Ride along for a couple laps at Laguna Seca this weekend.
 

Track conditions were terrible, but weather was beautiful. Finally had some time to play with a Visor Cam I picked up last year.. makes for an interesting perspective.

Here's a few laps from practice on Friday at Laguna Seca in my stock 2011 Cup on Yokohamas:


-mike

pretty cool

Mike:

Hello and hope you are well.

Can you tell us more about a "visor camera?"

And I am curious... in what way were track conditions terrible?

- Mike

Camera looks great. Thanks for sharing

Hey Mike,

Sure.. the Visor Cam is from here. It's basically GoPro internals from the Eye of Mine sunglass camera in a nifty little body that velcros to the top of your visor:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...24537388_n.jpg

As for the conditions, there were multiple cars in the run group dropping fluid on the track all weekend (for the whole session). Not to mention some of the drivers dragging dirt onto the track in nearly every corner. Laguna is always "low grip" but this weekend was unbelievably slippery-- at least in our run group. :-)

See at a PRC event soon!

-mike

Nice! So why did you nearly stop in 11 at the end of the first filmed lap?

Just trying to get a gap for 1 clear lap to use as a reference/baseline for the rest of the weekend (video was from the first session). A non-clear baseline lap on the dash makes the Motec predictive formula act all weird... seems to work much better for me if it's a clear lap, even if it's not the fastest. :-)

-mike

Nice video. I am new to tracking, is it customary to pass from the inside? I noticed you had a difficult time passing that Stang, it seemed the Stang driver wanted to let you pass but did not know how to let you, messed up your pass.

Have you considered a dash mount cam? GoPro or Contour HD can do 1080p, make for great HD videos watched on a large screen 1080p set.:)

In a normal race group, it's customary to pass anywhere. In the Mustang's instance, he had more power then my car and as he moved offline to let me by I'm sure he realized that I wasn't really gaining on him. Since he's a good racer and heads up, he was kind enough to give it a little lift so I could get by without having to dive in under braking at the next corner. Which would have ultimately cost us both more in time (and increased the risk of something bad happening).

It's all give and take.. most of the time passes are made both people lose some time, the difference between the guys (and gals!) who're fun to share the track with and those who aren't is the amount of time lost to both cars.

I have a couple regular cameras in the car, but they're not HD.. mostly there for when I'm working with coaches or there's contact. :-)

-mike

Mike does your 11' cup make the 103 db limit for last weekend without alterations?

Great view with that camera set-up. Indeed, you were staring out the side window on the turns that require it.

Gotta be thankful for all the heads-up driving from your fellow racers. You were soooo much faster than just about everything out there. It can get ugly fast with such huge differentials in speed.

And kudos to you for giving folks a wave when you passed!

Say, I'm curious as to your line thru T2 in your street car. Would you still double-apex in your p-car?

Looking forward to seeing you on-track soon!

nice video.

yah, lar, i drove with mike many times. he's FAST and furious.. i mean courteous.
i love sharing the track with him, as long as he stop lapping me every 3rd lap.

My line for T2 at Laguna is really dictated by the braking zone. Sometimes it's a double apex and sometimes it's a more traditional single late apex. It also depends on how the car is behaving.. if it's got a bunch of understeer there it's hard to make the double apex work.

I've never driven a street car at Laguna so I'm not sure what line I'd choose.. but I'd probably start with a single late apex and stay about 1 car width off the first apex curbing.

Yupe, I've never done any modifications to my car for sound at Laguna. They had my car number on the "warning" list after the first session (think that means it registered 102db). On a overcast or low-cloud day it might be an issue..

-mike