Tag: virtual racing school

Posted on by

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.

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari – IMOLA!

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 3rd 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 6th to 3rd
  • 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 by

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.

Oh so close!!!

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 by

Day 14 – A day late but faster

I’m not going to lie – I had a long night of work on Sunday night and didn’t go to bed until just past 1am PST.  So when the alarm went off at 5:30am, I could barely move enough to shut the alarm down.  So I did not race at all on Monday, instead deciding to be as fresh as I could for the next morning.

And it was a good trade off – I was not only able to put together another 19 lap session with no crashes but I got a new personal best, mid-way through the session for a 1:19.476 – almost .3 faster than before.

What happened?

I’ve heard the following in various places and this is exactly what happened – whoever gets on full throttle first, without lifting, wins.  I slowed down just a touch more for Turn 7, was able to get and stay on full throttle, just a fraction of a second sooner.  This resulted in a massive drop in lap time as we approached the back-straight chicane and then, in this section, I worked on having a wider entry into the chicane, clipping both FIA rumble strips and getting on throttle as soon as I could.

All together, these two changes resulted in that almost .3 second improvement in fastest lap time!

Checkout the delta chart (second graph from the top) – you’ll see the dramatic decrease in turns 7 – 12.

Faster Average Lap Times and Average Fast Lap Times

More and more, this is what I am most excited about. Not just being able to put together one flying lap, but being able to be faster, consistently. My average lap times improved by almost .1 seconds and my average fast lap times improved by just over .2 seconds! Boom!

Specifically, it’s similar reasons as to how I improved my ultimate fastest lap – better runs into the back straight, the chicane but also, being able to get the car turned, faster and carry more speed through the ‘esses’.

Checkout the delta graph, throttle and brake pressure graphs. Getting on and staying on full throttle first, wins!

Preparing for the real world

I’m really jacked about the progress, especially with a big race coming this next weekend at Portland International Raceways, with the Chicane. This track, because we run it twice and has been one of my weaker tracks, is exactly why I chose to train with Road Atlanta as the test track. Getting on throttle, quick, for long straight aways and a chicane are what I need to improve on for this track and excited to see how this translates to on-track results.

Posted on by

Day 13 – Less than 20% Unclean!

I have been working on driving more consistent… err… consistently, with some success but today, it finally all clicked and came together like never before.

I woke up, tired as usual, did my stretching, some cross-crawls (thanks Ross Bentley and Speed Secrets!) and lazy eight’s, just like I do in the real world and got on my way.  And for the first time ever, 20+ laps of just about all clean driving.  I did drop some tires and got a little sideways but I forced myself to try to save the car, slow down and collect myself, just like in the real world.  And it worked!

20+ laps of mostly clean running!

The best part? Nestled in there are five sub-1:20 lap times and I didn’t feel like I was risking life and limb to make them happen!

On average, what changed?

It was really just one segment – segment 7, which includes turns 10a, 10b, 11 and 12.  The chicane in the back straight away and all the way to start/finish.  With my next real-world race being at Portland International Raceways, this time being run with the ‘Festival Chicane’ in the annual Chicane Challenge event, getting a great run out of the chicane has been top of mind for me.

I made it my goal today to get the best dang run out of the chicane, on power and going to full throttle, without having to lift, the top priority and I think it’s worked! Here are a couple of proof points:

1. Braking earlier, settling the car, aiming towards the backside of the 10ab apex and getting on throttle faster.

The changes are small but they are making a difference.

2. No new personal best but the average fast lap, is faster!

Just barely but the trend holds true even for the fastest laps – I am braking slightly earlier, softer and getting on throttle sooner.

Comparison of yesterday’s and today’s average fastest lap. Small but there are differences in the right direction.

Today was one of the most satisfying days – not only was I able to get into a groove, I worked up a serious sweat and did not have a single incident – how it should be in the real world. I’m excited to keep this going and build momentum of sessions where I get serious laps in and while finding little nuggets of speed here and there.

When I first started a couple weeks ago, I would not have even dreamt of low 1:19 lap times. Now I believe they are not only possible but even 1:18’s are possible in the next 30 days!

Posted on by

Day 12 – A New Normal

With the weather and track settings held constant, I was excited to get out and drive with more confidence that whatever improvements (or not) that happened, were of my own doing.

One thing that I still don’t love, is that I am still wrecking the car, regularly early on a session.  It feels like it just takes me a few laps (and a wreck) to get into things.  Today was no exception; an out-lap, a decent opening lap and boom.  I am in the wall.  I need to figure out how to cut that out, whether that means starting slower the first few laps, knowing that my mind and body just aren’t up to speed yet.  This might also be because it is usually between 5:15AM and 5:45AM when I heading out and have only been awake for 15 – 30 minutes.  Regardless, it needs to stop.

New Personal Record!  Wait, huh?

With very little warning or expectation, on the very next outing, second flying lap – there it is, a new personal best.  Barely but still – a 1:19.606.  Looking back at the data, we can see why this happened but at the time, I was very confused.  So much so that as I tried to repeat the feat, I kept dropping a wheel, resulting in dirty laps.

Consistency – not something you’ll find here.

Eventually, I got too sloppy and hit the wall again. A little frustrated, I decided to back off – not fixate on the fastest lap time and just get in good, quality laps in the mid to low 1:20’s and if 1:19’s happened – awesome! And you know what, that’s exactly what happened (well, after one more wreck).

Over the next 16 laps (I had to cut the session as my kiddo was up), all but three laps were nice and tidy. I was on such a roll, that I decided to pull over to the side and intentionally end the session versus being forced to end the session because I had crashed and my time was up.

I can’t say that I truly made progress in terms of a going faster, as in qualifying lap faster, because while I did improve my personal best, it wasn’t by much and I am not exactly sure how I did it. However, I feel I can confidently click off low to mid 1:20 lap times, of which even yesterday, was a tall order.

Not only can do I ‘feel’ this way – but I can quantify it.  Check out this really cool way of comparing laps that Virtual Racing School has; you can compare the ‘Average Fast Lap’ and your ‘Average Lap’, of which in both measures, I improved by about .3 seconds.  This is great because most people (including me) in the real world, if they’re looking at data, fixate on the fastest lap of the session, which usually happens once and no other lap is close, where we should be focusing on how to improve what ‘typically’ happens.

Comparison of my Average Lap from today versus yesterday.
Here is the comparison of my average fast lap today versus yesterday.

I love this analysis and VRS even creates a speed trace and accompanying channels for those averages – beautiful!  You can pretty clearly see that the reason I am on ‘average’ faster today versus yesterday is two fold:

  1. Getting on throttle sooner and staying on throttle
  2. Staying flat through the last turn (gut check time!  Even in the virtual world)
Look at the throttle trace to see the story of why the lap times dropped

I’m still exhausted from the last race weekend but jacked about the progress that is being made, little by little.

Posted on by

Day 11 – Warmer = Slower

Today was interesting.  I woke up pretty jacked about making a big jump in a personal best lap time and my goal was just to continue being able to get low 1:20 and high 1:19 lap times, with this new found level of performance. At first, everything started as normal, with pretty easily being able to get into the 1:21’s but then something strange happened.  I could not get under 1:20.368.  In fact, once I got that lap time, I could barely even get close to that lap time.

Frustrated but not deterred, I came off the track and checked the setup.  All looked good and I went back out to run a stint until I ran out of gas.  18 laps later and mostly 1:21 lap times, I had an off and decided to call it a day.

What the crap is going on?

I immediately went into the Virtual Racing School console to see what was going on?  What was I doing that caused me to completely lose the progress I had been making the past several days?  Was it a learning too much, too fast, hangover?  Was I feeling under the weather?

The weather! It took me several minutes but I eventually noticed this below.  I had been using iRacing with the default ‘dynamic weather’ setting, in the ‘on’ position.  I don’t know exactly how they decided to set the weather and track state but this session ended up being a warmer session, with the track temperature being 8 degrees warmer.

How did it get warmer in the virtual world?!?!

The impact of weather conditions on performance

For most cars and tire compounds, especially high performance or racing tires, we know it can be too cold.  Too cold not only does not let the tires come up to temperature and become that nice, somewhat sticky and tar-like look and feel but it can also make the tire rubber compound brittle.  e.g. negative traction.

But it apparently can also be too hot or maybe not too hot yet, but at least there is an inverse relationship at some point, between heat and grip.  Similar to like when you accidentally light up the tires or lock them up, the tires get over-heated and need some time to cool down before the expected grip returns, apparently, higher ambient air temps and track temps, have an impact on tire grip and I imagine, engine performance and thus, power output.  Engines want cool, dense air.

So, what happened specifically?

Truth be told, I am not sure exactly yet.  I don’t know how to quantify grip potential (yet) or power output (yet) in general or based on changes in track temp or ambient temp but, it appears the following happened:

The impact of a ~10 degree temperature increase.
  1. I lost time across the whole track, except 1 section (section 3).
  2. I lost .3 seconds in section 3, which is primarily the end of the esses and turn 6.  I braked earlier, softer but wasn’t able to get back on throttle sooner. In fact, I was only able to get back on throttle later.

And this was on my best lap of the session.  When I looked at a more typical lap of the session, a 1:20.652, the losses were even more pronounced.

My hypothesis is that even a 10 degree change in weather, at some point near the high end of the operating temperature of tires and engines, has an impact.  I imagine that going from 50 degrees and dry to 60 degrees and dry has an impact but maybe not as big as going from 70 degrees to 80 degrees and dry.

Moving forward: Hold variables constant

Since I am focused on improving my driving as best as possible, I’m going to do something that is complete crap in the real world – I am going to establish and hold the same weather and track conditions from now on.  Right now, I am trying to improve as best as I can as a driver, make changes in myself or the setup and be able to trace a connection between those changes and my performance.  I’ve already tried to hold as many other variables constant by driving the same track, the same car and now, essentially the same setup.  This will not be any different – I don’t want to go faster by accident because the air temp is cooler.

After this 30 days is over and possibly before hand, I’m going to turn that random selection back on so it forces me to adapt to changing conditions but for now, its time to play superhero and control the weather.

Posted on by

Day 10 – Powering through!

Yesterday and this past weekend, was a real-life race weekend and while it was all in all, a very successful weekend, it was exhausting!  So exhausting that last night (Sunday), I was sound asleep by 9pm and it when the alarm went off at 5am this morning, I just couldn’t do it.

So my racing for the day didn’t happen until this evening, after a full day of work, being a dad and before dinner.  Being so tired and having to jump immediately back into my day job, I didn’t even have time to think about what my goal should be today.  So I just decided to start driving and see if and what would translate from my weekend of real world diving.

Holy crap – new personal best!

It was kind of weird, I just started driving and almost automatically, everything felt “normal”.  It is not like I feel overwhelmed with the speed of the Mercedes AMG GT3 car, even though I’ve never driven anything like that type of car in real life but with how hard we drive the PRo3 cars and how physically demanding Pacific Raceways is, driving the AMG GT3 felt not as stressful.

The first few laps felt good and I was immediately able to get into the mid-1:20.xxx lap times but then, boom – 1:19.908!  I was so startled that I was able to find this pace so quickly that I dropped a tire on the exit of turn 12, so it technically didn’t count.  On the following lap, I was able to brake lighter and carry so much more speed into turn 1, that I found myself .25x seconds faster than my personal lap and… I crapped my pants and proceeded to spin out as I carried too much speed into Turn 3.

New personal best and no clue why or how this happened!

Calm down, breathe and carry on

As I mentioned yesterday, my main focus of the weekend was to brake earlier, lighter and have reduce my brake to throttle transition times to as short as possible.  Trail brake and… throttle!  No wasted time!  So, that’s what I think carried forward and I think, just having more seat time with a high volume of information coming at my at a fast rate.

So I had crashed, exited the car, took a few steps to calm down and said “ok, just relax – I can clearly do a sub 1:20.000 lap time but just focus on the basics.”

It took me a few false starts where I was too excited and got in trouble but finally, I was able to put together a stint of 7, mostly clean laps where the low 1:20’s and then… two, clean, 1:19.xxx laps came through.  YES!!!!!!  1:19.758 – new personal best!!!!!!

New Personal Best Lap Time!

How did this happen?  The shoes?

I have to admit – before this session, during and after, I did not look at data at all.  Whatever caused this to happen was some cumulative effect of my training over the past 10 days and the intense and positive, real-world experience in racing I had the last few days.  My best guess is the cumulative effect of repetition and “chunking” learning experiences – I’ve not only had racing on my mind each day for the past 10 days in terms of actually doing, but I’ve  been thinking about it regularly throughout the day, the things I am working on and learning but I’ve also forced myself to think about my experiences and learning differently because of these articles and the videos I’ve recorded.

Maybe it was because I went all full immersion by wearing racing shoes?

Someone smart once said that a way to truly ensure you understand something is to not just practice that thing but to teach it to other people.  That process of explaining it to others, with a variety of analogies or other techniques, forces a deeper level of understanding and I think that has been helping.

I’m planning to write a blog post just on the skill of learning, based on these experiences and some books I’ve been reading about learning but if that isn’t what caused the improvement, maybe it was the shoes?

Posted on by

Day 6 – Two more steps forward!

Yesterday, I had made progress on the ultimate lap fastest lap time but it wasn’t very satisfied with how I went about it.  Very little consistency and that was the goal of the whole morning!  So today, I came in with a calm and relaxed approach – focus on consistency.  It’s okay to give up some speed and time in the areas I was struggling on the most (turns 2, 3 and 5), as long as I can consistently be in the high 1:20 to low 1:21 range.

Keys to success: visualize your goal, see it, feel it and it will happen

What do you know, it happened!  It wasn’t automatic as in the first stint, I did go off and just barely touched a wall (for real, I promise!) so I reset the session.  Turns 2 and 3 were absolutely killing me.

That is not exactly what consistency looks like. 🙁

That second session though ended up being 19 laps of clean laps, several with one wheel dropping, usually on the exit of 5 and even saving some super sideways action but, the great thing is that I didn’t make any contact and I felt like these were laps that would have been deemed clean in the real world.

Next best thing: A new personal best – 1:20.110!

So what happened? I’m not exactly sure but the way I am thinking about it is that by trying to establish a new normal, the things that happen at mid and high 1:20 lap times weren’t as startling and thus, I had the mental capacity to see opportunities for gains.  Here are a couple:

  • Turn 1: Towards the end of the stint, I knew I was going to run low on fuel which would end the session but the last 4 – 5 laps, I found significant amounts of time entering turn 1 with just the lightest of brake application, getting the car turned to the apex and getting back on throttle.  At it’s best, this was giving me a .3xx second advantage over my personal best.
  • Turn 10a and 10b – the chicane: I also found, though not able to consistently do this, just the right amount of braking needed to not over-slow and still hit the rumble strips on the apex of 10a and the right timing of lifting and turning to get to the rumble strips (often referred to as FIA curbing) for 10b.  This would allow me to be on throttle right before or on the apex and full throttle the rest of the way.

In the end, those last few laps I had several predicted lap times in the 1:19.xxx range but just couldn’t put it together.

Now we’re talking! Well, except for the still getting sideways into turn 2!

I’m incredibly happy about this because again, I want my virtual racing driving to translate well into my real world driving.  So if I can’t put down more than 10 laps without crashing, that doesn’t bode well for the real world.  The next few days I will be at Pacific Raceways, in Kent, WA – just outside of Seattle.  With a Test and Tune on Friday, practice, qualifying and a 1 hour endurance race on Saturday and final qualifying and the main race for the PRO3 championship on Sunday.

The weather looks awesome and looking forward to seeing how the training so far translates to the real world.

Loading up Thursday night for a weekend of racing at Pacific Raceways!

 

Posted on by

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.
That will not buff out.

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 by

Day 4 – 30 Days of Racing in a Row

YouTube player

Fooling my mind even more

One thing that I noticed over the first few days, even on Day 3, when clicked off a session of nearly 20 laps in a row, was that I wasn’t sweating as much as I usually do when I drive in real-life.  One reason might be that usually before I get into a real race car, I get all suited up and then do light plyometric exercises, stretches and even a planned jog to and from the bathroom.  9 times out 10, before I get into the race car, I already have a healthy sweat going.

Right now we live in an apartment, with people above and below us.  I am doing my simulator driving between 5:30 and 6am, of which most people are still sleeping, so I haven’t been doing my warm up exercises but what I started were two things:

  1. Meditating: This is something I’ve taken up over the past 8-10 months, using an app called Headspace.  This is for a different post but I can’t be a bigger proponent of meditation and how it’s improved my overall quality of life.
  2. Wearing a racing suit: I got a new racing suit last year and that meant I had my original racing suit just lying around, so I decided to bring it back into service by wearing a full layer of clothes underneath (to mimic the fire retardant underwear I wear in real life), the suite itself, a pair of karting gloves I got for Christmas and ideally, my original racing shoes (of which I keep forgetting to get out of my RV).

Did it work? Yes, I think but definitely did not hurt.

I think so on a couple levels, first – I was definitely warmer and built up an actual sweat.  Not like the sweats I’ve built up in actual iRacing races but enough to know my body is working to stay cool.  I can’t say that I felt more or less in the zone but it sure as heck didn’t hurt.

I also decided to strap on the Next Level Racing 4-point harness that came with cockpit and while I don’t love it, the other day I was moving my car on our new property with no seat belt on, and that felt weird.  So I can definitely tell when I don’t have a harness on and by putting it on, that is one less variable that might crawl into my brain as I’m driving.

This year the harnesses in my BMW PRO3 car expired, and a new set of Schroth harnesses were installed, so there is a used set that I will eventually install on the rig, along with some metal mounting bars and plates so that it feels the same as in the car and I actually have an old Sparco seat, that I used before getting this cockpit.  I am not a huge guy, so it feels like I am not as secure as I am in my racing seat.

Two steps forward: Another .5 second drop!

So how did the actual driving go?  My goal was to keep doing the same things I learned in Day 3 and be able to hammer out regular 1:21.xxx lap times, versus the regular 1:22.xxx times I had on Day 2.

Success! Literally, on the first flying lap, I was able to get back near my personal best and then I improved it again, dropping to a 1:20.628, another almost .6 second improvement.  HOLY CRAP!!

Another big improvement and only the last lap was a ‘dirty’ lap, where I crashed. 🙁

I didn’t do anything really different, I just decided to apply that technique of braking sooner, lighter and rolling more speed into the corners to all the corners.  Here’s where the gains were made:

See the highlighted areas to understand the story.
  1. Look – no brakes! The first thing is that the s-curves, I found a way to get the car pointed on the downhill section of ‘The Esses’.  Huge gain there.
  2. Less brake, the line? I am actually not sure what happened in the chicane there but I think it might be a combination of just ever so slightly less brakes, more steering input to get the car turned and going.  Thoughts?

One step backward: Consistency at the limit

That’s awesome but I took a break after that stint from the excitement, recollected my thoughts and went again to try and just replicate this new 1:20.xxx lap times but it didn’t happen.  I was making mistakes all over the place and the worst section was Turn 3.  As I was carrying more speed out of turn 1, through 2, I wasn’t getting the car straightened before braking and that caused it to either get sideways at the top of the hill or even worse, to cut the corner too hard on turn 3, which would upset the car horribly.

Ugh… 6 of 7 laps were dirty and a crash. That’s not good or cheap.  Glad I’m in the virtual world.

I tried multiple times and just felt myself getting frustrated, so I decided to call it a day as my hour was up.  Tomorrow’s goal?  Come in with a cool head, focused and not looking for more time, just a solid run of high 1:20.xxx and low 1:21.xxx lap times.