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Oh Man. This is a tough race weekend to return home from. So much to think about. As racers we need to always own our drive and take responsibility for our actions. When we make a mistake we must learn from it. Most importantly we must be safe. Thank you Tim for your work this past weekend and a giant thank you to all the corner workers and support personnel for their herculean effort to make the best out of a very difficult race weekend. None of us are perfect and we all make our share of mistakes. This weekend. Our group made quite a few of them. For our involvement in making the lives of PCA volunteers and that of other racers lives difficult I want to say from the bottom of my heart, I'm deeply sorry. There are quite a few things I would like to address with the members of the community but I wanted to first let everyone know this is NOT the type of behavior we sponsor, condone, or promote at ECR. Quite the contrary actually. We spend a great deal of time working on what rests on top of our shoulders though this weekend I agree you wouldn't know it. We are all competitive and we all want to win for the most part but I want to stress that the sentiment we at ECR want to win at any cost is not correct. What we saw this weekend does not represent our values as racers nor the direction we promote. What happened in sprint 1 was most unfortunate and was no doubt the incident that has sowed much mistrust among our community. For this I am also deeply sorry. All video is being reviewed with coaches and we are taking this opportunity to learn a thing or two. Our commitment to education, sportsmanship, and our racing community remains strong and in the forefront.
Many other mistakes were made which included passing under yellow, 2 accidents leaving both drivers ok thankfully but cars severely damaged (T3 and T10), and quite a few other perceived wrongs such as blocking someone from entering the pits and not leaving enough room in a corner. The truth here is we take ownership of the mistakes we made and in no way feel entitled over nor better than any one else on the race track. With that said there is no defense for passing a car under yellow. That driver owns it, has looked at the video, and thoughtfully discussed at length what happened and how to avoid it. As for our other 2 drivers who racked up a nice bill from the weekend they simply made mistakes which they could not recover from. We've all been there and our group is taking steps to understand what happened, learn from it, and make better racers as a result. Much of the last is tit for tat. We RARELY complain about anyone. In fact honestly NEVER complain or share video outside an accident where the stewards demand it. Just like everyone on the track that has been turned into, bumped, flipped off, etc. we have plenty of video showing sometimes perception isn't reality. As a result of this over the long term I believe we are painted in a light that is not always fair. The squeaky wheel gets the grease right? I say this now lightly as it is not my intention to detract from what deserves attention and to let each of you know we respect those that respect us.
Originally Posted by Streak
Green sprint 1, the black flag station ran out of blank incident report forms . . . .
That race was so off the hook I actually, for the first time in 14 years of racing, voluntarily DNF'd.
I have never seen that level of asshattery in our race group. Never. One guy was responsible directly and indirectly for at least a dozen incidents or more. In ONE sprint race.
PCA must immediately get that clown show under control. Bullying is not racing. Period.
My apologies to the very patient lady scrutineer who had to hear the brunt of my rage regarding sprint 1.
Hunt - I'm so damn sorry we affected your race. You're a class act. We met in Watkins after you had an unfortunate event in T6. We did what we could to help you get back on track. That is what I want us to be remembered for. Not this. You have my word we're solving this.
Originally Posted by jerome951
Thanks to all who volunteered to run a great event, and our own tsmith for stewarding.
I'm just happy my car came home with no new dents or donuts!!!
When the enduro start was waived off, I had an eerie feeling it would be an 'unusual' race. I wasn't wrong...
Apparently the driver that caused the red flag walked to the ambulance, so that's a good sign. Hopefully he/she is OK.
Travis is good, thank you for asking.
Originally Posted by tgsmith4845
My first time at Summit Point did not disappoint. What a great event put on by the Potomac Region. Thank you. Fun 2 mile track, friendly people, great racing and beautiful weather - I can’t say enough about the weekend. And how about that field of 37 Vintage racers! Wow.
As a bonus, my son, Commander Glenn Smith, 3rd generation US Naval Aviator, was able to come up from Norfolk and spend a few days watching gentleman/gentlelady PCA Club Racing. He commented that “PCA Club Racing makes flying off an aircraft carrier look easy.”
And yes, we fully appreciate that there was a lot going on. Some has already been addressed and there’s much more to come. We’re still reviewing video.
The Enduro was exhausting, and I wasn’t even racing. Thanks to all you racers for your patience while we sorted out two significant incidents and a bunch of minors. Crazy. The worst experience for me as a steward is when I see a car go full tilt into the tire wall, and then see no movement or hand wave from the driver. Waiting, waiting, … RED FLAG - Go help our racer. Thank you all for stopping promptly, that really helped us get emergency vehicles out quickly and safely. Glad to report that that racer was ok, and the racer from the earlier incident.
Training complete, hopefully. 🙂
Tim
SPB 07
Tim - Thanks for all you do! We're all just getting to know each other but you've shown to be a great racer as well as stew. Sorry we made your life a bit challenging this weekend. Please know we care.
Originally Posted by jkb157
As Hunt stated, Green group race 1 was a mess. I spun in turn 5 lap 1 in the fluid and was hit in the driver side door. I spun again in 10 and 3 on the same lap, 2 laps later. At that point I said screw it. The level of aggression has definitely increase in PCA. Did they increase the prize money or make the trophies bigger? It is amazing to see the risks people will take to get a faster lap or a trophy. The Porsche Factory was definitely not hiding in the woods of Summit Point ready to sign anyone that was there driving this weekend. Ok I 'm off the soap box, by the way the gauge on the upright is the temperature gauge and the blinking red light going off means you are dropping coolant. DA!
We definitely pointed out the location of the temp gauge. Hard to miss a blinking red light.
Originally Posted by Jas0nn
I see a golf resort in Eagle Canyon's future ...
We have no plans for a golf resort at this time. We did however take a good look at the video of you trying to enter the pit. I know it felt like an intentional block. It wasn't. I'm really sorry for that and it has been discussed and addressed. A little more awareness could have been shown. Love your car!
Originally Posted by ProCoach
Great work doing double duty! Love that 911Cup group shot.
It's passive aggressive behavior OFF the track that turns into metal damage ON the track. Agreed that the level of questionable moves and damage (both single car from overdriving and multi-car from aggressive moves) is on the rise. Something needs to change...
Hats off to the Potomac Region staff and volunteers for another great event! While I wasn't there, I was getting all kinds of good info from some folks on track, some of whom went quicker and all stayed clean. All good.
Agreed. I really want folks to know and the record to be straight. WE also want to race cleanly. We are not looking for trouble. We are not trying to bully anyone and would help anyone in a second that needed it. We have shown that over and over this year. Though you're always judged on the bad it seems. Please don't judge ECR or us as a whole based on what happened this weekend.
It seems that PCA is allowing some level of contact in some classes with no penalties. In recent years I have seen some hard contact leaving noticeable marks on cars not penalized in any way. No 13s, no time penalties, no lap penalties. This seems most common in the Spec Boxster and Spec911 (now racing in 911Cup) classes. Why is this? In large competitive classes with close racing, ignoring light contact leads to heavier and heavier contact.
Just bring a couple of bottles of bourbon to Summit Point next year. Everyone will either get drunk, and all will be forgiven, or everyone will get drunk, and there will be a brawl. Either way - it will be worked out!
Oh Man. This is a tough race weekend to return home from. So much to think about. As racers we need to always own our drive and take responsibility for our actions. When we make a mistake we must learn from it. Most importantly we must be safe. Thank you Tim for your work this past weekend and a giant thank you to all the corner workers and support personnel for their herculean effort to make the best out of a very difficult race weekend. None of us are perfect and we all make our share of mistakes. This weekend. Our group made quite a few of them. For our involvement in making the lives of PCA volunteers and that of other racers lives difficult I want to say from the bottom of my heart, I'm deeply sorry. There are quite a few things I would like to address with the members of the community but I wanted to first let everyone know this is NOT the type of behavior we sponsor, condone, or promote at ECR. Quite the contrary actually. We spend a great deal of time working on what rests on top of our shoulders though this weekend I agree you wouldn't know it. We are all competitive and we all want to win for the most part but I want to stress that the sentiment we at ECR want to win at any cost is not correct. What we saw this weekend does not represent our values as racers nor the direction we promote. What happened in sprint 1 was most unfortunate and was no doubt the incident that has sowed much mistrust among our community. For this I am also deeply sorry. All video is being reviewed with coaches and we are taking this opportunity to learn a thing or two. Our commitment to education, sportsmanship, and our racing community remains strong and in the forefront.
Many other mistakes were made which included passing under yellow, 2 accidents leaving both drivers ok thankfully but cars severely damaged (T3 and T10), and quite a few other perceived wrongs such as blocking someone from entering the pits and not leaving enough room in a corner. The truth here is we take ownership of the mistakes we made and in no way feel entitled over nor better than any one else on the race track. With that said there is no defense for passing a car under yellow. That driver owns it, has looked at the video, and thoughtfully discussed at length what happened and how to avoid it. As for our other 2 drivers who racked up a nice bill from the weekend they simply made mistakes which they could not recover from. We've all been there and our group is taking steps to understand what happened, learn from it, and make better racers as a result. Much of the last is tit for tat. We RARELY complain about anyone. In fact honestly NEVER complain or share video outside an accident where the stewards demand it. Just like everyone on the track that has been turned into, bumped, flipped off, etc. we have plenty of video showing sometimes perception isn't reality. As a result of this over the long term I believe we are painted in a light that is not always fair. The squeaky wheel gets the grease right? I say this now lightly as it is not my intention to detract from what deserves attention and to let each of you know we respect those that respect us.
Hunt - I'm so damn sorry we affected your race. You're a class act. We met in Watkins after you had an unfortunate event in T6. We did what we could to help you get back on track. That is what I want us to be remembered for. Not this. You have my word we're solving this.
Travis is good, thank you for asking.
Tim - Thanks for all you do! We're all just getting to know each other but you've shown to be a great racer as well as stew. Sorry we made your life a bit challenging this weekend. Please know we care.
We definitely pointed out the location of the temp gauge. Hard to miss a blinking red light.
We have no plans for a golf resort at this time. We did however take a good look at the video of you trying to enter the pit. I know it felt like an intentional block. It wasn't. I'm really sorry for that and it has been discussed and addressed. A little more awareness could have been shown. Love your car!
Agreed. I really want folks to know and the record to be straight. WE also want to race cleanly. We are not looking for trouble. We are not trying to bully anyone and would help anyone in a second that needed it. We have shown that over and over this year. Though you're always judged on the bad it seems. Please don't judge ECR or us as a whole based on what happened this weekend.
That was a very thoughtful. heartfelt response. Although I only had exposure to you guys in the Enduro, I thought all of you were pretty accommodating as we worked our way through traffic.
Hey, s--t happens and we all should be better people/better racers after every experience in life...good or bad.
@Strimdog You mean this video? Not sure what your driver was thinking - or maybe he just wasn't - but I do know that stupid move dented a brand new, freshly painted 930 fender and wrinkled my door. And to what end? It was a poorly executed AND reckless move ... with zero payoff.
I personally watched cars from the ECR camp playing bumper cars on the starts; one rockstar decided to start racing before the green and missed the wave-off; and of course, this incident. Add some of the post race antics and you guys have not done yourselves any favors ...
@Strimdog You mean this video? Not sure what your driver was thinking - or maybe he just wasn't - but I do know that stupid move dented a brand new, freshly painted 930 fender and wrinkled my door. And to what end? It was a poorly executed AND reckless move ... with zero payoff.
Yes that's the one! Totally unnecessary. I don't want to add insult to injury trying to explain it. He made a poor call and took ownership of it.
PM me the bill when you get it. Sorry again Jason.
ECR drivers are being judged based on the downward spiral of their continued poor behavior on the track. You know that, too. How did ECR drivers behave at Sonoma? Were those videos reviewed? Did anyone learn anything before going to Summit? At Summit, ECR drivers behaved poorly not just during the races, but also during the practice on Friday. The drivers from ECR consistently and intentionally make grossly risky decisions, lap after lap, day after day, track after track! Those are NOT MISTAKES - they are poor decisions that adults intentionally, knowingly, actively chose to execute.
You will respect those that respect you. Is that a threat? What the f does that even mean? What about respecting that behind the wheels of the other cars on track is a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a husband, a wife? And if they don't come home after a weekend of amateur racing due to a bunch of yahoos who enjoy testing their luck while they're next to someone else, those families will be devastated. What are you going to tell that family? PM you their bills? For the rest of their lives? Maybe you don't care about causing catastrophic injury to yourself and your family doesn't care that you will never hug them again. I don't respect people who don't respect themselves or the lives of other people.
You DO want to be judged as a whole - for the good stuff, right? "We spend a great deal of time working on what rests on the top of our shoulders..." "All video is being reviewed with coaches and we are taking this opportunity to learn..." It's just that when it comes to the bad stuff, then you don't. You all act as a whole. In fact, your whole post is on behalf of your whole. (Yes, I was tempted to misspell that last word.)
Just as easy as it is to distance yourself from the fact that in the other cars on the track are actual people with lives and loved ones, it's easy to type page after page of dribble and apologies of "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" on the internet. If you can admit that Sprint 1 was a disaster, why didn't someone walk around the paddock after that sprint and talk to the other SPB drivers in person, face-to-face? Why did nothing change in Sprint 2? Why did it get worse in the Enduro? Did you and your whole not look at any video until today, at which point you thought, "Holy f! I need to kick into damage control..."
Actions speak louder than words. Fool me in Sprint 1, shame on me. Fool me in Sprint 2, shame on you and your whole. Did you and your whole watch your videos Friday night? Saturday night? Were you and your whole laughing your holes off and giving each other props for how you and your whole got other drivers to move over?
Have fun racing with only you and your whole at ECR, because racing with others is not about how deep your pockets are, it’s about the people, and no amount of bourbon is going to make you and your whole pretty enough for me to want to race with.
Why don't you and your whole tell us how many of the ECR drivers came to Summit with 13s and how many left with 13s and 13-13s? Better yet, how about those holes tell us themselves.
09-20-2022, 05:03 PM
