Schaut Speed Racing Blog

At 12:00 there was an announcement that a parade lap would take place at 12:15.  I figured perfect time to get an extra lap of recon on this huge fast track.  So we jumped in, fired up the car and went to pull out.  At which point the car with all its gadgets spoke up - letting us know the left rear was low.  So we checked it - 15 psi.  This would be the nail.  I cleared with Brock that we might not make it back for the start of the second session, but safety first he said “go fix it!”.  So off to a tire shop.

With the tire fixed and disaster averted, we head back to the track.  I get my gear on, strap in and head to the front of the line, amazingly only a few run groups behind where I should be.  Tire pressures were set as they were in the morning.  Although ambient temps were up another 10 degrees and with all the sun, track temps were up too.

On the recon lap, I noted things were a bit slick, with the balance onthe car shifted to the front - back end was a bit on the loose side.  Not a problem, I thought.  Just need to get things warm…

Green flag flies and I’m off.  Slide a bit in the first few corners, hit the banking and soon I’m north of 150 MPH on the speedometer haulin’ into the “Bus Stop”, a little left right right left chicane to slow down the cars.  Line is good into the chicane, start adding power coming out of the first right.  Then the back end quickly steps out.  Too much power too quickly for how much grip was available…  I counter-steer, but its too late.  I’m going for a bit of a ride!  Nothing like spinning at 90 MPH!  Luckily there is a lot of space there, so nothing to hit.  But now I’m stopped, and have to get back up to speed.  Instead of entering the oval at 100 MPH, I’m starting at ZERO.  Dang.  A mistake like that (We are figuring a total of 16-17 seconds lost on that lap) is not what we need with both overall and in-class posiitons and point battles so close…  I figured that mistake would put me way back in 30th at best.  The video is interesting.  I’ll post it once I figure out how so you can join in on ‘Ben’s wild ride!’

Luckily this car has an awesome motor and a very good top end.  Despite the spin and some additional sliding (grip balance didn’t get any better the rest of the session, and being a bit tail-happy heats up the rear tires even more, reducing grip… tire temps showed we were a few pounds too high in the rear ) I ended up 18th overall with a 7:06.36.  Take away that spin and it would have been a toss-up on which E90 M3 took 13th overall, as Renner was at a 6:48.5.

The M5 took the class win again with a 7th overall in 6:36.4, followed by Babcock who found some more time speed dropping down to 6:38.8 for 9th O/A.  Renner in the other M3 was 13th, the Caddy in 16th with 6:53.6.

Lesson 2 learned.  easy on the throttle, and if grip is off and too much throttle is used, the car will come around; quickly.

Now on to CMP.