The guy who owns it is someone that I met last year at this event and spent time with. We were next to him and his friends in the paddock and shared a couple of after track dinners. Then at Mid-Ohio in April last year, we all were sharing paddock space again, plus went karting on the day we got snowed out. So, I felt especially bad about the damage to his car. But, as they say, that's racing. In any case, he was only doing the comp school, then instructing for the rest of the weekend. He didn't run on Sautrday 'cause of the weather, though he had repaired his car Friday night after our comp school.
That video is actually from the next day. On Friday, the day of my competition school, we had beautiful weather.
You can see from that video what I had to deal with on Saturday, although I wasn't in that particular race. My race went off about 40 minutes later. And though my friend didn't race his "Stohr", there were a number of others in open cockpit cars.
O.K., so now Saturday's adventure. The weather was gorgeous on Friday, not so on Saturday.
It was cold and it started to snow in the morning and snowed for quite a while. No accumulation on track, but very wet and foggy. My group was going to put the rain tires on my car for my practice session but decided that they wouldn't even have a chance to get warmed up, so we left on the dry tires. Not quite slicks, but just four slender bands of tread through the tires. It had just started snowing when I was getting ready to go out for my practice.
Well, for some reason, we were on grid for the longest time and by the time we were released on to the track, conditions were worse and worsened throughout the session. I basically just tip-toed around the track. Forunately, if I didn't have traction going through a corner, the car pushed a little first as warning. The brakes locked up quite easily (no ABS). With the fog and overspray, I couldn't see ahead on the straights. People were going off all over the place. By the end of the session, the straights and the uphill esses felt like a skating rink, it was so slippery and cold. I questioned my sanity in staying out there. Then, thankfully, the session was over and I had stayed on track.
Because of the weather, our qualifying sessions were cancelled and they used our practice times to grid us for the race.
Conditions had improved by the time my race came up. The track was still wet and it was still cold and foggy, but it wasn't snowing as much. I was on rain tires for the race. I just wanted to finish without incident. I have to finish 4 races without incident to get past my "provisional" license and have a regular competition license. Of course, during the race, lots of people went off. Someone spun in front of me in Hog's Pen, a couple of Spec E-30s made contact with each other and were sitting on track in the carousel as I came by. I still couldn't see on the straights with the fog and the overspray. I was so pleased to finish without a spin or an off.
So....how did I do? Not so great, but that's OK. I finished 47th overall out of 62 starting cars, 10th in class out of 12. I beat the fellow that was in my rookie class as well as another Miata driver. I believe they were both faster than me, but they didn't keep it on track. A spin can really mess with your race position in a Sprint race. I beat lots of 944s and some Spec E 30s, and I was in fact faster than them. Weren't they on rain tires?
Well, that's the recap of my Saturday race. More later on Sunday's Enduro.
Actually, it appears to me that he did have a defroster, just that it wasn't working well.
Now for Sunday's race. Results just came out yesterday, I was waiting on them.
I participated in a 3hr, 15 min enduro. I had a co-driver, I was second driver. I am so glad that I didn't start. Approximately 80 cars took to the track at once. About 25% of them were competing in a Sprint race within the enduro. So, after about 30 minutes, the checkered was waved and those cars were done. But the start looked scary, so many different cars, even worse, different agendas. In a sprint race you want to gain position quickly and will take more risks. In an enduro, you're more interested in making the car last and being consistent.
My group entered 4 cars. Within the first 30 minutes, 3 of them were out. One crashed into the back of one of my friends, also a rookie. Two of them blew motors. The pressure was on me and my co-driver to finish. Boy was I nervous.
After about 1 hr 40 min my car came in for fuel and driver change. He got out, I hopped in, someone helped me with the harnasses. While this was going on, fuel was added and the brakes and tires checked. Then off I went.
I was lucky, I got the easy part of the race. It was mostly uneventful. I just drove the car. My lap times improved by 6 seconds during the 1 1/2+ hrs that I was out there, but I'm still leaving tons on the table. I thought I'd be exhausted after I was done, but I actually felt pretty good. Just my wrists were getting sore (no power steering).
Results: We finished 23rd out of 48 cars, 11th in class out of 21 cars.
I learned a lot this weekend, and now I just need more racing time to implement what I learned!
My winter is over - I got back from my snowboarding vacation last week - so it's time to start getting ready for track days!
I think I may do a little website for my autocross / track days this summer, if I get sufficiently motivated. I'll be sure to bring a camera down to CT when I go visit Greg to get the rollbar put it.
Still at work... haven't started mounting belts yet. I just picked them up from the post office this morning because the box wouldn't fit in my aprtment building's package locker, and they were sent insured. Not a problem though.
Those suckers are heavy. Well, heavier than I was expecting.
Should I run the shoulder belts between the headrest posts if it's not too uncomfortable? The pictures I've seen of the Schroth's were set up that way.
I started importing my in-car video onto my computer this morning. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to get a video together, though... I wasn't able to work on it yesterday as I was out autocrossing (bested the 3 MCSs, but lost in class to an SCDA instructor driving an older Mazda 323 all wheel drive turbo hatch - I was 13th out of 41 cars overall - our autocrosses are really really tight so horsepower doesn't help much).
The Lime Rock day was great fun. I'm very pleased to know that I can go to a new track and not be completely lost. I was certainly not driving LRP as well as I drive NHIS, but I made it though the day with no problems, and got faster as the day went on.
My Cooper performed flawlessly... 93,000+ miles and it still runs around the track with the RPMs up about 5000 most of the time without complaint. Nice and stable at the end of the front straight, no drama when braking from 100+ mph, great stuff!
The wheels / tires / suspension combination worked great. No understeer problems popped up, and I was able to adjust my line with the throttle. My setup was 215/45R16 Azenis (the old ones), JCW suspension upgrade springs and dampers, stock sports suspension front swaybar, and the RDR / helix rear swaybar on the softest setting. There was one time coming into the second half of big bend that I was sure I had too much speed and was about to plow straight to the outside of the turn. So, I let off the gas and turned in a little extra, and the darned thing grabbed and turned in just like I told it to. Of course, that wound up being too much (since I was expecting understeer), but everything worked out. I guess there's more grip in my car than I thought.
The harnesses made it through tech inspection with no problem. They worked very well for me, but I can see where using real race seats with a sub belt hole would be even better. There was still some sliding around happening at times using the stock seats. My instructor mentioned that they were really nice belts and liked how easily the could be loosened up when you're getting out of them. Thanks for the advice on those, Greg. Sounds like you picked the right stuff.
The first session was interesting for me. I was put in the experienced / yellow run group, and the first time out while I was trying to learn the track, the rest of the group seemed to already know where they were going. I got passed quite a bit that session and never really got to go into any corners at full speed, which made it hard to learn the course.
As the day went on, things got much better. I was still taking most of the corners too slowly, but that's better than too quickly.
I love the downhill turn! It hardly seemed like I was going that fast into that turn, but looking at the video I was getting close to 90 mph at turn in. I did find the rut next to the apex curbing, and it really does grab those tires and hold you to the inside of the turn. Of course, one time I didn't quite get far enough inside and without that extra traction, I wound up closer to the outside of the track on track out than I liked, but that just means I had around a foot of track left instead of 2 feet.
Next time I'm there, I need someone to explain Big Bend to me. :: You'll see my line when I get the video done... I guess I was trying to do the double apex line, but was too late on the first apex and too early on the second one.
Paul asked about brakes... well... Lime Rock was pretty easy on brakes so I had no problems at all. There's only one heavy braking zone per lap, with a few other spots where a quick stab to go from 90 to 70 or so is all you need. So, no brake issues. I didn't even bother swapping in the race pads - I was already outbraking around half of the cars out there with just the Hawk HPS pads.
First time driving on a track in the rain. There was a lot more grip than I was expecting, and it wouldn't have been that bad except that the rain was coupled with cold and wind, which made being outside all day a little miserable.
It was also the first time I didn't meet my goals while out on a track or autocross. I couldn't beat my best time at the track from last year. It did dry out for Sunday, so I cannot blame that. I was hoping the new wheels and tires would make me a little faster, but it didn't happen. My previous best was a 1:02.9 and yesterday the best I got was a 1:03.0 Not a huge difference, but I really wanted to be faster.
While the track did dry out, the grass stayed wet, so I was pretty nervous about dropping a wheel in the grass. Last year, I'd drop a wheel on the grass every once in a while. At least I have two more trips out to that track (SLMP - Saint Lawrence Motorsports Park) this summer to do better.
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