OLOA Day 7 - Event 15/16 - BeaveRun
BeaveRun - The last time trials of the 2009 One Lap of America. Going into the day, we are sitting in 12th overall, a mere 90 points back on the top 10. We are close, but its not going to be easy to break into that top 10. With it being so close, we decided that one person should run both events, since a lot of time can be found during a track session and review of the video. The decision is for me to run both events today, and Dan will finish out the skid-pad tomorrow.
We woke up to cool weather, overcast skies and a slight chance of rain (luckily it did not). We arrived very early at the track, found a good spot to unload and then headed out to doa track walk. BeaveRun is a very technical course with a few tough corners. Here we are evaluating the turn-in and apex points for turn 7, a fast down-hill right-hander where the apex point is completely blind at the turn-in point (Basically if you wait until you can see the apex, its WAY too late - and tracks don’t pay racers to mow the grass, which is generally what happens when you miss a turn-in like that).
We have also looked at the tire pressures, dropping down both front and rear to try to get the tire temps more in line. Out on track, the balance of the car was much improved over earlier in the week. I was able to put the power down, and carry more speed through the turns. Still not being sure what the car was going to do, i ran conservative in the morning. I finished 16th overall and 4th in class, but knew a few areas where I could make a whole bunch of time out on track. Times were about 3 seconds off of the other Luxury Sedan class. We took temps and pressures right after the session, and are almost spot on. Finally getting the set-up right!
Over lunch, we reviewed the track map, notes and video from the morning. I found a few key areas where I knew what to change out on track. Based on individual lap times from the morning (my fast lap was close to the others), and the new knowledge from the video review, the goal for the afternoon is a top 10 O/A and 1st in class.
The session felt great, a whole bunch faster. Here I am coming out of that blind corner #7. The estimated time for the session showed a lot of improvement. But since results from the afternoon are not up yet, we have to anxiously wait….
heh, gotta add these results in too…. 2nd BeaveRun session I picked up some good time, finishing 11th overall and 2nd in class, just beating out the factory BMW! It was a great run, but ultimately didn’t change in class or O/A position.
