Eagle1

iTrader: (2)

Great day of fun at Laguna Seca with Track-masters Racing. They had a run group within the NASA sponsored track day for advanced and high intermediate drivers. A "mixed run" group where it is basically "polite" racing rules and one neat feature. The feature is that if you are not comfortable in a totally open passing scenario for anywhere on the track, and prefer that you as the driver give pursuing cars a point-by (because somebody diving underneath into turn 11 might cause you to goof up, for example), then you have a yellow circle sticky put on the back of your car. This gives the overtaking car the signal the he/she has to wait for the signal. Otherwise, anytime, anywhere, with the "polite" proviso being that (1) give a point by anyway even if you are running open passing status and (2) this is fun and not competition, so don't go dive bombing underneath and stealing driving lines etc. There were about 4 cars with the sticky, so it was pretty much wide open.

Driving conditions were absolutely perfect. The temps were in the 50-60F range (great stuff for FI motors), and the sun was out so that after the first morning session the track surface was warm enough to allow you to heat up your tires.

Car was just perfect, and we got in four full sessions, with one meatball flag at the end of session three for over the 92db limit for sound (I did not short shift by the sound station and WOT at the top of fourth gear registered a 94.4db reading...oh well, lesson learned. At least it did not cost more than a couple of laps).

One lad lost a steering knuckle in his spec miata coming down full throttle out of Turn 9 and went screaming down the straight and into the litter at the bottom of Turn 10 right in front of me, which was a bit disconcerting. Not at the chance of running into him but the concern he was going to roll over. Fortunately he just put up a huge shower of pea rock and dug in.

Couple of pics below.


Above is a shot coming through apex of Turn 8A, the "corkscrew"


Above is coming out of apex WOT through Turn 5 and beginning drift to track out on right side of track.

skidmarq

iTrader: (9)

I gotta say, I love your racing threads more than just about anything else I read on this website.

Thanks for the great write-ups, and fantastic pictures

Eagle1

iTrader: (2)

thank you Skidmarq, I am pleased that you enjoy the posts. I should get some more pictures by later this week from the gentleman that took them. He was going to send them to me on a CD today or tomorrow, so perhaps by Saturday afternoon I can post a few more up for you. You can see from the high definition that he had a very nice digital camera and a super fast shutter speed to freeze the wheel motion.

skidmarq

iTrader: (9)

One of the biggest problems with the HPDE group I run with up here is the lack of a digital photographer.

I really like the stop motion capabilities of your photographer as it allows you to study both your driving line and measure things such as body roll in one photo!

Do you take out folks (friends?) for rides, or is that an instructor with you?

Eagle1

iTrader: (2)

People ask for rides, usually from another run session such as intermediate or novice class, and I will accomodate them so they can follow driving line, braking point, turn in point, track out point, shifting etc etc. One has to respect that until you show someone it can be done, they are reluctant to try. Of course, they have to very gradually build up in speed because they need the skills and technique development first. Right now at Laguna Seca the lap times are in the 1:44 to 1:46 range, and when I started three years ago they were more like 2:20. It takes time. If somebody had taken me around in 1:45 on my first day I would have puked and gone home, never to return. So better to build up in steps. A difference of one second a lap is very noticeable, indeed to racers it is huge. But even for us novices and rank amateurs, five seconds is startling and ten seconds is galactic. If your passenger is looking for tips, it is wise to know where his lap times are, and not go harder than about five to ten seconds faster when trying to show him what he can do and how. To blast around quicker is just going to confuse or put him at risk if he tries to emulate.

In that photo is one of my sons who came up with me for the day. He has attended a couple of Skip Barber courses, the latest one being just two weeks ago between Christmas and New Years Day, when he, his brother and I all did the Car Control Clinic......basically a day of slamming a car around as hard as you can into skids and spins and fighting for recovery...learning where the edge of adhesion is and steering with your feet to get the car to rotate the way you want it to. Of course that is much easier to get aggressive with than your own car!! They had a very nice 3 series bimmer that weighs pretty close to a G35, and that was helpful.....a lot of momentum once that back starts to go loose.

skidmarq

iTrader: (9)

That is very cool that you do that for folks, and a great way to teach at that! I am very new to road racing as well, so I try my best to just stay within my limits until I learn to control driving lines, entry/exit speed, and acceleration. I can imagine that riding with a more advanced driver can help you pick up subtle nuances that can be incorporated into your driving style. One of the greatest things I've picked up from this forum is that no matter how good you think you are, never think you are so good that riding with someone else (instructor,etc) won't be helpful

How awesome that you got to spend time on the track with one of your sons, what a great day that must have been

knight_white99

iTrader: (5)

Ed, will you adopt me? LOL...

shinkuu

iTrader: (4)

im jealous, take me with you next time yea

Eagle1

iTrader: (2)

Steve, if you will pay for my car parts, I might just get a divorce and propose to you instead.
I started the year with two new front dampers, two new front rotors, a new rear end link, a new oil cooler, five new hoses, and some other stuff that was damaged and replaced. About five large just to get back up and out there.

Worth every penny already. But then........you already know that as well if not better than I do!

knight_white99

iTrader: (5)

LOL! I hope married life is going better than that for you!

Yeah, I have a ton of money invested in my car too. And the last event at BW is costing me some bucks to get fixed after my "off course" excursion. Racing is hard on parts, and not all of them will survive very long if pushed very hard.

My car is currently back at VRT getting the engine rebuilt as well (strengthened bottom end), so I can finally use those turbos to their full capability. Then maybe I can keep up with you.

Those are some great shots of your car, Ed. I wish I had some of mine that were that good!

chuquison

iTrader: (6)

what kinda of cars where out there? whats a comon car to see there?

Eagle1

iTrader: (2)

Porsche (Carrera, Carrera GT, GT 3 and GT 2, 914-6, Boxter were all there)
Ferrari (360)
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
Subaru WRX Sti
Mazda Miata
Honda S2000
Mustang Cobra GT
Corvette
Pontiac GTO (the version from the Aussie Holden Monaro heritage)
Nissan 350Z
Lotus (Elise, Exige)
BMW 3 series, both regular and M editions
Once in awhile a Mercedes or a Caddy
And then some spec cars depending on the track. (Fewer at laguna seca because of the noise restrictions).
All of the above were present at this particular event.

These make up the majority of what we are getting on the HPDE events on the west coast tracks at this time.

Here are a couple more pictures as I promised:



The above picture is from the afternoon session, going into Turn 5 with some trail braking and rotating the rear (note the lift on the inside rear tire, and the down compression on the outside right front where the bite for turn in is the greatest).




The above picture is at the apex point of the turn (actually a couple of inches outside). the little red tape mark is the actual apex point, but it is on the base of a rather severe concrete bump that you absolute do not want to touch, and the painted stripes are slippery and cost you some grip. While the inside tires are not gripping as much as the outside..they are still gripping some so I was shooting for the edge where the paint stripes and the asphalt meet. (in the above picture of the "corkscrew" you can see we are exactly on apex in Turn 8A, which is a blind dropaway, so that is perhaps more luck than skill in that shot). In this picture we are too far away. Note the car balance is moving to the rear as we are squeezing on the throttle, and the steering is unwinding. There is still plenty of lateral force as the inertia is going to throw us outwards to the track edge on the outside of the turn.



The above picture is after apex, steering more unwound and weight back farther as we go to WOT.