November 6th/7th at Summit Point Main, NASA-MA Fall Finale

[Jake]

What a weekend! The Crack Pipe, I'm on it :thumbup:

Did my second full weekend in HPDE 1 with Maeng as my instructor this time. I was driving Carrie's 94 Miata again. Summit Main is a really fun track... slower than VIR Full but more technical. I was having a blast with the Carousel section... Maeng finally broke me out of my comfort zone and had me floored in 3rd starting somewhere around turn 6 or 7, carrying all the speed/momentum through down to turn 10 and the front straight. First time we did it, I was screaming something incomprehensible and he's just like "Don't lift! Don't lift! Open the wheel! Don't lift! Gogogo!" Surprise surprise, the car held on and damn it was fast. We switched back and forth between street tires and R-comps... Carrie and I's friend Stinger (with the red/white Mama Debbie's Seafood TT Miata) had a spare set that was about done.

He drove Carrie's car in TT, she drove it in DE4 and I was in DE1. So it got a LOT of track time. We went through 25 gallons of fuel, one quart of oil and everything was still functional at the end of the weekend. Well, almost. Carrie comes up to me after my 2nd session on Sunday and goes "So... we don't have brakes." In this case, "don't have" means "wore down to the backing plates" so we packed up the 'otter. DJ was kind enough to let me take his car out for my final Sunday session (after signing away my life, all my money and my firstborn) and that was a whole new beast. I see why people are fond of the M3 for track use now. Very balanced, just like the Miata, only bigger and with MOAR POWARRR. So much fun. Thanks again, DJ.

We had two teams of MM for the Saturday-night karting enduro. That was C-O-L-D but a ton of fun as well. One team (me, Kristin, David M and DJ) came in 6th, the other team (Joey, Lincoln, Matt and Chris) pulled 11th. Good showing and SPK is a blast. We will likely try and do our spring karting event there, if it's warm enough and they can match pricing from G-Force. Bonus: my parents showed up and hung out most of Saturday... and they took us all to Five Guys after karting for a late dinner. The tip of my nose finally regained feeling as I pulled into the Five Guys parking lot.

GREAT weekend!! Always a good time at the track, seeing alumni (hooray, Pete got his Merkur out and nothing broke!) and going fast. Who's in for working or Hyperdriving in February at VIR?!?

[Goodspeed]

OK, that was fun. The Hyperdrive was a great entry into the good stuff - I'll definitely be back next year for more :thumbup:

My session was over far too soon. My instructor was great, and he really made it click within 1 lap as I started to get braking and turn-in points down. The car performed awesomely to a point - the brakes really stank by mid session (leading to one oh shit moment braking for turn 1) and the tires got quite greasy shortly thereafter, but those will be addressed so I can focus on driving and not worrying about the equipment.





This car grabs my lol wut award for the weekend - though it had a shiny intercooler behind the grille.

[Jake]

Glad you had fun Goodspeed! Start saving now and do a full weekend in February!

PS: It was fun passing you on the front straight. Two equally-slow cars make passing in a straight line difficult, haha.

[Steve85]

This you Jake? I think was the HPDE 1 group immediately after the t-laps.



I came up to take the boys out for touring laps. Kinda fun, two more laps and I would have had the silver MM Suby, pace car was blocking and no flag came :dunno:

[Maengelito]

This you Jake? I think was the HPDE 1 group immediately after the t-laps.



I came up to take the boys out for touring laps. Kinda fun, two more laps and I would have had the silver MM Suby, pace car was blocking and no flag came :dunno:

That was not his/Carrie's car. Her car has the polished silver hood. I didn't know you were there though Steve. Did you stick around for very long after touring laps?

[Jewels]

Definately had a good time this weekend. Sean Schutte, Maeng and the rest of us old folks had dinner at Brewbakers in town and it was nice catching up with these guys and having some good laughs over shared memories.

[Steve85]

That was not his/Carrie's car. Her car has the polished silver hood. I didn't know you were there though Steve. Did you stick around for very long after touring laps?

Only about 20 minutes... just to test out my wife's b-day/our Christmas gift. I saw you diggin in the wallet during the t-lap sign-up...I didn't want to cut off the person talking to you and my son was dragging me to get back to the car so we didn't miss the "race".

Good stories from you, Jake, DJ and DG. Sounds like it was a great time out there. Jewels, pretty sure it was you that directed me to grid for sign-up, thanks!

This thing was pretty beastly....

[Jewels]

That was not his/Carrie's car. Her car has the polished silver hood. I didn't know you were there though Steve. Did you stick around for very long after touring laps?

Only about 20 minutes... just to test out my wife's b-day/our Christmas gift. I saw you diggin in the wallet during the t-lap sign-up...I didn't want to cut off the person talking to you and my son was dragging me to get back to the car so we didn't miss the "race".

Good stories from you, Jake, DJ and DG. Sounds like it was a great time out there. Jewels, pretty sure it was you that directed me to grid for sign-up, thanks!

This thing was pretty beastly....

It was me. And I thought it was you, but I didn't want to embarrass myself by asking. Also, that M5 was chicken shit, slow, wouldn't let people pass, and he asked Kaan at one point, what would happen if he wrecked on track.

[Steve85]

^^Glad you said that! He was coasting through T10 leaving a solid 10ft of track to his left on exit and then just hammering it down the straight. I don't know what transmission was in there, but it really sounded like an old automatic when you punch it and it revs a second, then downshifts, then squirts out. I saw him heading towards Shenandoah on our way out and the douchemeter was pegged. Oh well, cool car, I could get used hauling the fam around in it!

[Maengelito]

It was a really fun weekend at the track.

My very first session on Saturday was a bit hair raising as I haven't driven that car at Summit yet and it was doing some very funky things under hard braking. After a few "oh shit" moments, I came in and noticed a sound coming from the back of the car. It turns out that I had worn my rear brakes down to the backing plate. Oops. I was able to get some new XP8's from another S2k driver and Rex found me some rear rotors in Winchester. He even picked them up! Rex and Kaan were able to swap out one side while I was doing the instructing thing and I did the other side during some down time. I was able to continue without missing a session and the car felt much better after that. My Miata never used up rear brakes, so I was surprised to find out that this car has much more rear brake bias. After a long day, nothing sounded better than getting dinner and drinks in downtown Winchester so I let Rex drive my car there. It turns out that the Honda can only take about 3x36 min sessions on track before needing more gas because it was out of gas about a mile away from the track. Luckily Sean was following so Rex and Sean went back to get someone's fuel jug to bring me some gas.

Sunday was much more relaxed and problem free until I packed the car up and decided to head home after a long weekend. On my way out, I noticed a loud pulsing noise anytime I even touched the brakes. I pulled over at a Sheetz along Rt. 7 and noticed a huge crack in one of my front brake rotors (which I have a pic of on my FB page). So I swapped out that race pad/rotor setup in the parking lot with my street pad/rotor spare I had in the trunk amongst all my other track stuff. All in all, one corner of my car was brake problem free this weekend!

What a weekend! The Crack Pipe, I'm on it :thumbup:

Did my second full weekend in HPDE 1 with Maeng as my instructor this time. I was driving Carrie's 94 Miata again. Summit Main is a really fun track... slower than VIR Full but more technical. I was having a blast with the Carousel section... Maeng finally broke me out of my comfort zone and had me floored in 3rd starting somewhere around turn 6 or 7, carrying all the speed/momentum through down to turn 10 and the front straight. First time we did it, I was screaming something incomprehensible and he's just like "Don't lift! Don't lift! Open the wheel! Don't lift! Gogogo!" Surprise surprise, the car held on and damn it was fast.

Jake, you did awesome out there. I was pretty impressed with how quickly you were able to pick up the line as well as really push your own limits. Thanks for not lifting in 4 despite telling me every time that you felt like we were turning in way too early. It was also pretty comical to hear Jake go from sheer terror starting somewhere around 7 to absolute excitement coming out of 9.

He drove Carrie's car in TT, she drove it in DE4 and I was in DE1. So it got a LOT of track time. We went through 25 gallons of fuel, one quart of oil and everything was still functional at the end of the weekend. Well, almost. Carrie comes up to me after my 2nd session on Sunday and goes "So... we don't have brakes." In this case, "don't have" means "wore down to the backing plates" so we packed up the 'otter. DJ was kind enough to let me take his car out for my final Sunday session (after signing away my life, all my money and my firstborn) and that was a whole new beast. I see why people are fond of the M3 for track use now. Very balanced, just like the Miata, only bigger and with MOAR POWARRR. So much fun. Thanks again, DJ.

Between DJ letting Jake borrow his car and everyone helping out with my various boneheaded issues, I truly believe that this is why MM > *

[ViPER1313]

Good seeing everyone there - glad to hear about the (relatively) breakdown free weekend.

Sunday was much more relaxed and problem free until I packed the car up and decided to head home after a long weekend. On my way out, I noticed a loud pulsing noise anytime I even touched the brakes. I pulled over at a Sheetz along Rt. 7 and noticed a huge crack in one of my front brake rotors (which I have a pic of on my FB page). So I swapped out that race pad/rotor setup in the parking lot with my street pad/rotor spare I had in the trunk amongst all my other track stuff. All in all, one corner of my car was brake problem free this weekend!

That's scary - were you running into fade issues / overheating the brakes every session? What pads do you run? Makes me think about my Talon's front brake setup - they show a lot of tiny stress cracks and scorching after the last weekend at Shenandoah.

I truly believe that this is why MM > *

+1

[Maengelito]

Good seeing everyone there - glad to hear about the (relatively) breakdown free weekend.

Sunday was much more relaxed and problem free until I packed the car up and decided to head home after a long weekend. On my way out, I noticed a loud pulsing noise anytime I even touched the brakes. I pulled over at a Sheetz along Rt. 7 and noticed a huge crack in one of my front brake rotors (which I have a pic of on my FB page). So I swapped out that race pad/rotor setup in the parking lot with my street pad/rotor spare I had in the trunk amongst all my other track stuff. All in all, one corner of my car was brake problem free this weekend!

That's scary - were you running into fade issues / overheating the brakes every session? What pads do you run? Makes me think about my Talon's front brake setup - they show a lot of tiny stress cracks and scorching after the last weekend at Shenandoah.

I run carbotech XP10 fronts and as of this weekend XP8 rears. I didn't have any fade issues as my brakes were way more than my awesome Primewell tires could handle. I actually think that since my tires were so crappy, I had to get on the brakes way earlier than I should have in all of the braking zones making the brakes hot for a longer period of time (as well as less time to cool). Also, our sessions were longer this event and I'm going much faster than I was in the Miata and carrying about 300 more lbs as well. I never got a soft or spongy pedal though. I plan on running some ducting or just removing the heatshields I have on the hubs.

Also for some reason, S2k's have a history of cracking rotors:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=744832">http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=744832</a><!-- m -->
I usually think stuff like this is BS and S2ki has a lot of chaff, but what happened to me has happened to a couple of people in the exact same way in that thread.

[Jake]

^^Glad you said that! He was coasting through T10 leaving a solid 10ft of track to his left on exit and then just hammering it down the straight. I don't know what transmission was in there, but it really sounded like an old automatic when you punch it and it revs a second, then downshifts, then squirts out. I saw him heading towards Shenandoah on our way out and the douchemeter was pegged. Oh well, cool car, I could get used hauling the fam around in it!

The driver pegged the douchemeter and I thought the car was pretty blang blang or rice, depending on your mood and how the sun hit it. I'd take a stock one though. With the proper three pedals on the floor. His had the SMG. I'm a little bitter because I (and other slow-car-fast drivers) were getting him in the turns, sticking to his bumper - and instead of giving us the point-by when he got to a straight, he'd just stand on the gas. It was frustrating.

After learning about the concept of heel-toe in the classroom, he had the bright idea to ask if power-shifting was beneficial or faster in any way. If a look from Dan Unkefer could kill...

It was also pretty comical to hear Jake go from sheer terror starting somewhere around 7 to absolute excitement coming out of 9.

Those turns were quite the uh, confidence booster. As Carrie says, "Stay in the damn gas!" and everything works just fine.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Sooo Jake are you on the Ramen diet for VIR February?

[DavidL]

Always fun to get out to the track- albeit just for a little Sunday afternoon. Starting to feel the calling of the crackpipe with another couple touring laps.... Good to see Maeng, DJ, Rex, Julie and Kaan and nice to meet you Sean!

I will leave you with this...

The many faces of Jake the race car driver:

[D_Eclipse9916]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1366145488518">http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1366145488518</a><!-- m -->

Video of my first time trial day. This is with me battling it out with Scott who is first in TTC (the class ill be in with hoosiers), time for some hoo hoos, even though I swore I wouldnt do TTC next year. The temptation is too great, and apparently I grabbed a 1:25.044 on street tires, I dunno how that compares yet lol, except Scott got his personal best in TTC on hoosiers at a 1:24.0.

[ScottyB]

great video!

[Goodspeed]

Still waiting for some finishline pics, but here are a few including a MM'er or two:

http://picasaweb.google.com/104261831958...nt1172010#

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthre...?t=2084820



Really good shot:

[D_Eclipse9916]

Oh sean, should we start calling you Andy #2? Link to the "not so great moments on finsihlineprod.net". At least you havent hit anything....yet

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.catesracing.com/flp/nasa/2010events/2010_nov_sp/nsgm/">http://www.catesracing.com/flp/nasa/2010events/2010_nov_sp/nsgm/</a><!-- m -->

[Seantn1k]

Ha! I'll never hit a wall! My e30's lack of paint job acts as a natural repellent for walls. (Though you can call me the tire flat spot king with my luck so far!)

As you can see in the following image I'm actually lawn drifting [AKA the art of sideways lawn mowing]. It's quite the rage with old beemers.





Sadly MR2's are attracted to them, I think my buddy who had a white MR2 hit a wall the same weekend Andy did.

-Sean