Congrats to John George, First Overall at Thomspon!

[Jim Schenck]

Today at Thompson John not only won the highly loaded ST2 class he took the overall race win. Pat McMahon also made it to the ST2 podium with a strong 3rd place and on Saturday John Kabacinski made it on the Super Unlimited podium with a third place in his GTM. More to come from Johns race report but a great weekend overall at a great new track!
Nice job everyone!

[65 Cobra Dude]

Way to go guys!

Henry

[johngeorge]

Thanks Jim! Was an excellent weekend with great company as usual, the racing was INTENSE! stay tuned for more to come..

[johngeorge]

Incar video from Sunday's race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mNdTsp-yjk&feature=em-upload_owner

[skullandbones]

Wow! That first pass was a little intense. I thought there would be some swapping of paint. Great video.

Thanks,

WEK.

[kabacj]

Incar video from Sunday's race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mNdTsp-yjk&feature=em-upload_owner

Awesome video John!

That was some really great driving on a circuit that is far more difficult then it looks on video!

John

[David Hodgkins]

Way to go John!

:)

[johngeorge]

Saturday incar:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6YV7BMbv4

[FFRSpec72]

Nice race ! What class are the vettes running ? Also looks like no oil temp is showing

[johngeorge]

Im having issues with my datalogger, some fields arent getting logged correctly and havent had the time to look into it.

[Plebeian]

Loved the video, thanks for posting. Congrats on the win!

[johngeorge]

Race Report

New racetrack, fresh pavement, cannot get any better then this! Thompson Speedway a 1.7mi road course located in north east corner of Connecticut saw FFR racers Jim Schenck, Pat McMahon, John Kabacinski and John George in attendance for the inaugural NASA Northeast Race weekend June 20-22, 2014.

Friday morning was greeted with great weather, and a track walk for all test/tune drivers first thing to familiarize themselves with the new track. The first session out was mayhem, people all over the place, going off the track, locking up tires under braking, all in pursuit to learn as quickly as possible the race line. Jim after the second track session said his car had fuel pickup issues, quickly diagnosed during the lunch hour as being a deteriorated/split/falling apart rubber fuel hose inside the fuel cell. It would not be a track event without Jim somehow diving into his fuel cell for some reason or another (past history probably due to his car not getting run much lately) Pat McMahon had some spare submersible fuel hose allowing Jim to get his car fixed quickly and ready for the last session of the day. John K. tinkered with his rear tow setting most of the weekend. Chris Allen was also pitted with us as Brendan Dougherty takes care of both FFR#48 and Chris’s E30#477. Breakfest and Lunch was served for all at John G’s RV with all in deep in discussions on what the best race line is.

Saturday’s typical race schedule of Practice, Qualifying, and Race was greeted fast times getting set by all. Qualifying resulted in John G. on pole for ST2 with Pat starting 7th, Jim 8th, and John K. 6th in SU class. The start of the race for John G had him mis-shift from 3rd to 2nd instead of 4th gear fortunately not damaging the engine and only loosing 2 spots chasing hard for the ST2 lead when on lap 6 coming onto the oval track looped it. Quickly recovering from the spin back in the race hunting down the spots he had lost. A great battle was then fought while moving up through the field with first the 4th place finisher Mitsubishi Evo, and towards the end of the race finishing in 3rd .234 seconds to the 2nd place Corvette. Pat and Jim finished 5th and 6th in ST2, and John K. 3rd in SU. Chris Allen had a great race in his SpecE30 finishing 1st! The NASA-NE podium ceremonies were held after all track activities were done, then dinner back at the JG RV along with movie night projecting race incar videos on the side of the trailer.

Sunday had a combined practice/qualifying session early in the morning following by the race late in the afternoon. John G. qualified 2nd only .382sec from the lead, Pat 5th, Jim 7th, and John F. 2nd in class. The start of the race saw the power of the Corvettes get the lead early in the race with John chasing the blue Corvette of Scott Mohr shadowing his every move. Mid race catching lapped traffic saw Scott run into traffic and that is when John G. used the traffic to his advantage making a great pass for the lead of the race. John G. ran consistent laptimes solidifying his first place finish and overall winner of Sunday’s race. Pat finished 3rd, Jim 6th, John K. had issues early on not finishing the race.

Factory Five Racing was kind enough to write a great article about our weekend here, Thanks Dave Smith! (https://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/factory-five-makes-history-at-re-opened-thompson-speedway/)

Next race will be July 4 weekend at Limerock, another track in Connecticut but located just south of the Berkshires north western part of CT. All are welcome, there will be a BBQ Friday pm, and fireworks Saturday.

Pics: http://www.johngeorgeracing.com/gallery/thompson2014

[Mark Dougherty]

great write up guys
but
John you left out the best part where the Evo guy came over to the pits, and told us FFR cars used to be rolling chicanes. He was impressed that John was running with him, but He was on his street gas tune on friday, and would be running his race gas tune on sat. so just be prepared for him to be faster than us.
I looked him right in the eye and told him good thing since John was running on his street tires old toyo's on Friday, and would be running his race tires on sat.
LOL
That is the EVO john passed after the spin.

Yeah he came over after the race humbled by John G and his rolling chicane

AH Good Times
__________________

[johngeorge]

haha yes forgot about that :)