I can tell my Dad and I are getting better but I still see what we need to work on. On my Dad's first run he did a huge burn out at the start, now it was very cool but he lost a lot of time spinning the tires. Granted it was the first run and the tires were cold so the extra heat only helped in the long run. On the past courses at Marina the best way to drive was to keep the car in second gear right after you hit the first straight away. This method didn't work too well on this track since the hairpins forced you to slow down too much to allow the car to keep a high enough rpm range to speed out of the corner. This is where we lost time, instead of leaving the corner in the 3k to 4k range in first gear the car was in the 2k range in second. I know this seems really elemetary but in the moment you don't think about it you just don't want to hit cones and keep going. I did find myself being a bit hesitant on the on the track since I wasn't sure how the car would react on the cracked asphalt of the parking lot rather than the concrete at Marina. And that we only had 4 runs this time instead of 5 or 6 I didn't want to throw away a run with a spin out in the tight turns just to see where grip point is. But in my last run I said screw it and pushed the car. My dad did well out of the four runs his best time was a 1:29.075 which was competitive with the other Convertibles that were configured the same. My method on the track was to stay in first all the way until the exit of the second hair pin, then do the same on the entrance back to the first hair pin. This was the trick and got a 1:28.072! So this week I took the win over the two of us, but the time between us is getting shorter and shorter so we are both improving!
So on the track is started off with the long straight away with four slalom cones, on the cones you can choose any which way to go around them but you must snake in between each one. As you enter the hair pin it didn't look very sharp but when you exit the entrance to the second straight away is farther up and the turn tighten up as you are coming out of it. The sharp right turn looked worse from far away and I could have carried more speed through it but chose to attack the inside of the turn each time. I never came close to the outside cones but I think I could have shaved of a few hundredths of a second by using a larger apex. Now getting into the lower part of the track the second hair pin was tight, so tight that almost all the cones hit all day happend on the exit of the turn. Once you get out of the hair pin it is petal the metal all the way through the huge left hand sweeper. Half way on the sweeper where it gets tight I had a little hesitation thinking the turn got tight but you can carry a large amount of speed through the entire thing! It was so deceiving. Now you come to a fork in the road, on the first time through you go left and repeat the turns and straights then you go right to the final right and sweeping left.
This course was so much fun, all the fast parts of the track really let me see the limits of the car and the tires. Remember we still are on stock DOT Goodyear run flats! I know I am not yet at the limit of the tires but getting closer each time, I am still amazed at how well the tires do stick and cannot imagine how well a set of slicks will do. My Dad and I each had a blast and the huge turn out at the event was great. There will be another event at Solano coming up in October and we hope to go racing.
Coming through the slalom
Entering the second hair pin
Entering the first hair pin
Entering the second hair pin
Entering the first hair pin
Watch the video of the whole day Here!
