PCA SDR

A huge thanks to Mark Curran and the rest of the amazing AX team for pulling off another fun AX @ Q. I wasn't a fan of the track but it kinda grew on me over the course of the day. My student improved considerably and shaved off nearly 10 seconds by timed runs. Congrats to Adam "who's your new daddy?" Gill for yet another TTOD and edging out Mark for another BRI win! Amazing driving from you CC06 guys--I don't think I could've done that well in my CC06 911. I'm pretty stoked that I tied Tom Tweed for 2nd TTOD.

You killed it yesterday, Terry. Nice job! Mark did really well also--anyone who could break 1:40 on that track had to be peddling pretty hard. Three CC06 cars in the top ten shows that class is the most competitive around right now, and those drivers are performing beyond the speed potential of their cars, for sure. The Miatas had a really good day too, with Robert faster than anybody on raw time, and WT beating both Terry's and my time. Though the track was based on the one from July of last year, it was significantly altered to the extent that it was a full 10 seconds slower in this incarnation, and the Miatas were 2 seconds off the pace last year. Obviously, I didn't like this version as much.

TT

Thank you Terry B.and Tom T. for the kind words. And thank you again to my AX Team for all of the time and effort put in to make the event run so well. As a relative newcomer to this sport, I have really enjoyed competing with Adam Gill and Rob Walker in CC06 this year. Their driving skill level is what I aspire to achieve. Both of them are helpful and willing to lend advice and coaching whenever I ask. As a result I am improving due to their unselfish largesse and my competitive nature. Tom T. you are correct, this was the same track that we ran last year in July with changes made by me (without Andrew Simmons' permission), to add sections that required specific braking zone discipline. Blame me if you didn't care for the track, not Andrew or Marcus. If anyone has an in-car video to post so Andrew Simmons can see what we drove this Sunday, he would appreciate seeing it while he is still 3000 miles away. I'm hoping he'll be done with his work project and back in San Diego for our next AX on September 10th.
Kind regards,
Mark

I'm attaching a picture of my best run's (1:46.20, practice) ground track overlaid on the map file Andrew sent out for the team to set up. When I get to my desktop I'll add the kmz file.

https://goo.gl/photos/ysahBRGf1WUN2yax5

Thanks to Mark and the AX Team for putting on yet another great event. Mark, don't apologize about the track, while there were mixed reviews, if we didn't have tracks like this they would all be too similar and get repetitive. This one kept us all really thinking about the best way to drive it. There were some challenging section for sure. Loved the long course, too.

Great drive by Terry. I saw his wife and mom throw their hands in the air when he turned the fastest time. I felt a little bad when I edged him out on the next lap. It was a mid-engine car track for sure so Mike and Tom had an uphill battle. After my first lap I got to start where Mike was and laughed at him and said, "good luck!"

Another highlight of the day was debuting Steve Eisler's new Boxster S track car for its first shake down. It's been a couple month long build and it performed flawlessly

I would be remiss if I didn't thank my wife, Lana, for letting me go race with a 5-day old baby...while she had the two boys as well for the whole day!

AGill wrote:I would be remiss if I didn't thank my wife, Lana, for letting me go race with a 5-day old baby...while she had the two boys as well for the whole day!

Wow, I didn't hear about that, Adam. Congrats to you and Lana on the new baby!

TT

Thanks Mark and the AutoX team! Although I was scratching my head on this course, by the 3 run I was having a lot of fun with the track. Definitely different and challenging. I'm all for tracks where it takes a minute to get it.

Thanks to Adam for the new alignment on the yellowbird as well as the coaching. It drove completely different and provided me a whole new level of enjoyment as I scrambled to upgrade my driving ability! Below is a link to in car footage of my best time 143.73. Not a bad time I believe but definitely room for improvement as I watched myself. I'll get more roll in her next time Adam!

https://youtu.be/facpZMsd4T0

Don't feel bad Adam, you certainly earned TTOD (again)!

Mark, here's video from my timed runs. <https://youtu.be/uhywX1Hka9E> I'd welcome any feedback on where to find that extra second.

I tried something a little different and did a split screen on my two fastest laps to compare. I was surprised to see how each was just a little faster or slower throughout the lap. I'd always assumed the faster lap was more or less faster throughout. The split screen also shows that one lap needed quite a bit more steering input though I would've thought the tires were at temp by then.

Here is my last timed run when tires were getting a little too hot and the car was getting a bit loose.
Not my fastest but lap but probably the most entertaining and the only one without me cussing out the car and/or the track.
Definitely not my favorite track but Mr. Curran is already well aware of that.
Really great driving by all the 944 Spec guys. Seems like everyone was really putting the pressure on each other.
(And the sticker tires - Right Shawn?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQQ7-nFI3KI

Nice. Yes, tires help. I corded a pair during my last practice runs and the fresh rubber helped me shave 3 or 4 seconds to overcome Ty's phenomenal run that you had managed to best when you took off the RA1s. The track was fine. Hard to get in a rhythm at the end as it seemed like every other turn was off camber and decreasing radius, but it slowed everyone down. Made us 944s look halfway respectable. Awesome driving by many - most notably Adam, Terry, Tom, the rest of the top 10 which included the entire CC06 podium, and Robert on top of the X heap of great drivers.