MW/GL Autobahn Write up

#1

The weather could not be more perfect for records to fall. And boy did they fall!

Back to that in a moment. Autobahn Country Club was a wonderful host to NASA Midwest and Great Lakes for the third crossover event of the season. The weekend started with a 4.5 hour enduro “into the night” on Friday.

Four Spec E30 racers (Tom Tiede, Cam Bullard, Robert Schmitt, and Robert Rhodes) and two “Future Spec E30s” (Rich Friman and Ben Wigg) gathered in the SE30 paddock. Saturday saw cool temperatures and sunny skies. Qualifying resulted in Tom Tiede’s first SE30 pole (1:42.471), followed by Bullard who was still learning the new track. In the race, Tiede jumped to the lead off the start. He held a close lead over Bullard until Bullard had an off at the end of the straight, increasing the gap to 3-4 seconds. Bullard managed to reel in Tiede’s bumper, but then fell back again. It was clear that the new track was coming to Bullard by the end of the race. By the last turn, he had a run on Tiede, but it wasn’t enough. They finished bumper to bumper for the closest SE30 win this season (0.225 secs). In the effort, Bullard set a new track record (1:41.246). Schmitt and Rhodes finished out the field.

Sunday night, the drivers, crew and family enjoyed a dinner of Italian beef and sausages provided by NASA MW SE30 and plenty of New Glarus beer smuggled in the trunks of Wisconsin E30s.

On Sunday, Bullard’s speed showed. In qualifying he ran a stunning 1:40.990. True to form, Schmitt got faster on Sunday and grabbed P2 by nearly a half second over Tiede. Due to a blend line violation, Bullard was moved to the back giving the rookie Schmitt his first pole. As is tradition, Sunday was a standing start for SE30. The exhuberant rookies jumped the start. That aside, Schmitt gave Tiede and Bullard an impressive fight for several laps. Several offs late in the race put him several laps behind. That allowed Rhodes to claim his first podium finish. Looking to redeem himself, Bullard proved to be untouchable. He reset his track record at an impressive 1:41.111.

One more “ataboy” goes to Rich Friman who successfuly graduated to HPDE 4 on his way to Comp School in the Spring!

See you all at Road America in just TWO WEEKS!

#2

Nice write up!

#3

Overall a fun track. I love turn 4 as well as the turn onto the pit straight. It’s awesome feeling just tapping the brakes and then throwing the car through the turn.

#4

I have to say it was the weirdest time I can remember driving a track. The transition from the hard right at 9 to the hard left at 10 would pretty consistently pitch the car across the track ( my suspension set up currently induces a fair amount of oversteer ) and lift the inside rear far and long enough that the LSD would transfer torque to it. The rev counter would head for the stratosphere until 20 yards down the straight. Felt like I was driving a RWD Golf. At least I hope that’s what was happening. I definitely need to test the breakaway torque of the LSD. Thanks for the writeup Kyle!

#5

I was intentionally making the car “rotate” through that section and was able to do it pretty consistently. I’ve always ran my sway bar on full soft though because anything more tends to make the inside wheel spin. Oversteer is my friend. I can’t deal with a pushy car.

#6

Yeah I followed you through 9/10 and watched you “rotate”. Almost like getting a drift lesson;) But seriously, do you disconnect the rear sway or simply move the mounting points?

#7

My sway bar doesn’t have sliders like some but has 3 mounting points on each side which connects to the sway bars. The longer you make the sway bar the softer it is. I run mine on the softest setting which would be the closest mounting points to the ground. I think a lot of us run the swaybar on soft most of the time.

#8

My rear rollbar has no adjustments and only one set of mounting holes. No mods allowed. Maybe next season I switch to adjustable. I like a little oversteer, but not as much as I have now. My reflexes aren’t those of a 20 something any more and I don’t always catch it pointed where I want to go. I put it through a 180 around that turn on Saturday and probably scared the bejeebers out of the poor bastards behind me (of which there were at least 6 at that point, at least that’s how many I had to let go by before I turned it around and got it headed back down the straight.)