Tom W

We had a lot of discussion about the PCA Club Races at the CA Festival of Speed at Fontana (Auto Club Speedway/California Speedway) and I had a thrilling race on Sunday that I finally got uploaded to You Tube. I thought I'd share.

I learned a lot from this race and you'll see from the video's I'm not a pro driver, but I had great fun. It's 26 minutes or so and You Tube insisted I split it in two segments so I didn't exceed 15 minutes. It's a new camera setup and not tweaked yet and unfortunately no sound ...

Part 1: YouTube - FontanaPart1.mov

Part 2: YouTube - FontanaPart2.mov

claykos

Cool video. I think your G sensor must be in the car at an angle or not correctly calibrated as it is showing you are slightly cornering and braking while accelerating down the straight.

jrgordonsenior

Tom was that a Condor that dropped a load on your windshield at the 5:45 mark in the first video? Did that affect your vision?

I thought you drove the course very well especially for someone who's never been there before. You were simply way underpowered to the cars around you and that's the fallacy of PCA's GT class menu. A few of those GT3 cars around you weigh roughly 2550 or less carrying 300-350 rwhp. It's a testament to your skills that you were in the race with them. As for the white P-car out front, I just had to watch the second video if only to see where (not when) he would go off.

I'm glad you enjoyed the track and I hope to see you on a track sometime this year, perhaps at T-hill in May....

MelanomaMan

Thanks for sharing Tom. Nice piece of driving! I like the heads up move at 6:30 in in the second video to avoid the carnage.

Viperbob1

Hi Tom... Looks like you are having fun. Does your car make any power at 3000 RPM and a little below? I would think coming off the banking on the infield you might want second unless you can carry a lot more speed through there. You have some good moves you were putting on the white car at T3/T4, but you had no power to pull it off. Then you stay in third through many infield sections getting under 3K rpms on exit. Also might try short shifting to 5th on the long straight before T12. You are just riding the redline for a while, then braking early because you are on the redline I would guess. Maybe short shift to 5th around 6500 stay in the gas longer in the brake zone. The car seems competitive by the cars you are hanging with out there. Take care.

Tom W

Thanks for the kind words. Like I said, the race was a hoot and I liked the track a lot.

Yes, the g-sensor(s) needs attention, I've just not had the time. The MoTeC ADL3 has 3-axis sensors and my dash is mounted at an angle (instead of the expected 90 degrees). I normally ignore it or zero it out in software, but did not do that for the video.

JR: I was waiting for his mistake too. It came when he turned in and hit traffic that caught up because he was going slower try to keep me behind (and Peter was trying to get by on the inside).

Bob: Yes, you are correct. It just took me a long time to see the obvious. In reviewing the reasons I could not get past folk, and why I got beat out of that corner the obvious finally dawned on me. I was driving lazy and corrected my driving on Sunday. It's a lot of shifting down from 6th to 2nd and as my style is to do it sequentially, I was lazy and stopping at 3rd. Now I know better. Regarding the 4th/5th shift - The shift lights don't really indicate red-line. The car red lines at 8k rpm but doesn't make as much power above 7400 rpm (where the shift light indicates). As it takes me about 0.5 seconds to complete a shift and be back on full power, I didn't like the timing and just avoided the shift. I considered that strategy, but never got around to testing if it would be faster. I spent most time concentrating on braking points as that was where the data was saying I had the most to gain. Next time I'll get to the finer points. But you nailed the two biggest issues for me that I had identified.
(The car and driver have come a long way from when you first started the transformation 5+ years ago)

My only real disappointment in that race was making the mistake at T3/4 at the end that let Chris Murray by (the cop car/boxster with 996 engine) and then not having time to pass him once again.

mark kibort

Hey Tom, so you looked like you had some fun.
how were the times, compared to what you planned on running?

fleadh

Great videos Tom! The camera out the back is a nice touch.. I need to try that!

-mike