2016-2015

2016 Review



Brian Nixon, Robert Nixon

Jason Rucker and Brian Nixon


FEBRUARY
--Brian kicked off the 2016 autocross season by co-driving Jason Rucker's Nissan 350-Z down in Savannah Georgia on the 7th, and Jason took 1st, Brian 2nd in the C Street class, and Jason 3rd with Brian 13th overall out of  76 drivers on PAX time.  Results LINK
--On the 21st the South Carolina Region kicked things off at Darlington, and in a tough Pro category class, Brian drove his Fiesta ST to a fifth place trophy out of 14 drivers. With his jump into the toughest category in the region, this is a great result that was only half a second out of 1st, so that is some rough competition! On top of that, compared to ALL drivers Brian took an awesome 7th fastest time from 85 drivers! That puts him in the top 92%, so we'll see if we can beat that result in future events. Way to go Brian! Results LINK
--Up here in Virginia, January and February meant some indoor karting with the TSCC. Robert made it to three of the six events, had a lot of fun, and learned that he is very slow in a kart!

MARCH
--On the 19th-20th Brian and co-driver Jason Rucker completed the two day Dixie Tour in Georgia in the NMS Miata, which marks our first competition at a national level event. Dixie Results LINK. Brian and Jason decided to co-drive the NMS Miata with a target of competing at the SCCA Nationals in Nebraska this September.
--Robert had a wet start to the 2016 season at Pungo VA for the Tidewater Sports Car Club on the 27th, and like most events last year the GS class was small, so another win for the NMS FIAT Abarth! The unofficial PAX results show the #77 car had a good day, and placed 12th out of 64 drivers! Results LINK

APRIL
--Brian and some of the SCR crew spent the 2nd cleaning up the Myrtle Beach site ahead of their event there on the 16th.
--With the Old Dominion Region SCCA back at Pungo on the 3rd, Robert finished 2nd in GS, and 22nd PAX time out of 69 drivers. At least it was dry for this event!
--At Hutchinson Island GA, Jason in the NMS Miata took FIRST PLACE PAX (Brian 14th) out of 60 drivers! Great job for NMS-South as they continue to fine tune and prep the mighty #86 for the SCCA Nationals in September! RESULTS LINK
--More great results from the Miata thanks to Jason Rucker on the 16th at Myrtle Beach with SCR, as he takes 5th PAX and Brian 13th PAX out of a huge field of 131 drivers! RESULTS LINK
--NMS-North takes another 1st in GS at NC Center for Automotive Research on the 24th, while Michael Moore also drove the NMS FIAT in his first event as a GS Novice. This autocross was part twisty and part high speed on the track of NCCAR, and we definitely hope to return there next year.

MAY
--Jason drove the NMS Miata with the Buccaneer Region SCCA down in Savannah, and took an outstanding 2nd overall PAX time, so congrats to Jason in the 99 Miata!
--NMS took a great 4th place in the Top Dog Shootout from 195 drivers at the SCCA Match Tour in Bristol TN. Congrats to Jason with an excellent showing, and Brian for also getting into the Under Dog Shootout! For just their 2nd national SCCA level event, this is great stuff from these two drivers up against the best competition around!
--Robert snags another first in GS on the 22nd with the TSCC, while Michael placed 16th out of 21 Novice drivers in only his 2nd event. In the rain!

JUNE
--NMS kicked off June in a BIG way on the 12th when Jason Rucker drove the NMS Miata to 1st overall in PAX, and Brian drove the NMS Miata to 4th overall in PAX out of 53 drivers at the South Carolina Region autocross held at Darlington! These guys are turning up the heat, which is hard to do since it was over 100 degrees today, but they are really cranking it up for Nationals in September! For the Pro class, Jason was 1st and Brian was 3rd.
--Father's day weekend was fun, with Brian and Robert on Saturday co-driving the NMS Fiesta ST at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point NC, with Brian clearly the faster NMS driver. Then on Sunday Robert took another first place (only driver in the class) wth the Tidewater Sports Car Club in VA Beach, while Brian worked the event in several positions to help out.

JULY
--NMS continued the "Year of the Miata", as Jason Rucker took another 1st place PAX from everyone at the SCR event on the 10th in Florence SC. Brian Nixon was close behind, and we're looking forward to these two guys heading to the Nationals in Nebraska in September.
--In Virginia the FIAT was back in action on the 17th on a hot day and drove to a 2nd place in GS. Robert maintains a lead in GS for the year, and took 31st out of all 99 drivers on the day.

AUGUST
--NMS-South kicked things off by driving up to ZMax and competing in autocross with the Central Carolina Region. Three drivers shared the NMS Miata with a new exhaust system, no issues, so things are looking good and dependable for Nationals.
--On a very hot day, the 13th in Charleston SC the NMS team took 1st (Jason), 4th (Brian), and 18th (Robert) PAX out of 113 drivers, with Jason winning Pro, Robert winning GS, and Brian close behind with  3rd in the tough Pro category! Not a lot of cars in GS in SC this year, so with one event Robert is tied for 2nd place on the year!
--A week later on the 20th in Savannah, the NMS Miata attended a Test-N-Tune autoX session as Brian makes final adjustments before Nationals, and then on the 21st, Robert fires up the Abarth and takes an awesome 1st place by over a second in GS, 18th PAX out of 83, and takes his highest PAX points placing ever with the TSCC! Farther south on the same day, Brian and Jason drive the Miata in competition with the Buccaneer Region of the SCCA again. Jason took 5th and Brian 18th out of 52 drivers on PAX time.

SEPTEMBER
--Brian Nixon and Jason Rucker complete their biggest goal of the season by driving at the SCCA National Championships in Lincoln NE on the 8th and 9th.  In a big field of 54 drivers in E Street, Jason was close to the trophy spots and Brian landed in 40th place. For their first time to compete at the highest level and against the best drivers in the country, a great showing!
--Robert took another GS win with the TSCC against one other car, by only 0.1 seconds! Two friends rode along and enjoyed the autocross experience for the first time! In the overall club championship, this unofficially moves the FIAT up to 6th place for the year!
--Brian returns to action after Nationals, driving the NMS Miata at Zmax in Charlotte with the Central Carolina Region SCCA on the 24th, and took 1st place in ES class!

OCTOBER
--Brian and the NMS Miata were in Myrtle Beach on the 1st, and walked away with an impressive 6th place PAX out of over 100 drivers! Brian and his Team Too Tall buddy Kyle Ray-Smith will be fighting it out for 3rd place in the Pro Class for the SCR at the final event on the 22nd up at Michelin.
--At Pungo on October 16th, NMS-North switched it up and co-drove Tony Mester's Mazda2 to a best ever 10th in PAX (out of 74 drivers), moving into 16th (out of 226 drivers) for the 2016 club championship. This keeps Robert on pace to finish in the top 20 for the year.

NOVEMBER
--Preliminary results from November 5th show that Brian took a solid 15th in PAX out of about 108 drivers at the "War at the Shore" that pitted the South Carolina Region against the Buccaneer Region down in Savannah Georgia. Brian was also a nice 2nd place in ES class in the NMS Miata. On the same day up in Moyock NC, Robert drove the NMS FIAT at a single lap track event, placing 19th out of 32 drivers, results at: Academi Results Robert missed out on the final autocross with TSCC, but finished the season in 20th overall in PAX points, 9 places higher than last year, and right on my goal!
--Later in the month, Brian drove at Roebling Road in Savannah for 2 days of track practice. Including putting in a new radiator Saturday night, I'd say that's about as much fun as you can have on a weekend.

DECEMBER
--With the autocross season over, Robert headed over to Virginia International Raceway and did some charity laps with the FIAT Abarth.  Hundreds of drivers participated and helped raise $30,000 for the Salvation Army!

2016 Bottom Line: Jason Rucker was the NMS Driver of the Year in the NMS Miata, with outstanding results in lots of regional, and national level events. Michael Moore was the NMS Rookie of the Year with two solid drives in the NMS Abarth.

Michael Moore


Here's the final results for the South Carolina Region SCCA in the PRO Class. Congrats to NMS with Jason Rucker in 2nd and Brian Nixon in 3rd!

SCR 2016 Pro ClassTotalDrops123456789
1Marty Bull474610
10188622
2Jason Rucker3939
36
1010811
Brian Nixon28283
1
66561
Kyle Ray-Smith2626481


481
Kristopher Mahon2220121155214


In Virginia, here's the Tidewater Sports Car Club final points in G Street for club members. Not a lot of drivers in this class, but we'll still say this makes it GS champ two years in a row for NMS.
GS - 'G Street'Total PointsPoints W/DropsE-1E-2E-3E-4E-5E-6E-7E-8E-9
1Robert Nixon677.85677.8590.0090.00100.00100.0097.85100.00100.00
John Skiba90.0090.0090.00

For the overall club championship in PAX category for all drivers in the Tidewater Sports Car Club, Robert moved up to 20th this year after finishing 29th in 2015.  TSCC POINTS 


2015 REVIEW
Who to Blame for this Blog!
In 2015 NMS-South (Brian on the left) competed in the South Carolina Region of SCCA auto-cross, and NMS-North (Bob on the right) drove in the Virginia Beach VA area. We are happy to report that NMS took it's first season championship by winning the G Street category with the Tidewater Sports Car Club for 2015. While this was against really no other competition that entered enough events to count, first place is still first place! In addition to driving, sometimes we wear the brightly colored garb of the course worker!

FEBRUARY
Brian has the fastest time in class with the South Carolina Region of the SCCA, BUT hits more cones than the ES competition, so takes 2nd place with his one clean run of the day, putting him in 2nd place for the young 2015 season. Just .286 seconds out of first, and 1.558 ahead of 3rd place, not a bad start for the 99 Miata, and clearly the Drive of the Day! Out of 59 total drivers, Brian takes 9th fastest!

MARCH
Robert got his season going in fine style, taking 1st in GS with the Tidewater Sports Car Club, also no other cars in this class! Still he was faster than the AS, ES, and FS drivers, and took 39th PAX time out of 94 drivers. 1st is still 1st, so he gets Drive of the Day!

APRIL
NMS continues on a roll, with the FIAT besting two other GS drivers at Pungo, and taking maximum points in GS, and 21st PAX out of 92 drivers. Farther south, the NMS Miata keeps April hot with a victory at Florence over two other drivers in ES, which puts Brian now in 2nd place on the season! Let's award an extra Drive of the Day to Brian for the victory AND designing the course, and taking 13th out of 81 drivers!

MAY
Driving in the Central Carolina Region at ZMax in Charlotte, Brian makes sure all the recent Miata updates are working and takes 3rd place in a large field on May 10th. Brian was also on track at CMP 16-17 May and Robert finished 2nd in autocross with TSCC on the 17th.

JUNE
On the 6th, Brian not only took over as chairman of Solo events in SC, but also designed the course at Darlington, and took 1st place in ES for the day, and for the overall points lead!  NMS is happy to report that both drivers are now in 1st place! On the 21st with TSCC, Robert takes 2nd in GS while Brian has serious engine issues in the Miata, and is now resourcing a new engine. Co-driving Kyle DeGennaro's Miata, Brian takes 2nd place in Florence on June 28th and remains in first place.

JULY
One day after Independence Day, the NMS FIAT was autocrossing with the ODR folks at Pungo VA, and finished an overall 16th out of 46 drivers on the day, 2nd in the GS class of 2, and is now 41st out of 70 total drivers for the 4 events held so far this year; even though this was my only event.  The 18th was a hot day in Charleston SC, and Brian co-drove a Miata in the XP class, so no changes to his points in E Street, and Brian remains in 1st place! Then on the 26th the FIAT was in action again, and took another win in the GS class over one other car with the TSCC, this time by over 5 seconds to retain 1st overall in class for the year.

AUGUST
The month kicked off on the 2nd with a humid, then cloudy, then rainy event with the Old Dominion Region at Pungo. Another 1st place in GS, and 20th overall out of 43 drivers for the FIAT. On the 10th Brian was down near Savannah GA autocrossing with the Buccaneer Region of SCCA, and in a wet run group in the afternoon took first in HS in the new NMS Ford Fiesta ST. Later in the month Brian also took 2nd with the Fiesta with the SCR in HS, so over in ES he is tied for 2nd. Robert skipped the TSCC August event but remains in 1st in GS.

SEPTEMBER
ODR at Pungo results in another 1st in GS for the FIAT, and another mid-pack finish 18th overall out of 37 drivers. Two weeks later at Pungo with TSCC, Robert wins another GS first and 29th PAX out of 76 drivers.

OCTOBER
Brian travels to Virginia and drives much faster than Robert, so Brian takes the NMS driver of the year award for 2015. Robert still takes 1st in GS with the TSCC and wraps up the 2015 GS title.

NOVEMBER
Brian ended the season on a high note with a victory in HS at Savannah GA in the Fiesta ST in a combined event with the SC and Buccaneer Regions, while Robert takes first in GS on the 15th with the TSCC.

SOUTH CAROLINA REGION SCCA E STREET 2015 FINAL RESULTS

TIDEWATER SPORTS CAR CLUB G STREET 2015 FINAL RESULTS


2015 Bottom line: Brian wins NMS Driver of the Year, takes a 3rd in the ES class despite missing most of the events and driving in other classes. In addition to taking 1st place out of the small number of drivers in G Street in Virginia, Robert finished 29th in PAX time out of 73 TSCC drivers.  You can see the full list at this link: TSCC 2015 POINTS
Driving in just a few of the Old Dominion Region of SCCA events, Robert ends 2015 in 31st overall out of 81 drivers. The link to the results is at ODR LINK




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