NE Track Day/Autocross/Racing Reports

[blalor]

The cocky ******* in me is wishing I'd gone up to Señor GT3 and offered to show him how to drive it. Mine Gott was he slow.

[blalor]

Sweet! I can't wait to drive a justaCooper!

Are you going up Friday? I am planning on camping on Friday and Saturday nights, but I doubt I'll make it there for any track time on Friday.

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by blalor (original)

Sweet! I can't wait to drive a justaCooper!

Are you going up Friday? I am planning on camping on Friday and Saturday nights, but I doubt I'll make it there for any track time on Friday.

Yeah, we historically have a group that heads out from BTV (that's what the kids call Burlington) around noon on Friday. Sometimes more like 4:00pm. The goal is either to get there in time to do some driving, or to get there in time to set up a tent before dark. I doubt I'll be looking to drive on Friday. But I will be tenting for Friday and Saturday nights.

And I can't wait to drive an MCS and see if I can get under a minute for a lap time.

[blalor]

Hrm, 3 hours to Burlington. Guess I'll be driving up solo.

[snid]

Here's something I learned yesterday:

When you see chunks of metal come flying out of the exhaust pipe of a car, don't pick them up for a closer look. They're probably hot.

The local turbo Miata blew it's catalytic converter, sending chunks of it out the tailpipe.

Well, one of the local turbo Miatas. The slower one. The same brothers own two. One a normal Miata engine with a small turbo, and one with a Nissan SR20DET with a big turbo on it - ~400hp. And two spec Miatas, and I think a "parts" Miata... They have a Miata problem.

[MisterMINI]

Quote: Originally Posted by blalor (original)

Couple of videos from Monday:
Rage Against The Mac » Blog Archive » More Memorial Day NHIS Videos

And one of the drive up:
Rage Against The Mac » Blog Archive » Driving to NHIS

Great videos Brian. Do you have one of your fast run at MOTD?

[snid]

Front control arm bushings on the MINI are shot.

Getting replaced with poly bushings, ad realigned, once the bushings arrive up north.

Hopefully, no more spinning MINI.

[blalor]

Quote: Originally Posted by snid (original)

Here's something I learned yesterday:

Note to self: avoid instruction with Jason; he learns the hard way.

Quote: Originally Posted by MisterMINI (original)

Great videos Brian. Do you have one of your fast run at MOTD?

Yes, but it's *very* big. If you're up for downloading a 240MB file, go here, log in with NAM/NAM and click on "blalor". I'm gonna shrink it down and put it up on my site soon.

Quote: Originally Posted by snid (original)

Hopefully, no more spinning MINI.

Riiiiight.

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by snid (original)

Hopefully, no more spinning MINI.

Quote: Originally Posted by blalor (original)

Riiiiight.

Okay... how about "hopefully, less spins in the MINI"?

And, I wasn't the only one who picked up hot pieces of metal that came out of cars that day. Not that that makes it any less stupid.

Maybe I do learn things the hard way. I have a list of things that I know it hurts to hit when snowboarding... trees and rocks are on it. Oh yeah... and avalanches suck.

http://www.mini2.com/forum/new-york-...he#post1228563

[blalor]

I'm choking back tears after reading that story about the guy digging his dog out of the snow. My two mutts are sacked out on the couch next to me right now, shedding all over me, God bless 'em.

Last year I tried to gauge the depth of a gouge in one of my front rotors with my finger nail. Right after driving. My finger sizzled. Ick.

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by blalor (original)

Last year I tried to gauge the depth of a gouge in one of my front rotors with my finger nail. Right after driving. My finger sizzled. Ick.

See, I'm not the only one who does stupid things.

[blalor]

Oh, yeah, you're in good company!

[LePew]

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!

[blalor]

Nice report, David. Funny, for all the video and chatter we've had here, I forgot to actually write anything meaningful! I'd forgotten, too, about not having to work the corners; that was a nice, expected surprise. (Yes, "expected"; you shouldn't have to work the corners just to save ten bucks).

I wanted that kid in the RS4 bad, just because of the comment he made while getting teched about that being his "backup" car; the R32 was "broken". I'm all for giving your kid ridiculous amounts of opportunity, but the first thing I'll teach mine is humility and modesty. I was reeling him in little by little, but those pesky little Miatas kept getting in the way! The GT3 was another story. He definitely belonged in the novice group. It occurred to me that he must have been in the classroom session and had more than a few track days under his belt (we all did), so what was the problem?

You busted a rim, Dave? Damn! Ten was at the bottom of the hill, crossing the oval back into the infield, right? Yeah, that looks like a pretty sharp curb, but I'm pretty sure I touched it myself at least once. My instructor (who related much of her Formula Ford experience) noted that the curbs are verboten in her open-wheeled car, right after I launched myself off one going through 11 in a particularly sloppy sequence. I asked if you'd get airborne or break something; her response was "Yes."

I'm not sure that I did get that Miata back; the blue one was pretty slow, but the red ones were deceptively fast. I'm thinking they had something under the bonnet more than just the standard Miata lump. I did pass the guy in the old Rabbit, however.

I finally uploaded some pics, too: NHIS Track Day - 2007/05/28 - a photoset on Flickr

(Maybe tonight I'll get to the ones from Lucky's Shakedown Cruise...)

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by LePew (original)

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.

When I compared times, I took out the front straight for both Brian and I. The segment of the lap I compared was the same for both of us (pavement change going into 1 to the braking zone for 12(?)).

And I know I'm slow, thanks for rubbing it in.