Gridlife....I mean NASCAR at Road America

In reply to frenchyd :

Portable chassis dynos are all over the place, and the guys at tech are so accomplished the set-up/run/breakdown time is usually less than 2 minutes.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

I am almost certain it takes longer for a sundae cup car to make its pull than to strap it down. 

TurnerX19 said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Portable chassis dynos are all over the place, and the guys at tech are so accomplished the set-up/run/breakdown time is usually less than 2 minutes.

That's really impressive!   Local chassis dynos seem to take a long time.  ( maybe only 15-20 minutes). 
but there seems to be a lot of back and forth going on.  And you are charged for all that time.  
   Watching other Chassis dyno's on UTube rarely do they bother to show the tie down time. 

Hard hit but heads up driving there if he was avoiding going straight off into wall and scrubbing speed.

In reply to johndej :

If you're talking about Dusold I agree saw the aftermath. Driver's door was torn off and front end smashed. Didn't see where it happened either but saw it come back on the flat bed. For sure things can and have been much worse at RA

In reply to Asphalt_Gundam :

Chandler Smith, looks like front rotor (s?) exploded, drove into wall on drivers side instead of flying off straight through the sand headon into wall.

AJ is having similar brake issues

A little weekend update from the BimmerWorld crew:

In reply to johndej :

Yeah saw that on the big screen. Hard hit. 

Dusold, one of the time attack cars had a big hit this morning 

John Hunter's "off" was monumental

When there are accidents in Corner 1 I think of the bad one AJ Foyt was in - since then RA added a lot of gravel.  They really need to jam on the brakes big time.....

In reply to Datsun310Guy
 turn 1  isn't a jam on the brakes corner.  While you do have to pull off some serious speed and the deeper you can go into the corner will keep you from being passed under braking.  
 It's nowhere near as hard as turn 5 is.  Or Canada Corner. 
    Only those two corners keep it from being a momentum track.  All  you have to do is lose a ten of a second per corner and you are 2 seconds down at the end of the first lap. That's what 4 miles does to you. 

johndej said:

Hard hit but heads up driving there if he was avoiding going straight off into wall and scrubbing speed.

Yeah, I've never understood diving for the apex if you can't stop.  Usually, that results in at least two destroyed race cars.  Turning for the outside and scrubbing speed off on the outside wall is almost always the better choice.

Hopefully Road America will rethink having that wall so far away, or at least run the gravel trap further back up track, kind of like a runaway truck lane in the mountains.

Some day I'm going to visit Road America.  It's one of those classic tracks. Only 1200 miles from here.

I knew Allgair was gonna lose that race.  All those late race cautions, then to have to lead around a track covered with grease and dust...  It was an entertaining race, and the last two laps were a lot of fun to watch.  Sam looked happy.

frenchyd said:

In reply to Datsun310Guy
 turn 1  isn't a jam on the brakes corner.  While you do have to pull off some serious speed and the deeper you can go into the corner will keep you from being passed under braking.  
 It's nowhere near as hard as turn 5 is.  Or Canada Corner. 
    Only those two corners keep it from being a momentum track.  All  you have to do is lose a ten of a second per corner and you are 2 seconds down at the end of the first lap. That's what 4 miles does to you. 

I'm curious, do you (or the groups you ran with) have any records of the lap times you were running?

Or, do you have any recollection of speeds you had through the kink, or near braking for T1 or T5?

Streetwiseguy said:

Some day I'm going to visit Road America.  It's one of those classic tracks. Only 1200 miles from here.

You really should.  Just the facility itself is amazing.  Super old school vibe, but updated nicely.

I have some great memories there, but have only ever run during One Lap.  So I've never done any practice...just suck it up and start the timer.   In fact, my very first year of OLOA, RA was the first track, and I'd never been anywhere except my little home track Harris Hill.  A car went off in Canada corner in the group right before mine, up and over the tire wall and catch fence (Cadillac CTS-V ice mode)...so I sat there on grid for 30 minutes contemplating the decisions that led me there.  But overcoming that fear were three of the most memorable laps I've ever done...and hooked me forever on OLOA.

A decade later, I returned in the 720...close to 180 into T1...on a damp track.  Yowzers.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

I know the Rio is entering T1 at 95, Kink a lift at 94 (because the driver was a wuss not because the car wouldn't hold) and my fastest speed on track was right before braking into Canada at 108. 5 I entered at 104. This is a 110whp, 2790lb car/driver. I spent so much time with my right foot on the floorboard I could have used a brick.

In reply to Andy Hollis :

I broke and fixed my car multiple times last weekend. My over bearing memory of the weekend is the absolute bliss I enjoyed when driving. I was calm and in the zone all weekend and continually knocking out new PBs every session.

Are you doing a race/weekend recap??

In reply to jfryjfry :

Planning to. Didn't get any video of fixing things since I was in get it fixed mode and at one point covered in transmission fluid...but I do have my Garmin footage and at least on Thursday my girlfriend had the camera out. I'll do a write up in the build thread when I get enough time as well.