Mark in Baltimore

I can’t believe no one mentioned the trophies that the region gave out to the class winners. Nice move, Schattenbaum. We all thank you.

After finally solving my tow vehicles issues, this was my first on-track event since the Summit race last year. I had a great time. Schattenbaum put on a top-notch effort. Kudos to the region, Princeton Porsche and the kitchen (track?) for the best damn catered food, be it at a track, wedding or special event, I've ever had, period. I love to eat, and the food was simply outstanding with tender and moist meat, excellent pasta, tasty veggies/salad and a sublime apple strudel. The bar even had a fairly top-shelf selection, too.

Okay, enough about food. My first opinion about Lightning is that it's a quirky little track but fun. It has some interesting turns and required some fiddling around with the suspension to get rid of exit understeer in T4 and T6. I never felt like I got T2-T4 right. T5 and Lightbulb (someone ask Tim Costa what Lightbulb's new name should be. Hint: turn the track map upside down and ask yourself what it looks like) took me four days to figure out, too. The track seemed hard on brakes, but I might be having caliper issues and will have another set put on for Summit.

I had some good races with Brian Paulsen and Charles Belluardo. Congrats to Brian on his awesome lap times and his wins. He and I battled really cleanly in the sprints and enduro, the latter of which he beat me by a little over a second. I made the unfortunate mistake of asking for 10 gallons of fuel to be dumped in after worrying about burning too much gas and running out of go juice at the end, that decision causing me to leave the pits way too late. I tried to make up the deficit in the last twenty-five minutes in the race by trying to push harder, but it was all for naught. As Brian said, “I won the battle, but lost the war.”

I also was relatively unhappy with my lap times. In the DE, when my brain was fried by lack of sleep (a big “Thanks!” to the woman who hit my truck in the hotel parking lot and wasted over an hour of my time while the cops did their thing) and I was still learning the track, I turned a 1’16.2” on MPSC’s with 25 or so heat cycles and Surely, I would be in the 15’s with sticker Hoosiers, right? Wrong. The best I could muster was a 17-something in qualifying, a time that was partially hurt by too much traffic. In the enduro, I think I managed a 1’16.0”, pretty pathetic when Fred Constantineau was doing 15’s, if I recall correctly.

I thought the track was moderately spectator-friendly. On the bridge, or any high vantage point like the top of a transporter, you can almost see the whole track. Really cool. Before I left, I hung out at Lightbulb for a few laps. I enjoyed watching Colin and Andy pass and re-pass each other, as well as Charlie Boyer beat up on a few 996 cups. Needs some grandstands like I saw at Thunderbolt.

One downside to the track is that it is cursed by more flies per square foot than all of Africa. At the food shack, the number of flies on the condiment table had to be seen to be believed. The next insect horror flick can be filmed at the track. Even back home, I was still trying to get them out of the car after a half dozen attempts at 80mph while on the way back to Baltimore.

It was nice to meet Frank Celenza, Joe Mansfield and Scott Leder, as well as ex-Briggs Cunningham driver Ralph May, the region’s photographer. Congrats to Tony Scalies for his Rookie Award and his excellent driving. Except for the annoying toll traffic that held me up by about twenty minutes each way, and the flies, I liked going to NJMP and will be back again next year.

Thanks to Schattenbaum and all of the gracious volunteers for letting us race.

Did I mention that I liked the food?

Brian P

Thanks for the kind words Mark!

BTW: Let me say that I am SO HAPPY that trophies were given out for this race. The thrill I had to give my trophy to my daughters (ages 3, 6, and 7) was priceless. My 6 year old already treats it as if it were made out of solid gold.

Kudos again to the Schattenbaum Region and Princeton Porsche for hosting an amazing event.

chas911

Mark, it was great going nose to tail for the entire first sprint race, again sorry for the move going into turn 1, you are a real sport.

Brian, congrats on your wins, you drove well and deserved to be on the top step.
Charlie

FredC

It was not bad. There was not really any gravel at 2. I saw a bit of it between 2 and 3 after a car ambitiously jumped the curb at 2 to make a pass. I saw a lot of gravel between 3 and 4, but it was mostly off the line (more on the left than in the center or right). Still, gravel was a hazard all weekend all over the track.

Sean F

Surprisingly it really wasn't bad there. That section reminds me a little of the kink into turn 5 at Summit. Not exactly the same but similar.

Mark, are you ever right about the flies though. It was just weird how many there were. I still have some in my truck.

Bull

The flies must be related to the time of year, or some other environmental situation. We were at Lightning in July with Schattenbaum and there were not flies. At Thunderbolt a couple of weeks ago, there were a few, but nothing like you described. Sounds like a real PITA!

Streak

This is from the Schatt DE. A few shots of the different ways people were taking t2-4. I do think "Fred's" line is quicker but makes t4 a challenge with understeer. For me anyway.

http://www.vimeo.com/1431389

Gary R.

Did I miss something? I was 1st loser in my class and came home without any plexiglass.

FredC

Mark, what temps were you running? It is mysterious that you could not improve your times with new Hoosiers... I was pretty proud of my 1:15.4

Mark in Baltimore

It was definitely your weekend, Brian. Oh, I forgot to mention that Brian won $250 at the dinner raffle.

That's cool, Charlie. I'm glad we talked about it. Thanks for listening.

Yeah, I did enjoy sparring with you and hope we can do it again.

Mark in Baltimore

Fred,

I never took tread temps this weekend and only got tire pressures. I think my LR tire got pretty hot and had to be bled down a few times.

Nice job this weekend.

FredC

Sorry, i meant pressures. I ran 34 to 36 hot. You?

Mark in Baltimore

Fred,

I started out my cold pressures at my usual 26F/27R and, at least for the first spring, ended up, with 36LF/36RF/39LR/37RR. I dropped all corners by two pounds, except for the LR, which I dropped by five. For the second sprint, I ended up a square 35.

I guess my line sucked no matter which tires I was on. With Hoosiers, the car definitely felt better in all of the corners, especially the all-important Lightbulb, so I was disappointed to not see a greater improvement on a track where you spend so much time turning.

Manny Alban

Agree with Mark, Schattenbaum did a fabulous job of hosting the club race. I also thought the track was alot of fun to race on. I haven't done a DE on it, so I'm not sure where the passing zones are, but for racing, most every turn was open for a pass. By the second sprint, I was finally starting to feel comfortable pushing the car harder when my shifter broke going into T1. Thought I drifted far enough into the weeds to prevent a double yellow, but the folks in control didn't agree and came out to get me. Looking forward to racing there again as well as trying out Thunderbolt. It's great having these two tracks only 90 minutes from my house!!!

teamNortheast

Fred I think you are pretty close to right on the money in the 34-36 range because of your cars weight but 38 might be a hot set-up to.

I speak with Rick Bye a lot (used to run Canadian Turbo Cup series and works for Porsche) and he thinks every tire should be run at 40 lbs.

Mark your 993 has to weigh 3000 + and I think your pressures are a tad low due to the weight but again I am a 944 guy and my engine doesn't hang out back.