NASA Nationals

[moosetestbestanden]

A round of applause please for Mr. Stokes, who just took 3rd at the NASA Nationals Time Trials. He pipped a mega HP Corvette (a regular competitor in SoCal) in the last session on the last day to get on the podium. 1st & 2nd were way out of sight as both the cars and their respective drivers were actual real live professional drivers, one a GrandAm series regular. In other words, he's done rather well, particularly in the face of very stiff competition.

The event was at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, which Jon said is really awesome.

Jon had taken the car apart and had the loud part in the spa for a full-on Atlantic treatment. It's dynoing at around 250 rwhp now (Boing!). He's *much* happier w/ the straight line performance now. His assistant Aaron said that through the twisty bits his Caterham was the fastest car out there.

[Elv15]

Sweet! Well done Mr Stokes!

[moosetestbestanden]

Interesting results for TTR & TTU posted

here

Notice that the top 2 cars in TTU (Unlimited) were faster than the winner of TTR (Race) which is supposedly the top class. Note also the fastest time for the TTS class. Something definitely not right there...

So had Jon run in TTR as he has been at home all year instead of in TTU he'd have come 2nd rather than third. His time was 4th fastest overall, beaten only by full on race prepared (ok, ok, his car is too) Vettes & a Viper & a full-on downforce race car V8 Radical. All of those cars have massive HP advantage, important on a track w/ a 3/4ths mile long straight.

It's likely that the TTU cars were legal (if you believe in the rules). For sure they were very well driven. Danny Popp has a long resume of success, in SCCA nationals & Solo events (whatever those are:D). Second place driver Thomas Glenn is a regular in NASA and in the Speed TV GT challenge. I know the top 2 finishers in TTR well as I'm on track w/ them all the time. Politely stated, while they are both really nice (and well off) people, they are not professional racing drivers.

Link to a thread here. Midway down the page you'll find a photo of the grid during some session over the weekend. Jon's car is visible gridding up about 5 cars down the order.

Cheers!