| | Getting Serious: Racing Wheel to Wheel in Las Vegas October 22 came around much sooner than I expected. Time either fliesor crawls when you are anticipating something. The emotion going intoit was mixed - extreme joy with a healthy dose of anxiety. I'm thetype of person that puts low expectations on the table so I can bepleasantly surprised if I better them. But, deep down, I want to doextremely well. I put tremendous pressure on myself to be the best atwhatever I do. I did it in school, in motorcycle racing, in simulatorracing, and in my job. I'm a competitive person by nature, and when Isee a benchmark, I want to beat it. Well, now I'll have my chance inthe auto racing arena. On the plane, I had the, well....interesting experience of sittingdirectly in front of someone with a serious hacking cough. The onlything I could think about the flight over was, "Man I hope I don'tget sick from this!!" When I landed, it was unmistakably Las Vegas lots of slots and video poker machines lined throughout thegates. After my dad arrived from San Jose, we went to grab a bite toeat, then went to our motel. | In-car Videos: | Tuesday through Thursday was lapping days. This meant each session wastightly regulated and passing is limited to specific zones (thestraights). Throughout each lapping day, there was a handful ofpeople that were just there to run the car for a day not racein the series. The track was interesting and very technical. It had anumber of combination turns, and some with a little banking. Thereweren't really any elevation changes like Laguna, but the combo turnsmade up for that in my opinion. Each day started out with a quick talk from the instructor and atrademark Skip Barber "van around" on the track. The first day,getting used to the track, my best times were 1:27-6s, which werepretty good in the group. The second day, things came together quitea bit better, and I consistently improved a second to 1:26-5s, andeven hit a 1:24! | The Twisty Track at Las Vegas | At the end of the day, I hung around a little bit and talked with oneof the racers and the instructors. They were discussing the computercar, which the instructors set up. This car had all sorts of dataacquisition equipment on it everything from lateral G sensorsto pedal position sensors to steering position sensors to instant laptime display. I thought it might be a good idea to run this, but Iwasn't sure. It was pretty expensive, and I wasn't sure if it woulddo that much good, especially since it was a different car and Ididn't know if I'd adapt to it well. Well, I decided to go for a run in the computer car, and...I think thecomputer car was so cool, it deserves a topic of it's own. The costof running the computer car was $350 for 7 laps. Kenny Johnson, theinstructor running the computer car show, decided to let me have anextra warm-up lap, to put my total to 8. Kenny told me to just run mynormal laps, don't overdrive the car trying to do a wonder lap. Mytimes in the car were low 1:25s (most of them 1:25 flat), with a besttime of 1:24.8. This was my best outing yet extremelyconsistent. I guess being on the track after the lapping day withoutany other cars helped in consistency. When I was all finished, theyplugged the "black box" into the computer and downloaded all thedata. When it was all downloaded, they ran a computer applicationthat translated all the data and made a 2-D line chart for any of thecollected information, such as speed, lateral G, etc. Always on thechart were 2 bars showing accelerator and brake pressure. The graphwas also split into segments (T1, T2&3, etc) so we could analyze thelap in minute detail. They took my 1:24.80 and put it on top of KJ's1:22.90 lap and compared the differences. The speed graph was themain one we looked at. When looking at the speeds in each segment, wesaw that in T1 Kenny had a couple tenths on me in that turn. In T2,he had 0.6 sec's on me (the biggest margin of all the segments), T5&6he had 0.2 sec's, and in T9 he had 0.3 sec's on me. A few tenths ineach corner REALLY adds up! | Prepping for a few hotlaps | The different data we could get was pretty awesome. In the lateral Gdepartment, the highest we recorded was 1.8 Gs in turn 2 (becauseturn 2 is somewhat banked). Typically we race at 1.2-1.4 Gs aroundthe other turns. The two most helpful pieces of data for me were thespeed and segment times. These told me where I can gain time, andwhere I can go faster. After doing this once, I am totally sold onusing the computer car; it is a fantastic tool! I am DEFINITELY goingto do it at every new track or every time I plateau on lap times.This (along with all the practice) was one of the best things I coulddo to help myself go fast this weekend. I came out the next lapping day (Thursday) with a mission breakinto the 1:23 realm. This was my goal. I now had the data to knowwhere I can shave those tenths off my lap times. All I had to do wasapply that knowledge. To this time I haven't gone through turn 1flat. I have been breathing off the gas then getting back on it whenI turn in. Today, I was going to make sure I go through T1 withoutletting that gas pedal see the light of day. | Lining up for another practice session | The first session out, things felt pretty good on the track. I was ina new car, so I had to get used to its personality. Once I took a lapor two to get used to the brakes, I started charging hard. Halfwaythrough my first session, I came in to get some feedback about turn 3and 5. When I rolled up in pit lane, there were some cars ahead of megetting feedback, so my dad came up to my car with a big smile on hisface. "You are smoking out there," was the first thing he said to me.Smiling myself I asked, "Did I do a 1:23?" When he told me I did acouple of them and all 1:24s, I was stoked beyond belief, and Iimagine so was my dad! Boy was that computer car worth theinvestment!!! My best time that day was 1:23.3, and I was neverslower than a 1:24 on a clean lap. Things are run quite a bit differently on Friday. That morning, we allgot to choose the racecar we would be using for the weekend.Appropriately enough, we picked the car numbers from poker chipsinside a cupcake tray. Luckily I picked the car that I used theprevious day! I guess that kinda makes up for the $70 I lost in thecasinos trying to win back my race weekend money ;-). In Fridaypractices there is open passing. Unlike lapping days where you werelimited to the straights, we could pass anytime, anywhere (as long asit was safe, of course). Also on Friday, and throughout the weekend,every lap was timed and a printout was given to us after everysession or race. Everyone was split into 4 groups of about 12; I was in group 3. Thesegroups designated our practice and race order. The first practicesession out was great. Lots of good passing maneuvers going intodifferent turns was definitely cool, much better than having to waitfor a straight to make my pass. The first session my fastest lap was1:23.0, and boy was I happy about that! I couldn't believe I wasgoing that fast, and all my racing buddies, who I've been hanging outwith since Tuesday, were in awe. It was the fastest time of mysession. Now, some really fast guys started to come out. One inparticular was James Eaton, who drove the computer car on Friday andset the unofficial fastest time of the weekend at 1:22.10. I talkedwith him for awhile about racing and the track, and he said that thecomputer car definitely has a stronger motor than the rest of thecars. There were quite a few people who drove the computer car onThursday and Friday, but James was the only non-instructor to breakthe 1:22 barrier before Saturday. Saturday's schedule had every group doing one 30-minute practice andthen the races. The 1:22 barrier would be history in today'spractice. In the 1st group that went out, two guys, Joe O'Brien andAl Longtin, turned a 1:22.5 and Grant Show (yeah, the Melrose Placedude) turned a 1:22.9. Wow, I was pretty nervous now therewere a handful of guys going faster than I. The pressure wasdefinitely on now; I had to do a 1:22, or I would be disappointed. Iworked it hard and thank God, I got my 1:22.9. In fact, I got two ofthem! I was pretty satisfied with that. Then, I looked at my racegroup again and got a small sinking feeling. James Eaton and AlLongtin were in my group. Ouch! Two of the fastest guys out there inmy race heat....why me! | Where are the Tecate Girls on the Grid? | Turning the 1:23.0 in Friday's Qualifying practice netted me 3rd onthe grid for the race behind Eaton and Longtin. Both Eaton andLongtin are experienced Formula Dodge racers. Longtin being fromFlorida and the Southern series, and Eaton just finished up theMidwest series, rubbing elbows with the top guys in that series likeAlex Gurney and finishing 5th overall. Behind me was Leland Barron,another driver who has been doing Formula Dodge racing for awhile.Well, my times were about 0.4 sec's behind fast guys Longtin (who wonthe 1st group race he was doing two races each day instead ofone), so I thought I would just try and maintain my position and comehome with a podium finish and a trophy. I can't describe the feelings (read: butterflies) going on when weleft out on the pace lap. We go out in 2 by 2 formation, and thinout to single file for the middle of the pace lap. When the pace cargot to turn 8, we all got into 2 by 2 formation again, and when gotto the last turn, the polesitter, Eaton, slowed down to a crawl. Wewere barely crawling, and the pace car was in the pits before weexited turn 9. Right before the starter waved the green flag, Eatonfloored the gas and all of us behind him follow suit. We thinned outenough to go into turn 1 single file. From the beginning of the first lap, this was a total differentfeeling than any of the practices. The first noticeable differencewas running in a pack of guys that are about the same speed. It waspretty awesome because you didn't really have to adjust your markers,you could use the same markers and run nose to tail. Running thatclose is really fun...and nerve-racking, depending on which positionyou are in. The first few laps were kind of easy we were in asingle file train. I got a little over-anxious on the third lap andwent into T5 too hot. I got very sideways and was thinking in myhead, "Oh-no, you're going to throw it away, you idiot!" But,fortunately I kept the car sideways through the turn, with the leftrear wheel up on the curb, and was able to click it into second gearand keep charging. The whole time I was checking my mirrors too,wondering if fourth place was going to try to sneak under me, butthere wasn't enough of an opportunity. | |