Hmm well. Pics. Road Atlanta. Global Time Attack Pro Championship East with Formula Drift.



















So I always write something totally introspective and a review of what has happened. Primarily for my own entertainment as very few people care or actually identify with my level of desire to improve.

How to make this so it's not TLDR? Not possible.

You know when you do something new, and it opens your eyes a bit, and it makes the things you've been doing previously look like total crap and totally irrelevant?

Well that is what last weekend was kinda like.

I signed up for GTA in the Limited Division setting myself up for failure. I had absolutely no chance of actually winning. I feel like at home, because I hear it all the time, that people think my car is a total monster and just eats everything. Oh how I wish I could just hand over the keys often. At GTA, it was downright like sitting through a firing squad watching cars easily blow my doors off.

I thought about actually doing some work and making it back into street class and actually being competitive. But I wanted to run the car as is and use it as a learning experience and at the same time get ready for the CSCS season. Now in retrospect I wish I had entered street class. And if/ when I go back next year I will make sure I am street class eligible.

The trip was fun. I went with 2 friends and my Dad and it was a great time. The GTA guys do so much to promote and support all the drivers that enter at every level. My Ford F150 did awesome. Total cost of fuel over 3000km most of which towing/ carrying 6200 lbs was $550. Ironically, my Z burned through about $400 in fuel in about, oh 1 hour on the track. The people at GTA from top to bottom are awesome and it's a great community.

The track had an entirely different presence from the moment I rolled up the driveway and saw that towering turn 12 staring me in the face.

I once again reminded myself, I may be a good driver for my experience level, but that does not make me a capable driver overall. I have huge holes in my skillset from repeating TMP, GBR, and occasional DDT.

But regardless, I applied the same principles I've gone through all along. Teaching myself the ropes and slowly building up my comfort level with the track. I honestly don't know how I'd react to having an "instructor" at this point. I'd rather say, here's my data, here's my video. Tell me what to do differently but stay out of my car. That's another aside. I frustratingly forgot my favourite thing. My Aim Solo GPS unit. I feel like a part of me died not being able to compare things and look for ways to get better.

So as for the actual performance. Hmm I think I did ok. I think I left quite a bit of time out on the track from a technical perspective which actually makes me furious to no end inside. But I can't say roughly how much without my precious precious data. But when you add in the mitigating factors I think I performed at a high level and really could not expect more. A) First time at a track of that technical difficulty ever. B) No practice, sim or otherwise. C) Limited time to learn. D) Learning under pressure with far faster cars constantly buzzing around. E) Close to 5 months of ring rust. F) The consequences of a failure at that track could be expensive/ painful/ deadly

Still. My personal goal every time I do one of these time attacks is to drive so fast that literally no one could take my keys and duplicate the feat. Of course there are people who are better and more experienced and could do this with regularity. But this doesn't change the actual goal. So on one hand I'm slightly disappointed that I feel like I could have beaten my time in an optimum sense. But do I think someone of my experience level and seat time could do what I did? The number of people that could shrinks considerably and that makes me feel better. You may not agree with how I see things, but I've always kept a fairly transparent record on how I think of things.

My biggest weakness was fully committing to turn 12. I have obliterated my car so many times in that corner back when I used to play Forza 3. Infact everytime I lost sight of the track due to an elevation change I could sense my level of anxiety increasing. I reviewed some video the night after day 1 and easily made some changes where was I was turning in too early when I lost sight of the track for fear of missing it on the other side. But I think with a few more days I could learn to trust to go flat and turn in later in certain sections and my time would drop considerably.

Aside from that this event was held at the same time as a couple other events at Road Atlanta. The best was the Trans Am racing. It would be so awesome to get in the same car as everyone else and race it out. Each of these guys was infinitely ballsier and cooler than everyone else in attendance. I felt diminutive in their presence. I must get to that level soon.

That's another thing. GTA is open passing rules. I got out of the way the best I could but it made me nervous. And when it came time to pass a slower car in the corners it also made me nervous. So I need to somehow find a way to race people with open passing rules to desensitize myself to this.

If only there were some occupation where it was your job to work out all the time, and study racing cars, and actually race cars, while making lots of money to support your family. Even if you didn't have the necessary experience to not be a danger to others.... That would be the job for me if it existed.

So now I'm kinda getting ready for CSCS 1 at the new DDT. Don't get me wrong I signed up and I'm going to try and win. But it for some reason, now more than ever I keep telling myself it might not be physically possible to do. I think I do this so I don't go absolutely insanely wild trying too hard. I was flying off tracks with regularity at CSCS events last summer trying to find limits. I'm trying to adopt the less wild "drive your car as fast as it will go, you can't do anything about how fast the other cars are". But I don't know. At least on these small tracks I tend to go a bit wild. I'm faster when I get mad and yell.

/train of thought ramblings on Road Atlanta and Time Attack.

 

Thanks Rob and fellas! Profile pic is still awesome! It's a nice reminder from 2011/2012.

 

so whats going on with your car

 

^ I don't know what you mean.


SO. thread is obviously DOA. But. Some contributions.

Cool pics.




and cscs1. I lost.

but it could have been closer/ I could have been right in it with practice.

next event is at grand bend raceway.
If I can't win there I am screwed.

 

I might not reply every time but I'm subscribed to this thread so I read all the updates and watch the videos you post.


BTW, do you have even have a MY350Z.COM sticker on your Z?

 

Awesome stuff Mike!

Where did you find all those pictures of your car? Lol I need to get on that!

 

Hey Mike, thanks for the update.

When you try ddt again try a wider line in 2, apexing just at the end of or just after the turtles - not that I'm an expert - but it resulted in my fastest times of the day.

 

No that's excellent advice and I've heard that more than once.

And the next track is grand bend modified circuit.

I'd say I'm ready. I know it's apples to oranges because it's actually pretty tough to set an excellent time in a CSCS competition, but I set a 54.00 on that track.

I know no one has ever been there. So to put 54.00 in perspective it's the 4th fastest time ever, and the fastest time on R compound tires. And the fastest time set by any RWD car. So that's encouraging.

The track record in 2012 was 54.038 was set by DOv Aronoff in the NVAuto Orange Beast.

 

FF to 6:10 if it doesn't do it automatically.

 

And this is one of the better videos I've posted.

 

I don't say a whole lot on here but follow this thread religiously. I'm from Tillsonburg, Ontario and was watching the race at GBR on Sunday. Would love an update on the car and how the track and competition was. Go into detail, I love it

Keep up the thread, awesome stuff!

 

Thanks Marsboy,

Last Sunday was the second round of the CSCS time attack championship.
I was in 3rd after the first round so it was time to make up some ground on my home track.

I won this event with relative ease. A thunderstorm cancelled the finals. So they scored the event based on qualifying in which I put down an easy 54.39 to take 1st. That also happens to be a new class record for Super Street class. You can see from the video just how easy it was to set that time. And I'm encouraged by the fact that it beat the existing record by over 1.4 seconds.

As a result I am now 2nd in the championship, just 10 points out of first with the next round being on July 20th at Toronto Motorsports Park.

It's a track I know well and I hope to win and set the record again.

 

Great videos! All your missing is the japanese commentator...

Surprised how fast that fr-s is!

 

Well a lot has been going on. Car is 6 point caged now. More on that later. Cyrious Garageworks was also able to get quite a bit more weight out of the car.

 

Your car sounds so good!

 

Wow you're going fast. Do you feel that the stock Brembo are still adequate?
Do you experience much brake pad knock back? Or rotor deflection?
Whats next for the car?
I blew another clutch (helicoiled flywheel the cause I believe) and had a OS Giken super single installed. Its lighter than the fidanza/jwt set up, the car accelerates faster. Ive got $3k into my clutch in the past year..... 8(

 

Think if you had slicks you could hang with Sasha's time? I think so.

 

I would assume he would be about 1.5-2.0 sec slower due to Power & traction control from the Motec that Sasha has.

 

I'd also need disproportionately more power to offset the weight, suspension tuning, and experience penalties.

Maybe with 2 or 3 sets of slicks to practice on I could take off an additional 2 seconds?

Just a guess.

 

Motec, traction control? Didnt know that. But ya a little hp difference.
I thought Kelsey had a Haltech.