The first SoloSprint of the year!

For those that may not know, a SoloSprint (a.k.a Time Trial / Time Attack) is essentially the same thing as qualifying for a road race. You have a fixed amount of time (or laps in this case) under the clock to achieve your fastest lap time possible. But instead of determining your grid position for a race, your best lap time determines whether you've won your class.

The format is as follows... All competitors get ~1 hour window of practice time in the morning, then in the afternoon each competitor gets 4 sessions of 3 timed laps to achieve their best time. During the competition there is a limited number of cars on the track at once and the cars are group / spaced so that one should never be impeded by traffic.

I was classed in PREP and was alone in my class. So my goal was to match or beat my my personal best lap time of 01:18.144 from last September. This would be tough as traditionally the fast times come out in the Fall when the air is cooler while the sun still heats up the asphalt.


Session 1:

• This session was short lived as I spun off the track before I even finished my warm-up lap! Here's a video. Sorry about the quality... I had the camera on the wrong focus setting.
  
  YouTube - ARMS SoloSprint #1 - July 24, 2010 - Session 01
  
  
  The video looks much scarier than real life. I only slid halfway across the track. The video gives the appearance I was up against the wall.
  
  So what happened? Well, it was a combination of carrying a little too much speed through turn 11 (Duh!) and cold / under-inflated tires. You see, during the morning practice I kept bleeding off my tire pressures to maintain my ideal hot pressure, but after the long break between practice & the event, my pressures dropped way too low. After the spin I checked the pressures again and they were in the mid-twenties. I'll know better next time.
  
  End result for session 1 is that I got no times. The rules state that if you go 4 wheels off at anytime, all your times for that session are void.

Sessions 2-4:

• Without the results right in front of me, I can't remember exactly what I ran each session. I think I was in the high 1:19's in session 2, low 1:19's in session 3, and finished up with a 1:18.161 in session 4; matching my personal best.

Matching my personal best in the first SoloSprint of the year is a great way to start the season, and sets a good baseline to build from. Normally people get faster over the season as they get more & more track time and the weather becomes more ideal. It's looking good for 2010!


Just to show that I'm not the only one who likes to spin off the track, here's another video where a Mini Cooper spun off in front of me during the morning practice session.

YouTube - ARMS SoloSprint #1 - July 24, 2010 - Practice

Perhaps the Talon looks overly menacing in the rear-view mirror? Maybe I need to stick a Honda emblem or something on the front bumper so people are less intimidated.