Did two practice sessions today - one for ITE, the other for RS. Weather was dry despite threatening clouds - temp was 65-70?

I ran on my old hard A032's with -2.8 camber front, -1.4 camber rear, 0-1/16 toe out rear, and 0.25 total front toe out.

As it was dry I wasn't laying waste to giants like last time. I found I suffered a problem in common with others - Pro-7's were faster down the straights and slower in the corners just enough to be a pain. My solution was to stuff it inside under braking. Same for the ex TC Kline S2000 that was just ever so slightly faster in a straight line.

The 240SX that finished 2nd to me in RS last time by about 4 seconds a lap in the rain was on the same second today, but I could just inch away - I was faster in 7-8-9, and he said he made some of it up in 1-4, and I was just a little faster in a straight line. He's not sure I'm not sandbagging, and has been hemming and hawing going to fresh rubber - if he does and I don't (which I won't) then I'll have to drive alot better tomorrow (I was a disaster of un-smoothness today).

At one point I cooked my fronts to where I was using more than a quarter extra turn of the wheel just to keep on track - it (I) was just awful. I was overcooking my entry into our 2nd gear chicane, and was rushing the transition from right to left - I was turning in for the left hander while I was still drifting from the right: it was a very violent manuever that did nothing good.

My alignment specs produced interesting results. The rears showed very little sign of heat on the inboard side. The fronts were showing signs of excessive heat on the outboard side. I didn't get any good temperatures, but I don't want to spend too much time futzing with setup for these tires. I think I'll take the fronts to -3.2 and leave the rears alone, and keep the front toe out at 0.25. Of course this assumes that tomorrow will be dry again - weather is expected to be spotty. But no big deal if it rains - I'll have plenty of speed in hand then (though if it's the obvious call perhaps more of my competitors will be on full rains this time).

Well, that's about it till tomorrow. The next big question is whether I will get up at 5AM to watch F1.

Scott, who doesn't want to change tires 5 times in the rain tomorrow......

 

Hey I thought this sport was too expensive for you.....

 

You took my limited knowledge of auto-xing and sent me back to kindergarden with that post. I have lot's to learn.......


[Modified by drumsy, 8:10 PM 4/13/2002]

 

No, no, no, you've misunderstood......I was telling how I will KEEP racing this year. I'd already entered for both classes for this weekend, and after thinking about dropping the ITE entry I reconsidered - I want to burn up the A032's by getting in as much driving on them as I can while I get all the cobwebs out of my head.

Scott, who is remounting mirror again tonite - still can't see out the back well enough......"whoosh" - where did that Porsche come from?.....

 

Is there any contact between drivers during the race? Just wondering.......

 

Funny how you'll have those days where violent driving creeps in and slows you down. It's happened to me.

Sort of a tangent but oh well. That sounds like an awful lot of front camber.I run 2 degrees on the nose...temps and wear are pretty darn even. Currently on 425/600 springs and Hoosiers nd all looks right with the world.

 

Jonathan,

It is said that contact is not a question of if, but of when. I hope to push when well toward if. Contact in SCCA racing is not penalized to the degree it is in some Vintage racing or in some other sanctions - and it's tough **** if you get punted. There are people with reputations for doing dumb things, and others with reputations for pushing people out of the way.

Karl,

I know that sounds like alot. On the basis of my last fast day last summer and the temps taken, I've been moving toward less negative. But the way these A032's look suggest that they need to go the other direction. Academic now - I screwed with the mirror all evening (the dumbest things take the longest time - arghh), and I'm not going to start that now.

I may take my Smart Camber gauge and tramel bar to the track tomorrow and do it while I'm swapping tires - IF ITS NOT RAINING. I'm kind of cranky about the rain - I ordered a Qwik Shade "Shorty" that didn't arrive for more than two weeks after it was supposed to so in an empowerment gesture I cancelled it. It was for the best - I think the aluminum version is probably worth the extra cost.

By the way 1/8 inch on the Skunk arms is worth 1/2 degree approximately.

Scott, who thinks that he can wait to watch the GP.....much more so than he can wait to drive tomorrow.......

 

What a long day. It was dry all day, so I ran my old A032's all day.

I qualified 18th out of 30 in the group and 8th out of 13 in ITE with a 1:36.8 on leftover surface moisture from the night before. Nick Bode was running a Golf GTI prepped to SWC rules by a local tuner Josh Murray at Matrix Engineering - he was down by 1.5 seconds with an as yet unsorted car. Fast qualifier was Dave Parker's 911 RS by about 7 seconds.

In the ITE race I finished 18th out of 29 with a 1:33.2 fast lap. I had a great battle going with an SPU RX-7 (and took my first bump as he was trying to get by). I also experienced aggressive blocking by an FP BMW 2002. Very interesting.

I qualifed 13th out of 18 in the group, and 1st in RS just barely edging out Joe Harlans SWC prepped 240SX, and right behind Greg Fordahl's PCA4 944.

In the RS race I got a crappy start (I was on the brakes when the green went because I couldn't see anything and kind of jumped it and didn't want to run up the back of the car ahead). Joe and a couple of others got by. I worked hard (thought I was anyway) the first 3-4 laps and got closer to Joe and Greg. Then I found an opportunity to get Joe and it took a whole lap to make it stick (not that stick is the right word) and took after Greg (got him a little later). Joe stayed with me and hounded me for the next 13 laps. I had a little more power and could pull him down the straights, had more speed in a couple of sections, and he had more in a couple of corners in the back (I was pushing and scrubbing terribly in those and he pulled me fast). Every lap was a struggle to keep him behind and we ran side by side thru alot of corners. If he'd been so inclined he could have gotten physical - I'm sure glad he didn't. Lappers made the race even more interesting, and between them and the sometimes defensive lines I had to drive to keep Joe in check took me to parts of the track I rarely see. I dropped the outside wheels off the track a few times in the chicane, and got over the yellow and into the dirt once in old Turn 9 (feeling the rear start coming around there really got my attention). I took the checkered flag and 1st in RS with relief - it was damn hard work that race.

Joe is kinda pissed at me (not for real - we're totally friendly). Because I drive to the track. Because I run pump gas. Because I'm going to go alot faster by the middle of the summer. RS has a min weight formula based on displacement with multipliers for valve count. My min is around 2200. His 2.4 litre 4 valve lands him at 2800. He wants to take a couple hundred off and thinks we can have better racing. I told him that I'll be bolting on 25 hp and running Hoosiers by Rose Cups. He's threatening cams and other stuff. Or we can negotiate a truce and expenditure restraints. Too bad I've already spent the money (and anyway I NEED to go a little faster).

I rotated the A032's from front to rear a couple of times. The fronts got so hot and greasy that I thought I should distribute the punishment. I had terrible plow in the low speed stuff, but the car worked pretty well in the fast stuff. And I still drove like a clod - example: "just doesn't turn in too good when I turn the wheel while the ABS is chattering (as it has been since I mashed my foot on the pedal too fast and too hard)". Yeah, it was like that.

Because I was getting such trouble into the session, I screwed with my dampers a bit. I took the rear Mugen N1's to 5 (I think - they were at 3 when the stickers departed) and the fronts to 5.5 turns out. I wanted to try more damping both front and rear, with proportionally more in the rear as part of trying to settle the car down more thru the high speed curb jumping transition thru 7-8. I think it worked out well. I went faster than ever in the dry with the chicane on total **** tires - and I drove like a caveman to boot. Amazing.

Scott, who also got signed of for his Regional License today......

 

Congrats, nice work..too bad I couldn't stick around until the afternoon to see all the action, sounds like a good race.

 

Big Scott. Sounds like a good day. I know a few Spec Miata guys who were going down to PIR this weekend. Maybe you saw a red Miata and a silver one?

 

sounds like you had fun!

Will

 

Lotsa fun.

Forgot to mention: my fast race lap in the RS race was 1:32.46. My previous best was 1:32.75 on Hoosiers. Pierre's fast race lap last year was 1:32.2. Getting closer.

Oh, and Joe did run his new Hoosiers and our fast race laps were within 1/10th.

Scott, who has much work to do in the next 4 weeks........

 

Other bits & pieces:

The ITE Golf was a VR6 and it pulled me out of the corners pretty good and was about even all the way thru the gears. I took some pleasure in pushing on him during either practice or qualifying - and watching him spin in front of me exiting 7 - I had just an instants indecision about what to do (while I left my foot planted). Josh later in the weekend was flipping Nick some pretty funny stuff (from my perspective). They plan on running the Speed Channel race at Laguna this year.

I passed that S2000 in the race, and we did a drag race out of 9 and were just about dead even all the way to the chicane. I really expected him to inch ahead. Maybe his motor isn't as broken in as mine.

While Joe was on me we came upon a Porsche between 7 and 9. I couldn't close the gap and shove inside him fast enough entering 9, and so he cut across and I had to come off the gas to keep from hitting him and that put my rear end out and cost me alot of speed. Joe pounced and came up inside me then and so we left 9 in a straight drag race. I pulled just far enough ahead down the straight to come over and take a protective line into the chicane - but boy was that close. Running a race thru lapped traffic is really a gambling activity. Letting faster cars by as they lap you is also pretty hard during a heated battle. We had some of them come thru, and thru my inexperience I lost alot of time. I shouldn't have given so much way, and just made them wait for a chance to use their HP. A couple of them thanked me for being so considerate, and at least one appologized for butting in to (or rather thru) our race.

I have to say that the total mental load imposed by close wheel to wheel racing is huge - I can't say that I've ever worked harder (and enjoyed it).

The other thing that cracks me up is that the Nissan is a 12:1 race motor where race gas and 20-40 hour useful life is the story, whereas my car (and stock motor) is in it's 5th year of service. When I explained my diamond plate rear package tray to Joe he said "Oh, F@#$ You".

The other thing everybody says is "blah, blah, blah....you've got that VTEC....and don't give us this **** about how it only helps below the racing rev range." This came up again while we were all standing around in impound, and Joe and a Rabbit racer were getting into an old argument about the rules. Honda's make good power at high revs, and that seems to earn suspicion that VTEC is some kind of unfair advantage. I think this is a frame job, but I don't want to get into too heated fighting at the track (I can get all I want of that on H-T).

In the ITE race there was a tangle on the first lap right after the chicane and a T2 Mustang that was going straight suddenly went spinning into the left wall. I remember noticing, but stayed planted on the gas and hoping none of it came back on track (non of it did, but a bunch of us were hit with debris). It was kind of surreal. Sorta like the "On any Sunday" movies slow motion parts with soundtrack music - until debris started hitting my car and breaking my trance.

Scott, who thinks that being tired will wear off quickly and I'll be hot to drive real soon.....


[Modified by RR98ITR, 4:10 PM 4/15/2002]

 

Nice job with the S2000..

VTEC = unfair advantage? nahhh driver skillz = unfair advantage

Will
-who likes long lasting motors..

 

Still thinking things over from the weekend.

I went thru a cycle of driving performance thru the RS race (it being the last one I remember it more clearly than the ITE race). I think I drove smoother and more thoughtfully while I was reeling in the Nissan and then for a few laps as I pulled away. When I lost time letting a couple faster cars thru and the Nissan caught up I started overdriving the car badly and that cooked the fronts fast. My driving degraded till I nearly lost the car at the exit of Turn 9 about mid race, and I straightened myself up. By then I was coping with a car that wouldn't bite in the slow stuff and I had to abuse it to keep what speed I could.

I am embarrased by what I probably looked like down at the chicane. Lap after lap I overcooked the entry, was wide off the first apex, ended up aimed right at the curb for the left part and so turned in massively early for that and nearly drove off the exit a couple of times - an absolute fiasco. I think if I had kept my head better and driven (duh) a little slower in and a lot faster out I'd have pulled it back out on him with relative ease.

It's kind of interesting how we perform under pressure in competition. Somehow I turned some pretty fast laps. And so too I also turned some atrocious ones.

I think it's hilarious that some of my friends sitting in the stands at the chicane thought I was playing with the Nissan. Even after I confessed to having had to work terribly hard they don't believe it. I was even told that I was driving two wheels off into the dirt to put on a show. If only I was that good!

One of the real upsides of the trial by adversity is the discovery of what I can do on the non-ideal lines. In T4 the right hander that leads onto the back straight I remember watching SVWC GT drivers turning in stupidly (I thought at the time) early. Driving that same line in defensive mode demonstrated to me that it's not markedly inferior and may have some advantages. Well, F@#$ Me!

I remember that in the world of Motocross it didn't matter how good the local pro's were, that when the best of them qualified to run the National as it came thru the Superstars showed them what was what. Only at Saddleback was there a local pro who could beat the stars when they came thru. So too it may be with Road Racing.

The ability to control our emotions on the track is becoming so obviously important to me. And I'm talking about a pretty subtle level. We don't have to go manic to exhibit the signs of stress - I think I was pretty calm under attack, but there's no doubt in my mind that my performance erroded under load. Experience is the only teacher that can help me (or you). It's funny, I was thinking one trip down the front straight about the implications of losing this race to Joe, and I very rationally determined that I didn't want to allow that to happen. It seems so funny a mindset to have taken momentarily under those conditions - weird.

Scott, who hopes you don't mind this extended journalizing.....

 

Not at all