New England Nationals Presented By bpro Auto Parts

[none]

Didn't see it. But, -171 would mean the ambers were on before the car left.
There's .400 between ambers and green. -.171 means the ambers were on .229 before the car left the beam.

Alan

 

[twostep]

this far into the season, the kalitta and force teams sure are flexing their muscle. they are consistently
outperforming their competition. interesting that the older boninfante brother was shown in rwr pit area. (i think on one of clay's videos).
lot of teams struggling. i sometimes wonder about the caliber of the lower paid crew members, and if that makes
a big difference? i'm sure it does as it was noted a few weeks back the rwr schumacher team made a few personnel changes.

It amazes me how many races have been won by the two Kalitta cars with ETs in the mid 3.70s, times that were commonplace in 2010. I've been to races where half the field qualified in the 3.60s but this year you can't buy one. Seems like 340mph is more attainable than 3.69. A 3.80s FC pass is pretty rare too these days and I've attended races 5 years ago where it took an .89 to make the top half. Great racing....just not as quick as one might expect.

 

[8sec71]

It amazes me how many races have been won by the two Kalitta cars with ETs in the mid 3.70s, times that were commonplace in 2010. I've been to races where half the field qualified in the 3.60s but this year you can't buy one. Seems like 340mph is more attainable than 3.69. A 3.80s FC pass is pretty rare too these days and I've attended races 5 years ago where it took an .89 to make the top half. Great racing....just not as quick as one might expect.

I was thinking the same thing, why are the et’s so “slow” anymore?

 

[65 Goatboy]

this far into the season, the kalitta and force teams sure are flexing their muscle. they are consistently
outperforming their competition. interesting that the older boninfante brother was shown in rwr pit area. (i think on one of clay's videos).
lot of teams struggling. i sometimes wonder about the caliber of the lower paid crew members, and if that makes
a big difference? i'm sure it does as it was noted a few weeks back the rwr schumacher team made a few personnel changes.

CLUTCH DISCS. I think Brian Corradi hit on it when he was in the .TV booth with Joe Castello after Antron lost in Rd 2 to Kalitta. They are 8th in points and they were discussing how the team was struggling a bit this year. Brian said their problem was clutch discs, the Kalitta and JFR teams have such a huge inventory they have an advantage over everyone else. The Matco team is at a disadvantage with only one car too and Brian said they also ran out of the batch of discs that they liked. Like a lot of smaller teams they are working hard to get back to where they were but it's a slow process.

RWR, a two car team with 3 crew chiefs who all worked for Katlitta. Being a relatively new 2 car team they obviously don't have the same clutch program as the big teams either. Being that Nicky Boninfante (and now his brother)? are involved wouldn't that maybe give them an advantage in the clutch department? Not quite halfway through the season they should be doing better. Clay has made it past the 1st round 4 out of 8 races, Tony 2 out of 8.
This is a interesting subject, hope some knowledgeable ones chime in. Tony Smith give your opinion please!

 

[DanTheFan]

Racing wasn’t halted due to pollen on the track? Watching on tv, sure looked like clouds of the stuff kicked up by headers. A lot like the sand issues at Phoenix.

 

[Dennis]

Racing wasn’t halted due to pollen on the track? Watching on tv, sure looked like clouds of the stuff kicked up by headers. A lot like the sand issues at Phoenix.

No, the only stoppage in racing was due to drizzles or in the first round when 3 cars in a row hit the timing blocks. That wind was exactly perpendicular to the track, stiff, and they hit the cones after they passed the grandstands.

 

[Billy]

Racing wasn’t halted due to pollen on the track? Watching on tv, sure looked like clouds of the stuff kicked up by headers. A lot like the sand issues at Phoenix.

Was at the track, and heard them announce about the pollen, but honestly never saw it with the naked eye. Then I watch the TV coverage later, and holy ****, that was a lot of pollen, plus being kicked up by the parachutes. Never had a clue in person at the venue.

 

[Billy]

I was thinking the same thing, why are the et’s so “slow” anymore?

Yeah - the Friday night session was disappointing to me - I can't get up and cheer for a 3.90-something or 3.70-something. That was disappointing, for what felt like good conditions.

 

[mick]

brian lohnes posted some great drone shots from epping on his FB page

 

[T.Smith]

this far into the season, the kalitta and force teams sure are flexing their muscle. they are consistently
outperforming their competition. interesting that the older boninfante brother was shown in rwr pit area. (i think on one of clay's videos).
lot of teams struggling. i sometimes wonder about the caliber of the lower paid crew members, and if that makes
a big difference? i'm sure it does as it was noted a few weeks back the rwr schumacher team made a few personnel changes.

Nicky Jr. has been over at RWR for at least a couple years now.

I wouldn't blame it on lower paid crew members, I don't get paid sh*t, so that doesn't fly. Maybe it's more so lack of experience and shortage of crew members. Also, let's remember the off season where there was a lot of turnover amongst the teams.

 

[Butch]

Tony, what's your prospective on installing a new bullet every round?
My experience from years ago is each engine has it's own personality and tuning a new one each round leaves somewhat of a mistery.
What's your modern day experience.
Thanks

 

[T.Smith]

Yeah - the Friday night session was disappointing to me - I can't get up and cheer for a 3.90-something or 3.70-something. That was disappointing, for what felt like good conditions.

There has been a shift in qualifying schedule times. The sessions times are more in the early & mid afternoon, so warmer track temps.

There have been some subtle changes in track prep.

You shouldn't be able to run 3.60's & 3.80's everywhere you go. It's good some of the tracks have some personality.

 

[T.Smith]

Tony, what's your prospective on installing a new bullet every round?
My experience from years ago is each engine has it's own personality and tuning a new one each round leaves somewhat of a mistery.
What's your modern day experience.
Thanks

We tend to test short blocks in qualifying and then set them aside for race day. In the case that we damage an engine, we can then drop in one that is a known quantity. Also, we still rely on reading bearings and pistons between runs. So the switch it out every run theory doesn't work for us. I could see a scenario where something like that could work, however we're not rich.

 

[T.Smith]

CLUTCH DISCS. I think Brian Corradi hit on it when he was in the .TV booth with Joe Castello after Antron lost in Rd 2 to Kalitta. They are 8th in points and they were discussing how the team was struggling a bit this year. Brian said their problem was clutch discs, the Kalitta and JFR teams have such a huge inventory they have an advantage over everyone else. The Matco team is at a disadvantage with only one car too and Brian said they also ran out of the batch of discs that they liked. Like a lot of smaller teams they are working hard to get back to where they were but it's a slow process.

RWR, a two car team with 3 crew chiefs who all worked for Katlitta. Being a relatively new 2 car team they obviously don't have the same clutch program as the big teams either. Being that Nicky Boninfante (and now his brother)? are involved wouldn't that maybe give them an advantage in the clutch department? Not quite halfway through the season they should be doing better. Clay has made it past the 1st round 4 out of 8 races, Tony 2 out of 8.
This is a interesting subject, hope some knowledgeable ones chime in. Tony Smith give your opinion please!

I don't pretend to know what some of these teams' struggles are, we got enough problems of our own to worry about. However, I understand there can be issues with clutch discs, and I don't understand how clutch discs can be an issue for some teams. Sure, Kalitta & Force have a lot of discs...they have too!

So, if you're a single car team running all 20 races on the tour and let's say on average you think you will average 6 runs per event, 120 runs per season. Most teams worth their salt run 3 new discs per run. that's 360 new disc per season...not including testing. To me that's a pretty large sample size of discs. Changes in your disc line up should be pretty subtle.