Z28tt Project

Mark and I went out in the A group with some fast Evo's (running
around a minute flat) and stupidly, they put novices with fast cars in
A group as well. We had passing on the front and no-name straights,
with no point by's necessary, but it was a good courtesy. Limerock
castrated no-name straight by laying out cones squeezing the last 200
feet to one lane, to keep folks from making a late pass. Every lap
there were trains stuck behind the six novices in GroupA, and because
of the small passing zone in the back, you only had room to get by 2
cars. Consequently, there were constant trains of 4+ cars with
everyone stuck behind a novice. You'd catch up to a train by the
esses, 2 folks would pass at noname, you're stuck behind for the
uphill, west bend, and downhill and then you'd pass right after the
downhill, only to catch up to the next train by the esses again. The
novices were great with point by's and not drag racing down the
straight, so the instructors did a great job keeping everyone
courteous (except for one guy, later...). Justin timed me at 1.12's
for the first 6 or so laps and by that point the novices were starting
to get the hang of things, and I was down to 1.06's (had a fun time
just following Kyle through traffic with his even faster Evo, enjoying
the smell of race gas in the morning!). Finally got one clean lap -
1.03! Started out the session with the Kumho V710's at 30 psi cold,
and at the end, they were LF:41, RF: 38, RR 36, LR 37 psi. Dropped
them back down to 30R and 32F.

Tire Temps (outer-middle-inner), in the pits a few minutes later (thanks Justin!):
LF 173-170-166
RF 155-150-159
RR 130 138 128
LR 139 146 136
You can see how the pressure got too high and the center of the tires
was hotter. 9" rear was at 148 degrees.

After they ran through the run groups, it was open track for the day.
It's my first time running that format, and I loved it! The Camaro was
running well, and I didn't think to top off the gas, figuring one
session wouldn't burn that much fuel. Wrong - 4 laps in, the fuel
pressure was dropping in the corners (gauge read half tank). Back into
the pits to dump in 5 gallons, another 4 laps, and the stumble was
back. I need to look at the DFI6 fuel trim tables because I was
pegging out the wideband and power felt down - maybe I've got a funky
setting for IAT or CLT tables that goes to a full rich safety mode
.

Pit in, add another 5 gallons, and good to go (for another 5-10 laps).
By this point, the track was pretty open, and you'd only get stuck
once a lap behind a slower car. I can understand not allowing passing
in more places, but the uphill would be a perfectly safe zone, with
lots of room before West Bend. I'd usually hang back after West Bend
to get a run through the downhill corner, late apex, and go right by
on the inside (as long as there wasn't a train, and other cars in
front, passing on the right). Then I caught up to a shiny red Ferarri.
And stayed on his bumper through the esses (didn't want to dog him too
badly, since he had the N sticker on the back for Novice, and I
couldn't afford to fix his car if he did a panic stop and I drove into
the back). We got to no-name straight, and he's drag racing me? WTF?
Dog him through the uphill, west bend, and downhill, go to the inside
to pass, get next to him, and drag racing again. Huh? Pull in behind
again, and put put through the esses. By this point, I'm waving my
hand out the window, trying to get the flagger's attention for a blue
flag, but no luck. He's WOT on no-name, uses the full track to
eliminate the passing zone on the right, and now it's impossible to
pull a pass if the passee doesn't lift. Yes - even in the Z28tt. Slow
down to what felt like 40 for the uphill section, and now I really
hang back for the downhill, since he likes to brake a lot for the
downhill corner. I get a run on him, go (slowly) past as he's drag
racing, and get in front before the brake zone this time. He's no
where to be seen by the time I get to noname. Had a chat with him
(nice older gentleman), and it seems he doesn't understant the point
of track days. I tried to explain that he's going very slow through
the corners, and there are cars with less horsepower that get stuck
behind him in the corners, and don't have the HP to pass on the
straights. He said he didn't want to beat on the car in the corners,
which is why he was driving slow, but he likes going fast on the
straights. Maybe Lebannon Valley would be a better place. At the next
drivers meeting, maybe we could have some official signal to get the
flagger's attention for a blue flag. Waving arms, flashing headlights,
etc... Pics from Ray Covino:
Drag Racing: http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078645871430871858
and http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078645931560414018

Tire Temps (outer-middle-inner), in the pits after session 3:
LF 196-183-178
RF 163-171-186
RR 131-133-144
LR 156-161-155

Filled up the tank at the track pumps ($4.80/gal for 93 octane, btw),
and checked with the grid guy to see how long open track would go,
until time trials started. He said 3, so we took a break for lunch at
1:45, and I rolled back out to grid by 2:20, only to be told that
they're setting up for time trials. Please, please, please have
consistent communication with everyone. Maybe a dry erase white board
with a master schedule, so last minute schedule changes can be shared
with everyone. The Camaro is happy with 20 minute sessions, but more
than that, and the oil temps get too high and the V710 tires overheat
(I got the left front at 195 in the pits after one of the faster
sessions). The T56 transmission is starting to go as well - funny
clicking noises on decel in 1st gear, and I get a little grind every
time I downshift into 3rd for the back straight. I've got a spare
waiting, and I'll rebuild this one with good parts eventually.

A peave - Limerock Park closed the track several times the day to run
construction equipment across. Would they have done this for the
Porsche clubs... We paid for the track, and they took time away. Maybe
red-flagging the session would have minimized the disruption?

Time trials started quickly enough (only 15 minutes to set up the
timers and convert over), and people gridded by car number in groups
of 3, split every 20 seconds or so. We'd get a 1 lap warmup, 2 hot
laps, and a cooldown. A light rain started half way through, and they
decided to hold off for 15 minutes until it cleared & dried up. I saw
#40 in the hot pits, so I decided to grid. It was finally our turn to
move into the hot pits, since we'd be the next run group, and of
course, the rain came back. Track went cold again, and 20 minutes
later, rain stopped (I thought it'd be a great learning experience to
run in the light rain to help my driving skills and keep the racing
line a bit drier, but CART club officials thought otherwise). We were
allowed 2 warm up laps to help dry the track. I was out first, then a
fast CRX also in the 1.03's, and a very clean black Fiero. The
concrete was very slick on cold tires, and the asphalt a little less
so. A few times the car attempted to swap ends when I fed the throttle
in a bit early, but not bad. Once the Kumho's got up to temp for the
2nd warm up lap, I could actually start driving it pretty hard. Thank
goodness for soft new tires! On the 2nd lap, the corner stations were
waving a yellow, which I thought might have been for me to take it
easier on the warm-up laps. Once I made it to the uphill corner, I saw
why - dirt ALL over the track. It turns out the Fiero had gone off
track, but saved it. We all got black flagged while the track workers
swept it up, and back out for our time trials. Everything went
smoothly, didn't make too many mistakes, but I was still cautious as
the track wasn't nearly as sticky as before the rain. Managed to get a
1.03.680, which put me in 2nd place for the E-mod class (data shows
130 before braking for big bend). First place was for a 350Z driver
who got a 1.03.3xx (Kyle and the other Evo had left after the rain
started). Another stand-out was the AMG Mercedes that was in F-stock
and ran a 1.03.xx! That's moving!
http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078646842093481074

TT's finished around 4:30, so we still had some open track time. I
wasted 15 minutes with the data acquisition system & Windows Vista on
the laptop, gave up, and headed back out on track for a few more laps.
I was released out of the hot pits and saw the gorgeous red ZR1 ahead,
who was also running in the low minutes range, and would be great to
follow and maybe learn a better line. At west bend, there was a HUGE
cloud of dust, and I saw the ZR1 slowly rolling off the track before
pit entrance, with a cloud of smoke behind it. Kept going for the next
lap when the session was black flagged, and saw his front left wheel
was cocked funny. It turns out his CCW Classic wheel (old style, same
as what I've got) had cracked off the center section at the base of
his spokes. He did a great job saving his car at a fast corner, with
only minor damage to body work. CCW has a revised center section with
2mm thicker spokes that fixes this. Hopefully they exchange the center
pieces for no-cost on these expensive wheels. CCW has a great rep for
customer service. Time to make a phone call, and get that taken care
of...
http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078644604415519186

Overall, it was a great day and another fun event put on by CART-CT.
Too bad there aren't any more Limerock dates with this club. I had a
great time.

Oh yeah - the crazy valve cover TIG welded breather towers we fabbed last week with baffles and
modified AMW catch can on Mark's car finally fixed his oil blowby
issues! He came in after the first session (still on street tires and
brakes - I could smell his car halfway around the lap!), and was
skipping around like a little school girl doing the happy dance! :)

Nice 1st gen: http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078645983100021586