Mid Ohio Sep 11-12

Information about upcoming races, swap meets & shows

Moderators: MostMint, wxo, Fred32v, Basement Paul, ttamrettus

Post Reply
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Mid Ohio Sep 11-12

Post by MostMint »

I should have posted this before the race but it was kind of a last minute decision.

I rented a seat in Scott Forster's Racer X BMW E36.

Saturday you can see the video here:
https://fb.watch/7-NYDKBOat/
and the second part
https://fb.watch/7-O95pkkoH/ you will see me about 1:18 into this one

On Sunday Justin was in the car so he live streamed the whole thing: https://youtu.be/9S9GuL-pQT0
My stint starts at 5:13:00
I had contact at 5:58:35 maybe start 5 seconds earlier

You can watch the ChampCar broadcast here: https://fb.watch/7-NRHIksIP/
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: Mid Ohio Sep 11-12

Post by MostMint »

Went to Mid Ohio for the first time with a team designed for rental drivers for the first time. It was great to not have to organize anything and focus just on driving.
Knew the most teams I ever recall racing with including 60 Degree Motorsports, Band of Brothers, GWR, Hugh Jass, Money Shift, RBank, Shut up Racing, Stay Focus’d, and others

On Friday afternoon I slept in and showed up around noon. As I started walking around I noticed Paulie Veltum in his vehicle, and quickly learned we were driving the same car.
In the early afternoon I got about 20 minutes in the car to get acclimated. The Racer X E36 had good power, and did everything right. It was the first car I’ve raced in with an aftermarket digital gauge panel with lights for the shift. I’ve seen these many times before on iRacing! If I drive with them again I’ll have to learn how to operate that thing as the display can show you a lot of different things.
After putting in many laps in iRacing in advance of this race (for the ChampCar iRacing Series earlier in the week), the differences of real life became apparent quite quickly! Mid Ohio is a relatively rough course, and it’s a lot harder to use the curbs since there are real drop offs where the dirt has been worn away.
For the track day in the afternoon we borrowed space in RBank tent. Being in proximity I was asked if I wanted to help out with the pit stop during the sprint race. It was a mini display of the focus they have on pit stops and was happy to keep up and do my part.
After the race hung out with the team for dinner, then off to home and sleep in my own bed.

On Saturday Paulie was up first and set FTD for the car. His stint was going great until about 2 laps left when the LR went off setting up for turn 9 and he got into the wall. Luckily just cosmetic damage, a missing mirror, and a slightly shook up driver. Max was up next, and he put in a couple hours of steady laps. I got the third shift. This car was fun to drive, and there were a lot of cars to pass. At the favorable end of the hp to weight ratio I was able to be selective of when to pass. Unfortunately my mic wasn’t working, but Paulie was on the other end sharing relevant info. It was a bit surreal since I’ve heard him on the broadcast so many times – he did a good job. I ran contact free and only put two off once. After that Kyle came in and finished it out laying almost two hours of hot laps – as we short filled a bit the last pit stop and he couldn’t quite make it to the end. While he was out driving I hopped in my street car and went around and took pictures – something I rarely have time to think about when I’m running my team. Our result could have been better, but we lost time in the off, our pit stops, the short fill, and some variance in driver pace. As a paying driver the on track experience was great. It was amazing we ran all day with only one FCY, and hats off to Mid Ohio for allowing hot pulls, and all the safety crew that kept bringing in disabled cars.
Our sister car did not fare as well and was the unfortunate victim of a money shift during the day.

For Sunday we had an extra driver. Still had plenty of time in the car. With a decent draw and a quick car, Jim had us in P1 by the first FCY. Somewhere near the end of stint 1 the lap times started dropping off and the rest of us drove a car that ran fine but was clearly down on power. After Justin and Max it was my turn. My stint then went from passing so many cars to managing traffic passing me. We had better tires but not enough to offset the power. I was so busy being irritated the power was down I didn’t make great adjustments to utilize the additional grip! Pretty sure Mr Alex Albert passed me while I was out there – like déjà vu of so many iRacing events lol – and very different than Saturday. Anyway except for getting tagged on the LF when someone came over at the end of the front straight I had a clean stint and brought the car in on FCY when the red Miata lost its RR wheel in the carousel. Kyle finished it out for us with no further incident.

I clearly have work to do on adjusting more quickly to a different car, as well as in race changes (like less power/wider tires).
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
Post Reply