Open Track, some "newbie" thoughts

[Excaliber]

I've never run a BIG track before SAAC-35, I thought I'd share some observations as a "newbie" to the more typical mainland tracks. The Hawaii Raceway track, where I've run for years with many different vehicles is fairly short at about 1.3 miles or so. One long straight, the drag race lanes, followed by reasonably tight, slow, corners on the back side. I've had plenty of Auto X experience, did some Drifting (very popular in Hawaii), ran a dirt track car and ran Formula Fords. The local Medford Oregon track is actually a "Go Kart" track, wide, well paved, but much like an Auto X track, VERY tight, very high G corners one right after the other!

So, there I was at a "real" track, Infineon, I ran the first open track session in the Novice group. I was surprised how comfortable it felt right away, plenty of time between corners, plenty of straight sections, at first it felt like a Sunday drive (on steroids though ). The ERA has a lot of power and combined with the road race slicks it only took a couple of laps before I realized I needed to run in a faster group than Novice.

So I moved up to the middle group. BIG DIFFERENCE!!! Those guys are running hard, you HAVE to get the throttle down to keep up or get passed. The difference was night and day, I was able to run with the group and even pass a few along the way, but I tell you, it was a work out. 20 minutes at near top form requires intense concentration, the track, the car, the tires, the brakes, go through changes as the laps progress. I lost my brakes on the last lap of the first 20 minute session I ran in the middle group. I think thats about 10 laps, all though I lost count early on. Other folks I talked to would loose their brakes in as little as 10 minutes, perhaps 5 laps. Of course the faster you go, the more brakes you will loose!

My pedal would go very soft, I got a little warning before they went out 95%, just a mushy pedal, the car only slowing a bit. I was careful coming into the garage to make sure I had enough brake left to stop when I got there!

Back inboard Jaguar IRS got no cooling, the pads were smoking, big time! I cut out the carpet covering the ERA access panel, removed the panel to allow for airflow and never had a problem the rest of the weekend. BUT, I could feel them starting to fade toward the end of a 20 minute session, all though I didn't loose them entirely. These are totally stock ERA brakes and street pads. I was very impressed with the performance as such!!! Certainly upgrading to high temp pads and getting some air flow will really improve on already terrific stock brakes. These brakes were never a problem on the shorter tracks I've run.

Sunday was the BEST DAY FOR TRACK TIME!!! No question there!!! A lot of folks left on Saturday night, or early Sunday morning. I decided I would once again run in the Novice group on Sunday, so I wouldn't have to much pressure to put the hammer down in the faster group. GOOD CALL!! There were only a few cars left on Sunday in the Novice group and I basically had the track to myself. I could hit the corners as hard or as mellow as I wanted. I could literally go for a Sunday cruise at a nice pace or "throw it into a corner" to test the max traction I could handle. All this withour worrying about holding someone up that was behind me.

If all you have ever done is short track and Auto X, your gonna love a BIG track. Short track, Auto X is a terrific way to prepare, I was quite surprised how comfortable I felt. You actually have "time" to think about the best line through the next corner and set the car up. "Time" is not on your side on a short track or an Auto X track, it's go like hell all the time and try to stay inside the cones somehow.

Great fun, I look forward to trying out some more big tracks in the near future. Laguna Seca, Thunderhill, Portland International Raceway, here I come! My calculated mph speed was around 120-125, based on the "feel" off the shift points, approximate rpm, tire size, gear ratios as I calculated it later. There is no way I could actually look at the speedometer, I could barely focus on the tach for a shift point at any given time. Oil temp, without an oil cooler, were around 115-120 Centigrade. Water temp was pushing 240 F. The car ran excellent, that side oiler never missed a beat and pulled like a frieght train out of the corners. I was shifting around 6,300 rpm, with the occasional bounce off the rev limiter (6,500).
Ernie