Before we get started, let me down another of these just for good measure..
Wow, what a fun weekend yet again with Jimi Day and the Optima crew. Going to the big boy track at COTA loomed over us all last winter, and we knew the weekend would be a challenge happening in August. In the end, we got a break with the weather and had an absolute BLAST for two full days. Let’s recap it all..after a picture, just because.
Last Minute Prep
No good summertime thrash to get things put back together would be complete without a little last minute thrash to make it to the big event.
Going into the weekend before, we were able to get the air dam finalized, painted, and installed..and then figure out that it wouldn't go in the trailer anymore without some super sketchy wood stacking action.
Finalized the mounting and then blew it back off for some paint
Light, and flimsy as hell until it's bolted up - racecar things.
Bottomed out once in 6 runs at our bumpiest local course, which I take to mean I made it just long enough.
The week of left us scrambling to clean it up and finalize little things, including my lifesaver for the weekend.
August? Austin? Yeah, better break out the heavy artillery
With all this done, and some RaceRamps procured (BIG thanks to Terry and Jon at Vorshlag for their help getting them here in time), it was time to head south.
Friday - Registration, Tech, and General Prep
Friday was brutal. Just, outright awful. I pride myself on being pretty tough in the heat, and had tried to prep for it, but it was just oppressive that afternoon. We got settled in at our spot, tech'd, and started the decaling process.
The canopy provided slight relief, but overall it was a draining couple of hours. We finished the day with grave doubts about how we were going to race a full weekend in it, and called it an early night back at the hotel.
Saturday started out bright and early, with a 7 am arrival at the track. Took time to walk both courses (which I totally missed last year dealing with tech and stickering the car) and had a generally normal pre-event prep. It was a huge help having tech on Friday, and made for a much more pleasant start to the event.
We realized early on that several other Texas locals from the Dusold Designs shop were lined up to be judged first thing, and decided that sounded like the right plan. Last year we had lost the last part of our speed stop session to waiting in line for this, so knocking it out early sounded like the ticket.
Plus, how could you resist getting into this lineup?
Our car, I guess, is a little too much 'business' and not enough 'style' for this portion of these events, and last year we got absolutely destroyed in the judging. This year was much of the same, finishing 14th out of the 17 cars that showed up in GTV - the last car in the standings that wasn't missing road-worthiness items.
I don't get it. I won't pretend to. On to the racing..
Speed Stop
We drew run group A, and on a coin flip in the drivers meeting were selected to run speed stop first. This was ok, as we would rather give up time to be judged here than autocross which is definitely our stronger event.
Photo credit to Jim McIlvaine from Optima
Much like last year, it took several runs to get in the groove in this event. There is so much emphasis on a clean start and pushing the final braking to the absolute last second there is zero room for error.
After playing with all 1st gear on the first few runs (including buzzing it to nearly 8,000 one run WHOOPS), a short shift to 2nd proved to be the ticket. The torque of the new motor yanked it out of both corners like a freight train.
Best speed stop run. Video embed isn't wanting to cooperate, so just links for now.
Best time was a 14.252, which ended up being good for 5th in class and 26th overall. During the session we had no idea if this was any good or not, as the four GTV cars that finished ahead of us were all in group B on the autocross course at the time.
Autocross
We called it a day on the speed stop a little early, and after a quick sandwich and some chilling in the shade made our way to the autocross course.
The Texas Region tent city in the back corner of the paddock
While you normally expect an autocross to be flat, the H lot turns steeply downhill as it runs north. Fortunately, our usual autocross haunt has several 'ups and downs', so we're no strangers to off-camber, downhill, and uphill elements. A super tight first half gave way to a very fast and flowing second half, and an extremely speedy finish.
We had made a quick rear bias adjustment during the speed stop searching for just a bit more whoa. This would have been a great point to remember heading into run number 1 of the day..
YOU nearly had ME? You never had your CAR!
After the second run, I still totally did not have it together. Quickly determined that some cold water, a cool towel, and a little snack were in order. Not drinking enough water that morning caught up real quick, and it was a little scary.
I proceeded to down a bottle of water after each of the next four runs, and things came back around.
I see you, cone.
We had the advantage of knowing what the time to beat was this time around - Jake Rozelle's other worldly 29.5 was looming in large in my mind as we progressed down to a 30.06 on run 5.
I tried to get a bit too much in the wrong places on both of the next two runs, falling back to 30.3 and 30.2. Hot, tired, and convinced there wasn't anything left in the 130 degree pavement, we decided the 8th run would be it. If we got a 29, great. If not, live to fight on Sunday.
The 30.06 run
And run 8 proved to be the charm. I crossed through the lights feeling fairly good about the run, then pounded the steering wheel after I read 29.942 on the display. The entire tone of the day changed, and we were both ecstatic to break that 30 mark and get up with the rest of the 'big guns'. This run was good for another 5th in class, 19th overall.
And of course, that's the one run we didn't get video of
Road Rally
Just when you think the fun is over at an Optima event, it's just getting started. At 4:45 when the drivers meeting for the Road Rally started, I would confidently place the heat index at around 157 degrees. Everyone was hiding in whatever shade was available around the Optima trailer, waiting with breathless anticipation to find out where we were headed.
Jimi and the guys took pity on us, taking us around 12 miles each way to an Advance Auto Parts in south Austin. Of course, being Austin, this was around a 25 minute drive each direction with plenty of stop lights and uneven pavement, along with a Google detour down a closed road and the stoplight from hell on the return trip.
It was great to get out in the car on the street, as it's fairly rare that we've gotten to do that lately. The new motor is definitely more 'racecar' in town, requiring a little more coaxing from stop lights and just generally being a little grumpier. A fat carburetor in the thin hot air didn't help matters.
The line of cars was getting thumbs up and pics from a huge percentage of passers-by. Really cool, despite literally baking in the car.
We finished the day packing up and moving into the 'Big House'
I've seen F1 teams in there. And WEC teams. And WE'RE going there!
Next time: Sunday, and the gut check of driving a nearly 40 year old car you built yourselves on a Formula 1 track!
Let's be honest. We drove to Austin. To an FIA-spec Formula 1 track. Autocross and Speed Stop are great and all, but we came to put it on the line and run this 3.4 mile monster of a track.
We had told ourselves heading into the weekend that we would be fine without spending the extra scratch to get a garage space. That sounded great until we pulled into the paddock Saturday evening and Dad and I both thought "We can't very well be here and NOT get in there.."
I mean, seriously, it was right there, and it was shady and breezey and I don't have to justify this to you.
We did some pre-run checks, moseyed around a little bit to check out some of the other cars, and soon it was time for the driver's meeting. "This track is big. It will bite you. If you screw up, it will be dangerous and expensive."
Understood.
Each Optima Hot Lap day starts with 'orientation laps'. Or, in the case of a 3.4 mile track, 'lap'. We got a chance to sight in the layout and see where we would be exiting should we make it to the end of the session, and check transponder functionality.
I entered again in the Intermediate group, having never been to the track and having not run the car on such a big track before. The first session, predictably, was a bit of a mess with no times to go off of. I lined up in the back with a few friends, including one who had run the track before, in hopes of getting a good look at the preferred line.
After a bunched up first hot lap, I fell back in hopes of getting some clean track and soon noticed warning lights flashing. Our oil temp warning threshold was set at 240 (the oil is good to 300 we would determine later), and after a second lap with some holdup I headed in to investigate. Best lap 2:53.
After a little research, we bumped the temp threshold, and headed back out for session 2, gridded mid-pack. A slow outlap, and two passes toward the end (thankfully the green was given in the last half of the outlap) provided a full lap unobstructed. Clean track let us get down to a 2:47.
This made some progress, bumping up to the 6th spot for session 3. A lap behind a GT350 led to a point by and some serious progress. 3 good clean laps, still being extremely conservative, saw the times fall each lap. 2:45, 2:43, and finally a 2:41.4. We knew we weren't even in the same zip code as Maier, Rozelle, and Woo, but it felt good to get a clean session and make some progress in that direction at least.
Session 4 brought one of the most fun moments of the weekend. We sat third on the grid, behind a McLaren and a Z06, with Chad Ryker's super cool first gen alongside. The grid workers looked at the list multiple times for both Chad and I, making sure they had things right.
The final session was by far the best of the day. The Z06 and I played chase for a few laps, and at times on the first hot lap I had the target in my sights. With a 2:41.4 as the best time from before, predictive was showing 1.4+ in the green during the lap. Unfortunately, a fat carburetor and a botched stadium section dropped it back down to a 2:40.9.
At this point, it was incredibly warm, and the tires were increasingly greasey. After a few slips in the first sector of the next lap, I decided to opt for discretion and pack it in (after blasting through 16-17-18 one last time, of course).
Best lap from the final session - a real mess in hindsight, but still the fastest of the day
Final Tally
When the dust settled, we loaded back up and headed to the awards ceremony. We knew the deck was stacked coming into this event, and a repeat podium was pretty much going to be out of the question. In the end, we managed a 5th in GTV, when my expectation was that anything in the top 10 would be a success after seeing the entry list.
We again lost massive ground in the Design & Engineering portion, which leaves me with a moral dilemma. I like the car how it is. I feel like it is designed to be no-nonsense and easy to work on and drive fast, but can see the issues when viewing it in terms of a 'street car'.
Aside from all of that, Optima events are still amazingly fun. Sunday was a trying day with a few on-track and off-track incidents, and Jimi and the crew handled everything that was thrown at them better than most any group could have and with smiles on their faces throughout. We are definitely still hooked on these events, and can't wait to do our next one.
Post-event Wrap-up
Back to its natural habitat
A few nagging problems (namely some leaky oil cooler lines) showed up during the weekend, so they have been addressed along with the usual post event checks. The Wilwood pads and brakes look excellent enough to let me know I wasn't using them nearly hard enough on the track.
What's next?
There's one other 'big boy' track in Texas. We're going to try to sample it one more time before it's gone..
Awesome!You did good against the high tech guys.I liked the fact that your not high tech.Thats why your thead is one of my favorites to follow not to mention you have a second gen Camaro.
Mike,
Duston,
great to see the car is doing what you want
and I agree pretty is not really what all of us
want out of our cars.. making go is the important
thing... your next track was a great run for me
last year TWS... too bad they are tearing it down
In what was one of the crazier ideas of my adult life, buying a house, spending a week at SEMA, and going to College Station seemed like a grand way to spend 10 days.
I've almost recovered enough to tell the tale.
The Timeline
Friday
2:00pm - bolt out of the show and head to the airport
6:00pm - fly out
11:00pm central - land, get picked up by the wife
11:45pm - head south Saturday
3:22am - pull up to the gates and get a 2 hour nap
6:00am - pull into the track and unload
7:00am - driver's meeting
I'd like to thank Red Bull, and the Love's Truck Stop in Hearne for this magical moment..
Not gonna lie, kind of proud of the insanity of this endeavor. This is also how I know for a fact I picked a GREAT one to call my wife.
So, the car was an absolute blast on this track just like I thought it would be. Big flowing corners, high speed banked front straight, this place was made for cars with too much power and not enough handling.
In the first session Saturday, I was able to match my best of a 2:07 in the Z without pushing the car hard at all. We had a great group of drivers that allowed a ton of open track time which helped a lot.
Our sessions at COTA never allowed me to build up a whole lot of confidence in the car as all but one got cut short or had issues with traffic. This was just what the doctor ordered.
Second session I went out behind a club racer who knows the track like the back of his hand and was super helpful working out some of the issues I was having. Dropped to a 2:01 quickly in the session, and was super pumped for the rest of the weekend.
We had a long break during the club racers race sessions, which provided ample time for a back of the truck nap, and the rain set in. Last session started damp and dried quickly, but I didn't put a decent time down before calling it a day.
missing the gas pedal during a heel-toe is not ideal..
I had issues at COTA with pad knockback through the esses and other left-right sections. A quick check of the pedal normally solved it, and it was back to business as I was braking super early all day. This changed a bit at TWS as braking points got later and harder, and a couple times on Saturday it led to a missed downshift or a jerky un-rev-matched shift and slide.
Sunday's first session had ideal conditions and with a full night's sleep I was ready to go get my '59. 2 laps in, charged off the banking into 1 and 2 and the car felt amazing. Did the usual brake pedal check and got it back up then drove hard down the short chute to 3. That's when things got interesting..
The brake check had not produced the amount of pedal I was expecting, and the corner was coming rather quickly. Rushing the downshift and missing the gas pedal led to a horrendous rear lock up (you can hear it wheel hop in the video), kicking the car sideways to full opposite lock at somewhere around 85 mph.
'sub-optimal rear end alignment'
The combination of the wheel hop and nasty slide broke the main link of the panhard bar mount, letting the rear end shift around 3 inches to starboard. My initial thought after the car straightened out and the wheel was no longer straight was that something had bent in the front end. After I got out of the car and looked at the rear tire it became pretty apparent what had taken place.
Stressed components have a finite lifespan..
Needless to say, this ended the weekend early. It was disappointing, but I knew with the knockback and what I was pretty sure was the fluid going away, another session wasn't going to be very productive anyway.
The one upside to the early exit was getting to take in the midday session from the control tower at the track atop the hill - a place I've wanted to go both of my other trips but hadn't gotten to.
Now what..?
Now the question is, how do we build it back better? I've questioned the effect that the high position of the bar has on the handling for a while, but our mount design and packaging constraints didn't allow us to move it.
The first thing on the list is a floater housing to solve the pad knockback issues, and an adjustable stock car style panhard mount will allow us to adjust roll center. We've looked at watts links, but I don't know that the benefits are great enough to warrant the added complexity.
For now, though, life takes priority - almost time to move into our house!
Congrats on the house, Duston. Glad to see the panhard breaking wasn't more catastrophic. That had to be a scary moment.
Might want to contact Ron and see if he has any recommendations concerning relocating the mount or if the height of the mount/bar is an issue. My limited understanding is that the rod just needs to be level at ride height.
Good luck!
__________________
Trey
Current rides: 2000 BMW 540i/6 and 86 C10.
Former ride: 1979 Trans Am WS6: LT1/T56, Kore 3 C5/6 brakes, BMW 18in rims
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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