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WHA?? GSpeed TT2 Corvette ON OVERALL POLE for NASA Blitz at Cresson Sunday??
I'm as shocked as you are! (yes some NASA turnouts are low and maybe it happens in your region, but in Texas, SU sits on pole pretty much all the time with tube cars, radicals, prototypes, etc)
For NASA Texas, the "Blitz" race group includes Super Unlimited (where my tube car plays...plus sports racers), ST1 (fastest power-to-weight class), then ST2, ST3 (ST4 and ST5 run with the miatas) and then GTS1-GTS5 as well. We had eight (EIGHT!) SU cars (and zero ST1 cars) and six ST2 cars. Then a plethora of german touring cars filling out the GTS classes.
And SLJHMR, the "lightweight" C5 snuck onto pole with a lap 1.5 seconds faster than the closest car! WHOOP!
This was the "money" race for contingency for the day, so Hoosiers were on the line and surely a lowly ST2 car could not keep the SU cars at bay and win a thirty minute race, right?
I mean....THIRTY MINUTES....not a quick 5 lap sprint...and no lengthy yellows either...
But yes Virginia there is indeed a Santa Claus and he smiled down upon the little red GSpeed Corvette and SLJHMR did indeed win the race overall with a 21 second gap to the leading SU car and a 32 second gap to the nearest ST2 car over those long 18 laps.
I got a good start in the slight drizzle and held the lead and on lap 3 I let an SU Radical by who was hounding me (he's trying to get away from his competition too, so I can relate!) and I mostly stuck with him but he promptly broke at the end of lap 4 and I controlled the growing gap till the checker as I actually started working lap traffic on lap 5. Although threatening, no real rain ever fell and the A7s were the correct call.
HUGE THANK YOU to Lous and GSpeed for giving me such a capable little car that can run this hard and not even break a sweat. I'll pull data and look at oil temps, diff temps and trans temps and post up.
ALSO HPR for giving me a motor that just is SO DAMN DRIVEABLE. Easy to modulate on the tight track with the off-camber uphills...not peaky or temperamental...just serious LS3 power! Engine was installed and tuned by GSpeed and started every time, never leaked a drop, never needed any fluid. The ONLY casualty the whole weekend was a burned plug wire where a heat boot didnt feel like booting anymore. #DamnBoot #YouHadOneJob #HotSideHotColdSideCold
(other side of the story: I burned the plug boot on the way to grid for Saturday's Blitz race....finished 3rd overall behind two of the SU cars and won ST2.... ON SEVEN CYLINDERS. You know how to tell when you have an excellent chassis and setup? When you can win without one of your plug wires! (#drovemyheartout #SlimLead #FinishedUnderYellow #NP01sAreNoSlouch)
HOOSIER - It was cold out. I ran older (but tacky) A7s. Enough said.
BRAKES = AP Racing calipers and Cobalt pads: Freaking perfect the whole race. Consistent, predictable, brake with anyone out there. Confidence builders.
Video? Why yes....I have a vid I'll post soon. Sadly one of my GoPros died and I swapped out my one with the big battery and apparently it is enough heavier than the other one to oscillate a bit in the cantilever mount so it's not as good as it usually is. Sadly no rear-cam but hopefully it'll be fun to watch me work traffic. Pics coming soon as well.
Whenever I get a the desire to prep my car a bit and run NASA TT, I load up the original build thread for this car to remind myself why that would be a terrible idea.
Whenever I get a the desire to prep my car a bit and run NASA TT, I load up the original build thread for this car to remind myself why that would be a terrible idea.
Congrats...that is impressive! Can you please post a couple pics that show our brakes? I'd love to post your results with images to our blog, social media pages, etc. Thanks so much for being a customer!
Paul, congrats on the pole. Great to meet you Saturday and I'm glad the car was good to go on Sunday.
Looking forward to the next time, keep it up
Jeff
Jeff,
HUGE THANK YOU for digging into the data and letting me know where to put my big boy pants on and SEND IT! I was about a second faster after our discussion and that is awesome!!!
Cory - Sadly we just ran the 1.7......the 3.1 would have been awesome!!!
Essex - let me do some digging and see what I can wrangle.
VIDEO
The camera is a big-battery gopro in place of my usual normal one and it shook at odd times. Sometimes a lot, other times not at all. It surely aint the prettiest but it is fun to watch SLJHMR work the traffic. Also I typically run a rear camera and have both pictures but apparently this was not my gopro weekend.
Jeff,
HUGE THANK YOU for digging into the data and letting me know where to put my big boy pants on and SEND IT! I was about a second faster after our discussion and that is awesome!!!
Cory - Sadly we just ran the 1.7......the 3.1 would have been awesome!!!
Essex - let me do some digging and see what I can wrangle.
VIDEO
The camera is a big-battery gopro in place of my usual normal one and it shook at odd times. Sometimes a lot, other times not at all. It surely aint the prettiest but it is fun to watch SLJHMR work the traffic. Also I typically run a rear camera and have both pictures but apparently this was not my gopro weekend.
the heavier the camera, the shorter of an arm you gotta run to avoid the dreaded whips. no arm is best.
awesome vid. a Corvette, next to a "Nascar" in front of a "prototype". what was next to him? a god damn sprint car?
what a mix.
wish it wasnt zoomed in though, would love to see you shift.
gear indicator wasnt much help, it appears to be a bit confused itself
what a pack you caught there in the multi apex! exactly why i never sign up for the half tracks, i cant imagine that many cars on just 1.7/1.3 mile
do you have comms with Louis? or are you just out there by yourself?
keep the vids coming, watch you, Mark Martin, Feras, etc wheel the **** out of these things on hoosiers is just inspiring
gear indicator wasnt much help, it appears to be a bit confused itself
what a pack you caught there in the multi apex! exactly why i never sign up for the half tracks, i cant imagine that many cars on just 1.7/1.3 mile
do you have comms with Louis? or are you just out there by yourself?
keep the vids coming, watch you, Mark Martin, Feras, etc wheel the **** out of these things on hoosiers is just inspiring
Hi Corey!
Yeah, the gear indictor and water temp (showing 1500 degrees!!!) were JUST programmed and needed some fine tuning!
Next vid I'll try and include enough area to show shifting.
Catching packs is tricky... "this is where the fun begins"....and WRL is GREAT training for this. In a 2 hour stint you see so much w2w racing and faster/slower cars...it is great practice.
Yes, have comms with Louis...he was calling gaps most of the time, then we could not figure out how long the damn race was....then it was "hey, start saving fuel!!!". LOL
Whenever I get a the desire to prep my car a bit and run NASA TT, I load up the original build thread for this car to remind myself why that would be a terrible idea.
Agreed.
Every time I think "Oh, I see my schedule is getting less prohibitive for weekends! I should start into NASA or SCCA with all of this free time!" I catch myself when I look up the required work and stress involved.
I catch myself when I look up the required work and stress involved.
Honestly it can be as serious or as laid back as you want. It is nice in TT to actually push for a good time and I'd think you're more apt to do better when the times are 'real' rather than hpde.
This is for GSpeed, a company that is at the forefront of amateur corvette racing development (winning nasa championships, races in WRL, etc) and so yes, we push hard and work hard and take it serious. Winning helps the phone ring and rightfully gives the customers more confidence in the brand.
Tons of folks bring very streetable cars and have a great time in TT. In our region there is even a sub-TT class where they run 200tw 'street' tires to reduce the cost of consumables while still meeting the power to weight limits and they have lots of competitors with full interior, AC, etc.
Like anything, (bowling, archery, fishing) you can go to have a good time or you can go and try and be the very best (which is still a good time, but can be frustrating sometimes too!). After a while most folks sorta level out in HPDE, and TT is a nice next step forward without the w2w risk (although there is still passing, we don't have clusters into Turn 1 on lap 1!) while still running in an environment that pushes you to go faster. Several newcomers chart their progress to the front runners, and as they gain experience they typically get closer.
But yes, if you want to go specifically to set track records and win, then there is work and stress. <grin> If you read our chapter on the national championship with the dyno issues and such, THAT was pretty stressful and a ton of work for the GSpeed crew....but then again, TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!!! <big grin> <chapter: http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/ch269.htm>
03-11-2019, 08:58 PM
WHA?? GSpeed TT2 Corvette ON OVERALL POLE for NASA Blitz at Cresson Sunday??
Can you please post a couple pics that show our brakes? I'd love to post your results with images to our blog, social media pages, etc. Thanks so much for being a customer!
exactly why i never sign up for the half tracks, i cant imagine that many cars on just 1.7/1.3 mile
