Last weekend I attended the NASA track event at La Junta (what I did instead of attend the Bandimere weekend), and had a great time pushing the car on a fun, high speed track. Joel came down on Saturday with his LeMans Sunset Z and showed dominant speed on track in his group, and I had a great couple of days in NASA Time Trials, winning my class both days, barely edging out a well-driven, impressively modded WRX from Taos (he was the only other competitor in my class at the event).

This is the first time I've run La Junta on r-comps and with my new suspension setup, and I was impressed by how hard I could push the car in turn 1 (usually turning in at somewhere between 102 and 108) and turn 3, sliding the car through that long right hander, but still being able to get the front end to stick, even with a late entry at too high of a speed on several occasions. It was fun to drive a car with no understeer through that turn, as every time in the past that I've been there on my old setup, I had to fight a constantly pushing car in T3. Now, I found that I could just point the front of the car with the wheel, and balance the rear with the throttle. This let me take a later turn in and still hit the apex, which in turn allowed me to carry more speed from the previous straight a bit deeper into the turn, and also straighten the car out sooner after turn-in and therefore get back on the throttle more quickly.

I still haven't QUITE been able to take T1 flat (you basically hit this corner at the very top end of fourth gear), but by the end of the weekend I was able to take it with much less of a lift that I had been able to before.

It was great to spend Saturday with Joel (I owe you for bringing out that white tape that saved me from having to go resort to ghetto numbers when a couple of my magnetic ones flew off), and I wish I had been able to get some pictures of that beautiful orange Z coming down through turn 7 against the clear blue sky…it really was quite a sight!

The other big highlight of the weekend was passing a C6 Z06 under braking for T4 on Sunday…I wish I could have gotten a picture of that. Of course he blew by me on the next straight, but I managed to catch right up to his bumper in the next braking zone and follow him through the turn until the next time he could get on the gas and disappear.

Here's some pictures (including one of my wife driving her wagon under instruction from pro driver Rick Snyder.)

 

Good report! The pics are helping me convince some friends that they might be able to do this as well.

You going to be at the July 21-22 NASA event at PMP?

 

Nice...........I was just looking at these pics and thought that Audi looked familiar.
Did you flog the Audi around the track at all or just her?

 

No, I didn't drive the Audi, but I did ride along with her for a session after she got signed off to move up to group 2, and I was really impressed by how well she did (much better than I would have been able to do in that car). Rick did a fantastic job as her instructor, and I tried to steal as much of what he told her as I could (at least the stuff that would apply to the Z.)

 

looks like fun

 

Good times. Both NASA and Colorado Region SCCA offer run groups with street cars AND instruction. Price of entry is reasonable and what you learn about your Z (or G)...priceless.

 

Thanks for the highlights Gary. I enjoyed spending time with you and Joanne between sessions. And thanks for the ride-along - that was extremely helpful! My "little" spin at turn 4 was bothersome, but I know what not to do there next time. Turn 1 was insanely fun, yet that change in surface material at the end is unsettling for me and the car.

On a side note. When I returned my transponder to Revka on Saturday, she intimated that NASA may not return to La Junta. I guess they weren't impressed with the fact that whomever runs the track forgot we were coming. Apparently, the larger issue is that no one knows exactly who is running the track. The MRA has also given up on La Junta due to the same issues.

Joel