SIK02SS

Apparently embed code doesn't work here, SO: http://vimeo.com/14371839

Fellow T-1 driver Oli T came up North with me to get some seat time in at Thunderhill. Saturday was a wash for me, and I think Oli felt the same way. But Sundays race was game on against the 7's Only RX7 crew

I wish the ending was better for me, but I still had fun..aaand had a little chat with the other driver

flink

A moral second place. At least you kept it out of the tirewall.

It was great meeting you out there! The scary news from the weekend is that redtopz and I fooled NASA into issuing us provisional licenses

SIK02SS

Hahahahaa!! Fooled indeed! Great meeting you out there too! I can't wait to see the RX7 again next month

GeorgeZNJ

Wow, thanks for posting. Except for the intentional spin, that was great. I loved the inside move in lap 6, and at the end when you passed the RX-7, too bad he spun you. From my untrained eye, it looked like you had a better line, and a couple of times he intentional blocked you. I only do hpde's, but watching real racers race is very, very cool.

SIK02SS

Thanks! He was all over the place the last lap and a half. No consistency in his lines which made it tough to be near him (hence the unintentional contact before turn 8).

redtopz

Looks like fun Chris. Nice job on the podium finish. Did you get 2nd place since he punted you from behind causing your spin? How do they handle that after the race? It was fun hanging out in the paddock together. Also congrats to JRL for 1st place in TTA both days (again lol) and Oli for 1st place in ST2 .

SIK02SS

They probably would have if I protested, but I didn't protest. That would mean I'd have to be at the track all day, get witness statements, give them my in car video, etc etc..more of a headache...plus, I just got waived for my NASA license, best not to cause trouble your 1st weekend out! I went and talked to the driver though. He seemed sincere when I talked to him, but after looking at the video, his story doesn't add up.

Congrats to you Bill in your domination of TTS all weekend!! So when are you coming out to race T-1 now that you have your comp license??

JRL

Great videos, nice work Chris!! It was great meeting you and Oli last weekend. Good luck and go tear it up in Utah. We'll be rooting for
you

Congrats also to Bill (redtopz), 1st TTS both days

John

PA Z06

Great video, sucks you got bumped at the end. It def lloked like blocking, you almost spun him because of it.

mrc24x

Nice driving Thanks for posting the video. Now let's here about those fancy new brakes.....Those calipers look like a helluva bang for the buck.

DarkMastyr

SIK02SS

Brakes were excellent 2 weekends in a row. I put in new pads for Sunday and bled the brakes. I had a great pedal from beginning to end, and as you notice was constantly outbraking the competition in multiple corners (including the pass on the yellow RX7)

Falcon

Good racing! Great comeback!

Did you tap him at ~23:58?

SIK02SS

Yes/No. I was moving into the track placement I thought he was giving up, and he jerked back in front of me. During the race, I thought it was me that hit him, but looking at my bumper he swiped the side of it (knocking the corner light out) and across the front.

So if that means I tapped him, yup. I did

Falcon

Oh, I can't say I blame you.

I've raced those same RX-7's from Cali. at Mid Ohio in the 2007 Nationals, and they were "bold" with their moves. A yellow one, very much like the one you passed earlier in the race, about took my nose off, in a move reminiscent of the one done to you, coming out of Thunder Valley when I thought I had the line. They had my utmost attention from then on.

SIK02SS

Ya, I can only imagine what would've happened had I been able to catch the car when he bumped me back and made it to the final corner with him on my tail and Oli in front of me. I think it would've been a very hairy race finale! But hey, at least the right car got the win in the end

Olitho

8/22/10 - Here is my NASA ST2 Race at Thunder Hill

http://vimeo.com/14402695

NASA ST2 Race at Thunderhill, August 22nd, 2010 on Vimeo

Thunderhill CCW with Bypass

NASA ST2 Race with SCCA T1 Corvettes and Seven's Only Mazda GT2 race cars.

Thanks to Gary Hoffman at HardbarUSA for my fantastic new T1 floating rotor and AP caliper set-up. It worked flawlessly even against the GT2 cars that had over 1000 lbs of weight advantage over my Corvette. Chris Ronson finishes 3rd and he is on HardBarUSA brakes, too.

The brakes run strong, but most importantly the pedal stayed firm. Even at the end of the race where I would normally start getting a long pedal due to pad taper there was no such thing. I never had a long pedal on the rougher parts of the track presumably due to the floating rotors and the anti-knock-back springs in the AP calipers. I was impressed with how light the APs are and the machining on the thin-walled stainless steel pistons looked nice and no doubt kept the heat out of the brake fluid. Brake bleeds showed very clean looking fluid as though it had not even be used. The floating rotors have now taken a beating at several brake abusive tracks and the pad wear and heat-cracking is very modest.

The brake modulation was very comfortable. After chasing some sway-bar issues that I first thought were brake biasing problems the car became a gem to handle on the stock ABS/proportioning set-up. This video does not show the brake control as well as my Saturday practice, but I was able to get some beautiful high-speed corner entry trail-braking car rotation into the turns. The power of the brakes, the consistent resilency even after 20 minutes of hard use and the predictable modulation made it so much fun to get some rear-end slip angle/rotation coming into the corners. It really inspired confidence compared to the stock T1 Corvette set-up. I am looking forward to the T1 Corvette specific Ferodo pads that are due out soon. That coupled with the new Quantum brake ducting kits and the car will be in top form as far as brakes go.

There is a good spin in my rear view mirror on Turn 12 on the last lap as Chris Ronson passes Jon Van Caneghem and then gets bumped. He still finishes third and he had a great run up from the back of the pack. Jon Van Caneghem has a great run and pressures me hard the whole race except for a few laps at the beginning where he is leading.

At minute 12:45 I almost throw away the race at Turn 4 as I suddenly think I am in a drifting competition or something! Overall it was not some of my best driving. In fact, I felt like my rhythm was off and I was a little tense compared to Saturday. But I still netted the win and that is not bad for my first ever weekend at this track.

Bimota Guy

That was fun to watch! Nice work by both of you.

RX-Ben

Nice driving...just didn't see fair at the end given that you got punted while driving in the middle of the racing line through that section. At least no damage to the car.

Clean fluid...what a concept. Sounds like the seals on the fancy calipers are staying intact (IIRC there are seals on these).

Anyone know if/how dirty fluid (I assume it is just pad dust) affects braking performance? I have not noticed a difference either way, but was wondering if anyone has seen any boiling point tests.

redtopz

Here is a view from my TTS car. It has LG coilovers, wilwood SL6 front calipers, T1 bars, and headers. I was also running my 335 rear tires and 295 front tires during this last TT session on Sunday. The TTR mustang didn't show up so I had the pole for the TT group. My car seems to have a lot of grip even without aero and I think I can run 1:54's next time.

Edit: the clicking noise turned out to be my rear sway bar. I had a very loose front sway bar end link when I got home (should have checked after seeing Oli missing a bolt all-together) and a loose rear sway bar bolt as well.