Larry Herman

First of all, I met so many great Rennlist guys there I cannot list all of your names. Suffice to say that the Rennlist community is made up of many truly nice people, and I really enjoy associating with everyone here.

Here's how my sprint race went. I only got about 18 laps of practice in on Saturday because of 2 shortened sessions and then being told while sitting in the grid that I could not run because of insufficient roll-bar padding. I really needed the practice starts and fun race because it was my first time at Road Atlanta. It took me a while to learn the track, and I know that there is still more speed to find in 12 and 1, but I felt that I had the rest of the track down pretty good. Anyway, Saturday's qualifying went well, with me running a 1:39.5 to wind up 5th on the grid and 3rd in class. David Hinkle turned a great time of 1:37.1 to take the pole. There were a bunch of us within .1 seconds of each other!

Unfortunately David did not get the best start and Greg Pickerall got by him. I got a great start and passed Doug Roach (E Class and a great qualifying time of 1:38,9) and was hounding Rick DeMan (GT5S), who unfortunately did the "money shift" going into 6 and retired after 1.5 laps. That put me right behind David who I out braked going into 10a and in short order was into 2nd place. Carl Tallardy who has a beautiful new 996 and who drove a great race also got by David and started to run me down. I held off Carl for about 5 laps, but got balked at 7 by a lapped car and he just motored by me going down that long back straight.

David and I had a great battle for the remaining 10 laps with him plastered all over the back of my car, but not quite able to get by. Gentleman that he is, he might have been able to dive-bomb me, but he didn't and we duke it out, dicing through traffic and losing or gaining a few car-lengths each lap until I sealed it by passing a 914 going into 10b and David could not get by. As I ran down the hill, there was the checker. Both he and I finished only 9 seconds behind Greg (who drove a great race) and could have been closer if we hadn't been battling ourselves. So I wound up 3rd in class, 3rd overall. I had a great time and will definitely be back. See everyone at the Glen in June.

Greg Fishman

I took the stock carpet out of the trunk of my 993 when a friend with a similar 993 got stuck on course when the carpet worked loose and hit the kill switch.

Sad to say but it seems like PCA is going the wrong way on the rules, etc.

Bryan Watts

Are you still allowed to race "Stock" with just a rollbar?

Greg Fishman

Afaik, yes.

Bryan Watts

I've never understood this rule. A stock class 993 hits MUCH higher speeds than any SCCA IT car, and hits things much harder due to it's much higher weight, and yet it can be raced with a rollbar and no side impact protection. Where is the logic in that?

BMW CCA recently declared that logbooks would no longer be issued to cars with bolt-in cages. Head restraints are now mandantory, and side nets will be next season. I'm happy that they are heading this direction, even if it costs me more $$.

AlpharettaRK

Here's my understanding of some of what was commented on:
The "helmets on entering the pits" was rescinded, somebody decided that it made it easier to look for helmet stickers, then realized it was causing a cluster so they changed their mind by Saturday afternoon.
The roll bar padding was a very random issue. I was told on Friday on the grid that I could go out but I needed to change it before the next seesion, and indeed the scrut came back to check and then decided that I needed to add it in a location where he previously told me I didn't. Lots of guys had foam that looked like swimming pool noodles and nothing was said
Several of us got notes in our log books for "invalid transmission serial numbers" - vital stuff.
A major screw up that I saw was they posted the "Blag Flag All" sign at the black flag stand for no reason in both my sprint and enduro races. It cost somebody a lap in the sprint as he got off the track. Knowing that I ignored it in the enduro and was fine.
I'm still new to this racin' thing and when I got to running in the 1:51's & 1:52's this spring I thought I'd be approaching competitive, but it seems everybody in I-class got 5 seconds faster since last year! So I'm still slow and still having fun hanging out and learning in the Peachstate 944 ghetto. My only accomplishment is that I get to take the "X" off of the back of my car.

Thanks to our the folks in our region for all the work the did putting on an overall great weekend!

Cheers
Randy

mikew968

You can make and enforce silly rules and ignore the really important stuff like a roll cage????????????

It's a good thing there are choices as to where one can race!!!

Mike

DHinkle

Larry. good post. It was a great race. Hats off to Greg (very talented driver) and Carl Tallardy for running a mistake free race. I knew Greg would get a strong start in his 996 and I was going to tuck in and hopefully have the same duel that you and I had. You actually got by me when Rick Deman passed on the inside of me at 5 on the 2nd lap. I had to let off the throttle to avoid hitting him.

A full course caution of lap traffic didn't work out for us. I don't think I would have enjoyed the race anymore if I'd held on to the lead and won.

My only disappointment from the weekend was my in-car video did not capture the race that Larry and I had (failed to clear memory card). The video would not have been as impressive as Leh's but you would have witnessed two cars bouncing out of 5 as if someone dropped us on an asphalt trampoline; a 4-wheel jump at 3 in efforts to either pass or miss Larry and a slower car, not sure which! Splitting the white D and E cars heading towards that black flag station hoping that they didn't pinch in on us was moment that I will always laugh about when "bench-racing".

I am amazed at some of the talented drivers in B stock and down. Greg, Chris Dooley (moved up to B stock w/X51) and I started with Panoz. I've counted at least 12 racers that I learned to race with from that series that have moved on to World Speed Challenge; Grand Am Cup or Grand Am GT.

Drivers such as Karl Poetl (fellow Knoxvillian and friend) and Mark Hupfer are amazing in F stock. Larry gets more out of his car than anyone that I've raced against in C stock. I can only speak to C class but I venture to say that the top 5-6 racers in each class could more than hold their own versus the gentleman drivers racing at the next level.

Thanks to PCA Peachtree and fellow racers for a great weekend.

Larry Herman

Yeah, you are right about the pass. I got it mixed up with passing Greg in the enduro. Too bad about the video. I wish that I had a rear-facing camera for your exit of 5 that time. I'll post my video soon. The split of the 2 cars was interesting. My wife saw it and pronounced me "crazy".

Mike in Chi

You wife is right. You are crazy. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...)

DHinkle

She must think I am lunatic. I followed you! Good thing she wasn't watching on the other side of the track!

analogmike

Those SCs in F (Hupfer) and G (fellow Danburian Mike Iapaluccio) are amazing. I think Mark would have won D or E easily, and Mike would have been strong running in either class. I think those two were the most impressive racers at this event.

Whoops I seemed to have missed another thread about this I guess I'm not the only one who noticed.

MRW

Larry-

Was I one of the splitees? I think I remember this, or maybe it was another pass (there were so many!) Red 944TS #134, I think I was on the left. I'd love to see that from your vantage point. Don't worry, I wasn't going to move.

Great being with you and meeting your family. Thanks for all the encouragement.

Mike Walsdorf

Larry Herman

As promised, here's the thread with the video of my sprint race.