I went to COTA again on July 16th and ran a 1-day event the started at 3 pm and ended at 11 pm. Five 30 min sessions in total with the first three in full daylight, the 4th as the sun went down, and the last in full darkness with a few lights on the slow corners. This whole thing was pretty stressful as I have never run any kind of race in the dark. I had checked out my headlights and I believed that they would be fine. The thing that worried me was seeing behind me in the dark.
The first three sessions went well with the afternoon air temp in the mid-90s F. I tried to use my phone to get some lap times but it just didn't happen. I'm not a phone guy and I was trying to put in my top t-shirt pocket inside my fire suit. I was having a hard time setting up the track in the app. In any case, when I got home I went on the internet and found a good tutorial on the app. Next time I'll be ready
The app is Track Addict. I think it will work well now that I am more familiar with it. In any case, I am pretty sure I am into the mid 2:30s. One guy with a GT3 Porsche was running 34,35,36s and I was running pretty comfortable with him.
During the fourth session, the shifter began to feel tight. I worked OK and the gearbox shifted normally the shifter just seemed tight. I continued to run the car but it never got better and when I got the car home I found melted shifter cables. More on that later.
Then the darkness came. Oh shit! I couldn't see my brake markers and the corner apexs were gone until you are right on them. OK slow down and work up to it....................right? No fucking way! It was what I was worried about. Seeing behind me. Just a line of headlights on the straights. No way to tell how far back they were and if I waved them thru sometimes nobody would go. Too far back? Then other times the guy was right on me.
I quit after about 4 laps and called it a night. I'm not doing that again.
So shifter cables, both are bad. The plastic covering melted even though it was wrapped in heat resistant sheath like this. last pic.
I'm going to use this stuff next time and shield it with a heat barrier. Below.
Rugged Volcanic Rock Fiber Sleeve - Lava™ Tube
www.heatshieldproducts.com
Exhaust pipe heat shield - Heatshield Armor™ Pipe Kit
www.heatshieldproducts.com