My Skip Barber Race @ Mid Ohio

[Eclipsor]

Just the Action

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

A Few Pics

Howdy everyone, it's been a looong time since I've visited or posted. Sorry about that! It looks like you all have been doing just fine without me, though.

Anyways, I thought some of you guys might enjoy watching this. It's in-car video footage from a race I participated in a couple weekends ago. I was driving a Formula Dodge RT/2000 open wheel car at Mid Ohio Sportscar Course. This was my first race in the dry with Skip Barber. The car was very twitchy for the first lap, since my tires were still warming up. The track had just dried out from the previous days when Ernesto took a dump on the entire area. I raced in the pouring rain the day before this video was taken and it was absolutely treacherous. I finished third in the rain race, which meant that I started in 3rd place out of 21 cars for the dry race on Sunday (the one I taped). My only concern in the rain race was keeping the car on the track. Not only would I have started from the back of the pack on Sunday if I had lost it in the rain race, but I would have also had to pay for all of the damage. The cars cost about $30k and the deductible was $4500, so I was sure to be cautious.

My lap times were in the low 1:38 second range, which equates to an average speed of about 88 mph over the 2.4 mile course. Mid Ohio isn't really a high speed course. It's considered more of a "driver's" track, mainly because of the extremely technical infield/twisty section with frequent elevation changes. Top speed was only about 120 on the back straight, but it felt pretty fast being that low to the ground.

In case anyone is interested, here's a video of the prototype Skip Barber car that's going to be used in the next couple years. It has the same motor as the car I was driving, but a more aerodynamic body, a carbon fiber tub, and a 6-speed sequential as opposed to a 5sp.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yUwxqf7EHZk

Also, here's a video I shot of one car that someone wrecked while I was at the track. This guy definitely reached the $4500 deductible.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7uEGFEKetoo

Two people were taken away from the track in an ambulance. One guy managed to hit a concrete wall at about 85 mph. Even with a HANS (head and neck support) device, he still sustained a minor crack in one of his vertebra. The other guy (kid, actually - 16 yrs old and a damn good driver) suffered a catastrophic brake failure going into the keyhole. The entry speed for the keyhole is roughly 110 mph. He scrubbed off 20 mph at MOST before flying off the track, skipping through the gravel trap, and smashing into the tirewall. He was in pretty serious pain after the accident with some pulled muscles in his back. Nothing extremely serious, thankfully.

It turned out to be a failure of the brake caliper mounting bracket on his left rear brake. It cracked and rotated up off the brake rotor such that nothing was between the brake pads. When he pushed the brake pedal, all of the pressure in the lines went to that broken caliper since there was no resistance being offered to the pads. No good. He actually got a great in-car video of everything, including the entire extraction process. It used to be up on vidilife.com but it's not anymore, so I'm going to have to work on finding a copy/link for you all.

[Evan]

very cool!
nice driving, congrats.
I have to admit Im green with envy, Ive always wanted to do a skippy school. (Im just waiting for the market on organs to go up)

was this a race weekend only? Have you also done their schools too?

[Eclipsor]

very cool!
nice driving, congrats.

Thanks!

was this a race weekend only? Have you also done their schools too?

I did the 3-day school back on July 4th at Laguna Seca (makes you eligible for a SCCA regional liecnse). To race with Skip Barber, they require either one of these three combos: 3-day school + 2-day advanced school or 3-day school + 2 lapping days or 3-day school + 1 lapping day + 1 car control clinic. I wanted to skip the adv school and get right to the racing, so I chose to do the two lapping days at Mid Ohio the week prior to the race weekend. My first lapping day was Wednesday, second lapping day was on Thursday, then practice on Friday. Quali and race one on Saturday, then race two on Sunday.

[white_2kgt]

I did the 3-day school back on July 4th at Laguna Seca (makes you eligible for a SCCA regional liecnse).

and that is all the track time required?

[Eclipsor]

I did the 3-day school back on July 4th at Laguna Seca (makes you eligible for a SCCA regional liecnse).

and that is all the track time required?

For the regional license? Yep. I wasn't entirely accurate, though. The class doesn't guarantee that you'll be eligible for the license. If the instructors think you did well enough, they'll write the recommendation letter to SCCA.

They do provide a good deal of instruction in the 3-day school, including such things as cautions, restarts, etc. Like anything in life, though, the amount someone "takes in" is dependent on many things. Personally, I felt like it was plenty of track time for me, but I can't say that for everyone else in the school. A couple guys, in particular, really didn't seem to "get it" by the end of the third day. I'd feel uncomfortable hearing that one of them was given approval to get a SCCA regional racing license.

[white_2kgt]

I'd feel uncomfortable hearing that one of them was given approval to get a SCCA regional racing license.

Me too, which is why I was asking. I got put out for the rest of the season b/c of one of those ass monkey's that went out and got a bullshit license, converted it to a NASA license and flipped me during a race earlier this year.

If your ONLY time on track is those three days, please allow me to HIGHLY recommend you get some more track time under your belt in HPDE's before going racing for real. I haven't had a chance to watch your video's so don't take that personal.

[Eclipsor]

If your ONLY time on track is those three days, please allow me to HIGHLY recommend you get some more track time under your belt in HPDE's before going racing for real. I haven't had a chance to watch your video's so don't take that personal.

I see what you're saying, but I think I chose the right path for me. Watch the highlight vid when you get a chance, since it's much shorter than the others.

[Nis01]

That looks incredible, nice driving. I'd love to be able to do that sometime in the future. :thumbup:

[Mike]

you fix the eclipse yet?

[ScottyB]

great write up Eclipsor. i'm all kinds of jealous.

how did it feel to drive a sequential box? are they fairly intuitive?

[G.Irish]

If your ONLY time on track is those three days, please allow me to HIGHLY recommend you get some more track time under your belt in HPDE's before going racing for real. I haven't had a chance to watch your video's so don't take that personal.

Eh, some people can do it that way, some people can't. There have been more than a few wrecks that have been caused by people who came all the way through the NASA HPDE system, then went racing. There are also plenty of people who did one SCCA double racing school and went on to race without incident.

Its just one of those things where the odds are that you'll be better/safer racer if you've had a decent amount of seat time, but it doesn't automatically mean you'll be unsafe if you jump straight into a racing school.

[white_2kgt]

Its just one of those things where the odds are that you'll be better/safer racer if you've had a decent amount of seat time, but it doesn't automatically mean you'll be unsafe if you jump straight into a racing school.

It's all about the odds, odds are you will be MORE comfortable on track w/ fast cars in close quarters after being on track for more than 3 days. You can disagree w/ that all you want, but you'd be wrong. Everyone knows somebody that's done one or the other and been successful or sucked major balls. You CANNOT deny that people need seat time to be good drivers. Period.

[G.Irish]

Its just one of those things where the odds are that you'll be better/safer racer if you've had a decent amount of seat time, but it doesn't automatically mean you'll be unsafe if you jump straight into a racing school.

It's all about the odds, odds are you will be MORE comfortable on track w/ fast cars in close quarters after being on track for more than 3 days. You can disagree w/ that all you want, but you'd be wrong. Everyone knows somebody that's done one or the other and been successful or sucked major balls. You CANNOT deny that people need seat time to be good drivers. Period.

Sure, is that not what I said?