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Understood. You should have seen my goatscrew prior to replacing the first bent axle. The first 2 trailer shops wanted to replace all my “nonstandard” running gear. I was darn pleased to find a 3rd shop that said “sure, we can replace that axle”.
Here’s my Saturday video. Close racing throughout. My normal running commentary. https://vimeo.com/75986783
Unfortunately, I didn’t record any video of Saturday’s race. Here’s the setup for Sunday: qualified 8th, but recognize I’ll be lucky to finish that high. The top 6 guys on the grid are way out of my league. So, I figure on making a conservative start, but things quickly get interesting in the esses. I resist the urge to follow the white car thru on the right, which would have ended badly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djFYrd9GE-s
Here’s the restart and last several laps after a long red flag (due to a different incident).
Thanks to everyone for posting their videos, very helpful in finding a few of the many seconds behind I am from the pack.
2 turns I stay in 4th gear when most of you appear to shift down to 3rd. Might explain why I’m lugging along through those turns…
More speed into the bus stop, more speed through the carousel, more through the chute. Looking at speedos I’m not too far off at the ends of the straights, but exiting a few turns I have several MPH to gather up.
I still feel like the 1 quart per session oil consumption is related to some of the sluggish feel I have, but the bulk of my slowness is certainly driver.
[quote=“OriginalSterm” post=74262]Thanks to everyone for posting their videos, very helpful in finding a few of the many seconds behind I am from the pack.
2 turns I stay in 4th gear when most of you appear to shift down to 3rd. Might explain why I’m lugging along through those turns…
More speed into the bus stop, more speed through the carousel, more through the chute. Looking at speedos I’m not too far off at the ends of the straights, but exiting a few turns I have several MPH to gather up.
I still feel like the 1 quart per session oil consumption is related to some of the sluggish feel I have, but the bulk of my slowness is certainly driver.[/quote]
Racing is a different story and might require compromises. So don’t think that because someone downshifted to 3rd in a turn means that is what you should do all the time. For qualifying, I would stay in 4th through turn 1 and at the end of the laces. During the race, depending on the situation, I’d use 3rd when defending or 4th.
[quote=“Rob in VA” post=74263][quote=“OriginalSterm” post=74262]Thanks to everyone for posting their videos, very helpful in finding a few of the many seconds behind I am from the pack.
2 turns I stay in 4th gear when most of you appear to shift down to 3rd. Might explain why I’m lugging along through those turns…
More speed into the bus stop, more speed through the carousel, more through the chute. Looking at speedos I’m not too far off at the ends of the straights, but exiting a few turns I have several MPH to gather up.
I still feel like the 1 quart per session oil consumption is related to some of the sluggish feel I have, but the bulk of my slowness is certainly driver.[/quote]
Racing is a different story and might require compromises. So don’t think that because someone downshifted to 3rd in a turn means that is what you should do all the time. For qualifying, I would stay in 4th through turn 1 and at the end of the laces. During the race, depending on the situation, I’d use 3rd when defending or 4th.[/quote]
I agree, but in situations where my car seemed to really bog down, downshifting looks to help keep the power on. Someone told me a few years ago that, even in my car, staying in 4th was the way to go for these turns. I resisted the urge to downshift because of this advise, I’ll definitely need to reconsider this next time out…
It’s worth a try, but the biggest thing for me will be seat time and growing bigger cajones for some of the turns.
When you are relatively new to a track and still trying to figure out turns, the problem with going to 3rd in a borderline turn is that you no longer try so hard to increase your entry speed. If instead you go into the border line turn in 4th you’ll spend every lap trying desperately to go into the turn a little faster.
This doesn’t work as well with uphill turns because the engine will struggle with a steep uphill at 4k rpm.
[quote=“OriginalSterm” post=74262]Thanks to everyone for posting their videos, very helpful in finding a few of the many seconds behind I am from the pack.
2 turns I stay in 4th gear when most of you appear to shift down to 3rd. Might explain why I’m lugging along through those turns…
More speed into the bus stop, more speed through the carousel, more through the chute. Looking at speedos I’m not too far off at the ends of the straights, but exiting a few turns I have several MPH to gather up.
I still feel like the 1 quart per session oil consumption is related to some of the sluggish feel I have, but the bulk of my slowness is certainly driver.[/quote]
FWIW, my game plan for the weekend was to really concentrate on T1 and T11, and basically just try to man-up everywhere else. I have plenty of HPDE time at WG, but only 1 day (last year) in my SE30. I found buckets of time in those two corners.
[quote=“EdP” post=74268][quote=“OriginalSterm” post=74262]Thanks to everyone for posting their videos, very helpful in finding a few of the many seconds behind I am from the pack.
2 turns I stay in 4th gear when most of you appear to shift down to 3rd. Might explain why I’m lugging along through those turns…
More speed into the bus stop, more speed through the carousel, more through the chute. Looking at speedos I’m not too far off at the ends of the straights, but exiting a few turns I have several MPH to gather up.
I still feel like the 1 quart per session oil consumption is related to some of the sluggish feel I have, but the bulk of my slowness is certainly driver.[/quote]
FWIW, my game plan for the weekend was to really concentrate on T1 and T11, and basically just try to man-up everywhere else. I have plenty of HPDE time at WG, but only 1 day (last year) in my SE30. I found buckets of time in those two corners.[/quote]
T1, T9 I probably have the most to gain. Only a little to gain on each of the other turns.
Ranger, that’s a good point as well. I couldn’t build any RPMs in T9 in 4th gear and that’s one place people were walking by me.
T1 I’m slow through while in 4th (my fault) and going up the esses people get held up behind me then drive around, all while going uphill still. 
[quote=“OriginalSterm” post=74272][quote=“EdP” post=74268][quote=“OriginalSterm” post=74262]Thanks to everyone for posting their videos, very helpful in finding a few of the many seconds behind I am from the pack.
2 turns I stay in 4th gear when most of you appear to shift down to 3rd. Might explain why I’m lugging along through those turns…
More speed into the bus stop, more speed through the carousel, more through the chute. Looking at speedos I’m not too far off at the ends of the straights, but exiting a few turns I have several MPH to gather up.
I still feel like the 1 quart per session oil consumption is related to some of the sluggish feel I have, but the bulk of my slowness is certainly driver.[/quote]
FWIW, my game plan for the weekend was to really concentrate on T1 and T11, and basically just try to man-up everywhere else. I have plenty of HPDE time at WG, but only 1 day (last year) in my SE30. I found buckets of time in those two corners.[/quote]
T1, T9 I probably have the most to gain. Only a little to gain on each of the other turns.
Ranger, that’s a good point as well. I couldn’t build any RPMs in T9 in 4th gear and that’s one place people were walking by me.
T1 I’m slow through while in 4th (my fault) and going up the esses people get held up behind me then drive around, all while going uphill still. :([/quote]
T9 is def. a 3rd gear turn.
I found a second going through the bus stop & outerloop. It was also where I was stronger than most of the guys I was running with. T11 is way faster than I think it is (probably cause I don’t like the lack of runoff). If I can figure that corner out I’ll be running with you Rob! 
Denny, you had some speed last weekend! Glad to see your car back in action. 
I kept some in reserve because my only goal last weekend was to bring the car home in one piece. Mission accomplished
[quote=“Rob in VA” post=74273]
T9 is def. a 3rd gear turn.[/quote]
I knew it! Next year…
[quote=“OriginalSterm” post=74262]Thanks to everyone for posting their videos, very helpful in finding a few of the many seconds behind I am from the pack.
2 turns I stay in 4th gear when most of you appear to shift down to 3rd. Might explain why I’m lugging along through those turns…
More speed into the bus stop, more speed through the carousel, more through the chute. Looking at speedos I’m not too far off at the ends of the straights, but exiting a few turns I have several MPH to gather up.
I still feel like the 1 quart per session oil consumption is related to some of the sluggish feel I have, but the bulk of my slowness is certainly driver.[/quote]
When I was behind you, I did notice vast amounts of oil coming out of your exhaust while under throttle. Like, Honda levels.
I have lots of driver improvement to do as well, but I’m still having a blast. I had a great weekend.
I had a great time racing with the NE guys again, as well as the visitors from other regions. Being originally from Rochester, I love getting back home to the Glen. I had about 40 hours of personal labor into my engine over the preceding 2 weeks in order to get it put back together for this race. The dyno numbers were very disappointing, which made Satirday’s win really surprising and special to me. Pete Thibault definitely gave me a run for my money and made me work for it. Great, clean driving from Pete (ignoring the last lap, last turn bump. Haha).
Sunday went a little differently. It started with a good launch, but then a bad decision to bump James instead of trying to find a way around (you’re welcome, James! LOL) and also not shifting out of 3rd. I dropped to 5th and was behind Sean when we got the red flag. On the lap after the restart, I made a late braking move to the inside of T6, which went fine. We came out side by side and had a little incident on the straight away as he was tracking left and I stopped moving. He actually stopped, too, but we then had a tire touch that neither of us were expecting. As he started to hook, I recognized that this was about to end badly for him. On top of that, it was going to be my fault. I made the decision to pull away, which sent me towards the wall and resulted in the impact. The wheels took the brunt of the impact and a tire to strut rub meant I had to retire. Just to be clear, I accept responsibility for the incident and don’t blame Sean for anything.
Here’s just the restart and incident:
http://vimeo.com/76140115
Here’s all of Sunday’s race:
http://vimeo.com/76119116
I left Sunday with a smile on my face. I’ll have body, suspension, wheel/tire, and engine work to do in the off-season, but I look forward to more racing with you guys next year!
Cheers,
“Unofficial East Coast Championship” has a nice ring to it. Let’s get that onto a t-shirt next year 
“Unofficial East Coast Championship” has a nice ring to it. Let’s get that onto a t-shirt next year ;)[/quote]
My perception is that the official NASA championship is going to be on the East Coast next year, so we may not need an un-official east coast championship.
Seriously tho, keep in mind that historically we create conflict with NASA when we talk “championship” events that are in conflict with the official NASA championships. I am a helova lot of fun to share a beer with, and I don’t like conflict. I will intervene on posts that obviously slap NASA in the face. All I ask is that we be reasonably clever and try not to make the conflict between the NASA championships and a clearly labeled “alternate” championships as obvious as possible. If we can be just slightly more subtle than “obvious as possible” then everyone will be happy.