Well, I had a much better race weekend performance wise and weather wise. Nice sunny days, no wet weather and a nice track. I was racing with the Historic Race Group, which is a vintage group associated with the Northeast Division of SCCA. We run as a separate run group at SCCA races in this region. It is a small group, we only had 18 cars at the track, so we run a combined group of various cars. The cars consisted of 4 Corvettes ranging from 1963-1971, a 1968 Camaro, 1966 Mustang, a Jaguar XKE, 1983 Oldsmobile Winston Cup, a couple of Alfa Romeo GTV's, a Datsun 240Z and a 280Z, an Opel GT, an MGB, an MGA, and a Bugeye Sprite. Engine sizes ranged from 1200 CC to 454 cubic inches. It is a fun group to run with and they self police regarding contact and aggressive driving, so we have to tone it back just a little.
The weekend was full of carnage. Upon entering the paddock to pick a spot on Friday afternoon during the test day, there was already a Spec Miata sitting on dollies with the only body panel not showing significant damage being the drivers door. Both right side wheels were broken off with stubs from spokes still attached to the hubs. During one race 5 Spec Racer Fords got into a pileup at turn 2 and during the next race I watched a Spec Miata go sideways in turn 1 and slam into the wall; you could hear it from 200 yards away. We did have one incident of carnage ourselves, on the opening lap after receiving the green flag for the race the Opel GT and the Camaro hit each other going down into the boot. It happened about 10 seconds before I arrived there and resulted in a lot of parade laps behind the pace car under double yellow before we could resume racing.
Was slowly increasing the air pressure in the tires to prevent roll and improve performance. I am getting close. Lap times decreased each session as I felt more comfortable in the corners. It is hard when you are racing a one-of-a-kind car, as there is nobody else racing a 289 FIA at the track that I can go to and ask about what tire pressure they are running. Information for other cars or from websites is all over the place. I am going to increase tire pressure 1 lb per tire for the Vintage Grand Prix and see how that feels during the practice session.
Acceleration was good and the car does handle well. I am beginning to push the limits a little more with confidence and if you compare this video to the last one you will notice that I am taking some turns a lot faster than last time. The person who is in charge of turning on the GoPro did not do a very good job, so the only videos that I have were from the second qualifying race. I am only including one video link, as the other video that covers the first couple of laps begins with about 10 minutes of sitting on the grid, as I had to start the camera prior to strapping myself into the car.
Just prior to the start of this video I passed the Corvette with the 454. You will see me chasing a Corvette, getting interrupted by the Mustang who came onto the track late and caught me by surprise going into turn 1 ( I was not watching my mirror as there was nobody behind me that was going to catch me at that point as far as I knew), so I backed off a little and that allowed the Corvette to pull away, and then I slowly reel him in. The guy driving the Mustang was extolling the virtues of the Jericho transmission that he just put in and competing on how nice it is not to have to clutch on upshifts. Finished 5th overall in the race.
Enjoy:
https://youtu.be/CMWiRE7Ah84
Jim
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