I am too tired to type up anything substantial. If you were there on Saturday and went home because of the rain...shame on you. This was the best ever TSM final. When the cars went through the finish line, even they did not know who won.
http://www.gnttype.org/tsm/media/TSMslip.JPG
I have all the relevant TSM passes on video and uploaded to my home computer. As I get them edited, I will upload them to the website. This includes the unbelievibly close final between Cramer and Bamford, Scott Claridge exploding his transmission, Louie's bumper-scraping wheelstand and Garcia's 9.90 Qualifying pass. And some people thought TSS and TSE were cool... ;)
TSM - a good reason to wait out a rain shower.
Wow! Mathmetically, Jason won the race by a margin of ~7 inches. At 133+ MPH, no one is going to see that.
Again doing the math, Jason's car was pulling ahead throughout the first 330' but after that Bamford's car kept gaining and gaining.
MAJOR kudos to Scott Simpson and Lonnie Diers (and of course all the participants!) for a FANTASTIC race series!
The idea seems to have really caught on ... and everyone participants and spectators alike are enjoying close racing, fine machinery, and different combinations to go FAST!
The other amazing thing to me is the lack of breakage ... these cars ran hard, ran fast, and (for the most part) didn't break. That's really impressive for 9 second street cars!
I was really impressed by how clean and show car ready all of these cars were!
Again, great job!
Had a great time, good to see all of you again.
This year was a very tight and competitive field. Where the top 4 cars were within 2 tenths. alot of races were decided on the starting line. even the racers themselves were allot better at driving and cutting lights. It is getting tough!
I want to mention a few rule changes that would be cool for next year. 1st we need to have each car weigh in after each round of eliminations. This year you only had to weigh in at tech which sure makes it easy to take out all of that extra weight that some cars had to add to meet the min weight rule.
Also we should have a 25-50lb weight credit for retaining A/C & heater. This would encourage the going fast with class IMHO.
Jason, I have no problem with your cars being weighed after every round. Just make sure you also have the necessary manpower to man the scales during eliminations. The staff I have available now is hard pressed to take care of the staging lanes and other duties through elimination rounds.
In other words, cars will only be weighed durring tech like this year.
that is ok.
Would just like to have the same quick-weight-loss-after-tech advantage (QWLAT) like many do. ;)
oh do tell us this story, Jace. You got dirt on someone?
NASCAR checks out the winners' car after each race. Of course they also have the manpower to do it.
I am sure that someone would volunteer to man the scales, but what would be the point? If your car weighs 3550 after tech, it had better weigh 3550 after the race. If people can't police themselves not to screw around with their cars after passing tech, then they should be set on fire...
no dirt,
It would be very easy and tempting to just take out the 150# of weight that a car had to add to pass tech... especially if they are never weighed again.
Don't look at me, don't have 150lbs. to take off
pass the buck down...this shirt doesn't fit me
If I took mine out I couldn't wheelie like I do.... He he...I agree we need to do it like Bristol, weigh in after every run....
Maybe we can come up with a rule to pull 100 pounds when we line up with Jason. We need every advantage just to hang with him.
lol, ya right dave. We all know you got us covered...;)
Due to the rain, lots of people left. Including the guys that I had hoped would help me out with the scales. That alone killed my intention of weighing the racers after every round like we did last year (this isn't a new problem as one might extrapolate from Jason's comments).
The two people with weight in their trunk went out in the first round. Mine weighed in at exactly 3,550 but it didn't even qualify. I'd bet weight wasn't an issue with the other cars. Jason probably had the heaviest TSM car there, and won the event! I don't see weight as being a big factor this year.
Rain is also not good on the electronics for the scale. The equipment is housed upstairs in the tower. That's a long run back and forth. Maybe if someone from the RJC camp offers to help next year!? ;)
I do not have a fancy web page up at the TSM site for easy links to the video footage that I took, but here are two links to files that I have uploaded so far. The first is a 2.3Meg clip of the Louie Lopez wheelie where he almost hit his bumper on the pavement. Unfortunately, I stopped filming after he missed the wall (thought I might have to go help...it is only a 10-second clip.)
The second video clip is the TSM final. Here you will see the whole race between Jason Cramer and David Bamford, as such, it is a big 6.0Meg download. This was the closest race of the entire 2003 GS Nationals. I have more to upload, enjoy!
Click Here for the Lopez Wheelie clip.
Click Here for the TSM Final race.
You will need Windoze Media Player to view (or at least the appropriate CODEC for your player).
wow - Jasons car just leaves perfect..good job on the suspension! Definitely impressive that those cars weigh in at regular GN levels and run that damn fast still looking mostly stock. Awesome.
Bummer...can't upload "wmv" files, doesn't seem to work on "Apple G4's"
I also uploaded the below files mentioned in Scott's post to help take the load off the gnttype.org bandwidth.
The first is a 2.3Meg clip of the Louie Lopez wheelie where he almost hit his bumper on the pavement. Unfortunately, I stopped filming after he missed the wall (thought I might have to go help...it is only a 10-second clip.)
The second video clip is the TSM final. Here you will see the whole race between Jason Cramer and David Bamford, as such, it is a big 6.0Meg download. This was the closest race of the entire 2003 GS Nationals.
I'll take'em down in a month or so after everyone has'em :-)
Click Here for the Lopez Wheelie clip.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/gntklf/TSM-LopezWheelie03Nats.wmv
Click Here for the TSM Final race.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/gntklf/TSMFinal03Nats.wmv
You will need Windoze Media Player to view (or at least the appropriate CODEC for your player).