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.