So all of that stuff last month about building dedicated cars for each track? Eh... Still sorta on the table, but it kind of limits what I can do with my stable of (potentially rentable) racing Miatas.
Last weekend was NASA Mid-Atlantic's Summer Breeze at Summit Point. It was far and away my best overall weekend of the season, with the best weather, turn-out, and camaraderie. Winning 4 tires didn't hurt, either.
I went to Summit Point with a plan. That plan was a bit hamstrung by the age of my tires (this was the 5th event on a single set of Hoosiers), but that kind of played into my hands just a bit. Lemme 'splain...
The wing, as previously mentioned, is an anchor at VIR, taking a full 1-second improvement on the front half of the course and throwing it away in 4000' on the back straight. My plan was to switch back to last year's configuration, balance the car perfectly, and see if I could make an overall improvement at Summit Point just by driving better. I was, after all, getting key data inputs like throttle-position and brake-actuation.
What I quickly found, though, was that even though we scaled and balanced the car to knife-edge perfection, there was just no grip in the rear. New sticky Hoosiers can mask a lot of deficiencies in a suspension, but old ones cannot. The Spec Miata sway bars that used to feel so good and solid at preventing body-roll also place excessive duty on the tires. Again, that's fine when they're new, but at roughly 30 heat-cycles, not so much.
I tried to put down any sort of decent lap over two sessions and came out putting high 1:28.x laps. That's awful considering I'd done several high 1:26.x laps in April.
I also very carefully documented tire temps and pressures after each session, and the rears just weren't doing what I had hoped for. Fortunately, I'd brought the wing and stock sway bars to experiment.
I switched back to that configuration, re-filed my class sheet, and hit the track again, immediately taking off almost a full second and keeping the car firmly planted in the rear. The next morning, over the course of two more sessions I took off another full second, ending my weekend with a 1:26.862 lap, within 0.3 seconds of my personal best and on tires that had no duty-cycle left. And the crazy thing is, there was plenty more performance to be had.
So now I have a new quandary! The wing is a proven benefit at Summit Point, to the point where I believe I have a reasonable chance at setting the lap record for TTE. But it is also a proven boondoggle at VIR.
My plan for October had been to switch back to the beefy sway bars and just hope for the best in comp school, but then i realized that I'm taking exactly 7 points for aero. What if I ran another dyno reclass for TTE/PTE with one star? That one star could represent a bump in horsepower or a significant drop in weight (I have about 70lbs of ballast in the car right now), or both. No aero, compliant suspension, more horsepower, and less weight. Could that be the ticket, or will the car be too unstable at high speeds?
I must find out!
Showing posts with label Miata. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miata. Show all posts
Friday, August 24, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
NASA Heat Wave at VIR
I find myself in a relatively unique position. I just had what I should call a very bad weekend at the track, but I came away with so many ideas swirling around in my head.
After finishing a very close 3rd on Saturday (by less than .2 seconds), I came a very distant 3rd on Sunday--1.5 seconds out of contention for 2nd. Both cars that finished ahead of me were running with significant advantages: new rubber and superchargers. My car, meanwhile, was running on tires that were first mounted in February, and dealing with residual high-idle and overheating issues and a suspension setup that's always just been guessed at--never properly calibrated.
I knew going into the weekend that a win was out of reach, and that 2nd place may not happen either, but still, it was a shock to be beaten so soundly on Sunday.
But I learned a lot. And I mean a whole lot.
I learned that ballast cannot go behind the rear axle. I didn't think it was a good idea when I did it, but I really didn't want to risk interrupting fuel and brake lines to mount it in the driver's compartment. I will fix that for the next event. At one point a car braked quite early and off-line in front of me, causing me to swing right to avoid his bumper. When I turned the car back to the left for the corner, the back end washed out. Not cool. I removed the ballast and ran with extra fuel to prevent that happening again.
I learned that my wing does, indeed, cause significant understeer at corner-entry. It was nigh impossible to get the car to the apex of T1, though I was able to carry more speed than ever before into South Bend (95mph), and brake even later for T14.
I learned that urethane bushings don't make a car faster, they just reveal inefficiencies in your suspension setup. I had an off-line entry into T4 that, when I corrected with a touch of oversteer, caused the car to skitter across the track in a very unsettling series of bounces. At one point the horizon began to rotate and I had to do some very creative steering to get it back under control. The lower esses are just an exercise in bouncing, though it doesn't seem to affect top speed. I may need stiffer springs & shocks in the rear, though experiments with tire-pressure should help resolve that question.
I learned that I'm running too much negative camber. I've had a tire pyrometer for years and have never used it. This time I had K pull temps, and inners were 10 - 20 degrees higher than the rest of the tire surface.
The most important thing I learned, though, is that my car simply isn't competitive for VIR in its current configuration. And that's got me thinking about my plans for the other car. Bridget (orange) is very close to lap-record time at Summit Point, a track with significant time spent in corners. Aero is important at Summit Point, because without it, I cannot carry speed through Turns 3, 4, and 10, and braking into 1 and 5 are weak. But at VIR, with a 4000' straight-away and a whole lot of time spent going straight-ish, the aero just holds the car back.
Last year I was just under 2:20 and seeing 118mph on the back straight, and 117 on the front straight. This year I'm seeing 116 on the back and 114 on the front. My competitors are seeing 120+ on both. The wing is slowing the car down. Worse yet, I had one of the supercharged Miatas behind me on the back straight, and he sucked up under my wing and passed me like I was tied to a tree. So not only does it slow my car down, but it speeds my competitors up. Decidedly not awesome.
So what to do? Do I run a supercharger at both tracks? The Chute (T4) at Summit Point is scary, and I do not really want to run that track without aero. But I'm not really interested in doing full motor-swaps between events.
The solution may be Stacey (the new car I bought last November). Stacey is currently getting a roll cage, and her development track had been to run in Chump then TTD/PTD. But nobody's racing PTD, and the registrations for TTD are consistently slim. So what if I built a Spec Vinny car out of her? Supercharger, TTE* with shocks, springs, LSD, and Hoosiers. One car for VIR, one car for Summit Point. One with power, one with aero.
In any other situation it would be a profound absurdity to consider, but I have two cars to run. And running the power car at VIR would save me from having to get dyno-ed for every single event, since temperature variations make a dramatic impact to horsepower.
After finishing a very close 3rd on Saturday (by less than .2 seconds), I came a very distant 3rd on Sunday--1.5 seconds out of contention for 2nd. Both cars that finished ahead of me were running with significant advantages: new rubber and superchargers. My car, meanwhile, was running on tires that were first mounted in February, and dealing with residual high-idle and overheating issues and a suspension setup that's always just been guessed at--never properly calibrated.
I knew going into the weekend that a win was out of reach, and that 2nd place may not happen either, but still, it was a shock to be beaten so soundly on Sunday.
But I learned a lot. And I mean a whole lot.
I learned that ballast cannot go behind the rear axle. I didn't think it was a good idea when I did it, but I really didn't want to risk interrupting fuel and brake lines to mount it in the driver's compartment. I will fix that for the next event. At one point a car braked quite early and off-line in front of me, causing me to swing right to avoid his bumper. When I turned the car back to the left for the corner, the back end washed out. Not cool. I removed the ballast and ran with extra fuel to prevent that happening again.
I learned that my wing does, indeed, cause significant understeer at corner-entry. It was nigh impossible to get the car to the apex of T1, though I was able to carry more speed than ever before into South Bend (95mph), and brake even later for T14.
I learned that urethane bushings don't make a car faster, they just reveal inefficiencies in your suspension setup. I had an off-line entry into T4 that, when I corrected with a touch of oversteer, caused the car to skitter across the track in a very unsettling series of bounces. At one point the horizon began to rotate and I had to do some very creative steering to get it back under control. The lower esses are just an exercise in bouncing, though it doesn't seem to affect top speed. I may need stiffer springs & shocks in the rear, though experiments with tire-pressure should help resolve that question.
I learned that I'm running too much negative camber. I've had a tire pyrometer for years and have never used it. This time I had K pull temps, and inners were 10 - 20 degrees higher than the rest of the tire surface.
The most important thing I learned, though, is that my car simply isn't competitive for VIR in its current configuration. And that's got me thinking about my plans for the other car. Bridget (orange) is very close to lap-record time at Summit Point, a track with significant time spent in corners. Aero is important at Summit Point, because without it, I cannot carry speed through Turns 3, 4, and 10, and braking into 1 and 5 are weak. But at VIR, with a 4000' straight-away and a whole lot of time spent going straight-ish, the aero just holds the car back.
Last year I was just under 2:20 and seeing 118mph on the back straight, and 117 on the front straight. This year I'm seeing 116 on the back and 114 on the front. My competitors are seeing 120+ on both. The wing is slowing the car down. Worse yet, I had one of the supercharged Miatas behind me on the back straight, and he sucked up under my wing and passed me like I was tied to a tree. So not only does it slow my car down, but it speeds my competitors up. Decidedly not awesome.
So what to do? Do I run a supercharger at both tracks? The Chute (T4) at Summit Point is scary, and I do not really want to run that track without aero. But I'm not really interested in doing full motor-swaps between events.
The solution may be Stacey (the new car I bought last November). Stacey is currently getting a roll cage, and her development track had been to run in Chump then TTD/PTD. But nobody's racing PTD, and the registrations for TTD are consistently slim. So what if I built a Spec Vinny car out of her? Supercharger, TTE* with shocks, springs, LSD, and Hoosiers. One car for VIR, one car for Summit Point. One with power, one with aero.
In any other situation it would be a profound absurdity to consider, but I have two cars to run. And running the power car at VIR would save me from having to get dyno-ed for every single event, since temperature variations make a dramatic impact to horsepower.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
NASA Spring Showdown @ Summit Point
What an amazing weekend.
I went into the 3rd event of the 2012 season with more questions than answers, and having done absolutely nothing to the car since March. My tires were on their 3rd weekend, something I've never even considered with Hoosiers (they peak early and fall off quickly, typically dying near the end of the 2nd event).
But during the warm-up session Saturday, I knew I had something special. I'd put the wicker bill back on the wing in fear of rain, but left it as flat as it would go (about -5 degrees). And without pushing too terribly hard, I managed a 1:27.3, which was nearly as fast as my fastest previous timed lap ever. Typically I could average a 1:28.5 or so, making me excited about the day ahead.
The one thing I kept doing, though was locking up the front brakes. That had simply not happened with the higher wing angle, so I developed an unreasonable fear of late-braking, something that ended up costing me a track record.
In the 2nd session I pulled a 1:26.9 lap, my fastest timed lap ever by 0.1 seconds, and I knew there was plenty more. Due to a scaling issue, I had to add 7 gallons before going back out, but even with that 43lb addition, I managed a 1:26.5 in the 2nd timed session. Delighted with the results, I parked the car for the day. No sense taking what was left of the tires away from Sunday.
And then came the weather. For the rest of the day, intermittent sleet came down, though the temps were in the 50's, resulting in an extremely slick track that gobbled up cars left & right.
At the end of the day, we learned that an error in timing & scoring resulted in most TT drivers losing times from the 2nd session, which meant that my 1:26.5 didn't count. I was crestfallen, but I got it on video and overlaid the Traqmate data for posterity:
It rained most of the night Saturday, so I figured we'd have a pretty green (and therefore slick) track in the morning on Sunday. So I dialed in just a tidge of wicker (adding maybe 10 degrees--maybe) and put down a 1:27.2 lap.
Disappointed, I put it back to the original setting and went back out and ended my weekend with a 1:27.0 final session.
I was astonished when looking at data last night. I had thought that 0.2 second penalty was the result of the wing. In one lap, I could clearly see that I was ahead of my record, then lost it on a straight-away-- clearly the result of the wing. But it wasn't. With the wicker bill at ~15 degrees, I posted the fastest straight-line speed of the weekend at 116.88mph at the end of the front straight. I didn't trust the brakes, though, and got on them 0.4 seconds too soon, then backed off the brakes about 0.5 seconds later. Throughout that 1:27.2 lap, I consistently got on the brakes too hard and for too long, resulting in lower apex speeds by about 5mph, particularly at turns 3, 5, and 10. And if there are 2 turns you don't want to screw up at Summit Point, they're 3 and 10.
I honestly believe that if I'd trusted the car a little more, I could have come in at a 1:26.0 lap. The 0.4 seconds of unnecessary braking alone would have put me under the track record of 1:26.2.
All of this makes me extremely excited about getting back to VIR in July. I think I've finally stumbled upon a setup that can take time off my laps, instead of adding to it.
I'd like to thank Elliott Tire, my amazingly supportive wife Katelyn for putting up with the weather, and my son for joining me this weekend.
I went into the 3rd event of the 2012 season with more questions than answers, and having done absolutely nothing to the car since March. My tires were on their 3rd weekend, something I've never even considered with Hoosiers (they peak early and fall off quickly, typically dying near the end of the 2nd event).
But during the warm-up session Saturday, I knew I had something special. I'd put the wicker bill back on the wing in fear of rain, but left it as flat as it would go (about -5 degrees). And without pushing too terribly hard, I managed a 1:27.3, which was nearly as fast as my fastest previous timed lap ever. Typically I could average a 1:28.5 or so, making me excited about the day ahead.
The one thing I kept doing, though was locking up the front brakes. That had simply not happened with the higher wing angle, so I developed an unreasonable fear of late-braking, something that ended up costing me a track record.
In the 2nd session I pulled a 1:26.9 lap, my fastest timed lap ever by 0.1 seconds, and I knew there was plenty more. Due to a scaling issue, I had to add 7 gallons before going back out, but even with that 43lb addition, I managed a 1:26.5 in the 2nd timed session. Delighted with the results, I parked the car for the day. No sense taking what was left of the tires away from Sunday.
And then came the weather. For the rest of the day, intermittent sleet came down, though the temps were in the 50's, resulting in an extremely slick track that gobbled up cars left & right.
At the end of the day, we learned that an error in timing & scoring resulted in most TT drivers losing times from the 2nd session, which meant that my 1:26.5 didn't count. I was crestfallen, but I got it on video and overlaid the Traqmate data for posterity:
It rained most of the night Saturday, so I figured we'd have a pretty green (and therefore slick) track in the morning on Sunday. So I dialed in just a tidge of wicker (adding maybe 10 degrees--maybe) and put down a 1:27.2 lap.
Disappointed, I put it back to the original setting and went back out and ended my weekend with a 1:27.0 final session.
I was astonished when looking at data last night. I had thought that 0.2 second penalty was the result of the wing. In one lap, I could clearly see that I was ahead of my record, then lost it on a straight-away-- clearly the result of the wing. But it wasn't. With the wicker bill at ~15 degrees, I posted the fastest straight-line speed of the weekend at 116.88mph at the end of the front straight. I didn't trust the brakes, though, and got on them 0.4 seconds too soon, then backed off the brakes about 0.5 seconds later. Throughout that 1:27.2 lap, I consistently got on the brakes too hard and for too long, resulting in lower apex speeds by about 5mph, particularly at turns 3, 5, and 10. And if there are 2 turns you don't want to screw up at Summit Point, they're 3 and 10.
I honestly believe that if I'd trusted the car a little more, I could have come in at a 1:26.0 lap. The 0.4 seconds of unnecessary braking alone would have put me under the track record of 1:26.2.
All of this makes me extremely excited about getting back to VIR in July. I think I've finally stumbled upon a setup that can take time off my laps, instead of adding to it.
I'd like to thank Elliott Tire, my amazingly supportive wife Katelyn for putting up with the weather, and my son for joining me this weekend.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Would ya shut up about the stupid wing already?
I will, I promise. But this weekend I'll be at Summit Point, and they're calling for rain. Rain seems to be the hallmark of the 2012 NASA Mid-Atlantic season so far, and one thing that's become blindingly obvious about the wing is that it's amazing in the rain (last month I ran similar lap times in the rain to what the racers ran--on slicks). So dialed-in or not, it's staying on and may even end up with a pretty aggressive angle on the wicker bill.
I may not be excited about the weather or the incredibly small pool of competitors, but I'm pretty confident about this weekend. Let's go to the track!
I may not be excited about the weather or the incredibly small pool of competitors, but I'm pretty confident about this weekend. Let's go to the track!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
A confession, of sorts
When I sourced a wing and a differential for this season, I didn't do my homework. So often I've gotten away with either getting things right on the first try, or learning to compensate. So I let hubris guide my hand and just mounted the wing, figuring it would just work and I'd be faster. Whee!
Well I'm not.
And now, fully 3 months after putting the thing on the car, I'm reading and learning about how wings work. And the chances of "getting it right on the first try"? Incalculably small without doing some very complex math and having access to a wind-tunnel.
I learned after the first time I used it that the wicker bill was set too steeply, but only dialed it back to 50% in order to keep the downforce. I had considered dialing it all the way down for Summit Point, but now that I know a teensie bit more about How Things Work, I'm thinking I might be better off removing it outright. I'm also learning that the angle of the wing, though it looks flat, may actually be entirely too steep. It certainly becomes too aggressive with the wicker bill, which has a mathematically enormous planform at 3.375" chord * 56" span. That's too much for a Miata, IMO, unless I'm just using it for autocross purposes.
So my rant from the other day about removing the wing and building a diffuser...not gonna happen. Further research shows the Miata's rear pressures zone just isn't big enough to benefit from a diffuser, and the car's likely too high off the ground anyway. Any reduction in lift would be insignificant compared to the points-penalty assessment.
Aero is difficult and confusing. Were it not for the dramatic and easily-observed impact it's made in my braking, I'd ditch it entirely, but I know there's more to it than just looking bad-ass. And I know that getting it right will produce good downforce with minimal drag. I just hope to get it right(er) this season.
Well I'm not.
And now, fully 3 months after putting the thing on the car, I'm reading and learning about how wings work. And the chances of "getting it right on the first try"? Incalculably small without doing some very complex math and having access to a wind-tunnel.
I learned after the first time I used it that the wicker bill was set too steeply, but only dialed it back to 50% in order to keep the downforce. I had considered dialing it all the way down for Summit Point, but now that I know a teensie bit more about How Things Work, I'm thinking I might be better off removing it outright. I'm also learning that the angle of the wing, though it looks flat, may actually be entirely too steep. It certainly becomes too aggressive with the wicker bill, which has a mathematically enormous planform at 3.375" chord * 56" span. That's too much for a Miata, IMO, unless I'm just using it for autocross purposes.
So my rant from the other day about removing the wing and building a diffuser...not gonna happen. Further research shows the Miata's rear pressures zone just isn't big enough to benefit from a diffuser, and the car's likely too high off the ground anyway. Any reduction in lift would be insignificant compared to the points-penalty assessment.
Aero is difficult and confusing. Were it not for the dramatic and easily-observed impact it's made in my braking, I'd ditch it entirely, but I know there's more to it than just looking bad-ass. And I know that getting it right will produce good downforce with minimal drag. I just hope to get it right(er) this season.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
NASA March Madness @ VIR
My lap times are going the wrong way. Call it fear of aggravating my appendectomy wounds, call it fear of the damp conditions, the result is the same: I'm getting slower. And data is telling me something I really didn't want to know. It's the wing.
In February, I set an aggressive angle on the trim tab because I could only get the foil to go flat, even at max elevation. This was due to the slope of the trunk and limited adjustment options on the wing itself. I couldn't get the car past 114, which was off its previous best of 118mph and clearly not working. So I dialed the tab back to 50% and got a little better performance without losing grip. But I'm still almost 2 full seconds off last season's pace.
I adjusted shift points, drove harder through South Bend than I ever have before, and took 3 full seconds off my braking PER lap. The car rockets up to 90mph like it's been shot out of a cannon, but hits an aero wall. Acceleration graph comparisons over distance show a dramatic fall-off at 90, so it's clear I need to dial that trim tab down even further, but I don't know that it will be enough to keep the rear end planted and regain any time.
In spite of the high 2:21's, though, I was still able to eke out a win both days, finishing just 0.3 seconds ahead of second place on Saturday, but cementing a firm lead on Sunday before the rain ruined the afternoon.
Overall it ended up being a very good weekend, and I have to thank Hoosier for their generous contingency policies, but it's clear I have some work to do to get the car to go fast again.
I'm currently debating replacing the wing with a rear diffuser and going back to my beefier sway bars. The stock ones do not feel planted at all, and they're much noisier when pushed to the limits.
In February, I set an aggressive angle on the trim tab because I could only get the foil to go flat, even at max elevation. This was due to the slope of the trunk and limited adjustment options on the wing itself. I couldn't get the car past 114, which was off its previous best of 118mph and clearly not working. So I dialed the tab back to 50% and got a little better performance without losing grip. But I'm still almost 2 full seconds off last season's pace.
I adjusted shift points, drove harder through South Bend than I ever have before, and took 3 full seconds off my braking PER lap. The car rockets up to 90mph like it's been shot out of a cannon, but hits an aero wall. Acceleration graph comparisons over distance show a dramatic fall-off at 90, so it's clear I need to dial that trim tab down even further, but I don't know that it will be enough to keep the rear end planted and regain any time.
In spite of the high 2:21's, though, I was still able to eke out a win both days, finishing just 0.3 seconds ahead of second place on Saturday, but cementing a firm lead on Sunday before the rain ruined the afternoon.
Overall it ended up being a very good weekend, and I have to thank Hoosier for their generous contingency policies, but it's clear I have some work to do to get the car to go fast again.
I'm currently debating replacing the wing with a rear diffuser and going back to my beefier sway bars. The stock ones do not feel planted at all, and they're much noisier when pushed to the limits.
Monday, April 09, 2012
In which I have surgery and a wreck
Three weeks ago (hard to believe it's already been that long), I got up nice & early on a Sunday morning to get the family ready for church. I fed the boy and went upstairs to get dressed, but just wasn't feeling quite right. I tried waiting it out, but it just got worse and worse.
By 10:30, it was clear we weren't going to church. I felt like I'd swallowed a ball of hot glass shards. I sent myself to bed, but didn't sleep. I migrated to the sofa to watch all the racing on TV, but couldn't even focus on that. After 4 hours, the pain hadn't moved or abated at all, and I'd tried to vomit. While successful, it did nothing to alleviate the pain.
Off to Patient First I went. PRO TIP: don't go to Patient First.
I waited in the lobby for an hour, then was told to stand upright on the scales. I couldn't, but that didn't mean I didn't have to try. After another 50 minutes of waiting, I was told that while I may have appendicitis or pancreatitis, I probably just had the "stomach bug" and should either go home or to a hospital for more tests. Yay Patient First! 2 hours lost!
30 minutes later I wassitting doubled-over in the ER waiting room at St. Mary's with my wife and son, who was terrified that I was dying right in front of him. By 6:30pm I was in a treatment room, and my parents were on their way to take Alastair for the night.
By 9:30, I was no longer in any particular pain, though there was some tenderness in my abdomen, leading the medical team to believe that I was facing appendicitis, but they wanted to run some more tests. X-rays were done at around 10:30pm, and a CT scan at 1:30am confirmed it: appendicitis. God bless her, K stayed for the whole shebang. I sent her home twice to let the dog out, and had to force her to go home for the night when it was time to get moved upstairs to my more permanent room.
At 7am, I got a wake-up call from the surgical staff telling me that I was going to have an appendectomy. Up until that moment, surgery had been one of my biggest fears. But having not been able to keep any food or water down since 10:30am the previous day, all I cared about was getting medically fit enough to drink a glass of water. Nothing else mattered to me (well, except whether or not I would get to go racing that weekend, but more on that later). I went back to sleep, and woke up with K by my side. We had a couple of visitors, and at 10:30 the doctor came back to tell me that I was either going to have surgery at 11am or 1pm.
20 minutes later they were wheeling me downstairs to the OR, joking with me about delicious foods I was in no condition to eat.
I remember being in the prep room for about an hour, listening to an elderly fellow become increasingly hostile to the medical staff because he hadn't bothered to keep track of his own health. Then they came for me, and I woke up groggy in a recovery room. This surgery stuff is apparently quite easy.
I got to my new room in the surgical ward and drank. Oh how did I drink! And I ate Jello. Quite possibly the best thing I'd ever tasted in my life! A couple of hours later I took my first tentative steps, and through the night got up repeatedly to walk around the ward, my wife ever at my side.
And then, the next morning, with no fanfare at all, I went home. And that was it. Of the percocet I was prescribed, I took only 3, waiting for the pain to double me over, but it never happened.
By Thursday I was out hitching the trailer and loading up for a weekend at VIR.
All of this sounds very uneventful until you consider that my actual plan was to climb into a race car 5 days after surgery and try not to kill myself. In the rain. On slick tires. Oh, and I would be instructing, too...riding in some person's car whom I'd never met and hoping that they'd also not kill me in the rain. I'm genius.
As it happened, getting into and driving my own car was no big deal. The rain let up and I got a little brave late in the first day, eking out a 0.3 second victory in my class, and having a great, if wet, time in my student's car.
Sunday, however, 6 days after surgery, I had my first ever wreck on track. My student misjudged his entry into a turn, tried to correct mid-turn, and didn't quite succeed. Off we skated into the grass, straight at a tire wall. Realizing the belts were directly on top of my still-healing wounds, I sank down in the seat until my knees were resting on the dashboard and waited for it. The hit honestly wasn't bad. There was no pain, no blacking out, not even a significant whip of the neck (no HANS). When we got back to the pits, it was evident how lucky we'd been: no structural damage to the car, and the airbags didn't deploy. So we couldn't have been doing more than 10mph or so. I got lucky.
And the best part? I won that day, too.
Oh, and I didn't die in front of my son. Hopefully that will make it clear to him that it's possible for someone to go into the hospital and come back out alive, healed, and capable of resuming a normal life.
By 10:30, it was clear we weren't going to church. I felt like I'd swallowed a ball of hot glass shards. I sent myself to bed, but didn't sleep. I migrated to the sofa to watch all the racing on TV, but couldn't even focus on that. After 4 hours, the pain hadn't moved or abated at all, and I'd tried to vomit. While successful, it did nothing to alleviate the pain.
Off to Patient First I went. PRO TIP: don't go to Patient First.
I waited in the lobby for an hour, then was told to stand upright on the scales. I couldn't, but that didn't mean I didn't have to try. After another 50 minutes of waiting, I was told that while I may have appendicitis or pancreatitis, I probably just had the "stomach bug" and should either go home or to a hospital for more tests. Yay Patient First! 2 hours lost!
30 minutes later I was
By 9:30, I was no longer in any particular pain, though there was some tenderness in my abdomen, leading the medical team to believe that I was facing appendicitis, but they wanted to run some more tests. X-rays were done at around 10:30pm, and a CT scan at 1:30am confirmed it: appendicitis. God bless her, K stayed for the whole shebang. I sent her home twice to let the dog out, and had to force her to go home for the night when it was time to get moved upstairs to my more permanent room.
At 7am, I got a wake-up call from the surgical staff telling me that I was going to have an appendectomy. Up until that moment, surgery had been one of my biggest fears. But having not been able to keep any food or water down since 10:30am the previous day, all I cared about was getting medically fit enough to drink a glass of water. Nothing else mattered to me (well, except whether or not I would get to go racing that weekend, but more on that later). I went back to sleep, and woke up with K by my side. We had a couple of visitors, and at 10:30 the doctor came back to tell me that I was either going to have surgery at 11am or 1pm.
20 minutes later they were wheeling me downstairs to the OR, joking with me about delicious foods I was in no condition to eat.
I remember being in the prep room for about an hour, listening to an elderly fellow become increasingly hostile to the medical staff because he hadn't bothered to keep track of his own health. Then they came for me, and I woke up groggy in a recovery room. This surgery stuff is apparently quite easy.
I got to my new room in the surgical ward and drank. Oh how did I drink! And I ate Jello. Quite possibly the best thing I'd ever tasted in my life! A couple of hours later I took my first tentative steps, and through the night got up repeatedly to walk around the ward, my wife ever at my side.
And then, the next morning, with no fanfare at all, I went home. And that was it. Of the percocet I was prescribed, I took only 3, waiting for the pain to double me over, but it never happened.
By Thursday I was out hitching the trailer and loading up for a weekend at VIR.
All of this sounds very uneventful until you consider that my actual plan was to climb into a race car 5 days after surgery and try not to kill myself. In the rain. On slick tires. Oh, and I would be instructing, too...riding in some person's car whom I'd never met and hoping that they'd also not kill me in the rain. I'm genius.
As it happened, getting into and driving my own car was no big deal. The rain let up and I got a little brave late in the first day, eking out a 0.3 second victory in my class, and having a great, if wet, time in my student's car.
Sunday, however, 6 days after surgery, I had my first ever wreck on track. My student misjudged his entry into a turn, tried to correct mid-turn, and didn't quite succeed. Off we skated into the grass, straight at a tire wall. Realizing the belts were directly on top of my still-healing wounds, I sank down in the seat until my knees were resting on the dashboard and waited for it. The hit honestly wasn't bad. There was no pain, no blacking out, not even a significant whip of the neck (no HANS). When we got back to the pits, it was evident how lucky we'd been: no structural damage to the car, and the airbags didn't deploy. So we couldn't have been doing more than 10mph or so. I got lucky.
And the best part? I won that day, too.
Oh, and I didn't die in front of my son. Hopefully that will make it clear to him that it's possible for someone to go into the hospital and come back out alive, healed, and capable of resuming a normal life.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
NASA Lap Dance @ VIR - First Win of the 2012 Season!
2:20.9
That's my best time of this past weekend. It's a full second off my previous best, and in arguably better conditions, but so much about the car has changed since October, and it's taking some re-learning. And of course, there was also The Incident...
I've covered some of the changes I've made during the off-season. The wing, the new differential, the sway bars... All told, they make the car very different to drive. The clutch makes some small amount of difference, too, but my goals for the weekend were 2: learn how to drive the new configuration, and experiment with wing settings.
I went into the weekend knowing there weren't enough registrations in my class to worry about actually competing. The two other drivers that had signed up wouldn't bother competing if we didn't have 5 people total, so I anticipated an easy win and plenty of time to play around with the car.
What I didn't anticipate was losing a wheel in the warmup session.
I missed the wall by inches, but was fortunate to find everything I needed to get back on track within a couple of hours. All told, I flat-spotted a rotor, lost 4 lugs, 4 studs, a wheel, and a backing-plate. No other significant damage, and I had been running on last season's tires just to save equipment costs.
Also fortunate was the fact that I only had one student, allowing me all the time I needed to get repairs done without impacting anybody else's day.
When I got back on track, the priorities of the day had shifted to: putting down a timed lap, and making sure the car was safe. It was, and I slowly worked my way up to what turned out to be first of five, enough to win a tire!
Sunday was cold and wet, and only a very few people even ventured out in the TT sessions. Of those, only the first session was dry enough to put down any sort of hot lap. I settled for a 2:25, but it didn't matter because I was the only car in my class to go out on track all day. So I got a win by default. It may not be glorious, but it's still 100 points for the 2012 season.
Next time to the track will be March 24 & 25. I'm still looking forward to the opportunity to test the wing, but after pulling data and comparing with my previous best laps, it looks like there are a couple of seconds to be gained over my personal best (2:19.895). For one thing, braking is far more stable, with no over-steer at all, and an average of 0.2 seconds reduction in the braking zones, coupled with slower corner-entry speeds. Aside from when I lost that wheel, the brakes didn't even hint at locking up. On the down-side, I'm running out of puff at 115 with the aggressive wing angle, and I need to learn to get off the brakes.
Overall I'm extremely happy with the setup. With a little tweaking and a lot of seat time, I think it'll be a strong contender for the season championship.
Can't wait to go do it again!
That's my best time of this past weekend. It's a full second off my previous best, and in arguably better conditions, but so much about the car has changed since October, and it's taking some re-learning. And of course, there was also The Incident...
I've covered some of the changes I've made during the off-season. The wing, the new differential, the sway bars... All told, they make the car very different to drive. The clutch makes some small amount of difference, too, but my goals for the weekend were 2: learn how to drive the new configuration, and experiment with wing settings.
I went into the weekend knowing there weren't enough registrations in my class to worry about actually competing. The two other drivers that had signed up wouldn't bother competing if we didn't have 5 people total, so I anticipated an easy win and plenty of time to play around with the car.
What I didn't anticipate was losing a wheel in the warmup session.
I missed the wall by inches, but was fortunate to find everything I needed to get back on track within a couple of hours. All told, I flat-spotted a rotor, lost 4 lugs, 4 studs, a wheel, and a backing-plate. No other significant damage, and I had been running on last season's tires just to save equipment costs.
Also fortunate was the fact that I only had one student, allowing me all the time I needed to get repairs done without impacting anybody else's day.
When I got back on track, the priorities of the day had shifted to: putting down a timed lap, and making sure the car was safe. It was, and I slowly worked my way up to what turned out to be first of five, enough to win a tire!
Sunday was cold and wet, and only a very few people even ventured out in the TT sessions. Of those, only the first session was dry enough to put down any sort of hot lap. I settled for a 2:25, but it didn't matter because I was the only car in my class to go out on track all day. So I got a win by default. It may not be glorious, but it's still 100 points for the 2012 season.
Next time to the track will be March 24 & 25. I'm still looking forward to the opportunity to test the wing, but after pulling data and comparing with my previous best laps, it looks like there are a couple of seconds to be gained over my personal best (2:19.895). For one thing, braking is far more stable, with no over-steer at all, and an average of 0.2 seconds reduction in the braking zones, coupled with slower corner-entry speeds. Aside from when I lost that wheel, the brakes didn't even hint at locking up. On the down-side, I'm running out of puff at 115 with the aggressive wing angle, and I need to learn to get off the brakes.
Overall I'm extremely happy with the setup. With a little tweaking and a lot of seat time, I think it'll be a strong contender for the season championship.
Can't wait to go do it again!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
A Little Experimentation
As I've been preparing for the start of the 2012 season, I've had a lot of questions about the changes I'm making to the car: new differential (4.30 and urethane bushings), beefier clutch, wing, and moving back to stock sway bars. Will the new setup work? Will it take 2 or 3 events to figure out how to drive it? Will I trust it too much and stuff the car?
There are a lot of moving parts up there--no real scientific method was used, other than trying to maximize the allowed points for my class. The wing was the most obvious aero choice, but it's not being accompanied by any corresponding front aero, so the biggest question I had was if I was seriously upsetting the handling of the car. Most folks tend to agree that adding down-force means adding spring-rate, but that's not in the plan or the budget, so...eek?
Last night I had an idea. One that's probably been done by countless others, and with better results, but it was new to me. I fired up Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3, hooked up the PlaySeat & Logitech G25, and built a '91 Eunos Roadster to match my real car's configuration from last year (except for that whole 1.6L ~ 1.8L thing):
Power: ECU, header, exhaust, intake
Suspension: -20mm ride height, -2 deg camber, 0 toe, 12.5kgf/mm front springs, 5.8kgf/mm rear springs, 7 front sway bar, 4 rear sway bar
Tires: Intermediate racing
Drivetrain: stock clutch, semi-racing flywheel
I added ballast and moved it rearward to achieve 51/49, and biased the brakes forward 7/5.
The car was nearly undriveable. Heavy braking resulted in an extremely twitchy tail (just exactly like in my real life car), and it took all my concentration to get the car around the High Speed Ring without crashing. That's ridiculous, as it's one of the easiest tracks ever. The best lap I could manage was a 1:26.3, and I was actually starting to get into a consistent rhythm.
So then I went and updated to this year's intended configuration:
Power: same as a bove
Suspension: same, except sway bars: 2 front / 2 rear
Tires: same as above
Drivetrain: single-plate clutch, semi-racing flywheel
Aero: Wing w/ downforce set to 13 (an intermediate setting)
I expected to have drag issues on the straights, but didn't. I can't decide if this is a limitation of the game or because speeds are not truly significant enough in a Miata to really affect top speed, but the difference in the corners was immediately noticeable. No longer did the tail want to swing out under braking, and the steering was a tick heavier entering corners. I've notoriously had a habit of tossing the car into a corner and powering out, but the end-plates on the wing prohibited that. I could only pour the car into the corners, which is a good thing.
Ultimately, after just 3 laps driving with the new configuration, I'd taken almost 2 full seconds off my lap, and was far more confident entering turns 3 and 4. I was able to carry a full 10mph more through turn 4 and get on power far earlier in turn 5. I only put in about 6 laps, but was turning consistent 1:24.7 laps.
That's a 1.6 second change doing nothing but adding downforce and reducing sway bars (forgot to change the old configuration to a 4.10 rear end). I'd say it was better than expected, but it's hard to say how well the video game will translate to the real world. But right now I'm feeling a little more confident in the changes I've made. In fact, if I scale the 1.6 / 1:26.3 to ??? / 2:19.8 (my fastest at VIR), I get a 2.59 second gain, or 2:17.2. That's huge, and could make this the best year ever.
So now the question remains: is GT5 a good enough simulator to test real-world performance mods?
UPDATE: The gearing in GT5 was completely wrong for a stock Miata. After correcting it and updating one configuration for a 4.10 rear, I re-ran the test. With a little practice I was able to get the old config (no wing) down to a 1:24.9, and the wing config down to a 1:24.3. It will still carry a full 10mph more through both T3 and T4, but the gearing and wing offset each other everywhere else.
There are a lot of moving parts up there--no real scientific method was used, other than trying to maximize the allowed points for my class. The wing was the most obvious aero choice, but it's not being accompanied by any corresponding front aero, so the biggest question I had was if I was seriously upsetting the handling of the car. Most folks tend to agree that adding down-force means adding spring-rate, but that's not in the plan or the budget, so...eek?
Last night I had an idea. One that's probably been done by countless others, and with better results, but it was new to me. I fired up Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3, hooked up the PlaySeat & Logitech G25, and built a '91 Eunos Roadster to match my real car's configuration from last year (except for that whole 1.6L ~ 1.8L thing):
Power: ECU, header, exhaust, intake
Suspension: -20mm ride height, -2 deg camber, 0 toe, 12.5kgf/mm front springs, 5.8kgf/mm rear springs, 7 front sway bar, 4 rear sway bar
Tires: Intermediate racing
Drivetrain: stock clutch, semi-racing flywheel
I added ballast and moved it rearward to achieve 51/49, and biased the brakes forward 7/5.
The car was nearly undriveable. Heavy braking resulted in an extremely twitchy tail (just exactly like in my real life car), and it took all my concentration to get the car around the High Speed Ring without crashing. That's ridiculous, as it's one of the easiest tracks ever. The best lap I could manage was a 1:26.3, and I was actually starting to get into a consistent rhythm.
So then I went and updated to this year's intended configuration:
Power: same as a bove
Suspension: same, except sway bars: 2 front / 2 rear
Tires: same as above
Drivetrain: single-plate clutch, semi-racing flywheel
Aero: Wing w/ downforce set to 13 (an intermediate setting)
I expected to have drag issues on the straights, but didn't. I can't decide if this is a limitation of the game or because speeds are not truly significant enough in a Miata to really affect top speed, but the difference in the corners was immediately noticeable. No longer did the tail want to swing out under braking, and the steering was a tick heavier entering corners. I've notoriously had a habit of tossing the car into a corner and powering out, but the end-plates on the wing prohibited that. I could only pour the car into the corners, which is a good thing.
Ultimately, after just 3 laps driving with the new configuration, I'd taken almost 2 full seconds off my lap, and was far more confident entering turns 3 and 4. I was able to carry a full 10mph more through turn 4 and get on power far earlier in turn 5. I only put in about 6 laps, but was turning consistent 1:24.7 laps.
That's a 1.6 second change doing nothing but adding downforce and reducing sway bars (forgot to change the old configuration to a 4.10 rear end). I'd say it was better than expected, but it's hard to say how well the video game will translate to the real world. But right now I'm feeling a little more confident in the changes I've made. In fact, if I scale the 1.6 / 1:26.3 to ??? / 2:19.8 (my fastest at VIR), I get a 2.59 second gain, or 2:17.2. That's huge, and could make this the best year ever.
So now the question remains: is GT5 a good enough simulator to test real-world performance mods?
UPDATE: The gearing in GT5 was completely wrong for a stock Miata. After correcting it and updating one configuration for a 4.10 rear, I re-ran the test. With a little practice I was able to get the old config (no wing) down to a 1:24.9, and the wing config down to a 1:24.3. It will still carry a full 10mph more through both T3 and T4, but the gearing and wing offset each other everywhere else.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Miata #3 (Yes, it is a sickness)
The 2011 racing season ended for me on November 6, 2011. I went out with a bang...or 2 or 3...finishing in first place both days, winning me 2 more tires to start the 2012 season. However, the clutch died on the last lap of the last session of the last day, a session that also saw the end of the transmission's useful life. I pulled the drain plug to find pieces of gear teeth. Boo.
Thus began the hunt for a new transmission, and it would lead me to curious places.
I started my hunt like any enterprising person would: craigslist. I found a fellow looking to sell an engine & transmission together for $900, a reasonable deal that would allow me to swap trannies and begin to develop a new race motor for when the current one pukes, which it ultimately will. So I went to look at it, and the guy offered to sell the whole car with it for $1500 total. The catch is that the car won't start due to an unknown electrical short.
We verified the cylinders hold compression, the body was in reasonable order, and bought it.
I now own 3 Miatas. Holy crap. And no transmission for Bridget (the orange car). HOLY CRAP.
So a plan was hatched to turn the new car, "Stacey", into a Chump Car racer, and if she survives, an aero-laden Time Trials & Performance Touring (D) beast. And given what I've learned along the way from building the current car, I'm confident I can achieve both goals for less than 1/3 what I have in Bridget.
My shed is so full of spares that Bridget is half-built already. Spare racing radiator, suspension components, differential, seat, harness, seat-back brace, etc. Pretty much all I need to do is gut it and put a cage in it. Oh: and make it go. Which is turning out to be quite an ordeal.
Stacey's former owner was an ASE certified mechanic. Apparently they don't teach electrics. Turning the key did nothing at first, so I pulled all the wiring under the dash and found hot wires to nowhere, grounds to everywhere non-structural, an alarm system, bisected ignition wires, and a hot mess of a radio harness. I yanked all of it and tried again, and got a buzzing sound from the main fuse box. Progress...?
A battery swap and a key-turn made the main fan run. Um...wtf? The fan is wired to ignition? So I pulled the fuse for the fan, re-keyed, and the starter engaged! Now that's progress. But still the engine will not start.
I did a little more hunting around the car and found that, after running the starter for a bit, the exhaust pipe reeks of fuel, so I feel fairly confident it's not a fuel-delivery issue. Laying a spark-plug on the head produced no spark, in spite of the dude having just recently swapped coil packs.
So it seems something is wildly mis-wired.
Unfortunately I'm out of room in the trailer to continue diagnosing it, and I can't back it out because Bridget is up in the air behind it (with no motor). And Bridget can't have her motor back until a new tranny is sourced. But now there's a new car blocking me from getting the motor out of the trailer and...yeah...I've kind of screwed myself. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I were just addicted to crack.
Thus began the hunt for a new transmission, and it would lead me to curious places.
I started my hunt like any enterprising person would: craigslist. I found a fellow looking to sell an engine & transmission together for $900, a reasonable deal that would allow me to swap trannies and begin to develop a new race motor for when the current one pukes, which it ultimately will. So I went to look at it, and the guy offered to sell the whole car with it for $1500 total. The catch is that the car won't start due to an unknown electrical short.
We verified the cylinders hold compression, the body was in reasonable order, and bought it.
I now own 3 Miatas. Holy crap. And no transmission for Bridget (the orange car). HOLY CRAP.
So a plan was hatched to turn the new car, "Stacey", into a Chump Car racer, and if she survives, an aero-laden Time Trials & Performance Touring (D) beast. And given what I've learned along the way from building the current car, I'm confident I can achieve both goals for less than 1/3 what I have in Bridget.
My shed is so full of spares that Bridget is half-built already. Spare racing radiator, suspension components, differential, seat, harness, seat-back brace, etc. Pretty much all I need to do is gut it and put a cage in it. Oh: and make it go. Which is turning out to be quite an ordeal.
Stacey's former owner was an ASE certified mechanic. Apparently they don't teach electrics. Turning the key did nothing at first, so I pulled all the wiring under the dash and found hot wires to nowhere, grounds to everywhere non-structural, an alarm system, bisected ignition wires, and a hot mess of a radio harness. I yanked all of it and tried again, and got a buzzing sound from the main fuse box. Progress...?
A battery swap and a key-turn made the main fan run. Um...wtf? The fan is wired to ignition? So I pulled the fuse for the fan, re-keyed, and the starter engaged! Now that's progress. But still the engine will not start.
I did a little more hunting around the car and found that, after running the starter for a bit, the exhaust pipe reeks of fuel, so I feel fairly confident it's not a fuel-delivery issue. Laying a spark-plug on the head produced no spark, in spite of the dude having just recently swapped coil packs.
So it seems something is wildly mis-wired.
Unfortunately I'm out of room in the trailer to continue diagnosing it, and I can't back it out because Bridget is up in the air behind it (with no motor). And Bridget can't have her motor back until a new tranny is sourced. But now there's a new car blocking me from getting the motor out of the trailer and...yeah...I've kind of screwed myself. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I were just addicted to crack.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
UTCC/NASA @ VIR
Hyperfest may have been NASA's big event, back in June, but nothing on the year's racing schedule touches the grandeur of the Pirelli Ultimate Track Car Challenge presented by Grassroots Motorsports. It holds a special place in my heart because last year I was there becoming an instructor and competing for the first time in Time Trials.
Since then, I've missed just one NASA Mid-Atlantic competition weekend, and my results have steadily improved to put me in 3rd place for season points (up from 5th last year, and only 5 points out of 2nd this year!).
This year I intended to go and do my usual Time Trials & instructing weekend, but I got a call about a month ago asking if I'd like to drive someone else's prepared vehicle in the UTCC on Friday. It was this:
Obviously the only possible answer was "yes", followed by "hell yes". It was an opportunity to learn how to pilot another vehicle, get some additional track time, and maybe possibly build a bit of name recognition since the magazine does a blurb on every vehicle and its associated team & driver.
And what an experience! The Wreckless Abandon crew made one hell of a fast truck. With a bulletproof motor that could pull almost anything in a straight line, NASCAR cup brakes, the widest slicks I've ever seen, and a suspension that was remarkably capable, I was able to pull times that were competitive with my best ever times in the Miata.
I managed to haul that 3900lb beast to a 2:22.339 lap, 8 seconds faster than the truck had ever turned laps at VIR, and considerably faster than the last place finish the guys were expecting (you don't show up with a $500 vehicle to a super-car shootout with much hope).
Even without the quick laps, it was the talk of the paddock. The tech inspection crew didn't want to approve it to go on track at all, but there was hardly a moment all day when there wasn't a small crowd around it. The Grassroots Motorsports guys spent a good amount of time chatting us up about it, and a data-acquisition company called RaceKeeper decided to volunteer their system for one of my sessions. They came back later and told us the video will be featured next month as Grassroots Motorsports' video of the month, and that they were shocked at how much steering was required to get it around the track.
I did have two off-track excursions in it (one of which may be part of the video), once as a result of boiled brake fluid, and once when fuel was starved from the pickup sensor under heavy braking, but all in all it was a solid setup that I'd drive again in a heartbeat.
Saturday & Sunday brought a return to normalcy with TT and instruction, or so I thought... It turned out that my first student was a Grassroots Motorsports employee, and the car was a one-off factory concept Subaru. Called the Legacy GTk, it was an Outback with a Legacy GT drivetrain, but with an enlarged cargo area specifically for a child's shifter kart. The actual concept was that you would take your kid to the track, drop him/her off at the kart track, and then go turn laps on the grown-up side. Not a bad concept.
We had a great day in the car, which surprisingly featured almost 100% working accessories (extremely uncommon in concept cars), the most important of which was the AC. With temps hovering just above 100F, any relief was welcome.
My other student did not fare so well. I got sick from the heat and had to solo him early. Fortunately he's a great learner and a fantastic driver, so I wasn't too concerned.
But somehow in the fray, and in spite of turning good laps, I managed to lose an hour of my day. Just gone--no idea where it went or what happened. I invented a very convincing story in my head, that I'd gone out for a 2nd session with my group 2 student, and can still vividly remember that phantom session, but evidently heat can do some horrible things to your brain.
Fortunately the day ended with a thunderstorm shortly before my last session, and I had a very convincing run that was good enough for 2nd place. It helped having a rabbit to chase...
Sunday, however, was an exercise in futility. Hoping to beat the heat with a solid early run, I overdrove and went off in Turn 5 in the first session, then overdrove and went off in Oak Tree in the 2nd.
That meant my 3rd session would be automatically disqualified (so I turned one lap at an abysmally slow pace for a 2:37), and I had no choice but to stick around for the 4th and final session if I wanted to post a time.
That sucked harder than anything because ambient temps were back to about 100F by that late session, and the two offs had not done my alignment any favors. The best I could manage was a 2:23.5, a full 3 seconds off my best lap from the previous day, and just barely good enough for 3rd place for the day.
Ultimately the weekend was a success, bringing me up from a 20-point deficit to a 5-point deficit for 2nd place, two free tires, two fantastic students, riding in a car that doesn't properly exist, and piloting a truck that's just too freakin' awesome to exist.
Shout-outs to the guys at NASA Mid-Atlantic, Hoosier Race Tires, Grassroots Motorsports, Wreckless Abandon Racing, and my beautiful fiancee who endured the heat all weekend and whose car got mauled by a trailer late Sunday afternoon. I love you, babe!
Since then, I've missed just one NASA Mid-Atlantic competition weekend, and my results have steadily improved to put me in 3rd place for season points (up from 5th last year, and only 5 points out of 2nd this year!).
This year I intended to go and do my usual Time Trials & instructing weekend, but I got a call about a month ago asking if I'd like to drive someone else's prepared vehicle in the UTCC on Friday. It was this:
Obviously the only possible answer was "yes", followed by "hell yes". It was an opportunity to learn how to pilot another vehicle, get some additional track time, and maybe possibly build a bit of name recognition since the magazine does a blurb on every vehicle and its associated team & driver.
And what an experience! The Wreckless Abandon crew made one hell of a fast truck. With a bulletproof motor that could pull almost anything in a straight line, NASCAR cup brakes, the widest slicks I've ever seen, and a suspension that was remarkably capable, I was able to pull times that were competitive with my best ever times in the Miata.
I managed to haul that 3900lb beast to a 2:22.339 lap, 8 seconds faster than the truck had ever turned laps at VIR, and considerably faster than the last place finish the guys were expecting (you don't show up with a $500 vehicle to a super-car shootout with much hope).
Even without the quick laps, it was the talk of the paddock. The tech inspection crew didn't want to approve it to go on track at all, but there was hardly a moment all day when there wasn't a small crowd around it. The Grassroots Motorsports guys spent a good amount of time chatting us up about it, and a data-acquisition company called RaceKeeper decided to volunteer their system for one of my sessions. They came back later and told us the video will be featured next month as Grassroots Motorsports' video of the month, and that they were shocked at how much steering was required to get it around the track.
I did have two off-track excursions in it (one of which may be part of the video), once as a result of boiled brake fluid, and once when fuel was starved from the pickup sensor under heavy braking, but all in all it was a solid setup that I'd drive again in a heartbeat.
Saturday & Sunday brought a return to normalcy with TT and instruction, or so I thought... It turned out that my first student was a Grassroots Motorsports employee, and the car was a one-off factory concept Subaru. Called the Legacy GTk, it was an Outback with a Legacy GT drivetrain, but with an enlarged cargo area specifically for a child's shifter kart. The actual concept was that you would take your kid to the track, drop him/her off at the kart track, and then go turn laps on the grown-up side. Not a bad concept.
We had a great day in the car, which surprisingly featured almost 100% working accessories (extremely uncommon in concept cars), the most important of which was the AC. With temps hovering just above 100F, any relief was welcome.
My other student did not fare so well. I got sick from the heat and had to solo him early. Fortunately he's a great learner and a fantastic driver, so I wasn't too concerned.
But somehow in the fray, and in spite of turning good laps, I managed to lose an hour of my day. Just gone--no idea where it went or what happened. I invented a very convincing story in my head, that I'd gone out for a 2nd session with my group 2 student, and can still vividly remember that phantom session, but evidently heat can do some horrible things to your brain.
Fortunately the day ended with a thunderstorm shortly before my last session, and I had a very convincing run that was good enough for 2nd place. It helped having a rabbit to chase...
Sunday, however, was an exercise in futility. Hoping to beat the heat with a solid early run, I overdrove and went off in Turn 5 in the first session, then overdrove and went off in Oak Tree in the 2nd.
That meant my 3rd session would be automatically disqualified (so I turned one lap at an abysmally slow pace for a 2:37), and I had no choice but to stick around for the 4th and final session if I wanted to post a time.
That sucked harder than anything because ambient temps were back to about 100F by that late session, and the two offs had not done my alignment any favors. The best I could manage was a 2:23.5, a full 3 seconds off my best lap from the previous day, and just barely good enough for 3rd place for the day.
Ultimately the weekend was a success, bringing me up from a 20-point deficit to a 5-point deficit for 2nd place, two free tires, two fantastic students, riding in a car that doesn't properly exist, and piloting a truck that's just too freakin' awesome to exist.
Shout-outs to the guys at NASA Mid-Atlantic, Hoosier Race Tires, Grassroots Motorsports, Wreckless Abandon Racing, and my beautiful fiancee who endured the heat all weekend and whose car got mauled by a trailer late Sunday afternoon. I love you, babe!
Friday, February 25, 2011
First Race Weekend of 2011
Sanctioning Body: NASA-MA
Class: TTE (Time Trials)
Position, Day 1: 5 of 8*
Position, Day 2: 5 of 7*
Not how I wanted to start my season.
I had committed to running Hoosier tires this year based on results from the end of my season last year, which had me finishing in the top 3--high enough to win tires. Running Hoosiers was a gamble because they're (a) more expensive, and (b) take 3 points away from what could be engine or suspension mods.
Since I had committed to a plan that would see my tire budget decrease, and since NASA had raised the minimum weight of my car to just about exactly my last-known competition weight, I also decided to buy scales. A hefty investment, to be sure, but I couldn't afford to be even 5 lbs under weight, or I'd be bumped into the next class (given the results from TTD, though, I would have won on Sunday).
The scales told me that I needed to add 30 lbs to meet weight. They also told me that the weight desperately needed to be on the passenger side. And as it just so happened, I had a seat that had been removed from that side which, when combined with the weight of its belts, put just about exactly the right amount of weight back in. Score!
But!
In doing the initial balance, I detached both sway bars. And while I remembered to reattach them, I did not remember to re-torque them. This, of course, resulted in both coming loose on track, which caused the right rear tire to pogo on right turns, which did not help lap times. By the end of the 3rd session on Saturday, it was impossible to get any grip in the rear. A quick glance under the car revealed two end-links laying flat on the control arms. Oops. Off to the parts store!
Once that was fixed, I was ready to go back out on track and tear it up. Except instead of doing that, I locked up the tires under braking at end of the front straight on the first hot lap of the session.
Even without posting a single lap on Saturday with a properly-functioning suspension, I was still only 0.4 seconds off my fastest-ever lap. These tires are sticky.
Sunday I would have only two sessions, and I had a lot of work to do to put myself into contention. I had the car ready to go, having put the flat-spotted tires in the rear and triple-checking torques.
I started out behind the #53 Spec Miata of Grant Cain. Grant's a great kid, and I enjoy running with him. But apparently he was having some handling issues, because he just couldn't put down a hot lap. I caught him in the climbing esses, and when I went inside him at South Bend he drove off into the grass. Sorry Grant! 5 laps into the session, though, I ran out of gas. Rounding oak tree after passing a car in a higher class, the engine sputtered. I parked it, 0.3 seconds off my fastest-ever pace.
Which, as it turns out, would be the best I would do all weekend. The second session was a mess. On the first lap I had chased down a car 2 classes ahead of me, and when I began my pass I saw a car in the grass. I let him pass me again to avoid a black flag, since I realized I was passing under yellow. For the next 3 laps, the yellow was displayed at South Bend, with emergency vehicles at Oak Tree. In spite of this, though, I was turning 2:25.0 laps, within 0.15 seconds of my best ever lap while puttering through a straight-away!
The second the flags were gone, I punched it. I was putting down the lap of my life. I had come through South Bend at 94mph, an absolute record in my car, and had even managed to control wheel-spin at Oak Tree. I was 1.6 seconds head of pace for the weekend, which was going to be a 2:23.4 lap, when I spun at Roller coaster. It was ugly. And even though I made eye-contact with a corner-worker, he didn't give me any indication that I was about to merge right into the path of 2 oncoming faster cars. An accident was narrowly avoided, pride was severely wounded, and my weekend was done.
Analyzing the data afterward, I now know that, with only the new tires, my best theoretical lap is 2:22.8, two full seconds faster than I've ever done. It's still not enough for 3rd place (the worst I can do and still potentially win tires), so I've done what every red-blooded American does when confronted with a problem: thrown money at it.
Right now I'm waiting for a full replacement ECU, header, and intake to arrive. When they get here, the car is going to the dyno and a reclass request will be filed. This car will make more power, and as long as I can wrangle that power, I will post better results.
Here's looking forward to March.
*9 cars were registered in class, but did not all compete on both days.
Class: TTE (Time Trials)
Position, Day 1: 5 of 8*
Position, Day 2: 5 of 7*
Not how I wanted to start my season.
I had committed to running Hoosier tires this year based on results from the end of my season last year, which had me finishing in the top 3--high enough to win tires. Running Hoosiers was a gamble because they're (a) more expensive, and (b) take 3 points away from what could be engine or suspension mods.
Since I had committed to a plan that would see my tire budget decrease, and since NASA had raised the minimum weight of my car to just about exactly my last-known competition weight, I also decided to buy scales. A hefty investment, to be sure, but I couldn't afford to be even 5 lbs under weight, or I'd be bumped into the next class (given the results from TTD, though, I would have won on Sunday).
The scales told me that I needed to add 30 lbs to meet weight. They also told me that the weight desperately needed to be on the passenger side. And as it just so happened, I had a seat that had been removed from that side which, when combined with the weight of its belts, put just about exactly the right amount of weight back in. Score!
But!
In doing the initial balance, I detached both sway bars. And while I remembered to reattach them, I did not remember to re-torque them. This, of course, resulted in both coming loose on track, which caused the right rear tire to pogo on right turns, which did not help lap times. By the end of the 3rd session on Saturday, it was impossible to get any grip in the rear. A quick glance under the car revealed two end-links laying flat on the control arms. Oops. Off to the parts store!
Once that was fixed, I was ready to go back out on track and tear it up. Except instead of doing that, I locked up the tires under braking at end of the front straight on the first hot lap of the session.
Even without posting a single lap on Saturday with a properly-functioning suspension, I was still only 0.4 seconds off my fastest-ever lap. These tires are sticky.
Sunday I would have only two sessions, and I had a lot of work to do to put myself into contention. I had the car ready to go, having put the flat-spotted tires in the rear and triple-checking torques.
I started out behind the #53 Spec Miata of Grant Cain. Grant's a great kid, and I enjoy running with him. But apparently he was having some handling issues, because he just couldn't put down a hot lap. I caught him in the climbing esses, and when I went inside him at South Bend he drove off into the grass. Sorry Grant! 5 laps into the session, though, I ran out of gas. Rounding oak tree after passing a car in a higher class, the engine sputtered. I parked it, 0.3 seconds off my fastest-ever pace.
Which, as it turns out, would be the best I would do all weekend. The second session was a mess. On the first lap I had chased down a car 2 classes ahead of me, and when I began my pass I saw a car in the grass. I let him pass me again to avoid a black flag, since I realized I was passing under yellow. For the next 3 laps, the yellow was displayed at South Bend, with emergency vehicles at Oak Tree. In spite of this, though, I was turning 2:25.0 laps, within 0.15 seconds of my best ever lap while puttering through a straight-away!
The second the flags were gone, I punched it. I was putting down the lap of my life. I had come through South Bend at 94mph, an absolute record in my car, and had even managed to control wheel-spin at Oak Tree. I was 1.6 seconds head of pace for the weekend, which was going to be a 2:23.4 lap, when I spun at Roller coaster. It was ugly. And even though I made eye-contact with a corner-worker, he didn't give me any indication that I was about to merge right into the path of 2 oncoming faster cars. An accident was narrowly avoided, pride was severely wounded, and my weekend was done.
Analyzing the data afterward, I now know that, with only the new tires, my best theoretical lap is 2:22.8, two full seconds faster than I've ever done. It's still not enough for 3rd place (the worst I can do and still potentially win tires), so I've done what every red-blooded American does when confronted with a problem: thrown money at it.
Right now I'm waiting for a full replacement ECU, header, and intake to arrive. When they get here, the car is going to the dyno and a reclass request will be filed. This car will make more power, and as long as I can wrangle that power, I will post better results.
Here's looking forward to March.
*9 cars were registered in class, but did not all compete on both days.
Friday, November 12, 2010
NASA Fall Finale @ Summit Point
My 2010 racing season ended on a high note and with a plan of action for next season that will make it both the best and least expensive yet. Booyah.
This event was to be all about blowing through the last of 2010's consumables: tires, brakes, oil, etc. I don't like to put old stuff back on the car in the Spring, so everything had to go. Hell, there was even 11 gallons of fuel left over from October's VIR trip. No sense letting that rot, either.
Oh but was it cold. I was thoroughly unprepared for how cold it would be in the trailer. I didn't have enough amperage to run two heaters at once, and the fan/heater job was only good at keeping the temps around 55 at night. On an air-mattress, that's COLD. There's nothing to insulate you from below, and my dumb ass didn't pack a sleeping bag. Just sheets & a blanket. Brr...
I was so cold and had slept so poorly that I couldn't be bothered to check tire pressures Saturday morning. I figured they had to be pretty good, though, since I managed a 1:29.7 in my 2nd session, my fastest to date. That lap turned out to be my fastest for the day, and good enough for a 3rd place trophy!
My paddock-mates insisted on checking my tires in the afternoon, and we found that each was at least 2 pounds down from optimum pressures, which meant that Sunday would be faster. It was.
With proper pressure, I went out Sunday morning and knocked off .2 seconds from Saturday's best, but on a lap where I had to give up the end of the front straight for a caution flag. I knew I could do better.
In my 2nd session, I turned a 1:29.141. Six tenths better than Saturday, and only 1/10 off the first place pace from Saturday. Fortunately for me, the guy who set that pace didn't come back Sunday, and each day is a separate event. Saturday's 2nd place driver told me that he couldn't possibly match my pace, and the only other car that could do it wasn't classed properly. So I won. I won the final event of 2010.
And even though I only competed in 6 of 15 events, I accrued enough points to be in either 5th or 6th for the season.
My average finishing position was 3.33, with an average field-size of 7.66 competitors. And if the guy with the fire-breathing turbo Miata gets classed out of TTE, the average becomes 2.83 out of 7, which is good enough to win a free tire from Hoosier at every single event.
Better still? Using that average, and assuming I'll be able to make all 15 events, I should finish next season well over 100 points ahead of the points-leader for 2010. Even a consistent 4th place finish could warrant a 1st place trophy for the season.
And since Time Trials isn't nearly as abusive on hardware as HPDE's (fewer laps means less fuel & less wear), consumables can last much longer. Add instructing and camping to the mix and--barring major incidents--next season should cost less than the first two events of this season alone.
This event was to be all about blowing through the last of 2010's consumables: tires, brakes, oil, etc. I don't like to put old stuff back on the car in the Spring, so everything had to go. Hell, there was even 11 gallons of fuel left over from October's VIR trip. No sense letting that rot, either.
Oh but was it cold. I was thoroughly unprepared for how cold it would be in the trailer. I didn't have enough amperage to run two heaters at once, and the fan/heater job was only good at keeping the temps around 55 at night. On an air-mattress, that's COLD. There's nothing to insulate you from below, and my dumb ass didn't pack a sleeping bag. Just sheets & a blanket. Brr...
I was so cold and had slept so poorly that I couldn't be bothered to check tire pressures Saturday morning. I figured they had to be pretty good, though, since I managed a 1:29.7 in my 2nd session, my fastest to date. That lap turned out to be my fastest for the day, and good enough for a 3rd place trophy!
My paddock-mates insisted on checking my tires in the afternoon, and we found that each was at least 2 pounds down from optimum pressures, which meant that Sunday would be faster. It was.
With proper pressure, I went out Sunday morning and knocked off .2 seconds from Saturday's best, but on a lap where I had to give up the end of the front straight for a caution flag. I knew I could do better.
In my 2nd session, I turned a 1:29.141. Six tenths better than Saturday, and only 1/10 off the first place pace from Saturday. Fortunately for me, the guy who set that pace didn't come back Sunday, and each day is a separate event. Saturday's 2nd place driver told me that he couldn't possibly match my pace, and the only other car that could do it wasn't classed properly. So I won. I won the final event of 2010.
And even though I only competed in 6 of 15 events, I accrued enough points to be in either 5th or 6th for the season.
My average finishing position was 3.33, with an average field-size of 7.66 competitors. And if the guy with the fire-breathing turbo Miata gets classed out of TTE, the average becomes 2.83 out of 7, which is good enough to win a free tire from Hoosier at every single event.
Better still? Using that average, and assuming I'll be able to make all 15 events, I should finish next season well over 100 points ahead of the points-leader for 2010. Even a consistent 4th place finish could warrant a 1st place trophy for the season.
And since Time Trials isn't nearly as abusive on hardware as HPDE's (fewer laps means less fuel & less wear), consumables can last much longer. Add instructing and camping to the mix and--barring major incidents--next season should cost less than the first two events of this season alone.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Last Weekend at VIR
Well, ok, not actually last weekend, but the weekend before...
A scant week after my final HPDE of the 2010 season, I headed down to VIR for my penultimate Time Trial weekend of the season. The neat thing about doing back-to-back events is that (assuming the car isn't broken) there's very little to do between events. Just pack some food, hitch up, and go.
The other neat thing is that the brain stays in performance-driving mode. Going a month between events gives you too much time to cool down. Too much time to look at video and data, over-analyze both, and settle back into a routine of drinkin' beer and watching TV. But a week? Just enough time to still be excited about the previous week's activities, just enough time to assess what the car is telling you.
I pulled 3 whole seconds off my previous best TT lap time at VIR. And that previous best was in July, just over two months ago. That's huge. Yes, I pulled 25lbs out of the car, but all of it from the wrong side to be helpful. In fact, the car is now wildly imbalanced, almost 185lbs off to the left, with only the left-front wheel carrying over 600lbs at rest.
And my 2:24.873 lap probably wasn't a fluke or a trick of the timing beacon: I'd managed a 2:24.9 earlier in the weekend. Traqmate says there's a 2:24.1 out there, which means there might actually be a 2:23.8. Either way, it was only good enough for 3rd place on Sunday (1/10 of a second out of 2nd place--argh!).
And I'm learning a lot each time I do a TT. I'm learning that once I've blown my own mind with a hot lap, it's time to be done. No more scrounging for that last ounce of performance, as I did twice. Both times I went off in big dramatic fashion, and both times my sessions were disqualified.
I'm also learning that a "full day" of TT can comprise 1 or 2 sessions, that the hardware can last a lot longer than initially expected because of the shortened days, and that there's a lot of room left to make the car go faster. I'm still 40lbs overweight for the class, and can make a few mods to the car without jeopardizing my classing.
And finally I'm learning, each and every time I get in the right seat, something new about instructing. I've now had two students go "off", both because they weren't really listening to what I was saying. They got mired in their own thoughts, fears, and desires, and tuned me out. Concentration exercises (e.g., forcing the driver to identify something unique about each flag worker) help get their focus back where it belongs, but each new student is presenting a new set of challenges that I'm having to solve on the fly. It's scary, frustrating, and a lot of fun.
So I can now claim four Time Trial events (each weekend is two separate events). And in that short period, my first podium finish. Three weeks from now I'll be at Summit Point for the final weekend of the 2010 season. If I can put down consistent laps, I should be just able to get 3rd place again. Wish me luck!
A scant week after my final HPDE of the 2010 season, I headed down to VIR for my penultimate Time Trial weekend of the season. The neat thing about doing back-to-back events is that (assuming the car isn't broken) there's very little to do between events. Just pack some food, hitch up, and go.
The other neat thing is that the brain stays in performance-driving mode. Going a month between events gives you too much time to cool down. Too much time to look at video and data, over-analyze both, and settle back into a routine of drinkin' beer and watching TV. But a week? Just enough time to still be excited about the previous week's activities, just enough time to assess what the car is telling you.
I pulled 3 whole seconds off my previous best TT lap time at VIR. And that previous best was in July, just over two months ago. That's huge. Yes, I pulled 25lbs out of the car, but all of it from the wrong side to be helpful. In fact, the car is now wildly imbalanced, almost 185lbs off to the left, with only the left-front wheel carrying over 600lbs at rest.
And my 2:24.873 lap probably wasn't a fluke or a trick of the timing beacon: I'd managed a 2:24.9 earlier in the weekend. Traqmate says there's a 2:24.1 out there, which means there might actually be a 2:23.8. Either way, it was only good enough for 3rd place on Sunday (1/10 of a second out of 2nd place--argh!).
And I'm learning a lot each time I do a TT. I'm learning that once I've blown my own mind with a hot lap, it's time to be done. No more scrounging for that last ounce of performance, as I did twice. Both times I went off in big dramatic fashion, and both times my sessions were disqualified.
I'm also learning that a "full day" of TT can comprise 1 or 2 sessions, that the hardware can last a lot longer than initially expected because of the shortened days, and that there's a lot of room left to make the car go faster. I'm still 40lbs overweight for the class, and can make a few mods to the car without jeopardizing my classing.
And finally I'm learning, each and every time I get in the right seat, something new about instructing. I've now had two students go "off", both because they weren't really listening to what I was saying. They got mired in their own thoughts, fears, and desires, and tuned me out. Concentration exercises (e.g., forcing the driver to identify something unique about each flag worker) help get their focus back where it belongs, but each new student is presenting a new set of challenges that I'm having to solve on the fly. It's scary, frustrating, and a lot of fun.
So I can now claim four Time Trial events (each weekend is two separate events). And in that short period, my first podium finish. Three weeks from now I'll be at Summit Point for the final weekend of the 2010 season. If I can put down consistent laps, I should be just able to get 3rd place again. Wish me luck!
Monday, October 04, 2010
Alastair's First Track Weekend!!!!!
I took Alastair to Summit Point this weekend. I was nervous about it, concerned that an over-amped driver coming off the track might blaze through the paddock and mow him down, or that he'd wander off to places unknown, or that he'd just be bored to tears and whine all weekend.
He was awesome.
My parents met us at about 4:30pm on Friday, helped pack a few last-minute items, and we were off to the mountains of West Virginia. The drive took a little longer than usual, but traveling w/ a 4-yr-old tends to add time to any trip.
We got to the track a few minutes after 8pm, and it was pitch black. Alastair was a huge trouper about getting everything set up for the night, and as a reward got to ride in the Miata around the paddock area. We even went and watched the go-karts for a little while before coming back to the trailer. When we got there, he told me that he needed to go to bed. And indeed he did--it was 9:45pm!
We slept fitfully, having only brought one pillow for the two of us to share, but the next morning we were both quite chipper, in spite of the cluster that awaited...
First off, the track was super slick on Saturday morning. I got out late and only turned a few laps before parking the car--it's just not worth the effort sometimes. Then, as I was preparing to get in the right seat to instruct Mr. Gohlke, another guy came up and told me I was his instructor. Um... uh oh. Turns out there'd been a mix-up at Registration, and I'd been assigned a completely green student. Which meant we had no idea who was supposed to instruct Daniel. And naturally, we only had about 2 minutes to resolve it before the session began.
Oh, and? Alastair had to be left alone, by himself, in the trailer during the session. With more than a little trepidation for his safety, I fired up a movie, stuffed my helmet on my head, and headed out for what would be an eventful first instruction session.
My guy was very green (it was his first track day ever), but seemed to have a good knowledge of what the car could do. Unfortunately, about 2/3 through the session, we spun. No biggie, but it was early enough in the day that I decided to park him and let him cool down a bit. He was shaken, but no harm had been done. Daniel fared a bit better with his instructor, only scaring the guy half to death a few dozen times as he reacquainted himself with the car (we got the situation resolved later--switched students, and Daniel got promoted to Intermediate AND got solo-ed).
I came back to find things going quite well, and indeed things remained very stable throughout the day, except for a couple of minor issues. The day went so well, in fact, that Alastair asked if he could camp in the trailer again that night. So we said adieu to my parents for the day and prepared for the night.
But first...
...we got to put Alastair's go-kart on the race track. Holy. Freakin'. Cow. I thought he'd be bored after doing 1/3 of a lap, but he wanted to keep going and going. He drove almost the entire track before the temperature started to drop, including Karussel, Corkscrew, almost the whole front straight, the Stonehouse Straight, Hook, and Trigger. We had to cut under some track-walkers at one point, and as we came down the main straight, a crowd gathered to watch him toodle along. Seeing his fans, of course he decided to wave.
And then it was time for me to go karting. Daniel and I entered the 1-hour enduro race at Summit Point kart, and for 30 minutes I held the lead, passing the reins to Daniel in horrible form with a late black-flag and a boot that stuck on the brake pedal. We ended the race in 3rd place, 32 seconds behind the leader, but still on the lead lap (in fact the very last kart on the lead lap).
Alastair cheered through it all, pausing along the way to make some friends and share toys.
We capped the night with grilled hotdogs & beans, took a nice long shower, and Little Man asked weepily to go to bed immediately thereafter. He was worn out.
The next morning I was assigned yet another student. Another instructor had suffered an injury in the night, and I got to take a solo check-ride in a blazing fast Hyundai Genesis. And in the afternoon I had a guy in the Advanced group ask me to ride along with him. So for an event where I was accepted as a provisional instructor with only one student, I ended up having 4 students!
Everybody got to ride in the Miata at least once--dad on the first day, Randy on the 2nd, Daniel rode twice (I think). And in my last solo driving session, I set a personal lap record of 1:45.195. It was a fantastic weekend. Alastair was a delight and didn't gripe about the 3-hour trek up or back, the car held up (even if the tires didn't--all 4 were showing cord by Sunday afternoon), and everybody made it home safely.
And ya know what? I get to do it all again this weekend at VIR!
He was awesome.
My parents met us at about 4:30pm on Friday, helped pack a few last-minute items, and we were off to the mountains of West Virginia. The drive took a little longer than usual, but traveling w/ a 4-yr-old tends to add time to any trip.
We got to the track a few minutes after 8pm, and it was pitch black. Alastair was a huge trouper about getting everything set up for the night, and as a reward got to ride in the Miata around the paddock area. We even went and watched the go-karts for a little while before coming back to the trailer. When we got there, he told me that he needed to go to bed. And indeed he did--it was 9:45pm!
We slept fitfully, having only brought one pillow for the two of us to share, but the next morning we were both quite chipper, in spite of the cluster that awaited...
First off, the track was super slick on Saturday morning. I got out late and only turned a few laps before parking the car--it's just not worth the effort sometimes. Then, as I was preparing to get in the right seat to instruct Mr. Gohlke, another guy came up and told me I was his instructor. Um... uh oh. Turns out there'd been a mix-up at Registration, and I'd been assigned a completely green student. Which meant we had no idea who was supposed to instruct Daniel. And naturally, we only had about 2 minutes to resolve it before the session began.
Oh, and? Alastair had to be left alone, by himself, in the trailer during the session. With more than a little trepidation for his safety, I fired up a movie, stuffed my helmet on my head, and headed out for what would be an eventful first instruction session.
My guy was very green (it was his first track day ever), but seemed to have a good knowledge of what the car could do. Unfortunately, about 2/3 through the session, we spun. No biggie, but it was early enough in the day that I decided to park him and let him cool down a bit. He was shaken, but no harm had been done. Daniel fared a bit better with his instructor, only scaring the guy half to death a few dozen times as he reacquainted himself with the car (we got the situation resolved later--switched students, and Daniel got promoted to Intermediate AND got solo-ed).
I came back to find things going quite well, and indeed things remained very stable throughout the day, except for a couple of minor issues. The day went so well, in fact, that Alastair asked if he could camp in the trailer again that night. So we said adieu to my parents for the day and prepared for the night.
But first...
...we got to put Alastair's go-kart on the race track. Holy. Freakin'. Cow. I thought he'd be bored after doing 1/3 of a lap, but he wanted to keep going and going. He drove almost the entire track before the temperature started to drop, including Karussel, Corkscrew, almost the whole front straight, the Stonehouse Straight, Hook, and Trigger. We had to cut under some track-walkers at one point, and as we came down the main straight, a crowd gathered to watch him toodle along. Seeing his fans, of course he decided to wave.
And then it was time for me to go karting. Daniel and I entered the 1-hour enduro race at Summit Point kart, and for 30 minutes I held the lead, passing the reins to Daniel in horrible form with a late black-flag and a boot that stuck on the brake pedal. We ended the race in 3rd place, 32 seconds behind the leader, but still on the lead lap (in fact the very last kart on the lead lap).
Alastair cheered through it all, pausing along the way to make some friends and share toys.
We capped the night with grilled hotdogs & beans, took a nice long shower, and Little Man asked weepily to go to bed immediately thereafter. He was worn out.
The next morning I was assigned yet another student. Another instructor had suffered an injury in the night, and I got to take a solo check-ride in a blazing fast Hyundai Genesis. And in the afternoon I had a guy in the Advanced group ask me to ride along with him. So for an event where I was accepted as a provisional instructor with only one student, I ended up having 4 students!
Everybody got to ride in the Miata at least once--dad on the first day, Randy on the 2nd, Daniel rode twice (I think). And in my last solo driving session, I set a personal lap record of 1:45.195. It was a fantastic weekend. Alastair was a delight and didn't gripe about the 3-hour trek up or back, the car held up (even if the tires didn't--all 4 were showing cord by Sunday afternoon), and everybody made it home safely.
And ya know what? I get to do it all again this weekend at VIR!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Followed by a whole lot of AWESOME
So yeah: MazdaDrivers put on a craptastic event. And I have it on good authority, and from multiple sources, that they won't have the chance to fail so dramatically again.
But Trackdaze and NASA? Epic.
I hit the Trackdaze HPDE @ Summit Point Main a couple of weeks ago, and while attendance was way off, the experience sure wasn't. With fewer than 20 cars in each run group (and only about 10 on the 2nd day), the track was wide open, and I had almost no mechanical issues. I ran out of gas once, had one set of questionable tires go away completely, and the worst thing I had to deal with all weekend was some INSANE rain on the way home. It rained so hard that the trailer roof leaked again. Grr...
Two really cool things came out of that weekend, though.
1. I got to run my first ever session of passes without point-bys. Late in the 2nd day, I ran with the instructors with my window-net up (first time ever on track). I learned that the net is really distracting and that there must be a much higher level of trust between drivers when there's no pre-negotiated agreement on passing.
2. I became 100% convinced of my need for a Traqmate. So I bought one. I'll get back to it, but holy crap is it awesome.
Both of those things became instrumental to the event I just completed: NASA's Sweaty Summer Slam @ VIR. This 4 day event(!) was not only the longest I've ever done, but comprised entirely new activities for me.
I took the Level 1 and Level 2 Instructor Clinics, and spent Saturday and Sunday teaching others how to drive their race cars. The classes were long, but very content-rich; the on-track exercises were...startlingly realistic; the students were amazing.
I finally got to experience that moment I've heard about from other instructors: when a student goes from driving a car on the track to track-driving. "Magical" doesn't quite describe it, but it's close.
I also began my competitive track career in Time Trials. I managed to finish in 4th place in my first ever event, and 5th place on Sunday (after disqualifying myself by going off-track).
Know what made that 4th place possible? The Traqmate. It also enabled me to put down my fastest VIR lap ever on Sunday morning during warm-up, at 2:26.1 (still off pace for SM, but I'm getting there). What was really surprising, though was learning that, if I'd done everything to the best of my ability, I could have managed a 2:25.2. That's cookin' with gas!
I got a new camera, too: a GoPro Hero. The old Aiptek broke off its mount at Summit Point (video here), leaving only a threaded plug attached to the mount. The GoPro got some good footage, but after I added the Traqmate data, that footage went from being entertaining to being, as one coworker put it, a Business Intelligence tool. And she's not wrong. Check out 4 laps from my fastest session, beginning with my personal lap record.
From a Time Trials perspective, though, the real benefit of the Traqmate is the display unit. It updates all the way around the track with predictive lap times, telling you instantly if you're moving faster or slower than your best. That's powerful stuff.
And since we're on the subject of pure freakin' awesomeness, I got a new truck. The F-250 was just getting a touch too unreliable for repeated trips to West Virginia (those mountains are TOUGH!), and the Mazdaspeed3 filled no practical voids in my life, so I decided to consolidate down to one vehicle.
I did some research, and it turns out that many trade rags are in agreement: the Dodge Ram 1500 is the best half-ton truck being made today. Coil springs, anti-sway bars, independent suspension, and let's not forget: a bitchin' 5.7L V8 Hemi. The truck is rated to tow 10,000lbs, so it's a little bit future-proof with regards to trailers (my trailer is rated to 7000lbs, and probably weighs within 10% of that, fully loaded).
It tows like a dream, and I just got towing mirrors, a backup camera (to assist hitching), and a weight-distributing hitch with built-in sway control.
And Alastair LOVES the new truck. He sits high and proud in the middle of the back seat, and has a commanding view of the road. But his favorite part is the 7.3 second 0 - 60. "Wow, daddy! I didn't expect it to be fast!"
Oh, and? Alastair starts preschool September 14. Before he does, though, we're gonna go spend Labor Day week at the beach. Off-season rates are less than 50% of summer rates, so it's a steal, and this will be the last year we'll be able to escape during the school year.
So yeah: Summer 2010 is kicking all kinds of ass (and you don't even know the best part...ha!).
But Trackdaze and NASA? Epic.
I hit the Trackdaze HPDE @ Summit Point Main a couple of weeks ago, and while attendance was way off, the experience sure wasn't. With fewer than 20 cars in each run group (and only about 10 on the 2nd day), the track was wide open, and I had almost no mechanical issues. I ran out of gas once, had one set of questionable tires go away completely, and the worst thing I had to deal with all weekend was some INSANE rain on the way home. It rained so hard that the trailer roof leaked again. Grr...
Two really cool things came out of that weekend, though.
1. I got to run my first ever session of passes without point-bys. Late in the 2nd day, I ran with the instructors with my window-net up (first time ever on track). I learned that the net is really distracting and that there must be a much higher level of trust between drivers when there's no pre-negotiated agreement on passing.
2. I became 100% convinced of my need for a Traqmate. So I bought one. I'll get back to it, but holy crap is it awesome.
Both of those things became instrumental to the event I just completed: NASA's Sweaty Summer Slam @ VIR. This 4 day event(!) was not only the longest I've ever done, but comprised entirely new activities for me.
I took the Level 1 and Level 2 Instructor Clinics, and spent Saturday and Sunday teaching others how to drive their race cars. The classes were long, but very content-rich; the on-track exercises were...startlingly realistic; the students were amazing.
I finally got to experience that moment I've heard about from other instructors: when a student goes from driving a car on the track to track-driving. "Magical" doesn't quite describe it, but it's close.
I also began my competitive track career in Time Trials. I managed to finish in 4th place in my first ever event, and 5th place on Sunday (after disqualifying myself by going off-track).
Know what made that 4th place possible? The Traqmate. It also enabled me to put down my fastest VIR lap ever on Sunday morning during warm-up, at 2:26.1 (still off pace for SM, but I'm getting there). What was really surprising, though was learning that, if I'd done everything to the best of my ability, I could have managed a 2:25.2. That's cookin' with gas!
I got a new camera, too: a GoPro Hero. The old Aiptek broke off its mount at Summit Point (video here), leaving only a threaded plug attached to the mount. The GoPro got some good footage, but after I added the Traqmate data, that footage went from being entertaining to being, as one coworker put it, a Business Intelligence tool. And she's not wrong. Check out 4 laps from my fastest session, beginning with my personal lap record.
From a Time Trials perspective, though, the real benefit of the Traqmate is the display unit. It updates all the way around the track with predictive lap times, telling you instantly if you're moving faster or slower than your best. That's powerful stuff.
And since we're on the subject of pure freakin' awesomeness, I got a new truck. The F-250 was just getting a touch too unreliable for repeated trips to West Virginia (those mountains are TOUGH!), and the Mazdaspeed3 filled no practical voids in my life, so I decided to consolidate down to one vehicle.
I did some research, and it turns out that many trade rags are in agreement: the Dodge Ram 1500 is the best half-ton truck being made today. Coil springs, anti-sway bars, independent suspension, and let's not forget: a bitchin' 5.7L V8 Hemi. The truck is rated to tow 10,000lbs, so it's a little bit future-proof with regards to trailers (my trailer is rated to 7000lbs, and probably weighs within 10% of that, fully loaded).
It tows like a dream, and I just got towing mirrors, a backup camera (to assist hitching), and a weight-distributing hitch with built-in sway control.
And Alastair LOVES the new truck. He sits high and proud in the middle of the back seat, and has a commanding view of the road. But his favorite part is the 7.3 second 0 - 60. "Wow, daddy! I didn't expect it to be fast!"
Oh, and? Alastair starts preschool September 14. Before he does, though, we're gonna go spend Labor Day week at the beach. Off-season rates are less than 50% of summer rates, so it's a steal, and this will be the last year we'll be able to escape during the school year.
So yeah: Summer 2010 is kicking all kinds of ass (and you don't even know the best part...ha!).
Monday, June 14, 2010
An exceedingly strange track weekend
This is gonna be long and probably boring. Sorry.
Last week was scramble time. I accomplished oil changes on the Miata, the truck, and even the Mazdaspeed 3. I changed plugs & wires on the truck, brakes & fluid on the Miata, and buttoned everything up just in time to haul down to VIR for the annual MazdaDrivers event on Grand East.
This is one of the only (if not in fact the only) events all year to use the Grand East configuration, which has 34 turns, a ton of elevation changes, and a glorious turn called The Bitch. It's a 4.2 mile lap that takes just under 3:30 to complete, and it's full of exciting challenges. It's also ungodly expensive because it takes a lot more staff to man the flag stations.
To offset that expense, I was excited about repeating the whole camping-in-the-trailer thing that I'd done last month at Summit Point, but I couldn't remember if there were electric drops in the paddock. So I sent an e-mail. HUGE mistake. VIR was willing to provide me a camping space for $50 / night, which is nuts because I don't need water hook-ups or any of that fancy crap. So I declined, but they forwarded my name to their head of security, so I knew they'd be on the look-out for me to be camping unauthorized. So I booked a hotel room. Boo. There goes another couple hundred dollars into this overpriced weekend.
So I got everything ready, came home early from work, kissed my boy, and hauled down to VIR in the 90+ temps. Smooth sailing all the way down, I'm rockin' out to good tunes, no cops in sight the whole way.
I get there, and there's a sign on the front gate: Electricity $25. DAMMIT! I just committed to $200 for a hotel that's 15 minutes from the track. Lesson learned: NEVER ASK PERMISSION. EVER.
Anyway, after unpacking my trailer, I find a list of driver/instructor pairings, whereupon I realize I've (once again) been bumped back down to the Intermediate group. In Intermediate, passing is only allowed on approved straight-aways. Not cool (and really boring, frankly). I got pissed off and sent a fiery email to the event coordinator.
Saturday morning I got the issue resolved to my relative satisfaction, met my instructor, and prepared to have a weekend full of awesome. Only it was not to be. After waiting more than 5 minutes for my instructor, I finally went looking for him. He was resting casually at his paddock space, thinking I was still running in the other group, which wasn't scheduled to be on track for another 30 minutes. As he was scrambling to get in the car, he smashed my rearview mirror with his helmet. Oops. My side was still intact, and I could see out the back, so we were ok.
And then I overdrove the car so badly he had to ask several times for me to keep it under control. I got passed all over the place. It sucked.
2nd session, I finally got things to settle down a bit, started to pick up the pace, and he told me afterward that he enjoyed the ride and would sign me off for solo. Yay! Good driving to come! Only not!
Just before the 3rd session of the day, high winds came rolling through. Everyone was advised to take down their tents and awnings and seek shelter immediately. This is no easy task when winds are already blowing above 30mph. Oh, and I was busily trying to swap to my rain tires because of bruised looking clouds on the horizon.
But the storm mostly blew over, and we got out on track for an abbreviated session. Yay?
For the 4th session, my rain tires were already on, and the rains finally came. Woohoo! It was wet. It was treacherous. It was FREAKIN' AWESOME. For about 2 laps, whereupon a silver M3 decided to attempt a barrel roll with predictable success. Black flag all, day over.
To make matters worse, the black flag came out right as I and another Miata were passing a corner station. The worker waved the flag at the Miata in front of me, and we both thought he was being flagged. He pulled way off line, slowed, and pointed me past. So I passed him. This upset the event coordinator, who wanted to have harsh words with me. Oh yeah? Bring it, fucker--I'm done with you anyway. He and the Chief Steward and I had a nice long talk about it, and the Chief Steward conceded that the flagging was not clear, and that there is technically no rule about passing under black. Mr. Coordinator-Fancy-Pants looked at the ground and tried to walk away, whereupon the Steward called him back to discuss the many things that MazdaDrivers do differently from EVERY OTHER CLUB, and how difficult it is for the VIR corner workers to keep up with the weirdness. Again: suck it, jerk.
Sunday began with an RX-8 missing a shift, slamming the wall on the front straight and spewing parts all over the place.
Then our first session came, and it was by far the best experience of the whole weekend.
2nd session, on the out lap (not under yellow, though) another BMW M3 felt inspired to go off in the exact same spot that the first one had done Saturday. Only he didn't flip. What he did do, though, was one of the dumbest things I've EVER seen a human being do: he got out of the car to see if it was damaged. On a hot race track with cars passing 20' from him, in an area known for spins. Black flag all. AGAIN.
3rd (and final--at least for me) session, I got stuck in a long train before finding another Spec Miata to play with. We were putting down some frickin' awesome laps before...another black flag all. Apparently a 'Vette overheated in the climbing esses, and the driver decided to hop out at the top of the hill to pop the hood.
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people? I know it's hot, but the lapses in judgment by far exceeded anything I've ever experienced at an HPDE. As a refresher: YOU NEVER GET OUT OF YOUR CAR ON A HOT TRACK UNLESS IT IS ON FIRE AND BURNING TO THE GROUND.
So that was fun. Then, as I'm packing everything up, another biblical storm comes and knocks out power to the trailer, where the temps climb quickly into the low 90's. Storm passes, I head out at 4pm. At 6:10, I'm climbing a hill and noticing that, not only is the truck slowing, it's overheating. A glance in the mirror shows huge plumes of smoke billowing from the driver-side trailer tires. Oh God.
Both tires are blown, one is obliterated. I have one spare, an a jack that's just strong enough to lift one side of the Miata. This won't end well.
In my haste to deal with it, I forget to leave the truck running. Strange noises begin emanating from the hood, but I'm in full-on panic mode, so I don't notice that for a couple of minutes. When I do, the truck wheezes back to life, runs terribly for a couple of minutes, and then settles back down as the coolant does its job.
Back to the tires...
I'm less than 1 inch from the paved surface of Rte 360, a busy highway, and no room between the trailer and the ditch on the other side. Just as the panic begins to get bad, I hear a dude whistling for my attention. Frank, as it turns out, lives right next to where I'd stopped, and just happens to be a tow-truck driver.
I told him my plight, and he told me that everyone seems to get flats right next to his home (and it's true--there were TONS of tire carcasses all over the place). He measured my bolt-pattern and came back with a very small wheel & tire that fit perfectly. He stood in the highway and directed traffic around me as I raised the trailer (after first taking the Miata out so that the jack wouldn't break). He helped put his wheel and my spare on, gave me good tips on where I could find air to get everything up to optimal pressures, and wished me good luck. He even helped re-pack the trailer. Frank is a fantastic man. If you ever break down 10 minutes south of Chula, ask for Frank. He'd give you the shirt off his back and ask for nothing in return.
Anyway, I got moving again, tried several times to stop and find someone to sell me tires--always without success--and eventually limped the whole thing home at about 35mph.
Incredulous that I'd made it to my driveway on Frank's badly dry-rotted tire, I parked the truck and sighed in relief...only to hear dripping. A quick check under the truck showed a river of oil.
So it wasn't the best weekend ever.
Last week was scramble time. I accomplished oil changes on the Miata, the truck, and even the Mazdaspeed 3. I changed plugs & wires on the truck, brakes & fluid on the Miata, and buttoned everything up just in time to haul down to VIR for the annual MazdaDrivers event on Grand East.
This is one of the only (if not in fact the only) events all year to use the Grand East configuration, which has 34 turns, a ton of elevation changes, and a glorious turn called The Bitch. It's a 4.2 mile lap that takes just under 3:30 to complete, and it's full of exciting challenges. It's also ungodly expensive because it takes a lot more staff to man the flag stations.
To offset that expense, I was excited about repeating the whole camping-in-the-trailer thing that I'd done last month at Summit Point, but I couldn't remember if there were electric drops in the paddock. So I sent an e-mail. HUGE mistake. VIR was willing to provide me a camping space for $50 / night, which is nuts because I don't need water hook-ups or any of that fancy crap. So I declined, but they forwarded my name to their head of security, so I knew they'd be on the look-out for me to be camping unauthorized. So I booked a hotel room. Boo. There goes another couple hundred dollars into this overpriced weekend.
So I got everything ready, came home early from work, kissed my boy, and hauled down to VIR in the 90+ temps. Smooth sailing all the way down, I'm rockin' out to good tunes, no cops in sight the whole way.
I get there, and there's a sign on the front gate: Electricity $25. DAMMIT! I just committed to $200 for a hotel that's 15 minutes from the track. Lesson learned: NEVER ASK PERMISSION. EVER.
Anyway, after unpacking my trailer, I find a list of driver/instructor pairings, whereupon I realize I've (once again) been bumped back down to the Intermediate group. In Intermediate, passing is only allowed on approved straight-aways. Not cool (and really boring, frankly). I got pissed off and sent a fiery email to the event coordinator.
Saturday morning I got the issue resolved to my relative satisfaction, met my instructor, and prepared to have a weekend full of awesome. Only it was not to be. After waiting more than 5 minutes for my instructor, I finally went looking for him. He was resting casually at his paddock space, thinking I was still running in the other group, which wasn't scheduled to be on track for another 30 minutes. As he was scrambling to get in the car, he smashed my rearview mirror with his helmet. Oops. My side was still intact, and I could see out the back, so we were ok.
And then I overdrove the car so badly he had to ask several times for me to keep it under control. I got passed all over the place. It sucked.
2nd session, I finally got things to settle down a bit, started to pick up the pace, and he told me afterward that he enjoyed the ride and would sign me off for solo. Yay! Good driving to come! Only not!
Just before the 3rd session of the day, high winds came rolling through. Everyone was advised to take down their tents and awnings and seek shelter immediately. This is no easy task when winds are already blowing above 30mph. Oh, and I was busily trying to swap to my rain tires because of bruised looking clouds on the horizon.
But the storm mostly blew over, and we got out on track for an abbreviated session. Yay?
For the 4th session, my rain tires were already on, and the rains finally came. Woohoo! It was wet. It was treacherous. It was FREAKIN' AWESOME. For about 2 laps, whereupon a silver M3 decided to attempt a barrel roll with predictable success. Black flag all, day over.
To make matters worse, the black flag came out right as I and another Miata were passing a corner station. The worker waved the flag at the Miata in front of me, and we both thought he was being flagged. He pulled way off line, slowed, and pointed me past. So I passed him. This upset the event coordinator, who wanted to have harsh words with me. Oh yeah? Bring it, fucker--I'm done with you anyway. He and the Chief Steward and I had a nice long talk about it, and the Chief Steward conceded that the flagging was not clear, and that there is technically no rule about passing under black. Mr. Coordinator-Fancy-Pants looked at the ground and tried to walk away, whereupon the Steward called him back to discuss the many things that MazdaDrivers do differently from EVERY OTHER CLUB, and how difficult it is for the VIR corner workers to keep up with the weirdness. Again: suck it, jerk.
Sunday began with an RX-8 missing a shift, slamming the wall on the front straight and spewing parts all over the place.
Then our first session came, and it was by far the best experience of the whole weekend.
2nd session, on the out lap (not under yellow, though) another BMW M3 felt inspired to go off in the exact same spot that the first one had done Saturday. Only he didn't flip. What he did do, though, was one of the dumbest things I've EVER seen a human being do: he got out of the car to see if it was damaged. On a hot race track with cars passing 20' from him, in an area known for spins. Black flag all. AGAIN.
3rd (and final--at least for me) session, I got stuck in a long train before finding another Spec Miata to play with. We were putting down some frickin' awesome laps before...another black flag all. Apparently a 'Vette overheated in the climbing esses, and the driver decided to hop out at the top of the hill to pop the hood.
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people? I know it's hot, but the lapses in judgment by far exceeded anything I've ever experienced at an HPDE. As a refresher: YOU NEVER GET OUT OF YOUR CAR ON A HOT TRACK UNLESS IT IS ON FIRE AND BURNING TO THE GROUND.
So that was fun. Then, as I'm packing everything up, another biblical storm comes and knocks out power to the trailer, where the temps climb quickly into the low 90's. Storm passes, I head out at 4pm. At 6:10, I'm climbing a hill and noticing that, not only is the truck slowing, it's overheating. A glance in the mirror shows huge plumes of smoke billowing from the driver-side trailer tires. Oh God.
Both tires are blown, one is obliterated. I have one spare, an a jack that's just strong enough to lift one side of the Miata. This won't end well.
In my haste to deal with it, I forget to leave the truck running. Strange noises begin emanating from the hood, but I'm in full-on panic mode, so I don't notice that for a couple of minutes. When I do, the truck wheezes back to life, runs terribly for a couple of minutes, and then settles back down as the coolant does its job.
Back to the tires...
I'm less than 1 inch from the paved surface of Rte 360, a busy highway, and no room between the trailer and the ditch on the other side. Just as the panic begins to get bad, I hear a dude whistling for my attention. Frank, as it turns out, lives right next to where I'd stopped, and just happens to be a tow-truck driver.
I told him my plight, and he told me that everyone seems to get flats right next to his home (and it's true--there were TONS of tire carcasses all over the place). He measured my bolt-pattern and came back with a very small wheel & tire that fit perfectly. He stood in the highway and directed traffic around me as I raised the trailer (after first taking the Miata out so that the jack wouldn't break). He helped put his wheel and my spare on, gave me good tips on where I could find air to get everything up to optimal pressures, and wished me good luck. He even helped re-pack the trailer. Frank is a fantastic man. If you ever break down 10 minutes south of Chula, ask for Frank. He'd give you the shirt off his back and ask for nothing in return.
Anyway, I got moving again, tried several times to stop and find someone to sell me tires--always without success--and eventually limped the whole thing home at about 35mph.
Incredulous that I'd made it to my driveway on Frank's badly dry-rotted tire, I parked the truck and sighed in relief...only to hear dripping. A quick check under the truck showed a river of oil.
So it wasn't the best weekend ever.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
It's Race Season!
Hot damn, but that was an awesome way to start the season!
I just spent the weekend at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. There was racing, Time Trials, HPDE, and karting. There were TONS of Miatas, and I got to steal a bunch of really good ideas for my dashboard setup.
But the highlight of the weekend, at least for me, was the door-to-door action in the advanced HPDE group.
It's always a little scary in the first event of the year. Do I remember the track? Do I remember how my car handles at the limit? Do I, in fact, even remember what the limit is? Turns out: yes, yes, and mostly.
Summit Point Main is the only track I've ever run and never had proper instruction. I figured it out on my own and by watching other faster drivers. And I've gotten pretty consistent with 1:33 laps, occasionally churning out a 1:32. I know the car can do at least a 1:30, and looking at data I know now where I'm leaving time on the table.
But Sunday, man o man! I got hooked up with a couple of guys who were turning similar lap times, and we had a nice long chat about various ways around the course, agreeing that we'd look for each other in the 2nd session. Well, we found each other and ran together for about 15 minutes. And it was awesome! There was a Porsche 944 that's being prepped for 944 Cup, a seasoned Spec Miata (though in new hands), and my orange popsicle. We traded places, took turns side-by-side, ran nose-to-tail, and had an absolute blast. And I got it all on video.
A white Porsche Cayman S was following the action and got some good shots of one particularly dicey lap. Once I'd gotten by the other Spec Miata, he had a hard time keeping up and severely over-drove the car, eventually spinning off in Turn 10.
Now, I've run with guys before. I've found people with similar cars or similar talent and played with 'em for a few laps, including one great session at VIR last summer, but this was really the best fun I've had to date. Back then, I was running in Intermediate, which meant no passing in the corners. But now we can actually practice real racecraft, going 2 or even 3 wide white-knuckled through some really scary turns. And at this level, there's a trust between drivers that didn't exist before.
There's a guy I met last fall who was kind of overwhelmed in our group, spinning off once (or twice?) and having a hard time controlling his way-overpowered Porsche 997 GT2. But I made him pass me on the inside of a terrifying turn to show him that he could do it, and afterward I think he got a level of confidence that was sorely missing. If you don't trust yourself and the car, you're gonna go off or spend your whole day driving slow.
Hard to believe I have 9 more weekends to look forward to this year, and yesterday I picked up a new car that we're gonna build for Chump Car & LeMons, two series for <$500 race cars. And this weekend I'm heading down to North Carolina to pick up a 24' enclosed (and insulated) trailer. Time to start tailgating and stop paying for hotels!
2010 is gonna be the BEST track season ever.
I just spent the weekend at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. There was racing, Time Trials, HPDE, and karting. There were TONS of Miatas, and I got to steal a bunch of really good ideas for my dashboard setup.
But the highlight of the weekend, at least for me, was the door-to-door action in the advanced HPDE group.
It's always a little scary in the first event of the year. Do I remember the track? Do I remember how my car handles at the limit? Do I, in fact, even remember what the limit is? Turns out: yes, yes, and mostly.
Summit Point Main is the only track I've ever run and never had proper instruction. I figured it out on my own and by watching other faster drivers. And I've gotten pretty consistent with 1:33 laps, occasionally churning out a 1:32. I know the car can do at least a 1:30, and looking at data I know now where I'm leaving time on the table.
But Sunday, man o man! I got hooked up with a couple of guys who were turning similar lap times, and we had a nice long chat about various ways around the course, agreeing that we'd look for each other in the 2nd session. Well, we found each other and ran together for about 15 minutes. And it was awesome! There was a Porsche 944 that's being prepped for 944 Cup, a seasoned Spec Miata (though in new hands), and my orange popsicle. We traded places, took turns side-by-side, ran nose-to-tail, and had an absolute blast. And I got it all on video.
A white Porsche Cayman S was following the action and got some good shots of one particularly dicey lap. Once I'd gotten by the other Spec Miata, he had a hard time keeping up and severely over-drove the car, eventually spinning off in Turn 10.
Now, I've run with guys before. I've found people with similar cars or similar talent and played with 'em for a few laps, including one great session at VIR last summer, but this was really the best fun I've had to date. Back then, I was running in Intermediate, which meant no passing in the corners. But now we can actually practice real racecraft, going 2 or even 3 wide white-knuckled through some really scary turns. And at this level, there's a trust between drivers that didn't exist before.
There's a guy I met last fall who was kind of overwhelmed in our group, spinning off once (or twice?) and having a hard time controlling his way-overpowered Porsche 997 GT2. But I made him pass me on the inside of a terrifying turn to show him that he could do it, and afterward I think he got a level of confidence that was sorely missing. If you don't trust yourself and the car, you're gonna go off or spend your whole day driving slow.
Hard to believe I have 9 more weekends to look forward to this year, and yesterday I picked up a new car that we're gonna build for Chump Car & LeMons, two series for <$500 race cars. And this weekend I'm heading down to North Carolina to pick up a 24' enclosed (and insulated) trailer. Time to start tailgating and stop paying for hotels!
2010 is gonna be the BEST track season ever.
Monday, April 05, 2010
Long and exciting. Yours?
How was your weekend?
Mine started Thursday night, care of Good Friday and curious holidays in the private sector.
Alastair and I went to bed Thursday night with excitement in the air: a trip to the zoo was planned for the morning, and Maymont Park in the afternoon!
Somehow, in all my life, I'd never actually been to a zoo. I'm unclear as to how this oversight might have occurred, but occur it did, so when we got there, I was more mesmerized than Alastair, who's now been at least 4 or 5 times. And of course, since he's been there a number of times, he knows where everything is. I felt like I was the kid for half the day!
We saw lions, tigers, bears (oh my...<--sorry, it's obligatory), emus giraffes, all manner of monkeys & apes, bats, and well, everything else you'd expect to see at a zoo. And we rode the sky-car over the rhinos, which, while exciting, were evidently nowhere near as exciting as their poop. I swear: Alastair talked about rhino poop for two solid days.
We also saw an Audi R8. That was my favorite.
Then, while he napped, I started tearing the Miata down in preparation for a timing belt & water pump swap. I figured if I disassembled it Friday afternoon, putting it back together on Saturday would be a snap. Which it was, until it wasn't.
After nap we met a friend and her two girls at Maymont, where mysteriously all the animals except the birds, bears, and fox were...missing. No idea where they were. Dad & Randy showed up to walk the park with us, and it was a delightful way to spend the afternoon. The kids entertained each other, the grown-ups got to talk, and then unfortunately one of the girls did an epic swan dive over her own foot. A bloody knee and 8 zillion tears (now with dramatic over-sell action!) later, we were all spent.
Saturday was even more awesomesauce for Alastair, who got to go to two Easter egg hunts. One at church (grr...) and one at his friend's house. While he was at the church one, and while he napped, I toiled away on the car, getting it almost back together.
We had a fantabulous time at his friend's house--truly, they're like peas in a pod, and it is so much fun to just watch them play.
After I dropped him off at Grammy's for the night, I went home, Daniel showed up to help with the Miata...and it wouldn't run. Dammit.
Teardown & rebuild: nothing.
Daniel wished me luck and went home (it was already pretty late), and at midnight I started another teardown, this time with the idea that I'd leave it torn down overnight and approach the timing issue in the morning with fresh eyes. Yeah, not so much.
When I got down to the belt, I had a revelation that I could abandon all the fancy marks I'd made on the belt if I could calculate TDC, which I fortunately could do because I happened to have a compression checker. Yay me!
At 2am, the car was buttoned up, and she roared to life (sorry neighbors!).
The next morning she threw the alternator belt. FML. At least that was a 5-minute fix.
P-Nut's Easter Party! Woohoo! Monument Ave Easter Parade! Jello shots! Champagne! RedBull & vodka! Ow my head!
Before Alastair came home, I happened upon a stranded motorist in my neighborhood. Her car had overheated, and she was about a mile away from home. But she was blocking traffic, and the cops were less than amused. So I went home, got my truck & trailer, and hauled her to her house.
Pizza with a boy for dinner, 834.2 loads of laundry, and one completely spent daddy.
It was a damn fine weekend, even with the extra 5 hours of work on the car. Now on to the remaining 5 hours worth of work, and next weekend's the circus!
Mine started Thursday night, care of Good Friday and curious holidays in the private sector.
Alastair and I went to bed Thursday night with excitement in the air: a trip to the zoo was planned for the morning, and Maymont Park in the afternoon!
Somehow, in all my life, I'd never actually been to a zoo. I'm unclear as to how this oversight might have occurred, but occur it did, so when we got there, I was more mesmerized than Alastair, who's now been at least 4 or 5 times. And of course, since he's been there a number of times, he knows where everything is. I felt like I was the kid for half the day!
We saw lions, tigers, bears (oh my...<--sorry, it's obligatory), emus giraffes, all manner of monkeys & apes, bats, and well, everything else you'd expect to see at a zoo. And we rode the sky-car over the rhinos, which, while exciting, were evidently nowhere near as exciting as their poop. I swear: Alastair talked about rhino poop for two solid days.
We also saw an Audi R8. That was my favorite.
Then, while he napped, I started tearing the Miata down in preparation for a timing belt & water pump swap. I figured if I disassembled it Friday afternoon, putting it back together on Saturday would be a snap. Which it was, until it wasn't.
After nap we met a friend and her two girls at Maymont, where mysteriously all the animals except the birds, bears, and fox were...missing. No idea where they were. Dad & Randy showed up to walk the park with us, and it was a delightful way to spend the afternoon. The kids entertained each other, the grown-ups got to talk, and then unfortunately one of the girls did an epic swan dive over her own foot. A bloody knee and 8 zillion tears (now with dramatic over-sell action!) later, we were all spent.
Saturday was even more awesomesauce for Alastair, who got to go to two Easter egg hunts. One at church (grr...) and one at his friend's house. While he was at the church one, and while he napped, I toiled away on the car, getting it almost back together.
We had a fantabulous time at his friend's house--truly, they're like peas in a pod, and it is so much fun to just watch them play.
After I dropped him off at Grammy's for the night, I went home, Daniel showed up to help with the Miata...and it wouldn't run. Dammit.
Teardown & rebuild: nothing.
Daniel wished me luck and went home (it was already pretty late), and at midnight I started another teardown, this time with the idea that I'd leave it torn down overnight and approach the timing issue in the morning with fresh eyes. Yeah, not so much.
When I got down to the belt, I had a revelation that I could abandon all the fancy marks I'd made on the belt if I could calculate TDC, which I fortunately could do because I happened to have a compression checker. Yay me!
At 2am, the car was buttoned up, and she roared to life (sorry neighbors!).
The next morning she threw the alternator belt. FML. At least that was a 5-minute fix.
P-Nut's Easter Party! Woohoo! Monument Ave Easter Parade! Jello shots! Champagne! RedBull & vodka! Ow my head!
Before Alastair came home, I happened upon a stranded motorist in my neighborhood. Her car had overheated, and she was about a mile away from home. But she was blocking traffic, and the cops were less than amused. So I went home, got my truck & trailer, and hauled her to her house.
Pizza with a boy for dinner, 834.2 loads of laundry, and one completely spent daddy.
It was a damn fine weekend, even with the extra 5 hours of work on the car. Now on to the remaining 5 hours worth of work, and next weekend's the circus!
Monday, June 15, 2009
MazdaDrivers June DE at VIR Grand East
Man oh man was this weekend fun. First off, special thanks to Archie and Diana Dann. Diana for lending me her husband for the weekend, and Archie for being pit-monkey and comrade-in-arms at the track.
This weekend was the best I've had thus far. I did have two offs, but I've cleaned up segments of the track that have bugged me thus far, and gained a ton of confidence in both myself and the car.
Saturday I started with the Novice group. I went out in the first session and was passed a few times as I tried to re-orient myself to driving at the limit. In the second session, we started to reel in the big boys, and in the 3rd and 4th sessions, we were maybe passed once while reeling in everything on track. I had a number of near disasters, but caught the car going around each time, wrestled it into submission, and kept the nose pointed in roughly the right direction. At one point we even took T6 in the Patriot Course completely sideways, but she tracked out perfectly and my instructor did a happy dance (I have it on film).
The second day we started in Novice, but my instructor went and had me bumped up to the Intermediate group. He felt I had a good grasp on taking the track at speed, and that the skill-level of the other cars made it dangerous for me to be held up by them. The first session in Intermediate, it became clear that we were reeling in cars there, too. A train of AWD cars passed me at one point, but that was it.
As the day wore on, I started putting a lot more pressure on the other cars in my group, setting them up for passes at Oak Tree, South Bend, and Bitch. We had just reeled in a 'Vette at Bitch, gotten the point, and were trying to pass when I had my first off of the event. The guy saw me round the turn, stuck his arm out the window, and didn't immediately lift. That meant we were drag racing for the next turn, which is a rise, a blind crest, and a steep off-camber downhill left turn. I had just cleared his front bumper before the braking zone, tried to swing out to track-right just to open up the turn a little bit, and when I steered into the left-hander, the back end came around. Into the grass we went, fortunately forward and not sideways.
Then in the last session I tried to compress my braking zone in Bitch, only to be rewarded with a lock-up and skid off into the grass. Again, no damage, but I have a nicely flat-spotted tire for the effort.
I changed absolutely nothing about the setup of the car, but made some big strides in cleaning up my line. Surprisingly, we found that the car rounds T1 faster if I turn in too early and with too much speed. The back end floats out, and careful application of 100% throttle tucks the nose down to the apex, allowing a 5mph boost at track-out. Score! We used the same principal at Left Hook, T11, Roller Coaster, and Hog Pen, each time gaining somewhere between 3 and 5mph at track-out. I'm confident that having used this approach on Full Course, I would have dropped at least 1.5 seconds.
Then we got exit speeds of 92mph at South Bend by doing a gentle brake followed immediately by full throttle before even turning. Yummy!
The real winner, though, in terms of dropping lap times, was the highly unstable slide-your-butt-around approach to T11 and Oak tree. Less braking, more steering, and the car is extremely upset going into the braking zone for Oak Tree. I'd wrestle the car down to the turn-in gator, turn the wheel and apply throttle, and the back end would step out again for Oak Tree. The resulting exit speed was 5 - 7mph higher, but my entire time through 11 & 12 was at least a full second, if not two seconds quicker. Wow. Cars that kept consistent distance on previous laps would suddenly be right in front of me. It's how we caught a few Vettes and Mustangs, and we even had enough speed to give 'em trouble on the drag race up the back straight!
Neither my instructor nor I had ever driven the Patriot Course elements of the track, and we were both learning and teaching each other throughout the event. I had a couple of times when the car was just about completely sideways, and while I did have both of my offs in that segment, I did feel by Sunday afternoon that I had a pretty good handle on how to get through there quickly:
This weekend was the best I've had thus far. I did have two offs, but I've cleaned up segments of the track that have bugged me thus far, and gained a ton of confidence in both myself and the car.
Saturday I started with the Novice group. I went out in the first session and was passed a few times as I tried to re-orient myself to driving at the limit. In the second session, we started to reel in the big boys, and in the 3rd and 4th sessions, we were maybe passed once while reeling in everything on track. I had a number of near disasters, but caught the car going around each time, wrestled it into submission, and kept the nose pointed in roughly the right direction. At one point we even took T6 in the Patriot Course completely sideways, but she tracked out perfectly and my instructor did a happy dance (I have it on film).
The second day we started in Novice, but my instructor went and had me bumped up to the Intermediate group. He felt I had a good grasp on taking the track at speed, and that the skill-level of the other cars made it dangerous for me to be held up by them. The first session in Intermediate, it became clear that we were reeling in cars there, too. A train of AWD cars passed me at one point, but that was it.
As the day wore on, I started putting a lot more pressure on the other cars in my group, setting them up for passes at Oak Tree, South Bend, and Bitch. We had just reeled in a 'Vette at Bitch, gotten the point, and were trying to pass when I had my first off of the event. The guy saw me round the turn, stuck his arm out the window, and didn't immediately lift. That meant we were drag racing for the next turn, which is a rise, a blind crest, and a steep off-camber downhill left turn. I had just cleared his front bumper before the braking zone, tried to swing out to track-right just to open up the turn a little bit, and when I steered into the left-hander, the back end came around. Into the grass we went, fortunately forward and not sideways.
Then in the last session I tried to compress my braking zone in Bitch, only to be rewarded with a lock-up and skid off into the grass. Again, no damage, but I have a nicely flat-spotted tire for the effort.
I changed absolutely nothing about the setup of the car, but made some big strides in cleaning up my line. Surprisingly, we found that the car rounds T1 faster if I turn in too early and with too much speed. The back end floats out, and careful application of 100% throttle tucks the nose down to the apex, allowing a 5mph boost at track-out. Score! We used the same principal at Left Hook, T11, Roller Coaster, and Hog Pen, each time gaining somewhere between 3 and 5mph at track-out. I'm confident that having used this approach on Full Course, I would have dropped at least 1.5 seconds.
Then we got exit speeds of 92mph at South Bend by doing a gentle brake followed immediately by full throttle before even turning. Yummy!
The real winner, though, in terms of dropping lap times, was the highly unstable slide-your-butt-around approach to T11 and Oak tree. Less braking, more steering, and the car is extremely upset going into the braking zone for Oak Tree. I'd wrestle the car down to the turn-in gator, turn the wheel and apply throttle, and the back end would step out again for Oak Tree. The resulting exit speed was 5 - 7mph higher, but my entire time through 11 & 12 was at least a full second, if not two seconds quicker. Wow. Cars that kept consistent distance on previous laps would suddenly be right in front of me. It's how we caught a few Vettes and Mustangs, and we even had enough speed to give 'em trouble on the drag race up the back straight!
Neither my instructor nor I had ever driven the Patriot Course elements of the track, and we were both learning and teaching each other throughout the event. I had a couple of times when the car was just about completely sideways, and while I did have both of my offs in that segment, I did feel by Sunday afternoon that I had a pretty good handle on how to get through there quickly:
- T1 (Bitch): Track left, brake hard just before the 3 marker. Turn in @ 50% throttle, lift, turn in further, 100% throttle to scoot the rear out, and slide to the outside gator. Look for the roof of the building at the south paddock and drive straight for it.
- T3: Track right, brake hard as soon as the track rises. Complete braking at the crest and turn hard to the left.
- T4: Hug the gator just a hair too long, then throttle and turn back to the right.
- T5: Ride over the gator and point to the center of the track.
- T6: Brake, lift & turn, throttle. Kick out rear and slide to the outside gator. Point just to the right of the phone pole.
- T7: Move across from track left just slightly and apply brakes just before the crest. Turn toward the left-hand gator. Rear will jump over the gator. Countersteer and 50% throttle. Rear will jump over next gator. Countersteer again and roll on throttle. 100% throttle and consistent steering input thru T8
- T8: Aim for the back side of the gator.
- T9: Back-side of gator, but shift to 4th when car settles.
- T10: Back out of throttle to 90% Pray (with the right god behind you, you can stay at 100%, but be prepared for a very exciting drift through the next two turns).
- T11 & T12: Constant radius arc. 100% throttle throughout.
- T12A: Does not exist. Ride the gator and go straight through the black asphalt. Do not brake for Roller Coaster until you can see the outside gator. And even that might be too early.
Mazda Drivers Spring DE at VIR Grand East from Adrian Amos on Vimeo.
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