Putnam Park! - Double NASA TTA wins!

The final event of the NASA MW/GL regions was last weekend at Putnam Park outside Indianapolis. The forecast was to be gorgeous, and it actually turned out HOT! High of 87 Sat with zero clouds.
The NASA MW/GL region does an end of the year banquet now on Saturday night, so Saturday was to be a double-points day for all classes. For TT, that meant we get 1 warmup session as usual; then 2 sessions for 'event #1' and 2 sessions for 'event #2'.

The bad:  I unlocked the car early Sat morning to find about 3 gallons of 100octane spilled inside the car - assummedly on the trip there so it'd sat at overnight! Needless to say it was nasty smelling. Fortunately I've removed all the interior carpet so that wasn't an issue. It was also in the mid 40's at this time so scooping up the cold liquid wasn't fun. I did the best I could but quickly ran into another issue - the sound deadening that comes on the floor of the car was starting to dissolve and turn into a tar-like substance. Nasty. I took a putty knife and hammer and scraped out as much as I could in the driver's footwell. The rest I covered with some adhesive paper and (you guessed it) duct tape!


So with the car smelling quite ripe yet - but dry and less sticky - it was time to lineup on grid. Doing my best to breathe fresh air (which is difficult when everyone on grid is trying to warm up their cars and most run catless exhaust including me) and be aware if I got dizzy or a headache... I sat out on the opening warmup lap with 40 other cars on Putnam's 1.8 mile curcuit - needless to say it was crowded. Only ran a 1:19x to get a descent grid spot, then just navigated traffic. 

For sessions #2 and #3, I let it fly. Ended up with a personal best of 1:17.4 winning my class by about 1.5 seconds and setting the 4th fastest time of 40 cars.  By Session #3 everyone was agreeing the track was getting pretty greasy. Most were probably like me and using up the last of their old tires to finish out the year?!?

Event #2 (sessions #4 and #5) were to take place between 3-5pm. As the track was already feeling rather greasy from nonstop sunlight all day, I decided to change setups. I added a bit of weight (gas) and switched to a wider tire. The car felt more stable and ran a similar time of 1:17.9 which was enough to sweep TTA for the day!

All-in-all a good weekend. I corded the outside of both of my front tires, I believe because I'm driving too hard w/o enough camber. Really looking forward to new suspension and a much more aggressive alignment next year!
I also confirmed my suspicions; that when running my high-boost tune, my car has been down on power all year long. I've been gaining time as compared to last year in the corners with more aggression, more disregard for tire life, and most recently Shep's upgraded rear diff. I'm hoping it's just a boost leak; perhaps the stock BOV but we'll see.

Thanks to AMS Performance, AMSOIL, Girodisc & Shep Racing.

Nov/2010 GrassRoots Motorsports Mag

The November 2010 issue of GRM is out!  The cover story is the UTCC (Ultimate Track Car Challenge) held again this year at VIR.  The UTCC is an invitation only event and I jumped at the opportunity.  I set out on the 900 mile trek alone to a brand new track and it was an amazing adventure. 
6 days and 2100 miles later I came home with a best lap of 2:11.098 and a new tow truck (the other literally died on the way out).  The car performed flawlessly over 200+ miles of excruciating 99-103 degree days with tons of humidity.  VIR instantly became my favorite track with my lap speeds reaching 140+ on both the front & back straights, and about 120mph at the entrance to the climbing esses.
My class included lots of 500-600hp Vipers, Vettes, Porsches, Mustangs, etc as their classing system was relatively simple and unlimited.  In the end I finished 14th in class but I didn't go for the results, I went for the experience and it was insane!

Aug/Sept Track Vids!

Gingerman (old/short course) - new TTA record



Gingerman (new/long course)



Autobahn S



Autobahn S - new TTA Record (external GoPro view)

Double NASA TTA Wins & Track Record @ Autobahn!

The weekend started with a trip to Chicago late Thursday night; en-route to an 8am Appt at AMS Performance for some upgrades. Waiting at the shop was an upgraded 12 plate rear diff from Shep racing! Also planned was an AMS Moustache Bar Eliminator to further reduce unneeded weight and improve shifting.

Saturday

Rain overnight and into Sat provided wet track conditions until about noon. I personally love driving the Evo on track in the rain and knew it'd be a great way to get used to the new Shep rear diff. I also was debuting new front Girodisc 2-peice rotors and Raybestos ST43 pads all around.
I did 2 sessions in the wet, both with Dunlops on (I planned ahead) and had a freakin ball with the new rear diff and some oversteer for once! Around lunchtime things started drying and I mounted up the Hoosiers. Since I was playing in the rain I had the #2 gridspot and stayed up front (and out of traffic) all weekend which was nice.
I was a bit cautious in the first dry session to warm up the tires and really see what this rear diff would do in dry conditions. The ST43 pads were definitely different, they definitely took longer to heat up as compared to the Hawk DTC60's I have been running and also squealed like all he11 for a good 2-3 laps. Once they were warm it seemed they needed far less pedal pressure to stop. This took some getting used to throughout the weekend. Rear diff reacted very predictably and I had some slight oversteer in several of the turns, enough that I had to countersteer a bit. I loved it! I ran a 1:35.2 which equaled my personal best from the July event. The next session I let things fly and set a new TTA track record with a 1:33.9. That also put me in 1st of 8 cars in class.

Sunday

Absolutely perfect day. After missing the warmup session because I needed to bandaid an intercooler pipe that I bent, I went out in the next session just to put a time down. Ran a 1:35.6 which put me in 1st by just .1. The next session I let things fly again and broke my TTA record from the previous day - 1:33.1. That landed me 1st of 6 in class.

Along with the new TTA track record, I set a personal best by nearly 2 seconds. I did this with rear tires that had 22 heatcycles by the end of the weekend! The ambient temps were great, but with newer tires there's definitely more left in the car. Overall, the transition from TTB -> TTA (where I get 19 more 'mod' pts).

Huge props to John Sheppard for an awesome rear diff. Thx to AMS for the install and great/safe tune as always. Thx to Martin @ Girodisc for talking me through both the rotor purchase and especially the ST43 pad compound differences. Also thanks to AMSOIL & Hoosier.

Girodisc Front 2-piece Rotors!

My new quest of lightening the car as much as possible along with needing new front rotors led me to Martin @ Girodisc!  After some conversation a set of Girodisc 2-piece front floating rotors along with their recommended Raybestos ST43 pads f/r were on the way.  The old front PowerSlot rotors did a good job for a 1-piece but after 14 days there were shot!  This will also be a brand new pad for me, so I'm anxious to see the results.