Fresh Pavement = Good Times

August brought a freshly repaved Thunderhill and a chance to relearn the first track I ever drove on. Rumors of controversial curbing had me a bit nervous about turn 8. I'd also heard that the "gutter" in turn 14 had been mostly removed, eliminating a small advantage to those in the know.

The rumors were a bit over done, as rumors usually are, but I have to admit that those were the oddest looking curbs I've ever seen on a race track. The net result, though, was a very smooth track with much improved corner exits and a personal lap record for me of 1:58.249.

The race above is from Sunday, where the grid was reversed for a bit of extra fun. Finishing positions were Thorpe in 1st, me in 2nd, and Bob in 3rd. Enjoy!

November is the New May

Where did the season go? It's November and I'm finally posting the May race. Shame on me! Well, here's the first in a series of tardy video posts.

May at WSIR was an amazing weekend. This video is from Sunday and the pack was running TIGHT! Thorpe took the lead early, as Thorpe often does, and his video wasn't much to look at so this one is shot entirely from Jim's footage; which is awesome. I wont ruin the ending but I will say that the difference between me and Jim at the finish was 0.024 seconds!

Experience Passes... Fast!

Battling with Thorpe, Jim, and Tom made day two at Sears Point (4/13/08) one of the most exciting yet. I wish I had more cameras on the car to show how close we all were but I’ll have to wait for Paul to add in everyone’s in-car footage for the next movie night. To be perfectly honest, I expected to win this one when I pulled several seconds ahead after dicing for position in the first few laps. I had posted the fastest qualifying time and figured I’d continue to pull away, much the same way that Thorpe did the day before. Imagine my surprise, though, when I got into traffic and watched all three of them move through the pack in my mirror with more skill than I’ll have for several years to come. I ended up finishing third in this one and learned some valuable lessons about focusing on the track and traffic ahead rather than my mirrors. Hats off to all three of them for running an amazing race!

Where the Old God's Played

Two things are different at a track like Sears Point (Infineon for those of you under thirty.) The first is that, being an older track, it has little run-off with lots of chances to wad up your car. The second is that, unlike the new club tracks, it is just dripping with history.

To grab the same corners as the new gods have done once a year since ’88 is one thing. Today it’s Stewart, Montoya, and Gordon’s playground. But back in the day there was a race on this track where Dan Gurney held off Mark Donahue and Mario Andretti to take a win in a wingless USAC Indy car. I was in the fifth grade at Seaside elementary school at the time, you, dear reader, may not have been born.

So while there is a lot to say about driving a track with history, nevertheless it is often better to praise the Gods than to visit the Olympian heights. It’s too damn cold up there for me.

An example? Our Mazda GT’s go to Infineon once a year, I first went in 2006, skipped 2007, and returned this year. But both years my very first hot lap of the weekend was a race lap and this time I can’t even blame weather god Freyr, since unlike 2006 the weather was perfect all weekend. No, this time the culprit was mostly my own stupidity.

It was a crowded weekend, with NASA setting an all time record for entries at 455. To make room for all those cars they started off by cutting the morning warm-up to just ten minutes while combining three race groups into one session. Then the race gods smote the qualifying session, a red flag cut it down to the point where I never got up to speed.

(Paul's Qualifying Session)

So by the will of the weather gods or just bad luck, neither year gave me the chance to pick out any marks or really have a clue as to what the car was going to do before the race. It is never a good idea to have your first hot lap be a race lap, and this weekend I proved that in spades.

I got a very good start for the Saturday race and went cleanly through all the way to the carousel right on Aaron’s backside, in third place I believe. I had mixed it up a little bit with Aaron during the shortened qualifying, with both of us being held up by slower cars at various times and degrees, but it seemed that I could take him in the esses, turns eight to ten, if I could stay close enough to him going into turn seven. I also knew that Aaron had the chance to run the non-NASA practice day on Friday and so I planned to use him as a reference for some brake points until I could get by. That is, of course, where the first hot lap being a race lap led me astray. I had no mark of my own for any brake points since this was my first full-tilt boogey drive into these corners in two years and using Aaron’s brake point wasn’t the most brilliant idea I've ever had, and that is saying something.

You see my car is older and I’ve been too cheap to get the new, lighter fiberglass and sundry, so when we weighed the cars at the start of the season it turned out my car was two hundred and thirty pounds heavier than Aaron’s brand new car. I forgot that and well… you do the math.

I was at threshold braking going into turn seven and looking like I was about to rear end Aaron. Obviously I couldn’t turn and he was right on the line for his entry, which blocked my way to the run off. The exit of the carousel, leading onto that straight before seven is uphill and gives the car a bit more stick, but when it flattened out just before the turn in point I started losing the rears. I tried modulating the brake pressure to get them rolling again but couldn’t do what I needed to do, that is, I really needed to let up on the brakes entirely for a split second to get the rears rolling again and let the car overshoot, using the run-off to live another day, but Aaron was just an inch off my nose and still slowing for the corner. The car started a wiggle and as soon as it got a wee bit sideways, both the right front and right rear started blowing enormous plumes of smoke as, against my will, I slowly started to pivot. It was that pivot that kept me from rear ending Aaron.

I was sweating bullets at this point since pretty much the whole field of Mazda GT’s were just a few inches away and I had little control over my car. But just a second or so into the spin I thought I’d clear it, spinning off into the turn seven run off and getting a chance to gather in the car and resume the race at the end of the pack. But the racing gods decided to spend some of their wrath on me. As I let up on the brakes to let the car get farther away from the apex, thinking that the farther from the apex I was the easier I would be to avoid, I felt the thump.

Tom D, who built my car, was right on my tail going into seven and couldn’t duck to the apex; instead, unknown to me he tried to go around my outside and almost made it. In fact, he would have made it if I’d kept the tires locked up. As it was I felt the thump and saw pieces of my rear bumper scatter themselves in front of me. Everybody else got away, with Josh especially making a very fast and fine avoidance maneuver.

Thorpe owes me this win since I managed to scatter the rest of the field so badly that they were unable to catch him. But somehow I doubt if I’ll get a trophy for that. At least not one I would admit to owning.

Later, when inspecting the damage it was clear that Tom’s car was damaged much more than mine was. My rear clip was bent which put me out for the weekend, but Tom lost the drive-train from the driveshaft back and his right rear suspension. If fact, if I wasn't smelling a lot of gas I might have been tempted to continue rather than just driving back to the pits since the car felt a lot better than it looked. That evening Tom had Leroy and Jose take my car’s good rear and put it on his car, so at least one of us could run on Sunday. But I was done.

It was obviously a bit more than just disappointing, but being cursed like I am when I try to muscle my way into the old gods playground, I suppose I should at least be thankful that we both walked away physically unscathed, although it wasn't a very hard hit and our cars are certianly built to take it even if it was.

I didn't hang in for the Sunday race, but from what I hear it was a real barn-burner. One of the best ever, so I'm really looking forward to getting some video going for that one.

Infineon Track Notes

There’s no way I can match Paul’s writing prowess, so I’ll get right to it. Here’s my attempt at some track notes intended to help folks new to Infineon. I haven’t driven this track in the Mazda GT yet, so everything that follows is based on my 2004 BMW M3. The track map to the left shows braking, acceleration, and turning zones as pulled from a Traqmate during a 1:53 lap included in this video. I hope this is helpful and I look forward to seeing everyone next weekend!

Turn 1

The combination of turns 1 and 2 is my favorite of any of the Northern California tracks; it’s sooo hard to get right. Turn 1 is an uphill left with turn in just after the start/finish line on the far right side of the track. Look to apex the pit wall on the left 1 or 2 car widths out and let the car drift back out to the right as the radius decreases. I find neutral throttle a little after turn in, although I hear it can be done flat out, and use the hill to slow the car from 110 to 85 mph. As the car sets through the rather bumpy high speed turn, aim for the burm on the right side at the entrance to 2. When the car is lined up to run parallel to the burm, things get busy. In a very short period of time, you’ll need to tap the brakes, downshift, initiate turn-in for turn 2, and get back on the throttle without upsetting the balance of the car. Turn 2 is the least forgiving turn on the track so mistakes in the very difficult turn 1 will test your car control skills as you crest the hill.

Turn 2

Turn 2 is a blind, over-crest right hand turn. The apex is just out of view from the turn-in point and also crests the hill as the track shifts a little off camber. It’s very easy to spin here if you don’t start to track out before the crest of the hill. As you unwind for the exit, keep a bit of steering angle dialed in to set up for Turn 3 and ease on the power to shift weight to the rear of the car.

Turn 3

With a little power and steering angle as you exit 2, you’ll naturally find a little pocket on the right side of the track that sets you up nicely to turn in for Turn 3. A bit of brakes as you enter the pocket to drop about 5 mph will help the tires set but you can hold a little extra speed into the first turn since camber and uphill compression are in your favor. Look to the end of the burm on the right side of the track and get back on the throttle enough to hold a constant speed through 3a. 3 is a compromise turn where you’re setting up for the very short straight between 3a and 4 so the apex and exit points are at the end of the burm on the left side of the track.

Turn 3a

At the apex/exit of 3, hold the wheel straight for half a beat, then turn in to 3a. This is a downhill blind-exit turn, so the right apex and plenty of power will plant the back end and shoot you down the short straight to the entrance of 4.

Turn 4

After powering down the hill from 3a, you will need to brake heavily for Turn 4. It's a downhill, off-camber turn that leads to turn 5, which is really another straight, so getting it right is important. Look for a late apex that places your exit near the end of the exit burm. When learning the track, I found it very difficult to be disciplined enough to slow properly for the entrance of 4; not doing so will cause the front end to push end prevent you from getting on the power for 5.

Turn 5

Turn 5 can be taken nearly flat-out, unwinding at the exit to use most of the track as you head uphill for 6. I tend to brake a little later than most at the entrance to 6, lining up just right of track center and easing on the brakes after the crest of the hill. There’s a very short period of straight line braking, as traction comes back after the crest, before moving to cautious trailbrake at the entrance to the Carousel. This can make for a scary turn 6 so if my tires are falling off, I’ll often tap the brakes a bit before the crest of the hill to make for a safer entrance.

Turn 6

Turn 6 is a long downhill left-hander that exits to a long straight, so getting this turn right is critical. The apex is at the bottom of the hill, just past the end of the burm, and is out of view. Use throttle steering to bring the car slowly in for the apex, but not too slowly since camber drops off at track center near the bottom of the hill. Setting up for a tight line at the bottom will allow for lots of throttle as you aim for the apex and begin to unwind.

Turn 7

Turn 7 is one of the 4 places on the track where you’ll be slowing from ~110 mph. It’s also the second hardest braking point, behind the entrance to turn 11. You can take a couple lines through 7, depending on the circumstance. A wide entrance from the far left with a late apex at the second burm will allow you to get back on the power sooner but it also leaves the door wide open for a late-brake pass. As an alternative, you can double apex the turn with a healthy amount of trailbrake at the entrance. In either case, you’ll be looking for a late apex at the second burm to get a good run through the esses.

Turns 8 and 8a

The esses leading to 8a are a series of compromise turns where you’re really looking to set up for a good run through 9. The hardest part about this series is maintaining the patience necessary to sacrifice it. Keep a neutral throttle and focus on smooth transitions so you have a settled car on the far left at the entrance to 8a. A quick lift or tap of the brakes will set the front end for turn in and allow you to get back on the throttle in a big way. The exit of 8a is blind, so start slow until you find the right line and work your way up to WOT through the apex. One thing to note is that, like many areas at Infineon, there is not a lot of run-off here. I’ve seen plenty of cars test the tire wall in this part of the track. It’s very difficult to pass or be passed in the esses, so take your time and be precise.

Turn 9

With a good entrance at 8a, you’ll be WOT all the way to the entrance of 10. Some people prefer to hold the inside line all the way around. My preference is to allow the car to drift out a little so I can carry a little more speed and line up for a nice straight brake zone at the entrance to 10. This is the 3rd area where you’ll be slowing from over 110 mph and it leads to the 4th so it’s very important to enter 9 properly and set up for 10. Another reason to set up properly for 10 is the very limited runoff on either side of the track.

Turn 10

Lined up with the entry burm on the left, you’ll drop 25 to 30 mph with smooth, firm braking and set the tires for turn in. Look for a late apex and get back on the throttle early; you should be WOT as you pass the apex. Getting on the throttle early will also settle the back end of the car and keep you from soiling your seat as you slide toward a very intimidating wall. This is one of my favorite turns because so many other drivers are intimidated by it. My trick is to focus down the straight to the entrance of 11 and let my eyes pull the car in the right direction.

Turn 11

Turn 11 ends the last of the ~110 mph straights and is the hardest braking zone on the track. You’ll drop about 75 mph here. This is a hairpin turn with a wall separating the track from the pits. It’s a classic slow-in-fast-out turn that leads to the front straight. Sacrificing a little entry speed will carry big dividends at the end of the straight. Enter with the car lined up on the left side of the track and brake hard in a straight line; downshift, and set the car up for a late apex. As long as the track is dry you can apex over the paint on the inside of the turn. Ease on to the throttle as you pass the apex and unwind to exit close to the wall on the left side of the track. From here you’ll be wide open through turn 12 and the entrance to turn 1.

Turn 12

This is really part of the front straight so there’s not much to say about it. Enter from mid-track and follow a natural line as you aim for the start/finish line.

Sears next week...

And I don’t have a clue on how to drive it, so no track notes. I’ve only been once and the weather kept me off the track until the race start, so my first hot lap on the course was a race lap and so I got slaughtered. Just to add some spice it was our first (and last) standing start, and I drew the pole. On the plus side I do still have some video, and I did have some fun with Thorpe. It was a couple of years ago, in fact Thorpe’s car was delivered just in time for that weekend. Blue seems to be a fast color, wish I knew back when…

Another plus, Dennis Golden is going to give me some advice, and while he is wicked fast everywhere, Sears is his home track, so that can’t hurt.

Video Link Madness

Here are some video links making the rounds:

From Josh, a reason not to take passengers onto the track, and the driving instructor of the year award.

Just to top it, Mark sent a link to this footage of a Spec Miata at the California Speedway. Watch the tow truck at the end.

Installation Laps and Paul’s Prerace Preparation Paranoia…

Normally a true installation lap is done when you have put new parts on the car or torn something apart and put it back together. The goal being simple enough, are all the parts working properly and harmoniously. I use installation laps during the weekend’s first practice session, a bit differently than that, and frankly differently than all of the other drivers since you can treat a Mazda GT, once it’s warm, a bit more like a daily driver than the full blown race car it is, and just hop in and go. But to pause for a second, let’s first ask the question, from a driver’s point of view just what is an installation lap?

During a proper installation lap the driver is unconcerned with his speed and is going, at best, eight tenths of his normal pace or less. It’s not a time to be learning the track or picking out marks, nor is it a time to be analyzing any off line maneuvers (to pass or avoid being passed) that you might need later. No, a proper installation lap is all about the car and what it’s doing. It’s a chance to narrow your focus to the car itself. Now a lot of the other drivers will take off to learn the track or get some seat time in right off the bat which will work out just fine. But I’ve learned over time that there are some rewards to coming up to speed slower, especially since by concentrating your entire attention on the physical aspect of the car you can spot necessary adjustments to temperatures (more or less tape) and make sure the EGT’s are dialed in as well as get yourself into a good mindset before tearing off like you’re on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. But maybe that’s just me so in the end do what works for you.

In fact, some of the old shoes don’t bother with the practice session at all if they are already very familiar with the track, and the new to middling guys are looking to get some seat time in full tilt boogey mode and so they take off right away and are just fine as well. The Mazda GT is solid enough for you to do that. But it is a race car not some dainty little daily driver, and in some cases it may be a race car that hasn’t been driven in a month or three. So in my mind it’s worth taking at least a chunk of the first practice session and doing an installation lap or two, even if you don’t do the whole paranoid routine that I do.

This begs the question, with no new parts on the car exactly what are the particular goals for such laps? My first goal is pretty general. How does the car sound and feel as I pull it out onto the track. You might, for example, have taken a bit of an off track excursion last time out and have thankfully forgotten all about it. If you didn’t know you bent some little thing last time out, it would be hard to tell the crew to fix it, so it’s possible it’s still there. For me, even if the car was perfect last month, I like to concentrate, at a slower speed, on how the car is currently tracking under acceleration, neutral and braking. There should be no strange thumps or bangs. No odd sounds from the drive train. No unusual vibrations. The brake rotors should feel good, even if they are slippery because they are cold. Our brake rotors and pads will seemingly last forever unless you are unlucky and pick up a stone and it cracks one, which happened to me at Thunderhill three years ago. If you push the brake pedal it shouldn’t push back. Another thing I check right at first, and several more times on the first lap, is the oil pressure gauge. Just because it hasn’t changed in the last four years doesn’t mean it’s not going to change now and the first lap out is a very good time to look at it very closely. Mine will peg after the car is started and pretty much stay pegged as long as my RPM is near race levels.

If the car feels as good as it usually does after the first lap, and the oil temperature is still at least 180 then it’s time for a straight line acceleration test. Well after the apex leading onto the longest straight, once the car is pointed fully forward, I’m going to do a little drag race. I’m taking the engine up to where I plan to shift during the race, in each gear, while keeping my eye more on the EGT’s than the track. The Exhaust Gas Temperature can vary a bit depending on conditions (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure) and it can also vary seasonally based on fuel additives and the amount of Ethanol in the fuel mix. In my car there is about a fifty-fifty chance I’ll need to go up or down one size in the carburetor jetting at the start of the weekend. Rarely, I might need to make a change during the weekend if ambient conditions change radically. The drag race run is going to give me the opportunity to take my time and examine the EGT gauges closely. I already know I’m going to brake very early, I’ve already thrown away the exit, I’m only interested in the top end of third gear not my top end speed, and I’m driving in a straight line so I have plenty of time to look. When pushing the car, later on, it’s still important to have a particular spot to check the EGT’s once per lap, but I get so busy I tend to just glance at the left side and use it as a proxy for both. This is my one chance to concentrate all of my attention on what the motor is doing without any of the distractions you have on a lap where you are fully up to speed.

If the EGT’s are a bit below 1700, for both rotors, at the top end of third gear then I don’t need a change. And don’t over think what the gauges are telling you. After you let off the gas or as you are going up through the gears the readings aren’t that important, what the crew is really interested in is the top end of third gear, just before you let off the gas or shift. Higher than 1700 and it might be worthwhile to go one step richer, below 1700 and a step leaner. It’s important to remember that these temperatures are a bit fuzzy. The car is not going to suddenly blow up at 1701, you are looking for a range and the ability to tell the crew what the car is doing; too high, too low or right on while backing it up by telling them the peak number. If you go too rich, the EGT’s may stay low but the car will be hard to drive since you are flooding it at the bottom of the power band. Too lean and the EGT’s will spike which causes excessive wear on bearings and apex seals as the motor’s internals are getting too hot and are expanding to the limit of tolerance. In the last four years I’ve never had a large valid split between the two gauges, but there is always the first time, and this is a chance to take my time and read them both carefully. The only time I had an invalid split was about three years ago, when the sensors for the right hand gauge went bad and they gave me a reading of -10 degrees right and 1690 degrees left. I’ve also been told, although it hasn’t happened to me, that if one gauge goes bad while the tachometer starts flopping around like a fish on dry land it’s a sign that one of your igniters is going and needs to be replaced when you bring the car back in. In fact, just to be paranoid I would bring the car back in that event, unless it’s during the race itself.

Once I’m happy with the motor it’s time to make sure the motor is going to stay happy with me. And that is part of my third and final test. I’m looking at how various temperatures are looking to behave over time in the current conditions. Most important is to know with certainty if the oil and water temperatures are climbing, steady or declining. You may need more tape on the radiators in a cold morning than on a hot afternoon so this can change during the day but you don’t want to, under any circumstances, run the car with the oil below 180 or above 230. That nice fifty degree gap is not all that hard to hit by putting on, or taking off, some tape on the oil or water radiator and all of the cars are going to react the same, so once anybody gets the right amount of tape, everybody will have the right amount of tape. I just like getting there first. If the oil and water temperature split, and the oil is OK but the water is too hot for example, tell the crew… but generally the water is less important than the oil unless it’s about to start boiling (above 240). During the race if you can only get yourself to look at two gauges, pick the EGT and oil temperature gauges. To get the temperatures right you need, of course, to start to bring the car up closer to a race pace since if you run it too slow the temperature readings won’t match up later on. Which is why this is my last paranoid test before switching to seat time mode. A little over nine tenths of my race pace, with shift points at my race pace, to see what happens for a lap, two at most does the trick for me. During the race itself, if it is a hot day, keep a special eye on the oil temperature if you are right in trail with somebody. If the driver ahead is stealing your air you may need to duck out of his draft on the front straight to get the temperature back down, even if it costs you speed, but thankfully that can only happen on a really hot summer day when you’ve spent a few laps right on somebody’s bumper.

The final gauge to take a look at is fuel pressure. This is one I like to check during the little drag race, to see if it drops below 3 psi, and during the longest sweeping corner, again to see how far it drops or if I’m feeling particularly paranoid that day in the longest left and right hand corners. Generally this gauge isn’t very important unless your car starts to die lean for some odd reason, in which case it’s very important to be able to tell the crew if the fuel pressure dropped at the same time you lost power. I haven’t had this gauge drop below 3 pounds in years, but I like to check it anyway during my installation laps because otherwise I wouldn’t look at it the whole weekend and I don’t want it to start feeling neglected. Besides, the more you can tell Tom and his crew how the car is behaving the smarter you’ll look. Pull in and complain about the car, without being able to tell them what all the gauges are telling you, makes it look like you aren’t paying attention.

So, do you need to do installation laps in a Mazda GT or not? I didn’t do any, none at all for the first two years I drove the car. From my own observations I’m pretty much alone in doing so now, beyond the fact that most drivers pay a bit more attention to the gauges on their early hot laps. And I didn’t even formally think through what I was doing until I decided to write this post. Tom and his crew would doubtless tell me to just shut up and drive the damn thing, that I am over thinking it since once the car is warm you can just jump in and take off like there is no tomorrow. But for some reason doing this long paranoid routine at the start of the weekend makes me more comfortable than I would be otherwise. Part of it is about getting the driver warmed up. So the answer, I guess, is do it if it makes you happy and don’t do it if it doesn’t.

With God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly...

Is probably the funniest one-liner ever developed in a sitcom. The old WKRP show had a narrative describing their Les Nesmith character tossing live turkeys out the side of a plane as a Thanksgiving Day promotion, all while the shocked announcer on the ground did a Hindenburg style, “Oh the humanity of it” running commentary describing the poor birds plummeting to the ground. When it was all over, all Les could do was swear he really thought that turkeys could fly. Anyway, flying turkeys is what came to mind when we were grouped with the little Legends cars. Here and I thought they’d be fun. It’s not my goal to badmouth other groups or cars or drivers or anything, and everybody knows that anybody can have a bad day, but thankfully we were moved by race time Saturday to group B with the Super Unlimited and Camaro-Mustang Challenge cars. Perhaps it was just the large field, or perhaps we just don’t mix well with the Legends cars, but I couldn’t get anything done when we were grouped with them. Of course it could also be that they were running 2:16-2:50’s and we were running two minutes flat.

The SU’s and CMC cars were a much better fit, with the CMC’s running 2:05-2:10.

No practice day, but despite not being able to do my routine during the morning practice in the sea of yellows, by race time I knew my car was good, maybe running a bit rich. I started toward the back with Aaron in the #5 car and Tom D. in the #77. It was a good start, although since we were taking the same green as the SU group we wound up a bit bunched up behind their trailers. That caused Tom, Aaron and I, as well as Josh in the #35 car, to get pinched off from the rest of our field behind a pair of Ferrari F355’s that were very fast in a straight line, but who were driving a bit daintily around the corners. At a hundred and fifty grand apiece I’d probably be a bit dainty with one myself. I remember thinking, “Whatever else you do, don’t dent the nice Ferrari.”

Josh and Tom had no such issues with Josh getting a touch sideways at the top of nine, going for the Ferrari and me at the same time and managing to pull it off despite the drifting demo, which in turn left a door wide open for Tom to follow Josh and take me, but not the Ferrari.

Then Aaron got around me on the next lap, under braking into turn nine, so it was suddenly get with the program time for me. I realized I was just plain going too darn slow. Mentally I was still practicing and getting ready rather than racing. So I shook it off, picked up the pace and got back around Aaron the next time into turn nine and planned on catching up to the field. Problem is, our cars are so evenly matched that if you lose five seconds, behind somebody like that Ferrari, there is no way you’re going to see the rest of the field again. The other problem I had was while Aaron was still trying to learn the track, he wasn’t exactly leaving me alone in my futile attempt to pursue the field either. So we did have a lot of fun in the back, giving each other a race.

With about two-thirds of the race done, Aaron started dropping back, relieving the pressure while I had caught another Ferrari. He was probably two or three seconds off my pace, but I was just motoring around for some fun by then like a dog with his tongue hanging out, sticking his head out the window, so I wasn’t going to do anything heroic to get by him when the lead American Iron driver in his extreme Mustang slowly came up on both of us over the space of three or four laps. I let him by, staying a bit wide and braking a bit early going into nine, hoping that he might push the Ferrari out of the way so I could try a full tilt boogey lap or two at the end of the race, but no such luck. Just like me he caught the Ferrari but didn’t get by it. He did do an odd salute after the start finish, one finger on each hand, which was a bit uncalled for; even if the Ferrari was racing out of class and blocking a bit, the cars behind him weren’t racing with anybody in class either. To me, no harm… no foul.

Anyway, back up front the race went on, and went pretty well by most accounts. Thorpe is always in great form at Thunderhill, the track seems to suit him, and took the win over Bob, Josh, and then Jim. I’ll post something about the guys up front after I get a look at their video. Tom meanwhile didn’t read my track notes and so he didn’t know the finish line was all the way down past the pit wall. He thought he had enough time on me, after the white flag, to skip the cool down lap and cross the finish line in the pit lane. So the track elves plan worked and I picked up an undeserved spot since technically Tom never crossed the finish line and handed me and Aaron a full lap on a golden platter. I probably shouldn’t have broken the news to him since I might need a few more places when we go back up to Thunderhill in August.

As I understand it the same thing happened to Thorpe, who handed first place to Jim at the last second by lifting at the starters stand on Sunday, with Aaron filling out the last podium spot. It does pay to read my track notes now doesn’t it? To take a little extra credit you’ll notice that the second sentence of the third paragraph of my Thunderhill track notes goes, “The starters stand and start line are not in the same place as the finish line.”

Overall as a group we were really fast. Both Josh and Dave went under two minutes a lap averaging over ninety miles an hour, with the spread going from just under two minutes to the 2:05’s and a lot of cars bunched up at close to two minutes flat. Compared to the Super-Unlimited Ferrari’s which were running 2:10’s. There was a monster Trans-am car in our run group doing 1:50’s, but otherwise we were the fastest guys on the track.

I did spot one gaping hole in my track notes. For some reason I always see the 14-15 combo as being two right ninety degree corners, which is pretty far from the truth, 14 has a lot less angle to it than fifteen does and I was rudely reminded of that after sliding around after over-cooking it the first time around at speed. Our cars have a balance to them that requires at least some throttle, in fact you adjust how the car is tracking around the corner using the throttle as much as the wheel. Over-cook the corner like I did and you’ll get a lot of well deserved understeer since obviously you can’t get on the throttle while already cornering too fast...

I have the Willow-Springs movie night clip posted, and while I do need a lot more practice making movies and we need a lot more cameras, it still turned out Ok. I have some video from Thunderhill to get started on, which you’ll see on line next month after I show it at Sears Point (Infineon for those of you under thirty.) By the time we get to Sears I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to work with, and I’ll manage to increase the production value a bit, but meanwhile enjoy the Week One video.

Video is up at last

I just needed to keep trying until I found a format that worked well. I also put a permalink under the 2008 video for Josh's outstanding 1:59.693 at Thunderhill in qualifying. It turned out that was a qualifying race, but since most of us didn't know it we either went out late (yours truly) or came in early (Jim, Thorpe, etc). Anyway, Mark won but with the confusion we went to a random draw for Sunday's grid...

The Movie night video for week one is just like it was shown at T-Hill, an intro with a minute of Steel Monkey from Jethro Tull using some photo's as well as outside and inside camera shots. It's at a lower resolution (if anyone wants a full blown DVD they can talk to Tom & Bette). Then Josh Vs. The Venal Viper with our twelve hundred cc's of rotary muscle beating a up on a poor defenseless little ten cylinder viper. Followed by the points race and the awful oil dry. The whole thing is about forty minutes.

In the end I think I've found something that will work for a intro song. It's an electronic piece called "Come On" that, if I trim the first thirty seconds, can run a minute or so with the beats at the right spacing and then has a nice gap to end it early enough, sounding naturally without a fade. I'm going to try to dig around a bit in my video archive and see what other stuff I can do to create a more professional looking intro to use for all the movie night films.

Here’s a bit of video footage from qualifying at Thunderhill on 3/9/08 to complement Paul's excellent track notes. It wasn't a perfect run but the 1:59.693 was good enough to put me on the pole... until we drew starting positions out of a hat, that is.

Nice Photoshop...

Helen took this and photo-shopped the colors into it. I'm hanging this one on my wall, it's turn one, right after the start, of Willow Springs.

Ten of us are about to enter turn one in a huge gaggle, we went three wide and Josh tried to make it four but dropped two tires, not that it slowed him much.

Anyway, I'm having some trouble with Google Video getting the movie night video uploaded, not Googles fault I'm sure it just seems that Adobe, who I swtiched to from Pinnacle to produce video, likes the idea of a flash video and Google takes eveything but a flash. The alternatives, so far, Google is unhappy with as well. As soon as I get it to work you'll see this entry from Josh's point of view, and I will spend the time to get it fixed up as soon as I can spare it from work, meanwhile enjoy Helen's photo.

I like to watch...

Sebring and F1 on Saturday, Bristol on Sunday. And of course I schedule a project to get in the way. Oh well.

Is the Toyo RA1 about to be phased out?

Checking my Email during lunch I got a promotion, through NASA, for Toyo's new R888 tire, along with the R1R and am wondering if the RA-1 we use is going to be phased out.

Checking Trackpedia I found a quote, apparently from Grassroots Motorsports, that the RA-1 is, in fact, being phased out of production in favor of the R888, shown to the right.

Toyo's ad for the 888 is here

A crew shout out

Before I write up the rest of Thunderhill I thought I'd take just a minute to put in a good word for Leroy, Jose, and John. 7's crew. I didn't feel like I needed to take the car out on Sunday qualifying, preferring to turn it over to them to deal with the starter not engaging, but they decided to tiger team it, swarmed the car, and busted their tails to get me out in time for qualifying anyway.

Thanks guys. The car was perfect.

More Lunchtime Reading...

Is A.J Almendinger on his way out the door? From One Bad Wheel...

Audi means listen in latin? A history of car logos from neatorama.com

12 days to F1, suprising results from the Barcelona test from Blog F1

Mazda GT's Thunderhill is Saturday & Sunday, with no testing on Friday. We're the first race group of the weekend so we get to start driving back early on Sunday with the race ending at three. We're grouped with the Thunder roadsters and legends cars for the first time I'm aware of, rather than super unlimited and the stock cars, which should be fun.

Week one's Willow Springs video should be ready soon, I will probably post them to the blog sometime after the Thunderhill weekend. Stay tuned.

Correction: We're first on Saturday, we're the second race on Sunday afternoon finishing at three-thirty.

Paul's Thunderhill Track Notes

Located about an hour north of Sacramento, one of Thunderhill Raceway Park’s claims to fame is that Ford shot their famous GT-40 Super bowl commercial there. It really is a track that has a bit of everything about it. Single apex fast swooping corners, off camber high slip angle back ‘n forth’s, long straights and short esses, blind turns, elevation changes, bumps and smooth surfaces and a really nifty double apex at the end of the long second (or third depending on how you count) back straight, that you need to get right for the even longer and faster front straight. It’s a bit like Sears Point but longer, faster and with more far more run-off and far less history to it.

Technical is word some people use to describe tracks like Thunderhill or Sears, but I would prefer a word like ‘nuanced’ or at least ‘challenging’ since technical always seems to me to mean specialized or scientific rather than the way it’s meant in racing, which would be “exhibiting or deriving from the technique or use of technique.” Thunderhill is a challenging track with many nuances that requires a driver to exhibit a high level of technique. That’s a longer and clumsier way of saying it, but one I like a lot better than just saying “technical.”

One item of particular nuance is on the front straight. The starters stand and start line are not in the same place as the finish line. This is one of those little things that, perhaps deliberately, the local track elves put in place and can use to steal a position at the last second. It’s all too common for a driver to hit the start line, lift and start celebrating, while a crafty local driver on his tail stays on the throttle for another two hundred yards and beats him to the finish line. Well after you pass the start line, if you look to your left right around the end of the pit wall, you’ll see this little sign that says, “Finish.” It’s easy to miss.

One reason it’s easy to miss is that drivers are looking for their marks for turn one, on the right hand side of the track. Turn one is a fast wide uphill less than ninety degree left hander that gains increasing amounts of grip from track-in, thru the apex and all the way to a blind track-out. There are brake markers, on the right side of the track, just past pit out, and a nice bit of curbing on the inside that makes a good reference for your apex point. At the right entry speed, which is hard to judge, if you hit the apex you’ll wind up just shy of, or just onto, the curb at track-out. Miss the apex and at least there is a lot of run-off. Be warned though, after turn-in is a very bad place to lift completely, at speed, since it will give you some throttle lift over-steer. Don’t be afraid to go fast, however, since even if you mess up by lifting from fear and getting some over-steer, putting any throttle back on at all will plant the rear end and pop you right out of the corner like a cork from a Champagne bottle. You’re gaining grip the whole way around, so while in other cars over cooking turn one probably means it’s too late to check your life insurance policy, in a Mazda GT just give it a whisper of throttle to avoid a spin and remember, if it makes the highlight reel on movie night, you planned on doing that.

In qualifying trim it’s useful to actually use the pit out on the way into turn one, by moving over after the end of the pit wall, to get a bigger arc. The problem with doing so in the race itself is that it is a high speed passing corner, and if someone gets inside of you and brakes just a smidgen later than you, at that speed, they’ll have your lunch, breakfast and dinner served up to them by their favorite swimsuit model. You’re at the end of the front straight at this point and are just flying…

The exit of turn one leads to a short straight that runs over a modest rise just before you need to brake for turn two. You don’t need a whole lot of braking here, since if need be you can scrub speed on entry, but if you “have one on your tail” you need to get all the way down to the inside since it’s a good passing move to slip inside the car ahead and try for an earlier throttle. Turn two is a long constant radius sweeper, again to the left, that starts to gain grip on track out and which leads to a very short sucker straight.

Now most everybody is familiar with a sucker turn, a corner that seems to require more entry speed than it really does and either suckers you off the track or keeps you off the throttle; that is, in fact, an excellent description of turn three. However it tends to start suckering you in during the short straight between two and three since the entry for three is very deceptive as well as nearly blind and the temptation is to get some speed on the straight on the way to it. The way the track is configured, from the exit of turn two all the way around turn three you are driving around the side of a hill. Turn three actually goes around the hill, but they didn’t actually cut into the side of it much, so it is, if you can imagine it, a right hand turn glued to the side of a hill leaning to the left. What is worse is that you can’t really tell from the driver’s seat that the camber gets worse, far worse the farther away you are from the inside. Imagine standing on the side of a hill, with your right shoulder pointing to the top. Now pave it without digging. That’s turn three. Just to add a bit of spice, since a lot of drivers stay up against the inside of the turn, where the camber falls off is also where their klag winds up. Joy.

So if you take a classic entry line, too fast, into turn three you’ll have no help recovering. You could have Batman’s suction cup tires on your car, but you’re still going to lose the tail end. And since it’s mostly on the other side of the hill, you have to remember, rather than see, that it leads to a slow series of tight, high slip angle bends whose camber and elevation both change pretty radically. In short, you can afford to throw away the entry to turn three, along with some of the speed on the very short straight, without losing all that much on a race lap. I tend to stay inside all the way around the corner, especially since it helps get back onto a bit of throttle at the exit of turn three, which is a back ‘n forth section leading into turns four and five. An alternative, good for qualifying, is to start outside, but with the right entry speed and angle to get and hold the inside of the turn from the apex on. Either way you want to be on or near the inside curb at turn three’s track-out.

As soon as you get around the side of the hill in turn three, you’ll be in turn four. A flat left hander whose main purpose in life is to set up turn five. Turn four is sort of like the third Manning brother. It exists, but only because they wanted something between Payton and Eli.

If you are all the way to the right hand curb at the exit of turn three you’ll be perfectly set up to get on the throttle, apex turn four, and use all the track out before five. And here is the one variable in track configuration. Turn five can either be turn five, an enormous elevation change to a very sharp, blind left hander whose apex is at the top of a very steep hill. Or it can be ‘the bypass’ which peaks to the left of turn five, needs far less braking, but will try it’s best to pitch you sideways while you are off balance going over a very nasty bump while the car is light.

Turn five is easier. You get huge braking with it going uphill in a straight line, get the right turn in speed for the apex at the top of the hill and just try to carry what speed you can on the other side. The other side of the hill is, again, off balance and way off camber since, like turn three it’s going around the side of the hill, but this time downhill as well, without them having dug into the side, so again, farther out means less grip (although this time only at the beginning). Downhill and off-camber, you still need to, once you are going down the other side of the hill fight your way back to the right to get set up for turn six.

If you are using the bypass, like we were in the ‘Best of Thunderhill’ video, then your biggest goal is to get over the crest of the hill without the car getting pitched completely sideways, and throwing you off the side of the track, while carrying as much speed as you can, but without messing up turn six. To start, after the exit of four instead of drifting right and staying right, which would send you to the brake zone for five, you need to continue the arc and pull back over to the left. When you are going over the crest of the hill on the bypass, you need to start far enough left to get an angle even with the bump that is just past the crest of the bypass. If the car is turning at, or just past the crest, it’s going to hit that big bump at an angle while light. This is a bad thing.

The end of either turn five, or the bypass, still involves going around the backside of the hill, which is still sharply downhill and off camber. To carry the best speed you need to use track out, but not so much track out that you blow the entrance to one of the most important corners, turn six.

Now I am a devotee of the type I, II, & III corner schema. Where a type I is a corner leading onto a straight and is the most important, a type II is a corner leading off of a straight and less important, and a type III is a corner leading to another corner and so is the least important of all. The whole complex of back ‘n forth from turn three to turn six is pretty much all type III’s, while turn six is not only a type I, but the third or fourth most important type I on the track. A speed advantage carried out of six can be held up to and almost through turn eight in theory. In practice I’ve found that a better exit holds an advantage all the way to the brake zone of turn nine.

Turn six itself is a basic, flat, ninety degree left, with good curbing on the outside if you need to use it, but don’t over use it or you’ll drop a tire. A classic apex, it leads to turn seven which is just a kink, with no lift unless traffic forces it, and into turn eight. Turn eight is an uphill left that again gains grip on the track out while going sharply uphill. Eight is less than ninety degrees and doesn’t usually require much, if any, braking. Instead consider a nice throttle lift before turning in, get the car turning a little earlier than you might think, and go through it full tilt boogey. Just don’t miss the apex. The one thing to try to avoid, if you can, is going side by side through eight. I tried that with Dave exactly once when he got a run on me off six, had the inside to eight but wasn’t ahead. Turned out there was only enough room for one car at a time, and it wasn’t mine, although on a positive note the run off there is terrific, just make sure you’ve taken your hay fever med’s.

Which brings us to nine. Nine is a high speed blind staggered S, left then right, at the crest of the hill you just started going up with the right hand part being on the blind, back side of the hill. A decent passing zone if you can get inside while braking to the crest, one thing to watch out for is the angle at which you’ll be leaving the corner relative to the curb at the top right hand side of the hill. The corner starts left, goes right, but you need to continue drifting left since if you hit the top of the hill in a straight line you’ll be rather startled when the track suddenly moves out from under you at a high rate of speed.

It’s a reasonably fast corner that allows you to gain more speed quickly since it’s sharply downhill, in a straight line to turn ten. The braking zone for ten is a bit deceptive. You exit nine going sharply downhill, bottom out, and then start a gentle climb just before ten. Of course the track design elves decided that an uphill braking zone off the second (or third depending on how you count) longest back straight would be too simple, so ten, from turn in to track out, is flat. That means the car gets just a bit light in deepest part of the braking zone. This is a trick the track design elves will repeat, only much more so, in turn fourteen. They put more brake markers here, at ten, but to avoid getting them run over every weekend they are on the left hand side and hard to reference.

Between ten and the eleven to thirteen esses is a very short straight, where you can gain some speed, but give it up in time for the turn in for eleven because that complex is another type I, probably the second most important on the track since it leads to the 2nd (or third depending on how you count) long back straight. Turn in to eleven is classic, fairly tight and a bit downhill. They replaced the gravel traps, between the apex’s, with a better run off back in 2006 to stop people from kicking gravel all over the track each weekend. Because of that you can, not that you should of course, cheat by cutting the apex of the esses by nearly a car width. Not that I would do such a dastardly thing.

Eleven to thirteen rewards an nice exit, and you should be able to carry full throttle from the apex of eleven all the way down the second (or perhaps third depending on how you count) back straight; which brings us to the braking zone of turn fourteen.

Fourteen and fifteen should really be seen as the same corner, in terms of the arc of your line, but are distinct since the entry of fourteen is the second most important type II (end of a long straight) while the exit of fifteen is the most important type I (beginning of the longest straight). If you were going make a corner into a VIP at the Oscars, everybody in the know would be waiting on the red carpet to see who fourteen and fifteen were wearing. For myself, I’m always rooting for as skanky as possible…

The brake zone for fourteen has some markers, just past the bridge on your left hand side. Problem is the design elves really went to town here. The straight starts with a bit of downhill out of eleven thru thirteen, flattens, then has a nice sharp rise with a lovely amount of grip just before you could actually use it. Of course the rise, and the grip, ends right where you normally reach threshold braking. I can hear the elves giggling from here.

Just to make it more interesting fourteen is an excellent passing zone under braking with just one exception. The exit of fifteen is the one corner you most need to nail to get speed down the longest straight. And if you don’t complete the pass in time to use the single car line into and out of fifteen, then you and the driver you are trying to pass will lose many…many places before you reach turn one. You’ll be a Dead Duck if you don’t play nice and get single file before the track-out of fourteen. Trust me I’ve been there.

On a qualifying line you hit the hill, brake a smidgen early knowing you’ll have to back off at the crest and from a left side track-in position hit the apex of fourteen at the curb with enough speed to carry you back out to a fourteen track-out position on the far left side, which is also the track-in for fifthteen. Balance the car by getting off the brake (if you trailed) and on the throttle before fifteen, while the line is continuing the turn through a double apex, hit the inside right side and drift all the way out onto the curbing at the left, outside, track-out, of fifteen and find yourself on the main straight with a hint of a wiggle over the outside curb. In 2006 they put more of that run off between fourteen and fifteen, along with some padded barrel like doohickey’s to discourage using all the run off to widen the arc. Not that yours truly would ever go wider there and just miss the barrel in order to get a huge run on somebody all the way down the front straight. Nope, that would be cheating… and great shame comes to those who get caught cheating…

Pit in is at the apex of fifteen, so sometimes you may come up on pitting traffic that forces you off the second apex by a car width, but it is extremely important to get a good launch here, so don’t give up more than you have to. Need be, better to give it up early, and get on the throttle early, than to catch a pitting car in the wrong spot.

Like I said at the beginning, Thunderhill has a lot of every kind of thing going for it, which makes it really fun track that can also keep the racing close. High speed, slow speed, with just plain wicked elevation changes, it’s a bit difficult to get fully up to speed on, but once you do it’ll probably be your favorite track. You can also, sometimes, bide your time a bit, put on some pressure, and wait for your opponent drop a few wheels off the track somewhere. It’s worked for me.

I can’t wait to get back and do it again…

Update: I corrected a numbering mistake, I had labeled the last two corners 13 & 14, when they are actually 14 & 15. Also turn one is less than ninety degrees.

I Remember

The very first time I saw a Mazda GT. I had taken my Miata for yet another track day, this time to Buttonwillow, in December 2003. After all the daily drivers, like mine, had pulled off the track for lunch, out came this car in Coors Light, Silver Bullet regalia for an installation lap. It was Tom Dragoun, who was getting the car ready for the twenty-five hours of Thunderhill (yes, NASA has a 25 hour enduro, their slogan should be “We do Daytona one better”, but nobody asked me)

So, after all those dainty daily drivers, where you hear more tire squeal than throttle, it was one hell of a contrast for this full throated race car to come roaring around sunset and I remember what is now an indelible first thought, “Man, what I wouldn’t give to drive a car like that.”

I’d been wanting to race since I was a teenager; frankly Nixon was President back then and UOP was sponsoring an F5000 car driven by Jody Scheckter at Riverside, so you can understand I’d been waiting a really long time. But there was always some reason or other that I just couldn’t do it. The logistics, having a place to put a trailer between weekends and having something to haul the trailer with, those were just for starters. While working on the car on weekends sounds like fun, I’d spent too many track days watching guys waste their entire weekend neck deep in oil and grease, often never even getting their car out on track. I was leery, to say the least, about supporting the car myself. And while I understand theory very well, except for transmissions (since I learned on airplanes) I also became aware a long time ago that I have a singular talent for cross threading a nut. Sometime I swear I can make a screw strip itself with just a casual glance. It’s kind of like a reverse superpower. This explains why, thankfully, in the end I ended up working on computers rather than airplanes. So as much as I was looking forward to fussing with a race car in the garage between weekends, what I really wanted to do was drive it, and without support and some solution for the logistics and hauling and stuff I couldn’t see how to make that happen.

I remember the following summer, 2004, after taking yet another longing look at many different race cars, deciding to check out that really cool Mazda I saw the previous December. More important than the fact that the price of the car was a lot lower than I thought it was going to be was the realization that I had the opportunity to avoid all of the logistics and support issues if I wanted. Tom and Bette have an ‘arrive n drive’ program for the car that is perfect for guys like me. They store it, maintain it, transport it, and fuel it, support it track side, the whole nine yards. Of course I knew you could get the same type of thing while renting a race car, but who in his right mind wants to spend that much money to spend a weekend in a car driven the prior weekend by a sixteen year old with delusions of being drafted by Ferrari? Square tires and a tweaked engine, gasping for the finish line, no thanks.

With Seven’s Only you have the advantage of your own car while you can, and I recommend, having them do all the hard work. Which lets me just enjoy the weekend. As I talked with Tom that late summer day I realized that every single obstacle that was keeping me from racing was just solved. I wrote the check on the spot, and took delivery the following October and have been racing ever since. Frankly, if it wasn’t for Tom and Bette and what they do I’m sure I’d still be doing track days in my Miata and dreaming of the day when I could drive a real race car in a real race.

Now all that is great, but you’ll notice that it is all self-centered on just my experience. It’s all about I and me. There is more to the Mazda GT series than that. As much as I remembered, Josh’s first post reminded me of what I was forgetting, what I was taking for granted, which is the community centered on this car. Beyond the fact that the other drivers are fun to race with, there is group of people who are much more than spectators, who help make the weekend that much more fun.

On my desk at work I have a coffee mug with a photo Helen took at Willow Springs which is the envy of all people with good taste in cars. Little stuff like that, and big stuff as well, like Chuck and Kevin pitching in when I smashed the car up at the California Speedway, helping get me out to compete against their own brother. Memories of Mary helping me strap in at Willow Springs or Bob BBQ’ing a terrific steak on a Saturday night may be less prominent than drifting side by side in turns three and four with Scott, or a five car knock down drag out for third place at Thunderhill, but those are the quiet things that make the difference between just showing up to race against strangers and having a really… really good time with friends.

That was all too easy to forget, and I’m glad Josh’s post reminded me of it.

Thunderhill movie night

Ok, so part of what I’m doing this year, along with writing posts for this blog, is writing with pictures. I’m now responsible for movie night.

Mazda GT has a party on Saturday nights, and when the sun goes down and our bellies are full, we’re breaking out the projector and watching the previous race shown against the side of Tom’s great big white transporter.

I don’t mind saying by the end of the first Willow Springs Saturday I was worried about laying an egg for next month at Thunderhill. A great big rotten stink bomb of an egg like an Easter egg you didn't find until July.

The reason is that we were still working the bugs out of the cameras, and haven’t got very many cameras in place yet, since to be fair the bugs need to be worked out before the guys plunk cash down for them. Mea culpa again, I just need to make the recommendations in time and be ready to support everybody once they get to the track. Toward that end I now have some excellent video of my driving my Miata to Von's, and yes, I will spare you the drama. I made it all the way to the store and back.

But going over what we’ve got for the first race weekend, it looks like I’ve got a lot more material to work with than I thought I’d have. Toward that end I updated the video parts, to your right, by breaking them in two. The pending section up top will be all from our new season video, while I moved the old junk down a bit and out of the way. Josh and I will be posting some more non-2008 season video down there as well, to go along with track notes and other sundry goodies. But all the 2008 season goodness will be up at the top, sooner or later.

For the 2008 season video, Josh’s Sunday qualifying race will be first up, hopefully with some outside footage to go along with it. The tentative title is, “Josh versus the venal viper!” cause he was in a fight with somebody or another from green to checkered flag. And he humiliated that viper by the end, and I love a happy ending. I think I finally understand why women like those flicks where a bunch of people sit around and talk until somebody's aunt dies.... Excuse me, while I grab a hanky...

Point's mea culpa

Whoops, turns out I didn't know our points system for this year. The end of first weekend standings have been changed to reflect the correct system which is twenty eight points for a win, and drops by two points per place after that. Thanks to Jim for setting me straight and for Barbara for keeping proper track of the official results.

The Rookie’s First Impression

Excited, intimidated, nervous, uncertain; all feelings that overwhelmed as my first season of racing approached. The season opener for the Mazda GT Championship Series was February 9th and 10th at Willow Spring International Raceway, a track that I had visited for the first time two weeks prior to the opening race. I typically suffer from fantasies of grandeur but, in this case, my goals were to finish both races and not make a complete fool of myself. As it turns out, I didn’t have as much to worry about as I thought.

I took delivery of my new GT car the day before the first race. It was an open test day, with little pressure to do anything other than get the car ready for Saturday. Items on my list were to set the steering column length, seat position, and pedal depth. I’m very particular about suspension balance so I was expecting to spend most of the day adjusting the dampers but Tom hit the nail on the head by referencing Thorpe’s #3 car. All I had to do was request neutral handling. Nice! I spent a bit more time bedding the brakes and working with the crew to clear up some tire rubbing and the car was ready to go. The day was mine to practice reading the gauges, work on my line, and bench race with the other drivers.

Coming into Saturday with a well dialed car was a big load off. Warm up was much like a HPDE but qualifying was an entirely different animal. I understood the fundamental goal around qualifying, which is to run your quickest lap before the tires get too hot. Theoretically, that’s likely to happen in laps 3, 4, or 5, or so the books say. Making theory a reality seemed much more difficult on the track than I expected. I went out with the intention of taking two easy laps to get some room ahead and knock out the third lap with authority. As it turned out, other people had the same goal and I spent the entire session chasing a clean lap. Note to self – work on strategies for qualifying.

Through some miracle of racing, or just dumb luck, I managed to qualify second, which put me right next to last year’s series champ for the points race. My plan was to drop behind Jim to see if I could keep up and learn a thing or two. To my surprise, Jim joined the ST1 group for the start. This should not have been a problem, since the Viper in front of me should have pulled away handily, leaving plenty of room at turn one. In reality, the Viper did not pull away and I got passed on both sides in the first turn. Note to self – work on race starts.

The field thinned out after the first lap and I was back in very comfortable HPDE-like driving. Focused on taking it easy and finishing the race, I fell into a consistent 1:32 pace and worked my way back into second place. “Go slow to go fast” was on my side. In the last laps of the race, the first place car was a good distance ahead and the third place car a good distance behind. “Take it easy and don’t #$%^ this up” played through my mind over and over. I dropped a couple seconds from my pace and locked in a second place finish. Let the fantasies of grandeur begin.

The post race natural high carried me into a BBQ with some of the coolest folks out there. I’m not sure if it’s the racing or the camaraderie that I like better; but with this group you get the best of both worlds. Tasty steaks, good discussion, and video of past races projected on the side of a trailer. No buyer’s remorse here. I made a good decision.

Looking under the cushion…

… of my couch may lead to some extra spare change. Looking at my cushion, the amount and type of room I leave myself for those small mistakes and corrections I need to make in a corner may lead to a change in my lap times.

Now the term, “Go slow to go fast” is the most overused, hackneyed cliché in racing. But it got that way by having a lot of truth to it. My problem with it is that the people who use it most often have rarely thought through why it works. To me the “why it’s true” is more important for a beginning driver since it’s the reason why too many drivers just reach a certain point, not all that high on the food chain, plateau and ultimately give up the sport in disgust. While others get unnaturally fast with far less seat time. All too often drivers will look to friends who will just tell them they are over-driving the car, which may work but again, is only the half of it. And while getting that half often leads them to fix the other half naturally, without having to think about it, I prefer to think things all the way through.

No matter how good and consistent a driver you are, you need to leave yourself a cushion in each and every corner. No one is absolutely perfect, using one hundred percent of grip and one hundred percent of the track, no more and no less, each and every time, is beyond anyone. Part of getting faster is being able to consistently use more grip and more track than the other guy, without ever exceeding a hundred percent of either. It’s about needing less of a cushion, in total. But that’s the long term solution, a small, bit by bit improvement that getting more seat time leads to in the long run.

The initial, beginners mistake that the “go slow to go fast” cliché is implicitly, but not explicitly, designed to address is to change the kind of cushion not the amount, which is more important to initially getting fast. No amount of seat time, while constantly over-driving the car, will lead to much improvement because while trying to get fast, too many drivers will push the car harder, which means using up more of the tire’s available grip. Since the driver still needs a cushion, the only place to get it once he’s used up all the grip is to leave more space on the track. This is the mistaken mindset that the cliché will implicitly address. It’s enormously clear that a car using one hundred percent of grip and ninety percent of the track is going to be much slower, and much harder to control, than a car that is using one hundred percent of the track and ninety percent of the grip.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come up on somebody trying to wrestle his car into submission, and using every last ounce of grip his tires have, but who I could just casually drive around the outside of, since he’s left two or three car widths of track-out for me. When doing track days they would often be convinced I had some special engine or trick suspension and when I tried to explain why I could pass their Corvette in my little 98 horsepower Miata they would either get it and get faster right away or they wouldn’t. But most of us had to at least be told the cliché once or twice, even if we never thought about why it works.

The reason I like the full explanation is that the first instinct for a driver told he’s driving the car too hard is to look to his apex, and that won’t necessarily help either. You can over-drive the car while hitting the apex every time. The driver needs to look at the whole arc. Track in, apex and track out. Friends and coaches might tell the driver he’s over driving the car, and that he’s not on the line, but the response is usually “I’m hitting the apex every time, so it must be something wrong with the car.”

Many drivers have an issue with ego, or like me, with memory or perception. To beat either, the best exercise is to take some video (with the sound off) and pause it at turn-in, apex and track-out of each corner. With a piece of paper (many of us are tactile learners) in my hand I write down how far I am from the edge of the track. If it’s just a few inches, ok, but I’ve spotted myself both crabbing in from the edge of the track while anticipating the turn-in, and using up all of the tire while leaving five feet of track-out as my cushion. Everybody watches their apex, and remembers when they get it right or wrong, but you don’t start getting really fast until you start paying just as much attention to your track in and track out; the whole arc.

Willow Springs: Week One

My oh my, after more than four months out of the car what a wonder to be back in it. If my posts weren’t so long winded I’d run out of words.

To start with, an eleven car field is at least twice as much fun as seven or eight car field. We had two brand new cars, Josh in the Endsight racing #35 and Aaron in #5. Both the drivers did very well and are great additions to the series. Clean and smooth, with good situational awareness and fun to compete against. Our series has always been blessed with an abnormally large number of drivers who are just plain fun to race with, and it’s outstanding to see that trend continue. Josh in particular did very well capturing two podiums his first weekend. He’s also joining the blog as our second poster. Aaron got at least one podium in his #5 as well. With a large field that’s some good driving right off the bat.

For myself, I had a near perfect practice day. The track was open, without sessions, all day, so there was no hurry to do anything in particular. After a few installation laps to get the temperatures in line, I was happily putting in as much seat time as I could handle.

Race day practice and qualifying went well for me. I was just a few tenths off of Thorpe in the #3 car, which made me pretty happy since he’s been quick for a long time. Jim continued his domination from last year setting a jaw dropping 1:30.3. That’s only a second off of the track record for our car, which was set with slicks, not the RA-1’s, in perfect conditions (I was there.) Bob continued to be really quick as well (maybe these guys have found some kind of racing Viagra or something…)

NASA continues to organize a great weekend, and like they do every once in a while they replaced the qualifying session on Sunday with a qualifying race. That is always a real treat from a drivers perspective since it means a three race weekend instead of just two. It’s not another point’s race; it just determines the starting order for the Sunday point’s race later in the afternoon. But it’s just as much fun without a three dollar trophy at stake as with one, and this race was a blast.

The pace car went too slow, leaving us crawling below four thousand. Our cars are purpose built race cars so first gear is closer to where third is in your daily driver than a typical first. So as soon as the pace car pulled I brought us up to seven in first and held there. Scott was on the outside in the #77 car and caught on to what I was doing; but when the leader accelerates like that it’s generally the clue for the guys in the back that the flag has dropped since they have a harder time seeing the stand. Mark in the #50 took off, pulled nearly up to the front row, realized what went wrong and got off the throttle. The starter saw what was happening, and to avoid a black flag, but make it fair, he held the flag long enough for Mark to drop back. That, of course, killed his momentum and most of his race.

Scott took the #77 car around the outside of me into turn one, side by side, and I discovered that the outside might just be better than the inside at Willow Springs at the start. To give him a car width of racing room I lost so much track out, compared to normal, that it wasn’t even a question of who was going into turn two in the lead. Scott managed to hold onto that lead for the whole qualifying race and put the #77 on the pole. Either the #77 is faster, or Scott is much faster (ok, Scott's certainly faster, but it should have taken another corner or two) or, and I think this is likely, the outside is actually the better line into turn one during the start. Usually if I try to pass someone there it’s an early apex, I get there far enough ahead that I can still use the entire track out. Side by side I think you get skunked on the inside.

I managed to hold onto fourth. Josh went in deep into nine, and I rarely pass there since it costs so much speed to contest, but he pulled it off well enough. I saw it, and so planned an outside-in to take him back, and exited with a lot more speed than he had, but as the straight went on I just slowly stopped pulling on him. By the time we reached turn one, I was on his left rear quarter panel with a smidgen more momentum and the inside line so it would have been worth a try to repay the favor by out-braking him into one on the inside, but I decided against it since he was at least a second a lap faster than I was even when I went full tilt boogey, if not two, so it just would have delayed the inevitable. Anyway, it was a very good race with a lot of fights all over the field. Exactly why I do this…

Jim got me as well, so I think the qualifying race order ended up being Scott (#77), Josh (#35), Jim (#98) and I (#76). Scott is Tom Dragoun’s son, and it turned out after putting it on the pole Tom decided to race his own car Sunday afternoon and put Scott in Phillip’s car (#78) at the back of the pack.

Of course, while sitting in grid it was decided to invert, again, which didn’t hurt me much (fourth to seventh, I think) but put Tom right on the tail end, wasting all of Scott’s effort. This start went a lot cleaner, but was very exciting since I think we were four wide for a bit in one. I was afraid I pushed somebody two wheels off, but it happened behind me so quick I don’t know who it was. I just saw a flash and used the last of my grip to hold in, a half a car width from the edge, which was all I could by then. No accident’s, no touching, everybody made it thru the gaggle.

Now we were told, before the start, about some oil in turn two and some oil dry. We also got the debris flag at the starters stand and going into two. But I wasn’t at all prepared for the amount of oil dry they used. The formation lap was bad, but the first race lap was indescribable. I literally held a higher speed than I’d planned, since all I could see was the tail of the car five feet in front and I was afraid if I fell more than those few inches behind it I’d lose my only visual clue as to where I was. At the same time I was simply amazed that the car didn’t just slide off the track at the speed we were going on that stuff. I literally couldn’t see the ground in front of the car and whoever’s rear spoiler I could just barely see was really just a dim hazy kind of outline, despite the fact that I could almost reach out and touch the damn thing. I was very thankful once we got out of two, although I never was able to see again out of the right third of my windshield. Of course it took more laps to clear up, but it wasn’t quite as bad the second time around.

Josh did the turn nine inside trick again.

I got a launch on him again, and this time I wasn’t going to be quite as nice a guy because we had a lot of other traffic and if I could get him back it might just stick. Besides he mucked up Tom’s plan and so I got a run on the both of them (getting them both would've been sweet), but in the end couldn’t do it because of the huge gaggle it created going back into turn one. Mainly Mark in the #50 and T.W. in the #17 who were getting slammed by Tom & Josh in the same corner I wanted to pass them back at all while Jim, Scott, Aaron and everybody else was trying to get to the same apex at the same time.

I had to be especially careful because, after taking him into turn three the first time around, Scott had moved his car right up behind me and was showing me his nose on lap two. I don’t know who went into one in what order (I’ll have to wait for the video) but it was almost as much of a gaggle as the start.

Scott was slowly closing on me for most of each lap but I would generally pull all the time he gained back in turn eight since the #78 car seemed to have a lot of trouble keeping up to speed there (I think maybe a flat spotted tire). Overall, with no other factors I could stay ahead with him in that car, that day, which even with me in a better car at the time is something to be proud of.

Nevertheless, experience tells (Scott’s been racing a long time and is a really…really hot shoe) and he wound up knifing through traffic far better than I could and took me going through the three-four complex a few laps in. Note to self, the inside into four may look like a good defensive move, but only if you can close the door by the top of the hill. Scott was inside and nearly even with me by the apex of three, and as we went side by side to the top of the hill it became obvious I was going to have to give it up before the second apex or cause an accident that would be my fault. Better to go deeper into three with an early apex and contest it there. Anyway, from then on I’d get a run on him going into eight, but it was never near to close enough, and besides, Scott is just a magician with traffic. I ended the race about sixty yards behind him.

That still left T.W. in my sights. I was slowly pulling on him, but so little it was going to take a very long while to get in range, when he overcooked just a bit into one. That caught me right up, along with Scott who was still on my tail at the time, but eventually I got an inside line into turn one and made it stick.

Now last year, when T.W. started out, I would’ve expected him to drop back and I’d lose sight of him a couple of laps after passing him. Not this year. He’s getting better and it’s just a matter of seat time before he hands me my head on a stick. It’s what I remember (aside from the oil dry) the most about this race; being just short of making a race with Scott while I had to keep pushing the car really hard to stay out of T.W.’s range. That just seemed to last forever and I’m not sure which idea motivated me more. Falling behind T.W. or catching Scott. I haven’t lost to T.W. straight up, yet, but it’s obvious that it’s just a matter of time (and not much) before I do. I need to put some kind of 'stop getting faster' hex on him or something…

Turn two got better and better, even if my window didn’t, but there was no real chance to relax the whole way. I always had T.W. behind to worry about and Scott ahead to try to catch while traffic, faster and slower, kept making things even more interesting. Which is why I like these bigger fields; sure, the new trophies (very nice with a photo from the race by Helen, just for our series) are much better than NASA's same old, same old, although it might be awhile before I get my hands on one. But it’s much better to have a race where you have to struggle that hard for the whole distance than to just get another trophy.

After all, it’s what I came for.

Rev Limits

A new guy who was testing at Willow (he rented Phillip’s car) was asking about Rev Limits for our Mazda GT. In a nutshell they aren’t any. A rotary motion, as opposed to the up and downs of piston’s and valves, can take a lot more RPM since the stress is always angular. It’s the same reason turbine engines can routinely spin at twenty thousand RPM. Now this doesn’t mean we’ve beaten back the laws of physics or anything, it’s just that the concept of ‘this far and no farther’ doesn’t quite work for us like it does with pistons and valves.

In physics the stress on our rotating parts will increase at the square of the RPM’s. So the stress, and increases in heat, will start to spike dramatically in our motors between nine and ten thousand RPM. But it’s not going to fly apart as soon as you hit, or even exceed, ten thousand either.

Prior to the Jerico this lead to some interesting trade-offs. Because the gaps between the gear ratios varied from gear to gear in a regular transmission, you could stretch the motor a bit in certain gears, to insure that after the shift you would remain in the power-band, which trades some longevity for performance. If you look at the old ‘Best Thunderhill’ video, for example, you’ll notice my stretching the rev’s well past the shift light for a lot of that race. One of the many things I like about the Jerico is that there is less of a premium on stretching out the RPM, meaning you can be competitive without having to spend two to four grand on the motor each year. The reason is that the gears are evenly separated and close. If you are above 8.5 you’ll at least stay in the power-band (best thought of as seven to nine) after an upshift. An advantage to going higher is still there, and you can and should use a few more RPM’s, judicially, when you are in a tight fight, it is just a lot less rewarding than it was before. So if you want your motor to last, recognize that the trade is between longevity and spinning really fast (above nine), which leads to the obvious question, “why waste that mojo in practice.”

Myself, I routinely shift a little shy of nine thousand during practice and most of qualifying, (I’ll try a bit harder in qualifying during laps two-four when the tires are at their best) and will push to between 9.2 and 9.5 (my shift light is currently set to 9.2) routinely during the race. I am willing to stretch all the way to ten to get by somebody where I know I can stay ahead after the pass. After having motor problems early on, once I learned this along with some other engine goodies, I’ve found either a magic engine or my paying attention to all the details you need to increase longevity are finally paying off. My motor was put in the car at the beginning of 2006, when dyno’ed midway through 2007 it was stronger than any of the other motors (at 220 to the wheels) and it still feels good at the start of the 2008 season. All with nothing more than routine maintenance.

Now you can, and I do, adjust those numbers a bit for conditions. For example, at Willow Springs this weekend (Feb '08) everyone was running a little higher EGT's than normal. This can be caused by any of a number of differences in conditions or just the quality of the fuel. A lot of the time we can just change the jetting to make the carb run richer, but when I tried it the car went way too rich. After changing it back I decided that during most of practice and qualifying I'd shift a little lower just to keep the EGT's at the top end of third gear below 1,700.

One other huge difference between our Mazda GT’s and your daily driver is that, realistically speaking, we have a minimum RPM as well. In fact, it is easier in some cases to damage a motor by spinning it too slow than by spinning it too fast. The reason is that a peripheral port, like we have, isn’t happy at all at low RPM. Casually stomp on the throttle at four thousand and you’ll regret it. You’ll neither move, nor will the engine be very happy with all the coughing and sputtering.

Bottom line is, once you get the engine between seven and nine thousand RPM; try to keep it there and it’ll be happy as a clam. If you are in a fight and don’t mind a little extra wear if it means winning, push it to ten K. If you’re starting out of the pits, be gentle with the throttle until it stops sputtering and pay attention to what RPM it’s sputtering at. If you get caught out on track and lose RPM, you’ll need to know where to nurse the throttle since it’s likely to be the same range.

Above all, when you get out of the car, be able to tell the mechanics what the gauges were saying when. I know it's hard to do with so much to pay attention to, especially at first, but the engine you save will, not might, be your own.