Tracquest at Road Atlanta - long

[mm86911]

Spent the last 2 days at the Tracquest event at Road Atlanta – Todd Serota runs a great program that allows tons of track time and more relaxed passing rules than most. Unfortunately for Tracquest turnout wasn’t so good – less than 50 cars Monday and maybe 35 total on Tuesday – but plenty of open track for the drivers. Weather was perfect Monday with low 80s and sun – rain Tuesday but cleared. No incidents Monday but the rain on Tuesday got the best of a couple of drivers – a totaled 350Z and a couple of dented fenders / tire barrier marks for some Porsches. Not the easiest track to drive wet.

Started Monday with a fresh set of Kumhos and newly installed TRG rear sway bar. Car was running great and really balanced with the adjustable rear bar – didn’t take long to heat up the Kumhos (hot pressures 36F/38R and rear temps were measuring 190s evenly). Watched the in-car video last night and was running consistent 1:50 to 1:52 with a few laps in the 1:49s. I’m still smiling! The tires started to give away after 25-30 minutes – they just get too hot. And I’m still feeling a soft pedel towards the end of the session – bled the brakes last night and only a couple of bubbles in the rear calipers, fronts were good (Hawk Blues, front cooling ducts and ATE blue fluid). Total drive time = only 3.5 hours

I must take full credit for the sunshine after lunch Tuesday and dry track time. After running in the wet with the Kumhos (hydro-planing so much I couldn’t go over 100 on the straights) I decided to go home and switch to the Yoko AO32s. Home and back in just over an hour in time to run before lunch – the Yokos are fantastic in the rain but 3-4 seconds slower than Kumhos on dry track.

My day ended when I got the meatball flag on the front straight. Oil pressure and temps were good so I didn’t know what was wrong. Pulled into the hot pits and looked car over – oil spray on the rear bumper – not good! Parked the car in the paddock and investigated further – hard oil line to LH chain tensioner was leaking A LOT. Stress crack near fitting and a quart low – done for the day. Fortunately for me the crew from Performance Imports was at the track and they had an empty trailer – 25 miles later car was in my garage for repair this weekend. Thanks again to Bob, Steve and Deso (and Peter and Don) – they’re at most local events with tools in-hand. Total drive time = only 2 hours

If you have a chance to run a Tracquest event I would highly recommend it. It’s a great value with more track time than any club-sponsored program. Hopefully Todd will host an event at Barber Motorsports soon.

[BlkBird]

Wow. Not as much saddle time as I thought you would get, but sounds like there weren't that many cars to avoid on the track. Getting shut down by the oil leak is a bummer though. Too bad Bob & company couldn't get you fixed right there on the spot. But better than being shutdown by the wall. Funny how you describe a totaled 350Z as an "incident".

As to the sunshine today - sounds like you have too many tires and options to play with!

[Jack Olsen]

3.5 hours on the track in a day is a HUGE amount of track time. It would be at least two full tanks of gas, probably more.

Any driver would be exhausted after that much driving. Most of us would voluntarily stop.

[mm86911]

Chris - you would have had a blast just runing Monday. Note that my "only 3.5 hours" was meant to be sarcastic.

Jack - you're right about the time - I was pacing myself and keeping hydrated. Feeling the pain today now that the adreneline levels are almost back to normal. And I did go quite a bit of fuel - will need to review receipts but seems over 25 gallons easily.

[addictionMS]

Well as a lover of enurance racing, three hours is where the race begins. The longest single stint I have done was three hours non-stop and it was fantastic. Filled my 27 gal fuel cell and drove until empty, well almost. It really is all about pacing yourself and finding things to keep you aware of the world you are in.

Sounds like a fun day.

Jim

[cellison]

How many miles did you cover in 3.5 hrs? Our drive Saturday am was pretty good, but not as fun as your outing. Best part was watching Mark try to pass Chris from a slow roll back up to speed after a truck got out of the way.

Charles
88 cab

[Mike Feinstein]

I joined the fun on Tuesday...of course, the day it rained. First session I ran in heavy rain on the Victoracers. Rear was "fairly" solid but front floated in standing water...very unnerving. Switched to my street tires for the next run......big mistake. Took it real easy and at turn 2 the back end came around and there was no bringing it back. Hit the grass (which was sopping wet) and slid like I was on ice. Fortunately I had slowed to a crawl when I backed into the tire wall. A little road rash but nothing serious fortunately...I got lucky. Rain sucks!

The sun came out after lunch and then it got really fun. I got a total of about 2 hours of track time...most of which on a dry track. I was completely exhausted by the end of the day. Couldn't touch Mike's numbers but was thrilled with my hottest lap 1:55.38. Had a few in the 1:56's leading up to it. The car ran great but I'm convinced I'd have done better with lower gearing. You know the rest...

...Bob Sanderson has my car now for a new clutch...Sachs sport and aluminum pressure plate, either a new ring gear (lower ratio) or individual re-gearing of 2-4. Possibly an LSD. Will make those decisions in the coming days depending on price/benefit etc. He promises completion in time for the Peachstate DE June 14 and 15. Should be fun. It's only money!

(Don't tell my wife I said that.....PLEASE)!

[beamonk]

I enjoyed meeting Mike and Mike. I don't know how much track time I had, but it was fun and the Yoko's were awsome in the rain, nary a slip. I was fairly easy going at first after seeing the Z cream itself, then the 944T right in front of me, but as I got in the zone I got much bolder in the wet until the point it was damn fun. I learned to keep a really smooth line in the rain with as little jerking as possible.
Tuesday afternoon was a hoot, track was very fast and I felt I had made some improvements. I need to work on brake cooling, but was most impressed with Woodstock. It was it's first real track adventure and it got better as it went along. I ran the piss out of it and don't think I burned any oil, including the trip from Tuscaloosa and back. I got a few complements on my homeboy Ruf work, (still need to work on the painting) and the Dale Earnhart air dam,(homeboy), really helped the high speed stability. It took out a few cones too !
I hope some of the Atlanta guys contact me if they come to the Barber in the fall. One of the instructors was telling me of some other track group that was going to be there, but I cannot recall the name.
Hats off to Todd Serota, I think he was disappointed by the turn out, but we are all grateful. I hope he decides to do this again.

[mm86911]

Charles - didn't keep track of the lap count but figure worse case an average of 2 minutes if you include warm-up an cool down laps - track distance is 2.3 miles so that is 105 miles. Add another ~60 for Tuesday.

Just replaced the chain tensioner oil line - took all of 20 minutes for both sides! The LH side was definitely cracked where teh collar is welded to the tube. Could have driven another hour on Tuesday if the break didn't occur.

An SC passing a turbo? Was Blkbird coasting (sorry Mark).

John - good to meet you - car looks great - see next post for pics I took to reference your bumpers

[MBAtarga]

Charles,

I know better than to try and pass Blackbird. I was toying with him so he'd open it up... which he did, immediately of course!

[mm86911]

[BlkBird]

All the insecurities I have to put up with from non-Turbo guys.

Our drive was fun - lots of hairpin turns and twisties. Not as fast as your drive at Road Atlanta but we stayed dry and got to scare the locals. And didn't break anything either.

[beamonk]

Dang, I gotta admit it is the first pics i have seen of it, and it looks good! Can't hardly tell the vandalized/smashed hood.
Thanks for the pics!

[hilandscott]

A bunch of good track time, with very few cars and a range of driving conditions... not a bad way to avoid work for two days.

Good to finally meet Adam (thanks for the heads up!), Mike, Mike, John and a few other great guys.

It was indeed a shame to have Mike M. taken out with an oil leak with 2 hours of driving left on the last day. He was feeling the heat no doubt. One of the highlights was hearing from him that flames emit from my exhaust cresting the hill before turn twelve. Only thing better would be to have a picture of it. Of course I got to return the favor when his belched fire as well.

Got to ride in a couple of very fast instructor cars: race-prepped 944T, 996 and also a Ford Taurus when the rain was heavy. The organizer (Todd Serota) is a great guy and had a good attitude the entire time-- making it very enjoyable for the drivers.

I've never seen that many cars head off into the barriers, as well as engine and related failures. With only 6-8 cars on the track at any one time though that is a lot of hard driving for an extended period.

Too bad we couldn't have told lies over beer that night...

[hilandscott]

[briankeithsmith]

Beamonk:

Can you post pictures of your "Dale Earnhardt" front end? I'm curious to see what this looks like...

Brian