boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Thursday-Friday - 7.14-7-15
I packed up and headed to Louisville, KY to get a new setup for Mid Ohio. We were using the data we gather from my trip in April and setting the car up for the new Kognition wing. I've been very skeptical about running a rear wing with no front splitter on the car but my suspension guy suggested I give it a shot; so I was all for trying something new.
Thursday ended up being a total of 601 miles and 10hrs behind the wheel. Friday I rolled into the track and did some maintenance I didn't have time for since I ran last weekend at Autobahn. Put in new pads, changed oil, redid some brake cooling ducts, some stickers, bs'd with friends, etc.

Saturday - 7.16.11
I lined up in the morning with R6's in the front and crappy (partially corded) old A6's in the rear. I wanted to run a time good enough for top 15 out of the 55 cars registered in TT. I also wanted to be safe with the new setup changes including Kognition wing back on, more aggressive alignment and more toe. I fired a 1:37x that slotted me into #8 on grid and was pretty happy. The car felt pretty good, not scary or loose or anything. The new set of front Hawk pads felt really good!

Session #2 I mounted up 2 new tires in the front (only brought 3 new ones!). I ran a 1:34.7 and the car felt pretty good. It wasn't rotating the way I wanted in the right-handers and the left-handers it was fighting me a bit but it was a great start. That landed me 2nd in class out of 6 with tops being a 1:34.2 ran by a Vette.

Sessions #3 and #4 I stuck with the same tire setup and tried to push the car more. It did NOT like it. The more I tried the less it'd turn left. I made a wing adjustment and it didn't help; loosened the front rebound; didn't help much. It was getting warmer and I was fighting a loosing battle with times, but still wanted to get the car to rotate and turn left for the next day! I ran several 1:35's.

With Session #5 being my last session and still being locked in 2nd of 6 I decided to pull the wing and put the stocker back on and the R6's back to save my best ones. If things felt good; I'd go with it the next day. And guess what... it rotated! The bueaty of my Shep rear diff was back under throttle! My Sunday setup would change!

Sunday - 7.17.11
I put the best tires back on - which meant the corded tires would no longer be in the rear; lol. I pulled some weight in the car as I had 4pts to play with since the Kognition wing was off the car. I also lowered the LR ride height some to help the car turn left. 1st session...fog delayed! Seriously. I took a passenger out and the car felt pretty tame; just ran a 1:42x as I was in slow traffic and the track was slick in spots.

Session #2 was fun. The car rotated very well through the fast right-handers and even turned left where it wouldn't on Saturday! It took a few laps to get used to the rotation with different steering inputs and I was picking up speed until I caught traffic. (And by catching traffic I mean the same horrible TTF car that caused a train of cars every session). Best was a 1:35.1; although I was on pace for a 1:34x... This again locked me into 2nd of 6th.
Session #3 was around 1:30pm and would probably be my last as I had a 7.5hr drive home. I ran a best of 1:35.2 with the same story - I was on pace for a rocket of a lap until I caught the same TTF car and the train behind him.


So........
All-in-All I was very unhappy with the car setup on Saturday. I was making changes to things every session to try and make it turn left and accerlerate from mid-corner w/o pushing. I know a big rear wing (with no undertray mind you) just is NOT to my liking. That's where me and my suspension guy have differing opinions. I tried it; hate it. I was up pretty late Sat night trying to decide how to change the car for my next trip to Mid Ohio.
I managed to roll back a portion of the new setup changes on Sunday and was happier with the car. It was much hotter and I was having a tough time finding my braking points and running a solid lap before traffic; a train of traffic on lap #2 or #3.

I keep trying to tell myself finishing 2/6 and around 9 of 56 cars isn't bad for a setup I hated. Besides the 1 TTA car in front of me; everything else was higher classed so it's not like I was slow. 1 lower class; TTB had a winning time of 1:39 so we had a group of quick TTA cars! I already have some ideas on how to prep the car differently for August - and I can tell you the STOCK wing will be on it!

I'll leave ya with a pic leaving Mid Ohio. A foggy morning turned into a 96 degree day on the way home!

Smike

iTrader: (8)

As always, it was a blast running with you. Car looked fast from my vantage point

apex electric

Excellent lap times. As fast as my ST-2 laps last year!

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Thanks. But not fast enough... yet. I still think I need a high 1:32.0 for Nationals. I've got a few ideas; one includes skipping a few turns with a shortcut somehow! lol.

Btw, the winning TTS time (same ruleset as ST-2) was a 1:33.0 on Sat and 1:32.0 on Sunday - both by the same Vette.

apex electric

I saw James Forbis (Corvette) ran a 1:33 in ST-2. He was a 1.5 seconds faster than me last year.

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Yes he did. And he ran a 1:32.0 on Sunday. I think he's still got the TTS Pro record at 1:31.7 though.

BlackTrack

iTrader: (25)

What configuration was NASA running?

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

It's PRO. And it was 100% sunny and hot.

We ran CLUB in April. It rained part of the first day; never really dried up back then.

BlackTrack

iTrader: (25)

Ahh cool. Well good luck at Natls, do work and make the Evos proud.

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Will do!

Updated Nationals entry list shows 15 cars in TT now!

10 Vettes. 3 Evos. 1 Porsche. 1 FFR Cobra.

TxEvo8

iTrader: (5)

Nicely done Nathan, keep up the good work!