how not to take turn 1 at TH . . .
 

https://player.vimeo.com/video/332891311

don't do what i did. outdrove my ability at TH. this is what they call a "moment." or a collection of moments . . .

Little early for sure. Hell of a job keeping the car pointed in the right direction at that speed! Other than ego, no damage outside of picking the grass out of the suspension? Surprised to see you in 6th gear vs 4th or is the data wrong?

We've all been there and after a few more events it becomes a folklore discussion with you buddies. Clearly you were braking from 170 and it was raining :D

at least you didn't crash

i was definitely very grateful to stay oily side down. i was amazed at how much grass i had to blow out of the vents -- not to mention the brakes!

the data from AIM has never worked right on my corvette -- so i get no brake/throttle, the wrong gear -- but the RPM's work

Excellent save.
Much better to slip the car gently off the track than it is to attempt heroics, and wind up in a wicked spin. Especially if you're in a pack of traffic!
No harm, no foul.

Car sounds great. Nice job unwinding the wheel b4 you hit the grass and easing your way back on track. Must be nice to have all that room. Most the tracks in the northeast are not so forgiving.

Great save! You entered that corner about 20 mph faster than I'm brave enough to try, lol.

Although there is run off room if you get off track, there are often a lot of holes and dips that the grass hides. Did you sustain any damage to underside bodywork, etc?

That sort of thing happens all the time in the crapcan W2W classes. Spinning the car out is for the weak, just shoot a roost and keep going! My only concern in that situation is how many cars are about to pass me. :rofl:

[QUOTE=TrackAire;1599306492]Great save! You entered that corner about 20 mph faster than I'm brave enough to try, lol.

:iagree: Are you on slicks?

yes, it is on slicks. i grew up on the east coast -- so i ran watkins glen, summit point, NJMP, and VIR the most. watkins glen in particular is not very forgiving -- and i had an expensive day in the kitty litter once.

i was extremely lucky that i straightened it up just before going off -- as it doesn't look like it from the video -- but i was airborne more than once

i was scared going off and scared going back on -- definitely going too fast

rich willhoff, pro driver, drove the car the same day and was 3.5 seconds faster -- a huge margin on the 3 mile course -- and he was doing 135 at the end of that straight -- but braked better of course. i just wasnt' prepared for what the katech motor would change -- i will DEFINITELY be taking it much easier going forward!

Great save... glad to hear there wasn't much damage! Turn 1 is my biggest pucker factor corner, don't think that will change.

were the front tires sliding or you just knew it wouldn’t grip? Pretty scary, looks a lot more dry than when I was there with NASA a couple weekends ago and a Miata did a full spin off turn 1 in the wet grass.

perfect natural instincts straightening the wheel just before entering the grass.
would have been a outcome to the video had ya not.

Agreed, nice reflexes and you even come into turn 2 perfectly.
If Rich is "only" 3.5 seconds faster in your car, that's pretty good as well.

Mike with carbon Z? Beautiful car. I love was the other Mike in the white c6z.

Great skill at handling a really bad situation. Congrats and be safe.

many thanks to all. one update to this little adventure. i'd forgotten that after that session Chad noticed that the bolts on the rear wing had loosened. i'm running the Kerry Hitt stuff -- and i'd carefully set the wing at 8 degrees to start this first day of running.

But i had not tightened things sufficiently for the shaking of the track -- and it had dropped to MAX angle -- which is something crazy like 25%

so i think what may be depicted in this video is how the front washes out when you have the large rear wing MAXED OUT. it was definitelky surprised on that lap to have it pushing so much -- as it had been nicely balanced up to that point -- and in fact i'd put down my best lap of the day 2 laps prior breaking under 2 mins.

so . . . i'll just tell myself that was a mitigating factor -- not my hamhanded downshift and just general lameness -- as a little stab of the brake might have caught it. one thing is for sure. get a katech motor. go a lot faster. things just happen so fast you have to adjust and up your game. my game is clearly not there yet! somewhere in california a village is missing it's idiot . . .

i ALWAYS blame the equipment :D

u got a build thread for your car?

Nice job at keeping it straight. Interesting corner, isn’t it? A few years back while on Hoosiers, I was taking #1 a little early too. It was late in the afternoon where the day had warmed up to close to 90 degrees. The tires got a bit greasy and I got a bit careless. While going off at around 85 mph, I recall sliding sideways. Straightening the car was top priority but at the same time my brain was instantly reminding me of an unfortunate incident that occurred on this track a number of years earlier. On my first day at T H, prior to getting into my vette, I was on the sidelines when someone drove through corner #5. The car took out the tower with two workers on it and shortly everyone witnessed a helicopter taking these guys off to the hospital. Pretty dangerous sport we are all involved in… But back to my off. Getting four tires into the dirt at these speeds is a bit unnerving. I too was also able to straighten out and keep going, however the next mistake I made dealt with the way I tried to bring the car back on the track. Just as my front left tire was making contact with the asphalt I should have slightly turned towards the track surface. Evidently as I was running parallel with the edge of the track, I broke a bead between the tire and wheel on the driver’s side. So going into corner #2, the tire was flat. Kinda doubly embarrassing, especially when I had to be towed. But as always, lessons are better stamped into my brain through mistakes rather than when things go smoothly.

wow that is an amazing story about hitting the tower.

as for breaking the bead. i'm just always amazed at the amount of force involved in anything going 80mph. i was absolutely terrified the entire time i was off -- and coming back on was pretty darned scary too.

i asked chad rowlands what i needed for the car to be safer -- and he said fire system. so just ordered one.

Before your turn in point, move to the right hand side of the track leaving 1" from the grass. After your turn in, steer much closer to the apex and hit it late . You were too far to the left on turn in, missed the apex and carried too much speed. You had good throttle maintenance going off and recovered gracefully. The off-track to on-track transition was smooth. Good job on that too.