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I went to the first TT meeting and Greg Greenbaum laid out the rules and procedures. Greg was stern but his rulings made sense, and he actually explained the reasoning behind every Supplemental TT Rule for the event. NASA is the exact opposite of other club's which "rule by committee", as one person sets the rules for TT/ST, and can make an adjustment quickly and decisively. They also use this thing called "logic", which was refreshing. We had great TT meetings all week. Anyway... We turned in our TT paperwork and dyno sheets, which they reviewed over the next 24 hours, and helped us fix on Friday's meeting - where the complexities of TT classing were finally explained to me coherently. Honestly, the ST rules wording explains the power-to-weight classing formulas better than the TT rules, with which it shares the same basic premise. This wording from
Page 8 of the Super Touring rules explains it best:
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Note: If one knows the competition weight of the vehicle, a simple reverse calculation will yield the maximum horsepower allowed for that vehicle. Begin by adding/subtracting all of the Modification Factors for the vehicle as listed above. Then use either the 5.50, 8.00, or 9.0 ratio (depending on which class the car is being prepared for), and subtract that number from the ratio to get the vehicle’s actual target wt/hp ratio. Divide the competition weight by this number to obtain the horsepower target.
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I've had this argument with several folks, but now I know that the way we had been doing it (reverse calculate peak power from weight, using your modified power-to-weight number with all of the handicaps and bonuses added in) is right. I just wish they would state it the same way in the TT rules.
In our meetings we talked about not passing on the outlap AND not passing on
the first hot lap without a point by, which was a new procedure to me (but apparently is in the TT rules). I talked to a few folks that were gridded higher but slower than me on the first lap, and eventually arranged point-bys and schemes so we could stay out of each other's way during our sessions. After I switched to A6s I was the one giving point-bys and getting the heck out of people's way on Laps 3 or 4, too.
During the week we ended up doing a good bit of set-up work and even a few small repairs to the car. Ryan and Brandon were set to fly in EARLY on Friday morning and Amy would go get them in SLC, and be back in time for the first TT1/2/3 session on Friday. Well, that didn't work out, as they missed their 6:40 am flight out of DFW airport. Here's a tip: don't EVER fly Frontier airlines. They close the boarding counter a full hour before the flight leaves, and the same personnel help load luggage and stuff onto the airplane. Less people, less service - that is the Frontier motto. They got there 1.5 hours early but were held up in security and then got stuck in the line at Frontier for a long time, as they only had one counter person and all of their self-serve check-in kiosk terminals were broken. Then, when they were 2 people back from getting to the lone counter lady, she says "That's all, folks - you will have to take the next flight!". Total BS, and this was the first and list time we will use this crappy airline. Anyway...
Since Amy and I were the only crew there for all day Thursday and Friday, we ended up doing some tire changes and tweaks on our own. And since some dingleberry forgot the key to the generator, we had no electrical or air power all week. And without a cordless impact (who needs it when you have a big air compressor and air tools?!) that meant doing tire changes with hand tools, with extremely long wheel studs. As prepared as we were, this small thing hung us up.
Left: The "keyless" generator made me less than happy. Right: Only thing I managed to break in 9 sessions on track was this bleeder
After my 1st Thursday session I noticed a brake bleeder that was leaking fluid, so I cleaned it off and kept an eye on it. We had calipers delivered Thursday morning by the folks at Maxcyspeed, who wanted to come watch the races for a couple of days, and swung by Vorshlag to grab everything we forgot on the way. Thanks again, Stuart and Doug! We're working with these guys on some new shock development work, too. By Friday morning I couldn't ignore the bleeder any more - the bleeder or the whole caliper needed to be replaced. Well, damned if I cold find the 1/8" punch needed to swap over the pads (forgot it), and I didn't want to fight the new helicoil repair on that caliper (same one!), so I just swapped in an extra bleeder we had in our extensive and well marked spares boxes. We also brought a spare splitter, driveshaft, radiator, hoses, belts, pads, rotors, calipers (eventually), fluids, wheels, tires, lug nuts, and a lot of nut and bolt hardware.
We started off the week knowing we had 4 days worth of sessions to get a good time in, and I figured that I would need some time to learn the track (I was still learning it on the 9th and final session Sunday). The first tires I planned for Day 1 and Day 2 were some well worn Hoosier R6 tires on the grey 18x12s; these were the same tires we used to learn the track at NOLA, Hallett, and two previous ECR days - they were pretty well shot, but had enough usable rubber that
should have allowed me 2 days worth of sessions to learn this tricky track. We also thought the weather would be more consistent in the desert, but the opposite proved be to be the case.
Left: Grey wheels = R6. We ran these from Thursday thru Friday mid-day. Photo from Head-On photos. Right: White wheels = A6 tires (which we ran Friday afternoon-Sunday)
By Friday afternoon my times were not getting any better running on these R6s, and they were hammered, so we switched to the used A6 "scrubs" we had brought mounted to the white 18x12" set. These tires had also seen use at NOLA, two autocrosses, and another track day, but had what looked to be good rubber. Tedious tire changeover with a mistake made on the rear (forgot that this original set of 18x12" rears needed a spacer), but with some help from Jack Hidley of Maximum Motorsports we got the rear wheels fitted just in time for my last TT session on Friday. The car was a TOTAL MESS on these tires, and I put 2 wheels off of the exit of T1, after braking from 150+ mph. Loose, scary loose, and no faster.
Once Ryan and Brandon were there (Friday evening), Amy and I could focus the rest of the week more on talking to racers, customers and vendors, plus driving, and spent less time on the car prep. Ryan worked his butt off for 2 days and fixed the stripped bolts on the RF flare mounting plate, changed the car over to our only set of sticker A6 tires on Saturday morning, and noticed a swaybar setting I had forgotten about (it was set at full soft, and
part of why the car was so loose). He also made some more wing changes, which we kept adjusting on nearly every session Saturday and Sunday, kept the car fueled, and kept me from forgetting something in our procedures (turn on transponder, check tire pressures, turn on AIM and vidcam, get belted in, turn off traction control, etc). I drive better when I know that I have good track support crew with us, too.
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