NMCA In Mechanicsville, MD Recap
Dave Schultz 7601
Dallas Schultz 7602
June 7, 2011
The event actually started Tuesday, May 31st for Dallas and I. I had spent the previous 9 days in bed, trying to recover from E-Coli poisoning and was still sick (still am) — but if I didn’t at least make one qualifying pass to get on the ladder — I had no chance left for the Championship ring. We normally would have left Wednesday for the 1500+ mile trip, but Dallas had to do all of the driving to Maryland, so we left a day earlier.
We arrived at the track late Thursday afternoon and set up our cramped pit. On Friday morning we teched the cars in, and at 1 O’clock Time Trials started. We had three Time Trials, but I ran 11.06 on a 11.00 Index in the Vitamin C at 3:15PM — and figured I was good to go for the 1st Qualifying at 8PM when the weather would be cooler. Dallas was also close enough to his Index that he passed on making more than one Time Trial pass.
![[image]](http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/247018_1757773099868_1105209115_31453901_2493767_n.jpg "[image]")
We got two Qualifying passes on Friday and three more on Saturday. This was due to the very light turnout for the event. MIR is a very nice track, and the track operator and his people are some of the best I’ve seen. The track hooked good — and the weather was cool. However, NMCA hasn’t figured out that they can draw a lot of people to races in PA, NJ, NC, or MD. I’ve never seen a decent car count at any of those events. I hate making the 3000+ mile round trip drive for these races — especially when we have tracks in Texas that they haven’t considered to replace the low attendance Eastern Seaboard races. This will be most likely my last year with the NMCA as they get farther away every year — but I digress.
I had only intended to make 1 qualifying pass as it was worth up to 340 points for the year to get on the ladder — even if I didn’t show for the first round of eliminations — but I felt well enough to make all of the qualifying and then attempt the Eliminations. The below is qualifying after the 4th round (no change for the 5th) and the ladder.
![[image]](http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/250608_1759815310922_1105209115_31456134_4438288_n.jpg "[image]")
![[image]](http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/254034_1759941634080_1105209115_31456281_5308125_n.jpg "[image]")
It rained during the night, and it took the track staff most of Sunday morning to get the track ready. I guessed the weight wrong for the humidity, plus had a terrible 60′ from spin — so Kurt made quick work of me as I was about 1/10 off. Camp won over Poskevitch, Midile over Roell, Dallas over Hopkins, Koester over Young, Merrick over Winick, Wilson had a “Broke Bye” when Bates got backed out, and Duell had the “Competition Bye”.
In the second round it was Duel over Camp, Neighbor over Dallas, Koester over Wilson, and Midile over Merrick. In the Semis, Duell beat Midile and Skippy Koester beat Kurt Neighbor. Doug Duell won in the finals.
Dallas and I left the track at about 2PM and arrived back at the shop at 8PM — driving 31 hours straight. There is a thread on the NSS forum with more details and comments.
