Cris Brady

See what happens when I get stuck in an airport for 4 hours? you get another race report:

<a href="http://www.crisbrady.net/mo-2003.html" target="_blank">http://www.crisbrady.net/mo-2003.html</a>

plus video too! Don't blame me, blame Continental Airlines.

Dbltime

Hello Cris,

Based on the report your experience at Mid Ohio was way up there on the excitement meter. That is what keeps us coming back!

See you at the Glen

Will Mark be de"X"ed for Watkins Glen?

Stuttgart

Cris, what kind of compressor are you using for the video clips?

Cris Brady

Bill,

Mark will still have an X on the rear. You need 4 completed races, and this was only his 3rd. Plus I'm not sure if he'll get credit for MidOhio. My understanding of the rules, is that you must complete 50% of the distance covered by the race leader for it to count. And Mark did only 3 or 3 laps.

Stuttgart, as to the video stuff. I'm using a Sony digital camera and just sucking it into MS Movie Maker 2 and letting it handle the encoding. I just pick the output size and format and let it render it. We've got a couple of video PhD's in our shop and they could endlessly argue over the proper codec and compression algorithms, but all I want is a quick and dirty way to dump my video to web. And Movie Maker does that, and its free to boot.

JPhillips-998

Mark will get credit for the race. In PCA all you need is one complete, timed lap. So you have the warm-up lap, one full lap (the timed one) and then your pit lap. Assuming Mark had three laps, he should be in.

The half the leaders requirement is SCCA.

Cris Brady

That'll be good news for Mark if it's true. But I asked that question of Axel Shields at the Lime Rock race ( who was one of the stewards at MO) concerning that. At Lime Rock I was mentoring a rookie and with the horrible conditions for the practice starts/fun race we were interested in what counted as a race, so that my rookie would be able to pass the school and get his license. And Axel told me it was half the race distance. So I guess there's a bit of ambiguity to the answer. I hope Mark get his race counted. He'll find out if he gets a new license in the mail with R3 printed on it.

Dbltime

The Rookies were asking this question at 3 races last year. At each drivers meeting they were told green flag, one lap around (timed) 2nd lap pit in and it counts. These races were wet conditions.

Brandon Hull

Thanks for the race report Cris. I have enjoyed reading your reports during the year-and-a half it took me to mount my own season: they helped de-mystify a very new experience and gave me a great sense of what to expect.

I thought your experience with the bad pass by the 944t at MO was interesting. I've read a dozen (ok dozens?) racing books which all discuss ownership of a corner, and the tension between sportsmanship and the competitive drive. But it wasn't until my initial race at LRP that I got a sense of how fast those judgements need to be made. Or,more probably, how much experience is involved in making those judgements.

I've run at MO more than anywhere else, I guess 20 or so days, and I know that corner well. It is the last place you want to go off, (the MO instructors tell a story of a car which launched into the tree branches above the fence) and a pretty nasty place to press a pass I would say.

Anyhow thanks again for the report. I will miss WG because I do an annual pilgramage DE to MO with the quattro club: big family reunion at the White Fence Inn, instructing in quattros, hanging out w/Calvin Fish etc! Because, as I keep telling my wife, who is permanently convinced that men are relationship-challenged: it is about the people...

So see you at Mosport!
Brandon

Cris Brady

Thanks Brandon for the nice comments. I went off that corner in qualifying when I got into the marbles and came "....." that far from the tire wall. I had a handful trying to get the car back after I let the guy inside. I'm very lucky I didn't end up into the wall there. But that's racing, there's always going to be people who do stupid things in the name of competition. The key is being aware of the situation and having options and never giving up. Like I said, I've met a lot of great racers in E & F on the East Coast and I have great fun and respect racing with them. And I expect more of the same in the future.