vpalmieri
11-15-2006, 11:34 AM
Matt Palmieri and Stefan Sajic raced in the SKUSA Supernational race in Las Vegas last week. Stefan raced his PCR/Pavessi shifter in the S-1 (semi-pro) category and Matt raced his PCR/Leopard in Tag Senior. At 14, Matt was one of the youngest competitors. Tag Senior had 80 entries, the most of any class, with only the top 40 going to the final on Sunday. The format was practice on Thursday, qualifying and heat races on Friday, and heat races and last chance qualifier on Saturday. Because of the size of the Tag class, the last practice on Thursday was timed in order to put the racers into two groups for qualifying.
We were very pleasantly surprised when Matt finished the Thursday practice 19th out of 80. Reality quickly set in when Matt's brakes failed exiting the course resulting in Matt using a fence post as his emergency brake. The crash bent the two front bars and nose pod. We replaced the brake pads, front bars, and nose pod late Thursday night, but did not notice the bent axle until Friday morning. Replacing the axle meant that Matt missed his practice run on Friday and had to use part of his qualifying run to adjust to the new brakes. Although Matt got faster on Friday, so did the rest of the field, with times dropping under one minute. Matt qualified at #50 with a time of 59.6 only one second off the fastest time. Stefan qualified at the back of the S-1 group as we began to realize that some of the racers who would normally be in the SuperPro category has elected to run in S-1 instead.
Matt's qualifying time put him in the 13th row for the heat races. The first corner was a 90 degree right hander followed by a sharp left hander into turn two. The parking lot track was narrow and lined with either hard barriers or hay bales, so any contact with the walls was not good. In race after race we saw carnage in that first corner (including Alan Rudolph, the track designer). Matt made it through the corner unscathed and looked to be making good progress when the connector for his grounding strap broke and left him without power.
Matt's second and third heat races and the LCQ were all marred with crashes, spin outs and other problems of the tight course. Since the races were all 10 laps, there was no time to recover if you got into a scrape or made a mistake. Welcome to racing at the national level! Matt finished the LCQ with a bent tie rod and had to steer off center to finish the race.
Stefan managed to keep his nose cleaner and avoided accidents, but struggled with mechanical and shifter issues. He finished the feature in 15th place and learned much about competiting at this level.
All in all we had a great time. The event was very well run. We learned a year's worth of lessons in one week-end. For example, I learned that most guys running Leopard engines use two grounding straps rather than just one. We also learned that you need at least three spares of everthing (Matt bent three axles) including engines if you can afford it.
As we walked out Sunday, I asked Matt for his observations on the event, and he turned to me and said, "I can't wait until next year!". I think he summed up how we all felt.
We were very pleasantly surprised when Matt finished the Thursday practice 19th out of 80. Reality quickly set in when Matt's brakes failed exiting the course resulting in Matt using a fence post as his emergency brake. The crash bent the two front bars and nose pod. We replaced the brake pads, front bars, and nose pod late Thursday night, but did not notice the bent axle until Friday morning. Replacing the axle meant that Matt missed his practice run on Friday and had to use part of his qualifying run to adjust to the new brakes. Although Matt got faster on Friday, so did the rest of the field, with times dropping under one minute. Matt qualified at #50 with a time of 59.6 only one second off the fastest time. Stefan qualified at the back of the S-1 group as we began to realize that some of the racers who would normally be in the SuperPro category has elected to run in S-1 instead.
Matt's qualifying time put him in the 13th row for the heat races. The first corner was a 90 degree right hander followed by a sharp left hander into turn two. The parking lot track was narrow and lined with either hard barriers or hay bales, so any contact with the walls was not good. In race after race we saw carnage in that first corner (including Alan Rudolph, the track designer). Matt made it through the corner unscathed and looked to be making good progress when the connector for his grounding strap broke and left him without power.
Matt's second and third heat races and the LCQ were all marred with crashes, spin outs and other problems of the tight course. Since the races were all 10 laps, there was no time to recover if you got into a scrape or made a mistake. Welcome to racing at the national level! Matt finished the LCQ with a bent tie rod and had to steer off center to finish the race.
Stefan managed to keep his nose cleaner and avoided accidents, but struggled with mechanical and shifter issues. He finished the feature in 15th place and learned much about competiting at this level.
All in all we had a great time. The event was very well run. We learned a year's worth of lessons in one week-end. For example, I learned that most guys running Leopard engines use two grounding straps rather than just one. We also learned that you need at least three spares of everthing (Matt bent three axles) including engines if you can afford it.
As we walked out Sunday, I asked Matt for his observations on the event, and he turned to me and said, "I can't wait until next year!". I think he summed up how we all felt.