Tweet
First off, my co-driver and I did the drive out in one shot. It was actually pretty easy, doing 2 hour shifts to not burn out in a long session of driving. 15 - 30 minute naps ever 2 hours worked out great, and we arrived in Topeka with energy to spare. The weather was pretty decent for the trip out, until we got closer to Heartland Park.
Approaching Heartland Park, things started getting wet, and that was only the start of it. Apparently there was a full blown hurricane scheduled to blow through. Since the ground was wet and we were tired, we unloaded some gear and skipped practice starts. Our wets were still being mounted, as well, so practicing with dry tires on wet pavement wouldn't have been ideal.
The next day was the race. Timing light issues made for an hour or so delay while they decided to skip morning session times and let everyone run through heats for "practice". When it was time for me to run, the timer gear was working again, and coming off the first heat, I was in the lead, although unofficially since times didn't count (which also bit me in the ass later). In the afternoon, Chris Travis ended up improving on his time and took over the lead. I struggled with the car and had to settle for being a full second back, mostly due to screwing up one course that I was faster on in the morning. Third place was about 2 seconds behind me, so I figured I was at least safe in second.
During final runs, we made some poor decisions in car setup along with drying weather conditions. I ended up not gaining much time, and never matching my uncounted first heat west course run. The drying condition allowed 3rd place to move up, knocking me out of a trophy and contingency spot. We attempted to swap tires for the co-driver, but were unable to get all 4 on in time, so he ran half rains half dries, and wasn't able to get much of a better time down.
Overall, I learned a lot from the pro:
1. Don't listen to other people about setting up your car in a situation where you need to drive it to your limit. Ultimately, knowing what the car is going to do yields the best results from the driving aspect.
2. Always be prepared. If I had 2 jacks, 2 impact wrenches, and all the tires ready to go (instead of rolling them 100 ft from the truck), it might've been possible for me to have run on dries (and possibly taken a win).
3. Hoosier wets are only useful when hydroplaning is possible.
4. Rain sucks.
Shortly after the Pro Finale, things got worse. My co-driver got a call about a family emergency, which lead to me driving him to Kansas City so he could fly back to Mass. Basically, I was solo for Nationals, and the drive back. Being out of the system (you basically set up a routine after a while of doing national level events, and the co-driver is part of it), having driven poorly in the pro, and basically a bunch of stuff on my mind lead to me driving like a pansy. I think even STS pulled faster times than me, on at least 1 course (maybe both, I'm too depressed to look). I wish I could've blamed it on the car, but knowing that I was well behind people that I'd normally be faster than on a local event level was proof that it was all driver. Suffice to say, day 1 I was way back in 9th place. Day 2 was a bit better, but I was still driving pretty crappily.
Lessons learned from Nats:
1. Don't skip the practice day. Unfortunately I didn't have a choice this year (due to the co-driver's circumstances), but definitely not going to miss it next year.
2. Safe runs suck. I think I spent too much time trying to not cone away my first nationals. I'm already wishing I had hit more cones and at least had a better scratch time.
3. Have more fun. My week sucked, and although most of it was out of my control, I still think I missed out a bit from stressing out about a bunch of little stuff (which most of was out of my control, so why worry about it?).
Anyways, now it's time to plan for next year. I've got a few things in mind:
1. Suspension: I'm definitely going to measure and model my pivot points. I've got the feeling something quirky is going on with my car, because it's not planting power nearly as well as it should. Be it anti-squat, traction rods, or binding. I've got all winter to scrutinize it.
2. Aero: the top 2 cars (3 drivers) ran massive wings/ splitters. The next car back was 1.5sec, and wingless. There's some debate as to if wings are worth it at 50 - 60mph, but results seem to speak for themselves.
3. Engine: I'm up in the air as to if I want to run the VQ35 in the future. I might pick one up to build, and drop in the DD if it doesn't go in the race car. Either way, it's not in the cards for next year, so I'll probably just freshen up the head of my current motor and play it by ear next year.
4. Driver: need to buy that DL1.
That's all for now. Hopefully next year yields a better thread.
-PJ
Approaching Heartland Park, things started getting wet, and that was only the start of it. Apparently there was a full blown hurricane scheduled to blow through. Since the ground was wet and we were tired, we unloaded some gear and skipped practice starts. Our wets were still being mounted, as well, so practicing with dry tires on wet pavement wouldn't have been ideal.
The next day was the race. Timing light issues made for an hour or so delay while they decided to skip morning session times and let everyone run through heats for "practice". When it was time for me to run, the timer gear was working again, and coming off the first heat, I was in the lead, although unofficially since times didn't count (which also bit me in the ass later). In the afternoon, Chris Travis ended up improving on his time and took over the lead. I struggled with the car and had to settle for being a full second back, mostly due to screwing up one course that I was faster on in the morning. Third place was about 2 seconds behind me, so I figured I was at least safe in second.
During final runs, we made some poor decisions in car setup along with drying weather conditions. I ended up not gaining much time, and never matching my uncounted first heat west course run. The drying condition allowed 3rd place to move up, knocking me out of a trophy and contingency spot. We attempted to swap tires for the co-driver, but were unable to get all 4 on in time, so he ran half rains half dries, and wasn't able to get much of a better time down.
Overall, I learned a lot from the pro:
1. Don't listen to other people about setting up your car in a situation where you need to drive it to your limit. Ultimately, knowing what the car is going to do yields the best results from the driving aspect.
2. Always be prepared. If I had 2 jacks, 2 impact wrenches, and all the tires ready to go (instead of rolling them 100 ft from the truck), it might've been possible for me to have run on dries (and possibly taken a win).
3. Hoosier wets are only useful when hydroplaning is possible.
4. Rain sucks.
Shortly after the Pro Finale, things got worse. My co-driver got a call about a family emergency, which lead to me driving him to Kansas City so he could fly back to Mass. Basically, I was solo for Nationals, and the drive back. Being out of the system (you basically set up a routine after a while of doing national level events, and the co-driver is part of it), having driven poorly in the pro, and basically a bunch of stuff on my mind lead to me driving like a pansy. I think even STS pulled faster times than me, on at least 1 course (maybe both, I'm too depressed to look). I wish I could've blamed it on the car, but knowing that I was well behind people that I'd normally be faster than on a local event level was proof that it was all driver. Suffice to say, day 1 I was way back in 9th place. Day 2 was a bit better, but I was still driving pretty crappily.
Lessons learned from Nats:
1. Don't skip the practice day. Unfortunately I didn't have a choice this year (due to the co-driver's circumstances), but definitely not going to miss it next year.
2. Safe runs suck. I think I spent too much time trying to not cone away my first nationals. I'm already wishing I had hit more cones and at least had a better scratch time.
3. Have more fun. My week sucked, and although most of it was out of my control, I still think I missed out a bit from stressing out about a bunch of little stuff (which most of was out of my control, so why worry about it?).
Anyways, now it's time to plan for next year. I've got a few things in mind:
1. Suspension: I'm definitely going to measure and model my pivot points. I've got the feeling something quirky is going on with my car, because it's not planting power nearly as well as it should. Be it anti-squat, traction rods, or binding. I've got all winter to scrutinize it.
2. Aero: the top 2 cars (3 drivers) ran massive wings/ splitters. The next car back was 1.5sec, and wingless. There's some debate as to if wings are worth it at 50 - 60mph, but results seem to speak for themselves.
3. Engine: I'm up in the air as to if I want to run the VQ35 in the future. I might pick one up to build, and drop in the DD if it doesn't go in the race car. Either way, it's not in the cards for next year, so I'll probably just freshen up the head of my current motor and play it by ear next year.
4. Driver: need to buy that DL1.
That's all for now. Hopefully next year yields a better thread.
-PJ
.
Comment