Schaut Speed Racing Blog

Needless to say, I was less than pleased with the results from this morning. I was ready for some retribution! Especially considering that without the gearbox being a little shifty, I would have placed 15th….  But that is all part of this great event called the One Lap of America.  Consistency and no mistakes or problems yields great results at the end of the week (one of the other teams adorns their car with a good One Lap mantra “Shit better not happen” - quaint, maybe a bit cliche, but in the back of everyone’s minds!).  And if a setback occurs, you find a way to recover as best you can.  Keep pushing, keep finishing.  What was is done; you can only control what happens next!  One of my favorite quotes of all time from George Carlin: “Always do whatever’s next”. Certainly, sir!

The solution was to skip using 2nd gear and just see what I could pull staying in 3rd going through the problem corner from the morning. With tire pressures raised a bit, ambient/track temperatures up, and another delicious track-side burger in my stomach, I headed back out on track.

The session went much better, with the car feeling more balanced and not as eager to slide around. I was able to get to the apex on most of the corners I was missing in the morning. Dropping a bit of time each lap and without the snafu of the mysterious disappearing gear, I took a whopping 7.5 seconds off my total time! Much better!

With the improvement in time, I finished 15th overall. We still sit in 11th place overall and with the other M3 sneaking between us and the Panamara, we extended our lead in Luxury sedan. I’ll have to get the story on how the M3’s and Porsche’s sessions went tomorrow once we get to Mid Ohio (one of my favorite tracks, by the way. I’m REALLY looking forward to this one!).

In other notes, The #6 Subi did not make the the second session, as it was still in the air.  One of the super-charged mustangs broke a tensioner bracket (and lost the tensioner out on track), shredding a belt.  And the #3 Porsche currently leading was up in the air with a broken rear sway bar link as we were leaving.  Hopefully all these guys get their cars in working order and we will see them at Mid Ohio tomorrow.  On the positive side, the GT-R replacement for Rankin/Taylor/Krolowicz made an appearance.  Its still a silver 2-door coupe with a orange stripe down the side and tastefully modified, but it is now a Subaru Imprezza….

A few of the other bloggers are doing well and having a blast - check out what they are up to too!

-http://www.racingforthechildren.org/ (Raising money to help out kids)

-http://onelapfordogs.com/ (Couple of great lap puppies in a C4 vette, raising money for SPCA)

-http://nigelracingonelap.blogspot.com/  (Nigel’s the car - appropriate for a Mini!)

For now, we continue our very straight and easy (cough, cough – BORING) journey east. Other than changing lanes occasionally, I don’t think Nick has had to use the steering wheel in a good 30 miles. Despite the lack of enticing roads, Illinois and Indiana are behind us. Ohio is all around us. Including some tool in a VW GTI that looks/sounds completely stock who kept trying to “race” us….. sure we have a sweet looking ride, but keep it on the track buddy, keep it on the track… (Dang…. should have taken a pic of that one! Even if its just for my own enjoyment…)

It’s still relatively early. Estimated arrival time to the hotel is a little after 9 pm. Perhaps a delicious sit-down mean will await us at our destination that is only 80 miles away.

We woke up early once again to blue skies and sunshine.  After a normal One Lap night sleep (aka, 5-ish hours) and another hotel continental breakfast (along with the weakest coffee of the trip - but still far better than that first cup a few days ago) we head out to the track.  Getting close to the track, we can see the Arc glistening in the morning sun.  Quite the site!

Its my turn to race; did my track recon run and then suited up and got the car in line.  Gateway is a “Roval”, or Road-course/oval that uses part oval and part infield road course.  For this track, turns the road course starts at normal start finish, but exits onto the infield before turn 1; re-entry is just before turn 3, after which we run the 3/4 turn of the oval and front straight.  Slight banking (nothing like Daytona!).

We’ve adjusted the tire pressures to account for one being high and one low at Hallet, other than that no changes.  As the second group of cars heads out, the #6 Subaru STi makes some rather odd noises leaving the line.  This is followed by a bunch of smoke a few corners later.  It turns out that those 600+ ponies twisted and broke the left rear stub-axle….  DNF for the session but the car is in the air as we speak with the team trying to make repairs so they can continue in the fray.

After the short delay to get the car safely off the track, its finally my turn to run.  Heading out for the recon lap, the car feels OK, although not much grip on the track.  Hopefully the tires will warm up and I’ll be all set to go.  I get the green and take off, with some words of wisdom from a local racer, I fly into turn 1 and its go time.  Tires still are not warm enough as the car is sliding around a bit, a bit more with the tail end.  It might be fun, but its not exactly the fastest way around!  I continue around with quick hands and some small corrections since the grip never came up.  Track is still a bit “green”.

Things went well until lap 3; entering the last tight left-hander to enter the oval, I cannot find second gear.  4th, 3rd, reverse gate, sure - but not the one I want!!!!  I end up sticking it back in 3rd and accelerating away at a mediocre pace…  Looking at the data, I lost 5 seconds with that little move… And it turns out there is only a very slight advantage with dropping to 2nd (I’ll be leaving it in 3rd for this afternoon!)

As for the grip, it never really got better.  Tire pressures showed us why, as we were down 2-3 lbs all around - this track doesn’t have the grip to get the normal 10 degrees of pressure rise we see at other tracks.  At least the changes we did make evened out the pressures.  Now we know the right balance, we just need to add a few lbs all around for the afternoon.

Unfortunately, my gearbox issue dropped enough time to put me in 23rd spot.  Take out that 5 second loss and I would have been 14th.  The Panamara managed 20th.

We now sit in 11th overall, and 1st in class by a minimal 5 pts.  But with a plan to eliminate the issue from this morning (no 2nd gear!) and hopefully more grip with the increased tire pressures, we should be able to recover and get back to top 15 times.

20 min to go until the next session.  I’m gonna sit back and relax a bit and get my mind back to 100% for the track!

The official time for the Low ET was 13.644, good for a surprise 23rd.

Being out in the first round of the bracket, along with the other M3, gave us 310 pts overall and what should be 15 pts in class.  The Panamara made it only to the second round, so gained 5 pts in both class and overall.

Starting day 5 at Gateway, we sit tied for 10th with the Ultima GTR.