Random Thoughts... (Motorsports Edition)

Josh Hill's overtake on the final corner in one race was sublime!
Well I only saw the short clip when they interviewed Damon, as I was watching MotoGP. Today, I have enjoyed the Ginettas and the Touring Cars, but don?t care much for the Porsche Cup races.
(ITV is a bit meh, too many ad breaks.)

:)

PS Pleased that Donnington Park is a racing track again and has not been turned into a Tescos & car park or whatever.
 
Today was the last race of the "regular" season at karting (There are two more events consisting of three races, but that's for a separate mini-championship), and looking at the points, I'm certain to place 3rd overall :D

It's not official, as the chart hasn't been updated yet, but on the outdated chart, it's on the second-last race and I'm in 2nd. The person in third has a very small gap between me and him and placed a few positions ahead of me today, while the person in 4th placed behind me today.
 
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Congratulation :)

In my case, after my crash I fell 6th in the championship, and after missing the last round lost 2 more places.

Missing 2 races in a 4 race championship is not the way to go apparently :lol:
 
RIP Ralph Broad of Broadspeed fame, 1938-2010.
images

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http://img831.imageshack.**/img831/3885/bro4.jpg
http://img210.imageshack.**/img210/7207/bro5.jpg
 
Today was the last race of the "regular" season at karting (There are two more events consisting of three races, but that's for a separate mini-championship), and looking at the points, I'm certain to place 3rd overall :D

It's not official, as the chart hasn't been updated yet, but on the outdated chart, it's on the second-last race and I'm in 2nd. The person in third has a very small gap between me and him and placed a few positions ahead of me today, while the person in 4th placed behind me today.

Official results have been posted, and as predicted, I'm in third :D
 
Got back from driving the F2000 for the second time. Spent two days in it and chopped at least 4 seconds off my lap time. Have yet to check the videos for my actual best lap.

Lonnie Pechnik, who has been on the podium at Le Mans in the Flying Lizard car, was my lapping instructor for the day, and he was running behind me and another driver that also races karts. He said that I was "tough to catch".

Quote of the day "I shared a tent with Michael Schumacher in karting. He's a dick." and "hey, anyone keep track of their kill count on the ground squirrels out here?" "I've lost count".

Speaking of, I still have some blood to clean off my visor.
 
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Going quickly. Passin' peeps.




Being very ginger with my shifter hand. Developed a rather large sore on my palm from it (it's just a metal knob). Got my lap times into the mid-1:41s. That's about the same as the new Mercedes SLS. Would've gone much faster but tremendous power-on understeer was keeping me from going really fast in the high speed corners (4, 6, 9 and 10).
 
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Rally driver Jimmy Girvan has been killed during the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally yesterday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-11412436

There's some horrible dark irony in that that this has happened during an event held in the memory of the late great Colin McRae. The rest of the event has been cancelled out of respect. R.I.P. :cry:
 
Going quickly. Passin' peeps.




Being very ginger with my shifter hand. Developed a rather large sore on my palm from it (it's just a metal knob). Got my lap times into the mid-1:41s. That's about the same as the new Mercedes SLS. Would've gone much faster but tremendous power-on understeer was keeping me from going really fast in the high speed corners (4, 6, 9 and 10).

on every vid you see where they take someone on track for the first time, the instructor is constantly saying to turn in later...
so i guess someone with no experience would turn in too soon...i don't have any, and when watching the vid, i always get the feeling i would've turned in later than you did...
is my perspective that wrong? or did you have to turn in early due to the understeer you're talking about?
 
on every vid you see where they take someone on track for the first time, the instructor is constantly saying to turn in later...
so i guess someone with no experience would turn in too soon...i don't have any, and when watching the vid, i always get the feeling i would've turned in later than you did...
is my perspective that wrong? or did you have to turn in early due to the understeer you're talking about?

I could actually stand to turn in earlier for a couple. With a more neutral car, I'd be turning in earlier for almost every corner. Cameras, especially this camera, flatten everything out pretty severely. That includes corner geometry. Take turn 3 for example. In my video, it looks like a pretty calm medium speed right hander. It's actually a pretty sharp 90-degree corner.


DSCF3464.JPG



The camera is almost sitting on my turn in point. You can see the faint rubber line from the outside tires going from the bottom left all the way to the apex, and should illustrate the line pretty well. It's very tempting to turn in way before this, since it's such a "compact" looking corner you think "shit, I have too much speed! Better go in early and scrub it off so I won't forcibly display my car in the souvenir shack." That picture is still "flattening" the corner somewhat. It's a pretty amazing corner, because it's so sharp, but the apex speed is still about 65-70. I think it's my favorite, right before turn 5 (the first left that leads up the hill).
 
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I have a couple of wtf's from the weekend's Superkart and modern regularity event at mallala:

1. How do you spin what is basicly a go-kart in the form-up area?

2. Why do you think your allowed to do circle-work in the form-up area to 'Warm up your kart' when there is another field attempting to get ready for the next session

3. Why do you think a PT Cruiser is an acceptable car to be tracked (and have your ENTIRE PT cruiser owners club come out to watch your failure)
 
Volvo will field one car(Robert Dahlgren) in next years WTCC. If it turns out ok, they have a full team in the 2012 season.
They will also do a test race at yokohama this year!
 
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Eh, I'm not surprised at that. The Stig gig probably kept him from getting better motorsport gigs, and now that teams don't have to worry about losing Ben as a driver 'cause he flipped a Kia...yep.

As for tracking a PT Cruiser, not gonna lie, I found the idea of tracking Ye Olde Failtima hilaaaaaaaaarious. There's even small bits of footage of it limping around a track somewhere that I need to post...haha. Luckily, that was a LeMons test day that I was filming, so the Failtima sorta/kinda fit in.

At a regular trackday, though? Two words: moving chicane. Eek.
 
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What about the Lancer? Congrats on the new car by the way. How's it's "dynamic ability"? :p
Thanks!

It's still in its "break-in" period, so I can't drive it very quickly or floor it for another hundred miles or so. I haven't even taken it on the freeway yet! :( Mom pretty much put the fear of God in me when it comes to driving this thing too hard, too early and doing big, bad permanent damage to the car's engine. Boooooo.

That being said, I only have to touch the gas just a little to make it move and it's definitely more fun in corners. It should be quite fun. :D
 
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Don't drive it too hard, but don't just run it at constant low RPM either. A couple of three-quarter throttle runs through the rev range won't hurt it, and actually might help it. Modern engines are petty well put together. Once you've done a good 1500-2000 miles in it you could track it and do pretty well. It's got fat tires for a family saloon and good grip.

I got an interesting offer from one of my buddies. The season ending regional enduro for the SCCA is coming up next month at Laguna. Just so happens he's got a well-sorted E30 with a spare space on the team, and I have a letter of recommendation for an SCCA regional license pronto.

Gonna get my medical exam done and see if I can get those papers in ASAP.

EDIT: Damn doctors. No openings till November (wot?) and if I want to grab a cancellation I have to call at 6 AM each morning until a slot opens... so much for health care. A kid can walk into pediatrics and get a sports physical for soccer, but I have to wait 2 months for an appointment to fill out a simple auto racing form, which is like a blood test and a vision check. Hell half the thing is filled out by the driver anyway. Probably take all of 5 minutes.

Listen to me. Bitch bitch bitch. Just wake your lazy ass up early and make the damn call you numpty.
 
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It was the first race of the "mini-championship" at karting today, and I managed to place 3rd. I came across the line 4th, but 1st place received a 5 position penalty because she, with pole position, managed to spin out in the first corner, on the first lap, before the passing cones (Cones set out to mark where you can begin overtaking opponents), screwing up another 2 or 3 drivers.
 
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