e30 – Racer on Rails: High Performance Track and Race Car Shop and Race Team based in Renton, WA

Posted on February 1, 2018February 1, 2018 by Gama Aguilar

The Impact of Drafting: Extra Data and Gluten Free

Shake and Bake!

We’ve long heard and talked about drafting and bump drafting – how they can make or break a qualifying time, depending on what kind of car you are in and what section of the track you can catch a tow. The fundamentals behind a draft are simple:

The goal is to get from one point on the track to another point, as quickly as possible.
You can do that by slowing down less through a corner (carrying a higher minimum speed). This could be through having ‘better’ tires for better grip, adding downforce for better grip, braking less and/or getting back on throttle quickly.
You can also focus on accelerating faster between the two points by adding more power, reducing the friction on the accelerating drive-train (lightened flywheel, gears or driveshaft as examples), increasing grip on the tires that are driving acceleration OR reduce the forces that are barriers to accelerate through – such as the air itself (e.g. reducing down-force).

We’re going to assume that you are not in formula 1 or some other series that has active aero such as a Drag Reduction System (DRS), so the only option you have to reduce down-force is to have another car punch a hole in the air, for you.

I don’t get it – the air, is the air. Why does this matter?

For the uninitiated, let’s take a minute and explain why this is important. You know those videos of reporters that go outside and report on a big wind storm or hurricane? They go in front of the camera and try to walk against the wind and they get pushed back or can barely move forward. This is analogous to what your car is experiencing. The reporter is trying to walk against a 100mph+ wind and your car is trying to drive through the air, at 100mph+.

When the reporter steps inside from the hurricane, it is much easier for them to walk, jog, run and even sprint! The reporter not only moves faster but they use up less energy.

When a car is in front of your car on a race track, they are somewhat eliminating that “100mph” wind resistance, letting you step into a bubble of protection and as you get closer, that effect gets even stronger, making it almost feel like you and your car get sucked.

You gotta shake it, before you bake it!

Now we all know from the documentary/autobiography “Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby“, that you can even use this to create a sling-shot effect. Where the trailing car tucks into draft of a car, gets sucked in and at the very, very last-minute pops out and can motor past the car that gave them the “tow”.

Ok but for reals now – here is the real thing.

This is used quite often in wheel to wheel racing conditions and sometimes, can be used in qualifying or time attack situations, when the stars align.

What does a draft look from the data perspective?

Below is a session from Spokane County raceways in June 2017. Spokane is an old school track with a very long straight away, 1,300+ yards long and in most cases, hitting near the rev limiter ( at the top of 5^th gear in a PRO3 car. At least in a PRO3 car, after exiting Turn 8, it’s full throttle past three turns, before braking for Turn 2.

On this day, it was a dry and windy Sunday, with qualifying in the AM and temperatures in the low 70’s. I went out knowing that I had to setup to get my fastest laps in lap 3 or 4 – when tires would be in their optimal performance window. If I couldn’t get my target lap time then, I’d have to back off, let the tires cool off and have another go at it.

After getting things warmed up, I put together two flying laps where I felt like I gave it nearly my best and being one of only two people to get into the 1:37’s over the weekend lap time from Saturday.

Check out the gradual increase in lap time delta – usually evidence that one lap has a draft and the other doesn’t.

So, what do we have?

The purple lap is where I caught an ok but not great draft.
Towards the end of the green lap is when I started catching the cars in front.
Air Fuel Ratio seems to be about the same on both laps
At the start of the lap, there was zero difference in lap time.
1. As I start making it farther down the straight-away, the speed difference starts growing, reaching a peak of almost 2mph
2. By the end of the straight-away and right before the brakes were hit, the green lap was already .188 seconds slower.

I felt like I had left some on the able and backed off to let things cool down for a couple laps and setup two more laps, trying to catch a draft on those as well.

This time, with some video evidence! What happened:

The red lap ended up being faster than the green lap but that was with not much of a draft.
The red lap, I got a solid draft on the back straight away, where we’ll focus the analysis.
1. Like the previous lap, the difference in straight-away speed was between 1-1.5mph, through the whole back straight.
2. You can see the delta graph, where the green lap was shaping up to be just as good as the previous lap.
3. Engine RPM was also consistently 50-100 RPM higher for the green lap, indicating that the it was able to rev more freely with the lower resistance from the air.

Unfortunately, the car that gave me the tow on the back straight, also didn’t give me the easiest of paths to go through turn 4 (which is totally within their right) and that essentially killed the lap.

Conclusion: The draft is strong!

There is a ton of variables that go into determining the impact of the draft, such as the weather conditions, the track and the type of car. In this case, with a PRO3 car, which is more of an aerodynamic brick, having something else punch a hole in the air made a difference of .15-.2 seconds on each of the straight-aways.

I think that if I could have lined up a draft on both straights, it could have reduced each of those fast laps by another .2 seconds at least. How big of a deal is this? I lost pole position on both days but less than .1 seconds. In fact, in this video below – we took the video of the fastest segments from that session, stitched them together and this would have been a 1:37.437 – almost .5 seconds faster than the fastest lap and .2 seconds faster than my fastest rolling lap.

This has generally been what I’ve experienced at most tracks on the calendar because each as a decent straight-away.

Catching a draft in qualifying versus in a race is the same but it is very difficult to control this in a race. My suggestion is if you can, work with another driver and help each other out. Take turns having one car have a go at it and then switch, allowing that switch lap to when you let the tires cool down.

Working together is very common in karting and in light-weight and powered classes, like Spec Miata. In the future, we’ll do a write up like this with a spec Miata and looking at the quantified impact of bump drafting!

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

No training or exercise for 2 months = Not great performance

Surgery…

On July 7th, 2017 I went in for what was supposed to be a minor surgery. I was diagnosed with a non-cancerous cyst, which is quite common except for it was located right on top of my tailbone (not on the tailbone but right next to it). This meant that I was regularly sitting on it, especially when I would slouch.

It had originally come up 3 or 4 years ago after 6 months of karting all the time. I thought it was just a result of all that trauma to my tailbone. It was an annoyance but never very painful until this past June, during the second Portland International Raceways weekend. After the first day of testing, I woke up sore all over my body and my cyst was really tender.

I ignored all the pain and discomfort and made it through the weekend but went to the doctor the following week. It turned out that my cyst had gotten so swollen, it was infected and those body aches, were my body fighting the infection.

Long story short, I needed surgery to have it completely removed. It is a straight-forward procedure and usually within a week, someone can go back to normal activities, but because of the location, the recovery was at least 2 weeks and possibly up to 2 months before feeling ‘normal’ again. Well for me, it ended up being the 2 months.

+ Bad Decisions

For 2 months, I wasn’t able to workout, do much simulator training and was on various combinations of pain medications. 2 weeks after the surgery, I decided to compete in a race at Pacific Raceways, where I got pole and finished P2 but I needed help getting into the car, out of the car and was icing my incision all day long.

A week after the Pacific race, I was reading to my kiddo and his friend, but I was also laid up, trying to take the load off my incision.

The next couple of weeks were really tough. I don’t know how differently or faster things would have healed if I had not raced but I think it slowed things down. A checkup with the surgeon a couple weeks later showed everything looked good but she was surprised to hear that I was in so much pain.

I headed her advice and just tried to rest up, sprinkling in some yoga and days of more walking. 1.5 months after the surgery was the August 19-20 Dash for Kids race, back at Portland International Raceways.

Our setup at Portland International Raceways

= Sub-Par Performance

During the race weekend, we decided to hit the ‘reset’ button on our suspension setup, seeking coaching and advice from the 2016 PRO3 Champion, Olivier Henrichot (a future post on that experience). We made dramatic changes to the setup, where in the end, I was able to hit the same lap times as before, with less of an effort and more confidence in feedback from the car.

All good things except, I was beat. On Friday, we had 4 total on-track session and I awoke on Saturday AM, full-body sore. Saturday, was a typical day of practice, qualifying and the 1-hour race, of which this time, I was splitting seat time with Olivier. We won the race but I again felt beat, after a 30 minute stint.

The next morning, we only had qualifying in the AM and the main race in the afternoon; not a ton of physical workout time. I qualified P2 and was ready to go for the win during the race. But about 5 laps into the race, my lower back started hurting. Halfway through the race, it was throbbing and I was actively thinking about it during the front and back straightaways. Not a good.

Qualified P2 for the main PRO3 race on Sunday

Long story short, I did not perform anywhere near my full or regular potential and one big reason that I was just not physically fit enough. Here is the race video from the weekend, of which again, isn’t all bad and 1 year ago, I would have been thrilled to finish P3.

But How Did I Do So Well at Pacific?

I’m not entirely sure but I think that while I was in pain during the race, I still had more of my strength, stamina and was also on lots of Ibuprofen, which could have masked some of the pain. At Portland, I think my strength, stamina and reflexes were not at the same level. This variables resulted in a heavier mental toll and it started impacting me even worse.

At the end of the day, it’s not like I really sucked. I still finished on the podium, against a couple of strong drivers that I’ve battled with all year. Jeff McAffer, who overtook me for P2, had a really strong race, with the fastest lap of the race. Olivier and I also won the 1-Hour endurance race!

The main point is that to perform at or near peak levels, you need to be mentally and physically at your peak. I know there are drivers that aren’t into physical fitness and they are solid, if not incredible drivers. They have other strengths, such as functional fitness and years and years of experience. I don’t have more than a few years of racing experience, so I rely on physical fitness as a way to compete.

Moving Forward

For me personally, I am much healthier now and turning my training back up. It will be some time before I’m as physically as fit as before but that is the goal. And if in the future, I am injured, I am going to bite the bullet and rest/heal properly before trying to get back into the cockpit.

Posted on July 1, 2017July 5, 2017 by Bryce Allen

My first track day!

What: My first track day!

If I knew then what I know now: I am not sure I would have changed a lot. The never give up attitude can get you along way at the track, and in the end I ended up driving a great car!

Check out: The Proformance Racing School has many great programs to choose from to fit your driving needs. Also other schools have arrived in the northwest as well like The Ridge Racing School and Dirt Fish Rally School.

The line up from the Family at my first track day!

My first track day was my 18th birthday gift from my parents. I thought it was the best thing I ever could have received as a gift. A chance to drive as fast as you can and not worry about the law. It turned out to be SO much more than just a thrill. My dad was always into track events as far back as I remember. As kids we would get to go watch him drive his, at the time Porsche 912, at the then called Seattle International Raceway (SIR) now called Pacific Raceways. I was hooked by the motorsport bug early. This brings us back to modern times at Proformance Race School for the One Day Advanced Driving School. Excitement level: high!

My car: 1985 Ford Mustang SVO Comp Prep – needed to be prepped

Leading up to the event we went over the recommended things to do before a day at the track. That list will be covered in another post but needless to say I did non of them. The car I had at the time was going to be great for this event. I was going to drive my 1985 Ford Mustang SVO Comp Prep. It was a bare bones version of the special edition SVO Mustang that was built to be sold to club racers in the 80’s. One problem was the car had no motor. So in the weeks and days leading up to the event we were trashing on the old SVO to get it running again. There is a longer story for another time. Got the car running about 1:30 am the day of the track day. So much for a good nights rest…. Wake up early and warm the cars up and I find a coolant leak from a bad sending unit under the intake manifold. Can’t drive a leaky car on track. Bummer factor: Max at this point.

Enter Dad for the save. He had recently got into BMW’s and was getting an E30 325is ready for track duty. He also had gone through and rebuilt an e28 533i BMW to daily drive as well. Being that he had two capable track worthy cars and is a 100% bad ass dude, he offered to let me drive the E30 for my first event. This may have been a bad thing because I have a couple E30 track cars, now. We unload my gear from my car to the E30 and dads gear from the E30 to the E28 and we were on the road. Excitement Level: Back to pumped!

The day of the event

It was the most enlightening thing I have ever done in a car. In the morning we did driver skills training with a panic braking stage, an eyes up flag drill and an emergency lane change drill. In these drills the basics of driver safety are tough, things like steering wheel hand position, seating position and were to look out the windshield. I felt like I was a sporting driver before but I had know idea I was just passing over the simple things to make me a better driver. The main thing that set in was eyes up and forward looking. Look to see whats ahead, what a novel thing. I still practice looking ahead every time I get in a car. Feeling pretty mind blown at this time.

The afternoon was spent lapping at Pacific Raceways. Now we are getting into some speed. Using the ideas we learned in the morning to improve our actions during spirited driving. I had a great instructor. She was calm and was very clear on instruction. As the afternoon progressed my vein tap was deeper and deeper. As I started getting more comfortable in the car the speeds came up and the fun factor as well. I would say I was getting to maybe 70% of the car capabilities but at the time was more than enough to fill my speed fix at time. Later this would change, but being the first time I had done anything at speed on a track I was cool.

Literally the most valuable driving thing I’ve ever done

To this day I think this is the most valuable thing I have done to help my safety as a regular day to day driver. The lessons of eyes up and looking forward has become how I drive, not just something to do when I drive. Following this has saved myself and property from many (read lots of times) events on the road. Being able to see whats coming and react/ anticipate to whats about to happen, you end up being out of a situation before it even happens. You can then watch it and go “man, Glad I wasn’t in that” rather than “damn, I wish I would have seen that.” In my opinion this course should be done by anyone with a drivers license. The roads would be a much safer place. This was my gateway into the track world.

Posted on July 1, 2017July 5, 2017 by Bryce Allen

My track car – 1987 BMW 325is

What: My track car – 1987 BMW 325is

If I knew then what I know now: not a lot… have a larger budget. My track car has evolved as I feel I have needed at a rate that has been on a equal plain as my skill. Could use a little more power now……

Check out: Any of your local track’s and driving schools!

My track weapon of choice is a 1987 BMW 325is. I bought it in 2007 with the idea that it would become my track car. It is what i wanted in a track car, it was in my price range, it was the color I wanted, it was well maintained by the previous owner, and all the work done on the car was at the company/shop I was working for at the time. the only thing it didn’t have was the small plastic late series bumpers. Not to sound snoody but I could look past the bumpers as that was the only bad mark I could come up with when looking at the car. At first i was also going to drive it on the road as well. Well that lasted about two weeks and a car with a bunch of good track race parts that had been wrecked in the guys driveway by a drunk driver became available. This was going to help my rack budget out very much that year. By the time
I had got my parts car home and used what i wanted and parted the rest, I was onto my car pretty cheap. And it had some good stuff at this point. The first parts push ended up with a full Ground Control coilover set, Treehouse Racing front control arm brackets, a set of SSR Comp wheels with Falken rt-215 tires ( in the day one of the top street tires), a new set of stainless brake lines, a low miles E30 M3 4.10 limited slip diff, a set of Powerflex subframe and rear trailing arm bushings, a Momo steering wheel hub adapter, and a new OEM set of euro head lights and grills and a pair of Bride sport seats. I added a set of brake pads, a steering wheel, and a pair of harnesses i had picked up a year or two before on sale. All these ended up costing about $1500. Like I said my track budget looked good that year. others have cost a bit more.

At this point I would say it was still a street car. It still had a back seat and carpet and a radio. I drove it like this for a couple months, but the track bug kept calling. So soon later I found a real race seat. No more reclining. This did now mean I was going to need to look into some sort of roll over protection as I had now defeated that safety measure. I did a lot of shopping and research about fit, style, cost, shipping, availability ect. The one that went in the car was made by a company called VSROne. It had the best clearance and fit in the car. It was not the cheapest option but for sure one I was OK with paying for. Remember I am not a fan of that compromised safety thing. So now the radio has half its speakers, there is no rear carpet or side panels anymore. The seat is in a fixed position. There is scaffolding in the back of the car. but looking forward from the drivers seat it could play the street car part for now……

A couple events into the life there was a thirst for more cornering load. Need to find some tires. Lucky for me there is a local race series that runs a similar car to mine and they tend to go through a lot of tires. So after a little hunting I acquired some real track rubber. in this case early on it was Toyo RA1 tires. These are great tires! They last along time, they can take many heat cycles, they made a lot of sizes, they are one of the cheapest track tires around. If they were still in production I would still be on them. Anyway, now I got some rubber and the car is pretty good. Springs in the car are now a little soft, I can feel the car hitting bump stops and floating a little on the grippy tires. The car already had pretty stiff springs. It was a bit stiff for the street, but not to bad. Front springs were rated ant 375 lbs/ in and the rears 475 lbs/in. At this point I had been working on a few Pro3 cars and had learned a few things. I almost doubled the spring rate of the car. Went to 650 lbs/in front and 800 lbs/ in in the rear. This was the next level of feel I was looking for at the track. Man is it stiff. Think of driving a skate board. So in making the suspension on my car up to track use I ruined the street ride quality. Not the best street car anymore.

Then there was the day I killed the carpet. Was still daily driving the car at this point when almost home from work the heater core blew a end tank and sprayed the entire left side of the carpet with coolant. For me at this point the decision was easy. Yank that smelly coolant soaked carpet out! All the rear was already gone so why not. The heater core fix itself is pretty easy, but the mess was amazing. couple issues I found with no carpet. The car is super loud, the passengers feet can get a bit warm, and I had no place to rest my foot when not on the clutch. So I built a dead pedal for it and that is all I reinstalled. Screw the passengers feet, and I can deal with a little noise, because racecar. Speaking of noise. I have had at least five different exhausts on the car. I bought it with a Dinan muffler, I killed that one looping turn 6 at Pacific Raceways in the rain. Then the custom Magnaflow cat back, this was great until I smashed it beyond repair at a PGP Time Attack on the rumble strips back when you could do that. Then I scored a IE stainless that was on the car for maybe three days, it was way to quite. I then built a Meghan racing muffler catback out of some spare parts. Didn’t look that cool but it was cheap and it worked. This was on the car until it was no longer driven everyday. It now has a pulse tuned equal length header and a flow matched exhaust built by the now closed Volvo custom shop RSI (R-Sport International) when they were developing a Pro3 race exhaust system. The sound on this is amazing but its is on the very loud side.

So now I have been tracking and driving this absurd track car that I have convinced myself is still a street car to the point that it has worn out again. The shocks are all worn and the fronts are dead. DEAD. All the rear suspension bushings, rear wheel bearings, the drive shaft, and a couple other normal maintenance items. So as you should do with any track car i went through and replaced all worn items i found again. I also took this opportunity to think about things I would want to change and the largest one I could come up with was the the shock travel. The car always felt a little held back by the shocks. The valving in them was set for a way softer spring combo, the travel was near the bottom of the shock stroke and they seemed to bottom out a lot because of this. So after much deliberation I got a set of BC Racing coilovers. you can order them valved to specific springs and come with some pretty good hardware. I got a set valved to the springs I had, and because I had springs I had them ship me a softer set (These will be used in another car). I did have to weld the strut tube to my spindle but that is something well in my comfort zone. Once installed and set and tested, I was able to get the result out of the car i was looking for. if felt way better on track, the shock adjustments are now felt, the cat doesn’t bottom on the shocks and they are running in there normal stroke range. I also again made another safety up date at this time. I removed the old race belts and my trusty Sparco race seat and installed a new set of Hans device compliant belts and a Momo head restraint seat. Also upgraded the passenger side belts from 5 pt to 6 pt. Again you can never be to safe.

The look of the car was also something that needed a update. Wheels and tires are getting long in the tooth so lets start with that. We are gonna put a little larger tire on it as well. So off come the old trusty 15×7 wheels and 225-50/15 tires and on go the new Roto 17×8 wheels and the same Toyo tire in a larger 235-40/17. This has created a new problem. The slightly larger size is now hitting the bumper trim and stop the tire. Bring on the fender roller. Little work there and they are in! Thats pretty up to date on the car as of this blog. Still on this seasons update list is a set of Massive Brakes big brake kit and a Diff limited slip unit rebuild. then next season the removal of the old roll bar and sunroof and the installation of a roll cage and clean up the interior wiring. Stay tuned in!

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. 🙂
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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 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.