Our Miata Gets Smashed

Oh and for the record we won the overall at a lemons race. It is one of my top 3-4 wins ever. Don't know why it just is.

Tom Suddard wrote: So, uh, this showed up in our parking lot this morning. NSF racing–you're awesome. You really didn't have to give us a Miata. We tried to pay for it, but the team wouldn't take any money. Heck, it was all we could do to get him to take a T-Shirt. Let the build commence!

This is by far the coolest thing I have ever seen in all the years I have been racing.

Seriously!!!!!!!

I thought it was seriously classy, but not necessary that they dropped off a new car for us to build. And just what I need, another beater in my yard.

In reply to Tim Suddard:

Well if it is that much of a problem auction it off for charity. Or donate it as a prize at the next lemons event.

I still think this is a level of awsome that I have never seen. Especially at this level of racing. I have been trying to come up with a comparable example from my past and can not.

NSF racing really exemplifies what racing should be all about.

Now we need to find them another Nash. Except this time it should be set on a NASCAR chassis.

Glad the story had a mostly happy ending.

In reply to Ed Higginbotham:

Back home at the shop, the Gone Bananas Racing team would like to say "THANK YOU!!!" to the GRM team for their generous donation of the now-surplus front left upper control arm. We're now proudly wearing Grassroots Motorsports stickers on the car in several prominent locations, as well as a special tribute sticker wrapped around the control arm in question. We were able to run 6 of the final 7 hours of the event on Sunday, but as you might pick out in the behind-the-wheel photo the battle-hardened GRM arm actually pulled the mount out of the sub-frame, ending the day an hour early for us. All fixable and as they say, "that's racin'".

We really did intend to wait an appropriate period of mourning after the tow truck dropped the GRM Miata off before asking about the control arm (at least another 5 or maybe 10minutes), but when they asked if anyone needed any Miata parts ... well, what were we to say? We also briefly considered a team name change to "Vulture Racing" for the occasion.

Good luck to Grassroots Motorsports with their new red miata build project - make it a fast car, but not too fast if you know where I'm coming from! And finally, kudos to NSF. Fantastic move with the donor miata!

Buddy, Ken, Aaron, Randy, Sandy, and Andy - Going, Going, Going, Gone Bananas!

RedGT wrote:

tuna55 wrote: I don't believe that rule has ever been overturned (ha!) for any reason. I think it is trying to speak to the seriousness of the accident, giving such a severe punishment makes people think about what to do to avoid it.

I have always thought that was a very good rule. No ifs, ands or buts. If you are upside down, you're done for a year. Not forever, just for a year. So don't end up upside down. And in this case, ya know what, choosing the runoff area to the left or right rather than letting the car die on the track surface would have resulted in not-being-upside-down.

this has been my thoughts all along ... I find very hard to believe that the Nash driver was moving at such a slow pace that (s)he couldn't have exited the course one side or the other ... I CAN NOT believe that car had to come to a stop dead in the middle of the track ...if there were indications of pending stalling then get you off the track ... you're going to have to come in anyway, and the penalty for 4 off, would have been less after the explanation ... I speak from experience ... a carb problem that kept causing the engine to cut off ... I made sure I was on the edge of the track, and every time it cut off, I was mere inches from being out of the way ... did this all the way around the track ...waving to the flaggers that kept throwing the black flag at me ... my explanation to the judge was fine ... he thanked me for not causing a huge pile up ... and also for not causing a FCY by staying ON the track when I could see large groups of cars coming up on me ...

so ... like I said at the start of this ... I really don't understand how the driver couldn't position themselves in such a way as to prevent this from happening

zoomzoom39, nice sticker application. Thanks!

Maybe we need some custom stickers that are A-arm shaped--you know, just in case.

codrus wrote:

russian wrote: Lemons is a "both parties at fault" racing series: if you are involved in a collision, you are at fault. Regardless of your role in said collision.

Yeah, but if you punt someone off-track, making them roll while you stay upright, you can get away with a 5 minute delay in the pits (if you haven't been black flagged too many times already) while the other car is done for the race and the other driver gets a 1 year suspension.

That's certainly possible, but not likely at a Lemons race. The judges are not opposed to taking someone's driver wrist band (essentially ejecting them from the race) if they have caused a major incident. Yes if you read the letter of the rules it seems like someone could get away with that, but in reality they will not.

dculberson wrote: That's certainly possible, but not likely at a Lemons race. The judges are not opposed to taking someone's driver wrist band (essentially ejecting them from the race) if they have caused a major incident. Yes if you read the letter of the rules it seems like someone could get away with that, but in reality they will not.

Yeah, no stuntin', no 'splodin'. At least, I've heard rumors about it.

wbjones wrote:

RedGT wrote:

tuna55 wrote: I don't believe that rule has ever been overturned (ha!) for any reason. I think it is trying to speak to the seriousness of the accident, giving such a severe punishment makes people think about what to do to avoid it.

I have always thought that was a very good rule. No ifs, ands or buts. If you are upside down, you're done for a year. Not forever, just for a year. So don't end up upside down. And in this case, ya know what, choosing the runoff area to the left or right rather than letting the car die on the track surface would have resulted in not-being-upside-down.

this has been my thoughts all along ... I find very hard to believe that the Nash driver was moving at such a slow pace that (s)he couldn't have exited the course one side or the other ... I CAN NOT believe that car had to come to a stop dead in the middle of the track ...if there were indications of pending stalling then get you off the track ... you're going to have to come in anyway, and the penalty for 4 off, would have been less after the explanation ... I speak from experience ... a carb problem that kept causing the engine to cut off ... I made sure I was on the edge of the track, and every time it cut off, I was mere inches from being out of the way ... did this all the way around the track ...waving to the flaggers that kept throwing the black flag at me ... my explanation to the judge was fine ... he thanked me for not causing a huge pile up ... and also for not causing a FCY by staying ON the track when I could see large groups of cars coming up on me ... so ... like I said at the start of this ... I really don't understand how the driver couldn't position themselves in such a way as to prevent this from happening

Look at this year's Daytona 24 and this is exactly what took out the DeltaWing. PC car stalled right in the middle of T1 which is a blind corner.

Devilsolsi wrote:

wbjones wrote:

RedGT wrote:

tuna55 wrote: I don't believe that rule has ever been overturned (ha!) for any reason. I think it is trying to speak to the seriousness of the accident, giving such a severe punishment makes people think about what to do to avoid it.

I have always thought that was a very good rule. No ifs, ands or buts. If you are upside down, you're done for a year. Not forever, just for a year. So don't end up upside down. And in this case, ya know what, choosing the runoff area to the left or right rather than letting the car die on the track surface would have resulted in not-being-upside-down.

this has been my thoughts all along ... I find very hard to believe that the Nash driver was moving at such a slow pace that (s)he couldn't have exited the course one side or the other ... I CAN NOT believe that car had to come to a stop dead in the middle of the track ...if there were indications of pending stalling then get you off the track ... you're going to have to come in anyway, and the penalty for 4 off, would have been less after the explanation ... I speak from experience ... a carb problem that kept causing the engine to cut off ... I made sure I was on the edge of the track, and every time it cut off, I was mere inches from being out of the way ... did this all the way around the track ...waving to the flaggers that kept throwing the black flag at me ... my explanation to the judge was fine ... he thanked me for not causing a huge pile up ... and also for not causing a FCY by staying ON the track when I could see large groups of cars coming up on me ... so ... like I said at the start of this ... I really don't understand how the driver couldn't position themselves in such a way as to prevent this from happening

Look at this year's Daytona 24 and this is exactly what took out the DeltaWing. PC car stalled right in the middle of T1 which is a blind corner.

and it was a communication issue between race control, the flag stations and the pit box for the PC car which caused there to be a lack of FCY. Race Control had been told that the car was running and gear and waiting to get back into the stream of cars. Obviously this wasn't true.

the fact that the driver hit the car was due to several issues; miscommunication between the driver and his spotter, entering the corner too quickly (the local yellow flags and lights were on for quite some time) and finally, locking their front brakes up and fixating on the PC car and not where he really wanted to go. Many, many other cars managed to successfully avoid that PC car.

The situations are similar only from the standpoint that improvements could have been made in the response by Race Control and the flag stations.

In reply to Stefan (Not Bruce):

and in regard to this, there is often no on track communication car to pit crew .. but that would have helped the cars cresting the hill and finding the stalled Nash .. which didn't have to be there .. assuming there really was no warning .

jimbbski wrote: The problem is Lemons glories in having these "oddball" cars in their races.

That is because it isn't intended to be racing, it's an art car parade.

Yes there is racing going on, but it is sort of discouraged.

Hey GRM guys (and gals), As I was stumbling around my basement last night I realized I still have a set of OEM NA Miata coolant/heater hoses. They were for my '90 Miata that I never wound up getting to. They're about 2 or 3 years old now, but have never been taken out of their original packaging. If they'd be of any use to you, you're welcome to them.

zoomzoom39 wrote:

Random question - What wheels are on the car in these pics? Specs?

In reply to dyintorace:

Looks like Team Dynamics Pro Race. And if they are used for Spec Miata competition, they're 15x7.

In reply to dyintorace: Yes, those are Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 wheels in a 15x7 configuration with 25mm offset IIRC(http://www.teamdynamicsracing.com/pro-race/Pro-race12.htm).

12 of those mounted with hoosier SM6's and hoosier h2o's came with the car when I bought car, spares, tools, trailer, etc last summer. Obviously, the hoosiers are NOT lemons-legal. Nor chump-legal. They're not even spec-Miata legal anymore since the SM guys moved on to SM7's. But they are awesome play-time tires!

BTW, this car no longer runs in SM though I've yet to pull the sm and scca stickers off. Strictly aimed at lemons and chump fun these days.

I'll bet that Nash driver never parks on the racing surface again!

What a wonderful rule. Punish the victim and let the cause slide. Gee maybe the Nash had just stopped and couldn't get off the track. Did any body ask that or, apparently, it didn't matter. Rules, like the Constitution, can change. Even rules that may not necessarily need to be changed can have common sense applied in their application. Lack of common sense applications is blatant in this matter. Perhaps the Nash was getting too competitive. As far as "fault" for the GRM Miata and 924, these are simply racing accidents. These people are amateurs. Look at the pros from F1 to late models. They also have accidents but only intentional misdeeds get punished. This all was simply what happens in racing, pure and simple. No fault and no one to blame.