Peter J's Invitational - November '06

[Martin Lenick]

It's been a slow day on the CR forum. I think a lot of us are recovering from T3 and T4.

First Place:
Congratulations, HEARTS David Lehman! Nice racing.

Erjon, in my opinion, and in retractrion to a previous post, redeemed himself after the death of two karts, and still finishing the night.

Welcome back, Adam Andrea, who turned many of the fastest laps of the night.

[Rick]

It was definitely a fun race even though it was crazy at times. Racing at 180lbs was interesting. I have to get used to it and I hope that I will eventually be as fast as the other heavy weights. Peter, Paul, John and I had great battles. I'm sure that there will be more to come!

[Adam Andrea]

That was by far the most fun I've had at an event, despite finishing the "A" final all the way back in 11th.

[peterjank]

Hi Martin,

One correction, Erjon actually had three karts die on him Monday night: two in the first qualifier and a third one in the second qualifier. I'm also glad he hung in there and kept racing. He ended up with a pretty good finish in the A-main.

Thanks again for everyone that made it out to race Monday night. Thanks also to CIR for working through a lot of obstacles to keep the event rolling along.

[peterjank]

Here is a copy of my write up for the event for those of you who didn't receive it via e-mail:

We had a strong turnout of 23 drivers for Monday's
Track 3 Grand Prix and crowned a first time champion.
Thanks to everyone that came out to race.

The event was the fourth round
of our Fall Pro Series Championship.
The fifth round will be the Sprint Series event on
December 4 and the final round will be our last Track
3 Grand Prix of the year on December 18.

Things got off to a bumpy start in the first heat with
a major pileup in the second turn resulting in a red
flag. From my vantage point in the spectator area,
all I saw was Dave Harrington's kart in the air
followed by several karts crashing into the scene.
Greg Shebert got the worst of it as Dave's kart came
down on one of Greg's legs. Greg sat out the restart,
but came back to finish out the night with strong runs
in several races. The race was red-flagged again on
the second lap when Erjon Memishi's kart broke down.
He was provided a replacement, but five laps later it
also broke down leaving Erjon out of the race.

Of the remaining sixteen racers, the trio of Matt
Palmieri, David Lehman and Stefan Sajic rapidly worked
their way passed pole sitter and monthly runoff winner
Chris Quek. The three ran off to a substantial lead
as Chris battled with Matt Kamrad and Paul Russo for
fourth. Matt fell out of the battle on lap seven, but
Paul managed to work his way passed Chris on lap ten.
At the finish, Matt, David and Stefan finished first,
second and third with only 1.2 seconds between them.
Paul Russo finished at the head of another tight pack
in fourth, approximately 13 seconds behind Stefan and
a third of a second ahead of Matt Miller in fifth.
Will Johnston made the biggest move forward in the
race, gaining ten spots to finish sixth. Matt
Palmieri had the fast lap of the heat at 30.52.

The second heat was quite sedate compared to the
first. Martin Lenick started on the pole, followed by
me, John Oyen and Gordon McGrew. Fourteen laps later
we finished in the same order, with Martin 4.3 seconds
ahead of me, John one second behind me and Gordon
another 5 seconds back. Greg Shebert bounced back
nicely from his first heat crash, improving 6
positions from his 15th starting position to finish
ninth. David Lehman had the fastest lap of the heat
at 30.40 and also the biggest move forward in the
event, gaining seven spots from his 17th starting
position to finish tenth.

In the third heat, Greg Shebert started on the pole
and led from start to finish, beating Matt Miller to
the line by 1.6 seconds. Erjon Memishi finished
third, followed closely by Stefan Sajic. Adam Andrea
and I shared honors for the biggest move forward
during the heat with each of us picking up 5 spots.
Stefan Sajic had the fast lap of the heat at 30.42.

In the fourth heat, Adam Andrea started on the pole,
followed by Ivan Angelov, Will Johnston and Erjon
Memishi. Ivan spun during the first lap, leaving
Adam, Will and Erjon as the top three. They stayed in
that order until lap 5, when Dave Mickelson, having
worked his way up from a 7th place start, managed to
pass Erjon for third. Dave passed Will for second on
lap 9, then managed to pass Adam on the last lap for a
well deserved win. Stefan Sajic had the fast lap of
the heat and for the night overall with a 30.15.

After completion of the qualifying rounds, the top
seven drivers advanced to the A-main leaving 16
drivers racing in the B-main for the final 9 positions
in the A-main.

Greg Shebert started on the pole in the B-main,
followed by John Oyen, me, Adam Andrea, Rick
Apichairuk and Erjon. I passed John for second on the
first lap, and Adam passed him for third on the next
lap. Rick worked passed John on lap four and was
followed by Erjon on lap six. Adam worked his way
passed me on lap 13 to take second and that was it for
all the passing among the top six. Greg won the
B-main, about half a second ahead of Adam at the
finish. I was another 3.3 seconds back in third and
Rick was 3.3 seconds behind me in fourth. Dave
Harrington and Ryan Starzyk shared honors for the
biggest advance during the B-main, gaining six
positions from their respective 13th and 14th starting
positions to gain transfers to the A-main with 7th and
8th place positions. Paul Russo earned the final
transfer spot in 9th. Stanislav Yovchev finished
tenth, missing the final transfer spot by only a third
of a second. Adam Andrea had the fastest lap of the
B-main at 30.44. This was also the fastest lap run by
any heavyweight during the evening.

The top seven qualifiers for the A-main were Matt
Miller, Martin Lenick, Will Johnston, David Lehman,
David Mickelson, Matt Palmieri and Stefan Sajic. Greg
Shebert started eighth, followed by the other eight
qualifiers from the B-main. The first half of the
race was quite eventful. On the first lap, Will
passed Martin but David Lehman managed to slip by both
of them to take second. On the second lap, Martin
repassed Will, making the top four Matt Miller, David
Lehman, Martin and Will. On lap three, Dave Mickelson
worked his way passed Will to take fifth. On lap
eight, Dave Mickelson passed Martin for fourth and
Matt Palmieri passed Will for fifth. On lap ten, Matt
Miller spun advancing David Lehman to the lead, Dave
Mickelson to second, Martin to third, and Matt
Palmieri to fourth. Greg Shebert passed Will on the
same lap to move into fifth. Stefan passed Will on
lap 12 to move into sixth. on lap 13, Matt Palmieri
passed Martin for third.On lap 15, Greg and Stephan
both passed Martin, moving up to fourth and fith
respectively. On lap 16, Stefan passed Greg moving up
to fourth. On lap 20, Stefan passed Matt Palmieri for
third. From here, the top seven maintained their
postions to the end of the race. David Lehman became
a first time winner of the event, finishing about a
half a second ahead of perrenial champion David
Mickelson. Stefan rounded out the podium, another two
seconds back in third. Stefan had the fastest lap of
the main at 30.39 and tied with Erjon Memishi for most
positions gained in the main, with each picking up
four spots from their respective starting positions.

[MPIGP - Phillip Gordon]

Peter

Great race report :cheers: What I find amazing is the details in your report even about the races you're in :bowdown: Do you have eyes in the back of your head? :headscratch:

[Rick]

CIR gives Peter a special print out with all the results.

[Martin Lenick]

and, yes, Peter J has eyes in the back of his head and a "variable width kart".
:D

[peterjank]

Hi guys,

Actually I don't get any special reports from CIR. I download the lap times of all racers in each round of the event. I then have a computer program which combines the individual lap times and the margin of vctory at the finish to create a chart listing each drivers position on every lap as well as the start of the race. From those results, I'm able to reconstruct each race. I also add a little color based on what I pick up with my eyes (both the set facing forward and the set facing backward :D ).

[Rick]

Hmm... I thought I remembered you waiting for a special print out one day from Brian Dopp. I guess that was something else.

[MPIGP - Phillip Gordon]

[I download the lap times of all racers in each round of the event. I then have a computer program which combines the individual lap times and the margin of vctory at the finish to create a chart listing each drivers position on every lap as well as the start of the race. From those results, I'm able to reconstruct each race. I also add a little color based on what I pick up with my eyes (both the set facing forward and the set facing backward]

Pretty cool

[peterjank]

Hi Rick,

You are correct. I was too broad in my statement that "I don't get any special reports from CIR." What I meant to say was that I don't get any special reports regarding our Track 3 Grand Prix events.

In the instance you recalled, I was waiting for a printout of the final point totals earned by all participants during the Sprint Series event. When we run the Sprint Series races I need that printout so I can compile the final finishing positions (and corresponding formula 1 points) for the Sprint Series rounds of our Fall Pro Series Championship. Those numbers aren't available on the web.

However, when it comes to writing up our Track 3 Grand Prix events I do that strictly from the information I pull off the web-site as described in my earlier post.