10-09-2010, 09:11 PM
<b>October 1-3, 2010:</b><i><b>
NASA Northeast Race Weekend
Watkins Glen International - Long Course
What an AWESOME place to be racing and hanging out!
</b></i>
#75 was locked and loaded again We did not have a wing, but Pete and Max at RS Barn hooked me up with a RS Barn Own Gurney Flap of sorts attached to the factory spoiler that helped a little. Not yet eliminated though, was the front splitter induced oversteering inbalance. The car was still fast nonetheless, albeit definitely not to her max potential.
After torrential rain for 2 days leading into Friday practice, the rain stopped as the sun rose. I sat out a super slippery but drying track until after noon Friday. Once out, I started slowly gettinp up to speed and re-learning the track. Only had been there twice before, but never in a race car. It is an unforgiving track to say the least but with a world class design, fast, technical, it is a true drivers' track. I love this place. So far, without a doubt, my favorite track of all I have visited (not that many I have to say [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blush.gif[/img] )...
This was NASA Northeast's now famous Yankees vs Rebels War at The Glen. A bunch of racers from NASA Southeast and Mid-Atlantic come up to do battle with us. We had over 100 racers in our usual two groups. Friday night was a LOT of fun. Saturday hangover was just a price we all had to pay.....
Saturday dropped rear height 2 turns on the Motons and made some other minor adjustments as I fought the oversteer in a few key sections. This weekend I was all about discipline and sticking to the plans with a very kool head. On that posture I staged first for qualifying and it paid off. Qualified with a 2:14.170 in first full lap before traffic and full course yellows started to show up. Left the car untouched at that point and raced starting 2<sup>nd</sup> in GTS2, 3<sup>rd</sup> overall, on inside of 2<sup>nd</sup> row.
Off-track Drama : A regular GTS3 BMW showed up from NASA Mid-Atlantic "adjusted" to run the slower GTS2 class. Car may or may have not been legal, without a dyno we could not prove either way. Nonetheless, he was to cost us a 1st on Saturday and the Track record.
Had a good start on Saturday's race and finished 2nd in GTS2 and 3rd Overall in the Lightning Group after one restart mid race. My fastest lap was a 2:13.487 on Lap 2. The questionable GTS2 BMW laid a, check this out, 2:11.285. That would turn out to be the fastest lap of the weekend in Lightning Race group. The veteran and Watkins Glen veteran, Stephan Laputka in his 230hp, 3,150lbs Porsche 944 Turbo SuperCup (not quiete legal for GTS2) took the overall win with a best lap of 2:11.253. My only real mistake was going into the bus stop and downshifting from 5<sup>th</sup> to 6<sup>th</sup> trying to find 4<sup>th</sup>…!! right after the race started… oops… This triggered some door to door action with the GTS2 king of the hill, Jonathan Vasquez (for position in class and overall), but I finally pulled going into Turn 8. He is a great guy and super fast driver. We left each other room and had some good racing. Had a few "drifting" exhibitions in the carrousel, but all good…
For Sunday practice I moved the sway bar full hard and backed off one click on the compression damping on rear. In the process I discovered that the driver's side compression damping setting was one click higher than the other side, which was the reason for the car twitching left on heavy braking… In practice it felt better overall but really could not tell as the track was cold and I played it safe at 8/10ths for the session. But the twitch was gone! LOL.. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] at least I stumbled on the solution even though it was really just an annoyance. ABS were put through its paces all weekend though….
At this stage on Sunday morning after practice, the inside line on both rear Hoosiers was gone. Fronts tires looked great. Evenly worn and obviously being put to the test by the splitter showing much more sign of "melting" than the rears. The curiously fast BMW thyat ran GTS2 on Saturday somehow got moved to GTS3. Huhmmm... Sunday Qualifying I again staged 1<sup>st</sup>, and laid down a time of 2:13.373 in Lap 2 claiming the GTS2 pole. Better by .1 from previous day… But the track was colder and almost everyone seemed to go slower than Saturday so I think I actually improved overall more than the .1 showed. Car felt much better. Stephan laid down a 2:12.837. I closed the gap but still ½ second off his fast SuperCup Turbo 944 that would start on pole for the group.
With the inside of the rear tires seriously into their last stretch, I started the race on the outside front row… Yikes! Had a decent start (the new shifter is mac daddy) and fell in-line behind Stephan as he pulled away up through the esses and into the bus stop. All power baby.... those things definitely have some serious corner exit pull... But wait.... what do I do again? yup... shift on to 6<sup>th</sup> while looking for 4th at the bus-stop... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angry.gif[/img] At least I had learned half a lesson from Saturday and defended the inside and middle from a fast as hell S2000 (running in HC1) at the carrousel and into the boot. I could catch Stephan in the technical back sections but he would pull on the power intensive front part of the track (Turn 11 through 6). Towards the end of the race, and after another restart, my rear-end started getting happy again (tires finally going away) so I backed off as I had the lead on GTS2 and extra risks were not worth trying to take the overall lead against the fast out of class veteran.
Ended up laying a 2:12.998 in the race. Yeah baby! At least I broke into the 12s… Just .35 seconds lower than Stephan's best lap in the race in what is a theoretically faster car than the GTS2 contenders. So I was happy (not elated) with the lap time, the GTS2 win, and the 2<sup>nd</sup> Overall. Nonetheless, that time would have brough home the new GTS Track Record at Watkins Glen. But that was not going to be given the 2:11 from that BMW on Saturday. I have a feeling this record will stand for a loooong time...
NASA Northeast Race Weekend
Watkins Glen International - Long Course
What an AWESOME place to be racing and hanging out!
</b></i>
#75 was locked and loaded again We did not have a wing, but Pete and Max at RS Barn hooked me up with a RS Barn Own Gurney Flap of sorts attached to the factory spoiler that helped a little. Not yet eliminated though, was the front splitter induced oversteering inbalance. The car was still fast nonetheless, albeit definitely not to her max potential.
After torrential rain for 2 days leading into Friday practice, the rain stopped as the sun rose. I sat out a super slippery but drying track until after noon Friday. Once out, I started slowly gettinp up to speed and re-learning the track. Only had been there twice before, but never in a race car. It is an unforgiving track to say the least but with a world class design, fast, technical, it is a true drivers' track. I love this place. So far, without a doubt, my favorite track of all I have visited (not that many I have to say [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blush.gif[/img] )...
This was NASA Northeast's now famous Yankees vs Rebels War at The Glen. A bunch of racers from NASA Southeast and Mid-Atlantic come up to do battle with us. We had over 100 racers in our usual two groups. Friday night was a LOT of fun. Saturday hangover was just a price we all had to pay.....
Saturday dropped rear height 2 turns on the Motons and made some other minor adjustments as I fought the oversteer in a few key sections. This weekend I was all about discipline and sticking to the plans with a very kool head. On that posture I staged first for qualifying and it paid off. Qualified with a 2:14.170 in first full lap before traffic and full course yellows started to show up. Left the car untouched at that point and raced starting 2<sup>nd</sup> in GTS2, 3<sup>rd</sup> overall, on inside of 2<sup>nd</sup> row.
Off-track Drama : A regular GTS3 BMW showed up from NASA Mid-Atlantic "adjusted" to run the slower GTS2 class. Car may or may have not been legal, without a dyno we could not prove either way. Nonetheless, he was to cost us a 1st on Saturday and the Track record.
Had a good start on Saturday's race and finished 2nd in GTS2 and 3rd Overall in the Lightning Group after one restart mid race. My fastest lap was a 2:13.487 on Lap 2. The questionable GTS2 BMW laid a, check this out, 2:11.285. That would turn out to be the fastest lap of the weekend in Lightning Race group. The veteran and Watkins Glen veteran, Stephan Laputka in his 230hp, 3,150lbs Porsche 944 Turbo SuperCup (not quiete legal for GTS2) took the overall win with a best lap of 2:11.253. My only real mistake was going into the bus stop and downshifting from 5<sup>th</sup> to 6<sup>th</sup> trying to find 4<sup>th</sup>…!! right after the race started… oops… This triggered some door to door action with the GTS2 king of the hill, Jonathan Vasquez (for position in class and overall), but I finally pulled going into Turn 8. He is a great guy and super fast driver. We left each other room and had some good racing. Had a few "drifting" exhibitions in the carrousel, but all good…
For Sunday practice I moved the sway bar full hard and backed off one click on the compression damping on rear. In the process I discovered that the driver's side compression damping setting was one click higher than the other side, which was the reason for the car twitching left on heavy braking… In practice it felt better overall but really could not tell as the track was cold and I played it safe at 8/10ths for the session. But the twitch was gone! LOL.. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] at least I stumbled on the solution even though it was really just an annoyance. ABS were put through its paces all weekend though….
At this stage on Sunday morning after practice, the inside line on both rear Hoosiers was gone. Fronts tires looked great. Evenly worn and obviously being put to the test by the splitter showing much more sign of "melting" than the rears. The curiously fast BMW thyat ran GTS2 on Saturday somehow got moved to GTS3. Huhmmm... Sunday Qualifying I again staged 1<sup>st</sup>, and laid down a time of 2:13.373 in Lap 2 claiming the GTS2 pole. Better by .1 from previous day… But the track was colder and almost everyone seemed to go slower than Saturday so I think I actually improved overall more than the .1 showed. Car felt much better. Stephan laid down a 2:12.837. I closed the gap but still ½ second off his fast SuperCup Turbo 944 that would start on pole for the group.
With the inside of the rear tires seriously into their last stretch, I started the race on the outside front row… Yikes! Had a decent start (the new shifter is mac daddy) and fell in-line behind Stephan as he pulled away up through the esses and into the bus stop. All power baby.... those things definitely have some serious corner exit pull... But wait.... what do I do again? yup... shift on to 6<sup>th</sup> while looking for 4th at the bus-stop... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angry.gif[/img] At least I had learned half a lesson from Saturday and defended the inside and middle from a fast as hell S2000 (running in HC1) at the carrousel and into the boot. I could catch Stephan in the technical back sections but he would pull on the power intensive front part of the track (Turn 11 through 6). Towards the end of the race, and after another restart, my rear-end started getting happy again (tires finally going away) so I backed off as I had the lead on GTS2 and extra risks were not worth trying to take the overall lead against the fast out of class veteran.
Ended up laying a 2:12.998 in the race. Yeah baby! At least I broke into the 12s… Just .35 seconds lower than Stephan's best lap in the race in what is a theoretically faster car than the GTS2 contenders. So I was happy (not elated) with the lap time, the GTS2 win, and the 2<sup>nd</sup> Overall. Nonetheless, that time would have brough home the new GTS Track Record at Watkins Glen. But that was not going to be given the 2:11 from that BMW on Saturday. I have a feeling this record will stand for a loooong time...
#75 RS Barn-Hoosier-AJ Hartman Racing Porsche 968
2012 PCA GT5S NORTH ATLANTIC CHAMPION
2011 NASA PRO RACING (NE) GTS-2 CHAMPION
Track Records: Pocono Long Single Infield CCW | Pocono Double Infield | NJMP Thunderbolt w & w/o Chicane | Lime Rock Park
