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I was in the White/Orange Miata (#99) for the last 80 minutes of Sunday's race.  While we talked after the race, I just wanted to publicly thank the driver of the #248 Blake's Garage Miata (I'm sorry, I'm terribly with names, especially after that intense battle).

 

From the last yellow flag to the end of the race, we had a constant battle for 3rd in class, often times running side-by-side for multiple corners, always within close quarters, and never once touched each other.  It was awesome, clean, hard racing, in fact the hardest stint I have ever done.

 

So thanks for a great race and great competition.  I'll race with you any day!

 

Thanks,

Brian

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1 hour ago, bvondran said:

I was in the White/Orange Miata (#99) for the last 80 minutes of Sunday's race.  While we talked after the race, I just wanted to publicly thank the driver of the #248 Blake's Garage Miata (I'm sorry, I'm terribly with names, especially after that intense battle).

 

From the last yellow flag to the end of the race, we had a constant battle for 3rd in class, often times running side-by-side for multiple corners, always within close quarters, and never once touched each other.  It was awesome, clean, hard racing, in fact the hardest stint I have ever done.

 

So thanks for a great race and great competition.  I'll race with you any day!

 

Thanks,

Brian

Is your car still a 1.6?

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Hey Brian, 

 

Mike Blake Here. I was driving at the end there for #248. Seriously that was the most fun I've had at a champcar race. We also learned I cant take turn 17 to save my life. Even with more power (1.8l), wider tires and aero I still couldn't make the pass stick. The video is below we start racing at around 6:30. there is also a really nice moment of Car RamRod #283 @ 39:30. 🙂

 

Thank you to all of the teams out there for making it such a great race. This was the fastest field we have ever seen. 

 

Thanks to the ChampCar staff for hosting such an awesome event and a special thanks to Chris helping us with our transponder issues through out the weekend!

Mike 

 

 

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5 hours ago, mblake30 said:

Hey Brian, 

 

Mike Blake Here. I was driving at the end there for #248. Seriously that was the most fun I've had at a champcar race. We also learned I cant take turn 17 to save my life. Even with more power (1.8l), wider tires and aero I still couldn't make the pass stick. The video is below we start racing at around 6:30. there is also a really nice moment of Car RamRod #283 @ 39:30. 🙂

 

Thank you to all of the teams out there for making it such a great race. This was the fastest field we have ever seen. 

 

Thanks to the ChampCar staff for hosting such an awesome event and a special thanks to Chris helping us with our transponder issues through out the weekend!

Mike 

 

 

Would be such great video if the camera had a spot meter.

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1 hour ago, Racer28173 said:

Would be such great video if the camera had a spot meter.

 

 The apparently 'poor' video might have to do with GoPro and YouTube more than a spot meter. Our GoPro is crystal clear when I post the 15 minute segments on YouTube but when I combine it for the full 8 hours the quality on YouTube suffers.

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47 minutes ago, Richard said:

 

 The apparently 'poor' video might have to do with GoPro and YouTube more than a spot meter. Our GoPro is crystal clear when I post the 15 minute segments on YouTube but when I combine it for the full 8 hours the quality on YouTube suffers.

The poor contrast is usually caused by lack of spot filter.  Note that the interior looks great but the track is washed out.  That is a very specific problem 

 

As to the problem you have, I haven’t had that happen to me but I always cut the race up into stints so they aren’t longer than 2 hours.  I lose no fidelity on YouTube as a result. 

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18 hours ago, mblake30 said:

Hey Brian, 

 

Mike Blake Here. I was driving at the end there for #248. Seriously that was the most fun I've had at a champcar race. We also learned I cant take turn 17 to save my life. Even with more power (1.8l), wider tires and aero I still couldn't make the pass stick. The video is below we start racing at around 6:30. there is also a really nice moment of Car RamRod #283 @ 39:30. 🙂

 

Thank you to all of the teams out there for making it such a great race. This was the fastest field we have ever seen. 

 

Thanks to the ChampCar staff for hosting such an awesome event and a special thanks to Chris helping us with our transponder issues through out the weekend!

Mike 

 

 

Mike,

 

Thanks for posting.  I had forgotten about you being put off in 4 by the purple Acura.  Sucked to see that happen.

 

Best of luck at Barber!

 

Thanks,

Brian

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11 hours ago, Richard said:

 

 The apparently 'poor' video might have to do with GoPro and YouTube more than a spot meter. Our GoPro is crystal clear when I post the 15 minute segments on YouTube but when I combine it for the full 8 hours the quality on YouTube suffers.

 

A spot meter would fix it, but I've found the quick fix is to make sure the very center of the video is shooting out the windshield.  The very center of your video is set at the very top of your dash, so that focus is great and just above it (with a lot more light) is washed out. Still some great race footage.

 

EDIT:

To be critical, the camera could be a couple inches lower and then pointed "up" a little more too in order to capture more of the front facing action.  But I don't know your set up and how feasible that is.

Edited by CoachMK21
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IPF Supra Race Recap:

 

This was our first trip to Pitt ever so Friday was crucial. Unfortunately we lost power steering, in the first practice session with the new 255 RS4s so we ran the rest of the weekend without it. All the drivers learned the track and car updates quickly so we spent the evening enjoying the awesome cookout! Thanks to everyone who demolished the nacho cheese!

 

Saturday we started just behind middle of the pack and thanks to the lack of hot pulls we determined we could hit the 2 hour fuel windows. A bunch of clean fast racing with no real issues lead us straight to 5th place overall and a D class win!! What a great way to finish the season! If anyone has pictures of the car or of me popping champagne please send them over!!

 

Saturday night we found out there were no pads left on the front (never running slotted rotors again) and that we had a torn CV boot in the rear. Replaced all components involved and proceeded to drink the soreness of a heavy car with no PS away. Sunday morning the brake pedal felt a little spongy but it was cold so we decided to see if they'd be better warm. Two laps behind the pace car and we brought it in, thanks to all of our pit neighbors that helped with the super fast brake bleed! Pedal was better but not great, two laps later we get rear ended going into 17 by a Miata (no idea which team) but thankfully no damage. Then 2 laps after that we lost steering into 17, no damage but towed in.  THE STEERING COLUMN CAME OUT OF THE U JOINT!!!! Quick fix but went to start the car and nothing...... Starter solenoid in the hot-v decided the spade connection wasn't going to make contact. 30 minutes later and a driver swap and we were back out. 2 laps after that.... we lost a hood pin and came in to take the hood off. After that it was smooth sailing even though we were 25 laps down. Rain man ran a 2:03 in the wet and was making up some time. I got in and had a terrible steering vibration under braking (turns out you should weld your eccentrics.... who needs to do alignments anyway?) We decided to keep going and with the track drying we managed to hit a 2:01.6 WHAT?!?!?! Last driver change came and the vibration only got worse, taking out a radiator mount and an oil pressure sensor so we decided to call it a day.

 

Congrats to all the podium teams and to everyone who made Friday night great! Pitt was an incredible event that won't be forgotten, can't wait for next season!!!

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1 hour ago, trigun7469 said:

I saw some photographers taking pictures anybody have the links?

 

90racing.com took a ton of photos and posted them on FB, I will look for the link. 

 

Edit: 

 

Edited by red0
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2 hours ago, IPF Racing said:

IPF Supra Race Recap:

 

This was our first trip to Pitt ever so Friday was crucial. Unfortunately we lost power steering, in the first practice session with the new 255 RS4s so we ran the rest of the weekend without it. All the drivers learned the track and car updates quickly so we spent the evening enjoying the awesome cookout! Thanks to everyone who demolished the nacho cheese!

 

Saturday we started just behind middle of the pack and thanks to the lack of hot pulls we determined we could hit the 2 hour fuel windows. A bunch of clean fast racing with no real issues lead us straight to 5th place overall and a D class win!! What a great way to finish the season! If anyone has pictures of the car or of me popping champagne please send them over!!

 

Saturday night we found out there were no pads left on the front (never running slotted rotors again) and that we had a torn CV boot in the rear. Replaced all components involved and proceeded to drink the soreness of a heavy car with no PS away. Sunday morning the brake pedal felt a little spongy but it was cold so we decided to see if they'd be better warm. Two laps behind the pace car and we brought it in, thanks to all of our pit neighbors that helped with the super fast brake bleed! Pedal was better but not great, two laps later we get rear ended going into 17 by a Miata (no idea which team) but thankfully no damage. Then 2 laps after that we lost steering into 17, no damage but towed in.  THE STEERING COLUMN CAME OUT OF THE U JOINT!!!! Quick fix but went to start the car and nothing...... Starter solenoid in the hot-v decided the spade connection wasn't going to make contact. 30 minutes later and a driver swap and we were back out. 2 laps after that.... we lost a hood pin and came in to take the hood off. After that it was smooth sailing even though we were 25 laps down. Rain man ran a 2:03 in the wet and was making up some time. I got in and had a terrible steering vibration under braking (turns out you should weld your eccentrics.... who needs to do alignments anyway?) We decided to keep going and with the track drying we managed to hit a 2:01.6 WHAT?!?!?! Last driver change came and the vibration only got worse, taking out a radiator mount and an oil pressure sensor so we decided to call it a day.

 

Congrats to all the podium teams and to everyone who made Friday night great! Pitt was an incredible event that won't be forgotten, can't wait for next season!!!

Did anybody get maimed on the mini bike?

 

Nice 5th place!  I was following along with race monitor.  Good work!

27 minutes ago, red0 said:

Best looking car award goes to:

Image may contain: car and outdoor

Agreed.  It looked like they made it the whole day Saturday at least without breaking an axle!

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1 minute ago, wvumtnbkr said:

Did anybody get maimed on the mini bike?

 

Nice 5th place!  I was following along with race monitor.  Good work!

Agreed.  It looked like they made it the whole day Saturday at least without breaking an axle!

@bbaker480 took it out for a couple rides but we didn't even get a chance to race @red0 so fairly uneventful on the minibike. Thanks though!!!!!

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2 hours ago, red0 said:

Best looking car award goes to:

Image may contain: car and outdoor

 

1 hour ago, wvumtnbkr said:

Agreed.  It looked like they made it the whole day Saturday at least without breaking an axle!

 

I've always liked the looks of this Beretta since the first time I saw it at MIS in 2013.

And yes, @Kentite Jeff and Keith were extremely pleased that axle issues didn't crop up. I know how hard they've worked to remedy that, and what they've done in their attempts to solve that issue. I also know they were at times frustrated, but I'm glad they never gave up on their platform. It's really cool to see somebody running something unique, and making it work!!!!!!

Besides hopefully solving the axle issues, the car just keeps getting faster - they ran some 2:05's with it at Pitt, their best ever there I think.

I couldn't be happier for those guys!!!

P.S. Jeff, and Keith and his wife Suzanne came out to help my team when we raced our Focus at Mid Ohio in '17. I consider them good friends, and once again, it's great to see them doing well with the Beretta. 

Edited by mcoppola
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