Official 2021 Lifeline VIR 24-Hour Classic - Results and tall tales

[Bill Strong]

Official Results

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1896400

 

Impound results
Top three cars were told to remove throttle bodies for measurements. All passed.

1st place took points for a throttle body. so their measurements did not matter.

 

post race

 

 

 

Part 2 -  Lifeline 24 Hour Classic at VIR Part 2 8:00pm - 7am Sunday

 

 

Part 3 - Lifeline 24 hour Classic at VIR Part 3 7am - Noon Sunday

 

 

[Hugh Jass]

I will go first if no one else wants to.  I think this is @Rodger Coan-Burningham and @Chris Huggins at around 8am on Sunday in T15.

[Ian]

So, out of curiosity, not pot stirring, what triggered the request to remove and measure throttle bodies?  Tech decision, informal protest, formal protest?

 

Did someone spot Pinkies Aero's TB and realise It wasn't stock, but also didn't know it was claimed?

[hotchkis23]

After a 20+ hr trip home, there is a lot to recover from to comment on, mostly positive.  I will ask though, is it easier to call out the $3k miata team for being to loud and black flagging them vs. the $25k porsche team that is a lot louder than that?

[Voodoo Child]

Congratulations Pinkies Out!  I can barely get ONE car to last 7 hours.  The level of preparation--and the amount of skill & discipline (and luck) on the part of the drivers that it takes to have two cars go 24 hours at that pace is incredible.  I'm in awe!

[jakks]

9 minutes ago, Ian said:

So, out of curiosity, not pot stirring, what triggered the request to remove and measure throttle bodies?  Tech decision, informal protest, formal protest?

 

Did someone spot Pinkies Aero's TB and realise It wasn't stock, but also didn't know it was claimed?

Was a tech decision.

 

We all make mistakes, including tech, especially after a 24 hour race. Was realized after Chris had pulled it off. 

 

 

[Wyatt]

A c;assic race weekend at VIR. The fog did what it c;assically loves to do. Unfortunately, the c;assically enforced red flag blocked me from my favorite 2-4am stint in the Pinkies Out 146.

 

Still, it was great to watch the guys put on a masterc;ass for the 3rd year in a row. 

 

Hope everyone who came Friday enjoyed the track day we at Kaizen Autosport put on. Any comments, questions, or feedback on that let me know. We might try and make it a c;assical reoccurring theme next year.

[Andrew D Johnson]

10 hours ago, Ian said:

So, out of curiosity, not pot stirring, what triggered the request to remove and measure throttle bodies?  Tech decision, informal protest, formal protest?

 

Did someone spot Pinkies Aero's TB and realise It wasn't stock, but also didn't know it was claimed?

 

It's not particular to this race, but tech has been checking items on all impound cars at several races not based on any trigger. 

Road America they had each team pull 2 spark plugs and checked piston tops with a camera on each car in impound. 

Nelson Ledges they checked the stroke on each car in impound. 

Throttle bodies seem like a good one, so it sounds like tech may have just been doing a nice thorough job. 

[hcsi99]

Congrats to Pinkies Out and to everyone that finished!  Any body have any feedback on the new Conti's?  

[chip]

11 hours ago, hotchkis23 said:

After a 20+ hr trip home, there is a lot to recover from to comment on, mostly positive.  I will ask though, is it easier to call out the $3k miata team for being to loud and black flagging them vs. the $25k porsche team that is a lot louder than that?

did they actually black flag the miata and not the boxsters for sound?

If that's true- then I call BS.

 

I was talking to a champcar official regarding the sound and was told that since VIR doesn't have a sound limit, that they were going to tell each team that they need to fix their sound issue, and if that team decides to fix it during the race, then fine, if the team decides to fix it after the race then that was fine as well.  I was good with this path forward as long as the problem was fixed before the next race for the car.

 

A better path forward for this race would have to actually black flag the offenders and tell them this during the BF discussion.  That way the rule is kind of upheld during the race and a penalty given.  Since the actual sound readings can't occur until actual race conditions it makes it hard to enforce until the race has started.  Again, if the actual track has a limit- then it's a different story.

my 0.02

[gsmith2424]

I wasn't at this race but as a driver and also corner worker, how well did the light board signals work at the corner stations?

[Justin9]

10 minutes ago, gsmith2424 said:

I wasn't at this race but as a driver and also corner worker, how well did the light board signals work at the corner stations?

 

Brilliant!  

[55mini]

Only issue I got was the light panel was much faster then the corner worker, flag still out after panel had changed. Not a huge issue but was confusing to driver as he had to decide if he should lift back to 35...........

 

Our drivers all report very positive on the flagtronics!!!!!!

[chip]

55 minutes ago, gsmith2424 said:

I wasn't at this race but as a driver and also corner worker, how well did the light board signals work at the corner stations?

for the most part- they all seemed to be in sync- but I will always go with what the flag station is showing.  There was one incident at T11 for a few laps that the light board was yellow but no yellow flag.  Not sure what the issue was there.  One time on a code 35, the flagtronics went green but the station in front of me didn't pull their flags in- but that didn't stop all the cars around me from going... didn't like that one personally 

[jakks]

9 minutes ago, chip said:

for the most part- they all seemed to be in sync- but I will always go with what the flag station is showing.  There was one incident at T11 for a few laps that the light board was yellow but no yellow flag.  Not sure what the issue was there.  One time on a code 35, the flagtronics went green but the station in front of me didn't pull their flags in- but that didn't stop all the cars around me from going... didn't like that one personally 

Turn 9 was good for leaving the light board local yellow but no incident and no yellow flag for a few laps between 4 and 6 PM. Interrupted a few good pass attempts. Pretty sure that was on the corner worker though. All in all, I think it was a big success. 

[Rodger Coan-Burningham]

On 8/9/2021 at 7:43 PM, Hugh Jass said:

I will go first if no one else wants to.  I think this is @Rodger Coan-Burningham and @Chris Huggins at around 8am on Sunday in T15.

 

That's a great picture.  You can even see the ruts in the grass in the background when I thought I would try a short cut down roller coaster early Saturday as things were still drying out.  Unfortunately RS4's just don't grip well on wet grass so I think I'll stick to pavement from now on.

 

Driving in this race four years in a row in that orange car to finish 3rd, 1st, 1st, and 2nd is a high point in my racing experience.  Wouldn't trade it for anything.  Being a part of this team has been a blast and am looking forward to the next one.  It's not the car or the wins, it's getting to hang with people like @Chris Huggins, @chip, @Hurljohn, @Hugh Jass, @mindspin311 and the rest of the Huggins gang.  Not only did I get to drive a race car, I learned about aviation terminal area forecasts and Only Fans.  Never know what you are going to learn at a race with this gang.

 

Edit: how could I forget @Wyatt in the list above?

Edited August 11, 2021 by Rodger Coan-Burningham

[mindspin311]

9 minutes ago, Rodger Coan-Burningham said:

 

That's a great picture.  You can even see the ruts in the grass in the background when I thought I would try a short cut down roller coaster early Saturday as things were still drying out.  Unfortunately RS4's just don't grip well on wet grass so I think I'll stick to pavement from now on.

 

Driving in this race four years in a row in that orange car to finish 3rd, 1st, 1st, and 2nd is a high point in my racing experience.  Wouldn't trade it for anything.  Being a part of this team has been a blast and am looking forward to the next one.  It's not the car or the wins, it's getting to hang with people like @Chris Huggins, @chip, @Hurljohn, @Hugh Jass, @mindspin311 and the rest of the Huggins gang.  Not only did I get to drive a race car, I learned about aviation terminal area forecasts and Only Fans.  Never know what you are going to learn at a race with this gang.

The topics of discussion were WIIIIIDE ranging this weekend. What a great time.

[bajaracer]

1 hour ago, gsmith2424 said:

I wasn't at this race but as a driver and also corner worker, how well did the light board signals work at the corner stations?

Great at night.    Mediocre during the day when the sun was out in full force. 

[turbogrill]

Do you have the in car display as well? or just some teams?

 

[RandomTask]

1 minute ago, turbogrill said:

Do you have the in car display as well? or just some teams?

 

For the flagtronics? All cars were provided one for in car to borrow or you could buy it. I opted for the latter since it's a req for 2022 IIRC. 

[Rodger Coan-Burningham]

The flagtronics worked as designed during the race.  I thought the light panels were a nice addition, especially at night. But I'll be honest, I didn't look at the in car unit until after we had come into a caution or purple 35.  

 

I just hope we don't take the edge away from two very important factors when it comes to racing; always scanning the flag stations as you circuit the track and having someone in the pits on the radio spotting to help with this situational awareness.  Adding the flagtronics hopefully only adds to, but drivers first priority on this should be to scan to stay situationally aware.  If your team doesn't have someone in the pits on the radio constantly watching for things happening on track, make it a priority to get it worked into your system.

[QuaTTro]

56 minutes ago, Rodger Coan-Burningham said:

The flagtronics worked as designed during the race.  I thought the light panels were a nice addition, especially at night. But I'll be honest, I didn't look at the in car unit until after we had come into a caution or purple 35.  

 

I just hope we don't take the edge away from two very important factors when it comes to racing; always scanning the flag stations as you circuit the track and having someone in the pits on the radio spotting to help with this situational awareness.  Adding the flagtronics hopefully only adds to, but drivers first priority on this should be to scan to stay situationally aware.  If your team doesn't have someone in the pits on the radio constantly watching for things happening on track, make it a priority to get it worked into your system.

Appreciate your honest feedback.

 

One thing I noticed when watching the Champcar Live show was one of the drivers had it mounted down lower on the center dash.  During the FCY he just kept looking down there to watch the Flagtronics box and it made me concerned how he wasn't looking up very much.  I can't remember the car but we really need to do a good job of getting teams to install it up higher in the line of sight.  Maybe it's a thing that can be checked in tech and given a one-race waiver or something?

 

I really like the Flagtronics concept but have serious concerns about teams not scanning the flag stations, etc enough.

[Bill Strong]

I walked the garage and paddock Friday as teams were installing the units. Some used the instructions. Others used the instructions as a reference, and some people just used the instructions to wipe the dirt off their car.
Engineers were doing engineering stuff to install. Others were wondering why there was no hammer added to the required tools list. 
 

I passed on some of the questions you guys had to James Ballenger along with some observations I had watching some of the racers install the units.

[Hugh Jass]

3 hours ago, jakks said:

Turn 9 was good for leaving the light board local yellow but no incident and no yellow flag for a few laps between 4 and 6 PM. Interrupted a few good pass attempts. Pretty sure that was on the corner worker though. All in all, I think it was a big success. 

This is why I was slower than @chip  I swear.  I learned how to handle that in my brief with Care and Concern post stint and will be better prepared next time. 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Hugh Jass

[Aleric Sanders]

1 minute ago, Hugh Jass said:

This is why I was slower than @chip  I swear.  I learned how to handle that in my post brief with Care and Concern post stint and will be better prepared next time. 

 

3 hours ago, jakks said:

Turn 9 was good for leaving the light board local yellow but no incident and no yellow flag for a few laps between 4 and 6 PM. Interrupted a few good pass attempts. Pretty sure that was on the corner worker though. All in all, I think it was a big success. 

Yes, this was on the corner worker. As our first race implementing the Sign Boards, I would label this race as a huge success for what's to come of the whole Flagtronics system.  The team of engineers went though many scenarios prior to the race and were well prepared for almost everything.  This specific issue brought a timer notification idea to the Track Director software we run in race control.  Something like every 3 minutes a local state is not cleared asking race control if the local state is still valid.