42 replies to this topic

[Jerry Cabe]

We are finally up and open.

Cincinnati Region of the SCCA is proud to present the "Escape The Sinkhole" double regional event at the newly openened National Corvette Museum Motorsport Park on June 12-14, 2015. Friday will be a practice day since most drivers have not driven the track before. We will be running the 3.15 mile Grand Course. Being the inaugural SCCA Club Race event at the facility, each class willl be setting a track record. Saturday and Sunday will have qualifying sessions in the morning, followed by races in the afternoon. Registration is open on MotorsportReg for drivers at http://www.motorspor...51#.VSz9uPnF-JQ, and workers at http://www.motorspor...6#.VSx7BvnF9V0.

You don't want to miss this event!

Jerry

[Johnny D]

You don't want to miss this event!

Jerry

Well... I did.

How'd it go ??
J~

[38bfast]

The event ran very well. Track was incredibly teqnical. Lots more elevation change than what you see on the videos. Massive padock area. I was happy that cars were brought in for contact on track. Everything was getting called in from the corner workers. Everyone was super friendly and helpful. Weather was smoking hot and humid. Few short busts of rain that dried out quickly. It added to the humitiy. Spectator viewing was horrible but they are working on viewing platforms when we were there. The track is incredibly fun to drive. The one down fall is the Armco and walls are very close to the track surface. My rental found one of them avoiding a spinning T4 car in the group 4 STL race. It was great to see Steve and Tom Schifler there. It could become a favorite track for me if it was a bit closer.

[Johnny D]

Do you think the Sprints effected turn out?

J~

[38bfast]

Yes the turn out was light. I am sure the sprints had some impact on that. NASA is going to be there in a few weeks so we will see what they can do.

[LarryKing]

Very cool of the Cincy Region to give ITC their own group since they outnumbered SM. (When was the last time that happened?)

 

Maybe ITC is the new SM.

[Erik Hardy]

I was caught off guard by how technical the track was. Driving the track was much more fun than I thought it would be from the select youtube videos that exist. I thought the smaller rumble curbing was pretty nasty, it seemed to have the right frequency that it wanted to put the car into a spin but I'm not sure if that is normal or not.

 

Before the event I elected to skip the Friday practice day and funnel that $ towards running STL. I qualified p8 on Saturday, and would have had a solid 2nd place until Jeremy handed me a win by spinning with a few laps to go. Had a mechanical on Sunday with the LCA cam bolts settling, and pulled off. Thanks again Ralph for the help with identifying the issue. 

 

I made a couple mistakes this weekend, with some moments of slight contact (5-minute mark on the video below) and a spin in STL that knocked the car around. Feedback is welcome and requested. I think I need to relax a little more with my wheel movements and tone it down some on the track, its not something I want to get a reputation for. I felt significantly more comfortable on track than my first race at Gingerman, however, I still have a lot to learn to say the least.

 

Saturday Video:

https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be

[J. Mizer]

I too was surprised at how technical the track was and how much of a drop in elevation there is going into the sinkhole turn.  Video does not do it any justice.  The track has a little bit of everything.  A couple of very fast corners, a very slow hairpin corner, some elevation change and a couple of long straight aways.  The faciltiy was not ready to host an event like this but the club did well running it smoothly.

[38bfast]

Avoiding the T4 car and then finding the wall. 

 

[tra68]

Ralph, the video in your post above is listed as private.

[38bfast]

I think I fixed it.

[Todd Lamb]

Nope - still hits the wall.

 

Looks like a pretty fun track. Caveman has run there before, he should chime in.

[Jim Drago]

Avoiding the T4 car and then finding the wall. 

 

isnt racing fun

[Steve Scheifler]

Ouch! Sorry to see that Ralph & Bruce. That was just after I got around the same T4 car. Our main ITA competition and that Pontiac got by with a good jump at the start. The Pontiac was just fast enough to get in the way for a few laps while our competition ran away. I finally got around him but only with more time and risk than should have been necessary if he'd shown just a little respect and courtesy given that he had no class competition and I could have been battling for the lead. Instead I overworked my tires and talent trying to get by without a collision. Frustrating.

But that raises a question. Those who have driven the track, what do you think of the passing opportunities for power-matched cars like ours? It seems to me they are very limited. Other than the sinkhole I think the only place I made a pass that didn't start with a mistake by the other guy was the T1a/b chicane, and I wouldn't want to do that a lot. The straights aren't long enough for a draft-by unless you get a really good run out of the prior corner, and the hairpin seems too sharp to pull one off cleanly. Other corners just didn't seem to offer much chance for late braking. Maybe I'll think differently with more time there.

Otherwise, a very interesting track and should be a popular one for the track-day crowd with a good mix of turns and features. Although I was worried about the amount and close proximity of concrete and Armco, it didn't seem all that intimidating after all
and from what I saw there were surprisingly few incidents given how complex it is.

We had our share of problems but the biggest was that I was clueless on tire pressures. This was just our second event with them and I started off wrong then went the wrong direction. Someone straightened me out in time for the SM race and suddenly we closed the 1 second gap to the top cars. I think my fastest race lap was less than 0.1 off the best (congrats to Dave Hechler on the SM track record and Tom for the ITA record) but they were much more consistent. It helps to hook up in a train with clear track ahead rather than fighting to get up to the pack, but for such a complex new track their performance was impressive regardless. Nice job guys! By the way, when you guys ran STL did you pull the restrictor plates? Before the Honda and Pontiac jumped me at the start I had hoped to follow you guys for awhile, but by the time I got by the first one you were long gone.

[38bfast]

I think it would be better if they left the buss stop out. There is a lot of runoff at the end of the straight whitout it. Just a thought.

[38bfast]

I place no blame on the T4 car. He was tying to get around the track as fast as he could as was every car out there. He made a mistake just like all of us have. Bruce just got cought up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Steve Scheifler]

OK, then maybe not there at that time, but he and others seemed totally unaware that there was more than one race going on.

[Johnny D]

I place no blame on the T4 car. He was tying to get around the track as fast as he could as was every car out there. He made a mistake just like all of us have. Bruce just got cought up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maybe you really need to be moved to a faster run group.

https://www.youtube....h?v=ETmnennvBhM
 
J~

[J. Mizer]

"But that raises a question. Those who have driven the track, what do you think of the passing opportunities for power-matched cars like ours? It seems to me they are very limited. Other than the sinkhole I think the only place I made a pass that didn't start with a mistake by the other guy was the T1a/b chicane, and I wouldn't want to do that a lot. The straights aren't long enough for a draft-by unless you get a really good run out of the prior corner, and the hairpin seems too sharp to pull one off cleanly. Other corners just didn't seem to offer much chance for late braking. Maybe I'll think differently with more time there.

Otherwise, a very interesting track and should be a popular one for the track-day crowd with a good mix of turns and features. Although I was worried about the amount and close proximity of concrete and Armco, it didn't seem all that intimidating after all
and from what I saw there were surprisingly few incidents given how complex it is.

By the way, when you guys ran STL did you pull the restrictor plates?"

 

 

 

I thought the best passing opportunity was on the front stretch into the chicane.  Outbraking into T3 (I think it is, the first right hander) was also possible with a really good run out of the chicane.  If you could get beside somebody in the first high speed right (not sure of the turn number), it was possible to outbrake into the next tighter right hander.  All in all, the track is not very wide in a lot of the other areas and would take a lot of control from both drivers to pass without contact. 

 

There is not a lot of run off in most areas especially in some of the high speed turns.  I could see how mistakes there could turn out to be ugly. 

 

I left my plate in all weekend. 

 

It was a pleasure meeting all of you in impound over the weekend.

[RussMcB]

I was up there last month with a Corvette group and I was amazed at how fun the track was.  It might have become my new favorite (over Barber, VIR, Road Atl).  However, I did wonder what it would be like with a lot of cars racing W2W.  We were just lapping.  I couldn't see anywhere that passing would be easy/natural. 

 

If you get a chance to get on it, highly recommended.