Road Atlanta Next Weekend

[pdub]

Crew Chiefs rarely get to ride.

Mine does, she's more than earned it. And she LOVES it. But not this time.

[pdub]

That blows!
Build Bluebelle for her to hot lap..

I don't think she would stay ahead of the pace car on the straightaway, if there WAS a pace car...

[pdub]

So there we go tomorrow. Most of all, Patrick thanks for the great phone call !!! It'll be great to see you here in July. Whatta treat.

Away we go tomorrow, we may or may not be offline for a while, actually "doing" something instead. And next week is another work duty thing. From freedom to confinement. Anyhow, film at eleven. Maybe. Don't know by now how much anybody even wants to see film.

[silver_bullet]

you know better...

[pdub]

you know better...

I should know better than to load a Mustang down with so much stuff. It's not a pickup truck. Tools, a floor jack, so much STUFF. Weight. And both of us sitting in it. Poor car. We've done this so many times and we've gotten away with it every time. So far.

And now we've lowered the car by an inch. Empty. We won't be racing anybody on the way there to the track and back. It'll take the blower just to make the car move forward.

And hoping it will slow down or stop with cold track pads on the front. Oh, my....what was I thinking? Nobody knows what I'm ever thinking, not even me.

[silver_bullet]

you'll do fine! Just get used to it on the Warm up laps!

[pdub]

Day One Assessment from the track - the heat got us. We were there for almost 8 hours, sun beating down, we couldn't handle it. Had to retreat to the motel. We're old folks, can't stand the heat. Got two runs in, couldn't stand any more. Had a chance for two more in the remaining two hours, we were (are) cooked.

Interesting video footage though, a guy made a miraculous save right in front of me on the warmup lap. Yep, the warmup lap. Then, the next time out, I nearly did exactly the same thing. As close as I've come to losing the car due to brain fade.

Another go at it tomorrow, film when we get home.

[DanStokes]

You now officially have enough car to get yourself in trouble. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Now you'll need to get to work on handling the heat. An Easy-Up helps (don't forget weights or stakes to hold it down), lots of cold, non-alcoholic drinks (those are for later), those evaporative cloth thingies you put around your neck - all help. Might be time to consider a small trailer for Red to tow to the track to carry all the necessary stuff to make track day actually work. In my situation I trailer Mutt and have the tonneau of Truck to hold all the "stuff" but it's the same concept as you need the race vehicle and the support stuff to make the day a success.

There are places to store the trailer off-site so you don't have to live with it 24/7 though I'm lucky to have the room in front of the shop. Anyhow, my suggestions..... Guess I'm really saying I hope you're having fun and here are some ideas to maybe have MORE fun.

Dan

[Deaf Bob]

Heat got me at one afternoon derby.. No shade to be had.. All the pop ups had too many peepole in them.. I dunked some rags and bandanas in the cooler and laid under the front bumper of the tow rig.. Ahhh sweet shade, wet cold rags on my head face and neck... Had a hinky feeling, looked out from under the rags and saw a crowd of onlookers who thought I passed out from heat, "Hey. Are you ok" Of course I didn't hear them!
Pop ups are nice.. As long as the chairs can move every 15 minutes to keep in the shade ..

Heat is hard on old folk, especially when it's been cool then suddenly hot..
Like here.. Was 50's 2 days ago, mid 70's today, low 80 tomorrow...

[silver_bullet]

Cooler heads will prevail over brain fade....saw something similar to this at arrowhead stadium on first day of power tour... shouldn't take much room to pack... https://media.kohlsimg.com/is/image/...0&op_sharpen=1

[pdub]

A couple still shots from the track. Here's the Exomotive. I've got windshield video if it passing Red. Twice. That think passed EVERYBODY in our class, lapped the field every time, every run. It's not that "fast," as in top end, but it doesn't have to slow down for the curves. Not any of them, seriously, amazing to watch this thing disappearing up ahead.


And here's what you do after you get back to motel when you put all of your tools and stuff on the ground in the pit area and it starts pouring down rain so you fold the tarp up but it doesn't do any good because all of the watar is running underneath it in the paddock area.

[pdub]

Okay, I've been on work duty this week. Nothing seems fun. But here's the video I promised from the track last weekend. Had to paste the clips together.

This was made a hi-def video, it's pretty. But my old editing software turned the finished product into an .avi file. It's grainy, with apologies.

The bridge before the precipice down into Turn 12 at Road Atlanta, there are three color bars underneath it, sort of like the Italian flag but not. That's a mark for reference from there because it's such a drop you can't see the track at all from underneath the bridge.

As a reference, put the center of the car in the middle of the middle color bar to survive what's coming up. I had an instructor show me you can go to the right of there, there's a flat spot over there to help if you're really hauling ass (which I never have myself). But don't be any farther left than center.

The first half of this clip was the first run of the first day. This was on the warm-up lap, headed to green at the bottom of the hill at the next bridge. Watch the red car. He missed the mark by about a whole car's width and he was headed perfectly between pit road and the track when he got to the point he could finally see what was coming (and he had an instructor in the car with him). Nice save.

Second clip was the first hot lap of my second run. I went to sleep and darned near to did it myself. I missed the mark by about a half a hood's width. That's all it takes. Those gators are the prettiest painted ones on the track because nobody ever hits them. You don't want to, you shouldn't. If I'd been going any faster or if I had been about another 8 inches over to the left, it would have been an excursion toward that stuff looking straight ahead.

[Monster]

I don't know about anybody else, but I think DailyMotion SUCKS big time !

[pdub]

I don't know about anybody else, but I think DailyMotion SUCKS big time !

What does it "do" on your end Steve?

[Monster]

With all the advertisements and popup screens, I had to reload it five times just to manage to watch it. Interestingly, with all the forums I'm on, I've never seen anybody else ever using it. Just my observations .. some free content hosting sites are better than others.