A lap of Sears Pt. in a FA

[ttweed]

Found this video while fishing the WWW of a Formula Atlantic car running a 1:28 lap at Infineon raceway. The left side of the car is obscured by the driver's helmet (poor camera placement) but I still found it quite interesting.

Link to video here.

TT

[kary]

Very cool Tom. He missed a few apexes in the early turns (2, 3a and 4) otherwise he would have been a few seconds faster. He was very far off track after 3a on the hill going into turn 4 which also made him late in turn 4.

I would love to drive a car like that someday...someday.....

[ttweed]

He missed a few apexes in the early turns (2, 3a and 4) otherwise he would have been a few seconds faster.

Yes, he was driving a car with heavy oversteering tendencies and was therefore on a more parabolic line than an ideal line, but this particular driver (last year's FA National Champion, Rennie Clayton) came up thru circle track racing, loves to drift the car like he's on a dirt track, and he is able to maintain so much speed on corner entry and mid-corner that he made up for the lack of exit speed. The track record is 1:29 for a FA at Sear's Pt., so it was NOT a slow lap. I don't think he could have made up "a few seconds", but he did leave a little time out there. If you're interested in his comments on the technique involved, the discussion is taking place on the DSR forum in this thread

TT

[kary]

Tom, that was quite a lap, I was not trying to saying anything else than that, though he could have saved some time for sure in those corners mentioned as well as the area where he passed the car.

I have only run a 1:50.1 there in my car with a passenger (3045lbs car plus two people), so seeing something below 1:30 is just mind boggling for sure!

Thanks for posting the video, that track is my favorite by far of any track out west, at least that I have driven so far.