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Marty Howard · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:36 am

Just a quick opinion question.

South East

or

Mid Atlantic.

My Provisional will be with SE, but seems Mid - A gets bigger groups.

The problem is a lot of the Mid-A tracks are farther away.

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:04 pm

Marty Howard wrote:

Just a quick opinion question.

South East

or

Mid Atlantic.

My Provisional will be with SE, but seems Mid - A gets bigger groups.

The problem is a lot of the Mid-A tracks are farther away.

Are you planning on running for points and what is your budget? Both organizations are great. Their run formats vary with Mid-Atlantic adopting SE's Sunday format of 2008 this year. But SE has changed their Sunday format again...sounds good...two races on Sunday with no qualifying or practice.

This year, Mid_Atlantic has only two tracks (VIR and Summit Point). The SE has more variety of tracks (CMP, Charlotte, Alabama and Road Atlanta, maybe others). Actually, Charlotte was a one day event and they probably will not be going back.

Yes, Mid-Atlantic has larger run groups, which has its upsides and downsides.

Since the SE branched from the MA and Corbetto & Pantas are cut from the same cloth, the personalities of the two groups are pretty much the same...family.

I would love to run both organizations. But the scheduling is often back-to-back weekends. One thing I have found out about wheel-to-wheel racing, those are next to impossible to pull off.

I am hoping to make CMP and a number of us are discussing Road Atlanta in December.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:12 pm

My plan is to get my Comp at CMP in Nov, then run enough races to have fun but also try to make it to the nationals. Big plans I know, but at the moment my times and pace will at least place me at upper mid pack if not top 5 at the larger events. My last session at CMP would have placed me in a close 3rd out of 12, but that's not racing conditions. I need to test myself to see how I will really do.

My biggest issue with SE is there aren't many FFRC cars at all, and it seems none are running at the national competitors pace. There are more in FL including the now 2009 champion, and a lot in the mid-US sections but I am not going to make those drives.

There are a few more running in mid-a, but only at VIR. I guess I could just alternate between the two depending on the venue.

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:49 pm

Marty Howard wrote:

My plan is to get my Comp at CMP in Nov, then run enough races to have fun but also try to make it to the nationals. Big plans I know, but at the moment my times and pace will at least place me at upper mid pack if not top 5 at the larger events. My last session at CMP would have placed me in a close 3rd out of 12, but that's not racing conditions. I need to test myself to see how I will really do.

My biggest issue with SE is there aren't many FFRC cars at all, and it seems none are running at the national competitors pace. There are more in FL including the now 2009 champion, and a lot in the mid-US sections but I am not going to make those drives.

There are a few more running in mid-a, but only at VIR. I guess I could just alternate between the two depending on the venue.

The 2008 MA FFRC Champion sold his and came over to CMC because of the competition factor. I have not been to a SE race this year, so not sure of FFRC count there. I do know very well about the FFRC's running in MA. If you want my opinion, I will share it :-)

As for the Nationals, they remain out in Utah for 2010. I know Pantas would haul your car out there for around $1500. They return to Mid-Ohio in 2011. A CMC competitor from Texas actually tracked his costs to run the 2008 championship at Mid-Ohio. His bill was around $6000. He did win though. For nationals, all you need is your competition license and money. I am not sure if they allow provisional or not.

As for lap times in HPDE and racing. It is actually not a bad gauge. I have found that I ran faster laps racing, also some very slow ones too. And on too many occasions in the gravel (especially on Sunday, trying to figure that one out). But that is where the similarities end!

The secret is to runs those laps over a 25-45 minute period. Any lapse in judgment can be costly. It sucks to make one mistake and watch the leader open a lead especially when you are running a spec class. The biggest hurdle is passing. There are no point bys and the dude in front of you is not going to let you by. Plus you can come up on slower traffic that is its own battle. That is where I am at now. My laps times are right up there. But figuring how to pass is lacking. That is causing me the issues now. Patience is a virtue and I have shown I am not very virtuous right now.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:01 pm

I'd love to hear your opinions of the other FFRC guys. You can just PM me if you want to keep it private.

UT is a very long haul, but Factory Five is being very generous to the East coast guys and if you are one of the first 6-7 East Coast guys to sign up you can get a spot on their semi and they will truck the car out for you for free. No tools or spares though.

As far as the national qualifications the literature said you needed points in 5 races to qualify, but you can run with a provisional.

I think I will face the same challenges with passing.

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