SuperMiata @ 2012 NASA Nationals Mid Ohio
 

NASA National Championships - Mid Ohio
September 6-9, 2012

Wednesday Test n Tune
Thursday TT
Friday TT
Saturday TT & Race qual
Sunday Champ race

There are qualifying races Thurs, Friday but with only 7 PTC cars registered, they're not critical. TT is scored best single run from Thurs, Friday or Saturday. So I need to put a time in each day.

Crusher was loaded up and left this morning, team member Tom Probert driving the rig. I'll fly out Tuesday. Last week I dragged Sonny to CXC Simulations near LAX this morning to get some seat time in iRacing on the Mid Ohio Pro course. I asked him to drive aggressively against me. He did, gently putting me into a wall at one point. Thanks to Chris and the guys at CXC for setting us up. There are a few guys there that are Miata geeks like us. On of the guys was damn fast on the sims, jumped in with Sonny and me for a three way battle. I think I have a good head start on learning the flow of the track in race traffic. The full motion CXC simulators were especially valuable in getting a feel for the frequent mid turn elevation changes which really define Mid Ohio.

I'll be driving Crusher in TTC/PTC. NASA's digital magazine featured me as the favorite so I may have a bit of a target on my back. Crusher, while fast for an N/A Miata, is probably the lowest powered PTC car so I'll have my work cut out on the long straight between T2-T4. The flip side of that is I'll be the lightest and hardest turning in the woods. If often rains there in early September. Crusher is amazing in the wet so my odds improve dramatically if it rains. SM record is a 1:41.5. PTC record set by a Mini at Nationals last year is a 1:38.4. Another PTC local has done a 1:38 in the early August warm up event.

Live from Mid-Ohio via webcast at SpeedcastTV
Live video from SpeedcastTV
Live timing at this link
Event schedule at this link

I'll do my best to update our facebook page via twitter.
Team 949 Racing | Facebook

The other PTC cars entered
Two RX8's
Acura RSX
CRX - NASA marketing guy, Jeremy Croiset
Camaro
Mustang

At CXC Simulations
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1346561489

http://www.trackhq.com/forums/attach...54mid-ohio.png

Catching a flight in the am. Crusher is already there scoping things out for me. Nice Crusher.

I am convinced that level of preparation and attention to detail is a big part of your success. Good luck at a very cool track!

The first couple times I went to this track, turn 1 was a mindfcuk for me. For those not in-the-know, it's a blind left hander that starts in a tunnel after coming off the front straight. It's a very deceiving increasing-radius turn. The best advice I have received on turn 1 is to be back on the throttle WAYYYY early, apex early, and be WOT well before you come out of the corner. It's always a bit unnerving for me going WOT into the blind corner on 2 wheels, but I started walking away from people as soon as I started doing that.

After coming through thunder valley, turn 11 is another blind left hander that people tend to overbrake for. I've certainly passed far more people in turn 11 than any other single area on this track.

As a motorcycle rider, I know I've got far more room to play on a racetrack than the cars do, but as an SV650 rider, I know what it feels like to have my "doors" blown off halfway down the half-mile-long back straight every single lap by bikes with much higher HP than me, only to completely dominate the other 9/10ths of the track. Good luck, Emilio!

The RSX is one of our cars. The driver is pretty quick but he doesn't have a lot of experience in FWD cars or at Mid Ohio. He's spent a lot of time this year improving the car.

Croiset's car is very quick, and, the CRX is rediculously fast at Mid Ohio. Last years PTC winner was a Grand AM spec supercharged Mini with the boost turned up.

Good luck, but I'll have to root for my teammate this time...

I said good luck in your M.net thread but i feel more comfortable here.

Fwd's seem to be very competitive at the "most competitive track in the us." Some of the honda guys are stupid fast.

I just drove/instructed the SCCA PDX on friday, before their double regional sat/sun. You guys start tomorrow, so there should still be a large amount of rubber laid down. Im not sure if thats good or bad. Mid O is also seal coated over the dry line, which makes rain super slippery.

My car is similar to your old silver rental(142hp, 225 nt01s, 700/400 on crappy stance shocks)
Turn 1 in my car is brakes off at the 100 sign and on the gas at or before bridge-under. You will hear all the IT/PT/SM cars bark/echo the exhaust as they turn in at the bridge too. There is a lot of exit room in a lower powered car here. 80-85mph exit in my lowly machine.

Turn 2 has an uphill braking zone, then becomes off camber as the track falls away near the apex, this is a common theme here(turns 2, 5, 9..)

Out of 6, through 7 and 8 is a straightaway.

I'm finally getting comfortable turning into 9 early and aiming to the end of the treeline over the blind crest. Good fun 4wheel drifts to be had past apex as the track falls away.

11 is a 7/8 scale turn 1 where you are turning into and uphill, lots more grip than people think which allows good passing as mentioned if you carry speed out of 9. Second fastest turn on the track. I saw a ~74mph exit on friday. Again, lots more exit room than people use. I like to exit wide, using the yellow to set up a midtrack brake and turn-in for the carousel.

Take this all with some salt, Mid O is my home track but I just run de4's.
I look forward to you telling me that this is all wrong after you spend a week here. Maybe you'll tell me how to go faster! The sm record here is rediculous, my best around the pro course is a 1:43.9. I hope it stays dry and you guys smash that PTC record.

I fought in that. Seriously.

This is one thing I never quite liked about road race runoffs. The home field drivers have a massive advantage in knowing the track. At auto-x the most advantage you can really get from being the home team is knowing what the surface feels like and having a car that's better setup for the type of course you typically get.

Good luck out there, not that you really need it.

Not sure if everyone is following their twitter (https://twitter.com/Team949Racing) but:

For those not following NASA timing or mylaps results:

Qualy for yesterdays qualy race: My teamate qualified P1 in PTC at a 38.6, emilio 2nd at a 38.9.

Result of qualy race was: Mustang P1 at a 39.16, my teammate (RSX) P2 at a 39.15, emilio P3 at a 39.35 out of 4 starters. I'm pretty sure PTC was supposed to have 7 or 8 cars, not sure why only 4 cars started the qualy race.

Top 3 in qualy race all finished within a second of eachother.

I haven't really been paying attention to the TT results but I know in one session Emilio had the fastest time but was DQ'd for some reason? Same situation as PT where there are 5 or 6 cars in class but only 3 or 4 running the TT sessions.

Also, per the FB page it sounds like on the test day (Wednesday) they (949) had an IAT break so they had to completely re-tune the MS to run without it, and they had some other issues with the car not wanting to start or something. Not sure why they wouldn't bring a spare IAT, I guess they've never had one fail?

Wish I was there racing...

My other teammate finished P1 in PTD at a 40.9 in an '06 Civic Si (last years PTD nat'l champ car with a diff. driver this year).

Thats weird on the iat. Most of us use the camaro iat so you can just go to autozone and buy one in stock.

We found our spare IAT and dynoed yesterday to make sure we were still under our limit. All good.

Thanks for the updates.

There should be a lot of people watching because NASA just mass emailed everybody with a membership about the live broadcast on Saturday and Sunday.

Good luck out there.

Apparently getting the IAT working is helping (or maybe Emilio finally threw A6s on the car) because he's been going pretty quick today.

It looks like he was fastest of all the PTB-F cars today, out qualifying the PTC field by 1s+. He ran a 37.6, next fastest car was my PTC teammate at 39.0.

That said, it looks like the PTB field is full of chumps. The PTB car I drove last year at NASA Nationals is easily capable of 1:35.x but all the PTB cars are running in the 39s.

Today's qualifying race starts in about 30 minutes or so...

via facebook

Thursdays qualy race:

2012 NASA Nationals Mid Ohio Heat race #1 - YouTube

Heat race #2
 

By my math, this heat race win puts us on pole for the championship race Sunday. It'll be much harder to hold those guys off for 45 minutes in the dry.

My competition (as I see it)

-Kevin Boehm in the white RSX. Super fast, sharp driver. I think Crusher is a wee bit faster overall but if Kevin gets in front in the dry, I'll have a hard time getting around.
-Yellow Mustang. He's not a real precise kind of driver but he has the top end acceleration
on Kevin and I so he's all but impossible to get around even though he's almost 2sec slower in qual.
-Dennis Holloway in the silver/blue RX8. Super fast driver but I think his car is just a little under prepared for nationals. Just the same, if Kevin and I screw up even a little, Dennis will be right there.
-Jeremy Croiset. Very aggressive and fast driver in a Honda Challenge Civic with a few tweaks to run in PTC. He's a bit of a dark horse because he hasn't done any of the qual races. He'll start at the back Sunday but if he has more car that the rest of, we'll see him at the front.

The rest of the PTC cars entered have been no shows up to now.

Videos
Todays heat race #2

I had never driven Mid Ohio in the wet so I was basically learning the wet line on the formation lap. Damn near spun it twice squirreling tires
and testing for traction of line. Started to figure out a few new lines as the race progressed and was able to open a gap.
Very satisfying win. Plus it was just a ton of fun slip sliding around.




Yesterdays heat Race #1

That Mustang was a perfect example of 'that's how I drive...' type of guy. Rolling roadblock indeed..

Congrads on the win!

Thank you for 1080p - better be careful, you might be mistaken for a drifter! Awesome driving - will be tuning in for the live stream, have fun keeping all 4 on in the rain! :skid:

OMFG Crusher is fast a shit!

I'm supposed to be doing an autocross Sunday, but I'm going to try to make your guys race too. Looks like it should be a pretty good one!

SpeedcastTV coverage of Saturday TT
 

The TT coverage is about 15 minutes starting at minute 252.
SpeedcastTV
Click the green "Free" button under "2012 NASA Championships Saturday Replay"

Awesome coverage, they must have said your name 25 times. Would have been nice for them to mention 949 Racing :)

How is there a 4-5 second difference between 1st and 2nd in TTE?

Do you work for HAM or HART, by chance? Are these cars running Motons?

Sensational!!!

Nice job "crushing" the entire PTB-PTF field at Nationals, and breaking the track record like, every lap. 10 or 11 sec margin over second PTC as well as beating all PTB cars.

This combined with the 25 results means only one thing...

Thanks in advance for the 50lbs (or more) NASA will shove up the collective miata's asses (again) next year. :crx:

Seriously great race. I really, really liked how you gave it back to the assclown in the Mustang. What a douche move going all four off trying to pass you on the start. Your blocking move on his second attempt was sublime and brilliant. :bowrofl:

Well done. Hope to see ya at Hallett.

I work for HART and THR.

None of our cars in the race had motons. Most of them are running off-the-shelf cheap H&R coilovers including the RSX. I believe the silver PTD civic was running DA Koni yellows.

I went up to Mid-Ohio today, got a call at 11AM that our silver PTD car needed a transmission. The spare was 1hr away from me and another 1.25 hrs from the track...race started at 3PM. Needless to say we absolutely thrashed to get the trans changed in the silver car.

Got to watch the race, it was a pretty good one. Our team ended up with 3 second place finishes which is pretty good, but a bit disappointing.

Congrats to Emilio, his car is definitely well built and he drove a pretty good race. His car had some bruises on it, I guess at least two of the PTC cars were filling out body contact forms.

Per the RSX that finished 2nd to Crusher, it's not built to the limit of PTC and it leaves a lot on the table. It's missing a lot of "0" point mods and probably could make 10-15 more HP if we wanted to build it for PT racing. The motor has never been opened up, it's basically an intake, header, exhaust build with off the shelf H&R coilovers. The car could be easily replicated on the cheap. The RSX rear suspension is so awful, we'll probably never fully build it fully to PTC. The '06-'11 and '12 Civic Si would be much more competitive in PTC.

Again, Congrats to Emilio, 949 continues to do well in NASA racing. Maybe Emilio could chime in his thoughts about Mid-Ohio. It's basically my home track so I'm always interested to hear what other people from around the country think about it.

Sorry for the double post, but the PTB field this year was awful. I think of last years PTB field, there's at least 3-4 car/driver combos that would have walked away with the race this year. I drove the Acura TL that finished 2nd (in today's race) last year, ran 1:36s easily, car is capable of 35s. Of last years field I think at least three cars ran in the 36s consistently, I don't think any PTB car even got close this year (similar conditions). Kicking myself in the arse a little bit for not running PTx this year, but I decided to sit it out to concentrate on the Runoffs.

Miata/MX-5 won PTC and PTD, so yea, unfortunately for anyone else running miata's in PT or TT, they might just get another lead trophy. Probably not, but maybe.

SpeedcastTV

skip to 259: for Emilio's fight with that doucher in the mustang

Shitty move by the Mustang at the start.

Congrats Emilio!

In for in-car video of that race - and nudging asshat at start. He shoulda got flagged for repeating that shit - at end he was warned, but still.

Congrats Emilio, well done, well done.

2012 NASA nationals PTC race
 

Here it is. Loading now so might not be live until tomorrow morning

Congrats Emilio. I was impressed as always.

Stop the foreplay - we need in-car!

**edit**

Vid is live now - was wondering if mustang asshole contested your win? The way he drives I could see him being a winey bitch. Time for a new GoPro

2012 NASA nationals PTC race
 

If the video breaks up, try reloading the page. The file was somehow corrupted a little so there it's not perfect but it will play all the way through with just the exposure flicklering here and there

At the start I knew the Mustang would try the same pass in the grass move he got away with Thursday so I made a plan to thwart it. The first time he hit me medium hard, I was OK. He bounced off and came back two more times. The third hit was really hard, jerked the wheel in my hand and sent a puff of tire smoke up. I backed off then as I realized this guy would simply use the entire weight of his car as a battering ram and take me completely out. At that point the weight of his car had shoved me away from the edge of the track where I was stationed enough for him to get a tire on and rocket past. By then though, we were close enough to the braking zone for China Beach that I could stay with him. He stays amongst the leaders for another lap and tries again at China Beach. I fight hard to get past and make it stick this time.

The PTB Acura TSX may have been the team mate of the PTC Hart Racing Acura RSX that was up front. In any case, the PTB Acura blocked like crazy for three laps. Way more power but much slower through the technical woods section. Finally he blew Keyhole under braking and left the door open. I get under and scoot past. Being allowed only a single defending move, I run down the center going into China Beach. The TSX moves left on the preferred line. I shut the door. That's it. Once I can get to Madness (T5) in front, I know I'm free. I felt like the back section between Madness and T11 were my sanctuary. Chase Crusher into the woods and never see it again

The PTB leader in the white civic puts up a little bit of a fight. He leaves just enough room in the Carousel for me to get a nose under. We enter the front straight overlapping. At this point I can't run him wide. I get a bit lucky as we're catching a slow PTF Protege on the right. I have to move left to pass and that pinches the PTB Civics line for T1. He checks up, I scoot through at full speed and it's done. Now it's time hunt down the white RSX leading my class and the race overall about 3 sec up the road. Once I'm clear of traffic, it only takes me one lap to close the gap. I catch him under braking for Keyhole as he leaves the door open a bit. Just enough for me to present myself and force him to leave me "racing room". The RSX closes the door anyway and we rub. I get past at the apex. The RSX recovers and gets a good run of the turn and my left side. I use a slower PTE RX7 to shut that door. That makes the RSX breathe the throttle and scoot to my right. Just as he does that I move all the way right to block at the kink halfway down the straight. I don't react quickly enough and he's able to present before I get there so I have to leave the door open on the right. He pulls past and is ahead on the inside for the braking zone for China Beach. We have "The" big braking duel there. I get overlapped with him and leave room at the apex. He hits me again anyway, twice. From here I have the inside for Madness (T5) and its over. The RSX stays close for about a lap but once I get a clear track, I turn in the room key an check out.

LOVE the commentary! I'm looking forward to making some time to view the footage now.

If it's not a secret - what tires for the win? 205/50-15 Hoosier A6?

Yup. Cooled off enough Saturday and Sunday for them to be an advantage. Wed-Fri it was 20° warmer and the R6 (SM6) was just as fast and fell off a bit less in long runs. Even with the 65° ambient in the race, I picked up a push towards the end with the A6's. We also never got a session long enough during the week to get a good read on temps so I guessed on the high side for the race. That would insure I had good tires for the first 3 laps when it mattered, even if they went a little over towards the end. I figured once I had a gap (if I got in front) I could manage them a bit and hang on. That's how it panned out so the pressure choice worked.

Emilio, when you say you went a bit high with pressures, what amounts are we talking?

For example you went with 28psi so the car was better at the beginning as opposed to 27.5....24 etc. Just interested in the spread between a good start pressure as opposed to a good finish pressure....over those 22 odd laps.

And another question, the tv / web footage of the meeting looks amazing, you guys are really lucky to have that. From the coverage the weekend looked liked a lot of fun, with the different classes and spread over so many days. Was it a great trip on and off the track?

Also, these in car videos are really great.(especially when you can watch the external perspective as well...fantastic!) I have watched most of your in car vids more than a few times.

I did notice that if the camera was slightly lower (perhaps?) we might be able to see out the rear view mirror as well. Sometimes I try and see where the car attacking or you have just passed is.....of course then it might be blocking your vision......just a thought.

EDIT: Oops this latest one IS lower. cool!

Thanks!
Anywhere from .5 to as much as 5 psi depending on conditions, race strategy, weather, etc.
You will understand if I don't share actual data for nationals ;)

I flew out, Tom drove the rig. Great people, great track, beautiful countryside, decent weather. We had some issues with the car that we worked through. There were several times when we thought we weren't going to have a properly functioning car for Sunday. Tom and I just put our heads down, worked through each issue, collected data and stayed focused on the win.

It was awesome watching twitter and facebook updates all weekend! You were really throwing the car around, as usual, and putting the times down. Congrats!

I'm just going to leave this here......
Margin of Victory
12.902
Avg. Speed
85.677
Best Lap Tm
1:36.432
Best Speed
89.597
Best Lap by
49 - Emilio Cervantes

I think I met that yellow Disgustang driver at a truck-stop one night.

That's what you get for posting your number in the stall... ;)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347410461
My GF took that, lol.

Congratulations on the win. It was a good week at Mid-O. Not to much rain for a change.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347476509
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347476509

Time to update your signature photo! :bigtu:

Also, when can I order that front air dam/splitter combo, that hardtop, and that rear wing setup from your website? :naughty:

Air dam - Home Depot Motorsports
Splitter - 1/2" Birch
Wing mounts - fabbed from scrap aluminum in shop and orphan ricer Integra shock tower brace
Foil - APR 2D protoype. Not in production yet. We will have an application but I haven't decided where it will mount to.
Hardtop- generic FRP faux carbon hardtop similar to Chaser Aero

IOW, nothing fancy.

Yah, the sig pic is overdue for an update

Finally gave in, eh? :makeout:

The logic was infallible. Next best thing is dry carbon then Tegris a step above that. Everything else is problem waiting to happen.

Looks slow.

It's N/A dude. Bog slow.

To show how low Emilio's dick swings, that was the lap before the white flag where mortal drivers with that lead would have been dogging to preserve P1 and mortal cars would have been all used up. :bowdown:

Just curious, did you run those 205s on a 9 inch wide wheel? I've been debating about trying a 205 R6/A6, but don't have the points to run a 225, and currently have 9 inch 6ULs. Not sure if that is confidential info ;)

Pics of Miata specific TenzoR wing mount that you ordered off Ebay?

205 A6 on 9's for Ohio

Speed News Vol. 1 Issue 9 October

I didn't know anyone got a picture of this. Just published today.

Pass for the lead in the PTC race. I think the RSX was preoccupied with getting past the RX7 on the exit of keyhole without losing any momentum and didn't expect me there initially. After the first contact though, the RSX came back into me as he fought for the spot. By that time I had two in the grass on my left side tires on the kerb, not even on the pavement, with my nose just ahead. We drag race into China Beach where he gets a nose ahead. I outbrake the RSX and make a pass on the outside where we again, have light contact with him on the apex, me running just wide enough to give him pavement. Got clear as we entered the trees and opened the gap. Very hard racing.

There is a picture of the race on page 134 of December's Grassroots Motorsports.

"Emilio Cervantes of 949 Racing earned first in PTC along with a track record for the class: 1:36.432"