TRAKCAR

Seeing Lar follow the orange RS and anothet GT3 on his rear bumper, it was more Erik and Juan who I was thinking of...

mooty

LAR is polite.
i do and did ride on rear bumpers, but the front guy decided to jam on his brakes on front straight. i know i was over 100mph. swerved and made T1. whew....

i dragged raced lar down T1. that was fun.

zumaron

It was nice to meet the NoCal crew at Buttonwillow. The event was run on time and very smooth. Thanks for the hospitality John!

Here's a few laps chasing Greg in a 911SC. Best time (2:16) was during this session while doing all I could to keep up with him. Suggestions for a better line from the experienced fast guys is welcomed and appreciated.

Cheers, Ron

[youtube]AWPdCtj2L1A[/youtube]

race911

Didn't mean to hit-and-run post back there a few days ago, but I never got an email update until the one that just came in above. Way to much to quote, so I'll just take it from the top. (But a lot has been explained by others.)

Yes, Adam's point that the patches will effectively constitute a whole repaving at some point seem correct. My "rough" comment just came from SCCA and NASA guys I know who venture down there once in awhile. Only axle I've ever broken on the Radical was braking into the sweeper CW...........

Now, as far as lap times, I've not driven it since the "long" T2 came into existence. From memory, the most time I put in there was when the track first opened, and I was running my '74 "SC" bodied car with a pretty decent 3.5L and 225/245 BFGs. (Those are the old ones that we ran at 22psi hot, and you'd get the "groove of doom".) Typical time on the CW/sweeper config was ~2:05. Then I got the '73S set up decent, and on Kumho V700s Hank Watts and I would mess around with that track record at ~2:06. Next up was with the RSA stock class racer, and it was 2:02-2:03. Radical was in the 1:48 range.

Funny-ism if you want to read a story. Back when Mark Dalen (Sunday Driver, founder of the new site RacerUniversity) got Radical #1 and DJ (Dave Johnson) got his, they were the first guys to use data. So I guess Mark figured coming into Magic Mountain CW that it was a quick brake/downshift to 5th/go, with a max speed over the top of about 97-98MPH. So one lap DJ gets trapped behind a car and thought he was just in 5th coming in, so he just flew through the corner. Apparently he almost ran over Mark on the exit. The looked at the data and saw he was in 6th at something like 110MPH. Oh, there's an aero hole there where mechanical grip only goes so far, but there isn't enough aero grip to get you through until you have the stones to go ~15MPH faster. Yeah, was a real head adjustment when I got mine a year later, and everything was pretty much known. Would love to see data on what the Atlantics or tunnel sports racers (Stohrs) do over the top there!

24Chromium

Hi Ron!

I'll try to give you some feedback, but... keep in mind, you were nearly as fast as I was. So don't listen to me! LOL


I'm going off of Traqmate data that my friends provided, along with in-car video. Since you've got excellent in-car video of the faster red car in front of you, we'll simply use that as our reference points.

You hang right in there from S/F till the end of the bus stop. At that point, the red car just starts to slowly pull away. You've got excellent brakes, so you can catch up a little by the Star Mazda hairpin. But, he quickly pulls away again as he exits that turn and heads up thru the esses.

You're suffering the exact same fate as me! We both simply need to man-up and put the hammer down! LOL But, Buttonwillow is a very bumpy track and it's hard to feel the confidence to keep your foot in it.

From what I saw in your vid, I think you were a little early and too tight on Riverside (the big right hand sweeper). Stay outside longer and keep putting the pedal down as you head towards the apex. Then at the exit, you don't track out all the way. Yes, it's scary to have to turn the car so hard the opposite way all of a sudden to make the next turn, but you can manage. Same goes for the next turn as you start the approach to Magic Mountain. You need to let the car track out all the way and keep your foot in it.

Thru the esses, the same holds true. You should enter the esses as far to the right as possible. You left a meter or two on the table there. Then, you simply need to press harder and get it to WOT before the last apex.

These sections I'm describing are really, really, long relative to the overall lap. That costs you a TON of time.

Wish you a quicker lap next time!

996FLT6

U want to extract more time- it's really all braking points. The guy who brakes later and smoother will always beat the lead foot no matter which coarse. If u got the right braking point your exit speed would always be good. U know porsches are known for that so just take advantage of that. Mike

mooty

^ that's only good for racing. to get fastest time is to brake way early and on gas way way way early.
watch where tony brakes and off brake at T1. fk, maybe i cut off his leg and put it on me.

jrgordonsenior

Huh? You mean the left don't you? He took most of the first bump on the left which is correct, then just nicked the others which is the fastest way thru the esses. I stay a little longer to the right to get around the last LH gator onto the straight to avoid going off right under hard acel. It's nasty out there and known for sending cars back across the track into the wall....

I read this and then I watched his video. I thought he did a good job all around the track. A few little things here & there, but more throttle is what's needed most....

zumaron

I do lose ground on Riverside which is very evident in this clip as he pulls away. It's certainly a section of track the car feels close to the edge of traction and I'm a bit hesitant to go faster. As suggested, I'll work on "putting the hammer down" and adding "more throttle" while still being safe of course.

Thanks for taking the time to watch and provide insight. I'll stay tuned and look forward to crossing paths with you guys up north sometime soon.

Cheers!

mooty

so you should sign up for ncrc at TH 7/9-10 and/or PCA GGR at TH 7/16-17

quite a few RL'ster GT3's will be present.