Jump to content

Fast Times at Ridge-Mo-Park


Guest posnova

Recommended Posts

That looked like a great race - lots of great live coverage via pirlive and this was the first time i've seen the yell/black/red/meatball flag pop-up notices in the timing app.

I'm AMAZED at how many black flags there were for obvious infractions - noteably passing under yellow and even more concerning, passing under RED!?!

Lots of meatballs at night for headlight / tail light failures as well.

I suspect that this is typical for a race, but when I'm attending / driving, I'm focused soley on my car / team.

It's kind of revealing to see the race from an overview perspecive - looks like the Chump staff is kept crazy busy :)

Andrew M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That really was an awesome race, thanks to ChumpCar and the track management for putting on a great event! The track offs appeared to be more frequent because of the dust, but I bet you it was no more than PIR where the ground is wet and a lot of excursions go unnoticed.

For the most part the field behaved well and everyone respected each other's space and line.

I find it interesting that we're making friends by rubbin and racing. Get a little nudge or a tap from another driver and after your stint they come over and laugh about it. However, there will always be some drivers and some entire teams that drive beyond their abilities and generally drive like asshats...hopefully they figure it out soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know I speak for the rest of Team Pony Express when I say that we had a fantastic time at The Ridge!

I'm not sure if this was mentioned here already, but the Ridge people arranged for some slow parade laps on Friday for any vehicle what-so-ever so that drivers could get an orientation and friends/family could get a tour. That was a really great idea. People were out there in trucks and SUVs (one with a trailer attached). One of our drivers took his girfriend out in our parts car. Everybody stayed sane, some good friends and significant others got to see the track from the inside, and everyone was smiling about afterward.

It might be fair to question the sanity of the guy who went out there on his scooter, but he eventually made it up the hill so it all worked out. :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had a great time (at least until our fuel pump went kaput) - thanks to everyone for the hard work to put on the event! Can't wait to come back next year.

We also got some great pictures of most everyone coming down the hill from T13, they're in an album on our FB page but you don't need an account to see them. Feel free to tag the pix with driver or team names.

-steve

Backmarkers #13

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chris, thanks for posting the data so quickly.

ChumpCar, thank you for another great weekend, what an absolute blast that track is, I have never driven anything like it. I swear every corner is different in terms of uphill/downhill/off camber/banked/banked uphill/off camber uphill/etc. and I need to do that track again a number of times before I will get the correct line around it. What a challenge. That pre-drive was a huge plus for my team so we could drive around it and discuss how to drive.

Our first half of the day was pretty poor but one we got the wheel back on our car and aligned, electrical, fuel delivery issue solved we had a great second half. The racing was pretty clean in terms of giving each other room, there were a lot of offs and flags I think due to the challenging nature of the track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had a great time (at least until our fuel pump went kaput) - thanks to everyone for the hard work to put on the event! Can't wait to come back next year.

We also got some great pictures of most everyone coming down the hill from T13, they're in an album on our FB page but you don't need an account to see them. Feel free to tag the pix with driver or team names.

-steve

Backmarkers #13

Sorry to here about the fuel pump Steve. :( Me and Stiggy were loving the in car feed. Went to lunch,came back and no go, no driver in car, hood up and we became sad! Racing...why do we continue the madness? Cause we luv it!!!!!

Hope next outing goes better for you, but keep the in car feed...that was awesome.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to here about the fuel pump Steve. :( Me and Stiggy were loving the in car feed. Went to lunch,came back and no go, no driver in car, hood up and we became sad! Racing...why do we continue the madness? Cause we luv it!!!!!

Hope next outing goes better for you, but keep the in car feed...that was awesome.

That.

Also, can we borrow Steve Libby and Robin sometime? They were awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Absolutely wonderful day of racing!

We, Squirrels of Fury had a great time.

About 5 hours in, we had a significant off which may or may not have started some RF suspension problem.

I am fairly certain I saw at least 3 cars that lost RF wheels.

Still trying to get mixture right on the truck, but CIS is known for being difficult to mod.

About 7 hours in, the truck clutch started slipping bad, and we suspected it was lube from the pilot brg. One hour and ten minutes later it went back out on the track after pulling the clutch disk out, cleaning and replacing it.

We got a meatball for the front spoiler on the Audi dragging, so we fought with that, but continued to climb the standings.

At two hours in 3,4 and 5 were seconds apart. 40 minutes to go and we managed to get up to 2nd and even had gaped 3rd by a couple of laps, and had backed off to preserve the car, but then the strut can broke. An odd stress failure due to many many great hours of RACING with ChumpCar.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the bottom of our hearts at The Ridge, thank you all for coming to our dream. What a blast!

You may or may not know, but I am veteran of the crap can races, just love em. And as a business owner, it warms my heart to see so many people having so damn much fun! That is worth more than money.

Glad you all could make it, and I forgot to notate this in the drivers meeting in the AM: As you know, The Ridge is a brand new business. Each new business needs to make its first dollar to insure its survival.

Well, guess who the very first dollar came from? That's right, Chumpcar. First deposit we ever received. Debated about framing it or putting it in the bank. For about a second.

Then it went in the bank ;-)

Thanks again everyone for coming out. And buying Ridge Merchandise, my wife had her best retail day ever! Spread the love!

Rod and Karen Powell

members

Management

The Ridge Motorsports Group LLC

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

TRMG, I'm all the way across the country, but I watched some of the live feed and your track looks amazing. It's so nice to see NEW tracks opening and business owners taking a risk in this weak economy. I sincerely hope your track flourishes and ChumpCar continues to race there for many, many years to come. I hope to see the track first-hand someday.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest madfaber

Did anyone else catch the eye burning fumes out there? It got so bad my first time out I had to get out of the car after only a hour..

yeah a few of our driver noticed that too,

This track was amazing! Its fast and if your good you can link several of the corners together with the right lines to get some real good times. Alot of people over driving there cars, diving into a corner at top speed to try and dive infront of someone when you know your car does not have the brakes or the grip to pull it off is just stupid and dangerous. If thats the only way you can get by the car in front of you then guess what they are faster then you so just watch and learn, dont be a asshat batering ram and risk ruining your raceand others. We got hit several times and this is not my first rodeo, I know the difference between rubbing and bad driving. I dont know how many people got black flaged for driving like this, but i think when they are brought in they need to have at least a 2 min time out or something to try and get them to realize that there driving is just unsafe and they need to dial down, cause there were still alot of offs even in the last few hours and you would think by then people would have had there lines figured out. It kinda sucked that the last hour or so was mostly red flags and yellow flags cause of all the offs.Thats my 2 cents

I still had tons of fun and love the track, and thank God they did not have the grass down yet :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest One-Nut_McGee

A lot of people over driving there cars, diving into a corner at top speed to try and dive in front of someone when you know your car does not have the brakes or the grip to pull it off is just stupid and dangerous.

This was the biggest issue that we - Mediocre Motoring - saw. We got punted three times due to people just completely running out of skill, over driving their cars, or just straight up making terrible and unsafe racing decisions. We had an awesome time and love every time we go to the Ridge, but was a little sad that it just kept on happening. Either way, we're looking forward to repairing the damage and we'll see you all at Portland!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seriously thanks again guys! I had an absolute blast and appreciate the patience passing our combination of back marker slow-donkey car and brand new drivers over and over again. I am always impressed with the kindness of the chump pit and now that I have had the opportunity to get a little closer to the pack have a brand new appreciation for the driving skills of nearly all involved. I look forward to getting my 3.4 in the mix early next year. That little 2.8 had 207k miles on it when it went in the car and ran 2.5 races and in addition to being a piece of crap to begin with was really showing it's age. In hindsight being that slow might now have been the best plan but I sure had a great time!

Please send a PM to me about any concerns you may have and I'll work to make it right. I made it clear to my drivers to stay out of everyone's way but I still need to apologize for a few transgressions. Particularly to the squirrels who have always been absolute fantastic friends and with whom we were involved with their major off. Even though I wasn't driving being involved in their off is my only regret from this entire experience and it would be the one thing I would change if I could. Any constructive advice is welcome. Well, any advice besides give up and "buy an e30" If I can't be the fastest then I want to be considered among the highest class in the field. That would certainly be an achievement in itself given the high level there as well.

See you all early next year!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...