Good morning everyone. At least for me (Rick is still passed out..lol). Yesterday, we logged a lot of laps which really has helped with my comfort level. More people were showing up at the track and I am sure there will be a few more today but I believe most are set to arrive tommorow.
One of the most interesting things about this track, is the weather. With being in the valley here, it's crazy to experience the weather changes. One minute it's sunny, warm and no wind and then the next you have big gusts of wind and clouds/over cast rolling through, a little chilly but minutes later it's gone again. Also, Rick and I were sitting on the back section of the track watching cars for a bit, with the sun out slight breeze and everything was looking good when we suddenly started to get rained on. Maybe just the winds from the mountains around carried some rain over and down onto us but for sure there was nothing in the sky around that looked like it would produce rain. For sure there was some precipitation around as the mountain to the north of the track had a ton more snow on it compared to when we arrived!!
I think with this weather/wind is the difficult part of this track. Patrick mentioned it which I later noticed a lot more - the wind that comes through the valley is basically a head wind for the car as you go down the straight. Calm winds and you are .2-.3 faster per lap. Heavy winds make you feel like you pulled the hand brake on the straight. Patrick was breaking in an engine running up and down the straight, in the normal direction it would not shift but when he ran down the straight in reverse it shifted immediatly. 5 minutes could be so much easier running in the other direction!!
I think they said the fastest laps ever run here were 20.0 and most being around the 20.2-20.4 range. After day #1, I was able to run a fastest lap of 21.0 so we still have quite a bit of work to do. The nice part though is I am being quite conservative with the engine so I have been running about 5-5:15 on a tank. I'm sure if we push the limits a bit more with the engine/clutch I can pick up a few tenths but at the risk of not making 5 minutes which I really rather not do. We have a lot still left to test so hopefully today/tommorow can be productive and get us closer to the pace we will need to run to be competitive at the WC.
Josh, you are the man! Thanks a lot for taking the time an letting the rest of the world participate in your trip and the training sessions. You are really an enrichment for our sport and hobby. Keep up the good work!
ice
