The weather is looking much better for tomorrow & Saturday. Cooler & dry. I'm guessing your MINI's will be making good horsepower in the cooler temps.

Go for the pole.

 

Good luck!

 

ditto to that

Hope you can stay clean and run strong.

 

how's the track? were there not recent repairs made?

 

We crashed the 196 during qualifying. Almost put back together. It will make the show at the back of the grid.

More later....

Randy

 

Ugggg, ... Randy, what are the track conditions like?

 

I was also wondering what conditions are like. IMO the Glen is a pretty unforgiving track. Not much run off until you meet the blue guard rails.

 

ugh, what a race so far.

45 minutes gone only 21 minutes under green.

Live timing is duffed up also.

Long race to go. Looks like a tough one.

 

crap, something happened to Owen in the 196 car, 6 laps down...

Nutz, 196 is out. :(

At 1:34 into the 2:30 race, RSR is at 30 (197 just changed drivers to Mark C), 28 (198, Peter London 2nd driver).

Only 32 laps complete.

 

Results?

I missed the end of the race and the Koni site has no info.

 

18th & 20th and DNF.

The 196 was taken out in a big hit at 'the laces'. The car is seriously damaged and will not make the show at Iowa next month. There was really stupid driving at this race and Owen was the unfortunate recipient. A couple of GS cars mixed it up on the downhill entering the 'boot' area of the track. The pole sitter VW of Ian Bass dodged hard left and took us out. It was a 'racing incident' but totally avoidable.

Peter London and I drove the 198 to 18th.
Mark Congleton and Ricky Johnson drove the 197 to 20th.

It was a dogfight all day with almost half the race run under caution. It was the worst exhibition of driving I've ever seen.

We were fortunate to bring the other two cars home in one piece.

More later . . .

Randy

 

Know it doesn't help but I quess in racing there is going to be days like this.... Next time!

 

Watching the Koni scoring I was amazed at the amount of yellows. I guess 85 cars on track is a recipe for lots of carnage. Was part of that the mixing of both classes in the same race?

Sorry to hear about 196 I hope Owen is OK. Surviving to finish in the top 20 for 198 & 197 seems to be pretty good considering. Move on to the next one & show them what you guys have got. I hope 196 isn't as bad as you think. Man bodywork sucks.

 

Other than being p***ed off, Owen is fine. The DNF not only hurt the car, it cost us driver and team points. The 196 car was 18th in points prior to the race in spite of not racing at Daytona.

The car is not so well off. It was really hit hard and the repairs will be extensive. It will not make Iowa and may be questionable for Trois Rivieres. Loading it in the truck was challenging.

Watkins Glen is very fast. Mixing the two classes with 80+ cars on the track was a huge problem. Grand Am needs to rethink these races when the fields are so large.

The track was also VERY slick. I suspect that mixing the Indy car Firestone rubber with the Hoosier rubber had something to do with it. You wouldn't think that the tire 'formulas' could be so different but it does make a difference.
We saw it at Daytona and at Mid Ohio . . . Pirelli & Hoosier. At Mid Ohio, the tires looked like they drove through 'silly string' when the cars came off the track . . . very strange.

Oh well . . . onward and upward!

Randy

 

Grand-Am officials asleep at the wheel?

http://community.grand-am.com/forums...4-4be58b53b82c

 

I added my .02 cents on the Koni forum today.

Those GrandAm officials must be blind, deaf to competitors and ignorant to allow that to happen. If they can't control the race behavior, they should get out of the race sanctioning business.

 

Starting a new thread for Three Rivers.

All three RSR Mini's will return to action for the Grand Prix. The race format will be split races after a series of combined events.

The ST class race will be one hour and forty five minutes long and there will be a mandatory stop in the first 45 minutes. We race on Saturday Aug 16th.

Last year we finished 7th in a race where 1/2 the field was sidelined with brake problems. We have made great improvements to the brakes since last year and should improve on last years results.

Tentative driver lineup is:

Randall Smalley
Mark Congleton
Ricky Johnson
Craig Hansen
Owen Trinkler
BJ Zacharias

More later...

 

Sorry I could not make it out there. It just wasn't in the cards.

Guess it was an exciting weekend. I can not imagine what 85 cars on the track at once would be like. Sounds like a rolling, high speed, traffic jam.

If the spectators were there for the wrecks, I guess they got what they wanted.

 

A road trip is now officially in the works Mark, we'll see how many we can get there, but for sure, myself and Todd are a go for coming up to Miller in September.

 

Dan

That sounds great, it will be a full weekend of racing with both Koni and Rolex cars running. Let me know if you have any questions and book your rooms soon. The airport hotels, which are close to the track book up quickly.

Thanks

Mark

 

Thanks Mark, yeah, we are looking forward to it. We're booked in a place on the West side of Salt Lake, about 25-30 mins from the track. Should be a great weekend!

 

The Trois Rivieres Grand Prix is less than two weeks away. The #196 is back from the body shop after some serious damage at Watkins Glen. It is being reassembled and we are getting back into the 'racing mood'.

We've used the downtime to complete some updates on the #197 and #198. These were our first and second builds respectively. We incorporated some new ideas into our third car, the #196. We have now modified the older cars to match the #196.

These improvements include both removing and relocating some weight. We made some drive train improvements. We updated the suspension setups. We even made changes to the driver's seats to make the cars more comfortable. We also improved the in-car radio systems to remove some static and engine noise.

The #196 holds the Koni ST class record at Lime Rock and Mid Ohio. It won the pole at Mid Ohio and led that race until the rains came. We are hoping some of this success will come to the other two cars now that they are at the same level.

-------------------

We finished 7th at 3R last year. The track is very tough on brakes. Our race strategy was to save the brakes for the 1st hour and then race hard to the end. We will use the same strategy this year. We have done a lot of work to the brakes since then, plus, the race is 15 minutes shorter. We expect these two factors will reduce brakes as a major factor at the race. We hope to be able to race hard for the entire race.

Last year the race was televised locally. If you live near by, watch for it (and tape it for us!). If not, you can follow the progress at www.grand-am.com

This is one of the best attended races of the year. The crowds will be large and enthusiastic.

Canada here we come !

 

Go get 'em, Randy et al!

Race hard from the green and never give up!

Did you see Jan Magnusun at Lime Rock? race hard, race hard, race hard. Cut the conserve strategy - it ain't no 24 hour race.

 

I plan on heading out in the wee hours of Thursday AM.

Should be there by mid-afternoon!

 

At the track Thursday. We are set up and have our 1st practice on Friday Morning.

Randy