Today at 11: reverse track practice
Sunday: @Bimodal_Rocket, @AndreLafond and Marc will race many worthies.
Detail to follow. Hopefully this time we don’t kill
Marc again with carbon monoxide poisoning.
Update: have arrived 1:15 mins early and had a lovely drive here.
Despite some overnight snow (a dusting) the roads were pretty dry and traffic was quick. There was a bit where we were doing low 80s in the center lane, which is brisk.
My new racing shoes are lovely.
These are those fancy OMP KS-XR I was ogling and finally pulled the trigger on. Kate got me a nice thermal shirt for Xmas (and some really nice winter/rain gloves). The shirt didn’t fit so I returned it and bought the shoes, this making them much less expensive (in my mind) and therefore justifying the outrageous purchase.
The shoes are fab. The toe box is a bit more narrow than alpinestars but otherwise I like the fit. I find the fancy lacing system a bit ineffective but maybe that’s me being clueless. I can’t get it tight-tight but it’s tight enough.
The shoes are comfy but supportive. They also transmit feel well. I have noticed, in the 911, really nice pedal feel. They also feel great in the kart, too.
Final thoughts: great looking, feeling shoe. Fancy. I would buy these again, but not before trying other fancy-pants shoes.
While I’m at it, I shall also report on these gloves Kate bought me as well:
Alpinestars Tempest V2
They describe these as their rain gloves. I see them as worthy winter gloves, in general. While they are driving specific, they do feel much more like a pair of regular winter gloves. Less flexible, but, warmer.
These have come in handy at Xtreme Zone. While it’s an indoors facility, they run gas karts. Which means the track is very well ventilated and is usually around the same temp as ambient outdoors temp. So, it can get in the 30s in there, and, you feel that in my regular old driving gloves.
I’m quite happy with these. They are very drivable and have been keeping my hands toasty. I highly recommend a set of these for folks in climates where having a pair of cold weather gloves makes sense. These won’t help you in Minnesota cold snaps, but they are useful and warmer than standard gloves.
Ben Braley and Matt Haas
Just got back from Reverse practice. Ben and I were the sole takers. so we had the track to ourselves and had an all you can eat buffet of driving. It was great!
Pit In
As expected, Ben was quick, and I gave him the honors, knowing I was doomed. I did my best to keep up, however, and did learn a few things. He also graciously did a track walk with me and we discussed the corners.
Back Track
I think I have landed somewhere useful and competitive for the race, we shall see. Reverse is a bit tricky and requires some patience to be fast. I tend to get over-enthusiastic, so I’ll have to keep my push in check.
I Began the day with 21.9 as best in first heat, as compared to Ben’s first heat 21.1. By our last heat we had managed 21.2 for Dom and 20.9 for Ben. I’m good with that spread as Ben is lighter (and more talented and faster) than me.
The Heats
We closed out the morning with 2 final heats, in the normal direction, which was fun and necessary practice, as well. Ben got his kart down to 20.8 and I managed a respectable 21.2 as my best.
This was the deal of the century, as we ended up doing double heats (22 laps). And, we did 4 reverse, two forwards. For $15 a heat. I feel like I should make a contribution to the charity of their choice or something, as that was a lot of track-time for not a lot of money.
Thanks, Matt Haas! @matthaasracing
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It was a fun race. The first half was discarded due to transponder issues. So we restarted at the 2nd half. We drove pretty well but only managed 6th. I drove reverse and had a good time. I felt like our kart was only ok but it’s hard to say. In general the karts were good. Overall, despite the timing issues, we had a good time. As Andre says “it was a race”.
My Single Session
Upon review of my footage I’d say I drove well, but just didn’t have the top end. It looks to me like we just didn’t have the same speed down the straights as pretty much everyone else. We did a kart swap in practice, because the first one we got was placing dead last during the practice, which seemed unlikely, given Marc and Andre. This one was better, but it just wasn’t competitive.
Despite the slow kart we hung around 2-5 for a bit but ultimately finished 6th, I think. The race was also abbreviated in that the first 1.5 hrs or so was tossed as the timing system went nuts. Bit it’s not really a TKC race if something unexpected doesn’t happen!
We will be back later in February for the 8hr. That should be interesting and I look forwards to it. I don’t know if we will do any reverse track that race, but we should. I don’t know if I mentioned it but this race was in reverse direction for the 2nd half.
I enjoyed learning reverse. It requires patience, setting up the last turn to straight. It’s easy to push too much, too soon, and be too narrow going up into the last turn before straight. Seeing this play out in reverse has given me some motivation to try a couple things in the forwards direction.
Unfortunately Andre’s old hero 7 seems to be crapping out. We got audio only on most of his footage, alas. I’ll have to bring the spare 9, next race.
It was a fun day and a success. Everyone did a great job despite the timing system being wonky. Thanks Alec and Matt and everyone else!
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