This past weekend, I made another trip to my favorite track (so far), Road Atlanta for the NASA-SE June Jam. I signed up in DE3, and I knew at least one other EvoM member (ReaperX) would be there running DE4 and instructing. This would be my first outing on some brand new NT01’s after running star-specs for a good while.

Saturday got off to a dubious start with a combined DE3/4 session that had 80+ cars on track. Mostly a traffic jam. There as a DE3 session right before lunch where I got to start playing with the new tires at speed and with some open track. Biggest first impression was how much harder I could brake without chirping a tire. Re-adjustment of braking points was necessary. Us DE3 pukes then had a 6-hour break before the next DE3 session at 5:40. Poor scheduling. But at 5:40 I headed out and kept working on determining the limits of the new tire setup.

Sunday morning the first DE3 session was at 9:40 and I got out in the front of the group with some fast movers. Ended up playing lead follow with a C5Z most of that session and had a ball. The NT01’s felt better on Sunday (cycled in?) and I started working on cutting time and going faster. I had to borrow a camera for some vid (forgot mine) so I didn’t get to record all my sessions. In the lead follow with the Vette I timed a 1:42.5 on a clean lap with other clean laps being around 1:43 flat. My best from March was a 1:43.9 and considering how far down my car felt on power (heat, 5+ mph less speed at the end of the back straight than in March), the 1.4 cut made me pretty happy. I’ve still got a long way to go but as long as I keep making progress I plan on entering some TT events with NASA in 2012.

In the 3rd session Sunday I was giving Shaun (ReaperX) a ride. WOT, well into triple digits down the back stretch and blammo, blew off the Upper IC hose at the throttle body. Jarring experience! Tired to re-install it, but age, minor oil soak from blow by and the heat made it too soft to hold (OEM Unit). So good excuse to get the short route UICP and trunk mount the battery.

I felt bad for Shaun. First thing Sat his Evo8 started defaulting to the low octane timing and fuel maps. Logs show no knock and octane level 100 through pulls. We were at a loss as to what was causing the ECU to run the low octane tables if it wasn’t one of these two items.

Here's a vid of the Sunday session with me and the C5z having fun.
http://vimeo.com/25493236

 

Nice laps Jim! Now you need some harnesses and those lap times should come down a bit more

 

Wow, massive break -- 6hrs off. I'd be annoyed.

^And less bruised elbows and knees from bracing into the door and center section on the car.

 

Seats, Autopower 4-pt race bar and harnesses being ordered. Got some play $$ saved up and it's time to take care of that. My left knee in particular takes a beating on the door.....

 

Yeah, you are all over the place! That's really got to be distracting (more than you know). Once you get strapped down to the car I bet you'll feel a lot more comfortable and instantly pick up time everywhere. If you can get lower that's a plus too.

Keep trackin'....