The results from MARRS6 at the NJMP Lighting track have been posted to mylaps.

Saturday started with Ken and Brian pulling off a 1st and 3rd finish in the SM race as group 1 which continued into Sunday as a 1st and 2nd place finish.

View Scott Brunk’s double win weekend in SSM on Saturday and Sunday.

It is always exciting to visit a new track and the RP team showed everyone how to learn and race fast. After a busy day of testing, the Zs hit the track running on Saturday giving Ken a 1st place finish and the pole for Sunday’s race with Brian fighting it out to the last second for a photo finish at the line to take 3rd place.

The NJ region rules dictate that your finishing position in Saturday’s race define your starting position for the Sunday race. With Ken on pole and Brian right behind him they pushed the entire race. Ken had 1st place locked down while Brian was racing hard all the way to the checkered flag to take 2nd in another photo finish.

Meanwhile, Scott Brunk raced hard in SSM on both Saturday and Sunday for a double win. After finally resolving his car’s ECU issues, he is able to remain strong throughout the race and take home the wins that he much deserves.

Finally in the SRX7 race, Kevin Hutchens battled Alexander Schafer all weekend with both races coming down to a photo finish. Kevin was able to grab 2nd on Saturday while dropping back to 3rd on Sunday (by only 0.032 seconds). You can watch the HD video here:

MARRS6 NJMP Lightning Group 7 Sunday Race July 19th, 2009 from SRX Kevin on Vimeo.

Team RP demonstrated skill of quickly learning new tracks by earning 4 wins and 3 poles in SM and SSM.  A full race report will follow shortly, but here is some NJMP and Lightning information to keep you occupied in the mean time.

The facilities overall were nice (especially because they were new) but there are a few key things lacking from the Lightning side of NJMP.  First off, there is no WiFi at Lightning which is why this information wasn’t coming to you real-time from the track.  The showers (all 3 of them) were located at the other track (Thunderbolt) which was a long drive away, that’s right… no way to even walk, you had to drive or find a ride.  There were very few places to actually watch the race due to the kart track(s) taking up much of the infield.  Since only golf karts (no ATVs, etc) were allowed outside of the paddock, this made finding a place to watch even more difficult.  Lastly, the long road from the gate was narrow and hard to navigate while hauling a long trailer, something that should have been considered when building a race track!?

Now, onto the track.  The turns are not yet named and even the numbers provided don’t seem to make any sense so I will narrate from the start finish and you can follow along with the track map.  This track is FAST but has plenty of run off room, although you launch a huge cloud of dust into the air every time it happens (and it happens a lot).  Turn 1 is faster than it looks, the exit is blind but there is a little more room than you first realize.  Turns 2 and 3 are a complex sequence that should be negotiated as a double apex to set you up for the left hand at turn 4.  Turn 5 crests over the hill, causing your car to get a little light, making for some exciting racing.  Now you go under the bridge and brake hard for the other left hand turn, Turn 6, which leads you onto the only named turn on the track: the Lightbulb, and then back onto the straight.

Come back later this week to read the full race reports for SM, SSM and SRX7 and see some videos posted from the event.

Team RP is heading up to NJMP to claim our spot in the paddock and get ready for the test of the team. Make sure you look at this page: http://njmp.com/directions.html for directions since the track address isn’t on ANY of the map websites and probably isn’t in your GPS either. Use this address instead:

8000 Dividing Creek Road
Millville, NJ 08332

Here is a direct link to the track map as a PDF which is kind of hard to print or you can download it converted to a JPG for easier viewing and printing.

Assuming that I can get WiFi at the track, we will be live blogging the race all weekend, hope to see you all there!

With the launch of our new website, we will be posting news and information about SCCA and NASA race events throughout the season. Make sure to come back and visit our site often to read the latest news.

The Spec Miata race on Saturday yielded a 2nd and 3rd place finish (results) for Ken and Brian respectively. Ken’s performance during the weekend gave him both the pole and the win (results) in the Sunday race while Brian finished 4th on Sunday.

The SSM race on Sunday (results) gave Scott Brunk a 3rd place podium finish to continue his steady collection of points for the season.

Kevin Hutchens fought his way up to 4th place in the SRX7 race (results) after the RP guys cleaned out his carb yielding an extra 3 seconds of lap time to bring him up to competition speed. You can watch the whole Group 4 race in HD on viemo.

Saturday Ken had pole and I started 7th after a problem in qualifying with an air pocket in the cooling system necessitated ending my session after but only 4 laps… Ken finished 1st and I rallied back to a photo finish 3rd place finish…I missed 2nd place by .018… I lost at the loop but had it at the line, scoring is done at the loop.

Sunday Ken started from the pole…I started from 3rd….the accident involving Bret, Mike Collins and Brian Price resulted in a black flag all and the resetting of the field in original starting position. Bret was originally gridded second but since he couldn’t continue I assumed the 2nd place position for the regrid. Ken led every lap of the race and I had a hard fought battle with Kevin Kopp and pulled out the 2nd place finish at the end.

Both yellow RP Performance / Performance Auto works cars took top honors on Sunday in Spec Miata finishing 1st and 2nd. Sunday and 1st and 3rd Saturday.

Here are the current points standings for both SM and SSM as of May 15th.

SM

Ken 1073
Big Z 830
Meat 795
Price 645

SSM

Brunk 895
Zettersom 760
Pressman 730
York 670

On Mother’s day of the double header weekend, Ken qualified 3rd and Brian in 5th for the SM race. Ken pulled off a 1st in the MARRS point (2nd overall) with Brian earning 4th (5th overall). Scott qualified 2nd and finished with the win. The weekend yielded great points for the team RP: Ken is leading the SM MARRS series with Brian right behind him in 2nd. Watch for them to continue this domination at MARRS4 at the end of the month.

We had great weather for the SARRC/MARRS double header at VIR over Mother’s day weekend. The RP team continued their performance from MARRS1 and took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, in MARRS points in the SM race on Saturday. Brian qualified 4th after realizing a problem with his car and switched to the backup car to finish 4th overall and 3rd in MARRS. Tom Bourne started 2nd and got hit on the start going through turn 1 but kept it together to ran a few laps with Ken and the rest of the leaders and lay down a personal best time of 2:20.8. Ken put the car on poll with his best lap to date: 2:20.3 and stayed out in front to finish in 1st. In SSM, Steve Hunt was off to a great first time race at VIR until another car spun in front of him going into Rollercoaster leaving him nowhere to go and ended his race weekend. Kevin Hutchens was also a first timer at VIR in his SRX7 and finished his 2nd race on his novice permit to get signed off on his license. The Sunday race had a crazy start, some of which has been captured on this video.
Saturday Race Results: SM Race SSM/SRX7 Race 
Sunday Race Results: SM Race SSM/SRX7 Race