Attended an HPDE at Grattan Raceway in Belding, MI with NASA Great Lakes this past weekend.

Most of you probably don't know this track but it's a very very fun and technical track. It has an off-camber turn (turn 3) and a "jump" after turn 4 where you crest over a hill and the car gets completely light before you come back down and have to slam on the brakes for the next turn. It also has a lot of blind turns where you kind of have to trust your memory on where the apex is as you can see at turn 11 when going up hill.

My first day was frustrating in the morning because I couldn't get the track down right. I was either slowing down too much for the turn or going in too hot. However, by the afternoon I was able to get the track down and go a lot faster.

Here's a video of Day 1 chasing a Porsche Boxster and BMW E36 M3:

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xRi_tElRpww" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Day 2 got even better as I was able to go a lot faster, plus it was a bit warmer so the track itself was faster. I also bought myself a new pair of driving gloves

My times towards the end of the weekend were around 1:38-1:39. There was a TTA 350Z there but I didn't catch what he ran. Either way, this was an awesome weekend and now one of my favorite tracks! The 265's up front definitely help the car turn!

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/76Zzq0BOiGI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Next up is trying to go to Mid-Ohio in July!

 

Cool videos, definitely looks like a fun track. Thanks for sharing!

 

Wow. lots of screeching feedback from those tires. those the re-11's still?

 

TTA 350z....holy z06 canon fodder, Batman. Looks like fun.

 

Yep, still the RE-11's. I probably have one or two more events left on them. For some reason they were a lot louder this time than before. Either way, I was pretty happy with them as the only time they got greasy was towards the end of one of the longer 25 min sessions. Everybody was having issues towards the end of that session with losing brakes / greasy tires. My brakes held up fine luckly.

And what's a z06 canon fodder?

 

TTA is the land of C5 Z06's on the right coast....take a hell of a drive in a TTA legal 350z to take a win over them. Possible..sure.

 

well he did win this past weekend........because there were no other TTA participants

So there ARE legal ways to win haha

 

Nice Vid! Looks fun!

 

Looks fun, and would love to drive that track

 

I looked back at my video from Grattan in 09 and my tires were talking back quite a bit too - I think it's the road surface.

Nice times. That's why I want to go there with an instructor - I was in the 1:40s trying to learn it myself.. lol.

 

TTA on street tires? What sort of mods do you have? The Nismo is TTB w/ no points and Track versions run in TTC w/ NT01s.

 

Nice Rob. I really wish I could have made it up there. Some things came up ruined my chances of going. I've never done that track either. This only one of the two NASA great lakes events that I am missing this year. Are you for sure coming to Mid Ohio in July? I am going for the lap record for TTB . I have 4/10's to make up to get it. I think I can do it. I still got those brakes for you too.

 

I checked the TTA's 350Z time that you were mentioning. His best time on Saturday was 1:34.56 and best time for Sunday was 1:30.95.

There is a guy David there I know running in TTC with a red S2K. He is really good. He shattered the TTC record that weekend and it was actually faster than the TTB record too. He ran a 1:27.2. That is pretty good because the TTA record is 1:27.0. I don't think NASA has ran this track in a couple years, but I do know the track has recently been completely re-paved, so I'm sure that helped. I wish I could have made it. I was running just a little bit faster than David at Mid Ohio, so if I could have been running like that at Grattan, I could have had a chance to beat the lap record. Oh well. I'll get to try that track at some point.

 

yeah I wasn't the guy running TTA (I wish!)

Thanks for the comments Dominick. Man 1:30's! I'm a whole 8 seconds off haha, that's sad.....although mine's a complete street car and his is complete race car.

I saw the red s2k, and yeah, there were A LOT of records broken that weekend. Mainly because of the all the new surfacing.

So about Mid-Ohio, I'm planning on going (should probably sign-up soon). Brakes will probably be gone by the end of the weekend so it'll be good to have your spares as back-up, possibly tires too lol. Are you staying at home again or will you be getting a hotel? Cuz as of right now i don't have anybody to split a room with yet.. Definitely looking forward to watching you break the Mid-Ohio TTB record

 

I would think your times are respectable Rob for the reasons you said...You're car is a street car on street tires with no aero or weight taken out. I've seen that TTA 350Z at Mid Ohio last year when he was in TTB. His car was gutted and caged with aero. He was running some type of R-comp tire too. He wasn't all that great at Mid Ohio comparable to the other TTB cars. When his car was TTB at Mid Ohio, his best time was a 1:45.xx on the club which would have put him behind the whole TTB field when I was there in April and I think he was in last when I saw him there last year. So I wouldn't feel too bad.

The way your car stands now, I would say it would be in TTC.

Also, I am staying at home each night. It is about an hour and fifteen minutes from the track. You're more than welcome to ride back in the truck with me and stay. I have two spare rooms, but no beds. Sorry I have a futon mattress or a air bed if you want to use that. PM me and let me know what you decide.

I am doing Saturday and Sunday only. No Friday. I will be driving up there Friday late afternoon, early evening though to drop the trailer and car off.

 

Man, I need to get out to some of these. Had most planned, but due to work haven't made one yet.

 

It would be great to see more Z's out at the track. There aren't too many around here.

Do you have any planned for the rest of the summer?