Originally Posted by
silvalis
hm. Looks like you were carrying less corner speed than him (well, everyone was). Especially noticeable on that last landing before the straight and the one at the end of the straight. Although these looked more like driving lines rather than corner speed...
Both of those spots are strange on the layout (garbage layout). Jumping onto the back left table is an art.. overshoot it, and you get a bounce, which slows your acceleration onto the straight (makes your back end kick). Undershoot it, and of course you chassis slap on the upface. Notice a few laps I actually get a better take off down the straight, because I landed closer to the inside wall (the target)... so no, that's not corner speed. The jump at the end of the straight away is a joke too... there is a dogleg at the end of the straight keeping you from swinging wide, so you have to run the inside lane, slowly shift out, and then jump back towards the driverstand and land on an almost non-existant landing face. I went with pinned tires to make the car more controlable in the infield, and John went with full dremmeled slicks... which gives a traction advantage on the straight and sweeper, because that is the wettest part of the track. Everywhere else, I felt the pins provided better times for ME, because the car is slightly easier to drive. The slicks give better traction though.
If you watch the other corners, like the chicane at the line, and the zag up the middle before the double, and even down the strairs, there is no difference in corner speed. Actually, I tended to make up most of my time in the chicane and around the pipe just before going down the steps.
The trick to this track, is NOT pushing the car hard. Never has there been a layout at our track where the more you push your car, the more you get punished. Start wheeling your car around, and you will be on your lid soon. You literally have to keep the car moving as softly around the track as you can, or you are on your lid. Even take John for example... once I got around him, and he had to catch back up, he started pushing his car.. and what happened? 3 or 4 bobbles in just a couple laps. So some drivers are more careful than others in some spots... its a strange game on this layout. (we've never seen it before)
Lucky for us, we tore it out Sunday
(not to take anything away from John, he's easily the fastest guy in the class... and maybe the 2nd fastest guy at the track, behind a factory AE team driver).
(edit: here is another example of exactly how freakin careful you had to be on this layout.. lap time differences between 17.5 and 7.5 buggy? literally 0)