Rain At Putnam

-
While the car made a successful return to the track without losing any important pieces, the weekend was dominated by rain, an absolute killer for TT. Saturday started dry, but by the time I had worked up my confidence in the mechanical soundness of the 109 by the afternoon, the rain came and there wasn't a dry a session the rest of the weekend. My best time on Saturday was a 1:52.740, seven tenths behind Aaron, the class track record holder, and good enough for second place in TTC out of a field of seven. My best time in the wet on Sunday was also good enough for second, scoring me another pair of tires for the weekend.

Despite the rain, I accomplished the goals for the weekend of shaking down the repaired car, running under 1:20, and bringing home the tires. I'm looking forward to swapping on some new springs, replacing a sway bar, installing some camber adding front balljoints, and finally getting the car aligned for the first time since the impact at Mid Ohio (oops!).

The wet weekend was also made much better when my friends Jon and Darrel arrived on Saturday to support and spectate. Jon just got a new Canon T3i and used it, along with some of my lenses, to shoot video throughout the weekend. He took the clips combined with some of my in-car footage and edited it into this. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Double Win at Gateway with Record Lap

-
Image
The S2000 returned to the track this weekend in full form, running in the crossover event between the NASA Central and Midwest regions at Gateway International Raceway.  I was able to secure the class win on both days with a 1:10.518 best lap on Saturday and a 1:10.719 on Sunday.  Saturday's time, while short of my personal best and NASA Midwest record of 1:09.729, did take over the top spot in the Central record books for the TTC class. Since the last time it hit the track, the S2000 has had the engine replaced (with another stock unit), the exhaust replaced, the catalytic converted removed, and the splitter added.  As a compromise to the added power and downforce, I was also required to add weight this year, taking the competition weight up from 2815 to 2880 lbs. Given the slower than personal best times, the jury is still out on whether the shift in setup has been an improvement.  I'll have to get back into the swing of things as a driver before I can fully judge the
Read more

Season Wrap Up: Midwest TTC Champion

-
Since the double win and lap record at Gateway, I've completed four more NASA TT events: Autobahn South in April, Gingerman in June, Blackhawk Farms in July, and Autobahn South again earlier in September. The Autobahn South event in April saw a tough duel at the top of the TTC boards between my AP1 S2000 and local Patrick Reyes' bright orange wrapped AP2 S2000.  On Saturday I managed to edge him out for the third consecutive win of the season with a time of 1:36.476, but on Sunday Pat put down an time I could not reach and had to settle for second. Next, the schedule took us to Gingerman, a track I had never been to before.  Throughout the weekend, as I learned the track on old tires, I was consistently behind both Pat and John Eiler.  John's Lotus Elise, running a lightweight setup on street tires, had taken third both days at the Autobahn event, but never challenged for the lead.  However, I believe John used to work at Gingerman and his track knowledge had him battli
Read more

Second At A Crowded Mid Ohio

-
With two months to go until Nationals at Mid Ohio, the July Great Lakes event was PACKED. We had what must have been a record 57 TT cars putting in times and the traffic on the track reflected it. I came to the track with the same setup and tires as Grattan and was hoping to chase down both the regional TTC record of 1:41.974 and the National record of 1:38.723. However, due to (insert long list of excuses here), I wasn't up to the challenge. Nevertheless, I took home a solid 2nd place finish in a field of 8 TTC cars, behind Aaron Leichty in the #190 S2000 both days. This scored a pair of new tires and extended my lead in the Great Lakes season championship. Though I did break the previous regional TTC record with a best time from the first timed session of the weekend of 1:40.068, Aaron came out of the weekend with the honors of being the fastest TTC car ever on the Pro course with a 1:38.705 on Saturday. He even bested this time in a lap on Sunday, but in an incident eerily
Read more