2014 Nasa East Championships
 

Hey guys, Emilio suggested I start a thread to discuss what's going on over here at Road Atlanta and keep everyone updated. Great idea!

Nothing too exciting after my drive up from Orlando until I got onto the dyno. Sampsonite! Way off!!
Dyno is wildly inconsistent. My main tune has about 40 pulls that where all within 2 hp.
On this dyno we are using for compliance testing, my results vary by up to 11hp between pulls and the some of the graphs look wildly different.
Not sure if others are having the same issue but Jason Kohler (speedengineer) did dyno wayyy over also. Hopefully we can get things sorted in the morning and have a good test day. I know I have a lot of setup work to do on my car because this was a last minute class switch...

That's all for now
I am #74 PTE & TTD

Wow... sucks to hear that. Can't say I'm surprised though. I'll pack some extra ballast.

I'm headed down after work tomorrow evening. I'm not driving this year... just going to hang out and help a couple buddies. I'll be there with Chris Adams in PTE and Cody Mason in PTF. Stop in and say hi if you see us.

Eric, I still have that restrictor you sold me sitting on the shelf. Want me to bring it?

post pics of timing sheets and cars. Never too many pics! I'm curious to see how close the PTB's are to ST3 and PTE to Spec Miata. Did the SE30's show up?

Go just fast enough to win but not so fast you get everyone extra ballast next year.

Last I checked there were like 40 SpecE30s registered.


Circuitmaster - watch out for Jim Drago in PTE, the guy is fast and probably knows about racing miatas as well as anyone on this board. I would bet he's going to be running well under SM times.

Have fun and good luck. I have two former teammates racing in HC2. It's a damn shame there aren't more PTD and PTC cars...

How does NASA determine power if a set of runs are inconsistent? average? Seems fail to me. Too much power means you have to run a restrictor OR ballast?

It's hard (for me) to find clear results on Race Monitor but it looks like the first round of practice is over.

As far as I can tell Eric P. ran 45.4 and was the fastest PTE car. Jason Kohler was a half second behind him at a 45.9.

Fastest SM time so far today is a 44.9 so both are off the SM times currently.

I have no idea what the current conditions are.

Drago and Steyn qualified in the 42s at the SCCA race in March. That was in SCCA "spec" Spec Miatas.

probably 10 of those 40 will be totaled by the end of the weekend. Welcome to RA everyone!

Wow, 3s off. What is the temperature now compared to March? I would expect PTE car to be able to run high 1:40 in the same weather conditions.

cel phone pics of the timing sheets guys!

Steyn did 1:44.953 on August 2nd in the SM race and qualified at 1:44.418
Drago did 1:44.739 in the race and 1:45.216 in qualifying.

http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...20SM%20ST3.pdf

They both went slower on Sunday.

The fastest qualifying session for the March SCCA race at Road Atlanta had 12 cars in the 1:42s.

According to weather underground it was about 53 degrees during that qualifying session, with easterly winds of about 7mph and clear skies.

Today's early sessions were probably 20-25 degrees warmer.

53° with sunshine is magic lap weather, but 70-75° isn't bad. 1,1.5s maybe but not the 3s they are back. Anxious to see 2nd session times from today

Index of /NASA_National_Championships

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Nice to hear NASA taking dyno testing so seriously. I won't miss Greenbaum's apathy one bit.

I heard through the grapevine that there was a group revolt that forced them to allow uncorrected values. It's nice to see the accountability for compliance work both ways. I wonder if they will refund all the $150 appeal fees. I heard there were ah, many.

Also, somewhat gratifying that I'm still getting in their hair :party:

Useful tidbit: This is MCE's mobile dyno and sets a precedent that could be called upon for future events.

Yes, the dyno will be run with uncorrected values as per our 6:30pm drivers meeting.
Literally everyone was raising hell about it.
They had issues with the scales today too. My car was about 35lbs lighter on their scales. While I sat there shaking my head and arguing with the "scale guy" my car magically lost yet another 10lbs. After I drove off in disgust, they announced that they would be bringing in a new set of scales. Everyone had the same issue there too.

As far as lap times. It was really hard to get clean laps today. Our run group was full of spec iron cats (I think) and a bunch of pesky 944's that where being very difficult to pass, which is going to make the race interesting since they are in our group.
I did manage a few clean laps here and there but was making a lot of mistakes also. Since I switched to this class last minute this was my first real development day and it's far from perfect. We where making changes all day and got it a little better. However, the car is pretty hard to drive fast and consistently. My fastest lap was a 44.8 which I think was equal to the fastest SM time of the day set by Matt Pombo. However my theoretical was... Hmm, should I even say? Lol
I also started the day on 16 heat cycle sm7's....
Ben Anderson in the PTE rx7 did a 44.6
Jason said Ben had passed him on the backstretch and gapped him about 10 car links. He could be trouble.
We will see how qualifying goes tomarrow

I also had a LF wheel bearing explode on me. Good thing I had spare from hubs.
But the other ones where fancy super trick low drag dealios

RX7's are tough to beat because of their power but they use up tires if they have to defend. So you have to use up your tires a bit after the start to either block and make them fight or defend. If they're allowed to get a gap and can back off uncontested, you'll never see them again. You need to find that 2s. If you can apply pressure for 2-3 laps, you'll own them. I've seen your powerband. Look for places to leave it in one gear, use a bit more track and just uber momentum it. You can do that in qual but tough to do in a race if you are defending.

Ben Anderson just ran a 42.5 in the rx7 in the warmup. Ouch.
I ran a 44.2
And Chris Adams right behind ran a 44.3

Qualifying at 2:10 ET
Time to push

Should be interesting with all the hot weather today!

Quali order: Anderson 42.4
Powell 44.1
Adams
Kohler...

Scratch that. Anderson ran a 43.2

Two Miatas in PTF this weekend too, myself and one other.

I picked a hell of a weekend to have a stomach bug.

Mazda power is doing well so far :)


Provisional Race results from today here:

http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...rovisional.pdf

PTE: 44.0
944: 45.3
944: 45.3
PTE: 44.4
944: 46.5
PTE: 44.0
944: 46.5
PTE: 45.0

Ouch. Did they start the 944s ahead or behind?

944 Spec was in front...

I lol'd IRL. B pole was a 36.6. E pole was a 43.2. 944 pole was a 45.7. What a joke.

Looking at the qual race results. So 944's and PT's affecting each others races all the way down the field. FML

Yeah, PT races were getting screwed up by lap 2. Not sure why the 944s started up front.

They also decided to switch BACK to corrected dyno values...

I was keeping a set of 205/50 SM6s in my shop just in case I ever wanted to run PTE again. I sold them today and they won't be missed.

Between the dyno circle jerk and the scale circle jerk, I can't say I blame you.

Hopefully today, the starting order will be PTB-PTE, Spec 944 and PTF in the rear to alleviate some of yesterday's issues.

Dyno and scales have been solid today. Also started us in front of the 944s - worked out way better.

Should be a great race tomorrow. 4 mazdas all within about a half second fastest lap time today. Thanks to Eric for borrowing me some springs! Saved my weekend....

If a Miata does not win, both you guys owe me a beer. Remember, be dick like at the start and do your best to get the RX7 to use its tires. If you guys are 2-3 to the RX7 and start fighting, you're screwed. Its a 45 minute race. Tuck in early, work together to get a gap (if you're together) then it can be game on once you have 10+ seconds. Pay attention to the powerband of the RX7 to see where its weak, which corners.
Get it!

..current grid shows 944 starting in front for the champ race.

Glad to hear they finally worked out the scales and dyno!


....bummer though that PT is the last race as usual which typically means dyno packed up and gone before the race is even done (and most PT cars are dyno reclassed too).

Watching the race on RM now. Looks like the 944 Spec guys started screwing up the E race on lap 2 or 3. Two 944s between P1 and P2, with Anderson pulling away. Thank god I didn't tow 2000 miles for this.

SM7s obviously held up well on the RX7! ...all Mazda power for podium in PTE (provided the results stick of course!)

official results are posted:

http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...20Official.pdf

everyone passed post race tech. Well, what little tech they did. They sent none of us to the dyno. I finished second and all they did was roll me over the scales and tell me I was free to go. The rx7 had to take his throttle body and intake manifold off or something like that...
There was simply no catching him.
I passed him on the opening lap of each heat race and the championship race and then he would simply drive on by... He was points classed and his base weight was 2800 and his adjusted pwr/wt limit was 16.1:1 aloowing him to make 174hp. When they sent him to the dyno, he made 174.09whp and post race weight was 2812. so he was right on the ragged edge of his limit.
I was classed at 137/2385... However My car only made 134whp and I weighed 2397 on scales post race = 17.88:1
Thats Fair!

anyways, here is a video from the start of heat race #1...
I dont have video from heat race 2 but it was very similiar except for that I was behind the rx7 until turn 5 where he got held up by the subaru this time and I set up the run and passed him on the exit. Had him cleared by a couple car lengths and he still beat me to turn 6. I divebombed him and we went side by side through 6 and 7 before he engaged the rockets on me

championship race start:
Here is the start of the Performance Touring National Championship race from my view. Missed a shift from 2-5th on the start and it may have worked in my favor. lol
Then some goon passed two of us under double yellow and they didnt black flag him. My only chance would have been to attack on the restart and get lucky with traffic. That may have hassled the rx7 enough to burn his tires up. Just maybee, but Oh well.
I finished 2nd to a much better car...
if he would have been 1lb lighter post race he would have been illegal it appears


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Oc...ature=youtu.be

If he kept 205/50s under a 2800lb Rx7 for 45 minutes, he deserves the win.

Im sure his tires where going off at the end. Doesnt matter much with a 30 second lead.
he was on frickin cruise control.
he posted a video on youtube. sunday cruise

FCY didnt hurt.

I got screwed by the Dyno too. I was racing in PTF and took 2nd place before the dyno happened. My reclass for F was 114 hp, After the saturday qualifying race I was at at like 112-113 then at like 6800 it jumped up to 120 on the dyno. So first thought is to just lower the rev limiter to 6700. So we kept the tune the same but lowered the rev limiter and got dyno'd again on sunday (I think I was the only car that got dyno'd 2 times by NASA) I magically made a flat line of 120 from 5500-6700.

But here is my race.

Eric, looks like you got a really bad exit out of 5 thanks to the subie. looks like it wouldn't have mattered though, he ran away on the back straight.

Next year!

Yeah, the whole event was kind of a mess this year. Dyno issues, disorganized, almost no tech (my hood never got opened the whole weekend), no speedcast coverage. Felt more like a regional event that a national event.

Here's my vid from the 2nd qual race, the only one I felt like I drove well in.

I saw on another forum that a stock non-turbo MR2 was making 131whp.

LOL.

That was a friend of mine. We race in NASA Tx region. He was pretty heart broken over that BS. He ran a great race, and after winning PTF his car dyno'd 131whp. It dyno'd high on fri. and I think he added weight and pulled timing. Somehow magically picked up 12+ whp. The guy that came in 2nd place was dq'd as well.

I have some 5sfe background, and ain't no 5sfe making 131whp unless it's been HEAVILY worked.

That dyno and/or operator should have been given the boot as soon as that number came up.

i should've thrown my car on that dyno to get my braggin` hp# "yea it makes 480hp"
lol