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Old 03-16-2012
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SBPRO Series

Were can I find staus and updates about the SBPRO series event at Sebring?

Thanks Tom
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Old 03-16-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

The MX-5 Cup website has news updates (and I'm hoping they'll get to photos real soon!). The Skip Barber class had nine/eight entries for the races, with Dennis Trebing taking both victories. Though there is a not about one mechanical issue, all finishing PRO cars did so on the same lap as those in the regular class, which were about 2-3 seconds faster per lap. Good, clean racing!
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Old 03-16-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

anyone got more details from the weeks battleS?
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Old 03-17-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

Stevan McAleer was the walk away winner of the first Playboy Cup race with Elliiot Skeer in P2 and Christian Szymczak in third. On the Skip Barber side Dennis Trebbing also walked away with the top step on the podium with David Knight earning a hard fought P2 battle over Zachry Lee.

Trebbing was so fast that after the second practice session Playboy Cup officials ordered extra weight be put in the Skippy cars as they were concerned that Trebbing and a few of the other fast Skippy drivers were too competitive with the Playboy cars. The extra weight slowed them down about half a second and dropped them about 5 places on the starting grid.

In the race 2 qualifier David Knight had a moment into turn one that took him into the grass at track-out where he did a good job keeping it off the tire wall. Unfortunately the second part of his recovery didn't go as well when the car hooked left across the track and was clouted by a Playboy Cup car ending both of their runs. The good news was David had already procured P2 in the Skippy qualifier and they were able to put him into another car for the race.

Both races used standing starts producing 3 and 4 wide racing into turn one reported in spectacular fashion by Ryan Hall on the radio. Must have made great television too!. This time John Dean, Elliot Skeer, Christian Szymczak and Stevan McAleer traded the first four spots every lap. Dennis Trebbing once again walked away from P2 that was solidly held by Zachry Lee. Early on David Knight was holding off Dan Moen for P3 when his left rear stub axle began to fail. That causes the ABS sensors in the cars to misalign so he then had both an ill handling car and no ABS. David had to drop back and Dan Moen drove smartly picking up the P3 podium step.

Back in Playboy Cup Stevan McAleer worked himself to the point and was beginning to pull away again when his team asked him to work with team mate Elliot Skeer. He dropped back into the gnarly gaggle of Skeer, Dean and Szymczak to see what he could do. In the full measure of no good deed going unpunished, while dicing with this lead group again he got out into the marbles coming out of 17 and caught the tire wall membrane with the back of his car. He bounced off the tire wall and spun back to the inside with only cosmetic damage to his rear bumper cap. He was able to continue finishing 7th.

At the checkered flag John Dean won the Playboy Cup race with Elliot Skeer P2 and Christian Szymczak P3. It should be noted that John Dean is a current Skippy instructor and Christian Szymczak a long time open wheel Skip Barber racer.

Back to Skippy... Bryan Hixon had the best run of his weekend for P4 and Paul Minichiello Jr. drove a solid P5.

Pics to follow
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Old 03-18-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

Grats to Eliott and Christian!! Notice the 0.045s gap between P1 and P2 in the2nd race of the Playboy cup!
I actually race or mess around in practice with both very often on iRacing, as they are very regular user of the iracing Mx5 (Christian being also ASTONISHINGLY fast in the iRacing skippy!)

REALLY glad to see them do that well in "real life" also...
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Old 03-18-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

I've posted pics in the gallery from the Sebring paddock, pre-grid and podium along with some random ALMS and vintage cars... I was working a corner so action shots were not an option.

Enjoy

Pictures from the Sebring '12 Playboy Cup and Skip Barber MX-5 Cup
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Old 03-18-2012
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Thumbs up Re: SBPRO Series

Congratulations guys - sounds like you had a great event.
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Old 03-18-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

The absence of "Flying Randalls" was noted and wondered about? This seemed like the perfect place to showcase the family talents in front of thousands of fans? What happened?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sz28r View Post
Congratulations guys - sounds like you had a great event.
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Old 03-19-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

Some final thoughts...

On the technical good side:
Randy Pobst was invited in to thrash around in a Skippy MX-5 during one of the practice sessions with cameras on board for a video being produced. After running for half an hour he came in highly praising the shocks and overall handling setup on the cars. Keith Dalton, Stephan Bastrzycki, John Murphy, and all the techs deserve credit for that high praise as they've spent a lot of time and effort making them enjoyable to drive.

On the cosmetic good side:
There are now sponsor stickers on the MX-5's for Mother's Wax and those products were clearly used in abundance to make the cars look great. Tire marks were gone, no more colored racers tape holding wrinkled body panels together, interiors were cleared of gravel/dirt and the entire fleet looked like new. The cars were stunning! So hats off to the crew for the work that created and maintained that look throughout the weekend.

On the logistical dark side:
For some reason the Skip Barber hospitality trailer with tables, chairs and satellite TV system was put in back of the Playboy Cup ops trailer near turn one and only used once or twice a day for formal drivers meetings. The Skip Barber ops trailer that serviced the MX-5's was 300 yards away on the other side of the midway near turn 16 jammed between a USF 2000 and Playboy Cup trailer. All the cars were kept near or under that ops trailer canopy leaving no room for the food tables or coolers that were there. For some reason the coolers, food tables and chairs were left out in the sun by the chain link fence near the frequently noisy back straight. All the technicians, drivers, cars and tools were jammed in and around this trailer while the hospitality trailer sat, for the most part, empty and unused. Drivers sat at tables out in the sun or standing under the canopy while technicians did extra duty maneuvering cars around in very limited space for service and repair. No one seemed terribly bothered by this arrangement but it was hard to understand why the SB hospitality trailer became the Playboy Cup drivers meeting area leaving Skip Barber drivers swatting flies in the sun, stepping around cars and technicians?

In the paddock there was only one Skippy van and it was used to take instructors to corners for practice sessions. During the races when cars were brought down to pre-grid, ahead of drivers, the van was then used to ferry drivers to pre-grid leaving no vehicle to get instructors to or from corners. With only 4 instructors working a track the size of Sebring there should have been another way to get instructors to corners.

With nine drivers entered there were only 11 cars and both spares were quickly put into service before the first qualifier so there were no back up cars when qualifying started. If two cars had serious mechanical failures and two or more had serious contact the field would have been cut in half with no recourse. Thankfully that didn't happen but having a 9 driver field suddenly reduced to 4 or 5 cars would have looked bad for the company while also sorely disappointing half of their paying customers.

In the end:
All the practice, qualifying and racing sessions ran precisely on time and the races themselves were hard fought and compelling. Congratulations to the competitors and all who worked so hard to make it happen. The TV coverage of the Playboy Cup/Skip Barber MX-5 Cup races leading up to the 60th anniversary of the 12 Hours of Sebring should be exciting.
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Last edited by dalyduo; 03-19-2012 at 02:29 AM.
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Old 03-19-2012
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Smile Re: SBPRO Series

Quote:
Originally Posted by dalyduo View Post
The absence of "Flying Randalls" was noted and wondered about? This seemed like the perfect place to showcase the family talents in front of thousands of fans? What happened?
Simple answer, wanted to be there but logistically couldn't figure out how to be two places at the same time
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Old 03-20-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

Eliott Skeer's race weekd end summary

Quote:
Hey iRacers,

Super sorry for the lack of updates, my sub ended and I wasn't able to renew it when I was there.

So the trip started out on a big high as I had some really tall dude sitting behind me who was going to Bristol, (most know him as the dude who rides 199) ...So Travis and I talked NASCAR and Sports Cars for a lot of the flight, fastest 6 hour plane ride right there!

Tuesday was a practice day where we had 2 30 minute sessions on track. Car felt great and everybody on the team stayed over the target times of 2:33 (didn't want to show everything 1st day). I had 2 days in the Cup car there before, so Tuesday was more of a shakedown with the team and the car. All in all it was a great day.

Wednesday was also 2 30 minute sessions, these were official SCCA sessions, so times did matter for the qualifying order the next day. We were told by the team that we were supposed to set fast laps, but not at the start finish line, so my hot laps started at the Hairpin. The setup on my car had amazing initial turn it, the car would just dive for the apex and carry massive entry speed, and hold a lot of speed through the corner. The turn off was the back was very stiff, and it caught me out on my flyer going into Turn 1, lost it over the bumps and ended up in the outside barriers

Ok I gotta give Mazda credit here, the car is a TANK! The alignment wasn't even out! I couldn't believe it after hitting the barriers at ~65mph.

We had it fixed for Practice2, and set the fast time of a 2:31.7. So i average out to start 1st in qualifying Thursday.

Thursday and Friday were 2 session on track each day, a 30 minute qualifying and a 30 minute race.

Thrusday was all in all frustrating. The car lost its incredible turn in, and I dealt with understeer through qualifying and the race. But a consistent run landed me 2nd behind teammate Stevan Mcaleer.

Friday was much better as we were able to get that Kart like steering back in it. Thanks to a draft from Stevan, I was able to snag pole and track record on my last lap (2:29.1 90.1mph average)

Now it was time to prep for round 2.

CJ Wilson Racing managed to get 1-2-3 in qualifying with Me, Smackaleer, and Chad.

A good start by the team kept us in control for a few laps before our plan started to fail. A lack of teamwork led to some mid race problems and soon led to a CJWR car spinning out of Sunset with 4 laps to go. So it was a 3 car battle at this point between me and 2 teammates from another team.

I was in going into the last lap but a turn 1 pass attempt almost put me in 1st, didn't quite work and I was back in 3rd. The teammates make some big contact in turn 15, which led me to get into 2nd going onto the backstraight, exactly where I wanted to be.

Going into sunset I was looking for a way by the leader, this led him to block a little and me to get a run on the outside, I worked the side draft until it stalled out about 18 inches from his bumper, and thats where it ended. The gap was .045 at the finish.

So I came out of Sebring with 2 2nd's, a lap record, and the points lead. Almost the perfect debut weekend in my book!

So I feel good going into rounds 3 and 4 at Mazda Raceway with the ALMS.

Now time to go be .046 faster
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Old 04-25-2012
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Re: SBPRO Series

After speaking with Keith Dalton I want to revise my observation about the hospitality trailer at Sebring. It turns out standard operating procedure at Playboy Cup Pro weekends only allow a single SBRS trailer with awning, so the hospitality trailer was a special one off only permitted at the Sebring 12 hour. The trailer happened to be at Sebring for racing schools the week before the 12 hour week and they were given special permission to place it in back of the Playboy trailer for drivers meetings.

Keith says they'll have easy-ups to supplement the regular awning at the next event so there will be shade for food prep and eating tables at future Playboy Cup events.

One of the side benefits of having the cars, drivers and mechanics around one trailer is the communication and camaraderie that develops. It was easy for drivers and mechanics to communicate with each other about car issues and repairs. With eleven cars and nine drivers under one awning, space was at a premium but it was manageable and everyone worked well together. As mentioned earlier the cars looked great and with only one exception, ran as good as they looked.

Keith and all of his crew deserve special mention for putting on a show so good that the Playboy Cup people put extra weight in the cars to slow them down because there was a real danger one of our cars was going to wind up on their podium! Nice problem to have.
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Last edited by dalyduo; 04-25-2012 at 10:49 PM.
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