Took 4th Place in EMRA Sprints

I had my best (solo) Spec Miata finish of the year on Saturday at the EMRA Sprints.  The Sprints were held just before the EMRA Enduro race that afternoon/evening (where Bad Al Bell and I combined for a 3rd Place finish).  I finished in 4th Place in a field of 9 SM Spec Miatas.  This is also the first race where I finished in the top half of the pack.

The truth as shown in the videos below (unlike some fishing stories) is that I was in 3rd Place with a half lap to go when I blew a shift and the #72 Blue Miata slid past me.  I was a half lap short of a dual trophy day.

The race was actually even more exciting than that (at least for me).  I started out in 5th place and by turn 4 of the fist lap I had dropped down all the way to 9th (last) place.  The race starts have the highest incidence of crashes and I see from my videos that I have a tendency to let the cars sort themselves out a bit (definitely a bit too much).

I have included the whole race as posted in three segments on YouTube.  You can see by watching the first minute of part 1 how I drop off to last place when the red #14 car passes me.

Over the course of the 18 lap race, I pass all of the SM Miatas except those in 2nd and 1st place.  I race in 3rd place ahead of the blue Miata for several laps after passing him.  It is on lap 18 that the #72 blue Miata passes me back to take 3rd place back. This part can be seen towards the end of part 3 posted below.

Note, there are other race classes mixed in with my Spec Miata SM class.  You can see the little yellow formula cars as well as an occasional Volvo!  These are not in my class but still were in my way from time to time.

Part 1 – The Start of the race – where I immediately fall behind to 9th place.

Part 2 – Where I continue to chase down the Blue #72 Miata.

Part 3 – Where I finally catch Blue #72 Miata and move into 3rd place until missing a shift on the last lap.

Ted Cahall

Took 3rd Place in EMRA 4 Hour Enduro

The headline sounds nice, but I think my grandmother could have taken 3rd place with Bad Al Bell as a partner. The EMRA 4 hour Enduro race requires two drivers. I did my part by not leaving the car in a tree. Al did his part by passing all of the cars that I had let get in front of me. That is what I call teamwork!  It was the longest race I have done in my short career.  I was in the car just under 2 hours before I turned it over to Al.  A huge thank you to Mike Collins and the Meathead Racing team for all of their help!

Here is a photo of the trophy.EMRA 4 Hour Enduro - 3rd Place Trophy
Ted Cahall

EMRA Practice – Randy into the Gravel

This is a quick video of Randy Ramos from Meathead Racing heading off into the gravel pit in Turn 1 at the practice session for the EMRA 4 Hour Enduro.  Randy was being followed by Bad Al Bell in my car as we took some test laps.  They both pass the white Miata before turn 10 and head down the straightaway towards turn 1.  The only issue is that is was really wet and Randy decided to brake a little late…  Nothing a little tow truck action could not sort out.  It was a great day at the Enduro and the Sprints that preceded them.

Ted Cahall

My First Venture Off the Track

Since I have gotten fairly good at downloading my videos from my TraqMate and editing them, I decided to post a short video of myself sliding off the track in my final race of the year.  I recovered fairly well and still finished the race (after setting my personal best lap time in a few of the previous laps).

You can see the red #14 car sneak up my right side in turn 5 as we stack up into a line of cars.  He stays inside me for turn 6.  Instead of falling in behind him, I keep my line off his left bumper – and run out of track.  This is the old, “watch the track – and not the guy in front of you” lesson.

Ted Cahall

SCCA Season Ends With Personal Best Lap Time

The 2009 SCCA Club Racing Season was really enjoyable.  I was able to make it to seven race weekends this year plus four other high performance driving events.  That is more track time in one year than the sum total of track time in my entire life before this year.

I really learned a lot and set new personal best lap records almost every week.  I started the year with my best lap in the MARRS 1 qualifier being a 1:37.908 and 8 of the 10 laps being slower than 1:40.  I finished this year in the MARRS 11 final race with a 1:31.826.  Six seconds faster in a single lap is a great improvement.  More telling was the consistency of the laps in each race with many of them clustering in the 1:32 range at the end of the year.

I met a lot of really great people as well.  I could not have even come close to making this happen with my busy schedule if it were not for Mike Collins and his fantastic program at Meathead Racing.  A huge shout out to Wendy, Sherise, Glen, and Jimmy who helped me though a huge learning curve.

The other racers were also fantastic (aside from some early “rookie bumps” out on the track to initiate me to Spec Miatas).  Some of these people are very accomplished racers that turn laps in the 1:27 range.  Yet they will still spend time and talk with the slow pokes like me to help me learn and grow with this sport.  Many of the Meathead Racing teammates also took time to help me get buckled in and ready out on the grid as well.  Such an outstanding group of people to spend a weekend with!  If you have ever considered learning how to race in wheel-to-wheel competition, I would highly recommend contacting Mike Collins at Meathead Racing.  Even for a busy person such as myself, they make the words, “arrive and drive” a reality.

Ted Cahall

Completed First SCCA Regional Race!

Well all of the preparation and training has paid off.  From the two days of Spring Driver’s School, to the PDX and Club Trials, I finally completed my first official SCCA race today!  My goal was simply to finish the race – even in last place.  Today I drove the #0 car I bought from Al Bell in the 2009 MARRS 1 Club Racing event (see photos below).

I was still able to maintain that delicate “work / race balance” this week by holding all of my work meetings including my travel to NYC to accept the Green IT Award from the Uptime Institute for AOL.

Qualifying

Yesterday I was at the track for the qualifying laps and the qualifying race.  I did not have all of my paperwork in order to switch from the “T1” class to the “SM” class and getting this corrected all the way from registration through the timing booth cost me the qualifying laps.  That meant I got less practice, and that I needed to start at the back of the pack for the qualifying race that went off at 11:00AM.

The Qualifying Race

The good news is that I finished the qualifying race later that day.  The bad news is that one of the very best drivers (while lapping me in only a 10 lap race) had metal to metal contact with me.  I thought I had gotten to the line before him – but apparently what you learn in driving school  and how they race for real are a bit different.  Needless to say, he stopped by and gave me some “pointers” after the race.  I felt like an idiot after I realized he is one of the few racers that can turn a 1:27 lap.  Needless to say, I apologized…

But that was only the beginning of the fun.  After I pinched him in turn 1, I got bumped in turn 2 and then rear-ended between turn 2 and turn 3!  These guys are really serious and are not afraid to let you know they are there.  Maybe it was the novice stripes on my car and their way of saying, “welcome to the SCCA”.  I finished the race near the back but not dead last.  I of course finished ahead of the people that crashed and could not complete the race…  My fasted lap was 1:37.  A full 10 seconds slower than the best of the best (only 2 people turned a 1:27 in the qualifying race).  No wonder they were lapping me.

I went home feeling like a rookie (if that) but with a decent sense of accomplishment.  I finished the race.  I set an official “personal best lap time”, and I was all set to go for the big race on Sunday.

MARRS 1 2009 Feature Race

Sunday morning I made sure I was up and ready to go with plenty of time to spare.  I made it to the track by 7:45AM and was able to do some prepping before the “hardship lap”.  I made sure I got out on that lap and got some needed practice in.

At 8:40AM we were “on grid” in pit row.  I was started in position 42 in a field of 44 cars.  One of the better racers on the Meathead Racing team was behind me (his car threw a piston rod through the crankcase in the qualifying lap the day before and did not finish).  I let him know I was letting him by as soon as we got the green flag (and did).  We were sent out on two warm up laps and given the green flag at 8:50AM.  I let Brian pass me and was the sole and complete owner of last place.  A comfortable place if you do not like someone in your rearview mirror as you settle in for the next 35-40 minutes of racing.

Brake Lights and Tire Smoke

Within about 20 seconds all I could see was brake lights and tire smoke.  I backed off and as I went through the smoke I saw cars on each side of the track.  All of this was on the first lap in front of the flag tower!  I thought, “damn – these guys *are* serious”!  Then I saw a crumpled “Bad Al” Bell pointing at me (wrong way) and clearly driving the car back onto the track.  At least some of the folks in the pile-up were still able to re-join the race.

Not Finishing Last

As the track cleared out, Bad Al roared by me and I again was sole owner of last place.  I did my best to try to keep Al in my sights and as I was racing I realized there were a couple of cars in front of me that I felt I could race with and likely catch.  Eventually I passed a couple of the slower cars and came up on #8 and then #37.  I was able to get by them and realized that if I finished the race, I probably was not going to come in last place.  Clearly I would finish ahead of the cars that crashed and did not finish – but it was a great feeling to upgrade my goal from simply “finishing” to “not finishing last of all the finishers”…

I was surprised to see that #37 was not keeping on my tail.  She was in my driver’s school and had been beating me fairly consistently. 🙁 Possibly she had car problems as after it was over, I noticed she was out after 10 laps (which still counts as a finisher of the race since she completed half or more of the laps).

Real Racing – Trading Positions

#8 was a different story though.  We traded positions at least four more times during the race.  We were each blocking the line on turn 1 and would trade positions.  I was actually able to take him in turns 6 and 7 one time.  That was awesome.  Once he went into turn 1 too hot and went off the course.  I was shocked to see he drove it back on and was behind me again a lap later.  Drat!  I thought I had lost him.  Towards the end of the race we again went into turn 1 side-by-side.  He had the inside and started turning wide.  Another car had gotten inside of him (faster cars that were lapping us) and we were three across.  He bumped me and pushed me off the left side of the track.  I was able to hold the car steady, re-enter the track and stay on him.  I passed him the next lap and was able to hold on for the remainder of the race.  That was fun.  We both were lapped by the fastest 19 drivers twice – but we had our own race going on – and that made it really interesting.

Definitely Not Last

I ended up finishing 32nd of 44 cars.  Six cars did not finish due to accidents or car issues. Two other cars appeared to stop racing before the checkered flag – but after the race was official (10 laps completed).  So, in the end, I finished ahead of four cars that were still on the track at the end of the race.

Personal Best Fastest Laps

One of the more important metrics was my fastest lap time.  These can be thrown off due to other cars stealing your line, etc.  The interesting thing is, I improved my fastest lap from 1:37 on Saturday to 1:34 today.  It may not sound like much – but every second counts and it least it shows I am moving in the right direction.  The bad news on this issue is that only three cars has slower fastest lap times.  Still much work to be done there.

The fastest lap was a 1:27.338 by Dean Copeland.  He won the qualifying race as well yesterday.  He also holds the lap record for the Spec Miata SM class.  If his time stands today, he will have set a new SM class record as his previous record was 1:27.790.  It must have been a really fast day (perfect weather, etc.).  Five racers (including Dean) beat the previous record of 1:27.790 if their times stand as official.  What a fast pack and great race.

Ted Cahall

Here is a gallery of professional photos from my first SCCA race. Click on any photo to begin the gallery.