Laguna Seca July 6-7 Corvette Racing
07-11-2013, 11:39 PM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Laguna Seca July 6-7 Corvette Racing
I had a good race at Laguna Seca on Saturday. Bill drove just a little too fast for me though. I got within three seconds of him, but could not get any closer and he finished about 8 seconds ahead of me. My poor qualifying put me back in the grid a bit so that hurt me from being any real threat to Bill. But he did a great job of driving so nothing might have helped. He does not make many mistakes and his good intuition in traffic is a huge bonus.
Bill has some good race video, too, from Saturday and Sunday.
Here is the Saturday race video. Sunday turned out ugly and I will post that video later.
Bill has some good race video, too, from Saturday and Sunday.
Here is the Saturday race video. Sunday turned out ugly and I will post that video later.
07-12-2013, 09:18 AM
#2
Melting Slicks
Nice driving Oli. 
I was in the right seat with Bill when he only had like 2 track days under his belt. You could tell even then that he was going to be fast.
I was in the right seat with Bill when he only had like 2 track days under his belt. You could tell even then that he was going to be fast.
07-17-2013, 09:49 PM
#4
Melting Slicks
Thanks Oli and Bill for the kind remarks. 
I much prefer hearing compliments than seeing viral videos of my corvette mating with a miata 
. We have a strong group of ST2 racers in CA and any weekend the victory can go to any of the racers depending on many factors, which makes it exciting!
I think this was the first NASA race at Laguna Seca in about 12 years, so we were looking forward to it all year. LS normally has a 92 dB sound limit but this event was 105 dB all day. This was a Norcal/Socal combined event with only racing and TT (no hpde). Earlier in the year we were hoping to have 10-12 ST2 cars racing, but we ended up with 7 showing up. Not bad, but 10 would have been better. I probably had more seat time at LS than any of the other guys and it paid off over the weekend. My car also worked well all weekend (for maybe the first time this year) thanks to Abel Chevrolet, TC Design, and LG Motorsports. Our ST2 corvettes are at 8 lbs/hp (typically about 3200 lbs and 400 whp) and we were turning 1:33 to 1:34 laps around this track, which is pretty fast, especially considering the fact that NASA never races at LS.
Saturday Race Vid:
Sunday Race Vid:
I much prefer hearing compliments than seeing viral videos of my corvette mating with a miata . We have a strong group of ST2 racers in CA and any weekend the victory can go to any of the racers depending on many factors, which makes it exciting! I think this was the first NASA race at Laguna Seca in about 12 years, so we were looking forward to it all year. LS normally has a 92 dB sound limit but this event was 105 dB all day
. This was a Norcal/Socal combined event with only racing and TT (no hpde). Earlier in the year we were hoping to have 10-12 ST2 cars racing, but we ended up with 7 showing up. Not bad, but 10 would have been better. I probably had more seat time at LS than any of the other guys and it paid off over the weekend. My car also worked well all weekend (for maybe the first time this year) thanks to Abel Chevrolet, TC Design, and LG Motorsports. Our ST2 corvettes are at 8 lbs/hp (typically about 3200 lbs and 400 whp) and we were turning 1:33 to 1:34 laps around this track, which is pretty fast, especially considering the fact that NASA never races at LS. Saturday Race Vid:
Sunday Race Vid:
07-19-2013, 12:15 PM
#10
Melting Slicks
Our cars are mostly running stock C5Z gearing and stock LS6 engines. Mine is actually a 99 FRC and has a base C5 tranny with a 3.73 rear diff. This makes the first 3 gears just like a C5Z and 4th a bit shorter. When my 3.73 diff was being repaired, I ran my stock 3.42 diff at Laguna for practice. It was capable of turning the same lap times, but the shorter gearing is better for racing IMO for the extra grunt when you are in traffic.
07-20-2013, 04:58 PM
#11
Our cars are mostly running stock C5Z gearing and stock LS6 engines. Mine is actually a 99 FRC and has a base C5 tranny with a 3.73 rear diff. This makes the first 3 gears just like a C5Z and 4th a bit shorter. When my 3.73 diff was being repaired, I ran my stock 3.42 diff at Laguna for practice. It was capable of turning the same lap times, but the shorter gearing is better for racing IMO for the extra grunt when you are in traffic.
07-21-2013, 09:48 AM
#12
Melting Slicks
Great driving Bill.
I think I could keep up with ya.......................but I'd have to use the car I'm building in the shop this month.
Unfortunately, it's not mine. But I ill get to drive it.
I think I could keep up with ya.......................but I'd have to use the car I'm building in the shop this month.
Unfortunately, it's not mine. But I ill get to drive it.
07-23-2013, 01:36 AM
#13
Melting Slicks
Looks kinda fast Bill 
. Pretty sure you would disappear into the distance in front of me in that thing. I'd like to see some video of you driving that.
. Pretty sure you would disappear into the distance in front of me in that thing. I'd like to see some video of you driving that.
07-23-2013, 08:58 AM
#14
Melting Slicks
We're hoping to hit Reno-Fernley on Friday but I'm having parts problems with the trans, early vs late design on the Hewland.
The trans parts were in a cardboard box when I pushed the car into the shop.
07-28-2013, 12:33 AM
#15
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
July 7, 2013 - Saturday was a good day of racing for me. Poor qualifying put me at the back, but a good run had me finish second and only 3.5 seconds behind the winner Bill Brinkop at one point.
Sunday was shaping up to be a good race with better qualifying and with me running second and third in the opening laps. I was buzzing my engine to real high revs from Turn Five to Turn Six and from Six to the table top just before the Corkscrew. I was doing so to eliminate a couple of extra shifts. But all the buzzing the engine up to 7,400 RPM took its toll and the engine let go.
It was rather quiet, just a slight bit of shudder in the engine and I let off right away not sure what it was in the split seconds, but suspicion of my engine coming apart. As I moved to get off the track the smoke came in the cabin and I stopped and got out. I looked at the car a bit expecting possible fire, but I just saw smoke as I have gotten the past two blown engines. I shrugged and decided I better get out of a section of track where cars are doing 110-120 MPH since I possible laid down oil.
I jogged behind the wall in an opening about 100 feet away and started walking back to the corner station as I figured I might as well watch from one of the best spots on the track. As I walked past the car on the other side of the wall I glanced over and noticed a wisp of 6" flame just starting to peek out the hood vents. I ran back and pulled the handles on my two fire systems. I heard the corner worker shout behind me that she had an extinguisher. I pulled the pin and stared spraying. Spraying under the car had the best results, but the small extinguisher was expiring just as the fire truck rolled up and two guys jumped out with huge canisters. They put out the fire.
The video auto-shuts-down just as the fire is starting. The video turns on automatically when the car moves and shuts down after about a minute of the car not moving so it does not capture the bigger flames and the fire rescue.
She burned for about a minute, but the damage was still substantial. We have a lot of work to do in the next month to replace an engine, a bunch of burned wires and other stuff before the National Championship Race at Miller Motorsports Park.
Sunday was shaping up to be a good race with better qualifying and with me running second and third in the opening laps. I was buzzing my engine to real high revs from Turn Five to Turn Six and from Six to the table top just before the Corkscrew. I was doing so to eliminate a couple of extra shifts. But all the buzzing the engine up to 7,400 RPM took its toll and the engine let go.
It was rather quiet, just a slight bit of shudder in the engine and I let off right away not sure what it was in the split seconds, but suspicion of my engine coming apart. As I moved to get off the track the smoke came in the cabin and I stopped and got out. I looked at the car a bit expecting possible fire, but I just saw smoke as I have gotten the past two blown engines. I shrugged and decided I better get out of a section of track where cars are doing 110-120 MPH since I possible laid down oil.
I jogged behind the wall in an opening about 100 feet away and started walking back to the corner station as I figured I might as well watch from one of the best spots on the track. As I walked past the car on the other side of the wall I glanced over and noticed a wisp of 6" flame just starting to peek out the hood vents. I ran back and pulled the handles on my two fire systems. I heard the corner worker shout behind me that she had an extinguisher. I pulled the pin and stared spraying. Spraying under the car had the best results, but the small extinguisher was expiring just as the fire truck rolled up and two guys jumped out with huge canisters. They put out the fire.
The video auto-shuts-down just as the fire is starting. The video turns on automatically when the car moves and shuts down after about a minute of the car not moving so it does not capture the bigger flames and the fire rescue.
She burned for about a minute, but the damage was still substantial. We have a lot of work to do in the next month to replace an engine, a bunch of burned wires and other stuff before the National Championship Race at Miller Motorsports Park.
07-28-2013, 09:33 AM
#17
Melting Slicks
The owner put me in the car, I ran about 4 seconds faster than out Time Trials Corvette/Porsche track records on crapped out, 10 year old tires. (but those laptimes aren't as fast as you or Oli could run).
The car will be 8-10 seconds faster when I get it right.
No in-car vids but someone shot one of me warming up the car.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-V_XnJkoMMc?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Last edited by Bill32; 07-28-2013 at 09:36 AM.