First track day of year - May 8th, 2009 [Friday at the Track]
It's sad to say that there was a death at our track day today. A contract worker was in the wrong place at the wrong time and hit by a car that lost control coming out of turn 10, skidded to the inside of the track. The General Manager of the track and contractor were talking behind a chain link fence a ways off the track, but with the car going fairly fast, there wasn't enough time for him to get clear. The EMT was 10 steps away, but from what the local news reported the man died on impact. As for the driver, this is someone that I've known for 4-5 years now, retired air force pilot, and someone that I've enjoyed talking to over the years. He hasn't been taking this accident to well, so I'm really hoping that his wife, family, and close friends are helping him through this. The same goes for the family of the contractor...
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As for the actual track day, it was slightly overcast, no wind, and temps ranging from low 40's in the morning to about 65F by lunch time. Track was scheduled to run from 9-4, but ended early (1:45) due to the accident mentioned above. We had a good turn out, probably 30 cars and a good variety too. I put on a good 120 track miles in 4 sessions ranging from 20-40 mins each. I started tire pressure at 32psi cold and bled them down a few times to keep both F/R at 37psi.
the car handled great... none of the issues that I had last year with the car stepping out on throttle exit, probably related to an alignment issue I found earlier this year (1/2" toe-in on the drivers rear). Mostly neutral with some tendancy to oversteer on the tighter 2nd gear turns or if I tried to carry to much speed through turns. I think I can still extract some more speeds out of the car in the turns with some more seat time Fairly easy to drive and very predictable, just how I like it.
The 1" Z32 BMC that I installed did wonders for my threshold braking... no more rear tire lockup over the rough sections! It took me a while to get my confidence back from last year and start shortening up my braking zone, it sure felt good. The few times I took temps after a cool down lap, both front/rear rotors read in the 350 +/- range. Of course now I'm getting a god awful brake squeel with the hawk blues in now... never had this problem before, so I wonder if I have type of residue on the rotors that's causing this... didn't seem to affect braking through.
Alignment seemed fine, after my 2nd session I took tire temps, from outside to inside I measure 125-135-145 roughly on the fronts... that's saying that 2.5 degrees of camber and 37psi is the right spot, for this track at least.
I got to play several laps with John Lee (
instructor and part of the local endurance race team) in his Exige S on RA-1's. Last year he ran all over me in the braking zones and in every turn. As for Friday, he had a bit more speed on the straights and on corner exit, but for braking zones speeds carried into the turns we were pretty even. This was also after my wastegate actuator had popped off, see below, so the car was bogging bad out of the turns. So now I'm curious to see how well I keep up with John with the wastegate actuator actually on and doing it's job and maybe running at 9-10psi, I was at 7psi on Friday. Of course next time I'm at SRP track I should have a new motor/turbo setup on the car
As for issues, the only small issues were nothing to major. I lost the nuts/bolts from the DP to the exhaust... hadn't touched this in 2 years, so I don't know why it happened now. A quick trip to NAPA resolved this. On the last session I noticed that I had to plant the foot all the time to stay in boost and that the car started bogging down on the exits. I took this as the warmer weather, a T25, and 7psi for the boost. Of course on the way home I realized I had no boost at cruising speed in 5th gear. That's when it dawned on me that the WG actuator popped off, DOPE!
My only dip sh_t move of the day was hitting a metal gate leaving the track today. I saw it and thought it was partially open, nope it wasnt, smacked my passanger A-pillar hard enough to dent it and remove a fair bit of paint, but not hard enough to crack/break the front windshield. Ehh, it's just a car and alot worse happened today, so I'm not all that worried this.
I was attempting to get video footage, but my fat fingers couldn't hit the record button while getting on track... maybe next time
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