COMSCC Time Trial - NHMS
 

This was my first event with COMSCC (known locally just as COM), my first time at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and my very first official time trial. COM runs a great event, very relaxed, safety conscious and highly organised. Cars are divided into classes similar to SCCA and practice sessions are grouped based on driver experience with typically the students out on track together on the 1st day and then by car class on the 2nd day if you get signed off to solo and TT. For the time trial you are staged in groups of 4 to 5 people with similar lap times and sent out 20 seconds apart for 3 timed laps. Best lap is used for the results.

The car ran very well, no braking issue with the AP Racing calipers and CL Brakes Sintered pads. Rotor temps peaked at a little over 560C/1040F up front, below 430C/800F in rear. Caliper temperatures reached 460F and zero brake fade with the AP Racing 600 brake fluid. Oil temperatures were reaching 265 despite the AE Performance oil cooler and you could start to feel the power loss from the engine pulling timing.

I placed 2nd out of 12 cars in my SPB (Street Prepared) class with a 1:18.995 which is a class for moderately modified cars with 6 cylinder engines or FI 4-cylinder. 1st in my class also had FTD in a seriously prepped BMW 328is with a 1:16.0.

Here's my time trial laps.

nice. I would have been there if not for a kitchen remodel

Too bad, it would have been nice to see another 370 on track. The car was getting a lot of attention. With the run groups I was in I didn't have to give a point by all day. Hopefully they will bump me up a run group next time, I was the track novice and still 8th fastest overall.

Hey, I've raced there!

Car looks great and so does the driving.

What tires is this on? Looks very tidy.

BTW, thats a very nice time!

That looks like a fun track. Congratulations on 2nd place.

Tires are V710 DOT slicks. I ran the first day on the RE-11's and the car was very good, but the race tires took several seconds off my lap time. I believe I was roughly 1:22 on the street tires.

oh yeah thats another thing, i dont know if i want to do another track day without slicks. i had bad experiences with the r888s and they had been haunting me. i am hoping my trailer hitch wil get installed in two weeks before lime rock

Was back at NHMS again. Track was beautiful for 2 1/2 days and then right at the beginning of the time trial it starts raining hard. By the time I got out there it had stopped raining and a sort of dry line was forming. Was still pretty sketchy in places, and I had no wet practice sessions to relate to. Also attempted to blow the engine up by shifting from 3rd to 2nd at redline. Engine momentarily revved to about 9000 rpm and I caught it quickly before fully letting the clutch out. Ended up with 1st in the SPB class with a 1:22.2.

Hey Chris, my good friend Chad was out there also in his STI. Check out his laps. He ran a 1:19!

I had a 1:18.7 on Saturday, I was also in group 3, but the conditions changed for the TT on Sunday. Was Chad there Saturday or Sunday?

Damn thats quick. Hmm I know for sure he was there thursday and friday. That's crazy that you're running 1:18's considering he has a GT30R turbo in there and makes like 400+. I haven't really talked to him about it, he just posted on fb.

Nice course. Great vids.

Good run. I cant wait to get the trailer hitch in so I can come join ya.

nice vids, looks fun except for the scary 9K rpm part. Makes me want to get some track time

It is a lot of fun. It can be scary at times, there were several broken cars over the weekend some of them expensive. A very experienced (20+ years) driver crashed coming onto the front straight stuffing it into the wall at 90 mph. One of the student cars lost the brakes due to a cut brake line going into 3 (also about 90 mph if you did it right) but managed to thread the escape chute while tank slapping the tire walls. I highly recommend to people to drive at least several auto-x events so they are comfortable driving at the traction limit at 60 mph and then it is an easy progression to step up the speed. Besides car control it also helps you with car setup.

Here's another video from the no points relay race we did on Saturday night.

What's a relay race? :) Have you installed a cage or harness yet?

There's a brief description on the youtube page, but brief synopsis is it was a team vs team race. Like a track & field relay race where you pass the baton after your designated distance, each team had 9 drivers and each driver did 6 laps before pitting in so that the next car in the team could be released. The teams were put together such that the total average lap time of all the drivers was approximately equal. Time penalties were imposed for failing to give a point by, hitting a cone at pit exit, or failing to do the required number of laps. At the end of the 54 laps it was the first team across the start finish line and taking the checkered flag that won. It really was a lot of fun being teamed up with random people, instructors, students and licensed drivers all on track together.

That is a pretty neat concept. I was wondering what the baton was... I'm a little slow in the morning and I didn't think to look at youtube for more explanation. :P

its fun, but little dangerous at times and there is always someone on the team who cant count.

It wasn't anymore dangerous than a normal day 2 with COMSCC. On day 2 cars are put out on track by class, so students that have been signed off to solo are out there with the rest of them. My class (SPB) gets lumped it the fastest group for that day so I'm out there with the full on race cars. And yes, our team had the one person that couldn't count to 6, we were in the lead up to that point.

you know when you get into a "race" situation, people get little too excited. point bys and passing get a little more hairy. i havent seen an accident in one yet, but i have definitely seen more sketchy situations. of course its later in the day, so most of the bad drivers probably eliminatged themselves....

Yes, the "red mist" does come into play. I actually enjoy chasing someone, I think sometimes I drive better in those situations (more careful to hit all my marks) but you have to be careful of your general awareness and not just focus on the car in front. There was an accident on Friday with car to car contact, the first time in 20 years for the club, and it was with the experienced run group. One car spun, the car behind stopped rather than going around and another car coming down the track wasn't looking far enough ahead or watching the flags closely enough and locked up the brakes all too late.

i think its just our nature to want to pass the car in front. no matter how hard i tell myself not to, i still end up doing it from time to time.

yikes about that accident, it sounded bizarre! i once saw two evos spinning off in the same spot, they ended up t boning each other on the grass where they ended up.

Towards the end of the rely you where really hauling AZZ.

I dipped into the mid 1:18's for the last couple of laps until I get help up by the Mazda.

Damn thats a good bit faster than your other vid. I showed your video to my friend. Maybe you guys should meet up next time, I think it would be awesome to see if he can keep up with you!

Well yeah, dry track, not too hot as it was after 6:30pm. In the other video the track was still quite damp and the car was squirming quite a bit. You can see from the results that all the times were quite a bit slower during the time trial except for the lucky few that got sent out at the very end.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, July 3, 2011

PM me his last name and I will go over and say hi next time. There was a few STi's there over the weekend, I talked to at least 2 of them but no Chads.