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Mid Ohio July Event - AWESOME!!!

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Mid-Ohio - April 2011

By Joe Sullivan
Published: April 28, 2011
Updated: April 28, 2011

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NASA Great Lakes TT Drivers Start the Season with a Bang! April 9-10 saw the Time Trial season opener for the 2011 season and wow, was I ever impressed. With a week of on and off rain and a completely green track, I figured all TT classes would be a bit off the pace for the weekend. All the drivers proved me wrong when they got out for laps on Mid-Ohio’s Club Course. By the end of the weekend, new track records were set in 5 different classes! The number would have been 6, but a late session spin resulted in the loss of the last record setting lap. Starting with TTA, Nathan Pitcher was the dominant force this weekend, taking the win both days in his Mitsubishi Evolution. He was followed closely by Brian Ahmer and David Ziegler, both driving Chevrolet Corvettes. Ahmer barely squeaked by Ziegler on Saturday taking second place by a margin of 0.046 seconds, with Ziegler managing to take second place on Sunday. In TTB, it was a battle of the Nissans for the top two positions. Saturday saw Dominic Cervi taking the top spot in his 350Z followed closely by Rob Symonds in his 240SX. Symonds was able to claim the top position over Cervi on Sunday in a very close finish. The two Nissans were followed very closely on both days by Jon Cidric in his Porsche Cayman S. TTC saw three cars hitting the track for the weekend. David Proudfoot dominated the class on both days in his Honda S2000. For those following the off-season chatter, he even did it with a legal factory hardtop on the car! The TTC field for the weekend was rounded out with Kyle Brewer taking second place on Saturday in his Toyota Supra and Jim Ginter taking third in his BMW 325is. Ginter was able to get ahead of Brewer on Sunday taking second place in the process. TTD competition was a great battle to watch this weekend. Of the 6 starters, David Buschur was the winner both days in his Mitsubishi Eclipse. On Saturday, positions 2-5 were separated by just over 0.5 seconds. In the end, it was Mark Domo that took second place driving his Mazda RX8 and Tom Todaro followed in third in his Mazda Miata. Todaro was able to move up to second place on Sunday, bumping Domo back to third place. TTE saw an 8 car field for the weekend, but the top three were Brian Makse, David Kutney and Kyle Webb. Saturday say Kutney out front in his Pontac Solstice, followed by Makse in second and Webb taking third in his Mazda Miata. On Sunday, Makse moved up to the top podium position in his Honda Civic, with Webb moving to second, followed very closely by Kutney in third. TTF had a two car field for the weekend, but the two cars really put on a show. Lowell Marx, driving his Ford SVT Focus, and Melissa Davis in her Dodge Neon both shattered the previous track record pace by nearly 4 seconds. The two were very evenly matched on the track with Davis managing to keep in front for the win on both days. These two were fun to watch as the finishing margin on Saturday was just under a half second. Moving on to TTS, Saturday saw Danny Popp out in front driving a borrowed Chevrolet Corvette. He was followed by Aaron Byram in second and Tony Calabrese took third driving his Subaru STi. Sunday saw Byram moving up to first place in his Honda Civic. Greg Vannucci took second place in his Lotus Exige while Calabrese took the third place finish for the second day in a row. TTU competition was almost a purely Corvette affair. Michael Edmondson took the top spot, followed by Dean Martin, driving the one Ford Mustang in the field. Todd Rumpke took third right on Martin’s heels. Sunday saw Danny Popp taking first place, driving another borrowed Corvette. He was followed by Edmondson in second while Matt Carlyle got out on track following some mechanical problems to take the third place position. Not to leave out TTR, newcomer Kyle Musch took the unopposed win on both days driving his Lotus Exige S240. Your’s truly had tow vehicle problems, but even if I had gotten my car to the track, I highly doubt I could have given Kyle a run for his money the way he was driving this weekend. Congratulations go out to all of the new track record holders: Nathan Pitcher TTA 1:37.691 Rob Symonds TTB 1:41.491 David Buschur TTD 1:44.197 Brian Makse TTE 1:44.772 Melissa Davis TTF 1:53.462 I would also like to welcome our three newest TT license holders, Kyle Musch, Gary Ellis, and Dominic Cervi. Thanks to all of the drivers that made it out to the first Great Lakes event of 2011. As always, thank you to all of our sponsors for the continued support of the NASA Time Trial program. (Hoosier Tires, HawkBrakes, AST Suspension, Treadzone, Mazda, and Pfadt). Next up is Putnam Park on May 13-15 for our crossover event with the Midwest Region. This event is always a full event and always a great time. I hope to see everyone out there! For complete results and lap records, please see www.nasagreatlakes.com Joe SullivanTime Trial Series DirectorNASA Great Lakes

Mid-Ohio - April 2010

By Joe Sullivan
Published: April 29, 2010

Mid Ohio - August 2006

By John Graber
Published: August 18, 2006

Mid Ohio - August 2006

By John Graber
Published: July 24, 2006

Autobahn Ccccccccountrryyy Cllluuuuuuuuuubb!

Mid Ohio July Event - AWESOME!!!

By John Graber
Published: July 10, 2006

Mid Ohio - July

Beaver Run - June

By John Graber
Published: June 12, 2006

Beaver Run......Tons of Track Time

Putnam Park May 20-21, 2006

By John Graber
Published: May 23, 2006

Putnam, Putnam, Putnam!

The second event for OH/IN and Midwest was terrific! I don’t want to jinx us so I won’t mention again how awesome the w**th*r was.

As you all know, we had a large number of cars in the group and solo track time was at a premium. However, there were some great times run in all groups and I think everyone had a nice time. Ed Hessel christened his newly acquired Shannon Sport Racer in TTR and tore up Putnam with a 1:14. Shane Benson once again took the TTUnderdeveloped Aim Tuning, Indy’s premier Spec Miata shop, to the top of the class. I love to hear the HPDE4 guys in their ZO6’s talk about that crazy Miata pulling away from them! Also, for those that didn’t know, Aim Tuning provided the trophies for the SM group this weekend and we thank them for that. A few other notables were Alan Coleman in his 996 Porsche tearing up TTB and John Slinkard tearing up TTC in his S2000. Unfortunately, we lost our only female driver of the weekend late Saturday when Jennifer Schings snapped a control arm on her Cobra and stood in the paddock the rest of the weekend. And let’s not forget Don Michael who successfully took his student for a ride and made him sick.

As mentioned, I’m working on a plan to reduce cars in the run group while continuing to grow the TT groups. TTU, TTB, TTC & TTD have consistent numbers, but we need to work on some competition for the other groups. Joe Hayes in his TTG Neon and Gene Hoesman in his TTF Fiero are tired of playing by themselves. Also, Beaver Run has a decent number of registrants at this point and I expect both Mid Ohio events to be packed. If you haven’t yet, I’d suggest you sign-up soon for those events.

Spread the word! Nasa is getting bigger and better and we all are an integral part of that. If you have any ideas or comments please don’t hesitate to call or e-mail. Also, don’t forget your TT license or the upcoming National Championships.

Mid Ohio April 21-23, 2006

By John Graber
Published: April 24, 2006

April 24, 2006

Mid Ohio was awesome! The weather was pretty close to perfect excluding some late rain Friday, and heavenly considering the white stuff we saw the last two years. The event as a whole went very well and a great round of thanks need to go out to the new Regional Director Dave Royce as well as the National crew including Greg Greenbaum, National TT & PT Director, Ryan Flaherty and John Lindsey who all made the trip in from California.

The Time Trial group had the largest participation of any event ever in the Region with

31 different competitors in nine classes. The high participation really makes the event much more enjoyable for all participants and I certainly look forward to continued growth within the group. Throw in some HPDE4 cars and we had a very active group.

The track surface was all new and many of the drivers had made their first ever trip to Mid Ohio, so everyone was on a learning curve. I have to say the track was really incredible, excluding those giant curbs. By day two most competitors were dialing in their fastest times and the low for the weekend was put down by Robert Fuller in his red Evo, running a 1:37.532. That is smoking! In one session on Sunday we had three cars below 1:40 which made for a very impressive group. We had some crazy cars laying down some crazy times when you throw Rick Kaplan and his Viper in with Aaron Quine and his newly classed TTU corvette, and then factor Robert Fullers, buschur Racing EVO, Tom Lesperance’s turbo Focus’ and Shane Bensons turbo Miata. What a group.

We, mostly me, learned a little bit about gridding the cars and creating some space to lay down those fast times. Hopefully we’ll be able to set-up in the future using the exact times from previous sessions so everyone get s a few fast clean laps. We had no major incidents to speak of, and no damage to any TT cars, and I thank you all for that. I appreciate all your patience and support and hope to see you all at the upcoming events in Putnam May 20-21, Beaver Run June 10-11 and back to Mid Ohio July 7-9.

Mark Freemal took a ton of pictures and I should have those as well as the results, and newly established Time Trial Track Records uploaded to the Time Trial site, www.nasa-tt.com very soon. The Oh/In Region has its own section and I expect to have it packed full of information for past and future events. I’m working through a few classification issues, but should have the info up within a few days.

Thank you all!

John Graber

Nasa OH/In Time Trial Director

johngraber@yahoo.com

Welcome to NASA Ohio/Indiana TT

By Greg G.
Published: February 7, 2006

Welcome to NASA Ohio/Indiana TT