A Story of the Good Guys Winning
By Mike Marks, October 2008

My name is Mike and I am a beginning race car driver at the age of 59. The emails below were sent to me by Mick Robinson of Robinson Motor Sports (RMS) in Melbourne Florida. I am proud to be racing with these guys. Hector and Mark work for Mick and are great racers in their own right. They had a chance to go to the SCCA Runoffs in Topeka Kansas in October of 2008. To amateur racers this is the World Series and the Super Bowl rolled into one. They were short on funds so several of the RMS customers chipped in a few bucks for tires and expenses. The letters below were sent to the sponsors by Mick during the race week.

Sent Saturday October 4th

Hello All;

Thanks to each of you for helping RMS and especially Mark and Hector as they try and win a National championship in the FE and SRF classes.

Both Mark and Hector tested yesterday with Mark being the fastest by .1 second over Nick Evans. Mark did not run today, but Matthew did and he is another .1 seconds back. Three guys in 2 tenths!! It's only practice, but this shows that it is going to be a shoot out!

Mark has competed at Topeka 2 times in the SRF Pro Series a few years back and has attended the last 2 Runoffs in his SRF. This will be his first time at Topeka running for his second National Championship in the FE. He won last year's race at Road Atlanta for the FE championship.

Matthew Inge has only 2, that's right, 2 sessions on the track today and he is awfully quick. I wish I could learn a track that quickly!! Add to that his plane was canceled out last night and he didn't arrive at Topeka until noon today and only did the last 2 sessions of the day. Whew!!

Hector has been a basket case....he is with the top guys in the country for the first time and they ate his lunch. Mark said he was walking around mumbling in Spanish. I've only heard him do that once before when either his truck payment or girlfriend were late.....However, I called and spoke to him (yeah, like that helped) and he put on one of the sets of tires you guys put up for him, and got within .5 seconds of the fastest guys!! Man, was he excited, and speaking in English!

I can't thank you guys enough for the support you are giving to Mark and Hector. They would have gone with my support, but with one test day, used tires except for one qualifying session and that would have been it! You have now given them the proper support that they need to get the job done.

Mark is testing again tomorrow. Hector is taking the day off as he ran on Friday and Sat. His next time out will be in the first practice on Monday. Hopefully Mark will find some additional speed tomorrow and have Matthew right there with him. Both of those guys are fast, hopefully an RMS front row.

I'll keep you posted on how "your boys" are doing.

Thanks Again!

Mick
RMS


Sent Sunday, October 5th

Hello All;

Hector took the day off today and worked with Matthew Inge and Mark Eaton in their FEcars. He then drove Matthew back to Kansas City for Matthew's flight back to school. Matthew will return for the Wed and Thurs FE qualifying as well as the race on Sunday.

It's a tight battle between 4 cars on the last test day before the official practice on Monday with qualifying on Tues, Wed and Thursday.

Matthew is the quickest by .4 over Mark, with Evans .2 behind Mark and Alexson another tenth off of that. It's RMS with the 2 fastest FE cars on the last test day. That's very promising!

Hector is .9 off the fastest SRF guys using his time from yesterday compared to today’s times that the other SRF guys ran. They found another .4 from yesterday to today. He is chompin at the bit.

Both Mark and Hector have burned thru a set of tires, so the official test day on Monday will be on some used tires.

They both mount up new sets for Tues and Wed. Thursday the SRF's have off but Mark and Matthew will be out there doing their best, again each will be on new tires.

Thanks for your help with Mark and Hector. As you can see, the tires are a huge deal out there and your help with the cost of that part of the event is really appreciated. They certainly wouldn't have had the best equipment out there if I was paying the full bill for their tires etc.

I'll let you know how they do every day from now to when their race is done.

I'm leaving for Topeka on Thursday morning.

Hope all is well.

Mick
RMS


Sent Monday, October 6th

Hello All;

The FE cars had the day off today.

Hector went out for his qualifying session and didn't do as good as he did in practice. He ended up 13th out of a field of 23. Two cars ahead of him got him by .15 seconds. If you guys know him well, that's about what I figured. Talk about pumped up....Mark said Hector was out the door of the hotel this morning and forgot to put on his shoes and socks!! Jeez.

Any way, he has blown his very orchestrated plan on how to use his tires and his mental approach to his first Runoffs. He has used up his new tires, "you know Mick, I just had to see how the car would do on new tires". Well hell, let's make if fast for the test days and maybe for qualifying, but then have nothing left to race on Hector. Jeez. As to being calm and going slow in the slow corners..."Well I tried, but you know, sometimes that doesn't work, you gotta, you know, try and run with the fast guys." The "fast guys" have been to the track for the last 2 years at the Runoffs and have done a couple of other races there each year...

I got a call from one of the sponsors who authorized Hector to get more tires. Hector now has 2 new sets of tires to run on, one more for a qualifying session and one new set for the race. Looks like tomorrow's late day session, should be hotter, is also going to be wet. He won't need tires for that session. But he has some one cycle tires layin around now!

Thanks again for all your help.

Mick
RMS


Sent Tuesday, October 7th

We're in it now!

The official week of qualifying and racing is now at hand.

While today was going to be a real important day as both the FE and SRF's were going to qualify, the rain and mid 50's made it boring instead. Mark and the rest of the FE cars didn't even go on track as it was raining this morning.

Mark's been pretty quiet all week long. He is focused on winning this race which will give him the Triple Crown. If he wins this weekend, he has won the S.E. Division National series, the June Sprints and that will give him the triple crown. It's pretty rare when that happens, it would mean a lot to him and RMS.

Matthew Inge will arrive at Topeka tonight (he sure can predict the weather) so everyone will now be at Topeka for the rest of the week. Tomorrow and Thursday that are the remaining 2 days of qualifying will be clear, so the FE cars should have good weather.

I'm pullin for an RMS front row!! Mark and Matthew were the quickest in the practice sessions that they ran, let's hope they can back it up now that it really counts!

Hector couldn't resist, the track was damp, so he went out later this afternoon and did very well for the conditions. He was the 8th fastest car on the damp track, but the times from yesterday held up as everyone was about 2.5 seconds slower than Monday's times.

The SRF's get only one more chance to qualify, tomorrow, then they have Thursday off. Their race is Friday. Hector thinks he has a 7th or 8th qualifying effort in him, so let's see what he does and wish him the best! One of the other S.E division guys is 5th on Monday's times and Hector out ran him everytime they raced together in 2008. That guy is the carrot for Hector, or to put it in Hector's words "That guy's my bitch". Ole Mr. Excitement.....

Thanks again for all of your support for Mark and Hector. They are having a great timedue to your help!

I will be arriving in Topeka Thursday morning in time for the final FE qualifying run. That should be exiting!!


Sent Wednesday, October 8th

Whoo Hoo...Hector is fired up...He moved up to 11th place on the final grid for the SRF race that will run on Friday! The SRF's are off tomorrow.

He is .5 out of 6th place.

He is really happy, and was very excited on the phone. He is right in the thick of it and let's hope he has a great finish.

Mark was a bit subdued today...not happy with his driving. He is .3 off the pole of Evans with Matthew .2 ahead of Mark.

Both cars had push and they hope to get more front grip and take over the front 2 spots on the FE final qualifying session tomorrow. Ron Inge and I will be in Topeka to see the final qualifier for the FE cars. It should be exciting and I'll let you know how the 2 RMS cars do.

You can see the qualifying on the net www.scca.com/runoffs on the right side of the page is the live timing and scoring. You can also watch their progress during their races at the same address.

Thanks again for all of your help!


Sent Saturday, October 11th

This is a 2 in one report. We are at the track from 8 am until...let's see, last night was midnight!

Thursday when I arrived, the tension was at a very high point for the FE guys. Mark and Matthew were 2nd and 3rd on the grid by .1 and .2 seconds. This was not a happy place!

There are tons of things that go one here, like the fastest guy coming by and asking Mark, how's your car, sorry to see you are in the second row....you know, the head games are really strong out here. Then throw in Hector's energy and it's down right like a war!

I was involved in a conference with Hector, Mark and Matthew as what the cars needed for that last qualifying effort for Thursday afternoon......they agreed upon 3 changes to be made to each car, with some hesitation that changing that many things might be too much. They went with it anyway.

Off to the grid they go. Matthew came in after 2 laps to put on a new set of tires. Mark was digging hard on track and set a really fast time, quick enough for the pole. Matthew went out and after 6 laps set a time right on top of Mark's. We couldn't tell them who had the pole because the stop watches had identical times! The previous pole setter was .5 seconds off of their time....

Whoooooo Hoooooooooo......Hell Yeah!!!!! The score board flashed the qualifying positions....92 followed by 20.... get this .016 seconds separated the 2 cars!!!

RMS FRONT ROW BABY!!!!

How about that.....the 3 changes were perfect... Mark and Matthew said the cars were on rails...

Oh Hector was besides himself...as were the whole team, Hector Senior, Ron Inge, me and the drivers!@!

Did I day WHOOOOO HOOOOOOO...

Ahhh, Thursday ended on a very good note!!

Friday...the only car to go out would be Hector as the SRF race was Friday, right after lunch.

Hector was alright in the morning, but as lunch time came, he was getting nervous. For the eighth time I watched him tighten his lug nuts on the wheels. He looked at everyone and said "this is gettin to me now."

Finally, the cars headed to the grid, and Hector lined up 11th. He was really hoping for a top 10, and it was right there in front of him. Add to the excitement, the Speedvision TV camera walked down the grid and stopped and focused on Hector's car!! Hell, now on top of everything else, we have to deal with a TV Celebrity!!!

One radio set failed as he was leaving the grid, so Mark and I switched radios so Mark and Hector could talk.

That turned out to be a good thing.....On the start, Hector got 2 spots, up to 9th as they rounded turn 3. I could hear the radio crack in Mark's head set and at the same time, hear "car 76 has spun at turn 5..." damn just what we didn't need. The announcer said 76 had too high a speed entering the turn...in truth, Hector said after the race..."yeah I entered too fast, the damn guy behind me forgot to use his brakes!"

And so it was, Hector comes by the start finish on the first lap in dead last place. Our hearts hit the ground. All that work and a guy ruins it on the first lap.

On the 3rd lap a full course caution came out...Hector had gotten 2 positions back, but was still in 21st. We had the radio on and yelled like crazy when the green flag come out, and he got one more down the front straight. Next time by, he got 2 more in one lap...18th place now.

Driving like a man possessed, well I guess he was at this point, making strong daring moves and scaring the daylights out of some of the guys in front of him, he comes by in 14th! A couple of cars dropped out and now he's 12th. This is getting really exciting now....could he really get a top 10??

1 second ahead was a group of 5 cars...he caught them in 2 laps and it only took him 3 laps to work his way past them.....9th place. Mark and I are jumpin up and down on pit wall, go Hector go!!!

With 3 laps to go, he runs down a group of 4 cars...get gets by one of them, but as he works his way past. the guy gives Hector a hip check sending Hector 10 feet off track. Hector never lifted and came back on 6 car lengths behind the group. One more lap and he catches back up, and the offending driver watches Hector in the mirror, and does a spin. Hector said they made eye contact so Hector gave him the one finger salute!! At the flag, Hector was right on the tail of the 7th place car!!!

How about that, from dead ass last to 8th!! And 6th was only 40 feet in front of him...Wow a fantastic run....there is no quit in this guy.... At impound, one car was DQ'd so Hector gets a 7th at his first Runoffs, and came all the way from the back to get it. The drive of the race by far.

Tons of people came by to congratulate him for the great run. He was beaming from ear to ear.

It would not have been possible without his sponsors...You helped create an event in his life that he will NEVER forget!!! His Dad and I had tears running down our faces...Unbelievable.

He had the right amount of tires, was able to do 2 test days, pay for the racing gas, hotel room and just had everything he needed to run the race of his life.

He is a big fan of racing decals and yours are all over his car. He won't take any off before you all get a chance to see the car in person.

A great job by a complete team, of which you are all a very important part!

Congratulations Team!!!

Mick
RMS


Sent Tuesday, October 14th

For the sponsors of the RMS cars at the Runoffs, I can't thank you enough. You made the championship chase a reality and provided Mark and Hector with all that was needed to get the job done.

When I arrived at the track on Thursday, you could cut the tension with a knife. No one was pleased with the FE cars being 2nd and 3rd on the grid. The last chance was on Thursday afternoon.

They got the job done, Mark was on the pole and Matthew Inge was just .019 seconds behind! It was another 3/10 back to 3rd. The start was eventful!! Mark hit the rev limiter on the first shift which allowed the second row qualifier Evans to get a run on the outside and take the lead into turn one. Mark and Matthew were right on his tail for the first 6 laps. 4th place was about 3 seconds back and was watching a great show.

Evans made a mistake somewhere in the back, and on the 7th lap, Mark and Matthew came by pit road nose to tail, and it was like that for 5 laps. Matthew got a run on Mark and went by us side by side, with Matthew getting the nod as the leader for that lap. They went side by side, wheel to wheel and even had their wheels inside of each other....too scary to see for me, but they made it thru turns one and two and charged on. Evans got some help from the RMS cars running side by side, so it was again a 3 car race.

Mark and Matthew didn't give up 1st and second for the following laps, with Matthew setting fastest lap by .092 over Mark. With 3 to go, Matthew made up ground thru turns one and 10 on Mark, but couldn't work his way past on the front straight. Still nose to tail, they went thru 10 again and Matthew was working on a run to attack Mark again, but got on the curb and spun the car. Ron, Matthew's father, let out a big sigh, and my heart hit the ground....Matthew had driven as hard as I had ever seen him drive...those last 2 laps would have been something else!!

Mark held off Evans for the FE National Championship!! It made the Triple Crown a reality for Mark, he won the S.E. Division Championship, won the June Sprints and now won the SCCA Runoffs!! Congratulations to Mark.

Whew, what an event. Mark and Hector were in Topeka for 12 days. They really wanted to get home, so we drove straight through from Topeka to Melbourne in 25 hours. Both of them slept quite a lot when I was driving the semi, they were exhausted!!

Hector's 8 place finish on the track was above what he was hoping to do. The fact that he came from 23rd place on the end of the first lap, to make it that far in the field showed his determination to get the job done. It is unfortunate that 2 guys were DQ'd after the race due to fuel, but Hector's fuel passed and he was moved to 6th. How cool was that??

The fuel out there was a big problem. Mark purchased 30 gallons and each day the number changed as to being legal or not legal just being stored in the jugs in the shade of the trailer. One test we passed, the next it failed...same fuel, same container some times. We did over 20 fuel tests while we were there and failed on 25% of them...go figure! We made it thru tech on both classes and the results are now final.

The local paper had 2 articles about RMS for the event and we got some good coverage.

Thanks again to all of you for your sponsorship. You really made the results possible for both guys!!

Now, don't forget.....there are plenty of races left for this year. Moroso has a new track opening up in November and we will have the Turkey Trot and the double SARRC races at Moroso right after Christmas!!!

Thanks Again;

Mick
RMS

--

Mick Robinson
Robinson Motor Sports, Inc
1-2-3 in 2007 FE Nat'l Championship
10 FE Track Records in 2007
2006 / 2007 SRF SARRC Champions
SCCA Enterprises Authorized
Customer Service Rep. (CSR)
SCCA Spec Racer
Formula Enterprises Van Diemen
SCCA Sports Racer Van Diemen
Florida and the S.E. Division
321 674 5003

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