Porsche no longer a slouch in SCCA - ITB race report
05-17-2005, 12:15 PM
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Porsche no longer a slouch in SCCA - ITB race report
Recovering now from a very exciting season opener at Waterford Hills this past weekend - have video, but we're still working through the capture, data overlay, and posting to my website - you'll all have to wait till that's complete. But I promise it's worth it!
We had a huge start to this season, our first after being reclassed down from ITA to ITB, a slower class with the same prep rules. Our competition is now 4-cyl Rustangs, Wabbits and Goofs, and the smaller, older Bimmers and Volvos (like 2002's, 320's, and 142's). But we'd never run with these guys before, so it was a whole new experience getting to play with them. We'd heard the Rustang guys were, well, maybe not the dirtiest drivers, but then not the cleanest either.
Rumours confirmed.
They do like to drive a wide line, and when that fails, block outright.
'Sokay - we're faster anyway!
Started out pratice/qual (a 10 min session), dry but cold (track temp 60 deg at best) and threatening rain, on Hoosiers, went out and stomped all over the field. Took the ITB pole by nearly 2 sec over the nearest car, a Goof, and were only outqualified by 2 RX7's (running in IT7).
Then the skies opened up during the Spec Neon/small-bore Prod race. Feel sorry for those Spridget and Triumph drivers! The got hosed, literally; we were cold but more or less dry.
It slowly dried out, but was still threatening, so we decided to head out on the Michelins (MPSC's) as intermediates. Wrong choice. They suck after running on Hoosiers. Couldn't stop at the end of the back straight, came back in mid-pack. Fought up a few spots, but in trying to complete a run on a Rustang who moved me over to the grass on the inside of Turn 1, overshot my brake marker, put it sideways off the track, into the gravel at 45mph, and into the tires at 16mph.
Ooops.
But no contact with him (he did get a warning black for that one) and minimal damage from the tires, so we just pulled the fender back out and washed off and picked out all the gravel. On the plus side, our new exhaust kept us from getting tagged for sound like everyone else that session (not to mention that it survived the trip through the kitty litter), and we fixed our naggin oil overflow issue (bad routing of the breather hoses to the catch can). So it was a positive session.
Grid for the next race (Sunday AM class race) was finishing order from the previous race - so we were 14th out of 16 cars! Time to charge the field!!!
It was sweet, lotta fun, made for good video action, and worked our way all the way up to the 3rd place ITB Rustang. 
But he wasn't cooperating, blocking heavily, chopping, all the worst stuff, and we weren't able to get by cleanly. That's OK - he got his from the stewards after the race. They apparently aren't too keen on chopping, and like 2-moves even less...
So we didn't even have to fix that problem (though it would've been nice if he even came over and had a word - but he's simply left himself open for public humiliation instead).
So we lined up 5th overall, 2nd in class for the feature (gridded by best race lap time) behind the 3 fast RX7's and a Bimmer, the only car in our class ahead of us. Start came, and I wasn't quite with it; fought it out for 3 corners, but eventually the Rustang next to me picked up 2nd place. But the 3 RX7's in front of us were duking it out so hard, bouncing off of curbs and eachother, that we 3 ITB remained bottled up behind 'em - throw a blanket and cover 6 cars, first 2-3 laps! Sure it must have been something to watch; the video was pretty cool.
Eventually the RX7's sorted themselves out and started running at speed, allowing us all to spread a little. I got a big run on the Rustang in front of be down the back straight, motored him into the inside of Turn 6 (right-hander). He hung on outside of me, pinching in tight in the next right-hander, a sweeper called Paddock, folding in my mirror and giving a nice smiley (his tire burned right through the paint and down to bare metal behind my driver's door). But not really enough to move the metal. We then ran side-by-side cleanly through the Esses, the tightest part of the track (2 lanes wide and high curbs on either side), and the grunt of the Audi truck motor pulled us clear exiting the Esses.
Of course, I couldn't see that - my side mirror was folded in! So I gave him some room going into the next turn, Swamp, a left-hander. But about halfway in, I guessed (correctly) that he was clear, and I committed to the apex. Swamp turn dumps us back out onto the front straight, and as I tracked out I was able to straighten my side mirror and see that I was clear of him. Good thing we powder-coated those mirrors!
I then continued to press hard, and in a few laps tracked down the 4th overall (3rd in class) RX7, who'd been passed by the Bimmer. I still had a 5-7 sec gap ahead to the Bimmer, so I tried to see if it would be possible to get by the RX7. It should have been possible, but I tried too hard, overshot one turn in understeer, and then decided it'd be best (since I'd lost the chance to shoot for 1st by then, with 2 laps to go) to just bring it home where I started and in 1 piece - 2nd in ITB, 5th overall (field of 16-18 cars).
We'll get video up as soon as possible.
Boy, this is gonna be a fun season!!!
We had a huge start to this season, our first after being reclassed down from ITA to ITB, a slower class with the same prep rules. Our competition is now 4-cyl Rustangs, Wabbits and Goofs, and the smaller, older Bimmers and Volvos (like 2002's, 320's, and 142's). But we'd never run with these guys before, so it was a whole new experience getting to play with them. We'd heard the Rustang guys were, well, maybe not the dirtiest drivers, but then not the cleanest either.
Rumours confirmed.
They do like to drive a wide line, and when that fails, block outright.'Sokay - we're faster anyway!
Started out pratice/qual (a 10 min session), dry but cold (track temp 60 deg at best) and threatening rain, on Hoosiers, went out and stomped all over the field. Took the ITB pole by nearly 2 sec over the nearest car, a Goof, and were only outqualified by 2 RX7's (running in IT7).
Then the skies opened up during the Spec Neon/small-bore Prod race. Feel sorry for those Spridget and Triumph drivers! The got hosed, literally; we were cold but more or less dry.
It slowly dried out, but was still threatening, so we decided to head out on the Michelins (MPSC's) as intermediates. Wrong choice. They suck after running on Hoosiers. Couldn't stop at the end of the back straight, came back in mid-pack. Fought up a few spots, but in trying to complete a run on a Rustang who moved me over to the grass on the inside of Turn 1, overshot my brake marker, put it sideways off the track, into the gravel at 45mph, and into the tires at 16mph.
Ooops.
But no contact with him (he did get a warning black for that one) and minimal damage from the tires, so we just pulled the fender back out and washed off and picked out all the gravel. On the plus side, our new exhaust kept us from getting tagged for sound like everyone else that session (not to mention that it survived the trip through the kitty litter), and we fixed our naggin oil overflow issue (bad routing of the breather hoses to the catch can). So it was a positive session.Grid for the next race (Sunday AM class race) was finishing order from the previous race - so we were 14th out of 16 cars! Time to charge the field!!!
It was sweet, lotta fun, made for good video action, and worked our way all the way up to the 3rd place ITB Rustang. But he wasn't cooperating, blocking heavily, chopping, all the worst stuff, and we weren't able to get by cleanly. That's OK - he got his from the stewards after the race. They apparently aren't too keen on chopping, and like 2-moves even less... So we didn't even have to fix that problem (though it would've been nice if he even came over and had a word - but he's simply left himself open for public humiliation instead).
So we lined up 5th overall, 2nd in class for the feature (gridded by best race lap time) behind the 3 fast RX7's and a Bimmer, the only car in our class ahead of us. Start came, and I wasn't quite with it; fought it out for 3 corners, but eventually the Rustang next to me picked up 2nd place. But the 3 RX7's in front of us were duking it out so hard, bouncing off of curbs and eachother, that we 3 ITB remained bottled up behind 'em - throw a blanket and cover 6 cars, first 2-3 laps! Sure it must have been something to watch; the video was pretty cool.
Eventually the RX7's sorted themselves out and started running at speed, allowing us all to spread a little. I got a big run on the Rustang in front of be down the back straight, motored him into the inside of Turn 6 (right-hander). He hung on outside of me, pinching in tight in the next right-hander, a sweeper called Paddock, folding in my mirror and giving a nice smiley (his tire burned right through the paint and down to bare metal behind my driver's door). But not really enough to move the metal. We then ran side-by-side cleanly through the Esses, the tightest part of the track (2 lanes wide and high curbs on either side), and the grunt of the Audi truck motor pulled us clear exiting the Esses.
Of course, I couldn't see that - my side mirror was folded in! So I gave him some room going into the next turn, Swamp, a left-hander. But about halfway in, I guessed (correctly) that he was clear, and I committed to the apex. Swamp turn dumps us back out onto the front straight, and as I tracked out I was able to straighten my side mirror and see that I was clear of him. Good thing we powder-coated those mirrors!
I then continued to press hard, and in a few laps tracked down the 4th overall (3rd in class) RX7, who'd been passed by the Bimmer. I still had a 5-7 sec gap ahead to the Bimmer, so I tried to see if it would be possible to get by the RX7. It should have been possible, but I tried too hard, overshot one turn in understeer, and then decided it'd be best (since I'd lost the chance to shoot for 1st by then, with 2 laps to go) to just bring it home where I started and in 1 piece - 2nd in ITB, 5th overall (field of 16-18 cars).
We'll get video up as soon as possible.
Boy, this is gonna be a fun season!!!
05-17-2005, 01:40 PM
#2
Rennlist Member
Oh Yeah!
Vaughan,
It was a great time in spite of the weather (Flaggers wear many layers and deal with it
), and in the second race it was ALL YOU over the race announcer's PA system 
You're clearly in the hunt in ITB, but to be safe in securing victory over the BMW (and Volvos ;-) I think you should coax your dad back to the track!
Brian
It was a great time in spite of the weather (Flaggers wear many layers and deal with it
), and in the second race it was ALL YOU over the race announcer's PA system You're clearly in the hunt in ITB, but to be safe in securing victory over the BMW (and Volvos ;-) I think you should coax your dad back to the track!
Brian
05-18-2005, 09:34 AM
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Thanks!
Geo - you can see we still need a stiffer suspension, it's still leaning. Still waiting for those custom 34mm torsion bars - they're at the heat-treating place last I heard.
Geo - you can see we still need a stiffer suspension, it's still leaning. Still waiting for those custom 34mm torsion bars - they're at the heat-treating place last I heard.
