Here's my Memorial Day report. A week late, so I guess I'm only eligible for 1/2 credit towards the semester grade.
First off, the SCCA ran a very classy event. They followed the BMWCCA format pretty much, but with professional corner workers. Having only 30 or so students also made it seem like we got a lot more attention from the instructors. This was a perfect, low key setting for a novice to try a track day. Because of the small class size, there was plenty of space between cars, and not much mixing it up to worry about.
Chris took a slew of pictures and a few are uploaded here:
NHIS Memorial Day 2007 - a photoset on Flickr He has a sequence of Brian and I running through the "bowl" that are really quite nice; will post those later in the week.
I've also got a few video clips up on YouTube and will link to them below. I broke the Hoyttech bullet cam while setting up on Sunday before the event. So had to scramble and found a $18 WalMart plastic tripod to bolt to the camera bar. But then managed to break that too on the morning of the event. So with some glue and help from Chris we were back in business. Bit of camera shake in the videos as a result but they seem watchable.
Brian, you were definitely faster than me in the morning sessions. It WAS my first time out this year and one big oops was forgetting to switch the
DSC off. The complete lack of cones at my usual turn in points was also a bit disorienting. But I suspect you may just plain be faster than me. I did keep up with you later in the day, until that red Spec Miata and then a VW got in the way. At least I got the Miata back on the last run! Did you manage to pass him at all?
The GT3 and the RS4 really should have been a lot faster. They even slowed me up a few times.
Experimented with the low versus high line into turn 1 and the south chicane. Maybe I don't understand the really low line, because the really high line (lane 3) seems at least 2 seconds faster for me every time.
Speaking of doing stupid things. Biggest downer for me was whacking the berm on the right at turn 10 in the third session. Cracked the right front rim and chunked the tire. New rim and tires are on order. I know I've hit that exact spot before with the 15 inch Kosei's and they just suck it up -- I'm going to have to be a lot more careful with the 17 inch OZ Ultraleggeras which have way less meat on them. In the long run I'm probably going to leave the OZs for the street and go back to the 15 inch Koseis or even the stock holies for the track.
Jason you're not as fast as you think you are. That temporary chicane at the exit of turn 12 we had to deal with was a real PITA. Must have added to usual lap times at least 5 seconds.
On to Lime Rock Friday!
