CMC Mustang - NASA MW/GL race @ Putnam Park 5.18.2013

I got to Putnam Park about 8am on Saturday.  Just in time to find the car I'd be driving and meet the owner prior to the 8:15am required drivers meeting. This would be my first time ever in a Mustang; and first time in class CMC (Camaro Mustang Challenge).  The specs are 264whp @ 3205 lbs.
We went over the car briefly, as it recently had the shortblock replaced.  The plan was to keep an eye on the temps (of course) and basically just give it hell.
First up at 9:30am were warmups; which would determine the grid for Qualifying as the event was pretty full as usual.  I ran some laps getting used to the Toyo RA1's and shiftpoints as well as the clutch and steering.  The car was fairly well balanced and I was pleased to have power steering for once!  The water temps did start to rise and eventually the car started squirting what looked like oil from under the hood.  As it had started to rain during the session and Putnam is horribly slick in the rain, the session emptied out about halfway through as I ran a best of 1:27.8.  Back in the pits I figured out quickly it was the radiator overflow tank as the car simply ran hot and the water was very rusty and/or dirty.  We also discovered the car did not like to start once it was hot (more later).
After talking with the owner, the fix was to run the fan immediately on HI on track.  Qualifying went ok; after being stuck behing a FFR for a few laps I finally got 2 open laps and put down a 1:25.7 which was 2 seconds faster than my practice time and slotted into 3rd of 10 in class for the race.  However the car overheated again after pulling off the track.  I also got stuck behind another car leaving the track and the idle got low and it died - and unfortunately would not restart since it was hot.  I sat and waited and eventually had a friend come and help pushstart the car and I put it in the tech line as I didn't want to get DQ'd and lose my gridspot.  I was not called into tech but the car died again and we left it to cool down.
With the race not for 3+ hours, there was some new fixes planned.  After eating I found the owner replaced the radiator cap and thermostat I believe along with more water.
The race... it would be a 3-wave start.  Our class - CMC - would be the 3rd wave and would be a standing start which is normal for the class; but my first ever!  I was 3rd and did ok (didn't kill it or light up the tires too much) but I was late based on my video I've watched as I waited for the flag to drop rather than going on first movement.  Newbie...  I fell to 4th going into T1 as I was more watching my mirrors for the rest of the pack rather than going aggressively into T1 and taking 3rd back as I had the inside line.  No matter; I was in 4th and held that for several laps - best of 1:23.5 - best I could manage as the tires started to degrade and the temps started to rise once again.  I was quickly forced to back down the pace in hopes to help out the water temps but eventually I retired after 11 laps into the 35min race.

Putnam Park - 5.13.2012 - Drifting into 1st place!

Saturday evening I rotated the tires; X'ing the front backwards. I figured the LF would be nearly bald - and it was. But the RF was worse! Sunday was going to be interesting with no grip in the rear, but I was thinking since the fronts looked ok that I'd at least be able to turn like I could early Sat.

(Pic):  Left side tires from Sat evening. Front on the left; rear on the right. I rotating the bald ones to the rear....

I made more suspension tweaks, rolling back the changes I made late Sat in hopes it would help the car grip more. I had some pulsing in the front end under braking on the out lap. I figured something was stuck to the rotor and/or the tires were flatspotted from sitting all night as I had reset my pressures to my normal morning starting pressures. It seemed to go away with some really hard jabs so I put it out of my mind and hit it hard. I ran 6 laps with a best of 1:18.2 which the car was no longer sliding, but rather drifting today! Jeff's Evo was behind me this session and got some good vid; check it out below.

For S2 I bettered my time to a 1:18.1 but that's all I could get. The rear was drifting around so much that I had to do more than countersteer, I had to get out of the gas some which is a killer for times. This is the session I put the camera on the rear and had a Mustang 302 behind me. My overall times were better than his, but in this session I just couldn't get the power down and after drifting through T4 and getting out of the gas I simply pointed him around.
When done, I looked over my tires carefully to see how bald the rears were now and to verify nothing was corded. The tires passed inspection, but the LF rotor did not. Check it out:

While I had a spare, it was 12:30pm at this point and very hot. With basically 0 chance to improve my times and only to play around more, I decided to forgo the fix and just pack things in and go surprise visit my Mom with it being Mother's day and all. It'd only add about 45min to my overall trip. With all the crazy turmoil with my wife's family recently; I've been trying to take the extra effort with regards to visits and calls and whatnot. I was actually going to cancel this event but the wife told me to go and enjoy the distractions. So I watched the start of my friend's race after packing up and took off.

Overall the car did great. No mechanical issues, just the broken exhaust bracket which was no biggie, the broken rotor which is a wear item and my boost gauge is still broke (so no, I've no idea what boost I was running). Oh, and my time easily held up Sunday for first in TTA once again.

After looking deeper at all my GPS data, everything is pretty cut and dry.  An 8/10's lap from 2011 on wider A6's yielded a nearly identical laptime to this year's lap at nearly 10/10's on skinnier R6's. Nuff said.
Braking force with R6's is crap compared to an A6; I had data confirming this already. Cornering G's were about the same but that's the 8/10's vs the 10/10's thing to allow that. I was able to push my brakezones a bit which is good and the car rotated great w/o hardly any understeer given what front grip I had at least.

The 2012 setup vs the 2011 setup to me feels better with regards to power and rotation. I'm really happy with how smooth the car idles, and I don't even notice the Synapse BOV thx to Buschur's tune (he assured me it'd be smooth; he's right). The differences being a Buschur tune on the engine this year and an ACD-tuning update in the ACD unit. Also different on this track were taller tires and a taller 4th gear as compared to May/2011 - both of which hurt my laptimes as the car was previously geared incredibly well for Putnam. With less speed on corner entry from the ****tier tires and the gearing changes I was actually forced to downshift twice more per lap to keep the turbo spinning. So factor in all those changes and running 1.3 seconds behind my blitzing 2011 time of 1:15.7 and I'm feeling pretty good about the car.

Video's coming...

Sat 8.13.11 Mid Ohio -1st in TTA & Track Record!

After nearly 600 miles 10.5 hrs of driving on Friday (to Ohio via Chicago)...
Sat warmup was pretty early! I did very little to prep the car, having not even started it since I left Mid Ohio in July! After unpacking it, I adjusted the tire temps a little, slapped on the camera and that's about it! I ran about 6 laps, each a little quicker than the last and qualified with a 1:35.0 - which was nearly as fast as I went in July; so I was excited.
I was sitting 9th in grid and 2nd in class; squeezed tightly by 2 C5 Vettes.

I reset the tire temps for S2, made a few suspension tweaks and knew I'd need to push hard as the morning session would be the fastest - plus there was rain forecasted later. I pushed pretty hard, but safe, and ran a 1:33.2 which was a personal best! It landed me in 1st place and broke the TTA track record by a few tenths.

We had a 2+ hr break until S3. I ate, rotated some tires, reset pressures, moved the camera, put in some fuel, tweaked the suspension - all really quick/minor stuff as the car felt pretty good and was rotating well to my liking. I ran some 1:34's but I didn't better my time. Nobody really improved actually. Same story for S4 (which I sat out). S5 was like 5:30 and I was hoping for better conditions with less sun. The car felt good, but not great. I ran a few 1:34's but no improvement.

My time held up and I finished 1st out of 8 in class, taking the Pro Course TTA Track Record (to go along with the Club Course record I set in April)! The car felt really good all day, neutral, able to rotate a bit under hard throttle thanks to the Shep rear diff. AMS tuned power was good; although the Vettes still walk me on the straights - they've got to be right on the class power/weight ratio!