And the 2011 H Production SCCA MARRS champion is

[BuggerAll]

me, in my limited prep 1275 Midget. Going into the final race of the season at Summit Point there were three of us with a shot at the title. I locked it up with a pair of second place finishes in the Saturday and Sunday races. I wish I could figure out how to post a pdf picture of the car here...I should point out that Randy Canfield could have had it going away, but he's enough of a gentleman to let us proles scrap it out for the title, with his 5 National Championships a MARRS title kind of pales. And Al Seim, with his speedy VW, doesn't run the full schedule.
At any rate, for next year I have a long list of changes, most aimed at taking the excess 140 lbs off the car. They include 1/ fitting composite rear leaf springs (I have them, working on getting the spces to mill them down to the proper spring rate), 2/ Lightweight battery instead of the full-sized Optima and 3/ fiberglass fenders front and rear and 4/ fill roll cage with helium and 5/ eat nothing between now and April. Any other ideas on cutting weight much appreciated. Beyond this I am sending my best-flowing head, which has an unfortunate crack, off to Indy Cylinder Head this weekend to see if they can fix it, that should be worth a couple hp.
Our H prod field in the MARRS should be really good and competitive next year, I really can't wait.

 

[aeronca65t]

Congrats and <span style="text-decoration: underline">Amen</span> on filling the roll cage with helium.

My '78 tub with all the crash bumper reinforcing bars, etc weighs 1800 lbs (without me).

Canfield, Hauser and Ray Stone were all at the Jefferson 500 two years ago (for a Marlboro reunion). Stone is pretty much a regular with us now....he really trucks around the track for a car with a 948.

One of the guys I race with has an old Craig Chima limited prep Spridget. Neat car with <span style="text-decoration: underline">interesting</span> rear suspension. It's probably not exactly vintage legal, but he's a good guy and we're only out there for fun anyway.

 

[bgbassplyr]

Congrats.

 

[BuggerAll]

Hi Aeronca - that would likely be Chuck Pitt. I have been in touch with him trying to get the specs on the rear springs (how much Craig had to mill them to get the spring rate right). Looks like I have to set up a test rig (bathroom scale plus pointer plus ruler plus other bits fromn the Rube Goldberg box) to check and adjust for my own application - have to get to about 90-95 lbs/in at the wheel - as for "not vintage legal" we definitley had fender flares in 1972, the year I crewed on the car that finished 3rd in Gprod at the runoffs, and we had slick tires too (both Goodyear and Firestone had introduced them, everyone at the 72 Runoffs was on slicks). I was oroignially hoping to run both some vintage as well as SCCA but looks like it will be SCCA only with my car in its current configuration. I was thinking of running the Turkey Bowl at Summit Point but the car will be torn down by then -

 

[aeronca65t]

Yep, Chuck's car. It's a beauty!

No slicks in vintage.

Little flares are OK (and bigger ones are usually OK for one or two events if you're just trying out in vintage.....VRG isn't super fussy about that).

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Congrats

 

[Greg_Nagy]

I am so looking forward to running the whole MARRS season next year. Maybe I will get to serve as more than spoiler. I was told that my passing Frank Jones on the last lap for 3rd was the difference in the points standings.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

I am so looking forward to running the whole MARRS season next year. Maybe I will get to serve as more than spoiler. I was told that my passing Frank Jones on the last lap for 3rd was the difference in the points standings.

You didn't pull a Lewis Hamilton on Frank did you

 

[BuggerAll]

Your pass on Frank did not make a difference, I think in the end I beat him by 100 points, if he had finished up one position the gap would have been 80 -

I think everyone is looking forward to next year - hopefully they will relase the schedule soon. We'll see if it is still so heavily based on Summit Point, there are rumors of a Glen race, plus VIR and NJMP.

 

[Greg_Nagy]

Phew.

I cornered Dangerous Dave for the scoop on the 2012 schedule.
VIR is a go
2 events at NJMP
The other possibles are the Glen and Charlotte.

Beth has already told me that I will need to find crew for Jersey.

In other news, we lost a possible HP LBC to the dark side.
Mitra now has Dave's Scirocco. No word on what will happen to the yellow car.

 

[BuggerAll]

I had hoped to see Dave on Saturday to ask if the deal on the HANS was still operative, but made the mistake of asking Terry, whom I spotted sans husband, "where is your ugly husband?" Apologies -

I guess if we go back to NJMP twice we'll run both Thunderbolt and Lightning.

Greg, I think the 4.2 might be the right gear for T-bolt, I would sacrifice a little top end on the straight for more oomph in the twisty bits. But as it is, I bought a Quaife diff and will fit that to my 3.9 for Summit, so if I do go with a 4.2 at T-bolt it'll have to be a welded, and I think that's what hurt me in that wrteched decreasing radius righthander.

At least Mitra will still be in H - and as an aside, I don't think she or Gus was ever happy with the Ford gearbox in the spridget.

Beth will be okay at Jersey if you replace all of your pit equipment with Rubbermaid...

And if your pass would have given Frank the title instead of me - then that would have been racing, wouldn't it? I would not have been too broken up about it.

 

[mike_h]

Congrats from the NARRC HP champ. I drive the red 63 Spitfire, #7. Were you at NJ for the August races? NJMP is about as far south as I go for a race but I'm thinking about doing the Jefferson 500 one year, looks like a fun event.

Congrats again on the championship.

mike

 

[dougie]

Hello Mike -

Welcome to the BCF, I enjoy your posts on the CMF. You also need to be congratulated on your 2011 finish. I look forward to more of your posts, you always bring something good to the table.

Happy Holidays to all

 

[mike_h]

Thanks Dougie, I had a good year (reliability more skill I admit) in racing this season. Besides the NARRC I won the NY State Road Racing Championship in H prod. With the Historic Race Group, I was Group 1 champ and over all series point leader. I missed a clean sweep with a 2nd (by 6 points)place in HP with the NJRRS. Looking forward to the Mitty for the Triumph vs MG battle but in the mean time, it's going to be a long cold winter.

mike

 

[aeronca65t]

Welcome Mike:

I've been a bit distracted this week and just saw your intro on New Members. Like Dougie I'm also on the CM site.

As I expand the number of events I run next year, I hope to run some of the HRG events.....it all depends on time and money. I'm sure you know how it is.

I think we may race with a lot of the same folks on-track. I think Butch O'Conner (MGB-GT) has run some of your HRG events; he lives near me and is very active with VRG and NNJ-SCCA (where I used to be a member).
Mike Lawton runs some of our events.
And some of the big bore guys we just had at Watkins Glen were HRG guys.

You might also know Mack McCormack (white #109 Mini) who lives in Craryville, NY just above Rhinebeck. Probably not too far from you. Mack is the VP of VRG but also Co-Chief Flagging & Communications (NER/SCCA) as well as Divisional Administrator for F&C. Great guy.

Anyway, again, welcome. We may see each other at some 2012 events.

Nial

.

 

[BuggerAll]

Hi Mike H - yes, I was at Summer Thunder and won H. That was my first time at Thunderbolt and I thought the event was very nicely staged - all except for the odd false grid, where they wave you off in two rows, then you have to funnel down to single file right away entering the pit road. Very strange. I liked that Thunderbolt course, except for the decreasing radius right-hander (turn 12?) - got a photo from one of the pro photographers which showed me smoking the front tires sliding through there. Looking forward to running the Lightning course next year. I guess NJMP will keep operating as it plods through bankruptcy. From the DC area it was not a bad tow. All of the other DC=area racers seemed to like it, except my buddy Frank Jones who got smacked by a Miata, bent his steering rack and he struggled the rest of the weekend. Got to meet Joe with the Mini he runs in H, he was registered for the first MARRS last spring but did not show. We need to get more of the Jersey folks down to Summit Point for our series - I think you'll find more prod cars than you might be accustomed to.

 

[mike_h]

Hi Nial, been away for a few weeks on vacation, just getting caught up. While I was away, the race group, HRG, I mostly run with was invite to support the ARCA race at NJMP on June 29- July 1. I just posted the info on our website

https://historicracinggroup.yolasite.com/schedule.php

This is a non SCCA event, so all eligible cars / drivers can run with us, you don't need to be an SCCA member. You do need to have a competition license, the details are posted on the HRG site. Early registration for this event, by March 1, the form is posted there too. Last year we had over two hours of track time for this event. This year might be different, it will depend on how many cars and their class enter but it's 3 days instead of two.


Thanks
mike