My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[tdott]

Originally Posted by dogbone

rhyary was able to acquire the necessary info and get it to AIM, and AIM implemented it a couple years ago.

As it turns out, at least in my car, DCT temps are not an issue. (I do, however, have the Slon pan and the Do88 DCT cooler.)

Awesome thanks! I ordered the AiM Solo 2 DL, seems to be the best/only decent logging solution for our cars.

I have the same Slon + Do88 setup, I've only gotten the yellow dct warning once at Sebring in 100+ heat.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by tdott

Awesome thanks! I ordered the AiM Solo 2 DL, seems to be the best/only decent logging solution for our cars.

I have the same Slon + Do88 setup, I've only gotten the yellow dct warning once at Sebring in 100+ heat.

Make sure you connect the AIM to the CAN bus, not just the OBD port. There’s way more info coming from the CAN bus.

The AIM Solo 2 DL is great. Very accurate timing. And the fantastic data you get from it is unavailable to you from any other device (at least anything connected to the stock ECU).

The software takes some patience to learn, but learning it is very worth it in my opinion. Seeing the hard data that shows your behavior on something like the gas and brake pedals can be sobering.

As you learn how to read and understand the data, my advice is to just try to work on 1-3 things at a time. Don’t try to put 15 things in your head that you need to fix/improve on. It’s too much. Just go out and try to work on a couple things——-really try to clean up a jagged brake pedal pressing characteristic, or try to brake later in a certain corner, or try to carry more speed through a corner, etc. Often times, you’ll find in the data that maybe once during the day, you did a corner right. It’s clear in the data when something went right because you can see the time delta or the speed line compared to other laps. So, you can see that you can do it right, but you don’t do it consistently. That’s where the work starts—-trying to do it better consistently.

And marrying data to video can be very useful. If you don’t have a SmartyCam that instantly overlays data on video for you, it can be time consuming to make videos with data overlay on your own, but it is good to see data with video.

[kolosy]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Make sure you connect the AIM to the CAN bus, not just the OBD port. There’s way more info coming from the CAN bus.

The AIM Solo 2 DL is great. Very accurate timing. And the fantastic data you get from it is unavailable to you from any other device (at least anything connected to the stock ECU).

The software takes some patience to learn, but learning it is very worth it in my opinion. Seeing the hard data that shows your behavior on something like the gas and brake pedals can be sobering.

As you learn how to read and understand the data, my advice is to just try to work on 1-3 things at a time. Don’t try to put 15 things in your head that you need to fix/improve on. It’s too much. Just go out and try to work on a couple things——-really try to clean up a jagged brake pedal pressing characteristic, or try to brake later in a certain corner, or try to carry more speed through a corner, etc. Often times, you’ll find in the data that maybe once during the day, you did a corner right. It’s clear in the data when something went right because you can see the time delta or the speed line compared to other laps. So, you can see that you can do it right, but you don’t do it consistently. That’s where the work starts—-trying to do it better consistently.

And marrying data to video can be very useful. If you don’t have a SmartyCam that instantly overlays data on video for you, it can be time consuming to make videos with data overlay on your own, but it is good to see data with video.

out of curiosity, do you review the data in the field, or at home after? i need to get my ista laptop loaded up with their software i think, otherwise the learning value (for me) is limited since it's days or weeks before i'm back at the same track.

[tdott]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Make sure you connect the AIM to the CAN bus, not just the OBD port. There’s way more info coming from the CAN bus.

And marrying data to video can be very useful.

Thanks for the tips! The analysis of your front wheel lockup in post #931 was impressive and was exactly the type of data I was looking for to add to my setup.

I currently run a Garmin but was missing being able to deep dive into data post event, the Solo2DL should help me there and also be able to monitor temps. I only considered hardwiring it to the pt-can bus, obd2 wouldn't give me what I wanted.

I have a GoPro I use to record in car video, I think there is a way to sync that up with Solo2DL data and video overlay post event, I might try that workflow out to see how I like it, if it's too much work then I might consider adding a SmartyCam later, but I plan to keep the Garmin.

Currently competing in time trails with the M3, but building a Spec E9x to go w2w racing next year. So I should be able to switch this setup between cars depending on the event I am doing and if I continue to instruct.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by kolosy

out of curiosity, do you review the data in the field, or at home after? i need to get my ista laptop loaded up with their software i think, otherwise the learning value (for me) is limited since it's days or weeks before i'm back at the same track.

I DEFINITELY look at the data at the track. Yeah, it takes a laptop and it takes some commitment to be downloading stuff between sessions instead of hanging out and chatting with people, but it’s very useful.

[tdott]

dogbone thanks for your help, I was able to get my Solo2DL installed and setup for this past weekend at Sebring.

Took 1st place in my class and improved my PB by 1.2s on older tires.

I need to pour into the data, but I am happy with what I am seeing so far, just need to figure it all out and have my presets set up. Not worrying about overlaying data on video yet, but ill try to do that at some point in the future.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by tdott

dogbone thanks for your help, I was able to get my Solo2DL installed and setup for this past weekend at Sebring.

Took 1st place in my class and improved my PB by 1.2s on older tires.

I need to pour into the data, but I am happy with what I am seeing so far, just need to figure it all out and have my presets set up. Not worrying about overlaying data on video yet, but ill try to do that at some point in the future.

Excellent! Glad you got all that setup.

Just a few notes from what I see in this corner:
-You approached this turn quite differently on the two laps. If it's a turn you're not familiar with and you're experimenting, that's fine. But if it's a turn that you've been through many times, then you're gonna wanna work on building more consistent behavior through there. Consistency is what builds speed and reduces lap times. Plus, being consistent makes it easier to fine tune what you're doing in a corner because you can better focus on a change. If a corner is done wildly different every time, then it's hard to know what you're changing.
-On both laps, the brake chart is fairly jagged--meaning you pressed, released a little, repressed, released again, repressed, released......this on/off/on/off style of braking is very upsetting to the balance of the car.
-An ideal gas press is a smooth onset of power. It's not easy to do, but again, when you press and release and repress, you upset the balance of the car---sending weight to the front and back as you hesitate on the pedal. These are the classic standard ways that cause a car to spin. The smoother you are with the inputs, and control the balance of the car, the less likelihood there is of losing traction and spinning.
-From the straight, you came into the turn slower on the green lap, but you still exited with a higher speed on the red lap which kinda doesn't make sense. If you enter a turn slower, then you should be able to exit faster. Now, maybe the tighter line on the green lap kept your speed down. Not sure why you held such a tight exit line on the green lap.
-When you try to judge the overall result of a turn, the main question is: did you gain time or lose time compared to other laps. And you need to look at lots of other laps. And the best way to make that judgement is to look at the time delta line before you released the gas pedal on both laps, and then look again after you are on your way down the next straight. Don't look at the huge time-delta dips mid-corner and say, "oh yeah, I gained tons of time there" if you give all the time gain back on the exit of the turn. You need to look at a corner holistically. If you come blasting like a rocket into a turn, yeah, it will look like lots of time was gained on the entry, but usually, the time will be given up (and more) on exit because you have to collect the car and wait to get back on gas again. So you want to focus on what was the result of the whole turn. In this case, the red lap picked up about 0.2 sec over the green lap. But there's some things that could be improved there.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

[Ximian]

When you do overlays of the GPS position onto Google Maps or something like that, does it look accurate with the Solo DL2? Mine usually shows me off the track a bit.

[tdott]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Excellent! Glad you got all that setup.

Just a few notes from what I see in this corner:
-You approached this turn quite differently on the two laps. If it's a turn you're not familiar with and you're experimenting, that's fine. But if it's a turn that you've been through many times, then you're gonna wanna work on building more consistent behavior through there. Consistency is what builds speed and reduces lap times. Plus, being consistent makes it easier to fine tune what you're doing in a corner because you can better focus on a change. If a corner is done wildly different every time, then it's hard to know what you're changing.

-On both laps, the brake chart is fairly jagged--meaning you pressed, released a little, repressed, released again, repressed, released......this on/off/on/off style of braking is very upsetting to the balance of the car.
-An ideal gas press is a smooth onset of power. It's not easy to do, but again, when you press and release and repress, you upset the balance of the car---sending weight to the front and back as you hesitate on the pedal. These are the classic standard ways that cause a car to spin. The smoother you are with the inputs, and control the balance of the car, the less likelihood there is of losing traction and spinning.

Those are great points! Sorry I didn't provide any background on the two laps. I really just intended to post some data, to show the fields. But yes I happened to be looking at a problem corner I've been dealing with. Turn 7 at Sebring, I'm not sure if you've made it this far South East before, but Sebring is known for being bumpy and punishing on suspensions. This particular corner has a lot of bumps in the braking zone, me/car has been having trouble where the front wheels lock up momentarily as it skips over each bump when on the brakes really hard.

After a few blown attempts at this corner in the past by over shooting into the run off, having ABS go crazy and ice me out, etc. I tend to take this corner, specifically the braking portion of it, conservatively to avoid issues. This is the first time I can look at the objective data instead of the brake later/harder feedback the Catalyst gives you.

I always felt that if I braked later I messed it up, if I braked earlier, even by a little bit because the pavement is smoother it was always too early. Because it was a time trial weekend, I only have data for like 6-8 push laps. But you bring up a good point, I should look at all of them and I haven't yet. I think I do need make a concerted effort to log data taking this corner while I try to get it right.

Originally Posted by dogbone

-From the straight, you came into the turn slower on the green lap, but you still exited with a higher speed on the red lap which kinda doesn't make sense. If you enter a turn slower, then you should be able to exit faster. Now, maybe the tighter line on the green lap kept your speed down. Not sure why you held such a light exit line on the green lap.

I think the later but steeper deceleration curve due to the difference in braking approach of the red line, results in entry to the corner at a higher speed, but I think I reached min corner speed too early or slowed too much. I did get on it earlier. So I think I lost all my gains from braking later and harder by slowing too much, too early. But I did get on the throttle earlier, which stretched out my gains to the next corner.

So I need to brake even later, but I think that is where the problem lies, if I brake later it will be directly over the bumps and I can't decelerate fast enough to make the corner.... I think,....that will need some more experimenting and logging.

Originally Posted by dogbone

-When you try to judge the overall result of a turn, the main question is: did you gain time or lose time compared to other laps. And you need to look at lots of other laps. And the best way to make that judgement is to look at the time delta line before you released the gas pedal on both laps, and then look again after you are on your way down the next straight. Don't look at the huge time-delta dips mid-corner and say, "oh yeah, I gained tons of time there" if you give all the time gain back on the exit of the turn. You need to look at a corner holistically. If you come blasting like a rocket into a turn, yeah, it will look like lots of time was gained on the entry, but usually, the time will be given up (an more) on exit because you have to collect the car and wait to get back on gas again. So you want to focus on what was the result of the whole turn. In this case, the red lap picked up about 0.2 sec over the green lap. But there's some things that could be improved there.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

As a whole yes, I carried gains all down the next straight. But lets say, I gained under braking before turn in, but lost it all from turn in to apex, then gained more on exit. Gains in two of those 3. If I can get it right and make gains throughout the corner, then that would be ideal if possible.

Phew, thank you. That was a lot of analysing.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Ximian

When you do overlays of the GPS position onto Google Maps or something like that, does it look accurate with the Solo DL2? Mine usually shows me off the track a bit.

I haven't used that overlay feature much, so I can't say much about it.

[dogbone]

Had a chance to visit Big Willow with Open Track Racing on Wednesday. I was hanging out with OKUSA as he had his first real track day with his new E90 build. He was flying out there! That car is real quick.

On my end, I haven't driven much in the last couple years, and it's been 4 years since my last visit to WSIR, so I just used the day to get back up to speed. Gonna be honest----I was pretty hesitant out there at the beginning. But as is my usual way, I build speed throughout the day. We had ideal conditions, so it was a bummer that I was out of practice. Also, we were supposed to have 5 sessions, but someone spilled a lot of oil along a long stretch of the track, so it was shut down for awhile.....so we only had 4 sessions. I got my groove back by session 4, so I was sad that we didn't get the 5th one in. I had new A7's with me, but I elected not to use them. (Yeah.....that took some discipline.....) I'll save them for Buttonwillow in December. I was on pretty old DH that I've been running all summer at High Plains.

My previous best on the old WSIR pavement in 2020 was 1:25.5.

First session, I did a 1:30. Blah. Was tip-toeing around the dang track. 2nd session, did 1:27. 3rd session, did 1:25. 4th session, did a 2x1:24.1, and I was on a 1:23.4 lap through Turn 6 when I caught a Nascar/tube frame chassis race car.......and that lap was ruined. I was on another 1:23.5 lap going into T9 and I braked like 100,000 feet too early for Turn 9 and totally ruined the lap. Man, don't know what the heck I was doing on that one. You look at the data and see where I hit the brakes, and it's like.....ummm wtf were you doing?.......Anyway, it's just all pointing to the fact that I still need to work on getting WSIR back into my head.

So, I got a new PB on quite old Pirelli DH. It's not the most impressive time compared to what people were doing in Bimmer Challenge on the new pavement a few months ago. (Also, OKUSA went quicker.) But I think the car has quite a bit more to offer. I just took too long to get back up to speed. And it would've been nice if we had had all of our sessions.

Now I'm looking forward to a couple Buttonwillow dates in December. I'm feeling like my driving chops are coming back finally (although I'm still braking too early). I'm hoping I can get back up to speed more quickly at Buttonwillow.

Tech note: A couple weeks ago, I was looking on the inside of the barrels of the rims, and I was noticing brake dust collecting around what looked to be fluid droplets. It then occurred to me that I have not replaced my AP Essex Radical piston seals since I've bought the calipers in 2018. Brake fluid was starting to seep out. So, I ordered new seals, and this week, with the help of Minicorsa, I replaced the seals. I did all the disassembly and removal of the calipers, and I swapped the seals themselves and cleaned the pistons and reinstalled them, but Danny quickly got all the pistons out of the calipers for me, and took care of the bleeding/flushing of the brakes. Thanks to Minicorsa for speeding up that job. It's quite a bit of work, and it's fairly messy.....Anyway, all this to say, don't leave your caliper piston seals in for too long. 6 years was too long. And I honestly feel like the brakes are now working quite a bit better than they were.

Here's my WSIR fast lap video. Was chasing a Radical the whole time:

[kolosy]

dumb question, never having been to that track. you stayed in low gear through the carousel and kept the RPMs close to redline. I've been taught to upshift in that scenario to save the motor and because you're gonna be shifting when you come out anyway given how close to redline you are.

are you not shifting to get that little bit of juice coming out of the turn, or for some other reason?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by kolosy

dumb question, never having been to that track. you stayed in low gear through the carousel and kept the RPMs close to redline. I've been taught to upshift in that scenario to save the motor and because you're gonna be shifting when you come out anyway given how close to redline you are.

are you not shifting to get that little bit of juice coming out of the turn, or for some other reason?

Turn 2 at WSIR is a long rounder that heads uphill. The exit of T2 table-tops and then it’s off to the races to get to Turn 3. To have full control over the weight balance of the car, you get more immediate response and better acceleration from 4th instead of 5th. The car is just a bit lazier going that hill in 5th. Plus, as you approach the exit, and finishing the climb, it’s harder to punch out of the exit in 5th. One could argue, it’s safer to exit in 5th because you have less torque and would be less likely to spin on the exit when it table-tops, but for the last bit of instant acceleration or “juice” as you call it, 4th gives that to you. With DCT, you can shift anywhere, so shift points don’t really enter your mind.

There are many people who have had nasty spins at the exit of T2. If you’re new to the track, I would start by doing it in 5th; then move down to 4th as you understand the dynamics of the exit. (The problem is that people are still holding the steering wheel in the turn, the exit table-tops and they get aggressively on the gas while the car unweights, the rear wheels get loose, and they don’t open up the steering wheel. Boom. Spin.)

But yeah, you’re right—-it’s more heat and stress to hold it in 4th.

[omgzirra_exe]

Originally Posted by dogbone

There are many people who have had nasty spins at the exit of T2.

I've seen SOO many people get fucked at T3 for not taking the right line too..

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: It's fun to see everyone, but a win is nice too!

I attended Bimmer Challenge at Buttonwillow yesterday. The day started out foggy. The 8AM start was delayed until 9:20AM. Not bad considering that the SDC event on Friday was delayed until Noon because of the fog.

With the car being down for so long, it had been a long time since I was at Buttonwillow. The last real lap I did was in Dec 2022 at the Bimmer Challenge event, so in anticipation of this event, I went to the Speed District event a couple weeks ago. The pavement at Buttonwillow is deteriorating and the grip is noticeably reduced compared to a few years ago, and the pavement is really chewing up tires. It's a bummer, and I don't see a repave anywhere in the foreseeable future due to all the resources being poured into the 2nd track.

I started the day in a dilemma about what tire strategy to run due to the fog. I had brand new A7s with me, and I was debating when would be the best time to run them. It was cold and foggy, and the pavement in the paddock definitely had patches of mist/water in places. Even walking on it was a tad slippery. So, was it really wise to run the good new tires in the first session when the track could be slippery? Was I throwing away the new grip on a cold and potentially unpredictable surface? Unknown.

The car was sitting on old DH scrubs that I had been running since the summer. They were not great. Plus, DH are terrible in the cold weather on the first 2 laps of the day---literally undrivable until they warm up---and it was in the low 40's. This is difficult to deal with when you're in a competition where they only give you one lap to warm up. I also wanted to start first in the grid in the first session because I was hoping for a shot at a clean lap in the first session.

By comparison, Hoosier A7s in my opinion are the ultimate tire for cold weather starts where you only get one lap to warm up. You can crawl on an outlap in any temp and just zoom the last couple corners and they're good to go with max grip. (Your brakes might hate you, but the tires are good to go.) It's an autocross tire, so it's not too surprising.

Anyway, I made the decision to swap the A7s onto the car. I really did want to start first in the grid, and I wanted to make sure that all the cars on street tires behind me wouldn't be crawling up my tail pipes since their tires didn't need any warm up.

I'm happy to say that I made the right decision. The track was totally dry, the A7s were nice and grippy, and I got good use out of the tires. Won Bimmer Challenge B1 Class, and ran the fastest lap of the day in that first session. It was a fun and somewhat unexpected result. But it was a nice conclusion to a motorsport year that started with quite a bit of frustration. My driving chops are still a bit on the rusty side---I'm still braking early, my turn-in is tentative, I'm still getting the gas pedal feel back. It's getting there, but it's very weird for me at Buttonwillow---I know how I'm SUPPOSED to drive the track because I've done so many laps there, but I'm not driving it like that because I'm still building back my confidence, and so I hedge my driving towards the conservative side, which is great for safety, but terrible for lap times. My car catching skills are all good to go, so that's nice.

And it was a super social day out there, which I always enjoy. Although, someone, and I don't know who they were, came up to me and said, "You know, you're pissing a bunch of the B1 guys off." I didn't really even know what they meant, but my response was, "Oh well".

In the 2nd session, while on a hot lap, I had a weird encounter with birds on the track while approaching Bus Stop. Over 30 birds were at car height fluttering all around, and I was approaching at over 100mph. I cannot believe I didn't hit any of them. I captured it on video and put it at the end of the lap video below. Of course, that lap was over.

My fast lap is below, along with he bird encounter. It's not my favorite driving, but it is what it is. And thanks to Steve Lee for getting some pix/video of my car! I really like his intro vid of a bunch of us starting the session.

[dogbone]

Went to Big Willow with Speed District yesterday. Weather looked good on the forecast, but the wind really picked up before the day got going. It was a solid headwind coming down the front straight. Plus, there was a fire that was on the other side of the mountain above the track, and it blew towards the track. It was fairly smoky for about half-an-hour—-and then it just magically disappeared. The wind kinda mellowed out later in the day, but it occasionally kicked up.

Started the day with the A7s in the cold low 40s temps. I don’t have any great DH on-hand, and I didn’t really feel like dealing with warming up worn DH on a cold morning. Well, it was a mistake. For me, DH is the best tire I can run on the car—even if they’re mostly worn out.

The first two sessions on the A7 were not my favorite. I felt like I was driving my ass off, but the lap times were not great—in the 1:25-1:26 range. My PB from a month ago was a 24.1, and I was quite determined to beat that, so I was pretty frustrated. Yes, the A7s were good-to-go as far as the cold temps, but I just wasn’t getting what I had hoped for.

For session 3, I swapped to some old DH and was easily matching/beating the A7 times without much effort. So annoying.

As the day wore on, I was pushing harder and seeing some results, but could not beat my 1:24.1 from a month ago. Was getting close right before lunch with two 1:24.2 laps in a row.

I decide after lunch to swap the tires around the car. I get concerned at Big Willow that the left side of the car sees much more stress than the right side. While switching the tires, I discovered that the tire that I’d been using as the front left tire had a leak in it. I could not figure out where the leak was coming from. Nothing looked like a culprit on the face of the tire, and the sidewalls and beads looked fine to me. I also swapped out the insert inside the valve stem. It didn’t help. The tire kept leaking. The 2PM session was coming up quickly, so I just grabbed two random rims with even older DH on them and slammed them onto the car. Went out at 2PM and immediately ran a 1:23.9. Alright! A new best. Kept pushing and later in the session, got a 1:22.986 (transponder). Annnnnnnnd I look at the GoPro, and it’s dead. Too many track sessions for the old GoPro4 battery. And I only have one battery these days because the others went bad. I may need to finally upgrade my GoPro. Argh. No video.

I had planned on leaving after the 2PM session. My stuff was packed up, the driver door had been removed and was hanging in the trailer. I had returned the transponder. All I had to do was stick the car in the trailer and leave. But it was nagging me that I had no video of my fast lap. So I decided to charge the camera battery—-just in case. And then I decided to put some gas in the car—-just in case. And I ran back to registration and asked for my transponder back—-you know…..just in case. I checked the traffic going down to LA, and it was fine for returning the trailer back to the parking lot in LA before heading to the airport to fly home. Soooooo I decided to run one more time at 3PM.

I go out and run 1:24.3 and 1:23.5. Ok. What else can we do? My last hot lap was a 1:23.2. Ah—-so close. In the data, the driving of this video lap was actually better and cleaner than my PB lap, but late in the session the engine just was not pulling the same. The video lap was actually faster through T5, but then the car just didn’t accelerate the same as the PB lap from the exit of T5 to the entry of T8. Lost almost 0.4 seconds in that stretch just due to acceleration. Ah well. But at least I got video of it!

Willow Springs is a unique track for me. At most tracks I consider myself familiar with, I usually run my fastest time in the first or second session of the day. It’s not a surprise—the coolest air, the fresh engine, the tires are the freshest they’ll be for the day at the beginning of the day, no dirt or slippery fluids on the track yet, etc. Well, I’m really familiar with WSIR, but in almost every visit to WSIR, I run my fastest lap at the end of the day—regardless of the ambient air temps or anything else. That track is about being fearless, and it takes me awhile to work up the confidence to really go for it. It’s just my cautious nature I guess. I definitely do not consider myself a fearless driver. I am more in the camp of being calculating, technical, and building speed gradually. I watch other people just super slam right from the get-go and wish I could do that at WSIR, but….no. Yesterday, Danny from MiniCorsa went out there and first session on new Yoko slicks in his Viper did a 1:22 right off the bat. Amazing.

Here’s the 1:23.2 lap. There are some pretty cool highlights for me in both this lap and my PB lap. On my PB, my entry speed to T8 was 145.6mph. On the video lap, my minimum speed in T8 was 135mph, my max speed before braking for T9 was 140mph, my minimum speed in T9 was 100mph, and my max speed going into T2 was 122mph. Front straight speeds were not impressive all day long because there was a headwind. Anyway, I think I need better tires to go any faster than this. Not sure I’ll ever commit new[ish] DH to WSIR…..hahaha

[SYT_Shadow]

glad you went out one more time! and it's great to hear the car and you are doing well out there!!

[Gmark958]

Happy New Year everyone. Albeit a few days late. Do you have any plans for the car in the new year or are you just going to work on getting faster with the current set up?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Gmark958

Happy New Year everyone. Albeit a few days late. Do you have any plans for the car in the new year or are you just going to work on getting faster with the current set up?

At the moment, my plan is to run the current setup and see if I can improve my times. The car is plenty quick, and I’d like to see if I can get more out of it in its current config. Running good tires will be key to getting new PBs, so that’s where the budget will be spent for now.

What I’m focusing more on is to continue reawakening my driving chops that went dormant during my year-and-a-half off due to the cracked motor. I was pretty surprised and disappointed at how hesitant I was when I got back in the race seat. It’s taken me longer than I thought it would to get back up to speed. Looking at my driving, I think the last main thing I need to focus on to finally get back up to full speed is late braking—judging that distance properly and assertively getting on the brakes late. T1 at Willow Springs is a 150mph down to 90mph braking zone in my car. And it’s not pretty if you go off there. On Saturday, it was apparent to me that I wasn’t willing to late brake it yet. But in fairness to me, that’s the fastest braking zone at any public track in CA now that Auto Club Speedway is no longer around, so if I’m still a bit hesitant there, I’m ok with that. Overall, I left WSIR on Saturday thinking I did an acceptable job while knowing that there’s still room for improvement. Chuckwalla may be next on the calendar. That track is a great place to experiment with late braking zones.

Motorsport is a journey. Mine had a pause in it. That’s ok. Just another challenge in the journey. I’m just thankful that the car has been working. If there’s any mod projects in the future, it’s probably to add lightness.

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: YESSSS!!! NOOOOO!!!!

Attended PCA-San Diego's Chuckwalla CCW event this weekend. Got a new video camera---DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro. What better way to inaugurate a new video camera than by setting a new PB?! And then what worse way to inaugurate it with having to be towed back into pits right after the PB?.......

Anyway, had new Pirelli DH and good weather, so I was happy to get a new PB---1:46.94 (transponder), especially with the surface grip at Chuckwalla deteriorating. And then, the next lap, I started having transmission issues--couldn't access even gears, car refusing to downshift, car conked out..... Had to be towed in. Day was done. Taking it to EAS tomorrow.

Here's the lap:

And then, here's my walk of shame back to the pits....

[Gmark958]

Maybe it's time for a transmission upgrade?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Gmark958

Maybe it's time for a transmission upgrade?

I have SSP clutches in the car....