Time Attack - Day 52 + 53 - Reno SCCA @ Thunderhill West (Full & Bpass)
Fresh off the win from the previous weekends Time Attack event with OnGrid, I had to swap the whole car back to being ready for SCCA Max2 class rules.
The big differences between OnGrid GT class and SCCA Max2 was that GT class restricts aero, while Max2 allows a notable amount of aero. I also can run 315 squared instead of 295/315 for tire width. This means I needed to pull the spoiler, swap back on the wing, reinstall my spoiler, change out coilovers and spring rates, reset height and suspension... and then adjust as well for the different settings I run with full aero versus without.
While the changes I described aren't exactly a small undertaking, I was able to hammer them out in two and a half days of spare time. Some time was spent capturing my previous suspension configuration so I could quickly return to it, along with measuring the new setup, documenting it, tweaking it and in general trying to get the car adjust right to maximize success. All said and done though... it came together and was ready to go tackle SCCA Max 2!
My one goal: Beat the SCCA Max2 class record! This was approximately 1.5 seconds faster than any of my best previous times at the track... so beating this wasn't going to be easy, but I'd done a lot of work on configuration and put in a lot of seat time... could I set the record?
Event Weekend
So the drive down is a fairly long one for me. At 8.5 hours of driving, it's a slog. Fortuantely my diesel truck gets pretty good mileage and has a 55 gallon tank, so I can fill up in Oregon before hitting CA and avoid paying inflated CA fuel costs! The car also looks pretty slick on my trailer!
Here's a picture of my car at the event next to a fellow in a C6Z06 I was instructing. That car was an ultra capable rocketship, and a lot of fun to ride around in. I do wish the passenger seat was also bucket seat as well though. I cooked my core trying to not flop all over in that car! Fortuantely this track is CCW so most of my weight just flopped into the door!
I don't have any on-track photos currently but I can say that Day 1 started great, with me beating the previous Max2 class record of a 1:23.5 by putting down a 1:23.1 . The Vitour P1 tires and better configured suspension made it a fairly straight forward affair to do which was nice and I knew there was some time left in the tank.
Still, that took all of the stress off of the weekend as I'd accomplished my goal. The question now was, just how much could I beat it by?
The first actual time attack event was about as perfect as it would get. While temperature is supposedly 65 degrees, it sure felt a fair bit closer to 80 out there. To put it in comparison, I still was using my cool suit. Still, it was one of the cooler times of the day, before the track had fully heat soaked, this was my best chance!
As you can see above, I was able to put down another big gain to get into the 1:22 territory. Not too shabby, and I do still think with some adjustments there's more time left in the tank. Specifically the rear was a bit exciteable on entry, and the I was seeing some mid to exit push from the car.
I also had a few scary situations where the steering fett like it mechanically "locked up". Researching the issue, it would appear I was experiencing some issues with the power steering overheating and/or cavitating. I see some power steering changes in the not so distant future!
Here's a rear view of my Corvette and it's wing at night. I thought the picture with dusk behind it was pretty cool. I actually waited for the sun to set so I could make a few changes to my car. I stiffened the front up a bit, sped up the rear a bit, and increased rear wing angle as I had mismeasured it and was at about 4.5 degrees when 5.5-6 was preferable.
The revised oil cooler seemed to do the trick and kept oil temperatures below 264 or so. I was seeing similar tempreatures before though, so who knows if I'm actually seeing that much improvement. I am catching WAY more bugs though, so I need to clean it all out AND I need to reinforce it. Also, I had the mounting holes lined up wrong in the design. I did them after the split, and as I made adjustments to the split they moved. DOH! Need to get them in the original design.
Here's my Corvette parked and trying to stay cool between sessions on Day2. With peak temperatures in the 90s and only a mild breeze many cars struggled with keeping cool, several puking their guts out from coming off the track hot and being parked. Taking a quick jaunt around the pits to bring temperatures down before you park the car is critical!
Sunday's layout was a "new" approach to organizing the laps out on track called "Shootout". You'd do a normal qualifying session first, and then based on how you did you'd be sent out in groups of 3 cars on track. You'd be released in 20 or so second intervals, get 1 warmup lap, and then you had 3 laps all to yourself. This VASTLY reduced the risk of traffic out there and generally meant you got more clean laps. While some organizational issues occurred for others out there, I had no such issues and I thoroughly liked the format as it gave me my best laps possible.
So above is my best lap of the day, which occured on the third session. I'll start from the beginning though. Today was a pretty easy gimme of a victory as there had be no SCCA Max2 car on track before. That means by default I was setting the class record... but I still wanted to do well of course and so my competition was against everyone. The previous best on the track was a 1:06.5 in Unlimited 1... could I beat that?
If you saw my time above you already know the answer... yes... yes I could beat that time! My first session out I put down a 1:05.54, putting me a full second ahead of the previous best lap out there, and on the actual track day itself I sat a full two seconds ahead of the competition. The meant I'd already set the TRACK RECORD! That was a nice little bonus to add onto myalready accomplished weekend goals!
I'd go on to post a 1:05.50 and then finally a 1:05.39. My gains were at most a tenth and generally in the hundredths of a second so I feel pretty confident without some major revelation to a given section of the track... I wasn't going to go much faster.
I wrapped up at lunch time and began my drive home. I had 8 hours to go, times weren't getting any better... and I'd accomplished my goals!
Takeaways from the weekend:
- 1st Place SCCA Max2 Day 1
- New SCCA Max2 Thill West Full track record
- 1st Place SCCA Max2 Day 2
- New SCCA Max2 Thill West Bypass track record
- New SCCA Thill West TRACK RECORD
There's a lot to be happy about there. I came with a single simple goal, and left with 5 accomplishments I can feel good about!
Data & Lap Analysis
Coming soon, I just got home after all!