Alright, I've gotten a bit of a nap, and the bracket drags are posted. I've gotten my work cut out for me. The Camry has closed in to 5pts behind.
We're still waiting to see how the Avalon shakes out... since they've wrinkled the whole left side of their car and broken their splitter. They made it through the drags and 1 or 2 brackets... although they were pushing it through staging... and had some trouble getting it to fire.
Gateway has been rough on us OneLappers; with the aforementioned three wall hits... plus our friend Pappas Schaub getting loose going through oval turn 4, sliding and then coming down and catching the inside wall with their tow hook... inflicting a pretty good paint stripe on the front bumper and pax headlight.
There's also rumblings about a number of motor that are sick in the paddock.
Onelap is an endurance time attack. Which sounds simplistic, and easily managed. But there's a lot to get right, plenty that can go wrong, and lots of temptation to risk too much. So far we're trying to make sure we're nailing the first, doing the things we can to avoid the second, and being clear headed about the third. So far it's working out, but it's still early in the week.
It's an early transit night, so we're going to indulge in some fine sit-down dining!
The gang's all here and cooler than before. Seth's about to grid up, and I'm waiting my turn to late apex all the things.
Sleepyhead in session one Hallett, Oklahoma.
This feels a bit weird to say, but I think I'm backing off into car preservation mode.
This morning I ran 56th overall, and a 5:03 cumulative time. I was about 2.8sec back from the Civic TypeR... which was being driven by Lori for the first time in the event. This despite my going 2-off at the end of the gators at the exit of 7; mainly because I kept my foot in it. Back in the pits it's clear that as I push the car hard, I'm tending to push/slide the front end of the car on some of corners. If I keep that up, I'm going to cord the shoulders on the front tires if I'm not careful.
Additionally, after the afternoon session, John got out the heat gun and was reading 170.0 degF on one, and 250 degF on the calipers.... after a cool down lap and 2 minutes of sitting... and running a 5:15 instead of a 5:03. I believe I got them just as hot during the morning.
That 5:15 dropped me back to 64th overall. A twelve second pace drop, seems a bit too much of a drop off... so I'm going to have to bang around brain pan to figure out the right settings to get "wear free" speed out of the car, while keeping the brakes in-temp.
I started writing this up as we left the track, and 40miles later we were on the side of the road trying to diagnose why Roy's M3 was out of fuel trim and misfiring. As more OneLappers stopped to lend aide, a blown off charge pipe hose was found. Roy had picked up the pace this afternoon, and with my cautious pace, was faster than me for the first time this week. The VW crew will get him back sorted; but it underlines to me how each session out has to be evaluated independently and in the overall context of the event.
70 miles down, and seven hours to go. That's it from me for now
! edited to fix temp mistake from yesterday!
I must have missed something. I thought you guys were racing a hyundai?
Thanks for the update and analysis. Drive safe.
In reply to 2002maniac :
You are right . We were going g to race a 2006 Sonata. Back around page 20 / 22 (~2 weeks ago?) ... you'll see how I blew a shock through the top mount after dropping it on H&R springs. Then I sheared a lug going to replace the top mounts.
At that point I decided I better use the time I had left to prep the backup car... which I had more confidence in... instead of ending up with the Sonata on a state where it wouldn't even survive the transits.
I was able to get the TL ready largely with the help of bluej and irish44 and bobzilla-oil man.
The trade off is that I've got a racecar that still has some of the same limitations as last year. They are limitations I can and will manage... this year., after all, is mainly to give Bob and John a feel for the event before they attempt their own builds.
Well, it's been four or five hours that I've been without cell service. But we made it in to CO fine... and I'm typing this thanks to the hotel wifi. We'll see what tomorrow holds... racing, transiting, and updating
sleepyhead said:
It's an early transit night, so we're going to indulge in some fine sit-down dining!
Now we're talking. Thanks for the updates.
If you are looking for a little fun while waiting for track time during, hang around Pastrana and listen for the cracking nad popping of all the things he has broken when he is moving around...
He is a pretty serious guy that looks like he is just having fun.
In reply to stafford1500 :
That’s the impression that he’s given us as well.
Nice to meet you guys in person today at the track! Hope you went fast and are safe. Good luck with the rest of the event!
Woo-hoo, I can see the internet again, and get all the SMS messages from competitors from yesterday (4; the last being: "You Dead?" Answer = No)
I just got the same wave of messages from my wife as service returned.
Amateurs. Never lost service.
docwyte said:
Nice to meet you guys in person today at the track! Hope you went fast and are safe. Good luck with the rest of the event!
Good meeting you, thanks for the tips!
as an FYI, we've made it in to Cresson. I had an adventurous bit of driving with a brush fire on the highway and a coyote that ran across the road in front of us.
Dunno how the last 3 hours have gone... but I woke up in time for a cop to pull up and yell at us for the antics or other cars with stickers on them: "slow down, do 35, and turn off your high beams"
oh well, that's OneLap
Watching the current OLOA live stream and it sounds like nearly everyone had the luxury of getting at minimum a warning from the local constable.
It appears that HPR combined with being less abusive on the tires paid off since you beat an M3 and a Corvette in both sessions yesterday! Keep up the good work!
Yeah. Apparently 34 in a 35 with low beams on gets a “slow down! It’s 35 and turn off your high beams”.
Also air in the left front caliper was making the right front do more work and was causing a temp differential side to side and punishing the tire on the right front. Quick bleed and it appears to be back to normal. We’ll see this morning if it’s truly fixerated
For anyone following along at home, the RS guys lost a clutch and are working to repair it before the next session, watching these guys do a full trans service in 2 hours between sessions is a thing of beauty.
https://www.facebook.com/One-Lap-RS-570589333118595/?hc_ref=ARQsTg6UlnIt7NoRLp3OEvCjC-hvSRHixfMyyTamReR1_IOeIG1Q4V14IpBnpZFTlgQ
I need to save that for later, somehow
This was originally written yesterday, then I ran out of thumb inspiration....
Driving through the parts of Kansas, Colorado, and Texas we have so far for me is a little akin to free diving. Suck in a deep breath and wait until you're back to the surface. But that seems to be mainly because I'm on Sprint's network, and using an old E36 M3 phone.So, I'm typing this during one of my dives without service. Some details might be wrong, and my spelling is probably E36 M3 because of doing this all on the phone.
We found this morning that the roads between Hallett and High Plains were undulating in a way that we were frequently a rubbing the driver's side front tire. I got the help of the VW gang's head fab/wrench: Josh to roll the front edge of that fender. So far this transit evidence points to that surgery having eliminated the rub on all but the largest undulations.
I decided to keep the tires on as they were, and went out to feel how the car was acting. Trying to implement some feedback about driving style to reduce scrub on the fronts.
Because of these things, I sent Roy out ahead of me in our run group... also because he's been to High Plains before with OneLap. I still wanted to go out and get some speed laid down while Temps were cooler. So I put the hammer down, and ended up catching Roy at the end of the long straight on the last lap. My being back there had Roy watching his mirrors too much and he overcooked it on the exit of 6...going 4-off.
At first I thought that might work out for me to sneak around the inside as he got back on, but the car tankslapped as it bucked in the undulations off-track... and I had to back off and wait to pass him going up the hill to turn 7. Unfortunately, I didn't have my gopro with me. :(
Still a about yesterday...
After the morning session we pulled the tires and bled the brakes, as Bob alluded to.
The pedal held firm for the afternoon session although I didn't pick up much high time. But the tires look like they're happier about the equipment brake setup and the "elevated" start pressures we're throwing at them.
Any idea if the tracks usually charge entry fees for spectators? Aeromoto & I are planning on seeing you guys at Nola tomorrow.
