Circuit Motorsports

Hopefully a bunch do get better. There seems to be more people off the pace this year than in the past. Like, get lapped twice during the race. This is the national championships, no need to be that slow.

dbf73

if you're serious about this event, you will have run at least one race there before the Runoffs

wanna911

That's a cool format. ..

Circuit Motorsports

The only downside is it takes a LONG time. One short Q session a day over the three days and then wait up to 3 days for the main race.

dbf73

they actually cut it down by a day. used to be practice Monday and Tues with qual on Wed and Thurs, also with races Fri, Sat Sun. Having a practice only session made the first days a little more relaxed and able to experiment. even so, there was almost always at least one car rolled into a ball the first day trying to go too fast too soon

Circuit Motorsports

Yes. Havne't heard any big oops yet but I haven't listened in too closely either.

they've looked into a few different ways of shortening it. It's just tough when there are that many people and classes.

btwyx

Weather at Laguna in October in the middle of the worst drought in California history? I'd be surprised.

mark kibort

pretty funny! I got there as the last driver to arrive . (that's the way I roll) no way I was going to wait in line on Thursday last week in the early staging, then crawl in the paddock on Saturday, only to come back and test Monday! I showed up about 2 hours before my group gridded up , got a nice shady place by turn 5 with Asphalt too! and witnessed the worst but one of the most fun events you can run in. so many cars, so many people. its pretty cool.

Now qualifying is over 3 days , one session each day.... to make things worse, there was an email war with all the participants in GT1,2,3 (because we run qual together) to figure out a way to get a good clean lap in. (are you kidding! ) at first it sounded good when my idea was give each group 3 laps.. that turned into 10mins, out of 20min session. so basically , 1 day you get 20min with 10, alone with your class. the other two, you sit and cook in your car for 15mins waiting for 10mins of track time, and then when you get out, you probably have some knucklehead that just blew his motor and oiled the track down........ 10mins is only about 4 hot laps. this has to be the record for the most expensive laps in racing. I don't think I would be complaining much if we just let things go as they normally do. it was an idea and change with good intents, but disappointing results!
For me, I just needed time to figure out my new brakes, bias, shocks in 10mins of track time. So the car was a mess, I have 10mins tomorrow to see if all changes back to what I think I know works, will work.
Im not a factor in this powerpacked GT2 glass, but I should be able to have a couple of cars to race with.

schao

I'm in Turn 5 paddock, ie dirt! Race is Saturday 9:30am. My first Runoffs and first race at Laguna. The level of car prep, costs, and driver/track analysis needed to be competitive is very high. It's about competition, not $ spent/time on track. Locals do have an advantage knowing the track, as usual, but lap times should fall throughout the week as the field gets sorted. Tuesday Q1 grid was set from National points standing, which doesn't necessarily correlate with potential pace. Q2 and Q3 grid will be set by previous best times, so getting a clean lap to lay down a good one for race grid position should entail less traffic. Track weather is not an issue as it's significantly warmer and sunnier than Monterey, which is 6 miles down the mountain and next to the Pacific Ocean.

Sherman

P.S. Help, I'd like to shave off another 2 or so seconds!

dbf73

Sherman - looks like you'll have a tight grid given the closeness of the times so far. good luck and have fun

Circuit Motorsports

P2 is shaping up to be a really nice looking grid and race. Good luck.

btwyx

Are you running in P2?

P2 is one of the races I'm looking out for, a friend is running in that one (Dave Fergusson, #75).

Talking of locals having an advantage, I think I've done 700 laps at Laguna, and I don't even race. Its all locals on top of the group after 2 qualifying sessions.

mark kibort

come over ... I can help!!! im against the hill! I run today at 1:30

btwyx

Some seriously fast times being set in qualifying, as you should expect.

In B-Spec (of interest to me as I drive a MINI Cooper), someone took a Chevy Sonic around in 1:50.7. That's about 2s faster than any other B-Spec (not that there's many B-Spec cars in this area.) My reference is I've managed a 2:00 in an unprepared MINI Cooper.

In T2 I know David Ray (#30 Mustang), he's had the track record at several courses at times and he's 5s behind in Q2.

btwyx

We never did get to wonder around the "other" paddock beyond the bridge. We were at turn 11, so its a long walk over there. I looked out for you in the race and got a few photos, then you disappeared.