Autobahn Race Report
You could almost pity the green Superlite SLC. After all, the car had run a full season of NASA sprint racing- culminating in a stunning National Championship, only to have to add weight and run for 13 straight hours in the rain and cold at VIR. Then, this weekend, with an updated engine, some aero bits, bigger brakes and still carrying some of the weight from the 13 hour, it started the new season with a 3-hour enduro at Autobahn, in about the same weather.
You may recall that the car ran 4 seconds under the lap record at the 13 hour race at VIR on that cold and damp November day.
This weekend, it ran about 7 seconds a lap faster than the fastest other car, on the Full Course. That time- a 2:27, was also a full 9 seconds under the existing lap record for ES, the enduro class we were in for the 3-hour. Now, this time was set on tires that were already past their sell-by date, having already been abused for the first stint. They were used tires to begin with, anyway.
So it looked like some of the changes might have been effective after all.
We actually started the enduro with a new driver who had never seen the car (much less driven it), and who had never seen the track. It also had more power than any car he’d driven before. It took most of his stint, but he figured out which way the track went and what the car wanted, and eventually began to run competitive times with the fastest cars. We brought the car in after a little more than an hour, and fueled, changing drivers at the same time. Ryan went out to do battle, but by this time we were already laps behind because of the new driver situation, so we decided to just see what it would do with old tires (we fueled, but decided not to use another set of tires since we were just using it as a long test session). That’s when Ryan started to crack off laps that just got faster and faster.
After a couple of laps, including the record-setting 2:27, we brought him in, confident that the green machine was ready to do battle in the sprint races the next day on the South course. It didn’t make sense to try to run much more on the old tires, since we figured we’d learned what we were going to from that brief stint. And we didn’t want to use up another set, and possibly risk the car. We were looking forward to the rest of the weekend.
On Saturday, the circuits changed, and we were scheduled to run the South course. That course was actually a little less than half of the Full course, so we’d had a little practice on it during the enduro. However, all the fast corners were on the other part of the track, so it wasn’t really suited to the SLC, which benefits from the aerodynamic shape of its body to provide downforce that supplements the normal mechanical grip. The track is the shortest, tightest one we will run all season. Worse, we had a pretty big run group with cars of varying speeds mixed in everywhere.
We ran OK in the warmup, but thought we had a lot left in the car for qualifying. Unfortunately, qualifying was a short session, so when a Porsche ahead of us suddenly dumped its 20-50W lifeblood all over the front of the SLC- and the track, our session was ruined. So, in a first for us, we started deep in the pack- 10th of over 30 cars.
This race would be a run from other than the front row. This was actually fine, and as one team member remarked, he was sick of seeing the 01 starting on the pole every race- this way Ryan would have to race his way past the rest of the cars and we would see some real entertainment.
Which is pretty much what happened- once the race settled down, Ryan started moving up to the sharp end of the race, and when he was about to pass for second, a radio transmission crackled in our ears: “We have an exhaust problem!”. Yeah, it was the same problem that sidelined us at the 13- a broken exhaust.
So we ended up not finishing the race, and had a broken car that couldn’t be repaired at the track. We packed up early, and headed back to the shop, feeling a little unfulfilled with a DNF, but very happy about the speed we had, and the lap record on the Full course we’d set on Friday, and setting and almost holding the lap record on the South course on Saturday. We’d still managed to run about 2 seconds under the lap record for the South course, and we thought there was much more left in the car. But a well-driven DSR Speads just pipped us by 4/10th for the new lap record on the South course.
Next scheduled race weekend is at Hyperfest at Summit Point in West Virginia, Ryan’s home track. We have some unfinished business there, so look for an even more-improved car, and a determined team, looking for a win. And maybe another lap record.
And no, we don’t plan to show any pity to the green machine!
Here’s a link to a video we shot during the Saturday race: Superlite Autobahn Race Saturday - YouTube
You could almost pity the green Superlite SLC. After all, the car had run a full season of NASA sprint racing- culminating in a stunning National Championship, only to have to add weight and run for 13 straight hours in the rain and cold at VIR. Then, this weekend, with an updated engine, some aero bits, bigger brakes and still carrying some of the weight from the 13 hour, it started the new season with a 3-hour enduro at Autobahn, in about the same weather.
You may recall that the car ran 4 seconds under the lap record at the 13 hour race at VIR on that cold and damp November day.
This weekend, it ran about 7 seconds a lap faster than the fastest other car, on the Full Course. That time- a 2:27, was also a full 9 seconds under the existing lap record for ES, the enduro class we were in for the 3-hour. Now, this time was set on tires that were already past their sell-by date, having already been abused for the first stint. They were used tires to begin with, anyway.
So it looked like some of the changes might have been effective after all.
We actually started the enduro with a new driver who had never seen the car (much less driven it), and who had never seen the track. It also had more power than any car he’d driven before. It took most of his stint, but he figured out which way the track went and what the car wanted, and eventually began to run competitive times with the fastest cars. We brought the car in after a little more than an hour, and fueled, changing drivers at the same time. Ryan went out to do battle, but by this time we were already laps behind because of the new driver situation, so we decided to just see what it would do with old tires (we fueled, but decided not to use another set of tires since we were just using it as a long test session). That’s when Ryan started to crack off laps that just got faster and faster.
After a couple of laps, including the record-setting 2:27, we brought him in, confident that the green machine was ready to do battle in the sprint races the next day on the South course. It didn’t make sense to try to run much more on the old tires, since we figured we’d learned what we were going to from that brief stint. And we didn’t want to use up another set, and possibly risk the car. We were looking forward to the rest of the weekend.
On Saturday, the circuits changed, and we were scheduled to run the South course. That course was actually a little less than half of the Full course, so we’d had a little practice on it during the enduro. However, all the fast corners were on the other part of the track, so it wasn’t really suited to the SLC, which benefits from the aerodynamic shape of its body to provide downforce that supplements the normal mechanical grip. The track is the shortest, tightest one we will run all season. Worse, we had a pretty big run group with cars of varying speeds mixed in everywhere.
We ran OK in the warmup, but thought we had a lot left in the car for qualifying. Unfortunately, qualifying was a short session, so when a Porsche ahead of us suddenly dumped its 20-50W lifeblood all over the front of the SLC- and the track, our session was ruined. So, in a first for us, we started deep in the pack- 10th of over 30 cars.
This race would be a run from other than the front row. This was actually fine, and as one team member remarked, he was sick of seeing the 01 starting on the pole every race- this way Ryan would have to race his way past the rest of the cars and we would see some real entertainment.
Which is pretty much what happened- once the race settled down, Ryan started moving up to the sharp end of the race, and when he was about to pass for second, a radio transmission crackled in our ears: “We have an exhaust problem!”. Yeah, it was the same problem that sidelined us at the 13- a broken exhaust.
So we ended up not finishing the race, and had a broken car that couldn’t be repaired at the track. We packed up early, and headed back to the shop, feeling a little unfulfilled with a DNF, but very happy about the speed we had, and the lap record on the Full course we’d set on Friday, and setting and almost holding the lap record on the South course on Saturday. We’d still managed to run about 2 seconds under the lap record for the South course, and we thought there was much more left in the car. But a well-driven DSR Speads just pipped us by 4/10th for the new lap record on the South course.
Next scheduled race weekend is at Hyperfest at Summit Point in West Virginia, Ryan’s home track. We have some unfinished business there, so look for an even more-improved car, and a determined team, looking for a win. And maybe another lap record.
And no, we don’t plan to show any pity to the green machine!
Here’s a link to a video we shot during the Saturday race: Superlite Autobahn Race Saturday - YouTube
