John Stecher’s Racing Blog

Christmas did come early for me! As I said before I really think this was the most fun I have had in a long time and also one of the most learning periods I have had. I will attempt to give a short overview of the three days and my thoughts about what was good and bad.<br />
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<strong>Overview/Review of the Skip Barber 3-day school</strong><br />
Class Makeup: 16 total in the class with I would say 10 there to learn how to race or with previous racing experience, and the other 6 there to either have run or because they were interested in racing. Ages and experience were fairly wide. One guy had raced the Ferrari challenge for years, two were gokart prodigies and the rest were the HPDE/TT/Performance driving crowd. 15 men and one woman. Three total instructors (Bruce McInnes, Jonathon X, and Rich Beam) and three crew members.<br />
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<strong>Instructors Background:</strong><br />
Bruce McInnes is one of Skips main guys from my understanding. He was out lead instructor and has raced everything from Camel Lights to the Porsche 962. I think if there was anything with wheels on it Bruce raced it at one time or another. Great personality and excellent ability to give feedback.<br />
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Jonathon X (unsure of last name) is a guy about my age from Brazil who raced pretty much every type of formula car all over Europe. He was Scott Speed's roommate for Formula Renault I believe and ran all the way up to F3000.<br />
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Rich Beam is a guy with years of racing experience in SCCA and Solo competition and was a national champion.<br />

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<strong>Track Information:</strong><br />
http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/Homestead_Miami_Speedway<br />
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<strong>Day One</strong><br />

Start the day by arriving at the track and thinking man it would have been nice to have a friend along. While I got along with the other folks there its always nice to have someone to relate to. I was the first one to arrive (seemed to become a trend) and walked over and talked to the mechanics for 15-20 minutes. Then headed over to the classroom. It was me and the three instructors until about 10 minutes before we started. Had a good deal of fun talking to them and they really made me feel good about the class. Got started with a quick introduction of everyone and their reasons for being at the school. The reasons varied widely. Bruce M. level set that we would be taking it easy for the first day and building speed…a comment that was met with groans from some, but one that I welcomed as I came to learn not just drive the track.<br />
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We started with getting fitted in the cars with our partners and then breaking up into two groups. I was first in the classroom where we talked about the line through basic type-1 corners (ie easy ones). After that it was into the cars for our turn. The car was uncomfortable for me at first as I was frankly just too big for it. By the end of the day I had figured out how to make myself fit but initally it was a pain. Auto-X around a course working first on just driving the line for 10-15 laps at a time. Then moving into trailing throttle and brake applications in the second session. Finally in the last session working on doing things wrong in to get a feel for what its like to have the car loose. Wrong things means abrupt lift of the brakes while trail braking, or snap off throttle while accelerating hard out of a turn. Obviously both snap rotate the car and you have to catch it. Fun FUN stuff….really works the neck!<br />
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Lunch<br />
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Double Clutch downshifting drills to get everyone familar with how to do it. This is where I first started to suspect something was wrong with my car as a good number of times (3-4 out of 15) the transmission would not come out of gear with the clutch in or out. I worked through it but it bugged the hell out of me cause I questioned if I was really this brutal on a gearbox as the mechanics swore everything was ok.<br />

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More classroom about finding the line through other turns and how to select the best line.<br />
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Two sessions of actual driving on the track. Rev limited however to 3300 RPMs. Here they really worked you hard with feed back each lap on your turn in points and apexes which was excellent as I found in more than one turn that required a late apex that I was actually turning in too late and could carry more speed if I was earlier. I really worked hard here even at low speeds to nail the turn in points and exit speeds which I think lead to me feeling a lot better by the end of the sessions. Funny thing here was a few guys complained about the 3300 RPM redline but it didn't effect the speed you carried in the corner at all. I see the magic now looking back. By limiting shifting you get people to focus on lines which is more critical.<br />
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<strong>Day Two</strong><br />

Today was focused on how to really get the brakes on and threshold stop a car both in a straight line and more importantly while trail braking. Basically setup a series of cones and had a competition on who could stop in the shortest distance. Since I had already been working on this in day ones line drills I was a little ahead of the curve. My group watched first and it was sweet to see people come flying into the turn in second gear and just light up all four tires in a big time lockup. Lets just say the mechanics were busy fixing tires at group 1. My group got in and was next. The drill was into turn 8 with us running the rest of the track at 3900 RPM red lines. Excellent fun. I learned that I really REALLY need to work on my trail braking technique as I am to abrupt with coming off the brake and moving to power causing the car to unsettle. When I can left foot brake in a gokart or the Stohr its a lot easier but this is an area I need to focus on big time! My last shot down the braking drill is when lucky car 4's clutch gave out. I limped it into the pits and got myself a new baby.<br />
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Lunch<br />
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Open lapping at increasing speeds per session during the afternoon with one session focused on passing and another drafting. Four sessions of open lapping with stopping on the front straight to practice heel/toe and receive feedback from the instructors positioned around the course. This was the first time you really got to start to pull everything together under the watchful eye of the instructors as they watched from different vantage points on the track. Got some excellent feedback about needing to brake later and carry more speed into turns by extending my trail braking points. I felt I was doing good but after listening and applying their advice I could easily feel I was carrying 5-10 mph more into and out of the turns. No real way to explain it but it feels damn good when it clicks in your head and you can tell big time with how long it takes you to have to up shift to the next gear. My last session on day two also introduced me to my first spin of the school in turn 8 when I just over cooked it into the turn tying to move my braking point deeper and ended up snap over steering the rear coming off the brakes turning in. Both feet in, one loop, select first and then back on my way. Two more laps and then it was Miller time.<br />
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<strong>Day Three</strong><br />

Today was the day to pull it all together and learn how to start a race. We talked about how to start a race at length and how the mantra of "You can't win a race in the first lap but you can loose it" applies. They also were quick to point out how much each car costs. Into the cars and off to practice two rolling starts and a single file restart. Lets just say my group didn't understand what was said. I was on pole and coming into the chicane onto the front straight I select 1st and get ready to turn in…well the guys next to me just went to full throttle mid chicane and blasted out of the turn down the straight away before the flag was waved and had a good 5 car lead. This repeated itself the next time through as well…it basically was a race from the second the pace car went into the pit. Finally in the single file restart I was able to dictate the pace better. Here is also where I learned that my car got walked by with me on pole and getting a good jump by three other cars. No way is drafting that big of a deal and its only one shift from 1st to 2nd before shut down so its pure horse power differences. Other cars performed the same when we watched the second group do their drills. It was fairly easy to pick out the good cars.<br />
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Lunch<br />
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The afternoon was filled with flat out, unrestricted long sessions with feedback once again after each session. My feedback was once again not carrying enough speed into the corners under trail braking (Did I mention I need to work on that) and not hitting turn 11 with enough speed. So thats what I set to work on getting right. Well I got the braking improved so last session out I went to work on getting through 11 faster. Coming off the banking at 5800 RPMs into 10 is a lot of fun as the car is carrying about 120 at that time. You then track out hammer the brakes to downshift to 3rd and turn in for 11 carrying about 90-100mph. Well I carried a little to much the second to last lap and looped here twice around. Almost had it caught but just to much rotation, both in and around twice. Select gear one and continue.<br />

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Graduation followed.<br />
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<strong>Pluses of the school</strong><br />
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1. For the money it is the most I have ever improved my driving skills. I could have done 30 DE's and never learned as much as I did here as the instruction and attention to detail was just extremely great. We talked at length about things such as car placement on the track at turn in, crabbing towards the turn instead of braking in a straight line, etc. All things I was guilty of and never knew it because I did not have an outside view of the car from a critical observer.<br />

2. More seat time than you can shake a stick at. I was in the car for probably 10 hours out of the three days which is just excellent and something you can't get anywhere else.<br />
3. The ability to get instant feedback on what your doing wrong, and positive reenforcement when you do it right really helps speed the learning process.<br />
4. The classroom discussion was very informative and I learned more than I thought I would about racing theory and concepts.<br />
5. Mechanics to fix your problems and give you a new car…something you cannot do yourself in most cases easily at the track.<br />

6. The nice understanding that if you crash a car the worst you owe is 2k makes it a lot easier to try and find those last few tenths.<br />
7. Understanding what you really need to work on to get faster and more consistent around a track. This is probably the biggest benefit.<br />
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<strong>Minuses of the school/class</strong><br />

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1. Up selling of next level of courses. I really didn't like being told that there was all this other cool stuff to learn if you just signed up for the next level. I don't mind a sales pitch, just not a repetitive one ever 10 minutes.<br />
2. Consistent ripping on of how it was stupid to join the SCCA and instead you were better off racing in the Barber series. Same type of up sell as above but for those of us who already had our own cars I think we were all a little offended.<br />
3. Frankly students in the class that believed they were more important than others in the classroom were the worst part. We had multiple that consistently took cell phone calls in the middle of classroom time and talked in the same room the class was going on in. I found it very rude and I think others did as well.<br />
4. Not staying on schedule due to students wandering…as adults I really expected more.<br />

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<strong>Final thoughts</strong><br />
The class I think would be excellent for both a beginner or advanced driver with years of experience. What I liked most was they they broke out everything into a series of drills to force you to work on your weak points and expand on your strong ones. This is impossible at an HPDE day or just driving around the neighborhood. They also started everyone slow and forced them to work on technique which annoyed a lot of people at first but to me was great because it once again focused your concentration on the task at hand. For me it allowed me to for once forget about stringing together a whole lap and instead just work on a segment at a time. For a new driver it would give them the break from the stress of driving a race car being overwhelming to being fun and allow them to work up in little bits. On my flight back I was thinking to myself about how to explain how worth while this was for me. I can only tell you I have been smiling ear to ear about it for a good two days now and just can't wait to hop in the Stohr and set to work on honing the skills even more.<br />
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Here is a few teaser pictures. The rest can be found <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/photogarage/showgallery.php?si=SkipBarber_Homestead&x=11&y=14&thumbsonly=0&perpage=12&cat=500&ppuser=3&thumbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&way=&cat=500" >here</a><br />

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<img src="http://www.trackpedia.com/photos/john/Skippy/SkipBarber_Homestead%20038.jpg" alt="" /><br />
<img src="http://www.trackpedia.com/photos/john/Skippy/SkipBarber_Homestead%20045.jpg" alt="" /><br />

<img src="http://www.trackpedia.com/photos/john/Skippy/SkipBarber_Homestead%20047.jpg" alt="" /><br />
<img src="http://www.trackpedia.com/photos/john/Skippy/SkipBarber_Homestead%20057.jpg" alt="" />

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Well long time and no update! I am sorry I have neglected getting an update in the blog here for so long but with the holidays upon us and a nearing trip to Skip Barber I have been busy. Oh yeah and there is this little piece of hell called work that keeps me busy as well.  So as you can see in the pictures below the Stohr is getting its new heart slowly but surely. The whole process so far has been painless and taken a little over 7 hours total working time to get the engine, fuel cell, and other bits out of the car. This I think is really good considering I have never touched a car like this before and we are learning as we go. <br />
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To give you a little more detail on the disassembly here we go. First off obviously I removed the whole body from the car and deposited in my basement…much to my loving wife’s chagrin. After that was off my buddy Rob and I spent the first two hours just removing zip ties and wiring to remove the old electronics from the engine. The biggest pain in the butt really was just removing all the zip ties. It all looks great when in place and keeps the engine bay clean but my god removing them is a nightmare. A straight up engine swap without having to change out all the electronics and fun would have been much easier as this wouldn’t have had to happen. BUT WHAT FUN WOULD THAT BE! I want my extra 24bhp.  <br />
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The next step up in the engine removal was disconnecting all attached parts not essential to the engine starting with the headers, clutch cylinder, brake lines, and godforsaken radiator lines (lets just say my garage was red for a few days). After those were off then came the fuel line removal and lastly the throttle cable. It was after I had all this done that I then decided hell might as well go all out and remove the radiator and other components at the same time and work them over to be as good as new as well. Question: How many of your Stohr guys are running a single radiator? I would love to as plumbing is a lot simpler but I just worry about cooking her. I was thinking a single water radiator and then a large oil cooler would be more than good but any advice would help.<br />

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Finally I pulled the engine mounting bolts and then Rob and I lifted the engine and rear spar out of the car. The whole assembly was a lot lighter than we both expected but then again we are both 6’3+ and not exactly weak. After that was out I set everything on the ground and went to work stripping the back of the car to have the new engine cradle welded onto it. Right now I have the fuel cell out and after an hour of working at it the fuel pump as well! So that’s ready to have the new one dropped in here in the new year when I get the racing bank account replenished after X-mas shopping. The remaining parts of the year are going to be me drilling out the old fuel cell baking plate’s pop rivets and then cutting off the old engine cradle. Once again the target is a running car by April which means engine in the car in January at the very least. It’s going to be a busy winter, but what else is there to do in the Minnesota winter when you don’t like the cold.  <br />
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So while I was away traveling I was worried that my younger brother Jim would have his first kid with me being the only one away from home. Not so much that I couldn't be there but have you ever tried to call Austria in the middle of the night, from a hospital? I don't think it would have worked to well…some poor families would be getting calls in the middle of the night for no reason. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> Well Jim and Beth held off until I actually landed in Rochester after 24 hours of traveling before giving birth to my first niece Olivia Belle Stecher! <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/laugh.png" alt=":-D" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> I just want to say congrats to my little brother and his wife Beth (whom I once spent a night on a gas station floor with, using potatoe chip bags as pillows, when the venerable Ford Tempo blew a head gasket back in college). I am sure I can fabricate a nice little side car seat to the Stohr if your interested guys…huh?<br />

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Of course here is the picture…looks almost like she is ready to wear a balaclava already. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /><br />

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So every time I end up making my annual fall trip to Germany or Munich I enjoy the beer tons and also spending time with some of the great IBM customers we have. I especially look forward to it if the conference is Austria. This year it was in Salzburg which was absolutely beautiful. Forecast was for rain the whole week but it ended up being beautiful the last three days of the week I was there and I got out and walked about. The old town is really cool with its narrow streets and interesting architecture. I especially liked the city because every where I would walk you had excellent views of the mountains and foot hills to the Alps and the town had some excellent autos lining its street. Attached below are some pictures for everyones enjoyment. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> Sorry they are from my cell phone so not excellent but still not bad!<br />

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I got talking on Trackpedia about dependency on oil/gas in todays cars and after thinking about it I see why all the alternative fuel cars and engines will never survive. The supply chain to feed them just cannot be built in any reasonable way. Now a free markets principles is that the market always goes to the lowest cost items, but what if the lowest cost item (in this case oil) is being propped up by forces that are broader than just the resource in need. They are held up by the inability to replace the supply chain.<br />
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I do agree with you that a free market economy is a good thing but I still do not buy into the belief that just because something is cheap means you rest on your laurels and don't innovate new ways of doing things to become more efficient or cheaper yet. Innovation in all other forms of business is welcome especially when it comes to under cutting the current low cost competitor (example software, manufacturing, air lines) to provide the end consumer with a better product. The person that under cuts then becomes the market leader while the previous market leaders scramble to catch back up. This is very easy to do in a non-monopolistic market place where there are a variety of competitors in the same goods space that compete and do not cooperate.<br />
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The big problem I see with replacing gas as the primary fuel source is you need a delivery vehicle for that cheaper product and I just don't see it being possible with a replacement for gasoline that has such a complex distribution system to keep the cars running. You can't sell a octopiler powered car in a market that doesn't have a station to fill it with otopiler. Basically in the automobile marketplace there is no money to be made by car manufacturers by making alternative fuel cars because bottom line is they just cant sell them in most markets without inconveniencing the buyer.<br />
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So how do you fix the situation and allow for a real free open market instead of one constrained by infrastructure. You have to innovate around it by providing funding to resources that are working on innovative ideas to completely circumvent the distribution problem with any type of mass quantities of hard fuel. If I was GM, Ford, Toyota I would be investing like mad to come up with alternative ways to power cars that don't require distribution mechanisms to support them for fuel. Thats a paradigm shift not just an advancement and thats when you business can really rake in the profits.<br />
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Anyway I am far from an expert for the most part so there are obviously some problems in the above but I think its a solid frame work for how to innovate. Typically you just can improve the marketplace you have to do something drastic and turn it on its end, make it obsolete in fact. This is what the internet has done to news papers, the car did to horse transportation, and I will do to DSR racing. (that last parts a joke)<br />

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Anyway I will be back to more interesting car and live related topics soon. Just have a lot of time sitting in my hotel room!

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So here I am sitting at the Rochester Internation Airport waiting to get on my American Airlines flight to Chicago then onto London then on to Munich where I then have to take a train to Salzburg Austria…sounds like fun huh! Well it just got more fun. My plane here in Rochester is an hour late, which means I will not make my connection in Chicago, which means I have to stay in Chicago and wait in the airport for standby on the next flight to London…no flights have open seats until Monday which is the time I need to be in Austria. QUALITY.<br />
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Now it gets even better. They want me to fly all the way to Chicago, even knowing that I will miss my connection, and then work with the people at the gate down there to setup my next flight instead of just booking me on a flight that is available tomorrow through Frankfurt direct to Salzburg. AAAAAHHHHH. Well I am glad after paying $2500 to ride in coach, being fully anally examined by the TSA, and now staring down the prospect of a night in Chicago O'hare Hilton that I didn't check my luggage or god knows where that would be at. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> I think I can live off my 3oz liquids for at least a day.<br />

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So my wife or dog wont be getting an upgrade by my Stohr will. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> After a lot of thought, getting screwed over on eBay once, and discussion I made the jump to move from the current 98 Yamaha R1 engine in the car to a much newer and more powerful 2005 Yamaha R1 engine. The motivating factor behind the move is that I want to get the car to EFI (devil in red on my shoulder says I am lying it was cause I wanted 14k RPMs and more horsepower) so that I didn't have to screw around with rejetting the carbs and the ungodly slow warm up times here in the midwest when its cold. <br />

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I bought a 2005 R1 engine and am going to try to work that into the cars frame which I am a little worried about. I was originally going to buy Glenn Coopers built up R1 engine out of his Speads but instead decided to FIRST make sure a stock motor fit because I would rather be out 1500 (or at least have to resell it at a minor loss) than 3500 for the built motor. I still plan on buying Glenn's engine here…but I am just to cheap to buy it before I make sure the 04-06 R1 engine fits. I will keep everyone on here updated with pictures along the way. And here are the first ones!<br />
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<strong>Old Engine first new engine second and third</strong><br />
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Finally am getting around to posting the livery on the car in its final form. Only thing missing is my Yamaha symbol on the nose. The logos took me a little over an hour to install due to the complexity of the letters on the Trackpedia name. But I think in the end it was well worth it…if only winter wasn't setting in now. Damn Minnesota.<br />
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So got signed up for <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/Road_America" >Road America</a> to run the Stohr one last time this year before she went into her winter slumber. Was going to run with NASA at their last event of the year but rain and cold really prevented me from getting anything done. I got a whopping one session in before the rain started on Saturday and then left early on Sunday as the car just wouldn't work in the cold weather as I was not able to get any heat into the tires. Here is my session write up from <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/forums" >Trackpedia</a>. <br />

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<strong><em>So not really much to report from my side of things. I had one session of 9-10 laps after I had an issue with my brake lights working and missed the first one and had to make a trip to Fleet Farm with <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/blogs/rob" >Rob</a> to fix them.<br />
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My session was spent the first 3 laps getting up to speed with the turns and the course but I was just never able to get heat into the tires. On lap 6 I had a major moment going into T8 where I locked the rears in the damp and had the car want to switch ends but recovered only to do the same thing going into T14. Just had to work the bias but in reality my tire temps coming off the track where maybe 80-90 degrees which just is no where near what I need to have the car work. On every corner exit getting power down was an adventure as well as the car would just spin the tires up into 4th gear.<br />

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Then rain started around lunch and then just picked up from there. Tomorrow looks bleek as well and given work tasks I need to get back to and the fact snow/rain is predicted all morning I might just pack the trailer up early and head out in the morning.<br />
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Ah well learned a personal lesson that its just not worth it trying to run this late in the year.<br />
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Another very interesting thing from NASA was I learned the car just is so small to be run in open passing (anywhere on the track) with other cars. I got pushed wide three times with people moving over on me try to let me by when I was closing quick OR they were in battles with other cars which were significantly slower than me and thus I had to camp behind them for significant parts of the track at a time. With cars my own size I would have just force my way through but no reason at all to here. Mike in the Exige had this happen to him as well so it must just be small cars.<br />
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The NASA event had a lot of cars I would be willing to bet 150-175 here as the paddock was full. Lots of good folks coming over and checking out the car as well as talking about TP so hopefully we'll get some more visitors. It was a good group of people but I don't like the HPDE 4/TT system here as there are just way to many slow cars in the same group with faster ones. I was running no where near max, just battling to keep it on the track, and the VW beetles, miatas, Civics, etc were just to much of a difference in cornering and closing speed. I much prefer the SCCA like classes on the track and the PCA with like times.</em></strong><br />
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Some pictures of a the car disassembled on a gloomy day and a <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/forums" >Trackpedia</a> members Exige on the track.<br />

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So I finally got around to install my Genisis carbon fibon fiber fender vents before heading to <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/Road_America" >Road America</a>. The fender vents serve the purpose of allowing air to get out from under the fender on top of the wheel which is a high pressure area that causes lift. After shopping around for a few weeks and being appalled by the price of the fender vents from West Racing that are custom for their West cars and retro fit the old Stohrs I made my way to HRP World and picked up a set for around $200 compared to $600. Granted they were generic and had to be cut to size but worked really well. <br />
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The install process takes about 3-4 hours and probably a lot less if you have done it already. Basically the first thing you must do is measure and then measure again. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/wink.png" alt=";-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> What's the old carpenter saying measure twice cut once…it rings more than true when its on a $3,000 dollar nose cone. I had some good friends help out and we first measured the size of the vents (The actual place the air comes out) then made a same size size rectangle on news paper and positioned on the fender to ensure it was straight. We then taped out the outline…We then copied that on the other fender and made sure they both lined up. <br />

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Next up it was fun with the Dremel. We cut out a square about 1/2 an inch shy of the taped square and then attached the sanding bit and sanded down the rest. Result a perfectly square square. Next up was cutting the fender vents to size which was done with a normal dremel cut off wheel. You then place those over the open square for a test fit and drill the mounting holes in the front. Install the bolts to hold the vent on and then pull down the back and perform the same task. Your done. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/laugh.png" alt=":-D" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> Sweet looking vents installed. Thanks again to <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/blogs/eric" >Eric</a> and Rob for the help. Check out the pics…<br />

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