A day at the track

shotgunslade · #1 06-18-2006, 11:45 AM

Did a track day at Pocono yesterday. The SCCA event that TomsSVX brought to my attention. Great event. Well managed, good seat time, track not too crowded for us noobies. This is my fourth event, and I think I'm just about ready to graduate to the second level. No instructor, additional passing opportunities. I got a total of about 1 1/2 hours of seat time.

My instructor, Michael Torricelli, from Staten Island, drives a 94 Legacy GT turbo. Only mods are wheels, tires, brakes and coil-overs. He was able to hold his own with a number of faster cars, they'd pass him on the straightway, and he'd be in their trunk all around the infield road. He also used to have an SVX, took it to the track, and used to post on the network. He knows Porter.

Had a great day. Making a lot of improvement, beginning to explore just how much braking room I need for the corners, (which is a lot less than either your or I would think. It stops fast). See the track map below, I was hitting about 105 or so on the back straight at FS 7 (Flag Station 7) On the main straight, because I had the entire banked oval after the chicane to accelerate, I was hitting over 120 mph. Then bury the brake pedal to haul it down to about 60 to enter the infield road. Through the twisty bits, then nail the accelerator just after turn in to the hairpin (before FS 5) leading back onto the speedway. The chicane is also a hairy braking situation, because you have to get down to about 40 mph at the first apex (the map track below is incorrect the chicane is much deeper; its like someone grafted a hair pin turn perpendicularly onto the straight) Then nail the accelerator ( well before FS 8) and hit the exit apex back onto the speedway. On both entrys onto the speedway (from the infield road and from the chicane) I was well aware of acceleration understeer. Cranking in steering angle to keep from drifting into the speedway wall. In the hairpin, I'm doing about 35-40 mph, when I turn in and nail the accelerator. In the chicane, probably 40-45 mph. This understeer really slows down your acceleration, because the slip angle means that you're spending a lot of power pulling the front wheels sideways, rather than along your velocity vector.

Came in after my third session, and the rear brakes were smoking, then the car, which I had left idling, as recommended, overheated and blew a bunch of steam and coolant out of the expansions tank. Lost maybe a quart that I had to mop up off the garage floor. After my fourth session, I watched the temperature very carefully. It was OK until the session was over, and I slowed way down to pull into the pits. The needle then began to rise, so instead of parking it, I drove around the pits and even off the track campus at about 15-20 mph in 4th. Just keeping some air movement through the grille seemd to keep it from overheating, then after 10 minutes, I shut it down with no problem. So, for all you other racers, who have coolant blow back. After you do your hot laps, don't shut it down. Drive around 15-20 mph for 5 to 10 minutes to keep the coolant circulating and air moving through the grille. Mike suggested that I remove the grille before going on the track, which he said he used to do. Also recommended "Water Wetter" from Redline.

Was very pleased with how the old girl performed. Was dicing well with a couple of WRX's, an Infiniti G35 and a Volva 850R. On one bad lap, I had a slow exit off the chicane, and the black WRX pulled up to my bumper indicating he wanted to pass. So, I pointed him right, and, he drifted right, but couldn't pull up to me. My instructor suggested I back off to let him get around. So, I did, but stayed in his back seat for the rest of the session. Passed the g35 a couple of times, (don't think the driver was pushing it enough, or maybe he was just not very good) Since we can only pass on the straights, I had to outbrake him at the end of the main straight after he gave me a point around, because I didn't have the oomph to pass him at speed. I didn't have the oomph to get around the 850R, either, so I just followed him around for a number of laps. See photo's below.