Scott McIntyre
DSM Wiseman
- 309
- 44
- Mar 15, 2002
-
Halifax,
NS, Canada
It’s been two long months since my last event. If you’ll recall, at that last event my rear axle popped out of the CV joint plus my tranny started popping out of 1st & 2nd gear. So for the past two months I’ve been addressing those issues.
It’s a long sorted story as to why it took so long to repair the car so I’ll spare you the details. The end result was that I replaced my tranny with a Shepherd Stage 4 in hopes of never having to deal with tranny problems again.
Also during the downtime, I finally installed my Snow Performance alcohol injection kit and also installed a TCE Wilwood big brake kit.
On to the event!
This was a SoloSprint which is also know as a Time Trial or Time Attack. Essentially, you drive around the road race circuit full-out and attempt to get the quickest lap time possible. You get a practice session in the morning, then 9 “hot†laps spread over 4 sessions in the afternoon from which your best time is scored. There are multiple cars on track at the same time, but they try to space you out so you don’t interfere with each other’s laps. If one car does manage to catch another, then they’re given a yellow flag and a rerun so as to not be disadvantaged.
The last (and only) SoloSprint event I’ve participated in was back in 2001, so I was pretty much a rookie. Plus it was my first time driving the car in anger since installing the new tranny and Wilwood brakes. So during the morning practice I was quite timid to say the least. My best lap time during practice was a 1:28.xxx, which was on par with what I was running at the wet High Performance Driving School earlier in the season.
By the afternoon, however, I was starting to feel more confident in the car. It was working great and the big brake kit was awesome!
The organizers used morning practice times to determine which run group to place people in, the idea being that cars with similar lap times would run together and therefore would have little chance of catching each other on track. So I was put in a group of cars running 1:28’s and slower. This caused a problem for me as during my first session I caught the car in front of me after only one hot lap and messed up my remaining two laps of the session. I was yellow flagged however so I got to do reruns later on. At this point I was down to 1:20 laps.
During my 2nd session I pushed it a little harder and got my time down to a 1:19.076, which happened to be the fastest time of anyone (save the formula car). I was stoked!!!
Come 3rd session I popped an intercooler pipe and had to get towed back to the pits, so no improvement in time.
Then by the 4th and final session, the day was getting quite hot & humid and most people were getting slower, so I didn’t bother running again. I already had the quickest time by a ½ second.
So that’s how the event went. I was ecstatic with my result. I had achieved & surpassed the goal I had set for myself this spring of hitting 1:20’s. And I think I surprised quite a few of the other competitors.
Next event is the AutoSlalom @ Scotia Speed World this Sun, Aug 30. Then it’s the ASN Canada FIA Canadian SoloSprint Championship the following week. Looking forward to attending both!
It’s a long sorted story as to why it took so long to repair the car so I’ll spare you the details. The end result was that I replaced my tranny with a Shepherd Stage 4 in hopes of never having to deal with tranny problems again.
Also during the downtime, I finally installed my Snow Performance alcohol injection kit and also installed a TCE Wilwood big brake kit.
On to the event!
This was a SoloSprint which is also know as a Time Trial or Time Attack. Essentially, you drive around the road race circuit full-out and attempt to get the quickest lap time possible. You get a practice session in the morning, then 9 “hot†laps spread over 4 sessions in the afternoon from which your best time is scored. There are multiple cars on track at the same time, but they try to space you out so you don’t interfere with each other’s laps. If one car does manage to catch another, then they’re given a yellow flag and a rerun so as to not be disadvantaged.
The last (and only) SoloSprint event I’ve participated in was back in 2001, so I was pretty much a rookie. Plus it was my first time driving the car in anger since installing the new tranny and Wilwood brakes. So during the morning practice I was quite timid to say the least. My best lap time during practice was a 1:28.xxx, which was on par with what I was running at the wet High Performance Driving School earlier in the season.
By the afternoon, however, I was starting to feel more confident in the car. It was working great and the big brake kit was awesome!
The organizers used morning practice times to determine which run group to place people in, the idea being that cars with similar lap times would run together and therefore would have little chance of catching each other on track. So I was put in a group of cars running 1:28’s and slower. This caused a problem for me as during my first session I caught the car in front of me after only one hot lap and messed up my remaining two laps of the session. I was yellow flagged however so I got to do reruns later on. At this point I was down to 1:20 laps.
During my 2nd session I pushed it a little harder and got my time down to a 1:19.076, which happened to be the fastest time of anyone (save the formula car). I was stoked!!!
Come 3rd session I popped an intercooler pipe and had to get towed back to the pits, so no improvement in time.
Then by the 4th and final session, the day was getting quite hot & humid and most people were getting slower, so I didn’t bother running again. I already had the quickest time by a ½ second.
So that’s how the event went. I was ecstatic with my result. I had achieved & surpassed the goal I had set for myself this spring of hitting 1:20’s. And I think I surprised quite a few of the other competitors.
Next event is the AutoSlalom @ Scotia Speed World this Sun, Aug 30. Then it’s the ASN Canada FIA Canadian SoloSprint Championship the following week. Looking forward to attending both!
