COTA 2015 2-27-2015 to 3-1-2015 MVP Track Time
Well the 2015 Track Season started off a little soggy. We landed Thursday morning and rushed to the track to unload the cars. We new it was going to be iffy weather wise but we are here so you make the best of it. We unloaded the cars into the garage and started getting ready for a three day COTA fest of track time.
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Four years with no changes in setup other than alignment:
My Car: 2004 NSX with Twin Turbo 6lb/400 whp, Tanabi springs over Bilstein Struts, Tarox BBK, Dali 1" sway front and OEM sway rear, NT01s 235f/275r, vented hood.
Friday morning the track looks a little damp and the high temp for the day is only 36* but we are here and ready to run. I have set a goal to beet last years personal best of a 2:36.53. Leave the morning drivers meeting at 7:50AM and on a second look the track is really quite damp and the air temps are cold. I head out and about 3 laps in the car is warmed up the tires feel like they are starting to work. I decide to push a little harder and run the back strait at full throttle. Exit turn 11 and get the car pointed strait put the hammer down and the car will not make any boost. Crap this is my issue in three years with the turbo system and I had just went over every piece of the system this winter prior to heading down to COTA. I hurry back to the pits on N/A Power and pull into the garage. Get out of the car and the drivers side marker light is popped out of the fender. Well that made it easy to diagnose. My charge pipe runs right by the marker light and one of the silicone hose couplers had worked itself loose of the pipe. Believe it or not that was really good news, it was an easy fix and after I removed the fender liner the charge pipe was reconnected, the clamp was tightened, and we were ready for Session 2.
2nd Session on Friday was still cool, not as damp, and for the most part the track was dry. The grip level was manageable after you got some heat into the tires. I used this session to heat the car up and shake down the car after a brief trackside repair. My boost was back and everything was back to normal. I was hitting 145 mph on the back strait and just under 7PSI of boost, PERFECT. I was surprised at the grip levels the NT-01s offered up in these conditions. Windy, cold and drying but the little Nittos were working fairly well. You could tell that they were struggling for grip. They did much better than I expected. Came into the hot pits check tire temps and pressures and made some final adjustments then back out for a few fast laps to the end of the session. I am running consistent 2:37.xx lap times with lots of traffic and managed a 2:36.84. So after I get back in the garage I start poring over the data and I start to look for more time.
3rd Session on Friday was at 1PM and still 36* with 100% cloud cover, the track is dry but cool. Slap on the GoPro and head out. I am about the sixth car in line at the pit out, put around scrubbing the tires to build up some heat and by the end of the esses the tires feel pretty good, Make my way around to start finish and start to hammer this lap. I am following Gregg my buddy with the brand new 2015 C7-Z06/Z07, I can tell he still does not have a tire under him yet and is struggling for grip. We both start to push and make it around in 2:36.68, then 2:36.35, then we hit traffic and he is able to get away from me. Really trafic and the fact that he finally got some heat in his tires meant he and his 650hp Vette was going to be leaving me for the rest of the session. So I finish out the session with a fast lap of a 2:36.35. I have meet my goal for the weekend after two real sessions. I start reviewing the data and realized my virtual best was a 2:34.11, BINGO new goal. Pull the GoPro video and data from the car and start to look for more time. Two seconds is a lot and should be easy to find some of it. I was loosing time in the turns 3-8, the esses, also in 13-17. I talked with Ray one of the Viper drivers there with us. Watched his video, watched mine and I think I found something to try. He is a great driver and a great resource when you get stuck, I know I can follow him or have him follow me and I will find some time. His personal best at COTA is a 2:20.xx. He was hoping to make it into the teens this weekend.
4th Session Gregg and I head out right behind Ray, we will let him pace us a bit and watch his line. My tires are ready before either of their Hoosiers come up to heat. I have no problem hanging the first few laps and we are running 2:35.xx after the warm up lap, Lap 2 2:335.86, Lap 3 2:35.49, Lap 4 2:35.89, Lap 5 2:34.42, Lap 6 we all get separated dealing with traffic and I can see Ray and Gregg disappearing into the turns ahead of me. After another two laps in traffic and not being able to get a gap I finally find some room to make another charge. Last lap of the session I run through the first sector timing I am .75 secs up on my fast time, keep pushing and by the second sector marker I am 1.12 secs up exit turn 18 and the checker flag is waving. NO, I dive for the pits and run around the paddock area to cool the car down before heading to the garage. Unless I would have blown 20 and the main straight I had it, I had found my time. As it turns out those two sectors times combined with another third sector time made my new Virtual Best Lap time a 2:33.16. I fuel the car and get ready to go at it in on Saturday. New goal 2:30.00. I grab the GoPro and laptop so I can dump off the video and get ready for Saturday. Get back from dinner and start to move the video from the GoPro to the laptop and the camera will not power up, no big deal dead batt. Charge the GoPro and go for the video and nothing is there. I already watched the 2nd and 3rd sessions at the track so I know the video was there. Slap in a new SD Card and test the camera, nothing there and the SD card is crashed. I reformatted the card and tried again and it did it again. So the GoPro is down and my video for the day is lost. Fortunately Gregg, Ray, and Mike are shooting so there are some videos with at least a glimpse of my car running at COTA. The first batch are up now and the rest will be up soon.
https://www.youtube.com/user/tooblueracing/videos
Saturday Morning comes, roll out of bed and hit the shower, I did not look out the window, I do not want to know what the conditions are. Get outside and it is raining but the temps are warming to a balmy 38*. Maybe it will dry up and we can get some runs in. Head to the drivers meeting and we go over the forecast and keep checking the radar, looks like a little dry spell this afternoon. We all decide not to go out the first two session as it was just too wet for the guys on slicks and the half worn NT-01s I was running did not have much tread left at all. I wait out lunch and 1PM comes around. I am going out, The track is wet but the rain has stopped and I can not stand it any more. I heat the car up, line up in the hot pits, and make my way on track. It was a lot wetter than Friday, no standing water but anything with paint on it was very slick. Stay off the curbing, build heat in the tires, take your time, It is not a race. I did three laps and the tires were starting to work. Lap 1 3:35.25, Lap 2 3:09.15, Lap 3 3:00.89, Lap 4 the rain returns by the time I get to turn 11 the track is a mess again, I head back into the pits. Session 4 at 3PM and the track was still very wet and the rain was still falling, I decide to stay in the garage.
Picture says it all.
Sunday and the weather looks to be much the same as Saturday, cold, windy and wet with a high of 43*. OK, New Goal make it into the 2:59's in the wet. Session 1 and the track is really WET, stay in garage. Session 2 the track is really really WET, Stay in the garage. Wait out lunch, guys are dropping like flies and packing up to go. Session 3, I am going out there is no dry line but the rain has stopped, Ray and I are the only two from our group that head out. He is on R6's and I was very worried he was not going to be able to even get around the track. We head up the big hill and turn into turn one. Ray slides completely sideways and I am looking at his drivers door as I make the turn. He saves the car gathers it up and heads down the hill towards turn 2. We are both taking are time and not taking any chances. Ray starts to move around off line looking for grip. I decide to stay on the dry line to see if there was any grip. By the third lap we had pulled ahead of the other five or six cars that decided to come out with us. I could feel my tires starting to get a little heat, I could push a little harder, Ray was just ahead and I could see he was starting to slide less. Lap 1 was a 3:46.68, Lap 2 3:20.05, Lap 3 3:12.71, Lap 4 3:11.05, Lap 5 3:08.13, Lap 6 3:08.27 and the sprinkles started to hit the windshield. Lap 7 Ray pulls into the pits and I stay out, 3:07.62. Lap 8 3:05.02 but I can not stay out for another lap the rain was just too much for me to feel safe. The last Session Ray and I head back in line, we are lined up in the front again and there is maybe three other cars that are going out. The track is wet, the sky is spitting and I really am having second thoughts about even going out. We hit the track, the tires are actually fairly good but the end of the out lap. I decide to push a little, Ray is right in front of me, on our first real lap that session we run a 3:07.25, 2nd lap a 3:05.49, 3rd lap a 3:02.59, 4th lap a 3:02.42, 5th lap and the rain starts to come again but I ran a 3:00.94, start the 6th lap and the sky just opens up. Ray heads to the pits I stay out to cool the car down then back to the pits.
So what did I learn, I had a great teacher to follow during the wet laps, and I learned more about the wet line and limited grip driving than I have ever learned on any other wet track. I know I will have a fresh set of full tread depth NT-01s or maybe another set of wets the next time I go to COTA or really any other track event that cost this much to not run. I learned that some of the guys I hang with at the track are actually tolerable for more than the usual hour and a half between session. I know that sitting in a garage for 8 hours is really boring. I know that it never rains in Austin two days in a row except for when I am there for a track day. I know that there is some really good BBQ in Austin, and I know that flying in to the track is way better than dragging a trailer down. Thanks to Chester at STL Motorsports for getting my car there and back in one piece.
Dave
