NASA Nationals in 2 weeks, who's going?

[cstreit]

3rd annual NASA Nationals is coming up in about 2 weeks at Mid-Ohio. Any Pelicans going to be there?

[barney911rs]

Chris,

I'd love to come up and help/cheer you on again, but my pool team won our division and we have a big tournament that same weekend. I may try and come up on Sunday if I can. Good luck to all the GTS racers.

[cstreit]

Well good luck John. Hope to see you Sunday then!

[oliver88]

I'm in...see you there!

[cstreit]

Brant are you running the 964 or the 944? (Or both!)

..watch out for flying ramps either way!

[cstreit]

four days and counting!

[earlyapex]

Write up?

[barney911rs]

Chris,

Look forward to hearing a report when you get home. I hope there were no major issues with the nasty weather on Sunday. That was the main reason I choose not to head up there to watch the final races.

[vanwyk4257]

John,
Unfortunately I have heard through another mutual friend that Chris had gearbox problems yet again. I don't want to steal his thunder but I understand the G50 conversion is in the works.

[cstreit]

I'll write up more when I'm done drinking... ...but not sure I want to post another long story about how the car was running great, but then I had gearbox issues... Actually the gearbox itself is fine, but something going on with the shift-selection. Couldn't get it worked out in the quagmire/swamp that was our paddock.

The car was just soooo hooked up. Posted a time on the first day that was 2.5 seconds quicker than my best lap time at Mid-O all last year... Was consistently 2nd-3rd on the grid overall despite the rain and challenges.

A pretty dissapointing finish to the week to say the least, but the G50 is coming for 2009.

[vanwyk4257]

Judging by the quagmire/swamp comment I'm guessing the GTS paddock wasn't up on the hill like last year?

I noticed looking at the lap times that you were very fast on Friday and Saturday before the gearbox problems. I can't wait to see what you do next year when you get the gearbox monkey off your back!

[cstreit]

Well we were at the bottom of that area... Great spot, untill it rained.

I feel like the Cubs, "just wait till next year!"... Unfortunately since NASA suprised us with a move of the Nationals to Utah for the next two years, I suspect my re-challenge will have to wait. 2000 miles and 2 mountain ranges to battle agains 3-4 cars won't be worth it. There aren't more than 3-4 GTS guys within 1000 miles of Miller.

[jwerion]

Chris,
Sorry to hear that your trans problem struck again, I read that you have a G50 in the works and you should be very happy with it. I am hard on transmissions and I have never had an issue.
Regarding Miller you should really make the effort to make it as it is a spectacular track and world class facility and the Fields at Miller are of respectable size. Utah is really not that far of a pull for the northern California guys. I plan to run next year if I can get my business settled in.

[Tom W]

What's required to qualify for nationals? No one runs GTS in NorCal probably because most of us run with PRC and have great Porsche only races. However, it wouldn't be too hard to run a couple non-PRC races (in addition to the PRC ones!) to qualify. There isn't a lot of incentive to do that now as it means a looong tow to Ohio or arranged transport and a flight.

(I still have a G50/05 for sale )

[cstreit]

NASA Nationals qualifying previously was that you must score points in at least 5 regional races. That may change in the future.

Utah is a 1500 mile tow. That's $2000 in gas plus 3 days of towing with the kids so I'd be looking at around $7000-$8000 just to run the event for tires, gas, and expenses.

The move was to bring in the California/West Coast contingent. I believe that NASA knows that the Midwest/East Coast crowd will not make it, but they want to give "some business" to the West for a while. I understand that, though I'm dissapointed because they committed 5 years to us at Mid-Ohio, a lot of folks here are put-out that they severed that commitment.

I imagine you'll see a German car series at the Nationals, it just won't be GTS more than likely which has most of it's membership east of the Mississippi.

[cstreit]

I guess on the up-side, of the 5 cars sporting the MotoDelta colors, 4 finished the weekend.











Ironic that the owner was the one going home early :

[esther]

Here's a short clip of the start of Friday's qualifying race

[Flieger]

Ach du Liber!

[emcon5]

Originally Posted by Tom W

What's required to qualify for nationals? No one runs GTS in NorCal probably because most of us run with PRC and have great Porsche only races. However, it wouldn't be too hard to run a couple non-PRC races (in addition to the PRC ones!) to qualify.

Kind of a tangent, but has anyone spoke to NASA about giving a discount for entering a second class in the same weekend? I believe SCCA does this, if you enter 2 classes in one weekend you get a discount on the second entry.

Combine the POC, Spec E30, any German PT cars and try and get some of the BMW club guys to show up and run GTS. Probably couldn't pull it off if it was full price, but if they got it down to ~$150 for the weekend I bet you would get a decent turnout, and still be under 13/13.

Tom

[cstreit]

Not sure about the regional events, but at Nationals they allowed you to "Supersize" in a second class for like 50% more.

$150 wouldn't be doable I'm afraid, Nationals is a 4-5 day event. Current entry fees are like $499-$599 for the week. Regional races are two days and around $250 or so usually, but you can register for just one day and cut your cost in half.