Woohoo!, First successful track outing for "914R" Options

[campbellcj]

Had a nearly flawless day today at the Streets of Willow with POC. Started off with my son (Logan, 17 mos) waking up coincidentally at 4:20am with a cough...my alarm was set for 4:30. Here ya go Mommy...I was on duty last Sunday...fire up the coffee pot, quick shower, and I hit the road.

I froze my gonads off on the way to the track. It was around 35F in the high desert, and of course I have no heat, no interior, and no radio to take my mind off it. Once the sun came up, it turned out to be a spectacular SoCal day. Probably 75-80'ish and extremely clear; no wind. My face is sunburned and I was wearing SPF30 sunscreen and a hat all day. What weather for early January. Gotta love this place...

Anyhoo, all day long the car was nearly flawless. I think we have a winner here (the car, not me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) . I put the car in V4 class, which is where the significantly modified factory -6's and early 911's (small motors) run. Had I gone into V5, which is the modified 4-banger class (944's and 914's mainly), I would have won, and in a bigger group too. I turned two 1:21.7 -ish laps, one of which was during timed runs. I averaged around 1:24 throughout the day, which included a significant amount of traffic/passing as well as numerous spins and offs (yellow flags).

My best time ever in the Ravenna car on this course layout was around 1:27, and I would have been very happy after my 15 month hiatus and brand new car doing a 1:25 or 1:26 -- so the 1:22-25 times all day were bitchen (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Only things that flaked out somewhat are that my seat moved a litle bit. I don't like that...bad @#$%. Also the sub belt loosened up a couple times, and I figure the two things are related somehow. The engine, trans, suspension, brakes, and whatever else there is...all worked great.

At least one more event with the 4-banger. Willow big-track on Jan 15th, just a test/fun day. Then it comes apart again in February for the six conversion and remaining safety equipment, assuming the budget holds together.

There are at least 2 "hot shoes" in my POC class, running the Streets in the 1:16 range. So my work is cut out for me. I'm sure I could break 1:20 with my current car setup and enough seat time. There is way more car than driver, which is a good thing when you're learning. So hopefully with the 2.2S - spec sixer (180-200HP) and a switch to Hoosiers from the Kumho Ecsta V700's, we can find about 4 seconds.

Got to meet some cool new folks, including Drew365 from the web boards as well as another Chris with a nice blue 73 2.0, and see a few familiar faces too. John Williamson ("Otto") took TTOD by the way...around 1:11 and that was on some severely flat-spotted/blistered tires. They were screwing with brake bias all day, but he kept locking up one end or the other. This is the "Rudy" car (3.8RSR Motec engine, cut roof & ginther screen, around 1800lbs).

Sorry for the rambling report. Pics to follow - right now it's time for beer, food and sleep.