# Congrats to Geo



## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

George "Darth" Roffe took third place in ITS this (wet and bitterly cold) weekend at Texas World Speedway driving a '92 SE-R. On 185/60-14 street tires, no less! Lots of carnage made Geo's race quite interesting. This completes the requirements necessary for his competition license.

Three cheers for Geo.

Hip, hip, hurray!
Hip, hip, hurray!
Hip, hip, hurray!

Shiner Bocks for everyone!


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## morepower2 (Apr 19, 2002)

congrats to george!

Mike


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## Felonious Cat Stalker (May 1, 2002)

Nice work. Cheers.


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## Geo (Apr 30, 2002)

Guys, thanks so much for the kind words. I've been delayed in getting this recap written and then today, I've had ISP connection problems......

NISsport Racing race recap, SCCA ITS regional, Texas World Speedway, January 12, 2003, driver, George Roffe:

On Sunday, 01/12/03 we raced on the 1.8 mile counter clockwise course at Texas World Speedway. We arrived at the track on Sunday morning to a steady soaking, extremely cold (30-something degrees) rain. We had to register first thing in the morning and then move the trailer we dropped off the night before, find a pit space, and unload. We were able to shoehorn ourselves amongst all the large trailers in the infield. We felt like dwarves.

We were in the 5th (of 7) run group, so we had a little time to get some things done. Thank God. We had to get our annual tech inspection and haven’t had one without getting dinged for anything in three years. We were a little nervous going in since you never know what they might find fault with and we cobbled together our fuel test port at the last minute the day before. Thankfully, the annual went without a hitch.

When we got back to our pit area (did I mention the 30 something degree rain?) we set about changing from our dry tires to our rain tires. It was not necessarily an easy decision. You see, our rain tires were not racing rain tires. They were eleven-year-old (original) street tires. We debated what to do. The rain was steady and soaking, but not a heavy downpour. Eventually we decided that given the cold weather, the street tires should perform as well or better than race tires which would most likely never get up to temperature. When changing the rears we disconnected the rear swaybar, but when we changed the fronts, we ran out of time to disconnect the front. So, we went to the pre-grid for qualifying with a poor set-up but the man said it was time, so away we went. The car pushed like a drunk pig, but that was better than the rear wiggling around. We got two warm-up/recon laps in and when we started our first hot lap they checkered the session. We figured we qualified last. Close. We qualified second to last (19th of 20). When we picked up the qualifying results we found there were 6 with no time and they were mostly cars from faster classes. Great.

So, after qualifying we went back to our pits (did I mention the 30 something degree rain?) and disconnected the front swaybar. The tire picture was further clouded by the fact that the rain stopped by the end of qualifying and the line was drying. Oh goodie, more tough decisions. That decision was made simpler when the rain started again. Oh goodie. 

Since it was so cold, and we weren’t doing anything more to the car, we were first to the pre-grid. That gave the engine plenty of time to warm up and thus the heater (did I mention the 30 something degree rain?). As the grid was formed we were still second to last. The slowest qualifier didn’t show and one of the entries with no time did. Still 19th of 20.

At the start we passed a couple of cars using the excellent torque of the SR20DE to great effect. By the time we reached turn 1 we found the pole sitting Porsche 951 (944 turbo) in the mud inside the turn. We also found half the track at turn 1 to be liberally sprinkled with mud. It’s going to be a fun day. We danced around through the first half lap letting the field sort itself out. Entering the last turn on the first lap a 280Z came together with a gen I RX-7 at the entrance to the front straight. Not tremendously close, but way too close for comfort. Thankfully they kept their affairs to themselves up along the wall and left us alone. We got one more lap under green before the full course caution came out. We passed one car on the front straight just as the caution came out, so we waved them back around to stay on the good side of the stewards.

When the green flag few again we were right back on it and repassed the Golf we waved around as the caution came out and also flew past at 280ZX for position in class. As we pulled away from those two we started reeling in a turbo Supra. We thought “yeah, right” but we were soon on top of them. We tested them in a couple of places and on the next lap we dispatched them without looking back. If only it were that easy in the dry. Served up next was a V-8 Camaro. It too fell like a brick tossed from the Eiffel Tower. After that we were pretty much on our own for a while. After a couple of laps the Porsche 951 was zeroing in on us like a Patriot missile hunting a Scud. We happily waved him by to find another Scud to kill. What we didn’t realize is that the race was reverting to a timed race and it was the last lap. What a surprise when we saw the checkered flag wave from the starter stand as we hit the front straight. No matter. 

We had a great time. It was even better when we got back to the pits and found out we finished third in class. We suddenly found a force field three feet off the ground that we could walk on. All our goals had been met. We were able to bring the car home in the condition we brought to the track in. We received our final punch to get our regional competition license. And, we just flat out had a blast.

In the end, much thanks must be given to Bruce Hearn. Once again he got us squared away for the event and even baby-sat a driver who was freaking out over the rain and all the ups and downs leading to the event. Everyone should lucky enough to have a Bruce Hearn in their pit – especially when the chips are down. When he gets his SE-R ready for competition he’s going to have plenty of markers to cash in.

Next event for NISsport Racing: NASA event at Motorsports Ranch on February 8th and 9th.


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## se-r-57 (May 1, 2002)

Great to here ya did so well at TMS. Wish I could have made it down there but we were runnin the Chili bowl midget car races in Tulsa the same weekend. I'll see ya at the Motorsports Ranch in Feb though.Be safe...........james


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## spnx (Apr 30, 2002)

Hey, I just finished reading this on the SE-R List!

Congrats! Sounds like an uphill battle AND great fun.

I'll send a few Canadian microbrews your way when I see you soon 

(hope you like bitter)

James


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

Will they have thawed by time of arrival?


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## spnx (Apr 30, 2002)

I'll leave the heater on in my car, so they don't get too cold 

Actually, I'm not joking. -20C and 3 feet of snow outside here. I was scoffing a bit about the "cold" temperatures in George's writeup, but I was too polite to say anything 

James


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## Geo (Apr 30, 2002)

spnx said:


> *I'll leave the heater on in my car, so they don't get too cold
> 
> Actually, I'm not joking. -20C and 3 feet of snow outside here. I was scoffing a bit about the "cold" temperatures in George's writeup, but I was too polite to say anything
> 
> James *


Hehe. Well, I guess I should be polite (until we meet again soon) and not talk about beyond cold. 

Well, if it's bitter, shouldn't it be warm like British beer?

Whoever said beer should be served at 40 degrees had a faulty refrigerator. 

I'm genearlly not a fan of bitter, however, as usual, I only wish to try something new, so I'll try whatever you bring.


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## spnx (Apr 30, 2002)

No! I can't stand warm beer! I like some British things, (like my strange fascination with British cars, even though I realize that they're often poorly engineered and unreliable), but warm beer, ick!

I'll bring a few types of beer, to cater to a wider range of taste 

James


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## Geo (Apr 30, 2002)

You know why the British drink warm beer?



They have Lucas refrigerators.


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## javierb14 (Jul 9, 2002)

nice:thumbup:
shiner bock is good beer!


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