OK, so Allan decides to resurrect Mid Ohio. I guess I could just remind him that I had the fast lap of the weekend. But instead I'll let him bask in the glory and share this.
The weatherman called for rain all weekend and we were fortunate enough to see very little. We never needed the wets but sure had an interesting sprint 2 with showers coming and going throughout. More on that later.
Sprint 1 - This race was a great drive but is fairly boring to watch as there is not much action and no lead changes. I was Allan's camera man for the race. Got close at the end when traffic helped (alot). We both broke the track record in this race but I couldn't match Allan's pace.
I had qualified 2nd with a 2:13 something although I thought for sure I had pole. I did my best time in the 2nd lap of qualifier and came off shortly thereafter. Allan was behind me and I guess took longer to warm up or was seriously sandbagging. He did a low 2:13 and took pole.
During the race Allan did almost 2:12 flat and I did 2:12.47. Last year John Dimoff set a track record at just into the high 2:12.9xx. with Allan at very low 2:13. I think Allan's set up is the same so I'm not sure if the track was faster or the drivers were faster. I'm going to do a comparison lap with John to see where we made and lost time.
Here's the funny part. I did all of Friday including Sprint 1 without my front splitter. The crew had forgot to put it on! Imagine what I could have achieved with that thing in place. I scolded my six year old twins and my wife for forgetting to do this and then went after the crew chief (yours truly...). Louis made me laugh when he said " why don't you do sprint 2 with only 3 wheels?" The sticker may be gone but I'm still a rookie.
Sprint 2 was one of the most fun races I've ever had (except for the final outcome!). Lots of action. Lead changes. Rain and more. And the racing was nice and clean. Peter is very capable in the wet and taught me a thing or two about what slicks are capable of. Great driving Peter!
I combined Peter's video and mine as it makes for some interesting viewing. I couldn't figure out how to do side by side in iMovie so I had to go with picture in picture. Between the 2 videos and 2 rear view mirrors there is lots to watch. Sometimes a challenge to remember who is who!
Sunday Practice was interesting. Allan set a blistering lap of 2:11.2! I understand he was on newer slicks and had gone wider up front. It was a new setup for him and clearly it worked here. We were going to have fun in Sprint 3 as Allan had to start on the 3rd row based on the finish from sprint 2. Then it got more interesting. We had a torential downpour 30 minutes before the race. Would it keep raining? Would it dry? Do we need wets? It quickly became apparent that there wouldn't be more rain and the track would dry over a 45 min race. Wet at the beginning and dry at the end was the way it would be.
When it finally came to pass Sprint 3 was disappointing for me to say the least. Peter started on pole as he had won sprint 2. I was able to get traction on the wet side of the straight and take him into turn 1. A little extra HP will do that when you can get it to the ground. On the second lap the track was drying quickly but we were already well ahead of our class competition and then - disaster. I blew my 4-3 downshift and went 4-5 instead. My 4-5 had a nice throttle blip but when I finally picked up 3rd I had not rev matched and the rears locked. What was I thinking? Rather than having slowed from the 4-5 error I was probably running at a higher speed. The result, a wickedly fast spin. The video tells the story. Dumb mistake. To make matters worse my car would not restart, otherwise I might have recovered. The little Oddysey just won't crank the car over when it's hot. It cost me the Enduro at Mid Ohio and now this. A bigger battery is in the works. I'll suffer with the extra weight.
So the funny part is Peter and I had a plan. We were to get as far away from Allan as we could before the track dried. He was starting 5th and can be rather cautious in the wet. I didn't know if I'd be following Peter those first few laps or he'd be following me. Either way we were going to go like stink. The last thing Peter said to me on the grid was "let's not take each other out".... Sorry Peter. But don't worry. My wife tells me all the time I don't listen to her either.
Sprint 3 with some slo-mo action. Enjoy.
I had a great time at Calabogie and wish we could race there more than once a year. I used the race to focus on cleaning up my driving and conserving tires and I think I've made some progress. Lot's more to learn.
Another poor mans data acquisition comparison, This time at Mid Ohio with Ryan Osiecki. Ryan won GTS 4 at the 2008 NASA Nationals. They run the Pro Course so you can't do a full comparison lap. Ryan's car is an E46 S54 from Fall Line. Fast car, and fast driver. More schooling.
More fun with iMovie. Here's lap 5 from Saturday's sprint with a little extra at the beginning so I could fit the song in.
PS - I thought the song was appropriate as I reached out to John Dimoff for some tips on how to handle such a busy track and his advice was "Relax..... Take your time..." How appropriate. Slow the movement down to go faster.
Enjoy. It also happens to be one of my favourite current driving tunes.
My first time at Mid Ohio and my last rookie event. Seems like a long time as a rookie but the new rules require 4 events completed. I've now finished a race last season at VIR (IP) and Mosport (IP) and this year at VIR (CM) and Mid Ohio (CM). Off comes the sticker!
The weekend started out well, other than the fact that I corded a Dunlop slick on Friday that was new at VIR and had 6 cycles. I think we have a combination of a slightly too large tire for the 9 inch rim, not enough camber in the front, and an overly zealous driver who was overdriving a bit and needs to settle down. I ended up putting some old R6's on for the last session Friday after having to run to WalMart to get them installed. $20 to re and re 4 tires on rims. $5 per wheel with 3 guys fussing with them and scratching their heads. Not sure I understand that business model....
Practice on Saturday was short and I continued to try and learn this highly technical track. Lots of different line options each with their own pros and cons. The entire section from the end of the back straight through to the carousel seems like one long connected corner. Blow one and you've blown them all.
For the Saturday qualifier I moved to a set of new Pirelli Slicks which had a heat cycle in them from Friday. They seemed to work really well for the track and did seem to have less roll over than the Dunlops. The Sprint 1 qualifier was more learning and I managed to turn the fastest lap. My first pole.
In Sprint 1 I lead the first 12 of 13 laps. Allan stayed on me most of the time and got real close in traffic. I made a small error in the carousel which limited my drive onto the start finish straight which allowed Allan to pressure me into an error going into turn 1. I paid too much attention to him even though there was no way he could try and take the corner and I should have just closed the door. I missed my turn in by a foot and got a little sideways in T1 which let Allan by. A classic move by a more experienced racer (Allan) and a classic mistake by a rookie (me). I gave it up and had to settle for second though I did set the fast lap of the race at 1:35.7 which turned out to be the fastest lap of the weekend. I'm not sure I understand why the track slowed down over the next two days. I guess the heat got too high for power and optimal traction.
I've got some footage of the first Sprint which is quite boring until we get to traffic. My camera battery died part way so I don't have a record of the end and my error. EDIT AUG 5: Thanks to Allan I've now compiled our video into one so I now have a record of the last lap. Did I really want that? In any event it is more entertaining to watch as I have my video with Allan's inset then Allan at the end when my camera dies.
Here it is:
For the second Qualifier I was unable to get a complete clean lap in and had to settle for 4th on the grid. I settled into 3rd after the start and both Allan and I got by Ike under braking at the end of the back straight. I chased Allan the whole race but didn't have enough to put any real pressure on him. I'll post the video soon. It only has part of the race as my camera finally broke off its mount and bounced around in the car. I guess I should have got around to strengthening the mounting arrangement. Those with Aiptek cameras take note. If you don't stop them from moving around you will fatique the camera body at the mounting point and that's the end.
Second Sprint video:
Sunday's qualifer for the Enduro was uneventful. I was saving tires and put 4 or 5 laps in and was able to put down a time to put me 3rd on the grid.
At the start of the enduro I followed Allan and Ike onto the back straight. I expected Allan and I to get by Ike at the end as he seemed to be slowing quite a bit earlier than us (something to do with spinning off earlier in the weekend into the beach and cording 4 brand new slicks??) As it turned out Ike went down the middle and slowed early as expected. Allan chose to go left and I tucked up the inside to take the lead. Ike spun in Madness which let me get a little bit of a lead out. You can see all this in Peter's video. I have no video as my camera is toast now.
Allan stayed on my tail until we hit traffic then settled back a bit which let me build up a bit of a lead which appeared to be about 4-5 seconds by the time Allan pitted around 30 minutes.
I pitted as planned at about 35 minutes. Man was it hot. Steve refueled for me while I was fireman. I can't tell you just how uncomfortable it was having to close my visor and stand there. That 5 gallons seemed to take forever to go in! I jumped back in the car and got everything buckled in. Then the first problem struck. The car was hot and the battery wouldn't turn over the car. (mistake number one by me - not starting the car soon enough - always get it started with a minimum of a minute to go). Not anticipating this as a potential problem and making sure the team knew it might happen (mistake number two by me). Fortunately Allan has had this problem and had a jumper pack at the pits. Steve scrambled and got me started. In the excitement there was nobody advising where we were with timing so I didn't know if my 5 minutes was up or not and whether or not I should go. I believe we were over the 5 min by now and I think the team assumed I would know this and just go when we got it started. I heard a "go go go" and took off - sort of. I stalled it (mistake number 3 by yours truly). Steve scrambled out to get me started again. By the time I got going I was now more than 30s late getting out of the pits. In Peter's video at 40 minutes you can see me when he comes into the pits. I should have been gone long before he came in. As he pulls in you can see Steve getting the car started for the second time after the stall. Even though it seemed like we got restarted pretty quickly it's amazing watching Peter's video and seeing 30 seconds go by like nothing. Another lesson learned. I was frustrated and grumpy but the mistakes were all mine.
So much for a 5 second lead when coming into the pits. I was now on the chase and didn't know how far behind I was. Turns out I was in 3rd and not sure how far ahead Allan and Peter were. I managed to catch Peter with a lap or so to go. I don't believe I would have caught him if he would have been peddling harder the whole time. Maybe there's a lesson there as well for all of us. And we closed Allan's lead down to I believe 12s at the end.
Given my short racing tenure and history of mechanical failures over the past year I am very pleased with the weekend. The car performed flawlessly, the driver less so. I couldn't be happier with my decision to lighten the car and move to CM. The Bimmerworld S54 solution rocks and Raven builds one of the lightest and tightest chassis out there. My car with an affordable and stock S54 (stock ECU with software only) can hang with a built high compression Euro 3.2 running DTA. I might be down a bit on power but there's plenty more to be had from the driver in time.
I believe we are at an inflection point in CM. It's not a poor man's game but consider what you would have to pay 2 years ago to get the performance I'm getting from the Bimmerworld S54 package. Things that make you go hmmmm...
Many thanks again to Raven Performance and Bimmerworld. Thanks to John, Steve, Jason, and Judy Lewis for your work in the pits and your tireless effort keeping everyone going.
Congratulations to everyone for a successful and fun Club Racing weekend!
I thought I could post this clip in the comments section of Mike K's blog but I guess we're limited to text.
The pass that Mike posted doesn't tell the whole story. The pass from my perspective is at the end of this short clip. The beginning of the clip was a fun compilation using my video and Marty's. The speed differential is large between classes which in itself is not a problem. I think it's important that we focus on making sure we don't ruin other peoples momentum. In the case of Mike he offered it up so I took it. Thanks again!
Been really busy this week and haven't had time to post. Here's a recap:
Friday - missed qualifying due to a fried mass air sensor. Car was running great till then. The Bimmerworld team and Randy M. did a great job trying to get me going but we just didn't get it done for qualifying. Started at the back of the pack and had a blast. Worked my way up to 13th overall and 7th CM with the 3rd fastest CM time at 2:05.something. Battery on camera must have given out as i have nothing. This would have been fun to watch. Many thanks to Isi for lending me his MAF as his car was out of commission with some broken diff bolts. That's always tough. And we've all been there, though that's no consolation.
Saturday - Qualified 5th. Had a good start (after turn 1 at least!) and had a great time trying to stay on Steve Bassen's tail for the race. Like a dog chasing a rabbit. Great fun! Finished 4th overall and 2nd CM. Turned a 2;03.something. Here's the video:
Sunday - Mass air sensor quit in qualifying. Randy quickly got me a new one installed and I got back out in time to qualify 3rd. Thanks Randy! Started 3rd and finished 3rd. Steve was on his game and I just didn't have anything for him. Turned my best lap of the weekend - 2:02.9 but it wasn't enough. I couldn't be more pleased considering it's my second race at the track and my last rookie race.
Link to full Sunday Sprint - Note the cool multi angle camera shot from Marty's car at 17:40
Raven builds an incredible car and the Bimmerworld S54 package rocks!!
Thanks to John, Steve and the team at Raven and James, Jason and the whole Bimmerworld team for all your help as I've worked through my "issues" of the past year.
Thanks to Peter Carroll for helping me with setup. Sorry your car was acting up. Would have been fun with another Raven car to play with.
(mistake number 3 by yours truly). Steve scrambled out to get me started again. By the time I got going I was now more than 30s late getting out of the pits. In Peter's video at 40 minutes you can see me when he comes into the pits. I should have been gone long before he came in. As he pulls in you can see Steve getting the car started for the second time after the stall. Even though it seemed like we got restarted pretty quickly it's amazing watching Peter's video and seeing 30 seconds go by like nothing. Another lesson learned. I was frustrated and grumpy but the mistakes were all mine.