Eiskhana

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Dave

Saturday I attended my second Eiskhana (read about the first one here). Jerry went with me again, sort of. He had errands to attend to in the morning, so he came up a bit later. So I arranged to meet up with Doug and some of his friends and caravan up together. We were supposed to be there for registration at 8; we gathered at Doug’s at 6:45. It’s only about 40 miles, so that should be plenty of time.

We had barely headed up the hill to Genessee before we hit a wall of traffic – all three lanes creeping along at about 10 mph. It was clogged that way all the way to Idaho Springs. Given that much traffic I expected to see lots of ski racks on the other cars, but there were surprisingly few. I’m still thinking it was ski traffic. Do that many people rent their equipment? Anyway, it took us nearly two hours to go the 40 miles.

The Eiskhana seemed a bit more organized this year than last. This time, each car was given an entry number. I was 87, and there were at least a dozen people behind me. The organizers said they were getting only 20 cars a few years ago and were happy to have over 100 entries now. I don’t know how many cars there were last year, but I’d guess it was fewer.

I expected a different course and that was the case. I didn’t expect that it would be so much shorter. They had the starting gate set up fairly near the ramp to the ice. The course didn’t go past half way across the lake, starting with some esses before turning around, leading to a lollipop then the end gate. To the north of the course they set up a skid pad. The idea was you make two runs of the course then try out the skid pad. Or in the other order if you prefer.

It was my turn on the ice before Jerry arrived so I made the first run without him. I figured once he arrived we’d do the skid pad and then the second run. Unfortunately, by then they’d collected the cones from the skid pad. Then they decided to change the course, making it a bit longer. It was still quite a bit shorter than last year, but it looked like the ice on the east side of the lake was quite rough, so it’s probably just as well.

Prior to the first run, I attempted to set up the course for my lap timer. I had only used it for closed courses before, except for a test run around the house. To set it up, I needed to walk through the start gate and end gate, pressing a button on the phone at each – mark “Start”, mark “Finish”.

When I rolled up to the start gate the first time, the timer started a good fifteen or twenty feet early. Oops, they moved the cones! I managed to get a time for the first run but failed on the second. I didn’t bother trying again when they rearranged the course. I was enjoying shooting the breeze with the other folks and didn’t really want to get in the way of the stewards.

The two runs at the first course were comical for me. I did a couple 360’s the first time, and on the second I got confused and did the lollipop around the wrong set of cones, and on top of that threw in an extra 360 or two. At one point I thought I’d gotten stuck – just spun the tires no matter what I tried.

On the longer course, though, I kicked ass. Well, I’m sure I was nowhere near a “fast” time, but I never lost control of the car. Had it a bit sideways a time or three, but never looped it. After we did my run, Jerry paid the fee for a second driver ($10) and I let him take a stab at it. To add to the degree of difficulty, he’d never driven the car before and hasn’t driven a clutch in ten years or more. But he did pretty well and I think he had a good time. When you think about how quickly the run is over, ten or twenty bucks ends up being pretty steep, but it’s not the kind of thing you can do every day.

The weather was fantastic. Forecast for Denver was upper 50’s, sunny and calm. At the lake it was in the low 40’s and sunny. There was a chill breeze before the sun hit the ice but once we were in the sun it was quite nice. By afternoon I was worried that I should have brought sunscreen but I managed to escape without any sunburn.

It’s a Porsche Club event so obviously there was a preponderance of Porsches. Doug and I were the only Elises. One of his friends has an Elise but drove his Mini instead. Cindy was there in her Evora. I may be mistaken, but I think we Loti were the center of attention. We fielded lots of questions and everybody was taking pictures of us. Well, our cars, not us. People asked if they could sit in the cars and we obliged. I don’t think the Subaru or Buick drivers were in the same boat. I’m used to the car being the center of attention on the street but not to this extent at car events.

Jerry and I were nearly the last ones there. Although I’d eaten my lunch only a couple hours before, I suggested we stop in Idaho Springs for Beau Jo’s. Unfortunately, everybody who left before us met for lunch at another restaurant in town and took up all the parking spaces. Oh well. So we called it a day and headed down the mountain. Traffic wasn’t nearly so bad on the way home – we hit the road before the ski lifts closed.

They finished widening the tunnel east of Idaho Springs. I didn’t expect it to be complete already. I think they need to repave it – the road is a bit rough for a stretch, but it’s nice that it’s three lanes now. Westbound is still only two lanes. So it took them a bit less than a year to add a lane for eastbound traffic the few miles between Idaho Springs and the bottom of Floyd Hill. I wonder what that cost.

All in all, a fun day.

HPR Customer Appreciation Day 2013

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Dave

The last week of every year High Plains Raceway has a free day for anybody who bought open lapping days that year. I only bought a half day so I felt like I didn’t deserve it. I couldn’t pass it up, though. It has been weeks since I’ve driven the Lotus, probably the longest it has sat idle since I bought it. The weather wonks all agreed it would be a beautiful day so I took the day off, blew off a family get-together and headed to the track.

I got there at about 12:30. There was no activity on the track. Turns out somebody blew an engine and they were cleaning up the oil. The tow truck had a work out. I didn’t see the car that blew up, but there were at least two other cars on the hook in the afternoon.

I started in the slow group. I ran two sessions with them, but the second session was quite short. I had one nice traffic-free lap in those two sessions. I switched to the fast group for the last two sessions. By then, most people had had their fill (having probably run three morning sessions) and the field was thinning out.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Sunny and mild, probably sixty degrees. I was quite comfortable with just my windbreaker.

It was the busiest track day I’ve attended. I don’t know how many cars were running, but the line to get on to the track with the slow group spilled into every road in the paddock. Cars gridding up were blocking the routes of the group coming off the track. A bit of a cluster job. If this had been a club event, somebody would have lined the grid up properly.

There were five Lotuses there, all Elises. Jason was there with his BRG car. His shirt matched my shoes. Bob was there with his titanium car. Also present were a silver one and a black one. I only was ever on track with the black one. The others were in the fast group but were done by the time I switched.

The slow group was an odd sort of traffic jam. It was pretty much a steady steam of cars moving at something like highway speed. Nobody ever had open road in front of them. There was passing, but sometimes it seemed painfully slow. I had one open lap but all the rest were about ten seconds a lap slower. It was much like being on the highway. A huge proportion of the cars were sedans – BMWs, Audis, a Corrola, a Maxima, a big Jag. A guy in a Boxter ran with his ski racks on. A classic Porsche driver had his right turn signal on. There were Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs. Porsches, Minis, Subarus, Miatas, a Gremlin running with a Jeep engine and the glittery green steering wheel from a dune buggy.

In looking at my lap times, I’m struck by how much I have improved. When I first tracked the car, it was on Riken Raptors, some very cheap tires. My best lap with those tires was 2:22. The first time I ran slicks, I managed a 2:14. I had big improvements each session. I felt I was overcoming a lifetime’s habit of knowing how fast I could drive around a corner and that with slicks it was a night and day difference. At the end of the day I felt I could get another four seconds quicker.

So now I’m on the Dunlop DZ101s. The rears are new but the fronts are done and need to be replaced. I managed a 2:14.5 this time. That’s as fast as I managed to run on slicks two years ago. I think I’ve gotten better at placing the car where I want it on the track. Whether that’s the proper place is another matter. I’m not missing as many apexes as I used to.

But I suspect another good chunk of time improvement is down to the new brake pads. Yesterday I certainly braked more aggressively than I normally do. Once I was too late and ended up four wheels off. I normally don’t brake hard enough to engage the ABS more than once or twice. But yesterday I gave the ABS quite a work out when I had no traffic.

The slicks are toast, and I’ll not likely buy another set. This spring I intend to get a set of track tires that I’m comfortable driving to and from the track on. I’d hate to be on slicks and get stuck in an afternoon thunder shower on the way home from the track.

With a new set of track tires, how much faster will I be? Is it too much to think I will be three seconds a lap faster? Is it out of line to hope that between more practice and a good set of tires I might shoot for a 2:10? Gotta have goals.

PPIR

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Dave

I spent Saturday at the track, my first visit to Pikes Peak International Raceway.

The track was built in 1997. Before that, it was horse race track. They ran IRL and Busch series races there before it was shut down a while back. It was closed for three years before it was sold. Some NASCAR testing is done here, along with club racing. There’s a deed restriction that prohibits them from hosting any major racing series. CECA has a day there every year.

When it was built, it was one of the fastest 1 mile ovals in the world. Seems counter intuitive to me, as the elevation (5,360′) means lower horsepower. It’s a D-shaped oval, with a short road course in the infield. The road course is 1.3 miles long, which includes about three quarters of the speedway.

I wanted to do this one last year, but things didn’t work out. In the mean time, I’ve talked to a few people who’ve run there to get their impressions. Reviews were mixed – one guy said it was his favorite track while another wasn’t very impressed. I was looking forward to forming my own opinion.

I left the house promptly at six and collected Judd at his place forty minutes later. He didn’t sign up to run but wanted to come out to watch and get a ride or two. Turns out, he didn’t bring his helmet or much to eat, either.

The forecast for Denver was 60 degrees and mostly sunny. I didn’t think to check the forecast for Colorado Springs, but expected it to be much the same. We were past Castle Rock before sunrise. Not far south of there it was foggy, which cleared up before Monument Hill. We stopped in Fountain where I gassed up (car and can) and Judd got coffee. Here he told me my left turn signal wasn’t working.

We were at the track in plenty of time to get the inspection signed off and head to the drivers meeting. We used the south garage. I forget what the car count was, but the garage accommodates 36 cars and we didn’t quite fill it up. When we got there, a very pretty yellow Ferrari 458 cabrio was in the garage, but he moved it outside before the meeting. It wasn’t running today, sadly. After the inspector stickered my car, they asked Judd if he was ready. He told them he was just spectating, but it didn’t take much convincing to get him to fork over the entry fee and join the fun.

In the garage

I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but we had four Elises, a bunch (herd? stable?) of Mustangs, three Miatas, a Mini or two, two BMWs (an M Coupe and 5M), a ZR1, a Viper, a few Porsches, a Pantera, an Acura NSX, a BRZ and an FR-S. The M Coupe owner keeps a set of slicks at the track and Alan runs his Viper on R6’s to and from the track but other than those two I don’t recall anybody else running slicks. Judd and I were on the same tires, his not much older than my rears. But my fronts are pretty much shot, with something like 15,000 miles on them.

Eric, Judd, and I were all parked together, near the south end of the garage. Eric ran in the red group, I was in the blue, and Judd started blue and switched to red. I had both my helmets with me. As I said earlier, Judd wasn’t planning on driving and although he intended to get a ride, forgot his hat. I said he could borrow mine. Then Kenny showed up with a friend, so we had Judd switch groups so I could take a passenger.

As there weren’t that many cars, the stewards decided that after the first session for each group, they’d combine green and blue. Blue was first out while green had their ground school. We were on track shortly after nine. It was mostly cloudy with temperatures in the mid thirty’s and fairly breezy.

From the paddock, we turn left onto pit lane. Pit out stays on the infield all the way around turns 1 and 2 and joins the track on the back straight. Before speedway turn 3, the road course makes a left onto the infield. At turn 9, the infield course ends and you go onto the 10 degree banking of the speedway, through turns 1 and 2 and onto the back straight again.

Frankly, the speedway frightened me a little. At HPR if you make a mistake and go off, or have a mechanical failure and go off, you really have to mess up to do anything more than get your car dirty. At Pueblo there’s only one place where there’s a wall anywhere close to the track. At the CSP facility you don’t want to go off because if you hit a big rock you’ll damage your car.

But on the speedway, there’s no run-off – the track goes right up to the wall. There are a number of lurid skid marks, each terminating with a nasty mark on the wall. Low in turn 2 there are some bumps. Here, if you mess up, or have something break, you hit the wall and the car’s not damaged: it’s destroyed.

So I took it pretty gingerly on the speedway. Particularly with my front tires being not so great right now. I did try a few different lines through there. We were only allowed to pass on the front and back straights of the speedway, so if I caught somebody on the infield, they’d go high and wave me past on the inside. And if I didn’t pass somebody there, I’d get set up so that if they were paying attention I’d be ready to pass before getting back to the infield. People seemed reluctant to wave me by on the back straight, and when I was working a corner I didn’t see any passing there at all. So I guess I was fortunate to be able to pass there the two or three times I did.

In the first session, I logged ten timed laps and managed a 1:13.8. On the speedway section, I was hitting the low 90s on the front and back straights, and high 70s in the turn. I ran four sessions with the other three being 24, 19, and 23 laps. By the end of the day, I managed to hit 100 on the back straight. I was only a mile or two an hour faster on the front straight and the turn but was braking a bit later. I bettered my time each session, getting a 1:12.5 in the last.

We ate our lunches in the room we held the drivers meeting. I chatted with Kenny and his friend (Josh?). Then they announced the parade laps so we headed back out. I had Josh ride for the parade laps and Kenny would get to ride the next session. The parade laps were led by the 458. Behind him was a black Porsche, and Josh and I were third. We never went more than 60, and I’m pretty sure I did every lap without hitting the brakes. Josh seemed to enjoy it, though, so it’s all good.

Kenny was a passenger for the third session. Not on purpose, we were first in line. I normally go to these thinking I’ll be the slowest car in my session. I don’t think this has ever been true, but in the first session I don’t think I passed anybody and only remember passing a few cars in the second session. So I was thinking I’d be getting passed before long.

View from corner position in turn 9

We ran the out lap, then four timed laps in “clean air”. Then we started catching people. We passed Miatas, Porsches, and Mustangs. We passed the Pantera. It was great fun. Kenny noticed how much later I could brake than just about everybody we caught up to. Part of that, surely, is that many of the drivers had never driven on a race track before and had no real idea how late they could brake. We were only passed by the M5 and the BRZ (or was it the FR-S?).

The video is from my fourth session. It’s not my fastest lap, that happened two laps later. This lap was 1.1 seconds slower due to traffic, but at least you get to see something other than my boot lid. By this time, the faster cars had either left for the day or moved to the red session, leaving me the fastest car on the track.

It was a fun day. I enjoyed running on a new track. The facility was nice. But I’m not sure how often I’ll come back here. Of the four tracks I’ve driven on, this one is my least favorite.

Colorado Good 5

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Dave

Sorry this post is a bit late, I’ve been otherwise occupied.

Saturday, September 21

LoCo’s three day fall drive included a night in Gunnison and a night in Crested Butte. The route looked interesting, but we just have too much to do to join them. Day one, though, featured Independence Pass. I haven’t been over it in the last thirty years or so and Genae has never been over it. So we figured we’d join the group for the drive to lunch in Carbondale.

We met at a gas station near Golden and headed west on I-70. The trip up I-70 to Frisco is pretty scenic as far as interstate highways go, but not exactly a “Lotus road”. We weren’t a big group yet, missing a couple of Denver folks and not yet met with the Springs group. Even so, I was second to last in the string and lost sight of the Henrys behind me. I last saw them before Georgetown and they didn’t catch up until we exited the interstate at the junction with Colorado 91. By now we had two additional cars, both orange Elises.

Fremont Pass isn’t much twistier than I-70. On the northwest side of the highway there are a couple of large tailing ponds where there once was a mountain. And near the summit you can see another mountain being erased. At its peak, the Climax mine was the largest molybdenum mine in the world, producing three-quarters of the world’s output. It was idled in 1995 but put back into production last year, yielding over twenty million pounds per year.

We made a quick stop in Leadville before continuing on to Twin Lakes to meet the Colorado Springs contingent. There we found a patrol car parked on the side of the road with a mannequin in the drivers seat. After a short break we headed up the pass.

Rinker Peak (13,783′)

One of the objects of the drive is to see the turning of the aspen. We were a bit early, but still quite scenic.

Independence Pass tops out at 12,095′ above sea level. Twin Lakes, on the eastern end, is at 9,200′ and Aspen on the west is more like 8,000. It has a reputation for being hair-raising, and I’d say that would have been how I’d described it the first time I crossed it when I was maybe ten. At the foot of the pass, Genae said she’d compare it to Red Mountain Pass. My feeling, nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. I didn’t find it particularly thrilling. For Genae, Red Mountain is still the standard setter.

I did enjoy the narrow parts on the western side. I’d forgotten all about those. There are three or four sections where the road isn’t wide enough for two way traffic. Cars on one side or the other have to wait for oncoming cars. I bet it’s loads of fun in a motor home.

We blasted through Aspen pretty much without stopping. Hit one red light, perhaps. The road snakes through town, right, left, right, left. At one turn, three or four kids had their phones out, getting us on video. Once through town, onto the superslab – not interstate, but damn close, down to Carbondale for lunch.

I didn’t plan the day very well. I considered making a side trip to Maroon Bells. It would mean going back to Aspen, which meant back over Independence to go home. Quite a long afternoon. Instead, we decided to come back to the area and spend a night or two, have a nice dinner in Aspen, take a short hike at Maroon Bells. Perhaps next spring.

So we headed up to Glenwood Springs and I-70 for the return to Denver. A lot more interstate driving than is ideal, but a pleasant day nonetheless. Glenwood Canyon is always interesting. It was recently repaired and all lanes are open both directions.

The Colorado Grand was finishing up in Vale. When we got there, we saw some transporters along the frontage road being loaded up with some of the cars. After Vail is the quick run up Vail Pass. I don’t remember what this one was like before the interstate went through. In any event, most cars make it up at 70 mph. Not exactly a Lotus road.

We stopped to fuel up in Silverthorne for the final blast back through the tunnel, and the run down to Denver. I’m curious what sort of fuel economy we were getting. It’s about 70 miles, which would normally be about two gallons. But the gauge still indicated nearly full. If I burned a gallon and a half, I’d be surprised. Which would mean something like 45 or 50 mpg. (And also means I probably only got 20 or 25 going the other way.)

I had the camera running from Twin Lakes to Aspen, but it’s bad. Within a few minutes of heading out, the lens fogged up. I’ve never had that happen before. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

The Passes

Fremont Pass (11,318′) CD

Named for 1856 Republican presidential nominee John Charles Fremont although he never crossed it. Two narrow gauge railroads were built over the pass in the 1880’s, the Denver and Rio Grande and the Denver and South Park. The most dramatic scenery here is the mine. Entire mountains have been erased, with one undergoing the process.

Independence Pass (12,095′) CD

The town of Independence was named for the ghost town of Independence, founded July 4, 1879. Before that, it was known as Hunters Pass. It’s the highest paved crossing of the Divide but it’s only open in summers.

Vail Pass (10.663′) CD

This pass had no particular use prior to US 6 being put there in the 1940’s. Appropriately, it’s named for Charles D. Vail, chief engineer of the Colorado Department of Highways. Now it’s I-70, pretty much just another stretch of interstate highway.

Eisenhower Tunnel (11,158′) CD

Okay, this is cheating. The tunnel is not a pass. When the project was started it was called the Straight Creek Tunnel. This is two bores, one named for Eisenhower and the other for Edwin C. Johnson, a governor and senator who advocated for the interstate to cross Colorado.

I had a plane ride seated next to the guy who built much of the tunnel’s duct work. He was about ninety and missing a couple of fingertips. Quite an interesting character.

Colorado State Patrol

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Dave

Saturday, August 24

After a string of hiking posts, we switch gears and head to the track.

Although I’ll call it a track, the Colorado State Patrol facility on South Table Mountain in Golden isn’t really a race track. It’s a training facility for the CSP. The track is really more like a road. It is slightly crowned and even as a center strip painted on it. Drivers should be careful not to go off here. Not only is the pavement often three or four inches above the surrounding ground, there are boulders hidden in the weeds. Hitting one of these will ruin your day as well as your car.

Because the track is only about fifteen miles from home, Genae kindly volunteered to take my slicks for me. She would drop them off in the morning and when I was done at the end of the day, I’d call her and have her pick them up. I keep telling myself I only have about one more track day on these tires.

I’d really rather use them up at HPR. I’ve run at HPR many times but this was only my second trip here. At HPR, if I go too hot into a turn and go off, I’m not worried about damaging the car. Here, there are those nasty boulders. The street tires give me plenty of notice when I’m about to lose traction whereas with the slicks you’re fine until you’re not. But if this is the only place I can have somebody bring the wheels and jack and tools, so be it.

I stopped to top off the fuel tank at the Shell station a few blocks from the track. Once on South Golden Road Genae caught up to me. I also found myself only a couple of cars behind an orange Elise. It was Eric from Colorado Springs. He passed the bus we were behind and went past our turn. I thought he missed the turn, but he was headed to a different gas station.

The access road to the track is dirt. It was in pretty bad shape last year. But today it was even worse. In spots, it featured a gully that meandered down the middle of it and from my seat looked somewhat like the Grand Canyon. Half way up the road I came across another Elise. He had decided this couldn’t be the correct way and was trying to turn around. Once alongside him, I reassured him we were going in the right direction.

Chris had recently bought his red Elise. It used to be Joe’s car. Joe, sadly, has ALS and had to sell the car. This was Chris’s first track event. Chris, Eric, and I all parked together. I mounted the slicks and had the car inspected. Then the drivers meeting was convened and I checked in to get my bracelet – I’m in the red group today.

At all the CECA events except HPR, drivers must also volunteer to work a corner. I was a bit late signing up and had only a few choices. I asked Eric if he wanted to work a corner with me and signed us up for the last session. The last session was open lapping, so Eric decided he would rather work corners in an earlier session and switched.

As Chris hadn’t been on the track before, I gave him a ride in the first session. Red group was first out. There weren’t very many cars in attendance. I didn’t get the official count, but there weren’t more than a dozen in the red group. Much to my surprise, I didn’t get passed in the first session. I used to go to these expecting to be the slowest car in my group but experience has told me I’m somewhere in the middle. Certainly, it must be that the faster cars got out ahead of me and we weren’t out long enough to lap me.

I was a bit tentative that first session. I had forgotten the finer points of getting around the track – my braking points, the quickest line. And it’s been a while since I ran on slicks. I was supposed to be showing Chris how to get around the track but I was missing the apexes by a mile, too early on the brakes except when I was way too late. But he seemed pretty happy when he got out of the car. The first session was 11 laps, best lap was 1:16.03. Four laps were slower than 1:20.

After the first session, Doug showed up in his silver Elise. He wasn’t there to participate; just to hang out. He didn’t even bring a helmet. I mentioned that I will soon need to replace my brake pads and he offered to show me how it’s done. I asked him how many beers it would cost. He doesn’t drink beer, so he said he’d do it if I’d give him a ride at the next track day. I suggested he borrow a helmet and I’d give him a ride right then.

So Doug was my passenger for session two. I was a bit more consistent. This was 14 laps, but included a trip through the paddock to get away from an inattentive driver. Being in the red group (experienced drivers who have been on this track before), I didn’t expect to find somebody not paying attention. I was catching a Mustang and we both caught a Sunbeam Tiger. He was probably six seconds a lap slower than us. We were behind him for two laps and he never waved us by. The rules today allowed passing only in two places, and only with a wave by. Frustrated, I got off the track and told the stewards that driver wasn’t paying attention.

Photo courtesy Doug

My best time in session two was 1:16.21, with one other lap in the 1:16’s and only the laps behind the Tiger over 1:20. Again, I wasn’t passed. By now I had noticed that some of the usual fast cars weren’t in attendance. Alan was there, but in his Corvette (automatic transmission and street tires) instead of his Viper. There was a Viper there, but he was in the Green group. Also in the red group was a Dodge Magnum (a station wagon), an Audi, the aforementioned Sunbeam Tiger, an Alfa Romeo, a couple of Mustangs, and a couple of cars from the 60’s: a GT 350 and an AMX. Oh, and a big Chrysler 300. He was here last year and I recall him being the fastest car on the track. Not today.

I didn’t have a passenger for session three and managed to turn my best times. It was the longest session, good for 19 timed laps. I turned a 1:13.32, three more laps in the 1:13’s, eight in the 1:14’s, and nothing as slow as a 1:20, even when catching traffic. The highlight of the session was running nose to tail with a blue Mustang Boss 302. I may have been the last one on the track that session and waved him by right away as my tires weren’t warm yet.

I ran three or four laps behind him. He could pull away on the straights but I’d catch right back up in the turns. Although he wasn’t holding me up, he waved me by. Then we ran three or four laps with him following me. Eventually, I put him some distance behind me, but that was probably due to traffic more than any speed differential. He had more than double the horsepower of the Elise, but said he sometimes had a bit of trouble putting the power down if he tried to get on it too early when exiting a corner. He also told me he tried once or twice to brake as late as me. No can do. As expected, I was able to brake later than any other car in the red group.

The fourth session was open to all groups. As such, there was more traffic. There were also, finally, faster cars. Eric’s Elise is supercharged. He’s made a number of performance mods in addition – exhaust, aerodynamics, weight reduction. I waved him by in this session and had no chance of keeping with him. At one point, under braking going in to turn 1, he had flames coming out his tailpipes. He was running about 3 seconds a lap faster than me.

For this session, I had the AMX driver as a passenger. He was quite impressed with the car’s handling. Of course, the two cars are radically different. His muscle car (390 CID engine) is nearly 40 years older and twice as heavy. Next time we’re at the track together, he’ll give me a ride.

Session four was 14 timed laps. Fastest lap 1:15.04, fully half the laps in the 1:15’s and again nothing as slow as 1:20. I didn’t get any of session four on video. I spaced out after session two and failed to power down the camera. It ran out of battery half way through session three.

By the end of session four, it was apparent we were going to get some rain so the stewards called it a day. That meant I didn’t end up working a corner. I didn’t plan it that way, but I’ll take it. I called Genae to have her come fetch my wheels and tools. It seems I’m always playing the game “What Did I Forget?” Today was no exception. Early on I realized I forgot sunscreen, so I got a mild sunburn on my face. When I went to swap wheels I discovered I’d also managed to forget gloves. In the morning it wasn’t a big deal. I thought about the gloves when I was half way done with the swap. Gloves would have kept my hands clean.

Now, however, gloves were a bit more important. Brakes get quite hot at the track. Hot brakes tend to heat up the wheels. Proceeding with changing wheels now would result in burnt fingers. Luckily, Eric was still there and lent me his gloves. By now the rain started up, so he sat dry in his car while I got fairly wet. Just as I finished, so did the rain. Perfect timing!

By now I was nearly the last one there. I chatted with the stewards a bit waiting for Genae. There’s a gate at the entrance, which was now unmanned and closed. I’d have to go open it for her to get in. When she finally got there, only one other group was still there. They had four cars and a giant transporter. That’s quite an operation for running club days.

I had a fantastic time. I don’t have a breakdown of my lap times from last year, but selecting a random lap from last year’s video tells me I was a good five or six seconds a lap faster on the slicks than on street tires.

I still don’t have the slicks figured out. I took my pyrometer with me and got temps after each session. The hottest I got them was less than 140 degrees. That’s after a cool down lap, and I have no idea how much the tires cool off in that time. Subsequent research tells me these tires should run between 110 and 140 degrees, so I was at the high end and possibly over.

In any event, I wasn’t willing to push the envelope at this track. With a better understanding of the tires I’m sure I could have gotten another few seconds a lap. But I really didn’t want to go off here. Again, I had a lot of fun.

There are a couple of club dates coming up in September at HPR but I’ll probably skip these. I want to do the day at Pike’s Peak International Raceway in October and I’ll need to get new brake pads before then.

Two days, two tracks

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Dave

It has been a busy week, so I’m a bit late posting this.

Saturday, June 22

I went to High Plains Raceway on Saturday with the Z Car Club of Colorado. This was my first day with the ZCCC. When running a CECA day, they prefer drivers to have their cars run through tech inspection before getting to the track. For that, they arranged for Peak Eurosport to do the inspections. If you don’t do that, they’ll still inspect you at the track before the drivers’ meeting. ZCCC has a couple tech sessions in the week prior to the event. If you miss those and want an inspection at the track, it’s an extra ten bucks.

In addition to getting the car teched before the event, I also did a little additional preparation. I’ve run out of gas at HPR twice. Well, not at HPR but between HPR and the nearest gas station (17 miles away). So I bought a 5 gallon gas can. I had to snicker a bit when I realized that this can holds half a tank of gas. Properly prepared, I should never run out of gas at the track again.

I also finally bought a lawn chair that fits in the car. All our lawn chairs are the old-fashioned kind, mesh on an aluminum frame. The sort they used to sell back in the sixties. The newer type when folded aren’t much bigger than the car’s soft top and easily fit in the boot. So, in addition to not worrying about running out of gas I could also relax in a comfy chair. Let the fun begin!

ZCCC splits drivers into four groups: A, B, C, and D. A is Expert and D is Novice. I elected to run in the B group. I can’t imagine calling myself expert at this any time soon. They had 46 cars turn out, including 21 Datsun/Nissan/Infiniti, 7 Miatas, 6 Corvetttes, 5 Porsches and a variety of others. Part of that variety was two Elises. There were a few familiar faces from CECA days and everybody made me feel right at home. A good group and I’m sure I’ll join them for another track day sometime.

The weather was fairly warm. Mostly sunny, until the end of the day when a thunder storm passed west of the track, moving south to north. On the news that night I learned that that storm dumped golf ball sized hail on the prairie. I’m glad it missed the track!

I had an unbroken string of days at HPR where I improved my best time each day. “Had”, as Saturday was the first time I wasn’t faster than my previous outing. My best lap was in the first session, two laps under 2:20. I keep working on finding a faster way around the track. I’m blaming my slower times on the hotter conditions until I learn the real reason. I’ve decided I can go quicker by taking later apexes on several of the turns. I dedicated my last session to trying this. I think I’m headed in the right direction, in spite of the hard data indicating otherwise. Next time I’ll remember to take my pyrometer so I can learn just how hot my tires are getting and collect some additional data.

I made a video of the day, this time a “Frankenlap”. I ran five sessions and mounted the camera in a different place for each. One was mounted inside the car, directed at me. I used that as the “master” shot (primarily to get the best sound) and spliced in bits from each of the other views.

Sunday, June 23

Michael and I went to Speed Raceway down in Centennial. It’s an indoor go-kart track that runs electric carts. We went with LOCO and had 15 folks turn out for the event.

They time each lap for each kart. Results are purely based on lap times, not who gets the checkered flag first. They tell drivers that if a faster driver catches up, let him pass. That may be counter to lots of peoples’ natural inclination.

We got to run three races, the first two which they characterize as “practice” and “qualifying”. They put a maximum of six cars in each group, so to get times for everybody we had three groups. Michael and I ran together the first two times. I was third, he was second each time. We both managed to improve our times each session. Michael ended up fourth overall while I was sixth.

It was a lot of fun, but I got pretty beat up by the kart. I was still hurting a bit from my day at HPR. I need to get a knee pad for my left leg. Even though I’m securely belted into my seat, my left leg takes a beating, leaving me bruised and abraded. And from experience I know I get thrown around pretty badly by the karts. The seats aren’t exactly made for me and the restraints aren’t the best racing harnesses. I ended up with a giant bruise on my back, about the size of my hand with fingers extended. As they say, “no pain, no gain!”

We even got a little podium ceremony. No champagne to spray, not even airline sized bottles as befitting such a colossal event!

Finally, it was good it was an indoor track, as it rained fairly hard while we were racing. It was hot out, so when we got out of the car I told Michael to leave the window cracked a bit. When we got back out, his seat was dry but mine was fairly soaked. So it goes.

CP Colorado

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Dave

Yesterday was the 30th Annual Colorado Concours d’Elegance & Exotic Car Show, benefitting CP Colorado. Local and regional car clubs showcase about 500 rare and exotic sports cars. I’ve known about the show for a few years. The first year I owned the Lotus, the promoters were looking for a car that wasn’t in the show so they could do a television spot during channel 9’s local Sunday morning show and I volunteered for that.

Porsche Carrera GT

But this is the first time I’ve entered the car into any car show of any sort. They have two kinds of entries – display only and judged. Not knowing anything about how it works, I elected to enter as a judged car. In the weeks leading up to the show, I learned that at this one the judging is done entirely on how clean the car is. That is, you won’t lose any points for having the non-original equipment. There are a lot of different car makes and models in this show, and the judges aren’t experts on all of them.

I didn’t manage to get the car detailed before the show. The extent of my preparation was a fairly thorough wash after the Braille Rally on Saturday. I have a number of black marks around the rear wheels and a big splotch of dried adhesive where the prior owner mounted his radar detector. And, of course, the car isn’t a museum piece, like so many of the other cars entered. I’m driving it all the time, and that includes four or five track days a year. So I’ve been joking that I expect to get last place. Somebody has to be last, right?

1937 BMW

Michael went with me. We got there a bit before 8am, entering the gates a couple cars behind a 1937 BMW. Porsche is the featured marque for this year’s show; they arrived using a different entrance, so we did a little “zipper merge” with them as we rolled onto the field. We didn’t have to go far – the Corvettes were immediately to the left of the entrance, and the Lotuses were just past them. Steve directed us to a spot between Tatiana and William. When we got onto the grass from the sidewalk, we heard the strangest noise. The car is so low, the grass is taller. The blades of grass brushed along the flat bottom of the car making a noise that sounded a lot like water coming off the tires, as if the sprinklers had run too long and had just been shut off.

After getting situated, I headed out for my first pass to check out all the cars. Because Porsche is the featured marque, it seemed like they comprised half the field. That’s a bit of an exaggeration – they probably weren’t there in any greater number than for the typical Cars and Coffee Saturday in Lafayette. Okay, so maybe they were half the field. There were several notable cars there, including a Porsche Carrera GT. And for the first time, I saw more Ford GT’s than Elises (3 to 2).

The Lotus area

I don’t know how many cars actually showed up. I know we were expecting a few more Lotuses. There are sixteen listed in the program but I only counted thirteen (twelve in the Lotus area and one in the Founder’s Circle). Four Elises are in the program, but we only had two. So I’m not sure if the 500 cars is a count of cars entered or the number that actually show up.

The weather was very nice. We were situated near some trees which provided welcome shade and there were a couple of picnic tables nearby. I’m still in the dark ages as far as lawn chairs go (having only the prehistoric aluminum folding chairs), so Michael and I either wandered around, used the picnic table, or sat in other people’s chairs. Clearly, I need to upgrade to a chair I can carry in the Lotus.

It was after noon before the judges showed up in our area. There’s a place on the form for “Class”. I had no idea what class I was in, so left it blank. Turns out the judging for Lotuses is broken down to Chapman era cars and post-Chapman cars. I believe Tatiana’s and mine were the only Lotuses getting judged. So my prophecy of being in last place was confirmed. Maximum score possible for my car was 250.5 and I managed 214.8. As I said above, it’s totally based on cleanliness. I was awarded full score for “operation of lights, wipers, door latches” even though I had a headlight burn out last week. And full points for “tool bag, tools, jack and tire strap” and “spare tire and wheel assembly”. The Elise has no spare tire.

Second Place!

So my last place entry managed a red ribbon for second place!

I think I’ll do this again next year, judging and all. Now that I have a “baseline” score, we’ll see how many points a good detail is worth.

Braille Rally

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Dave

Today I participated in the Braille Rally for the benefit of the American Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Colorado. I’ve never done a rally before. The idea is you drive from point A to point B following a set of directions. The object is to get to the destination having driven the closest number of miles to the control. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you, it’s not a race. Typically, the clues can be quite tricky. But for this rally it was simply following the directions as only the driver could be looking for clues.

There where three ‘classes’ based on the navigator: Braille, large print, and sighted. The sighted navigators had to wear glasses that simulate visual impairment. I didn’t get a good car count. I was told we had about a dozen cars but there might be a late registration. They were hoping to get more people to participate, so it’s disappointing the turnout was so low. There were five LoCo members, not including Skip, who was the rally master. Two Elises, an Evora, an Esprit, and an Elan. We also had a Hyundai Veloster, a Subaru, a classic Chevy Nova and a Corvette ZR-1 as well as a couple Miatas.

We met in the parking lot of what used to be a Walgreen’s. For some reason, I was thinking it would be on the north side of Colfax, so I drove around lost for a while. I finally got my act together and found the place, to be told that everybody was watching me drive around aimlessly. We got checked in, and chatted over coffee and muffins. Drivers got souvenir bags and were assigned numbers on nice magnetic signs. By my count, half the cars were fiberglass, so the magnetic signs weren’t much help.

I never use the trip odometer on the car, so I don’t know how to reset it. Somebody showed me once, back on the Mine Tour drive, but I’ve forgotten and didn’t manage to press the magic button this morning. No problem, I’ve been using a speedometer app on my smart phone for the last several weeks. Works great, has a nice trip odometer, trip clock, altimeter, compass. And it’s a speedometer.

Rebecca was my navigator. We were in the large print class. Very nice lady, very educated and accomplished. She told me a bit about her family, where they’ve lived, and about her vision impairment. She has some permanent loss, but through the miracle of modern technology she shouldn’t lose any more.

So we hit the road. Skip sent us off one at a time, based on the light crossing Colfax. That way, nobody would be able to follow the leader, we’d all have to do our own navigating. The route was pretty simple, taking us through Golden Gate Canyon, Blackhawk and Central City, Evergreen. We missed one turn, because it wasn’t signed very well, but I had the impression everybody else missed it too. We caught up to Ross here; he figured it out before we did.

It was when we got on to 285 that things went south. The speedometer app went a bit haywire, showing a speed that was clearly wrong. It also quit counting the miles. I tried to remember what the trip odometer read when we were trying to reset it. So I wasn’t sure I had the right number, and without the right number, we wouldn’t stand a chance of winning.

The rally ended at Ferrari of Denver, one of the many sponsors of the rally. There we had a light lunch of fruit and small sandwiches. When we checked in with Skip, he gave us a trivia quiz to use in case we needed to break a tie. I think we got two or three of the fifteen questions correct. As a Lotus owner, I should have gotten another one – what does ACBC stand for. I didn’t know the A.

After we ate, we had a little award ceremony. Top three finishers in each class got trophies. Ross suggested it was like t-ball – everybody gets a trophy. But in fairness, they were clearly expecting more than a dozen participants. I heard somebody say they had magnetic signs for fifty cars.

Second Place, Large Print

In the end, we got second place in large print. I was surprised. But it turns out several people didn’t manage to find Golden Gate Canyon and ended up nearly in Boulder, so even without a good odometer we did okay.

Tomorrow is the big CP Colorado show. It’s my first time entering the car in a show, and I put it in for judging. I’ve been joking that I’ll get last place. Somebody has to be last. I understand the judging is based almost entirely on how clean the car is. I’ve been too busy to get the car detailed. It has some black marks around the rear wheels, and there’s a big blob of adhesive on the dash where the previous owner mounted his radar detector. I washed it this afternoon, got it as clean as I’ve ever gotten it before. But it’s not a show winning car. It’ll be fun anyway.

Oh, and I decided to put the hardtop on for the show. Can’t recall the last time I had the hard top on.

Ready for the show

Colorado Good: Four to the 4

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Dave

The Colorado Grand is an annual charity tour for older cars that covers about a thousand miles in five days, attracting entrants from around the world. Lotus Colorado started doing a smaller version of this for group members. It’s not restricted to pre-1960 cars. It’s not even restricted to Lotuses. Here’s how Ross described it last month:

Many of you have been with us on our Colorado Good, where we do a bit less than the Colorado Grand; three days instead of four, about 800 miles instead of over a thousand miles; stay at good hotels instead of grand hotels and dine at good small yet really cool specialty restaurants with reasonable prices. This will be our fourth trip and will go to the Four Corners via Telluride and Pagosa Springs.

For one reason or another, we haven’t been able to join on the earlier trips. Everything worked out for this one though, so we signed up.

Saturday: Denver to Telluride

We met at The Fort restaurant near Morrison for a 9:00am departure. Actually, everybody else met closer to 8:30 but we were running a bit late and managed to show up a minute or two before everybody hit the road. We started with just the Denver area contingent and picked up folks from other locations as we went.

When I was a kid, we parked the Airstream in a trailer park called Chateau Chaparral near Nathrop, where Chalk Creek flows into the Arkansas River. They had their own suspension bridge over the Arkansas and we rode horses or dirt bikes in the national forest on the east side of the river. We made the drive there from Denver almost every week those summers. So I’ve probably been up and down that section of 285 a hundred times, maybe half as a passenger and half as a driver. So the first part of the drive was old hat for me.

Just after the junction with Colorado Hwy 9, we passed an orange Elise, the first of the Colorado Springs folks. We met the rest at Johnson’s Village, three red cars: a Corvette, a Porsche Boxster, and an Elise. After gassing up and a short break, we continued on to Gunnison for lunch at the Palisades Restaurant, meeting the final member of the group. We were now thirteen cars: 5 Elises, 2 Esprits, an Evora, an Elan, a Birkin, a Corvette, a Boxster, and a Honda S2000.

After lunch the route led us through Montrose and to Ridgway where we took another short break. We intended to stop at a gas station on the corner of US 550 and Colorado 62, but a tractor trailer rig had just run over a sign and was stopped to try and put it back up. The road was under construction a few yards up 62 and between the two traffic was getting pretty snarled up. We pulled over a couple blocks farther up.

Here we met a police officer who was a bit upset with us. He had a report that at 3:48 a red car in our group ran somebody off the road. We had been driving in a spirited way, shall we say, and running near the back of the group I saw a few aggressive passes, but didn’t see anybody get run off the road. In any event, we expected to be under scrutiny for the rest of the day.

I had been over the road between the junction of 285 and 50 a handful of times, even once in the Elise, but from Ridgway to Telluride was new to me. Climbing out of Ridgway the road sweeps in great arcs, giving us great views of the mountain range to the south. The weather was dramatic, clouds dropping veils of snow and rain. Very beautiful. I had mounted the GoPro camera while we were stopped, but the precipitation compromised the footage. Perhaps I’ll be able to salvage some short highlights.

The town of Telluride is at the end of a short spur road at the eastern end of a dead-end valley. Prominently in view climbing the steep end of the valley is a four-wheel drive road, its zig-zag filled with snow. As we arrived, a bit of a storm was descending on the village. We gathered for margaritas and conversation while thunder clapped just before the snow started to fall.

Two guys were walking down the street and saw the red Elise parked second from the end (next to the ‘Vette, but out of the picture above). “Cool! A Lotus! I want one of these!” They continued to the corner, where I heard “Another Lotus!” I really wanted to yell at them “Not two Lotuses – ten!”

Somebody once told me the name Telluride was shortened from “To hell you ride” but this turns out to be a tall tale. It’s actually named for compounds of the element tellurium. The place was founded in 1878 as Columbia, but the post office changed the name in 1887 to avoid confusion with Columbia, California. I had guessed it must have been founded around 1880 judging by the street names. One street is Galena, which is Ulysses S. Grant’s home town.

We crossed three notable passes on Saturday.

Kenosha Pass (10,000′)

There’s not much to Kenosha Pass. In the mining days, it was called Kenosha Hill or Kenosha Summit, named for Kenosha, Wisconsin, the home of Clark Herbert, a Kenosha Pass stage driver. It crosses from the South Platte drainage into South Park and tops out at around 10,000 feet. Major Long’s party didn’t go up the canyon in 1820, deeming it too rugged. Kenosha pass was first crossed by the Bean-Sinclair party in 1830. In May of 1879 the railroad made it to the summit and US 285 follows that old route, which is in indication of it’s fairly shallow grade and lack of sharp turns.

Trout Creek Pass (9,346′)

This is the passage from Antero Junction at the west edge of South Park to the Arkansas valley. Zebulon Pike crossed the pass in 1806 when it was an ancient trail. He was correct in thinking the next drainage north was the South Platte, but mistaken when calculating that the next drainage beyond that was the Yellowstone. The Denver and South Park and Colorado Midland railroads were built over it in the 1880’s. The South Park side isn’t much, just a straight climb of a few hundred feet but the Arkansas side is a nice twisty road with excellent views of the Collegiate range: Princeton, Yale, and Harvard, all 14er’s.

Monarch Pass (11,312′ CD)

Crossing the continental divide at the southern end of the Sawatch Range, the summit affords views many consider the finest in the area. The current route was devised by Charles D. Vail and the road opened in November of 1939. The first highway department signs bore the words “Vail Pass” but unknown persons slopped the signs with black paint overnight. On oil companies’ maps it was called Agate-Monarch Pass and before long the “Agate” was dropped.

Sunday: Telluride to Pagosa Springs

After breakfast in the hotel, we saddled up and headed to the Four Corners. There was a bit of drama at first, as one of the Elises had battery problems. That was quickly solved, though, and we were soon on the road. The drive south on 145 gives nice views of the peaks to the east before flattening out in drier climes and passing through Delores and Cortez.

Before long we were in the desert of the Four Corners monument. It’s really not much of a place, but it was recently improved. I had understood it was recently moved, but this seems not to be the case. It is, in fact, 1807 feet east of where modern surveyors would locate it, but the Supreme Court has established that the location of the monument is the legal corner of the four states. We stopped here for photos and a break before heading to Farmington for lunch.

On the way to Farmington, we were passed by a crazy Indian in a Ford pickup. Imagine coming up behind 13 sports cars and deciding they are going too slow. We weren’t in danger of being arrested for our speed, but we were moving at a pretty good clip. This guy couldn’t wait to get by us, passing whenever and wherever he felt like it, generally across the double yellow line. He finally got past our lead cars when we entered Shiprock, NM. In a school zone.

The drive from Cortez to Farmington (with our detour to the Four Corners) is a pretty dull drive. Lots of straight lines and four lane roads. Some of the rock formations are interesting, but again this is an area I’ve driven through many times. After lunch at the Three Rivers Brewery, we stayed on US 64 until the junction with US 84. This junction is a T, with 64 to the right and 84 to the left. A herd of cattle was grazing in the field at the top of the T. When we accelerated away from the stop sign, one of the Elises was loud enough to cause the cattle to stampede.

The drive from here to Pagosa is quite pretty. The landscape quickly transitions from desert to mountain pine forest and the road sweeps left and right while climbing and descending. US 64 meets US 160 at another T intersection on the east side of Pagosa Springs.

We stayed at the Springs Resort, a very nice place. After checking in, we went out for dinner then back to the resort to relax in the 23 pools along the banks of the San Juan River. The pools vary in distance from the main spring, so each is a different temperature, varying from 83 to 114 degrees. If you’re daring, you can step from the pools into the river, which we were told was 44 degrees. A few of us did, but not me!

Sunday’s drive crossed only one notable pass.

Lizard Head Pass (10,222′)

The pass marks the headwaters of two tributaries of the Colorado: the Delores River and the San Miguel River. A trail crossed the pass as early as 1833, a wagon road in the 1870’s, and the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in 1891. The railroad was laid to connect Silverton and Ouray. The distance between the two was 26 miles by wagon road while the rail was 217 miles and was described as “the futile, transcendently triumphant Rio Grande Southern … a masterpiece of evasion.” The railroad was bankrupt in two years.

Monday: Pagosa Springs to Denver

After breakfast we headed east along US 160, stopping for a group photo on Wolf Creek Pass before crossing to the San Luis valley.

I’ve made the drove over Wolf Creek many times. It’s not the frightening trip it used to be, back when C. W. McCall wrote a song about it:

Well, from there on down it just wasn’t real purdy: it was hairpin county and switchback city. One of ’em looked like a can full’a worms; another one looked like malaria germs. Right in the middle of the whole damn show was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn’t you know?

It’s much straighter now, and two lanes up on each side, two lanes down most of the western side. The only dicey spot is the avalanche shed on the eastern side. It often has water flowing across the road, and because it’s in the shade all the time it can get icy. But it was nice to hear the song of the engines reverberate off the walls.

Lunch was planned for Buena Vista, but we decided to eat in Salida so we split from the group. We didn’t want to retrace our route back to Denver, so rather than staying on 285 we headed up Colorado 9 from Fairplay to Breckenridge over Hoosier Pass. The weather forecast indicated it might be snowing on the high peaks of northern Colorado. I wanted to go over Loveland Pass rather than through the Eisenhower Tunnel. We encountered a small flurry on Hoosier and decided it wasn’t bad enough to dissuade us from the more interesting route.

By the time we reached A Basin it was snowing fairly heavily. The ski area is still open but there wasn’t much traffic on the pass. Luckily, it also wasn’t that cold so the snow melted as it hit the road. A snow plow was out dropping sand but we managed to pass him easily and ran into no other traffic until we reached the interstate. It looked like a few inches of snow had fallen and was blowing off the drifts along the road. But all was clear not long after the summit. I had the GoPro running for the pass, but when we stopped to take the camera off the car I saw that it was iced over. Checking the video, it began to ice up right away, near A Basin.

The remainder of the drive was down I-70, with more traffic than I expected. They are working on widening the road through the twin tunnels east of Idaho Springs. They set up a detour there with the eastbound lanes running on the south side of the river.

We crossed five notable passes, three across the Continental Divide. (Trout Creek Pass is the fifth, already described above.)

Wolf Creek Pass (10,850′ CD)

Separating the San Juan and Rio Grande drainages, Wolf Creek Pass runs 52 miles. The west side is particularly beautiful. The pass had no noticeable use before 1913, when the road was built. Before then, travelers from San Luis Valley had no choice but to take the narrow guage railroad from Alamosa over Cumbres Pass to get to Durango.

Poncha Pass (9,011′)

Poncha (Spanish for “mild”) separates the Rio Grande drainage from the Upper Arkansas. Its first notable crossing was in 1779 by Governor Juan Bautista De Anza when he was pursuing a band of terrorist Comanche. In 1853, a man in Captain John W. Gunnison’s survey party crossed the pass and called it “Gunnison Pass”. I find it a more entertaining drive than Wolf Creek. The southern side isn’t much, as the San Luis Valley is much higher than the Upper Arkansas Valley. The descent down the northern side features long sweeping curves and a pretty view of Mt. Shavano.

Hoosier Pass (11,541′ CD)

There are two passes named Hoosier. This one is the division point between the Sawatch and Front ranges. John Charles Fremont crossed it on June 22, 1844 and homesick Indiana prospectors named it about 1860. It is surrounded by dramatic peaks – a number of 14er’s including Lincoln, Bross, Cameron, Democrat, and Quandary. The pass became a road in May of 1861 when nine wagons crossed it.

Loveland Pass (11,992′ CD)

This road doesn’t get nearly as much traffic as it used to. It has been bypassed by the Eisenhower Tunnel, which was originally to be named the Straight Creek Tunnel. William A. H. Loveland was wounded in the Mexican American War, mined for gold in California, and worked futilely to put a canal across Panama for Commodore Vanderbilt. He arrived in Golden in 1859 where he used his profits from selling axes and mousetraps to build railroads. In 1879 he hired 100 men and ordered them up Clear Creek with dynamite, scoops and chuck wagons. The road was across the pass by mid-May and on June 4, fifty wagons were counted going over.

Pueblo Motorsports Park

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Dave

I went to Pueblo Motorsports Park with CECA today. I was hoping for a better turnout. Only about forty cars registered, and a couple of cars ran only a lap or two. Even so, it seemed like traffic was heavy. There were a lot of very fast cars there, and cars are split up by driver experience rather than speed. There were Viper race cars, high horsepower Mustangs, and Nissan GT-R’s in every group. Passing was allowed in only two places, and I’m sure it was frustrating for the fast cars to be stuck behind us lower hp cars.

The red car turned only a single lap

I ran in the Red (experienced) group. My top speed, at the end of the straight before turn 1, was 107mph. The Viper race cars were hitting 140. I ran on inexpensive street tires while many were on racing slicks. The slowest car in our group was a classic Mustang. I was probably ten seconds a lap quicker. I ran with a couple of Porsches that were doing very similar times. I let one by on the straight but he never managed to pull away from me. I enjoyed those couple laps immensely. I get faster laps running alone, but there’s a certain joy in matching speeds with a car that is on better tires and has more horsepower.

There were four Lotuses, all Elises. Fellow LOCO member Judd drove his blue one. There was a black one, turbocharged. And Joe’s red one. I first met Joe last year at this event. He is quite the hot shoe, turning very quick times I will probably never match. His car was there today, but he wasn’t. I was sorry to learn he’s been diagnosed with ALS and can no longer drive.

There were five Vipers there. One was a CECA regular – Alan’s pretty maroon car. Also a silver one, a shiny black one, and two matte black. The matte ones were race cars, owned by guys in Estes Park. Carriage Hills, my old neighborhood. They previously ran the cars in the Viper Cup and a GT series. They’re not running in either series this year, so will exercise the cars at the CECA events. These are monster cars. They ran several very fast laps at the end of the day, by themselves on the track. It was the only time all day they could really run at speed – they were that much faster than anything else there.

Judd and I were working turn 4 for the final session. All the fast cars were out, and the GT-R’s were fastest. One of the Mustangs was quite quick as well. The two Vipers ran nose to tail for several laps. They talked to each other by radio, one teaching the other the track. When all the other cars left the track, they opened it up. They had only been cruising until then. Now you could hear the V-10 clearly from the opposite end of the track. Still nose to tail, but now at real racing speed. I thought it was a lot of fun to watch, particularly from such a nice vantage point.

In addition to the Elises and Vipers, there were three Nissan GT-R’s. These are also quite fast cars. All wheel drive, putting out something like 500hp, with all sorts of computers that help the driver keep it on the track. Filling out the group were the usual assortment of Corvettes, Mustangs, and Porches with a Sunbeam Tiger, Mazda Miata, Hyundai Tiburon, a Cobra replica and a few other miscellaneous.

One of the miscellaneous

Some time ago, I was using a smart phone app to do my lap timing. I had some trouble with it and quit using it, then upgraded phones. Since then, I’ve been getting lap times from the video, which is not ideal. I finally got around to getting a new timer a few days ago. It’s called RaceChrono. Very simple to use, much easier than the last one. It doesn’t have as many features as others I’ve looked at, but it fits my needs.

I ran only three sessions, as Judd and I volunteered to work a corner in the afternoon. The first session was 10 laps, 8 laps in the second, and 7 in the third. There were some kids volunteering on the corners. Their only compensation for the day was getting rides. I gave rides in the second and third sessions. Both passengers really got a kick out of their rides, which made me happy. The second guy said “Aside from combat, this is the most adrenalized I’ve ever been!”

I recorded my fastest lap of the day in that third session. I told Judd after the second session that my goal was to get a time under two minutes. I didn’t make it, but it was close: 2:00.61. That’s about six seconds a lap faster than last year. Same set of tires, but last year it was much hotter.

I’m thinking that I won’t run the CECA days at HPR this year. Not a final decision, but under consideration. In a half day of open lapping at HPR I can get about as many hot laps in for about two-thirds the price. And those sessions are more or less split by the speed of the cars, which I find more comfortable, even offsetting the restricted passing of club days. I am still looking forward to the CECA days at Pikes Peak International and the State Patrol track.

And, finally, here’s today’s highlight reel. I get passed a lot, I only pass one car and the camera is on the wrong side to see it. And the lap behind the Porsche, one of my better laps:

Nobody is Listening

Road Trip, Track Day, and Hiking Adventures

Category Archives: Cars