TL;DR - another personal best by 1 second. Car has a 2:12 in it, but overall I'll take it!
![[Image: BxkdeiU.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/BxkdeiU.jpg)
Saturday morning was a bit foggy and we had delay. Practice session I only got a couple laps and had to come in to instruct, but car felt fine.
The first timed session I ran a new personal best by 0.1 seconds (2:14.4) with sloppy driving so I knew I had plenty left. Based off the first session I felt the car had another 2 seconds, but I knew I came here for a 2:13. Next session was pretty hot. Car struggled down the straights and could tell it was pulling power from the heat.
First timed session:
![[Image: V2eoc1q.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/V2eoc1q.jpg)
Second timed session:
![[Image: ecTaIZu.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ecTaIZu.jpg)
As you can see 118mph top speed but running fast lap times is kind of annoying. Not sure why the car pulls power so hard when it's hot outside. Guess it's better than killing the motor. Really makes me question just going e85 route, new fuel pump, fuel injectors, and get it dyno tuned so it runs cooler and has better knock resistance. Gonna be a pain lugging 4 jugs of e85 around every weekend, but may be a better investment in the long run.
Still was enough to place 2nd out of 6 as only one fast guy showed up this weekend lol. And yes that's Maeng on the podium. I asked him nicely to join so we could get MCS contingency (6 starters needed) and he gets 3rd!
![[Image: x6SFTjJ.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/x6SFTjJ.jpg)
Picture from Tae on Saturday going into Hogpen:
![[Image: W57BaCh.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/W57BaCh.jpg)
Sunday morning I knew was my only hope to push my time down significantly lower due to the colder temps and that's just what I did even with a mistake. A ST2 or ST3 silver E46 M3 was for some reason in our morning TT session. Started at the back and caught up to me and a yellow vette near the esses. The vette overslowed to let the M3 by causing me to climb up on him and pass in South Bend. I then made a mental error by not braking enough and putting two off on the outside of oak tree... Sigh. Vette could've easily held ground and let him by into the braking zone of oak tree. Some drivers really make some weird choices out there. Three laps later was my fastest lap as I had to get back into a rhythm again. The lap was not my cleanest, but the car is getting loose in places it wasn't before as the tires are getting older (30 heat cycles for this session). My much smoother next lap was a 2:13.7, but over-slowed in a few places. Overall a second faster from when I was on stickers at Hyperfest feels good.
![[Image: NpULLzb.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/NpULLzb.jpg)
After analyzing data I was correct in thinking there is a 2:12 out there. Braking later into T1 and carrying trail braking. Getting on full throttle in T1 quicker. Seems like T3 there isn't much I can see from data besides trying 4th gear instead of always using 3rd. South bend I can have a couple mph more consistently. But that's only .1 seconds. Can brake a little later into oak tree then trail brake a bit more into oak tree, get on the gas sooner. Braking later into back straight and trail braking is significant time gain almost .5 seconds. Those are the biggest pieces for me to work on based on my novice data reading skills
A lot of MM people were there with their cars this weekend so it was decided to snag pictures of the cars. Poor Kaan missed because he was a bit hot from the race he had just run:
![[Image: L03hCru.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/L03hCru.jpg)
More videos and probably pictures to come! Probably a highlights video and probably a video of me going out in the DE3/DE4 combined session on Saturday. I have forgotten how much speed I've picked up in comparison to HPDE. It's pretty crazy actually. That Saturday session alone was enough to remind myself I'm flying in this little car. It's crazy to think I used to think I was fast in HPDE3. Now I realize I was pretty slow hahaha. It's kind of the same way when I see fast racers out there in TT and I think they are insane! Now I get it. You just get faster over time and driving fast just becomes natural. Soon enough I'll be ripping 2:10's or something with ease while like baking a cake, reading the newspaper, etc. while driving. I will say all these fast cars/drivers in my class have really pushed me to drive faster. It's a good thing, but also a curse because of being naturally competitive and makes me think I'm not driving that fast
Saturday morning was a bit foggy and we had delay. Practice session I only got a couple laps and had to come in to instruct, but car felt fine.
The first timed session I ran a new personal best by 0.1 seconds (2:14.4) with sloppy driving so I knew I had plenty left. Based off the first session I felt the car had another 2 seconds, but I knew I came here for a 2:13. Next session was pretty hot. Car struggled down the straights and could tell it was pulling power from the heat.
First timed session:
Second timed session:
As you can see 118mph top speed but running fast lap times is kind of annoying. Not sure why the car pulls power so hard when it's hot outside. Guess it's better than killing the motor. Really makes me question just going e85 route, new fuel pump, fuel injectors, and get it dyno tuned so it runs cooler and has better knock resistance. Gonna be a pain lugging 4 jugs of e85 around every weekend, but may be a better investment in the long run.
Still was enough to place 2nd out of 6 as only one fast guy showed up this weekend lol. And yes that's Maeng on the podium. I asked him nicely to join so we could get MCS contingency (6 starters needed) and he gets 3rd!
Picture from Tae on Saturday going into Hogpen:
Sunday morning I knew was my only hope to push my time down significantly lower due to the colder temps and that's just what I did even with a mistake. A ST2 or ST3 silver E46 M3 was for some reason in our morning TT session. Started at the back and caught up to me and a yellow vette near the esses. The vette overslowed to let the M3 by causing me to climb up on him and pass in South Bend. I then made a mental error by not braking enough and putting two off on the outside of oak tree... Sigh. Vette could've easily held ground and let him by into the braking zone of oak tree. Some drivers really make some weird choices out there. Three laps later was my fastest lap as I had to get back into a rhythm again. The lap was not my cleanest, but the car is getting loose in places it wasn't before as the tires are getting older (30 heat cycles for this session). My much smoother next lap was a 2:13.7, but over-slowed in a few places. Overall a second faster from when I was on stickers at Hyperfest feels good.
After analyzing data I was correct in thinking there is a 2:12 out there. Braking later into T1 and carrying trail braking. Getting on full throttle in T1 quicker. Seems like T3 there isn't much I can see from data besides trying 4th gear instead of always using 3rd. South bend I can have a couple mph more consistently. But that's only .1 seconds. Can brake a little later into oak tree then trail brake a bit more into oak tree, get on the gas sooner. Braking later into back straight and trail braking is significant time gain almost .5 seconds. Those are the biggest pieces for me to work on based on my novice data reading skills
A lot of MM people were there with their cars this weekend so it was decided to snag pictures of the cars. Poor Kaan missed because he was a bit hot from the race he had just run:
More videos and probably pictures to come! Probably a highlights video and probably a video of me going out in the DE3/DE4 combined session on Saturday. I have forgotten how much speed I've picked up in comparison to HPDE. It's pretty crazy actually. That Saturday session alone was enough to remind myself I'm flying in this little car. It's crazy to think I used to think I was fast in HPDE3. Now I realize I was pretty slow hahaha. It's kind of the same way when I see fast racers out there in TT and I think they are insane! Now I get it. You just get faster over time and driving fast just becomes natural. Soon enough I'll be ripping 2:10's or something with ease while like baking a cake, reading the newspaper, etc. while driving. I will say all these fast cars/drivers in my class have really pushed me to drive faster. It's a good thing, but also a curse because of being naturally competitive and makes me think I'm not driving that fast