06/07/2020
First test and tune of the year recap. Hot. It was easily a heat index of 105-110. We knew this going into the weekend and had decided we would try our luck anyways. We set up the pits and threw some fans on the cars to try and help a little.
We went ahead and took TheMistress down for her first shake down pass down a track since finishing all the updates. I left on the foot break, let the trans shift itself, and never went above 3/4 throttle. We just wanted to make sure nothing would fall off and that she could drive down and back under her own power without overheating. She went a 14.4 at 89 letting out early. We got back to the pits and through the fans on so she could cool down for a few more passes. Next we took the street cars down. These 3 drove to the track made multiple passes, some hot lapping back to back, and drove home.
At this time I'd like to congratulate Ryan Shackleford. He got a new personal best of 13.2 (his previous was a 13.6) and had the fastest pass of our group for the day. It was his first time out on slicks and using a line lock but after a few passes he got it locked in bracket style proving how consistant he can be with a clutch car.
Zachary Hastings went out with a few new upgrades to his Focus ST. He fought wheel hop issues most of the day trying to figure out the surprisingly tight track. We expected it to be greasy in the heat but it was taking a surprising amount of power from some of the big boys that were also using the track.
Duncan brought out his newly acquired Lexus SC400. This car surprised us all with running consistent mid-15's. This car is bone stock powertrain. We havent even checked the plugs. The second day Duncan owned this car we started to delete the interior from the equation. He has continued to strip weight from the car and has gotten it down to 3500lbs with driver.
We finally took TheMisstress back down we knew we would probably only have one more pass with her due to the heat. We were having problems getting her cooled back down enough to not worry about staging lane wait and a full pass. We had decided as a group that since she went down ok the first time i would launch using the hand brake this time and the 2-step so I could launch under boost and try for at least a 10 second pass. Luckily we got through the lanes pretty quick and rolled on up. I got a better burnout this time and rolled into the beams. I was able to launch at a higher rpm this time but the 2-step didn't come on so it still left without any boost. It never started to build boost until about the 660 but still only made 3-4 pounds of boost and was breaking up terribly. She ran a 13.5 at 102.
Even though the weekend was better for some then others, we all had a great time. We learned a lot and came up with plans for the future. All in all, it was just nice to get out to the track and FINALLY get some racing therapy. Stay tuned.
-Tylur
