Summit 8/23-8/24

#1

The silence is deafening. C’mon you guys, let’s get some reports! I watched both races and there were so many lead changes I lost track. Skeen should have some great video.
:slight_smile:

#2

Here’s my report: http://mikeskeen.com/news.html

Video is about two hours away. It takes a long time to get HD video up! It will be good though.

BTW, was it you I borrowed the water from for the enduro? Thanks again. Didn’t see you when I brought the jug back.

#3

Sunday video is up: http://vimeo.com/1603519

#4

I was wondering if anyone cares… maybe everyone’s finally figured out that mid-atl racers are far superior and too good for this peasant forum.
I won’t bore with a long report.
Sat.: Finished 6th W2W with carter. This was byfar the most chaotic race I have ever been a part of. Someone needs to show Chris C. where the track is;) .
video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6318135133325259339
We got 2nd in class out of 19 in the enduro. I drove the whole thing and never got passed by another car in classB) . The car was perfect as was the pit stop. I love those RA1s:dry: . Thanks to carter for use of his super-duper fuel jug. The car that finished in front of us only managed a fast lap that was slower than our race pace. We are wondering if they “forgot” the required 5 gal. pit stop. Either way, second is good.

Sun.: Car absolutely sucked for unknown reasons. You can hear me cursing it as I’m sideways through T1 in the vid… not posting that one. Managed to finish 6th.

A special shout out to the skeen. He seemed kinda pissed about his finishes but I have never been so amazed with a driver as I was with his times on sat. practice. He was faster than anyone else in his first 10 mins. ever on the track:ohmy: That is rediculous. If that’s not enough to be pro I dont know what is.

#5

Robert, as you noted, the Mid Atlantic racers are some of the best in the nation. If you can run with them you’ve had a good race.

Thanks for the race report.

Regards, Robert Patton

#6

Thanks Robert (Allen)…I wasn’t happy on Saturday both at myself and just the way things played out, but Sunday was an awesome race for me. Plus, there are two more races to redeem myself!

BTW, post those videos on Vimeo…way better resolution. There’s also a “Road Racing” and “SpecE30” group you can join to check out other videos.

#7

allenr wrote:

[quote]
Sun.: Car absolutely sucked for unknown reasons. You can hear me cursing it as I’m sideways through T1 in the vid… not posting that one. Managed to finish 6th.[quote]

the suck =R888

#8

mskeen wrote:

[quote]
BTW, was it you I borrowed the water from for the enduro? Thanks again. Didn’t see you when I brought the jug back.[/quote]

My jug, you actually borrowed it from my bro-in-law with the ARt CAr. Glad we could help. If any of the SE30 guys ever need anything don’t be afraid to visit our side of the paddock. We usually have quite a few spares. Also, our cars are now log booked, so broke-my-car-and-need-a-rental-at-any-cost may be something we’d consider too. :wink:

I didn’t realize you were never at SP before. Holy crap. :ohmy:

#9

Track looks pretty torn up for just getting re-paved

#10

Mike - you are right, it was an exciting race. The new camera and mount are great. Thanks for sharing.

Ed

#11

Will do after seeing the quality of yours. Hope our old clunker camera is capable of that.

Unfortunately that might be part of it.
I started sunday with the same pressures as sat. The car was pretty neutral on sat. but understeered like a schoolbus on sun. In quali. I was .7 secs. slower! We dropped 2 lbs. out of each front tire for the race and it was better but still horrible understeer. I had no clue why there could be such a big dif. from sat. until we talked to Mrs. Phil at Phils tire.
We had rotated the tires (diagonal) so that they were not directional anymore. According to her, unlike the RA1 the R888s can not be rotated like this. I have run rotated R888s before but this was my first set of shaved. I dont know why that would make a difference.
We have no choice but to believe her or risk this kind of thing again.
Anyone heard something like this before?

#12

word is that the r888 falls off quickly after a couple of heat cycles. I had a set on that were used for one weekend and the car felt terrible. I put on a set of ra-1’s for the next session and it was like a whole different car. unfortunately it looks like the game is going to change to buying lots of tires to run up front. maybe were doing something wrong?

#13

I ran some R888s backwards at SP. Don’t know that it made any difference. They also had about 15 heat cycles by the end of the weekend. Car felt pretty bad by the end, but the toe was pretty far off and I’m sure it cooked the tires.

#14

I was able to compete in the race Saturday and Sunday at SP. This was my second full weekend of racing and I have to say that I had yet another excellent experience. So, as a new racer, I thought I would share some of my thoughts for those interested in joining the series or for those that can relate.

It is a comforting feeling when you have invested so much of your time and money into a hobby and you can look back and say, everything has been worth it. The camaraderie and lending hands that I have experienced from others who share the same passion makes the commitments entirely worth it.

I am still working on dialing in my car as I become more familiar with the E30 chassis and my driving style. I think the Spec E30 class is great in that there is not too much tuning that can be done, yet there is enough to keep you tweaking if you want to be competitive. I changed my suspension settings from my last race at VIR and tweaked it again after SP Sat race. I was happy to see that Valley Dyno Service was at the track too. I may start a new thread for my thoughts on this subject and I will be sure to share my results.

As for the races, I finished 9th with a quickest lap time of 131.5 on Saturday and 7th with a quickest lap time of 130.0 on Sunday. I have a steep learning curve with developing my racecraft as I seem to have screwed up the first lap of every race. I have posted my video from Sunday here: http://www.vimeo.com/1611133

I hope to be back at Summit in October!

#15

I was wondering where you disappeared to in T3:P
My first few starts were very similar to yours. I would qualify pretty well but find myself near the back at the end of lap 1. You have to be comfortable not only going off line but also going ten tenths off line.
Your second race, mikes first time at the track… we’ve got some fast learners here!

It looks like skip didn’t spend much time enjoying his place at the rear.:woohoo:

#16

allenr wrote:

[quote]I was wondering where you disappeared to in T3:P
My first few starts were very similar to yours. I would qualify pretty well but find myself near the back at the end of lap 1. You have to be comfortable not only going off line but also going ten tenths off line.
Your second race, mikes first time at the track… we’ve got some fast learners here!

It looks like skip didn’t spend much time enjoying his place at the rear.:woohoo:[/quote]

Thanks for the advice. As a rookie I’m trying to behave too and I’m sure there is a fine line between ten tenths and bumping. It is a great learning experince building to that point though. Enough times of being passed ought to nudge me up to that level sooner than later.

I hind sight of race two, I would have either pushed it harder through turn 3 or just let you buy so I could get a clean exit. Had I been patient, I could have attacked you through the exit of turn 10 like a did a few others.:blink:

What really happened: I chickened out with you on my right hand side(and not knowing what type of driver you were)and let up on the throttle through the exit. Thats what allowed you to pull away and for the two others to slip by. Thats also what I love about this series, if you let up with these cars, you will not be the first one to the next turn. It really keeps you pushing it 100%. Thats probably why Skeen did so well on Setup and with the other cars he drives (or tracks that are green to him for that matter).

I am sure the endless learning experience with each race is the crack that keeps us coming back.

You can see in my video that Skip sure had a heavy foot before the tires could take that type of driving on lap 1. That is what actually caused such a big gap between us. I had to lift several times because we were so close and he wasn’t exactly straight :dry:

#17

Justin mentioned that Valley Dyno Service was at the track.

Any dyno results? Pantas has yet to provide anything for the SE guys.

Regards, Robert Patton

#18

All I know is Cobetto told me skip dynoed 168 :ohmy:

I dont complain about being down on power b/c I think its over-rated and it annoys me when other people do :wink: . But IMO if this is going to be a spec series a 29 hp. gap (from me) is too much!
I think we talked a while back about making some kind of cap. It would be nice to have some decisions made for next year.

#19

Patton wrote:

[quote]Justin mentioned that Valley Dyno Service was at the track.

Any dyno results? Pantas has yet to provide anything for the SE guys.

Regards, Robert Patton[/quote]

Robert, Robert, and all:

We officially dynoed four cars (for informational purposes) at Summit Point and the results were interesting. While I won’t get into the fine details here, I do want the group to know that Skeen’s car, Jon Allen’s car, and my car (built motors) all dyno’d at about 154 to 155. The torque numbers were a bit more varied but were fairly close.

Yes, Skip Bennett’s car dyno’d at 168, which is certainly way out of the norm. I am discussing this with NASA this week, to find out if/how other series deal with this kind of situation.

Regarding “hard numbers” for tech inspections at the track, this was only the second dyno this year in the Mid Atlantic, so the program is certainly alive and well…but we are proceeding carefully. But yes, I anticipate having hard numbers for several RPM levels, in the Rules for the 2009 season. We definitely will not let Spec E30 become a series with $5,000.00 “low-drag” transmissions, etc., as has happened in other series.

No, everyone won’t like the idea of hard numbers but I do think that most will, as will their wallets. And yes, we’ll see a few internet “fits” here but I do think it will be best for the series. And the Regional Series Directors will be directly involved, as will NASA National.

I’m going to contact the statistician who gave me the first report, to have him plug these recent numbers into the program. Then, I will contact the Regional Series Directors and NASA.

And if anyone has any suggestions or ideas, feel free to post on the boards or contact me directly. I will start a thread on this so I’ll ask everyone to hold your posts until then. I need a couple of days to get with NASA and the Regional Series Directors.

Thanks,

Carter

#20

Race Report

The weather was great all weekend and while the field was a bit small (we had 21 cars at VIR last month), we had great racing in the front, middle, and back of the Spec E30 pack.

Saturday - From the Hunt Racing experience; I qualified 6th on Saturday, with a decent laptime. During the race, the car was wicked-loose and while I was up to second on the first lap (due to some interesting happenings) Skeen and John Allen got by fairly early. Then Cobetto got by and I was back in 5th. Yes, I was glad to see the checker because Robert Allen was coming up pretty quickly and my car was getting worse. I slowed a little on the last turn and Robert got about halfway up the side of my car…for a great photo finish that his Dad caught on film.

That afternoon, I helped with Robert’s pitstop during the enduro and with our quick pitwork and his good driving, he finished second in-class.

Sunday - I made changes to the car to get the rear to stay more planted and moved up one position in qualifying, to 5th. I got a decent start from 4th position (Skip Bennett started last due to being 26 pounds underweight in qualifying) and stayed with Jon Allen for a good-bit of the race. However, I had gone a little too far with my changes (mostly out of frustration from Saturday) and the left front tire started to give up. John got away and Skip Bennet eventually caught me and got by. I finished 5th and was still fairly pleased, because the front of the field was very strong, and because I knew that the changes made the car better. Also, until the front gave-up, I was able to stay with John Allen, and we both stayed fairly close to Cobetto and Skeen.

Overall, everyone had a fun weekend and I look forward to seeing the group back at Summit in October.

Carter