waldo

Anyone planning on going?

I havent been before. It looks like it will be worth experiencing the banks.

If I am not mistaken, the track layout will be the long way around the oval , not the short way as depicted.

http://www.rockinghamracewaypark.com.../trackmap.html

http://www.nasa-southeast.com/2008Sep20.jsp

TrackAddict

I'll be there in TTD and instructing. We do run Rockingham the long way around the oval. We enter the infield at Nascar 3 and exit the infield at Nascar 4. Then go as fast as you dare around the banking. If you go, spend the money for a garage. It is well worth it.
The Rock is usually a light turnout as it is a pretty boring track after you'ver gone around it 100+ times which you are very likely to do over the course of the weekend.

Stop&TurnFreak

Agreed, but the banking can be fun.

Kurt Bob

Enjoy yourself! I will be at home helping my wife celebrate her birthday.

TrackAddict

End of day 1 and pretty decent I might say. Chris is here with his Meridian Kiosks RX8 and looking to get a check ride for TTD for tomorrow. I am guessing he passes it no problem. Turnipseed and his fast 325i handed me my *** yet again beating me soundly by just over 3 seconds. His car is fast, perfectly prepared and the guy can flat out drive. My best was a 1:11.327. TA2's best was a 1:11.326 - he beat me by one thousandths of a second. TA2 managed to shred his tires. The tire delaminated. I have never seen anything quite like it before. Tomorrow will just be a points day for him as he basically locks in for a season 1st place for TTC. I am looking good for a 2nd place TTD for the season. In the last session today, I hit the curbing on track out of turn 3 and bent 2 rims. I think they are not bent bad enough for any wobbles or problems but I am making sure I don't lose pressure overnight. I will evaluate my options next week.

OnRails

[QUOTE=TrackAddict;2650062]... I hit the curbing on track out of turn 3 and bent 2 rims. ...QUOTE]

I did the exact same thing last time I was there. I ended up buying a new rim before dismounting the tire but it ended up not being as bad as I had thought. I probably could have just had it repaired. Hope it works out for you.

Turniphead is 3 seconds faster at Rockingham? What's up with that?

TorqueAholic

See the Pic? That's what's up with that. Track Addict doesn't want to make excuses but his even though his tires looked better they did not work any better, he was sliding all over the place like me. (As evidenced by the 1/1000th of a sec difference between the 2 of us) We both confirmed what we already knew: Ya get what ya pay for...

By the way, those tires were an old set of Yokohama R 032's that somebody had sold me very cheap. They actually had a fair amount of thread and looked pretty good on Saturday am but not on Saturday pm... I guess they were old and dried-up.

Un the up-side, the drifting action was a ton of fun (If slow) One of my ex-students came for a ride and told me it felt like he was in the middle of a drifting event..

Just to get points and cement my TTC Championship: On Sunday, I put on my 460 treadwear all season BF Goodrich T/A street tires and I actually improved my lap time by a full second (1:10.331) which was good enough to get me to 2nd place for the day..

With the grocery getter tires I was 1.5 sec away from Warren and 2.0 secs away from Belverd.

Ain't nothin' like a fresh set of HooHoo R6's. As we saw, the proof's in the pudding.

I also hit the outside of the rumble strip at the same corner as TA 1 but I I was lucky-er and only had an ever so slight cosmetic flaw on my wheel.

As usual for me these days I had a very interesting experience with one of my students:

He was driving a ’53 Chevy 3100 pick-up and It was unbelievable! He is a young hot rod builder, he built the truck with his dad and they did an amazing job. It looks killer, has a late model Camaro suspension and a 350 RWHP small block Camaro motor.

He autocrosses it on a regular basis and he is competitive with stock C5 Vettes and Subaru STI’s. Needless to say, the truck is really well sorted out and suspension is amazing. By Sunday morning we were passing everybody in HPDE 1-2 !

TA and I stayed at the SpringHill Suites in Pinehurst which was pretty nice, free (With Marriott points) and not too far from the track. The place is highly recommended and far better than the fleebag hotels near the track.

The Rock is a fun track and I will probably go back next year even if it's a bit of a drive, it's entertaining and a great place to watch (You can see the entire track from the roof of the "Media" building) the Thunder and Lightning Races (They were awesome to watch with some great battles).

SilverEIGHT

Damn! Looks like you took a blow torch to em. What did the car feel like when they shredded?

How about a pic of the truck?

TorqueAholic

They did not shread all of the sudden in one shot. They started by chunking quarter sized pieces, then silver dollar pieces, so on so forth.

I started having traction issues on the 1st warmup lap and I was hoping that they would "come in " as they warmed up but they did not. Using my pyrometer, I fine tuned the pressure on the first few runs and that improved some, then on the last run I tried to beat Taylor and destroyed what was left.

As for the feel: They were crappy and extremely slippery all day.

On the other hand, the street tires did an amazing job, they did not get beat-up and did not roll over their shoulders. They were a bit weak for braking compared to an R comp but for cornering and acceleration they were impressive. Their sidewalls must be extremely stiff.

Highly recommended as a comfortable, quiet, long lasting, and great in the wet street tire (BF Goodrich T/A Super Sport All Seasons)

Here you go, this picture was taken by Jan. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures myself. I wanted too but did not get around to doing it. I did however get some on track video. It's a bit grainy but fun to watch. I have uploaded the footage on Google Video will post the link as soon as the Google "processing" is complete.

EDIT: Here is (The Grainy) Truck Video Link

SilverEIGHT

Beautiful truck! Now I gotta go watch "The Grainy"

SilverEIGHT

OMG! I do think that would have scared the crap out of me. I really would not want to get in an accident in an old truck like that as they were built to not give as apposed to todays cars that collapse. It sounded great, especially coming into the infield, you could hear it a little better. Did he ever get squirrelly with it?

TorqueAholic

Not really, We did have one spin coming into T3. He had taken the Nascar corner particularly well, had more speed than usual and did not slow it down enough for the corner. He did a masterful job of minimizing the drama, we got back on track as soon as the the traffic cleared-up, went in the hot pits for a quick look-over, & got back out. That was that.

Other than that the truck had very little body roll, cornered hard, could put the (Immense) power down remarkably well, and was stable under braking.

To illustrate: nobody (In HPDE 1/2) could drive away from us on the NASCAR banking. We reeled in a HPDE 2 student in a fully prepped Spec Miata (We had to work on that one for several lap before we got the point-by) , and easily passed pretty much everybody else in the HPDE 1/2 group we were in.

This was a great combination of a well built / well sorted-out vehicle, and a capable (Competitive Autocrosser) driver.

I described it as: "The truck that defies physics" in the instructor's meeting..

I had a ball

Here's another picture, this one taken by Jeff & Beth Williams
Toyz Unlimited. These guys ran a '74 Toyota Corrola that almost won the Lightning race outright on Sunday it was an awsome battle with Randy in the Thunder Roadster

SilverEIGHT

Was that 74 Corolla yellow? If so, I know the one you are talking about.

TorqueAholic

Yep, 268 HP 1.8 liter normally aspirated 4 cyl motor. Gutsy driver..

Fast as heck

Stop&TurnFreak

Glad to see you guys had fun. If you guys were running 1:11's, and that guy in the 325 was 3s faster, he was honking. I think my best in the Evo, before the tune, but on coil-overs and street tires was a 1:10's. Hopefully I will see you guys soon. ..

TorqueAholic

My best was a 1:10.331 Sunday am on my regular all season street radials

TractAddict you just need to get some decent tires you'll be right back in the game. I'll bet you would have seen a similar improvement by simply bolting-on your street tires for a session, your tires were definitely way past their prime.

STF where have you been and what's up with the Mustang? You commin' to Road Atlanta in December?

dbright007

TA, get her ready and kick ***. You know that track as well as anyone.

STF - come on down.
I am signed up and look forward to being there with some nice cool temps.

Stop&TurnFreak

Ok, I got curious, and based on the only clean lap of the 3 laps I have on vid, my best was a 1.09.80, but it was cool weather, which we all know is GREAT for turbos.

As for Road A, yeah I am coming, hopefully the Evo will be done, and I will bring them both down. I have a buddy in Baltimore who also has a house in ATL, so he will drive down the Evo. The next round of mods include, stiffer springs, front and rear, adjust able swaybar for the Mustang, and a blower. The Evo is getting c/o's, a turbo upgrade, and vented brakes. The evo should be putting down over 400whp, the Mustang should be around 350whp. However, things have to stay on-track for these things to fall into place. Keep your fingers crossed.

On a side note, how the hell did I end up with two track cars ......