2013 Race Season Update

The 2013 PITL race season has moved into full gear.  After missing the first race because of scheduling conflicts, my first race was actually the second race in the series on May 25.    The results were mediocre. 5th in class, and 37th overall out of 92.

Like all racers, I had copious amounts of excuses.
1. Had to shake of the winter rust off.
2. Trying new R-Comp tires.  Hankook z214's which are much different than the R888 or RA1 which I have been on that last 2 seasons.
3. New suspension setup with the traction spacers.

I was so excited for the first race of the season, I actually forgot to torque down the lugs of one of my wheels so after the first run I heard a very loud clunking.  After driving slowly around the paddock while a number of people were listening trying to narrow down where it was coming from, I jacked up the corner and immediately felt that my rear right wheel was loose.  Slapping my forhead, and calling myself a number of names, I got back into the game, only to find out that I had so much oversteer, it felt like my rear end was on ice.  Literally, I was fighting it the entire second run, drifting the back around like I was on Fast and the Furious, Tokyo Drift.

After adjusting the tire pressures I fixed the oversteer issue, but I was too far behind to really catch up to the leaders, since I had basically thrown away my 2 first runs.  Such is life.

Before my June 23rd race, I ended up fabricating up a new camera mount for my video camera.  I used the Go Pro suction mount, and made an adapter to fit my tiny camera.  I don't have a Go Pro camera so I had to build this adaptor out of 0.063 alluminum sheet.  The camera is friction fit into the holder so it won't go anywhere.

A small cutout was created so I didn't have to take the camera out when I upload video to the computer with the cable.

The June 23rd race would be the test for the new adapter and camera and it worked out really well.  I still have to learn the Youtube interface fully, and I still need to learn the compositer program, but the test video worked out well.  I'll be uploading more videos as the season progresses to my Youtube Channel, Twinchracing.  Hope people enjoy it.

As for the race it was an improvement.  I think I've gotten rid of the winter rust, and I've started to get used to the Z214's.  I'm still having a little bit of oversteer, so I'm going to need to play with tire pressures further.  Here are the results. 3rd in class, and 20th out of 82 overall.  It was definately one of my favourite track setups yet, with a great long sweeping right had turn that really created some g-forces as you accelerated through it. FUUUUUUUUN!

Till next time.