The Mission Raceway Experance

Scott Norton

Scott Norton

Epic Win, I push limit
WOW! What a difficult/cool/different track. :eek:

Hard to learn, tight twisty mostly surrounded by concrete.
Turn 3 160 degree left hander up hill with a two foot ski jump at the apex. Way cool.

Just when I think I am figuring it out and really ready to push it rains after the 5 min warning. :eek::eek:

I spin myself out twice in the turn 1 brake zone by axle hopping on the downshift to second. I learn and use third from then on. Started 17th? overall, 5th of 7 in RS and spun to dead last. :eek: Recover and get back to battle for 4th in class and I do it again. (Moron). I put my head down and battle back to finish 3rd in class and 6th overall!

To be fair many faster cars/better drivers and to stop or pull off due to windshield fogging. I still have my defroster so I do not have that issue.

I did manage to straight-line the chicane (twice, sorry corner workers!) and destroyed my splitter and undertray so we have some work to due before Spokane. Also managed (whew!) to prove Steve P wrong who told us during the track walk if you go off in turn 8(?) into the grass you will not stop and hit the tire wall. If not for the little strip of asphalt (drag racing return road) out in the middle you would have been right.

Manfred that was awesome fun battling with you! Great fun seeing who could get the power down and were. Probably the only time we get to play like that together. Thanks for the room and clean racing!

Randy Blaylock in the Group 1 race in the rain then drying conditions, what can be said? On a scale of 1-10 you got a rating of 28! Holy $#@! What an epic drive. One of the best drives/display of car control I have ever seen. You really push the bar up so high. Something I will tell my grandkids about. We are not worthy comes to mind.

Thanks to the officials, workers, and of course my fellow competitors. Great fun, great experience. I hope to never miss a Mission race.
Of course having 15+ Canadian friends and family watching both days really inspires oneself:p

Bonnie and J.C., nice to meet you in person and put a face to your name. See you again.
 
Scott, I see we cross-posted! GREAT recap of your race. It's nice to hear positive feedback about the Mission track. I'm glad to hear none of your offs involved contact with something solid! Remind me to tell you the story sometime about the sudden rainstorm and two cars disappearing out of my sight off into the horizon at the end of turn three heading for what I thought was the river!!! (But don't worry, the gap in the wall is no longer there ... and in fact they didn't make it all the way to the river either.) :eek:

It was nice to meet you in person too, and see your big group of supporters. Now that I know you ARE a big (and, well, old[er]!) kid, I appreciate your enthusiasm even more! Have fun in Spokane, and hopefully I'll get to watch you again in Seattle in August.
 
Mission has a great track layout I thought. It was nice to run on a course that was a little different than the norm. Hard on brakes yes, but still fun. Everyone up there was very welcoming and friendly (as usual for ICSCC).

I can't say I'm not disappointed with my weekend, but that's how racing goes. I'll get over it soon enough. It'll be nice now though to have a few weeks off now so I can try to refresh my racing spirit. Unfortunately I can't make Spokane -- I REALLY REALLLY REALLLY wish I could, but a family engagement won't let me make the trek. I should be ready to go for August at PR though.

Scott - Great drive on Sunday! At the very least it was fun to watch you. I was about ready to start betting Steve if you were going to spin in T1 everytime you came down the front straight :)

Randy was the man in the G1 race.. holy moly. Very impressive. And I'll remember the "advice" you gave me Sunday for awhile ;)
 
clintonracing said:
Scott - Great drive on Sunday! At the very least it was fun to watch you. I was about ready to start betting Steve if you were going to spin in T1 everytime you came down the front straight :)
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Ha! It was only twice! :D You would have OWNED that race if your car was running. Now get that baby fixed!

And I'll remember the "advice" you gave me Sunday for awhile
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Yes I will remember too, as you relayed it to me. The License Director is so helpful with his "sage" advice.:p
 
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+1 to the Canadian hospitality experience! As always, Mission remains my favorite track on the Conference circuit. It's a great track, one for which the Pro3 cars are well suited, and I love driving it, wet or dry!

This weekend gave me a couple of firsts: my first flat-tow (G5 qual, plugged fuel line); and my first win in Pro3! Took me long enough, but made all the sweeter!

Thanks SCCBC!!

See y'all in Spokane.
 
Great Job Mike! I did notice you won, but I did not realize it was your first. Well Done and Congrats! A Pro3 win is tough to come by.
 
Hey, CONGRATS Mike, well done! Sorry I wasn't there to see it!! It was nice to see you on Saturday though. Glad you've got that first win under your belt, now I'm sure you'll have many more!

Also nice to hear you say Mission is your favourite track, wow! A dear friend of mine HATES it and I'd gotten used to hearing nothing but grumping ... then again, I guess that's what happens when your open wheel car sustains some serious damage with one of the concrete walls ... :(
 
+1

Many thanks to the SCCBC and ICSCC for putting on such a great event. I had a great time there. Such a fun track and the hospitality of the SCCBC folks was just incredible. I'll be back in September as I still have some Canadian money in my wallet!
 
This weekend at Mission was great (partly cause I was done before the rain set in...).
I really like the new config of the track, as it really makes it smoother and a lot more fun.

Thanks to all who helped put on a fun, well-organized event. There were alot of people with great attitudes there, which is what makes our conference so much fun to run in.

There was alot of good (and clean) racing going on too. Randy's Gp1 show on a wet-to-dry track was awesome. Congrats Mike O., and also Mike Tripp for two wins.

This was the maiden voyage for my newly rebuilt car (down about 1 1/2 yrs. to go from ITA to EIP). I'd like to publically thank my car builder (husband) for all his time, sweat, and support to make this a successful and exciting weekend; and my sponsor (God) for the strength to drive after 3 days of migraines and almost no sleep. If anyone figures out the formula for getting decent sleep before a race weekend, let me know...
Thanks also to the myriad of people who have offered (good) advice and help along the way.

Now that we know the car works, I'll plan to see you in Spokane.
 
Karen,
Its good to see you racing, you sure had a good battle with that yellow Pro3 car (was that Scott Adare?). You diced back and forth for quite a few laps then it looks like you finally wore him down :D

I had a good time as well, thanks to my pro3 community for the spare parts, jesh pretty soon I'll have a new car under the skin.

The rain in grp1 kind of freaked me out a little so I was very tenative with all the concrete walls looming at me, I was glad that the track dried out though. Although if it hadn't I think I could have held o'l Bart at bay long enough to stay in front of him. hahha. next time ol'buddy.!!
 
I didn't know you had won Mike, but I'm not suprised after watching you through the last turn! You were loose but bloody quick through there, and it was fun to watch! Congrats!
Randy turns a 1:11.4 on that track in his big car? Excuse me, wow, nice drive Randy!
 
Turn 1.......Rain, Ground Pounders, BMW's, Miatas, etc....slicks / no slicks...... All coming at you at once! OMG
We had more than a few yeeee hawww moments and a bunch of "Don't make me use this yellow flag" words said.

Great racing and congrats to all and thanks for a clean weekend.

There sure was some tight racing happening and not just in the larger grids. The two FC's were going at it side by side, nose to tail, lap after lap for at least half the race. Way to go Mr. Lensen!!!!!

Mr. Blaylock, great group of Novices.
They did well in the Red Flag situation and some of them came up to us that were working Turn 1, and said thanks as they had learned something from us while parked there. (the hand signal for the chekered flag)
The one driver said he could see me going from car to car with some sort of hand signal and was thinking "What is she telling me? What am I supposed to do now?" They were please to leave with an ROD Handbook for each of them with the hand signals in them. I know, I know they already have them, but maybe didn't have time to look at them. They might now.
So Randy, thanks again for another great Novice weekend.

See you all in Spokane....bring on the heat!
 
Lynn Rimmer said:
Turn 1.......Rain, Ground Pounders, BMW's, Miatas, etc....slicks / no slicks...... All coming at you at once! OMG
We had more than a few yeeee hawww moments and a bunch of "Don't make me use this yellow flag" words said.
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Did you say those words to me Lynn?:eek:
I was the white E36 BMW that axle hopped and went around right in front you on slicks (twice). :rolleyes:

Thanks again to all the workers who put up with us!
 
Here's an in-car video from Group 1.

I'm surprised actually at how little the video translates the feeling of sliding. I felt like I was sliding almost all the time. I wasn't really able to get any heat in the tires by accelerating as the tires would just spin. I had to soft pedal the car on the start to keep from spinning out too. I also had a lot of rear axle hop when downshifting too high in the revs like I usually do in the dry, and had to play around with the brake bias a bit on the fly. It took me a couple of braking zones to find a good downshift point. Check out the opening lap save by Mike, unbelievable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_CN30gnRHQ
 
Mike's save was probably the catch of the weekend, I thought for sure he was going to hit the wall! :eek: I can't believe we had 2 spins coming out of T9 onto the straight and neither one even touched a wall. Nice driving by both drivers, I believe the other one was Harry Watson in the 702 red Miata.

db
 
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