Koala Bear wrote:
sslothrop wrote:
What was the finger wagging about?It looked to me like he was trying to get the Porsche to pass. If I interpreted the video correctly, the Porsche was the category leader, and much the same as in some of the mountain bike racing I’ve done, when I raced JV etc if a varsity rider comes up beside me, I’ll wave them by and help them pass so as not to impede their race.
Yes. The 2x 944's were fighting for podium positions. I have a bit more power, but they were on much better tires. So they were faster in the turns but I was faster on the straights. The sum of that had them running faster laps than me. That creates a tricky situation where the faster car has trouble passing the +10hp(?) slower car because the slower car keeps getting away in the straights. The faster car catches up by the end of a turn....just in time to see +10hp slower car pull away in the straight again. So it's very difficult for the faster cars to make the pass. So, if the +10hp slow guy is a good dude, he will be the one that makes the pass happen.
+10hp slow car at a turn exit will simply feather the throttle. The "pass me, pass me" waving is making the intent clear to the 944's. It's saying "don't fuck around. I'm hosing myself on this straight to give you guys 5secs to get around me. Get it done." And the vid shows that they bump drafted themselves to get by me in a hurry. We all know each other pretty well and are generally happy to work together.
The pass needs to be done quickly and efficiently so everyone can get back "on line" prior to entering the next turn. Otherwise the next turn's exit speed would be compromised and that would be bad. When you come out of a turn 1mph slow, you carry that diminished speed down the whole next straight. There's no way to get that 1mph back.
Leddy wrote:
What kind of cars are the open cockpit ones in your video? They look like something out of Speed Racer.Those are called Thunder Roadsters. It's a circle track based car that has been converted to "road course" use. That's a "SE region only" class that has done fine locally, but doesn't have a national presence. The solid rear end can be a handful to keep underneath you. They use a big motorcycle engine and tranny, and only weigh about 1100lbs.
The fact that the TR's are so different from us makes them kinda hard to race with. They are light, agile, have lots of tire, and a big hp/weight ratio. So from our perspective, you can go into a turn all alone, and by turn exit have one of them on 3 sides of you. The one on your rear bumper being invisible. And.....the guy on your right can dart over to your left in an eyeblink. Then they all get in front of you and their evil handling rear end has them all careening backwards off the track and you get to play "dodge the spinning TR". Then you spend the next several laps behind a pace car under Full Course Yellow, while the Thunder Roadsters get pulled out of the gravel trap.
There are usually 2 race groups, a low hp race group (mostly us, Miatas, and 944s), and a high hp race group. Some years ago we pulled the Thunder Roadsters out of our group and put them into the high hp race group. Therefore we don't normally share the track with them anymore. Last weekend was unique because we combined everyone into a single race group. The TR's do better with the high hp race group because that's a smaller group and the high hp guys frighten easily so they just stay away from the TRs, which leads to easy co-existence.
When we share track with the high hp guys, they perceive us and the Miatas as maniacs. Lol. The top 50% of the Miata racers are really skilled. We're pretty good, but the average SpecE30 driver is not as good as the average SpecMiata racer. Low hp is the best teacher because one is punished so severely for diminished turn exit speed. And to get lower hp than a Miata you'd have to be pedaling.
Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart