Hot August Days at Roebling and Road Atlanta
08-16-2009, 05:57 PM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Hot August Days at Roebling and Road Atlanta
Heat and humidity are greatly overrated. True believers know with enough water it is possible to survive the south at the track. Since it seems we are into pain we ran Roebling and then Road Atlanta on back to back weekends in August. We went through a lot of water and sunscreen.
Roebling was pretty easy since the trailer was down with a burned up axle. Track gear was loaded into the Shelby GT and Mike's C5Z for the drive down on Saturday AM. No sleeping bags, no tents since we checked into the Fairfield Inn on Saturday night - in a room I paid for - I am getting soft. It was a great SeatTime event with mid 80 temps, and a good breeze, with the rain holding off when the track was "hot". Mike's C5Z had a pretty thorough shakedown with no major issues. Jake did one session in the Shelby GT with Hazman as a passenger (better him then me) - the street tires and pads were toasted pretty quickly - but the car ran out well. I did ride with several folks over the weekend - I only did a few laps in the Beast (ZO6cool) in the hot seat. I like the VBP setup better then coilovers for my style of driving in a C5. Todd showed up on Sunday to get his feet wet,again, in his new to him C6. When we tried to take it out the TPMS kept in the nanny mode. His solution to this problem was new to me - but it worked.
After a few days at work, it can interfere with track prep if you let it, we left Thursday afternoon for Road Atlanta. It was a caravan with the Mustang on a borrowed trailer (thanks Tom!), Jake in Mike's C5Z and Josh in the Supra. Other then a roadside repair on the catch can system on the C5Z getting there and check in was a breeze. We left the truck and trailer at the paddock and headed to Mike's in Buckhead. By the way you can load 4 C5Z race tires into a 1983 Supra, along with your race gear, when you need to.
Friday was exciting with Josh in instructor school and Khoi working on his crunches. Since his bypass surgery he has become "the athlete" but I am pretty sure crunches should be done in the gym and not at T7. He had a very hard hit on his car when it got loose on him (how about those used tires?). I was given the opportunity to take him to the local emergency room. I had the easy task - he had to call his wife and tell her. She is a saint to put up with him. She was calm, rational and concerned - Khoi was even a little subdued and would not make eye contact (smart man). Friday and Saturday we were invited to the Drumrboy estate near Road Atlanta - thanks again Bob. It had A/C and great showers. Over the weekend Team England managed to get three 3rd place finishes in the CMC races with only a broken windshield from gravel hits near T5. The car still needs a fresher engine but we had no boiling gas problems at all. I did get to see another Vette hammered under double yellow though. A FFR makes a pretty good sledgehammer as I watched it knock the left rear suspension 15 ft in the air - Tony has no luck. Jason managed to separate his right front ball joint as he tried to turn in at T5 on Saturday afternoon - the hit was mostly cosmetic. He fixed it and ran a 1:36x the next day to take the TTA class.
Remember the C6 TPMS problem Todd was having? He ordered 4 new track wheels/tires and only three arrived. His Forgeline wheel was missing the TPMS bracket so he had a car with two sets of three tires. No one could fix it, no one could bypass it, so Todd did the only thing he could. He convinced his wife to buy another C6, with functional TPMS, on Saturday to run on Sunday. He now has his and her C6s with a spare set of track tires (eventually). ZO6cool, Drumrboy and Todd are magical in their abilities to keep their wives supportive of their habits.
Looks like October is our next event
.
Roebling was pretty easy since the trailer was down with a burned up axle. Track gear was loaded into the Shelby GT and Mike's C5Z for the drive down on Saturday AM. No sleeping bags, no tents since we checked into the Fairfield Inn on Saturday night - in a room I paid for - I am getting soft. It was a great SeatTime event with mid 80 temps, and a good breeze, with the rain holding off when the track was "hot". Mike's C5Z had a pretty thorough shakedown with no major issues. Jake did one session in the Shelby GT with Hazman as a passenger (better him then me) - the street tires and pads were toasted pretty quickly - but the car ran out well. I did ride with several folks over the weekend - I only did a few laps in the Beast (ZO6cool) in the hot seat. I like the VBP setup better then coilovers for my style of driving in a C5. Todd showed up on Sunday to get his feet wet,again, in his new to him C6. When we tried to take it out the TPMS kept in the nanny mode. His solution to this problem was new to me - but it worked.
After a few days at work, it can interfere with track prep if you let it, we left Thursday afternoon for Road Atlanta. It was a caravan with the Mustang on a borrowed trailer (thanks Tom!), Jake in Mike's C5Z and Josh in the Supra. Other then a roadside repair on the catch can system on the C5Z getting there and check in was a breeze. We left the truck and trailer at the paddock and headed to Mike's in Buckhead. By the way you can load 4 C5Z race tires into a 1983 Supra, along with your race gear, when you need to.
Friday was exciting with Josh in instructor school and Khoi working on his crunches. Since his bypass surgery he has become "the athlete" but I am pretty sure crunches should be done in the gym and not at T7. He had a very hard hit on his car when it got loose on him (how about those used tires?). I was given the opportunity to take him to the local emergency room. I had the easy task - he had to call his wife and tell her. She is a saint to put up with him. She was calm, rational and concerned - Khoi was even a little subdued and would not make eye contact (smart man). Friday and Saturday we were invited to the Drumrboy estate near Road Atlanta - thanks again Bob. It had A/C and great showers. Over the weekend Team England managed to get three 3rd place finishes in the CMC races with only a broken windshield from gravel hits near T5. The car still needs a fresher engine but we had no boiling gas problems at all. I did get to see another Vette hammered under double yellow though. A FFR makes a pretty good sledgehammer as I watched it knock the left rear suspension 15 ft in the air - Tony has no luck. Jason managed to separate his right front ball joint as he tried to turn in at T5 on Saturday afternoon - the hit was mostly cosmetic. He fixed it and ran a 1:36x the next day to take the TTA class.
Remember the C6 TPMS problem Todd was having? He ordered 4 new track wheels/tires and only three arrived. His Forgeline wheel was missing the TPMS bracket so he had a car with two sets of three tires. No one could fix it, no one could bypass it, so Todd did the only thing he could. He convinced his wife to buy another C6, with functional TPMS, on Saturday to run on Sunday. He now has his and her C6s with a spare set of track tires (eventually). ZO6cool, Drumrboy and Todd are magical in their abilities to keep their wives supportive of their habits.
Looks like October is our next event
.
08-16-2009, 08:41 PM
#2
Racer
Dang it was hot.
08-16-2009, 09:44 PM
#3
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
. I am going to rig a camelback in the car to stay hydrated. I figure I can wet my pants and no one will notice - so far I am sweating it all out.
08-16-2009, 11:38 PM
#4
Safety Car
Friday was exciting with Josh in instructor school and Khoi working on his crunches. Since his bypass surgery he has become "the athlete" but I am pretty sure crunches should be done in the gym and not at T7. He had a very hard hit on his car when it got loose on him (how about those used tires?). I was given the opportunity to take him to the local emergency room. I had the easy task - he had to call his wife and tell her. She is a saint to put up with him. She was calm, rational and concerned - Khoi was even a little subdued and would not make eye contact (smart man).
.
08-20-2009, 06:59 PM
#5
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
I was feeling pretty bad all day as my car kept throwing a 1515 code dropping into "Reduced Engine Power" whenever I would break 130 mph. I just installed a Vararam so I thought there might have been an air leak, but I never found it or figured it out. But every time I got to feeling bad, I just took a look at the black vette and I realized the difference between "aggravating" and "totally sux!". It was a shame as there were not that many cars on the track for the HPDE and could have gotten a lot of good laps in. Oh yeah, it was HOT! They had my normal spot in the shade blocked off for teen driving school that wasn't even there yet.
...the car smelt like he had been in a burn out contest 
- glad I had just put on a fresh set of street tires....
08-21-2009, 05:50 AM
#8
Racer
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Of course with Jeff it would have been on the first lap!!!
08-21-2009, 09:56 AM
#9
Drifting
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Location: Georgia
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08-21-2009, 05:01 PM
#12
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
08-22-2009, 05:28 AM
#16
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
08-26-2009, 07:31 AM
#18
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
08-26-2009, 07:58 AM
#20
Race Director
