Don't read this if you are going to complain about that crazy Racer X guy and how he must not do anything but sit around and type stuff up for the internet (CLAY) or how he's full of it (STEVE) or how you'll rochambeau him for your used tires (DUHHH).
Heck, our CSR now opens his more lengthy notes to the SRF audience with some reference to it hopefully not coming across as another "Stripling epistle".

Seriously.
You have been warned.
The next post will be my account of the week that I whipped up for the SOWDIV region webmaster. Keith also provided a nice write-up, but I don't know if he's masochistic enough to post here.
Proceed at your own peril.

This was written for the SOWDIV region website so keep that in mind as you read it.
You're crazy if you think I'm writing up something different and special for this crowd!

Runoffs 2012: The not-so-skinny
The backdrop: In 2011, after having what I thought was a season that couldn't be topped (see: 2012), I decided that I had to give the Runoffs a shot. Road America had not been kind to me the couple of times I had been before. I hadn't been very fast (at least not to my standards), and when I finally did get close to being up to speed ('11 Sprints), it rained for the race which threw off all the work I'd done on set up. I don't run much in the rain so I purchased a set of toss-offs from a fellow competitor and managed to run well, as high as 3rd, until I made a brake bias error and spun off ending my day in the gravel. So I figured the place owed me and I had to try the Runoffs. I made plans to attend but had some conflicts with the schedule. When I finally did arrive (after missing the first qualifying session), in qualifying I had problem after problem with the car. By the time the race came around, I had run about 30% of the total qualifying time. The car was a handful and I was disappointed starting 22nd out of 45. I ran through the field up to 9th and ended up finishing 11th, earning the Sunoco Hard Charger award in the process, but I wasn't satisfied (some entertaining video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dme-A4- ... ture=g-upl ). I still felt like the track owed me. Later when I got home I found a broken rear shock that completely explained my handling woes, so at that point I knew I had to give it another shot. Thus my desire to return to that highest of amateur motorsports summits for another attempted ascent in 2012! At least that was the plan…

That takes us into 2012. My 2012 season went about as perfectly as one could ask for, including having Keith Verges racing me nip and tuck at every race we attended. We always go faster when we are pushed, and Keith most certainly pushed (and often led) me. The first half of the season was a blur of incredible racing, from TWS to Hallett to TMS. At TMS I had a fuel delivery problem that eventually ended up costing me a motor at TWS over Memorial day. That took about half of my season budget out of contention. By the end of July I had earned the maximum amount of national, BFG Super Tour, and Majors points possible and at that point, even with the amazing season continuing to play out, I didn’t think there was any way I could budget a week-long trip to the Runoffs. As the Summer began to wind down and I sat at home looking at my car with a new, shiny engine in it, my wife caught that twinkle in my eye. No, not *that* twinkle… the other one… the one that says “Honey, I’m thinking about doing something stupid – can Jess (our daughter) live at home and skip college for a few years?” So I called Tom Dalrymple to find out what it would cost me to throw in with him and his merry band of SRFers to make the trip north. I love hanging out with Tom, Tim Blakeley, Kerry Bonner and the rest of that motley crew (usually, me) so the allure of the trip went up notably when I heard they were all in. But then came the big question. Was Keith going? Because if Keith was going, then I’d have something I’d never had up there before – a teammate who I knew I could run the same speed with. Anyone who has run at Road America knows that a close buddy who’s as quick as you is worth his weight in gold. Otherwise you spend your time hunting for a well-matched dance partner or drifting back through the qualifying pack. With Keith there, I felt that our collective chance of making a very strong showing for SOWDIV went up notably.
Keith was in.
Well, hmmm.
Me: “Honey, Keith’s in.”
Wife: “Oh. That’s… not good, because that means you’re going to want to go for sure, right?”
Me: “Yup.”
Wife: “Didn’t you just put a new motor in the car? How much did that cost again?”
Me: “Oh hey look! Shiny object!”
Wife: “Worst attempt at distraction ever. Ok you can go… but you owe me big time. At least you won’t be leaving me for an entire week or anything crazy like that.”
Me: “…”

So it was planned. And it was good. As the event approached, I prepped Trixie (yep, that’s my car’s name) for the trip and laid out my tire strategy. The plan was to shoestring the budget as much as possible, but I knew I really needed some testing time so I talked Tom into arriving for the Sunday test day. Tim and I rode with him and we got to beautiful Road America on Saturday afternoon. I really do love that place. It just has that… je ne sais quoi about it (yep, that just happened – I dropped some French on ya). When you pull into the track the ambiance of the place really hits you. Daytona and Laguna are the only other tracks that have had that effect on me. As we registered for the test day to the dulcet (many would say not-so-dulcet) tones of other SRF’s on-track, I got really amped up. When you hear your class on track, I think it’s completely natural to have an adrenaline rush and want to jump in your car and peel out to be with them on the spot. Completely natural. That night, we crashed in Tom’s toter and woke up Sunday prepared for our 3 sessions. Tire strategy required some old Goodyears for two of the sessions, but at least I could get back up to speed with the terrain and track surface. Keith and I agreed to spend the first sessions just working alone with the track as I think that’s a lot more important than working on drafting right off the trailer. By the end of the day I was a bit quicker than he was, but he had come up to speed in short order as we all expected. As Monday came around and Tim and Keith were both testing (I was not…shoestring and all), I decided I just couldn’t sit on the sidelines (remember that adrenaline rush when your class is on track?) so I ante’d up for a half day. It turns out that those two sessions were well worth it. The wind was whipping and the ambient temperature was up, but I made a set up change and ran some really good times alone in the first session. In the last session Keith and I agreed that it was time to work together to see what we could do. So we did.
A couple of things became apparent very quickly:
1) We were quick. Very quick. In fact, we ended up with the fastest times in the session which included several other of the top drivers working together. Not bad.
2) Keith had not bump-drafted in SRF before. Apparently a Spec Miata “bump” and an SRF “bump” are somehow… different (I’m going to blame NHTSA bumper regs). I have video of my head snapping back and audibly hitting my HANS device as Keith powered into me on the front straight (too bad you can’t hear me giggling like a schoolgirl as my RPM’s shot up). Needless to say, Keith was working on his SRF fiberglass nose finesse. When he came in, the nose of his car looked like it had been through a Civil War battle. We all had a good laugh (yes, even Tom who had to fix it) and high-fived each other, discussing how much stinking fun that is, running nose to tail for 4 miles straight just to swap front to back the next time around and try it the other way to see which way is fastest.

Due to the new Runoffs schedule, we had Tuesday off and qualified on Wednesday and Thursday for our Friday race. This allowed me to get some work done down in Milwaukee on Tuesday, eliminating a vacation day (+1 for new Runoffs format). That night we had some rain I believe, but a nice dinner at the Paddock Club made it nothing worth worrying about. The cuisine was good and the conversation was excellent (at least from my perspective).

For the first qualifier on Wednesday AM, the field (42 cars) was gridded by overall Saferacer national points. That put me first and Keith sixth I believe, so I made sure to have Tom take a picture of that grid. His photography skills will not be commented on here. I had the chance to run and draft with some of the very fast guys and found quickly that I could run right with them. Atmospheric and track conditions were excellent. I finished the session with the 6th fastest time and was feeling pretty good. Keith was a bit further back but hadn’t had the same crowd to draft with so I knew he’d move up.

The second qualifying session Wednesday afternoon looked to be much slower and it was. I ran old throwaway (literally) tires with my heavier wheels to conserve rubber and wasn’t quite as quick but still came home 11th overall with Keith moving up to 16th (mylaps.com is your friend when your memory is not). I don’t think anyone moved up overall on the grid since Q1 was a good bit quicker.
After Q2, we covered are cars up, Keith and Tim went back to shower (no comment), and we all met up at the participant party. As usual, it was a very enjoyable event with some excellent German food and beer. I found myself wishing that I knew more of the overall folks in the paddock outside of the SRF crowd, but that’s a challenging proposition given the amount of time we normally have on race weekends. We socialized with a bunch of the SRFers from across the country that I had met in 2011 and I introduced as many of them as I could to Keith and the rest of our bunch when possible. At the end of the night, with a belly fully of brats, German potato salad, and beer, we headed back to the track to get a good night’s sleep.

Q3 Thursday morning looked like it might be as quick or quicker than Q1, depending on the headwind on the front straight, so we all had to up the ante (“Denny, put your good tires on”). I got to run with Scott Rettich, a young guy who is FE national champion, won the Sprints in SRF, and runs a Porsche in the Grand Am series I believe. He’s a hot shoe, no doubt, and he has a great car. We ran nose to tail for the first half of the session. In the process, I ran almost a full second faster than I’ve ever run before at Road America, only about .6 off of the track record. When I saw the time, I was grinning ear to ear. I came in early to conserve tires but in that crowd your time is not safe until the checkered falls. Even though I was 4th fastest in the session, .1 out of 2nd and .3 off the pole, I managed to lose a spot overall on the grid! Keith improved as well and based on the times in the group he was around, he leapt all the way up to 10th overall. So we would start 7th and 10th respectively for Friday’s race. As annoying as it was to lose overall grid positions with a good qualifying run, I knew that in the long run, it didn’t matter a bit. This race is all about hanging with the lead pack and playing nice until the last lap. I figured top 10 starting positions would afford us that opportunity, and as it turns out, I was right.

That night, Tom whipped up one of his excellent track meals and he, Tim, and I enjoyed some quality time in the toter home (again, no comment). Of note was when I ate the last bite of a jalapeño popper (bacon, cream cheese) that Tom had fixed. As uber-tasty as they were, apparently our master chef had “forgotten” to core the seeds out of mine. And so my innards were set on fire. Carbon-X was of no help. Tim and Tom had a jolly old time ripping on me whilst I gulped down everything liquid in the room. It was indeed entertaining, and then from my perspective it got even more so when Tom ate one himself and ended up imitating my flaming stunt double dance for five minutes or so. Ah the memories.

Thursday was an “off day” for us on the schedule so we spent the day hanging out in the paddock, talking about how we had no idea how to go any faster but “dadgummit I’m gonna change something on this car!”, and socializing with the other competitors and the SCCA Enterprises crowd. Tech had gone very smoothly thanks to SOWDIV legend-in-his-own-rite Mike Davies and he spent some time with us talking about the exciting future of the SRF class. We closed out Thursday with another excellent meal at the Paddock Club while watching a heavy rain fall.

As is typical with big SRF races it seems, the weather toyed with us (at least on radar) right up until race time on Friday. In the end, it was overcast but quite dry, which we all knew would lead to some great racing throughout the pack.
Normally my race reports are quite lengthy and full of all sorts of mayhem, but this race started and ran cleanly where I was, at least for the first half. I started 7th, moved up to 5th, then up to 3rd, then back to 5th. I spent the race feeling out the competitors around me, conserving tires, and trying to see where the rest of the guys I was running with were strong or weak, all while forming ad hoc alliances on-track. We ran relatively easy laps with early braking zones, just letting the draft pull us where we needed to go. Everyone was calm and collected, with minimal jostling. Keith was in a group of 2-3 cars that hung on tightly to the back of the lead 6 car pack, right there in the hunt. Things were looking good for the SOWDIVers. Then disaster! Well, at least for me. I came through T14 in 5th place, the top 5 cars covered by maybe a 10 car length blanket, ran over the inside curbs at the apex (as I had done 100 times that week), and Trixie just lost drive. My transmission is Methusaleh-old so I incorrectly assumed that it had finally blown up. As I pulled off to diagnose the problem I coasted up the pit entrance lane to a stop as the entire field thundered off into the distance. I re-fired the car and immediately realized that I’d just had some sort of electrical gremlin and was up and running again! Then came the realization that I was so far up the pit entrance lane that I had no choice but to cruise through the pit lane at school zone speeds just shaking my head and mentally kicking myself. Keith stayed right with the front group until near the end and I managed to come back through the pack to finish 18th. Keith finished a very strong 7th just a few seconds back of the lead pack, providing SOWDIV with the strong showing we were hoping for.

Once I got back and watched the footage, I was amazed (and bummed out) to see that the top 5 all crossed S/F covered by .38 seconds. Five cars. Now that’s quality racing. The coverage on speedcasttv.com was actually quite good. While the announcers (including ex-SRF pilot Dorsey Schroeder) made numerous errors in describing the cars, their color commentary was entertaining and the race was almost as much fun to watch as it was to participate in. Almost. You can see the race on their website, even in “HQ High Quality” mode if you have a solid internet connection.

All in all I personally *still* think that Road America owes me something, but in the end, that’s how racing goes.
I had a wonderful time at the event, made more wonderful by the company I spent it with and the success we had overall as a Texas team. If it’s in the financial cards, I will certainly try to talk Keith and Tom and the crew into going back next year to see if maybe we can’t bring home a couple of medals for SOWDIV in what I believe is the most competitive racing class in all of amateur motorsports.
I think there will be a lot of talk about the “new and improved” Runoffs format. While we all agreed that it detracted a little bit from the overall ambiance (the paddock was less crowded, not as much time to just mill around and see the sights), the compressed schedule should allow for some new drivers to attend based on a lower overall time commitment (if you don’t test, etc.).

2012 was a great season. I’m hoping for a bang up (not literally) 2013 for SOWDIV, especially if we can manage to get some time at COTA down in Austin!

A nice shot of some of the Northwest guys running together in practice or qualifying. (Fogg, Tipton, Douglass in order)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadameric ... 36073099/i

Denny - maybe if you named your car something better than Trixie the car wouldn't fail you at the worst moments. I suggest Christine!