becomes visible to the red car… there’s very little time to react. Even if the pass is successful, the green car has killed his exit speed. If the red car driver is experienced enough to see the poor line, he will turn-in later, duck to the inside immediately after the apex and re-pass the green car.

The most effective pass is shown above. The driver who stays close to the car he is passing is not only more visible, he is also able to control that driver’s turn-in point. He can keep that car to the outside and force a late turn-in. In doing so, he can be the first to turn in and the first to go to power, resulting in a clear lead and greater exit speed. The driver of the red car is forced onto a later, tighter turn-in which, unless he wants to practice his car control skills in the marbles on the outside of the corner, requires that he fall in line behind the green car. This strategy is both safer and quicker… the passing car is not only more visible to the other driver, but also controls the corner, ensures the pass and maximizes his exit speed at track out by driving as close as possible to the normal line.

The Saturday qualifier helped settle out the field better than could be accomplished in the brief morning session.  Always quick David Porter (2:02.1) led from the pole followed by first timer to VIR Bart Wolf (2:03.4) showed good form in climbing to 2^nd followed by the trio of Jeff Wright, Bob Hooks and Tom Kane.  The overall lap times showed the track was improving and everyone was getting with the program.

The settling sun of the late day feature race, delayed further by, some oil clean-up (Turns 5 / 6) from the previous session, made seeing the turn-in point for Turn 3 particularly challenging.  At the drop of the flag the right column of cars stacked up slightly and allowed the left column to get a jump on the field.   The field neatly singled filed through turn one starting to settle into several groups.  David Porter pulled out a 7 second lead by lap 4 that Bart Wolf steadily eroded over the next 5 laps, turning a 2:01.0 in the process, passing David on the last lap.  Larry Rossi who finished 3^rd (starting in last place due to an electrical problem in the qualifying race) was the hard charger of the race.  Larry had worked his way to 8^th place by the end of the 3^rd lap.  Then carefully picking off the three position until he was on the heels of Dan Kraus and Jeff Wright at the start  of the 8^th lap where he passed both in turn one and secured 3^rd.  Wright and Bob Hooks diced most of the race including action with a quick Dan Kraus, whose raced ended early due to mechanical issues.  Next followed Tom Kane who lost 1^st gear on the 2^nd lap and held station most of the race in view of the Hooks/Wright battle.  The next five racers all turned best laps within one second of each other with John Kramer and Vince LaManna tightly contesting 7^th place most of the race.  Not far behind them was the trio of Mark Gompels, Jim O’Connor and newcomer Owen Adelman who finished within 2 seconds of each other.  Tom Lehmkuhl, having climbed 7 positions in the course of the race (mechanical issues in the qualifier), passed John Galson on the final lap.  Trailer mates Nate Scigliano and Jim Southwood passed and repassed each other twice during race and finished within a 3 seconds of each other, well raced!  Finishing out the field were the well prepared cars of Greg Robison and Michael Crumay.  Dave Handy, who had demonstrated during the qualifier he was getting the measure of his new Swift, was a DNS for the Feature due to a significant shunt with his Brabham in an intervening race.  Thankfully, he only emerged sore and somewhat bruised.  

The feature race was celebrated with podium ceremonies for the Top 3 finishers overall and Top 3 finishers in each of the SRCC car class.  The 1^st in each class was presented the Transatlantic Raceparts Trophy.  Following the ceremony and group photo opportunity the S2 party was held in the S2 paddock area.  Special thank you to Jim Hanna for coordinating the party and to Michael Crumay & Larry Rossi for opening their paddock space as the party site.  During the party the regional SRCC club trophies were presented to those present for the top finishers in each class and the SascoSports Tire drawing was held.  Peter Krause and RJ Duffy were the winners of a pair of Avon’s each.  Thank you to SascoSports and Transatlantic Raceparts for making our awards possible.

Sunday’s feature race started with a field of 14 S2’s.  David Porter and Larry Rossi had a battle royal for 1^st place with Porter holding off Rossi for three laps.  Rossi successfully passed on lap 4 and they stayed in very close proximity during laps 5-9 with the average lap time differential being 0.058 sec. / lap and total difference of 0.065 secs for the 5 laps.  Jeff Wright completed the podium with Bob Hooks continuing the pursuit from the previous race.  Tom Kane kept with the pair until he survived a tank slapped in Turn 3 on lap 6 and was left to chase from a distance.  The next three finishers consisting of John Kramer, Mark Gompels and Tom Lehmkuhl had great race with less than 2 seconds separating them at the checker.  Owen Adelman was included in that pack until he fell back on lap 5 with a loose plug wire.  Next was Jim O’Connor who clocked a personal best of 2:08.1 in the process. 

So ends the 2011 season.  Be safe out there and hope  to see you next year.

Racing

We organized dedicated S2 races at Road America in May, Mid-Ohio in June, and VIR in November by working with the relevant sanctioning group. Our ability to do this depends on your participation so please let us know the tracks that are important to you and we will try and build attendance at particular events to get extra races.

Web Site

The old SRCC web site was obsolete so we built a new one. The new site has a better look and feel, is more easily updated and is important to our ability to communicate with you. This required a significant investment that was partially funded by the board. Please take a look at the new site and let us know what you think. It is at the moment still a work in progress. It can be found at the old address, which is www.nac-srcc.com. Our sincere thanks to Tom Ash for his work setting up and maintaining our old site and to Peter Krause, who took over from Tom and carried the site forward.  

Membership

As of this writing we have over 50 members, which is a record as far as we can recall. Thank you. Please let us know of other S2 owners or prospective owners who might want to join SRCC.

Discussions with VS2

The SRCC and VS2 boards are working to coordinate a calendar for next year, among other things. Our immediate goal is to leverage our combined resources to get extra benefits for S2 racers, including dedicated S2 races at select races. Most VS2 members live in the Northeast while SRCC’s members are more dispersed around the Country so the common events will most likely be at tracks like Watkins Glen, New Jersey Motorsport Park, Lime Rock, etc. The other big difference between the clubs is that VS2’s most modern class allows newer cars like Carbirs and also allows cars with the new SCCA spec cam, aluminum heads, etc. We intend to propose some options to SRCC members at VIR and via e mail in November on this point. Please remember that the sanctioning groups – SVRA, HSR, VSCDA, VRG, and, increasingly, the tracks themselves like Road America and VIR – decide the cars they will accept at particular race weekends. The VS2 and SRCC class rules impact the clubs’ championships and, sometimes, eligibility to participate in a dedicate S2 race.

Next Year’s Schedule

We are planning next year’s schedule. We will continue to focus on a mix of the popular tracks with our members. The schedule will most likely include Road America, Mid-Ohio, Road Atlanta, VIR and Watkins Glen, among other tracks. The vintage racing sanctioning groups are in flux so, to some extent, we have to wait and see which group will control desirable dates at the tracks we all like. Much more to come on this topic.

THANK YOU

Finally, thank you for being a member of SRCC and please renew your membership next year. If you aren’t a member, please consider joining. It helps us communicate with you if you are in our database. Please contact any SRCC board member if you have comments, suggestions or ideas you would like to share with us.

“Who, What & When” will be a feature on

the new SRCC website. Periodically we will

post a picture to see if we can stump

everyone. Since this is the first one, I’m

going to give a little hint; there’s an award in

vintage racing named for the driver in the

middle car.

Can you name the drivers and cars ?

How about the year or maybe even the venue ?

Your can post your educated guesses in the

comment box below.

In afternoon HSR rearranged the S2′s to a group with only 3 Formula Atlantic cars which worked out much better as far as traffic. The Sports 2000 Feature rolled off at the end of the day with Mark Coombs on pole with a qualifying time of 1.32.3. Once the flag dropped, the lead pack of Coombs, Tom Kane and John Kramer stayed on touch the entire race providing the fans with a show of close racing. One lap 1 Kane passed Coombs going into T7. Coombs re-passed in the braking area of T10A to lead at start-finish. Kramer gradually reeled in Kane and passed him in T1 on lap 4 with casual contact at the apex. Both motored on in (close) pursuit of Coombs. Kramer nearly succeeded in passing Coombs once at T7 and again at T10A, but, Mark prevailed to take the checker. Kane dogged the lead pair hoping for an opportunity, turning the low lap time of the race (& personal best) on the penultimate lap at 1.32.026. The three crossed the finish with less than a second between them. Next across the line was Franz Fleischli in the well driven Speed Unlimited prepared Lola 89/90. Franz is returning to Sports 2000 racing after an absence. We hope to see him again soon. Hawley Chester who had to start from Pit Lap due to last minute mechanical issues followed next. He recovered nicely by overtaking 2 cars in the process. Wade Leather, driving the fourth Speed Unlimited S2 (thank you, Jim Kelley) was next followed by the perfectly prepared Royale S2000 of Randy Kornegay. Ward Witkowski was a DNS due to mechanical issues and Jonathan Holtzman was unable to join us for the Friday sessions.That evening the Club held a post-race cocktail hour at the Speed Unlimited compound. Thanks to Joanne Kane for preparation and Jim Kelley for providing the venue. The get-together was well attended and enjoyed by all. In addition, the Transatlantic Part trophies were presented for first in each S2 class to Mark Coombs, (SS2), John Kramer (S2) and Tom Kane (HS2). Thank you to Transatlantic Raceparts! Please remember our generous sponsors (www.race-parts.com) when looking for equipment and other goodies for our S2’s.

Saturday’s Group Race (4 + 7A) featured all nine S2’s in the race with Jonathan Holtzman leading the grid for S2’s after posting a 1.30.86 in the morning timed session in his pristine Lola 90/90. The Holtzman-Coombs-Kramer-Kane pack motored nose to tail for a lap then Holtzman gradually pulled out a gap. Kane passed Kramer on lap 2 in the braking area of T10A and began closing the gap to Coombs. Unfortunately, about the same time Kane’s oil line (cooler mount broke & line abraded on the track) started to distribute its’ contents at key track areas which started to make its’ presence known to all. On lap 5 Coombs spun in T7 and remained stationary for a while to allow cars to safely pass. Kane who was immediately behind Coombs pulled off-track at T7 track-out due to an oil pressure light. During the ensuing yellow flags some cars pulled in the pits in error which shuffled the running order. The greasiest areas were apparently Turns 3, 5, & 7. The race resumed with the finishing order of Holtzman, Fleischli and Witkowski for a well-deserved podium. The remaining finishing order was Chester, Kramer, Leathers, Kornegay and Coombs.

The enduro (90 min.) was held shortly after the Saturday Group race. Kramer / Kelley, Coombs and Fleischli took the green flag in a total field of 20 cars with Coombs emerging with 7th overall in a field that included the GTP type cars. Hat’s off to the HSR officials who allowed the S2’s to switch to this endure at our request. Fleischli finished 14th and Kramer / Kelley 16th overall. The team of Kramer /Kelley fell victim to a flat tire (rear right) which given the nature of Road Atlanta was a fortunate choice Sunday’s Group Race was an all Speed Unlimited field for S2’s with Kramer leading to the finish followed by Coombs, Leathers and Fleischli.

This was the first HSR event in the NAC-SRCC calendar in some time. The HSR’s folks were great to work with and very interested in making the weekend a success. If the 2012 schedule permits (& avoids conflicts with other events) all who attended hope we can keep this on the club schedule

Five S2s attended the recent VSCDA race weekend at Grattan. Jon Boxhorn, Josh Boller and Kevin Smith drove HS2 class Tigas, John Kramer drove an S2 class Swift and Mark Coombs drove an SS2 class Lola. The weekend was Kevin’s first outing in his very well prepared car that he bought several years ago and saw for the first time for Friday practice. Kevin was quickly on the pace and turned some very good times. Our S2s were classed with the sports cars and Mark asked if we could run with the Formula Fords instead. VSCDA agreed, but Josh and Kevin were also racing Fords so they stayed in the orginal run group while Mark, Jon and John ran with the Fords. 

I missed Friday for family reasons and used Saturday to remember the way around Grattan and get used to the new track surface. We were supposed to have races Saturday afternoon but unfortunately a huge storm blew through and left parts of the track flooded ending the day early for everyone. 

Sunday made up for Saturday with perfect conditions. The racing started with an hour long enduro that used a handicapping system for the pit stops. Our S2s were quickest so we had to pit for 8 minutes. Considering some of our comical pitstops at past races we appreciated the extra time. We figured we would cover about 37 laps and planned accordingly. The race included 3 S2s and about 15 sports cars. At the finish the S2s swept the podium with John Kramer in front of Mark Coombs by 8.5 seconds followed by Josh Boller. Kramer nearly blew it all with a half spin but drove hard and got some breaks in traffic to take the win. Sunday ended with Kevin Smith beating Josh Boller in their race with the sports cars and Mark Coombs driving a faultless race to beat John Kramer by 1.5 seconds followed by Jon Boxhorn third in class racing with the Formula Fords. 

Grattan is a great track and the VSCDA event is always in August when there aren’t many other race dates to choose from. Join us next year and have a blast.

Mid Ohio was the gathering of the year so far with 20 S2′s rolling through the gates. SVRA rewarded our numbers with a last minute schedule update that provided dedicated S2 track time on Friday PM and Saturday. Unfortunately, Mother Nature served up a wet Friday with the morning session a total washout and the afternoon damp enough so only a four S2 turned laps. The rain abated in time for a very well attended club party help under the Apex Vintage tent with the largest attendance in memory. Special thanks to Joanne Kane and Jim Kelley’s’ friend May for all their help in set-up and coordination. The Sasco Tire drawing yielded Simon Green as the winner of a pair of tires.

Saturday morning’s qualifying race had to switch to a qualifying timed session. Under dry conditions the 1st six in the field led, by David Porter with a 1.33.6 was within 1.3 seconds. The next six were within 3 seconds so the afternoon promised to be an interesting points race.

With a field of 19 S2′s in the SaturdayS2 only race the front row of Porter&RJ Duffymade a very fast start as the pace car pulled off quickly which caught Mark Coombs out and allowed John Kramer to get past him at the start so it was Duffy, Porter then Kramer across the start line. Kramer passed Porter into Turn 7 on the first lap and then the pair started chasing Duffy. The slight lag of the left column of starters gave Larry Rossi the advantage over Tom Kane into Turn 1 who followed closely. The lead pack of four ran with consist laps in the 1.32′s & 33′s ran in order until Lap 6 whenKramer got a good look in side Duffy into Turn 7. Duffy left room at the apex allowing Kramer to pull alongside of him exiting 7. Entering Turn 8 side-by-side Kramer stayed two wide turning into turn 8 pushed wide and got into the marbles and slide sideways down hill on the exit of 8 in minor spin allowing Rossi and Kane through. Next followed Glenn Jividen, Bob Hooks and Rex Gunning who displayed their fastest times of the weekend.Mark Streitz advanced two positions during the race was next followed by new member Tom Lehmkuhl. The pack of Peter McLaughlin, Jim Southwood, Nate Scigliano, Glenn Grainer and Paul Gelpi followed in close order separated by a total of 5 seconds. Michael Crumay and Jim Hanna closed out the finishers.The Transatlantic Cup Winners (1st in class) Mark Coombs (SS2), RJ Duffy (S2) and Tom Kane (HS2) were presented with handsome Pewter Mug Trophy’s.

Eleven S2′s remained for the Sunday Group 7 race. The front of the grid was Duffy, Kramer, Coombs. The lead three S2′s left their braking late into Turn 7 and Coombs passed Kramer but couldn’t get turned in so Kramer was able to repass him exiting 7. The three ran close for the next several laps with the gaps increasing and decreasing corner by corner. Duffy retiredunexpectedly entering the chicane 2 laps from the end of the race. Leaving the lead battle between Kramer and Coombs, Kramer pulled out a little gap on Coombs but when they hit traffic entering the chicane on the next to last lap which my advantage was gone. Coombs tucked in behind the car to be lapped and drafted him down to turn 7 and passed Kramer. The race finished out in that order.