Tawney & Brown Prevail in Daytona
July 16, 2011
The great chameleon of a track in Holly Hill was the venue for the latest round of the Florida GRRR retro series. Once again Greg Walker had the track in great shape completely cleaned and freshly gluded for the event. For those not familiar with the track it is a high speed banked oval modeled after the Daytona track just down the street wit a road course in the infield that uses the straight and 2 banks just like it's full sized cousin. Changing from oval to road course takes about 5 minutes just by switching little sections of track surface on each lane which direct the cars either straight around the oval or into the infield. Surprising is how well this works and causes no unsettling of the cars, providing you don't have the nose of your body dragging on the track. Cleaver idea which makes for a neat track.
it is a nice track for retro cars and I am starting to love it now that I am getting enough time on it so figure it out. The infield flows great. My issues have been the kink right before the cars turn into the infield. It requires a quick blip then you have to instanlty break for the deadman which is off-camber turning into the infield. I think I just about have it down. 1 more race should do it. Its funny, the flat infield is no issue for me, the king which is easy as hell is. LOL.....
We had the pleasure of having Jay Guard in attendance for this even as he was in the Orlando area for family stuff and manage to get some time to come out and play. Jay always busts my balls about never having run on a flat track when I was younger, Well I am learning...
Due to Marty's eye troubles, Grant Goerner stepped up to be our new tech inspector and got his first lessons from Marty at this race. This is a big help and also allows Marty who does so much work on race day to kick back a little and spend more time practicing and getting his stuff ready on race morning. Grant even had time to supply some of the shots for the article. Thanks!
As usual Can-am was up first.
Concours was taken by Jim Smith most realistic and my Noose painted TI22 was best appearing.
Terry Tawney who has about a zillion laps on this track was TQ once again.
Terry Tawney, 5.441 secs
Jay Guard, 5.467
tonyp, 5.486
Grant Goerner, 5.546
Dan Dougherty, 5.550
Marty Stanley, 5.564
Ken Brown, 5.615
Jim Smith, 5.946
Bob Dewoody, 6.134
Bob Isrealite, 6.507
Me second, Terry Tawney 1st, and Jay Guard 3rd. The main was a round robin affair and actually very clean for the most part. A couple incidents of marshals bending over and almost falling on the track, LOL. The infield in some parts is right on the floor. Terry drove a great race once again and took first place. I was real pumped to finally feel like I could drive the track. I blew any chance of a win with the lane advantage for the last heat by dumping it twice in the last heat in the deadman, where else. LOL. At least I kept Terry honest. He is a great racer, especially on his type of track. Keeping him to three laps was like a win to me. Jay ran good with the little practice he has on the track for a fine third.
1. Terry Tawney, 246 laps
2. tonyp, 243
3. Jay Guard, 239
4. Dan Dougherty, 236
5. Ken Brown, 235
6. Marty Stanley, 229
7. Jim Smith, 220
8. Bob Dewoody, 214
9. Bob Isrealite, 186
10. Grant Goerner, DNF unknown motor failure
Fastest of the fast: Fastest race lap, Terry Tawney - 5.325 secs
Most laps, Terry Tawney - 33 on Yellow
Terry's TQ & winner, Marty Stanley built Rgeo kit, O/S Ti22, F7, Parma guide, JK front & rear tires. 103.3 grams, Third Eye controller.
My second placer, tonyp "Octopussy" chassis, O/S Ti22, TSR, 9/28, JK guide, Chicagoland fronts, Alpha rears, 116 grams, Difalco controller.
Jay Guard was third with this car, Jay Guard chassis, TSR, 8/27, Red Fox guide, JK tires, 109.2 grams. Third Eye controller.
After the main pizza was served and Greg Walker converted the track over to NASCAR for a half hour hour practice before tech opened.
Marty Stanley took most realistic concours with his Petty "Plymouth" and Bob Isrealite took time off from hunting crockzilla in the everglades to take the best appearing award.
For NASCAR on ovals we do not always qualify to save time so we give out the TQ plaque to the fastest race lap. Because the track is flat punched except for a micro blip at the kink, that is the only place we really have cars come off. When you do miss the kink the car shoots straight down to purple and black heading into the bank which makes for spectacular wrecks. There is just no way to stop. To combat this we run just the top six lanes, and still manage to wreck each other...
Terry Tawney second, Ken Brown with his first GRRR win. Congrats Ken, you drove great, kept out of trouble all race and it is well deserved. tonyp third and TQ.
1. Ken Brown, 390 laps
2. Terry Tawney, 389
3. tonyp, 388
4. Dan Dougherty, 384
5. Jay Guard, 376
6. Marty Stanley, 292, Wrecked into marshalls had at 3000mph
7. Grant Goerner, 230, Nerfed car in bank and had his own guide tongue fall off
8. Jim Smith, 55 Destroyed body
9. Bob Isrealite, SPUN PINION!!!!
Fastest of the fast: Fastest race lap, tonyp 2.614 secs
Most laps, Ken Brown & tonyp 67
Ken's winner, Ken Stephens chassis, O/S Daytona body, F7, 10/28, JK front & rear tires. 124 grams, Difalco controller.
Terry's second place car, Marty Stanley built RGeo, O/S Charger, F7, JK guide, JK tires. 133 grams, Third Eye controller.
My third placer, tonyp chassis. O/S Daytona, TSR, 12/28, JK Guide, Chicagoland fronts, Alpha rears, 127 grams, Difalco controller.
Grant is still trying to figure out how he nerfed someone up the bank on the oval, made it through the turn, went 30' further, and then had his guide tongue fall off.
That's it. See you next month... Got to move.
