Race Weekends – Page 3 – Racer on Rails: High Performance Track and Race Car Shop and Race Team based in Renton, WA

Posted on June 28, 2017July 13, 2017 by Jordan Allen

Post Session/Day Checks to Prevent a Wreck!

Gama pulling data from the morning qualifying session. We took a quick look at it before the race, but he will use the data and video after the day is over to study to find more speed!

What: Things you should do after a session and a day/event to help you get faster, keep your car running well and safe!

If I knew then, what I know now: I would have learned how to review and teach data early on in my driving and racing career. No other aspect can make such a drastic change in speed of the car and driver.

Post track or race weekend activities are or at least, should be part of the process. There is are many things to think and consider after you are done with your event. The same trains of though will transfer to whatever you are using as a vehicle. There are both personal and mechanical things you want to pay close attention to after your even. As I have gotten older, and been around the race track more I have learned that there is a full circle process for every event.

Post-Session starts well before the session – get in the right mindset. A learning mindset.

Start with your pre-event inspection, do the event, then debrief and do a post-day inspect. It is great time to learn about yourself and your equipment. A track day should be considered a learning day.

Even if you are not with an instructor, and have done many days before, you should always be learning and absorbing. I have come to some of the best revelations in the hours and days after an event that have helped me be better at driving, as well as managing cars and equipment in the pits and paddock when I am crewing for the weekend.

Track days cost money so you should want to maximize your value and smiles per mile. I will go through some of the things to consider post event, as well as some things I have learned, even recently.

Your New Post-Event Checklist:

Thank the organizer and those who volunteered their time to make the day happen!
Inspect and load up your stuff. This is an important step! It seems like it is busy work, and you will be tired. But being clean and organized when packing up will pay off on the other side, I promise.
Wipe your car down and clean it up before loading up on a trailer or driving home. I’ve been doing this lately with our PRO3 cars because it does a few things:

It gets the tires and bugs off before they have a chance to harden up.
You are close to the surface of the car, and can see if there was contact with another car, the ground, flying debris… its racing, expect something weird to come up.
You also get a good chance to get it back into the trailer and if you rub against it later it does not soil you with dirt (brake dust mostly).
You can take a look at all of your wheels and tires and make notes if you have cords showing, need to swap a tire side to side, or have an issue with one or more of the wheels. A wheel can crack pretty easy if it is not a forged wheel.

A couple Subaru BRZ’s on a rack after a day of students sliding around the gravel. Each day, every car is inspected from head to toe, looking for broken parts and doing maintenance as needed.

Check your video and data and make sure you have everything downloaded and set up to review later. Data review is a major tool for driver education and video is a big part of that as well. Depending on what you are doing, how far along you are and what type of vehicle you are using, data and video may or may not be an option.

We went karting the other day after the Pro3 race ended, and I have been watching video from that. We were not taking it serious, but we are all skilled, and have been around racing for a long time. We were going pretty hard, and I was able to learn some things reviewing video just the video.

That being said. I went and rode a dirt bike in the wild the other day for the first time, and I had no video or date to review. I used memory. There were many lessons of that day, and I have had to recall them one at a time. I went from riding in the yard, to doing multiple laps on the full GP/enduro course with a few hours of riding. Thinking about what did and did not work for me. Tips from those I was with (which was the biggest help for me that day) and memory of the events unfolding yield a vivid memory of what you can focus on for your next event. One of the things I try to practice any time we go use rental karts is to work with traffic, both quicker and slower than myself.

I have had video from the last dozen or so times I have done, and it has helped a ton. I can manage traffic much better now without loosing much speed. Having data and knowing how to read and interpret that information will be the single biggest teacher for driving a car. Gama has been 1 second quicker at both tracks we have raced at this year from last year – and his car is the same. He has been spending lots of time reviewing data, video and training.

Gama has a lap from last year compared to a lap from his last weekend at Pacific Raceways. The car is mostly the same, showcasing what can be done outside of changes to the car to help you better yourself. This compares a 1:37.761 from this year to a 1:38.215 from July 2016.

Review and inspect your equipment/tools. You will want to know what is what, before you unload the car for the next event. As I mentioned before, I like to get the car cleaned and then loaded before we even get back to the shop. Once we get everything back to the shop it is time to go over your notes from post session issues, as well as from clean up and loading of gear.
Clean wheels and tires of tire poopies. Tire shops really appreciate not having to deal with clumps of tire when trying to balance a wheel. You can carefully check wheel and tires for issues at that time.
Check your other equipment and spares situation. You may not have broken something, but someone else may have and you may have loaned something you had. Keep track so you can replace it even if it was a give away item from your spares. Making good notes on all of this stuff will save lots of time when you need to order brakes, tires, fuel and the like for your next event.
Making sure the trailer is prepped for the next event; spare tires and parts, tools, tents will make load in much easier for the next event. Just this past week we found that the batter tray in Manu’s Pro3 car had been ripped out by an impact from the car being off track during the last race out. It ended up stalling the car for this past race, but we did not send him out with a 80-lb cannon ball in the trunk of the car rolling around. So win there. We are going to correct the issue, and take the chance to freshen up some of the 10 year of add-on wiring that has collected in the car. This is why we check stuff, better to be safe and sound, than risk ANY thing or anyone out at the track. Remember step one! Most of the people keeping your safe are donating their time. Don’t endanger them!
Check yourself. How did you feel at the end of the day. Were you tired? Did you have a headache on the way home? What did you eat for lunch? Taking care of yourself starts at knowing how you feel after your event. It sounds silly, but just stop and think about how you feel after your event. Even as your are driving home. What did you recall. If you cannot recall much at that time, then something is up. If you have a headache on the way home. It was not the fumes. You are dehydrated. If you are starving, your meals of the day, and days prior were not properly set up. Be very honest with yourself in this regard.

You won’t always be perfect but having this checklist will help, even for the experienced and pros.

Non of use Racers on Rails are pros, and we all make errors. The idea here is to find and share as many ways, in as many aspects as we can to help minimize yours. Just this year alone, I have been working hard and am in the best shape of my life. I have been mindful of food and drink, sleep and physical effort.

Our first race weekend was the 6 hour enduro. It was cold. and wet. We had a hell of a time with the weather during the day. We went into the race a little but “whatever” and it showed. The whole day I never drank any water and barely ate. We had our first stop which was all but a calamity, and I about lost my mind on our crew for being so sloppy. We weren’t that sloppy. I was just hangry. The next day I was trashed. I had a bad headache from being dehydrated. I was a mess. I have been racing, and endurance racing for 12 years. I know better. So I re-counted the day. What happened? What did I do?

It was a cold and nasty day at the first race of the season. Ill prepared, we paid the price during the race and the next day.

I started the day with wet feet at 07:30. Never drank so much as a bottle of water all day. Did not eat much – there was no concessions at the track due to low turn out and weather. It was just so cold and gross. We, me specifically. Never even thought about it till it was much too late. Lesson learned. You can also determine if you are driving yourself tired or not as well. Driving or being on a bike can be taxing on your mind. It will happen and you wont even realize it. We have found that most of our mistakes on test and track days happen in the later half of the day. Brain capacity and function starts to slow down, like it or not. Again. We are not pros (and even the pros struggle with this stuff too)!

A long day at the track in the sun where everything is shiny and cool can really tucker you out if you are not prepared for it!

Be sure to add post event check list stuff to your weekend round up. It is important stuff. You can get the jump on cleaning and repair needs. Replacement parts have maximum amount of time to be procured. If you are busted, you know ahead of time rather than after you unload at the next event and waste your time there! It is always about the complete package in a performance and race environment. Being complete in your process is part of that package. It is a little bit of time and effort now, or a lot later. Take what you see, learn from it. We all make errors. They are learning experiences. It is big boy and girl rules out there. Make sure you arm yourself with the best equipment, and mind to make good choices. People count on you to do so. Take care, take time, and always remember to have fun!

Posted on June 28, 2017July 12, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Collateral Damage – Headlights

What: Stuff breaks when you go on track, this time – headlights and driver side mirror.

If I knew then what I know now: Consider two layers of Lamin-x on your headlights and depending on your car, have a backup set of headlights. If your OEM headlights are glass, see if there are plastic alternatives.

Check out:

Reality check – stuff will break

It kind of sucks but that is a fact of the track-life. When you go on a race track, autocross course, rally stage, drag strip, etc. your car is going to be flying through the air at normally illegal speeds and changes in speed.

Bugs, rocks, small birds, rubber from tires and even parts from other cars will at some point, leave their mark on your beauty. After this most recent race weekend at Spokane County Raceways, my headlights finally bit the dust.

Lamin-x, film, racing, headlights, bmw, e30 — Doesn’t look too bad, right? Well the high-beams are duct taped because they were completely broken and the Lamin-x film was keeping the low-beams together.

an up-close look reveals a not as pretty picture. Eek!

The fix – new (to me) headlights and new Lamin-x

Although the remaining races for the year are during the day, we are in the Pacific Northwest and that means there is always a chance for rain. When it rains, I prefer to have all the lights on, just to make sure other cars on track can see me.

To fix the headlights, at least for an E30, there are a few different options:

- Replace just the light bulb: These light bulbs are old school and thus the whole light bulb and actual headlamp assembly are one-piece. In most modern cars today, there is a headlamp assembly and somehow screwed to the inside, is the actual bulb. So you can replace either the headlamp assembly or the bulb but we don’t have that option here. To buy the integrated headlight, head over to Amazon and you can easily get one, like this one below (click on this link or the image below to go to Amazon and buy). Each bulb will run you about $45/bulb. Check to make sure you are ordering the right thing – the high or low beams. They are not inter-changeable. On the plus side, there are no side dependencies. So the low or high beam bulb can fit on the left or right side of the car.

- Replace the whole assembly: You can also choose to replace the whole assembly, which includes the bulbs and the frame that holds the bulbs in place and is screwed into the radiator support area. Normally, this is too much for broken headlights but this is where eBay is your friend. There is an option to buy brand new and even LED and projector headlight assemblies, which are awesome but pricey. Here is an option from Amazon. Beware though, these look awesome but are just as fragile as the OEM stuff. Keep that in mind before buying and taking back on track. 🙂
<br />

Ebay to the rescue

As you can see from the Amazon search results, a new, truly new and even aftermarket set of the full assembly headlights can run $200+. Instead, I went to eBay and was able to find a used set of the full headlight assembly for just over $80. This is also less money than buying new (intgrated) bulbs and the already come in the assembly. Click through the banner ad below to see search results that I used to get my new (to me) headlights.

Install in less than 5 minutes
Because I was replacing the whole assembly, all I had to do was:

Remove 6 clips that pinch the headlight assembly to the grill that surrounds the headlights.
Unscrew two screws for each headlight area, that holds the grill to the front area of the car.
Unscrew two other screws that hold the headlight assembly to the radiator support.
Disconnect the bulbs from the wiring harness.

And they’re off!

Out with the old, in with the new (to me)!

Lamin-x for extra protection

While the old bulbs were off, I cleaned off the new bulbs with generic window/glass cleaner and then installed a set of #prospec yellow tinted Lamin-x film covers. These are the same ones I had previously but this time I put them all four headlights. You can get these almost anywhere: Amazon, eBay or where I got them, ECS Tuning. These are the exact product I ordered. But since we fund this site through affiliate marketing, here is a link to Amazon, for the exact same product, of which clicking and buying helps keep this site alive.

Back to looking good for the next race!

In under 10 minutes total, including cleaning, taking pictures and moving slowly as I was recovering that day from minor surgery, old broken headlights were replaced with fresh, low cost, new (to me) headlights with extra protection from Lamin-x.

I think about headlights and even windshields as almost consumables. If I can go the rest of the year without having to replace them again, that’ll be great. But with the next race at Pacific Raceways, where there is gravel off-track and people love to drop tires, I’m not very hopeful.

The lights that will strike fear into my competitions mind and heart. Move out of the way!!!

Posted on June 5, 2017August 15, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Days 16, 17 and 18 – 30 Days of Racing in a row

This is a combo article because I frankly fell behind righting as the race weekend took over.

Back to PIR to get the bad taste out of my mouth

The last time we were at Portland International Raceways (May 2017), the weekend was going great but on the main points race Sunday afternoon, the race was over by turn 3. A couple of Spec E46’s were tussling ahead, one got pushed off and insisted on getting back on track, immediately spun when the front tires grabbed and got side-swiped. While it sucked for the team, we fared much better than two other PRO3 cars which were nearly totaled.

As an aside, another example of how important it is to know how to properly go off track and apply those techniques, every time – even in racing conditions. The reality is that going off will happen and applying those techniques will save you and everyone else a lot of money in the long run.

That race was run without a chicane (usually reserved for endurance races) and this would be the first of two race weekends with the chicane, aptly named the “Chicane Challenge” and I was really excited to see how the investment in simulator time would pay off.

Friday Test and Tune Day – .5 seconds faster right off the trailer

This isn’t a perfect comparison because of differences in weather conditions but when I looked at my first session off the trailer this Friday versus the same first session, in August 2016 (the last time I ran PIR with a chicane), I was ~.5 seconds faster and broke the 1:30.000 barrier for the second time.

What happened? Softer braking, which lead to higher min-speeds through each corner.

Looking at the data comparison below, it’s clear to see that I was able to use less brake pressure and carry more mid-corner speed AND get on throttle (and full throttle) sooner than a year ago. On this specific session, I remember letting the tires warm up and then attacking the corners and surprising myself that I had so “easily” hit a 1:29.xxx lap time. On the following lap, I tried to repeat it but found that while carrying more speed through the turns 4-5 transition area, the bumps in the road unsettled the car too much while I was on throttle, causing the left rear corner to break loose.

A comparison of my off the trailer, 1st session on a test and tune in August 2016 versus June 2017. Look at the brake pressure differences and the delta chart.

Also, I was driving on relatively old tires (Toyo Proxes RR 225/45/15’s) that were on their third race weekend and their 12th heat cycle. There is an urban legend that PIR “likes old tires” and my personal interpretation is that PIR is a very smooth and grippy track and thus older tires still work well but newer tires are still going to be optimal.

The rest of the day I stayed on the old tires and struggled to break 1:30.xxx as the day got hotter and grip went away but we focused on helping that rear left corner take the beating. With PIR being a 12 turn, clockwise track and only 3 of the 12 turns being left handers the car left rear tire is under constant heavy loads, trying to get out of nearly every corner as quickly as possible.

Saturday Qualifying, Points Race 1 and 1-Hour Enduro Race

This was a unique weekend with the Saturday Group 1 race being a championship points race, along with the Sunday race. So each day we would start with a clean slate, qualify in the AM and race in the PM.

First up was Group 1 qualifying, which went ok but I couldn’t find good track position, to get me a solid draft on laps 2-4, where the fastest lap times would come happen. I ended up with a 1:30.092 and qualified 4th. Not bad but not great, being .5 seconds clear of 5th place but almost .7 seconds from pole – ouch.

In Group 8 qualifying, we strapped on some new tires so I could scrub them in for Sunday’s race and boom, 1:29.635! New personal best and, it didn’t seem too hard. The big difference? Carrying a tiny bit more speed into the chicane, more speed into turn 7 and through turns 10-12.

Group 1 Points Race: 3rd Place

At the start of the race, I got a really good start and was behind a the Spec E46 of Dan Rogers, who has a ton of race craft. We were on the inside for turn 1 and more importantly, the outside of turn 2, which is the chicane. On these low speed, high G-force turns, in traffic, it is generally best to be on the outside, because you have less steering input and can get on the throttle sooner. This is because when going two or three wide, we aren’t going at normal speeds, we’re going 10-15 mph slower and thus nowhere near the traction limit.

This gave me a solid run through the chicane and coupled with an incident where another PRO3 car tried to squeeze through where there was no room, spinning both cars – I was in the lead by turn 3 and leading my first PRO3 race?!???!

Leading my first PRO3 race ever, holy crap! Maintain, maintain, maintain….

I lead for a few laps but eventually, Brian Bercovitz got me and pulled away. Then the PRO3 who spun the other car, caught up and when we were going around slower traffic, he got a clean run out of a corner while I had to check up and he got past. I ended up in P3 but further improved my personal fastest lap time.

Group 8 1-Hour Race: 2nd place for being greedy

The 1-hour races are basically more practice for me – I like doing them by myself because I can just focus on hammering out laps and hard-coding improvements. I always strap on the oldest tires I have on-hand and try to set fast and consistent laps.

This was no different and from the start I was battling with a regular foe and friend, Jeff McAffer. I was in the lead the majority of the race but Jeff was able to stick with me the entire time.

After the mid-way pit stop, I decided to try to push a bit more as I was hitting 1:29 lap times, on crappy tires and a greasy track. Suddenly, 1:29.7xx! I felt like that lap time wasn’t too hard to get, so I went for a repeat but the tires didn’t agree.

This could have easily been just my inputs but my hypothesis is that I over-pushed the tires and I was asking them to do a qualifying lap when they were in lap 35 of a race. I had the win in the bag and Jeff about 5 seconds behind but I got greedy, went off and ended up in P2.

This is not a good POV at turn 12 at Portland International Raceways

Now I know there is a reason for the saying…

“Go only as fast as you need to finish where you’re going to finish.”

Sunday Group 1 Race

One thing that I started doing this year is running just Group 1 and Group 8, which means I get a solid amount of track time and on Sunday, I only have one group to worry about. This way I’m rested and not rushing on the day that usually counts.

Sunday Group 1 Qualifying: 1:29.874 P4

Coming off of the Saturday’s lap times, where I got a 1:29.466 in the afternoon Group 1 race, with fresh tires but loaded up on weight for race trim, I felt that I had the potential for a very low 1:29 in qualifying and thus in the running for pole. I just needed to have good track position on laps 2-4, where I could get a draft on at least one of the straightaways. But it wasn’t to be – I went out and was stuck in “no man’s land” for the first part, then I slowed down and waited for a group of PRO3 cars to come by so I can get behind them. I was able to finally do so and had a low 1:29 going but got behind a PRO3 car that slowed down way too much for turns 10 – 12. It was still good enough for a P3 but I knew I had the pace to battle for the podium and possibly the win. If I would have had an average sector time for turns 10 – 12, I would have been easily with a 1:29.4xx with my rolling best lap being a 1:29.522.

Purple cells = rolling fastest lap and yellow cells = fastest segment times

Sunday Group 1 Race: P7 finish due to a late race off-track excursion

The race started well and hard for most everyone, with a clean first lap. I tried hard to make up at least one spot on the start but it didn’t happen, so I was stuck behind the #81 of Brad McAllister, who is a strong driver and PIR is one of his strongest tracks. He’s also a pretty tough pass, with a strong racing history in the SCCA Playboy MX-5 Cup, PRO3 and recently the TRANS-AM TA2 series.

Brian Bercovitz, one of the regular competitors I’m trying to best started from the back because he had a mechanical during qualifying and eventually caught up to us. The couple laps leading to Brian catching us, I had to brake harder than normal to not ram Brad going into the chicane, which over-heated (I think) my front tires. Going into turns 5 and 6, my front end washed out, and as I was waiting for the fronts to grip, the rear-end swung out and I went-off track.

It was not too bad but just enough time for a couple cars to pass me and by then the tires were too hot and the distance too great for me to catch up and make up the spots.

I ended up finishing 7th and I think if we can do a better job of tire pressure management (to give me more life towards the end of the race) and I can do a better job of not screwing up, there was a 3rd place finish in the stars and maybe better.

Overall, a great weekend and new personal bests!

While I’m not terribly happy with the Sunday result, overall we made a ton of progress on the car and my driving. There is one more race at PIR with a Chicane in August and I believe we’ve gathered the knowledge to fight for poles and a win. We know what we can do to drop some low 1:29’s and maybe even get into the 1:28’s, which is encroaching on track record territory. Let’s cross our fingers for some sunny and not too hot, weather in August!

Posted on May 21, 2017May 28, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Day 9 – Going for the win!

It’s race day! Although I had races yesterday, today was the big race – the race that counts towards the PRO3 Championship, one of the most contested and desired club racing crowns in the pacific northwest and if this series was national, I think it would be up there with a Spec E30 or Spec Miata national championship. Big fields, hard racing and really needing to drive these cars to the limit, without losing momentum to go fast.

Taking the green flag on race day at Pacific Raceways

The plan of attack

Yesterday, I improved some of my personal best lap times by over a second and in worsening conditions. I turned a 1:37.2xx in the afternoon, which was nearly 10 degrees warmer than during qualifying in the AM and repeated that almost exactly, in the second half of the 1-hour endurance race… with tires going on their 11th and 12th heat cycle!

So today my goal was to keep improving and try as best as I could to crack the 1:36.xxx range of lap times, of which in my going back through official race records on the ICSCC.com website, there are less than ten people who have ever gone under 1:37.000 in a PRO3 car, at Pacific Raceways on official record.

Part of this is that up until a few years ago, the track surface turns 8 and 9 were absolutely horrendous. They were the original concrete or whatever the surface type was, full of bumps, pot holes and smoothened over years and years of beatings.

It got so bad that a few track day organizations essentially boycotted holding events there because they had customers, with really nice cars, suffer bent wheels and damaged tires. The reality was that it wasn’t great, not the worst ever but because it was deterring people from coming to the track, it needed to be fixed. Here is a video of Cody Smith, of Code Red Racing, who also won the PRO3 Championship in 2013, flying through Pacific Raceways. Cody is fast and smooth!

How’d it go? 1:37.104!

This time, we decided to start towards the back of the field and use the first few laps to warm up the tires, build tire pressures, get a solid lap in and then adjust track position. We did just that and towards the middle of the session, I fell back to latch on a to pack of PRO3 cars running together. Though I didn’t know for sure, I felt like I was faster than the whole group, so I fell back, created some space so that ideally, I’d be catching them the hardest at the end of the lap and getting the tow from them on the main straight away.

And it worked! I actually had a 1:36.9xx going for most of the lap but on the turn 8, I got just the tiniest bit of sideways and I think that caused the lap to not be better. Regardless, I was happy to get it and in the end, it would have been a stretch, in that session to go faster. The consolation for me was that in that session specifically, I made an improvement but the competition ahead and behind did not.

So how did I make the improvement?

Data and video. I recorded the video below to go into more detail but essentially, I focused on three things (see below the video):

Comparing with a faster driver: I had the benefit of getting a hold of data and video from another driver, who was faster than me (and won the PRO3 championship last year) and leveraged an alpha tool we’ve been working on with Track Attack. Essentially, with Track Attack, we’ve figured out how to make data from different systems, comparable with each other. Olivier uses RaceLogic’s Video VBOX and I use AIM or Track Attack on iOS. In the video below, you can see how I used this tool to compare the data and see where Olivier was gaining the advantage. Conclusion? Corner entry and mid-corner. Oliver was consistently able to roll more speed into a corner, maintain it mid-corner and then carry that advantage on the straights. He was and still is, much better under braking and controlling the slide of the car.
Understand the line and what the differences looked like: Similar to Olivier, I am also a very visual learner. Though I understand data, graphs and tables, I have an athletic background, where muscle memory and training are critical. So being able to see what a faster lap time and specific segments look like from outside the car and from the driver inputs, was incredibly valuable. I was able to see in the track map comparisons, the differences in the lines taken. He would usually brake earlier and turn in later for most corners, trying to carry as much speed as possible. You could visibly see how he had to dance with the car in mid-corner and be more precise getting on throttle, to not light up the tires.
Theoretical fastest lap: Lastly, one awesome feature we have in the Track Attack alpha product, is the ability to generate segment times AND the video associated with each of those segments. Further, we stitched together all of those segments, to show what the theoretical fastest lap time actually looks like. I generated this video and watched it over, and over, and over and over again, trying to program the muscle memory of that lap into my eyes, mind, hands, feet and core. I wanted that low 1:36.xxx lap time infused into every fiber of my being.

When will this be available?!?!?!

Soon! Racer on Rails is intended to be un-biased about products, so I won’t talk about it much here but know that we’re working on this with the Track Attack team and that this summer, this type of analysis and capabilities will be available to everyone and support all major data acqusition system file types (AIM, MoTec, Bosch, RaceLogic, TraqMate, Alfano and Unipro).

Race Result: Qualified P3 and Finished P3

This was an awesome race, see the video below. The high points are that I got a decent start, positioned myself exactly where I wanted to be and was able to make a really fun overtake on lap 2, turn 2 to get into 2nd position. I knew that if I got behind Brian Bercovitz, I would have to stay with him and pressure him into making mistakes because he is a good driver and has a rocket ship car (not that mine is a slouch).

I found myself in just that position a couple laps in and determined that I had an advantage on him under heavy braking (for turns 2, 3a, 3b and to a lesser extent, 8) but he did a great job through 5a, 5b, 6 and 7. So at the end of each lap, we’d end up about the same distance and with me being close enough to tuck under his draft. Trying to go for an overtake going into turn 2, I decided to try to get an incredible run out of turn 8 and while doing so, carried too much speed into the corner, got sideways, saved it but let two cars by.

That was just under halfway through the race and while I had a better pace than those to cars, with the rear tires getting lit up during that drift, I had to baby the tires and by then, the gap was too big to overcome. I technically finished 4th but due to the 2nd place finisher being disqualified for being under-weight, I inherited 3rd place.

Although I was disappointed a little with my mistake, overall, the weekend and day was a great success. We made improvements on the car, the driver and lap times. We established that we can compete for wins and just need to be more consistent. Thanks to the whole crew for all the work before, during and after the weekend. This hardware is for you all!

Posted on May 20, 2017May 28, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Day 8 – First Real World Race Day

As I mentioned yesterday, today was the first official day of the race weekend, with four sessions on the schedule:

Group 1 Qualifying
Group 8 Qualifying
Group 1 Non-Points Sprint Race: ~20 minute race with results not counting towards the PRO 3 championship but your fastest lap counting towards the final qualifying grid)
Group 8 Race: 1 Hour mini-endurance race that counts towards the 2017 Mini-Endurance championship (I’ve won the championship the last two years in a row!)

Yesterday, I felt like I had established a new level of performance with the car and my driving, by improving my personal best lap time at Pacific Raceways by nearly .5 seconds and being able to repeat it, though in just one lap, with a set of brand new tires on a ‘heat cycle’ run.

Today, my goal was to take those new tires, and do a qualifying run in them for Group 1, improve on my personal best lap time and then put them away until Sunday. Then swap back on the older set of tires, which would be going on their 10 – 12th heat cycles and while still good from a tread standpoint, I fully expected the performance to start wearing off towards the end of the 1 hour endurance race.

How’d it go?

Group 1 AM Qualifying

Time of Day: 9:26 AM

Conditions: Mostly sunny, 61 degrees Fahrenheit

Result: 1:37.617 (new personal best by ~.2 seconds)

Similar issue as I had during qualifying for Group 1 in Portland but I didn’t position myself best in the pack during pre-grid. I got out early in the line up and while I was at the front, I didn’t have the benefit of a draft like when running in a pack. I did about 4 laps but not cracking the 1:38 barrier. So I decided to back off a bit and get behind a pack of PRO3 cars to catch their draft. After a couple laps, I was able to get a 1:37.766 but then was too close to them and basically started ‘racing’, so I tried to back off a little before the start of a lap and then make a run but I’d get too close about halfway through the lap and the lap would get ruined. Either way, minor improvement and felt like I at least collected enough data of several low 1:38’s, which used to be my personal best and figure out what to do.

Group 8 (Mini Enduro) AM Qualifying

Time of Day: 11:30 AM

Conditions: Mostly sunny, 68 degrees Fahrenheit

Result: 1:37.533 (new personal best by ~.1 seconds)

With the field being lighter for Group 8, track position wasn’t as important, so I just went out and tried to put down fast laps immediately after doing more of a warm up lap on my out-lap. Since these were the old tires, we were trying to make sure we’d get them up to temperature and pressures for the race in the afternoon. I did two fast laps of 1:37.855 and then 1:37.533. BOOM! Another personal best. What was I doing? Just focusing on having next to no transition period from ending trail-braking to throttle application, especially on the longer corners like turn 2 and turn 8. I came in to the hot-pits for a pressure and tire temp check and was out but was only able to put down a 1:37.792. The good news? 1:37’s were starting to feel like the new normal!

Group 1 – 20 Minute Non-Points Race

Time of Day: 1:50 PM

Conditions: Mostly sunny, 75 degrees Fahrenheit

Result: 2nd place finish and 1:37.258 (new personal best by ~.3 seconds)

These races are interesting. It’s racing but it doesn’t count towards point, so this year they changed it so that the laps count towards qualifying. So, you should never try to win at all costs but the goal is more to get into a flow and go for some fast laps. I qualified 4th but started third in class, because the pole setting car decided to start from the back OR they were late to grid. Either way, my goal was the same – get a good start and stick my front bumper to the rear-bumper of the fastest PRO3 this year, Brian B in the Blaupunkt liveried car.

And that’s what happened! Man, I am so happy about how this race went (video link below soon). I knew at least at the time that I would have to work really hard to get the start I wanted and then work even harder/smarter to stick with Brian. I pushed myself even more to be on maintenance, plus a little more, sometimes mid-corner and I found myself using throttle to get that final phase of rotation going in the slower corners of 3a and 3b.

2nd Place and a new personal best lap time!

The best thing? Mid 1:37’s became the new normal, even in greasier but not horrible conditions.

Group 8 – 1 Hour Endurance Race

Time of Day: 4:30 PM

Conditions: Sunny, 78 degrees Fahrenheit

Result: 1st Place finish and 1:37.364 (only .1 seconds off of personal best)

The fields aren’t typically super-stacked for the endurance races, usually only about 10-15 cars per class and with the SCCA Majors Tour happening in Portland this weekend, the overall field was much lower, with only about 19 or so total cars on the grid. There would only be one strong competitor battling me, Jeff M in the newly painted green and black #24. Jeff and I have shared many battles the last couple of years and he and his car are a rocket. With tires nearing the end of their top end performance life, my goal was to just drive clean, consistent laps and hopefully win but not do anything stupid.

Enduro’s are an opportunity for more seat time for me, in a racing environment and over a long period of time to try different things. I also like that one mistake won’t kill you and there is a strategy aspect to the race.

In the end, Jeff and I traded spots a couple times. I was able to get him in the beginning and get in front but a mistake in turn 8 gave him the position back and I had to work to get it back. After the mandatory pit-stop, I was able to get him back but due to traffic, worsening track conditions and his driving, I wasn’t able to pull away. Aside from winning, what I am incredibly happy about is being able to put down a 1:37.364 in the second half of the race! Man, I am so happy about that.

1st Place and almost matching my personal best!

Takeaways? A new normal and 1:36’s – here I come!

Today was an absolutely awesome day and from a driving standpoint, I believe the reason is that I have fresh in my body and mind, what it feels like to drive, look at data, see what to do differently, visualize what that looks like and make it happen. I will create a separate post that looks only at the data analysis I did over the whole weekend and what I did to prepare myself to do things differently.

The last thing here, especially from the lap times from the endurance race, if I am getting near my personal best lap times on a nearly 80 degree day, in the second half of a 1-hour race and on 11 heat cycle tires, that means this car is capable of so much more. If the driver can get it together or with a pro-level driver behind the wheel, today, this car could have probably turned a low 1:36.xxx. Lots of progress but so much more to go!

Posted on May 19, 2017May 28, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Day 7 – Driving in the real world!

Today is the first day I have driven in the real world since I started this 30 day challenge. As I mentioned in the race reports for the April 6 Hour Endurance race at the Ridge Motorsports Park and the sprint season opener at Portland International Raceways, I primarily compete with ICSCC in the PRO3 racing series. It’s like Spec E30 but with more room for modifications to the car, which translates to them being slightly faster. Today was Test and Tune Friday, a regular part of a race weekend where can test things out on the car, get the setup all dialed in and practice ourselves.

The goal: Running solid, get a baseline set and scrub in new tires

It’s been since last July 2016 that I’ve driven at Pacific Raceways, a track that is a throwback to the old days of race tracks. Walls, trees, earth and not much run off are the characteristics of the track. We’ve made some significant changes to the setup and balance of the car from last year, where we saw big improvements at The Ridge Motorsports Park and PIR after the changes. So the expectation was that those changes would also benefit Pacific Raceways and coupled with driver development, we’d make some big gains in lap times and overall pace.

Here is the video last year’s August race, where I finished 4th in class

Setting a baseline

During the test and tune, we had four sessions for the day and unfortunately, I would have to miss the 3rd session because of a work conflict (jumping on an important conference call). That left three sessions to make sure the car was running well, I was back up to speed with the track, make some progress and scrub in some sticker tires.

Session 1: After the first few laps of feeling confident the car was running well, I started to pick up the pace but a driver that was taking out his new (to him) PRO3 car out for the first time, had a mechanical issue, which caused a black flag all. On top of cutting the session short, I did not see two of the black flags and was later given a talking to and I promised to be more watchful. 🙁
Session 2: Go time! I was able to get make my way through traffic and on the second lap, back in the 1:38’s! My personal fastest had been a 1:38.2xx during the race above. More 1:38’s and finally – BAM! 1:37.766 – now we’re talking! I only got one lap in the 1:37’s but I knew I had figured something out and the rest were in the low 1:38’s. A new normal!
Session 3 (the last session of the day): As much as I wanted to keep the other tires on, I had to be disciplined and put on some sticker tires, knowing that the only goal was to get a healthy heat cycle on them and dial in the tire pressures so that they could be used during qualifying tomorrow. So I put them on and despite them being new, still easy 1:38’s and a 1:38.064. KABOOM! Insert super excited emoji here!

So how did I shave .5 seconds off of my personal best lap time?

There are likely more than this but here’s my take:

The weather: Today was mostly sunny, light breeze with a high of 71 degrees Fahrenheit. It was 81 degrees Fahrenheit on July 24, 2017. Warmer weather usually results in less power and a slippery track.
Car balance: Last year, we noticed that I was struggling with rear wheel spin getting out of almost all corners, so we made a late-season change by lowering the ride height of the rear and artificially putting more weight back there, to get more traction. That made a huge difference immediately. Over the off-season, the folks at Advanced Auto Fabrication installed an absolute work-of-art fuel cell, in conjunction with the OEM fuel tank. This had two benefits:
1. Endurance ready – We now had a fuel system with enough fuel to run 3 hours straight!
2. Weight balance/distribution – due to the new hardware, we could remove the nearly 100lbs of ballast in the passenger seat area and moved all that weight back, where we need it for more traction. We also can add fuel to the fuel cell, along with ice and water to the cool suit which was moved back there too, to make sure we’re at minimum weight. More weight backwards is a good thing!
The driver and the driving: My goal was to carry over the learnings from iRacing and Virtual Racing School analysis to the real world. Brake earlier, softer and longer to carry more speed into the corners, mid-corner and get on the throttle sooner. And I think it worked!

Specifically, here is a comparison of my speed trace from last year’s fastest lap and today. Note, this is an alpha product of Track Attack that won’t be released but something similar is coming out soon and super excited to share more about that. Note, Racer on Rails is a completely separate entity from Track Attack, but I am also on the Track Attack team as a co-founder.

Comparing a 1:37.761 from today to a 1:38.215 from July 2016

Notice how in segment one, in the red line, I braked earlier, softer and carried more speed into the corner and it also translated to a higher top speed at the end of that zone.

In segments 2 and 3, I also braked earlier and got on the throttle sooner. In segment 4, I carried more speed into the scariest part of the track (turns 5a and 5b) but I lost a little bit in the exit. Lastly, in segment 5, I braked earlier, got the car turned and back on throttle sooner.

This is what lunch looks like for me. Burritos + data + video. All FTW!

So what change corresponded with how much of the improved times? I have no idea but I think all three helped and since I’m not doing any more major updates to the car, I’m going to believe in the driver changes and continue grinding on the data and video.

Posted on April 25, 2017May 12, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

6 Hours on the Ridge Spring Enduro – Race Weekend Recap The Ridge Motorsports Park

What: First race of the season, a 6 hour race at the Ridge Motorsports ‘water’ Park. Non-stop rain, great for driver development but sucked for everything else. Qualified on pole but finished 2nd in ME2 class.

If I knew then, what I know now: Check all vital systems at least a few days prior to the race weekend. Not having our radios and GPS receiver working caused us the win and this was all preventable.

Products that you should check out:

Sampson Digital Pro Racing System – this is what we have, paired with an in-helmet speaker system on a Stilo helmet and an IMSA wiring adapter. When we test it and hook up properly, it works perfectly!

Background

April 30, 2017 marked the first race of the 2017 club racing season, the 6 Hours on the Ridge, held at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, WA and put on by the International Conference of Sports Car Clubs (ICSCC). For those of you who are not from the Pacific Northwest, in the United States, this sanctioning body probably doesn’t ring a bell.

The ICSCC operates in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia (Canada) as essentially a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) but with not as much “politics”. This is primarily because it’s a smaller organization and thus, rule changes don’t impact as many people and there aren’t as many people lobbying for a change one way or another. They adopt and support most classes that exist in the SCCA and even NASA, such as Spec Miata, Improved Touring Classes, Spec E46 and so on.

The SCCA does exist in the PNW, it’s just not as strong, though it’s been growing the past couple years. NASA had a brief stint in 2013-2014. One series that is unique to the PNW and ICSCC is PRO3. It’s like Spec E30 but with more modifications allowed, based on an Improved Touring Class formula, has the largest car count in the PNW with over 80 race cars built and fields ranging from 15 – 45 depending on the weather. It also some of the best drivers, many of which have gone on to the professional ranks in IMSA and Pirelli World Challenge. The PRO3 car qualifies nicely in the E2 and ME2 classes for endurance races.

PRO3 fields are huge and look at the crowd on hand to watch!

Our car – The Track Attack #226

For this race, we were fortunate to have on our best friends, Manu Yareshimi, run a team for second year in a row and going for repeat wins. Last year we campaigned his car in the same race and got first place in the E2 class!

Manu about to go in during a pit-stop. We won!

Manu’s PRO3 car is one of the best built PRO3 cars ever, originally built by a previous owner who has moved on to Spec E46 and with the folks at Advanced Auto Fabrications doing all of the work. And they do top-notch work! It’s a front running car that has been taken cared. More on the #226 in a future post when we feature his ride.

The team

Being a 6 hour race and with rain, lots of rain, in the forecast, we felt like as few pit stops as possible and thus probably three, two-hour stints, across three drivers. That meant Manu, myself (Gama Aguilar) and 2016 PRO3 Champion and new Spec E46 driver, Olivier Henrichot. There’s one word to describe Olivier: fast. Just nasty, dirty and unapologetically, fast. Check out some of his race videos on his YouTube channel. He has or is close to having just about every PRO3 track record in the local tracks.

This was actually a re-do with Olivier as we were originally going to run the 8 Hour Festival of Endurance in October 2016 at Portland International Raceways but a freak storm that never lived up to it’s hype caused the race to get postponed and most of the drivers and crew weren’t able to make the new date happen.

Bryce, Jordan and friends were there, just as they have been for most of our races, making sure the car was running, we had a strategy and pit-stops were executed well.

Testing, practice, qualifying

We arrived on Saturday for a test-and-tune day, to not only shake down the car but beat the rust off of our driving skills as it was the first time any of use had done anything but sim racing in 2017. We had originally prepped the car for the 8 hour in October that didn’t happen and then it just sat in the garage. We drove and made some adjustments to try to dial out some front-end push, that would then be followed by some aggressive over-steer if we tried to coax the front end to bite. At the end of the day, we made compromises to allow the front end to have more bite, slow the weight transitions but not be too tail happy as not all of us had or have lightening hands, like Olivier.

We woke up Sunday morning to just clouds but then the first drop of rain started around 8:15am and did not let up the WHOLE DAY. We’re not talking showers or even steady rain, we’re talking downpours transitioning to monsoons and back to downpours. Aside from being wet and cold when not in the car, it was a blast!

We had a brief practice session where Manu and I split the time and then we put our hot-shoe in for qualifying. He not only put us on-pole for E2 but 7th overall, splitting half of the Spec E46 field! #winning

The race!

The race started in a steady rain and when the green flag dropped, the spray began and the race was on! The first hour went off with all but two things going as expected. That first thing, which at the time felt insignificant, ended up being the biggest lesson learned. The radios didn’t work. Well, at first it was that we when we did a test connection with Olivier’s helmet and the in-car radio system, the connectors on the system and his helmet weren’t compatible.

We brushed it off and just assumed that it would work with Manu’s helmet and mine, just like it had the past couple of years, without an issue. The first sign of this fatal flaw was about 90 minutes into his stint, we gave him a thumbs up as he passed start/finish. The very next time by, he comes into the pits to see what’s going on? There goes half of his almost one full lap lead.

20 minutes later, he comes in after going off to check things out and make sure there was no damage to the car. It all checked out and we decide to do a driver change since it was close enough to the 2 hour planned stint. Manu goes in, connect radios, turn them on and… nothing. Ok, we’re going off of pit boards only.

Separate story on Manu’s amazing comeback in a separate post but this was Manu’s first time in a race car in exactly one year and after recovering from a life-threatening disease. So he was working his way to getting back on pace. Slowly but steadily, his lap times were coming down, even with conditions getting worse but we lost the lead and because our main competition left their fastest driver in the car for about 3 hours (Corey Peters and the KD Motorsports crew), they eventually got two laps up on us.

An extended black flag all due to a car going into the start/finish wall stopped the bleeding and when racing got back underway, Manu had figured out how to drop another 8-10 seconds from his lap times – AWESOME!!

With about 2.5 hours left in the race, it was my turn. We tried the radios on my headset and nothing. No sweat – just focus on the goal: drive clean and take big chunks out of the 2 lap lead the competition had on us. The second hiccup we had was that the GPS receiver on the AIM MXL dash had bitten the dust. The last few times on track, the receiver was hit and miss but would always eventually get going. No matter, we strapped in Track Attack on iOS and got going.

Within a few laps, I started clipping away lap times in the mid 2:24-2:25 range on a consistent basis. The conditions were absolutely horrible. Fun but horrible. Aquaplaning on the front straight and the worst was near the top speed area, right before start/finish. A big puddle of water mid-track and the middle of the transition between T4 and T5. While not super tricky, exploring and searching for traction in the ‘carousal’, a long left-hand sweeper.

Then there was the worst part of the track in the rain, T9. A slight right hander, that we call ‘the kink’ because right at the corner there is curbing and an immediate uphill climb on the corner exit. This is great in the dry because you attack it hard, staying flat and using all that grip you get when hitting a steep uphill and on-camber climb. In the wet though and in these southeast Asia style monsoon conditions, a lake had formed as water collected from all directions and no drains for relief. It was kind of straight forward: no matter what you did, it was going to feel like hitting a standing water, at-speed, because that is exactly what we were doing and it was going to spit you out the other side and your only goal is minimize how sideways you would be spit out.

After the first 10 or so laps and a few full opposite lock situations, I thought I had it figured out but I would discover that what would work on one lap, had no guarantee of working another lap. I even resorted to attempting to follow the path of the Spec E46’s, who were placing their right tire on the curbing, claiming it had more grip but if you got it wrong, the penalty would be severe. I paid a severe penalty, barely being able to keep the car on-track. Despite all of this, I was making up ground fast, having made up one lap and more than halfway through making up the second lap. That progress wouldn’t end with what we wanted, over what ended up being the last 30 minutes of my stint, I ended up going off-track (even if it was just 2 wheels off) 4 times.

I eventually got the rolled up black flag, the last warning before being called into the pits and even though I backed off the pace, I still went off again, dropping two wheels on the exit of the kink. I didn’t know what was going on – almost whatever I tried, it would work one lap but not the other. I got black flagged for the first time ever. Had a good conversation with the race steward and promised to back off the pace even more, crawled through the kink on the out-lap. Made it! Ok and now early and soft brakes for the ‘thumb’ and… nothing. No slowing down, no lockup, no turning, no response to brake pedal modulating – just gliding straight off the track.

Embarrassed, confused and disappointed, I kept the car moving so I wouldn’t get stuck on the mud as I had gone a solid 50-75 feet off-track, got back on track and made my way back to the hot pits. I had the crew checkout the car and while they couldn’t find anything wrong, we saw a big dent in the skid-plate, mud and dirt everywhere and no way to explain what happened. So we figured we must have been leaking oil and called it a day.

Results

We finished 90%+ of the race laps so we classified in 2nd place. The 1st place KD Motorsports car would end having to be towed in 4 laps later but still winning overall. It turns out that they had a slow oil leak and eventually their engine seized – explaining part of why I went off so much; they had been dropping oil across the track for several laps. While that sure as heck didn’t help our cause, I put all the blame on us. We should have tested our radio setup the day before and gotten them working, so we could have been in communication with the pit wall and telling the race steward that not only were conditions difficult but that something else was up on the track.

We should have had lap times the entire time, with the crew checking lap times on Race Monitor to tell the drivers that we could slow down a bit and still make progress. This race was lost the day before and even the week before. We failed to prepare properly – we could have tested radios and GPS a week, a month, several months prior.