06/08/08 With everything that's going on a race license is becoming necessary so after taking the Cascade school (see Mini entry for 06/06/08), it's time for my first novice race. Larry has kindly agreed to lend me his Spec Racer Ford (SRF). The car weighs a bit over 1,600 lbs and has around 110 hp from its 1.9L Ford engine so it's no rocket ship (a stock Mini S accelerates better), but the handling is nice. It's a good car for developing driver skill. Motorsports Engineering, the guys who normally take care of Larry's cars, did the prep and brought the car out to the track. It's great to have everything taken care of especially at the first event like this, but of course there is a cost involved so it's a tradeoff.

Even though the car is closed wheel it is classed as 'Open Wheel Novice' and I was put in Group 6 along with a bunch of formula cars and much faster Sports Racers. For Closed Wheel Novice there are two practice sessions and a race on Saturday and no events Sunday. Group 6 has two practices Saturday and then Qualifying and the race itself is on Sunday so I'll have to be here two days instead of the planned one, meaning I have to pay for the car to be here another day. Ah, what the heck, let's just go for it!

Saturday is cold and overcast. The clouds occasionally dump drizzle and rain on the track just to keep it interesting. My first practice session starts out on the dry surface but within five minutes it's raining and I see three cars spin on just that one lap. It looks like this on video: (a 20Mb file) - watch for a FV going off the track in front of me in the first few seconds of the clip!

Between the weather and this being my first time in the (borrowed) car, my lap times are pretty slow. I still pass many of the people in the session but that's because the fast guys just sat it out, nothing to gain by practicing in this stuff. I start out cautiously at 1:40's and incrementally work my way down from there. Best time is a high 1:35 which is way off the 1:28-ish track record for SRF. The session is a great learning experience though - I got to drive in changing conditions including rain, did some passing, was passed a few times, dodged a number of spinning cars and managed to stay on the track myself. A successfull mission.

Second practice sesssion is more of the same - cold and wet. A lot fewer spins and a lot more people pass me. Best lap time is only half a second faster, in the low 1:35 range, but I'm getting more used to the car. I call Larry and ask him to send his GPS data so I can compare and figure out what I need to work on tomorrow.

While I'm doing all this, M volunteered to work the turn 11 corner station and she seems to be enjoying it - despite the rain and cold. According to other corner workers she's been making wise-ass remarks every time I'd go by, like 'the gas pedal is on the right'. Merciless, this one is. She does make friends fast and ended up driving the Viper pace car for a couple laps during lunch.

On race day the weather is much better. Clouds clear up and temps rise to high 60's which is just about perfect. I'm a bit apprehensive at qualifying, with all the 21 cars on the track including some that are 10-15 seconds faster than me. After looking at the data (see below) it is clear that I need to work on corner speed and that will be my main focus. So I just resolve to stick to the plan and watch my mirrors. M is working the pit exit station today and comes over on the grid to wish me luck. It's great to have her here. Hopefully soon she'll be racing (and I will likely work since a certain amount of time at corner stations and other duties is part of the requirements for upgrading a Novice license to Area license).

Qualifying goes smoothly, I stay out of the way of fast guys and pass a few of the slower cars. Focusing on corner speed pays off and I qualify 13th overall with a 1:32.373. Fastest car is a Formula Continental at 1:19.283 and slowest is Formula Vee at 1:47.611 which gives you an idea of the speed differentials in the group. In the dry I'm able to get some heat in the tires and start approaching the edges of traction in a couple corners, the left-hand, off-camber turn 6 in particular.

Three hours later - the main event. I find that I'm not particularly nervous sitting on the grid. Just focusing on what I'm going to do and how. We did a practice race start in the school Friday so it's not a big deal. One of the cars ahead of me seems to have some issues with his engine so I jump a few spots forward on the start but that quickly goes away in the next few laps as faster cars repass me. My main goal is to finish the race without incident and secondary goal is to work on corner speeds so I pay close attention to the mirrors and let the fast guys go by when they lap the field. There is a vintage Formula car that seems to be running lap times similar to mine so I chase him for a few laps. I can tell that I'm entering turn 4 way too slow still and the data backs it up. I feel like I'm making good progress in turn 10 but there's still much more to be gained there. In 6 I'm at the edge so that's a good place to work on car control at the limit. Guess it'll take a while longer to recalibrate myself for the faster cornering that this car is capable of. Below is a video of some race and qualifying highlights (55M file):

Being in a race is subtly different from a trackday session. It's much more 'businesslike', with more of a sense of being on a mission. It is also more tiring mentally and physically. Still, the race goes without incident as intended, and I get a number of positive comments from other drivers afterwards. I'm in the Open Wheel Novice class and place last, 6/6. My best race lap is 1:32.025 which is 1/3 second faster than my qualifying time. In driving the car two 25-minute sessions today I dropped 3.5 seconds off my best lap time yesterday and I'm now 3.5 sec off the track record for the SRF class. Of course the remaining seconds will be a lot harder to eliminate :)

Now on to the data. The picture below shows three traces. Red is my best practice lap from Saturday, black is my best race lap and orange is one of Larry's better laps in practice at 1:29.08 - exactly 3 seconds faster than mine. Chris from Motorsports Engineering tells me that the tires I was on are not the best and may be costing me a second (would be silly to use up best tires for a novice race anyway) but regardless of any such excuses it is very clear I have a lot to work on. The traces also show that I did make significant progress from one day to the next, exactly in areas I was working on. So that much is encouraging.

The first thing is the entry to the chicane. Larry carries a whopping 10 mph more into the corner, at 58 mph vs my 48 and that alone costs me 0.7 sec at the chicane exit. The next and probably greatest difference is entrance to 4. Larry goes in at nearly 76 mph whereas I tiptoe in at 65, on both days. On my best lap, the time deficit is at 1.3 sec vs Larry's by the exit of turn 4 and grows to 1.5 sec at the entrance to 6. Through 6 and 7 it felt like I was using the car pretty well and the data bears that out, with speed traces matched much closer to Larry's through that section. I still lose some time and exit turn 7 nearly 2.0 sec behind. The back straight is nearly a wash (Larry seems to shift at slightly higher speed/rpm but only gains 0.1 sec on me to the entrance of 10. Turn 10 is another place where much more speed can be had. You can see my progress from one day to the next, where I was only doing 75 in the turn on Saturday (which is 6 mph slower than what I do in the Mini on street tires!) to 85 in the race. Larry goes through at 90 and actually accelerates for 11 where I coast. So, by the exit of 12, a 3.0 second difference and it is quite clear what I need to do to close the gap. Datalogging is wonderful for this - there is no way I'd be able to have such a clear picture of what needs to be done without it.

Overall, my first race has been a great experience. There are some positive things about racing and some aspects which are less attractive than trackdays. It is definitely expensive (the weekend cost me about 5x what a trackday would, for same or lesser amount of tracktime, and that's with the car itself being free). There is a lot of waiting around and logistics/prep/etc. especially given the amount of tracktime involved. On the plus side, the experience of being in an actual race, and the camaraderie at the track is more intense and satisfying. At this point I'm still undecided if I'm going to pursue racing long-term but in the near term I definitely want to follow through with getting the license and most likely upgrading to International/Senior level. I think having the credentials will be a good thing when it comes time to run my various toys at venues far and wide, and I'm certain I will learn a lot and improve as a driver in the process. Already have, in fact.