Day 1 - Qualifying
Quick recap - qualified 29th out of 68 cars.
Longer story - I’m renting a Spec Miata from a team so I’m arriving & driving - no work on my end to prepare or fix the car.
I’m running in two different classes (SMT & ITA) to get more track time. This really paid off today. I’ve never driven Laguna in a Miata so I’m on a huge learning curve. Spec Miata (SMT) has 68 cars in qualifying today - so many cars that they split practice and qualifying into two sessions, one for odd # cars and one for evens. So instead of the usual 25 min sessions, we’re down to 15 minutes apiece.
Laguna was fogged in this morning so the first SMT session was run under yellow flags at each corner (no passing). This rendered the first session useless. Meanwhile ITA had full length sessions and that’s the only time I got any traffic-free laps.
Then during my SMT qualifying session (odd # cars), there was a car that lost a wheel, so we were all brought into the pits. This burned precious minutes and we ended up only getting 3 hot laps. The even # session ran trouble-free so 8 of the top 10 came from that group.
I ended up qualified 29th overall, 11th among odds at a 1:50 flat. So I made the race. WhooHoo! Only 63 of the 68 cars can start the race and this is the first time ever that entrants have not been allowed to race. Pole was a 1:45.6 which is a lap record, thanks to the new surface at Laguna.
This is a double regional weekend which means two separate qualifying & race sessions for each class, one on Sat. and one on Sun. Hopefully I learn something tommorrow during the two races and have a better qualifying for Sunday’s SMT race.
Tomorrow should be pretty fucking insane w/ 63 cars racing together.
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Day 2 - Ouch
Quick summary - finished last in the race.
Longer story - After crappy qual times yesterday I was gridded mid pack for both the ITA and Spec Miata race.
First race in ITA went well. I turned my quickest lap ever, a 1:48.3 and generally moved up the field to 16th. It was quite and exciting race w/ tons of dicing and a couple three-wide passes.
SMT race did not go well. On the first lap, first corner, I got taken out big time. We were about 3 or 4 wide in Turn 2 and I was on the far inside. At the exit, the guy in about lane three got hit from behind and was turned about 45 degrees right into my path. I absolutely nailed him. Race over.
Luckily since I’m renting this race car, the crew jumped into action and in two hours replaced the control arms, subframe, tie rod, wheel and misc crap. Some pounding on the fender and hood and it was back in reasonable shape.
I went out to qualify for the second set of ITA and SMT races and the car was pretty good. The steering wasn’t perfectly straight but drove well in all other respects. I was a little gunshy and ended up qualifying midpack ~30th again. It sucks to be back in the pack with the crazies but until I can put some qual laps on the board that are decent, this is my fate.
My wrist is pretty tweaked after the hit so it’s a question whether I can do both races but I’m definitely running the SMT race. Funny though that I talked to four Spec Miata drivers who all have the same wrist injury. I guess I’m officially one of the gang now.
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Day 3 - Survival
Quick summary - ITA started 13th, finished 9th. Spec Miata started 30th finished 19th.
Pics of carnage from Day 2. Control arms, subframe, motor mounts, tie rod, wheel, all gone.
Even though the car was in good shape after repairs, I fucked up the qualifying and ended up 30th (out of 62). I still have to learn about getting open space, especially when the qual session is only 12 minutes long.
I lost a couple positions on the start of the Spec Miata race, not wanting to get taken out again. After settling down, it was just a matter of picking off people one at a time. Once I got to the pack running at my speed it became a dogfight. A failed pass, a misshift, one bad turn and you paid the price. Any failure to maintain momentum meant you got swallowed up by the hordes. It was definitely pretty crazy. Dust was flying, cars were sliding, but it was completely contact-free. Here’s three laps from that section of the race.
I progressed to about 15th place but a couple fast guys who had spun off earlier ended up getting by. I also suck at upshifting so I lost a couple more positions to a couple of my peers. Finished 19th and had a fast lap of 1:47.9 which was about 2.2 seconds slower than pole. Before the race I would have been happy w/ a sub 1:50, but the track had been repaved and everyone was 1.5 seconds faster. 1:47.9 lap:
Next race on the schedule is in a month’s time back at Laguna. Depending on whether the team has a car available and on how much all the accident damage costs me, I’m hoping to be able to run.
Figuring out how to drive a girly-car
Race No. 1
So I qualified 20th out of 50 cars for today’s race, completing my ascension to a mid-pack driver (from utter n00b). The field at mid-pack is super-competitive. If I had qualified 0.3 seconds faster and I would have been 15th. 0.3 seconds slower and I would have been 25th.
It was my best qualifying ever, which was good, but it meant starting alongside folks w/ more racing experience. I basically got worked like a $5 hooker on the start. The pole sitter decided to bring the field up to the line ultra-slow and those w/ radios or better reaction times blew by me.
After a couple laps things settled down but my car started to peg the water temps. I had to back off and start short-shifting to bring the temps back under control. I ended up losing a couple more places and finished 25th.
Tomorrow we get to do it all again for race #2 of the weekend. The team I’m renting the car from has replaced the radiator w/ a thicker version so hopefully that solves the overheating problem. Arrive and drive rules.
Here’s some video to show you what it looked like from my seat. I definitely had one of those “what the hell am I doing here?!” moments when I was in the middle of a 3-wide group going into Turn 1. And note a bit of contact at 1:50 when I get bumped by the green car behind me.
Race 2
This weekend’s SCCA Regional was a double race weekend. So after Saturday’s race where I started 20th and finished 25th we had a separate qualifying and race on Sunday. After watching Alonso and Schumacher beat themselves w/ a lead pipe in Hungary, I headed to the track. The team had changed the radiator so the cooling problems of the previous day should have been solved and I couldn’t wait to get on track.
Qualifying was the first session in the morning so the track was cool and in perfect condition for fast laps. Went out and on my 2nd lap with traffic, I saw a 2:12.9, which was already faster than I had qualified on the day prior. I knew immediately that I had to really push to take advantage of the conditions because every wanker out there was gonna be fast. I did a few sloppy laps getting sideways as hell, but then got down to a 2:11.6 which was about a second faster than I had ever gone before. I was worried that everyone else was cranking 2:10’s but it turned out my time was good for 16th place. My best qualifying ever so elation, joy, etc.
Spec Miata qualifying times are usually stratified and it was no different in this case. The top-10 guys were in the 2:09’s, then it was a few guys and me in the 2:10’s and 2:11’s then another huge glut of mid-pack guys in the 2:12’s. The previous day, when I had qualified 20th, +/- 0.3 seconds would have made meant +/- 5 or 6 positions. On this day, +/- 0.3 seconds wouldn’t have made much of a difference. I was stuck in the strange in-between-land ahead of the mid-pack guys but behind the truly fast guys.
So the goal in the race was just to hang on and try to consolidate my position. I knew I could outrun (or at least fend off) those behind me but I still didn’t have the skills to chase down those ahead. If I didn’t get killed on the start, any position change would probably come from attrition. So the plan was a) don’t fuck up the start, b) follow and learn.
The owner of my team was also on pole position for the race, so he let all of us teammates know the game plan coming down to the green flag - top of 2nd gear and go when we hit the straight. Heehee, it pays to rent a car from a winning team. So I’m on the inside line, rolling to the green flag in 2nd gear, we make the turn onto the front straight, hit the gas and . . . I fuck up! I misshift and can’t get it into 3rd gear. FUCK FUCK FUCK. After a couple desperate tenths of a second, I get it into gear and start going. The guy behind must have missed a gear too because he hasn’t rammed into me, but the outside line is starting to freight-train us. I can’t believe I screwed this up and let myself get swallowed up. I’m going to be stuck in a swirling tornado of these morons all day . . . then I get a reprieve! The starter has refused to wave the green flag (I guess we weren’t lined up well enough) so we get to go around and try it again. I can’t believe my luck.
After a fast lap (I was laughing in my helmet because my team owner was hauling ass and we were all scrambling to keep up) we re-form the starting grid on the backstraight. As we turn onto the front straight, I’m in 2nd gear and we GO! Hit 3rd gear after a little rev limiter action and in general do a much better job. I hang on the inside of Turns 1 and 2 I’m watching my mirrors like a hawk. I’m able to build a gap behind me by Turn 6 and stay in touch with the guys ahead. I see them bounce into each other a little but I’m more concerned that we don’t slow each other down and get caught by the mid-pack wolves behind. After a couple laps though, the race sorts itself out and is actually pretty uneventful, for once. There are battles in front and behind me, but I never get involved. I end up finishing 12th as a couple people are penalized for driving out of bounds. This is as good a result as I could have hoped for. I finally qualify and race to the maximum of my abilities.
Here’s the video of the first couple laps of that race.
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