Great meeting and talking with you today at Nelson's. I checked out your times...was expecting to see something in the low 80's from a newb on the track, but never expected to see high 70's. You did spectacular....


Once you find out how far you can push the corner, you will have the track record for the class.

 

sounds about right, Ken can only be considered a noob during his first parade lap... after that, watch out!

 

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Good going Ken...

Hard to believe that you moved up to the C5 Z06 less than a year ago and are turning these kind of times right out of the box.










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Great job Ken! Way to go to represent to the MCV's!!! Looks like you may have to put on a driving clinic for the rest of us!

 

And to think about all that crying!

 

Wow, talk about putting the pressure on Thank for your kind words, I don't know about any track records but I do know I was much fasterr during the lapping later in the day. A couple more times there and we'll see.

it was nice to meet you in person as well

 

Actually those are the words of common sense talking which is really strange coming from me. It was really dangerious doing what they did, I know thats how they do it and that's what they are going to do next week but it doesn't change the fact.

 

What tires were you running? Were those Nitto's?

 

59 years and no deaths, yet.

 

The thinking was to run the event first, group the drivers by times run during the event. It is more dangerous to group slower drivers with ones that are fast.

You remember the back turn? The one where you come out and then have a straight shot for most of 3/4 of a mile? That back turn is the toughest to master, it is a decreasing radius. Once you figure out that turn, you've got it made, the rest of the course is a walk in the park. You have the car and the ability to get around that track, quick.

 

Nitto NT-01s

 

It is most dangerous sending people out for ***** out runs on a 140 mph track with practically zero experience on that track for some people. People can be grouped for lapping sessions based on their previous track experience and car prep level.

 

There is such a thing that's called common sense, yes? And common sense would tell a driver it's not wise to take the car to the ragged edge on a track the first time, especially one that you can clock 140+ on the back stretch without much effort. C'mon now, there's matter between the ears, and it's up to the driver to use care and diligence. Those who don't end up in the boony weeds with a broken ride.

 

That goes both ways but common sense will much more likely leave the building when you are under the clock. But in reality it doesn't take much common sense to slow for that kink I kept trying to go quicker but I just didn't have the *****.

 

Sometimes adrenalin overrules the brain. I don't think you should count on everyone having common sense, especially on a track where those kinds of speeds are attainable. Actually when it comes to tracks I think everyone should assume that people don't have common sense.

Sorry, I just don't buy the logic that it's safer to send them out for timed runs before giving them some practice time to learn the line, level of grip etc, so that they can build speed progressively as they learn. As the event organizer, if you have the capability to prevent an incident from happening, why not do it? Have you ever been to a track day where they said, "well, we're not sure how to split the groups up, so everyone go make three timed, single lap runs of the track, then we'll base the groups on your times"?

I seriously doubt that anyone who has ran a high speed in the Michigan Region the last two years would say they felt less safe going out for their runs after having ran a practice lapping session. Or that they felt unsafe during practice because of speed differential of the cars in their groups.

 

Let me ask you this...you're on a high speed track for the first time. You get 5 parade laps at moderate speeds. What do you do? Play it safe and get to know the track or do you let it all hang out and hope for the best....

 

I let it hang out, gotta get a good time especially when you have to get the best time you can in 1 of 3 laps, maybe that's why my first lap was only .5 seconds from my third.

I'll see what happens at Putnam Park at least there I have a second day to lay down a good lap.

 

I give up, moving on.

 

I let it all hang out... I'm not going to get my butt kicked by the more experianced people.

 

I'd much rather have the option to do some lapping BEFORE the timed runs for all of the reasons listed above.

I've heard that someone might blow up or have their car become disabled somehow during the practice and then miss out on getting any points in the timed runs. While there is a possibility this may happen, I can't see that outweighing the safety aspect. If you don't want to take the chance on blowing up then don't practice.

The other argument I heard is when the timed laps come first, some people can leave early if they don't want to practice. My argument is, let them sleep in and come later if they don't want to practice. They can do their timed runs in the afternoon like the rest of us.

BTW, 108 MPH through the kink at Nelson according to the HUD. I'll try for 110+ on Labor Day.