here's an idea: I'd like to switch the format to 30 minutes practice/15 minutes qualifying/60 minutes race.

it's actually 5 fewer minutes than our current 60/30/20 setup, and I think the races would be more fun if they were longer. you'd have to do a pit stop, there's less incentive to go banzai into turn 1, more time to recover from a mistake.

any thoughts?

 

60 minutes is a long race, especially for new people. We would need lots of spare cars. I think qualifying is much too long in our current format. 15 minutes is plenty to find a good lap. I would suggest 60/15/35 and see what people think before moving on to even longer races. If practice is shortened too much, people will need to practice in advance to get consistent... for that to work, we would need a schedule of upcoming races.

 

yeah we could do a schedule without too much difficulty I think.

30-35 minute race would be cool with me, I just think 20 is too short.

agree on 15 minutes qualifying.

60 minutes practice is a bit long unless you're a noob, or don't know that car or track; I think the majority of the regulars are pretty familiar with most cars and tracks, unless its new content.

anyway, just throwing out some ideas.

 

I generally don't do so well on sets that are built by alien and super-fast types for some reason. Always way too loose for me. I did like the lift-throttle oversteer, it was just a little too much, made the car feel really nervous.

 

yeah but on that track you kind of need that to get the car to rotate in all those 180 degree hairpins.

that's a tough track, particularly the infield section, in a big heavy horsepower car.

 

If I could throw my 2 cents in....

I love long races, I also don't mind the short sprints. I'm game for either format. All I'd like to ask is that the start time of the race itself doesn't change, if that's possible. I generally don't get home from work until 7:30pm central. By the time I say hello to the family, change clothes, and get the sim rig fired up, it's usually 7:50 or slightly later. I usually have just enough time to squeak in 2-3 laps under qualifying before the race starts at 8p central.

If you bump the race start any earlier, then I'd miss it...

 

good point. I think there's a number of people in that boat

 

Not knocking the set - and am certainly appreciative of Justin's sharing of his set. As I stated in my previous post, I generally jump in less than 10 minutes before the race starts. Having something up there that's "close enough" is great if I don't already have a set of my own ready to go for the car/track combo.

I generally prefer to do that with the brakes. Probably a habit I picked up being a long-time motorcycle racer where you trail brake everywhere. I prefer to be able to brake deep, tip the nose in, then power out, and control the rotation of the car with the brakes, and have a tendency towards understeer when under power - so when I open the throttle, I can go WOT and let the car drive out.

Just different driving styles is all... there's always more than 1 way to get around the track.

 

cool, what did you ride?

I had a Ducati Monster and a CBR600RR years ago, but never got them on track. not sure which is more dangerous, street riding or racing. probably street riding

 

Cool.

The ONE TIME I got home early enough to actually run a bunch of the open practice beforehand was a few weeks ago when Pat Long was giving away a pair of gloves. Of course, that's also the day my internet service died....

 

there will be more Pat Long giveaways in the future, although not as frequently since the racing season is under way.

stay tuned....

 

Street riding is definitely more dangerous. Without a doubt.

I've been through a lot of bikes. I started racing in the dirt when I was 12. Moved into a street bike when I turned 16 (possible in IL so long as you take the MSF course.) Few years of riding like a jackass on the street and some friends and I decided we should try a track day. Only did a handful of those before we dove into racing.

I raced a pair of GSX-R750s (a 2000 and 2001) for a few years, then decided I wanted to get into AMA stuff (no supersport-level 750 classes) so I got into the Yamaha R6's. Ran a bunch of those for a few years ('03-'05), buddy of mine and I did a lot of FormulaUSA and WERA endurance stuff together too. But as with all racing - it got expensive. I kept getting faster and wanted better competition and by the time you get to AMA, you're putting fresh tires on each time you step onto the track, lots of motor refreshes, VP fuel at $25/gal, backup bike, spare parts, big diesel truck w/28' trailer, hotel, meals.... these wound up being damn near $10k weekends, and my day job couldn't support it after a while. I'm pretty confident that, had I stuck it out another year, I would've been able to break even (found enough sponsors in my last year to cover ~60% and probably could've pulled out a few more to at least keep me from going deeper in debt over it) but I really just couldn't hang on to it anymore. It was about then that I realized that all the other guys I was racing with were either doctors, lawyers, or successful business owners. None of them had a 9-5.

So now - I autocross ($40/weekend = hell yeah) and play with my simulator ($99/yr.) It gets me 90% of the fun without the "HOW much did I spend on tires???" gut-wrencher on Sunday afternoon.

 

wow, that's awesome.



btw just googled Huntley IL, you're close-ish to Blackhawk Farms, ever get up there? fun little track. a bit dangerous though (runoff, wildlife, etc)

 

As for street bikes - I've had a bunch. First street bike was a Hurricane 600. Had a CBR1000F for a short bit, then a CBR600F3, then a '99 R6, then my 2000 GSX-R750 (which eventually got converted over to my first race bike.) Then a few race bikes... then when I moved to Seattle, I bought another street bike - a 2005 CBR1000RR. Sold that when I moved back to Chicago. Now I'm currently without a bike, though my dad stores one of his in my garage ('96 HD Softtail) which I ride from time to time if I get the itch.

 

Yep - spent a LOT of time at BHF.

Me in T3 at BHF... probably sometime in 2003-2004.