October brought a fun weekend spent at Pittrace. The Delaware Valley Chapter sponsored an HPDE over a weekend, so I got to catch up with some familiar faces.
Although my M3 is nearly stock, I still choose to trailer it to events since I don't want to be stranded in case a mechanical issue comes up (or worse yet, an on track incident). My trusty F15 X5 has put in a couple years of towing duties now and performed really nicely. The combination of a shorter hitch and Airlift Bags have reduced squat significantly. Having a support vehicle also gives me the flexibility to bring spare wheels, tools, extra gas cans and food/drinks to reduce trips into town. Also, I don't really know why, but I love towing stuff.
The Uhaul trailers are okay functionally, but it was getting old renting one for every event; not only was it inconvenient to have to go grab it and return it, but obviously made little financial sense to rent. I am making a conscious effort to keep costs in control with this hobby, so I picked up a car trailer at auction:
I'll be modifying it once I get it back home to better suit my needs. I'd like to store a spare set of tires on it permanently, and mount my toolbox and a rack for gas cans. The idea is to minimize the amount of unloading when I get to the track, and packing when I leave. In the meantime back to Pittrace:
Pittrace is small in comparison to the Glen, but I think it's more scenic and a more "playful" track. It rained on and off Saturday but really started pouring Sunday. No problems - just kept the defroster running and heated seats on. Sometimes not having an all out racecar is awesome...
Obligatory cool car little kid appreciation post
I put together a video of some typical prep and laps.
No issues other than guzzling gas and wearing out a set of pads up front. I am convinced that DSC/MDM is significantly contributing to pad wear by applying the brakes whenever it likes. This year I'll be running with all that jazz turned off and am curious to see if my pads last longer than a weekend.
I'll be back in May for the Genesee Valley Chapter's first event of the year.
