Hello from Maryland; getting my SRA ready for racing

**MarkHyman** · March 3, 2012, 02:33 PM

Hi there. I just found the forum after looking around for details on the Atom shown recently on Top Gear USA (which I found). It's a bit funny that I hadn't found you guys yet, as I purchased and ran a Spec Race Atom last year (chassis SRA0015; car #42). The SRA was my first real exposure to racing; I only had a couple of track days before that. It's a funny story how I got from there to buying an Atom and running wheel-to-wheel.

My wife (a former autocrosser) knew I had been enthralled by the Atom after seeing the original Top Gear episode, so she bought me a slot at TMI's Atom Experience at VIR last spring. Before I had even gone, we got an e-mail from TMI about the SRA series. I forwarded it to her for a laugh one day; when I got home from work, she said "Let's buy one and race!" After making sure she was serious, I didn't require much convincing.

We decided it was our shared midlife crisis. Contacted Mark at TMI, wired some $$$, and we were on our way. To get myself to a place where I felt I could get through a race safely 9if not especially competitively), I took a 3 day Skip Barber formula school at VIR, then the Atom Experience, then took delivery for the first race day!

Anyhow, after 8 days of racing (had a previously scheduled vacation in August that I couldn't change), I'm pretty well hooked. My times have improved, I've learned some lessons (including a rather pointed one involving breaking loose in turn 6 at VIR on a damp track and stuffing the front end into the tire wall), and am looking forward to another season of racing and having fun trying to move up the pack a bit! I'll be down at VIR for a club day next week and am also working on getting SCCA and NASA logbooks for my SRA so I can race it in other series and at other tracks, but that's a longer post for another day. Thanks to TMI for the new hobby, building a great car, and providing amazing support for it and the SRA series.

Happy to chat about SRA- if I can do it as a newbie, y'all can make it too. Glad I found the forum and look forward to seeing some of you out at the track!

Best,
-Mark-

**Karl** · March 3, 2012, 09:30 PM

Very cool! Welcome to the forum.

**RandyLamp** · March 4, 2012, 05:44 AM

Looking forward to hearing more. We don't mind longer posts, especially if sprinkled with some photos! Experiencing Atomic racing vicariously is part of what makes this all fun!

Inaugural ultimate Track Challenge. Tommy Archer's SCCA Pro World Challenge Viper Competition Coupe just ahead of my Atom.
My car ultimately broke an axle in the final practice and did not finish. Archer won overall.

**MadMaxAtom** · March 4, 2012, 06:32 AM

Good to see you posting Randy. Miss you pics and commentary.

As pretty much useless as the brammo wing is...it sure does look damn sexy!!

Very nice to see some SRA drivers posting here! Driving an Atom at track speed is quite an eye opener..I don't know how you guys do it on them scrawny tires..

**MarkHyman** · March 4, 2012, 06:45 AM

Hey Randy, I agree it looks good! What class are you running in SCCA? For my SRA with 200HP, I'm being told SPU (once I bolt on fenders) is the best place. Without fenders, it would be FS, and pretty slow in that class. I'm constrained on mods as I want to keep running in the TMI SRA series, so I can't deviate from spec.

**MarkHyman** · March 4, 2012, 06:55 AM

And here's a few pix as requested. Need to figure out how to keep them large on the forum...
'11-SRA-Front.jpg
'11-SRA-R1-0528.jpg
'11-SRA-R1-0729.jpg

**Steve** · March 4, 2012, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by MarkHyman

And here's a few pix as requested. Need to figure out how to keep them large on the forum...

Not to worry! The large ones are posted. The forum software simply auto-generates a thumbnail to make it easier for folks to scroll down the threads. But clicking on the thumbnails launches the full-sized versions! Great shots!

**AtomJohnny** · March 5, 2012, 03:57 AM

Welcome Mark.

That's a good field of cars for what is a very new series.

Are you constantly getting the same numbers each race meeting?

**MarkHyman** · March 5, 2012, 04:07 AM

Yes, the numbers are (semi) permanent and driver's choice (first come, first served). The shots I posted were from a pro photographer TMI had in for the first weekend; he made his shots available to the drivers too for a reasonable cost.

As far as the field, this is only from Race 1. By races 7-8 (the fourth weekend), we had a field of 19 running, which was an amazing thrill and probably a great picture (if I had one). I understand from Mark Swain that we're looking at about 5 new cars being added to the series so far this year, so we might be seeing a start of 25+ Atoms!