Daytona track day

[mooreken]

Friday I did a SCCA Track Event. All and all it was a good day.
The first session the track was a bit damp and as luck would have it I ended up in pole position for the out lap. As most of you know the first lap of the first session is a slow lap under yellow. I was a bit nervous as I haven’t done a track day in quite a while and didn’t want to go too slow nor too fast. lol
So even going slow I almost spun out coming off turn 5. As we were coming to start the green I let most of the cars buy on the back stretch.
However on the first green lap through turn 5 I managed to complete the spin out. It was a slow spin and I was able to sort of point it into the paved part of another section of track used for a different course. This was good as I didn’t get into the grass so no damage and as it was a slow spin I was out of the way. The cause of the spin is two fold I think. Obviously the track was still a bit wet and I had new sticker tires and I think there was still a bit of mold release on them.

As I couldn’t remember for sure the rule on spinning I did the “lap of shame” and pitted to the penalty box. All was good he asked why I spun out and I told him it was just slick. All was good and I went out again.

Second session went well and I got more comfortable.
I couldn’t find nitto 01’s in my size so I had to get the nitto 555’s. Both are wear rated 100.
After the day of running I have to say that the 01’s are much faster/stickier than the 555’s.
My times were slower and I didn’t feel like they were “into the track” like I remember the 01’s being.
Also with the 01’s they grained up a bit and the 555’s didn’t show any sign of graining.
There were only a handful of cars Friday so that let finding a clear area of the track was easy. On the 3rd session I placed my self just behind a couple of ‘Vette’s and just “raced” them to see where I was either faster or could at least keep up. So that was a lot of fun.
I pooped out for the 4th run as I was getting tired and it looked like rain coming.
After looking at the data I’m finding that 140mph is the comfort zone for the Cobra it can go faster but more than that it gets into having more vibration and such. Not dangerous or harmful just not in it’s happy place.
I’ll look over my videos this week and try to post something that’s not too boring.
Ken

[Tom Wells]

Ken,

Big envy here! Too close to other trips to get the car ready - the cooling system is now almost in the middle of having all its hoses and the filler neck replaced. Hopefully next time!

Please do post a video if you have a bit you'd like to share

Tom

PS: Before I age out maybe we can get the three of us out there for a session