Dave532
15+ Year Contributor
- 98
- 0
- Jun 5, 2006
-
Minneapolis,
Minnesota
Road America recap: (RA) Aug 4/5
Elkhart Lake, WI
NASA Racing in 1G DSM
Saturday practice was spent tuning the car for this track and watching
the brakes closely. While RA is the fastest track seen all season, it is
also the hardest on brakes. Qualifying was uneventful. During almost the
entire race I was wheel to wheel with a Thunder Roadster. He eventually
passed me on the last lap due to a lapping M3 which almost chopped
off my nose and forced me to lock brakes in the kink. Regardless, it
was a great time. I was seeing 130 mph at the end of the 3 long straights.
Sunday brought fog and light rain. I skipped Practice because it was
raining and, according to the weather experts, it was going to dry out
before Qualifying. However, Qualifying brought more rain and all I had for
rain tires were some Kumho MX street tires...big mistake. The car would
not turn at corner exit and had little overall grip...lesson learned: buy
R compound rain tires! The best I could qualify was 8th. After Qualifying, the
rain stopped though it was still misty with some fog. ( I had to change
my braking point into Turn 1 because the fog obscured the brake markers!)
Thirty minutes before the race I put my dry tires on...5 minutes before the
race it starts to rain again! So the grid was a mess...fast cars on drys,
slow cars on wets...every possible combination. After a couple first lap
spins (M3 and Acura), the field settles in and tries to stay on the road.
by lap 4 the rain stops and I start gaining positions on cars with wets (and some
911's and M3's on dry tires start catching me). There are only 2 other
cars in my class so my goal is to pass them, which I do, a couple laps
before the end of the race. The last 2 laps my brake rotors were so
warped, I couldn't see out of the car while braking due to the intense vibration.
Excellent weekend, great racing and the car came back relatively clean.
A new set of rotors and pads and I should be ready for the NASA Nationals
at Mid-Ohio in Sep.
-Dave
#532
NASA PTC
Rally America PGT
Elkhart Lake, WI
NASA Racing in 1G DSM
Saturday practice was spent tuning the car for this track and watching
the brakes closely. While RA is the fastest track seen all season, it is
also the hardest on brakes. Qualifying was uneventful. During almost the
entire race I was wheel to wheel with a Thunder Roadster. He eventually
passed me on the last lap due to a lapping M3 which almost chopped
off my nose and forced me to lock brakes in the kink. Regardless, it
was a great time. I was seeing 130 mph at the end of the 3 long straights.
Sunday brought fog and light rain. I skipped Practice because it was
raining and, according to the weather experts, it was going to dry out
before Qualifying. However, Qualifying brought more rain and all I had for
rain tires were some Kumho MX street tires...big mistake. The car would
not turn at corner exit and had little overall grip...lesson learned: buy
R compound rain tires! The best I could qualify was 8th. After Qualifying, the
rain stopped though it was still misty with some fog. ( I had to change
my braking point into Turn 1 because the fog obscured the brake markers!)
Thirty minutes before the race I put my dry tires on...5 minutes before the
race it starts to rain again! So the grid was a mess...fast cars on drys,
slow cars on wets...every possible combination. After a couple first lap
spins (M3 and Acura), the field settles in and tries to stay on the road.
by lap 4 the rain stops and I start gaining positions on cars with wets (and some
911's and M3's on dry tires start catching me). There are only 2 other
cars in my class so my goal is to pass them, which I do, a couple laps
before the end of the race. The last 2 laps my brake rotors were so
warped, I couldn't see out of the car while braking due to the intense vibration.
Excellent weekend, great racing and the car came back relatively clean.
A new set of rotors and pads and I should be ready for the NASA Nationals
at Mid-Ohio in Sep.
-Dave
#532
NASA PTC
Rally America PGT
