Watkins Glen Recap - Printable Version

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Watkins Glen Recap - Printable Version

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Watkins Glen Recap - PDenbigh - 06-08-2006

Chad and I drove Watkins Glen this past Monday and Tuesday. I posted a recap to my Merkur Forums so I thought I'd paste it here. Chad has his own version I'm sure, so hopefulyl he'll post something too.

Best moment of the weekend - Both of us got Black Flagged at the same time for "racing" and "Scaring the corner workers".

This was my first black flag of the event... Can't say that for Chad ;-).

Here it goes:

..And.here's the summary! We really missed everyone! It was a great
weekend with great memories. All came back in one piece and better for the
experience.

Sunday evening we made the trip from Carlisle to WGI. It wasn't bad at all
and took us just over 4 hours while towing and stopping for gas once. Lots
of construction though! We got checked in to the Seneca Lodge, got our cars
tech'd and went to the room to watch some track videos.

Monday morning we were out the door by 6:00, went to the little breakfast
joint to fuel up for the day, got to the track and unloaded. I was
disappointed to see that I was in Group 1 for a "Pass Off" meaning that an
instructor was going to ride with me for one session to make sure I could
handle Group 2. Fortunately, the "Pass Off" went well and I was actually
granted solo access to Group 2.

Right before my session, TWO cars dumped oil on the track and ended up
covering at least 60% of the track with oil. When our group went out we
were skating on kitty little for most of the trip around.

My first group 2 session was a blast. Managed to top the uphill esses at
110mph and ended the back straight at 120ish MPH. I knew I could do better
though. The biggest thing I noticed and enjoyed was the 40 minute session
time. That's a lot of track time! It really gave me time to identify a
problem, work out a solution, and practice the solution to commit it to
habit.

Life was good for Saturday. I had two more sessions and the car ran
flawlessly. I think the same can be said for Chad (White_2kgt).

That evening Chad and I bled our brakes after a good day of heating them up.
Then, we went to dinner with an M5 driver me met, and headed back to the
room to watch the in-car videos from the day. The first thing I noticed was
that I was not being aggressive enough, and I just wasn't pushing as hard as
I needed to. I also found a few turns that were pretty rough in hindsight,
so I had my task list for Tuesday.

Tuesday morning was the same morning routine. Check over car, check pads,
check lugs, check fluids, and give it a good shake down. My first session
on Sunday I had an instructor join me. He was a different instructor and
wasn't nearly as scared of the HP, and he was very helpful in many areas of
the track. He has a 400hp 2.3 SVO at home, so we could relate well. He
rode with me the full session and we worked on a bunch of stuff.

Session two on Sunday was my best session in my history of driving. The
first 10 minutes were accompanied by my instructor. I dropped him off at
puts and then waited for Chad in his awesome AI Mustang to come around turn
11. When I saw him fly by, I took off like a banshee out of pit row and
merged out just in front of him for the uphill esses. We both knew "it was
on" at this point, and we proceeded to wreak havoc on the track. We passed
every car in our group at least once, and some we passed twice in the
remaining 30 minutes. Thanks to the corner workers, their good
communication, and their proactive use of the blue flag we would come out of
the esses and fly by anywhere from 1 to 3 cars on the back straight. (FYI,
the blue flag is a signal to other cars that a faster vehicle is approaching
rapidly and will need by, to be aware and give the point now).

There were areas that the XR excelled, and there were areas that the Mustang
did better, but all in all we were really having fun out there. I managed
to take the uphill esses full throttle in 4th gear, exiting and just over
120mph resulting in a max speed at the end of the back straight of just over
130 - at 7200rpm in 4th gear (5th is useless at this time). My poor Fuzion
street tires were screaming for mercy and toward the end of the session were
so greasy that I was drifting most of the turns.

We had an unbelievable good time that session. So much fun, in fact, that
both Chad and I got Black Flagged on our last lap. They told us we were
scaring the corner workers because we were getting so close, and that we
were "racing, not playing lead-follow." They had a smile on their face when
they told us this however, so they knew we were just having fun.
Regardless, it's a war story that we'll tell for years.

My third session of the day was good. I did back if off a few 10ths so keep
the track workers happy. Chad was in front this time, and after a few
trains he was out of sight. I worked on pushing the car hard but sticking
to the proper line. My oil temp exceeded 260 Degrees F though. I was
running the car hard :-).

Chad and I opted out of our last session of the day. We were exhausted, the
cars were in one piece, and we just didn't want to push our luck. Plus,
with a seven hour drive ahead of us, we decided the extra 1.5 hour head
start was a good choice. We loaded up and headed home!

The track was great and both days were absolutely beautiful. Couldn't have
been a better two days for a track event. There was one hard impact in the
esses by a 300Z that closed things down for a while on Monday. We saw lots
of nice cars - two Ford GT's (one with 750 HP), an M5, a few Z06's, several
Mustangs, two Cobra R's, and a couple of vintage racers. There were even
some DP cars there!

The XR is back in the garage, still dirty from the fun. It's getting a
Mocal Oil cooler and remote dual-filter system this month. It also gets a
good going over before our next event at Summit Point next month.

I really missed all the XR's there. Jeremy Kemp had his XR and after a
looooong Monday night was able to participate both days - but I'll let him
fill the group in on his adventure. We did a good job at representing the
XR world though. Several folks came up wondering "what in the hell that
thing is." And we passed everyone enough times that they had a good
opportunity to see both my XR and his Mustang from both the front ("Up your
tailpipe") and the back ("see ya later!").

Phoenix CMR did a fair job balancing the drivers need for speed and the
track's rules and regulations. I really hope more can make it next year.
It was a great event, with great memories, and no casualties of either
driver or car.

- Sijray21 - 06-08-2006

nice write up! sounds like a lot of fun. Watkin's Glen is definitely a track i'd love to try out.

- ScottyB - 06-08-2006

sounds great Pete. way to rep MM in the north!

- Maengelito - 06-08-2006

thats awesome pete. someday i'll have horsepower to come play with you guys. oh yeah and someday i'll also make it up to watkins

- white_2kgt - 06-08-2006

Pete pretty much summed it up. I got black flagged on Monday for 'Jumping the Curbs' :roll:

I'll add the pics,

[Image: IMG_0254.jpg]

I'll have some video this weekend.

- Evan - 06-08-2006

white_2kgt Wrote:Pete pretty much summed it up. I got black flagged on Monday for 'Jumping the Curbs' :roll:

haha, thats even worse than when I got black flagged for knocking over a cone. :?

I look forward to seeing your video, I cant wait to drive the glen.

- white_2kgt - 06-08-2006

Evan Wrote:
white_2kgt Wrote:Pete pretty much summed it up. I got black flagged on Monday for 'Jumping the Curbs' :roll:
haha, thats even worse than when I got black flagged for knocking over a cone. :?

I look forward to seeing your video, I cant wait to drive the glen.

Well, damn if they didn't tell us that they would black flag us for knocking over the cones as well. I wanted to run over each and every one they had setup, I hate those damn things.

- PDenbigh - 06-09-2006

Video 1.

Roughly a 2:29 lap with traffic and on street tires. I know I blew a few apexes and I don't have time to find any other laps ATM, so just watch and enjoy as the XR has fun with the rest of the field.

http://www.85xr.com/Events/WGI_06/WGI_01.wmv

- white_2kgt - 06-09-2006

PDenbigh Wrote:Video 1.

Roughly a 2:29 lap with traffic and on street tires. I know I blew a few apexes and I don't have time to find any other laps ATM, so just watch and enjoy as the XR has fun with the rest of the field.

http://www.85xr.com/Events/WGI_06/WGI_01.wmv

That was the one where you gave me the point by but I didn't take it right?

If you encode them at 250kbps you will get a MUCH smaller file size and still pretty decent quality and it will download MUCH quicker at 36k/s.

- PDenbigh - 06-09-2006

white_2kgt Wrote:
PDenbigh Wrote:Video 1.

Roughly a 2:29 lap with traffic and on street tires. I know I blew a few apexes and I don't have time to find any other laps ATM, so just watch and enjoy as the XR has fun with the rest of the field.

http://www.85xr.com/Events/WGI_06/WGI_01.wmv

That was the one where you gave me the point by but I didn't take it right?

If you encode them at 250kbps you will get a MUCH smaller file size and still pretty decent quality and it will download MUCH quicker at 36k/s.

Thanks for the tip. I don't have time so for now folks will just have to suffer.

- white_2kgt - 06-09-2006

PDenbigh Wrote:
white_2kgt Wrote:
PDenbigh Wrote:Video 1.

Roughly a 2:29 lap with traffic and on street tires. I know I blew a few apexes and I don't have time to find any other laps ATM, so just watch and enjoy as the XR has fun with the rest of the field.

http://www.85xr.com/Events/WGI_06/WGI_01.wmv

That was the one where you gave me the point by but I didn't take it right?

If you encode them at 250kbps you will get a MUCH smaller file size and still pretty decent quality and it will download MUCH quicker at 36k/s.

Thanks for the tip. I don't have time so for now folks will just have to suffer.

I'm sure you will make more Wink

- white_2kgt - 06-10-2006

Forgot to post my video's here

Please right click and Save As on the picture

[Image: TrackTape1_Pete_PeteChaseMe.jpg]

Here's on from my roof cam,

Right Click Save As

Some of it isn't from the same lap as you will see, but most of it is from the same session. Just a quick throw together of some different angles.

- ScottyB - 06-10-2006

thanks for posting the videos guys, they're pretty thrilling to watch. you guys look good out there too, nice lines and tight braking zones, at least as far as i can tell. rock on!

- bimmerboodle - 06-14-2006

Nice pics and vids guys...
Pete....you don't like driving with gloves?

- PDenbigh - 06-14-2006

bimmerboodle Wrote:Nice pics and vids guys...
Pete....you don't like driving with gloves?

It's not that I don't like it, just haven't bought any yet.

- Feersty - 06-14-2006

How does this track compare to others you have done?

- bimmerboodle - 06-14-2006

PDenbigh Wrote:
bimmerboodle Wrote:Nice pics and vids guys...
Pete....you don't like driving with gloves?

It's not that I don't like it, just haven't bought any yet.

I got some Gforce ones as a gift....at first they felt strange but I have been wearing them on my commute and after a few days they feel great.

- Sijray21 - 06-14-2006

PDenbigh Wrote:
bimmerboodle Wrote:Nice pics and vids guys...
Pete....you don't like driving with gloves?

It's not that I don't like it, just haven't bought any yet.

i used my motorcycle leather gloves and i love them. After i upgrade my motorcycle gloves to something with more protection i'm going to use my old flimsy pair for HPDE's Big Grin

- Evan - 06-14-2006

I hate gloves. Takes all the feel away. Now I always wear gloves because I have to while racing, and I dont want to get spoiled to no gloves during DEs

- white_2kgt - 06-14-2006

Evan Wrote:I hate gloves. Takes all the feel away. Now I always wear gloves because I have to while racing, and I dont want to get spoiled to no gloves during DEs

How does gloves take away the 'feel'? Most of the input you get from the steering wheel is how it is trying to turn in your hands, gloves just help you old on better when your hands get all sweaty.