The Rocket (4/27/2019) - 7 hours - Ridge Motorsports Park:
We wake up and find Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox outside. That's always a good sign, right? I'm pretty sure there is some superstition about seeing Babe the Blue Ox before a race being a good thing.
We are feeling good about our chances, as with the wheel bearing issue taken care of, the car has been feeling great. I ran a fastest lap of 1:59.1 during practice on Friday, just over 2 seconds faster than our last outing.
My biggest goal for the weekend was to get Randy Pobst in the car. He drives everything from VWs to Volvos to Ferraris on track, and has the ability to feel and articulate exactly what he is feeling. This is exactly what I need to help develop our car! I think it feels good, but what do I know? At the track I found out that there were already teams that had asked at previous races. Well, at least get my name on the list and see what happens.
I caught this Probe on the way to the drivers meeting, I love it!
Under the hood of the "Tire Dogs" car... that looks mean.
Driver's meeting
The Dog Pound
I go out for qualifying, and in the last turn the power steering suddenly tries to pitch me off the track to the right! That's scary.. I've never felt it do that before. I get the car back in the pits, and I find that if I wiggle the encoder wires the steering wheel twitches. Ok, well there's where my problem is, but there's not much time before the race! I get some tape to hold the wiring still, so hopefully it doesn't have the chance to do this and head out for the race.
I start the race in 27th, but immediately make up some places. Having the practice day before is really nice to get the confidence up in the car and the track ahead of time and I'm able to start the race a bit more in the groove. On the first lap I get up to 20th. On the next lap I get to 16th, 15th, 14th... by lap 38 I'm up to 7th place. While I'm out I am pushing my braking further and further.. until I have a pretty big lockup and go off in turn 11. Teams start cycling through their pit stops, and I turn the car in on lap 52 having run a fastest lap of 2:00.0 and in 1st. Not as fast as practice, but not bad.
My dad gets in the car, and we send him out. A couple minutes later, Randy Pobst walks by our pit asking if we know where the silver Miata is or anyone from their team. Nobody is there, so we start chatting. After a few minutes Randy says, "Well I'm all suited up with nothing to drive, would you mind if I drove your car?" "Yes!" was my emphatic response. I tell Kyle to immediately pull my dad into the pits so we can get Randy in the car. We had just pit, but I don't care, I'm not going to pass this up!
Randy asks, "How long can I drive?" I had been hoping to get at least 10-15 minutes of him in the car, so I just said, "As long as you want!" He decides he'll go for around an hour. We use the NASCAR style radio plug and Randy's adapter is back with his things, so we won't have any communication. I go over how the controls are set up, and tell Randy that our 5th gear is getting crunchy.. but to just ignore it. The synchros are not great, but it doesn't seem to be a major issue and I don't want Randy babying the car when I need the data.
I'm really pumped to have Randy out driving our car on track! In 18 laps he has made it from 15th up to 8th place! This video and data logging is going to be so useful. Wait... did I turn on the data logger? It stops logging every time the car starts, and I'm not certain if I started it before or after he started the car. With no radio I can't tell him how to start it and I really need to make sure I'm getting data. I decide to use the pit board to pull him in. And as it turns out.. the data logger was NOT on. Whew, good thing I got that rolling. Pulling Randy in meant we dropped from 8th back down to 11th, but this information is way more important than a podium. On his way up to 3rd place, Randy runs a 1:56.6! Wow! I've never quite felt like I was getting everything out of this track, but THREE whole seconds! This is going to be some very interesting data to see what he is doing differently. On lap 96 Randy pulls back in the pits and my dad jumps back into the car.
Randy has some great feedback! The first thing he says is, "There is a flatspot in the right front that was there when I got in!" "Yeah, that was me.. a little overzealous in turn 11."
Randy's feedback on the car:
- Engine and transmission feel great
- Shocks are way too soft, need the damping cranked much higher
- Too much front brake bias, need some more rear brake
- Can really feel the aero working, but could use just a bit more front downforce
- Some mid-corner understeer, may need to try soften the front suspension
- Feels slighly darty, may have some toe out
Overall he loved the handling of it. He recognized that many cars have a lot more power than ours, but he felt he had a "superior weapon" in the corners. In talking about how soft our shocks were, it actually became the Chasin' Racin' video below, as this was filmed right next to our pits:
I ask Randy as much as I can about how he is driving the track. This is his first day at this race track, and I'm amazed at what he has picked up already! For example, he was discussing coming down the hill, how if you hug the curbing just enough to keep the inside tire on the concrete, but not enough to get into the rumble strips, there is a little more grip there compared to the blacktop.
While my dad is driving, Kyle Eisenbach of General Leif comes by. We have had some really epic battles in the past and Kyle is always super friendly. Kyle tells me that he had planned to rent a spot with the Purple Haze car, but it broke. He asks if he could rent a stint in our car. Hmm. My default answer to this is always "NO", as I have way too many hours into this car for it to be worth the risk. However, I know Kyle is a great driver that drives very clean and I do trust him. And at least there is no rain, that would really crank up the risk factor. I discuss briefly with my dad on the radio, he agrees and Kyle is now the first person to have asked and gotten a "Yes!" My dad has made it up to 5th place, and pulls into the pits on lap 123 with a fastest lap of 2:04.1.
Kyle gets in the car, and after I give my second guest driver briefing of the day, he is off. Within five laps, he has already run a 2:01.8! He gets from 9th up to 7th place running his fastest lap of 2:00.5. Then on lap 153, he gets us up to 6th place! As the race is nearly over, it starts to rain! So much for the weather being so nice! It's getting very slippery out there, and there are a couple problems. I never even though to tell Kyle how to operate the wipers. And the second problem.. the wiper stalk came loose and is turned down towards the floor. Kyle slips and slides around to take the checkered flag in 6th place while it starts hail!
Kyle did fantastic in the car, for him to get in our car and run a 2:00.5, only 0.5 off of my fastest of the day, that is really impressive! And I'm going to be completely honest, If Kyle had beaten my lap time I would have been disappointed in myself. Only a half more second and he would have done that! I'm perfectly fine with Randy destroying my lap time, that is expected.
What a crazy day. Thanks Randy for the amazing feedback and pointers, and thanks Kyle for driving a clean race and giving our baby back unscathed!
Video Overview: