Well it's getting cold up here in Ohio so you know what that means....the Browns are losing, it's about time for some OSU players to get arrested and oh yeah - the end of track days for 4 months.

Last weekend we headed over to Nelson Ledges for their last "fun day". Let's just say Nelson is a strange place and it keeps getting stranger. Don't get me wrong; I think they are trying to improve the track but between the C130 cargo jets flying overhead and the sounds of the shooting range/survivalists down the street I felt like I was in the movie "Red Dawn".

Normally I wouldn't recommend something like this as a first track day, but my buddy Al grew up around the track crewing for an SCCA runoffs winner. Then he was "demoted" and spent all summer crewing for our group at NASA events. Its more of lack of proper track car than lack of experience holding him back.

I used up the last of my RA1's at Putnam so I was rolling on old, hard A032R's. I took this as a test day and tried some different lines thru some turns without pushing too hard in some of the dangerous places (T1 and the kink). Despite this I was only running 1 second off my hot lap pace so I guess I figured some new things out. Good way to end the year.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, here's some pix of Al's Teggy in action:

His first time to the track and he's a blur already.


With a BMW M5.


Yes this **** will make you smile.


Hope you like the pictures, I'll post more oh in April.

- Markus

 

How can you reference a movie where they scream "wolverines" and call yourself a Buckeye? Shame on you....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtecvoodoo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How can you reference a movie where they scream "wolverines" and call yourself a Buckeye? Shame on you....

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Chris - Wolverine from Columbus

 

I wanted to make it out for the last FunDay on Sunday but the weather forecast kept me from making the drive. Oh well, there will be next season . . . until then, a few of us from RacePA.com will be doing kart days at Speeds in Columbus during the offseason to keep ourselves occupied.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Markus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the Browns are losing</TD></TR></TABLE>
And they're going to lose again this Sunday. Cleveland sucks!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtecvoodoo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How can you reference a movie where they scream "wolverines" and call yourself a Buckeye? Shame on you....

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Actually Mark doesn't claim to be a Buckeye, as a matter of fact I'm pretty sure he started the "firecoachtressel.com" website

Thanks for the photos Markus, it's good to finally have some of my own.

Wow, what a fun day. I had been telling myself for the past few years that when I finally got on track, it would be with an instructor and not at Nelson's - but the lure of a 65 degree day in November and 100 bux for a day of fun was overwhelming. It turned out to be a pretty ideal day for it, as not many people turned out - the forecast was not good, which probably helped.

As this was the first time I had put a wheel on the track, I wanted to be careful and have fun. I figured my Kumho 711 cheapo tires would force me to be slow and focus on being smooth.

Well - they did force me to be slow...

I put on one hell of a tire-frying performance in T13 every time. I could NOT find a consistent line thru the Carousel. And, some poor car placement and overly aggressive trailbraking caused me some d0rifto action in Oak Tree and T12. Actually, both times I lost it/almost lost it I had a car in my mirror, which is testament to my need to focus on my driving, not the guy behind me.

My Koni Sport kit, which is comprised of Sport dampers and lowering springs of unknown-but-not-stiff stiffness gave me the ability to get the car to rotate on corner entry but the steady-state understeer made turns like the Carousel very, well, frustrating. I'm sure my "technique" could use some refinement.

My lack of tires and brakes forced me to be conservative in T1/2/3 and the Kink as well. Probably a wise decision as one particularly aggressive moment caused me to put a tire on the "extra pavement" at the trackout point of T1 - a poorly cambered and very narrow strip of extra pavement.

All in all a very fun day. Nothing broke, even saved some tires for the rest of the non-snow season. Next year: brakes, tires, roll bar, and full-time HPDE here I come.

 

About freaking time!!!