Thursday, June 26

I did a Thursday evening session last year. We got sprinkled on but it never got wet, and I had to end early due to my battery coming dislodged. So I’ve been looking forward to another Thursday evening session for about a year. I figured I’d be able to stay long enough for it to get dark, but was sort of hoping we’d have a thunderstorm roll through so I could see what it’s like in the wet.

It didn’t rain until the drive home, but more about that later.

I finally met Martha, who was the high bidder at a fund raiser several months ago for a ride in the car. We’d been trading messages for quite a while. At one point, she was going to give her ride to Lucia. As it turns out they both were there. Martha rode for only a few laps so I gave Lucia a few laps too. They both seemed to enjoy it.

The first session after they left, I noticed that RaceChrono was showing me a message: “Connecting to ODB…” It never could connect, so the first several sessions are without OBD data. That’s disappointing. I’d been bragging how well everything was working, and was looking forward to using the speed data from the ODB rather than the phone, which should be more accurate. I eventually got it working after unplugging the dongle then plugging it back in (that didn’t work), turning the phone off and back on (that didn’t work), then removing the ODB device from RaceChrono and adding it back in.

I ended up running six sessions. Four of those totaled only sixteen laps though, so that works out to be more like two sessions. The other two sessions were ten and eleven laps, so it comes out to about four full sessions. But I only got OBD data for the last two, which were four laps each. That should have been a single session, but when I got out on track I noticed I was low on gas. It hadn’t gotten fully dark yet, and I wanted to keep going, so I pumped a couple gallons of rocket fuel (98 octane unleaded racing gas) into the tank and went back out.

I really had a good time. There weren’t many cars running so we didn’t bother with the usual fast and slow groups. I ran about as many laps as I would during a CECA event for a bit over half the cost. I had a couple of nice laps in there as well. I ran two laps in the 2:12’s, which is as fast as I’ve ever done on the Direzza tires. My quickest ever is in the 2:09’s running on the stock Yoko’s. At the time, by best on the Direzzas was in the 2:14’s. I picked up a gently used set of A7’s and I can’t help but wonder how much faster those tires are. I would expect them to be quicker than the Yoko’s, so until I find out I’m operating under the delusion a 2:07 may be attainable. That must be delusional thinking, right?

I will admit here that I went four wheels off the track twice. First, I was on a flyer and through the first three turns was improving on my fastest lap of the evening. Then I caught up to Chad at the end of the highway straight. I figured I’d be past him before the braking zone but misjudged it a bit. He broke later than I anticipated. So I found myself braking too late and well inside my usual line. I had no hope of making it so I straight-lined it.

The second time was my very last lap. I had just done my best lap of the day. That lap was in near dark and every minute was getting darker. I could easily run pretty decent laps in the dark, but it’s more of a challenge to push it. I pushed it into turn three and badly missed the apex. That was confirmation that I wouldn’t be improving my time, and gave me a bit of insight into what the endurance racers face. They have better lights, but still, it’s a challenge.

The drive home was the most exciting part of the evening. It was only sprinkling on the drive from the track to Byers, but lightning was strobing the clouds clear across the horizon. It started raining when I got to the gas station, but it wasn’t terribly heavy yet. A few miles up I-70 it really started coming down. I had a hard time with visibility and had to slow to about 55. Then it stopped raining and a the road was dry in the right lane.

A few minutes later, the rain came down in Biblical proportions. I wasn’t having any problems with hydroplaning but I was really having a hard time seeing the lane markings. I had both windows cracked but the windshield started fogging up badly. Trying to get the windshield de-fogged I opened both windows a bit farther. Pretty much everything got soaked. I slowed down to about 20. A bunch of cars and trucks had pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. I considered it, but was afraid I wouldn’t get fully off the road and would get rear-ended. So I kept crawling along. Thankfully, a flatbed semi passed me and I had an easier time following him. I managed to get the defroster going and cleared a bit of windshield. It continued like this for quite a while. Luckily, there was no hail.

So here’s the best lap of the evening. I ran the new GoPro’s battery down on the previous session. I have a spare for the old camera (which usually gets mounted on the back, for rear view and sound). With just the one camera, the sound isn’t as good. And I didn’t aim it very well so I have too much cockpit for my taste. Finally, being that it’s an automatic exposure, it comes out lighter than it really was and introduces all that noise.