AudiOn19s

I've "Bench Raced" TT times for years but have never thrown my heat in the ring and tried it out until this weekend.

I've come away with a new found respect for the TT drivers who have mastered this skill set and can go out and quickly get heat in the tires and post a near perfect lap within the first 2-3 laps before they hit traffic and the rest of the session is a throw away. With our PCA DE stuff you go out and gradually put heat in the tires and wait for everything to come in for 2-3 laps before you really start to push, with TT your session is over by then.

I also struggled with simply trying too hard, pushing and making stupid mistakes, over driving the car, too quick of inputs on the gas that would unsettle it and too much brake pressure trying to brake at the very last moment. When I finally settled down on Sunday things started to come together but it was too little too late.

I set personal goals for myself both days (pro course Saturday and club course Sunday) and fell short of those goals. I had laps on both days where I could have met my target but as stated earlier they were either foiled by traffic, local yellow flags, or driving mistakes from me trying too hard. Final times I posted were 1:30.6 on the pro configuration and 1:33.0 on the club. I was secretly hoping to run a 1:29 and 1:32 respectively and again think I could have with a little more experience in the setting. I was screaming in the car when I was trending towards the 1:29 on Saturday and got held up in a really bad spot but that's part of the game with Time Trials.

I did end up winning both days by a large margin but there were only 2 cars in class and not a ton of competition. I was 4th overall of all cars on Saturday and 3rd overall on Sunday. I believe my Sunday club lap is a new TT2 lap record but they haven't run a ton of events on the club course so we will see how long that record stands.

If any of you have a competitive drive I highly suggest trying out Time Trials to see how you fair. I had an interpretation of NASA that it was all super competitive racers but came away with the real picture which is that it's a great community of like minded enthusiasts willing to help each other out whenever possible and out to have fun and help everyone else have fun as well. I met some really great new people, had a blast and will be back for more at some point. The best part of the weekend was chasing an unlimited classed factory BMW M4 in GT4 spec. He beat me by a small margin both days but we ran pretty much nose to tail every session on Sunday having a ball!

cgfen

Nice driving.
You look happy.

mmuller

Gadsby

himself

Martin S.

NASA SoCal is run by Greg Greenbaum MD. He "runs a tight ship" as they say. Multiple "download" meetings throughout the day, and he doesn't tolerate stupid driving errors. Go to far over the top with poor driving, you stand the chance of being booted out for the day, or the weekend if you are a real idiot. So far I have not been penalized��

The competition is intense, few Porsche cars, mostly BMWs, Miatas.....My GT3 Weighing approximately 3,400 Lbs with averaged HP of approximately 330, 1/2 tank of gas, a RSS 1/2 cage and a Recaro Profi XL seat replacing the stock seat, Trofeo 235 and 295 tires, I wound up in TT3, not TT2 as was the OP....some of the fastest cars were a class down from me in TT4, BMW M3 cars, fully race prepped. Was I fast? Not really, bottom 25% on the grid, but not the slowest....but I had an incredible time. This is my 3rd track event in the GT3 and I am still learning the car. I also have a mild alignment...I do drive the car on the street, and I kept the alignment settings to pretty much "Kassmaul" specs, no regrets. I am not about to sacrifice the streetability of the car, and in the process, eat inside edges of the tires in the process.

In closing, big +++ on NASA SoCal; they run a very efficient, well organized event. Car to car contact is not tolerated. And as a result of the efficiencies of how NASA SoCal runs their TT events, they are heavily attended. Their TT group this last weekend had over 40 cars entered.

Keep in mind all NASA clubs are not the same; they are different franchises. My experience is only with NASA SoCal.

KOAN

Great times, Andy...nothing to feel bad about, and I know too that you can beat those times on another day. How was the track?

AudiOn19s

lfish

Your lap times blow this intermediate driver away... no wonder you fill the rear view mirror so quickly. Will you be at MidOhio this weekend? Would like you to drive the new GT3.

AudiOn19s

Hey Larry, hope all is well. I will not be driving this weekend because I have a kart race on Sunday, but I will be at Mid Ohio on Saturday helping out with instruction for the day. I'll stop over and drool over the new car and to catch up. I appreciate the offer to drive but I know if I drive one I'll have to have one and that's just not in the cards right now for me!!! I'll wait till I'm ready to upgrade then bug you for the experience.

AudiOn19s

Here's video of me chasing a factory BMW M4 GT4 spec car. This car was in the unlimited class but we chased each other around all day on Sunday running within .5 of each other every session.

Rceron

Congratulations Andy. Awesome video BTW. Hope to run into you this year.
Ramon

spiller

Great driving and the car sounds amazing!

Apex Wheels

Excellent driving. The season is young, so hopefully NASA has a few more Mid-Ohio events this year - always something to look forward to!

NorCal's NASA TT is often times lumped in with group 4, which makes it all the more difficult when you don't run quick lap times shortly after getting heat in the tires. Is it the same in the Midwest region?

AUDEW

Wow. Congratulation and nice driving.