NE Track Day/Autocross/Racing Reports

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by racingdynamcs

This may be a little off topic, but How well did everyone do in their respected classes?

Certainly not off-topic.

On the track, most (all?) of the events we go to are not timed, and are not "racing". So, there are no real results. Of course, it's easy to keep track of how often you are getting passed, and how often you are passing other people.

onasled has a very quick S, and drives well, so he rarely gets passed on the track. My Cooper is a little power-challenged, so I get passed a fair amount. But, I also have gotten around quite a few cars out there... including a Cooper S that was completely stock, including tires, a handful of 3-series BMWs, 4-cylinder Porsches, Miatas, etc.

Autocrossing is another story and is very competitive. My Cooper would routinely get beat by a guy in his Saturn coupe with R-compound tires, but I'd beat the other people in my class, and come in somewhere around the middle of the overall standings (ignoring classes).

[racingdynamcs]

That is generally what i was looking for, thank you.

[snid]

Heading to Loudon tonight. Gotta load up the car with all the usual stuff, plus the extra set of wheels. I'm heading down there and back on my snow tires, and using the summer tires on the track. We'll see how much is left of them when I'm done.

Staying overnight in Loudon (the rates on the Red Roof Inn have dropped from what they were in the summertime!) Driving Friday. Too bad I think everyone else is driving on other days. There's a slight chance I might do a day trip back down there on Sunday for the autocross club competition thing that got rained out last time - if the Sports Car Club of Vermont "team" needs one more driver.

Run group 2, here I come!

[MGB Boy]

Try to keep it outta the hay bales this weekend, Jas!

-Ricardo

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by MGB Boy

Try to keep it outta the hay bales this weekend, Jas!

I don't think there are hay bales at NHIS... just concrete walls.

[MGB Boy]

Quote: Originally Posted by snid

I don't think there are hay bales at NHIS... just concrete walls.

Even better motivation, then...

-Ricardo

[snid]

http://homepage.mac.com/jtross/iMovieTheater46.html

That's a quickly cut up video from Firday (Oct 28) at NHIS. The black MINI in front of me was a JCW equipped Cooper S... it had Alta springs and rear swaybar, slotted brake rotors front and rear, a big brake kit on the front, SSR Comp wheels, Kumho Ecsta tires, those two extra gauges mounted off the tach, and probably some other stuff I didn't notice by looking at it while it was parked.

In all fairness, later in the day it was going a bit faster and did pass me. I didn't get past the JCW in the session that's posted above. There were three faster cars behind me, and by letting them past I lost a little ground on the JCW. But, I do also have video footage of me passing the JCW - I was on my second lap of the last session and the JCW was still on its warm-up lap, so it doesn't really count.

Quote: Originally Posted by GadgetGav

Jason, 2 questions... Did you time your lap from the video..? How do you mount your camera? - there's impressively little shake.

I haven't timed out my laps yet. Strangely enough, even though the BMWCCA says that people seen with timing devices will be asked to leave the event, my instructor was sitting in my car with a lap timer, and giving me my times each lap. But, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to that. I think I was down in the 1:27 range (versus 1:33 last time, using the infield chicane instead of the oval for turn 1). I'll look at the video a little more tomorrow and figure some things out.

The camera mount is detailed in this thread:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-generation-interior-ice/98839-video-camera-set-up-track-days.html
I have a fairly cheap Sony mini-dv camera that's a few years old. but, it does have an image stabilization feature which also helps reduce shakey video.

When I spend more time with the video, I'll be sure to include a part where having the DSC on helped save my car from spinning. It was pretty cold out there, and that cut down on the amount of grip that was available. I had DSC on for most of the day, including during the video posted above.

There was some club racing going on during the day (full-on racing, pass at will) for those that had a racing liscense. At the end of the day, after I had packed up my car, I watched a bit of that. Unfortunately, I only saw one lap. Someone hit the wall in turn one (nascar oval) very hard. The sound was much like you hear when they fire a canon at a parade. I started home after this, and as I was driving away from the track, and ambulance was also heading away from the track, very quickly, being followed by the HMS Motorsports MINI which was being used as the pace car for the racing (and had all kinds of flashing lights mounted on it). I hope whoever it was that hit the wall is okay.

Oh yeah, I got signed off to solo, and ran the last session of the day by myself!

[NHRef]

Sounds like a good day! I'll check out the videos later. Got into the Sunday session yesterday so am in the process of getting everything ready.

Who will be there on Sunday?

Pete

[GadgetGav]

Quote: Originally Posted by snid

<snip>
I haven't timed out my laps yet. Strangely enough, even though the BMWCCA says that people seen with timing devices will be asked to leave the event, my instructor was sitting in my car with a lap timer, and giving me my times each lap. But, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to that. I think I was down in the 1:27 range (versus 1:33 last time, using the infield chicane instead of the oval for turn 1). I'll look at the video a little more tomorrow and figure some things out.

The camera mount is detailed in this thread:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-generation-interior-ice/98839-video-camera-set-up-track-days.html
I have a fairly cheap Sony mini-dv camera that's a few years old. but, it does have an image stabilization feature which also helps reduce shakey video.

Thanks Jason. My mount is only on one side (I had reservations about tying the seats together) but it wobbles a lot more even with image stabilsation in the camera.

[onasled]

Good job Jason.

Time for some safety equipment

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by onasled

Good job Jason.

Thanks... This instructor had me taking some pretty different lines from my previous instructor. I'm using the philosophy that it's always good to get comfortable with different lines, just in case you wind up needing to use one of them some day unexpectedly.

Quote:

Time for some safety equipment

I'm not dissagreeing, but I don't completely follow you on this one. What safety gear should I be looking into? Especially after seeing an ambulance speeding away from the track, I can see where safer is better.

I'll do up some more video tomorrow... but the closest I came to having a moment out there was going through 10 on cold-ish tires and finding a bit too much of the curb on the inside of the turn. The back end of the car noticeable stepped out. The DSC did intervene to bring the car back in line. The oversteer is noticeable in the video, but the other thing that struck me from the video is that I also was dialing in opposite lock pretty quickly, too. I guess I just might be learning some things out there.

[onasled]

I did seem to notice that you were early apexing a bit. There is one time on the video at the "Bowel" that I (think) I heard your instructor tell you to turn in way to early.

Safety equipment; .... the key here is to end up with a Hans device, or similar head restraint.

The problem here is that all safety equipment works only with other safety equipment. In order to end up with a Hans you need a good six point harness. In order to install a harness safely you need a roll bar or cage,
IF you have the budget I would do the following.
This would be in the order of safety first;
Roll bar
Six point harness
Hans device
Race seats

This would be in the order of speed first;
Roll bar
Race seats
Six point harness
Hans

So here is the million dollar question. What is you life worth and what do you think the odds are that you could be in a life threatening situation on the track? The Hans alone is close to $1,000.

[onasled]

By the way, that was Larry in the JCW. I also have some footage of him at LRP.
You getting to LRP this season Jason?

[snid]

I'm with you now on the safety gear, Greg. Thanks for the push in that direction. It's one of those horrible questions where the "correct" answer is so plainly obvious, but not something you really want to do. If my Cooper was a second car, I'd do that stuff in a heartbeat.

It does get easy to see just how quickly something could go very wrong. I had someone in front of me hit the brakes on the downhill between 9 and 10. Gut reaction upon seeing brake lights in front of me was to hit the brakes myself. And that's not the best place to be doing that. Since I was going slower than my normal pace through there, everything worked out fine.

Quote:

By the way, that was Larry in the JCW. I also have some footage of him at LRP.
You getting to LRP this season Jason?

I was hoping to find the driver of that car to chat, but never did. I feel a little guilty about putting up a video and pretty much saying "look at me! I'm going faster than this other person who's in a faster car!" That said, I also have footage of me passing another Cooper S.

No LRP for me, that I know of. I'm still on the waiting list for next weekend, but highly doubt that will come through.

[GadgetGav]

If you don't want to go the whole hog with the roll cage and HANS device, there's always the clip in 4 point harness and a neck collar... Not the same level of protection, but I felt a lot more connected with the car using the 4 point than I did with the stock belt.
It's neat that the DSC can be left on while doing a track event. It's not a killjoy at all but is smart enough to know when you're going round corners fast but in control and when everything's starting to go pear-shaped..! The one track event I did at NHIS it was on all day and only kicked in once. Funny that as it kicks in in two places on my regular commute!