What a zoo!

robjacobsen

The Pros From Dover
Whew, I'm glad that one is behind us. The Doernbecher Dash was a real zoo this last weekend. Between the impossible schedule on Saturday and the cars crashing and burning on Sunday, it was a real workout for everyone in every specialty. Some incredible racing skills were on display. Happily everyone went home under their own power. No emergency room visits that I'm aware of. The two formula cars that tangled and then tried to BBQ their cars with a grass fire with the drivers still inside probably still smell of smoke, but they should be repairable. The 57 orange RX-7 that hit the tire wall between turn 12 and the Bridge ripped a corner off his car and seriously re-arranged the tires out onto the racing line. Having to re-grid that 40+ car field on the front straight took lots of time. Between all the incidents, we ended up a full 30 minutes late at the end of Sunday. It made for a late tow home for everyone. Finally there is a short break in my personal racing calendar after doing 7 weekends in a row. Time to recharge for the last few races and get ready for the Cascade Enduro.
 
Note to self: Hot chicane concrete, Nittos with 30+ heat cycles, and way WAY too much fuel in the cell make for a tail-happy car. Mostly it was the fuel: I put so much in for the G4 race I was able to also race G1 and STILL have 1/4 tank left over (enduro-sized cell). Duh.
 
i had a great time in all 3 of my run groups with racing and passing and getting to use all sorts of race tactics, maybe in the future ill run 4 run groups lol. first session of the weekend i got a new personal best and in all 3 races at the end on the day had almost the same best lap
 
Great weekend of racing in Portland and was fun to see all of the kids having fun getting rides and staring in bewilderment at the deadly snakes from the reptile man. Pretty cool stuff. Had some great duels on the track in Group 5 and Group 1 and set new personl best times so felt good about that. Had my best PRO3 finish of the year as well. Lots of action on the track but managed to avoid and carnage other than the usual retreival of my front chin spoiler from the kind turnworkers. :)
 
NASDA
Northwest AS Drivers Association.


To the Volunteer Workers in White, THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you all for coming out the Doernbecher Race...

Congratulations to Kevin Smith for the win, and I believe a new track record for Qualifying. 1:25.064

Doernbecher Race Results 14 August 2011.


1. 03 Kevin Smith ==== 1:26.741
2. 80 Rob Rissberger ==1:28.301
3. 2 Bill Dallas ======1:28.605
4. 18 Brian Rissberger = 1:29.099
5. 10 John Rissberger ==1:31.821
6. 474 Gary Presting ===1:32.719
7. 329 Ken Driver ===== 1:31.275
8. 6 Carl Clinton ===== 1:32.125

We look forward to seeing you at Oregon Raceway Park on September 17 / 18th for the T C = 9/11Memorial Grand Prix..




NASDA
Northwest AS Drivers Association.
 
What a zoo indeed.

With us having the wall hit at Turn 12 (Duane I hope you are OK), the fire under the two OW cars (with a wind blowing) and being chased away from the station on 4 occasions (yes...you drivers know who you are) and retreiving PRO3 parts (you're very welcome) and throwing in the mix of great grids and crazy close racing it was a rockin' weekend.
It was great to see the open wheel grids that size and damn there was some tight racing.

Thank you PRO3 drivers for the great dinner on Saturday. There were some workers that had never experienced having dinner prepared and SERVED by drivers before and they thought it was a class act.

And to Kristine Craine and Jess Heitman a thanks for supplying us all with terrific lunches.

See you at Mission for a great double-header on Labor Day.
 
As always the volunteers did an amazing job this weekend. I want to say a special thanks to those that brought us water while waiting to get gridded during the G2 race. I got it twice first from the T12 workers then from the grid workers. THANK YOU!
 
Steve, I would rather run IN CASE of impact instead of running BECAUSE of impact. Thanks for missing the point and following the workers directions. (your wallet thanks you too...no body repairs to pay for)
 
What a zoo indeed.

With us having the wall hit at Turn 12 (Duane I hope you are OK)...

Duane walked away and back in the pits we somehow got the 3 legged RX onto his trailer.
Hope he's not too sore today.

Thanks for the quick cleanup of the wall and helping us to continue on with the race.
The heat soak on track waiting for a restage cracked a rotor on my car and I hope I was successfull at staying out of the way the rest of the race.
 
Great weekend of racing in Portland and was fun to see all of the kids having fun getting rides and staring in bewilderment at the deadly snakes from the reptile man. Pretty cool stuff. Had some great duels on the track in Group 5 and Group 1 and set new personl best times so felt good about that. Had my best PRO3 finish of the year as well. Lots of action on the track but managed to avoid and carnage other than the usual retreival of my front chin spoiler from the kind turnworkers. :)

Watch out or they might start charging a return fee. Or like someone once did, write rude comments on it before returning it (grin)
 
I would also like to thank all the workers that helped me at turn 12 after my little tire excursion. After reviewing my video it appears that I hit the end of the FIA curbing at the outside of t-12 with my left front tire. Then I was in the marbles and starting to straighten out the car for the front straight. The left front grazed the tire wall and then I was sucked in quick. After the car was taken back to the paddock I was able to take a better look and so far it looks like a pretty easy fix. Went to medical per steward Tom and they gave me the okay so I ran down to the chicane grandstands to watch the rest of the group. I apologize to all the the G-2 drivers that had to wait in their hot cars for the regrid. Oh yeah, I'm actually feeling great with no aches or pains. Thanks again for all of the help from everyone. Duane
 
Ya Robbie, I love the "if found please return to Car # Phone#"
Maybe all the PRO3's should do that, it would make it easier to track down the chinless car......lol

And as for still being quick on my feet.......amazing what a huge sudden surge of adrenaline will do for you. <grin>
 
I want to say a special thanks to those that brought us water

Ooh, yes, they did that on pregrid for G4, too. I was feeling a little heat-soaked myself but resigned myself to dealing with it. That unexpected little bottle of ice-cold water really hit the spot at just the right time. Very much appreciated.
 
Duane,

So good to hear you are doing well and the car is fixable. Watching it happen live on the Portland Raceway site from far away as to where the camera was made it look far worse than it turned out to be. Still, wish it hadn't happened. Perhaps it will go into the track video archieves for future viewing. The upside??? Your wreck is out of the way and in the bag so you should be good to go for years to come. Well, that's my theory.

Just curious. Was the tire rolling away from the carnage from your car or the tire wall?

Again, glad you are well.

Jim & Tim
 
Jim & Tim-
Yes, unfortunately that was my left front tire and suspension on the track. It ripped out the ball joint from the lower A-arm and broke the camber plate in the upper strut tower. The stainless steel brake line ripped in two. The good news is I managed to keep the clutch in and the car was still running when helped arrived. I believe they were there is about 30 seconds-JUST AMAZING.
 
It's pretty convenient too, Duane. If you are going to 'stuff' it. Keep that stuff near the white/yellow w/flashy light trucks, please. Putting down right near in front of them is probably your best bet for a fast, "Are you okay?".

Same for those that may happen to light some summered grass under their car. Still...

Kids Dash.jpg

Anywhere we go
That kind of a Dover thing
Best Care Anywhere​
 
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It's pretty convenient too, Duane. If you are going to 'stuff' it. Keep that stuff near the white/yellow w/flashy light

Anywhere we go
That kind of a Dover thing
Best Care Anywhere

BTW Ken, thanks for the extra hand signals when that car with the broken rear pulled in at stop sign. It was just the sort of info that makes planning retrieval easy, as you well know.
 
Bob, and I heard that hollow metal tube sound of (6 yellow, AS) dragging something and he motioned that he was coming around the split. The driver thought maybe a driveline, but when I got a look underneath I saw the weld splattered ragged edges of a large square tube sitting on the ground. A torque bar, he called it, and they had just welded it back on after the 'rides'. I thought that it was a good thing that the front of it hadn't dropped out. Just so happened, he was parked perfect fer pickin' from the rear. We had water and an available chair in some shade, so we all watched the race and BS'd.
 
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