Ira wins the E Prod June Sprints!

[jmark]

Congrats to member Greg Ira for winning the E Prod race in his 240Z. It is Greg's first time to Road America and I know he is looking forward to the Runoffs held there in Sept.

On a sad note past champ Tom Thrash died in morning qualifying in his E Prod RX7. He would have started from the pole. It sounds like he may have had a stroke or heart attack or mechanical failure before crashing his car. Our thoughts go out to Tom and his family.

http://www.scca.com/documents/resultfiles/Grp4-PrvRace3.pdf

Edited June 22, 2009 by jmark

[Jeff G 78]

Great job Greg! It's good to see the old Z getting wins!

Sorry to hear about Tom. I had never heard of him, but it's sad to hear about a fallen racer. At least he was doing what he loved to do.

[EP240Z]

Good job Greg! Hope a preview of the Runoffs!

[preith]

Congrats Greg! A bit ironic, I vividly remember watching Mr. Upchurch lead flag to flag in the same car at the '00 Sprints.

It's a shame about Tom, his death really shook the production ranks in particular, most of the guys are in disbelief. He did go out doing what he loved.

[preith]

I was just looking over the mylaps results... Greg would've had his hands full if the two lead cars didn't retire. The late Mr. Thrash qualified 3.5 seconds faster, John Brakke almost the same. John must've had a mechanical problem or something, retired on lap 6. With that said, still a great job, gotta be there at the end!

On a side note, it's too bad Ken Kannard is no longer running his Z in EP. He was VERY quick at the Sprints in the years past, want to say he's won his class as well. He's been running a Spec Miata with our club lately.

Edited June 23, 2009 by preith

[jmark]

I suspect no one had anything for Tom. This was Greg's first time at RA. He ran quicker every session on track with his quickest lap during the race. I suspect he will be even quicker at the Runoffs.

Edited June 23, 2009 by jmark

[gira]

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, Tom Thrash was an excellent driver. The rumour is he had a physical issue that caused the accident. I was in the same qualifier as he was and saw the car on it's side at the T8 tire wall. The fans said he absolutely creamed the wall. Very, Very sad and a real eye opener to all of us and our safety stuff.

On a racing note. That track is very hard to squeeze qualifying speeds out of with lack of experience. Racing was different. I ran right with Brakke which surprised even me, but once I was there, I would have won. My car usually is good on the long runs. Brakke broke, and fortunately for me, I had already passed him and was in the lead. One awesome track! I have to make up about 2 seconds to be a quick qualifier.

PS. my door was not shut properly and I was scared the turn marshal would call me in and have me black flagged out of the lead, so I held it closed on the right hand turns with my left hand. Try going through the scariest corner in America with one had sawing the wheel. I sort of forgot about that until my brother showed me the video. OMG

Thanks again guys,

Greg

[Red-Eye]

Great job Greg! Hope to see you on top at the Runoffs too...Robert

[jmark]

Greg can you post some in car video? I'd love to see it.

[ggarrard]

And congratulations to Mr. Ira and company on their input to the Grassroots Motorsports article on the Z car in the latest issue.

Sorry if this was mentioned elsewhere...

GWGarrard

[preith]

On a racing note. That track is very hard to squeeze qualifying speeds out of with lack of experience. Racing was different. I ran right with Brakke which surprised even me, but once I was there, I would have won. My car usually is good on the long runs. Brakke broke, and fortunately for me, I had already passed him and was in the lead. One awesome track! I have to make up about 2 seconds to be a quick qualifier.

PS. my door was not shut properly and I was scared the turn marshal would call me in and have me black flagged out of the lead, so I held it closed on the right hand turns with my left hand. Try going through the scariest corner in America with one had sawing the wheel. I sort of forgot about that until my brother showed me the video. OMG

Thanks again guys,

Greg

Thanks for the insight, makes sense. I'm always amazed how much you can learn, even on a single lap, following an experienced driver (a fast one) at any given track. Great to hear you already had Brakke too before he broke.

IMO Road America is not the most technical of tracks, it probably requires more bravado than anything. The long straights provide plenty of time to think about the next corner, very different from the Alan Wilson style tracks of today, or even an older course like Blackhawk Farms.

WOW, one handed through the kink, that takes some moxy! For some reason I'm reminded of a spin one of our members had through there a few years ago in an ITS 944. Amazingly he never touched a wall:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8567454532851601546&ei=uxxBStz3LImyrgKkv9GeAQ&q=+kink+road+america&hl=en

[gira]

Wow, that video cracks me up. What a save! Some people say RA is easy to learn. I don't find it that way. I drive with my eyes and my arse, that's it. I never have been able to look at marks on the ground or on the wall, therefore the blind corners all add up to trouble for me. The thing about a 4 mile track is just the same with every other track, no mistakes equal good times, unfortunately you have 2.5 minutes to make a mistake in lieu of 1.5 minutes. In an EP car, the only possbile rest you could take is on the front straight after climbing the hill and that's not that long. That's the thing, the straights are long but you can't see to the end of them! Anyway I'll get it down and combine that with larger cajones.

My in car from the hero cam is sort of boring because you can't see out of the car but I'll try and get some from my brother.

See you.

Greg