Maximum Attack.

2013 - American Le Mans Series, Laguna Seca.

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:27:00 -0400

After a rough start to the ALMS season at Sebring and Long Beach, I was really looking forward to racing at a track I was familiar with! That’s not to say I was expecting a good result, there’s so much in racing that’s beyond your control.. but it was nice to go somewhere and not have to spend any time figuring out where the track goes! :-)

IMSA allows the ALMS GTC class to practice with the IMSA GT3 Cup series on promoter test days, which is really nice for us. It allows me time to learn the new tracks and in the case of Laguna Seca, it gave us time to try a few new things for the weekend. The IMSA GT3 Cup group had two 40 minute practice sessions on Wednesday which we were able to participate in. Since we wouldn’t be back on track until Thursday at around 5PM, I decided to drive down for the day and head back home for the night so I could go to work Thursday morning, then drive back down to the track Thursday afternoon in time for our first official ALMS practice sessions.

Our first session on Wednesday started pretty well. We began with last years race setup on the car, but knowing the track conditions would change for the race weekend weren’t too concerned with the balance or pace— which was ok, but not exceptional.

For our 2nd session on Wednesday we wanted to get a little crazy and tried a drastically different spring rate and a different brake package. Because the track conditions were so bad in the 1st session, we weren’t expecting much but it was a valuable test session for us. Needless to say, it didn’t work out very well and the car was extremely difficult to drive!

With those two test sessions in the books and a single long session on Thursday available to us, we had to act quickly. We had a new set of developmental dampers that were delivered to us Thursday morning (original plan was to try them on Wednesday) and we had to decide if we could risk further testing or continue tuning a “known” setup. Because the GTC class is so competitive this year, we felt there was no choice.. we had to try the development dampers looking for more speed!

The upside of a single long session is it allows both drivers plenty of time to work with the engineers to tune the car, the downside is there isn’t time for big changes… you simply can’t get the car back to the truck and back out on track in time. We weren’t happy with the balance or pace of the car with the developmental dampers, and after spending 90 minutes tuning and trying to make it work our session was over. Strangely, the changes we were making were not having the desired effect… they were almost doing the opposite of what we were expecting!

Not only were we having issues with our dampers, but our dash board stopped working! For those unfamiliar with a Porsche Cup car, it might not sound very important… but without the Motec dash not only do you have no idea what gear you’re in, lap times, predictive times or if you’re on the pit lane speed limiter but you also don’t have shift lights!!

After our one and only session on Thursday, we were in a bad place. We had big question marks on our brake package, our dash didn’t work and our “base” setup wasn’t great. Our developmental dampers performed horribly, and with only 1 practice session left we had some tough choices to make!

That evening we had found that one of our 4-way adjustable developmental dampers had zero’d out all of it’s settings on it’s own at some point during our practice session. That explains why Jan and I were so unhappy with the car and why Luke our engineer was pulling his hair out. But, that left us in another bad position for our practice session on Friday. With one practice session left Friday morning and one Friday afternoon leading straight into qualifying, we had to start rolling the dice.

We decided to go with last years setup and simply make some tweaks in the upcoming practice session to make it work for us. With the pace we were showing, if our brakes and dash board kept working we thought we could still be competitive. Friday morning went ok, we made the car better but still not great for either Jan or myself.

By Friday afternoon we thought we were in a pretty solid place. We weren’t able to get the car perfect, but we were pretty close and thought we’d be excellent for the race. Jan was going to qualify, so I was going to start the session on old tires, then half way through we’d do a driver change (at speed for practice) and Jan would finish out the session with a qualifying simulation on new tires which would lead straight into our qualifying session. The car would not have time to go back to the truck between our final practice and qualifying.. any changes we’d want to make would have to be done in the pit lane. We had made some changes to the base setup and needed to verify it was the rite direction. With the help of Porsche and one of the IMSA teams we were able to locate a spare Motec dash and continue debugging our electronic problems, the only downside was we wouldn’t be able to use the data as it didn’t have all the fancy memory upgrades.

On my second lap during the final practice session I clipped the tall red FIA curbing at the inside of Turn 6. It’s there for a reason (to keep us from short cutting!), but man is it big and harsh! After I hit it, I kept my foot in it all the way up the hill while radio’ing in to the team that I smacked the hell out of the left front and that we needed to check it out. As I put on the brakes to enter the corkscrew, the front left tire collapsed (in 5th gear!) and most of my deceleration collapsed with it! I went straight off into the gravel at the top of the hill. Luckily once I came to a stop, I managed to get the car moving by doing my best ninja impression w/ the clutch and was able to get out of the gravel trap on my own without a tow (which would have ruined the practice session for everyone else).

The tire was down and the wheel was broken. The team put a new wheel on the car and I went back out rite away to make sure it was still (relatively) straight. After a lap shaking out the gravel I was back up to speed. However, since it happened so early and because the hit was so harsh we couldn’t really evaluate the changes we had made before the session. I was positive I had knocked something out of spec as the car was driving different in left and right turns and locking the left front wheel in most braking zones.

Unfortunately for Jan, he had to go straight into qualifying with a bent car. Rule #1 for a co-driver, don’t screw up the car for the next guy… woops! In my own defense I normally don’t do that….

Jan was still able to qualify P5 out of 10 cars which was awesome. It put us rite in the middle of our class which is fine for a 4 Hour race.

Friday night our JDX Hertz crew was hard at work inspecting the damage I had caused. I wanted to make sure we had a really good look at everything as I didn’t want any surprises during the race. Before I went to bed Friday night I got a text from Luke, corner weights were knocked off by 150lbs and our damper was bent. Ouch! That left us in a pickle.. we only had the developmental damper set left.. which was “self adjusting” the only time we had used it. Not only that, we only had a 20 minute warm-up in the morning before the race started. Not a great way to start a 4 Hour endurance race… self adjusting dampers using a “best guess” setup to make them work, a borrowed dash board and the first time we were running this brake package in a race!

Jan and I both agreed that when the race started Saturday, no matter what issues we had or how the car drove or braked, we were going to drive the m*er*f*ing wheels off the damn thing!!

Our Saturday morning warm-up was pretty uneventful. We each did a couple laps to try and get a feel for it, and it was over. Time to hang out with our awesome Hertz guests at the track, do an autograph session, and meet with other people to take care of some business.

After all that work and struggling during the week, it was now 3PM and time to GET IT ON! Whatever issues you had go out the window, the only thing to think about is how to get the most out of what you got.

I would be starting the race, and then at some point after reaching the minimum drive time (1 Hour 10 Minutes) I’d hand over to Jan.. our plan was a single driver change.

The race started pretty smoothly. I think I made up 1 or 2 positions early in the race while trying to get a feel for the new setup on the car (we had made a bunch of changes after the warmup). We had 2 early cautions which ended up splitting the strategy for our class. Some cars elected to come in early and top off and possibly get fresh tires. By rule, each car must start on the tires that were used in qualifying the previous day. About half our class opted to stay out, expecting more yellows in the future and maintain track position.

By chance at the 2nd restart, I was in P2 directly behind our class leader, who was directly behind one of the prototypes that would be taking us to the green flag. It’s a little abnormal for GTC cars to be so far at the front on a restart, but I didn’t care! On the restart I immediately went on the attack and was able to make a pass for the lead entering turn 2. Knowing that the fastest prototypes were rite behind us and probably cursing me for holding them up, I went a little wide and left the inside open on the exit for the Rebellion P1 car (and overall leader) to easily get under me… but I wasn’t expecting the Muscle Milk P1 car (and overall P2) to pass me on the inside entering T3! Either way we all managed to get through there without taking each other out and then I focused on absolutely maximizing my speed and minimizing my lap time loss while being passed by the faster classes. After about 2 laps it had calmed down and most of the faster classes had made their way around me and I had a 5-6 second gap on second place in our class. At that time I put my head down and drove as hard as I could. If it stayed green, I knew we’d need as big a gap as possible to come in and do a driver change that wouldn’t put Jan at a big disadvantage to the cars that stopped earlier.

After about an hour, the team radio’d me and said we’d be doing a full-stop w/ driver change in 3 laps. We hadn’t had any cautions and I couldn’t see the P2 car in class in my mirrors anymore.. so I was hoping we had a solid gap. If it wasn’t for being gang raped by a train of 5 or 6 GT cars all battling for position on my in-lap, that would have been my fastest lap of the race. As it stood, it was the lap before that. :-)

We had a very smooth stop and driver change (while under green, pits were empty) and Jan was back out. We didn’t have enough of a gap to maintain the lead, but we were still within striking distance. With another yellow or a pit-stop rotation we’d be back near the front!

Unfortunately during the next pit stop for fuel and tires, we had a slight delay with a wheel nut. That put us back in the 4th or 5th position. We were still in it though, and we still had an advantage on pit stop rotations. Rite after we came in for our final fuel stop of the race… IMSA dropped a bomb on us. We would have to serve a stop & hold + 20 second penalty because the wrong person changed a driver water bottle during one of the earlier stops. Needless to say, that put us at the end of the lead lap… and with only 1 lap under green after the final caution we finished in 5th place.

Jan drove a hell of a race and the team worked really hard all week. But, as they say… that’s racing!

Now we have a few weeks off before the ALMS returns to action at Lime Rock.

-mike

Possible running costs for 2014...

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:04:00 -0400

Rolex GT ALMS GT

Current cost: $1.5M (season) Current cost: $2.5M (season)

13 races 10 races

Daytona = 4x $$ normal weekend. Sebring = 2x $$ normal weekend.

Watkins = 2x $$ normal weekend. Petit = 2x $$ normal weekend.

Fudged race count for cost: 17 Fudged race count for cost: 12

Cost per fudged race: $88,235 Cost per fudged race: $208,333

2014, assuming 2012 Rolex Schedule + Sebring 12 Hour and Petit 10 Hour:

15 races, Daytona (24 Hours), Watkins (6 Hours), Sebring (12 Hours), Petit (10 Hours)

Fudged race count for cost: 21

Fudged GTE season cost based on previous years weekend cost: $4,374,993 (+$1,874,993) [75% increase]

Fudged Rolex GT season cost based on previous years weekend cost: $1,852,935 (+$352,935) [24% increase]

Spa Francorchamps Supercup Test

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:45:22 -0400

In preparation for the Spa Supercup race coming up, the team I’m driving with (Team Bleekemolen) was able to get entries into a test day on Monday Aug 6th at the track. It was basically a club type test day with 2 groups of cars, race cars and non race cars. Each session was about 45-60 minutes and we alternated all day.

Since my phone didn’t work when I landed in Brussels, it took some extra time finding my way to the track. I ended up booking a room at the closest hotel to the track (Hotel de la Source) since I was only driving one day and staying 2 nights. The area is really cool. The track is basically situated inside of a couple villages, so (one of) the entrances was about 100 yards from the hotel.

Sunday at 2PM when I arrived at the hotel it was about 85 degrees and Sunny. I thought, wow.. this is like California.. only I’m in a village in the forest. How cool! Why does this place have such a bum rap about weather?

At 3:30PM I was having a beer at the hotel bar to kill time and happened to look outside. It was almost black and raining an angry rain, big ass drops and standing water. Hmm.. so that’s where the reputation comes.

Monday morning I woke up at 7AM and made it to the track at the planned 8:30AM to try and find the team (I hadn’t met anyone before and had no idea what their equipment/gear/rig/cars would look like.. except they were definitely Porsche Cup’s). It took me about 45 minutes to find my way to the track entrance as the gate by the hotel was closed (apparently only open on “big weekends”). After a quick introduction to all the team members and the other driver on the team (Jeroen Mul, he kicked my ass like I’ve never been kicked since I started racing). Jeroen was very cool and spent a lot of time helping me get up to speed.

First session was green at around 10AM and we went out w/ about 12-15 other race cars (including a couple prototypes and open-wheelers). The track was AWESOME. It felt much differently than it looks on TV. Much more elevation change (everywhere!) and most of the corners have blind exits, which makes it hard to carry speed into and through the middle when you can’t see the exit. The track is also so long and has so many corners, it’s hard to remember exactly how it was the lap before to improve the next time through.

Before we went out, Jeroen and the data engineer walked me through what a typical fast lap is on the track. Basically a gear map and kind of a brake point/pressure area for each corner on the track. Eau Rouge is entered flat out in 5th gear (on the rev limiter), all 4 wheels over the first left curbing (while still on the rev limiter), lift up the hill and get the car pointed to the right, then back to full throttle over the top left hander (while avoiding the right curb at all costs coming up the hill). Sounds easy enough, rite?

My first lap through, I surprisingly did the T1 hairpin well and had a good run, coming up to Eau Rouge I was in 5th gear and rite before the red shift lights came on I was like.. “oh, fuck this man!” and got onto the brakes to get the car slowed down a little after slightly soiling myself. I still got in there at a pretty good speed and managed to make the corner without to much drama. It definitely can carry more speed through there, but even at my sedate pace the g-load was pretty awesome and the car was light over the top.

For the famous Blanchimont corner, the fast guys on a good lap in a Cup basically give it a little lift, get back to full throttle near the apex, and use all of the track (and typicallythe asphalt run off 1 or 2 car widths beyond the curb (?!@&#*!@)). For those unfamiliar with Blanchimont (Turn 17 I think), it’s the second corner of a double apex (sort of) left hander. It’s entered in 6th gear (first apex is easy flat), and according to my data at around 157MPH (WTF?!@@#!). My first lap through I slowed down enough I had to downshift to 5th. For the rest of the laps (when it was clear) I stayed in 6th, but my minimum speed was still around 7-8MPH less than Jeroen.. even on my best laps.

All season I’ve been learning new tracks, and without failure, I always turn my fastest lap on the first day within the first 7-10 laps. However, here I knew after the first session it was going to be VERY different (and humbling). :-)

I only ran a 2:40.2 in the first 45 minute session (Jeroen did a 2:30.x). There was a lot of traffic as most of the race cars out there were extremely slow compared to a Porsche Cup. Our best hope was simply to get lucky lap where we were able to pass people without being held up to much in the fast corners.

In the second session I did a 2:37.x (in traffic) and Jeroen did a 2:28.x (!&@*#). For the third session I was still trying to get comfortable with the brakes, and the tires on the car (were used from the previous race weekend before the test day) were basically flat spotted (by me) and corded so they tossed on another set of scuffs. I ran a little better w/ a 2:35.x but still a lot of traffic (and some rain drops in a few corners).

For the 4th session, it looked like it might rain and I really wanted to get some laps on good tires before the race weekend. I had them throw on the stickers and gridded up at the front of the line to get out and try to get at least 1 clear lap. I managed to get a reasonably clear lap (had to pass a couple cars who were coming up to speed but they didn’t cost me much, if any time). I did a 2:32.6 and thought hmm… that kinda sucks. The rest of the session I drove laps in traffic and didn’t improve time-wise, but was feeling much more comfortable with the track and the car.

For the 5th and final session of the day, Jeroen put on new brakes and tires to try and get in a mock qualifying session. He ran a 2:26.x (at the last test there he had a faster lap than previous years Supercup pole position). I ran every lap of the session just try to get more comfortable with the brakes and the track. I managed some high 2:32’s and low 2:33’s but due to the miles on the tires, couldn’t go faster than when they were fresh. I normally don’t put much stock into the Motec eclectic lap times as I’m pretty consistent, but with so much traffic on the track I was keeping an eye on it as I think it was a better representation of my pace. It was a 2:30.2 for the last session (on old tires), which isn’t horrible but not that great compared to Supercup guys.

The brakes on the Supercup car are ceramic and use a different rear master cyl than the normal Cups. They require much less pedal effort to reach the threshold point and as such, require a much more sensitive and consistent pressure which was taking me time to get used to. I’m still not completely comfortable with them, so the team is sending me a set to put onto my Cup for more practice before the race.

The drivers in that series are so good, there is simply no way to compete without being completely comfortable in the car (let alone the track).

Anyway, the track is simply amazing. If anyone ever gets the chance to get there and do some laps… run, don’t walk at the opportunity! Even if it’s in a rental car or whatever. It’s the most challenging and rewarding circuit I’ve ever been on.

I can only imagine what it’d be like in the rain, at night…. maybe next year. :-)

Track Entrance:

My car for the day:

Our garage for the day:

Pit Lane:

I ate dinner outside about 500 yards from the track the last night (to bad you can’t see the rainbow in the picture, and i normally don’t take pictures of rainbows…. !):

I travel light when going to the track.. checking bags is for suckers:

2012 still chugging along!

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:50:42 -0400

It’s been awhile since my last post, but here’s the cliff notes of the last 2 months:

* Finished 4th at the Grand-Am Rolex 6 Hours of the Glen in June. Driving the Tequila Patron Ferrari 458 with Guy Cosmo and Johannes van Overbeek. It was my first time driving the 458 (or any car with paddle shifters!). With the strategy we wanted to do for the race, it was decided that I should qualify the car. I ran a 1:52.6 on my second to last lap of qualifying, which was my best time in the car so far but only good enough for P14. On the last lap of qualifying I was pushing really hard (had a 1:51.x predictive on the dash) and backed it into the gravel trap at the heal of the boot (my first time ever in a gravel trap!). Besides some good natured grief from the crew and JvO/Cosmo, there was no damage to the car.

Since I qualified the car, I had to start the race by Grand-Am rules. I lost 1 or 2 spots on the start being to cautious with traffic through the first 2 corners, but made them up before my stint was over. I think I ended my stint in P11 or P12. Cosmo then ran his first stint and got the car up to around P5, then Johannes jumped in and we were P3 or P4. By then most of the GT cars were on different pit stop strategies so we wouldn’t know exactly where we were in the field until the last 50 or 60 minutes of the race. A little beyond the half way mark I jumped in for my last stint. After my second stint was over, I came in and Cosmo jumped back in. The original plan was for Johannes to get a good rest then close out the race, but with the way cautions and track position worked out Cosmo stayed in for both final stints and did a rockin job!

I was a little slow in my second stint and lost us 2 positions on track and dropped us down to around P7. In his final double stint Cosmo got us back into the top 3. With about 40 minutes to go we decided to pit for a splash of fuel to make sure we could go the distance. We dropped a few spots, but Guy again managed to fight through the field and got up to P4 where we’d eventually finish.

The team and other drivers did a fantastic job to get us up through the field, even with me being the boat anchor! I did learn a valuable lesson about being to cautious in traffic and around other cars though. We’d probably have had a podium if I was able to just save the 10 or so seconds I lost in my first 4-5 laps due to traffic and not being aggressive enough. Look out at Laguna because that won’t happen again!!!

* Done a lot of testing in my 2011 Porsche GT3 Cup getting ready for the Spa Supercup race. I’m also flying out to Belgium to learn the track on August 6th w/ the team so that should be fun. Really looking forward to the race. It’s the first time I’m excited to get my ass royally kicked by some of the fastest drivers in the world. :D

* Did my first Ferrari Challenge race and learned a new track (Lime Rock) a few weekends ago. The 458 Challenge cars are really quick, even without big wings!! I had to start both races dead last after the first qualifying session was rained out (grid by points) and I was DQ’d in the second after I ran the car out of fuel and it was under minimum weight. Made for some good racing though! Out of the 24 cars entered in the race, I think we finished 7th in both. In the second race I was going for a podium and spun in T1 while attempting a pass from pretty far back. Here’s some high lights from the second race (warning: it looks like a Spec Miata race.. only the cars are $300k each):

Next events for me will be the Supercup testing at Spa next week. Then I’ll be home trying to get as much seat time in my Cup as possible. Near the end of August a long string of events happen: Ferrari Challenge testing at Homestead to learn the track, then fly from Miami to Belgium for the Porsche Supercup race at Spa, then I fly back home to SF for the Rolex race at Laguna Seca w/ the Extreme Speed guys in the Ferrari 458, then the Ferrari Challenge race at Homestead.

With ALMS announcing the GTE-ProAm class for next year I’m trying to find a way into one of those cars for the 2013 Season. Aiming for Le Mans 2013… wish me luck!

-mike

Racing plans for the rest of 2012...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:09:44 -0400

I’m still working on my driving to close the gap to the fast guys. Driving with 2 extremely quick Porsche Supercup drivers at Laguna Seca was eye opening, to say the least!

But, I need to dip my feet into more races to figure out what to do in 2013.

Currently on the schedule are two Grand-AM Rolex GT races at The 6 Hours of the Glen in June and the Rolex GT Laguna Seca race in September. I’ll be driving the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari 458 w/ my friend and coach Johannes van Overbeek so we should be competitive. :-)

I’m also thinking about running a World Challenge and/or ALMS GTC race at Mid-Ohio before the end of the year.

While looking into running a Porsche Carrera Cup GB/DE race before the end of the year, I’ve stumbled into a chance to drive in the Porsche Supercup race at Spa in September. How awesome would that be? Talk about humbling… those guys are FAST!

To finish off the year I’m planning to run the last 2 Ferrari Challenge races at Lime Rock and Homestead. Those cars look really fun to drive and I need to learn both tracks for 2013 anyway. :-)

And of course, between those races I’ll be testing as much as I can in my GT3 Cup to get better.

Next up: test day June 6th at Watkins Glen w/ the TRG folks then Mid-Ohio Rolex promoter test day the next morning to learn the track (I’m not currently entered into the race).

-mike

ALMS Laguna Seca 2012

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:58:15 -0400

I was co-driving the #68 TRG car w/ Nick Tandy and Tracy Krohn. Nick qualified the car P2 in class and we were looking pretty strong for the race.

We were leading our class when the differential broke. The crew managed to fix it, but we were down 30+ laps by the time we got back out on track. :(

Here’s a couple pictures from the race weekend:

Oh well, that’s racing! :D

-mike

Going racing again!

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:33:59 -0400

To make a long story short, I’m going racing again.

In the 30 days since my last post, I’ve put a lot of effort into my driving to fix the deficiencies found over the last few months. I’ve done 2 full test days at 2 different tracks in my 2011 Porsche GT3 Cup w/ my coach, JvO. I was faster than him at one and one tenth off at the other one. There’s still a bunch to be learned and experienced, but I’m satisfied enough with my driving to go racing again.

My next event will be the ALMS race at Laguna Seca on May 10-12 in a GTC class car. More details soon….

-mike

Do you want to be a better driver or a better racer?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:25:00 -0400

Six months ago, Mike Johnson from Stevenson Motorsports asked me that question. It was rite after he invited me out to test a Grand-Am Continental car and I was trying to decide what to do the following season. It was an honest question, but one I didn’t fully grasp until recently.

I’m by no means a professional racing driver and honestly have no ambitions to become one. I’ll make my money elsewhere and probably end up spending most of it in motorsport — and I’m ok with that. However, I do approach it as if it was my job, since I’m paying the bills.

My goal? I want to be the guy that gives your average-joe Pro nightmares. When they get beat or out qualified by me, they’ll know I’m the “paying” driver. And I’m not talking about being one of the guys (or girls!) in a car that beats them, I’m talking about being the driver in the car that beats them. Will I get there? Who the hell knows!

Everyone always says to have fun, which I can’t argue with. But, speaking for myself: I have fun when I win or at least have the chance to FIGHT to win.

The 2012 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona was a fantastic event. We didn’t get the result we were hoping for in our car, but all things considered it was a great learning experience and I was very happy with my own (selfish) performance. I did everything that was asked of me, made no mistakes, gave constructive feedback to the team (hopefully) and ran our target lap times in every session. We had a few close calls, and either due purely to luck or my own awesome instincts (lol!) we got through them unscathed. But hey, that’s got to be par for the course in a 24 hour race!

On the way home from Daytona I was pretty bummed. Not over our results, or the team, or the car, or even my performance. I was bummed because I felt that was honestly as good as I could have done, and it still wasn’t close to being good enough to compete with the guys at the front.

In the days following Daytona I had a “come to jesus” meeting with myself. That’s when I started to understand what he meant by “do you want to be a better driver or a better racer?”. If I was going to keep racing, I simply had to get better as a driver. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to toot my own horn.. but I’m pretty fucking fast for an amateur! But, not fast enough. That’s when I decided I wasn’t going to race again until I got faster. Not just a lucky flying lap faster, but a consistently better driver which would result in being faster in all situations.

The last physical thing I could think of that could improve my performance directly within my control was my vision. I barely passed a DMV drivers license renewal back in 2010 (scared yet?).. so I went and had lasik done. Now I’m 20/15 in both eyes… bionic vision FTMFW! My only advice is: when they offer you the valium, TAKE IT! Don’t try to iron man it.. people digging in your eye sockets just aint natural. :-)

While my eyes healed from lasik, I spent a solid 2 weeks looking back through all the data I’d collected since I started racing 12 months ago. Mainly trying to get a better idea at where I started and how I got to where I am now. I ended up finding a trend in my driving that was consistently costing me time (I’ll have some more posts dedicated to that soon). Luckily, I know 2 really nice guys who also happen to be fast as hell that could give me some additional advice: Johannes van Overbeek and Spencer Pumpelly. After picking their brains on the subject, I was confident I could fix the “hitch” in my driving. If I could fix the hitch, I’d be really close to reaching my goal and would be able to go racing again with the Big Dogs and maybe have a little fun. ;)

Now it’s time for the real work to begin.

Of course, it’s not just about going out and driving and looking at data. Running my race car is a pain in the ass! In order for the data and practice to mean anything at this point, the car always has to be in tip-top shape. That includes fresh brakes and tires at all times and having a strong motor. The motor in the car happened to blowup soon after I bought it, so it was refreshed while I was at Daytona. It also takes people with more mechanical knowledge and experience than myself to keep the car running, so I have to schedule all test time with my buddies at Jerry Woods Enterprises. They run a full-time Porsche restoration and race shop, so I can’t just call them on a Tuesday and say let’s go to the track on Thursday! Luckily Rich Walton over at JWE knows how I’m approaching this and has been going out of his way to help me run the car — thanks guys!

Now since Daytona I’ve only had the car out for 2 test days.

The first test day was at Sears Point on Feb 22 and was also the first time driving after having the lasik procedure done. Going from 20/50 w/ an astigmatism to 20/15 vision was going to be interesting! Luckily, after just a lap or 2 I was comfortable. The bionic vision made it more fun and maybe slightly easier to drive, but I’m not sure it ultimately made me faster. My fastest lap in the morning on fresh tires was a 1:39.7, about 12 laps later on the same set of tires Johannes ran a 1:39.3, and then about 10 laps after that I ran a 1:40.7. The track conditions were changing through out the day so it’s a little hard to compare driver to driver, but I was happy with the improvements I made. I was also able to get some really good data that showed exactly where my hitch was and that the rest of my driving was pretty damn good, if I do say so my damned self!

The second test day was at Thunderhill on March 3rd. Johannes happened to be there as well so I was really looking forward to working on my hitch and bringing the PAIN! I did 8-10 laps in the morning on old tires, only focusing on my hitch (basically over compensating for it and probably looking like a knucklehead out there!). Once I got my brain working rite and some rubber down on the track, I had the guys throw on new brake pads and a new set of slicks. My plan was to run 3 or 4 laps as hard as I could and then have Johannes go out and run some laps. Over lunch we’d compare the data and see how I was doing.

During the first hot lap on fresh tires I could tell I was driving better, the car was alive EVERYWHERE (in a good way!). Towards the end of the lap it was getting even better, so I knew the tires were coming up and lap #2 was going to be the money shot. Passing the finish line at the end of lap 1 I had a time of 1:48.7 come up on the dash, which is pretty fast for over the top of the Cyclone at Thunderhill! I was .5 sec up on the second lap when the transmission exploded exiting turn 3. It had been a little chunky ever since I bought the car, but it finally let go. :(

It sucked that Johannes wasn’t able to jump in the car before it let go, but I was able to compare my single hot lap to his laps the last time he drove the car at Thunderhill. Not perfect, obviously, because it was a different day, different set of tires, and I think the car is better setup now than it was before. Either way, it was all I had to go with. We basically ran the same lap time, so I’ve been excited about that. It’s hard to tell how much effect the setup/conditions have played, so I’m comfortable thinking I’ve improved a little but still not up to where I need to be.

Next test day will be March 22 at Thunderhill. Weather is looking a little dicey, but the transmission is fixed and Johannes will be there helping me. If we get some dry laps I’m hoping to consistently work on my hitch and that should bring the lap times closer to JvO… we’ll see!

I’ll be posting more detailed info on the “hitch” and my adventures in getting faster over the next few weeks. If you’re curious, stay tuned…

-mike

Data Acquisition 101.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:06:37 -0500

They say the stop watch doesn’t lie. But, trust me, it doesn’t always tell you the whole truth.

Over the last year or so I’ve ran into a lot of drivers who don’t look at data— their own or that of others. Some of them are really fast and some are slow. Most of the people I’ve talked with that don’t look at their data simply get overwhelmed by all the options in the software, accessing the data, and then trying to figure out which of the 1,283,781,237 channels is actually useful. After spending an afternoon at home playing with the software they give up, and say f*ck it.. let’s do it live!

I was lucky enough to start racing in a car with a full MoTeC dash which has more data/telemetry options than any sane person could wish for. Maybe it was the nerd or software engineer in me, but from the first time I had it out, I had my notebook connected and was downloading data. I didn’t have the slightest clue what I was looking for and wasn’t doing it to go faster. I was just curious and amazed that I had access to all this information: there had to be a way to use it to go faster!

A few months after driving the car for the first time I was lucky enough to spend a day at the track with Johannes van Overbeek. If you don’t follow racing much, he’s a super fast professional sports car driver and one of the fastest Porsche drivers in the world. He’s also a really nice guy and very good at working with drivers to get them faster. He’s by no means a software engineer or data analyst, but after being around race cars for so long knows exactly how to get what he needs out of the software to go faster.

After that one day with him, I’ve never looked at data acquisition the same. It went from a black hole of magic and potential to a coke laced stripper pointing the way to the Promise Land!

Regardless of which software you use, the basics are the same. Going fast (not to be confused with winning, but humor me.. to win you need to be fast) is really only about 3 things, no matter what you’re driving: accelerating, turning, and braking. Seriously. Think about it. Those are typically the 3 basic channels that all data acquisition systems are going to record. For example, in the MoTeC i2 Pro software that most teams run, I only look at the following channels:

Ground Speed
Throttle %
Steering Wheel Angle (or Lat G if you don’t have this sensor, but steering angle is way better!)
Brake Pressure (if you don’t have this sensor/channel, get it.. for serious.).

That’s all. Screw all the individual wheel speeds, yaw rate, oversteer, water pressure, rpm, lambda, oil pressures, and other fancy bullshittery. It has it’s purpose, but you don’t need that to go fast. RPM is sometimes useful, but really irrelevant unless you’re trying to figure out which gear to be in for a given section. Gear is also useful when you’re learning a new track, but once you figure out the proper gear (should be pretty quick, even if you’re slow like me!) it’s just taking up space.

Also, make sure you go into Distance Mode. In MoTeC you can be in Time or Distance Mode (bottom axis of the graphs). Time mode splits the lap into time slices where as Distance mode simply splits it up by the foot. Since you’re running laps and the distance for each lap is the same, you want Distance mode so you can see exactly what you’re doing in relation to the same spot on the track as the base-line lap.

Now that we know what’s important to look at to go faster, let me show you an example of something I’ve used recently. This is a screen shot of my MoTeC i2 Pro software comparing a lap of mine to a super fast guy. This is in the same car and the laps were done about 15 minutes apart.. so conditions were basically the same. This was the best of my first 10 laps in this car and first time at this track (Daytona), so getting out of the car early and being able to look at this objectively helps tremendously. I can quickly identify where I’m slowest and get back out there and fix it. Well that’s the idea, it doesn’t always work out that way. ;)

At first glance, it’s just a bunch of lines that looks like a financial report from a mortgage company circa 2008. The very top green line is the “Time Variance” channel in MoTeC speak. All data acquisition software is going to have something similar, so make sure you enable that when comparing 2 different laps. This is the channel that will show you WHERE you’re slow, but not WHY you’re slow.

To figure out WHY you’re slow, you need to look at the other data channels. First thing I look for is trends in the Time Variance graph. Is it a gradual increase everywhere, or does it look more like stair-steps? Most of the time, at least in my experience, it looks like stair-steps. Take a look at the same screen shot, only difference is I’ve highlighted the major increases in Time Variance so we can quickly identify the throttle/braking/steering inputs which are leading to the slowness.

In this particular case, I can see that a large chunk of the time increases in the Time Variance graph is coming when my Ground Speed is dropping below the base-line/Pro lap. That’s not to surprising, but we need to find where exactly I’m slower. Looking down at the next channel “Throttle %”, it’s obvious that he’s driving much deeper into the high speed corners. If you take a look at the apexes in the Ground Speed graph dips (mid-corner), I can see that our minimum corner speed and exits are close enough not to worry about (for now!), but the braking zones are killing me! My braking zones are not only early, but I’m also over-slowing the car! The brake pressures look reasonable, so I just have to get comfortable enough to drive deeper into the corners and keep everything else the same— easier said than done! Now I know exactly what needs to be done.

Looking at this screen for 2 or 3 minutes, without even drilling down into each individual corner has just shown me what I need to know to be within 1 second of a top professional driver— on the same day, in the same car. Granted, executing on that is very difficult. But, had I not looked into the data or known what to look for, I could have spent all day spinning off track like Rain Man (and not in the cool card counting way) trying to go faster in the wrong places!

For me, this is the reason for having data acquisition. I can’t believe drivers pass on the chance to look at this stuff to help them go faster!

Hope this was interesting and helpful… see you at the track!

Note: to get the most out of your data you need to compare data against someone who’s faster than you in your own car. beg, borrow, or steal a Pro and have them jump in and do a few laps. hire them if you have to or supply midget strippers, whatever it takes. the data will be priceless if you want to get faster. you can always compare the data in the future, even as conditions change (assuming the car stays basically the same). even w/ different setups and tires, etc you can spot trends in Time Variance and figure out what to work on.

Video my friends over at Roth Rind Media Productions made using...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:26:41 -0500

Video my friends over at Roth Rind Media Productions made using some extra footage from Laguna Seca and Infineon in 2011.

2011 - Year in Review.

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:49:00 -0500

For the previous 4 years I worked at least 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single f*cking day of the year. I was dead ass broke and had sold everything I owned to start a business in 2005. Luckily I had an awesome girlfriend who let me move in with her! The business grew and became stable enough that in 2010 I started having a “normal” life again. After doing a couple open-track days in a street car for the first time in 7+ years, I decided to go racing in 2011.

With the help of some friends I found an old World Challenge Porsche and some great guys to help me run it. Things moved quickly and I upgraded to a 2009 Porsche GT3 Cup car before my first official race.

My goal wasn’t to buy a fast car and kick my friends asses or to buy my way into “pro” races so I could scratch them off a bucket list. I wanted to see how fast I could be and just how fast the people were that I had watched on TV. Turns out, they’re STUPID fast and it makes me want to drop kittens and puppies covered in Splenda into a gas powered blender.

By the end of 2011 I was entered into the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona on January 28-29, 2012 — 10 months after my first race. In those 10 months pigs were flying through a freezing cold Hell and the events listed below took place.

Here’s the vitals for 2011, my first calendar year of auto racing:

21 races.
27 test days. (not including race days)
12 class wins. (7 overall)
9 class poles. (6 overall)
3 track/class records. (Laguna Seca, Thunderhill, Buttonwillow)
5 times 4-wheels off. (1 race, 2 test days. Includes straight lining bus stop and T1 at Daytona test)
3 car-to-car contacts : IMSA race — same car, same lap. 1st his fault accidental, 2nd his fault on purpose, 3rd was me paying him back.
2 penalties : paddock entry w/ Pirelli Cup in qualifying, pit lane speed w/ IMSA in practice.
1 spin. (test day)
7 tracks : Thunderhill, Infineon, Laguna Seca, Daytona, Barber Motorsports Park, Fontana, Buttonwillow.
7 cars : 2001 Porsche GT3 Cup World Challenge, 2009 Porsche GT3 Cup IMSA, 2011 Porsche GT3 Cup IMSA, GMS Spec E30, AM Performance Grand-Am Continental Tire GS Nissan 370Z, Stevenson Motorsports Grand-Am Continental Tire GS Camaro, #64 TRG Grand-Am Rolex GT Porsche GT3 Cup.

Timeline:

Jan 29: Thunderhill test day. Drove JvO’s old 996 Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 World Challenge car for first time. First laps in a real GT race car. Ran 1:54 over the top in damp conditions across 2 sessions.
Mar 11-13: Thunderhill. SCCA Licensing School in 996 World Challenge car.
Mar 26-27: Buttonwillow SCCA Regional. First SCCA race. First time driving 2009 Porsche GT3 Cup. Overall pole Saturday, finish race 4th overall after it starts raining during the race and I go off twice. Pole Sunday and overall win. Config #1CW GT1 lap record. Novice permit signed off. woot!

Apr 8-10: Fontana Pirelli Cup race. First Pirelli Cup race. First time at fontana and on an oval. wow! I get crushed on Saturday and finish 12th. Sunday I improve and finish 5th. Much to be learned!
Apr 16-17: Thunderhill NASA / PRC race. First NASA/PRC race. Pole and overall win Saturday and Sunday.

Apr 27: Thunderhill test day w/ 2009 GT3 Cup.
May 6: Thunderhill test day w/ 2009 GT3 Cup w/ JvO. 1.7 sec slower, learned a lot.
May 13-15: Thunderhill Pirelli Cup. Saturday qualified second in class, but got DQ’d for using the wrong entry to the paddock (wtf?!). Started from the back of the field, passed 7 cars on opening lap then spun off the track backwards into the last corner of the first lap. Worked back up to 5th in class. Sunday qualifying was cut short to do a crash on the opening lap, started 3rd in class. Finished 2nd in class. Also drove with GMS in their Spec E30 in the NASA Enduro to prepare for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

May 27-29: Laguna Seca SCCA Regional. First time racing at Lagnua. Qualified 3rd overall, finished second overall in first race. Finished 3rd overall in second race. Set PC class lap record @ 1:32.8.

July 9-10: Thunderhill NCRC race / testing. Set new personal best over the bypass @ 1:47.5.

July 14: Infineon test day. Working w/ JvO in the 2009 GT3 Cup. 1.4 sec slower.

youtube: mike (left) vs JvO (right).

July 23-24: Thunderhill SCCA Regional. Saturday qualify p2 overall, feeling really slow. win the race, fastest lap by 2sec. Sunday cut a tire on first lap of qualifying— qualify 24th out of 24 cars. Win overall.

youtube: in-car from the back of the grid to the front.

Aug 12-14: Thunderhill NASA / PRC race. Driving 996 WC Cup as the motor in 2009 GT3 Cup is getting refreshed. Saturday qualify p2 overall, finish p2. Sunday qualify on pole, win overall.
Aug 24: Buttonwillow test day. Testing AM Performance’s Grand-Am Continental Tire GS 370Z. Ryan Dalziel is there too, really nice guy— and very fast.

Sep 8-9: Infineon testing w/ JvO in the 997 cup with a fresh motor. 1.4 sec slower.
Sep 15-18: Laguna Seca IMSA GT3 Challenge. Saturday qualified third in gold class (1.30.8.. 2 sec faster than SCCA race in May.. on slower tires!), finished 1st in gold, fastest lap in class. Sunday starting on pole, led first 60 minutes of 75 minute race. Dropped to 3rd place after contact with eventual winner. Fastest lap in race.

youtube: my in-car highlights.
youtube: official IMSA highlight video.

Sep 23-25: Infineon Pirelli Cup. Qualify p5, finish p4. Think I had bad set of tires because the car feels like crap and I’m 1.5 sec slower than my previous best lap.
Oct 13-14: Laguna Seca Porsche Rennsport Reunion IV. Qualify p1 in class, 4th overall out of 42 cup cars. Finished 1st in class and 5th overall.

Oct 17-18: Barber Motorsports Park Grand-Am test. Testing Stevenson Grand-Am Continental Tire GS Camaro. First time at track. 8 laps first day. 12 laps second day. On first hot lap of the second day I set my best time, about 1.5 sec off the normal drivers (when we were all on old tires). After looking at data i was losing all the time in one section. Think I could have fixed it if i could have got back in the car to run more laps.

Nov 4: Thunderhill test day. Testing GMS spec e30 in prep for 25 hours of Thunderhill.
Nov 21: Thunderhill test day. Driving 2011 GT3 Cup for the first time. The auto-blipper sucks. Motor is running a little weird.
Dec 1: Thunderhill test day. Testing 2011 GT3 Cup w/ JvO. Engine issues, car running weird and spark plugs are missing bits and pieces…. but it was fun to hang out w/ Wolf Henzler and Jon Fogarty while they were testing for the 25 Hour.
Dec 2-4: Thunderhill 25 hour. Driving GMS E3 class Spec E30. We’re doing great. Go to the hotel to nap for a couple hours at 11pm, wake up at 3am to come back to the track and get a text while I’m walking in the parking lot. Car is terminal w/ transmission problems… race is over for us. :(

Dec 7: Daytona Grand-Am test. Testing TRG Rolex GT Porsche. First time at Daytona. First time in a Rolex GT car. Set my fastest lap in the first 10 lap session in the car, went about that same speed the rest of the day— weird and disappointing. Wish I could have slept on it and gone back out the next morning. Was 4 seconds off Pumpelly in the same car. T1 and the bus stop are fucking FAST and tricky.

Dec 30: Thunderhill test. Driving 2009 GT3 Cup while 2011 Cup engine is rebuilt.

-mike