Hmmm, as the season starts coming to a close the fields are getting thinner. I've got one other car in my class (about 4 seconds per lap back) and there are just over a dozen PCA cars almost all of which are about two seconds out of reach on my best lap.

And about that best lap. Hoosiers. I'm learning new things I didn't really expect to - I thought I knew them by now. Scrub them and let them sit a week. Use them for a race in the early morning and set a record. Use them again and lose 1-2 seconds. Use them a couple more times and have one go dead sooner than expected (maybe you don't identify it because it's on the inside front and you always push in that one corner anyway). That brings me to today.

Go out for practice. Very loose on the right handers (said tire wound up on the outside rear) - manageable but slow. Swap the rears for qualifying (thinking "this oughta cure the push in 3"). I did have some worries about the much faster and riskier T7 - well founded as it turns out. Since T7 is a 4th gear commitment turn I took it a little easy while I was warming up the tires. As soon as I put the boot to it I had way more going on than I wanted. I did my best to cope and eventually put down a 1:22.95 (off my best without chicane of 1:21.52). What an education.

There was an additional surprise. The inside front was fully corded on the inside edge at the end of qualifying. I wonder if I was spinning it in 1-2. I know I've been spinning it a little exiting 9. Makes me wonder what a diff with more bias ratio would be like.

I was talking to some of my Porsche friends and it's funny how no matter what your level of spending the issues stay the same. Many of them are broke and nursing their equipment to the end of the season - AND CUTTING BACK ON TIRES.

I've been talking to my tire guy about Toyo RA1's. $50 less per tire. Less grip. Last longer. I really hate to go backwards - but if I can RACE more often by going slower and spending less it's probably a smart deal. I can't accept getting only one weekend out of a set of tires.

Race -1 Saturday and Race-2 Sunday. I've got one last set of Hoosiers that have been used for 1 race only (the PIR CART Support race), and then the two remaining short fused time bombs I ran on today. That will see me thru the weekend - and leave enough to get me thru scrubbing replacements later (I only do two at a time on the front).

I am so unenthused about this weekend. Sure it's good to drive, and I'm trying to pull everything I can out of those miles, but after the first lap I'm going to be running by myself and the victory that I expect will be hollow. Kind of takes the wind out of my sail - but I'm glad I've got some big things to work on.

Like: I'm still super busy under braking into both 1 and 7. I'm getting incredible yaw angles under braking prior to turn in to 1 and it's really gripping when that occurs in the right direction just as I start coming off the brake and turning in - crisp doesn't begin to describe it. The other way however and straight is the direction the car really wants to keep going. I came as close to driving into the wall alongside the braking zone for 7 as I ever have - and proved to myself that I'm still too squeamish about it since I didn't take off the mirror.

There is one car I've got to find in the paddock this weekend: I'm told it's a Ralt RT-5 with a BMW V-12. I can barely believe that that's possible let alone advisable. Proves there's always a crazier nut out there.

Scott, who's actually quite sane.....

 

Great overview. I coudn't imagine going through tires like that Good luck this weekend and stay safe. Let us know how it turns out.

Zach

 

No racing for me today. I hung onto a 911 as best I could as he dropped me by as much as 1 second per lap.

The bright side was that I set a new personal best lap time without chicance at 1:20.4, which is about a second faster than the fastest ITS 240 this weekend (set by one of the best of the local ITS drivers at 1:21.x - which is about a second better than their average fast race laps). That was nice.

As I was sitting on pre-grid talking with a couple of friends their attention was caught by the driver behind me. He was going thru some sort of visualization ritual that involved tracking the course with a raised thumb. My friends were kind of chuckling and told me about it. I told them that I prefer to visualize naked women before a race and that that has the added benefit of decreasing the likelihood of such visualizations occuring during the race and distracting me. We had a good laugh.

I'd discovered a loose upper ball joint on the inside Skunk arm as I was swapping tires this morning - that's I think just 7-8 race weekends of use. I've got spares and will swap that one out tonite. It's possible that I damaged it by running too low in the front and bottoming the arm on the inner fender / tower. I think I better order a couple more bosses along with a couple more ball joints to make life easier at the track.

I drove as hard as I could, and made up my mind to do so regardless of the lack of competition in deciding what to do about tires.

First - Hoosier is an Evil tire company (though I've heard they are all evil). I am so hooked on their grip - but victim of their short life. I decided that it would be a waste to just motor around on garbage tires so I put on my last/best set. I drove reasonably well and consistent, but I couldn't have guessed my lap time. When I got back to the paddock Dave asked me what my best lap was. When I told him 1:21.5 he responded with something that made me think I hadn't come close to that. I thought to myself oh well how much can you expect from tires that have already given their best. A couple of seconds later though he made it clear that I'd driven significantly better than that. Cool. I gave full credit to the visualization of naked women.

After that I just waited around for Daves race, and checked out the Ralt/BMW V12. The guy's name is Kehoe and he's from the Bay area. He told me that those motors are basically worthless to junkyards and can be bought very cheap. It was so cool. I watched a few laps of his race today and despite being a bit of a slow old guy according to him I thought he was cooking along pretty good.

Later I changed tires for the drive home and loaded up the car. At some point somebody asked me when I qualified for Sunday's race. I said that todays race was the qualifier. Wrong - that's how the last double regional was run. My qualifier was at 4:50. Screw it. I've got nobody to outqualify and I don't need a hot afternoon heat cycle right now. Boy did I feel dumb. Not like I'm the only one. One of my ITS friends got so busy talking that he forgot to put on good tires for qualifying.

Scott, who is now visualizing turning wrenches.....

 

So that's the secret!



[Modified by johng, 9:55 PM 8/3/2002]

 

I was really not expecting much today (Sunday). But I wound up having a pretty good race with a reasonably well driven 993 Cup.

Because I didn't qualify yesterday I started at the back of the grid - a difference of at most one or two positions from where I might have been so no big deal. Knowing how all the Porsches bunch up in T1 I took this particular 993 on the inside and hung onto the next one thru the back. I think he motored by me on the back straight - he may have had me by ten car lengths. But I was able to make it all up in the corners for about 5 laps - in some cases making up so much under braking for T1 that I'd be inches off him and losing tenths, but then he'd motor away on the straights. I'd rate him as a much better driver than some of the Porsche drivers I've been beaten by.

Somewhere around the 6th lap I set him up entering 7-8-9 and was right on him leaving 9 when he came off slow. I had to back off slightly and tighten my line to keep from hitting his corner. Then he missed a shift (or two) and I was able to pull it out a surprising amount. For several laps he didn't gain on me, but then I found myself overdriving the tires and he started making progress. Naturally as he got closer he was most in a position to threaten me at the ends of the straights. One lap he pulled alongside just entering the braking zone for 1. I knew I could outbrake him so I did my usual but stayed wide to give him racing room if he tried to take the shot. I'm getting better at consulting my Wink mirror, and as soon as I saw that he'd chickened out I retook the line and knew that it was going to be harder the next time. We did this a couple of times at the end of both straights before he was close enough to get me early enough that I couldn't do anything about it. For the first lap he was ahead again it was really hard to keep from running into the back of him, but I kept as close as I could. On the last lap we were coming up on a lapper and it all came together in T9. He was a little slower and I pushed up the inside toward corner entry. I didn't get far enough though - probably had my front fender up to his door - and he came over on me. I drove up the curbing and put the insides onto the grass and lost most of my drive and that was that.

I did my victory lap feeling pretty satisfied - my race wasn't for my win of course, but I'd worked as hard as I ever had in a car and that was as good as it was gonna get this day.

At impound the driver of the 993 came up and introduced himself. I can't remember if he offered his hand or if I intitiated it. Anyway, we shook hands and I thanked him for a fun race. But he had a funny look on his face, and was saying things about my driving in the form of questions and was oscillating his right hand in that "sorta-kinda" way. I had to out and out ask him if he was telling me that he thought I'd driven too agressively. While he wouldn't say it plainly, that's what he was trying to say. He asked me if I'd read the days supplemental regulations and in particular some memo that advised against aggressive driving leading to contact. I had to confess that I hadn't read any of it - but I thought to myself that he seemed to be suggesting that if I'd read it I wouldn't have driven defensive lines while I was leading and that I wouldn't have tried to pass him in the corners. <raises eyebrow>

Later I asked some of my Porsche friends "so what's xxxxxx he like?" One of them just started laughing, and I learned that many of them had been accused of "racing" before and that it was just a normal thing with this guy. Whew! I thought maybe I'd been badly mistaken about this whole racing thing for my entire life.

It was kind of funny, I asked a couple of stewards who'd been watching the race if they'd seen me do anything I oughtn't have? One said to ignore the guy, and the other laughed because we both knew I couldn't pull him down the straight but that didn't keep me from taking the shot.

Fun day. My best lap was a 1:20.96. The 993's best was 1:20.32. The best race lap in ITS was 1:21.57. Good enough.

Now the bad part. I bashed curbs harder than ever today. Not on purpose - I'm just having a hell of a time placing my turn in for T7. On one lap I remember very well I was so far into the curbing that both front and rear hit the abrupt leading edge at the far inside (where I'd never been before) and the entire car launched with the biggest bang I've ever heard inside the car. I didn't get out of shape, though I beat the booster for my dab at 8 and nearly went sideways off the pit exit road, but it all tidied up in the end. That car (on......reasonably fresh Hoosiers.....dammit) is so amazing!

What with having nobody in my class this weekend I have tied up my class championship with only one race to go. I'm thinking of running the Team Continental race at Thunderhill over the labor day weekend as a training race for the Pacific Coast Regional Runoffs in November. That would be a nice way to end the year and it's a whole lot more practical than trying to make it to VIR. I'm not happy that I won't have run Pacific Raceways even once this year - but there's only so much money and I've already done way more than I planned or budgeted for this year.

Scott, who thinks that one day of good racing more than makes up for a day of driving around the racetrack.....

 

Here are some pics from the weekend (I think that posting the links doesn't infringe on the photographers intellectual property rights):

These are from Sunday:

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._4_02G_373.htm

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._4_02G_392.htm

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._4_02G_403.htm

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._4_02G_418.htm

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._4_02G_433.htm


These are from Saturday:

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._3_02G_545.htm

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._3_02G_546.htm

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._3_02G_593.htm

Scott, who needs to buy a pic from the photographer....

 

Is this the porsche you were scrapping with? That's Val.

http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._4_02G_392.jpg
http://www.photosport.m6.net/gallery..._4_02G_418.jpg

 

John,

More "grinding on" than "scrapping with".

Scott, who needs more horsepower but doesn't know how to get it without losing the troublefree reliability he's grown used to.....doesn't everybody's race motor go 5 years without anything more than the occasional oil/filter change?