WATKINS GLEN AER 2018 RECAP
Backstreet's Back, ALL RIGHT!! lollll
We once again qualified in the fastest class, with the likes of ex continental tire BOSS 302R Mustang, Porsche Cayman's, M235iR's fresh from BMW, E36 S54 swaps, etc, etc. 95 total cars for the weekend, qualified 17th overall without trying too hard. We should've pushed harder during practice/qualifying. We really would've liked to be in the next lower class, but sand bagging sucks and it's the last thing we want to do (can't say the same for all teams).
After the practice/qualifying day we were blessed with one of the front brake pads looking like this:
Now I don't run brake ducting because I never measured the need to. And, if I did run ducting, this may have been worse because there was literally snow on the ground the morning off. I'm thinking this was an environmental factor with the ambient temperature and going hard on the brakes in the first few practice laps or so.
Good ol' race start:
Saturday we were running as high as 2nd place overall when 1st driver came in. With 2nd driver out toward the end of his stint, the fuel pump inertia safety switch we installed was tripped over rumble strips exiting "the heel" of "the boot." Driver immediately thought he ran out of gas as we were in the window for a pit stop. It was very close to pit-in so he tried to use starter to crawl into pit, but that ended up tripping the main 100A circuit breaker. Had to get a tow. We were P7 overall when that happened. That killed most hope for the day.
video of the moment he thought he ran out of fuel (please excuse the NY accent cussing lol):
https://youtu.be/sd2RKMF7SRI?t=4h29m38s
Sunday's 9 hour race was a much better result. We had zero issues all day and managed to finish 4th overall (and in class), 2 laps back on the lead cars (the nutty 302R Mustang broke a spindle.....an aftermarket one), which finished with only 1.8 seconds between them after 9 hours. The #395 E36 (S54 swap) was driven by Randy Pobst and not surprisingly scored the fastest lap of the weekend (2:03.393).
The car looking planted:
Pit stop:
With that said, notes to take away from the weekend are that we need to further work on driver coaching to narrow the lap time deltas between drivers. If this gap is narrowed, we would've likely podiumed based on brief analysis.
A biggie is that the car topped last years best lap by 1.5 seconds (2:10.003 vs 2:08.559) without any power adders and less sticky tires. Differences from last year:
- 10" vs 9" wide wheel
- RT615K vs RT615K+
- no synchro issues with new transmission
- 3.69 vs 4.08 FD
- stiffer spring rates with no rear bar (600/500 vs 500/335)
- MCS 2 way remote dampers vs Feal 441
Also, my live streaming setup worked basically flawlessly. I hope some of you caught it when it was live. I ended up going a more expensive route, but it was 100% worth it. I was able to monitor video from the pit all weekend long with a 10-15 second maximum delay. The difference maker I believe is the enterprise level modem and antenna. The antenna is the black fire alarm looking thing on top of the roof. That's my biggest complaint, but the trade off is worth it.
My system:
The autosport labs podium connect module for engine and GPS data telemetry did not work unfortunately. I'm working with Autosport Labs in troubleshooting.
So STAY TUNED for the New Jersey Motorsport Park race coming up on the weekend of 5/18. I will be live streaming again.
Changes in the pipeline are going to a 12.72" rotor in the front instead of 12.2" and I'm giving PFC brake pads a shot. Going with 11 compound in the front and 97 in the rear.
I may also throw a factory rear bar on. Will test with it on practice day.