Rolex Weekend

Holy Crap it was hot! Real hot! Africa hot! You get the picture. It was hot. Loads of fun though. The track temps were well north of 120 degrees which made tire management critical. I ran a staggered set up which was a mistake. With the narrower front tire I heated them up too fast. That octopus, while fun, is a tire eater. The thunderbolt track is made for this car. I was one of two cars in the field on Toyos. Everyone else was on Hoosiers. I was astonished at how the SPB would keep up with the Hoosier cars in the Octopus. We are so light that a track of mostly turns is a blast.

Next week I'm going to play with a square set up. I've adjusted my front sway bar and fitted the wider front tires. I'll either spin immediately or it'll be great.

Here is a video from the weekend. It was a crazy start and the first few laps were intense until my tires went away:

Rolex Sprint 2

HYPERFEST!!!!!

OK, first weekend of racing with the new car. The car has some issues but nothing keeping me off the track. Took it to Piper Motorsport to be checked over and get some little things taken care of.

The first thing I learned on track was the THIS IS NOT THE 911! I drove it exactly the same way I drove the 911. That really won't work with this car. I need to brake much later and keep braking into the turn taking advantage of the ABS. I cannot take my foot off the gas as this has considerably less power. Momentum is the key. I also need a coach :)

Saturday was awful. Really bad. Sunday was great! I just need track time to work on these things and learn to drive a Boxster. One thing I was a little worried about was the power steering. It's so easy and doesn't give you near the feedback of the 911 that I was concerned I may not react quickly enough to directional changes since the wheel doesn't react at all. It was all good though. The power steering was really nice during the 40 minute enduro. Usually I'm looking for the checker after 30 minutes but at 40 minutes I could have gone another 40.

Anyhoo, I ended on a high as the Sunday race was a huge improvement over Saturday. My laptimes came down about 2.5 seconds! I do have a long way to go but that's the fun!

Next up Rolex Grand-Am weekend at Thunderbolt!

Here are some vids from the weekend:

Hyperfest Highlights!

Guy's wheel comes off!

Spec Boxster!

Well, I've made a dramatic change in racing venue. I've purchased a Spec Boxster sight unseen from a guy in CA. What could possibly go wrong?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gqt1970/5257040976/in/set-72157625587954396/

It is due here next week. This is a series that has really exploded and I hope to be at the beginning of something akin to Spec Miata with an avid following and large fields.

Won't be able to get on track until later this month to really play with it but I hope to make HYPERFEST!!!!! in June.

/

What a week! Sebring was a very cool experience. Quite a few pro teams were there getting an extra few test days in advance of the AMLS winter test days. The TRG guys brought their Daytona winning car to display. They hadn't even washed it.

As for the racing, I spent a very frustrating few days trying to get on track for some practice before I was to co-drive my friend Scott's car in the Sunday enduro. Alas, my total practice time amounted to parade laps and a 30 minute practice Sunday morning. As you'll see in a bit, 30 minutes is just not enough practice for Sebring. I did get lucky during one of the parade laps because I ended up following Shane Lewis (winner of the Nurburgring 24 for Audi). Following him, even slowly, was great to learn the line. Unfortunately I was driving my friends Navigator full of junk including tool boxes that kept opening and closing and stuff was flying around.

On to the action. After spending a lot of time cajoling Scott into letting me start the car I was all set to race at Sebring. If you've never been there, the start is a little crazy but I really wanted to do it. The track going into turn 1 is very wide. So wide you can go about 10 wide. It very quickly closes down going into turn two to 4 wide then 2 wide. It's a hoot.

A side note, one of the guys that helped me convince Scott to start the car was a guy named Charlie Murphy. Charlie runs Intersport. When the poop hits the rotary oscillator, you want Charlie there. You want to talk to Charlie before you do anything else. He's like having an attorney only much better because he can fix your car too. He's been around a long time and has some terrific stories.

Back to the action. I survived turn 1 and things were going OK. I wasn't setting the world on fire since I was still learning the track. Not too bad, the car felt good. The track is horribly bumpy. I'm not sure why they don't fix it as it's just plain dangerous. It's so bumpy it's actually scary because you have no choice but to go over the bumps and hang on. You have to trust the car because you are getting knocked around pretty severely in there. With Lap 1 under my belt I was feeling pretty good. Then, under braking into the hairpin, I hit a bump and the car spun like a top. It happened really fast. Really really fast. My hands were quick but my feet were slow. I couldn't save it. It's OK because it's not my car! Joke! Even more unfortunate, a Boxster trying to avoid me the best he could ran across my nose so I messed up his day too. It could have been worse as a wall of cars was coming at me as I faced the wrong way on the track.

After much investigation, it seems that the culprit was a fairly good bump on the track. With a little more experience on that track I probably wouldn't have been braking there. I also wrestle with whether or not going both feet in was the right thing to do or if I should have gotten off the brake to settle the rear and try to ride it out and blow the turn. There is plenty of track down there to miss the turn but maybe trying to catch it would have started a tank slapper and ended worse. Live and learn.

Enjoy the pictures my "friends" made!

Here's the video:

http://www.vimeo.com/19730305

http://www.vimeo.com/19730521

The 24!!!

Very excited for this weekend's 24 Hours of Daytona! Mostly because the Flying Lizard team is fielding a DP car. Lots of Porsche's entered in the GT ranks as well.

I won't be leaving the couch or answering the phone until it's over! I mean it!

Sebring is fast approaching. Drove the car I'm co-driving. It's a little different but what could possibly go wrong?

I'm hoping some ALMS teams are rolling in when we are rolling out.

Going to Sebring!

February is going to be awesome! Going to Sebring for the annual PCA kickoff of the club racing season at Sebring.

I will be co-driving the enduro on Scott's car. Should be fun. We both have to learn a new track so things could get dicey. I'll try really hard not to wreck his car :) Or maybe a little rough driving will put him out the first half of the season and I'll get a chance to win some tires! Kidding! Sort of . . .

PCA Club Race at Summit Point

WAAAAHOOOO! What a weekend! Picked the car up Thursday afternoon from Performance Auto Works. I was a little concerned about blowing up my freshly rebuilt and paid for engine so Billy told me to take it easy in Friday morning's practice and check for leaks or parts falling off. All I can say is that there was not a drop of oil coming out of that engine by Friday afternoon and it ran beautifully all weekend. I can't say enough about Billy and the guys getting the engine rebuilt on time and on budget and not a hiccup in what turned out to be my best weekend of racing yet.

Saturday was outstanding. Sprint one went my way early as Scott and Bella crashed out of turn one Nad John missed a shift leaving 2nd place mine to lose. Drove hard with John and Evan and ended up 2nd.

Sprint 2 was epic. I got a good start and got past John and chased Sean for two or three laps when all of a sudden two Spec Boxsters spun out in turn 1. Sean was closer to the spin and had to almost come to a stop. I took that opportunity to squeak past him and then kept him and John behind for the next million laps. I thought that race was 25 minutes but it turned out to be 35 minutes. I've never wanted to see a checker so badly in my life. Sean and John were literally on my bumper for 20 laps. It was a tremendous amount of work keeping them there. I planned my one move the best I could. I tried to rob them of their momentum and get back on the gas sooner. I tried using lapped traffic as a pick. At one point we came through turn 1 3 wide and I still do not know how I squirted out in front of them. I was getting really tired and on the last corner of the last lap I slid a little wide in turn 10 and had to lift just enough for Sean to get beside me and beat me to the checker by about 2 feet. On the cool down the corner workers were all waving and giving me some very enthusiastic thumbs up. It must have been pretty entertaining to watch. I ended up finishing 3rd in class.

Saturday night was really great as my wife and daughter came to the awards dinner and I was able to go get my 2nd and 3rd place trophies.

Best of all, the corner workers awarded me the "Worker's Choice" award for my crazy drive in the second sprint. I guess they did have a lot of fun watching the battle. Getting a Worker's Choice is something very special to us amateurs.

Sunday was another great day. I scored two 4th place finishes in the sprint and the 90 minute enduro. Better yet was the near perfect conditions for our old air cooled cars. I saw my personal best time of a 1:25.449. I still have a lot of work to do in order to see a consistent 1:25 but I'm getting closer.

Lots of good racing this weekend with John, Sean, Evan and the rest of the NE PCA'ers who came down to play at our little track in WV.

Here is a compilation of the starts and a few laps of each race:

PCA Summit Point Starts