The Z Goes to Daytona International Speedway

[Ron Earp]

I'll do some write up later, but racing at Daytona was a bit like a religious experience - and I don't have that NASCAR gene. I do have the first race up on YouTube:


Part 1 – Fun start
YouTube - SCCA ITS Daytona August 2008 260Z Part 1
<o> </o>
Part 2 – My favorite; I get around Mr. Young for a lap or two but then he dusts me
YouTube - SCCA ITS Daytona August 2008 260Z Part 2
<o> </o>
Part 3 – Not my favorite, the dreaded miss is back in parts 2/3 and car slows down…
YouTube - SCCA ITS Daytona August 2008 260Z Part 3



Man that place is fast. The Z acquitted itself well. We had fitted it with a 3.56 gear for the high backs and that setup is a welded diff, so I was a bit worried about handling. But with some front camber changes, tire pressure attention, and alignment the car handled great! Damn welded diff was awesome - flat foot the throttle and it sticks, much better than the Quaiffe equipped diff I usually run.

135-136 mph was all she'd do, but she did it for a long time and was fast. Good finishes for Jeff and I out of the largest SCCA ITS fields we've ever run, on a new track to boot, so that is encouraging.

Have a look if you like, I'll put more up if there is interest and write the experience up a bit.

Best,
Ron

 

[Malcolm]

Nice draft past Jeff! That banking looks steep too! Good one Ron. What placings did you make? Our race series here has organised a trip for Sebring and Daytona early next year where they will ship our cars out and we get two race weekends. Guess from your recent experience you would recommend we do it!

 

[Ron Earp]

Was fun!!!

Here is Ron M. in the silver SM for one lap:

YouTube - Daytona SAARC one lap 8/10/08

That could be you for 2009! I'd recommend Daytona for sure. I've not been to Sebring but the crew that mentored us for Daytona didn't like it nearly as much.

We did well for a new track and the strong and deep field. Jeff got 10th on Sun, I got 12th. On Sat we finished like 13th for Jeff and 14th for me. I could have been either right behind Jeff or right in front of him had my nasty miss not come back. EGTs on cylinder 1 go to 600F, not firing at all for like 4-8 seconds at a time - really slows you down you know. Got to work on that, two more races left for the year.

R

 

[Ron Earp]

Here are a few pics that Ron M. took...well, I took the Miata one since he was driving!

 

[Chris Kouba]

Nice work Ron, that does indeed look like FUN.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Great stuff Ron, thanks for posting. The transition from the oval to the infield and back onto the oval looks like the key to a fast lap.
You seemed to be hitting the apex's much more consistantly than some in front of you.
Looks like awesome fun.

 

[Ron Earp]

Nice draft past Jeff! That banking looks steep too! Good one Ron. What placings did you make?

We didn't do badly. The ITS field, our class, was about 30-35 cars deep and made up of lots of Florida natives who grew up with this track. There were about four of "our crew" coming down from the Carolinas and we made a good showing.

Jeff finished 10th best overall, I finished an 11th best, our buddy Robert placed 5th in IT7 class, and our buddy Ron Munnerlyn did an awesome job and pulled a 7th in the Spec Miata class which was about 55+ cars deep. He did run as high as 5th.

Banking is steep. On the slow outlaps behind the pace car you feel like you are going to roll over and flop down the banking, it is weird!

I think our cars had the potential to get into 5th - 7th place, but maybe not much higher as our top end was not as high as the BMWs. At least mine wasn't. I could claw my way up to about 135-137mph but that was all the motor would do at 6800 RPM with a tall gear for that track. A taller gear (3.36) I think would have resulted in less top end pull and a shorter gear (3.7 or 3.9) would have had me 7k+ RPM far too early to be effective. I had the largest diameter tires on the car I could fit - at some tracks 4 speed cars with a 1:1 top gear are at a disadvantage.

Tell you what - when you spend about 1 minute per lap at WOT turning 6800 RPM with nothing to do but keep it between the lines (which is actually hard!) you start wondering things like "hmmmm, I wonder if I torqued those flywheel bolts?" and "doh, did I tighten the lower caliper bolts, ahhhhhhh, mmmmmmm, seems like I was getting ready to and then...."

Lots of fun, definitely a memorable time and I'm extremely glad to have made it down there.

 

[Jeff Young]

That track is very different from any other place we race due to the draft. You can make up SECONDS in one lap (see Ron's vid, part 2) if you get a good draft, or if the guys ahead of you get hung up.

Our two cars were probably giving up a couple mph at teh end of the front straight to the RX7s, but made up for it on torque going onto the banking and out of the busstop.

The leader ran a 2:14, but everyone else in the first 5-6 cars was 2:17 to to 2:19. The trick was getting into and staying in the draft. The first race both Ron and I got separated from the leaders and we ran several seconds off that pace.

Sunday, I hung onto the draft for a few laps and ran a consistent string of 20 flats, with the 7/8/9 place cars.

In other words, you run essentially what the cars around you are running in teh draft.

Next time down with more experience in qual, hopefully we can start a bit closer to the front and hang onto the lead draft. Neither the TR8 nor the Z can beat that single fast BMW (2-3 seconds a lap faster than anyone else) but I think both cars can run top 5 there in a very, very strong field. One thing both cars need is aero work on the front ends. The Mazdas bog like hell getting up on the banking but then really get a head of steam up on teh front straight cause they are slick and brake like anchors....neither of which is true of the TR8 or the Z.

All in all I felt pretty good about what both cars did down there. We ran top 1/3 of a very strong ITS field on a "power" track we'd never run before.

 

[Malcolm]

So this is where you two should work as a team of drivers and give each other the draft down the straights?

 

[Jeff Young]

Hell no, I'm trying to beat his ass and he is trying to beat me! LOL.

After he passed me I stayed stuck to his bumper for a lap or two and we turned good laps but then that yellow RX7 behind us started pressuring me and I drafted back around him (he got freightrained going into turn 1, nothing he could do).

Daytona is a really cool place to race because you really have to think ahead about the draft. You have to make sure you are in the right "line" so that you don't lift anywhere on the banking, because if you do, you go back, quick, and you always want to be planed on someone's bumper or have someone directly behind you if possible.

Spec Miatas apparently pick up TEN mph in the draft when running together.

 

[Ross Nicol]

MMMmmm I might have to give it a go sometime, another dicipline I need to experience.The only banked oval track we have here is now disused.I like the Idea of part infield and part banked.Well done guys.

Ross

 

[Malcolm]

Ross, we have Rockingham in the UK. It is a great circuit combining banked oval and use of infield but the bank is not very steep compared to Daytona! Our steepest banking is at Brooklands now long disused but it is so steep it is hard to walk up to the top! It gets steeper the higher you go. Allegedly if you drove high up the banking at under 120 mph the tail of your car hung down! Wow!

 

[Johan]

Great videos...and driving !