Cobra Cheetah Pocono Race Data
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Overall Championship

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Seniors Combined Points website

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DETAILED RACE DATA:

Cobra Podium: Garret Diduck, Mark Carty, Barry Hedrick

Cheetah Podium: Nikola Vrhovski, Rob Thaeler, Jan Sproule

Overall Podium: Garret Diduck, Mark Carty, Barry Hedrick

Senior Podium: Norm Borczon, Aaron Page, Ralph Kemmerer

Fastest lap: Garret Diduck, 1:22.269

Hard Chargers:
Cory Linton, gained 12 (29th to 17th);
Ralph Kemmerer, gained 9 (22nd to 13th);
Earl Setser, gained 9 (25th to 16th)

Eleven Seniors competed, top Senior finished in 8th place.

Steward's call to the Grid: 29 cars

On lead lap at finish, 8 cars. One lap down, 16 cars.

DNFs: 3 DNFs

RACE NOTES: There were two different leaders during the course of the race, Garret Diduck and Barry Hedrick, 16 laps each.
Top ten spots, 5 Cobras, 5 Cheetahs

Marques: 14 Cobras and 15 Cheetahs took the call to the grid.

Top five - three Cobras, two Cheetahs

Top 10 drivers came from 4 different countries and 7 different teams.

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THANKS to MNRL member Joe Cronk who is sponsoring this mod on behalf of the National Military Family Association. Thanks Joe !!!

The National Military Family Association Mission: To fight for benefits and programs that strengthen and protect uniformed services families and reflect the Nation’s respect for their Service.
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Dang, my first internet outage since I've moved into my place. Sorry I could not unregister. Grats to Garret and Nikola. I'll get you next time!

That was more fun than should be allowed. I spent pretty much the entire race in a close fight with someone!!! Thanks to Ralph Kemmerer, Dave Bradley, Bill Kaiser, Peter Holm and Matthew Overton for the heads-up door to door action!!!

I had a fantastic time running with my teammates. I followed Barry for most of the first part of the race while Mark stayed close behind.

Barry and I must have had a different gearing that Mark as we could leave him exiting onto the oval but he would be on our bumper at the entry into the hairpin. Barry and I figured out that we could bump draft each other give using almost 7mph more down the straight!

Our three car train came to an end once we hit traffic and it spread us apart.

Sorry for leaving so abruptly off the server last night. I actually disco'd just after the race. Sometimes lady luck shines your way.

Congrats Nikola on the Cheetah win.

Plenty of action last night and lots of fun!

I started right behind the top 3 Cobras and tried to stay with them but their draft eventually pulled away. I had Nikola and Rob all over me and we set about to battle for the Cheetah lead but they both got by. I tried pushing Rob on the straights and it helped keep us all together but somehow I managed to let them get away. So now I'm concentrating on keeping Jan and the rest behind me and maybe catch back up to Rob and Nikola. The two groups were staying about 4 seconds apart but we weren't gaining. Jan made a great pass on me and we swapped spots for a few laps. I had some trouble with traffic and nosed into a wall which started my downward spiral into trouble. I lost about 7 mph on the straight then hit the pit wall thinking I could "save it" coming onto the front straight! You all know the spot where that icy patch is......;)
So now I'm down 20 mph on the straight and decide I'd go for repairs. That gets me a little speed back but still only fast enough to get me a few spots.
Onward and upward!

First, cudos to Garret for taking the Cobra win, and to new
driver Nikola for his Cheetah win. Well done gents, and also the Cobra and Cheetah Podiums !

I thought this was a good race for all, a good Formation Lap, and not many accidents at all... only 3 DNFs and one might have been a disconnect.

I finally broke out of a long slump last night ( should have at the Glen with the Lotus but I blew it)... I Q'ed 13th overall, 6th in Cobra , and 2nd in Seniors behind Van.
I was happy with this - race starts, I make one pass to go into 12th, with Van ahead - he spins coming out onto the NASCAR straight so I am 11th. Wthin a couple of laps I was ALONE, quite a feat for so many cars on track.
Guys ahead spun and eventually I got to 8th overall,
4th in Cobra and 1st in Seniors, and stayed there for many laps, just trying not to screw up, just hitting my marks lap after lap. in a while it was over and I thought well finally, a decent race, old boy!

I was surprised at how well the Cheetahs did, I had thought this would be a Cobra runaway, but I was wrong.

Next race for the Cobra/Cheetahs is in two weeks at Cleveland and it should be a TIGHT ONE; in testing the two cars kept coming up with equal lap times...

Next week, LIME ROCK with the Sports racers, see you there!

Pretty good practice time but couldn't get close in qualifying.
Started pretty far back, but had a ton of good battles along the way with a lot of clean driving. Longest battle was with Dave Bradley who was on my tail the entire race. The gap see-sawed back and forth with a couple of passes and re-passes as we encountered traffic. I never could shake him.

I didn't do much testing with these cars as yet, but they feel kind of numb with little feedback. Are you guys using RealFeel or Leo's? I've been doing a lot of iRacing of late and maybe it's just getting readjusted to the differences.

I was having ppl drive right past me like I was dragging an anchor.!?!?
FWIW this mod is another of the no grip skatey mods that I hope go bye bye with RF2.
I 'preciate whatcha do Norm, but I'm going to be waiting for the next round of MNRL racing.

Yeah, the Cobras are a piece of history but I don't envy anybody trying to race these lead sleds.

I agree Ralph, there is no feedback that I can tell.

@Rich

I get where you are coming from Rich, I gave serious thought to passing on the Cobra vs Cheetah series completely after my first test run. But I gotta tell you last nights race was a hell of a lot of fun. The cars are tanks no doubt, but it was the closest racing I think we have seen so far. I'm very glad I decided to enter the series!

Fun night of racing right there.

Got on the server knowing I could run high 22s in the Cheetah, and was happy to back that up with a 22.7 qual lap, good for P5 overall on the grid.

Race start was good, and the Cheetah group immediately battling for the first four positions. At one point, we were two-by-two going through the tunnel turn... great stuff. As Paul mentioned, a few laps in, Nikola and I separated from Paul and Jan, and we began running each other for the Cheetah lead real hard. At one point, we swapped the lead with each other on each of 6 successive laps or so. I had the same experience that Garrett reported... Nikola would pull me as we got onto the main straight, but I drafted better as we neared the tunnel turn and toward the infield. I quickly figured out that, to win, I needed to be in P2 at the start of the final lap, then draft by Nikola down the backstraight, and hold him off in the infield. Thus, at about halfway, I decided to just cruise and maintain a following position. The interesting was that Nikola (I'm sure) knew precisely what I was going to try as well, and we were both waiting to see how it played out.

Things were going well in that regard, although I lost a couple seconds to Nikola during our first foray in lapped traffic. I made that time back up and settled into the following position, just waiting for the final lap. Then, that plan went out the window. With 3 laps to go, I encountered a half spun Cobra motionless in the braking zone leading into the infield. I tried to avoid, but was already at full breaking threshold when the car came into view. I hit pretty hard (apologies to whomever it was... didn't even get your name!!), and the damage knocked about 4 MPH off my top end. This resulted in me not being able to close up on Nikola, although I could still run the same lap times as him overall. We finished the race 1-2, with Nikola beating me by about a half-second to the line.

Much fun Nikola! Let's do that again real soon!

Good start to the season, and I'm looking forward to Cleveland already!

Rob