By Trey Dusek
Good morning racers! The Ohio Valley Sprints with SCCA have now wrapped up and it was one of our best weekends yet! With 15 cars registered, the group was strong for coming hot off the heels of Pitt Race just two weeks prior. Mid-Ohio in August can always present a weather problem, but luckily this year was nothing but sunshine and mid 70's temperatures. Those that attended got lots of great track time and are looking forward to our return in the near future!
With only one weekend remaining on our 2024 S2NA racing schedule remaining, everyone should be getting signed up for VRG at The Glen asap! it is fit to be a 20+ car field full of some great talent from all across the country. Don't be the one that misses this race and has to wait until 2025 to be back out on track with us all. Click the link below to register, see you there!
Photo Credit: David Lambert
Mid-Ohio Weekend Recap
Friday:
A total of 15 S2NA Sports 2000 cars came into MidOhio as S2NA has reached the penultimate race of the 2024 season with the SCCA Ohio Valley Region hosting our event, coordinated by Randy Hartman. The entire weekend was met with perfect weather, warm and sunny all weekend! The weekend got off to a good start with everyone finding the new pavement to their liking and adjusting to the lack of certain bumps that we have all come to expect at MidOhio. Slow is smooth and Smooth is Fast!
Point totals remain tight in the S2 class between Henry Payne V - Lola and Brent Gernert - Lola, with Sam Payne – Lola snapping at their heels. The S2 championship will indeed go down to the final race at Watkins Glen, just the way a competitive series should!
In VS2, Bryan Gernert has a strong lead with his Swift DB2 over Rhett Merriman in his Lola, but with Watkins Glen as the final event, the Championship there remains in play depending on the outcome, as both Bryan and Rhett are known to run strongly at WGI.
HS2 is headed by Angelo Savonia in his Tiga with Davis Jones in his Tiga within striking distance depending on the outcome of the season's last race at Watkins Glen!
It was great to see not one, but two drivers back in our ranks that have been missed for some time, and their homecoming to Sports 2000 and S2NA was a thrill. The first was Mark Coombs in his Lola, who was back racing with S2NA for the weekend this year and was back finding his pace. The second was John Fergus, former S2 SCCA Runoffs and Pro Series champion! John has not lost any of his pace in an S2 car and was at the sharp end of the field in his Carbir. Lastly, we welcomed a new member to our events! Joey Selmants with his Fox Lola, and he made his presence known right away, heading the field from the drop of the first green flag! Welcome back Mark and John and Welcome Joey! We hope to continue to see all three of you at future events!
Saturday:
Saturday's event was run on the Club Circuit which includes the chicane leading up to the Keyhole. Saturday morning qualifying was headed by Joey Selmants with a 1:29.2 best lap, just over 2 seconds faster than Payne V in second and John Fergus another .5 back, but it was early days. Brent Gernert was qualified 4th just head of Henry Sr. 6th through 10th was Guenther, Jividen, Sherwood, Coombs, and Sam Payne with 10 through 14 being filled by Jim Shanel, Chip Vance, Rhett Merriman, and Paiman Owtad, who have taken up the close battle that they had at Indy! Max Whitiker joined the proceedings late and did not have time in morning qualifying.
The Saturday afternoon race had some positions change, with John Fergus slipping past Payne V and Brent Gernert getting past both of them for 2nd, finishing 2.2 seconds behind Selmants. Payne V fell to 4th having lost some pace at about 2/3rds distance, but held on, turning some stronger laps at the end. He led home Payne Sr. in 5th with 6th through 11th being Guenther, Sam Payne, Jim Shanel, Chip Vance, Rhett Merriman, and Paiman Owtad. Most were running on their own by the end, except for Vance and Merriman who were less than 1 second apart at the flag. Sherwood, Whitker, Coombs, and Jividen all stopped early in the proceedings with issues.
The Saturday evening S2NA Social was held with good conversation, wine, and beer being enjoyed by all in attendance. As always, Sponsor prizes were awarded to members in attendance, so almost everyone went home a winner!
Sunday:
Sunday morning's qualifying race was again headed by Selmants going green flag to checker, with Payne V recovering from the day before to second, Brent Gernert in 3rd. Payne Sr. got past Fergus in the early laps to finish 4th with Fergus fading to finish back a bit in 5th. Ted Guenther and Sam Payne finished closely together in 6th and 7th respectively. Followed by, Jividen, Coombs, Whitiker, Merriman, Owtad, and Vance. Jim Shanel retired early, as did Rob Sherwood who we learned was battling with a new nose on the car causing issues at speed.
Sunday afternoon saw some changes! Selmants, Fergus, and Shanel did not take part in the afternoon race, so Payne V took to the head of the field. The top three of Payne V, Gernert, and Payne Sr. finished in their starting positions. Ted Guenther started in 4th and was running strong until late in the proceedings where he fell back to 11th with a stop. This elevated Sam Payne and Glenn Jividen. Rob Sherwood had sorted out his bodywork issues and was back on pace finishing in 6th. Coombs lead home Whitiker, Owtad, and Chip Vance, with Merriman retiring on lap 5.
A great time was had S2NA and we appreciate the Ohio Valley Region of the SCCA for hosting us at their event. They seemed happy to have some of their “old” SCCA class competitors back with them.
Photo Credit: Mark Windecker
Watkins Glen Circuit Intro
Watkins Glen International did not start as the track we all know and love today. The famed WGI started in 1948 as a 6.6 mile street course that went around the small town of Watkins Glen. In 1956, in an effort to create a safer circuit, the track we race on today was created just above the town where the racing all started. The track went on to host many important races of the years including many United States Formula 1 Grad Prix's, Can-Am races, IMSA racing, NASCAR and more.
Watkins Glen has two different track configurations, both of which we will be run during the SCCA Fun One weekend. The long course and the short course share the first four corners including the Bus Stop, and the last two corners. Both laps start with a fast downhill braking zone into turn 1. You are welcome to use the first tier of apex curbing as if you do it right, the compression on apex will help you get through the corner and back on power quickly. Track out to the exit curbing and make sure you do not lift going through the Esses as turns 2, 3, 4 are all flat out. Carry your speed down the back straight and into the next braking zone for the Bus Stop. Brake late and roll a lot of speed through the first two apex's. Use a lot of the first righthand apex curbing and get back on power somewhere in the middle of the chicane. As you come through the second half of the Bus Stop, track out wide when you set up to enter The Loop, turn 5. This is where the two laps begin to differ as The Loop is where the two laps deviate.
Long Course:
Work your way down to the apex and get back on power so that the car tracks out to the left hand side of the track heading down into The Chute. Don't hang out on the left side of the track there as you need to work back over to the righthand side of the track before braking downhill into the left hander. Be careful in this corner as its quite tight and easy to lose the rear end of the car here. Use all the road on exit and hustle down the laces of the boot into the uphill braking zone for the toe of the boot. Because this braking zone is uphill, you can brake later than you think and roll lots of speed into the uphill portion as it will aid in scrubbing off speed. Apex the toe middle to late and get on power because it will take some time to climb the hill on exit. The heel of the boot doesn't have much to it, hit your marks and accelerate up the hill. Turn 9 requires extreme patience, as early throttle application here will throw you into the fast approaching wall on exit. This completes the long course before joining back onto the short course, however, turn 10 does require a different technique depending on which configuration you are racing. In the long course configuration, this corner should be flat or very nearly flat if your car is setup right, there is runoff here so don't be afraid to experiment with some speed here!
Short Course:
The approach to The Loop is quite different when you are running the short course. Be exceedingly patient here, slowly working your way down to a very late apex. Make sure you are holding some maintenance throttle here and balancing the car on the limit of adhesion as you roll through the corner. If you have accelerated at the right point, you should be pulling 4th gear somewhere around the dark patch on track out, the earlier you hit your shift point the more speed you have rolled through the corner, this is a good indicator of a fast lap! Turn 6, turn 10 on the long course, while identical in form and function requires a different approach. Because you are coming into the corner at a higher rate of speed, you will have to apply some brake and a downshift as to not run wide on exit.
Both:
The last turn on the track is once more the same for both configurations. Make sure you approach the turn from as far left on the track as possible to shallow out the total radius of the corner. Apex the corner in the middle of the curbing and let the car float out to the wall just on the outside of the exit curbing. The faster you go through this corner the closer you will get to the wall, so be careful rolling too much speed into this corner as it can come back to bite you. One other thing to note in this corner is that pit-in goes right around the apex curbing at the bottom of the track so be cognizant of slow moving cars entering pit lane before the session has ended.
Below is a video of long time club member Brent Gernert running some very fast laps at last years WGI short course race tucked up underneath Rob Sherwood's rear deck! Be sure to look at Brent's channel for more videos of the long course at WGI if you need some more speed secrets!
Video Credit: Brent Gernert
We hope that all of the members of the S2NA Club find a venue that works for their schedule and will join in the challenge, fun, camaraderie, and excitement of our racing events. Join now to be included in this season's activities, it's never too late. The membership form can be found on our website under the Members tab (link at the bottom of this email). If you haven't yet, be sure to click the registration button below to sign up for our LAST event of the season with VRG at Watkins Glen International. Keep it clean and the track stays green!
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