soulsea

Hi,

As I mentioned in another thread, I spent the day at Roebling Rd at an HPDE organized by VIP Track Days. (thanks snorman for the hookup)

This was the optimal setup with only about 20 cars participating, no run groups, and eight hours of open track with a one hour lunch break in the middle … basically go out on track as often as you want as long as you want. There were so few of us we didn’t even need to use numbers on the cars. With so few participants the event is a lot less formal … you tech yourself, sign a waiver, and have a blast, essentially the same thing as if you and a few friends rented the track for yourselves.

The weather, especially in the morning was optimal, as in the low 60s. I also had fresh rubber, and between these two variables and my slightly improved driving skills I managed to shave 5 seconds off of my previous best time of 1:23.xx.. On the first two morning sessions I consistently lapped in the 18s and 19s, with my best time in session 2 at 1:18.35.

However as the temps rose throughout the day, and tires became more worn, my lap times kept climbing with each subsequent run. By the afternoon, with temps in the mid 80s and the sun beating down on the track, it took better driving from me to get 1:21s than it did to get the 18s in the morning.

If I had known the track would go away so rapidly I would have stayed out a lot longer in the morning and less so in the afternoon. But I was trying to manage my time evenly, come in the pits when it felt natural to come in and go back out when I felt like driving again. Next time, with these type of conditions I’ll be more morning dominant. Also time goes by differently when you have a lot of open track … during 25 minute sessions at regular hpde you spend half your time dealing with traffic, lucky to get 2 or 3 clean laps in. But 15 minutes of open track will wear you out because you are focused and on the edge the whole time, basically a lot more reward and fatigue per minute.

The other thing that’s becoming evident to me is that I need to flip my idea of what is track season. For going fast, track season should be between Oct and April (in the SE) and then shut it down for the summer, whereas I did the opposite this year. Even if I have to wear extra layers in the winter the car is just so much faster in cool weather and on a cool track surface.

Anyhoot, here are some details and a couple of vids with the fast laps:

- Ambient temps 60-85
- No overheating or any other issues
- M7 Z07
- 80/20 Water/coolant + Purple Ice
- Track alignment
- Castrol SRF
- Mobil 1 5W-30
- New SC2s
- Ran about 15 sessions ranging from half an hour to ten minutes, most of them around 15-20 minutes
- Stayed in Sport 1 this time and not hit anything.

Couple of side notes … I think part of my improvement is due to the fact that I spent a lot of time watching videos of pro drivers at hpde events. One of my main takeaways was relaxation. This is the most comfortable I have felt to date, almost like driving on the highway. I didn’t even grip the wheel hard on tight turns cause I finally figured out I don’t have manual steering, so I don’t need to use more muscles the tighter the corner. On the down side I’m still having trouble with hitting 5th gear, as in there’s about a 20% chance I’ll either go to 7th or not find a gear at all. Every once in a while I even hit 3rd but thankfully I figure that out before I let off the clutch, except one time for a second and the car she protested vociferously. :/

Session 1. Fast laps of 1:18.89 and 1:18.64 (one after the other)


Session 2. fastest lap of 1:18.35


I still remember my 1st HPDE back in the spring at the same track when I was lucky to break the 1:30s ... so at least I'm improving.

four0nefive

Great report! Glad to see you had no issues and that you improved as a driver.

Lavender

This seems like a lot of fun. You are correct...the Z just loves colder air. But i'm not sure I would go out when temps get this low again. I had to work much harder to tame it.

Snorman

Very nice times. You can see how much the car liked the cool air, as your straightaway speeds went up nicely.
Great job!
S.

JDMUSCLE

Very nice report... Good job

Esoteric Detail

Looks like you had a great time...thanks for sharing!

I used to do a lot of track days on motorcycles, and the ones in late September were always my favorite. Nice cool temps, bikes ran great, and much easier on the body as well.

2016 Z

Great report and nice driving. Thanks for sharing this.

JackTripper

thebishman

Excellent stuff Serge!

Did you really run with 5W-30 in the car btw?

Bish

soulsea

Thanks everyone.

------------------

bish, actually that's wrong. Last time I had the oil changed I had them use the 15W-50 ... I forgot I did that.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1590312156

thebishman

NP brother. I figured you just mis-typed.

Bish

<<427_V8>>

Thanks for taking the time to give some feedback! Helpful info for sure. Jealous of your chance to get out there any enjoy it!

BOBSZ857

Great video and great times! I can't wait to do this in the spring.

apex97

Well done!!
Your comments on staying relaxed in the car are very astute! I am always advising clients to "slow down INSIDE the car to go faster outside".
If I were your coach, my suggestions would be to wait just a tiny bit longer before turning in during the tight stuff and sneak up on using a little more throttle a little bit sooner as you exit, especially the one that lead onto long straights not 100% but if 50% is sticking good, try 55%, then 60% etc..while opening the wheel of course You also will find two more seconds if you just find 2 mph at every apex for me!
Anothert great observation is that the track slowed down as things warmed up..many driver crash trying to match times from the morning when the track is 2 sec slower in the middle of the day. Great work!

soulsea

Hi apex,

I have to say I was a little easy on the throttle on exits after the COTA unpleasantness, where I loss the rear with what seemed like very little throttle out of the last turn in Sport 2. Also as you prolly know coming out of turn 9 at RR you're at 100mph or so into the straight, so the *** puckering factor is high, the wall to the right has many clues as to to what happened to some folks who were a little too aggressive with the throttle. But with every lap I get a little more confident with how much I can push, until the heat sets in and then I have to drive even more precisely to go slower. It's almost like life, you wish you could apply what you know at the end of the day to the conditions at the beginning of the day, sort of like wishing you could know when you're 20 what you know when you're 50.

This is one of the videos I watched that made me conscious of relaxing:


Not so much the seesawing cause I'm not on the edge like that, but just the natural body language and quieting down the body and presumably the mind. Obviously he's a pro driver and I still find myself under stress on some corners, but I'm working on it, even doing some small meditative/breathing exercises before I start a session. Anyhoot, it's just one more variable to get past as I try to improve.

My next challenge is recall ...as in right now I'm not able to recall from one lap to the next where I missed my line and where I hit it perfectly so as to try to correct the former and repeat the latter. As a result the next lap I might get the point I missed on the previous lap right but then miss the one I got right. Ideally I would like to be consistent on the lines I get correct and improve from lap to lap on the ones I have trouble with, but right now I'm still not able to do that.

GTB/ZR-1

Great improvement--lower :18s @ RR is getting w/ the program for a newer driver.

Nicely done & the for sharing!

turbo8765

Nice runs!

Roebling goes away horribly in the afternoon as it heats up.