sorry I took so long to get these put up. I just haven't had much time. but, it took place at Sebring International Raceway, and I have to say, the final corner is one of the scariest corners in motorsports, period. when you do it right, you come off the main straight in 5th gear at 130mph or so, and you turn in full throttle, and at the first apex, then you start slowing the car down. you downshift to 3rd gear at around 85-95 or so, and by the time you get to the bridge in the middle of the corner, you are supposed to be full throttle again. and during the whole corner, you are sideways...like, a 4 wheel drift the whole corner. it is, bar none, the most insane thing I've ever done. what is really odd about it, the car handles better when the power is on, so if you feed the power in, the car feels like it's about to put you into the wall, and if you go full throttle, it actually settles down. scary doesn't even describe it, especially when you know that you are responsible for damages, lol. one of my friends backed his car into the wall twice, and had to pay close to 10k on sunday. I was eventually 31st quickest out of 53.
but, what killed me was not having a drafting partner. from what the judges were telling me, I was within a tenth of the benchmark time in the first corner, and I was consistently at the same mph as the guys at the top of the time sheets through corners 2/3 and 5/6, just at the straight, they apparently had drafting partners, and I couldn't get that. according to the guy who won it, the draft was worth a second and a half, so, if I had used it, I would have been 9th quickest on sunday.
the best/funniest compliment, though, was by one of the judges. it was on the first day when I was still learning the car, I was sideways EVERYWHERE, and I was braking WAAAYYYYY too late for the first corner. I was sideways at 90+mph (and I mean D1GP style, lol...seriously), and when I came in to get feedback from the judges, I found the guy at the first corner (Phil Lombardi). he asked who I was and my car number and he said "OOOHHHHHH, yea, you're my buddy!" lol. when we finished up, another judge (Johnathan Goring) sat down, and before Phil left, he turned to Jonathan, pointed at me, and said "man, this guy has balls bigger than your head!!! he wasn't even braking until the turn in point for turn 1!" LMAO. I laughed pretty hard. haha. but, I know what I need to do differently for next year. so, I'll just keep pushing until then. anyway, here are pictures.
Day 1:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022926&l=77379&id=1288652207
Day 2:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022932&l=910a7&id=1288652207
Day 3:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022946&l=78320&id=1288652207
Day 4:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022990&l=d1a9f&id=1288652207
Day 5:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022992&l=c9f4d&id=1288652207
and here is the link to my youtube account. just look in there for the videos I took.
http://www.youtube.com/HachiKid
Joseph.
"use more gas, less brake"
-Juan Manuel Fangio