Let's see, where to begin...
A majority of those who went this past weekend to Topeka went to run on the
new solo pad and that is why we went. Hearing about the site is one thing,
driving on it is another.
The weekend consisted of 2 regional events, 1 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday,
of which results are posted. The course was pretty fast and fun and we
used the whole pad, Sunday was reversed and a little shorter. The first
runs of the first heat on Saturday kicked up sand off the course, so it
looked pretty slippery to me. (Every time when the racers were going
around the road course and went off course a cloud of sand was kicked up
and blown around, so sand on the surface will be an issue at all the events
in my opinion.) But the kick up from the cars ended pretty quickly.
Everyone in FM ran in the 2nd heat both days except Vernon Maxey who ran in
the 4th heat both days. Saturday it was sunny and mid to high 80's when we
ran (and was warmer (91) when CM ran in the 4th heat) and Sunday it started
out cooler and cloudy, threatened rain but didn't, and was probably high
70's to low 80's when we ran (high 80's and sunny when CM ran). So I don't
think weather was a factor.
Tires. Plain and simple. Tires made the difference, I believe. Scott
Nardin was on the same tires he won the Peru Tour with. I do not know how
old everyone's tires were, but we were on brand new tires and to us the
site wasn't that slippery. We had pretty good grip and were able to drive
the course. On Saturday, Scott could not get the front end to grip, thus
was fighting understeer. Take away some cones and 4 CM drivers beat me on
Saturday. I do not know if any of the CM's were on new tires.
On Sunday we didn't make any changes and just ran the car. The grip level
felt better, probably because we also had a lot of rubber on the course now
from all the cars and CP. I was able to drop a lot of time on every
run. Scott made changes to his car and it was running better but I think
it still had some understeer. As to why I beat CM, I have no idea. I'm
still surprised I beat Scott by as much as I did on both days.
Later in the day and on Sunday you had to run the clean line because if you
didn't it was pretty slippery from the displaced sand and dirt. Thus the
lower powered cars were always online and the higher powered cars struggled
more when they went offline to set up a corner or accelerate. IMHO.
The surface is below Concrete in the grip area, but I was surprised by the
grip we were getting. I was expecting to slid more, thus the reason we
went. With more age and runs on it, it should get better.
Since Nationals is at the end of September, it will be cooler and the track
temperature will be lower, so will it affect the grip? Will the other 3
events, the Pro Solo and the warmup make it better? We will soon find out.
Handling will be very critical this year.
Gary K
(I lost Stealth mode last weekend) :-)
At 10:14 PM 6/13/2006, Jeff Blumenthal wrote:
Jan,
From the entry list it hardly looks like a "local event". It appears
that a bunch of top contenders decided to find out what the new surface
was like. And a lot of those folks who are usually at the top of PAX were
way down the list. It looks like this surface is friendly toward low
powered small, front wheel drive cars, and Miatas.
http://www.kansasregionscca.org/soloii_061106_paxresults.htm
Maybe Gary K would like to comment? Or, maybe he is trying to fly
under the radar? Um, it looks like he toasted all of Cmod, including
current Cmod National Champ, Barry Ott, in RAW TIME....and blew away a
bunch of other pretty good CMod drivers. Scott Nardin was behind by about
2 seconds each day! I didn't hear anything that would indicate weather
was a factor. All I've heard were comments about how little grip there
was, despite ideal conditions. Asphalt temps at 120 degrees on
Saturday. Push Push, slip slip, sounds like fun?
-Jeff B.
Jan Schmidt wrote:
I ran a local event yesterday at HPT in Topeka. This is the new solo 2
location for Nationals. Kudos for Gary Kramar for winning both days. His
Dad, Ed also did well and watch out for the young Macabee, he kicked my
butt on a car that is new to him. I was not disappointed with my car, or
my driving, just very disappointed in the new surface. Apparently, they
are going to set up Nationals with an East and a west course, because
there is only a North entrance. We were running 60 second courses using
the entire pad. My guess is that Nationals will be two 35 second
courses? The new pad has had 3 autocrosses on in and it is still slick
as snot and has some weird milling in some areas, like they were trying
to do the California rain grooves. Anyways, I hope they get this mess
figured out, soon. I will take the rough as hell Forbes field over the
smooth HPT surface anyday. The temps were in the high 80's both days and
plenty of sunshine. Maybe it will just take about 3 years of mother
nature to let the asphalt lose its "greeness."
Bill Schmidt 88 Red Devil Kawi
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