Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sonoma?
 

I guess there was an EPIC pre-stage burndown in the first round of stock last weekend at Sonoma. Did anybody see it? Better yet, does anybody have video of it? I would love to see footage of it. I guess the guy receiving the burndown even had to shut his car off while he was pre-staged because the other driver was taking so long.

Looks like it was a HUGE fail on the starter's part. The driver didn't follow his command to stage and he should have DQ'd him.

Why warm your car up in the pits when you can warm it up after the burnout?

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

Your Roving Reporter wants to know "Who were the burnees?". Me & Slate tried that one time. I lost. Imagine that. I was .002 red and he was .005 red, but I was first.

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

Really ? who was it ? I did not hear anything about this ...huh

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

Was not us, eh Bob.. LOL! I heard.....

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

I am parked on the edge of my seat waiting to hear who the players are.............oh the drama !! Oh the anticipation !!
Thought those antics only took place in the pop n stop classes.

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

I witnessed that burn down but i don't know who the drivers are, I thought i was watching a pro stock race from back in the day.

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

The participants were Tommy Gaynor and Jim Meador. Jim doesn't play any games at the line. He did his normal deal and went in and lit the pre-stage bulb. Tommy apparently left his water pump on in the staging lanes and I guess he didn't realize it until after he did his burnout. Supposedly, his car was too cold and the computer would go into closed loop or something like that. So instead of doing the right thing and staging in a timely fashion, he figured this would be a good time to warm the car up to open loop temperature and in the process hang Jim out to dry. The starter waved at him to stage, but he just kept inching closer and closer while warming his car up.

Jim ended up losing by .004. He had a .03 light to Tommy's .06, but ran .04 over his dial. Obviously, Jim's car was hotter than normal and this contributed to his running slow.

Somebody told me they were watching it on live timing and the burndown "had to have been two minutes."

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

Toby

As we were the next pair up I was standing behind the Camaro Jim was Pre staged at least 10 seconds maybe as many as 15 seconds the Corvette wasn't within four feet of the line I thought the red light should have come on in the left lane as he made NO ATTEMPT to move forward and yes Jim did turn his motor off. I don't have a dog in this fight and really don't know either guy so my comments are just an honest observation

Call me if you want the longer version I will send you a PM

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

So Toby has a pretty close to accurate description of what happened. When I went up for first round it was 55 degrees and 90% humidity, a cool overcast morning, normal for Sonoma. I drove to the lanes and got out to talk to Jim. When I got out I left my fan and water pump on, for about 10-12 minutes. When we pulled out of the lanes to the ready line my car was about 85 degrees. The way I run my car it has to be 115 degrees for the fuel injection system to go into closed loop. If it runs in open loop below 115 degrees it shoots numbers all over the place. I did my burn out with the water pump off, didn't move much so I started stalling it up against the convertor with the fan and water pump off. It slowly started warming, as per the rules I kept making forward motion as it warmed up. The starter waived me in one time and I kept bumping forward. By the time I got in I had rattled myself to the point I was .060 on the tree. I felt awful about it after the race, I went by Jim's RV to apologize and he was not there. I approached Jim after the race in the Victory Circle area and he rode off on his scooter. I was texting back and forth with another racer yesterday morning and got Jim's cell number. I left Jim about a 2-3 min voice mail apologizing for not being prepared to race when I pulled in the water, I'm assuming that's where Toby got all of his info. As of now I have not heard from Jim and would like the opportunity to speak with him face to face. If any one else wants to ask any questions give me a call.

Tommy
360.798.8998

Re: Anybody Have Video of the Epic Burndown in Stock at Sono
 

The blame really belongs to the starter. Gaynor "wasn't ready" so he plays games on the starting line and the race "official" let's him get away with it. I DID see the Corvette moving forward...a couple of bumps of the brake pedal maybe while he was on the converter building heat. A pretty chicken s**t thing to do.

I'd bet you all that if Jim was told of this temp issue, he would have delayed or slowed down his routine to give the Corvette ample time...my impression of the guy anyway.

But then again, some racers will do whatever they can get away with...

Didn't Greg Anderson get red lighted at Englishtown last year (or the year before) for the same deal...failing to pre stage in a timely manner???