Congratulations to Michael Hausknecht for his solid win in the "cone shortened" Pocono nat. Thanks also to Rob Stewart for sticking up for the group during the post race "lecture" . Who was that guy? Race steward JD King? Racing/drafting at Pocono is a blast, but sometimes they make it hard.... Jeff

Congrats to all who were successful in getting out of Pocono with their cars and health in the same condition as they arrived. I have to admit while on the way to Pocono I was questioning my choice to run that weekend for a couple of reasons. One, it was only a single race. I can only guess why in the world the inept NE division can't see the benefit in running doubles. Second, the last time my friend, Rob Stewart, raced there he unfortunately found his way bounding through two chain link fences. How is that possible? How safe is that track when you can go through not one but two fences??? Then comes Q1 where I unfortunately, due to a damp track, found myself having what should have been a insignificant off track experience between T2 and T3. That quickly changed to a flight experience similar to the Wright brother first flight. However my SRF wasn’t designed for this type of flight. Then ride in the ambulance was delayed because they had to bring in another ambulance to care for the FV driver who did the same thing in the next session. Not to be out done another SRF did it in Q2. Followed by a Formula Atlnatic winning the Gold Medal by his performance on race day. Fortunately all drivers are ok. The same can't be said for all of the cars...All of these incidents happened in the same place for the same reason. Pocono is dangerous and ALL should stay away...If you care about your car and more importantly your life you will stay clear of Pocono raceway....

Well said Kevin. I love the draft, the oval and the proximity of the track to my home...but I won't go to this track again unless the dangerous conditions are eliminated.

The end of a SAFER barrier one car width off the track at the exit of a turn...unacceptable. Access roads perpendicular to the track, one car length off the track at the exit of a 4th gear turn...unacceptable. A bump that would bottom out an F-150 at the entry to Turn 1 (just before the access roads mentioned above)...unacceptable.

However, despite the dangerous conditions I think any redeeming qualities of the weekend were completely erased by a race ended under yellow as "punishment" (admitted by the steward of the race) for displacing cones on the track...cones placed there in an attempt to "create" a turn where there really is no turn. With three laps to go the race was put under full course yellow to fix the cones. With two laps to go the cones were fixed. With one lap to go, the cones fixed and the entire field bunched up behind the pace car, we were given the one-to-go sign under double yellow and behind the pace car when we clearly could have had one final hot lap to put an exciting race finish at the end of a very challenging weekend.

Not only did the race end under yellow, adding insult to the numerous injuries that weekend, the entire field was impounded so that the race steward could dress us all down after the race...unacceptable. As a previously nationally licensed starter, flagger and T&S official, I find the actions of the steward an embarrassment to the club, the other officials and all the volunteers at the track last weekend. I said it there and I will say it again here...we don't go to the track to be yelled at like children being scolded. We spend a great deal of time and money to go racing and it's dangerous enough without a track like Pocono. It's bad enough we had to put up with the track, we shouldn't have had to put up with the actions of the steward of the race on top of it all.

My list of potential Nationals next season has just been reduced by one. I plan on voting with my entry fees.

Tristan Welling
#32, NeDiv, NNJR

I haven’t run at Pocono since 2002 which is the year a corner worker was injured and Robert Goldfarb was killed after he crashed his T1 ‘Vette, although the reason I stopped running there had nothing to do with that accident. The last time I ran there, I felt the track was boring (the last time I ran it, we ran counter clockwise using Nascar turns 1 and 2 then into Devil’s Elbow) but I had run the various other configurations in prior years. I even managed a second place finish in a soaking rain after Spicer and Frank came together in turn 1 and a boxing match broke out.

No doubt the track is dangerous but every track has some level of danger. Let’s face it, this sport is dangerous but we don’t need to compound the danger with any unsafe track conditions. I haven’t missed racing there in the last 10 years and I have no plans to return in the near future. They need to spend some bucks to make the place safer for club racing with permanent improvements (no traffic cones) before I’ll consider returning.

Doug Garrison

Chuck Dobbs of the Glen region was the guy yelling at us in impound. I've sent an e-mail to Dave Panas (chief steward) and JD King (race chair) expressing my opinion on the situation.

David Dickerson's mother, a professional photographer, was at the race and was kind enough to release the link to her photos of the weekend. Of particular interest is page 2 where the #27 hits the access road then rotates onto it's nose for 100 feet. Had not been at Pocono for sometime. The drafting and passing was certainly fun while it lasted.

http://www.rhondapyatt.com/DD/Races/Poc ... &k=c2BvJGB

Regarding the Turn One runoff area...

I was able to speak with George Bloeser of the Tri-Region Race Group who is the primary SCCA contact with Pocono track management. I hooked him up with people who have videos and still shots of the Turn One runoff crashes and he will be presenting these to track management to build our case for rectifying this unacceptably dangerous condition.

George told me that the track had built those RV access roads during the last month and that no SCCA officials were allowed to even see the track before last Thursday evening.

Regarding the bumps, he also said that the track is planning to re-pave the infield road course during this coming off season. So we'll see if that fixes it.

There's no doubt that this event is now on life support and these issues must be addressed quickly, and the remedies communicated to the drivers, if they expect to ever have more than 80 cars turn out for this.

Jeff - I would suggest copying stewarding type comments to David Nokes (Chairman of Stewards) and also make sure that John Walsh is aware. - Lee

Don't hold your breath waiting for the track to make any changes for the SCCA racers, their attitude has always been "we make more selling popcorn at a NASCAR race than we make off of an SCCA weekend". That's a quote from one of the track personnel from a few years back.

LeeHill wrote:Jeff - I would suggest copying stewarding type comments to David Nokes (Chairman of Stewards) and also make sure that John Walsh is aware. - Lee

As much as I like dumping things on Walsh's plate, Jerry Wannarka is the Director for Area 2, which encompasses this event.

Also, contact Earl Hurlbut, NEDiv Executive Steward.

Email addresses available here: http://www.nediv.com/?option=com_etree& ... category=6