mdrums

I've got to follow my friend Mark Dryer on the forum and post up my lap. I had Chris Hall coach me on Saturday and I had a great day. Last year best I could do was 2:34 at Sebring in my rather stock 09 Carrera S on Toyo R888. This year I got down to 2:30-32's...had 1 lap at 2:29.50 on my Harry's Lap Timer but could never repete it. With my 2:30 laps I was really trying hard and did not feel comfortable and confident. Chris is a pro driver, works for Porsche at Barber and will be driving in the 12hr again this year. Chris is confident in a car and clicked off a few 2:28's and then a 2:26 in my car! DANG!

My unbelivable awesome wife bought me a coaching session with Chris for my birthday...yes she set this up all by herself! Chris got me down to 2:30 with him in the car and on some heat cycled out R888's. He said 2:28 will be no problem with his weight out of the car and maybe better on new tires.

I blew it in t17 by not coming close enough to the flag station inside wall but recovered. Chris had me brake a little earlier on some corners as I was threshold braking all over the place. Chris said I am what he calls the last of the late breakers and I have threshold braking down pat! He said this will come in handy when passing cars under braking but it is not the best way around the track. Think car balance.....break release is so important.

Chris is a great instructor. He will take you right out of your comfort zone in an instant and then work you up from there.
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuN-6QR2_CM

mdrums

Here is a video a few months ago.....with a HD Go Pro connected on my helmet.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zk8WniH8VU

PedroNole

Nice Lap! Your line is really good in 3-5. You can get in a bit tighter at 10 which will allow you a better exit. I would agree on getting closer to the wall at 17 and you can drive the car a little more aggressive in the turn and a bit tighter on the exit. The back half of 17 is SOOO important to a good lap.

mdrums

Yep totally agree. Chris only tweaked some of my line as we really worked on some brake points and mostly brake release...which I had a ton of questions about. As far as T10 goes yeah I could turn in earlier and am working towards that and getting use to carrying more speed through T10 which pushes me way out on the exit. I actually did better on T10 than this video shows and T17 line was normally better than this video shows. Chris had me braking much lighter and doing only 1 brake event for T17. I was doing 2 brake events....changing to 1 lighter and little longer brake event had me not trusting my driving skill or the car which messed with my line at times. I did get it together finally though. I need to get on the gas sooner in some turns especially T17 but ever since my spin in 17 at track out a few months ago I am a little shy on full throttle at the 1st bridge thru the exit of T17. I use to be pretty much full throttle under T17 bridge...I lost the confidence and am gaining it back.

PedroNole

Don't get me wrong, it's not like it was bad... That's just a really critical corner as you're basically full throttle to the tower turn after that. It's made more difficult due to the decreasing radius. The right mid-corner speed and car rotation is VERY hard there. SOMETIMES, in a race, I will hit that curb a bit hard with the front tire to help me get the car rotated while keeping up as much speed as possible.

This is REALLY good thinking. Now you're dissecting the corner like you should. The one brake event is crucial but I will also reitterate that you should try to be a bit tighter on the back side of the corner. I know there's a bump there but you've got a lot of room before you hit it... I think it's VERY difficult to be at full throttle at the first bridge (if not impossible if you're carrying the right amount of speed in the corner) so I wouldn't worry about that so much. The key is that when you DO go to full throttle that you can stay there and not have to back out of of due to to wide of an exit. Seeing that outside wall get closer and closer while the car is bouncing around and changing the angle of the car is not for the faint of heart...

mdrums

Peter, thanks for discussing this...not taking you wrong at all. I use to be full throttle by the 1st apex after T10 track out...but...now that I am carrying more speed thru T10 I am tracking further out of T10 and getting on full throttle just at or after T11 (1st apex on the left) after T10. Again getting use to the new speed.

Correct me here...in T17 there are 2 bumps...1 on the inside at the yellow line just before the bridge and 1 after the bridge. I am trying to stay off the inside yellow line before the bridge bump but it seems like the bump and ripples after the bridge are unavoidable and now I am carrying more speed I am learning to deal with them better with corrective steering. My car just has stock PASM...it's just a street car and I have no race car with awesome suspension experience to draw from so I'm not really sure how my street car is dealing with these upsetting bumps after the bridge. To me it's bouncing and skipping sideways and the rear end feels lose.

LDadrenaline

I have to disagree. You can be on throttle before the bridge. Most people hold in too tight after the bridge and try to hit that "second apex". I was down there coaching on sunday with a GT3 and dropped 4 seconds off his laptimes in 2 sessions. Would have been more if we had the third, as the feedback really started clicking after doing data analysis after the second session. Rain got in the way unfortunately.

You can easily see on data how opening up the hands earlier on 17 and going towards the outside wall (rather than be "tighter on the backside of the corner") gains much more time. Picked up half a second on data and could have been over a full second if my guy had more faith in the car (and wasn't worried about a business deal monday lol). Entry speed is a big deal, but if you use the connecting lines as turn-in for 17 then the speed should be scrubbed off enough (about 30 feet from turn-in to the bridge) to get back to throttle just before the bridge.

333pg333

I have to agree about the brake event dissection. I am sort of about up to this realisation level too. Braking so late means having to 'jump' off the brakes and this will upset the car. Clearly it also hurts mid and exit speeds. When you start to do 'it' you feel like you're going slower. On a similar coaching day my speeds were certainly faster than the pro coming into corners, but he would soon 'overtake' me on the plots. Unfortunately we didn't do many laps on the day due to tech issues but I hear what you're saying.

TRAKCAR

2:26 in your car

Keep her! Or at least add another link.

Mike, I agree fully with you, you'll have to deal with the bumping after the bridge.

In an ocean of data points and stuff to learn, the main go-fast thoughts in my head are; smooth on and off the pedals, smooth steering and brake enough that once the throttle is applied the pedal only goes down..

Mark Dreyer

Mike, have you thought of doing an adjustable coil over suspension setup? Maybe having that setup dialed in would give you more confidence through 17? I have PSS9 on my car. Not sure if that's the reason for me feeling fairly stable through 17, or if it's just that I'm not going as fast as you? Probably more the latter. :-)

PedroNole

You are correct to work on this corner. As I said, you're basically full throttle to the Tower Turn from here. This is exactly the discussion we're having in the other thread about whether you can be at full throttle at the apex of a corner. THIS corner is one that I am trying to constantly move my throttle point up. Assuming one is not just ******* it in the corner, it's just a matter of how to carry as much speed but get rotated quickly so you can get on the throttle. Remember, none of us ever get it perfect, it's just knowing how it should be done and then trying...

I think there are about 100....


There is a big bump before the bridge but you have to be a LOT closer to the inside yellow line than you are to really be affected by it. The bumps after the bridge are not nearly as bad as that one. As Chris told you, you are about 2 car widths too wide at the flag station at 17. I like to feel like I'm going to clip the wall with my mirror..... Then, I think you just end up staying too wide and at the point you're turning, you're really just too far out and can never get the car back in because you're also now trying to get on the throttle and the bumps are fighting you. This and the fact that the outside wall of the front straight is coming at you causes you to be late to full throttle.

Rick

Does anyone have Chris' contact info? I'm highly interested in finding the right coach to work with me on the weekend of the PCA race in February.

Thanks,

Rick

mdrums

Yes I am normally right up at the wall clipping the flag station to my right going into T17....as I said I blew it here on this lap but it turned out to be my best lap because I got other parts of this lap correct. My theoretical time was 2:28 which I will be able to do with only me in the car and tires not heat cycled out....hopefully even better than that. My goal is 2:26 which Chris did that morning in my car.

How close do you get to the Apex (cone) after the bridge when you are tracking out?

mdrums

Oh yeah I've thought about a lot of things but right now until I can do a 2:26 in my car like Chris did the only mods I will be doing is to myself. We were passing the so called "fast guys" GT3's and Vette's on the laps before Chris laid down the 2:26 lap. He said he left some on the table as he does not drive a students car like he would a race car.

mdrums

I pm'd you Chris' info.....anyone that wants to really improve their driving I highly recomend Chris. He knows what he is doing and can translate it right to you and improve your driving.