Done the Beaver

May 9, 2008 at 3:30 PM
2 comments

Just got done running the afternoon session at Beave-run. Very fun course with most of it being taken flat out in the Yaris... accelerate hard up the front up-hill straight, gently tap the brake at the top of the hill and down-shift to 3'rd for turn 1-2-3-4 combos. Turn 1 is kind of sacrificed to help you line up for turns 2-3 combo but I was able to flat foot the whole thing by running onto the curbings and using up a bit more track (and dirt/grass). Then lift/down-shift to 2'nd and turn in early for turn 5. Back on the throttle, shift to 3'rd through turn 6 and keep it flat through the blind downhill turn 7 into the back straight. Track out of 7 and over to the right to line up for turn 8 which is right about where you reach 4'th gear. Keep it planted through the turn 9 kink and get ready for the aggressive braking zone into the increasing radius turn 10-11. This is the only hard braking zone on the track and once it's over you're back on the throttle power shifting through the up-hill front straight. You reach 3'rd gear right before the blind kink turn 12 and up-shift to 4'th just past the start/finish line.

In the morning session the track was still a little wet and I was a little tentative. The top speed as indicated by the SG-II was 93 MPH in the morning. In the afternoon I delayed slightly at the start before taking off at the start since I had a big V8 Camaro ahead of me who I hadn't seen run. By the first hot-lap I had already hit 98 MPH max as indicated by the SG-II, but just smoothing out the steering inputs on the back straight and waiting longer before braking into turn 10. I pretty sure the times should be better than the morning. People watching say I was gaining slightly on the Camaro but it didn't matter since he ended up spinning out in turn 10 and I got passed him without being slowed down too much.

Now we're on the way to Design Engineering in Avon Lake, OH where they are hosting us for a car show and dinner. It's a mandatory check-point worth 50 points in the overall standings and then we continue on to South Bend, IN for our last event, the Skid-Pad tomorrow AM. Loren is up for the dry skid-pad so I'm officially done with the track driving in the car and managed not to wreck, YEAH!! : )

Pics:

Morning run group waiting to go out