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Brainerd International Raceway - May 29, 2003 What a great event! Aside from a few fatalities (cars, not people) this was a great open track day event run by Linda Olson and the rest of the outstanding crew at Slowpokes. These "driver education" events stress smoothness, control and the subtleties of high-speed road course driving. Of course we all ignored these things and went out there and flogged our cars within an inch of their lives. There were the standard flock of stock, modified and full race Porsches, a passle of BMWs, and your odd Infinity in attendance. The range of drivers skills was quite varied, which adds to the adventure. You could pass anywhere on the track (by contract) and everyone was good about signaling me by when I was on their bumpers - as I was to those who came up on me. I decided to run the wider Bridgestone S-03 street tires instead of the "skinny" R-compound Pilot Sport Cups for this event. I figured being the first event of the season it would be best to run a tire that would make me drive the car more. They worked great, and aside from not holding under braking as well, they worked surprisingly well in the corners. The car was stable and solid throughout the literal hours of track time I put in. The best news was the oil cooler did its job perfectly and under near constant nitrous application, the pressure stayed up around 80psi and the temp stayed at 260 solid. I drained two full bottles of N2O and enjoyed every bit of it! It was really fun seeing the cars behind me getting further away on the straights...though many of them could catch me in the twisties. We'll see how that plays out when I put the Pilots on. My top speed on the straight was 145 - limited more by me than the car. With the S-03s on I went through turn 1 at 120, as any more than that the car would push with street tires. On nitrous and race tires I've reached 155 (last year). You just don't want to come off the track at 1, it would be bad. Getting into 5th gear on N2O is scary when the road turns in front of you. There were a lot of fast cars with good drivers there. Its fun to watch professionals at work. Maybe some of it will rub off on me and I'll get better as well. I did a lot more downshifting from 3rd to 2nd in corners like 3, 4, 6-7 and 9 and it felt better than leaving it in 3rd for the whole back section and using the "torque" button to pick up RPM. There's another event planned for July 1st, so get signed up and lets play! Watch the QuickTime Movie (7.7MB) of 2 laps from the event! |
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