929 Evo - 1st place TTA @ Road Atlanta
Mar 15, 2012, 07:20 PM
#1
929 Evo - 1st place TTA @ Road Atlanta
The trip started Thursday night as I headed the 2 hours SE to my pick up my Dad who would be my co-pilot for this trip. We figured this out on Tuesday night, so sort of a last minute thing but I was grateful for the company even if it did add about an hour of driving each way.
We left his house about 6:15am CT. Plan was to drive to Road Atlanta; stopping when we needed - no rush - and unload the car at the track that evening. Then a decent meal. I was thinking around 10 hours plus the time change. We ended up at Road Atlanta around dusk; or 6:30pm ET w/o incident - as long as you don't count Atlanta traffic at 5pm... oops.
Saturday:
The day started with a 7am meeting. The TT group was first out at 8am. I went out on street tires with a goal to learn the track, stay out of the way of the locals, and try to set a fast enough time to stay towards the front of the grid.
The track was... pretty fun. Nothing too crazy. I was motoring down the backstraight and glanced down to see the odo approaching 140 really quick. Damn! Got past that; through the 'S' curve and then I went under the bridge and down the hill into T12. Holy ****; it was like the Log Ride - seemed like it was straight down. This was going to take some getting used to...
For S2 - I went back out on the street tires again. I was picking up the track, but definitely coasting down the latter part of the backstraight and down 12 (the huge hill) I netted a 1:39 still on street tires! I was actually pretty proud of that.
For S3 - I bolted on the Hoosier R6's. 2 were new; the other 2 were used so I'd need to scrub everything in. I tried to keep my track positioning in the first 2 laps and control the inevitable skids - which was fun. After a 1:37 I reset my tire pressures and was ready for S4 to hammer it.
S4 - Traffic! By now I was working my way through some of the TTS cars that are 1 class above me and run more HP. I'd catch them in the first part of the track but they could pull away down the long backstraight and down the big hill in T12. Track positioning is definitely important for a flying lap in TT. Best of 1:36.5.
S5 - I was up to 7th on grid by now, but as not everyone went out I was actually 3rd. This proved to be my best track position and allowed me to hammer w/o having to worry about navigating any traffic in front or behind. I had my best laps of the day; with the overall best of 1:34.8 that netted my 1st place out of 3 in my class of TTA and 5th out of 38 overall in TT.
The day turned out great, the Evo made it through it's first track event of 2012 with flying colors, which included a new tune by Buschur Racing. No problems over the ~100 miles on track including a top speed of 149.87 mph on the backstraight and around 130 on the front!
So I quickly rotated the tires and checked the car over before Then off to the NASA awards ceremony just off the main straight. The background for the food/drink/presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vkiIW2DIrI
Sunday:
Day #2 at Road Atlanta started dark and slow. With the time change in the ET zone; it was pitch dark when I got to the track and nearly that for our morning meeting. Then a screwy schedule had me waiting around for about 2 hours. I really had no changes to make, other than remounting my camera and GPS and putting in a little fuel. I'm tuned for 100oct; and having used all I brought I was using a cocktail of 98 unleaded and 110 leaded since that's all they had (well had 112 leaded too). Oh, I did get my AFR guage hooked back up as the wire had come out. Lastly I had installed a different ACD in my car as I had planned on doing some testing on a reflashed ACD unit from ACD-Tuning (http://www.acd-tuning.com/). We talked over the winter and Mathew hooked with up with a unit with 3 special maps; each more aggressive than the stock Tarmac map.
When our first session finally came, I had the inevitable slow-down from a new track on a new day and not being aggressive. I also had overestimated the tire pressures so everything was high - which I could tell by the reduced grip. I took it easy on the tires and ran a some mid 1:35's. Watching the AFR down the long backstraight in 5th gear 'planted', I seen 10.5 - 10.6 on the new Buschur tune with the 98/110 cocktail. I did come up on a TTS (1 class up) Vette right before the long backstraight and we ended up going side-by-side pretty much the entire backstraight from probably 60-140mph. I was really curious to see how my car stacked up against this particular Vette past 100mph as that's where our Evo's usually succumb to our gearing, aero and power disadvantages - but I hung right with him. That was good to see. But that led to me checking my mirror a bit too much and a side going downhill through T12. (this lap is in the vid). As for the updated ACD unit, I completely forgot about it until the session was done - which is good. Nothing detrimental at all to say about the map, no locking, no confusion, nothing at all that slowed me down. However, I didn't really notice any huge changes either which could mean I needed a more aggressive map or I simply wasn't pushing hard enough to tell - probably a combination of both.
I checked my data afterwards and I finally cleared 150mph on the backstraight!
Again - screwy schedule, so I had a big break before the next session. I had already started packing up, and continued that just in case I were to leave after this next session. Changes were small, reset the tire pressures was about it. I did decide to move my ACD to map #2 as I did not feel anything really different with map #1.
Finally around 12:30pm I lined up for session #2 - where I was up to 5th on grid I think. Knowing I had a 10hr drive home, I really just wanted to better my time from yesterday primarily. No sense in putting the car in danger with over-aggressive driving or torturing the tires (given the 2012 Hoosier contingencies). I ran a pair of 1:34's including my best of the weekend - a 1:34.1 - with a nice drift through T10A at the end of the long backstraight. Besdies a few key areas, I was getting about as much out of the track as I could with the tires I had. I believe the time held for 1st place again in TTA and the 4th best out of 37 cars in TT.
Given the screwy schedule - I had 2:20 until my next session - I decided to head homeward. If we drove straight though I could be home around 12pm.
Gotta give huge props to David and crew at Buschur Racing for all the updated work on the car, installation of parts and most notably the new tune. Also thanks to AMSOIL, Forgeline, ACD-Tuning, KNS Brakes & Andrews Racing. Vid from late Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVNjVt18ogg
The trip home was long and tiring. I'm thankful my Dad was with me, he drove the middle 4 hours of the trip probably and I ended up home about 2:30am ET. And yes I was at work Monday... Pic from rest area in Tennessee:
Mar 15, 2012, 07:47 PM
#2
Congrats on your first place finish! On to map3- that's where the fun starts! Let me know if you need more aggressive- it can be done. When dealing with competitive drivers, the last thing I want to do is go crazy with mapping and have a driver's car not handle well (too loose)- I don't want to be blamed for losing- only winning! Baby steps is best in this situation.
Matt
Matt
Mar 15, 2012, 07:55 PM
#3
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Great write-up, I always enjoy living vicariously through you since the chances of me getting all the way to ATL is slim.
p.s. your edited URL at the beginning of video two uses "\\" instead of "//".
p.s. your edited URL at the beginning of video two uses "\\" instead of "//".
Mar 15, 2012, 08:07 PM
#5
Evolved Member
never ceases to impress me seeing these cars passing race prepped corvettes and porsches sporting gigantic wings. 
you made it look easy too. nice driving.
you made it look easy too. nice driving.
Nice driving bro 
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Mar 16, 2012, 06:24 AM
#10
Congrats on your first place finish! On to map3- that's where the fun starts! Let me know if you need more aggressive- it can be done. When dealing with competitive drivers, the last thing I want to do is go crazy with mapping and have a driver's car not handle well (too loose)- I don't want to be blamed for losing- only winning! Baby steps is best in this situation.
Matt
Matt
Honestly I'll probably keep it on Map #2 to start my next event and go from there!
Mar 16, 2012, 11:56 AM
#15
I did 2 weekends last year with the APR 200 and APR splitter.
I did a few events with the Kognition wing only.
I did the rest (a majority) of my 2011 season with OEM. This is the only way I've gotten the car to rotate how I want it. With the Kognition (and no splitter as I didn't have the pts in TTA) it understeered under WOT from mid-corner out. I hated it, reminded me of years back when I had a crappier setup.
I've got a feeling I'll be running some TTS/ST2 at some point this year, especially since PTA is pretty nonexistent with the new Hoosier rules needing 5 to qualify in TT.