Post by Keith Tanaka on Mar 30, 2015 11:14:36 GMT -8
Sunday's races were the first time we've had races on the 5th Sunday of a month. The turnout was very good and we will have races on the remaining 5th Sundays of this year (May 31st, August 30th and November 29th).
The reason for the extra race day in March was to try having more than one race day a month. Having races on the 5th Sunday months is a good in-between schedule to increase the number of race days but not commit to twice a month racing at this time.
In the future, we can decide to have two race days a month when the attendance justifies a change in race schedule.
Besides the good turnout, we had a new racer join in the fun. We welcome Danny Maldonado to D3 Hardbody Racing. Fortunately or unfortunately (ha,ha), Danny is Gonzo's cousin. Well, I guess Gonzo has another person he can add to his fan club!!!
We had two races, the first race being the NASCAR race. This race was originally scheduled to be the 2nd (last) race of the day, but some of the racers were only racing NASCARs and had to leave early so we decided to run this race first, followed by the Mixed race.
We also tried a new format for today's NASCAR race by allowing any D3 NASCAR class to race. This means that our usual 80's-2015 NASCAR would also include any '46-'56 or '57-'79 NASCARs. Because of the different classes running, I decided to not only use our standard racer handicaps but also include the "Lap Differential" for the different NASCAR classes. This method provides a more level playing field regardless of which NASCAR class one races.
A field of 13 entries for this first ever "ANY" NASCAR race. We decided to run a round robin to decrease the time required to run the race (vs. two mains). Most of the NASCAR entries were the 80's-2015 cars but we did have 4 entries which were 60's NASCARs.
The 60's NASCAR entries received a 16 lap handicap. The racer handicaps were used for all entries.
The second and final race of the day was the "Mixed" race for any D3 hardbody racing class. We had 8 entries for this race.
Gonzo (Hector Gonzalez) set a new race fast lap of 5.050 seconds driving his Honda 2000 sports car. He was trying to be the first hardbody racer to record a race lap under 5 seconds but just missed the goal by 5 hundredths of a second (maybe next time Gonzo?).
Hector also set a new hardbody total lap record of 356 laps with the Honda 2000. Gonzo's Honda is slated for a new racing class which we'll probably call "International Production Sports Car, or IPS for short). Originally we thought international sports cars would be added to the existing 3 C's class but its apparent that some of international sports cars are smaller and lighter in weight than the 3 C's (American 2 seater, front engine, sports cars) and have a siginificant advantage over the Corvettes, Cobras, Cheetahs, Vipers which are larger and heavier. We need to finalize the rules for this new racing class soon as it now has become the fastest race class which recently belonged to the new GTP/Group C racing class.
Here's the race/photo report: 3-29-2015 race report
Thanks to Jim and Debby Watterson for their support of D3 Hardbody Racing at Buena Park Raceway.
The next D3 Hardbody Races will be on Sunday, April 19th. Track opens at 10 am. First race (Mixed race) starts at Noon followed by the Combined race and then the 80's-2015 NASCAR race.
Keith
The reason for the extra race day in March was to try having more than one race day a month. Having races on the 5th Sunday months is a good in-between schedule to increase the number of race days but not commit to twice a month racing at this time.
In the future, we can decide to have two race days a month when the attendance justifies a change in race schedule.
Besides the good turnout, we had a new racer join in the fun. We welcome Danny Maldonado to D3 Hardbody Racing. Fortunately or unfortunately (ha,ha), Danny is Gonzo's cousin. Well, I guess Gonzo has another person he can add to his fan club!!!
We had two races, the first race being the NASCAR race. This race was originally scheduled to be the 2nd (last) race of the day, but some of the racers were only racing NASCARs and had to leave early so we decided to run this race first, followed by the Mixed race.
We also tried a new format for today's NASCAR race by allowing any D3 NASCAR class to race. This means that our usual 80's-2015 NASCAR would also include any '46-'56 or '57-'79 NASCARs. Because of the different classes running, I decided to not only use our standard racer handicaps but also include the "Lap Differential" for the different NASCAR classes. This method provides a more level playing field regardless of which NASCAR class one races.
A field of 13 entries for this first ever "ANY" NASCAR race. We decided to run a round robin to decrease the time required to run the race (vs. two mains). Most of the NASCAR entries were the 80's-2015 cars but we did have 4 entries which were 60's NASCARs.
The 60's NASCAR entries received a 16 lap handicap. The racer handicaps were used for all entries.
The second and final race of the day was the "Mixed" race for any D3 hardbody racing class. We had 8 entries for this race.
Gonzo (Hector Gonzalez) set a new race fast lap of 5.050 seconds driving his Honda 2000 sports car. He was trying to be the first hardbody racer to record a race lap under 5 seconds but just missed the goal by 5 hundredths of a second (maybe next time Gonzo?).
Hector also set a new hardbody total lap record of 356 laps with the Honda 2000. Gonzo's Honda is slated for a new racing class which we'll probably call "International Production Sports Car, or IPS for short). Originally we thought international sports cars would be added to the existing 3 C's class but its apparent that some of international sports cars are smaller and lighter in weight than the 3 C's (American 2 seater, front engine, sports cars) and have a siginificant advantage over the Corvettes, Cobras, Cheetahs, Vipers which are larger and heavier. We need to finalize the rules for this new racing class soon as it now has become the fastest race class which recently belonged to the new GTP/Group C racing class.
Here's the race/photo report: 3-29-2015 race report
Thanks to Jim and Debby Watterson for their support of D3 Hardbody Racing at Buena Park Raceway.
The next D3 Hardbody Races will be on Sunday, April 19th. Track opens at 10 am. First race (Mixed race) starts at Noon followed by the Combined race and then the 80's-2015 NASCAR race.
Keith