EDK's Real Life Racing Exploits

[Argon]

@EDK some great laps posted, well done on the results

 

[EDK]

I had a race 3 weeks ago at Oregon Raceway Park.

It was a 9 hour race on Saturday, with 6 hours on Sunday in the reverse direction.

We managed to take first in class and 7th overall on Saturday.

This is the track layout. It's in rural Oregon, surrounded by wheat fields. The track fits nicely in the rolling hills, with a ton of elevation change and challenging, off camber corners.

Here's a pic of Jason, John, John's wife Chrissy and me with the car and trophy on Sunday afternoon after the rewards.

And I got to take the trophy home, this is the only race we run is closer to drive than fly for me.

Here's my fast lap on Saturday. I missed the shift into 3rd about halfway through the lap.



And finally, a much longer video. We had the lead in class when I got out of the car in the opening stint. This video shows me chasing down and passing the cars that were 4th, 3rd and 2nd in class in the closing stages of my stint. (Lexus SC, Nissan Maxima, BMW E36). My fast lap is about 10 minutes in, while trying to chase down the crazy Maxima. I had 4 wheels off in the final minute of the video. Turn 14 is my nemesis, I have had 4 wheels off there in every race I've run at ORP. I've had 4 wheels off just 2 other times in the MR2. Total. You can't tell from the video, but the track out is totally blind. And you can also see that the edges of the track are pretty much wheat fields, except there.

 

[Argon]

@EDK That last turn!!! Was the car a bit smelly after that

That track is awesome with all of the elevation changes and blind corners and must be so easy to lose your place as there are almost no defining features to get a reference on. Fantastic stint Kevin .

 

[GTP_Guido]

@EDK Congrats on the win and thanks for the amazing vids, Kevin

 

[EDK]

@EDK That last turn!!! Was the car a bit smelly after that

If you mean the off, probably more frustrating than anything. I'm sure a small loss of concentration after the E36 ran deep. But I've been out there before so was not really worried.

If you mean the last turn literally, by the wall, 4 people ran wide on exit and speared their cars back into the wall.

That pretty much sealed our win, since it allowed us to skip a pit stop. Our car only goes 90 mins or so on fuel, but red and yellow flags allowed us some flexibility.

@EDK Congrats on the win and thanks for the amazing vids, Kevin

Was a fun and rewarding stint.

 

[suprajef]

Like a rollercoaster of a track

 

[Gravitron]

@EDK Happy Birthday buddy and good luck racing in Cali this weekend!

Can't wait till Sebring trip in March!!

 

[Speedy6543]

Happy birthday Kevin!!!

 

[PASM]

Happy Birthday Kev! I'll shake your hand in March

 

[Argon]

@EDK happy birthday

 

[GTP_Guido]

Happy birthday Kevin

 

[GTP_randy]

Happy birthday Kevin.

 

[EDK]

Had a good weekend at Thunderhill. First time on the track for all 3 of us, this was the 5 mile layout, which combines the original 3 mile section with a new, twistier 2 mile section.

In the opening stint Saturday, Jason had a Black flag for passing under yellow (corner worker displayed flag poorly, against a stand with a logo) and ran out of gas just before pit in and had to come in on the hook.

Jason and I had fast laps in the 3:33.8's, separated by a thousandth.

With the early issues we were playing catchup, but we managed to finish the first day 15th overall in a 75 car field.

This being the championship weekend, the car went in parc ferme overnight and we started the second day right where we left off, although with a nearly empty tank of fuel.

I started and finished Sunday, and got a 3:30 lap with a lot of passes.

We could not get the tires we wanted, and the right rear was corded when I was getting in the car for the last stint. We changed it out and I took the checkered flag, we finished 17th overall on the weekend.

Looks like Thunderhill is back on the schedule next year, now that we know the track, we'll be ready to go for a class podium. 👍

Here's my fast lap, I think I'm going to work on some other video over the holidays and will post if I get the time to make it.

 

[EDK]

We had a race at The Ridge in Washington last weekend. We used this weekend to use up some old tires, so was not the most competitive we've been. The field was more than 70 cars on both days. Our team finished 15th overall on both days. We finished 6th in B class Saturday and 8th in B class on Sunday. We were 3 laps off the podium in B on Saturday and 4 laps on Sunday . It was a very competitive B field, the winner in B finished on the overall podium on Sunday.

This is my fast lap from the opening stint on Sunday. Note that we have real time telemetry and a lap timer that shows your predicted lap as you go. Just like in GT, I went faster when I wasn't looking at it. On this lap, I glanced down once I was on the main straight, and was pleasantly surprised to have found the 2:01's.



These are the tires from my Saturday stint when I got out. I somehow managed a 2:02 on these before they went away completely.

Pic courtesy of @mr_lab_rat . He and @Gravitron came to visit on Saturday. They showed up during my stint and watched for a bit.

And I got to drive the M2. Amazing car.

Mike's pic album is here. 👍

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dB0wi14UZEYzeIjCRwc4d1jKGQN7n0v7

 

[mr_lab_rat]

Nice lap, especially considering the condition of those tires.

It was funny when I realized that I didn't give you keys to my car. If you had shut off the engine (or stalled it) you wouldn't be able to restart it. I hope you had your phone with you

 

[EDK]

Nice lap, especially considering the condition of those tires.

It was funny when I realized that I didn't give you keys to my car. If you had shut off the engine (or stalled it) you wouldn't be able to restart it. I hope you had your phone with you

I had my phone, and I thought about the stalling it part after the fact, as the clutch pick up point is tricky in your car after driving the MR2 most of the day! Luckily I know the redeump the clutch and hit the brakes.

Half the time I am worried about the same thing in the race car, as starter failures are a little too common for us.

 

[EDK]

This is from an older event, but I found an android app to easily make a comparison video from edited clips.

On the Saturday of our Thunderhill race, Jason had fast lap for the team, and my fast lap was 0.001 slower.

It's kind of cool, enjoy. 👍

 

[PASM]

Funny to compare the different approaches. Seems like you had more disturbing traffic to deal with an clawed a lot back in the last part.

 

[EDK]

Funny to compare the different approaches. Seems like you had more disturbing traffic to deal with an clawed a lot back in the last part.

Yeah, the car that was outside at turn 6 lost me some throttle on momentum for the flat out run to 9, and I never really got it back until the straight after 7W (West Course main straight). I could not take the optimum line on entry and could not risk dive bombing him, I had to wait until he stayed outside and I knew he could see me. Contact is an automatic black flag, not worth it to make a move like that.

I also lost some momentum to the Miata in front of me early in the lap, mainly in turn 2.

Still interesting to be that close on day 1 at a track that was new to both of us (although I had raced once on the West course).

My fast on day 2 was a 3:30.3, so I found about 3.5 seconds.

 

[EDK]

We got a class podium and 5th overall on a 45 car field on the first day last weekend at Pacific Raceways in the Seattle area. I think @RobbiefromBC ran there recently.

Some new pavement on the track and new sway bars on the car had us nearly 5 seconds faster than last year.

This was my fast lap, I think the Camera got hit during a pit stop, and the windshield found some gravel.

 

[EDK]

My final stint on Saturday.

Had some fun at just after the 5 min mark, the VW was jinking on the straight in my mind.

 

[EDK]

@Pigems this is what I was talking about.

 

[tzracer]

Looks like you race on the west coast. I ran mostly east of the Mississippi.

What are your favorite tracks?
Least favorite?
What are your favorite types of tracks?

 

[EDK]

Looks like you race on the west coast. I ran mostly east of the Mississippi.

What are your favorite tracks?
Least favorite?
What are your favorite types of tracks?

I lived in Northern California when I started racing. So have been fortunate to race at Laguna Seca 15 times. Laguna is my favorite track, but there are many others that I enjoy as well. Sonoma/Sears point was technically my home track when I lived in Norcal, I was an hour from it. I ran one race there, and did a couple track days. Fantastic track.

2 tracks that are more track day type facilities that I race on every year are Oregon Raceway park, and The Ridge, which is in Shelton, Washington, outside of Olympia.

Here's some footage from me racing at ORP last year.



And from The Ridge last year.



My favorite tracks are definitely the highly technical tracks like those, but I've also been fortunate to race at Daytona Roval, and at Road America one time.

Road America is a fantastic track, this was my fast lap in the E30 I drove there.



Tracks I don't like - Portland was the first track I raced on and also was where I attended my first auto race. But the track is not all that technical, is flat as a pancake. It favors horsepower cars, and really does not reward advanced driving skill. So I prefer not to race there anymore.

I would say in general, those are the type of tracks I enjoy less. If I look at the GTSport track roster, I would say Alsace is my least favorite track. It's technical, but it's a tough track for me. The constant radius corners that require you to find just the right speed through them, vs. more slow in, fast out, is hard for me.

I'm also not a fan of Monza, it really only rewards braking accuracy and not much else.

The track I excel at is Tsukuba, because it just makes sense to me. The way you manage the speed on that track is the way I like to drive.

 

[tzracer]

Cool.

Road America is my favorite. I live about 90 mi away. Done over 2000 laps there. Won my first race there.
Grattan (MI) is great fun too. Like a roller coaster, even has a jump (at least motorcycles if you are fast enough).
VIR, Summit Point, Jennings GP (motorcycle only) are good fun also. I really like flowing tracks. Grand Valley was my favorite GT track.

Daytona 24 hour course I find kind of boring. Once you get used to the banking, the track is not very technical. Probably didn't help that I finished 2nd in my only run for a national championship (run off style like SCCA).

I love carousels like at Road America. Carry as much speed as front tire can take, use weight on knee to steer bike (more or less under steer), more subtle than handle bars. Kink was good fun, 130 with knee on the ground, about 6 feet of run off. Now motorcycles have to use a chicane and go much straighter through the Kink. Safer, but neutered the track.

Brainerd had a 5200 ft front straight, turn 1 was full tuck, full throttle, no brake, no roll off. Scary fun. About 165 on my bike.

Don't like point and shoot tracks. Blackhawk Farms, Autobahn Country Club. Last turn at Gingerman is not great, re did after a couple people were killed there (motorcycle). Still never felt comfortable there, pavement was weird, big seams parallel to track.

All my onboard footage is between my ears.

 

[EDK]

I love carousels like at Road America. Carry as much speed as front tire can take, use weight on knee to steer bike (more or less under steer), more subtle than handle bars. Kink was good fun, 130 with knee on the ground, about 6 feet of run off. Now motorcycles have to use a chicane and go much straighter through the Kink. Safer, but neutered the track.

We ran with the chicane also. My understanding was they do not allow amateurs to use the kink anymore. So track days and the type of series I run in use the chicane.

I would love to race Road America again, though. Had the one race weekend and about 4 hours of seat time, so maybe 75-80 laps.

 

[tzracer]

No kink, what a bummer. At competetive speeds, you are never really comfortable there, don't look at the wall. I did a Skip Barber school years ago, we did the kink. A guy managed to rip the nose off a car there - open wheel cars.

Best was a 2:28 without The Bend. High 2:30s with The Bend.

Video was cool, brought back memories.

 

[EDK]

New build, second gen MR2 with a 3 liter V6. 200 or so HP.

Weighs about 500 more lbs. than the first gen car, and for this track was around 1.0 slower on the lap. But NA removes complexity and some upside to take weight out and dial in setup. Nice start. We broke every axle we had, so work to do to shore stuff up, but a nice starting point.

 

[suprajef]

Looks like a handful

 

[EDK]

Looks like a handful

We need to get the back more planted. Spinning up tires in 3rd gear is suboptimal.