roehler wrote:... but unfortunately I don't have access to any of Tom's videos.
I took some video of my timed runs for the first time in quite a few events, mostly because I wanted to figure out how I was hitting so many cones in the last few events without noticing them. I used a couple of cheap $40 HD "pocket cams" aimed both forward and backwards. I really wanted to see the backward view the most, so I gave that cam the highest mount on the roll bar in order to get a good view out the back window. Unfortunately, that meant that the forward-facing camera got the lower mount, which didn't give a very good view of the track--too much cockpit and not enough course in the frame. I'll have to rig up a different mounting point if I want to do this again. Also, the front-facing camera saved the clip in Quicktime format, and I don't have Quicktime installed on my PC yet, so when I processed it in Windows Movie Maker I lost the audio track somehow, and the clip has no sound.
I was pushing a little too hard on all of my timed runs (out of fear that Hassan would beat me, since Gary told me right before my timed runs that he was running 59s in practice) and I had several big "moments," especially coming down the hill in third gear, but the second lap seemed to be when the tires hit the sweet spot for temp and pressure. My third lap was slower by a few tenths. At least I managed to stay out of the cones and run clean on all three laps for the first time this year, so the rear-facing camera served no real purpose, but I uploaded the clip anyway, since it has sound:
Front view
Rear view
As I suspected when I first saw the course map, the lack of any long straights rewarded handling over horsepower--just look at the Miata times on this track! It was very busy, but not necessarily slow, since I was still in third gear twice on the course, once through the slalom and again coming down the hill through the "esses". I can't complain, since it was my best result of the season so far! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to let us all have some fun driving our cars, and especially to Erik for not running and letting me have a chance for the top BRI time!
TT
My best practice laps were high 59's, but I was unable to repeat those on tho old NT01's that I was using. I thought the track was a lot of fun, especially the uphill and top sections.
Next time I'll rig a new mount for it higher on the roll bar. A wider angle lens for the camera would be nice, too--that's one great feature of the GoPro, but it's a $300 piece of equipment. 
The '60s were a long time ago, now... But actually, that warping effect was added by YouTube--when I first uploaded it, the site said "Your video is shaky, do you want us to correct it?" I mistakenly clicked on "yes" and their post-processing did the distortion thing on it--really a weird effect--"warp speed" for sure! I'm reverting them back to the original versions right now.
