Jul 30-31, 2011 - Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California
NASA Double @ ACS
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The show arrived in Fontana for the a race before a summer break. 15 Spec Miata drivers, along with HC, PT, Legend, and TR, in a run group with over 40 cars, braved the warm SoCal summer weather to do battle at Auto Club Speedway (ACS). Clement brought along the trusted #9 Rush Motorsport prepared Sampson Racing Radios Warehouse (SRC) sponsored silver bullet that served him very well at the last event at Buttonwillow. With the good performance at the last event, Clement expected a good showing over this weekend at ACS.
Saturday
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While the rest of the country baked in 100+F heat, SoCal enjoyed a warm but pleasant Saturday. Clement made good use of the early warm up session to get his car dialed in then promptly qualified the silver bullet on the front row, just missing pole position by less then 1/10th.
The weather began to warm up in the afternoon just before the race with Spec Miata taking the 3rd green flag in the split start for the run group. Everyone behaved and filed through the tight turn 3 from the oval into the infield without incident, with Clement's Rush Motorsport Sampson Racing Radios SM #9 right on the bumper of P1. With the top 3 pushing hard, they quickly broke away from the rest of the pack. Clement continued to push P1 down the oval for several laps as his engine temp began to creep up.
Clement decided his motor needed some clean fresh air and found an opportunity to out brake P1 in the infield 180 right hander before the pedestrian bridge to get into the lead. With P2 and P3 squabbling for position, Clement continued to push hard and made his break away. By the time P2 and P3 realized what had happened, Clement had opened up a small gap and began making his way successfully thru the back markers.
The Rush Motorsport Sampson Racing Radios Silver Bullet continued to handle magnificently through to the end of the race. Driving flawlessly and not letting P2 and P3 to close up, Clement took the win with a margin of victory slightly over 3 secs.
Sunday
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The contestants woke up on Sunday morning to a dramatic and unusual thunder and lightning storm sweeping through the area. With rain falling constantly non-stop, Clement wisely decided to skip the warm up session to avoid pools of water gathered on and off the racing surface. The rain lightened as qualifying time approached. Clement surveyed the track and noticed while there were still a few pools of standing waters in a some places, it was safe enough to run with his dry weather tires. As Clement was cautious going around the puddles and high banks, his qualifying times were significantly slower but still managed to put in enough to be on the front row off pole one again.
The sun finally broke through about an hour before race time and all the competitors quickly changed back to their dry setup as the track was dry up very quickly. Just as the class did the day before, SM started with the 3rd green flag and gave themselves a big gap to the group in front. Clement got a nice bump by P4 right at the green flag which literally shot Clement out of the canon clear into the lead as P1 didn't get help! By turn 3 on the very first lap, the Rush Motorsport Sampson Racing Radios silver bullet came charging into the infield already with a couple car lengths lead!Meanwhile, the pack right behind did a 4 wide into the infield. Clement saw what was happening behind him, took the opportunity to put his head down and ran. By the end of the first lap, he had a 2 sec lead on the rest of the pack! Clement went into track attack mode and continue to push to open up a bigger gap. The rest of the pack tried but soon gave up as they began battling amongst themselves! Finally, Clement was able to cruise home, unchallenged, to a flag to flag victory as the Rush Motorsport Sampson Racing Radios SM #9 scoring the 2nd win over the weekend as the class head for a summer break.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Sampson Racing Radios Sposored SM takes 2nd Place at NASA event!
Jun 25-26, 2011 - NASA @ Buttonwillow Raceway - Sampson Racing Radios Warehouse Wins Podium Again!
Steamy hot summer weather did not deter 16 Spec Miata drivers from taking part in NASA's summer sizzler at Buttonwillow. Together with BMWs and Porsche 944s, the SM contingent formed a 30 car large run group. Running counter clockwise in Configuration #1, which included Star Mazda and the Bus Stop, the wide gap between Spec Miata lap times and those of the other class made for a challenging grouping. For the event, Clement brought along the #9 Rush Motorsport prepared Sampson Racing Communications (SRC) sponsored silver bullet.
Saturday:
Not in his usual ride, Clement was not entirely comfortable with the driving position, but still qualified for Saturday's race up front in the 2nd row in 4th. With a large downtime between qualifying and race, Clement took the opportunity to disassemble the fixed race seat mount and reassembled to a seating position more to his liking.
There were 3 race class in the race group with Spec Miata (SM) taking the 2nd split green flag after the BMWs. Just before SM was going to get the green flag, the 2 SMs in the front row touched and hooked wheels on the pit straight, bringing both of them to the pit wall. Amazingly, despite the incident, the starter still gave the green flag and the race began. But halfway into the 1st lap, the double red-yellow flag came out, signaling a complete regroup / restart. It took them a while but the 2 original front row cars eventually made their way back to the front of the pack for a restart. This time around it was a clean start. The top 3 cars including my Rush Motorsport Sampson Racing silver bullet ran nose to tail and quickly broke away from the rest of the pack making it a 3 car race.
It didn't take long for the top 3 to catch up to the BMW race group, and the SM race became a yo-yo race as the 3 SMs tried to get around the BMWs as quickly as they could. Eventually, after getting around the BMWs, the top 3 SMs ended up split up more or less evenly amongst themselves. The top 3 continued to circulate that way with Clement brining the Rush Motorsport prepared Sampson Racing Communications sponsored home to a comfortable 2nd place.
Sunday:
For Sunday, the race group embarked on a qualifying race to set the grid for Sunday's main event, with the qualifying race grid set based on Saturday's finishing order. Without much fan fare, the top 3 circulated more or less status quo to the end, with Clement ending his qualifying race in 2nd position, exactly where he started.
Just like Saturday, SM had the 2nd green flag for the split start, this time starting without any drama! Once again, the 3 lead cars, including Clement's, quickly broke away from the pack and opened up a gap. But that was all for naught as a BMW soon spun itself into the pit wall, requiring a full course yellow which lasted several laps to clear the wreck. Upon the restart, we saw a train of BMW followed by SMs and 944s now all battling for position.
Unfortunately with the vastly different driving dynamics of the makes, it was difficult getting around the other class of cars. Eventually the lead SMs got through the train of BMWs albeit breaking up the nose to tail SM race in the process. Once again for the 2nd time in the weekend, Clement's Rush Motorsport prepared Sampson Racing Communications sponsored silver bullet cruised home with another 2nd place finish.
Steamy hot summer weather did not deter 16 Spec Miata drivers from taking part in NASA's summer sizzler at Buttonwillow. Together with BMWs and Porsche 944s, the SM contingent formed a 30 car large run group. Running counter clockwise in Configuration #1, which included Star Mazda and the Bus Stop, the wide gap between Spec Miata lap times and those of the other class made for a challenging grouping. For the event, Clement brought along the #9 Rush Motorsport prepared Sampson Racing Communications (SRC) sponsored silver bullet.
Saturday:
Not in his usual ride, Clement was not entirely comfortable with the driving position, but still qualified for Saturday's race up front in the 2nd row in 4th. With a large downtime between qualifying and race, Clement took the opportunity to disassemble the fixed race seat mount and reassembled to a seating position more to his liking.
There were 3 race class in the race group with Spec Miata (SM) taking the 2nd split green flag after the BMWs. Just before SM was going to get the green flag, the 2 SMs in the front row touched and hooked wheels on the pit straight, bringing both of them to the pit wall. Amazingly, despite the incident, the starter still gave the green flag and the race began. But halfway into the 1st lap, the double red-yellow flag came out, signaling a complete regroup / restart. It took them a while but the 2 original front row cars eventually made their way back to the front of the pack for a restart. This time around it was a clean start. The top 3 cars including my Rush Motorsport Sampson Racing silver bullet ran nose to tail and quickly broke away from the rest of the pack making it a 3 car race.
It didn't take long for the top 3 to catch up to the BMW race group, and the SM race became a yo-yo race as the 3 SMs tried to get around the BMWs as quickly as they could. Eventually, after getting around the BMWs, the top 3 SMs ended up split up more or less evenly amongst themselves. The top 3 continued to circulate that way with Clement brining the Rush Motorsport prepared Sampson Racing Communications sponsored home to a comfortable 2nd place.
Sunday:
For Sunday, the race group embarked on a qualifying race to set the grid for Sunday's main event, with the qualifying race grid set based on Saturday's finishing order. Without much fan fare, the top 3 circulated more or less status quo to the end, with Clement ending his qualifying race in 2nd position, exactly where he started.
Just like Saturday, SM had the 2nd green flag for the split start, this time starting without any drama! Once again, the 3 lead cars, including Clement's, quickly broke away from the pack and opened up a gap. But that was all for naught as a BMW soon spun itself into the pit wall, requiring a full course yellow which lasted several laps to clear the wreck. Upon the restart, we saw a train of BMW followed by SMs and 944s now all battling for position.
Unfortunately with the vastly different driving dynamics of the makes, it was difficult getting around the other class of cars. Eventually the lead SMs got through the train of BMWs albeit breaking up the nose to tail SM race in the process. Once again for the 2nd time in the weekend, Clement's Rush Motorsport prepared Sampson Racing Communications sponsored silver bullet cruised home with another 2nd place finish.
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