Just wanted to clue you guys in if there's anybody in the area.

http://www.midwestdriver.com

The date is Saturday April 10th at Gateway International Raceway just east of St. Louis, MO in Illinois.

~$180-200 for ~2 hours and 45 minutes of available track time. If you've never been to Gateway it might be a good idea to sign up for the Intermediate run group so you can get me or another instructor to point you around in the morning (you'll have to put up with some classroom stuff) since it can be a little weird with walls everywhere around you. In the afternoon you can go out alone or can be signed off to run in the Expert/Instructor run group as long as the group is not too full

Intermediate often turns into people who are "getting it" waiting for the rest who don't to point them by in the afternoon. Expert/Instructor is unaccompanied and gets the extra track time, no classroom or instruction required.

If you sign up and want to request me as an instructor (no idea why you'd want to do that, but it'd be a bonus to sabotage the lines of some H-T guys instead of random MINI drivers or whatever ) call the school and tell them you'd like Richard Wiese to be your instructor and they'll do what they can.

Anyway, good opportunity for testing or track time or driving school depending on your needs, thought I'd let everyone know about it.

 

so they run the infield and 1/2 of the speedway, it appears?

hmm.. if I was out there, I would be all over this..

 

Yeah, it's all on the 1.6 mile infield roadcourse, which greets you with wall in every turn if you go more than 15 yards "afield."

 

But tearing through the infield portion of the track is a BLAST!!!

The oval is quite a bit of fun, too.....top of 4th gear on the oval in a Spec Miata.

Can't wait until May (first race on my schedule at that track this year....)

Jarrod

 

Yes, I love driving it and always have words with people who say it sucks to drive. It sucks to hit the wall, not to drive the course.

I can say it's an absolute blast to drive the whole course, especially the infield, but ESPECIALLY while leaving a few carlengths between yourself and some A-Sedan cars before pointing them by on the short straight before the carousel, or battling a heavily modified M Coupe on RA1's for 10 laps and getting the finger on that same short straight, only to get the treat of hearing that M Coupe wail by as you cross the start/finish line. Nothing like walls to make a car sound good.

Sounds like the ITA/SM guys must make up a bunch of ground on me in the infield (my lap times are very similar to good ITA/SM times) if you're only into the top of 4th, I get into 5th at the start/finish line and stay in it for a couple seconds (~118 mph depending on my exit from the carousel) before the turn-in for 1. Hopefully somebody will have an SM or ITA car out for the school in April.


Modified by SiLooksStock at 4:01 PM 3/11/2004

 

OK, so it's the VERY top of 4th gear....usually bang the rev limiter a couple times before a slight brake tap (more of a confidence thing than anything) and turn-in at 1.

I've gone to 5th right at start-finish a few times, but then I've gotta drop to 4th right before turn-in at 1, or drop 2 gears in the 1-2 area when I'm trying to get the car slowed down enough to turn left more....and usually there's too much stuff happening right there for me to handle that much work.

My best time, set last March at the SCCA school, was a 1:14.7. SM record is a high 1:13, I believe - can't find official records right now, but I'm sure it's Jim Daniels.

I'm flat out through the infield from T2 to the carousel, if that helps you figure anything out. (Probably not... :D )

Jarrod

 

Your time is right in the neighborhood of mine (this was with a stopwatch, but a 1:14.7 was my best, I'd rather take the average and call it a 1:14.9) on full-tread A032R-S's with a track temp of ~40F , those tires are pretty similar in grip to the Hankooks/Toyos.

That info does help me figure things out. The only way I can go flat out through 3-4 (or 3a-3b on the track map, stupid map...) is if I jump the curbing of 4 and run across the grass. On a good lap I come out of 2 at the bottom of third, pop it into 4th right before 3 and brush the brakes just before turn-in, then get back into the gas all the way to the braking zone for 6. It's not much braking for 3 but if I just lift there without braking and try to make the turns I'm headed right at the outside wall and set up horribly for 5.

I do that brake tap at the turn-in for 1 to reassure myself that I haven't gone crazy.