"Mr. Toad" at Laguna Seca (28 November 2021)"Mr. Toad" at Laguna Seca (28 November 2021)
 Karl, Grif, and Greg |
 Starbucks for Karl |
 Peet's for Greg |
 Track tires in the back seat (plus a Blackbird tire) |
 Track tires ready to install |
 Cold and starry night |
This track day, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, was more about friends than track time. The weekend was Grif's last two track days in North America before moving to Japan. Greg and I wanted to join him, but by the time we decided to go there were no slots available. We decided to drive down on Sunday anyway to hang out with Grif when he wasn't on the track.
After the last session on Saturday, Grif messaged us to say that his tires were worn out and that we were welcome to use his Sunday slot. Greg and I decided to split it, with Greg taking the morning sessions and me taking the afternoon sessions. That meant we both had to rush to load our cars and otherwise get ready that Saturday evening.
Greg needed to take his child to the airport early Sunday so we met up in
Morgan Hill, got plenty of coffee, then drove to the track (with a fuel
stop for the cars in Monterey) where we negotiated the transfer of Grif's
registration.
After the first session, someone came by to ask if any of us wanted to buy
a slot in a private group. The price was right so I bought it, which meant
we didn't need to share Grif's time.
Best lap of the day
(1:55.701)
My best lap came during the second session, just before the lunch break. It was still over four seconds of my personal best lap time of 1:51.508. Partly this was due to being in a group with much faster cars, thus getting out of the way rather often, but mostly it was lingering lack of confidence due to tire problems in September. During the last session of the day there were far fewer cars on the track yet I only managed a 1:56.477 lap time, a bit slower than when I had to contend with traffic.
I ran all four sessions on Nitto NT01 track tires, rotated front-to-rear from the previous track day. The following table summarizes tire pressures throughout the day (in PSI) along with front-brake temperatures, as measured with an infrared pyrometer after each session:
rotor caliper Description Time Ambient LF RF RR LR LF RF LF RF morning 1020 77 31 31 31 31 after session 1 1129 73 36 36 33.5 34 480 412 330 313 after session 2 1305 74 38.5 39 34 34.5 500+ 500+ 383 380 after session 3 1529 68 35 35 32 32 380 366 275 284 after session 4 1702 63 36.5 37.5 32.5 32 500+ 500+ 410 378
Normally the high pressures in the front tires afer session 2 would have led me to bleed off some air but with over two hours until the next session I expected that cooling would suffice.
The high brake-rotor temperatures were a surprise. Compared to one month earlier at Laguna Seca, I was slower yet the brakes got significantly hotter, which puzzles me. The familiar plink of a wheel weight falling off the right front wheel afer the last session corroborated the heat.
Driving in the very last session of the day, followed by the need to swap tires, all on short day just a few weeks before the start of winter, meant the paddock was cold, dark, and nearly empty by the time Greg and I left. It also offered a beautiful view of the stars!
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Copyright © 2021-2022 Karl L. Swartz. All rights reserved. |
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