The rumor i heard was there were a bunch of pit speed violations that weren't seen by the judges every time, but the track manager came down and threatened to throw your team out, but Jay smoothed it over. Apparently a few of the other teams weren't thrilled either. I personally didn't witness any on-track asshattery but I'd guess that may have happened as well. I have a feeling while some of your team may have just wanted to enjoy some track time being that you started with 100 penalty laps for bringing a Spec Miata, some others wanted to do everything they could to make up that time.
A 1st gen Probe in a Star Trek theme is exactly what you need to bring to have fun. Anyone can show up in a SM and slap everyone around, its way more fun when you have to work to make the car fast, and make it survive. It is VERY time consuming, we are running 3 events this year and so far have had to replace the roll cage (it failed tech) and this weekend we are replacing the engine we blew up. But its totally awesome and worth it.
Right on - I'll hit you up again for tips if my buddy and I want to try to create a space shuttle.
Ah yes, I've seen that rumor about pit speed. Basically one of the guys on our team was driving to head out on track, and an official stepped out from around a corner and scared the 🤬 out of himself (I don't think Leos was going 10, but he wasn't WOT blowing around the paddock like the rumors suggest). It was also a one time issue. Since the drivetrain/exhaust was entirely stock, the car was very quiet and he probably didn't hear the car before stepping out. It's true that the track manager came down to talk to us, but he was clearly mostly ball busting. Jay wasn't really involved, and we didn't even get a penalty. The stupidest thing about the situation is that the team wasn't even trying to make up laps, even if it seemed like it - after the 100 lap penalty (we didn't even bother trying to bribe) we fueled in the paddock, had lackadaisical driver changes, and weren't even pushing the car (except probably that same guy in the rain...).
As for the car - unfortunately for us it looked more "racer" than it was. The only parts that came from a Spec Miata were the door (with stupid stickers...in hindsight these should have been scraped off), roof, and cage. Everything else was either garbage parts or from the original salvage miata itself. This from one of the guys who helped the team build the car:
"The Miata in question was the biggest piece of crap Miata that I've ever heard about being allowed on a race track. Cage from a car that was speared/totalled at NHIS 3 years ago. Severely used shocks that compressed from gravity when extended. Body panels, a door and roof from a car that cartwheeled 4 times through the downhill at Lime Rock. Throw-out, junk spent motor. That Miata was a trash heap that was barely fit to race...we were running the sway bars that came with the chassis, and the springs were 2.5" ID springs that we were running without spring locators that were returns from my work that could not be sold as new. The condition of the roof was such that Lemons Tech made us patch it op a bit with duct tape for fear of it breaking at the driver's side B-pillar. Our lap times were about 5 sec off a good SM time, quite a bit more than just the improvement in tires."
Bottom line - IMO the rumors aren't as bad as it actually was, but the team showed up with the WRONG mindset. They had followed the LETTER of the rules, but not the INTENT of the rules, which is the entire point.
I should have taken Tommy's IM's more seriously...but track time is like heroine, and I have yet to turn down seat time. Lessons learned for sure.
Some advice (our team learned the hard way) for the GT Planet guys building a Lemons car:
1) Don't try to get a racing contract via Lemons...there aren't any scouts, and it's pretty much looked down upon
2) The worse the car, the better - theme is everything. One of the "best" cars was a Volvo wagon-turned-convertible that was painted like a black and white cow.
3) Stay under the radar and out of trouble.
