Quote:
Originally Posted by cody
Haha, and that was on nearly dead Nitto NT05s. Now I have fresh Dunlop Z2s in the same size, 255/40/17. I'm not sure how new the other drivers were. NASA is really lenient. They let me into Intermediate (Group 3 of 4, 4 being Advanced) even though I'd never been on that track, and they let me do it with a passenger! The open passing is pretty nuts and I did get called out a couple times for slightly unsafe passing (including not fully getting around people in the carousel, which is a dangerous place to pass, period, because if the guy on the inside has a problem, he's flying into you), but nothing too crazy.
When I signed up, I chose to be in group 3 because of the open passing and indicated my experience including 10 years of autocross and 3 track days at RFR. I left out the part about my 100MPH spin off RFR's turn 1 during my first motorsports event ever.  I did lose it once at Sears Point (Turn 8a) and it's pretty scary with all those walls. Luckily I kinda saved it and steered toward open grass, no issues.
It was a total kick in the pants and I'll definitely let you guys know next time I'm going to one. They have them all the time. http://nasanorcal.com/index.php?/site/section_schedule/
I'm not sure if I would have ever bit the bullet and paid for the membership and track day fee, but I won a gift certificate that covered the track day fee, for winning my autocross class with ESCA in 2012. It was so fun that I got the 2nd day in before my membership expired last year. I'll want to go again when it cools down, maybe in the Fall or Winter.
I really loved nearly hanging with that NSX at the end of the session. I was driving at 10/10s and nearly catching him in the braking zones and corners, but not quite. Wonder what he would have thought if I told him I had stock brakes, relatively soft suspension, mediocre tires, and only 215 WHP (on a good day) in my econobox wagon. Haha |
That NSX should have been killing you in the corners... but your wagon probably should have made up a lot of the difference on the straights. It looks like the driver was relatively conservative... which makes sense, since an NSX doesn't "sort itself out" the way a Subaru does when you exceed the limit.
Next time you go back to Sears, try to use more of the track. Brake a little earlier in the harder braking zones (like turn 4 at the top of the hill, and the turn 7 hairpin), get the car turned earlier, so you can get down to the apexes and get on the throttle even earlier, and make sure to track all the way out. I think you'll pick up a ton of time. Dean probably has some more specific tips, if he'll bother to check in here.
Your car control looked pretty great... i.e. you seemed to be able to put it where you want to consistently, and you're catching errors really early with throttle modulation. And it's hard to tell without being able to see your hands, but you seem pretty smooth. So you've got a handle on the hard parts. Now you just need to optimize your line to keep the cornering speeds up.
I've never driven Sears in reality, but I've got like a million miles there in various sims.
In iRacing, you *have* to nail every lap, or you're seconds behind the guys that spend 6 hours a day practicing.
On a second thought... none of the laps in that video are very clean.
Ignore that.