skeeler

Hey, on the garage assignment process list.........I understand what the Green means at the bottom, but whats the difference between the Blue and the Red indications?

TRT41

Red is the race group, Blue is HPDE.

The HPDE chair is asking the HPDE drivers who are “equipment “ light to help the racers by opting for a Saturday morning load in.

skeeler

Got it!!!! Man, thanks for all your guys wok on this..........I know logistics have to be a nightmare!

TRT41

I appreciate that, we have put a ton of work into making this a great weekend. I know that you will bring your awesome group of racers, and have a blast.

TRT41

Don’t forget that Dion Von Moltke will be available for in person video and data coaching (not in car). We sent out an announcement with a link to sign up for coaching during the weekend.

Frank 993 C4S

Track walks for those that are a little "rusty" or have never been to COTA before:

COTA Virtual Track Walk | Speed Secrets

David Murry Track Days - How to drive COTA "Register to view recording" $75

mthreat

I'm signed up for the Schnellfest HPDE next weekend... looking forward to it, looks like perfect weather. Who else is going?

Frank 993 C4S

Wow - About 150 DE drivers signed up driving some serious hardware.

electron mike

I can't make the DE this weekend, but give us the low down on the re-pave if you could please? I'm guessing if they got it done the track should be a second or two faster with all the resurfacing plans they had.

TRT41

Yes, that is the expectation, new track record's. The weather is looking warmer than expected so we’ll have to see how the grip changes during the day.

TRT41

The garage assignment email has been sent.

I look forward to seeing everyone at COTA.

Frank 993 C4S

Despite the PCA RL armchair critics, everybody is having a really great time at COTA today. Great weather and a lot of good heads-up driving so far.

The new pavement has taken out a lot of bumps but it will need some more time to cure before the grip is up to the old surface. Particularly the exit of T18 is a challenge with the seam between the old and new track surface.

Qualifying Video that shows the new pavement.

Difool

Thanks Frank

As people get home let’s get some stories and more footage, for those of us that haven’t started our season yet and are dying inside a little.

mthreat

The event. Here are my initial thoughts on the Schnellfest HPDE. This was my first PCA event, and I liked how it was run. It's interesting looking at the differences with the events from EdgeAddicts and Driver's Edge. I really like the "Drivers' debrief" they did on Saturday.. all events should do that. It's where all the drivers from 1 or 2 run groups (Solo 1 and 2 in this case) get in a room and talk freely about how it's going on track. The good, the bad, the ugly, and in a non-judgmental way. Another difference is the grid workers were really good about checking the driver and car each session before going out on track - wristbands, helmet chin strap, brake pads, anything loose on the car, etc.

The repave. On Saturday the newly paved sections started with less grip.. maybe it was still curing (?) or maybe just not enough rubber down yet. On Sunday it felt like more grip, especially in the carousel. Unfortunately it seems they didn't repair all of the dip on the inside of the carousel. I was told that because of the 3 weeks of cold weather in January, they couldn't do all the repaving they had planned. So they are going to do more repaving this year (I don't know the schedule). They obviously have to work around MotoGP, Formula 1, and other events.

I did not improve my lap times.. in fact I was 1/2 a second slower than I was in December (2:18.83 vs 2:18.2). It could be that the tires are older, could be the slightly warmer afternoon temperatures (up to 80 degrees), could be my driving wasn't as good, or all of the above. Here is a 2:19.3 lap from this weekend.

Frank 993 C4S

Many thanks to all the local volunteers and the region and the PCA National volunteers to shoe-horn a Club Race into the Schnellfest Event. Even though the race group was huge, attrition was largely limited to mechanicals and single car incidents. I still don't understand how we made it through Turn 1 without any contact during every single race. The size of the grid was a challenge, but everybody made it work and in general folks adapted to mixed class racing with huge speed differentials (there are some limited exceptions as shown in the videos below). Dion von Moltke was there for free coaching on PCA CR's nickel. Trophies were given for each race class with at least 3 in-class cars starting and they were very NICE!

For those that have never been to COTA: The track is wide (which invites dive bomb passes) imposing, difficult and long. It was really hard to jump into Practice 1 without ever having turned a single lap there. Studied Peter/Ross' 3 hour track walk, David Murry's track walk, watched videos and spent a couple of hours in the sim (which totally masks the massive elevation changes. The track is bumpy, but not where it matters, but I did manage to experience my first ice pedal going into Turn 1. The new pavement still has less grip than the existing pavement sections and one transition (T18) with a seam that can catch you out. Given that the new pavement is darker, track temperature changes from old to new pavement by 5 - 7 degrees (see in the video below in the lower left corner).

This was a great event. Maybe PCA can go back to Daytona in a similar way?

Race 1


Race 2


Race 3