After a few weeks of car preparation/fixing/struggling and an
average of 5 hour of sleep per nite these days, the time trial at
Seattle International Raceway is finally over. The annual NWARC
(North West Alfa Romeo Club) Time Trial was a successful event.
Everybody had fun and there wasn't any racing incidents except
for some spinouts and escape route 'detour'.
The sky was covered with clouds and it was raining lightly
when we arrived at the track at 7:00am. Fortunately, when our
group (the Canadian flock of about 15 cars) started out at around
9:45am, there was only a few drops on the windshield. There were
about 50 cars showed up. Not a big turnout probably because of
the light rain the nite before. We were divided into 2 groups.
The advanced drivers with <1:50 lap time go 1st while they
don't need extra instructions. We, the 1st timers on SIR, was
given some extra instructions.
For those who don't know about the track, SIR is located about
20 minutes from Seattle. The 3/4-mile or so front straight
consists of the drag strip and an uphill straightaway pass the
start/finish line. There is quite a bit elevation change
throughout the track (not as great as Laguna Seca though). The 9
corners include a 60km/h-2nd-gear corner, some 3rd-gear corners,
some 4th-gear corners, and even a 5th-gear 190km/h corner! An
Alfa guy said that the track looks like a miniature track of the
Nurburgring with the elevation change.
I took
Alfred as a passenger for my 1st session. He hasn't been driving
on SIR but could already point out my mistakes. As I expected,
all my racing experience has been only on autocross and Mission
Raceway so it would take me some learning/practising to do well
on a track like SIR which has high-speed-late-apex big sweepers.
Watching back the in-car video, it's so funny to hear our
conversation. At the 100+km/h >180-deg sweeping late-apex turn
2, he kept saying, "Stay high! Stay high!". Then I
said, "I can't hold anymore" and turned towards the
apex. Needless to say, I hit the apex too early and couldn't make
a nice turn. After a few laps, he estimated and said, "You
should be able to do just under 1:50, assuming you take the right
line." Man, is he great or what? I really turned 1:49
at the time trial! I was able to beat Terence and some Prelude
and Alfas, etc.
In the first session, Terence was originally about 10sec
behind me but a few laps later I lost sight of him. Later when I
finished my session, I found out that he came into the pit
because one of the bolt for the clutch slave cylinder was gone
and he couldn't shift. Thank god I brought some spare bolts of
different sizes just in case. Otherwise, we would have been
stupid to bring a full load of tools but no spare parts. Apart
from the clutch problem, Terence also suffered from some
'traction problem' all day. While Terence was struggling with
traction, our friend's Integra Type R had some bigger problems.
His alternator belt was somehow broken. And he also had a gearbox
problem that it's very difficult to shift into 2nd and 3rd. After
getting a new belt from a nearby NAPA, they tried to bleed the
clutch hydraulics but still couldn't fix the gearbox problem and
had to call it a day.
After everybody had 3 open sessions of 20 minutes each, it was
time for the Time Trial session. Each car was sent out about 15
sec at a time to avoid traffic. After a warm up lap, 2 hot laps,
and 1 cool down lap, the next batch of 6-or-so cars were sent
out. After the time trial session, we had a final open
session. Fifteen minutes passed the final session, it felt like
the car was getting faster and faster. A glance at the fuel
gauge, "Holy cow! It's almost empty! And the trip odometer
reads 170km!" The fuel gauge went lower and lower and I
decided to get into the pit if there was still no checker flag
coming up. Miraculously, the checker flag showed up and I finally
finished all the sessions without going into pit for any
problems.
Since I filled up the tank right before entering SIR and hit
the gas station right after, I estimated a total of 175km with
38Litre of fuel. Something like 10-12 mpg? Another thing I
totally consumed were the brake pads. I was so lucky that the
brakes were still excellent even at the cool down lap. But when
we packed up and arrived at the gas station, I heard my brakes
squealing like crazy and found that there was NO brake pad left.
Fortunately, I brought an extra set of pads and we 3 miatas were
parked at the gas station and we did the quick brake pad change.
To make this report more interesting, let me try to put you in
the driver seat (in my little miata) for a lap of SIR. Here we
go...
It's
already 4th gear exiting turn 9 onto the drag strip. Passing the
start/finish line, it's already 6500rpm in 4th. You have to shift
into 5th about 10 car length before turn 1 which is a blind
corner. You won't see anything until you started turning. But
keep full-throttle at 190km/h and enter turn 1 to the right. As
the guy said in the morning instructions, "You don't lift,
you don't brake, you don't panic. Just stay floored and memorize
where to start turning." About a second after turn 1, it's
time to brake for turn 2. Although the car carries almost 200km/h
downhill a bit towards turn 2, it doesn't require much braking
because turn 2 is a banking big sweeper with a decreasing radius
at the end.
To get the best speed out of 2, you have to stay high for most
of the corner. If you have the guts, you can carry higher speed
in 4th initially and let the bank/turn slow down to 3rd gear.
Turn into the apex after making at least about 180 degrees. By
this time, the elevation will change from a slight downhill to a
slight uphill. If the line is right, you will be able to
full-throttle towards the apex. It will hit 6500rpm at the apex
with full Gs and run right over a small bump on the track. This
is where the engine-speed sensitive power steering have totally
gone at that rpm and gives a great jerk on your hands on top of
the great push by the caster and big Gs. By the end of 1.5 hours
of track time, I got a sore left thumb.
As you full-throttle to nearly the top of the hill, you will
have drifted to the right edge of the track and shifted into 4th.
Then accelerate downhill towards turn 3. This is a tricky corner
and is the slowest point of all. It is actually a banking
downhill tight right hander (3a) closely followed by a banking
tight left hander (3b). You start braking into 3a and downshift
to 3rd. Keep trail-braking with a little oversteer to make the
tight right hander. Sometimes I feel like to downshift into 2nd
in the middle of 3a and accelerate downhill towards the right to
get ready for the 3b left hander. Other times I like to keep it
in 3rd and full-throttle towards the right for 3b and downshift
right before braking.
Turn 3B is another late apex corner. Stay high on 3B and
accelerate towards the apex. By the apex of 3B, you should have
floored in 2nd and drifting fully towards the right again while
the track starts to go uphill. This is my favorite corner because
I've made at least 8-10 passes between 3B and 4. Most people
didn't take 3B as late as I do. So by the time they are drifting
towards the right, I'm already near redline in 2nd. And they
usually wave me by in this situation. As you continue to
accelerate uphill, you go thru' turn 4 which is just a little
winding road that you can go straight thru' with full-throttle.
Turn 5a is a
high speed right-left chicane. You enter the little right bend at
about 160km/h. Just before you hit the so-called apex, hard-brake
shortly and turn left towards 5a which is also a blind corner due
to the change of slope. The ridge (or whatever you call it) will
try to bring your tail out. So as you reach the ridge (which
happens to be the apex), pull the steering straight and start to
turn right while keeping the throttle about half way. You will
find the car in a position like a slide towards the right with
counter steering. As the car starts to fishtail towards the left
with throttle still on, it will make just the right time for turn
5b the right handers.
You need to enter turn 5b with part throttle to set up for the
following left hander 6. That's because you have to carry at most
speed as possible for the left in order to go all the way uphill
to the big turn 8. If you set up the line right, you will be
flooring towards the apex of the left, drifting out of 6 to the
very right edge uphill, and all the way to turn 7 and 8. I found
myself able to close up on Terence, a 944, a Type R, some
high-power cars, etc on that section of the track.
Turn 8 is another big left-hander sweeper with a decreasing
radius at the exit like turn 2. However, turn 8 is not banked and
the turning radius is not as constant as turn 2. You enter
the wide-open entrance of 8 from 150km/h and downshift to
3rd. Stay high until you see the apex and go for it with
increasing throttle. Most people do not floor it as they
want to keep the car on left to prepare for the high-speed right
hander towards the wide-open front straight. But I like to drift
wide from turn 8 because for my little motor I have to keep the
speed high to carry onto the front straight even if that means I
have to travel a longer distance.
In fact, taking a longer route with higher speed favors my
miata because some people in your front don't floor it in the
narrow (1.5 car width) turn 9. If we accelerate at the same time
exiting 9, I'll suffer very much with weak acceleration in 4th
while most other cars can have great acceleration at the end of
3rd. On the other hand, if I carry a higher speed but staying a
bit further behind (due to the longer route), I could close up
and aim for the rear bumper of the car in front and wait for him
to accelerate when I almost touched his bumper. This way I can
carry a higher speed when the car in front starts to floor it out
of turn 9. As I said before, turn 9 is a 4th-gear high-speed but
narrow right hander leading to the front straight. Turn 8 and 9
are the only corners that spectators can see clearly from the
grandstand. Whenever I finish a session, there's always some
people come by and say, "This car is really fast at the
corners."
Not enough excitement? Now imagine all of the above was
enjoyed with the convertible top down! The great exhaust notes,
the great intake sound from the funnel attached right in front of
the throttle body sucking cold air from the headlight opening,
200km/h wind and all that... It just feels like being in an
open-wheel car!
I took
Alfred as a passenger for my 1st session. He hasn't been driving
on SIR but could already point out my mistakes. As I expected,
all my racing experience has been only on autocross and Mission
Raceway so it would take me some learning/practising to do well
on a track like SIR which has high-speed-late-apex big sweepers.
Watching back the in-car video, it's so funny to hear our
conversation. At the 100+km/h >180-deg sweeping late-apex turn
2, he kept saying, "Stay high! Stay high!". Then I
said, "I can't hold anymore" and turned towards the
apex. Needless to say, I hit the apex too early and couldn't make
a nice turn. After a few laps, he estimated and said, "You
should be able to do just under 1:50, assuming you take the right
line." Man, is he great or what? I really turned 1:49
at the time trial! I was able to beat Terence and some Prelude
and Alfas, etc.
Big
Screw-Up in the NA-vs-SC Battle