NASA National Championships - Mid Ohio
September 6-9, 2012

Wednesday Test n Tune
Thursday TT
Friday TT
Saturday TT & Race qual
Sunday Champ race

There are qualifying races Thurs, Friday but with only 7 PTC cars registered, they're not critical. TT is scored best single run from Thurs, Friday or Saturday. So I need to put a time in each day.

Crusher was loaded up and left this morning, team member Tom Probert driving the rig. I'll fly out Tuesday. Last week I dragged Sonny to CXC Simulations near LAX this morning to get some seat time in iRacing on the Mid Ohio Pro course. I asked him to drive aggressively against me. He did, gently putting me into a wall at one point. Thanks to Chris and the guys at CXC for setting us up. There are a few guys there that are Miata geeks like us. On of the guys was damn fast on the sims, jumped in with Sonny and me for a three way battle. I think I have a good head start on learning the flow of the track in race traffic. The full motion CXC simulators were especially valuable in getting a feel for the frequent mid turn elevation changes which really define Mid Ohio.

I'll be driving Crusher in TTC/PTC. NASA's digital magazine featured me as the favorite so I may have a bit of a target on my back. Crusher, while fast for an N/A Miata, is probably the lowest powered PTC car so I'll have my work cut out on the long straight between T2-T4. The flip side of that is I'll be the lightest and hardest turning in the woods. If often rains there in early September. Crusher is amazing in the wet so my odds improve dramatically if it rains. SM record is a 1:41.5. PTC record set by a Mini at Nationals last year is a 1:38.4. Another PTC local has done a 1:38 in the early August warm up event.

Live from Mid-Ohio via webcast at SpeedcastTV
Live video from SpeedcastTV
Live timing at this link
Event schedule at this link

I'll do my best to update our facebook page via twitter.
Team 949 Racing | Facebook

The other PTC cars entered
Two RX8's
Acura RSX
CRX - NASA marketing guy, Jeremy Croiset
Camaro
Mustang

At CXC Simulations

 

 

Catching a flight in the am. Crusher is already there scoping things out for me. Nice Crusher.

 

I am convinced that level of preparation and attention to detail is a big part of your success. Good luck at a very cool track!

 

The first couple times I went to this track, turn 1 was a mindfcuk for me. For those not in-the-know, it's a blind left hander that starts in a tunnel after coming off the front straight. It's a very deceiving increasing-radius turn. The best advice I have received on turn 1 is to be back on the throttle WAYYYY early, apex early, and be WOT well before you come out of the corner. It's always a bit unnerving for me going WOT into the blind corner on 2 wheels, but I started walking away from people as soon as I started doing that.

After coming through thunder valley, turn 11 is another blind left hander that people tend to overbrake for. I've certainly passed far more people in turn 11 than any other single area on this track.

As a motorcycle rider, I know I've got far more room to play on a racetrack than the cars do, but as an SV650 rider, I know what it feels like to have my "doors" blown off halfway down the half-mile-long back straight every single lap by bikes with much higher HP than me, only to completely dominate the other 9/10ths of the track. Good luck, Emilio!

 

The RSX is one of our cars. The driver is pretty quick but he doesn't have a lot of experience in FWD cars or at Mid Ohio. He's spent a lot of time this year improving the car.

Croiset's car is very quick, and, the CRX is rediculously fast at Mid Ohio. Last years PTC winner was a Grand AM spec supercharged Mini with the boost turned up.

Good luck, but I'll have to root for my teammate this time...

 

I said good luck in your M.net thread but i feel more comfortable here.

Fwd's seem to be very competitive at the "most competitive track in the us." Some of the honda guys are stupid fast.

I just drove/instructed the SCCA PDX on friday, before their double regional sat/sun. You guys start tomorrow, so there should still be a large amount of rubber laid down. Im not sure if thats good or bad. Mid O is also seal coated over the dry line, which makes rain super slippery.

My car is similar to your old silver rental(142hp, 225 nt01s, 700/400 on crappy stance shocks)
Turn 1 in my car is brakes off at the 100 sign and on the gas at or before bridge-under. You will hear all the IT/PT/SM cars bark/echo the exhaust as they turn in at the bridge too. There is a lot of exit room in a lower powered car here. 80-85mph exit in my lowly machine.

Turn 2 has an uphill braking zone, then becomes off camber as the track falls away near the apex, this is a common theme here(turns 2, 5, 9..)

Out of 6, through 7 and 8 is a straightaway.

I'm finally getting comfortable turning into 9 early and aiming to the end of the treeline over the blind crest. Good fun 4wheel drifts to be had past apex as the track falls away.

11 is a 7/8 scale turn 1 where you are turning into and uphill, lots more grip than people think which allows good passing as mentioned if you carry speed out of 9. Second fastest turn on the track. I saw a ~74mph exit on friday. Again, lots more exit room than people use. I like to exit wide, using the yellow to set up a midtrack brake and turn-in for the carousel.

Take this all with some salt, Mid O is my home track but I just run de4's.
I look forward to you telling me that this is all wrong after you spend a week here. Maybe you'll tell me how to go faster! The sm record here is rediculous, my best around the pro course is a 1:43.9. I hope it stays dry and you guys smash that PTC record.

 

I fought in that. Seriously.

 

This is one thing I never quite liked about road race runoffs. The home field drivers have a massive advantage in knowing the track. At auto-x the most advantage you can really get from being the home team is knowing what the surface feels like and having a car that's better setup for the type of course you typically get.

Good luck out there, not that you really need it.

 

Not sure if everyone is following their twitter (https://twitter.com/Team949Racing) but:

 

For those not following NASA timing or mylaps results:

Qualy for yesterdays qualy race: My teamate qualified P1 in PTC at a 38.6, emilio 2nd at a 38.9.

Result of qualy race was: Mustang P1 at a 39.16, my teammate (RSX) P2 at a 39.15, emilio P3 at a 39.35 out of 4 starters. I'm pretty sure PTC was supposed to have 7 or 8 cars, not sure why only 4 cars started the qualy race.

Top 3 in qualy race all finished within a second of eachother.

I haven't really been paying attention to the TT results but I know in one session Emilio had the fastest time but was DQ'd for some reason? Same situation as PT where there are 5 or 6 cars in class but only 3 or 4 running the TT sessions.

Also, per the FB page it sounds like on the test day (Wednesday) they (949) had an IAT break so they had to completely re-tune the MS to run without it, and they had some other issues with the car not wanting to start or something. Not sure why they wouldn't bring a spare IAT, I guess they've never had one fail?

Wish I was there racing...

My other teammate finished P1 in PTD at a 40.9 in an '06 Civic Si (last years PTD nat'l champ car with a diff. driver this year).

 

Thats weird on the iat. Most of us use the camaro iat so you can just go to autozone and buy one in stock.

 

We found our spare IAT and dynoed yesterday to make sure we were still under our limit. All good.

 

Thanks for the updates.

 

There should be a lot of people watching because NASA just mass emailed everybody with a membership about the live broadcast on Saturday and Sunday.

Good luck out there.

 

Apparently getting the IAT working is helping (or maybe Emilio finally threw A6s on the car) because he's been going pretty quick today.

It looks like he was fastest of all the PTB-F cars today, out qualifying the PTC field by 1s+. He ran a 37.6, next fastest car was my PTC teammate at 39.0.

That said, it looks like the PTB field is full of chumps. The PTB car I drove last year at NASA Nationals is easily capable of 1:35.x but all the PTB cars are running in the 39s.

Today's qualifying race starts in about 30 minutes or so...

 

via facebook

Thursdays qualy race:

2012 NASA Nationals Mid Ohio Heat race #1 - YouTube

 

By my math, this heat race win puts us on pole for the championship race Sunday. It'll be much harder to hold those guys off for 45 minutes in the dry.

My competition (as I see it)

-Kevin Boehm in the white RSX. Super fast, sharp driver. I think Crusher is a wee bit faster overall but if Kevin gets in front in the dry, I'll have a hard time getting around.
-Yellow Mustang. He's not a real precise kind of driver but he has the top end acceleration
on Kevin and I so he's all but impossible to get around even though he's almost 2sec slower in qual.
-Dennis Holloway in the silver/blue RX8. Super fast driver but I think his car is just a little under prepared for nationals. Just the same, if Kevin and I screw up even a little, Dennis will be right there.
-Jeremy Croiset. Very aggressive and fast driver in a Honda Challenge Civic with a few tweaks to run in PTC. He's a bit of a dark horse because he hasn't done any of the qual races. He'll start at the back Sunday but if he has more car that the rest of, we'll see him at the front.

The rest of the PTC cars entered have been no shows up to now.

Videos
Todays heat race #2

I had never driven Mid Ohio in the wet so I was basically learning the wet line on the formation lap. Damn near spun it twice squirreling tires
and testing for traction of line. Started to figure out a few new lines as the race progressed and was able to open a gap.
Very satisfying win. Plus it was just a ton of fun slip sliding around.




Yesterdays heat Race #1

 

That Mustang was a perfect example of 'that's how I drive...' type of guy. Rolling roadblock indeed..

Congrads on the win!

 

Thank you for 1080p - better be careful, you might be mistaken for a drifter! Awesome driving - will be tuning in for the live stream, have fun keeping all 4 on in the rain!