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

Posted on August 9, 2018August 9, 2018 by Gama Aguilar

Track Walk: Portland International Raceways

In a couple weekends, we’re headed back to Portland International Raceways and the first time I’ll get to drive the track for more than one session (in real life) this year and since I was on the Speed Secrets Podcast, earlier in the spring. I got some live coaching from Ross Bentley and have been excited to implement the tips I heard. Check out the podcast episode here and subscribe – it’s an awesome podcast with a wide variety of guests and every time, I learn a ton.

So let’s take a lap around the track and go through each sector as defined by the sectors on Track Attack. Below we’ll be using illustrations from real data from a pair of front-running “spec” racing class cars: my PRO3 and Will Schrader’s Spec Miata. Both are considered low-power momentum cars but there is enough power and weight difference you’ll see different things happening.

If you are a Spec Miata or PRO3 driver in the Pacific Northwest (or have similar cars), you can request to join the respective teams on Track Attack and get access to the session data that we’re using in these examples. (Link to PRO3 data share team and Northwest Spec Miata Tour)

We’ve broken up PIR w/chicane into 4 sectors. Each sector is a combination of corners and are split halfway through a ‘straight away’.

Elevation change: None

PIR is like the Lime Rock Park of the west coast. In the chicane configuration, there are 7 right hand turns, compared to 2.5 left hand turns. But unlike Lime Rock, the elevation change is near zero. Check out this video where the data overlay shows the elevation change – there is just under 10 feet of total elevation change.

No real elevation change but there are still some tricks on banking that the track holds.

Segment 1: The festival chicane

The first segment starts at the start/finish line, of which the speed that is carried before the first braking zone is determined heavily by the exit out of T12 on the previous lap and if you might have caught a draft down the front straight.

Braking for T1 will depend on the car and whether its a qualifying lap or a race lap. In a PRO3 car and a qualifying lap, you can hit the brakes hard right after passing the 400 board and what ends up being right before the 300 marker. Note, this is hard to replicate lap after lap. After hitting the brakes hard, start coming off of them and you should already be looking for the apex of T1. It’s a good practice to put the right-side tires on the FIA curbing at the apex of T1 and even dropping a tire inside of the curbing isn’t bad but puts more stress on the suspension components.

Think about this: When are you releasing the brakes as you enter the corner for T1? Play around with that.

You’ll want to take a line where you can hit T2 with a late apex. Why? There’s a decent straight-away from full-throttle at the exit of T2, all the way until T4. Focus on doing what you can to get to full-throttle as soon as you possibly can coming out of T2. Usually when I see data of someone really moving through this segment, it is all about the minimum speed they carry through T1 and how quickly they can get to full-throttle out of T2. Clearly, there is a trade-off here but that’s the trick – finding the right balance and compromise for you and your car.

Also, the steering input for the change in direction to turn for T2 is relatively abrupt and hard. Remember, slow speed –> fast hands, fast speed –> slow hands.

Comparing the lines of two front-running cars: Blue is a PRO3 car and Yellow is a Spec Miata. What differences do you see?

Segment 2: No rest – Attack!

Segment 2 includes T4 – T6 and is one of the areas that separates good from great laps. It can be easy to coast through this segment, but when you’re looking for the maximum lap time, you need to attack!

Same two cars: Yellow (Spec Miata) and Blue (PRO3). There is a 250-400lbs weight difference depending on the Spec Miata. Why do you think each car may be taking different lines?

T4 is somewhat of a false apex – you don’t absolutely have to hit the curbing but the benefits of staying closer to the curbing is that you travel less distance and you have more room to catch the car, if and when the car is upset by the bumps. When you brake depends on your car but generally speaking, with the chicane, you can go pretty deep into the braking zone and brake pretty lightly relative to braking for T1.

Think about: As in segment 1, when are you coming off the brakes as you enter T4?

As you dive into the T4, the rear of the car may start sliding, which is a good thing! Use maintenance throttle to settle it down and slowly start going to full throttle or modulating accordingly. How much throttle you can give it will depend on the speed you carried through mid-corner and how well the rear-left suspension components are absorbing the bumps. There is a lot of load on that rear-left, all the way through the exit of T5. Is your suspension bottoming out?

As you approach T5, you’ll have to either breathe off the throttle to get the car to rotate or give it some very slight braking. Get turned in and hit that curbing for T5. Then give it as much throttle as it will take and let the car release to the driver’s left as you approach T6.

T6 has different schools of thought. One school says sacrifice the corner and run the shortest distance possible. The other says that you should hit the corner with a wide entry and get an amazing run towards T7, where you don’t flare out as much on the exit of T6. I’ve seen data from both approaches and it’s really a toss-up. Find what works best for you and your car.

Just remember that the outside of T6 is off-camber and usually has a ton of marbles. You don’t want to be caught on the outside of T6 almost ever (save for rain) it will be slow and you will get passed.

Going fast through segment 2 should feel like you are on the ragged edge, having to catch the car slightly throughout the entire complex. This is no time to rest – attack!

Segment 3: The banana straight!

In my opinion, this is the second most important segment of the track. T7 leads onto the longest “straight” on the lap, so getting onto full throttle, without backing out is the most important thing here.

Where you determine your braking point will heavily depend on your car but the goal should always be to be at or near full throttle right at the apex of T7.

Can you see the ever so slight differences between the PRO3 (blue) and the Spec Miata (yellow)?

Think about: Where are your eyes when you are on the brakes for T7? Get them on the apex as soon as you possibly can.

Use one fluid motion to get the steering input for the corner and when you are pointed at the apex, commit and get to full throttle as quickly as you can. In all of my fastest laps, I have a healthy two tires on the T7 curbing and will have a slight slide on the exit, of which a quick steering correction will get it to stop and doesn’t require a lift. Over slide on the exit or have to lift after apex and you are dead in the water.

Segment 4: Brown trousers

In my opinion, this is the most important complex of the lap. It is the scariest and thus, even among good drivers, there is more variance in segment times than in any other segment.

The entry into T10 is the most important and it is much less about how late you can brake and more about how well balanced the car can be, as you carry a higher amount of speed through the corners.

Think about this: Will a car that is stood up on its nose because the driver braked super late, turn better than a car that is balanced front to back because the driver braked maybe a little earlier and lighter?

Some drivers can pull off (in a PRO3 car) braking at the 200 marker and keep the car balanced and others brake at the 300 and it works just as fine. Figure out what works for you and your car.

Make it your job to always, and I mean always put tires on the drivers-left curbing of T10. Then make as a straight of a line as you can to brake in a straight-line for T12. This means that you might miss the curbing on T11. That’s ok!

Brake in a straight line for T12, focus on when you’re going to release braking for T12 and get just like T7, get your eyes to the apex of T12 as quickly as you can. Turn in with a single, smooth movement and just nibble or have a full tire on the curbing of T12. This is slightly less important but if you do this, you’ll know for sure that you’ll have enough track on the exit and avoid hitting the tire walls for the drag strip (of which I’ve hit) or along the main wall.

As Ross suggested during the podcast, the goal is to get to full-throttle as quickly as possible. If you find yourself near the apex of T12 and at 50-75% full-throttle, just give it the beans! Go all the way and know that it might slide a little on the exit but you usually don’t need to lift to stop the sliding – a quick steering wheel correction will be plenty.

After that, it’s smooth sailing to start/finish. Release the car and have the lightest hands on the steering wheel as possible. Any steering input while at full-throttle is friction and friction means going slower.

Other things to consider

People say that Portland doesn’t use up brakes and tires and that’s sort of true but when you’re pushing, everything makes a difference. Using the curbs is really important but also has led to pad knock-back for several drivers, which isn’t fun.

Track temperature makes a huge difference on available grip and can swing 20-40 degrees from the morning to the late afternoon. That could make a difference of up to a second on lap times or more.

Catching a draft can also make a huge difference, upwards of .5 seconds on a lap. So if you can get a tow early on the main or back straight aways, do it!

Track records are made on <100F surface temps, <80F air temperature, fresh tires, qualifying weight, a draft and putting it all together on the first 2-3 laps of a session.

That’s it! Let us know what you think about the guide and feel free to comment and share any of your tips and tricks for PIR. Do you do different things? If so, share it and tell us why.

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Gama Aguilar

1st Pro Race – 12 Hours of Imola Creventic TCE Series

Going pro racing

My first on-track experience was a 1-day High Performance Driving with Proformance Racing School at Pacific Raceways. It was a actually a birthday present for my wife. She had a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 and I had a 400whp 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

His and her’s AWD turbo beasts! I still miss that STI!

That day I learned that I had no clue what I was doing behind the wheel of a car from a ‘racing’ standpoint, especially one with that much power and in general the capabilities of the car. I also realized that learning to drive a car on-track with skill and being fast was going to take time, but I was up for the challenge.

Over the next 12 months, I did several track days and learned about the then, GRAND-AM Continental Tire Series where production-based race cars, like my Subaru, raced in the GS and ST classes. Further, here in the PNW, we had several drivers who had started out in local club racing and driven or were driving in series like that at the ‘professional’ level.

I have dreamt and continue to dream of owning and racing cars like this!

Since then, it’s been a goal of mine to at least once, drive in a professional racing series in a production-based sports car.

Getting the invitation

Over the past four years racing in primarily PRO3 class, I’ve met several former PRO3 drivers who have or still do drive professionally. One of which is Dan Rogers and through him, Seth Thomas, of which they have co-driven in multiple race cars and series over the years. In 2018, they decided to see about putting together a program to do at least a handful of the Creventic 24/12 Hour Endurance racing series, which has races in the most iconic circuits all over Europe and at Circuit of the Americas.

They reached out to several drivers who presumably have a minimum level of proven speed, ability to keep a car clean and ultimately, afford to take part in all or some of the races. When I first got the email, I almost brushed it off completely, assuming it would be way too expensive for me to afford but it turned out to be not too bad and in the grand scheme of this type of racing, a solid value. Coupling this with an extended family vacation and a couple of business meetings, taking part in the race went from a pipe dream to a bucket list reality.

12 Hours in a factory race car | BMW M235i Racing

The race will be a 12-hour race, split over two days. I’m not exactly sure why this is but having visited Imola a few years ago, I can imagine it being a noise ordinance issue as Imola is actually a city park, with residential buildings right on or next to the track property and park. I’ve also heard from organizing bodies that holding a race over-night is much more expensive than running during the day due to the required workers and lighting.

The BMW M235i Racing factory race car – raced in professional TC series all over the world.

The weapon of choice is a newest generation BMW M235i Racing 2-door coupe, built and sold directly by BMW motorsports as turn-key solution for the ‘entry levels’ of professional racing. I don’t know the exact class we’ll be racing in but the car is capable of pace just slightly slower than the new global TCR cars.

Sorg Rennsport’s BMW M235i Racing car in for a pit stop

It has a 3.0L, twin-turbo in-line 6-cylinder engine and a 6-speed automatic transmission, with paddle shifters. Dan Rogers, who has driven the car previously described it as essentially a bigger PRO3 or Spec E46 car, in terms of handling characteristics. This is music to my ears as it means, well balanced, plenty of brakes and enough power to have a great time but not so much that you could get into too much trouble. The car is owned and managed by the Sorg Rennsport Racing Team, out of Germany.

Learning the track

Having never driven Imola in-person, my main resort to learning the track was iRacing! My simulator is primarily setup for iRacing, so even though I realized a couple weeks ago that Imola and a close sibling to the M235i Racing was available on Assetto Corsa, I decided to do all my training on iRacing and using the Mercedes AMG GT3 race car. The AMG has a lot more power than what we’ll be driving but I figured it had similar characteristics from previous driving; rear-wheel drive, paddle shifters and more under-steering characteristics relative to something like a 911 GT3 or the Audio R8 GT3.

Over the past 4 months, I’ve logged over 1,000 laps and 30+ hours of seat time. I’ve also used Virtual Racing School’s data pack feature, to compare myself with one of their coaches with a reference lap time of 1:42.xxx. The data pack is from a different season where multiple updates to the car, tire model and track have been rolled out, so trying to replicate the lap time exactly isn’t possible but my goal was to get as close to it as I could. My personal best ended up being a 1:45.2xx but most importantly, the last few weeks I was able to jump in and start hammering away high 1:45’s and low 1:46’s, with relative ease and regardless of fuel load. In an endurance race, yes being fast is important but being consistent and keeping the car clean is even more important.

So how well do I know the track? We’ll find out for sure but by just closing my eyes, I can recite…

Turn 1, full throttle and get ready to straighten the wheel and brake past the 200 marker for the first chicane.
Turns 2/3, make sure to hit the backside of turn 2, so that I can square off Turn 3 and get a healthy full-throttle run at apex. Stay off the big bumps on the curbs.
Turn 4, slight left hander of which the goal is to stay flat but might need to lift depending on the angle of entry and how well the right rear tire is holding.
Turns 5/6, similar chicane but there is more distance between the two turns. Similarly, hit the back side of 5, square off turn 5 and get a healthy full throttle run at apex and use the exit curbing as needed. Do not touch the big bumps on the inside of the corner, they will destroy your time and your car.
Turn 7, very slow left-hander that feels like a decreasing radius corner. Important to get the car turned and then back on throttle quick and somewhat aggressively.
Turn 9, very fast left-hand turn with a stab of the brakes and then quickly back on throttle – let the car nibble at the exit curbs but don’t get too greedy. It’s hard to stay full throttle with being too much on the curbs as the rear end tends to kick out.
Turns 11, 12, 13 – an interconnected, high-speed and critical sequence of turns. A brush of brakes to do a full ‘send it’ into turn 11 and making sure to hit the apex curb. A stab of throttle before 6 out of 10 brakes, downshift to 3^rd gear and bite off a decent size of the apex curb for turn 12 and then full throttle as quickly as possible to go up the hill and Turn 13 ends up being more of the exit curbing of Turn 12 than anything else.
- It is very easy to let the car run over the big exit curbing here but iRacing will punish you for track limits so make sure to only get a max of 2 tires over the white line.
Turns 14 and 15 make up the last chicane of the lap, that feels a lot like Portland International Raceways. Take a big chunk of the T14 curb, flick the car to the left and get to full throttle at or before the apex of T15. It’s ok and even sometimes the curbing of T15 helps rotate the car, let the car release to the exit curbing but only go 2 wheels off.
Turn 16, a full throttle bend in the road – create a straight line that helps you get to driver’s left to setup for a very tough T17.
T17, a very intimidating and high speed right-hand corner, where you are flat and right at shifting to top gear. Position the car for a late apex and be ready for 10 out of 10 braking effort, in a straight line and shifting from 6^th to 3^rd
Turns 18 and 19, the last set of real corners before the front straight away and start/finish. Important to get the curbs on both corners and T19 is the most important to get to and stay full throttle as quickly as possible. Just a brush of brakes is needed and use all of the exit curbs.
Turns 20 and 21 are essentially bends in the road. Take them full throttle and have as little steering input as possible. Steering input = friction = slowing the car down. Make down the straight away as quickly and frictionless as possible.

Generally speaking, I think I have 80% or so of the track down in my head and developed muscle memory so that when I get into the car, I can focus on driving the car and figuring out how to go fast, versus figuring out my way through the track.

Physical training

This is an endurance race, in Italy at the start of the summer. I’ve been in Italy around this time of the year in the past and it can get hot, really hot. I’ve been working on my cardiovascular endurance – 60+ minute runs and cycling sessions.

I’ll be honest that while I’m in decent shape, I’m nowhere near where I wanted to be. Life has gotten incredibly busy on all fronts and I’ve been lucky to get in 3 workouts per week and a few simulator sessions. To top it all off, this past weekend, I did a PRO3 race weekend and only did one run group. The driving felt great but, I improved my personal best lap time during the actual race but by Sunday afternoon, my lower back, on my left side was sore. I’ve only experienced this last year, when I was a couple months post a surgery and next to no working out.

No expectations

Overall, I am sitting on this airplane with next to zero expectations. There will be four total drivers, one of which I know will be faster than me (Seth). Dan will either be around the same pace or faster because he has a ton more experience in professional races and Rob, the third driver – I don’t know at all.

I will work at being as fast, safe and consistent as I can possibly be but overall, am going to focus on having fun and taking the experience all in.

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 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 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 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 31, 2017July 5, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Day 15 – I can’t believe this is happening

This is the last day of iRacing before the big race weekend at Portland International Raceways. The goal today was the same – another 20+ lap sessions, with no accidents, pushing for consistent, fast but not personal best laps. Just get into a rhythm and pound out lap, after lap, after lap – all near the limit (or at least mine).

The session started off normal, with low-1:20 lap times steadily falling and then suddenly, lap 6 – BOOM! 1:19.410 – new personal best.

I smell blood in the water…

That lap was good but there were some small mistakes, I can do better. So I put my head down and starting pounding away trying to repeat it and make improvements. over the next 10 or so laps, I got close several times and even spinning at one point, but keeping it out of the wall.

I checked up, let the tires cool down, as I would in real life and went back at it.

More mid-1:19’s and suddenly… 1:19.351 – another half tenth shaved off. But I wanted more, especially with a low fuel load, I knew I could do it. So I pushed on but ultimately, I dropped a tire on the exit of the chicane and ended up with a 1:19.398.

What happened?

I found that if I can slow down, just a tiny bit more, in the entrance of the ‘esses’ and turn 7 and the chicane, I was able to get the car turned faster and back on throttle and full throttle, sooner. Same lesson from before, just applying it better and better.

Check out the throttle traces of the graph below.

Slow down earlier, get the car turned and then get back on throttle.

Now seeing as that new personal best was done at the end of the session, with yes lower fuel – it was also well past the peak performance of the tires. Something I started thinking about today, as I have been preparing for the Portland race this weekend, is that I’ve noticed that many times, in a real world race, my fastest lap of the race comes in around lap 2-4.

This is when the tires, brakes and everything are at their prime conditions. I wonder what could happen if we did a low fuel run, with just 5 or so laps and fresh tires? I am thinking that the lap times would come down significantly!

Posted on May 17, 2017May 28, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Day 5 – 30 Days of Racing

Two One Step forward

So yesterday, I made some massive improvements but after taking a break to calm down and try to establish a ‘new normal’ of high 1:20.xxx and low 1:21.xxx lap times, I failed miserably. I wasn’t able to keep the car balanced through a couple key corners, as I found more speed. So my goal today was to not care about going faster but just be able to easily produce lap times in that range.

The first stint, I just loaded up the car and went on my way and in the third lap, was able to hit a 1:21.040 and then a 1:21.077 and then a 1:20.877… SWEET! I’m doing this! I forget exactly what threw me off but I got a little sideways and touched a wall so I decided to get out, take a deep breath, visualize and go at it again. When I exited, I checked the data quickly on Virtual Racing School and I realized I hadn’t loaded the same setup as the rabbit I’m chasing, which is a good amount different AND I was running on 30 gallons of fuel to start.

Lap times for the first stint – not bad!

I loaded the right setup and went off… no, literally. I went off on the out-laps. Twice and had to restart. It didn’t bother me much at the time or at least I didn’t let it get to me but I really don’t like doing that. The goal is to simulate the real world conditions as much as possible and if this were the real world, there’d be a lot of repairs to do and I’d be drowning in debt to pay for them.

Final stint – let’s put get a good run in!

With my hour winding down, I went for one last stint. Breath, look ahead, visualize balance and go for it! I strapped in and on lap 1: 1:20.310 – new personal best!

Stay calm, remember – the goal is not to go faster but rather be able to knock out 1:20.xxx lap times like it’s nothing.

Lap 1: 1:20.310
Lap 2: 1:20.964 – dirty lap but barely
Lap 3: 1:20.680 – another dirty lap but barely again
Lap 4: 1:20.170 – dang it! Barely dropped a tire somewhere but would be fine in the real world.
Lap 5: Crash… hard.

I had to call it quits here because the hour was up and my wife and son were running around asking me to be a dad, of which I love! 🙂

Lesson learned: I know what it feels like to do these lap times, just need to hard-code them into my mind and body

We’re starting to get into some pretty decent and competitive lap times and at the traction limit more and more. This is near the territory of what separates the Pro’s versus the Joe’s who play a Pro on the weekends. I need to realize that it will take time and backing off a little to be more consistent. Yes, I improved my personal best but it doesn’t mean as much if I can’t consistently get near that or drive more than 5 laps without crashing. That’s not even good enough for a 20 minute sprint race.

The goal remains the same for tomorrow, don’t worry about going faster, just be able to drive consistently and stay out of the walls.

Posted on May 15, 2017May 15, 2017 by Gama Aguilar

Day 2 – 30 Days of Racing in a Row

My goal today?

Well a pre-goal, was to actually drive. The changes I made (stopping OneDrive from syncing, installing the latest updates so they weren’t downloading in the background and not having a video uploading on another device) all resulted in no performance issues at all. Yay!

The real goal: Drive like I do in real life – putting down a string of consecutive and consistent laps. I’ve found in the past in iRacing that I go off A LOT more than I do in real-life, usually having multiple incidents with walls in a given practice session. That’s not what happens in real life and while I am not driving anywhere near the same car, I believe I should be able to drive in the virtual world as I do in the real world; safe, consistent and somewhat fast. 🙂

After a day more focused on setup and updates on the machine, my goal was just to put down a true initial baseline of what I can do in the Mercedes AMG GT3 and Road Atlanta. Ideally, I wanted to drive the entire 60 minutes without an issue but I was only able to make it just past 30 minutes with no crashes. The good news was that I improved my personal best AND I put down several laps within .5 of my personal best, clicking off a consistent string of 1:22.xxx lap times and while trying different things.

I wanted to use this baseline of data to be confident in what I could do when analyzing the data with Virtual Racing School data packs.

22 laps without crashing! Not bad for not driving as much as I wanted to the past 6 months.

Lessons Learned

- Pareto lives! I am down 2.197 seconds from my reference lap and one segment alone accounts 0.809 seconds, almost half of the lap time. Two segments (4 and 7) account for almost half of the delta.

By default, in testing, a car starts with a full fuel load – in the Mercedes AMG GT3, it was 30 gallons. The car in the reference lap was running with about 10 gallons and 9 gallons in the lap I am using for reference. That is a ~15 gallon and 90 lbs. difference. THAT IS HUGE – though, I still have much more work to do aside from losing car weight.
The data exposes all – the major theme of comparing the two laps is clear. I am braking too hard for the most of the significant turns where I am losing time and then getting on throttle sooner and harder than my rabbit.
- I need brake slightly sooner, lighter and carry more speed through the corner and this will require coming on throttle softer.
- This is consistent with what I’ve seen in real-life, comparing my data with a super fast driver like Olivier.

One thing I am going to work until I can get it

Segment 6, which includes turns 6 and 7. Brake sooner, lighter, carry more speed in, know that mid-corner will be not as planted and I will have to be more gentle with throttle application on corner exit, because I’ll be carrying more speed. The goal is still to get to throttle as fast as I can but I’ll be more at the limit.

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.