Norcal News

By John Anderson
Published: May 12, 2006

After a long and wet winter and spring, the sun finally returned to Northern California this year and was out in all its glory making for perfect track conditions at Infineon Raceway. As usual, the event was another sellout so many folks didn’t get the opportunity to drive the altered turn #7 configuration this weekend. We ran the longer “NASCAR Chute” exit of the turn for the first time, which resulted in lap times increased by 2-3 seconds and a new set of track records.

Congrats go out to visiting SoCal TTA’er Claus Groth who smoked the field with the best time of the weekend on Sunday by posting a lap time of 1:52.7. John Griggs set the TTU record with a time of 1:52.8. John Anderson set the TTB record at 1:57.6, barely ahead of the highly contested TTC class of hard chargers. When it was all said and done, Ken Baer set the TTC record at 1:58.4, just ahead of Jeff Cavano (1:58.5) and Team Anti-Hybrids (1:58.8). Team Brown-Heyer set the new TTD mark at 2:02.6 while our youngest competitor Ben Brandt, with a time of 2:03.8, set the TTE record. Both the TTF and TTG marks went uncontested by the respective winners Steve Fuss (2:08.8) and Hugh Carter (2:14.9).

Full results can be seen here: http://nasa-tt.com/Norcal_Regional_Results

We welcomed back a few old faces from last season that returned to join us: Claus Groth, Harry Davis and Phil Rowe. We also had quite a few brand new TT participants including Charles Weeks, Marc Chambers, Team GSR, Jury Swanson and David Preece. Welcome aboard guys. I am further pleased to report that yet again, the NorCal Time Trialers set the standard of driving excellence by not incurring a single car-to-car infraction. In fact, we had several “perfect” sessions, which was due in part to the outstanding coaching of our fearless Group 4 instructor Albert Butterfield. Well done everyone. It is an honor to share the track with such talented drivers.

I suppose the biggest news from the weekend was that Albert, Jerry, Barry and Ralph all got together to discuss the future of Group 4 and TT. Thanks to our consistently solid turnouts, 80% of Group 4 now consists of TT’ers. As Albert explained during our impromptu meeting in the paddock, it looks like Group 4 will finally be evolving into its own run group. This will also involve the restructuring of Group 3 so there is many details that still need addressing. I will let you know more as I am informed. In the meantime, be sure to give Albert a big pat on the back for going to bat for us. Group 4 is his baby to run and this was his decision.

Season Standings

Last year we only had 18 drivers meet the minimum of 6 event scores to qualify for season honors. Although we will only be at the halfway point in the season, as many as 20 competitors will qualify for the season championship during our next event at Thunderhill by already competing in the mandatory 8 event days of competition. In the first year of NorCal Time Trial Series we averaged 6 competitors each weekend. Last year we averaged 24 drivers and thus far we are averaging 33 TT’ers every weekend. This kind of turnout has made for some great competition in most of the classes. Remember, at the end of the season, only your top 16 scores will count towards the season championship. Who’s going to be receiving a trophy at the Awards Banquet in January? Click on the link below to see how the point’s race in each class is taking shape. http://nasa-tt.com/Norcal_Standings

NASA National Championships

As noted in an earlier email, the TT run group “I” is filling up fast for the inaugural NASA Championships to be held at Mid-Ohio in September. Racers account for 7 of the 8 run groups, get 4-days of competition and now have over $200k in sponsor prizes. TT’ers only get 3-days of competition (although we still pay the same entry fee), have zero sponsorship prizes, yet still represent 1/3 of all applicants to date! The National TT Series is a program to be reckoned with and it’s only a matter of time before we get the respect we have earned. Nevertheless, I have been told by officials that, “While it’s not impossible, it’s not likely” that we will get another run group. This means they will either limit our registration or be forced to further cut our track time. The latter is not something we have recommended due to the cost and time spent to get there and since we already have 25% less track time allotted than the race groups. Therefore, I am recommending that you sign up now if you have any notion at all of joining the party in September. We already have 40 signed up and I would imagine the cutoff would be around 50.

Photo Galleries

The national TT website is beginning to take shape. Most of the bugs have been worked out and most regions will be submitting their information to this site from now on. The gallery section is also being used now so feel free to submit all the photos you want. You can do this yourself by clicking on the link at the bottom of the Photo Galleries page. You must fill out all three sections and the file must be less than 2MB for it to work. Once submitted, I will check the “in-box” every other day or so and approve the submitted images for publishing. No naked pictures of you in the shower allowed! J NorCal Photo Gallery link: http://nasa-tt.com/Norcal_Photos

It’s Been A Pleasure!

As Albert mentioned during our meeting at the track, I will be stepping down as the TT Director at the end of the season. This job is now demanding 10-15 hours/week of my time. That’s a bit much considering I have a business to run and a couple of youngsters at home that will soon be starting baseball, soccer, etc.

When I took on this responsibility 15 months ago we were without a NorCal Director and had just 4 competitors. Rather than seeing it disappear, I decided to volunteer my services. Thanks to the titanic efforts of our National Director, Greg Greenbaum, the program is flourishing with competition in all 10 NASA regions. And, NorCal had 40 participants at our last event! Now that the program has been established, I feel my mission has been accomplished and truly believe that this will be NASA’s #1 most prolific competition class in the years ahead. Next year I plan to compete just like everyone else by arriving at the track on Saturdays (rather than Fridays to setup) and spend time between sessions just shooting the bull and enjoying the shade under a canopy, rather than tending to administrative duties. I might even miss an event or two and take my boys out on the boat or to a ballgame.

I have informed Jerry that my next task is to find a successor. If you feel this is something you would like to do, drop me a line and we can discuss the details. There might even be free track time involved but that must go through Jerry. Let me know if you are interested.

What’s Next?

We are heading into the busiest part of our season. The next 6 weeks should be really exciting as we travel to Thunderhill, Buttonwillow (for the NorCal/SoCal crossover event), and lastly to Reno-Fernley to experience their newly expanded track. (Over 4 miles now) Then we have a much needed summer break until Thunderhill again in mid-August. After that, Nationals are right around the corner in September. I hope to see you all soon.

As always, keep the shiny side up!