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View Full Version : Rumble at Roebling



Varkwso
05-22-2006, 04:35 PM
After almost three weeks without a track event, I was suffering DTs and hallucinations of apexes, we headed down to Roebling Road at an ungodly early hour on Friday the 19th for three days of track time . We had prestaged mass quantities of track supplies in the truck and trailer - I used to do track events with Jake or Josh and I in the ZO6/Camaro/944S plus all the gear that would fit in the car - now I need a Suburban/F250 plus a enclosed trailer to get my "stuff" to the track, go figure. I met up with Dave (I had earlier convinced him "he needed" to buy a 2000 6 speed C5 Coupe) who wanted to "check out" this track addiction. Jake was taking finals so met he us later at the track with Dave's son Tim (also taking finals) in the GTO. The ZO6 is down with an electrical problem.

Friday was really great - about 15 cars total - with three run groups. Chris was running on Friday getting tuned up for the Time Trials on Sat/Sun. Some more cars did sign up for a "half day deal" at SeatTime when they showed up early for the NASA event. The weather was hot, sunny and windy, really windy. I immediately corded two tires in the first two sessions (after a mere 7 track days). In spite of spending the family grocery money on track tires (we could all safely shed a few pounds anyway) due to Fedex delays, and a lack of suitably sized rims with dead tires, I was still short of tires at the track. I was able to get Dave on the track in my car on Friday and Jake was able to get in a few fast laps when he showed up Friday afternoon. The real plus was staking out a good shady spot with power for the weekend being there early (unlike the NASA event at Road Atlanta).

Registration and tech was painless on Friday evening. Julie Pantas and her kids, once they get Jim out of the way, did a great job! The track manager was in good mood, the weather was dry and the trackside meal was great - life doesn't get much better than this. The enclosed trailer does make camping in the paddock a breeze. An AC unit is in its future though....

It looked like about half the people from the NASA Road Atlanta showed up at Roebling. All the run groups were reasonably sized. It is amazing to me that even with small student groups the cars attract like iron filings around a magnet. When they opened up three passing zones on Sunday it got a little better. Checking mirrors seems to be the number one skill we, as instructors, need to teach after basic safety/car control of course. I met lots of folks from other events. The Atlanta RX8 crowd was out in full force again - they are like gnats - always buzzing around. Hey guys where are my GRM stickers by the way?

I had a Brunton Superstalker, a 95 Cobra, 2003 Cobra, and a 2000 Camaro Z28 as students. Jake had a 95 Mustang AI race car and a RX8 as students. It was my "first time" with wrist restraints in a car (well not counting hand cuffs) with the Brunton.

Time Trials - what a rush. With students you are almost always late getting on track for the session. It was really nice that everybody running TT was aware of traffic and pretty considerate. I know I made a few mistakes getting people by me. I went wide at Turn 5 to get a pair of Porsche's by and got in the marbles carrying a lot of speed, I gave up the line at Turn 6 to a Porsche and was pinched off, and I over drove my car on Sunday finally getting really loose in Turn 8/9 (first time ever - did not like it at all) trying to get out of the way of Chris and Cass on Sunday. I never left the track but I was definitely uncomfortable. I saw Toby ride off in Turn 5 behind me - since he helped me find my balls at Road Atlanta I keep a watchful eye on him. What I learned was to drive my car safely and let the other cars (hopefully) do the same. It was a blast passing cars all over the track - but my lap times were never that good when I went off line to get around people - of course they were not that good hanging out behind slower traffic either. I would really like to thank Jon K for loaning me his transponder so we could run TT in the 1999 FRC. By the way Corvette's took first place in TTU (Chris), TTA (Cass) and TTB (Team England):1st: .

Tires. My continuing saga of tires. Despite my vow to avoid used tires - I bought some more. 2 used tires came in on time for the weekend and I had them mounted. I had four tires already mounted with varying track times. Two 315/35 Goodyears, two 275/40 Kumho and two 315/35 Hoosier. Hoosiers corded right away on Friday. By Friday evening the two "new" Goodyears were great "drifting" tires - works out to $200 for a day I believe. By the way, 315/35s on GS 17x11 rims scrubbed my brand new DRM brake ducts in the front wheel wells. I ran the KuGo combo on Saturday. While it was great fun to slide around the track it is not really fast. By the end of the day the car was understeering so badly I could bang it off the locks and it would not turn in very well. It feels like you are flying - but you are not. I converted to a set of street Sumitomo's on Sunday and guess what - I was faster. By the end of the day Jake and I had cooked them also. Chris also found out the same thing - his street tires were faster/as fast as the used Goodyears he mounted up for the weekend. Where I noticed the difference the most was in the brake zones - even the wore out R compounds slowed the car better in a straight line. Of course my stock ZO6 brake pads on their 5th day at Roebling plus 2 at Sebring may have contributed to this phenomenon. I have a brand new set of Hoosiers (S04 & S05) on the front porch to mount up on a set of GS wheels and I will see how they will last.

Turn 8/9 did claim another car this weekend. During the first TT on Sunday I saw a waving yellow flag at Turn 8 as I was setting up to pass a 350Z. I slowed down immediately even as he was pointing me by. I rounded the corner saw a hood, other debris and a red C5 hard into the wall. The air bag smoke was still in the cockpit. Luckily, Cass gave me a thumbs up when I put mine out to see how he was. Needless to say the red flag was thrown at that point. Cass was pretty bummed out but was not banged up. C5s crash very, very well. Despite nasty petty rumors to the contrary I did not try to buy parts of his car, at least not until I was sure he was OK. Good news is he won TTA again on Sunday. Despite knowing what it does and seeing many, many cars hit there I automatically "corrected" at that same corner three laps earlier when I got loose in the turn (not on the rumble strips). We all felt Cass's pain and until we get there it is hard to say what we will really do - our nature is a little correction to maintain momentum. Cass did say he wished he did the turn a little differently, afterwards. It happens really fast.

Running TT does cut down on the seat time I have for passengers at these events since I am trying to run a good time for the TT. Sharing a car with Jake also cuts down when the car is cooled off enough to hit it again and how many passengers we can take. We did over 300 miles on the track, finished off 6 tires, used up most of 4 more, burned lots of gas, finished off the brake pads, finished off the 120,000+ mile clutch (buzzes something fierce now) and may have damaged the transmission. But we did bring home a class win on both days...

As always the people are what makes these events fun. Dave and Tim worked Turn 4 all weekend for future credit at a NASA event - little do they know what lies in store for them! Jake and I shared a headset with our students (I need to order another one) - more money. I somehow managed to hurt my big toe at the event (probably from motivating my pit crew), Jake and I have no cars runnable for the Chin event this weekend (with 2 broke Vettes my wife says there is no way I will take her car out) or the Power Tour in 2 weeks, I am a little sun burned, I am fairly well rested and you can find me with great safety stories at work.

Wow - what a great three day weekend.