No 56k: Day at Laguna Seca SCCA Double Regional

Zuhaib

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2003
Messages
855
Location
San Francisco, CA
Car(s)
19 BMW X3
So earlier in the week SteveLevin (http://forums.finalgear.com/members/steve-levin-user12202/) invited me attend the local SCCA race at Laguna Seca to see his SRF race and I took up the offer and got some great shots. It was a great event, and top all it was free which is always cool. You can read more about the event here: http://www.sfrscca.org/component/option,com_easycalendar/task,view/id,62/Itemid,167/cid,22/
I took my Canon G9 but let me warn you, first i suck at taking photos, and 2nd I have never taken photos of anything fast so I was learning on the go.

You can see all my flickr pictures from the race here (i took about 119 photos) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/zuhaib/sets/72157605868326982/

And here are a few select photos from the race (including a Viper eating an Audi TT), Be kind please :)


SteveLevin (#29) getting ready for the race with his wife


SteveLevin coming out of Turn 2


SteveLevin going in to Turn 1








Shots of the SRF as they come out of The Corkscrew (8A I believe) and on to turn 9.


A good shot i screwed up =(






So if you crash in this guy, you know who is going to be calling you =P


Some "classics"


Turbo NSX!


Close up of Steve's car


Classic Racers, did not watch the race as I was talking to Steve.


Viper racing in the ITA race.


That NSX around the track


Check out the colors =P


Winner of the race


Just as the Group 3 Cars are about to make their parade lap, and check out the classic Vette. Its in 1st place for a reason...


A new Audi TT Racer? I wonder if its the real deal or just a shell...


The Viper is back... And I think its getting hungry for some Germans...


Notice no other car in the distance... It was FAST! I could hear the spotters for the other racers (including the son for the guy that was #2 on the pole) saying just to wait for the Vette to mess up. And it did =( Started to leak oil


The Viper is moving on its prey....


It has it now in its sights


The Audi is still alive


Not for long, the Audi is getting passed =(


And its over, the Audi is smoked. Oh FYI the Audi was in a different class, GT2 so it did not matter =P


Close up of Vette's Motor :cool:


More of the motor


A poor C5 Vette that needed a little help.. by a golf cart :blink:
(FYI If you noticed i fucked up the ISO Settings on the last few shots, I left it at 800)


And at last, a Viper for Viper =P
 
Great pics. was the C3 vette turbo'd or were the crazy headers for equal length and proper flow?
 
It was fun to have fans! :)

The have added a lot of gravel for the upcoming MotoGP event (In fact, all around the track they are working building up extra grandstands and hospitality locations for it). So on Friday things didn't go quite as planned...

At the beginning of qualifying, I did this...

[youtube]hy2A6ZoVh1s[/youtube]

and then after I got towed out of the gravel trap, got some of the rocks shaken out of my car, on the last lap of qualifying I did this...

[youtube]NAmDIPMCb-k[/youtube]

So I was fairly unpopular around the paddock Friday night and got a bollocking from several people.

I don't have video of the first race (that Zuhaib saw) but I did upload video of the entire second race (25 minutes) at:

http://www.vimeo.com/1254982

The next race is a single regional up at Thunderhill at the end of July. Then a double at Infineon at the end of August, I believe.

Steve
 
Why are those cars so twitchy?? I've always been surprised by the fact that many race cars seem unable to handle much opposite lock at all, is it the tires, the suspension geometry, or the steering lock, combination of all 3?

O, just wondering what type of times people run around Laguna Seca!
 
Steve, was this race part of the June Sprints? If so, how did you place, if I may ask?

I missed out going to the June Sprints at Road America this year...but I will be going to the Brian Redman Challenge! :dance:
 
Jay: this was just a Double Regional event at Laguna Seca. A couple of people had run the Sprints at Road America the weekend before, but most hadn't. SCCA events are broadly broken up into two types: National and Regional, with, in theory, National events being aimed at those who wish to compete in the annual Runoffs to determine a national champion. Regional events are, in theory, lower key and more "fun." In the SF Region, though, there's not much difference in the groups racing.

My best lap was a 1:47.344, but the quickest laps were 1:42:686, almost 5 seconds faster. Those guys are some of the top guys in the country though, so it's a pretty high bar.

The "twitchyness" of the cars is really just a matter of driving them on the ragged edge. When a car is on the edge (which can be a bit variable based on your skill) just the slightest differences have a huge impact. If I backed down to 1:50's or 1:51's I could drive the car around the track all day and could easily recover from small mistakes.

Steve
 
Hey Steve, good to see you survived the weekend! Again thanks for the invite, also I have a 2 videos from the other races in the day. I have them on youtube but the quality is crap and i cant get the "High Quality" version working =|

[YOUTUBE]http://youtube.com/watch?v=T5V9rTFYBoI&fmt=18[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]http://youtube.com/watch?v=g8BEXaspcwM&fmt=18[/YOUTUBE]


EDIT: Link to the HQ versions seem to work tho.. http://youtube.com/watch?v=g8BEXaspcwM&fmt=18
and
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T5V9rTFYBoI&fmt=18
 
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