Vorshlag 2011 Mustang 5.0 GT - track/autocross/street Project

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Last breakage that I recall on Saturday was Danny Popp's 5th gen Camaro. We heard it go "BANG" on course after it had blown a CV joint in the rear halfshaft. Without any spares he was out of the event and didn't get to make a lap around the road course on Sunday. That sucks, and I hate seeing a top competitor like this get his weekend ended early. I'm sure we'll see Danny at another USCA/Optima event soon, and it looks like on Facebook that he's testing this Camaro on the BFG Rivals (he was on 305mm Goodyear Supercar tires during the USCA weekend).

There was one more key competitor that broke on Sunday, which I will cover in that series of posts.

Wilwood Disc Brakes Speed Stop

The other Saturday event was the Speed Stop, which has been a tough event for me in the past. I was bound and determined to NOT place poorly in the Speed Stop this time, no matter if I had to take 30 or more runs to do it. I ended up getting 3rd quickest and it only took about 28 laps to pull that off, heh.



The course layout was simple, and it was held in the smaller lot that Goodguys normally uses for their autocross. Again, in my overall satellite map of the TMS site you can see the area where it was held, and it had about half the space there as the Autocross site. It was still plenty big, and allowed for a pre-grid area, starting box, and a straight long enough to top out 2nd gear for me (around 70 mph). After the straight we had a big braking zone into a tight ~150 degree turn (the one with the 4 cones lined up, above). Not quite a 180, but darn close to that. That corner was still bottom of 2nd gear, luckily, and this led immediately into a tight 3 cone slalom (optional direction to start) then right across the finish lights and into a 40 foot stop box.

Event Results: http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us...dds-four-more/

Seemed so simple when I walked it, but I fought this course all day long and it took far more runs than the Autocross course to sort of master it. I drove it so many different ways, but it was all about limiting wheelspin, going slow enough in the turn-around, staying on the throttle through the cones, and braking as late as possible - down to the inch.



That video has 3 of the Speed Stop runs in it, and each run is around 11-12 seconds, so it isn't too long. You can see my frustration there, after I kept running over the same cone in the slalom, lap after lap, and as I found out even touching a cone was a penalty - you didn't have to knock it down or move it out of the marked box. That is their rules, I just needed to learn them. The USCA had good spotters watching this course, mostly from the Texas Region SCCA.



I knew this SCCA crew well: Wayne Atkins was the starter, Brad Flak was the stop box spotter/flagger, and Brad and Jen Maxcy were running the timers and handing out time slips to competitors. Even though I knew them, they they cut me zero slack. They did give pointers to me and the other entrants about how much room we were giving up in the back of the stop box or how far off of the cones we were. I had Amy and Jason spotting for me on many runs as well.



Stuart from Maxcyspeed came out and gave me some pointers for the shocks, and we made some time up after his damping suggestions. We also tried all manner of tire pressures and the car stopped best with the pressures we had dialed in on the autocross course, with about 31 psi up front 315s and 33 psi in the rear 335s. We changed shock settings for the speed stop and autocross, however, and made more shock changes for the Sunday road course. This event was the last time we ran the Moton Club Sport doubles, and now we have to re-learn the car on the MCS doubles (luckily they are very similar in look, construction and function).



My first speed stop was in the 12.4 second range and I spent the entire day working on my driving, trying different lines, tweaking my braking points, and just flat out beating on the car to get every tenth we could. Hobaugh and Finch were once again leading the charge and I chased them all day. I spent all morning mired in 7th place, then worked my way into 6th, then 5th. After a brief rain shower that took a good long time to dry off of the speed stop course I went back and was "hot lapping" this course with Bret Voelkel, Brian Hobaugh and Danny Popp. Some of the guys were doing big, hairy burn-outs to try to increase starting line traction - there was just very little grip in the starting box.



I didn't bother with burn-outs, but would instead just keep working on my launch, shifts, brake points and cone distances. Marc Sherrin and I kept swapping back 6th place, first in the 11.7 second range than in the 11.6 second range. I was confused about the different classes on Saturday and kept an eye on Todd Earsley's EVO's times all day - and even through his times didn't end up counting against mine we pushed each other. He and I have a friendly rivalry at these events + NASA TT, so when I looked and saw him missing for a long time on the autocross course, I asked Amy where he was. She had someone spotting the Speed Stop and came and told me "Todd just ran an 11.53!" So I ran over to that area and made laps until I had an 11.52, heh.



Towards the end of Saturday afternoon I happened to be making laps when only 2 other cars were there and the camera crew and show host Chad were interviewing me after every couple of passes, since they seemed a bit bored. After a string of runs touching the same cone in the slalom 4 times in a row I finally got a clean run, and nailed the stop as deep in the stop box as possible. Chad ran up with the the camera crew and stuck a microphone in my face and said, "Wow, you really got it deep in the box!" and I replied, without thinking, "That's what she said". They laughed pretty hard at that but I doubt that will make it onto the show, heh.

This event is hard work, and emphasizes more of the car aspects than driver skill. You still have to really PUSH the car to get your best lap and nail everything to the inch to minimize your time. I watched Hobaugh make a lot of passes and he really beat on his car to get down to that 11.0 second run. Eventually I had a bit of a break through with my driving and got down to an 11.2 second lap, after a string of 11.5s and 11.4s. It all came down to pushing the braking zone as late as possible, getting the brakes WARM, and waiting a foot later on the binders to save a tenth or two - or push you right out of the box and into the Red Flag territory (essentially a DNF).



As you can see, Hobaugh won this event once again - two in a row for Saturday - but Finch was right on his heels at only .01 seconds back! I was 2 tenths back from the two of them, and my 3rd place standing netted me 20 out of a possible 25 points.

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At this point on Saturday it was looking like Hobaugh had this whole weekend sewed up, but I knew one thing these Pro guys didn't: the TMS Infield Road Course. With a couple of hundreds laps under my belt here in 2012 with GTA and 7+ years of SCCA autocrosses on the same layout, I had a little course knowledge over anyone else in attendance. Would knowing the course be enough, since everyone would get 6 fifteen minute sessions on track Sunday? I had no idea - only Sunday would tell. I was worried about being down on power to virtually all of the top 15 cars, too. But one thing that really helped my overall standing was the last "competition" that happened on Saturday: the design challenge.

Lingenfelter Performance - Design and Engineering Competition

During the middle of one Autocross session they pulled me over to the Optima trailer "to be judged". There was no Judge Dredd there waiting but instead 5 industry icons picked mostly from the company owners from the event sponsors who would evaluate each car. This judged event was also worth a total of 25 points, from a ranked score. The judges first scored each entry on six categories of "street car amenities" (things like air con, door glass, lighting, and such) and then on another series of things such as the paint, interior modifications, engineering changes, drivetrain, and the fit and finish of the car. I was really worried about this because our Mustang is far from a show car, unlike many of the Pro cars. But, also unlike many of those, our Mustang is really a street car - with a full interior, air bags, air con, and all of that. And the unique and custom aero and wheels look the part, and then some.


Prepared to be judged....

Turns out we didn't do so badly, and the judges noticed that I had all of the "street car points" in the 6 categories they were looking for. We maxed out the 15 points that made up these streetable things, while many others did not. Some of the Pro Touring entries here were barely disguised race cars, and they did poorly in these street categories by not having things like HVAC, real doors, side door glass, interior materials, or a radio.



The other 10 points of the 25 point score were subjective numbers based on a 0-100 scale from each judge. They threw out the high and low judged score on this subjective scale, average the remaining three numbers and divide that score by 10, then added this to the 15 point scale from above. Sounds easy, right? Looking at the score sheet above helps it make more sense. On the subjective 0-100 scale we scored a 61 average, better than many others. That meant I got 6.1 points out of the subjective 10 point part + all 15 points for the 6 street car amenities categories for a total score of 21.1 out of 25.



That the 21.1 points wasn't my final score in the this category, of course, as this was only used for the overall class ranking yet again. The car's score here was good enough for 4th overall in class, so I netted 18 out of 25 points in this event, not the 21.1 points scored. Follow?



Cheryl Herrick's beautiful Chevy II (above) from Jet Hot won this event, and if you had seen it up close you'd know why. That car was amazingly well prepared and scored a 72.2 score on the 0-100 judge's subjective scale (7.2 points) and she also netted the maximum 15 points for "the street amenity score". Her overall score was really only a 22.2 out of 25 possible points (only 1.1 points better then our Mustang), but since she ranked first she got the full 25 points in this category. That ranking thing is how they do it in all categories, and it really pays to win as many events as you can. Finch scored one place ahead of me here (by a 0.2 point scored margin, doh!) and netted 20 out of 25 points. He also beat me on the Speed Stop by one place, but I nudged him on the autocross by one place. So, unbeknownst to me, I went into Sunday 2 points behind Finch and what I thought was a huge gap behind Hobaugh. But his Camaro's Design score was hurt by the lack of a some street car parts and the resulting ranked score was only a 6.95, which hurt him.

End of Saturday



Jason and I checked the car over at the end of the day, fueled up again for Sunday morning, and we left the car parked in the garages for the night. The BFG tires looked EXCELLENT at this point and I felt like we'd get several more weekends like this out of them, at this rate. I was tired - between shuffling back and forth from the Autocross and speed stop events I was rarely unstrapped and out of the car most of about 6 hours that day. We did get a nice lunch break and the rain delay for about 90 minutes, so we relaxed in the garages and shot the bull with everyone during that down time. We had a BOATLOAD of fun that day. I have never taken so many autocross runs in a single day, and never had to work course - sweet!



They had all of the events wrapped up by about 4:45 pm and we buttoned up the trailer and loaded bodies in the BMW to head home after a long day with lots of wind and cold, some rain, and a mix of frustration and elation. The E85 fueling mistake ended up not being a big deal after all, as we had been diluting the tank all day with more and more 93 octane. By Saturday evening we had it virtually purged of ethanol (well, other than the 10% that most Texas gas pumps include, for a normal E10 mix).



My mind was spinning about how badly I got beat in the autocross (in raw time, 7 tenths is an eternity) and what that could mean for what Hobaugh had in store for the road course? While I was still hopeful Sunday would be the one event I could possibly still win, my thoughts of an overall win for the class/event and SEMA invite were nil (at that point I had no idea what any of the Design scores were). I was resigned to maybe place in the top 3, which would be a good placement with these Pro built cars and top drivers in attendance.

But Sunday was a whole new game...


Click image above for a "fly by" video on the main straight of the TMS Infield Road Course

More next time!

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Project Update for April 21st, 2014: Time to play catch up on the build posts! We've done yet another event since USCA, this time an autocross with the Texas Region SCCA in their new "MAM" class - in addition to the TrackGuys event at TWS last month. I've written and posted two job listings here at Vorshlag this week. I've also written and posted the mega-sized Vorshlag Scion FR-S LSx Alpha Project build thread since my last S197 post, and I need to update the Alpha Miata LS1 thread as well, too. So before I get any further behind I'll try to catch up on Day 3 of the USCA/Optima Qualifier event held at TMS March 21-23rd, 2014. This is where things got... interesting.

A Brief Look: GTA @ TMS, Sept 2012

First, let's back up just a tick. If you've been reading this S197 build thread since we started (2010) you might remember that we ran our red 2011 GT at TMS on the infield road course back in 2012. That year was a turning point for this car: we had finally switched form running on 265mm street tires in SCCA's STX class to running 315mm R-compounds in SCCA's ESP autocross class and NASA TTS in time trial. The move out of STX was long overdue, as we fought badly for traction in this heavy (3440 pound at the time) car on those super skinny 265mm street tires. Every event was like driving on ICE. When we moved up to 315mm R-compound tires the Mustang CAME ALIVE, so we quickly did a single autocross test - where we made some set-up changes based on measured lap times - and took the Mustang to the SCCA Solo Nationals to run in ESP class against the best pony car autocrossers in the nation.


Left: Our brief foray into SCCA ESP class in 2012 was decent but under-developed. Right: Our NASA TTS set-up in 2012 also worked well enough in GTA

We did fairly well at that 2012 Nationals, scoring a 3rd out of 47 cars in ESP and winning ESP-Ladies, after almost no changes to the old STX suspension set-up. Looking back now we know this was a very compromised set of spring rates, among other items. The suspension then was still on AST 4150 singles with soft-ish 450F/175R rates, which worked great for street tires and daily driver use but left the car under-sprung for foot wide wheels and uber-grippy tires, in autocross and especially road course use. The car had LOTS of body roll that we couldn't tune out with the swaybars (we had the massive Whiteline bars at full stiff on both ends, which our one test day showed to be fastest).

We entered this Global Time Attack event at TMS a couple of weeks after the 2012 Solo Nationals on a lark, mostly to help bolster the entries for this event so the GTA series might come back in the future. We never hoped to beat the top cars prepped for this series or even get in the top 10. The turn-out by locals was somewhat poor, and even with a couple of dozen series regulars attending they couldn't afford to risk it on a low turn-out again and GTA has not returned to Texas. This is what prompted my series of calls to try to support the USCA event locally - we didn't want to lose a big event again. I'll talk about the SCCA Texas Pro Solo at the end of this post, because we need local entrants to sign up to this one, too!

Anyway, 2012 was our first year to dip into R-compound territory and we used the following winter to test a better suspension set-up for the wider tires that led to a string of wins in TT3 for 2013 - where we won 13 of 15 NASA races and set track records at every track on the NASA Texas schedule. We still had a relatively poor showing at NASA Nationals (3rd) due to a poor rear aero set-up for the speeds seen at Miller, but we finally have a better solution for that coming in the next week or so (see details in my next S197 build thread post!). So 2012 was a "building year" and the crude TTS/ESP set-up we had was somehow still good enough to win Unlimited RWD class at this GTA round in Texas and set the 5th fastest time of the event.


Some laps from GTA in 2012. Look at how much high speed understeer the car has! (with the old plastic LS front splitter)

Still, that event was riddled with mistakes: 1) I drove erratically (as usual) and was constantly over-driving the tires. 2) I forgot to plug-in the wired AMB transponder before the best track session on Sunday, when it was 78°F. That was a huge mistake, as the on-board AIM Solo lap timer showed several sub 40 second laps in an early Sunday session, with a best of a 39.8, but with our ghetto-wired transponder left unplugged it was all for naught (we have since added a lighted switch on the dash to show me when the transponder is on!).

I had to make up for that missed session of times by driving like a wild man in a nearly 100°F session late that afternoon, where I barely eeked a lone 39.975 second official lap time, using all of the track surface and then some. The 315mm Hoosier A6 tires were overheating but I kept pushing and found that time in the closing minutes of the event. It was nerve racking to know I left more time in the car, but it was all I could get in those circumstances. With our current aero and suspension set-up, plus the wider 335/345 Hoosiers, what would the Mustang run there now? No telling... but probably a good bit faster. We found 1.4 seconds just going from 315mm tires to the wider set at MSR this year, about one month apart. Bigger is better!

Anyway, at that event two years ago I logged two days of lapping on this 1.1 mile TMS road course, but on very different tires and a softer suspension set-up. It wouldn't hurt knowing the various corners and pavement sections of this track, of course.

USCA at TMS, Sunday March 23rd, 2014

So as you've read in my previous set of posts covering the USCA event above, we rolled into Day 3 of this weekend not knowing exactly where the Vorshlag Mustang was placed. We were doing somewhat OK after having scored a 2nd in the autox, a 3rd in the speed stop and a 4th in the Design challenge - but we didn't know any of that. I thought my ranking was about 4th in the autocross and 4th or 5th in the speed stop, with no idea of how the design challenge went, so I was a bit pessimistic about our chances at the win in the GT3K class. I really wanted that invite to the SEMA show/Optima Shootout, but at this point I just wanted to redeem myself and try to pull out the win at Sunday's BFG Hot Lap event. I had no idea that I still had a real shot at the overall win...

Event Results: http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us...dds-four-more/

BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge

We got to the track Sunday morning early, cold and tired, but I was still looking forward to this Time Trial portion of the event. Even if I didn't have a snowballs' chance in hell of the overall win, I was damn sure going to try to win this ONE single event. Sure, I was down 500+ whp to some of the entrants and had NO idea how these guys would do on the road course, but I knew this track. That was my one advantage. Would it matter after each competitor had their 6 sessions of 15 minutes each? That's a lot of track time to learn and master this little 1.1 mile road course.

Maybe our "wild aero" - which did virtually nothing for the car at autocross speeds nor in the speed stop, except make the car wider and grab cones - would finally show it's worth on the TMS infield course? We ran the same APR rear wing (mounted higher) back in 2012 at GTA but then we had the much less effective plastic Laguna Seca OEM front splitter and none of the other tricks we've since added, such as: the front wheel spats/flares, ducted hood, blocked off upper grill, and full depth splitter. We also have nearly doubled the spring rates on the suspension on both ends, so maybe that could allow the BFG tires to stay flatter and work more efficiently? We had the same Whiteline bars, control arms and Watts link, then as now.

The question was: Could I approach that same 39 second GTA lap time on 200 treadwear street tires? I sure hoped so, because this group of Pro Touring competitors looked fierce and I knew that a 40 second lap wasn't likely to win it.



You can see the layout of the 1.1 mile, 7 turn road course above.


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It looks fairly straight forward but there are actually some very tricky spots on this track. I've seen a few too many cars crashed out there, as this course is lined in concrete barrier walls in many places. A few corners also have some run-off areas that you don't want to get out into (Turn 1!). And while it looks totally flat, it is far from it - some corners have a tick of camber that works in your favor (Turn 1), but one corner is off camber (Turn 7) - especially if you go wide, like the textbook line would lead you to think - and others have lower grip asphalt, which makes for a very slippery situation.

Vorshlag event Photo and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...te-Street-Car/



We had another driver's meeting that morning and the USCA organizers told us that there would be a yellow C7 Corvette "camera car" out in many of the sessions. We were told to "ignore this car as much as possible", as he would be making passes and/or pointing cars by to set up shots with both forward and rearward facing cameras. Turns out the driver was none other than local LGM business owner and former Pro racer Lou Gigliott. The C7 Corvette was one of his own test mules equipped with his coilovers, aero and headers, among other bits. That should be fast, especially in Lou's hands, and I mentally noted to be on the lookout for this Corvette - as I was always trying to ham it up for the camera! When you run a business you gotta get in the free marketing whenever you can, you know?

USCA Rules: http://ultimatestreetcarassociation....Rules_v7-1.pdf

They had us split up into 3 types of run groups on Sunday based on previous road course experience levels: Novice, Advanced, and Expert. The differing groups had slightly different safety requirements as well, which are explained in the USCA rules. For the Expert group I was slotted into, we had to have the following bits of safety gear:

• Helmet – SA2005 or better
• Neck restraint – Hans style, or SFI certified neck collar
• Properly mounted 4 or 5 point harness
• SFI 3.2A/1 rated single layer fire suit or better
• Nomex fire retardant gloves
• Fire retardant shoes

A lot of the local entrants we motivated to sign up had to make some hasty purchases at a local circle track supply house (Smileys) - to get racing suits, Nomex gloves, fire proof shoes and neck collars. One such entrant that had to get "geared up" was Shannon (above right) and her mom and sister, who both also entered. But like I told them, some HPDE groups and tracks are starting to require a full driving suit to run their events; I know MSR Cresson requires that sort of gear for their member days and at any other weekday track session, so their new gear wasn't a wasted purchase. And as cold as it was Sunday at TMS most of us stayed in our suits all day and were glad to have the warmth. Luckily I had all of this safety gear already, except a HANs, so I used my $25 SFI neck collar. Maybe not the smartest choice, and my helmet is already set-up for a HANs (which I've borrowed for LeMons racing) but I have yet to use one and not limit my ability to see laterally, so I haven't pulled the trigger on a HANs system yet.



Please don't use my example of safety gear choices to influence your choices. But please DO realize that there is more to using and picking a HANs device than just "swiping your credit card". There are many variables involved in the various brands, sizes and model options, plus other things that need to be checked, like shoulder harness and seat compatibility, and tethers vs quick releases. Its not a "no-brainer" choice to pick a HANs device. On a race car with a limited door opening in the roll cage (see above), or especially with the door closed and a cumbersome window net added - try to get out THEN when you have a big HANs device strapped to your back, while the car is on fire. Many variables... but then again, ripping your spinal column out of your brain stem can also ruin your day (aka: end your life).

At this event I knew the track had lower speeds, and the fact that there was going to be a good bit of passing, so being able to turn my head fully was more important - this time. But yes, I know, it is more dangerous than w/o a HANs in a big crash. I'm going to reassess my own safety equipment later this year and at the very least step up to a better fire suit than the inexpensive off-the-shelf Simpson suit I have now (we're a dealer for Puma, Sparco, OMP, Momo and Alpinestars suits) as well as possibly adding a real neck restraint system of some sort.



They had us go out briefly before our official run groups began for a lead/follow teaching session where we all followed along single file, to "learn the line". I went out with Marc Sherrin and Jerry Cecco behind me and I drove the line I remembered from before, at about half speed behind the lead car. Those 8 or so slow laps didn't show me much, but we came back in and waited for everyone else to get their reconnaissance laps in. We next lined up in our proper run groups, but in a random order for the first session. There were more expert drivers so they split us into two sessions, for a total of 4 run groups.

For the first timed Expert session I got to grid after some other cars had lined up, so once on track I was stuck in traffic. I made several passes, but after 15 minutes on track I never had a single clear lap. We were also playing with shock and tire settings in the hot pits. In this session my AIM Solo lap timer would show a fast lap but would always get held up at some point. I tried building a gap on a few laps but the session was packed and there were a couple of cars that were well off the pace. Best time I could manage was a 41.325 second lap, passing someone on that lap.



The fastest car in that Advanced session was Ryan Matthews in the white, DSE-prepped 5th gen Camaro race car. Yes, I said race car, as this one had a full cage, gutted interior, big crazy motor, big aero and big tires. Nobody else would argue that term on this one. Not knocking their entry, just jealous. Ryan (a former Pro NASCAR circuit driver) went out first in that session, and with clear track and clean air he knocked down a 40.990 second lap. He was the car everyone was talking about all morning as the car to beat, and one of his buddies saw me in the hot pits following this first session and said "You don't have a chance of beating him... you ain't got the power!" I smiled, agreed about not having a lot of power, and just waited until the next run group to see if I could get some clear laps.



While Ryan's 40.99 first session best lap was quicker than my 41.32, I had to deal with massive traffic throughout the first session. Amy and Jason were watching live timing via the Race Monitor app and I came in halfway through that session to check on everyone's times, while also trying to find a gap. I went back out and immediately got stuck caught in another pack. After the 15 minutes was up it felt good to only be 3 tenths back from the lead, considering I never got an unobstructed lap. The other Expert group then ran and was led by Marc Sherrin in his Z06 with a 40.336 and followed by Kyle Tucker with a 41.049 second lap, so I made sure to keep an eye on them as well. The Advanced and Novice groups ran, and while there were not any eye opening laps from those groups yet we still watched them all day.




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Fellow TT racers Marc Sherrin (above) and Todd Earsley (below) were getting quicker all day, and we kept an eye on each other from our friendly NASA TT rivalries. Marc started out fast and lead everyone after the first sessions. He was on only 315mm wide Rivals in his TT1 prepped C6 Z06 (he normally runs a 345mm Hoosier) while Todd was on 265mm Hankook RS3s in his TT1 prepped EVO, and both of them knocked down very respectable laps. Todd has been practicing for this event this year, running NASA TT1 class on his RS-3 street tires just to work on his USCA set-up. That's dedication.



It was a long day, with laps from 10 am until 4:30 pm. Our Mustang struggled with rear grip all day and the car was very easy to step into power-on oversteer. And they had cameras out on course which of course encouraged me to drive like more of a jackass than normal. It felt a little like driving in the wet, but with 447 whp on street tires and a solid axle, what can you expect? I don't know how those guys with 700-1000 whp made do out there - this course definitely took some serious throttle restraint with 200 treadwear tires. Most of the corners were fairly low speed and we didn't have much aero advantage in those. The "switchback" (T2-T4) in the middle of the back section was maybe the only place where our little rear wing was working. Maybe also in the big high speed offset (T6-T7) just before the start/finish line as well.


Fly-by video from the start/finish area. The bark of the Magnaflow exhaust sounds good!

I guess this paid off with the highest trap speeds into the braking zone of turn 1, according to someone who told me they were checking speeds with a radar gun. You can see the cones on the apexes of each turn in the fly-by video above, and the USCA folks also laid cones down in walls to denote brake markers into the big high speed braking zones, of which there were several. They said we were entering T1 at 117 mph (our GPS data showed 114). The next fastest entry was Marc Sherrin's Z06 at 116 mph, also at a power deficit to at least a dozen cars in attendance. What's amazing is there were much more powerful cars in attendance not hitting the same terminal speeds as the two of us - and at least one competitor was SPRAYING NITROUS OXIDE on the straights. You heard that right - Nitrous is allowed in USCA. This is the only series I've ever run on a road course that allows that type of power adder. Crazy, and it gave me some really BAD ideas for future events!


Mike's stock motored Miata (left) didn't need nitrous to best his LSx powered GT2 class competitor on track (right) by 1.5 seconds

One of the tricks I had learned running here in 2012, and that I do regularly in Time Trial competition (and many W2W racers do in qualifying sessions) on certain tracks where it works, is where I would throw away every other lap by taking a very different line into the last corner. This would add distance but also allow for a super late apex which then helped set-up a faster corner exit into the next lap, and this paid off with a savings of a couple of tenths each time this was used. I also knew where to use the curbing, and how much - many competitors surprisingly kept a wide berth of the curbing, which was a "chopped" style of FIA curbing, but was still usable with decent dampers on the car. It didn't even touch my splitter, so the curbing serrations weren't that tall. The USCA was smart and set-up cones to denote the track limits, and we used the curbing to full effect where we could but I stayed out of the grass where they hadn't. I didn't want a corner worker to call in a DSQ after fighting with wiggling cones in the Speed Stop on Saturday.



Todd Earsley started out in his first session at 42.131 but ended up with fast laps in the 40.xx range for sessions 2-6 and easily outpaced his AWD class competitor in a GTR on the Hot Lap Challenge. His best was a 40.268 sec lap on the 6th and final session, and I got well out of his way on his fastest lap. He bested his AWD competitor in 2 of 3 driving competitions (Speed Stop and Hot Lap) but lost in the autocross and design competition, and ended up tying for the lead on points. USCA settles all ties with the design score, so he ended up in 2nd overall. He's not giving up and will be at another USCA qualifier to try to get that SEMA invite!

Full Event Results: http://ultimatestreetcarassociation....ll_Classes.pdf

Marc Sherrin ended the day in 2nd place in the Hot Lap challenge with a 40.236 second best, and that was after only taking laps in 3 of the 6 possible sessions due to a front rotor that came apart. It was a 2-piece StopTech rotor that got a little too thin and showed a massive crack and split apart in his 3rd session. Up until then he and I were battling for the Hot Lap lead in the GT3K class, after he led after the first session. If we would have been able to get him 335mm Rivals (which were on National backorder) and with more laps available he could have fought for top time. His strong showing in the Hot Lap challenge (20 points) and solid finishes in Speed Stop and Autocross (12 points each) led him to a 6th place finish overall in GT3K class, with 82 points. Not too shabby for an otherwise stock Z06 with a built LS7 motor!



So I mentioned that first session, where I was mired in traffic. Luckily they used our best times from that session and each successive session to grid us in order, just like we do in NASA TT. So I started in P2 behind Ryan Matthews for the 2nd session and after a couple of laps of dogging the big white Camaro he pulled offline and pointed me by. Then I laid down a series of 40.xx laps with a best of 40.115 seconds. The cool morning air was working for the rear tires, keeping them from overheating too quickly.


Terry playing around with Lou in the Camera Car C7 during Session 3

In Session 3 I got a little quicker before spending the latter half of that session goofing around with Lou Gigliotti and the camera car C7 Corvette. I had already banked a 40.052 lap but that boiled the rear tires, so after I came back out for the second half of the session I was 2-3 seconds off my previous pace when I was lapping with Lou. I spent time both in front of and behind the C7, trying to get some on-car camera time, and pushed the Mustang's very hot tires as hard as I dared - which you can see in the video above. Almost drove off track on two occasions and our lines were so different that I kept running up on the back of Lou in a couple of corners and had to back off. This is probably where I damaged the rear tires a bit, but like I've said, shove a camera in my face and I drive like an idiot, heh.


Left: This truck had some SQUAT in the rear on corner exit. Right: Doing some lead-follow with Lou's C7 camera car


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The sun came out and drove up track temps in session 4 and I slowed down to a 40.166 best. Session 5 was much of the same but I got a hair quicker with a 40.026 best, only 3 hundredths quicker than session 3. I was beginning to think we'd never break out of the 40 second zone, but the AiM's predictive lap timer kept popping up with a 39.9 every once in a while, but then I'd blow it in Turn 5 - which was the toughest corner to master due to a lower grip surface and an off camber slope. I had to keep the rear from sliding too much in this corner, as oversteer would overheat the rears and they would then lose grip badly. I was also putting a lot of heat into the front brakes, but kept pushing my braking into Turn 1 later and later during each session.


I never stopped pushing until Ryan Matthews came off track for the last time - that Camaro was FAST

By session 6 somehow I was in the overall lead, but not by much. Ryan Matthews had laid down a blistering 40.119, and that was too close for comfort (I was in the 40.0 range by then). Thanks to my faster times I was gridded P1 and out first in sessions 2-6, which let me set the pace on the out lap and gave me clean air for my first several laps. We got into a pattern where where I'd take 4-5 hot laps, 1 cool down lap, then dive into the hot pits and park, check competitors' times and let my tires cool for a couple of minutes.

I would talk to Jason and Amy, they'd check the tire pressures, brake temps, tire temps, and then wait for a gap to send me back out in the second half of the session. Invariably a big portion of the field would quit early, about halfway through each session, then I could go out for more clear laps. This was a good strategy and with such a short lap time (40 seconds) the out lap and cool down laps didn't eat up substantial amounts of track time.


It seemed like the fastest 2nd gen Camaros in the world were all here this weekend!

I knew the car had a 39 second lap in it so I planned on trying to put in a flier on my first couple of laps in the last session of the day. The attrition had taken its toll by days' end so USCA combined the two Expert groups for our last session, but I was still gridded P1 and the first car out, and got my clear laps as planned.


Being this event was in my home town I had lots of friends there giving me advice all weekend

Jason and I talked strategy before the last session, and he and Amy both kept me calm and my mind clear all weekend. We had a plan to use a bluetooth phone call via MySync in the Mustang to set-up 2 way comms, like we have done before in TT events - but only if things got really close and I wasn't finding any time. I was ready to take that call, but it wasn't needed because I went out first in session 6 and laid down the only 39 second lap of the weekend.


In-car video of my fastest lap in the final Expert track session, session 6

Once I saw that 39.77 lap on the SOLO I knew our lap goal was met - faster than even the AiM had predicted. Man, I was PUMPED and Brandon had to bleep out my voice for the entire cool down lap when he edited the above video. The official lap time was 39.803 seconds, which was close enough. As soon as I saw that 39 lap I immediately took a cool down and dove into the hot pits to wait. Jason and Amy were high fiving me, but it wouldn't be over until we saw time expire and if nobody beat that time. If Ryan managed a faster lap time I was ready - strapped in, engine idling, tires cooling, and ready to go back out and look for more time. Where I could find it, I had no idea...



About 10 minutes into the 15 minute final session, after about 4 minutes of waiting in the hot pits, we saw Ryan Matthews' Camaro come into the hot pits.... and turn left into the garage area!!! Jason looked at me and yelled, "Its OVER! You won it!" WAAAHOOO! The rest of the field came in within the next lap as well, but there were still about four minutes left in the final session and a completely empty track. Amy said "put it in the garage", but I told her that it would be a shame to waste an empty track with TV cameras looking at nothing. I went back out and took some victory laps with the ass of the Mustang hanging out so much that it was good enough for the drift circuit. I was hooting and hollering, drifting and sliding around, so excited to have finally won ONE dang event that weekend!!! We cannot show this video at all because the audio would be one continuous censored BLEEP, hehe!


Each driver's fastest session times are shown in the chart above

Looking back in hindsight it appears that my best lap from all the way back in session 2 was just good enough for the Hot Lap overall win, but it wasn't at all obvious to us at the time, so we fought hard all day long to break into the 39s. I took close to 90 laps on Sunday hunting for that lap, but we see now that the fastest laps on these BFG Rivals were taken just like on the Hoosier A6s - they came within the first 2 laps of going out on track with cool tires, or within the first 2 laps after my regular mid-session break cool-downs.

Seems that the BFG tires liked to get their best time when semi-cool, yet the rear tires needed some "slip angle" to get the best out of them. It was tough to balance tire heat with the right amount of tire slip. We had dialed the final tire pressures in at 31psi front and 33 psi rear (hot) on our best laps and the rear wing was set at maximum AoA (about 12 degrees). We dumped the rear shocks' compression to help with corner exit and ran about -3° front camber. My driving technique was simple: keep pushing the braking zones, use all of the available track and curbing allowed, stay off the grass, don't EVER go off track or spin, and focus on keeping the rear tires on the limit of their friction circle.



The chart above shows our placing in the GT3K class, which was quicker than the GT2K and AWD classes. You will notice on the "per session" chart, two above, that Brian Hobaugh had only one session with lap times. This was because he shattered his driveshaft about 5 laps into session 1, miring his times at 7th fasted for the class (see below, right).


Left: Ryan Matthews' DSE-prepped Camaro was 2nd quickest overall. Right: Hobaugh's driveshaft 'sploded during the first track session, which sucks

Danny Popp had no Hot Lap times, due to a CV failure from Saturday. Attrition played a part in the overall placements and worked in our favor. Tucker and Finch ended up 4th and 5th, a half second back from Matthews and Sherrin. This Hot Lap's final ranking ended up being a huge boost for me in the overall points battle for GT3K class, but we didn't realize that until later.

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After I pulled in following my "victory laps" in the final Expert track session there was a camera crew in our garage. I apparently talked to those guys while adrenaline was still pouring through my veins, and I hope I was at least vaguely coherent. I remember nothing of this interview - these pictures don't bring back any memory whatsoever. None. I have no idea what they asked nor what I said! It was probably some Ricky Bobby "I felt like I was in a space ship" mumblings.


Here's pictures from an interview I have absolutely no memory of - thanks, adrenaline!

After we had finished with the Hot Lap battle we waited for the USCA folks to tally the scores after 3 days of competitions. I remember sitting with Jason in our garage and trying to calm down, and I remember Sofi showing up for a while. Amy and Jason and I tried to figure out how we placed, assuming I might have jumped into 2nd or 3rd overall, based on the guesses of where I ended up on Saturday's Autocross, Speed Stop and Design competitions. They purposefully don't show everyone the rankings for each event in real time, so we tried to have spotters watching times and keeping a running score as we went, as best we could.



While we waited Amy and Brandon set-up a group picture of the 8 Vorshlag entrants and cars, other than Marc's C6 which was already loaded up in the trailer for the tow home. This was the result, below - a great picture! Seven cars and eight local drivers who all had the times of their lives! Every one of them said they had a ton of fun at this event, even the folks not battling to win their class.



Michael Minor's nearly stock Miata did well and tied for 1st in the GT2K class. He lost the tie on the design award score - bummer! Shannon, Heather, Jan, Jon and Jerry were all fighting amongst themselves, and compared their times all weekend. Each of them are HPDE drivers that have since found a new reason to hone their autocross and track skills and each vowed to enter USCA events in the future. Jan, Shannon and Heather got the star treatment and we will likely see their many interviews when this episode of the TV show airs - more likely than we will see mine, heh. Marc was excited to have finished 3rd in the Hot Lap Challenge with a broken brake rotor and on skinnier tires than he wanted to show up on, too. My main regret of the weekend was not finding a car for Amy to enter, as she could have fought hard for a win in GT2K or AWD classes, with a bit of luck.



Event announcer Dennis asked to park all of the cars in front of the Optima trailer for a group picture, so after our Vorshlag group photo we motored on over and parked in a big grid. The crowd of entrants and spectators started to gather and we all anxiously awaited the final event & class results as well as the four coveted Optima/SEMA invites.




Jimi went over the closing announcements of the event and talked a bit about the TV series that would air on MAVTV covering the 10 USCA/Optima qualifiers plus the Vegas Optima Invitational. They gave out the spirit of the event award (1 invite of 4 to be awarded) and then they started the individual class awards (1st-3rd for each competition).



They did the GT2K and AWD classes, handing out winner certificates for each event: Autocross, Speed Stop, Design and Hot Lap. It was here that we found out that our friends Todd and Michael, who had both won 2 of 3 driving competitions in their classes, ended up both losing the overall class wins with TIES for 1st in class - due to their design award scores. Doh! That cost them both invites to SEMA, which was the suck. I figured my design score (which I had no idea of) wouldn't help my overall ranking either.



Next up came GT3K awards: 1st through 3rd place certificates for each event, and most of these were a shock to me. I was awarded 2nd fastest in the Autocross, when I thought I had only scored 4th. A 3rd in the Speed Stop was also a welcome surprise, and that got my hopes up a little. Maybe I will break into the top 3? Then our Design ranking of 4th, yet Hobaugh's badass Camaro wasn't in the top 3?? That was a shock. The BFG Hot Lap Challenge win was already pretty well known, as they had live Race Monitor times up all day. By now Amy, Jason and I were frantically redoing the math - where did we finish?!?!?! Maybe we got 2nd overall, which would be great! They started to call out the overall GT3K class winners.

They called off 3rd place: Brian Hobaugh.

Wait... what?!?! He was third. I figured he was the winner... How in the...

Then they called off 2nd place: Brian Finch.

What in the.... I stood up and looked around at Jason and Amy and silently mouthed, "WTF?" My mind was spinning - we hadn't done the math right. I thought that Hobaugh would be 1st and Finch was 2nd, but we got their order backwards and still left out the actual winner. Who in Hell did we miss?! Did I end up taking 4th here, or did I....

No.

NO WAY!

I looked at Jimi, he cracked a knowing smile, and the only possible conclusion now became clear.

They called the GT3K class winner: Terry Fair.

BOOM! I honestly nearly fell over in shock. This was such an unexpected surprise of epic proportions! I had only won the Hot Lap competition, how did I win the whole event?? I was hoping they wouldn't change their minds while I shoved my stuff into Todd's hands and headed up onto the Optima trailer.



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