Short weekend at Road Atlanta

So it was a short weekend, just the test day, but not in a "bad" way.

Started out the weekend great. Beautiful friday, car was ready, we setup the new EZUP's, and had a fairly pimpy pit area. Bolted on the Hoosiers, and it was time to go testing.

The first session I was bedding in the new BHP brakes, and just getting a feel for the car, nothing too special. I screwed up the DL-1 data acquisition by turning it off while still logging, so I got no data, and no info of how was fast I was going. The 2nd session, I kept the tires the same, but with the bedded in brakes and working DL-1, I put my head down and actually drove. I had a nice surprise as I came off the track and read the data, as I ran some damn good times. I realized my tire pressures were a bit off, and I felt the car could have been loosened up a touch, but it was an awesome second session ever. I really felt "in touch" with the car, and I'm really happy with the purchase. I'm certainly going to be keeping it around for a while!

The 3rd and 4th sessions, I bolted on the Hankooks to give them a shot. I ended up with the same lateral G's in the corners, but I felt that they didn't have as much braking grip as the Hoosiers. I locked up the brakes in 6 on the 2nd lap braking at the same spot as the Hoosiers, and didn't have confidence in them the rest of the session. I was about a second off the Hoosiers, but it was also later in the day, and I probably could have braked later if I tried. In the end, I think the tires are very close to the same. I'm going to end up choosing the Hoosiers for my tire though, as there seem to be a LOT of availability issues with the Hankooks. Even though they offer a more contingency then the Hoosier, what good is having a lot of "Hankook Dollars" if you can't use them because the tires aren't here. Also the trackside support we get from Appalachian Tire for Hoosiers is second to none.

So now we get to the end of my "weekend". I go to registration and come to find out, my comp license wasn't renewed properly. I renewed, but apparently it only got applied to my membership. Dammit! Its also Good Friday, so SCCA is closed and nothing can happen. I'm told that maybe tomorrow they can hunt down someone and get it resolved , but even if they do, I miss qualifying. I'm not about to pay a $600 entry fee to start 2 races from the back of 50 cars on purpose. Also, this fiasco just took the "fun" out of the whole night for me, so I said "fuck it, only 45 mins from the house, I'm going home".

Kind of a shame that SCCA sucks like this, but I guess I had some bad karma or some crap built up. Also looking at the ProIT times for today sucks even more, as I was over 2 seconds faster then the guy that won today. Oh well. Hopefully this won't cost me the season championship, as there are only 5 races left, and 6 count towards year-end. I'll have to have some REAL good luck to do great at the 5 that I'll run.