Fast Times at Road Atlanta
12-09-2008, 06:29 PM
#1
Le Mans Master
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Fast Times at Road Atlanta
Braving wind, freezing cold and blustery weather we made it to the final NASA-SE event of 2008 at Road Atlanta. After a false start, and a change in strategy, we unloaded the CMC 88 Mustang (it is ready to compete in 2009 though) in the yard and loaded up the TTA 99 Corvette. Jake did not go W2W but we had a blast running Time Trial, as usual.
Amazingly, the car and most of the track gear was loaded by the "Team", in advance. The calm direct motivational speeches seem to be taking effect. The only thing left at the shop was the spare brake rotors and, luckily, we did not need them. Even arriving early on Friday it was a challenge to locate a paddock spot with power. Space was located in the shadow of the ROAR compound to set up our bootstrap setup. The range in size of the support rigs at these events goes from the very grassroots level to professional teams with multiple semis.
With some time on our hands waiting for other folks to show the Sparkle Pony Discount was put to very good use at Discovery Parts for a new HANS compatible helmet for me and some driving gloves for Jake. Now all of Team England is fully equipped with safety equipment. Unfortunately, the 99 FRC resisted all attempts to install several of the harnesses available so they were not worn in the primary car. But the HANS were used in the cars with harnesses during the weekend. After reaching a consensus of the team we decided to accept Drumrboy's invitation to stay Friday night at his house near the track. The mention of babyback ribs for dinner was ,no doubt, a contributor to the decision. Drumrboy's power of persuasion is amazing since he was able to convince his charming bride that Chicago was just like Sydney, Australia. The fact she held no grudge and spent about 18 years in the windy city tells me she is of high moral fiber. I will say it was refreshing to see how Drumrboy was treated by his male teenagers and spouse. The awe and respect in which he is held at home reminds me of my own, much humbler, abode.
The event was pretty full in all groups with an eclectic mix of cars. Laura "Press Gang" Patton put me into instructor duty due to quite a few "no show" instructors (some who were actually at the event) so I had the opportunity to ride, or run, in all sessions but the race groups over the course of the weekend. It has been a long time since I drove in the HPDE 3/4 at a NASA event so it was eye opening. Waiting for a point for a couple laps(Turbo P-Car), drag racing after a point (Exige), wondering what a hand wave (STi) means, hard breaking going down the hill in T12 (Exige) since 60 mph of overtake was unexpected, waving off a pass in T12 but the car (Mini) almost coming to a stop anyway, passing 15 or more cars in one lap and other reminders that all of us "old timers" drove like that also not so long ago. The ride alongs, a rare thing at NASA events for me, I gave must have thought I was insane.
The reminder made me appreciate all my NASA-SE Time Trialers even more. It is a pleasure to run in a group that is predictable, courteous and fast. Speaking of fast, many TTers posted their personal bests this weekend and at least one old track record in TTA fell to a 1:37.4x posted by Patrick Dowd in his 2001 Porsche. Patrick was on a mission this event with guys working with him to set the car up and then he proceeded to drive the snot out of the car. But he was not the only one set for kill for this last event. Many guys showed up with sticker tires, new suspensions, new HANS and competitive attitudes. The NASA-SE TTC season champion was determined by the event on Saturday. Warren managed to barely beat out Nabil for the top spot but they both worked hard all season to get to the podium.
Jake managed to post a better time at Road Atlanta then me (1:39.7x) but so did Jason (~1:39.8x) so I guess it is official I am slow since Jake has lap times on the books at all the SE tracks faster then me. It was the first time we ran RA1s (C5 ZO6 sizes) on the FRC at an event. In the first session I kept hearing these amazingly loud tire squall and was wondering who was making them when it hit me - I was. They are very tossable and loud. They make noise a really long time before they get loose. They were full tread depth and for a treaded tire they did well. It was about impossible with the tire split (275 front and 305 rear) to get throttle oversteer to counter the understeer (particularly at T7). They seemed as good after nine heat cycles as they did with one. The brake pedal with new Carbotechs on rear and two event pads on front was spongy with a lot of pedal. New calipers, lines and bleeding and this car still doe not have the pedal my ZO6 has. It stops great but the pedal really sucks. It was also apparent our shocks, after two track seasons, have decided to take a break. On Sunday we managed to blow the air tube out of the passenger side header as I went under the T11 bridge putting an end to the season. The driver side header blew out at Roebling in May. Before its next competitive event the FRC will have a fresh header, some adjustable anti-sways, new shocks, fresh alignment, chassis tuning and corner weighting. Also it will have some fresh Hoosier A6s if Patrick or Jason are going to be there.
A lot of the usual suspects were there and it was great to catch up with them. Unfortunately, two of the locals (ZO6Cool and TimZ06) decided their blood family was more important then their track family - what is the matter with them? It was a great event and I am looking forward to CMP on Dec 22nd to finsih out the year. Then we will call it quits until 6 Feb 09 at CMP. It has been a great year for Team England and I want to thank Marc Younts Tire for their support, Danny Popp for C5 tech support at all times of the day or night, and SeatTime making it easy to get my "Roebling Fix".
Amazingly, the car and most of the track gear was loaded by the "Team", in advance. The calm direct motivational speeches seem to be taking effect. The only thing left at the shop was the spare brake rotors and, luckily, we did not need them. Even arriving early on Friday it was a challenge to locate a paddock spot with power. Space was located in the shadow of the ROAR compound to set up our bootstrap setup. The range in size of the support rigs at these events goes from the very grassroots level to professional teams with multiple semis.
With some time on our hands waiting for other folks to show the Sparkle Pony Discount was put to very good use at Discovery Parts for a new HANS compatible helmet for me and some driving gloves for Jake. Now all of Team England is fully equipped with safety equipment. Unfortunately, the 99 FRC resisted all attempts to install several of the harnesses available so they were not worn in the primary car. But the HANS were used in the cars with harnesses during the weekend. After reaching a consensus of the team we decided to accept Drumrboy's invitation to stay Friday night at his house near the track. The mention of babyback ribs for dinner was ,no doubt, a contributor to the decision. Drumrboy's power of persuasion is amazing since he was able to convince his charming bride that Chicago was just like Sydney, Australia. The fact she held no grudge and spent about 18 years in the windy city tells me she is of high moral fiber. I will say it was refreshing to see how Drumrboy was treated by his male teenagers and spouse. The awe and respect in which he is held at home reminds me of my own, much humbler, abode.
The event was pretty full in all groups with an eclectic mix of cars. Laura "Press Gang" Patton put me into instructor duty due to quite a few "no show" instructors (some who were actually at the event) so I had the opportunity to ride, or run, in all sessions but the race groups over the course of the weekend. It has been a long time since I drove in the HPDE 3/4 at a NASA event so it was eye opening. Waiting for a point for a couple laps(Turbo P-Car), drag racing after a point (Exige), wondering what a hand wave (STi) means, hard breaking going down the hill in T12 (Exige) since 60 mph of overtake was unexpected, waving off a pass in T12 but the car (Mini) almost coming to a stop anyway, passing 15 or more cars in one lap and other reminders that all of us "old timers" drove like that also not so long ago. The ride alongs, a rare thing at NASA events for me, I gave must have thought I was insane.
The reminder made me appreciate all my NASA-SE Time Trialers even more. It is a pleasure to run in a group that is predictable, courteous and fast. Speaking of fast, many TTers posted their personal bests this weekend and at least one old track record in TTA fell to a 1:37.4x posted by Patrick Dowd in his 2001 Porsche. Patrick was on a mission this event with guys working with him to set the car up and then he proceeded to drive the snot out of the car. But he was not the only one set for kill for this last event. Many guys showed up with sticker tires, new suspensions, new HANS and competitive attitudes. The NASA-SE TTC season champion was determined by the event on Saturday. Warren managed to barely beat out Nabil for the top spot but they both worked hard all season to get to the podium.
Jake managed to post a better time at Road Atlanta then me (1:39.7x) but so did Jason (~1:39.8x) so I guess it is official I am slow since Jake has lap times on the books at all the SE tracks faster then me. It was the first time we ran RA1s (C5 ZO6 sizes) on the FRC at an event. In the first session I kept hearing these amazingly loud tire squall and was wondering who was making them when it hit me - I was. They are very tossable and loud. They make noise a really long time before they get loose. They were full tread depth and for a treaded tire they did well. It was about impossible with the tire split (275 front and 305 rear) to get throttle oversteer to counter the understeer (particularly at T7). They seemed as good after nine heat cycles as they did with one. The brake pedal with new Carbotechs on rear and two event pads on front was spongy with a lot of pedal. New calipers, lines and bleeding and this car still doe not have the pedal my ZO6 has. It stops great but the pedal really sucks. It was also apparent our shocks, after two track seasons, have decided to take a break. On Sunday we managed to blow the air tube out of the passenger side header as I went under the T11 bridge putting an end to the season. The driver side header blew out at Roebling in May. Before its next competitive event the FRC will have a fresh header, some adjustable anti-sways, new shocks, fresh alignment, chassis tuning and corner weighting. Also it will have some fresh Hoosier A6s if Patrick or Jason are going to be there.
A lot of the usual suspects were there and it was great to catch up with them. Unfortunately, two of the locals (ZO6Cool and TimZ06) decided their blood family was more important then their track family - what is the matter with them? It was a great event and I am looking forward to CMP on Dec 22nd to finsih out the year. Then we will call it quits until 6 Feb 09 at CMP. It has been a great year for Team England and I want to thank Marc Younts Tire for their support, Danny Popp for C5 tech support at all times of the day or night, and SeatTime making it easy to get my "Roebling Fix".
Last edited by varkwso; 12-10-2008 at 05:53 AM.
12-10-2008, 12:01 AM
#2
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Vintage varkwso! Your words always tickle emotion.....
Great lap times for the crew. I think I need some more pointers...
Yeah, that Popp guy really is a true gent. Quite frankly, he is the only other person besides your crew that I have a hard time figuring out how a person can find the time to do all that gets done....
Great lap times for the crew. I think I need some more pointers...
Yeah, that Popp guy really is a true gent. Quite frankly, he is the only other person besides your crew that I have a hard time figuring out how a person can find the time to do all that gets done....
12-10-2008, 05:51 AM
#3
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Vintage varkwso! Your words always tickle emotion.....
Great lap times for the crew. I think I need some more pointers...
Yeah, that Popp guy really is a true gent. Quite frankly, he is the only other person besides your crew that I have a hard time figuring out how a person can find the time to do all that gets done....
Great lap times for the crew. I think I need some more pointers...
Yeah, that Popp guy really is a true gent. Quite frankly, he is the only other person besides your crew that I have a hard time figuring out how a person can find the time to do all that gets done....
So when are you going to come out and play with us again?
12-10-2008, 09:23 AM
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It was a very good weekend. And at least it wasn't raining like the weekend before. RA is an exiciting track and I still can't get used to turn twelve. I was fortunate to have another good instructor on saturday and was able to pick up some good pointers.
A little video from our last session in DE1.
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/D...ith_204401.htm
A little video from our last session in DE1.
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/D...ith_204401.htm
12-10-2008, 10:07 AM
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The only thing left at the shop was the spare brake rotors and, luckily, we did not need them.
12-10-2008, 01:03 PM
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Great write up, hopefully I'll be able to get down south again sometime in 2009
12-10-2008, 07:33 PM
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Usual amusing reporting and stories but it seems Jake and Josh are now getting the checkered flags; you need to tire them out with more chores and hire them out to subsidize the track costs!! Hope to make NASA-SE next August at RA.
12-10-2008, 08:21 PM
#11
Le Mans Master
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We hope we can run with you before August!
