Robispec Time Attack EVO IX
.
Mar 30, 2010, 11:13 AM
#25
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thx for the support guys.... here is what i wrote for my blog site... might aswell post it up here....
-
As I think back about this event I have mixed feelings.
We told ourselves that if we get a top 5 finish & keep the car in one piece
that it would be a successful race weekend. Robi told me to not be a hero &
keep the shiny side up, this echoed in my my head for the rest of the
weekend.
I'll admit I had cold feet, not having been on any road course in over 9
months, been since 2008 since I was at Buttonwillow and its been about 3-4
years since I drove on R-Comp tires. Top it off by driving a brand new,
unsorted car.... & first time I had ever driven a car owned by someone else.
I actually did pretty darn good throughout the weekend, except when it
counted. The car was set up great right off the trailer & I babied it like a
Gramma' all Saturday, building up my confidence & keeping car in one piece
for the timed sessions on Sunday. Sunday morning I drove with confidence,
the car was real fast. I turned a 1:54.4 being held up for more than 3
turns, that lap would have been an easy 51 second lap.
As the day progressed it got hotter & the track got greasy. The first timed
session I turned a 54 flat, most other guys seemed to have slowed down by 2
or seconds from the morning session... Because of the heat the car had also
developed a real nasty under-steer and was hard to drive fast. I roll into
the pits & Mike from RRE tells me we had a boost issue that session and only
ran 19psi, sub 500hp. This was an issue that was never fixed & we were low
on power for the rest of the weekend.
So considering all the above, I was fairly content with the 54 & was in
solid 2nd place standing.
I communicated with Robi before the last session & he made perfect
adjustments. Taking all understeer out & giving me a perfectly neutral car.
The weather had cooled down a bit too.
But I messed up on the last timed session and slipped down a spot to 3rd
place, simply because I didn't drive hard enough. Total brain fart. I left
time on the table & was letting off the throttle in a couple spots at the
track. The car had a low 53 in it and I didn't squeeze it out. I was
disappointed in myself about this. Maybe taking off 'George' (our good luck
monkey) was a bad idea.
David Doung is a wonderful car owner and we had a discussion after the event
where he told me to not worry about the car & to drive it as hard as I would
drive my own car. This to me was a very important discussion as now I feel
like I can risk it more and drive harder, faster. We also discussed a couple
things to make the car faster & get more HP out of it
So in hindsight I am disappointed about that last session, but overall this
was a very positive experience... Brand new car, low HP, sorted out A LOT of
issues and placed 3rd with only about 5 clear laps all weekend. Pretty sure
we were the fastest car there for the power we were putting down... Job
done!
Couple notes about the event: Ryan Gates car blew up & caught on fire, time
to wear your fire suit now Ryan. JC had engine problems too but his s2k
survived. The COBB car is stupid fast, in colder weather its a 46 second
car. The battle of the bands & announcer at the redline event was annoying
to say the least... And nobody cared about it, seemed like a real waste of
$$. Matt turned a 54 in Drew's wrong-wheeled car... And Rado pulled a 46,
amazing. Sierra ran fast as always, but that was expected.
I want to thank Peter from Robispec/Hellafunctional.com, he did a great job
keeping the car alive all weekend, thx bud!
Las Vegas outside road course race coming up next, hopefully see ya guys
there!
-
As I think back about this event I have mixed feelings.
We told ourselves that if we get a top 5 finish & keep the car in one piece
that it would be a successful race weekend. Robi told me to not be a hero &
keep the shiny side up, this echoed in my my head for the rest of the
weekend.
I'll admit I had cold feet, not having been on any road course in over 9
months, been since 2008 since I was at Buttonwillow and its been about 3-4
years since I drove on R-Comp tires. Top it off by driving a brand new,
unsorted car.... & first time I had ever driven a car owned by someone else.
I actually did pretty darn good throughout the weekend, except when it
counted. The car was set up great right off the trailer & I babied it like a
Gramma' all Saturday, building up my confidence & keeping car in one piece
for the timed sessions on Sunday. Sunday morning I drove with confidence,
the car was real fast. I turned a 1:54.4 being held up for more than 3
turns, that lap would have been an easy 51 second lap.
As the day progressed it got hotter & the track got greasy. The first timed
session I turned a 54 flat, most other guys seemed to have slowed down by 2
or seconds from the morning session... Because of the heat the car had also
developed a real nasty under-steer and was hard to drive fast. I roll into
the pits & Mike from RRE tells me we had a boost issue that session and only
ran 19psi, sub 500hp. This was an issue that was never fixed & we were low
on power for the rest of the weekend.
So considering all the above, I was fairly content with the 54 & was in
solid 2nd place standing.
I communicated with Robi before the last session & he made perfect
adjustments. Taking all understeer out & giving me a perfectly neutral car.
The weather had cooled down a bit too.
But I messed up on the last timed session and slipped down a spot to 3rd
place, simply because I didn't drive hard enough. Total brain fart. I left
time on the table & was letting off the throttle in a couple spots at the
track. The car had a low 53 in it and I didn't squeeze it out. I was
disappointed in myself about this. Maybe taking off 'George' (our good luck
monkey) was a bad idea.
David Doung is a wonderful car owner and we had a discussion after the event
where he told me to not worry about the car & to drive it as hard as I would
drive my own car. This to me was a very important discussion as now I feel
like I can risk it more and drive harder, faster. We also discussed a couple
things to make the car faster & get more HP out of it
So in hindsight I am disappointed about that last session, but overall this
was a very positive experience... Brand new car, low HP, sorted out A LOT of
issues and placed 3rd with only about 5 clear laps all weekend. Pretty sure
we were the fastest car there for the power we were putting down... Job
done!
Couple notes about the event: Ryan Gates car blew up & caught on fire, time
to wear your fire suit now Ryan. JC had engine problems too but his s2k
survived. The COBB car is stupid fast, in colder weather its a 46 second
car. The battle of the bands & announcer at the redline event was annoying
to say the least... And nobody cared about it, seemed like a real waste of
$$. Matt turned a 54 in Drew's wrong-wheeled car... And Rado pulled a 46,
amazing. Sierra ran fast as always, but that was expected.
I want to thank Peter from Robispec/Hellafunctional.com, he did a great job
keeping the car alive all weekend, thx bud!
Las Vegas outside road course race coming up next, hopefully see ya guys
there!
Mar 30, 2010, 11:20 AM
#26
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here are some of my fav shots...
and ofcourse a shot of our lil monkey George holding on for dear life...
and ofcourse a shot of our lil monkey George holding on for dear life...
Last edited by nils; Mar 30, 2010 at 05:50 PM.
Mar 30, 2010, 11:42 AM
#27
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Nils I gotta give it to ya... you handled the car the best you could for that weekend. Im positive that with more seat time in that thing you'll be at the top in no time...
-Matt
-Matt
