By Greg G.
Published: December 25, 2006
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone,

I hope Santa brings each and every one of you some nice car parts.  As you can see, I'm a little late getting this wrap-up article out to you, but I have not been idle.  Over the past 6 weeks, I have been working on the '07 TT, PT, and new ST (Super Touring) Rules with every spare minute I have, and then some.  The result of all of this work was presented in an initial beta test release of the TT Rules on Dec. 8th, followed by the actual official '07 TT and PT Rules release on Dec. 16th.  The Super Touring Rules were released on Nov. 30th, giving a preview to our upper level TT drivers of how they are going to be classing their cars in 2007.  If you haven't seen the '07 Rules yet, you are in for some surprises.  There are so many changes, that everyone is effected in some way.  So, everyone must read the '07 rules and re-class their cars.  We elected to make such broad changes this year based on the feedback we had and all that we learned at the NASA Championships, as well as the expectation of many more racers coming into PT that will be using these rules.  One of the goals that was accomplished was to make compliance inspections easier.  Also, lightweight cars and cars using large tires were appropriately assessed for '07.  There are also a lot more points-free modifications, and initial weight reduction for no points, while further weight reduction yields more points than in '06.  One of the biggest changes is that tires cost more points if you are using low treadwear rated tires or large tires, and that each base class is now assigned a tire size that every car in that base class uses as the starting point (instead of using the OEM size).  In addition to changes in the classing rules, the rules regarding timing and scoring, teams, declaring a class, and vehicle substitutions are all much more specific than in '06.  You can download the rules here http://www.nasaproracing.com/rules/Time-Trial-Rules.pdf.  There have been plenty of discussions about the new rules on the www.NASAforums.com website.  If you are not a member still, please visit the site and register.  There are over 5000 members now on the site, and you are missing out on valuable information if you don't visit the TT forum regularly.  I frequently use this site to disseminate information to our TT drivers nationwide, and it won't take you but a few minutes every few days to check the site for new information.

We had our final event of 2006 at Buttonwillow on November 11-12th.  It turned out to be a smaller event than usual for us, but we still had about 20 TT competitors and enough instructors and HPDE4 drivers to have about 30 cars total.  Most of our season Championships had already been locked up before the event, but there were a few that were came down to the last day of competition.  Jon Stokes and Keith Parker were separated by only 5 points when Sunday's competiton began in their fight for the 2nd and 3rd podium spots in TTU.  The TTA title was still up for grabs between the top two competitors, and there was an upset in the TTC second place finish as well.  It was really a very nice weekend, and more relaxed than most with the pressure of the Regional Championships not affecting most of the competitors.  However, as predicted, it was a great weekend to break track records.  Every class except for TTE now has new track records for the Buttonwillow 1cw configuration.  I'm sure that the TTE record would have fallen as well, but unfortunately, Shawn Meze's Scirocco didn't last for even a single lap that weekend.  I heard that Shawn has secret plans for '07, though, to try and turn his luck around.

Here are the new track records for Buttonwillow 1cw:

In addition to the track records, highlights of the weekend included the back to back wins by Jon Stokes that moved him ahead of Keith Parker in TTU to take the runner-up podium position.  Karen Salvagio had been steadily charging ahead in TTA during the later part of the season, but if you don't show up, you can't win.  She also ended up with the runner-up position in TTA.  The big mystery of the year is whatever happened to Team Track Graphic Design 2?  They ended up in third place in TTA, but we haven't seen them for half a year.  Will they show up at the Banquet?  This team looked very promising at the beginning of the year, and netted two wins and two seconds early in the season.  A solid performance by John Wheeler kept him in the runner-up spot in TTB, while Jay Hale continued with his consistent driving for the third spot.  Team Fronti was stong in TTC at the beginning of the season, but slowly lost ground beginning in May.  After their blown engine in October, we still expected to see them in November with a substitute vehicle to hold onto their second place spot, but they did not make it.  Arthur Weber, who is one of the most persistent drivers we have (he drove his Camaro from SoCal to Ohio and back for the NASA Championships), seized the opportunity, and moved ahead to take the runner-up position in TTC by 25 points.

So, here are our 2006 SoCal TT Champions:

** denotes two-time SoCal TT Champion
*** denotes three-time SoCal TT Champion

Congratulations to all of our new Champions!!!

For detailed final 2006 results see our standings page on the TT website http://nasa-tt.com/Socal_Standings

We will be having our annual NASA SoCal Awards Banquet on January 20, 2007 at Dave and Busters in Irvine (note: not in Orange like prior years), starting at 6:30 pm, with awards presentations beginning at 7:30 pm.  I would like to encourage everyone to register for this event, and come out to support your 21 fellow TT drivers that will be receiving awards.  The registration page is here: https://www.nasaproracing.com/nasa_event/show/?event_id=455

I would like to thank all 120 of you that competed with us in SoCal TT this year, and I hope to see all of you again in 2007, as well as you missing oldtimers from '04 and '05.  Our first event on February 10-11 at Willow Springs will not count for points, but any track records set in TT will be official.  Our 2006 season championships will start at California Speedway on March 16-18th.  The rest of the year's schedule is here: http://socal.drivenasa.com/index.php?categoryid=9&p2_articleid=19

Also, for those of you that didn't go last year, you should definitely start making plans to go to Mid-Ohio for the Championships.  SoCal made an excellent showing this year, taking home three National TT Championships, and the other regions are going to be out for revenge.

Thanks, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and start the countdown--only 47 days until Willow Springs,

Greg Greenbaum
NASA National TT, PT, ST Director

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