October SC vs GTP Club Clash 2005

[Mike8675309]

Spent Sat at the track for the Iowa Chapter of the SCCoA's annual event. SC vs GTP club clash.

Only my second time at a track, I was able to mount up some 26x10.5 15" Mickey Thompson ET Street bias ply DOT approved drag tires. I had them mounted on a set of spare LX wheels I have for my winter beater. I really like these tires. With these tires I'd load the trans up to about 2200 rpm and when I wanted to go I just planted the foot to floor as I released the brakes. For the most part the tires just bit and I was off. I was getting a little shudder of wheel hop as I was leaving the tree, but nothing significant. The car also got a tad twitchy about halfway down the track (didn't notice if it was at a shift point or not, but I bet it was). I started with 26psi in the tires and dropped it down to 17.5 psi about halfway through.

I soon found that my habbit, previously developed on street tires, of leaving on the Second Yellow light was not going to work. 2 red lights during the test & tune had me scrambling to find something different. In the end I went with leaving as soon as the 2nd yellow goes dark. This track has the LED tree lights so the 2nd yellow was dark slightly before the 3rd yellow was lit. That process served me well until the last run of the day.

I cut my best reaction time in the Time Trials, a .047. It was also my best 1/4 mile time of a 14.834. It was during the first time trial that I tried a different burnout technique. I had been just leaving the car in Overdrive and doing a burn out. But the last few times it had been shifting on me. So with the first time trial I wanted a good burnout and I dropped the trans into 1st for it.

Well after the burnout I was to slide the shifter back into overdrive. But I now realize (didn't realize it at the track) that what I did was slip the shifter into Drive, not Overdrive. This would explain my car starting to chirp at me and my upshift light coming on as I went through the traps. I didn't notice my RPM's, but I'm sure that was the warning for getting into high revs.

I did it that way a couple more times and just couldn't figure out what was going on. Oh well. The car held up well for something with 130k miles on the clock. (the trans has about 5,000 miles)

16 cars were in the bracket, with 10 SC's, and 6 GTP's (yes, some tbirds had to go up against tbirds) After the first round, we only had 5 birds left against 3 GTP's. Unfortunately I took out one of our guys in that round, leaving just Me and 3 GTP's for the 3rd round.
After the second round there was 1 tbird (me) and 3 GTP's left. Two GTP's went first. I went up against one and he broke out. That left a GTP and my SC for the final! Ack. I choked in the final red lighting using my thus far tried and true method. Thinking back then I didn't think I did anything wrong. But as I look back today I realize I may have released the brake a little early with a tinge of yellow still showing on the second light. Drat.
Well the GTP driver got the trophy, but didn't participate in the pool, so I got all the cash!

A fun time had by all, and in the end my day of racing was paid for. Man I wish I had a track closer to me. Driving 4 hours to go racing is a bit rough. Got to the track an hour after it opened and got in 10 runs for the day. The track was good to us supercharged folks in giving us at least 20 minutes between runs to cool down.

I posted a link to pictures I took in the SCCoIA forum under the Shootout thread.

Reaction Time
Average: .085
Best: .047
Worst: .118

60 foot
Average: 2.1607
Best: 2.097
Worst: 2.211
Median: 2.177

1/8th Mile
Average: 9.683, 72.681
Best: 9.497 @ 73.65
Worst: 9.959 @ 70.82
Median: 9.712 @ 72.02

1/4 Mile
Average: 15.1334 , 90.016
Best: 14.834 @ 92.23
Worst: 15.523 @ 88.43
Median: 15.209 @ 83.65

[BirdofPrey97]

Glad the tires worked out Mike. If not for the auto I would miss that car. Good to see it going to some use and being enjoyed.

Once you go all black you never go back.

[Sxar]

Originally Posted by Mike8675309

Reaction Time
Average: .016
Best: .047
Worst: .118

Wait, how does this work Mike? Your average is lower than your best. Take those red lights out of the spread sheet.

Matt

[Mike8675309]

fixed it. I forgot to exlude the red lights when I posted that average. 3 negative numbers caused that average.

Wrote a new program to hold all my time slips in a database. I'll build a web app to maintain it someday, once I can find a cheap host for it all.

Oh... and further exam of the numbers. If I wouldn't have red lighted I would have won.

Margin of Victory for my wins were.
.9085 GTP
.4678 Cougar
.1866 GTP
would have been .0598 except for the red light...grrr. Just need more experience.

[Sxar]

Originally Posted by Mike8675309

fixed it. I forgot to exlude the red lights when I posted that average. 3 negative numbers caused that average.

Wrote a new program to hold all my time slips in a database. I'll build a web app to maintain it someday, once I can find a cheap host for it all.

Oh... and further exam of the numbers. If I wouldn't have red lighted I would have won.

Margin of Victory for my wins were.
.9085 GTP
.4678 Cougar
.1866 GTP
would have been .0598 except for the red light...grrr. Just need more experience.

Well, for only your second time at a track, you lasted the longest out of all of us. For my first time at a track, I think I did pretty well. I appreciated all the help you gave me. Next year I think I will have some drag radials for the car.

Matt